In the autumn a friend of mine is teaching a course on questions Christians are too afraid to ask. Help him out. What should he cover?
To get you started, here were the first four off the top of my head:
Hell. Really? Seriously? Eternal torment? For Granny? And I'll spend forever happy about that?
Can heaven and hell really pivot on my intellectual assent to this system of truth?
Where's the joy, freedom, life, hope and change? Why are Christians (am I) so miserable?
Is this really the best news God could come up with? Maybe it's true, but it doesn't sound good news to me.
.
Over to you...
What on earth is God doing right now? Why can't I know that for sure? What's the deal with following an invisible God in a visible world?
Why do some people get so much rubbish in their lives and some hardly any?
Why do I keep going with this faith thing when so many others have given up on it? Am I just better at kidding myself?
How can God really put up with me in my constant failure to actually live his way?
Why does everyone seem to believe wildly different things about God? How does God keep up with all that and what are the most important things to hold onto as the core of this life with the Maker of the universe thing.
Why don't the answers satisfy me like they used to? Why do they seem so flimsy in the face of my questions? Is it because there are no real answers?
And many more....
Would be intrigued to see how your friend tackles all this! - is it a here are the answers kind of thing or a here are some answers and here's how you deal with there not being complete or satisfying answers all the time.
Love asking questions!
Why doesn't God feel real to me? I can't touch him, see him, I don't hear his voice replying to my prayers. Does that mean it's all a hoax?
I must be the only one who's done THAT sin, now I've blown it.
If I don't FEEL joyful/loving/(insert adjective here), does that mean I've lost my Christianity?
Why did Jesus command us to baptize (and be baptized) if He is not in it? If it's only a symbol, or an expression of our seriousness?
Could I be wrong about you? about grace? about my security? Do you really intend to save me all the way? Or not just me; everyone I love?
Is all the doing and obeying in the Bible what it is really all about, and we've given the grace passages too much importance?
Are you rrreally there listening to my questions, or did evolution just cook you up to explain the frightening unknown?
These are questions I really ponder (at least a little), then I go on living, believing that He is able to keep that which we have entrusted "unto Him against that day"
Incidently, I believe that Jesus, in all ways being tempted as we are had these same questions roiling through His human body/mind. Why would Satan tempt Jesus to prove He was who He thought He was? He could settle the score right now, by turning a stone into bread, or casting Himself off of the pinnacle. But "No! You must not put the Lord thy God to the test!" He must simply trust in the witness (John the Bapist and the Holy Spirit, and the witness of Scripture) that He is He whom He believes Himself to be.
What do ya think? Was Jesus born with memories of eternity and glory and did He get daily audible messages from His Father, that "hotline from Heaven", and even if He did, might that tempt Him to question His sanity? Or like us, did He walk with a lamp unto his feet and a light to his path?
Why do I feel like I have to defend God's goodness in the face of eternal Hell, the Old Testament massacres and allowing the Fall to happen, and what is the reason for it that means God still cares about us?
Did God have to allow sin in the first place? Is the number of people in Hell worth it - wouldn't it be better if He'd just stopped us sinning?
(Incidentally, is there any way to find out the answers given for the questions he answers...?)
Duane just answered my questions for me. Thanks!
Steve:
Great! Now if you'll just answer mine we'll be even :O) ???????????
Duane,
I'm pretty sure you answered your own questons, as well.
Why does the church nowadays seem so different to (i.e. worse than) the New Testament church? What's gone wrong? How do we get there?