Apologetics – Criticism of the Bible – Hard Questions in the Bible and about the Bible
Table of Contents
Overview
There are many questions people have when reading through the book of Bible and some are more difficult to answer then others along with many tough questions about the Bible. God created us to be rational thinkers and the question things as they come up for a reason. It is more important to find out why we have these questions then attempt to dismiss them which only ends up in frustration for those asking the questions. Also take time to investigate every question as it will always deepen your faith as God leads you to the answers to the difficult questions in the bible.
Where Did God Come From
or If everything had a beginning what was God’s beginning
One of the hard questions in the Bible comes in regards to the origin of things that exist, many question the beginning of the existence for God.
Answer
This question assumes something that is not true, namely that God had a beginning. God did not have a beginning because He is not a created being. If you are assuming a being that had a beginning you are assuming the wrong God, or rather the wrong ‘type’ of being. Only created beings or objects require a beginning or starting point. God is the creator, and there is no one else like Him (Jer 10.6), besides Him everything else that exists was created by Him (Col 1.16). God is external or exists outside of His creation and is not subject to any limitations that His creation is subject to (Ps 115.3).
Creation requires a creator. Existence requires one to put it into existence. The one that created all things requires nothing else for His existence, however all existence requires Him for its continued existence (Heb 1.3). This is what God was telling Moses when He said that He was the great ‘I Am,’ that He is the self existing one.
Why Does God Allow Evil
or Why did God create beings He knew would fall?
It is often quoted by Atheists either God is all powerful or all good and he can not be both for if He is either unjust which make him not all good, or unable to prevent certain evils which makes Him not omnipotent. This is an attempt to place a limitation on God because of a misunderstanding that humans have from their limited position in the universe. There is an attribute of God that is left out in these statements and that is namely that God is sovereign, meaning in control and over every minute component in the universe. Lets examine the following to understand another of the hard questions in the Bible:
Answer
God is all powerful (Ps 115.3), all good (Ex 34.6) and sovereign (Heb 1.3) over all creation. He is eternal (1 Kings 8.27) and is not limited by anything He created, however He desired to give all His creation a free will to be allowed to choose Him or not (Joshua 24.15). Even though He knew what would transpire for He exists outside of time and has seen everything from the beginning to the end of time (Isa 46.9), the choice to repent or not remains (remained) with us, it was our own personal choice or free will (1 John 1.9).
God does not create evil, for He can do no evil (Job 34.12, Rom 9.14, James 1.13). However God does allow evil to occur for a purpose and He is sovereign over everything good and evil (Isa 45.7, Amos 3.6, Lam 3.38, Jer 18.8, ). God may allow evil to take place in certain circumstances so that a greater good may be the outcome (Rom 8.28), or evil comes as a punishment for unrepentant sins (Jer 18.8), sometimes it is a consequence of the sins of others (Pr 6.16).
Euthyphro Dilemma
or Is something Good because God loves it or is it loved by God because it is good
This is a famous philosophical dilemma described in Plato’s dialogue ‘Euthyphro’ in which he asks “is the pious loved by the gods because it is pious, or is is pious because it is loved by the gods?” a question that has morphed over time into various versions of this type of questions concerning good, morality or virtue(s). Basically asking if something is moral or good because it is chosen to be so by a deity, or is it the deity that has chosen it because it was already good, moral or virtuous. This question has been reshaped by some into another of the hard questions in the Bible.
Answer
This is another misconception that has to be corrected is the idea, that there is a separation between God and goodness, or that God chose good. This question would not apply to a sovereign God who created all things who exists outside His own creation. God created the concept of what we understand to be good. This is to understand that all that is good is of God, for whatever He does is good and good only exists because it is God who makes something good, He created goodness itself, the very concept or aspect.
We do not decided what is good, God does, He is good. Evil is the corruption of good, like cancer is the corruption of a good body, or rust is the corruption of iron. It is not supposed to be there. However goodness loves freedom, and unfortunately that freedom must include the option to oppose it.
The evil that is experienced in this reality is only temporary, as we have no concept of what truly awaits us until we die (1 Corin 2.9). Everything in this world is just a shadow of things to come (Col 2.17).
Can God Create an Object so Heavy Even He Can Not Move it
This is another of the difficult questions that some use in attempt to undermine the attributes of God. Some ask this question without having the proper starting point discussed in the previous point, that God exists outside the limitations of His own creation.
Answer
God is the creator and He is omnipotent. Omnipotent means that He can do anything, there is nothing that He can not do (Ps 115.3). The problem with the question is that it is a bad question. A bad question just means it presumes something that is not logical. An example of something illogical is like asking what sound blue makes, or what green tastes like. These are illogical because they attempt to bring together two completely different subjects with different metrics that are not cohesive.
Anything God creates will be a created thing, and He who exists outside His own creation will be able to move it. If there was to be something that exists that is immovable by God, by definition it would be God for it would exist outside creation and it would also be an infinite all powerful being, therefore it would literally be God. God therefore would be the immovable object that He can not move. It is like multiplying infinity x infinity, it would already be the same thing.
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