DEAR GOD, ARE YOU OUT THERE,

Soooooooooooooo many questions, so few answers,  God (a He or a She?)  exists.  Or not.  Of course it is difficult to imagine that our universe created itself.  There must be some sort of Being out there. Faith...........and Reason.       The Bible.    People, groups and various ''churches'' can be very selective in their readings.  They choose to believe in the segments that suit their needs.   Keep reading and searching.      Regards, Robert.

When you start questioning, the house of cards collapses.
Wonderful poem.
🌍

Dear MYSTERIOUS_GIRL (Lizzy_3164),

I'm so glad you are asking these questions! I will try to answer them for you, as well as give you links to more articles you can read.



Your first question concerned why we believe in someone we cannot see, hear, or touch. The fact is, we all believe things that our senses cannot detect. Have you ever actually seen gravity? No, only the effect it has on objects. Have you ever seen a number? No, only its symbol. How about the laws of logic? Just try to say something that makes sense without intuitively using them! How about love or justice or time? Believe in those? We all do.

Why is everything about God a debate? Because it MATTERS. This is why I am glad you asked these questions. When something matters a lot, we debate about it a lot because the truth of it affects us.

Why is there only ONE God, (and also only one way to God?)So, we have this very tolerant "can't we all just get along" kind of thing in the spiritual realm. You can't say, "I believe Christianity is true, and I believe these other things are true as well," because the head of Christianity said, the Son of God said, "I am the only way". That's either true or it's not. So really, in the two ways that people try to deal with God, one of which is to try and do enough to please him so that you can get his favor and go to heaven, which is what all religions do, and the other, which is that God already has done everything we need for us, and we just need to accept it, both of these ways are very exclusive in how they are presented. And if you want to accept it this way, let me tell you, Christianity is the most inclusive exclusivity there is. Because Christianity says, Jesus says, "I am the way, the truth, and the life, and anyone who wants to come may come".And if we believe that, we ought to start acting like we believe it. The idea that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life is not a negative message. It's the most positive message there ever was. Because without him, there is no way. He is the way. Without Jesus, we have no hope. Without him, we are lost, we will never know God. But he came. He condescended to put himself within the limitations of a human body, lived for 30 years in a little place no bigger than a postage stamp on the universal map, and ultimately, one day, went to the cross and hung there while they nailed him to that piece of wood. And because he was God in a body, he bore the penalty for all of us. And he's got the scars to prove that he alone is the way.

The next question was posed in this stanza: How do I know that religion wasn't made just to separate the world, and create a whole disguise
Just to keep us in these chains, while the rich get richer and the poor pray to you, and perpetuate a lie?
Do you really think that's true? That the first person to conceive of religion said to himself, "I need to find a way to divide people, so I'm going to create a fictional conception of supernatural beings that I can tell to some my friends, and a separate version to tell to my other friends, in the hope that they will come to blows as to which of my lies is true"? That's the only theory I can devise that fits the criteria that, "The basis of religion is to divide people." The basis of religion is belief in something that isn't always readily apparent, but is nonetheless, true. That's the nature of belief: if you believe something, you believe it is actually true. There is a commonly-held fallacious view that all people who believe in something other than what you know, "believe" it spuriously, because it makes them feel better, despite it being factually incorrect. In other words, you believe what is true, and they choose to believe what is false, even though they know the truth is something other than what they are choosing to believe. All people believe in the truth. That is, all people believe that what they believe is the truth. Since not all people agree to believe in the same things, not all people agree upon what the truth is.

Next you brought up the idea of pain and evil. While the existence of evil is a serious problem, it is an even more serious problem for atheists because the existence of evil is only further evidence for God’s existence. For atheists evil is a problem because their worldview doesn’t really allow it exist. They don’t believe in God and they certainly do not believe in the devil. As one militant online atheist typed, “I don’t believe in your sky daddy or your hole hobbit.” But without God, the terms “good” and “evil” in the mouth of an atheist are subjective, relative terms, not moral absolutes. For the atheist, there is only personal good, or societal good, or an action that is good for the species; but there is no objective foundation or standard for concepts of good and evil. Norman Geisler wrote, “Atheism cannot rationally offer a definition of evil without appealing to an ultimate standard of good.” C.S. Lewis wrote, “My argument against God was this universe seemed so cruel and unjust. But how had I got this idea of just and unjust? A man does not call a line crooked unless he has some idea of a straight line. What was I comparing this universe with when I called it unjust?”

