[The Virtual Church]
The following are among the greatest and most frequently asked questions in the world, questions that people ask others or maybe just ask themselves. The answers provided can be read within approximately one minute.
How do you explain the "Trinity?
Does evil really exist, or is it just relative?
Why does a loving God allow so much evil?
But what about disasters and accidents that are no ones fault?
Are all religions just different paths to the same God?
What about those who have never heard the gospel?
Can life after death be proven?
Are we near the end of the world?
Which is the best, or "one true church?"
Why do Christians sometimes sin?
QUESTION: Can the existence of God be proven?
ANSWER: The Bible does not attempt to "prove" the existence of God; it simply declares Him to be. The very first verse of the Bible says, "In the beginning God..." The Bible also declares that every human has an innate awareness of His existence and that His reality is seen in creation. God is spirit and thus infinite; His being cannot be subjected to physical laws, nor to human experimental methods. However, philosophers have put forth powerful and logical arguments for God's existence, such as the Cosmological Argument (there must be a "first cause"), Teleological Argument (the intelligent "design" of the universe reveals a "Designer"), Ontological Argument (that a finite being can even conceptualize an infinite Creator is evidence of His existence), and several others. Individually, each argument is extremely persuasive, but collectively they are so overwhelming that they put the entire "burden of proof" on the other side of the question-to prove that He does not exist in the face of all the evidence! Perhaps the greatest proof we have (other than observed creation) is the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. In addition are the objective and subjective effects of His life and ministry. The psalmist, King David, said, "The fool says in his heart, 'There is no God.'" Everybody else knows that there is.
ANSWER: The Bible reveals many attributes of the personality
and character of God. Like a person, He has personality and character.
He is eternal, a spirit-being. He is omniscient (all-knowing);
nothing escapes His knowledge. He is omnipotent (all-powerful).
He is omnipresent (everywhere present). He is all-wise. As
a being, God apparently also has emotions. We are told that He grieves,
and also laughs. He is holy, pure, righteous, and perfect.
He is also revealed as faithful, merciful, kind, and loving. In fact,
He personifies love so much that the Bible declares, "God is love." He
is also just and intolerant of sin and evil. But in His love, He
has provided an answer to these things through His Son. In Jesus
the fullness of God was said to dwell, so if we want to know what God is
like, we look at what Jesus is like. "He who has seen me has seen
the Father," Jesus said.
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QUESTION: Where did God come from?
ANSWER: Time is a human frame of reference, always dependent upon the movement of matter, such as the earth around the sun, moon around the earth, hands around a clock, or human activity. God exists outside of this frame of reference, in eternity, where there is no beginning or end as we think of it. His actual name as He revealed it to Moses in the Hebrew language is YHWH, or "Yahweh" (mistakenly called "Jehovah"), a derivative of the Hebrew word, "to be." He also referred to Himself as the "I am," in Hebrew meaning a self-existent, self-causing, eternal being. Yahweh is the first cause of all causes and effects. Jesus referred to himself as that same "I am" of the Old Testament who has always existed. Since He used Hebrew terminology reserved for deity, the religious authorities of His day thought Jesus was blaspheming. God was not created, or else there would be another God. He was, and is, and always will be.
QUESTION: How do you explain the "Trinity?"
ANSWER: As the ancient Hebrew Scriptures say, "Hear, O Israel: the LORD our God is one LORD." Both Jews and Christians know that there is only one God, and not three. Yet there is a mysterious plurality of His nature that the finite mind cannot understand. In the Hebrew scriptures the noun used for God (Elohim) is a plural noun. Also, in the above quote the word one is from the Hebrew word echad, sometimes meaning a "composite oneness" or "diversity of unity" rather than the absolute number "one." At the beginning of creation God said to Himself, "Let us make man in our image." In the New Testament, in speaking of the Father, Jesus said, "I and the Father are one."' Much is also said about the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God. Though we may not be able to understand this tri-unity, we know that God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit-three manifestations of the one and same God for different times and purposes. Many human analogies attempt to explain this, but they are all inadequate. It has been said that the Father is God invisible, the Son is God manifested, and the Spirit is God in interaction with His creation.
