Where is God?

George Frodsham from http://helpwithgod.blogspot.com/ has some questions about the Christian worldview. While many of his questions are built upon misunderstandings, I believe his questions to be genuine and will respond accordingly:

Where is God?

Let me preface this by saying that I am neither an atheist nor a Christian, and the questions and comments are not all originally mine.

I am somewhat confused about religion. I fully admit that I do not know much about it (indeed this is an attempt to find out), but what I do know makes it difficult for me to understand how people can be believers. So I ask one big question – how do you know that you’re right? Here are some questions/problems I have about Christianity:

1. The Bible: many take the bible to be the word of God – most of the religious beliefs and practises are based on it. However, changes (accidental and deliberate) to the bible over the last 2000 years mean that less than half of the words now there are the original ones. So is God changing the bible to fit the times? That’s the only explanation I see, but we have stumbled across a problem. Not only do we have hundreds of different versions of the bible, but we have also become so good at copying it that we don’t make ‘mistakes’ anymore. So how will God modify it?

1. I'm not very certain where Mr. Frodsham is receiving his information, but the assertion that "less than half of the words" in the present Bible are found in the original autographs simply betrays an ignorance of the manuscript tradition and the tenacity of the copyists. For the sake of space, I won't here present an apologetic for the reliability of the Scriptural documents, but will refer Mr. Frodsham to free online works where the issue has been extensively handled.

2. No, God is not changing the Bible to "fit the times." He has preserved his Word from the time it was first spoken.

3. Saying there are "hundreds of different versions of the bible" confuses transmission with translation.

2. Selflessness: from what I understand, one of the most important things about living a Christian life is being ‘good’, and that often means being selfless. So doing things only because you benefit from them is a sin. But why are people ‘good’? To go to heaven. Ask any Christian why they follow God’s word and the answer is so that they can go to heaven. Isn’t this the same thing as saying ‘I’m only good because I get a reward’? Sounds a little bit selfish to me… Those of you thinking that you are not ‘good’ for selfish reasons answer me this: would you still be ‘good’ if doing so sent you to hell?

1. Goodness is to be defined by God's revelation of goodness. We should do good in obedience to God's command and with a desire to bring him glory. It is not necessarily wrong to desire to receive benefit from doing good, as long as the desire is framed by the greater desire to bring glory to God. So it is a simplistic understanding of the issue to say that "doing things only because you benefit from them is a sin."

2. Scripture tells us that no one is good (Romans 3:9-23), and the basis for our salvation is Christ's work, not ours. We are justified by a righteousness that is extra nos--outside of us, imputed to us. If any Christian obeys God's word expecting that his own works can merit him salvation, he lacks a fundamental understanding of the gospel.

3. Consequently, our doing good is a response to the gospel. Thus, we do not do good in order to merit salvation, but we walk in sanctification as an appropriate response to what Christ has already done.

3. Different interpretations: everybody interprets the bible differently. Is this ok? Christians with the same fundamental beliefs live their lives in very different ways. Not all believe that premarital sex is wrong, not all believe that being homosexual is wrong, some think that you should go to church every day etc… So where is the line? Are there some basic beliefs that if you hold, you will go to heaven, as long as you’re ‘good’? Come to that, is it enough to just be ‘good’? Are these the basic beliefs:
a. God exists
b. Jesus was the son of God
c. He saved us
d. We should be nice people
If they are, what was the big deal about the Da Vinci Code? Surely it’s anyone’s right to believe that as much as the bible – the evidence for both is about the same anyway. And they are upholding the basic beliefs.

1. Church history tells us that orthodox Christianity has interpreted Scripture fundamentally the same way for centuries.

2. Often, the issue isn't one of interpreting Scripture, but a lack thereof. Often, people don't want to let the text itself inform them of their doctrine, but rather allow their own traditions to be read into the text.

3. Again, "goodness" is not the criteria for going to heaven. Before Mr. Frodsham can proceed with his questions, he needs to acquire a basic understanding of the gospel.

4. The "big deal" about the Da Vinci Code isn't so much a doctrinal issue, but a factual issue. The Da Vinci Code involves a twisting of history and a deceptive approach to basic facts, resulting from Biblical and historical illiteracy.

4. Lack of miracles: miracles were the evidence that Jesus provided to show he was the son of God. A miracle, by definition, is something occurring that should be impossible (not unlikely). So when was the last miracle? Has one ever happened to you? Was it what made you a believer? A disease being cured doesn’t count – that is merely unlikely, and just as many people have died even though people were praying for them. However, something like an amputee’s leg growing back – that works.

1. A miracle, as Biblically defined, is not "something occurring that should be impossible." That simply begs the question against supernaturalism in favor of naturalism. Rather, a miracle is an extra-ordinary working of the providence of God as a unique means of revelation. Miracles shake us up and blow our minds because they are contrary to what we are used to. What is different about a miracle is not who is acting (God is equally active in both ordinary and extraordinary providence), but how ordinarily the action occurs. There's also the revelatory and redemptive purpose of the miraculous: something about the character and redemption of God is made known.

2. Why does a disease being cured not count? That simply begs the question regarding rules of evidence.

3. In any case the Church has, and even my local church has, experienced the miraculous on the level that Mr. Frodsham is alluding to. Does an eye-less girl instantaneously growing eyes count?

5. Talking to God: many believers say that they believe in God because he talks to them. If someone says that they hear voices telling them what to do, we usually send them to an asylum. How do you know you are different to them? Secondly, why is it that God hasn’t spoken to billions of people, including me? This seems a little unfair considering he is supposed to love all humans equally.

1. God communicates with his people primarily, objectively, and infallibly through Scripture.

2. In believers, in addition, there is the inner working of the Spirit. We wouldn't expect to find this in unbelievers, however, who do not have the Spirit (Romans 8).

3. Saying that God "talks to us," on the other hand, is ultimately subjective. I'm not saying that such a thing isn't real, but that it is non-revelatory (in the technical sense), fallible, and subject to the objective revelation of Scripture.

4. The assumption that God is "supposed to love all humans equally" is an unbiblical assumption.

6. Other religions: if Christianity is the one true religion (and believers of other religions are going to hell), God is again being unfair to the billions of people who are never educated about Christianity, and never have a chance to believe in it. And it works the same the other way around. How many of you have been educated about every different religion and still choose Christianity? If you are brought up as a Muslim, you will be a Muslim. If you are brought up as a Hindu, you will be a Hindu. Or is it that it doesn’t matter which religion you believe in, just that you believe in a higher power? If that is the case, why do we have a bible?

1. "Fairness" is all being justly condemned to hell, and none being saved.

2. Justification is in Christ alone, so the basis of our justification is his work, not ours.

3. Regeneration is a monergistic work of the Spirit, and because salvation is a result of God's elective purpose, it is able to transcend all cultures and backgrounds.

Evan May.