Hi Patty! Whatever you do, just have faith!
Chantell

Patty, I appreciate your insights on how to respond to those who pose difficult faith-based questions. And, as someone who came to faith early, I've discovered that the older I become--and the longer I've been a Christian--the more complex and mysterious God's ways appear. Pat answers and formulaic approaches don't always salve the soul, nor satisfy the probing mind. Honesty always is the best approach, even if it means admitting you don't have all the answers.

Patty,
I really appreciate your article. I have some well-intentioned friends that unknowingly make people feel very judged or bad about themselves whenever they raise questions or struggle with why God allows certain things to happen. I think you really hit the root of why our nature is to defend or dismiss these questions and I like your suggested approach to responding.

Patty - THANK YOU for the thoughts in this blog - ALL of them. I love the action plan and guidelines, but I really appreciate the permission to question and encourage others to question. I know my questions and discussions are a feeble attempt on my part to understand God and what He wants for me to do for Him. Thanks!

I always pray for the Holy Spirit to be with me when I am being asked questions about my faith. But I also ask for the spirit of discernment because as Christians, we have to recognize when someone is asking a legitimate question with genuine interest or when they are just trying to suck us into a silly debate just to see how we will react. When someone asked me about Jesus's brother and sisters as it is stated in the Bible I was blessed with the ability to give them an honest answer. But when a friend of mine, who is an atheist asked me "If we are made in God's imagine then what would be your explaination if little green mean from Mars landed on Earth?" I had to re-evaluate his motive such a question and give to pause and thought to how I might answer.

Patty,
Thank you for putting into words some of my thoughts and feelings. As a late bloomer in the faith myself I often question things sometimes I think I should not.
I have been passionate in study for the past 3 years and have learned a lot but some things are brushed so very lightly. I have been drawn to look into studies that show believers they need to be aware for themselves the words and meanings of the Bible. Not just to repeat something they have heard without knowing fact from fiction. I have been told that this is a great thing for our church and very necessary, it is amazing how many people do not know the words of the Bible. Others are expecting me to lead the study and though I am active in the church I am worried I still do not know enough or am not equipted enough to be a leader. I also know it is not easy to find somone to lead a lot of these kind of studies.
I believe-Lord help my unbelief...

Patty
I found your article refreshing. I came to faith just 3 years ago at the age of 47. When I struggle with the deeper issues I am usually brushed off with 'its one of God's mysteries'. This is extremely frustrating, surely there must be some answers. As a consequence I stopped asking, only to withdraw into the silent world of personal study. So thank you.

Certainlhy God can and does handle all our questions, however, people cannot and don't.

I have been a growing Christian for forty odd years and I have more questions of now than at any other time. I look to God for the answers because the longer I live, the more I've come to understand that man's answers are guesses at best. I have read hundreds of books and spent thousands of dollars on education, only to realize that God's word is all that I really want and need for a victorious life. I have found many authors to be inspiring, yet they fall so short of the real thing that we have when we go to God with our questions about His word.

In fact, I believe that many Christian books that get circulated around make up a lot of the "mans' tradition" that Christ warns us about because it keeps us from hearing fresh words of life from Him.

I have serious questons right now that I am grappling with God about, and I agree with you. We give up too easily in our instant world.

I'm not so sure that God is going to satisfy us when we go to Him in pride, however. He has already told us that He resists the proud. And pride is working when I think that I might know something that God doesn't know or would handle somehting differently than He. I am not questioning God's motives or behavior, rather I am asking God questions because I want to understand how the kingdom of God works, and because my greates desire is to experience intimacy with Him and to hold His word supreme in my life.

