10 of the Biggest Questions

[dreadnought]

(1) Why does God allow so many people to be born under atheistic Communism or in cultures in which they will never hear about Jesus? Can these people be saved apart from formal expression of faith in Christ? If not, how is that just?

(2) Why did God allow thousands of years of human history to elapse before He chose to incarnate and grow up in an obscure town, Nazareth?

(3) Why didn't God inspire Jesus to write His own Gospel? As it is, modern scholarship generally agrees that none of our 4 Gospels was written by a disciple or another eyewitness of Jesus life. If Jesus had written His own Gospel, such skepticism would be held in check.

(4) Why did God allow all the Gospels apparently written by eyewitnesses of Jesus long before our canonical Gospels (on this see Luke 1:1-4).

(5) Why didn't God inspire Moses to write the story of his life, including the exodus, the Reed Sea Crossing, and the awesome giving of the Ten Commandments? As it is, modern scholars agree that the Pentateuch is based on various sources composed by unknown authors centuries after these events.

(6) Why does God permit so many people to be born with physical conditions (e. g. mental retardation and mental illness) that make it impossible for them to grasp the content and relevance of the Gospel?

(7) Why does God so routinely allow the elderly, including elderly Christians, to lose their cognitive functions due to dementia and Alzheimer's Disease so that they are no longer capable of grasping divine truth and they lose their potential for continuing spiritual growth is aborted.

(8) Why does the Holy Spirit so seldom seem to convict honest seekers of the truth of the Gospel? So many skeptics seem to honestly believe that the idea of a loving God is absurd wishful thinking.

(9) Why hasn't God intervened at strategic moments in history to prevent natural disasters (earthquakes, hurricanes, tidal waves, etc.) that cause a massive number of fatalities to innocent victims? For that matter, why didn't God answer one of the many prayers for Hitler's assassination, so that one of the assassination plots might have succeeded and saved millions of lives?

(10) Why is the divine revelation in Scripture so incomplete, forcing us to speculate about the answers to so many big questions with little help from Scripture? Can God inspire new Christian prophets to expand the canon of Scripture to address more of these questions?




(3) Why didn't God inspire Jesus to write His own Gospel? As it is, modern scholarship agrees that none of our 4 Gospels was written by a disciple or another eyewitness of Jesus life.

(4) Why did God allow all the Gospels apparently written by eyewitnesses of Jesus long before our canonical Gospels (on this see Luke 1:1-4).

(5) Why didn't God inspire Moses to write the story of his life, including the exodus, the Reed Sea Crossing, and the awesome giving of the Ten Commandments? As it is, modern scholars agree that the Pentateuch is based on various sources composed by unknown authors centuries after these events.

(6) Why does God permit so many people to be born with physical conditions (e. g. mental retardation and mental illness) that make it impossible for them to grasp the content and relevance of the Gospel?

(7) Why does God so routinely allow the elderly, including elderly Christians, to lose their cognitive functions due to dementia and Alzheimer's Disease so that they are no longer capable of grasping divine truth and they lose their potential for continuing spiritual growth is aborted.

(8) Why does the Holy Spirit so seldom seem to convict honest seekers of the truth of the Gospel? So many skeptics seem to honestly believe that the idea of a loving God is absurd wishful thinking.

(9) Why hasn't God intervened at strategic moments in history to prevent natural disasters (earthquakes, hurricanes, tidal waves, etc.) that cause a massive number of fatalities to innocent victims?

(10) Why is the divine revelation in Scripture so incomplete, forcing us to speculate about the answers to so many big questions with little help from Scripture? Can God inspire new Christian prophets to expand the canon of Scripture to address more of these questions?


​

Question 1: If a person loves the Lord with all their hearts, minds, and souls, and loves their neighbors as themselves, I think the Lord will look favorably upon them, and the Lord can educate each of us regardless of our circumstances.

 

[dreadnought]

Question 2: I don't know the Lord's reasoning, but it didn't matter. All repentant souls are saved.

 

[dreadnought]

Question 3: First, my understanding is that Luke was not an eyewitness to the life of Jesus, but I never heard the same said about the other three gospels.

