Which of these questions/statements gets Christians the most upset?

Question

1) If god created EVERYTHING then he is responsible for both good and evil. If you believe that there is a devil then god also created him.

2) If you believe humans are responisible for their sins because they have free will, then you can't also believe in biblical prophecy. (For example the Old Testament 'predicting' the arrival of Jesus). Free will and determinism can not coexist.

3) Are US soldiers going to hell for killing people?

4) The bible contains the following - unicorns, dragons, giants and a talking donkey.

5) Why would god reward the human race with eternal life for killing his son?

6) If god loves human beings then why does he let the innocent suffer terrible fates? Is he selective about who he loves?

7) How does the execution and resurrection of an innocent man (Jesus) translate into everyone being set free from sin?

Answer 1

Well, at the risk of casting pearls before swine, here goes:

Which of these questions/statements gets Christians the most upset? None, but I digress...

1) If god created EVERYTHING then he is responsible for both good and evil. If you believe that there is a devil then god also created him. Right. Very good.

2) If you believe humans are responisible for their sins because they have free will, then you can't also believe in biblical prophecy. (For example the Old Testament 'predicting' the arrival of Jesus). Free will and determinism can not coexist.
Nonsense. God the Father is an extradimensional being. He does not experience history in linear fashion, on the time line, if you will. He sees all of history as a panorama. Though He is the creator of all, and could control anything and all things at will, by an act of His own restraint, He has basically set Himself over control of Himself as Father, Son & Holy Spirit. The actions of humanity He has left to humanity. The incarnation of His Son is to Him a singular event, whose timing and execution were under His control. Knowing the end from the beginning in this fashion, He is more than capable of injection knowledge He has from his view outside of time to relate events yet to come and even the actions of humans who will be exercising their free will. He has already seen it in action because of His unique perspective and can tell what He has seen, beginning to end, while we experience it constrained by time and the physical universe. That's the best I can do on short notice.

3) Are US soldiers going to hell for killing people? Not necessarily. If they go to hell it will be for the rejection of the gift of redemption in the person of Jesus Christ. Killing in any form has its own consequences which will have to be dealt with on an individual basis between the soldier and God.

4) The bible contains the following - unicorns, dragons, giants and a talking donkey. Cool, huh? I admit I don't remember the unicorn, and I honestly don't know how to explain giants. Most of these references, IIRC, come from the first 11 chapters of Genesis, which are likely an allegorical compression of the early stages of human history as passed on orally and not to be taken completely literally except to illustrate the nature of man as separated from God and in need of His redemption.

5) Why would god reward the human race with eternal life for killing his son? He didn't. Jesus Christ sacrificed Himself willingly in fulfillment of the Jewish Law requiring a yearly sacrifice for the atonement of sin. But because Jesus is an eternal being, only one sacrifice for all time was needed as it completed the atonement for all time, past, present and future. They killed Jesus out of their own denial of their hellbound estate. Spiritually, we all killed Him because we made His sacrifice necessary by our own fallen estate. It is not a reward for killing, rather a gift of love in spite of our murderous actions.

6) If god loves human beings then why does he let the innocent suffer terrible fates? Is he selective about who he loves? See #2. Free will has everything to do with the state of the world. All people die, and most suffer at one time or another, to one extent or another. Suffering and death is part of human existence, brought on and exacerbated by man's sinful estate. He loves all people and greatly desires their love in return.

7) How does the execution and resurrection of an innocent man (Jesus) translate into everyone being set free from sin? In a way this is the same question as #5, so I'll refer you there.

I doubt you actually sought these answers. I also expect that even were God to come down from His heaven and give you these answers (or better ones, of course!) Himself, still you would not be satisfied. Well, good fortune to you, and may His love yet find you willing.

Answer 2

None of those things would be all that upsetting to most Christians, because a lot of them are misinformed. One of the things that Christians are taught is that people don't all understand and I would be more than happy to set you straight on some of the things that seem to confuse you.

1. I think that evil is the absence of good. And yeah, God created evil. He gave us utopia but Adam and Eve basically lost it - so he gave us what we wanted (knowledge) instead of a perfect place with no evil.

2. This is tough to explain but the best way I've ever heard is this - think of a piece of string. You can see the string from where you are, the whole string. But if you were standing on the string, you can only see a tiny way in front of you. God sees us and time like the string. We can't have the same perspective because he sees the entire thing at once and we only see our tiny little spot on it. He just knows what we are going to do, rather than make us do something. Also, Christians can believe in psychics so...just because you know something doesn't mean you decided it.

3. Who can say? I can only do what I think is right in order to get to Heaven but no one can say what will or will not prevent me from getting there. Maybe it is their intention that matters - they intend to make the world a safer place, which is good - so they wouldn't end up in hell at all.

