A friend of mine recently sat down with a nonbeliever to share his faith. These are the questions the nonbeliever asked him. I decided that, incase one day I was asked these same questions, I wanted to have answers of my own. So here are my answers.
Disclaimer: I am not God (shocking), so ask Him before believing me.
1. Who created God if matter can be neither created nor destroyed?
Valid Question! IF we're assuming God IS matter. But He's not.
Secondly, no one created God…. thus, He is given the deserving title, “Creator.”
We agree that matter can be neither created nor destroyed by natural means, which leads to the biblical explanation that it takes the supernatural work of a supernatural God to create something out of nothing.
God in all His Godliness created the world, and man in all his humanness may never understand how He did it. (Though Genesis is a great start.)
2) Is Christianity just a religion driven by fear?
Please hear this: Heaven is not a place for those who fear hell. It is a place for those who love God.
As Christians, we have been set free from the fear of hell because Christ has conquered sin and death (1 Cor. 15: 55-57). Those who have not yet been clothed in the sweet righteousness of Christ, however, have every reason to fear hell.
Let me ask you a question: When is the last time you fell madly in love with someone because you were afraid of them? I hope your answer here is “never.” Yet many, including myself, are madly in love with the Lord.
It's not because of fear. Fear never leads to love. In fact, “perfect love casts out all fear." (1 Jn. 4:18).
As Christians, we aren't driven by fear, but by grace.
Ephesians 1:5-6 tells us that He predestined us for sonship to the praise of His glorious grace.
In essence:
I give you what you don't deserve because I want my grace toward you to be the reason you love me. Not my power. Not my severity. Not because you fear me. But because I am good.
3) Why do good people suffer?
For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. – Romans 3:23
So let's get something straight. There are no good people. Just people. Our view of “good” has been distorted. God is good and that is that.
So…
Why do good people suffer?
Well, my friend, you can blame Adam for that.
(Boys… you may be thinking that Eve is to blame, but Adam was supposed to be the leader and he sat there and watched the woman eat the fruit and then condoned it by eating some himself, so…)
As soon as Adam and Eve believed the lie of the enemy, they conveyed a very strong message to God: that they knew better than Him. Satan made this mistake back in his angel days and was cast out of heaven for it (Luke 10:18). And man will continue to believe this same lie for years to come.
People suffer because sin entered the world through Adam (Romans 5:12). But it's not just Adam. You would have done it too. You do it now. You are constantly telling God that you know better than Him. It's a problem we humans have called pride. And it's a lie.
Just to clarify: God doesn't create evil. He can't. It's out of his character. Yes, He allows it to happen, and yes, sometimes He even uses it. Oh geez. Can open. Worms everywhere. That's a post for another day.
I love how Christian author and apologist, Lee Strobel, puts it:
"A lot of times you’ll hear people say: “If God has the power to eradicate evil and suffering, then why doesn’t He do it?” And the answer is that because He hasn’t done it yet doesn’t mean He won’t do it. You know, I wrote my first novel last year. What if someone read only half of it and then slammed it down and said, “Well, Lee did a terrible job with that book. There are too many loose ends with the plot. He didn’t resolve all the issues with the characters.” I’d say, “Hey – you only read half the book!”
And the Bible says that the story of this world isn’t over yet. It says the day will come when sickness and pain will be eradicated and people will be held accountable for the evil they’ve committed. Justice will be served in a perfect way. That day will come, but not yet."
4) If God knew we would sin, and therefore suffer because of it, then why did He even create us?
Again, I think Strobel puts it beautifully:
“Some people ask, “Couldn’t God have foreseen all of this?” And no doubt he did. But look at it this way: many of you are parents. Even before you had children, couldn’t you foresee that there was the very real possibility they may suffer disappointment or pain or heartache in life, or that they might even hurt you and walk away from you? Of course — but you still had kids. Why? Because you knew there was also the potential for tremendous joy and deep love and great meaning.”
5) Why are prayers not answered?
This might be my favorite question. I have only recently begun to understand the reason for and impact of prayer.
Let's first define prayer. Prayer is a conversation with God. It is not us giving our Santa-Clause God a Christmas list of wishes and wants. So if that is how you have been approaching prayer… I'm sure you've encountered plenty of disappointments along the way, and I'm sorry about that.
Now let's define answer. Are you defining an “answer” as an “action” in the direction of God giving you what you wanted? God didn't heal her, so he didn't answer my prayer. God didn't give me that job, so He didn't answer my prayer. God didn't make that squirrel run across my path in order to give me a sign that He was listening to me, so He must not have been listening.
Those aren't unanswered prayers. Those are answers you didn't want.
Thank Him for not answering all of your prayers with a “yes.” We haven't seen our story played out. He has. So He knows best what we need and when we need it. For some reason, He didn't give me Ryan Gosling as a husband when I asked Him to. I trust that He knew what He was doing.
The next time you pray for something, take time to listen for God to respond. Sometimes His voice is audible, but many times He speaks through the Scriptures, through songs, through experiences, and through others. To hear God's voice clearly, you have to be close to Him. Doesn't that make sense? If we do everything we can to distance ourselves from Him and hush His voice when He speaks and convicts our hearts, why would we expect to hear from Him in prayer? At that point, we may have wandered too far to hear His still, small voice and need to focus our attention back to pursuing Him.
The good news is, He is already pursuing us.
(You can read more about God's pursuit of us in my post: He Showed Me His Pursuit.)
If you have any comments or questions to add, please keep it classy in the public feed. Otherwise, feel free to send me a private message to discuss further!
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