Thinking about God, Jesus and The Big Questions

There are many references in the Bible showing that Jesus will come to Earth again. But this is not a second chance for us. He is not here to teach us and to conquer sin - he already completed that the first time around.  Even though those alive today were not here at the time he came to teach, we have all his teachings available to us! These are written in the Bible. So we have access to all of that. Do not make the mistake of thinking that when he comes again, it will be for another chance. That already happened the first time he came. When he comes next, it will be to gather those who are waiting for him. so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin, but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him. Hebrews 9:28 This is why the end of days has not already happened - God is delaying in order to give us time to decide if we will follow Jesus. Indeed, Jesus himself told his disciples that the end of days would come...

The people of Israel were asking for a king. God gave them the type of leader they wanted, which was King Saul. God warned the people about asking for such a king. The prophet Samuel was communicating to the people and to God: Then all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah, and said to him, “You are old and your sons do not follow in your ways; appoint for us, then, a king to govern us, like other nations.” But the thing displeased Samuel when they said, “Give us a king to govern us.” Samuel prayed to the Lord, and the Lord said to Samuel, “Listen to the voice of the people in all that they say to you; for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them. Just as they have done to me, from the day I brought them up out of Egypt to this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so also they are doing to you.  Samuel 8: 4-8 God warned the Israelites through Samuel that they would soon be in despair under the rule of this kin...

When so many bad things happen in the world, or to ourselves, it seems like these are cancelling out all the good things we are doing. Yet, this is not the right way to look at it - the good news is that we have a lot more hope and joy than it first seems. Even if you literally do something good, and someone literally goes and destroys it before anyone gets to see the good thing you did, your hard work is not wasted. Because God sees it, and ultimately you are answerable to God, not to the people who never got to see your work because it was destroyed.  The good and bad things do not cancel each other out; instead (here on Earth), they coexist. This is actually good news and offers some hope. No-one can take away your good work from you even if they physically destroy it, because God has already seen it, and He is the most important entity in the universe. There is strong Biblical evidence supporting this attitude. Let's take a look at the parable of the weeds among the wheat (Jesu...

The End of Days has been covered in quite a lot of detail in the Bible. It is clear that there will be economic suffering in addition to oppressive leadership . There will also be a lot of physical suffering . I heard what sounded like a voice coming from among the four living creatures, which said, "A kilo of wheat for a day's wages, and three kilos of barley for a day's wages.  But do not damage the olive trees and the vineyards!" Revelation 6:6 The Bible verse above indicates an extremely expensive price for food. Could this occur via a route of climate change and/or ecological disaster? The answer is yes it's possible, but alternative routes are also possible. The Bible spells out the results of the end of days, but not the exact route it will happen. So we cannot know for sure the exact path it will take. As I have mentioned before, the Bible tells us THAT something will happen, but not HOW or WHEN . An illustration of a prophecy coming to pass is durin...

Lately, I found myself wondering exactly what I would say to a close friend if I was to explain what the Christian beliefs are.  It is actually pretty simple to explain. God the Creator God is the creator, and created everything in the universe. He also created Heaven. Heaven is a real place, a place of happiness where there is no sickness and no death. The one thing that can separate us from God There is only one thing that can separate us from God: sin. Sin is when we do bad things. God hates sin (he does not hate us , he hates our sin) and does not want to be around it. This is a problem for us, because we all have a sin nature. Adam and Eve, the first man and woman, fell into the temptation of sin. We all have that same nature, so we all sin, even though we try to be good. None of us are perfect. None of us can meet God's standards. A path for us to be saved While this sounds like quite a hopeless situation, it's not, thanks to God. This is why: God made a way fo...

Some people, often atheists, feel that Christianity and scientific theory are incompatible. Nothing could be further from the truth.  Science teaches us the laws of the planet earth and the universe (e.g. gravity). These laws to Christians, are simply the "default settings" in this world that we live in. They are laws that God put into place, but which He can supersede under special or unusual circumstances (see my previous post about miracles ).  Science as a discipline makes no comment one way or another about religion, and the two are not fundamentally incompatible, except for one specific scientific theory: the multiverse theory. There have been many scientific theories postulated over the years. Of those which are taken at least halfway seriously, there is only one which I feel is completely incompatible with Christianity. This is the multiverse theory. What is the multiverse theory? It's the notion that every time a decision is made, the universe splits into two...