The story of Noah makes me Praise God that He sent Jesus! Sin must be punished. And my sins were punished-on Christ Jesus! This is from Andrew Wommack's Living Commentary.
Genesis 6:1
Before the Lord relates the story of His judgment on the earth, He gives a brief description of the corruption of man. He didn't have to do that. He wanted us to know that this was not an arbitrary action but an act of justice on those who were destroyed and mercy on the human race yet to come. If the Lord hadn't destroyed these wicked people, there wouldn't have been a virgin left on the earth through whom He could have fulfilled His plan of sending His Son.
—Andrew Wommack's Living Commentary

Thank you, Patty, for writing this. It's a relief to hear that someone else struggles with questions no human seems to be able to answer.

The violent God answer was given to me a few years ago during a bible study. May not be the best but it did shed some light.
The bible study discussed the fact that based on the laws at that time and the custom of the people, they lived according to their level of understanding of our God. So God communicated with them based on that understanding. Based on our understanding we see God's actions as violent but I am not sure just how those living in that time saw it.

I think of a situation where a child is less than perfect based on our standards, but knowing that the God we serve is good and loving and kind, we only see the imperfection of the child rather than seeing that the child is in fact perfect as we too are perfectly imperfect because our God is a God of perfection who does not make mistakes.

Georgia

Thanks for the tips on answering questions but I can SO relate to the question. I work in Uganda as a missionary. After visiting genocide memorials in Rwanda where bodies have been preserved so that you can see what was done to them, I have visions of those poor mutilated bodies when I read those same passages. I don't know how to reconcile the God I know with the God who would tell His people to wipe out entire races. So, when young Americans come and ask me the same question, all I can say is that I question myself and make the choice to believe.

Thank you for this article. I also struggle with this issue and have felt much the same. Thanks for your honesty!

Patty,

Thank you so much for writing this article. I often am the one presenting the questions that make people squirm and I find it very frustrating to receive a pat answer.

I always felt that a good teacher wanted his or her students to ask the hard questions and not just swallow the information; to encourage the search for more information and gain of knowledge.

I have to believe that God wants us to ask hard questions that make us uncomfortable and squirm so that we'll search His book for answers and draw closer to Him. Otherwise, what is the point? We would just be walking around like robots, never questioning just taking commands. Where's the "free will" in that?

Please keep writing the blogs that make us question ourselves and where we are in our own walk of faith. And, if, by some good grace God sees fit to bless you with the answer to your question on the genocide, please share.

Regards,
Tracy

First of all, I don't have a problem with God destroying the inhabitants of earth with the flood but I DO have one with not letting Moses enter the promised land. That's one of MY issues.

I also don't see people answering a question with "We'll have to wait and ask God" or "He has his reasons." as sidestepping anything. He DOES have his reasons and we CAN'T know them all.

You said - "These believers are really saying, “I don’t want to talk about this, and you shouldn’t either.†I don't agree. They either simply recognize that they don't have the answers or they accept that some things aren't for us TO understand. But perhaps it's easier for those of us who were 'born and raised' Christians (not a putdown to those who were not) to accept these things more readily. It's been part of our upbringing.

great article and great reminders, thank you!

I have committed to preaching through the Old Testement, so I've been living in Genesis for several months and share your angst - and questions. It has been a challenge to remain faithful to the text, not to allegorize or spiritualize the tough bits, but to preach it with integrity and with relevance. But - oh- the rewards of the struggle are wonderful!

Hi Patti,
I just came across your article on being questioned on matters of faith. I struggle a lot and I am one of those people who ask the hard questions of God and sometimes others who I believe are not afraid to hear me out. I don't want pat answers either. I want to know that the God I wrestle with is big enough to handle the hard questions from a hurt heart. It isn't often I come across an article like yours but your honesty is as refreshing as the air after a thunderstorm.

From the heart of a struggler,
Thank You

I so appreciate these thoughts and ideas, as a Christian who has questions that I'm sometimes very hesitant to ask. Much of my struggles center around prayer, and how it "works", and I haven't found very many venues in which I have been comfortable asking these questions. May we all strive to be better listeners, less defensive, and more real with those around us who are searching.

