Frequently Asked Questions
Q: If God
is love, why does He send
people to hell when they do not believe in Christ?
A: People are sent to
hell not because they do not believe in
Christ but for their own sins. Hell was not created for man
but for the devils and his angels: “Depart from me, you who are
cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his
angels.” Matthew 25:41. When man sins, he is not only rejecting God
but also aligning ourselves with the devil and his angels. If we
align ourselves with the devil and his angels through our sins, we
will ultimately share the same eternal fate as theirs, viz., hell.
However, precisely because God is love that He is determined to save
men from the consequence of their alignment with the devil. So God
sent His Son to save us from hell: "For God so loved the world that
he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not
perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16-18
Q:
How can
we be sure that the Bible
is God’s Word and not just a collection of religious writings by
men?
A:
When we
say that the Bible
is “inspired”, we mean more than that it is “inspiring”. Rather, we
are saying that the Author behind the Bible is God Himself, though
He has employed human agencies in the production of it. We compared
that to the Bible analogy of a treasure in an earthen vessel. The
container God uses is imperfect men but the content He imparts is
perfect divine truths. God speaks through the limitations of the
human vessels, but the Holy Spirit enables us to look beyond the
humanity of the containers to the content of divine revelation.
There are some arguments to support the claim that the Bible is no
ordinary human writings:
a) Testimony of Christ: Jesus Himself accepts
Old Testament scripture as God’s word (Matthew 5:18, John 10:35)
b) Internal testimony: Scriptures make the
claim to be God's word
c) Fulfilled prophecies: Of Israel's & world
history before Christ and of Christ Himself; also subsequent history
after New Testament
d) Unity of Scriptures: Despite the many
authors (40+) and time span (1,500 years), the Bible has one central
message: God is love and forgiving and seeking to restore sinners
back to fellowship with Him
e) Ethical superiority: Biblical ethics form
the foundation of civilization
f) Changed lives: Where the Bible has been
read, lives have been transformed
g) Historical reliability: Despite critics’
attempt to relegate Bible stories to mythology, archaeological
discoveries to date have continually attested to the historical
accuracy & reliability of biblical stories.
Scripture references: 2 Timothy 3:16-17
Q:
Why are some Christians
behaving worse than non-Christians?
A: A sensitive
question because we do not
really know the context of what they are saying. Generally, it’s not
appropriate to criticize other Christians whom we do not know
because there are always two sides to a story. It might be good to
generalize this discussion by looking at the issue of stages of
growth and maturity in Christ. We can begin by saying that
Christians are at different levels of growth & maturity; it is not
determined by how long they have been Christians but by how open
they are to the ministry of the Spirit and the Word in transforming
their lives. The greater our surrender to Christ in all areas of our
lives, the deeper the transformation and character change. The Bible
compares character transformation to fruit-bearing (Galatians
5:22-23) and it takes time for fruit to grow.
Scripture references: Galatians 5:16-23; Romans 12:1-2
Q:
What about people who have
never of Christ? Do they go to hell?
A: People do not
go to hell because
they have never heard of Christ; people go to hell because they have
chosen to live their lives apart from God while they are on earth.
Hell is the ultimate consequence and expression of the choice they
have made while on earth to live apart from God, because in Hell, a
person is separated eternally from God. Scripture says that
“it is by grace you have been saved, through faith-and this not from
yourselves. It is the gift of God - not by works, so that no one can
boast.” (Ephesians 2:8-9). That we are saved “by grace…through
faith” is an timeless principle made possible through the atoning
sacrifice of Christ; it is valid for people before Christ’s advent
and even for those who have heard of Christ yet. Though Jesus’ death
on the Cross as a sacrifice for sin was a historical event, its
effect is not limited by time & space. The atoning sacrifice of
Christ opens the way for a sinner to experience the grace of God by
faith: “the righteous will live by faith” (Romans 1:17; Habakkuk
2:4). Jesus Christ is “the Lamb that was slain from the creation of
the world.” (Revelation 13:8). Every human being is declared
righteous by their faith in God’s mercy. And God justifies everyone
who comes to Him by faith on the basis of Christ’s work on the Cross
– whether the person lives before Christ or after Christ. However,
those who comes to faith in God through Christ receives the fullness
of God’s riches according to His grace as revealed in Christ. All
Old Testament saints are saved by grace through faith, even though
they had never heard of Christ: Abraham was declared righteous
because he believed in God.
Scripture reference: Ephesians 2:8-9
Q:
Why are some people not healed
after prayer?
