A few questions for any Christian

[Guest shiloh357]

I am troubled by this:

Prov. 26:4 - Do not answer a fool according to his folly, Lest you also be like him.

Prov. 26:5 - Answer a fool according to his folly, Lest he be wise in his own eyes.

How do you determine when the situation warrents not answering a fool according to his folly, and how do you determine when the situation warrents answering a fool according to his folly? I can see the wisdom in both, but obviously it depends on the situation and the person. But how to recognize which?

From the Hebrew, Verse 4 is telling us not to act like the fool, to engage in the type of fruitless conversation that fool he engages in, otherwise you end up becoming like the fool.

Verse 5 is telling us to expose the fool's lack of wisdom not to humiliate him, or by using a teaching that was beyond his ability to comprehend, but to use the right words to communicate wisdom to him in a way he can understand.

[emeraldgirl]

And if I answer this question and not letting my or any others' doubts presented be answered, am I walking into a trap?

Nebula, I'm not sure what you mean by this. I don't mind if someone wants to address one of my questions, or somebody else's. My aim was to keep from going off the point and just getting into pages of debate over one of the questions.

But I liked your post the best so far. It answered the question honestly without focusing on how defective my faith is.

gunner, I completely agree with this:

In Romans 1:19 Paul writes...For the truth about God is known to them instinctively; God has put this knowledge in their hearts.

And in Romans 2:12...He will punish sin wherever it is found. He will punish the heathen when they sin, even though they never had God's written laws, for down in their hearts they know right from wrong. God's laws are written within them.

Makes sense to me. From childhood on I can't remember ever doing something truly wrong that I wasn't aware inside that it was just that...Wrong...Evil.

Proverbs 20:11...The character of even a child can be known by the way he acts...whether what he does is pure and right.

In 1 Chronicles 28:9 David tells Solomon...Worship and serve Him with a clean heart and a willing mind, for the Lord sees every heart and understands and knows every thought.

These scriptures, and others, gave me peace about this question...I realized anew that God is all knowing and powerful. He has left no loopholes regarding mankinds involvement with sin. In the depths of everyones heart is a central desire. To please God...Or to please ones self. To enjoy right...Or to enjoy evil...

But doing these things would not have anything to do with knowing Jesus is your Saviour. This is one reason why I am appreciating Deism a lot more. It answers this question better.

[Trinity]

I have been a Christian for 15 years now!

To tell you the truth... I don't find anything troubling in the Bible...

When i have questions about the bible, i ask God and most of the time he gives me an answer immediately! Whether it be instant understanding of a problem, or him giving me verses that randomly pop in my head when i have questions...

Sometimes the answer is in my devotions some time after i ask God, but he never keeps me wondering long enough to make me troubled. i always have a peace that God knows what he is doing...

[Leonard]

I thought of all your questions many, many years ago, and have answered them all to my own satisfaction. My difficulties are all regarding ME, not God!

[ramar]

There is nothing in the Bible that troubles me. From time to time, I meet something that I don't understand, or that seems to contradict something else - but the next time I come across such a passage, it speaks differently to me, and it doesn't bother me any more. That is why the Bible is called "The LIVING Word", it is as true to us today as it was when it was written, and we can glean different ideas from it based on where we are in our faith. Nothing in the Bible ever changes, God (and His Word) is the same today as He ever was. But what we can pick up from one reading to the next can be different.

If something bothers me in the Bible, I pray on it, and I either get an immediate response to my query, or I am led to believe that, if I am patient (and perhaps ready to read the same thing again at a different time), the answer will come to me later.

With regards to the comment that some people in the world will never get the opportunity to hear the Good News, I contend that EVERYONE will be touched by God in His own way, such that we all have the same opportunity to make the right choice.

Can we say that anyone who lived before Christ was automatically sent to hell because they never had the chance to accept Christ? By no means!! The Bible states that Jesus will descend to the depths (where those who have died before Him) to take His children home with Him.

We all have an intrinsic knowledge of good and evil, which God placed within us. And I believe that one way or another (whether we have been fortunate enough to have HEARD the truth, or if the Spirit has placed it within us, or whether God has reached us another way) the Good News is given to us.

How about the difference between the God of the OT and that of the NT? Frankly, I see no difference. The blood that was required by God in the Old, is STILL required in the New - but the source of that blood is different. To receive forgiveness for sin, the OT sinners had to shed the blood of an innocent animal. In the NT, we are taught that we need to plunge ourselves beneath the shed blood of an innocent Christ. That was God's plan all along! He knew from before time began, before Adam, that the blood of His Son would be required for us all. Christ's blood is not merely for the repayment of all of our sins, but also as a way to worship the Son and the Father. God seeks our worship, our honour, our total reliance on Him - and the blood that is required is both a sign that we accept the fact we have sinned, and that we worship His Son as our Saviour. We all fall short of the glory of God, and we must all (yes, those who end up in hell too) bend our knees to the Saviour.