Tell me this: If I wrote my own life story, would you find that more believable than if someone else wrote it? Wouldn't I have a tendency to put myself in the best possible light? Wouldn't the life of Jesus be more believable, then if someone else wrote it?

 

[dreadnought]

Question 4: The life and death of Jesus must have been big news, and apparently many people wrote about it. However, in the end four gospels were chosen for the canon. You wouldn't want to have to read a hundred more, would you? Probably a lot of those apocryphal writings contained inaccuracies.

 

[dreadnought]

Question 5: No one can read the Lord's mind. I might suggest the Bible is a long book already, and perhaps the Lord didn't feel it was necessary for us to know more about Moses than what others had written.

 

[dreadnought]

Question 6: You are assuming retarded people can't understand things. I would disagree. All we really need to know is that we are to love the Lord with all our hearts, minds, and souls, and love our neighbors as ourselves.

 

[SkyWriting]

Even the reaction when Jesus was here--without Him writing His own Gospel (where you would have had today's unbelieving scholars still questioning whether he wrote it, etc)--the reaction He received was mixed: People accepted Him and people rejected Him. With all the healing and deliverance and sudden dropping of everything to follow Him that people saw and the amazing things He did that were never before seen, you would think everyone would have come to God. They didn't.

 

[dreadnought]

Question 7: We can't understand what is going on between the Lord and people with dementia. Certainly there continues to be spiritual growth, even if it is hidden from us.

 

[dreadnought]

Question 8: I don't understand the first part of your statement. As far as people seeming "to honestly believe that the idea of a loving God is absurd wishful thinking," anyone who reaches out to the Lord learns that he is loving. For those who don't reach out to the Lord, they will need to make their way without his help, I assume.

 

[dreadnought]

Question 9: Death isn't a bad thing. We pass on to the resurrection after we die. If you move to an earthquake prone area, you shouldn't be surprised it there is an earthquake. The Allies did defeat Hitler.

 

[dreadnought]

Question 10: I think everything we need to know is in the scriptures. The Bible is over 1,000 pages long.

I think problems arise when biblical "scholars" don't take the Lord's commandments to heart. We really can't understand the Lord's will until we repent of our sin.

 

[messianist]

All for his Glory.

 

[☦Marius☦]

As someone who used to listen to "modern scholars" let me input. All that "evidence" is literally just, we can't 100% prove it so it must be false. Instead of them saying "well most of the early church claims that the gospels were written by the apostles it must be true", they say "well most of the early church claims that the gospels were written by the apostles- it means they were lying". There is a ridiculous amount of bias against the Bible these days. The whole "the OT wasn't written until the Babylonian captivity" is a shaky argument. The Babylonians wiped out Israel and brought the people back for slaves. Its highly doubtful that much "evidence" would have been left behind other than what the Israelites could have taken with them.

 

[Light of the East]

(1) Why does God allow so many people to be born under atheistic Communism or in cultures in which they will never hear about Jesus? Can these people be saved apart from formal expression of faith in Christ? If not, how is that just?

According to Romans 5: 18-19, all mankind is already saved. All will go into the presence of God. God does not let the evil one win - period. Salvation for mankind - ALL mankind - is faith acompli.

We do not know exactly what happens at the time of death and after death. We do know, however, that our Father is love - i.e., that all He does is an expression of who He is. Therefore, we can have a great hope for those who have never heard.

St. Paul also stated in Romans 2: 13-16 that salvation is possible for those who have never heard because the Spirit of God puts the law of God in the hearts of all people. Those who follow that unwritten law in their hearts will be saved.

(2) Why did God allow thousands of years of human history to elapse before He chose to incarnate and grow up in an obscure town, Nazareth?

As was said earlier - it was the perfect time in human history. We don't always understand every little detail of God's actions or reasoning. Then it becomes a matter for us to exercise faith in what has happened.

(3) Why didn't God inspire Jesus to write His own Gospel? As it is, modern scholarship generally agrees that none of our 4 Gospels was written by a disciple or another eyewitness of Jesus life. If Jesus had written His own Gospel, such skepticism would be held in check.

