I'm a Christian - Ask Me Anything

@Mutant approximately 1 rotation per spin 🧐

@Gray That's a good question! I think a lot of Christians have different opinions on this one. I personally believe it means we have free-will like God, so that we can have the capacity for creativity and complex language, which is why Adam's job was to name everything in the garden. He may have done this so we can share a deeper understand and relationship with him.

@Apav

I agree! Lately I've been thinking in a way, we have the power of creation just like him like how we're now making robots that look and think similar to use. 

@-fritz- I'm not an official member of any denomination, although I'm a guest at the local Baptist church. I was raised in Lutheran and Methodist churches. I like to learn from all the denominations so I consider myself interdenominational, but since my beliefs align mostly with protestants I'm sure most would label me non-denominational. 

@Kayla⟡

I'm not christian, so I'm not an expert on this stuff, but there are a few reasons for this. Preventing humans from causing harm would remove their free will. Also from a christian, and general spiritual perspective life here on earth is hard because it constantly tests those who want to continue on their spiritual path. If there is no sin or desire or attachment or whatever your religion tells you causes suffering then there is no refraining from it. There is also the fact that without evil there is no good, and vice versa. If you never suffer then you might as well never feel joy. Humans are born sinful, and so the devil carries an amount of agency over us, and he wants us to suffer as much as we can, but with spiritual guidance and or knowledge we can be physically tortured beaten, and not suffer a single bit because it isnt about the physical world it's about personal liberation. 

@-fritz- I appreciate your perspective, and I think it raises some interesting philosophical questions, especially about how we're defining free will. First, does free will mean having the ability to make choices, or does it also require being able to carry out those choices without limits? There's a difference between choosing to harm someone and being able to follow through with that harm. We prevent people from hurting others all the time without taking away their ability to make moral decisions. So why would God preventing harm necessarily eliminate free will? And what about the freedom of the person being harmed?

If God is all-knowing and already knows every choice we'll make, in what sense are those choices free? Knowing what someone will choose isn't necessarily the same as forcing that choice, but if God created everything knowing exactly how events would unfold, what does that mean for divine responsibility?

Third, why would suffering be necessary for goodness or spiritual growth? Can't we experience love without abuse, joy without tragedy, or kindness without cruelty? And if evil is necessary for good to exist, how does that fit with the idea of heaven?

Finally, what about suffering that has nothing to do with human choices? If suffering is a test, why do some people experience so much more of it than others, particularly if God already knows how everyone will respond?

I also think there's an important distinction between finding meaning through suffering and believing suffering must exist for that meaning to be possible. 

I can appreciate how spiritual beliefs help people understand and navigate difficult experiences, but I'm curious whether those explanations tell us why suffering exists or primarily help us make sense of it once it does.

@Kayla⟡ you brought up a big one! Many Christian's have wrestled with this question for centuries. I approach this paradox in faith, because I couldn't possibly know what God knows or definitively know why anything is the way it is. Each one of the prerequisite of the paradox could be talked about at length, and since I grew up surrounded by Calvinists, I found a lot of interest in Open theism, Molinism, General Atonement, and Arminianism. However, to avoid writing a book, I'll just address how I personally handle the paradox.  

I personally believe:

-God gave us free-will. 

-Suffering is only possible as a result of sin. 

-God's nature "limits" how he would handle a situation. (He can't not be himself).  

So I believe God is all-powerful in the sense he has power over everything, but that does not guarantee he can end suffering without a consequence. If I am correct and sin is not of God and suffering is only possible as a result of sin, then the only way God could end suffering is by destroying everything that is apart from himself. He has not done this because he is loving and wants to give everyone possible a chance to leave sin and be saved from the coming judgment and erasure. He may be able to rearrange the sequence of events to be the best they can possibly be, but until everything corrupted by sin is eradicated, this is it. 

But then again, I could be entirely wrong. Maybe the open theists are correct and he simple does not know which series of events we'll end up with so he chooses to stay out of it. Or maybe the Calvinists are right and suffering is by design for God's glory. Or maybe its something nobody actually knows yet. Luckily for me, my faith and relationship with God isn't built upon my understanding alone. I hope I at least offered a few new thoughts. I didnt expect to get so into this 😅

@XENO  I personally believe those who die naturally go to Sheol (which is called Hades in Greek or Hell in some translations), which was essentially eternal sleep, either in nothingness or suffering based upon their life. I believe Jesus descended here upon his death, and preached to those who died before him. Then, upon rising from the dead, became the Lord of both the living and the dead. There's a few verses that seem to allude to Christians being with Jesus in the afterlife, and since he ascended, I assume those who fall asleep in Christ are with him in heaven. Those who are not in Christ still go to Sheol, and will be judge based upon their works in the end times. Following the judgment; Sheol and the devil and his followers will be cast into the lake of fire. God will then make a new universe, and all that was preserved from the lake of fire will live there. I personally hope this includes animals, art, and those who were unaware of their sins; but what I do know is that the one way to eternal life is through Jesus. 

Let me know if you need verse references as I can see how all this would sound crazy based on the "heaven or hell" simplification we often are told in stories.