Jesus did not come to change the word, but to fulfill it. The OT God is the same as the NT God, but "fulfilled" in His plan which was set into motion in the OT.

[anti-hillbilly]

So, if you are a Christian, and you're bold enough to say so, what tenents of the faith, or verses/stories/concepts in the Bible do you find troubling? Or wish you could understand? Qualify your answer by telling how long you've been a Christian, please. Also, have you read the entire Bible?

I'm not sure if I've read it all; I skip around a lot and sometimes if I get to an extremely cruel part (that is suppose to be God's will) I turn the page and dismiss it.

I don't believe the Genesis creation account; I think it's just a story.

But...hmmmm,

The concept of a merciful, loving God sometimes gives me the most doubt whenever I hear of a child being raped and murdered. I remember reading a book my mother-in-law had (my husband had told me it troubled him). It was about some child murders in England during the 1960s. Some guy and his girlfriend were abducting both little boys and little girls and he'd molest them then kill them with his girlfriend's help. He would also "audio tape" his attack. They had part of a transcript of one of the murders of a little girl about 12 and she was begging for her life and asking him to stop because he was hurting her and then she started screaming for Jesus to help her. "Please Jesus, please God oh God Jesus help me!!". Of course He didn't intervene and save her and the pervert strangeled her to death. I can't help but wonder how a merciful God could not help a child like that and then I get real uneasy and think, "because there's nobody up there to help, that's why" or I remember some of those passages in the OT where God tells people to kill kids and pregnant women. That really scares me so I have to mentally "pull back", regroup and pray.

Because of God not protecting other innocent little children I find that even though I pray for my children every day I never totally trust God to watch out for them. I don't like feeling that way but I do.

I've been praying for an answer to this delimma off and on for years and so far I haven't gotten an answer. I try not to think about it too much.

[WayneB]

So, what is your list? What bothers you? Can you expose your humanity? Can you risk it? How do you address troubling things?

emerldgirl, if I tell the truth and say that I don't have any troubling things on my mind or heart, am I less human in your eyes? I may be like a Berean and test everything I read & hear from the pulpit but my FAITH in God is firm. Why? I have experienced HIM and I still do.

Sure, I have questions but I trust God. When I have a question or doubt, I seek the answer in HIS Word...and usually find it. I try to seek truth in the context of eternity and not be short-sighted spiritually speaking. Quite simply, the answers you seek are all in the Word of God (the Bible as the Holy Spirit gives understanding)...most of them, Paul addressed in his letter to the Romans.

The problem, as I see it, is that you have wrongly convinced yourself that the Bible is not inerrant or reliable; that it is full of lies and cannot be trusted. That's the rub...where do you go for truth if you ignore the one and only Source?

John Jay, the 1st Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court wrote, "It is to be regretted, but so I believe the fact to be, that except the Bible there is not a true history in the world. Whatever may be the virtue, discernment, and industry of the writers, I am persuaded that truth and error (though in different degrees) will imperceptibly become and remain mixed and blended until they shall be separated forever by the great and last refining fire." He also wrote, "I have long been of opinion that the evidence of the truth of Christianity requires only to be carefully examined to produce conviction in candid minds . . ."

John Jay is just another fella from history but I happen to agree with him. I came to that conclusion some time ago that in order for us to be able to find truth and answers to our hard questions, we must have a source... and God has provided it not by giving revelation to one or a handful of men but through many men over a long period of time revealing HIS true character, nature and plan little at a time. Through HIS Word, we met our Redeemer in the beginning of time. Jesus was there; HE is God after all. We discover that HE is merciful but in the context of JUSTICE.

Regardless, I think Shiloh answered well. Read his posts closely and ask yourself whether or not you truly have a candid mind.

I pray the Lord Most High answers your questions.

May the Lord Bless you richly,

Wayne

postscript: I am 46 years old and have belonged to Christ for only 16 of those years. I was raised in a relgious home but not a Christian home. When I was seeking, I did cursory studies of most religions and found them all wanting. What strikes me most about humankind is how all men, whether they admit it or not, seek redemption, something that is only found in Jesus Christ. I recently read a book written by a muslim author titled, "The Kite Runner" and was impressed by the main character who was searching for redemption from his past transgressions but never really found it even after being beaten and nearly killed. Interesting book to say the least.

[emeraldgirl]

if I tell the truth and say that I don't have any troubling things on my mind or heart, am I less human in your eyes?

No, Wayne. But it's hard for me to believe that any person could read and study the Bible for years and not find at least a few things troubling. The reference to "humanity" was more because I think there are Christians who are too proud to even admit that they are troubled by any aspect of the Christian faith.

Conversely, if indeed you are not at all troubled by any tenent of the faith, if you are not at all troubled by anything in the Bible, the next introspective question I have is, "Then what is the matter with me?" How can I be "okay" with something I find reprehensible? I don't know how to, or why to. Christianity should be able to withstand objective scrutiny if it is Truth.

