Luke 13:1-5, like John 9:1-3, teach us that we are not to see every case of suffering as due to some particular sin, or the result of a particular judgment of God. Jesus does go on to say that everyone is under threat of divine judgment, and repentance is necessary. As I mention in my article, God can and does judge, including using natural calamity as part of his judgment. It’s just that we do not always have a sure word from the Lord about these things today.

Bill Muehlenberg, CultureWatch

Teacher, were the Galileans just slaughtered by Herod worse sinners than the rest?

Jesus: “No.” (verse 3a)

Teacher, surely those eighteen people crushed by that tower in Siloam were getting some sort of divine retribution, weren’t they?

Jesus: “No.” (verse 5a)

If it is a trustworthy saying that I am the chief of sinners, and if all of us fall short, one might think that self-righteousness pride is what causes Christians to claim some are more deserving of God’s wrath than others.

Jesus taught in Luke 13 that the bushfires are about you and me.

Peter Grice

What I want to know is, when is Rudd the professing Christian going to call a national and annual day of mourning for the victims of abortion who number almost 100,000 every year? And when are the churches going to come together in like manner to pray for the victims and the tragedy of abortion? I won’t be holding my breath.

Ewan McDonald.

There is a reason we can’t shake the term “miracle” when it comes to childbirth. The symphonic confluence of causes in a newborn life is aptly so described. Human life and flourishing is simply a wonderful, wonderful thing. That’s precisely the basis for our dismay at its loss. We’re quick to invoke God, to question Him about lost life, but where is our celebration and gratitude for the gift of life in the first place — for billions of living, breathing people? One would assume from its absence that most people don’t really believe in God, and yet they seem ready to prop up an effigy whenever they wish to question Him.

Would it really be so absurd to have newspaper HEADLINES say, “Little Tamara was born today in a local hospital, as well as thousands more precious lives around the country. Australians everywhere are celebrating their arrival, and are pledging to do their utmost to ensure these children have the best care and upbringing. It happens every day, and if it’s just happened in your family, chances are you won’t be tired of hearing such good news.”

We have a similar presumption about death from the so-called natural cause of old age. All death is a tragedy. All death, even after 100 years of life, should be sad. Yet because it is inevitable we have come to accept it, and see only dying “before our time” as tragic. Blaming God just for deaths below a certain age seems arbitrary – why not blame Him for all? Couldn’t the all-powerful author of life sustain it indefinitely?

I wonder, do we overlook both glaring facts because we have some sense that we, personally, don’t live life as we should, and therefore don’t really deserve it, much less to live forever?

Peter Grice, Think Christianity

The existence of the cosmos. The big bang paradigm has failed to provide a credible explanation for the evolution of the cosmos. It was from its beginning based on naturalistic assumptions and would have collapsed already if it were not for the invocation of fudge factors such as dark matter and dark energy which are entirely unobserved. The only reason the BB theory survives is because there aren’t very many credible alternative cosmologies acceptable to naturalistic cosmologists.

The existence of life. This is a big one. Both the lack of any credible naturalistic explanation for the spontaneous generation of life, combined with the fact that so much scientific knowledge is weighted against the possibility of life ever arising by chance.

The existence of good and evil. Bill has many articles on this blog pointing out the fact that within a naturalistic worldview there can be no objective standard of morality by which to judge right or wrong, good or bad. So the argument that goes along the lines of ‘how can a good God allow suffering?’ misses the point that how is it that we can even say that suffering is bad if there is no God?

It would seem then that only deistic worldviews are credible since the naturalistic one requires so many giant leaps of faith. But Bob seems to favour the naturalistic explanations so I would have to observe that he has not given up religion for some kind of scientific rationalism as he may think, rather he has given up a credible religion for an entirely incredible one.

Ewan McDonald.

I hope indeed that these are not mere rhetorical questions (as they are for many atheists who frequent my site). I too had many questions as a non-Christian. For me they were part of a determined and desperate search for truth and answers. My quest involved a number of years in dead ends and blind alleys, including many of the seven options I mention in the article above.

But when a clear presentation of the gospel was given to me, I jumped at what I knew to be that which I was searching for. That was some decades ago, and I have not turned back since then.

