FAQs
Though
the responses below are only brief summaries to frequently asked questions about
Christianity, they contain more information on life's important questions
than many people will be exposed to in a lifetime.
- Why Do I Need Christianity If I'm Already a Nice Person?
- Isn't Christianity a Just a Crutch?
- Aren't All Religions Essentially the Same?
- Isn't Jesus Just One of Many Ways to Heaven?
- Why Has God Landed in This World in Disguise?
- What About Those Who've Never Heard of Jesus?
- Why Be Christian When There Are So Many Hypocrites?
- If God is Real Why Doesn't He Give Me a Miraculous Sign?
- If a God of Justice Exists, Why Does Evil Exist?
1. Why Do I Need Christianity If I'm Already a Nice Person?
The issue is not your niceness compared to someone else's. The real question is: "How much nicer would I be if I let God manage my niceness?" Who's the Director?
Niceness is not your gift to God, but God's gift to you. Paradoxically, when we do not turn to God, we think niceness is our own; when we offer it back to God, then it begins to really be our own. (Tech note: the essence of sin is not primarily a desire for evil things, but the attempt to be independent of God. It cost God nothing to give us niceness, but to free us from self-management cost Him crucifixion.)
We can get caught up thinking God is asking us to prove ourselves before we get to him, but really he is inviting us to experience his love.
2. Isn't Christianity Just a Crutch?
Yes and No.
- Yes: It is a 'crutch' in the sense that we are made to depend on God. Everyone has crutches (whether or not they realize it): money, good looks, career, sex, family life, etc., but by themselves these things ultimately fail. Only the love of God is fully dependable—and that dependence is good! Just as a married person should depend on their spouse, so should we depend on God.
- No: Christianity is not a crutch in the sense of being a way to run from problems. Rather, God makes us face our fears, giving us the strength to reach out to the weak, in spite of danger. He builds courage—a requirement for genuine love.
3. Aren't All Religions Essentially the Same?
G. K. Chesterton says that according to many so-called religion scholars, "Christianity and Buddhism are very much alike, especially Buddhism." In other words, when most people say religions are essentially the same what they really mean is that all religions are essentially Buddhism!
Kreeft: It is simply factually untrue to say that all religions are the same. No one ever makes this claim unless he is abysmally ignorant of what the different religions of the world actually teach... The implicit assumption is that the distinctive teachings of the world's religions are unimportant.
Many people today worship not God, but equality. This confuses the value of having an opinion with the actual value of the opinion.
It may seem more convenient and less controversial to believe all religions are the same, but it is logically impossible for each to have the same amount of truth, any more than conflicting answers on a math quiz are all right.
In no other field of study do we hold that all opinions are equally correct. In physics there is an empirical reality, in history there is one past, in civil law there is a judgment, in mathematics there is an objective number system, etc. It makes no sense to discard a logical prospective of one truth when it comes to theology. Some ideas are closer to the truth than others; likewise some religions are closer.
There are things we can learn from non-Christian religions, but they are always a reflection or derivation of the fullness of love and truth found in Christ—for the God of all humanity wrote himself into "His-story".
4. Isn't Jesus Just One of Many Ways to Heaven?
See the Jewish Carpenter.
5. Why Has God Landed in This World in Disguise?
C.S.Lewis: "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?... He wants to give us the chance of joining His side freely. I do not suppose you and I would have thought much of a Frenchman who waited till the Allies were marching into Germany and then announced he was on our side. God will invade. But I wonder whether people who ask God to interfere openly and directly in our world quite realize what it will be like when He does. When that happens, it is the end of the world. When the author walks on to the stage the play is over. God is going to invade, all right: but what is the good of saying you are on His side then, when you see the whole natural universe melting away like a dream and something else—something it never entered your head to conceive—comes crashing in; something so beautiful to some of us and so terrible to others that none of us will have any choice left? For this time it will be God without disguise; something so overwhelming that it will strike either irresistible love or irresistible horror into every creature. It will be too late then to choose your side. There is no use saying you choose to lie down when it has become impossible to stand up. That will not be the time for choosing: it will be the time when we discover which side we really have chosen, whether we realized it before or not. Now, today, this moment, is our chance to choose the right side. God is holding back to give us that chance. It will not last for ever. We must take it or leave it."
6. What About Those Who've Never Heard of Jesus?
The premise behind this question is usually "how does a person achieve a certain level of acceptance by God if they've never heard of Jesus?" However, that's not the issue. We are already accepted by God, because of the work of Christ. The real question is "What is a person's response to the love of God, relative to what they're given?" The biblical principle "to whom much is given, much is required" means we make it to Heaven depending on our response to the love of God, in whatever measure we are exposed to it—and our ability to respond is made possible only through Christ.
