#STRask

What Is the Difference Between Believing and Knowing?

Questions about the difference between believing and knowing from a biblical perspective, why it’s considered bad manners to ask for testable, repeatable evidence for the existence of gods, and why Christians don’t prove God exists by asking him to change carbon dioxide into hydrogen.

 

• How would you understand the difference between believing and knowing from a biblically informed Christian perspective, with knowing from a secular perspective being that which one can see, smell, touch, or demonstrate empirically?
• Why is it considered very bad manners to ask for testable, repeatable, consistent evidence that gods and goddesses do exist?
• What prayer can anyone say over a small amount of baking soda so that when vinegar is poured onto it, the bubbles test positive for hydrogen instead of carbon dioxide, thereby giving evidence that the supernatural being to whom the prayer is offered does exist?

What Is Your Best Answer When Asked to Prove God Exists?

Questions about our best answer when an atheist asks us to prove God exists, how God can be merciful and forgiving without the existence of fallen humanity, and why, if God is complete in himself and already receives glory from the angels, he would create us to witness his glory.

 

• What is your best answer when an atheist asks you to “prove God exists”?
• Since God is a Trinity, he can be love without needing creation, but how can he be, by nature, merciful and forgiving without fallen humanity, and wouldn’t that make us necessary?
• If God is complete in himself, he didn’t need to create us, and if his angels are there, he already receives glory, so why is it to the benefit of an uncreated creation that they should be created and witness the glory of God?

Why Did the Sadducees and Pharisees Want to Kill Jesus?

Questions about why the Sadducees and Pharisees wanted to kill Jesus and why God doesn’t say anything when we pray to him.

 

• Why did the Sadducees and Pharisees want to kill Jesus?
• Why doesn’t God say anything when we pray to him?

Can a Person Be Saved but Have Nothing to Show for It?

Questions about whether 1 Corinthians 3:15 indicates that a person can be saved but have nothing to show for it in the way they live, and whether a lack of good works after salvation means the person is not really saved.

 

• Does 1 Corinthians 3:15 indicate that a person can be saved but have nothing to show for it in the way they live, and if so, how does this fit with passages like James 2 and John 15?
• If good works demonstrate/follow salvation, does that mean I’m not saved since I still fail so much when it comes to selfishness, not helping others much, not giving much, etc.?

What Questions Do We Need to Answer to Help Keep Our Youth in the Faith?

Question about the questions we need to answer for our youth to help keep them from walking away from the faith.

 

• What questions do we need to answer for our youth to help keep them from walking away from the faith?

How Do We Love Those Who Hate Us?

Question about how to love those who hate us.

 

• How would you answer the question my former professor says is the most pressing question his students are asking right now: How do we love those who hate us?

Is Fasting Food Specific?

Questions about whether biblical fasting is food specific or could include things like social media, how the “faith” listed as a gift of the Spirit in 1 Corinthians 12:9 differs from the saving faith given to all believers, and whether it’s biblical for people with a prophetic gift to predict suffering and death.

 

• Is it biblical to abstain from something like social media as a form of fasting to pray for a specific thing, or is fasting food specific?
• Is the “faith” listed as a gift of the Spirit in 1 Corinthians 12:9 somehow different from the saving faith given to all believers?
• Is it biblical for people with a prophetic gift to predict seasons of suffering or when a person will die?

How Do I Respond to a Confused Four-Year-Old?

Questions about what to say to a confused four-year-old grandson whose father is telling him there are hundreds of gods, why it’s difficult to persuade a Mormon or Jehovah’s Witness, and how to engage someone who claims to be Christian yet attends a Unitarian Universalist church.

 

• How do I respond to a confused four-year-old grandson whose father is telling him there are hundreds of gods?
• Why is it so hard, when having a discussion with a Mormon or Jehovah’s Witness, to help them understand and set them free with the truth of the gospel?
• How do I engage someone who claims to be a Christian yet attends a Unitarian Universalist church?

What Evidence in Scripture Identifies the Holy Spirit as a Person?

Questions about evidence in Scripture that identifies the Holy Spirit as a person rather than the transforming power of God, whether Mark 13:33 means that the Holy Spirit doesn’t know the day of Christ’s return, and thoughts on contemplative prayer and other popular spiritual formation practices.

 

• Aside from translators’ use of the male pronoun, what evidence in Scripture identifies the Holy Spirit as a “person” as opposed to the transforming power of God?
• Does Mark 13:33 mean that the Holy Spirit does not know the day of Christ’s return?
• Can you comment on popular spiritual formation practices such as contemplative prayer, lectio divina, and the need to explore our past in order for the Spirit to work in us to remove sin?

Doesn’t Perfect Justice Require That the Penalty Be Paid By the Offender?

Questions about whether perfect justice requires that the penalty be paid by the offender rather than someone else, and whether the references in Scripture to sharing in the sufferings of Christ are only about persecution for one’s faith or include things like sickness and financial hardship.

 

• For “perfect justice” to be accomplished, doesn’t the penalty have to actually be paid by the offender rather than someone else?
• Are the references in Scripture to ”sharing in the sufferings of Christ” only about persecution for one’s faith in Christ, or are they also about sickness, financial hardship, emotional pain, etc.?