I sincerely doubt that. Think of it. Jesus walked among the Pharisees, raised the dead and did stupendous miracles and yet - they did not choose to believe.

(4) Why did God allow all the Gospels apparently written by eyewitnesses of Jesus long before our canonical Gospels (on this see Luke 1:1-4).

Don't understand the objection here.

(5) Why didn't God inspire Moses to write the story of his life, including the exodus, the Reed Sea Crossing, and the awesome giving of the Ten Commandments? As it is, modern scholars agree that the Pentateuch is based on various sources composed by unknown authors centuries after these events.

It is our understanding that Moses is the author of the Pentateuch.

(6) Why does God permit so many people to be born with physical conditions (e. g. mental retardation and mental illness) that make it impossible for them to grasp the content and relevance of the Gospel?

Because you do not have to "make a decision for Jesus" to be saved. That nonsense was started by the heretic Charles Grandison Finney in his "new methods of evangelism" in the 1850's. Baptism forgives and washes away sin (Acts 2: 38, Titus 3:5) and confers, according to the Early Fathers of the Church, new life.

(7) Why does God so routinely allow the elderly, including elderly Christians, to lose their cognitive functions due to dementia and Alzheimer's Disease so that they are no longer capable of grasping divine truth and they lose their potential for continuing spiritual growth is aborted.

This is yet another assumption on your part that cognition, or knowledge of facts, is equal to spiritual growth. They are not necessarily connected. We have no idea what the soul goes through when a person is unconscious or in a coma. Western thinking, created by Roman Catholic scholasticism, is all about the intellect. That is not necessarily how God deals with us.

(8) Why does the Holy Spirit so seldom seem to convict honest seekers of the truth of the Gospel? So many skeptics seem to honestly believe that the idea of a loving God is absurd wishful thinking.

This and question number nine fall under the category of "theodicy," or human beings trying to understand the ways of God. For a good book to read on this subject, get HE LEADETH ME by Fr. Walter J. Ciszek S.J. Father went to Russia to minister to Catholics over there and wound up spending 15 years in a gulag in Siberia. From this experience, rather than be bitter or question God, he found that he learned valuable lessons about himself and his relationship to God.

(9) Why hasn't God intervened at strategic moments in history to prevent natural disasters (earthquakes, hurricanes, tidal waves, etc.) that cause a massive number of fatalities to innocent victims? For that matter, why didn't God answer one of the many prayers for Hitler's assassination, so that one of the assassination plots might have succeeded and saved millions of lives?

See above.

(10) Why is the divine revelation in Scripture so incomplete, forcing us to speculate about the answers to so many big questions with little help from Scripture? Can God inspire new Christian prophets to expand the canon of Scripture to address more of these questions?

We have all we need to know. We need to know that we are fallen creatures and are in need of salvation. We need to know that our original purpose was to be like Christ, and that through His Sacrifice on the Cross, that purpose has been restored. We have all the instructions we need to have in Matthew 22: 37 -39, where Jesus instructed us that all the law is bound up in two commandments - love God supremely and love our neighbors as ourselves.

Look, until you can do the above two clear commandments, why do you need to know anything else? Just learning to love God and neighbor in the right manner is a life-long process. Everything else is just fluff. And quite frankly, the most humble people are those who exhibit that love. The most proud (and often quite arrogant) are those who think they have everything figured out to a "T".




​

 

[1213]

(1) Why does God allow so many people to be born under atheistic Communism or in cultures in which they will never hear about Jesus? Can these people be saved apart from formal expression of faith in Christ? If not, how is that just?

Bible says:
For as many as have sinned without law will also perish without the law. As many as have sinned under the law will be judged by the law. For it isn't the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law will be justified (for when Gentiles who don't have the law do by nature the things of the law, these, not having the law, are a law to themselves, in that they show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience testifying with them, and their thoughts among themselves accusing or else excusing them) in the day when God will judge the secrets of men, according to my gospel, by Jesus Christ.
Romans 2:12-16

People who have not heard of Jesus, may still have righteous mind. And as the Bible tells, eternal life is for righteous:


These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.
Mat. 25:46

(2) Why did God allow thousands of years of human history to elapse before He chose to incarnate and grow up in an obscure town, Nazareth?