I have written a previous post about how our Earth and universe is actually a relatively small, ephemeral setup that is part of a much larger Universe that God made. In the previous post, I mention the film "The Matrix" (1999) as the analogy . But now in 2016, there is a whole generation growing up that have never seen that movie and won't understand the analogy. Minecraft is a similar analogy.  I'd like to use it to illustrate that our Earth which seems so real and permanent, is not as real or as permanent as Heaven. Note: Minecraft not quite as good of an analogy as "The Matrix", because in The Matrix certain characters come to realize that there is a bigger world out there - which doesn't occur in Minecraft. No-one has yet broken the 4th wall in Minecraft, right?! Still, Minecraft will work fine for our purposes. In Minecraft, you have a character who can dig, build, take care of animals, and so on. Your character may interact with other chara...

If I choose not to believe in God, would that make Him any less real? What if we asked the same about gravity? The important thing is to seek the truth.  All too many people say they are busy seeking the truth, yet are blind to what is under their very eyes.  You won't necessarily find God merely by investigating the physical laws of the universe: this tells you a lot about the universe, but very little about whether there is a Creator.  You could, however, seek God by asking Him if He is there - and then listening.  Surprisingly, many unbelievers have never actually tried the asking, and even fewer of those try the listening. If you are really truly a seeker of the truth, why not try talking to God?  If there is no God then truly you have nothing to lose (except a few minutes in the privacy of your own home or other area).  If there is a God, then you have everything to gain - everything.  You will not lose a thing if there is no God....

One thing I have noticed in my scientific career is that those who have a religion tend not to invoke it during scientific conversations.  In contrast, those who are atheist (or at least who see science and religion as incompatible) tend to mention religion the most often. To me, that is interesting and unexpected. This topic is timely because my husband and I were watching a DVD lecture series by a prominent scientist.  Although incredibly gifted at explaining his own topic, I watched his scholar-ship fall down several times by commenting (negatively) about religion and its role in scientific history.  I was puzzled, because, although I do believe in Christianity, it would never occur to me to mention religion (whether positively or negatively) during a scientific talk.  The reason is not that I would be ashamed to do so, but rather that I take it for granted that as a scientist I am investigating the physical laws of this universe that God made. This universe ...

One thing about which Christians can rejoice is that no-one can strip you of your religion.  Although this fact sounds obvious, there are many people who try to act as though they can forcibly remove religion from people.  The truth of the matter is that they are absolutely powerless to do so.  Unlike for example a jacket or a pair of shoes, no-one can take your beliefs away from you.  Even if a law were to be passed abolishing all religion, you are still free to have your own beliefs.  (You may be persecuted for them, but you can still have those beliefs - no-one can physically locate and grab your beliefs and take them away against your will.)  As an example, suppose a dictator didn't like the notion of, say, gravity, and said that believing in gravity was illegal, as was talking about it to others.  Well, whether or not you talk about it to others, odds are that you will continue to believe in gravity. If someone thinks your religion is a l...

In earlier posts , I referred to the idea that our universe (this Earth and solar system) is a smaller entity nestled within God's wider Universe .  This notion is something that Christians will be familiar with anyway through their faith, although many atheists may be uncomfortable with the concept. Rest assured there are many secular movies and books that deal with a universe-within-a-universe concept, the most familiar of these being the movie The Matrix.  In this movie, there is a specific way to move into and out of the nestled universe from the larger universe.  In The Matrix, someone from the outer universe could move in and out of it via a jack that went into the back of their head, to create an electronic connection with the inner universe, which was an entirely virtual universe.  However, this inner virtual universe was indistinguishable from reality to those within it. This led me to consider the ways in which we move into our inner universe, and out o...

This is the long-promised post on the issue of those who reject the Bible because it isn't "complete" (by their standards).  The Bible isn't meant to be a science textbook The Bible is sufficient to generate faith.  The Bible is not meant to contain all the answers to scientific questions, nor is it meant to be a manual on how the universe works.  It is a guide to God and Jesus.  Just as a music textbook needn't include for instance a section on English literature, neither does a book on God and Jesus have to include sections on music, engineering, science, etc.  However, it is surprising how many atheists expect that the Bible should do all these things!  What would happen if the Bible DID contain 'everything'? Let's consider for a moment what would happen if the bible was very "complete" (by atheist standards).  This would result in a huge and lengthy tome which no-one would ever read! Even with the life expectancy of today, even a B...

