Expert: Dr. Ronald E. Shultz - 5/5/2009

Question
Miles, I've been thinking about religion a lot lately, and I'm just not
convinced, though I want to be.  I was raised in a polytheistic nature religion
by my mother, a monotheist religion by my father and now I consider myself
to be a practically an atheist. I look at the world and the histories of it's
people, and I observe the many horrors and permanent wounds that religion
has left upon them, but despite my repulsion, I see no other way to be
content in my life without without any answers.  I am afraid to live my life
under the assumption that human understanding is incapable of
comprehending any of the reason for it's own existence.  I cannot accept that
the human race is doomed to a relatively short life in an infinite landscape of
time without any ultimate consequence or meaning. And yet also I cannot
accept the word of an ancient book, translated over and over again and subjugated to the will of political and social forces in the past.  If it is the
word of God, why are there so many interpretations of his word?  What can I
really believe about a Supreme and Infinite Being, and what his intentions are
with regard to his ignorant creations, if these creations are even capable of
knowing the will of an unknowable creator and designer?  I would like your
most honest answer, and as far removed from scripture and outside sources
as possible. Please let your answer come from your natural logic, but also
from your heart.
Thanks,
Carmen

Answer
Carmen and Miles, the Bible has been attacked over and over again for centuries but always withstands the attack.  That ancient book reads like today's newspaper in its descriptions of mankind's character and current events and states scientific facts many years in advance of scientific discovery.  

Mankind was not created for a finite amount of time. We were and are created for eternity and we shall inhabit eternity in one of two places, Heaven or Hell.  Sin created the parentheses in eternity called time and the life span that shrank from hundreds of years after the Flood to an average of 70-80.  We are devolving not evolving.  

There is far more evidence for creation and other things that the bible speaks about than evolution or other imaginations that are contrary to it and God.  The old song says, "there are none so blind as he who will not see."  Indeed, evolution is what condemns us to a finite time though it be longer, as in the end the universe will be cold and lifeless according to that theory thus making life even more vain.  If I were a true atheist and evolutionist I would strive to find a virus that would only affect humans and wipe us off the earth to spare humans the suffering we have experienced and the horrible end they predict.  Why strive for anything if all we know will be wiped out with nowhere to run as the ultimate end of the universe is death?

Christianity does predict the end of the end of the world as we currently know it but also describes a new world without the pain, suffering and death of this one.  As your inner soul is telling you that makes more sense than you being here for a short time.  Your soul knows it is eternal hence all your and mankind's questions about its source and end.  Thus you are right that it is incomprehensible that we are only here for a short time.  Yet, if we are meant for more then why are we not appearing to achieve it and how can we know what that more is?

How can you know the will and desire of your parents, lover/spouse, children, friends, government, etc?  They have to tell you.  It is the same way with God.  Even Aristotle said that unless God came in the form of man we could never understand Him.  

Thus we do come back to the Bible, which claims to be and is easily defended as the Word of God to man.  The mere fact that it and the Jews still survive are good proofs of God's existence and involvement in that book.

Those who will not see are why there are so many interpretations and why so many cannot understand or accept it as the Word of God. You called man ignorant creations, but that is not correct.  Man was created with an intelligence to accomodate him throughout eternity.  Why do you think man only uses 10% of his brain? That is probably all he needs for 70-80 years.  Had death not entered into the world we might be using 12% since Adam would only be about 6,000 years old with still a lot of eternity to go.  Besides we see so many things that the ancient societies accomplished that we cannot do with modern equipment.  The closer to Creation that they were the smarter they were.  We see a loss of information both culturally and genetically not accumulation of information as evolution needs.

Huxley once said that there are only two possibilities for life, creation or evolution.  He admitted that there were many holes in the theory of evolution but considered creation too preposterous to consider.  That sounds more like faith than science and your mother's faith is just evolution unmasked as the faith it really is rather than science falsely so-called. A true scientist that believed there were only two possibilities and could not find sufficent evidence for the one hypothesis would avidly seek evidence for the other not toss it to the curb out of hand.