4. The bible was also written by man. Not God. And man writes some messed up stuff because let's face it, we're not perfect.

5. God meant to sacrifice his only son. He loves us that much. Otherwise He never would have send Jesus to us in the first place. God's son was also a part of Him - it's not the same thing as if you had a son.

6. God put suffering here for a reason. I can't pretend to know what His reason is. Maybe he allows bad things to happen so that afterwards people can band together and more good will come of it. Maybe he allows things like hunger and poverty to happen so that the earth doesn't get even more crowded. We'll never know. I guess we as Christians can only hope that when we die, He'll let us in on His reasoning.

7. He didn't set us free from sin - we still have it. He died so that we can sin in life and still get into Heaven.

I suggest that if you want more in depth answers you should talk to a pastor or someong else. It's easy for anyone to twist words and beliefs around so that they sound bad or silly. It takes a much smarter person to actually understand what people with different beliefs are trying to say.

Answer 3

None of the questions or statements get Christians upset. Why should they get upset anyway.

Most of yr questions/statements are valid and may not even have an answer.

1) Simply, yes God created everything. Is it his responsibility for evil? Yes but its our choice.

2) Whats the probability of free will of different men writing all the prediction in the Old Testament about Jesus's coming and sacrifice? In a project team, the team members have free will but actions directed by project manager. Even if one of the member under his own free will decides to do something different, would the project manager take action and get someone else to do his job?

3) Only God can be a judge of this.

4) Yes and a beautiful thing with lots of eyes!

5) God loves us that he sacrificed his son so that we have eternal life.

6) If you love yr child you would discipline him as much as you can so that when they grow up they are right and just. God allows bad things to happen for our discipline. How do you know whether or not these innocent people were just taken by God and put into heaven? It seems like a terrible fate here to our eyes only. God loves all.

7) http://www.greatcom.org/laws/english/flash/

Answer 4

While somewhat twisted all but the first have some degree of correctness, and even it may be imputed to God.

1) While He did not create evil per se, He DID create beings with free will and for that will to be truly free there MUST be the choice for doing evil. The alternative to evil is NO FREE WILL, ie puppetdom for all sapient beings. Now why would God waste His time on sapient beings if all they were were puppets dancing on His strings? That's not a God, that's an ***.

2) And of course you can believe in prophecy AND free will. All you have to remember is that God is omniscient. Knowing all, however does NOT equate to controlling all.

3) If they enjoy killing for its own sake, then they run the same risk as any other cold-blooded murderer. Being a soldier doesn't negate that , OR confirm it.

4) Yes, it does. Doesn't make 'em real; just proves that the authors were no more knowledgeable about their world than any others of their times.

5) It's not a reward. It's the return of a gift, lost through the Fall (however that came about).

6) Again, you're looking at it through the wrong perspective, as if this life were the be-all and end-all of existence. God's focus is on eternal life with Him.

7) Only God is big enough to forgive. Only man is in need of that forgiveness. Therefore the one who earns that forgiveness has to be a man. And the one who gives it has to be a God. Bingo! Enter Jesus, true God and true man. In sacrificing Himself, Jesus both earns forgivesness as a man for ALL men and grants forgiveness through His sacrifice as God.

Hope this helped.

You might want to study St. Augustine and St. John of the Cross for better explications.

Answer 5

1) God created the devil, yes. However, as an angel Satan decided on his own to become bad, not God.
2) God chose one couple out of billions to bear His child. He waited for a worthy God loving couple. They knew of the prediction.
3) No, it states "Thou shalt not murder." That is the original word used in the Ten Commandments. Murder is for no reason other than being selfish. We are allowed to have war for the sake of good.
4) What is your point? Everyday some species goes extinct.
5) He loves us more than we can imagine and He was Jesus. HE came in human form and showed us how much He loved us by going through all of the pain for us.
6) He loves us all. If you think that He is suppose to come down and place His wrath on all of those who upset and defy Him than you would have some real problems right now. Also, what happens to us goes back to free will.
7) Again God was Jesus. He came down and showed us that He loved us so much that He didn't want us to all go to Hell. HE was willing to make a new pact with us since it is so hard for humans to stay away from sin. The only way we will go to hell now is if we deny Him completely.
Does that just about answer all of you questions?
I hope that you learned something today.

Answer 6

I think that to ask a question "which of these questions/statements gets Christians the most upset" Would first be an incorrect statement, because every Christian has there own mind, they are not controlled and they are not forced to do anything, so in other words Someone may get upset at a different question than another person.



To answer your question I think I get upset at all of them, they all make Christians and GOD sound mean which he is not.