We live in a post-Fall existence.  We therefore cannot truly imagine what the Garden of Eden must have looked like before the Fall.  However, it must have been a beautiful, comfortable, and low-maintenance place to live.  There were no weeds or thistles, no poisonous plants.  Tending to the plants and obtaining nutrition from these plants was a straightforward business. Adam and Eve had never seen a weed or an unwanted, undesirable plant in their lives. All the plants there were beautiful and/or useful: The Lord God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground - trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Genesis 2: 9 Unlike Adam and Eve at that point, we on the other hand, are all too familiar with  weeds.  They spring up much faster than the plants we are trying to cultivate, and will choke their growth and spread their seed quickly. ...

A lot of people have no problem accepting the credit themselves for good things happening (or just attributing it to 'good luck'), but the minute something bad happens, they blame God.  This is a bit like having your cake and eating it too.  In fact, some atheists use it as a (flawed) argument for why they don't believe God exists! According to the Bible, Satan also exists.  Wouldn't it be smarter and more accurate to blame Satan for the bad things and credit God for the good things?  Our own free will is also a big part of the equation.  I have free will, therefore I could go out tomorrow and punch someone.  From the point of view of the person being punched, this would be a bad thing.  I would hope that this person would blame me and my choices for doing the punching, instead of God.  A lot of the question of bad things happening comes down to free will.  Yes, God could have created us to be machines incapable of making choices ...

Yes, Satan is very real.  A heavenly creature who rebelled against God, there are many references to Satan throughout the Bible.  In view of this, it is interesting how many people refuse to acknowledge that Satan exists.  It is even more interesting that many people get mad at God when bad things happen , but refuse to consider that a) our own free will or b) Satan may be responsible for those things instead! Then war broke out in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, who fought back with his angels; but the dragon was defeated, and he and his angels were not allowed to stay in heaven any longer. The huge dragon was thrown out - that ancient serpent, named the Devil, or Satan, that deceived the whole world. He was thrown down to earth, and all his angels with him. Revelation 12: 7-9 The good news is that Satan is not omnisicent, nor is he omnipotent, nor is he omnipresent.  While we shouldn't underestimate him (or any enemy for that matter),...

I have noticed that many people feel they are unable to believe in God when they live in a world where bad things happen.  (Here is a link to my other post: If God is Good, Why Do Bad Things Happen? ).  I've already covered the issue of a lot of the bad things there (comes down to us having Free Will and using it badly, e.g. murders, violence, etc).  The bigger issue here is that people are blaming God for the sins of man!   I'm not denying that there are horrific things happening in the world.  Some people have seen and experienced things that no human being ever ought to.  By all means, blame man for the sins of man.... but don't blame God for the sins of man.  The blame doesn't lie there, no matter how much anyone might 'want' it to.  An even bigger issue that I realized after reading the Bible, is that of arrogance and pride if we start blaming God for the sins of man.  Not only does this thought imply we want him to 'take...

God is stronger than anything else in the universe.  Therefore, He is capable of vanquishing Satan.  In that case, why doesn't God just kill Satan to abolish evil and temptation?  As a little girl I used to wonder about this.  After reading the Bible, it became clear how much God values Free Will.  He values it so much he even lets Satan, his enemy, have it ( see my earlier post here about Free Will and why it's important).  Therefore, although God has the power of killing Satan, he chooses not to use it. C.S. Lewis adds a corollary to this observation: he indicates that God chooses not to kill Satan for now.  He writes: "Why is God landing in this enemy-occupied world* in disguise and starting a sort of secret society to undermine the devil? Why is He not landing in force, invading it?  Is it that He is not strong enough?  Well, Christians think He is going to land in force; we do not know when.  But we can guess why He is delaying....

One of the things that is the most consistent throughout the Bible is that we have Free Will. This is not something I had given much thought to previously. The things I found out were: God so valued free will that although He could have made us automatons, he didn't. As an example, He told Adam and Eve not to eat the fruit of a particular tree in the Garden of Eden. He could have 'built us' so that it was impossible for us to go against His wishes, but He didn't. He let us choose, even though in the end Adam and Eve disobeyed His wishes. God also allowed his enemy to have free will. Satan was an angel that disobeyed God. Although God could have destroyed Satan then and there, he allowed him to make his own decisions. This is not to say that God will never intervene (or has never intervened!) - just that God seems to value free will highly. In that case, why is there ever an argument for predestination? I think the main argument for predistination is based on two ...