Probably because it was not right time before that. Certain things had to happen before it.

(3) Why didn't God inspire Jesus to write His own Gospel? As it is, modern scholarship generally agrees that none of our 4 Gospels was written by a disciple or another eyewitness of Jesus life. If Jesus had written His own Gospel, such skepticism would be held in check.

Maybe the idea was that the message is told orally, not literally. Written word is dead word and it usually loses its meaning, when language develops.

(4) Why did God allow all the Gospels apparently written by eyewitnesses of Jesus long before our canonical Gospels (on this see Luke 1:1-4) to be lost.

Perhaps because all important is still in the Gospels that we have today.

(5) Why didn't God inspire Moses to write the story of his life, including the exodus, the Reed Sea Crossing, and the awesome giving of the Ten Commandments? As it is, modern scholars agree that the Pentateuch is based on various sources composed by unknown authors centuries after these events.

But why believe that the modern scholars are not wrong?

(8) Why does the Holy Spirit so seldom seem to convict honest seekers of the truth of the Gospel? So many skeptics seem to honestly believe that the idea of a loving God is absurd wishful thinking.

I think the problem is in that people don’t really want to hear or understand.

(9) Why hasn't God intervened at strategic moments in history to prevent natural disasters (earthquakes, hurricanes, tidal waves, etc.) that cause a massive number of fatalities to innocent victims? For that matter, why didn't God answer one of the many prayers for Hitler's assassination, so that one of the assassination plots might have succeeded and saved millions of lives?

People wanted to know evil. I believe that is the reason why we are in this first death to learn what evil truly means and that is the reason why not all evil things are prevented by God. Good thing is that nothing of this world can destroy soul, which is the important thing.

(10) Why is the divine revelation in Scripture so incomplete, forcing us to speculate about the answers to so many big questions with little help from Scripture? Can God inspire new Christian prophets to expand the canon of Scripture to address more of these questions?

I disagree. Bible is not incomplete. In my opinion it is perfect. But I understand it may be impossible for those who don’t remain in truth.

 

[Daniel Martinovich]

[Note: The end of (4) apparently got erased and has now been corrected.]

(1) Why does God allow so many people to be born under atheistic Communism or in cultures in which they will never hear about Jesus? Can these people be saved apart from formal expression of faith in Christ? If not, how is that just?

(2) Why did God allow thousands of years of human history to elapse before He chose to incarnate and grow up in an obscure town, Nazareth?

(3) Why didn't God inspire Jesus to write His own Gospel? As it is, modern scholarship generally agrees that none of our 4 Gospels was written by a disciple or another eyewitness of Jesus life. If Jesus had written His own Gospel, such skepticism would be held in check.

(4) Why did God allow all the Gospels apparently written by eyewitnesses of Jesus long before our canonical Gospels (on this see Luke 1:1-4) to be lost.

(5) Why didn't God inspire Moses to write the story of his life, including the exodus, the Reed Sea Crossing, and the awesome giving of the Ten Commandments? As it is, modern scholars agree that the Pentateuch is based on various sources composed by unknown authors centuries after these events.

(6) Why does God permit so many people to be born with physical conditions (e. g. mental retardation and mental illness) that make it impossible for them to grasp the content and relevance of the Gospel?

(7) Why does God so routinely allow the elderly, including elderly Christians, to lose their cognitive functions due to dementia and Alzheimer's Disease so that they are no longer capable of grasping divine truth and they lose their potential for continuing spiritual growth is aborted.

(8) Why does the Holy Spirit so seldom seem to convict honest seekers of the truth of the Gospel? So many skeptics seem to honestly believe that the idea of a loving God is absurd wishful thinking.

(9) Why hasn't God intervened at strategic moments in history to prevent natural disasters (earthquakes, hurricanes, tidal waves, etc.) that cause a massive number of fatalities to innocent victims? For that matter, why didn't God answer one of the many prayers for Hitler's assassination, so that one of the assassination plots might have succeeded and saved millions of lives?

(10) Why is the divine revelation in Scripture so incomplete, forcing us to speculate about the answers to so many big questions with little help from Scripture? Can God inspire new Christian prophets to expand the canon of Scripture to address more of these questions?