The one statement If God loves all human beings then why does he let the innocent suffer terrible fates? Is he selective about who he loves? That question is like saying why is God so mean(correct me if I'm wrong) But it says in the Bible that God only puts you through what he knows you can handle,
So in other words God knows that you can handle something,


Like for example a friend of mine died a couple of years ago,(she was completly innocent, nice, and even through her pain and suffering she praised God - she still suffered) I used to ask how God could let her be taken away and let her die, but than I realized that if God didn't take her to be with him(in heaven) She would have suffered for the rest of her life, because of her arthritis. She was only 13 and I never understood it untill just a couple of months ago.

I hope that answers your question
If not Im sorry.

Answer 7

Too many questions to answer all at once. Don't you have a job?

As for "2", how do you know that "free will" and determinism cannot co-exist? That sounds like a dogmatic statement of belief.

If God is literally "timeless", that is outside of time, then he can see the past, the present, and the future all at once. When God "prophesies" about the future, he is simply interjecting information into the past about an even that he already "sees" taking place (the event is in the "future" from the viewpoint of the prophet, but not from the view point of God).

Didn't Albert Einstein teach you that time was relative? I take it that you slept through physics.

---edit---

As for "1", yes God created evil. But the Bible teaches that God has a GOOD reason for allowing evil to exist. The devil has a BAD reason for wanting evil to exist. So the devil is morally condemned (for his selfish motives) but God is innocent (because he has good motives behind his actions).

As for "4" where is the "unicorn" in the Bible?

NOW quit wasting time on the Internet and go do something productive with your time today! ;-)

Answer 8

1) God Did create everything. But He created them with the free will to sin or not to sin. He created the devil but when he created the devil he was an angel called Lucifer. he decided that he wanted to be more powerful than God.
2)God does give us free will but he is All knowing and knows what decisions we will make before we make them.
3)No the only reason someone will go to hell is if they reject Jesus Christ as their personal savior.
4)Yes the Bible does contain them but it is not in the same context as you are trying to put them in todays standards. (IE dragon- could be the kamodo dragon.)
5)God had a choice of letting them kill his son or not. He could of stopped it if he wanted to but he knew it had to be done in order for us to have everlasting life.
6)No God lets everything happen for a reason maybe you don't see it but it is there.
7)It isn't the execution that translates into being set free. It is the blood shed from Jesus Christ that washes away our sin.

Also none of these questions made me mad it is just someone who wants to know the truth. Have a great day and God bless.

Answer 9

Hello, this is Fr. john forbus. I read your question and am intrigued. I guess the reason why Christians would be upset with these questions is because most do not know how to answer them fully. Another reason is that each question requires a great amount of teaching and understanding of Christian terms, language, and thought.
It has been my experience that as angry as Christians are with these questions, all the more angrier is the one who asks. Why? Because once these questions are answered the inquisitor does not have the patience to read the whole answer. Also, they do not have patience with their own ignorance because they refuse to understand the language and faith of Christianity and its necessity. Too often the inquisitor is too quick to dismiss the answers as "fantasy" or "superstitious nonsense." THEY DO NOT WANT to understand the grandness of truth and how it can be expressed and understood in a variety of methods (e.g.) Myth, fact, poetry, history, etc. etc., which are all in the Bible. They would much rather cast it into the one category of "fable" and not truly study or think beyond the sensate level of existence. They are also afraid to even think of the possibility, "what if all that Christians believe in is true and does answer my questions?"
I would say that Christians get upset with these questions for another reason, the one who asks usually doesn't want answers to them. They use the questions with the hope and intent of insulting or being a source of pain to the Christian. The source of pain is not the questions, but that the inquisitor is going to refuse any answer given no matter what. Even if the Christian were to answer these questions without quoting the Bible once (the preferred method of some who visit this site), deep inside the Christian knows the person is still going to refuse to accept the answers no matter how convincing. And that is why Christians get upset. Not because of the questions, but because of the inquisitor's hardness of heart. And if not because of their hardness of heart, but their indifference (which is worse), a Christian can find these questions upsetting. It is frustrating being asked about our faith and confidently and joyfully offering to help, but guessing (correctly most of the time) that the inquisitor doesn't really care.
I am willing to answer these questions for you, but are you willing to accept the teachings and answers given? Do you have the patience for that? Are you sincere or just cluttering up the website? Make a decision and let me know. I certainly have the patience to teach. My e-mail address is [e-mail].
May the Lord bless and keep you. May the Lord shine the light of His face upon you.
God's and your beast of burden
Fr. john

Answer 10

Call your local pastor and he would be happy to answer these questions for you. People always ask these questions never really wanting an educated answer. They really just want to try and destroy a christian's faith. If you wanted to know the answer to a question about congenital heart failure or something of the like you wouldn't just put a post on the internet. You would ask a medical doctor or cardiologist, i.e. a professional. So if you really are interested in finding out these answers then call a christian church in your area and schedule some time to talk with the pastor about these questions.