Believes in God but ran into difficulties *
Q: I grew up in Church & looked into Christianity since middle school and have some questions. I'm not saying I'm questioning the existence of God, I'm fully aware and believe that He is real. I mean, how else do you rationally explain creation 🤔 and I've experienced and witnessed miracles so I firmly believe that He is real, but I have questions about things.
First of all... He's all knowing, right? If he knew man was going to fall into sin, and he doesn't make mistakes... why does the Bible say He regretted creating man? Why did He create us in the first place? He placed the two trees in the garden, Tree of Everlasting Life and the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, so that man could make a choice. Obey Him or don't. But wouldn't He have known that Adam and Eve wouldn't obey?
Second, I know that it was to show the power and miracles that God could do... but if He wanted the Israelites to be freed, why harden Pharaoh's heart even more than it was?
I once, when I was younger, interpreted it as "Oh, he wanted to prove a point". And then the same thing with Job? God wanted to prove a point to Satan, so He let Satan do whatever so long as he didn't kill Job?
And another thing that confuses me... in Ezekiel, it says that "The one who sins is the one who shall die. The child will not share the guilt of the parent, nor will the parent share the guilt of the child. The righteousness of the righteous will be credited to them, and the wickedness of the wicked will be charged against them."
If this is true, why was humanity doomed after the fall of man? As in, why are we born into sin if we shall not bear the sins of our ancestors?
I've also been in prayer about this and prayed for God to reveal things to me when reading the Bible to search for answers, but I'm still not getting it.
With all of thst and this (below) I am questioning how God runs things? I was abused and hurt by a church I attended years ago. They used fear (not the respect kind like how we're supposed to fear God) to covert non believers. My family and I were also held to a higher standard because my mom was the secretary there, but the pastor's grandkids could do whatever they wanted and nobody would bat an eye. They'd get my sister and I into trouble all the time, and his daughter in law was emotionally abusive to some of the kids, my sister and I included, and she was the children's director. So growing up, I asked myself "what kind of God allows a church to act like this? Where's the letter from Paul?" (Jokingly) and one of the major things they would say is "you're not supposed to be asking God questions." And I've just been afraid to ask a friend or even my current pastor about this.
A: Hopefully you are not at that church anymore, but even if you are at a decent church, false converts there will try to dash your faith, or deter you from it. Never worry about asking your Pastor or other mature believers in the faith these or any questions. Pride causes so much problems and is a sin that Satan uses to destroy peoples faith. It is the reason so many who are in "church" deconstruct or basically walk away. For those folk they never investigated Scripture, never took the time to examine it and find answers from Scripture that reveal the answers. They instead start making up ideas of what they think, and that is always where the person falls off the cliff into heresy and apostasy. Instead of hiding, humbly seek out and ask solid mature believers in their church and your pastor. You could even do so by email or ask them by dm.
One thing you do need to make sure though is that besides your own daily reading of Scripture and study of it, you do need to be in Church for learning in Sunday School, and from Sermons. Never neglect the Word and Church [where you can learn more than on your own]. Christianity is not a solo faith, it is a body and a place of discipleship and growth. We are here to help one another.
About These Questions, they are asked both by believers growing and learning, and by unsaved people who can't comprehend spiritual truth [attackers of Christianity and the Bible]...
I have linked to some of them, but we are in modern times with tech era helps that people never had before. Use it.
Today a lot of resources are avail on these and many other FAQ. 1. The Bible; seek and search it as you study it and try to figure out the answer. Never neglect the Scriptures as it is the main place to start and keep looking into it there. 2. GotQuestions.org has solid biblical answers to 740k questions. 3. Sermons. From highly reputable pastors. Example: you can search gty.org for topic and find FAQ answers, commentary, and sermons on the topic.. and the verses in the "Scripture section" tab; under book, chapter and verse. Locations like StudyBible.org app will help with the same thing but by verse (click the verse and resources show up related). Those go into explaining the culture, history, what was going on at that time, if the passage is literal, figurative, how it relates to other Scripture and biblical prophecy and history etc. 4. Q&A sessions both by churches and Christian conferences
Theres about 79 sessions you can look up at gty.org and for many Q&A's there or from conferences [you can just listen thru them during the week and learn a lot along the way, eventually you will find specific answers].
Gty.org search
Gty.org Scripture search
Conferences Q&A playlist
You can also find answers to various questions, conundrums and curiosities as you grow by listening to solid podcasts. Here are a few:
LivingWaters
Wretched
Just Thinking
And a lot of other answers can be found at these playlists
Cold Case Christianity
Answers playlist
You can also search this skeptics FAQ section, and this answers site, this one, and this site too.
Instead of watching some regular tv show or worldly entertainment, you can reprioritize your life and time to grow in the Word and knowledge of truth by listening thru these as well.
On the note of some of what you wrote jokingly theres 2 highly respected pastors said What is wrong with everybody? and What is wrong with you people? Have become solid memes because they point out what the problem is. It is always sin. People who get saved are not perfect, that is what sanctification is about. Growing to be more like Christ (in holiness & righteousness day after day) as we obey Scripture and follow Him.
You also need to grasp reality of Church and who is a believer. It is not 1999 where you can be sure any protestant church you go to is one with a pastor who has a high view of Scripture; upholds it as the authoritative Word of God, and holds to a biblical worldview. Only 37% of pastirs today do. Same with people who call themselves Christian. Research shows only 10% in the local Church are actually saved today, because seeker sensitive agenda infiltrated the Church around 2002 to 2005 and steamrolled thru it to draw unsaved into the church in order to focus on numbers and money (a preacher of the 90s and Rick Warren since 2004 are highly responsible for this heretical agenda) and it ruined the church in general, because our focus, Biblical teaching is that we go into the world, preach and share the gospel, people get saved THEN are added to the church, get discipled and grow in faith. The Church is not for the unsaved. That is why there's all kinds of false teachings in churches and cults are created from false teachings as well. Wolves and goats among the sheep pretending to be saved but are introducing doctrines of demons and people who dont know Scripture get duped by it and believe it. There's far too many pretenders in the church because theyre there on purpose led by Satan and demons to cause problems, or they believed a false Gospel and false teachings because they are not saved, yet religious, and falsely see God as a genie to grant wishes and is ok with all sorts of sins that they list after, desire and live in. Because they have not been born again.
You need to make sure you are saved, or get saved today if you arent. Even demons believe in Jesus and tremble. There is a difference between belief of and belief in. One can believe a god exists and dabble looking into Christianity or even going to church, vs believing IN Jesus having a faith and trust in Him based on Scriptural truth revealing who He is and what he has done, and giving up your life to follow Him. The difference is between loving and living in sin vs loving and living in righteousness.
Obeying the biblical Gospel
Ensuring you are actually saved
Those not saved will not understand Scripture on a right & deeper level because they do not have the indwelling Holy Spirit to give them spiritual eyes to understand it. But those actually saved, will grow as they learn and come to understand the things they are seeking answers for.
Once you are saved you will experience your own miracle; a radical transformation, when you become a new creation - when God causes you to be born again.
This has solid really good helps and resources for new and growing believers. Bookmark it and go through it daily the next few weeks.
God bless