(3) Why didn't God inspire Jesus to write His own Gospel? As it is, modern scholarship agrees that none of our 4 Gospels was written by a disciple or another eyewitness of Jesus life.

(4) Why did God allow all the Gospels apparently written by eyewitnesses of Jesus long before our canonical Gospels (on this see Luke 1:1-4).

(5) Why didn't God inspire Moses to write the story of his life, including the exodus, the Reed Sea Crossing, and the awesome giving of the Ten Commandments? As it is, modern scholars agree that the Pentateuch is based on various sources composed by unknown authors centuries after these events.

(6) Why does God permit so many people to be born with physical conditions (e. g. mental retardation and mental illness) that make it impossible for them to grasp the content and relevance of the Gospel?

(7) Why does God so routinely allow the elderly, including elderly Christians, to lose their cognitive functions due to dementia and Alzheimer's Disease so that they are no longer capable of grasping divine truth and they lose their potential for continuing spiritual growth is aborted.

(8) Why does the Holy Spirit so seldom seem to convict honest seekers of the truth of the Gospel? So many skeptics seem to honestly believe that the idea of a loving God is absurd wishful thinking.

(9) Why hasn't God intervened at strategic moments in history to prevent natural disasters (earthquakes, hurricanes, tidal waves, etc.) that cause a massive number of fatalities to innocent victims?

(10) Why is the divine revelation in Scripture so incomplete, forcing us to speculate about the answers to so many big questions with little help from Scripture? Can God inspire new Christian prophets to expand the canon of Scripture to address more of these questions?


​

You aught to study the Bible. You'll find satisfactory answers to all those questions if you approach it with a heart searching for answers as opposed to a heart seeking to justify its itself. May take you decades.

 

[Deadworm]

Thank you for your responses. I will now share some of my own responses, beginning with (2):

(2) Why did God allow thousands of years of human history to elapse before He chose to incarnate and grow up in an obscure town, Nazareth?

As expected, answers to (2) fallaciously beg the question by pontificating without grounds that Jesus was born at the perfect time. If God was going to wait several centuries of human history to incarnate, why not wait until the era of modern media to create the possibility of quick global exposure? Or better still, why not incarnate several times to adapt His message to new cultures and belief systems? That said, I would offer 3 reasons why Jesus was born at an ideal time:

(1) Prior to the first century, there were biographies of kings and philosophers, but not of revered spiritual figures. The Gospel literary genre is a biography of revered figures, a genre that became a new possibility in the first century AD. The founder of the Essenes lived about 150 BC and therefore we know little about him and even his identity is a matter of speculation. Jesus was born just in time to have biographies written of His life.

(2) Jesus taught that His exorcisms signified that "the kingdom of God has come upon you." But why His and not earlier exorcisms? Well, belief in demonic activity precedes Jesus' time, but there is no ancient near eastern example of an exorcism of an evil spirit prior to Jesus' life. During and immediately after His public ministry exorcisms become commonplace. Jesus was apparently born at the ideal time in part because the nature of God's reign had just changed.

(3) Jesus understood His atoning sacrifice as the sacrifice to end all sacrifices. Within a generation (70 AD), the center of Jewish sacrifice, the Jerusalem Temple, was destroyed and Jewish sacrifices ceased. This destruction helped prepare the mission field for the message that the Temple system of sacrifice had been fulfilled and replaced by Jesus' atoning death, so that the Church could now function as a spiritual temple.

 

[mindlight]

As someone who used to listen to "modern scholars" let me input. All that "evidence" is literally just, we can't 100% prove it so it must be false. Instead of them saying "well most of the early church claims that the gospels were written by the apostles it must be true", they say "well most of the early church claims that the gospels were written by the apostles- it means they were lying". There is a ridiculous amount of bias against the Bible these days. The whole "the OT wasn't written until the Babylonian captivity" is a shaky argument. The Babylonians wiped out Israel and brought the people back for slaves. Its highly doubtful that much "evidence" would have been left behind other than what the Israelites could have taken with them.