A:
All
spiritual gifts, including healing, are given
by the Spirit freely: “He gives them to each one, just as He
determines.” (1 Corithians 12:11) We cannot pre-determine
how God’s gifts of healing are distributed because healing is
entirely the sovereign work of grace. It’s not a result of saying
the “right prayers” or doing the “right things”. Spiritual gifts are
grace-gifts which by definition are given not according to some
known law but by God’s free will and according to His pre-determined
plan and purpose. We can only pray for the sick and let the Holy
Spirit determine who get healed.
Of course,
there may be hindrances that prevent some people from receiving
God’s healing. Unbelief would be the most obvious hindrance because
faith is required to receive what is freely given by grace. Even
Jesus could not heal many in his own home town because of the
people’s unbelief: “He could not do any miracles there, except lay
His hands on a few sick people and heal them. And He was amazed at
their lack of faith.” (Mark 6:5-6) Unconfessed sins also hinder our
prayers, especially unforgiveness. So, before praying for healing,
we should encourage the sick to confession all known sins: James
5:16 “Therefore confess your sins to each other and
pray for each other so that you may be healed.”
Scripture reference: James 5:13-16
Q: If God is
all-powerful, why did He allow Adam and
Eve to sin? Why didn’t He stop them before they sinned?
A:
The thing that
makes man different from animals is his free will. Animals do what
they do because they have been programmed through instincts to do
whatever they do. They do not make choices like us: with total
freedom. Man was created to love and love by its definition cannot
be compelled — it has to be freely given. Adam and Eve were
created to love God — in absolute freedom. Which implies that they
also had the freedom not to love God. This freedom is exemplified by
the two Trees: Tree of Life and the Tree of Knowledge of Good and
Evil. We do not know for how long the trees stood in the middle of
the Garden untouched. Adam and Eve loved God and freely chose to
ignore the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Eve was deceived
by Satan to doubt God’s goodness and to believe in his lies — that
Eve would be “like god, knowing good and evil”. Eve ate the fruit
from the forbidden Tree and gave it to Adam who ate it too. Why did
not God intervene to stop them from making the bad choice?
God’s sovereign grace is such that He could use even our sins to
glorify Him! No sin caught him by surprise and in His divine wisdom,
He intends to reveal something that even angels gasped for wonders:
the revelation of divine humility and sacrificial love.
Scripture reference:
Isaiah 53:3-6
Q: I
am basically a good person. I don’t do
things to hurt or harm other people. Why do I need Jesus Christ to
die for me?
A: Sin is not
just wrongdoings but the Bible defines sin as
the rejection of God’s rule over our lives: “For although they knew
God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but
their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were
darkened.” (Rom 1:21) It is this basic sin of rejection of God that
leads to the darkening of our hearts. Jesus identify the
source of all our human sins as coming out of the human heart: “For
from within, out of men's hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual
immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit,
lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. All these evils come
from inside and make a man 'unclean.'" (Mark 7:21-23). If we are
honest with ourselves, we can easily identify with most of the sins
Jesus listed as coming from a defiled heart.
Scripture reference: Romans 3:23
Q:
How can a person be saved just by
confessing his sins?
A: Salvation
as a free-gift does not
depend so much on what we do as much as it depends on what Christ
has done on the Cross. At the Cross, Jesus cried out, “It is
finished!” Translated literally, it means “The debts have been fully
paid.” If the debts of our sin are fully paid, then there is
nothing more we could do to pay our debts nor undo the what has been
paid by Christ. Salvation is ours once we confess and receive Jesus
Christ as our Lord & Saviour. It is not our confession that
saves us, but Christ’s finished works. However, in confessing our
sins, we acknowledge we cannot save ourselves and cast ourselves
totally at the mercy of God: “”If we confess our sins, he is
faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from
all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9)." The robber who hanged next
to Jesus on the cross could do nothing to reverse his sins but
simply called on Jesus to remember him. And Jesus’ reply says it
all: “today you will be with me in paradise.” (Luke 23:43).
Q:
Why are there so many religions?
A: Religion is
man’s attempt to deal with the issues of human sin and suffering.
Different religions offer different ways to resolve the issue of sin
and its consequences. Whether it is through prayer, fasting,
penance, self-denial, or good works, all religions teach that we can
attain salvation only through our own righteousness—in other words,
through our own good works. They seek to work their way into heaven.
In contrast, Christianity is the only “religion” that offers
salvation as a free gift, an act of grace by a loving God. However,
while salvation is free for man, it’s not free for God—it costs Him
the death of His own Son. When we come to God through Christ, a
divine exchange takes place: God transfers Jesus’ righteousness into
our account while at the same time transfers our sins into His
account.
Scripture references:
Ephesians 2:8-10; 2 Corinthians 5:20