Becky (and anyone else out there who struggles with prayer),
I just wanted to mention that I have struggled since becoming a believer with the whole problem of prayer--what it is, whether it should be a certain way, whether what others say about their prayer habits should influence me in any way, whether what I do can really be called prayer, and, if not, whether it matters. It's funny, too, because it seems to me that prayer was the one thing I got as a child believer. Talking to God and sensing his listening, speaking presence just came naturally. Since returning to faith as an adult, though, I feel like my habits of prayer are somehow inadequate--especially when I hear about how others pray. I frequently walk in on my husband on his knees in our closet (literally), and I have a friend who has daily devotions with tea every morning and sets out a cup for God. My prayers seem so minimal, by contrast. So incidental. I suffer from prayer envy, I think. Anyway, I don't know if any of these are your particular struggles when it comes to prayer, but I just wanted to say there are probably not a few people out there who wonder (or worry) about prayer, too. So, thanks for your comment. Maybe I'll try to write about prayer in a future blog.
patty

Hi Patty, it is refreshing to see someone who is using the grey matter the way God programmed it into us and intended for us, to employ the dynamics of the minds ability to gather knowledge and process it and store it for future reference , and it never ceases to amaze me how the majority of mainstream Christianity have elected to bypass the processing stage of the mind and simply believe all that is spoken to them from the pulpits and from books etc.
You know I once listened to a talk by Rene norbergen an elderly minister who spoke about his experiences with interviewing psycics and satanists ,and how he used a polygraph to test their answers, and the outcome was really amazing with regard to their bodies response when speaking against the truth ,and he pointed out mainly that the body goes into trauma when we lie and that is even if we are convinced beyond doubt of that lie ,it triggers off a host of chemical and physiological reactions like the voice box quavering ,and the palms and fingers releasing perspiration etc, and what I got out of it personally is that we cannot really lie against the truth because we are made in the image of God and we are of His spirit of truth, peace , lovingkindness, mercy ,tenderness and all of the other traits which Jesus put on display for us, so as to teach us the Fathers character so their would be no guess work to do , however the human race seems to be hell bent upon believing what men tell them rather than what God teaches, and it has been this way from the beginning of earths history ,which brings me to ask the question which seemed to pose a huge problem to my attempts to percieve the big picture of the truth of Gods character as it is in Jesus Christ, and that is this ,if mankind chose to reject Jesus in the garden as thier creator God , in favour of following satans directions, then wouldnt that make them subservient to satan and not to God, as the old testement tries to portray , ? wouldnt that make them antiChrist, and not indeed "The Holly people of God " as they so often proclaimed, ? .
This pattern was the same in heaven with the onset of rebellion from the beginning of sin the holy angels chose satan as their leader and walked willingly with him out of heaven ,and away from the presence of God , this in my mind classified them as antiChrist from that moment on .
I admire your courage for stepping out of the comfort zone of traditional biblical thinking, and assure you that this is the way Jesus prompted us to follow, as it was his purpose to shake the foundations of historical false teachings amd misrepresentations of His fathers character , and one instance which comes to mind of His rebuke to the learned men of scripture was ,that they searched the scriptures intensly because they thought that the knowledge of scripture was their ticket to heaven but in reality their ticket was standing right in front of them and the knowledge of His existance and arival on earth His doctrine of peace and mission was all recorded in their scriptures but the reason why they missed being able to recognise Him was because of the misinformation and false accounts recorded of Him throughout their historical records .
Could it be that those blinded men of His time were much the same as the blinded people of our time, in that we have been persuaded to break the first commandment and worship a book in place of The peacefull lovingkind God whom the book was ment to portray correctly, and would have been, had those historians who were responsible ,been perfect vessels and chanells of comunication from God to man.
God and His true image which is without taint or spot (sin) as it was revealed to us in His Son Jesus Christ , has been grossly misrepresented throughout history and has caused Him great grieff and sorrow with the way in which we have treated eachother in such a sadistic and disgracefull manner.
Could it be that the greatest part of Jesus mission was, to retrain our minds to reject all forms of violence and satanic thinking and to accept only peacefull solutions and love inspired ways to deal with eachother ?.
I , like you , have studied the bible with an open mind, and have logically, and forensically ,analysed the content, measuring everything up against the perfect example of Christ, and with the knowledge that He is the same yesterday today and forever and that he changes not , and with that said , I have to conclude that the information of old which was written on the character of God, was a very feeble and cofused perception of God , as the theme was based upon violence and arbitarary punishments for sins etc, and it is well known that jesus initial rescue response was to stand in our place and protect us and save us from harm and death , this is His character and he doesnt waver and wobble all over the place changing His mind every now and then when things get on top of Him and he blows a fuse etc, this is man trying to bring God down to his base level of thinking ,when the truth is that God has allways tried to elevate violent man up and out of that mindset into His perfecrt realm of opeace and lovingkindness .
All that can be easily discerned when we take all of our too hard basket questions to Jesus and allow him to show us and to see the truth for ourselves by how He acted and reacted in every situation and we can scrutinise His ways and directions ,and at the end of the day if we are truly Christians and following in His footsteps then we will be doing what humanity neglected to do from the start ,and that is,
