Free Will
Why is there war and suffering?
- If you were designing man, how would you make him? Would he be only capable of doing right, but not wrong? No, we can’t do this! Mankind must have free will and be capable of both right and wrong. To have free will to love God and do good, we must also have the capability of evil. This is like a built-in "glitch" because we have free will. We are capable of doing evil.
- The devil out there tempts us with evil. Mr Nasty has ideas of creating his own kingdom, with more subjects than God’s kingdom, so that he will be like God.
- God’s purpose is not what we necessarily think. We don’t have God’s view and what we think is not always true. Truth doesn’t depend on what we think. Example: if you were offered $100 million to walk from Kalgoorlie to Southern Cross, would you do it? (Yes, and we would put up with the pain and hurt now, for the benefit later.) So either:
- God’s purpose is for us to have a good time now, in which case suffering is a mystery, or,
- God’s purpose is for us to have a good time in eternity, and it costs to get there.
Why all the evil in the name of Christianity?
Much evil is done in the name of Christianity by people who were or are not Christians, or who had a warped sense of what Christianity is. (see why is there evil?)
Is witchcraft good for you?
Witchcraft is a religion of demonology. People involved in it often kill themselves or wind up in institutions, bringing more evil and sickness. In contrast, Christians rarely end up suiciding or in institutions.
Why the World Trade Centre Terrorism?
Satan’s fingerprints were all over the terrorism at the World Trade Centre. Satan inspires people to do evil, and we know Satan’s work by its fruits of stealing, killing and destruction (Matt 7:16). More about why is there terrorism.
What about cloning to make a perfect human?
We can do copies, but that is not making a new person. For example, a strand of DNA is like a plan of a house. A little piece of DNA has sufficient information to produce another human. Or, it is like a computer program on a PC. Using a floppy disk (representing the DNA) we can transfer the program to another PC. That is very different from writing a computer program from scratch.
What is our attitude to the earth?
The Bible tells us to "subdue" the earth, which means to look at and look after (administer and manage) the world.
Do people have an inbuilt moral code?
People all over the world have the same ideals and expectations for people in community, for example child care is seen as good, but adultery and murder are recognised as wrong. The "law" or "moral code" is written within us.
If people say there is no God, then there is no moral code, and we would all do whatever we wanted. But there is a code, and we recognise it is there. Australian law is in fact based on the Bible even though this country is not a Christian country. No other law system really works!
Is Justice done?
If every one of us were to be judged rightly, we’d all go to hell. None of us is good enough - in a legal sense we are all guilty. Only if we are forgiven by God do we escape this. Indeed if God were to decide to exterminate all evil, there would be no-one left.
Solzhenitsyn said that if we were to draw a line and put good people on one side and evil on the other, in order to destroy the evil ones, there would be no-one at all left alive, because "the line between good and evil runs through the heart of every person."
Can there be absolute truth? And what is it?
Yes. Absolute truth is reality. What is, is the truth.
Truth in the long run is what always works - something immutable, unchangeable. Truth doesn’t change, otherwise it is not truth. Absolute truth is the absence of error, and is only found in God.
Truth is the standard by which we judge all things. Without a standard, there can be no judgement, and we could do just what we liked.
Why did God tell the Jews to kill everything in Canaan and Jericho?
This was because of evil Baal worship in Canaan and Jericho. However Israel was disobedient and did not stamp out the evil, and idolatry arose in cities that they did not take. So Baal worship at one stage covered all Israel. However when Israel was righteous, it was prosperous and a great example to other nations.