QUESTIONS SERIES: If it’s all God’s will then why do wars, crime, illness, etc. happen?
God doesn’t cause evil or evil things. Ultimately, evil comes from one of two sources: 1) the free will choices of people can cause evil; 2) the free will choice of the spiritually fallen angels and Satan himself (Eph.6:10-12).
So all is not God’s direct will. The willingness of God to create human beings as free creatures means that we are responsible for our choices. God knows what we will do but he doesn’t interfere with our freedom to choose good or even evil.
QUESTIONS SERIES: Why does God allow suffering?
(FROM A PRIOR POST – see the FAITH ON TRIAL Blogs in the category – Believe?) Here’s a sample post:
To deal with suffering and disappointments, we need God’s perspective on life.
What does all of this mean for me?
It’s not disappointments that hold us back. It’s the perception of the disappointments. It’s not necessarily the pain that holds us back. It’s how we feel about the pain. Even though we’re all going to face difficulties, God is there right beside us helping to rejoice and experience inner joy in the midst of the junk.
Pain will happen but we don’t have to wallow in misery. You can’t side-step pain but you can miss out on God’s perspective of suffering, pain or disappointments – even in the midst of pain and disappointment.
QUESTIONS SERIES: What do you say to someone who has lost a loved how is a non-believer?
First of all, I would say that no one truly knows a person’s spiritual state before God. There have been many stories of people who have not bothered with God all of their lives. Then, during their final moments on this planet, they asked Christ to save them. Just as Jesus saved one of the thieves on the cross beside him hours before his death, he can do the same for someone who truly repents and asks Christ to save them – even just before they leave this life. So, we just don’t know each person’s spiritual condition.
QUESTIONS SERIES: What is the most important thing for a new believer to do?
Perhaps the best thing for a new believer to do is to engage right away in what we call – The Spiritual Life Process. All too often, people begin a new relationship with God – and then drift and never fully engage in their new Christian life.
The Spiritual Life Process is a biblical approach to help new Christians begin to live life the way God intended. It’s spiritually mature Christians passing on life with God to others.
It starts off with KNOWING. Knowing is the starting place where new believers begin to learn the basic teachings of the Bible and start to build a spiritual foundation. This is crucial since there is a lot of confusing information out there about the Bible. In this step, a new believer learns to read, interpret and apply the Bible for themselves.
The next part of the process is LIVING OUT. Once a new believer is grounded in the basic teachings of the Bible, they learn to live out Christ in them wherever they go: with family, at work, with friends, with neighbors, etc.
Next, is CULTIVATING your spiritual life with God on a daily basis. A new believe stays close with God and others by engaging in spiritual practices such as prayer, Bible reading and study, worship, silence and solitude, serving, fellowship, etc.
The fourth step in the process is EXPERIENCING. As a new believer engages in KNOWING, LIVING OUT and CULTIVATING, the result will be that he or she will experience what is known in Scripture as the “fruit of the Spirit” in their lives on a daily basis – love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith, gentleness and self-control. Perhaps nothing matches living life with God and experiencing the fruit of the Spirit.
Finally, the process would not be complete if we stopped here. The Bible tells that we need to be involved in PASSING ON the life that God has given us to others (Matthew 28:19-20; 2 Timothy 2:2; Romans 10:14-17).
As a new believer enters into this process, they will truly begin to live life the way God intended.
QUESTIONS SERIES: If it’s all God’s will, do we have any control over our lives?
This question touches on a spiritual area that is often misunderstood. Do we have the ability to make free will choices? Or, is God completely in control of everything – to the point where we don’t have free will? The premise may stated as – either God predetermines all or he is not in control. What does the Bible say about this?
The Bible tells us that God gave human beings the power to make some choices – such as moral choices and also some spiritual choices. For instance, John 1:12 says, But to all who did receive Him, He gave them the right to be children of God, to those who believe in His name.
The word receive connotes a spiritual choice that we make to receive God’s offer of life with Christ. Receiving God’s offer of salvation to humankind is a choice. We can accept it or reject it.
We’re not free to make any spiritual choice that we want. For instance, we’re not free to choose to become God or even divine. He is the creator and we’re created beings.
Some have said that if we’re really free to make some moral and spiritual choices, then that’s contrary to God’s grace. But God’s grace is never forced on us (Eph 2:8-9). His grace works persuasively in our lives – but God never forces himself on us.
Furthermore, the Bible tells us that God knows omnisciently what each person will do (1 Peter 1:2 “according to his foreknowledge”; Romans 8:29). But that foreknowledge that God has doesn’t interfere with the free choices that he allows us to make.
A good example may be as follows:
The Washington Redskins and Dallas Cowboys are playing a game. But, you’re busy and you can’t watch it live so you taped it on TiVO. You know the outcome of the game – who won and what happened.
Now, you’re watching the taped game. You already knew the details about the big play of the game – a 50 yeard touchdown by Clinton Portis. But you watch it happen again on the TiVO taped broadcast of the game. On this play, you see Clinton Portis gets the ball and he goes right tackle for the 50 yard touchdown.
Here’s the thing. You knew what he was going to do … where he was going to run – but, as you watched that tape — Clinton Portis still had the freedom to choose to go right tackle or left tackle. He chose to go right. Your foreknowledge of what he would choose to do didn’t interfere with him to make that choice. It’s the same thing with God. He knows what our choices will be – he’s already seen the tape of complete time — from eternity past to eternity future – but that foreknowledge doesn’t interfere with our freedom to choose.
There are some times when God will intervene in human affairs and control things in a way that he wants. But, that still doesn’t negate his basic free gift of choice that he gives us.