TO TRUST IN HIM WHO IS THE ONLY ONE WHO IS WORTHY OF TRUST.
this seems to be the hardest lesson for Christians who bear His name, but are reluctant to take His advise and wisdom to its logical conclusion, and He summed it up when He warned us to beware of the traditions of men .
Colossians 2:8 Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.
I am sure those elisist powermen and warmongers of His time killed Him because of His teachings of peace and lovingkindness, as this was diametrically opposed to their traditional teachings that God had in the past directed and commisioned the wholesale slaughter of entire nations ,the destruction of cities and the enslavement and sexual abuse of virgin girls to mention but a few , and in my mind it is the blend of good and evil and the promotion of it as being all good ,which is the masterpeice of deception, which proceeds directly from the master of deception and evil, satan himself , because at the end of the day he had to have a very clever way to get good people to commit the most heinious crimes against their fellow man and be able to sllep at night and what better way than to inspire men to believe that God was a blend of good and evil peace and war , love and hate a grudge bearing avenging God and a forgiving mercifull God all in the one package .
It is also very interesting to note that the traditional Jews of today do not recognise the new testement as part of divinely inspired scripture and it is a fact that they do not believe that the Jesus of the new testement was indeed the Son of God ,but merely an imposter , so my question is why do we hear so often the lie preached from the pulpits ,that the old and new testements harmonise perfectly and go hand in hand together , if this were so, wouldnt one think that the tradionally proclaimed" Holly people of God " should be the best authority on this subject .??????????????????????????.
I am not convinced that God is a mystery and we cant, and shouldnt try to know Him ,as this is not founded on sound biblical wisdom for a start ,it is written that you shall know the truth and the truth will set you free .
John 8:32 And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.
and there is nothing covered that will not be revealed.
Matthew 10:26 Fear them not therefore: for there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; and hid, that shall not be known.
We are to know Him intimately as it is also written that it is eternally vital to know Him .
John 17:3 And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.
Eph:3:14 For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
15 Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named,
16 That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man;
17 That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love,
18 May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height;
19 And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.
This is a very big subject and no doubt in my mind, the one which will surpass all other subjects and will be discussed the most in these last days as it is vitally important that we know the God which we serve because it is the image of that character which we apply to our lives will be reproduced in our own lives, and if we continue to percieve God as a ying and yang God , one who has a blend of good and evil traits , then that is exactly how our characters will be turned out as the end product, and once again I cannot compell you enough of the importance of the desperate need to use the golden rule which god has given us for truth and it is found in this wisdom : Isiah 8:20 To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.
To the law (the moral principles of the commandments) and the testimony (Jesus testifies of His Fathers law whe He lived it perfectly in his life ) if they speak not according to this word , it is because there is no light in them (truth )
We as faithfull servants of God are compelled by his spirit to dig for gems of truth through the rubble of mistruth and find the non violent teachings of Christ from the bible and measure everything with those to see if they stand the acid test of His character ,we would do well to mimagine Christ as the final filter in our spiritual fuel sysyem and if we pour all that we gather into that Christ filter we can be sure that what comes out is fit for our consumption ,this is the safety check for us and is the formular for the healing of the nations .
We all know well, that even the apostles who had spent so much time with Jesus ,walking and talking with Him and learning from Him His Fathers wisdom ,hearing His sermonds on peace and lovingkindness and forgiveness ,still ,reverted to their traditional violent and destructive mentality when they sugested to Jesus that they send down fire to destroy those people who were not of their fold , to which Jesus rebuked them by saying that they did not know of which spirit they were of .
Luke 9:53 And they did not receive him, because his face was as though he would go to Jerusalem.
54 And when his disciples James and John saw this, they said, Lord, wilt thou that we command fire to come down from heaven, and consume them, even as Elias did?
55 But he turned, and rebuked them, and said, (Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of).
Jesus was telling His disciples that they were of an evil mindset to even think to to harm to or destroy their fellowman ,and just as His frustration would have been great at that time so has it been throughout history with His people thinking the same way and following that mentality to its physical and violent conclusion all in the name of God .
I have studied this subject intensly along with a small group of independant and open minded thinking people who are not swayed by popular opinion , and we have put a book together called "The assasination of Gods character" and it can be downloaded and read by following this link at this site ( Theme of the bible )http://www.themeofthebible.com/
Also you can check into this site where some very intense discussions on the subject of " Does God destroy" ? ,who brought the flood God or man ? , the sacrificial system , pagan in origin ? and circumcision , plus a few more controversial topics which were adressed . you may find them interesting , and helpfull in your search for truth and you may see the big picture a little more clearly , this is the link :http://www.restorationministry.com/
God be with you in your search for truth as it is in Christ Jesus.