The Bible clearly states that a person not a believer in God or Christ cannot understand the Bible.  This is not too hard to imagine.  I tell the lads in prison that if I read some of their letters I might understand people and place names and even commonly shared activities BUT their would be many things that I would not grasp totally, if at all, because the letter was written to them and not me.  If the writer asked if some act or place was remembered I might have to say no even if it was a common place that I had visited because I was not there at that time they were talking about nor did I participate in that kiss or contest or whatever was going on.  I could have general knowledge but no specific or the intimate knowledge of the recipient of the letter because it was not written to me.

All that an unbeliever needs to know and understand about the Bible is that he/she was created by God, sin has separated them from God and that sin will make theirlfe difficult here and Hell hereafter unless they repent and trust in Christ for their salvation.  The Bible gives sufficent proof of those claims but not complete microscopic proof because God wants trust or faith in what He says.  As a person walks in the initial faith, God will give more light and proof but trust first then sight not sight then faith.  It's His universe and He can ask for what He wants but don't we all want trust and love?  Hmm, that may be part of that God-image thing the Bible talks about in Genesis.

Once a believer the Bible is a letter from home and the Holy Spirit helps us to understand the family, the house rules, our roles, our benefits of obedience and the consequences of disobedience.  

So why so many denominations and interpretations.  To be honest, many are not saved who use the name Christian and thus they are interpreting the Word by the flesh, not bythe Spirit and come up with wrong conclusions.  Some groups are counterfeits created by the enemy to confuse people and send them to Hell.  Other issues came about as you said because of political and social situations.

Let's look briefly at one doctrine, baptism.  The word in the Greek means to dip or immerse. If you said the ship was sunk the word you would use would be baptizo.  The ship was dipped or immersed in the sea.  So why do we have pouring and sprinkling?  There was a time when if you held to baptism being immersed and only for those who understood what they were doing it could cost your life by burning at the stake or by drowning in a dunking chair.  Hard for a church to grow if most of their new converts ended up drowned.  Hence, in an effort to be obedient to the command to be baptized, some chose pouring or sprinkling because you could do it inside without a big tub that would be used as evidence against you.  

While I understand their motivation that deviation from the true interpretation has caused the type of problems that you are experiencing with your faith.  There is only one true interpretation.  Their disobedience to that truth, while from a human viewpoint completely understandable, has led to other errors and a means to hinder others coming to faith and maybe sent more people to Hell than the process saved lives. This should not have caused people to not believe in God or Christ but it is one of many convenient excuses for people.

Some groups can't figure out where the OT ended and the NT started so they mix the two covenants and come up with false doctrine because they have the wrong foundation for interpetation.  Others want to be religious but don't want a lot of things standing in the way of their will so they rewrite the Bible to their image rather than allowing the Bible to conform them to God's image. One little girl reciting the 10 Commandments said thou shalt not admit adultery and many are looking for that version to come to press.  If you want to be rich or famous you come up with some fad or gimmick or twist and market it.  Tell people what they want to hear and you can rise to the top of the heap but not in God's realm.

The Bible throughout encourages people to ask, seek, inquire. You do not have to assassinate your brain to believe but you must also be willing to let God be God and trust Him when you don't have all the answers in a test tube or legal brief.  

I suggest you get a King James Version and read Genesis and then read through John at least three times slowly asking God to give you wisdom.  Be willing to believe and He will help you. If you come to him honestly seeking He will respond.  Many who have tried to disprove Him came to faith in their efforts.  

Hebrews 11:1-6.  There is even science there as he says "so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear."
KJV He is speaking of God but while we cannot see God we can now see the building blocks He used that were unseen centuries ago.  Yet, though we can now see further into space than ever before and microscopes send us further the other way, so to speak, we may yet find that there are seven more levels both micro and macroscopic then we now know. All the complexities we know points to a Creator, not chance.

As I state in my bio, I am not a gifted apologist or evangelist but more a polemicist, who points out false teaching to believers, but I do what I can. I have listed a couple of links that can help you if you need some scientific evidences to overcome some of your doubts. If you can see the proof of the first book and see the headlines in the last book of the Bible you should not have much trouble placing your faith in the rest of it.  Study it for yourself as when you stand before God he will know what other men say but he will ask you "whom did you say that I am and what did you learn from my Word?"

Blessings to you in your journey to faith.  May God grant you grace and mercy to find the peace you need in Him.

http://www.answersingenesis.org/

http://www.icr.org

http://www.apologetics.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=326:10-a...