Looking for Answers?

I'm back once again with a post 'inspired by' Woodrow Kroll's Taking Back the Good Book. In chapter twelve, he writes:

Many people say there are just too many unanswered questions in life. But the real questions of life, the serious questions, are not left unanswered. If we fail to get answers to our most painful questions, it is not due to the silence of God but to our failure to read his Word.

One of the consequences of Bible illiteracy is that those searching for answers to the great questions of life are left clueless. Without God's eternal Word, they have no place to go for certain truth. Questioners are left to wonder about the deep things of life, or, worse, to rely on the explanations of people who change their minds as often as some baseball players change teams.

What types of questions go unanswered? Well, Kroll lists seven BIG questions that the Bible answers...

• Question 1: How Can I Know the Truth?
• Question 2: Does God Really Exist?
• Question 3: Why is There Evil?
• Question 4: Do All Religions Lead to God?
• Question 5: Why Am I Here?
• Question 6: Can God Ever Forgive Me?
• Question 7: What Happens After I Die? 

Wouldn't you agree that those are good questions that NEED answers? I'll highlight two of the questions, "Why Is There Evil?" and "Do All Religions Lead to God?"

Let's face it: life is full of trouble and heartache. One of the reasons many of us go through life asking, Why is life so unfair? is that we don't understand what life is all about. So why is it like that?

Read the first two chapters of Genesis. The Garden of Eden was a perfect place. Adam and Eve had everything they needed. So what happened to God's "very good" creation? Sin happened. Read Genesis 3:6 and look at the powerful words in the next immediately after it. There Adam and Eve disobeyed God and the results of mankind's sin were fear (Genesis 3:10), shame (Genesis 3:10), deception (Genesis 3:13), enmity (Genesis 3:15), pain (Genesis 3:16), curse (Genesis 3:17), death (Genesis 3:19), and more--all the unfair things we experience today. Sin caused that evil, not God. God didn't create sin and the consequences of it. Disobedience to God caused sin and the suffering and death we see all around us.

Now you might be thinking, but if God is so loving, why doesn't he put a stop to this? Read the Bible and you'll find out. It's all in there. God will put a stop to sin and its consequences. It's a part of his redemptive plan (John 3:16, John 14:1-3, Revelation 11:15, Revelation 21:4, Revelation 22:3). Not knowing the Bible causes us to question God needlessly and often foolishly. It's as if God laid out all the answers for us in an instruction manual, and we didn't take the time to read it. (103-04)

and

Research has shown that most Americans, including most Christians, believe that there is some truth in all the religions of the world. The fact is the Bible says that no religions lead to God. People don't go to heaven because they are religious. It's not about religion; it is about a relationship with Jesus Christ. Salvation is not about demographics or denominations. It's about the sacrifice of Christ at Calvary and whether or not you believe that what he did there is all that God required to pay the penalty for your sin.

But if a person is sincere, isn't that all that matters? Sincerity isn't the road to God; faith is, and not just any faith, but faith in the right person. "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household." (Acts 16:31).

Don't all roads lead to God? You don't believe that either. Do all roads in the United States lead to Chicago? Go ahead: get on Interstate 40 or Interstate 5 or even Interstate 95. See if you get to Chicago. Only the roads designed to take you to Chicago will actually get you there. God designed a road to himself. Jesus said, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." (John 14:6)

Don't get lost on the back roads of religion. Read God's roadmap and you'll find your way to God. It's always been through his Son. (104-105)

Do you take your questions to God? Do you search for answers in His Word? Or do you like to supply your own answers, and write your own truths? Do you script in God's answers for Him?

© Becky Laney of Operation Actually Read Bible