QUESTION: Does evil really exist, or is it just relative?
ANSWER: One cannot view human history or our current world without concluding the reality and absoluteness of evil. Extremes include Hitler's death camps, the genocide in Cambodia, rapes, murders, and drug distribution. On a smaller scale, there is the constant stream of deception and corruption in governments, businesses, and in individuals. Organized crime has infiltrated industry, unions, and government itself. Evil literally pervades society, more than we often realize, affecting most everything we do. If we are honest, we even see it in ourselves. We may say or do something that will hurt someone else, sometimes even those who love us the most. Or evil may manifest itself by our omission rather than commission-not doing something we should do, instead of doing something we shouldn't. Only the Bible addresses and explains the mystery of evil, and gives its solution. Humanity's propensity for evil traces back to the very first humans. It is always related to self-seeking: the use of ones free will to exalt or advance oneself at the expense of others. Evil is also personified in a spirit-being named Satan, an angel who tried to exalt himself in heaven and usurp God, resulting in his expulsion. Satan has been given limited authority on earth. In the realm of the spirit and through the mind and personality, Satan operates through people. Sometimes he merely influences a persons behavior But if they have rejected God, he possesses them. A person can reject God in their lives to the point where they actually relinquish their wills to Satan; whether they even believe in Satan’s reality is irrelevant.
QUESTION: Why does a loving God allow so much evil?
ANSWER: The answer is implicit in the question: He "allows" it.
He doesn't cause it. As mentioned earlier, evil is the result of
volitional creatures, creatures with a free will who can make choices.
God's alternative was to make puppets or automatons instead of people.
But God wanted creatures made in His own image-spirit beings who could
"choose" to love Him. His purpose was an eternal love relationship.
He desires to share His entire Kingdom with cognizant creatures:
QUESTION: But what about disasters and accidents that are no ones fault?
ANSWER: Accidents are often traced to human sin, such as drunken driving or wanton carelessness, acts that can hurt ourselves and others. However, injury, sickness, and death do occur from things seemingly apart from any human cause, such as earthquakes, tornadoes, natural disasters, and some diseases that seem beyond our control (why are natural disasters always called "acts of God" but He is rarely given credit for the good things?). We do know that God has established physical laws that work consistently, such as gravity. Biological laws control our bodies as well as germs and viruses. Sometimes, however, a higher spiritual law such as prayer may override them. We cannot always understand why certain things happen, but we do know from the Bible that a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without God's knowledge. How much more is He aware of and concerned with human activities? On one occasion, Jesus was asked a question similar to this. His answer was that God has a purpose even in disasters. An amazing attribute of God is that He can take an evil and convert it to a good purpose. Also, we tend to look at things from a temporal, short term perspective, whereas God sees the much more important eternal consequences. Our walk in this life is by faith in an all-wise and all-loving Father who cares for us greatly and who is sovereignly in control of His universe. There is no such thing as "luck" or "accident." Whatever happens, we can be assured that for God's people it is a blessing, though sometimes in disguise. This reality is a source of peace. Those who reject God are faced with the horror of being subject to the constant threats of a seemingly capricious, impersonal, and dangerous world.
QUESTION: Are all religions just different paths to the same God?