This means people who don't directly know Christ can make it to Heaven (e.g., Abraham, Moses, David, etc.) given they yield to Christ inside them, though they may not be conscious of Christ as their source.
Of course, those who know about Christ will be judged more strictly than those who haven't. So a question naturally follows: If people can get to Heaven without knowing about Jesus, why bother knowing about Jesus?
C. S. Lewis: "If you are worried about the people outside [the body of Christ], the most unreasonable thing you can do is to remain outside yourself. Christians are Christ's body, the organism through which He works. Every addition to that body enables Him to do more. If you want to help those outside you must add your own little cell to the body of Christ who alone can help them. Cutting off a man's finger's would be an odd way of getting him to do more work."
The more Christ is revealed, then the more of God's love is revealed. Besides, if a person rejects Christ, the fullest revelation of God, can that person be said to love God? Our response to Christ is the best measurement of our love for God. If Shakespeare writes himself into the play and Hamlet rejects him, can Hamlet be said to love Shakespeare?
7. Why Be Christian When There Are So Many Hypocrites?
See Christian Vices.
8. If God is Real Why Doesn't He Give Me a Miraculous Sign?
This is the exciting news: God is still doing miracles!
Here are two things we can do to experience more miracles. They relate to changes we must make on the inside and the outside.
- First, we must put our faith in Jesus. Whenever Jesus denied someone a miracle it more often was due to the person's lack of faith in him, rather than simply not being God's will. So it starts with a relationship with Jesus.
- Secondly, miracles occur most frequently where the people are worshipping the Lord in fullness. We have to drink where the river is flowing. In other words, we can't expect as many miracles to occur in private as we can where Christians are gathered. God is present in both places, but a greater reflection of His love and power occurs where his people are worshipping Him.
For more information on how to receive miraculous, regularly-occurring manifestations see the section on Charismatic Gifts.
Here is a message a friend of mine received during worship, regarding miracles.
Many of my people ask and wonder why I do not show myself more powerfully in the earth with signs of power and miracles. Many of you yourselves ask why I do not speak more clearly and personally to you as an individual. I want to tell you now an obstacle to My working more powerfully in the earth and in your lives. I cannot always work freely because I am not fully worshipped and acknowledged as Lord. This takes many forms, but you must see to it that you decisively and continually worship and acknowledge Me as Lord in every way possible and in every area of your life. Try to assume your rightful place of creature and defer to My total Lordship. This deference is not for My benefit as much as it is for you, to acknowledge the truth. Taking any other posture but total submission to Me is a lie.
As the body of Christ you are the rightful heirs of the full power of My Spirit in the peaceful administration of the earth. You must see to it that you submit yourselves more fully to Me. And in that way you rob Satan of his illegal hold on you and all that I have long intended to give you; and is, in fact, yours. Do not be a party to his deceit. I have indeed called you to rule and reign in the Kingdom of My Son. You will not have your own authority as Lucifer has desired, but you will find greater power and authority as you submit more fully to Me.
A means to your submission is to continually remind yourselves of your place by praise and worship of your creator God.
9. If a God of Justice Exists, Why Does Evil Exist?
We can know why evil exists and we can know how God wants us to respond to evil, but we cannot completely know why certain people seem to experience evil more than others.
Before going further, it should be pointed out that:
1. The person who asks this question is often feeling resentment toward God, not just looking for intellectual closure. C. S. Lewis recalls that as an atheist he "did not believe God existed. I was also very angry at him for not existing." Remember that when you talk to such a person, it is more like talking to a divorcee than a skeptical scientist.
2. Some have tried to use this question as an argument against God's existence, but in actuality, the mere asking of the question is itself evidence for God!
C. S. Lewis: My argument [when I was an atheist] against God was that the universe seemed to cruel and unjust. But how had I got this idea of just and unjust? A man does not call a line crooked unless he has some idea of a straight line. What was I comparing this universe with when I called it unjust? If the whole show was bad and senseless from A to Z, so to speak, why did I, who was supposed to be part of the show, find myself in such violent reaction to it? A man feels wet when he falls into water, because man is not a water animal: a fish would not feel wet. Of course I could have given up my idea of justice by saying it was nothing but a private idea of my own. But if I did that, then my argument against God collapsed too—for the argument depended on saying that the world was really unjust, not simply that it did not happen to please my private fancies. Thus in the very act of trying to prove that God did not exist—in other words—that the whole world was senseless—I found I was forced to assume that one part of reality—namely my idea of justice—was full of sense. Consequently atheism turns out to be too simple. If the universe has no meaning, we should never have found out that it has meaning: just as, if there were no light in the universe and therefore no creatures with eyes, we should never know it was dark. Dark would be without meaning.
For a nice write-up on the question, please read Cliff Knechtle's article:
Why Do the Innocent Suffer?
or Dr. Kreeft's terrific audio lecture:
Making Sense Out of Suffering