Answers for atheists

A post that I wrote a little while back caught the attention of an atheist, and you can read the entire post and comments by clicking here.  But the main comment concerned some tough questions that have been asked in similar form by many a non-believer, which I will quote here:

If [God] is all good, why do 20,000 children die every day in this world? Surely someone all good, would not let that many children die? So he is either not all good, or he is unable to help them so he is not all powerful..

Do you believe in a devil? If so why would a god "allow" him to exist? If he does, then again he is either not all good or not all powerful and cannot stop him or stop him from existing..

See how quickly cracks appear in even your most basic belief system?

Here was my initial reaction to this comment, so bear with me: I must admit that I was a little put off at first. Was I supposed to abandon my faith simply on the basis of two issues that this person assumed I hadn't found answers to? Perhaps this person didn't really care to find answers to these questions but was simply trying to discredit believers in general and this blog in particular, upset merely by the fact that my belief system runs contrary to his/hers?

Also, as the comments progressed, I had the feeling that s/he was calling my character and level of intelligence into question solely as a result of me believing in God, as though only some half-wit would do something so audacious. You can see in subsequent comments how s/he and I attempted to iron some things out, and how in the end I realized that attempting to answer these questions isn't a bad thing.  However, doing so just wasn't the intention of this blog.  Let me explain.

I started this blog for reasons explained in the introductory post, and I hoped that people would read it so that any comments would not resort to making me feel as though I was being regarded as a second-rate human being for believing in God, for example by inferring that I am "brain washed by a cult" or that by believing in God I "may as well be believing in Santa Claus, except you are an adult". I wasn't expecting to be subjected to ad hominem attacks - to attacks on my character - and to attacks on my intelligence, but rather I had hoped to be asked to reasonably and intelligently discuss matters related to God.

But then I realized that perhaps this atheist has only ever encountered "religious" people, as s/he refers to them (perhaps not yet realizing that true Christianity is actually the anti-thesis and the greatest enemy of religion), who seem as though they are robotically brainwashed by how they act and live.  Or maybe Christians (or those who claim to be) have looked down their noses at him/her and attacked his/her character as well.  Maybe I was simply bearing the brunt of his/her discontent.

Although this person should not have assumed the same about me or done the same to me, I guess I can't blame him/her.  What I realized is that s/he's probably never become acquainted with, let alone met, someone who believes in God like me yet with the integrity, character, and intelligence that those around me know I possess.  It's easy to assume things about someone whose stuff you're only reading about online instead of getting to know them face-to-face. I'm also very well regarded by Christians and non-believers in my sphere of influence because I don't walk around with a 'holier than thou' attitude. I'm very real, and I don't walk around with my head in the clouds. In short, I'm very personable and don't speak with people as though I look like I was weaned on a pickle.

I also realized that to not answer those questions would lead this person to rightly assume that I lack integrity, character, and intelligence. Therefore, I am attempting to answer these questions for these reasons, but also since this person has never met "one single person who can logically answer those questions. Not a priest, not a born again Christian, not Mormons nor Jehovah Witnesses at the front door." However, I do not make this attempt with the illusion that an atheist will suddenly "see the light" regarding Jesus.  This person him/herself has stated that s/he is "not someone looking for God".

So why should I bother answering these questions?  Because I as a follower of Jesus need to be as open, caring, and transparent to non-believers as he was to all around him when he walked this earth. He is the example that sadly most Christians have failed to follow, and I've never wanted to be a part of that majority. If most Christians truly reflected the character of their Savior, their Messiah, then the atheist ranks on this planet would be almost non-existent because the love of God would be hugely apparent, since it is meant to be reflected through Christian believers.  Sure, this person has implied that s/he really doesn't care to know the answers, which means that perhaps instead I'll either be mocked again as I was at first (but hopefully not) or s/he'll simply try to poke more holes into my faith that s/he cannot truly understand apart from that faith.

But maybe none of this will happen; maybe I'm assuming that this person will act exactly how I did as a hater of God for the first 22 years of my life, when I responded to any spiritual inquiries with venom and hatred (and all without objectively considering their viewpoint, by the way) that few non-believers have had the guts to express with a believer face-to-face.  Anyhow, this is a chance I'm willing to take; my faith has and never will be shaken, so really I've got nothing to lose, and maybe it will actually be somewhat informative to this and other atheists/agnostics who stumble across this blog. At the very least, these are good questions that deserve attempts at answers - hey, I wondered about them as well at one time - and hopefully the responses are respectful and reasonable even if someone still disagrees with them.

So here's my approach.  In this post, I've decided I'm not going to re-invent the wheel.  These questions have been addressed somewhat directly or indirectly in this blog.  So first, do a search by blog title or keyword for the items of concern, such as "brainwashing" or "atheists" or "Satan" or "devil".