Im4Christ

What a fantastic article! I live in NYC and people ask these "tough" questions frequently. I feel that the church is really being challenged today by the sophisticated, intellectual, and "modern way thinkers/reasoners." I'm currently reading a book that deals with questions on doubts and skepticism. It's by Tim Keller, who is a pastor in NYC at a church called Redeemer. It's a wonderful book. Here's the link incase anyone is interested: http://thereasonforgod.com/
God Bless,
Bella

Great Article! I live in NYC and people ask these tough questions frequently. Here is a wonderful book/website that will help with skepticism and doubt. http://thereasonforgod.com/

Bella

My mother died when I was 37...this event ushered in flashbacks, nightmares, early memories, as if Pandora's box had opened. I could not remain the same woman after this two-year battle. I wanted to scream "don't give me those pat answers, they don't work anymore." (the problem was this questioning was all going on inside my mind.) I would attend SS classes, and think, "doesn't anyone else have doubts--am I the only one." The strong faith I thought I possessed would no longer work for me. Oh, but God...

It was around this time, I came across a book by an author who wrote the following about Trust/faith: "Most assume that trust is quiet, serene, selfless dependence on God. Though there is an element of truth to that view of trust, more often than not such serene faith is a byproduct of wanting very little from God. It is frighteningly easy to appear trusting when in fact one is simply dead (in denial of the wounds, hunger, or struggle of the heart.)"

He goes on to say, " Genuine trust involves allowing another to matter and have an impact in our lives...many who hate and do battle with God trust Him more deeply than those whose complacent faith permits an abstract and motionless stance before Him." (This was the old me) "Those who trust God most are those whose faith permits them to risk wrestling with Him over the deepest questions of life. Good hearts are captured in a divine wrestling match; fearful, doubting hearts stay clear of the mat.....His Spirit pursues us to the ends of the earth...'why won't He just leve me alone?' But He won't leave us alone--for our sake."
Thank you God! You have saved me from myself. I know, now, you wanted me to have a "LIVING FAITH." And I have never been the same!:)

Thank you for this article and for bringing to the forefront what I believe to be a satanic tactic designed to keep people from believing in God’s love for them.

