Wrestlings With God
A friend of mine posted these very real, very scary and important questions on facebook.
My first question to you, the reader, is to ask if you'd like to help answer these questions?
Friend's thoughts and questions:
"Is struggling big time with Christianity right now. I believe in God, I believe the Bible in its original form is true, but I do not understand church, or why children or suffering people can cry out to God for years and not be saved from something that attacks them, persecutes them, or victimizes them daily for years. why would God let that happen?
why doesn't God talk out loud to everyone? he has all of the power in the universe but few claim to have heard him? Why do all of us have to pay for Adam and Eve's actions? We are all born guilty when only 2 people were in the garden eating the forbidden fruit. now I have to struggle because someone else messed up and if I sin and don't repent I spend forever in hell. That just seems overly harsh for me. I didn't ask to struggle with the thoughts I have, but even if i pray and it doesn't go away and i mess up enough I would then have to burn forever.
Forever seems like a long time to have to burn for something I spent less than 100 years doing.
I could see maybe hitler burning forever, but your average Joe with a anger issue burning forever doesn't make sense to me. Why is there only 2 places we can end up? Why does everyone who doesn't" get it right forced to go to hell forever? What happens to people who have never heard about God? Last I heardnthere was way over 100 people groups that haven't heard the gospel, what happens to them?
Why is marriage permanent even if you realized that you have made a mistake. I believe that people should stay married for life, but what if two people made n honest mistake? Do they really have to live with each other until one of them dies, and be miserable?
Why can't all bible believing sincere Christians agreed on what the Bible says, and why is it that so few of them actual have evidence of being transformed by God?
I am a Christian and i know God is real, but I struggle with these questions, and by struggle I mean I have not slept for 5 days. I just don't understand. Why do I get a nice house, but some poor innocent child in Africa will die from diarhea tonite. Why do people struggle with things that God condemns? why did God create Lucifer in the first place.
If I knew something would lead to someone I know spending eternity in torment, I wouldn't have made it.
Why did God allow death to become a variable or a reality?
What about people who are born as a hermaphrodite? What are they supposed to so when it comes to being a certain gender?
Why would God allow a sincere minister to be kicked out of a church unfarily, to the point where his family has to leave all they know behind, move 18 hours away from home to get a job fixing toilets, and then not restore them to another ministry position if the gospel is an urgent message?
I feel in my heart that Jesus is real, but these questions are eating away at me, and have been for some time."
Here is how i responded:
"I have recently wrestled with the same questions. But it finally comes down to God keeping His word. Sin must be separated from God, and sadly generations of people living in sin must suffer the consequence. I suppose Adam & Eve passed on their blueprint to their children, and unfortunately sin had already been introduced to the blueprint. Every person is responsible for sharing the story of God -- of living for Him and living in community with one another sharing the glorious things He has done in us. But it wasn't long before were were unable to live in community with one another. Cain killed his brother Abel. All it takes is for someone to abandon the community of God and to stop sharing God's story with other people for there to be multitudes of people living separated from God. It doesn't seem fair, but judgment of sin isn't pretty.
God's heart is broken over this. So He sent Jesus, the perfect representative of God and the heavenly realm. It is by God's grace that there is now a way for everyone, now matter how long they've been separated from God, to commune with Him. But to look at another question, why didn't God destroy Lucifer? For some reason, every being will live eternally. I don't know why, but i do know Lucifer had to pay for his great sins. We know that Lucifer thought he was so much like God that he could overthrow God. He wanted to be like God so much & to take His place. I believe part of Lucifer's punishment has been to see people on Earth, made in the image of God! We were made from the miry clay of a turbulent new world and made more in the likeness of God than Lucifer! And so now, Satan wants nothing more than to ruin us, the images of God.
I suppose that God wants us to want Him so badly, He allows Satan to try to separate us from God. There is nothing more beautiful to God that can bless His heart as much as to see one of His children rebuke Satan and love God with his whole self, living his life as a testament of how great God is. Sin is a very real thing, and it's hard to understand why God would allow any one of us to perish. But He doesn't want any of us to perish -- which is why He hasn't ended this world yet. It is by grace that we are still here, having another day to make our paths straight and to share God's story (the gospel) with as many people as we can. That's Biblical. However, we all continue to take for granted the extra time we've been given. From the first persons who decided to deny God and neglected to tell their children of who God is, we now have multitudes and generations after generations of people living in that neglect, even after some have been told of God and Jesus. We are made in the likeness of God. You and i have been given everything we'll ever need to live righteously for God, loving others into the kingdom of Heaven. But we all squander these gifts. We chose to live some moments in the likeness of Satan. Spiritual warfare is very real.
These questions are extremely hard to answer, but...are you asking the right questions? Does someone else's struggles and sufferings decide your faith? I'm asking myself that question right now. I don't know how i know, but i know that God is real and that His Word is true. And if this is true, then His love is great and His reward for us is great. He wants nothing more than to abide in us and love on us in His full capacity, but for some reason we have free will. And like Lucifer, we too think we are so much like God that we can decide what is the right way to live. A lot of people think that if there is no answer to a question, the action in question is ok to commit. This is not true. Satan, for whatever reason, does exist. And the greatest myth he ever told was convincing the world he doesn't exist - that there is no Satan. Consequently, there is no temptation. Consequently, there is no sin. Consequently, there is no separation from God (if there is a God). And so on and so on. But this is a lie! It is Satan's greatest myth! Sometimes we just want it to be true, don't we? And it is our greatest achievement to shine light in this dark area and, in our free will, against all the deception and lies, choose to live a holy and righteous life! To rely on God because God is reliable in His mercy, forgiveness, grace, and love!"
