help from fellow protestants and non-denominationals

[All4Christ]

OK....so I'm not sure where this should go, except maybe apologetics, but I wanted to have the opinion from fellow protestants, reformeds and non-denominationals before I got opinions from others.

Now for the question...

My friend has been talking to me and he's been asking why God created us so that:

a. we have free will which means we have the capacity to sin, which henceforth allows us to sin, not accept God's salvation, and go to hell (which in his opinion is not characteristic of a loving God to send someone who has grown up in another faith and has not had exposure to Christianity, and who has had previous biases towards the other religion)

OR

b.  God didn't create us with free choice, and he created many people and is choosing which ones of them can go to heaven and is sending the rest to Hell (which he also says is not characteristic of Christ.)

This has reduced his faith down to believing that there is a God and a spiritual realm, but nothing else.

How do I answer to something like that?     

Once again....sorry for not posting this in apologetics....but I wanted a specific audience's opinion for this.

 

 

[Reformationist]

Sounds to me like your friend is trying to determine the holiness of the actions of God by the sinfulness of the world around him.  IOW, judging the source (God) by the means, which he (your friend) sees from a very limited perspective.

You must understand that you will never be the cause of someone understanding the sovereignty and holiness of God because you, and I, and everyone else who ever lived can only explain things from this limited perspective.  We should judge our actions and the actions of the world around us in light of our understanding that God is holy in all of His actions.  We should never question His holiness or the holiness of His actions.  Unless your friend understands that all things flow from the holy providence of God then the only way that you can answer his misgivings is to try to share the Gospel in a God-centered way, and pray that God will enlighten him.

God bless

 

[kiwi believer]

some people just love to argue!! Ask your friend what he has to lose by giving his life to Christ and then he can ask all those questions to Him. This has worked for me with friends who have asked the same type of questions. No matter what answer you come up with he will find another and another and another................