One can hardly read the Old Testament without at some point asking, “How could a loving God do such a thing?†From our human perspective it is often difficult to reconcile the God of the Old Testament with the God of the New Testament. I believe this is due to the fact that as humans our thoughts tend toward the temporal rather than the eternal. Whether we voice our questions or not until we can resolve them in our own hearts it is difficult to really trust God. Unfortunately our questions are, as you pointed out in your article, often simply swept under the rug when we do ask them. Worse yet, we often feel a sense of guilt for even having the questions. How dare we question God’s motives?! Honestly I believe the squelching of legitimate questions is a satanic ploy to keep us from really being able to trust God. After all, whether we want to admit it or not, if the question “How could a loving God do such a thing†lingers in our hearts and minds there will always be a seed of doubt in our hearts about whether or not God really is a loving God. I strongly believe that one reason our questions solicit the reactions they do from others is because they have the same questions and don’t want to face them.

That said I pray that I can shed some light on the question of “How can a loving God do that?â€. I will concentrate on the question of the flood, but the same premise applies to all the Old Testament situations that elicit the question, though the details do vary.

For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord.

For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts

Isaiah 55:8-9

Let’s consider what would have happened had God NOT brought the flood. In Noah’s day the population of the earth was much smaller than it is today. The ENTIRE population of the earth, except Noah and his family had turned away from God. “And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.†(Genesis 6:5) It is hard for us to imagine a world in which EVERYONE was bent on doing evil, but just consider the moral decline in the US over the past 50 years. How easily the line between right and wrong became blurred. How God has been kicked out of our schools and public life. And when people, claiming to be followers of God, can vote for people who openly advocate things contrary to the bible, like gay marriage, abortion, etc. because their pocketbooks mean more to them than God’s moral standards, how can we expect those who do not claim to be followers of God to follow the moral standard set forth by him? Few would disagree that the moral standards of this country have declined severely in a mere 50 years, despite the great number of people in this country who claim to be Christians. Given that, how difficult should it be to believe that with a relatively small world population, all living in the same general area, given several hundred years of moral decline, that indeed the entire world population could become wicked? But still, why destroy them all?

From the moment that God gave Adam dominion over the earth he committed himself to working on earth through mankind. When Adam and Eve fell into sin in the Garden of Eden, Satan became the prince of this world. Man, who was created to have eternal life, was now under the reign of sin and death. But God had a plan! He would send his Son to redeem his creation. But for his plan of salvation to happen, because God had given dominion on earth to man and would not go back on his word, God needed to work through people who would willingly work with him to bring his plan of salvation to pass. But there’s a problem. Everyone, except Noah, had turned away from God and become corrupted. What would have happened had God not sent the flood when he did? The corruption would have continued. Eventually Noah would have died and somewhere along the generations his offspring would probably have succumb to the moral decline themselves or perhaps simply been killed off by those around them. Then there would have been no man for God to work through because all had turned away from God! Mankind would not be redeemed! God sent the flood because he loved his creation too much to let his plan for redemption be thwarted by Satan’s influence on mankind.

The flood was not the reaction of a judgmental, hateful God seeking vengeance against his own creation, but of a loving caring God who wanted to redeem mankind! Even the very people who had become so corrupted with sin that he sent the flood! This is once again where seeing things from an eternal perspective rather than a temporal perspective comes in. On the temporal level it may seem a cruel thing to kill all these people. But from an eternal perspective we can see it differently. Ultimately God took their lives in the flood so that their souls could be saved from an eternity in hell and they could have the eternal life God designed them to have before sin came into the world. For we read in 1 Peter 3:19-20 how Christ preached salvation to them and to all who died and were imprisoned in Hades before Christ came, that they too might believe and have eternal life.

I pray that this will give you a new perspective on the question “How could a loving God do that?†And help you answer the question whenever it arises.

God bless you!
Patty C.