Second, search online for other sources that will answer these questions, because they've been asked and answered ad nauseum throughout the ages.  I simply feel I don't need to try to answer them myself at this point if others have done so already.

But beware: not all people who claim to represent God truly represent the God of the Bible, the one true God.  So please avoid anyone who has violated the warning of Revelation chapter 22, verses 18-19 like the Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses have:  they have tweaked and even re-written the Bible to make God fit their mold, to suit their twisted agendas.  They are cults in the truest sense of the word, and therefore their answers to these questions will be misinformed and intended to mislead.  In fact, any religious movement or self-proclaimed "faith" that has rejected Jesus and therefore the Bible is also not a good source for information (ex. Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, etc.). I've never found their explanations on such issues to be reputable or even helpful because they lack a true understanding of such issues by, for example, their removal of Jesus from the equation.

Instead, start with organizations like the Christian Research Institute (the best cult-busting organization in existence!), and search for messages from the likes of Charles Stanley and Chuck Swindoll.  I'm sorry, but answers to these questions are only best addressed from a Biblical perspective (since these questions are about God and the devil), so you need to be open-minded about this no matter how uncomfortable this may be!

Now I won't leave you totally hanging.  Here are a few links to answers to the above (or similar) questions to get you started.  Where you go from here is up to you:

If [God] is all good, why do 20,000 children die every day in this world?

• Link 1, Link 2, Link 3

Do you believe in a devil? If so why would a god "allow" him to exist?

• Link 1, Link 2, Link 3

Some of these responses are written from Christians to Christians, but bear with them as you read them. Don't get upset, don't get insulted - just take them for what they are.  In some cases, some answers to the specific questions are sprinkled throughout various parts of the articles.

Third, these questions do not have cut-and-dried, simple answers.  In fact, for me these answers only came after several years of gaining a deep understanding of God through reading my Bible, listening to reputable (not just any) Bible teachers in person and on the radio (this involved me sorting the reputable from the pseudo-biblical and cultic teachings), and through asking God to reveal his truths to me.  Even if I can refer you to cut-and-dried attempts at answers, they'll probably seem non-sensical without a solid background of walking with God.

So there you go!  Now, if you're assuming that this is a cop-out on my part, I hope you will do your due diligence and first research these things more for yourself.  Then, if you really would like me to answer them from my perspective, in my own words that I believe God is revealing to me, please leave me a comment to that effect and I will create a new post.

BUT PLEASE, if your desire is not to really seek to understand God more but rather to try to mock me, my faith, or to just keep asking questions for the sake of mockery and/or to waste my time and energy, then I will no longer be answering such questions.

Again, I intended this blog to share what I believe God has laid upon my heart over the years for the benefit of believers and non-believers seeking to understand God more.  And I will return strictly to this agenda if I sense that my character is being subjected to attack or if my faith is being mocked in a disrespectful fashion.  I am asking you to hold to the same level of integrity that I have hopefully also held to, and I believe this is an absolutely fair and reasonable request.

Too much church?

When a person reads or hears about the miraculous works and healings in the Bible, particularly in the Gospels and in the book of Acts, there's a misconception that such events are ancient history and that they have no place in this day or age. That God is somehow finished with using miracles to reveal His power in peoples' lives and win them over to belief in His Son, Jesus. Sadly, there are many Christians in the western world who would agree with this point.

But anyone in touch with events in the numerous parts of the world where being a Christian is illegal and/or violently opposed, particularly in Asia, realizes that God is working amazing miracles in these places in ways that make the Bible read as though one is flipping through a current newspaper. (By the way, the body of Christian believers living in these circumstances is said to be part of the "persecuted Church".)

For example, while thumbing through the most recent magazine put out by a Christian organization called Gospel For Asia (GFA), I read of people being freed from the bondage of demonic possession, healed from various illnesses and diseases, liberated from paralysis, and rescued from snake bites. And all of these miracles, according to this magazine, have resulted from GFA native missionaries praying for these people in the name of Jesus.

So why aren't such things happening en masse in the European and North American Church? (And by capital-c Church, I'm referring to the body of believers in Jesus Christ and not a building.) Why aren't we reading of genuine, miraculous healings in the Sunday morning services, Bible study groups, and other gatherings of Christians in the western world?

Before I go on, I wish to briefly address the perception of some in the western Church that healings do in fact regularly take place there. These are typically and pretty much exclusively believed to take place whenever a "healing crusade" or some event with "healing" in the title is held. In other words, where some self-proclaimed healer comes supposedly in the name of Jesus to some huge church, perhaps stadium, and with certain words and gestures causes the paralyzed to rise up out of their wheelchairs and the like.

