Saturday, June 14, 2025

10 tough questions for Christians

This is based on a video interview by Sean McDowell with Doug Groothuis

It deals with 10 prominent, supposedly 'tough' questions that Christians might be asked.

These are the time stamps for the source video with some notes after each.

1-- 0:57 - How can a loving and good God allow so much evil in the world?

The 'evil' in the world; let's call it suffering, tells us what we are like, beneath the veneer of self-righteousness, pride, convenient niceness, and basic selfishness. We can break through these from time to time, usually for short periods, or with an eye to 'duty', but look at the general suffering: Our world, and we can't mange it for universal benefit. Look at the evil that people do, in their simultaneous dignity and corruption: we are people. Evil? It's what people do.

Refer to Luke 13:4: our basic response to evil is to repent. Turn from the world we shape to the world to come and its king, Christ.

Also to Romans 7:14-25.

2-- 5:49 - How can a loving God send someone to hell?

People who repudiate life with God and love their life of alienation from him will not be forced to love God against their will; their will will be 'respected'. The Bible assures us that there is ample reason in the created world to know God. In our fallen vanity we avoid this knowledge. 

3-- 11:18 - Why is God so hidden? 

Only to the obdurate. He has shown himself firstly in the creation, then in Christ, and now, with those, in the church universal and its proclamation of saving hope. 

4-- 15:18 - What about those who have never heard (of God)?

God is just, so all will be dealt with justly. 

5-- 19:12 - If Christianity is true, why is there so much abuse and damage done through the church?

Christ came to save us from who we are, with the gradual transformation this brings; and to help others to see him...also see 1 and 3 above. 

6-- 21:30 - Isn't the cross an example of divine child abuse?

The cross is the culminating demonstration of God saving us. This started in Genesis 22 where, instead of child sacrifice (and Isaac was a 'youth') God provided and guaranteed the sacrifice. The token of God provides, and man cannot 'save' himself. In the Cross, God is the sacrifice. Jesus was God, creator, taken on human flesh and limitation. So, no! 

7-- 25:43 - Is Christianity racist since the Bible was used to promote and justify slavery?

You misunderstand chattel slavery with ancient indentured service one could enter to avoid penury and death.

See Exodus 21:16 and Deut. 24:7. 

8-- 30:38 - Is Christianity homophobic and hateful towards the LGBTQ community?

Leaving aside the tendentious elephant hurling of the terms, Christ came to save we sinners. He hates all sin because it degrades our creational humanity. Any person who turns to Christ is a broken person, but is on the path of recognition of that, seeking its repair in new life aligned with our creational origin. 

9-- 35:05 - Is Christianity at war with science?

Christianity, or rather the world-view of the Bible, framed in Genesis 1-3 shows why science is possible at all. It shows we are in a real world of which we can and are called to make sense. The real enmity is between the dehumanizing doctrines of materialistic naturalism and the various colours of humanism,

10-- 39:00 - Is Christianity sexist?

 No. The church often as been as it apes the corrupt culture of the fallen world, but, Galatians 3:28 sets the scene for being 'in Christ'. 

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