ANSWER: There is a great myth about "religions." Christianity is not really a religion, but a "relationship" with God through His Son. Jesus claimed exclusivity-to be the Way, not a way. He also claimed to be God in the flesh. No "religion-founder" ever claimed that. Actually, most of the others never intended to start a religion. Thus includes Confucius and Lao Tzu whose later followers combined their teachings with superstitions, deifying the founders who would probably denounce such an act if still alive. Hinduism has no founder and has about 330 million gods. Its chief one, Brahman, is not really a god at all but an "it." The founder of Buddhism, Siddhartha Gautama, was influenced by Hinduism. He kept some of it and rejected some of it. Buddhism is primarily an ethical system. Gautama never claimed to be divine or even to have divine revelation. The Buddhism religion is not a path to God, but to Nirvana. But Buddhists cannot agree on what it is, except a void or nothingness. Islam's Qur'an (Koran), which contains the writings of Mohammed who was born over 500 years after Christ, is in serious conflict with the biblical revelation, a unified work that spans 40 generations and was authored by 40 different people. For example, the god of Islam is impersonal and without love or mercy, just the opposite of the truth. In Islam, Mohammed is considered the greatest prophet, and greater than Christ, who was just another prophet. With Judaism, God "chose" the Hebrew people through whom to reveal Himself, His commandments, and His plan of redemption for the entire human race. However, much of modern Judaism has no similarity to the ancient faith but is more a cultural or ethnic identity, based largely on collective rabbinic traditions. The Hebraic revelation was completed in one particular Jew, Yeshua (Jesus) the Messiah, who fulfilled the Hebrew prophecies. Only in the Bible is God revealed to us as a personal and loving Father, who Himself solved man's sin problem by His own great sacrifice. Only He gives us hope with a wonderful plan for the future. This is the "good message" or gospel.
QUESTION: What about those who have never heard the gospel?
ANSWER: Most people would be astounded if they knew how pervasively among the nations and cultures the gospel has been communicated over the past 1,900 years. In some remote areas of the earth there is more love for Jesus than we see in America. Yet, it is true, many have not heard. That should motivate us all the more to fulfill the Great Commission of Christ: "Go into all the world and proclaim this good news." The good news not only gives hope of life after death, but it sets peoples' spirits free from fear and superstition in this life. Some entire cultures are economically and politically depraved due to spiritual darkness, with people living in fear of demonic idols and dying of starvation while "sacred cows" roam the streets. God wants them to know of His love and provision for them. But will God allow an eternal hell for those who do not hear? We only know what has been revealed to us. Beyond that, we do not know all of God's plan. The Bible says that all humans instinctively know of God's reality There is evidence that people will be judged on the light they have been given, and what they do with it. Other than that, we will just have to trust in God's fairness, of which we can be assured. We also know for sure that:
QUESTION: Is reincarnation possible?
ANSWER: The idea that people's souls can migrate back to the earth as other people or as lower life forms has its roots in Hinduism and its concept of karma, or the law of moral consequence. According to karma, what a person is in this life depends on what he did in a previous life. One goes through a virtually endless cycle of rebirths to reach a final state of bliss, unlikely because perfection must be achieved to get there. An "unrighteous" life, however, may result in the next life as an insect or other creature (although Western concepts of reincarnation do not include lower life forms). A major problem is that it's not clear what the "rules" for righteousness are. It's a "Catch 22" situation (uncertain rules, but whatever they are you can't keep them perfectly anyhow, but you must keep them to reach perfection--or else!). This is a demonic theology of hopelessness and void of love that has millions living in fear and total superstition in a belief system that equates a cow with God. Millions of people are also locked into a "caste system" of extreme depravity caused by their presumed deeds in a previous life. A Hindu verse says, "Worship, O Cow, to thy tail hair, and to thy hooves ... The Cow is Heaven, the Cow is Earth, the Cow is Vishnu (God), the Lord of Life." The Bible says that: "It is appointed for men to die once, and after that comes judgment."
The Bible also declares that no one can make himself righteous or worthy.
With a free gift, God has settled that problem once and for all in His
Son, whose own righteousness is "credited" to us when we put our trust
in Him. At the above mentioned judgment, we are seen as clothed in
the righteousness of this One who became our substitute.
There is evidence that demonic spirit-beings, sometimes operate through human personalities. These spirits may have operated through humans in other generations, making it appear that the present human habitation has experienced things in a past life. That is the probable explanation of alleged recall from the personalities of people from the past. This may also be the answer to so-called "multiple-personalities" that psychiatrists can only label but not explain.