If anything, these spectacles are a major reason why people mock the God of the Bible in western culture. Unbelievers, and fortunately most believers, have grown wary of these yahoos parading around as if they're God's gift to everyone and everything, accusing the handicapped, crippled, and diseased people in attendance to believe that if they don't get healed then they "don't have enough faith". So never mind the inability of the supposed healer; the true problem is the believer who lacks faith, in their eyes. Many have turned away from God and from the saving power of Jesus when they leave a healing crusade because they witnessed the staged healings (not realizing they weren't for real) and are devastated and angry at God because they themselves weren't healed. If you're a Christian and you believe that healings at these mass events are for real, then you should contact ministries like the Christian Research Institute (CRI) and start to learn about the shady characters behind these sorts of teachings who claim the name of Christ.

In the persecuted Church, none of the claimed healings occur because a time and place was arranged for them to occur. They happen as a missionary comes across a situation where a person is in crisis and then asks God for His intervention. As God chooses in each situation, He either heals or he does not heal. And if these events are rare, then why are there constant reports of such things being reported by the numerous ministries operating in these areas, and with witnesses - believing and non - to back most of them up?

So again - and finally - back to before: why aren't we reading of genuine, miraculous healings in the gatherings of Christians in the western world? Quite simply, I believe it all has to do with how we in the western Church think we need to relate to God.

In the Christian world, there is a wonderful and very accurate phrase that goes something like, 'Christianity is a relationship, not a religion'. In other words, the people with the deepest knowledge and reverence of and relationship with God across the globe are not those who regularly do all the things they think they need to do to please God. These are not the people who think that regular church attendance, regular taking of communion, regular giving of money, etc will draw them closer to God and vice-versa.

Rather, the people who know God best have included Him as a part of their everyday lives. They aren't trying to score 'brownie points'. They aren't putting on an image or a front of spirituality. They aren't doing nice things then making sure everybody else knows about them. They're regularly trusting in and communing with God by praying to Him and thinking about Him (meditating in its intended sense), reading and studying about Him in the Bible, and looking for ways to serve others and not just themselves.

Now what I've discovered to this point in my Christian walk is that the "religious" Christian makes church attendance and the like the focus of their faith. They're so consumed with ritual and putting God in a box that they miss out on what God really wants from them and for them: they miss the opportunities to give of themselves and serve others, plus to be open to new and fresh things that God wants them to learn and experience. They see God as ordered and structured instead of the dynamic, exciting, radical God He actually is. As a result, theirs is often the stale, boring, ritualistic faith so common in the western Church that turns off multitudes of people from realizing who God truly is and causes them to end up lost for eternity.

The "relationship" Christian, on the other hand, makes church a minor part of their overall faith. As I mentioned in another post, church to them is like the icing on the cake of their weekly walk with God and not the cake itself, as in the case of the religious Christian. Church is more a chance to catch up with other believers, and to encourage and practically serve those in attendance who have needs (like praying for them, inviting them over for lunch, helping them with yard work, cooking them a meal, etc). During the rest of the week, they are not the "Sunday Christian" like their religious counterparts. Instead, as mentioned before, their week is consumed with seeking then doing what God wants them to do, and this can only result from being in constant communion (i.e. communication, fellowship) with Him.

In parts of the world where Christians endure hardship much greater than us spoiled Christians in the West could ever imagine, a genuine, real, relational faith in God is much more common than the religious faith that dominates and corrupts the western Church. In these places, the "relationship" Christian seems to predominate, and they have given Jesus the freedom to work through their lives to produce all the miracles that the outside world has a hard time believing. Whenever I've heard of genuine healing occurring in our western culture, it is from relationship Christians praying for others on a one-on-one basis, as needs arise and without the hype of a formalized healing event.

I believe that if western Christians would only get away from the notion that church attendance and formal, pre-arranged church activity is the main way to know and commune with God, then our culture would see the dynamic power of Jesus in peoples' lives that non-believers are currently seeing through the persecuted Church. Instead, once again, all western culture sees for the most part in the western Church is stale, boring, religious ritual.

So am I proposing that us Christians in the western Church decide to stop attending the four-walled building we call "church" and forget about all the activities we do there? I am instead proposing that we not make Sunday mornings the central time of our faith, the overarching focal point or crux of our Christian walk. We need to pray, read our Bibles, get together with other believers, and serve the needs of Christians and non-believers throughout the week and not just during a formal, pre-arranged time and place.

As more Christians in our spiritually messed-up western culture realize these things and put them into practice, I believe that reports of genuine healing and other miracles from God - not the wiles of people - will no longer be stories from ancient history or things that only occur in other parts of the world.