The silver scrolls find in a preexilic tomb would be a proof against the Babylonian captivity formation of scripture idea

 

[JoeP222w]

(1) Why does God allow so many people to be born under atheistic Communism or in cultures in which they will never hear about Jesus? Can these people be saved apart from formal expression of faith in Christ? If not, how is that just?

You don't know how God is reaching the lost. Likewise, are you not called to go to the nations to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ?

Romans 9:18-23 So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills. (19) You will say to me then, “Why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?” (20) But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, “Why have you made me like this?” (21) Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use? (22) What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, (23) in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory—

(2) Why did God allow thousands of years of human history to elapse before He chose to incarnate and grow up in an obscure town, Nazareth?

Because it was God's perfect timing. He is not restrained or obliged to man on how and when He should do things. And growing up in Nazareth displayed His fulfillment of prophecy.

(3) Why didn't God inspire Jesus to write His own Gospel? As it is, modern scholarship generally agrees that none of our 4 Gospels was written by a disciple or another eyewitness of Jesus life. If Jesus had written His own Gospel, such skepticism would be held in check.

Jesus, ultimately, wrote the entire Bible, since the Bible is God-breathed scripture. This is the truth and people still reject it.

(5) Why didn't God inspire Moses to write the story of his life, including the exodus, the Reed Sea Crossing, and the awesome giving of the Ten Commandments? As it is, modern scholars agree that the Pentateuch is based on various sources composed by unknown authors centuries after these events.

The Bible is not about Moses, but rather it is about God. And you have a false assertion of these "modern scholars". Agreement does not make truth.

(4) Why did God allow all the Gospels apparently written by eyewitnesses of Jesus long before our canonical Gospels (on this see Luke 1:1-4) to be lost.

No idea what this question is asking.

(6) Why does God permit so many people to be born with physical conditions (e. g. mental retardation and mental illness) that make it impossible for them to grasp the content and relevance of the Gospel?

And how do you know this? Do you know who the elect of God are? Is this what you are claiming?

(7) Why does God so routinely allow the elderly, including elderly Christians, to lose their cognitive functions due to dementia and Alzheimer's Disease so that they are no longer capable of grasping divine truth and they lose their potential for continuing spiritual growth is aborted.

Why do you make yourself God?

(8) Why does the Holy Spirit so seldom seem to convict honest seekers of the truth of the Gospel? So many skeptics seem to honestly believe that the idea of a loving God is absurd wishful thinking.

There are no God seekers (in and of themselves).

Romans 3:10-12 as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; (11) no one understands; no one seeks for God. (12) All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.”

(9) Why hasn't God intervened at strategic moments in history to prevent natural disasters (earthquakes, hurricanes, tidal waves, etc.) that cause a massive number of fatalities to innocent victims? For that matter, why didn't God answer one of the many prayers for Hitler's assassination, so that one of the assassination plots might have succeeded and saved millions of lives?

Why do you think He has not?

(10) Why is the divine revelation in Scripture so incomplete, forcing us to speculate about the answers to so many big questions with little help from Scripture? Can God inspire new Christian prophets to expand the canon of Scripture to address more of these questions?

False assertion on your part without evidence that scripture is "incomplete".

The canon of scripture is closed.

 

[Frozenocean]

The four gospels was written by Disciples, Even if the dead come back to life and tell people about God nobody will believe.
Luke 16:31 “He said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’”

Pretty sure in the gospels it said people rose from the dead and went into the city. Now just me here. But such an event would have caused the Romans to write of such an account. Also the gospels being written by the disciples.....probably not accurate. In Greek is says literal wfw they where fishermen who where 62 [e]
agrammatoi
ἀγράμματοί
unschooled
Adj-NMP
Referring to Peter and John. I’ve been a Christian for a long time. But the more I turn away from what my pastor rams down my throat. The more I’m opened up to the fact. It was a simple time, in a simple region. We have seen this through history. Many religions came and went. Without Constantine we probably wouldn’t have the Bible. Do remember we murdered millions if they wouldn’t covert. Also anyone with negative jabs at me can refrain. If you want a documented argument, with documents to support the Bible from those times. Please feel free. Unfortunately few exist to corroborate the events of the book.