QUESTION: Can life after death be proven?
ANSWER: Jesus proved it. There is much empirical evidence on both the reliability of the Scriptures and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. It is not in any way a blind faith in an unsubstantiated historical claim. See Chapters 1 and 2. The New Testament talks a lot about the next life. Paul said: "If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins ... If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all men most to be pitied. But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead... For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive."
QUESTION: Is there
a literal hell?
ANSWER: Yes, in the sense that there is a literal place or existence in eternity for those who have willingly rejected God. It was never created for people, but for angelic beings who had experienced God's glorious presence and who, in spite of their experience, rebelled against Him in heaven. God does not send people there. They choose to go there by willfully deciding that they do not want God in their lives; they obtain their own desire. They discover too late that any blessings they had in this life were gifts from God and not from their own efforts or any human agency. Hell is a place without God, a place of remorse, hopelessness, darkness, and loneliness. No way out, forever. We don't know a lot about it except that it is a place to avoid at all costs. It is not a myth; Jesus spoke of it frequently. However, it is not known whether some of the language referring to it is literal or metaphorical. Jesus used the term, Gehenna, which was the name given to a refuse dump that burned constantly outside the city of Jerusalem. Whatever it is, absolutely nothing could be a worse fate. Sadly, it will contain people who did "good deeds" but thought they didn’t need God in general, or the sacrifice of His Son, in particular. Interestingly, there will be "no hope" in either heaven or hell. In heaven, that which was hoped for becomes forever realized; in hell, forever deprived. The idea that lost souls cease to exist at death (the "annihilation theory") is contrary to Jesus' specific teachings, but is popular among some cults.
QUESTION: Can we know the future?
ANSWER: The Bible reveals much about the future in the writings of the only group of people in history with an infallible track record of prediction-the Hebrew prophets. Their record confirms the divine origin of their information. But the Bible also reveals that God desires individuals to walk by faith and trust in Himself. Detailed knowledge of the future would negate faith. Also, humanly speaking, a certain future is not inevitable, although God knows the outcome. Humans actually create and can alter the future with their wills, actions, and prayers. The New Testament speaks of "prophecy" as a valid gift and ministry even in our day. However, prophecy in the New Testament generally means speaking forth a message from God and is not necessarily predictive. Such messages always relate to God's purposes as contrasted with the often silly and sensational "predictions" of popular psychics. Modern practices of astrology, fortune telling, divination, psychic predictions, sorcery, and similar occult phenomenon are strongly forbidden by God (e.g.., Deuteronomy 18: 9-14, Galatians 5:20, etc.). A large percentage of the Practitioners are proven frauds, but biblically we know that some are in touch with "familiar spirits" (a scriptural term for demonic spirit-beings). Many occultists try to appear "religious," displaying the Bible, the symbol of the cross, pictures of Christ, statues, and similar trappings. Revelations from such practitioners are flawed, but can contain enough facts to deceive and trap a victim into "believing." As we previously discussed, "believing" is not a matter to be taken lightly. It produces commitment. We tend to become what we believe. The danger is that such practices can cause, at best, delusion, self-fulfilling mindsets and actions, fear, anxiety, and a lack of reliance on God; at worst, strong demonic influence in a victim's life, sometimes causing neurosis, psychosis, depression, and death. Anyone so involved should immediately stop, then pray, renouncing the involvement and asking God's forgiveness, cleansing, and deliverance from demonic influence. God tells us that if we acknowledge Him, trust Him with all of our hearts, and not depend on our own understanding, He will direct the path of our lives. And we know that His paths are always paths of blessing and peace. I recommend reading: Understanding the Occult, by Josh McDowell and Don Stewart, published by Here's Life Publishers, Inc., San Bernardino, CA.
QUESTION: Are we near the end of the world?