When I have a question or doubt, I seek the answer in HIS Word...and usually find it.

And again that creates my wonder, "Then what is the matter with me?" Some questions have agonized me for just simply ages. If you notice, I've been a member here a long time, I just have posted infrequently. Look back at some of my old questions, if you want. I have asked and wondered over the same things for SOOOOO long, no matter how much I have wanted to know the answer, no matter how often I prayed for wisdom on the matter.

The problem, as I see it, is that you have wrongly convinced yourself that the Bible is not inerrant or reliable; that it is full of lies and cannot be trusted. That's the rub...where do you go for truth if you ignore the one and only Source?

Wayne, I would love to have a book that is the One True Answer in a world of lies. But if the Bible even has one, tiny error in it - even if it's an insignificant error in the scope of all the concepts in the Bible - then the Holy Spirit could not have breathed in the words to be penned. He couldn't have presided while the texts were cannonized if there is even one, tiny inconsistency from book to book or from OT to NT. But I know there are both of these things, and some of them aren't even tiny. Any person with eyes can look and see that the Bible contains both of these problems. Any google search on Biblical Errancy will reveal dozens of both of these, not to mention the ones you can find yourself just by reading for yourself.

I have study Bibles in different translations. I've used the study excerpts extensively to try and sort out problems as they arise. But that is what starts to add to my uneasiness. Why can't I understand it just as it is? Why do I need to exegete ancient words for hours to try and formulate what the verse is saying?

Here's an example: I belong to a Christian community that does not believe in spanking children. Some of the ladies have spent many hours in exegesis, trying to find other things that "Beat the child with a rod and he shall not die" could mean. I don't believe in beating my children with rods, but frankly, if that is what the scripture says on the face of it, than that is what was meant. Most Christians haven't even read all the Bible (myself included), let alone peirced every scripture for hours trying to find out what it means in the original Greek. So there is an immediate limitation to a written Word of God. I wish it wasn't so. But even when I believed the Bible inerrant and infallible, I still wondered why it should be so hard to tell what is being said.

And Wayne, I do have a candid mind. I would much rather be a Christian. Deconverting is painful to the worst degree and I haven't even told anyone IRL yet! I have to go around as a shell of a Christian, just because my life is so intertwined with being a Christian. I can't accept the disasters that will be wrought by coming out of the closet with my unbelief! I would much rather believe it all. But you can't believe what you don't believe, and there is the real rub.

[sylvan3]

I have always wondered how people can reconcile the incompatibility of a perfect deity creating imperfect humans--humans that he is not happy with (see the story on Noah's Ark). The "God gave us free will" argument doesn't work; God, because of his omniscience, would know ahead of time what humans were going to do. How could he get "angry" if things weren't going as planned? How could he be omnipotent if things weren't going his way? Don't forget, the flood didn't rid the world of evil as was the original intent.

[EricH]

I have always wondered how people can reconcile the incompatibility of a perfect deity creating imperfect humans--humans that he is not happy with (see the story on Noah's Ark). The "God gave us free will" argument doesn't work; God, because of his omniscience, would know ahead of time what humans were going to do. How could he get "angry" if things weren't going as planned? How could he be omnipotent if things weren't going his way? Don't forget, the flood didn't rid the world of evil as was the original intent.

The reason you are strugling with this issue is because it is not an issue that scripture teaches (God creating "imperfect humans". Genesis begins with creation and God pronouncing everthing good. Genesis 1:31 says this:

And God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.

Gensis 1:31 NASB

Part of that goodness was the ability to make choices that have real and binding consequences. In other words creation would not have been good had got now alolowed for this ability. When mankind decided to doubt God's veracity and choose to experience evil for themselves directlt, they introduced spiritual death (separation from God) into creation. A result of this spiritual death was a progressive deepening and widening of man-kind's alientation from God.

We now see a second time where God looks with the intention of evaluating creation:

Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

Genesis 6:5 NASB

Now instead of seeing something that is inately good has turned bad

You made a couple of additional statements that are not in the text. In Genesis 6 (the account of the flood) it in no place states that God was angry. It also does not state that His ultimate intention was to blot out sin from the earth completely. The text tells us that God was grieved (in pain) because of what He saw. It does not specify God's ultimate purposes in the flood or in sparing Noah. The only reason we are given for Noah being spared is that "he had found favor" in God's sight. The reason for destroying the rest of creation is stated in verse 12: "It was corrupt and its way was corrupt (it was irretrievable). In order for God to keep the promise of a redeemer he made in Genesis 2, He determined to work through Noah.

You are absolutely correct in your observations regarding God's omniscience. God created the earth with full knowledge of what would happen. He also determined before the foundations of the earth to suffer for that creation himself to repair the broken relationship. The text does not explain why God made this decision. Only that He did