As I said, it is one thing for those in remote parts of the world who do not have easy access to the gospel. It is another thing for Westerners who have many means of accessing it, including a website such as this. We have gone back and forth on many of your questions over the past few years. I hope it is part of a genuine journey after truth.

As I keep saying, I am always happy to answer honest questions. But as I said in my previous post, God holds us responsible for the light (or knowledge, or revelation) that we have, and in a sense there can be danger in this. That is, the more one hears the Christian truth claims, the more responsible and accountable one becomes in terms of what one does with them.

My concern is that even some honest questioners may just be after satisfying intellectual curiosity alone. It is good to be asking hard questions, and to seek to engage intellectually with these issues. But it is not an end in itself. Jesus said “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father but by me”. Therefore truth is more than just propositions to be thought about or assented to. Truth is ultimately a person, and biblical faith is about taking these truth claims and making a personal commitment based on this truth.

So can I gently remind you that with all the understanding you might be getting as you ask these questions, bear in mind the reasons you are asking them. Hopefully this is a genuine journey in the search for truth. People prayed for me while I was on my journey. I will do the same for you.

Keep those questions coming.

Bill Muehlenberg, CultureWatch

I appreciate you taking the time with a detailed response. I honestly don’t ask ‘gotcha’ questions, in the sense that I am trying to ‘trip you up’, but if I myself find a question difficult, and can’t imagine exactly how one such as yourself would respond, the best way to find out is to ask it.

This question is one that has always troubled me in trying to understand the believer’s position. You have made that position more clear for me, so thank you for that.

Chris Mayer

Several replies. The Bible makes it clear that all genuine seekers will be found by God. God knows our hearts, and he will make a way for those who seriously seek him. And those who have had not heard of Christ will be judged by the light that they had, and how they responded to it.

This is why so many Muslims are now becoming Christians around the world. Many live in closed countries where the gospel is not allowed to be preached. But those Muslims who are really seeking God are being rewarded for their honest searching. Many are having dreams and visions of Christ, and many are becoming followers of Jesus. God always has a way of reaching those who seriously seek after him.

Also, another part of the response would be that an omniscient God would also know how a person would have responded to the Gospel had he or she heard it. That is, an all-knowing God not only knows all actualities, but all potentialities.

But there is more: the last command of Christ before ascending into heaven was the command to his followers to preach the gospel to all nations. That is why Christian mission exists. Believers are doing their best to let all people everywhere know the good news of the Christian gospel.

Those people who ask such a question in all honesty and sincerity have a very clear answer: they need to make sure they are first reconciled to God through Christ, and then they need to make sure as many people as possible get a chance to hear the gospel.

But an atheist such as yourself asks this question in the hopes of tripping up the believer. You are hoping for a “gotcha!”. So I must call your bluff. The question is not difficult to answer, but the real issue is this: how sincere is the person who asks such a question? Is it just to shoot another atheist bullet at believers, hoping to score more debate points? Or is it based on a genuine desire to know the truth? The good news is, God always rewards the diligent seeker, and he always gives grace to the humble. But he resists the proud, and will not be found by those who are not serious about these most important of questions.

So the real question falls back on to you Chris. Which camp are you in? Your honest answer to that question will very much determine your eternal destiny. Thus as I said, hell is populated by those who want to be there. Or as C.S. Lewis once put it, “There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, ‘Thy will be done,’ and those to whom God says, in the end, ‘Thy will be done’.”

To be honest Chris, I would worry less about those who have not heard the gospel, and worry much more about yourself. You see, you have heard the gospel. What you do with it is entirely up to you. And your response will determine your fate. So choose wisely. As usual, I continue to keep you in prayer, that you do indeed choose wisely and humbly.

Bill Muehlenberg, CultureWatch

“As to hell, the biblical understanding is simply this: God does not send people to hell, we send ourselves there. If people all their lives insist that they want nothing to do with God and want to be their own boss, then God respects their freedom and choices, and allows them to do this forever.

God has done everything possible to prevent people going to hell. But if people reject God’s only provision for heaven, then there is no option left. Hell is populated by people who chose to be there.”

So Bill, people who throughout time have grown up in distant tribes, and have never, ever had the chance to have even heard of Jesus, let alone believe in him, do they go to hell or heaven?

Chris Mayer