End.
Does anyone have any truth to share?
My first question to you, the reader, is to ask if you'd like to help answer these questions?
Friend's thoughts and questions:
"Is struggling big time with Christianity right now. I believe in God, I believe the Bible in its original form is true, but I do not understand church, or why children or suffering people can cry out to God for years and not be saved from something that attacks them, persecutes them, or victimizes them daily for years. why would God let that happen?
why doesn't God talk out loud to everyone? he has all of the power in the universe but few claim to have heard him? Why do all of us have to pay for Adam and Eve's actions? We are all born guilty when only 2 people were in the garden eating the forbidden fruit. now I have to struggle because someone else messed up and if I sin and don't repent I spend forever in hell. That just seems overly harsh for me. I didn't ask to struggle with the thoughts I have, but even if i pray and it doesn't go away and i mess up enough I would then have to burn forever.
Forever seems like a long time to have to burn for something I spent less than 100 years doing.
I could see maybe hitler burning forever, but your average Joe with a anger issue burning forever doesn't make sense to me. Why is there only 2 places we can end up? Why does everyone who doesn't" get it right forced to go to hell forever? What happens to people who have never heard about God? Last I heardnthere was way over 100 people groups that haven't heard the gospel, what happens to them?
Why is marriage permanent even if you realized that you have made a mistake. I believe that people should stay married for life, but what if two people made n honest mistake? Do they really have to live with each other until one of them dies, and be miserable?
Why can't all bible believing sincere Christians agreed on what the Bible says, and why is it that so few of them actual have evidence of being transformed by God?
I am a Christian and i know God is real, but I struggle with these questions, and by struggle I mean I have not slept for 5 days. I just don't understand. Why do I get a nice house, but some poor innocent child in Africa will die from diarhea tonite. Why do people struggle with things that God condemns? why did God create Lucifer in the first place.
If I knew something would lead to someone I know spending eternity in torment, I wouldn't have made it.
Why did God allow death to become a variable or a reality?
What about people who are born as a hermaphrodite? What are they supposed to so when it comes to being a certain gender?
Why would God allow a sincere minister to be kicked out of a church unfarily, to the point where his family has to leave all they know behind, move 18 hours away from home to get a job fixing toilets, and then not restore them to another ministry position if the gospel is an urgent message?
I feel in my heart that Jesus is real, but these questions are eating away at me, and have been for some time."
Here is how i responded:
"I have recently wrestled with the same questions. But it finally comes down to God keeping His word. Sin must be separated from God, and sadly generations of people living in sin must suffer the consequence. I suppose Adam & Eve passed on their blueprint to their children, and unfortunately sin had already been introduced to the blueprint. Every person is responsible for sharing the story of God -- of living for Him and living in community with one another sharing the glorious things He has done in us. But it wasn't long before were were unable to live in community with one another. Cain killed his brother Abel. All it takes is for someone to abandon the community of God and to stop sharing God's story with other people for there to be multitudes of people living separated from God. It doesn't seem fair, but judgment of sin isn't pretty.
God's heart is broken over this. So He sent Jesus, the perfect representative of God and the heavenly realm. It is by God's grace that there is now a way for everyone, now matter how long they've been separated from God, to commune with Him. But to look at another question, why didn't God destroy Lucifer? For some reason, every being will live eternally. I don't know why, but i do know Lucifer had to pay for his great sins. We know that Lucifer thought he was so much like God that he could overthrow God. He wanted to be like God so much & to take His place. I believe part of Lucifer's punishment has been to see people on Earth, made in the image of God! We were made from the miry clay of a turbulent new world and made more in the likeness of God than Lucifer! And so now, Satan wants nothing more than to ruin us, the images of God.
I suppose that God wants us to want Him so badly, He allows Satan to try to separate us from God. There is nothing more beautiful to God that can bless His heart as much as to see one of His children rebuke Satan and love God with his whole self, living his life as a testament of how great God is. Sin is a very real thing, and it's hard to understand why God would allow any one of us to perish. But He doesn't want any of us to perish -- which is why He hasn't ended this world yet. It is by grace that we are still here, having another day to make our paths straight and to share God's story (the gospel) with as many people as we can. That's Biblical. However, we all continue to take for granted the extra time we've been given. From the first persons who decided to deny God and neglected to tell their children of who God is, we now have multitudes and generations after generations of people living in that neglect, even after some have been told of God and Jesus. We are made in the likeness of God. You and i have been given everything we'll ever need to live righteously for God, loving others into the kingdom of Heaven. But we all squander these gifts. We chose to live some moments in the likeness of Satan. Spiritual warfare is very real.
These questions are extremely hard to answer, but...are you asking the right questions? Does someone else's struggles and sufferings decide your faith? I'm asking myself that question right now. I don't know how i know, but i know that God is real and that His Word is true. And if this is true, then His love is great and His reward for us is great. He wants nothing more than to abide in us and love on us in His full capacity, but for some reason we have free will. And like Lucifer, we too think we are so much like God that we can decide what is the right way to live. A lot of people think that if there is no answer to a question, the action in question is ok to commit. This is not true. Satan, for whatever reason, does exist. And the greatest myth he ever told was convincing the world he doesn't exist - that there is no Satan. Consequently, there is no temptation. Consequently, there is no sin. Consequently, there is no separation from God (if there is a God). And so on and so on. But this is a lie! It is Satan's greatest myth! Sometimes we just want it to be true, don't we? And it is our greatest achievement to shine light in this dark area and, in our free will, against all the deception and lies, choose to live a holy and righteous life! To rely on God because God is reliable in His mercy, forgiveness, grace, and love!"
End.
Does anyone have any truth to share?