ANSWER: The Bible does refer to a "new heaven and a new earth," and a time when the "earth and the works that are upon it will be burned up." But even without the Bible, we know that someday our sun, which is only a medium-sized star, will burn out. Some astronomers believe it can last millions of more years, but others believe that about half of its hydrogen supply is depleted, causing it to be in danger of experiencing a "nova." A nova occurs when a star gets brighter and hotter, then gets darker. Unfortunately, the U. S. President, Congress or probably even the United Nations would be helpless to do anything about it. Isaiah the prophet spoke of a time when "the light of the sun will be sevenfold." The prophet Joel spoke of a time when "the sun shall be turned to darkness." Jesus Himself spoke of a great tribulation on the earth just before He returns when "the sun will be darkened ... and the powers of the heavens will be shaken." We do not know when these things will be. Also, there is sincere disagreement among scholars on the order of events regarding Christ's return as well as its immediate effect on the world as we now know it. However, there are many "signs" given in the Bible for this momentous event. While some of these signs have appeared at various times throughout history, many scholars believe that this is the first time in human history that all the signs are converging. When speaking of His return, Jesus described these accompanying signs and said, "When you see all these things, you know that he is near, at the very gates."
QUESTION: Which is the best or "one true Church?"
ANSWER: See Chapter 11 for guidelines on finding a church. All who put their trust in Christ are part of his spiritual body, a mystical union which transcends human organization and titles. In addition, there are many kinds of "local" churches or assemblies where believers meet for worship and service. Some are independent and autonomous such as the Baptists; others have a hierarchy of organization such as the Presbyterians. A friend once testified humorously how, when he was young, he had discovered the one true church. "It's where my mother goes," he said. "My mother wouldn't go to the wrong church!" A funny statement but often a true perception. Some groups claim exclusivity as the "one true church," but most now admit that the fabric of God's family is diverse in the practice of its faith. There is no compromise on the common denominators of all true Christian churches: the absolute deity of Jesus Christ, faith in Him as a prerequisite to salvation, and the Bible as the inspired Word of God. Beyond that there are many variations. The Bible should be the only guide to faith and practice-all Christian beliefs and practices must be measured and judged by the Word of God. This may raise questions about the practices of some churches, but if they are not critically important doctrinal issues, confronting them may be more a source of discord than edification, which always must be our aim. No group has a monopoly on the truth. This is all demonstrative of the human condition that we all share. This gives us all the more cause to be grateful for God's mercy and to love and appreciate all who sincerely claim and proclaim Christ, the Son of God, regardless of affiliation.
QUESTION: Why do Christians sometimes sin?
ANSWER. People who do not want God in their lives often
try to justify themselves by referring to Christians and saying, "I don't
want to be associated with those hypocrites." Sadly, they are pridefully
comparing themselves to other humans and rejecting an openness to God's
only plan of mercy for themselves. This is a horrible price for pride
and self-justification, really only a cover for rejecting God. And
it will be an empty plea on Judgment Day. It's true, however, that
Christians do make mistakes. But that only reinforces their need
for God's grace as provided by the blood covenant. A bumper sticker
says it well: "Christians aren't perfect, just forgiven." No one is more
aware of his sinful nature than a sincere Christian trying to be obedient
to his Master. Even for believers, the Bible talks about "the passions
of the flesh that war against your soul." These passions are every kind
of selfish pull contrary to God's will, such as anger, enmity, lust, and
covetousness. We are exhorted, with God's help, to be continuous
overcomers. The Lord even taught us to pray, "Lead us not into temptation."
But even though we are to aim for it, few if any reputable Bible scholars
believe that a completely sinless state is possible in this life, something
achieved only by Jesus Himself. So, occasionally one may slip.
Unfortunately, we then discover that our mistakes not only hurt ourselves
but other people, too. Sometimes we even bring discredit upon Christ
through the image we project. Sin always hurts God, others, and ourselves.
Any act of sin should bring a believer to a remorseful confession to God.
This triggers one of the most glorious and wonderful of God's promises: