before the sun goes down

"Be of good courage, and let us behave ourselves valiantly for our people, and for the cities of our God: and let the LORD do that which is good in His sight" (I Chronicles 19:13).

Friday, July 15, 2011

A Bible Answer to 10 Questions

   Someone recently brought a video to my notice, challenging Christians with 10 supposedly earth-(and faith)-shattering questions.  The man who brought it up, said he had posted it on many Christian pages, but none of them had addressed it.  I decided to make a note concerning these 10 Questions.

   These are allegations made by people who do not want to believe in God.  Most of them are questions that anyone who is grounded in the word of God can answer readily.  The problem is that these atheists are not really looking for an answer.  They are looking for a reason to NOT believe.  If someone tried to explain the truth to them, they would probably turn on him (Matthew 7:6).  They are without excuse, and are seeking followers (Romans 1:18-20,32).   They are following the devil's scheme of sowing doubt among believers ("Hath God said...?" Genesis 3:1).  Don't fight them according to their plan.  Pray for them, and when ready and armed with the word of God, preach the word.  There is a great book that shows that the only logical worldview is that of biblical creation.  If you are interested, I would recommend that you get "The Ultimate Proof of Creation."  It shows that the biblical creation worldview is the only logical and consistent worldview.  You can find out more here - http://shopping.drdino.com/product-exec/product_id/931/nm/The_Ultimate_Proof_of_Creation/category_id/160.  

   As I looked at their points of question, I was sickened at their blasphemous attacks on the holy God who gave them breath, and then when mankind rebelled, shed His own blood to make the way for them to be saved from Hell.  I was also struck by the utter ridiculousness of some of their arguments, which they seemed to think were unanswerable.  Like the Sadducees, they "do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God" (Matthew 22:29).   I will not spend much time in answering these.  I am not surprised that they think themselves wise, for the Scripture saith of them that they are deceived and professing to be wise are fools (Romans 1:22; Psalm 14:1)  As you continue to let the "word of Christ dwell in you richly" each day (Colossians 3:16), and meditate upon and apply the Book to your life, the Lord will teach you more and more to see life from His perspective.


10 Questions: 
1. Why won't God heal amputees?

   God does what He wants.  He does things for His glory.  Who is to say that He hasn't healed amputees at times?  Multitudes of people came to Jesus and He healed them all (Matthew 4:24; 12:15; Luke 4:40; 6:19).  He healed the amputated ear of Malchus in the Garden (John 18:10-11).  John tells us that Jesus did many things that were not recorded in Scripture (John 21:25).  Some of these could easily have been amputees.  Let's look at one man healed in the Scriptures.  Naaman was a leper.  It was a disease that would often cause people to lose body parts, fingers, toes, hands, etc.  The Bible tells us that when Naaman was healed, "his flesh came again" unto him (I Kings 5:14).
   Conversely, there are many blind people, lame people, etc., throughout history who have not been healed but brought great glory to God.  You have heard of Fanny Crosby?  She was blinded as baby and never saw again in her life.  Yet she accepted it from God and wrote over 10,000 hymns to praise Him and encourage other Christians.  She was grateful for her blindness, and repeatedly said that she was glad she was sightless, because that meant the first face she'd see was the face of her Saviour.  There are many testimonies like this of how God works marvelously and graciously through suffering!

2. Why are there so many starving children around the world?

   We live in a cursed world because of sin (Romans 8:22).  There is suffering indeed, and it is mankind's fault, not God's.  In His love and mercy God has provided what mankind needs, but not everyone uses those resources properly.  In India, for example, many people are starving, but the cattle are kept fat and healthy and no one eats them because they have been deceived by the devil into believing in reincarnation.  The following link deals with this issue and shows that evolutionary thinking has caused much of it.  http://www.answersingenesis.org/search/?q=Starving+children&search=Go#q=Starving+children&site=default_collection 

3. Why does God demand the death of so many innocent people in the Bible?

    There are NO innocent people (Ecclesiastes 7:20).  Sin is NOT a trivial matter.  http://www.answersingenesis.org/articles/2010/10/08/feedback-is-god-selfish-and-vindictive

4. Why does the Bible tell us so many things that we know are not scientifically accurate?

   After this question, the narrator of the video lists the 6 day creation about 6,000 years ago, the worldwide flood, Jonah in the fish's belly, Adam from dust... He claims the stories are all nonsense.  He does not provide any evidence that shows they are not true.  He merely states that they are not true.  The fact is nothing in the Bible has been disproved.      Additionally, many atheists and evolutionists tout the VERY unscientific religious worldview of Evolutionism as fact!   The man claims that real scientists know the Bible is nonsense, but here are just a few Web sites by real scientists who believe the Bible is true and that science affirms the Bible:
http://www.answersingenesis.org/
http://www.icr.org/
http://creation.com/

5. Why is God such a proponent of slavery in the Bible?

   The man who made this video completely ignores that all societies at that time in history practiced slavery.  God was not condoning it, merely recognizing its existence, and He forbade his people to mistreat their servants.  By the way, slavery in Israel was completely different than that of other nations, including the slave trade in the Americas in the past centuries.  Jesus came and preached freedom from the penalty and power of sin, which is a much greater bondage than slavery (John 8:36).  The truth is that slavery was eradicated from the free world due to the actions of strong Bible-believing Christians like David Livingstone and William Wilberforce.  http://www.answersingenesis.org/search/?q=Slavery+and+the+Bible&search=Go#q=Slavery+and+the+Bible&site=default_collection

6. Why do bad things happen to good people?

   First of all, remember that there is none good, no not one (Psalm 14).  Bad things happen because of the curse that was introduced because of the sin of mankind.  That is not God's fault.  It is OUR fault.  But God can work things together good (Romans 8:38-39).  Then look in the Bible and learn all the good that suffering for righteousness produces.  For information see: http://www.answersingenesis.org/search/?q=Starving+children&search=Go#q=Bad+things+happen&site=default_collection

 7. Why didn't any of Jesus' miracles in the Bible leave behind any evidence?

   This is a ludicrous claim.  Jesus was working great wonders, miraculously providing for people's needs, physical, mental, and spiritual.  The man claims that there is no evidence left of Jesus' miracles.  He is ignoring the mountain of historical evidence.  We have the Bible's testimony, preserved for centuries for us to read, which is the most reliable and trustworthy document of antiquity, affirmed again and again by Archealogy and many other branches of science.  Historical evidence is not to be cast aside lightly.  How do we know that there really was an Alexander the Great?  A Julius Caesar?  A Henry the Eighth?  An Abraham Lincoln?  Because of history's record.  And what's more, we do see evidence of the truth of His life and works.  Especially his greatest miracle, which is still happening today.  We see sinners saved by faith in the dead, buried, and risen Lord of all (Who was seen by recorded eye witnesses I Corinthians 15:3-7)!  I am a sinner saved by grace, a new creature (II Corinthians 5:17).  I was Hell-bound, now I'm Heaven-bound!  There are millions and millions of testimonies from souls around the world and throughout history that have been  changed.  These are His miracles.  Praise the name of Jesus!   

8. How can we explain the fact of why Jesus has never appeared to you?

   Jesus is not under our power.  Why should the God of Heaven come at the behest of any demanding creature?  Let's say that an ant challenged the owner of the railroad to come and step on him to show he was real.  Why should the owner do so?  That is a ridiculous claim of the man who made the video.  Jesus has given us all the proof we need.  He has given His blood for our sins.  He has made His existence self-evident through His creation, and given us the Scriptures that we might know the truth.  He says that those who will believe on Him without seeing are blessed (John 20:29-31).  

9. Why would Jesus want you to eat His body and drink His blood?

   Jesus never commanded us to eat His physical body or drink His physical blood.  The elements of the Lord's Supper are not the actual body and blood of Christ.  They are symbols.  Bread and juice are eaten "in remembrance" of Him (I Corinthians 11:24-25).  Our redemption is based on His shed blood for us, and so we have this ordinance to remember the work of Christ.  To think they are literally the body and blood of the Lord is heresy and may be Catholic dogma, but is NOT Christian, nor is it biblical.  Throughout the Bible and history, God forbade and forbids the eating of any blood.  Jesus did NOT say to disobey the volume of the Book.  

10. Why do Christians have the same divorce rate as nonchristians?

   This is not because God's ways do not work.  This actually shows that God's ways DO work.  God's people are free to follow God's command or go their own way, but not without warning or consequence (Mark 10:9 and the volume of Scripture).  The rise in divorce in the church has happened because the Church as whole are becoming more like the world, following ungodly counsel and thoughts and rejecting or neglecting God's principles in the Scriptures for a godly marriage.  

   These are the answers I have found, and I hope it is a help to those who need it.  I realize that there are those who will scoff and reject the answer.  But I need not fear nor be ashamed, for God is true, even if even man were a liar and refused to believe (Romans 3:3-4). The Lord Himself will bring them into account: "...Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousand of his saints, to execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him" (Jude 14).  God has the last word.

Psalm 119:128

There is still time to win a battle before the sun goes down.

Abortion must be abolished. 

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