Why doesn't the Bible make any sense? I'm honestly not sure where you are getting this statement from. If your question is why we can't understand it, here are my thoughts: There are several factors that sometimes make the Bible hard to understand. First, there is a time and culture difference. Depending on what part of the Bible you are studying, there is between 3,400 and 1,900 years between when the Bible was written and us today. The culture in which the Bible was written was very different from most of the cultures that exist today. The actions of nomadic shepherds in 1800 B.C. in the Middle East often do not make much sense to computer programmers in 21st-century America. It is crucially important that, when trying to understand the Bible, we remove the 21st-century “lenses” we have and try to recognize the culture in which the Bible was written. Second, there is the fact that the Bible contains different types of literature. The Bible contains history, law, poetry, songs, wisdom literature, prophecy, personal letters, and apocalyptic literature. Historical literature must be interpreted differently from wisdom literature. Poetry cannot be understood in the same way as apocalyptic writings. A personal letter, while having meaning for us today, may not have the exact application to us as it did to the person(s) to whom it was written. Recognizing the fact that the Bible contains different genres is key in avoiding confusion and misunderstanding. Third, we are all sinners; we all make mistakes (Ecclesiastes 7:20; Romans 3:23; 1 John 1:8). As much as we strive not to read our preconceived biases into the Bible, it is inevitable that we all occasionally do so. Sadly, at some point everyone misinterprets a Scripture due to a presupposed understanding of what a particular Scripture can or cannot mean. When we study the Bible, we must ask God to remove the biases from our minds and help us interpret His Word apart from our presuppositions. This is often a difficult step to take, as admitting presuppositions requires humility and a willingness to admit mistakes.

Why wasn't it good for Eve to eat the apple? There was nothing essentially evil about the tree or the fruit of the tree. It is unlikely that the fruit, in and of itself, gave Adam and Eve any further knowledge. That is, the physical fruit may have contained some vitamin C and some beneficial fiber, but it was not spiritually nutritious. However, the act of disobedience was spiritually deleterious. That sin opened Adam’s and Eve’s eyes to evil. For the first time, they knew what it was to be evil, to feel shame, and to want to hide from God. Their sin of disobeying God brought corruption into their lives and into the world. Eating the fruit, as an act of disobedience against God, was what gave Adam and Eve the knowledge of evil—and the knowledge of their nakedness (Genesis 3:6–7).

Isn't having knowledge a good thing? I think we should define or terms here. When the Bible discusses "knowledge" there are a lot of different greek words translated into knowledge, thus they mean different things.

Why don't the churches want us to know the truth? They do. Again I dont see where you are arriving at this conclusion.

Why were there ancient text banned from the Bible? The Bible is inspired by God, meaning he told the 'authors' what to write. Those other texts were not like that. They may have been cool history books, but are not perfect as they are written by man.

Why is it the only ones that Jesus saves are the ones who blindly follow and obey? Faith in Jesus does not need to be blind. This article sums this up better than I could: https://peacefulscience.org/articles/daniel-ang-a-scientist-looks-at-the-resurrection/

What about those who have never heard of him? What happens to them? Paul tells in Romans 2:13-15 that those who have never heard the Gospel will be judged by the Law God has written on their hearts. That's truly amazing. I'm glad to hear this and it only reminds me of how merciful God truly is, especially to this extent.

After talking more about those so-called 'banned books' you asked some questions about your own life, questioning the reality of God, and other such questions. To answer many of these questions, I would encourage you to read this article: https://www.questioningchristianity.com/resources/blog-post-title-four-yewzt-lzwmg-69gd7

Next, you asked a series of questions, along the lines of: 'Where were you when XYZ happened?' This unsettling sense of abandonment appears to contradict Psalm 46:1, “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.” Why was it that when you most needed his presence he seemed most agonizingly absent? As C.S. Lewis so bluntly asked in the midst of his own grief, “Why is he so present a commander in our time of prosperity and so very absent a help in time of trouble?” My answer to you is that He was on the cross, dying for you, so you do not have to spend eternity separated from Him. Furthermore, i'd encourage you to read this article:https://anglicancompass.com/where-is-god-when-bad-things-happen/



Let me know if you have more questions, I'd be happy to try to answer them, so let me know. Here's a great website / article that can answer some of your questions: https://www.gotquestions.org/why-should-I-become-a-Christian.html Just so you know, the reason I am telling you all of this is because I love you and care about you, but ultimately, I want you to know the Lord's great Love and Mercy. Even though this probably doesn't mean anything to you, I'd also like to let you know that I am praying for you:)

Love, Juliette