Hard questions, honestly faced

Evil and suffering

Why a good God allows evil, disasters and disease, and what Christians can and cannot say to someone in pain.

• Evil and sufferingWhy does a good God allow evil and suffering?Christianity does not claim a tidy explanation for every evil. It points to the freedom God gave his creatures, and to a God who entered suffering himself on the cross.
• Evil and sufferingWhy does God allow natural disasters, disease, and innocent suffering?The hardest case, because no human choice causes an earthquake. Scripture speaks of a creation groaning under decay, and of a God who weeps with us and will make all things new.
• Evil and sufferingWhy is there so much suffering in childhood?There is no answer that fits on a card, and the Church does not pretend there is. What Christians refuse to say about suffering children, and what they can say.
• Evil and sufferingHow do we know God is good and not just powerful?Power without goodness would be frightening. Christians answer by pointing to Jesus, in whom the all-powerful God shows what he is like.
• Evil and sufferingWhy did God create us if he knew we'd sin?Love that cannot say no is not love. God made free creatures knowing they would fall, and his purpose was always to unite them to himself in Christ.
• Evil and sufferingWhy does God allow the devil to exist?The devil is a fallen creature, not God's equal. He is permitted for a time, kept within limits, and already defeated by the Cross.
• Evil and sufferingWill I see my loved ones again in heaven?For those who are in Christ, the Christian hope is yes. The resurrection is bodily and personal, and the Church keeps praying for the departed by name.

Hell, judgment and salvation

Whether hell is just, what happens to people who never heard of Christ, and whether salvation can be lost.

• Hell, judgment and salvationHow can a loving God send people to hell?Hell is real and, as Christ taught, eternal. It is not God's cruelty but the final refusal of the God who is love, and God desires that no one go there.
• Hell, judgment and salvationWhat about people who never heard of Jesus?God judges every person justly, by the light they were given. Christ is the only Saviour; the Church entrusts those who never heard to God and carries the Gospel to them.
• Hell, judgment and salvationIs Christianity the only true religion? Isn't that arrogant?Christ is the only Saviour, and other religions are not paths to God. The claim rests on who Jesus is and on his Resurrection, not on Christians being better than anyone else.
• Hell, judgment and salvationWhat is original sin, and is it fair?The Orthodox Church teaches that we inherit mortality and a wounded nature from Adam, not his guilt. No infant is born guilty, and Christ heals what Adam broke.
• Hell, judgment and salvationFree will or predestination?Scripture affirms both God's initiative and our real response. The Orthodox answer is synergy: grace always comes first, and our freedom cooperates with it.
• Hell, judgment and salvationCan I lose my salvation?A person can fall away by turning from Christ and refusing repentance; "once saved, always saved" is not the apostolic faith. But God is faithful, and no one who comes back is turned away.
• Hell, judgment and salvationWhat is the unforgivable sin (blasphemy against the Holy Spirit)?It is a hardened, settled refusal of the Holy Spirit, not a passing thought or a word said in anger. If you are afraid you have committed it, that fear is itself a sign you have not.
• Hell, judgment and salvationHow do I deal with shame and guilt?Guilt says "I did wrong"; shame says "I am wrong." Christ answers guilt with forgiveness and shame with the Father's welcome.

Doubt, prayer and God's silence

When God feels far away, prayers seem to go unanswered, or faith itself is shaken.

• Doubt, prayer and God's silenceWhat do I do when God feels silent?Keep showing up. The Psalms and the saints describe long seasons when God felt absent, and those seasons are not a sign that he has left you.
• Doubt, prayer and God's silenceWhy doesn't God answer my prayers?God hears every prayer, but his answer is not always the one we asked for. Christ himself prayed in Gethsemane and gave himself to the Father's will.
• Doubt, prayer and God's silenceWhy pray if God already knows what I need?Prayer is not giving God information. It is communion with him, and Scripture says he truly responds to it.
• Doubt, prayer and God's silenceWhy doesn't God just show himself plainly to everyone?God has shown himself, above all in Jesus Christ. He draws people without overwhelming them, leaving room for love rather than compulsion.
• Doubt, prayer and God's silenceIs doubt a sin?Honest doubt that keeps seeking God is not a sin. Scripture is full of believers who asked hard questions, and God did not turn them away.
• Doubt, prayer and God's silenceDoes God still speak to people today?Yes: chiefly through Scripture, prayer, the Church and conscience, and only rarely in more direct ways. Anything that claims to be his voice is to be tested.

Hard passages in the Bible

Violence, slavery and other texts that trouble careful readers, read honestly and in the light of Christ.

• Hard passages in the BibleWhat about the violence in the Old Testament?Much of the violence in the Old Testament is reported, not approved. The hardest texts are read, as the Church has always read them, in the light of Christ.
• Hard passages in the BibleHow can a good God command the destruction of the Canaanites?Among the hardest texts in Scripture. Read in context, they describe a particular judgment in the war language of their time, not a model for anyone to follow.
• Hard passages in the BibleDoes the Bible endorse slavery?Scripture regulated an institution found throughout the ancient world, while condemning kidnapping and teaching the equal dignity that would later undo slavery.
• Hard passages in the BibleHow does the Bible actually treat women?Women are created in God's image, were the first witnesses of the Resurrection, and are honored in the Church; the hard passages are read in that light.
• Hard passages in the BibleWhy are there four Gospels, and don't they disagree?Four witnesses to one Person, written for different readers. Their differences look like independent testimony, and the core story agrees.
• Hard passages in the BibleHow do I read the Old Testament without giving up?Read it as a library that points to Christ. Start with the main stories, use good help, and don't try to read it cover to cover the first time.

When Christians fail

Hypocrisy, wounds caused by believers, and the darker chapters of Church history, faced without excuses.

• When Christians failWhy are there so many hypocrites in the Church?Hypocrisy is real sin, and Jesus condemned it more sharply than anyone. The failures of Christians do not decide whether Christ is true, and those they have harmed are owed justice.
• When Christians failWhat about the Crusades and the Inquisition?Real sins by real Christians, to be repented of, and also history that is often told inaccurately. The Orthodox East remembers those centuries largely as a time of suffering.
• When Christians failHow do I forgive someone who hurt me deeply?Forgiveness is not pretending it did not happen. It does not cancel justice or require you to trust someone unsafe. It is releasing the debt, often slowly, with Christ's help.

Faith, reason and evidence

Whether faith is blind, whether science has disproved it, and the evidence for God and the Resurrection.

• Faith, reason and evidenceIs faith just believing without evidence?No. In Scripture, faith is trust grounded in good reasons, like the trust you give a reliable witness.
• Faith, reason and evidenceHas science disproved Christianity?No. Science studies the order of creation, and many of its founders were Christians who expected that order because they believed in a rational Creator.
• Faith, reason and evidenceDoes God exist? What evidence is there?Several lines of evidence point to God: the universe's beginning, its order, the moral law and the Resurrection of Jesus. Taken together, they make belief more than reasonable.
• Faith, reason and evidenceDid Jesus really rise from the dead?The best-attested facts about Jesus' death and what followed it are best explained by what the first witnesses proclaimed: he rose.
• Faith, reason and evidenceWhy does God want to be worshiped? Isn't that egotistical?God does not need our praise. Worship sets us right with reality and heals us; to worship the highest Good is to become free.

For the whole case in order, walk The Case for Christianity, a guided path in nine steps.