How to Wrestle with Tough Bible Questions?
How to Approach Tough Bible Passages?
At times when we read the Bible, we run into difficult passages. Genesis is an excellent example of tough scripture reading. You might start to ponder why did God create humans with free will if some of them would freely choose to reject Him and be separated eternally from Him. Or perhaps you found yourself asking why God would bring the flood during Noah’s time if so many people were going to die.
Even reading the book of Joshua, you’ve been curious why God would give the Israelites victory in conquering the surrounding nations. And the list goes on and on.
When encountering these scriptures, some might ignore them and skip past them, while others believe they should only focus on Jesus and how to live as a Christian. On a similar note, others will reject those passages altogether, even denying they ever happened as they struggle to understand how God’s actions are consistent with His character.
Remember, as Christians, we believe God inspired all scriptures without error. And although the primary focus should always be on Jesus and living a Christian life, believers should also pay close attention to those passages that reveal who God is and what He has been up to throughout history.
Why do people question God's Character?
Alongside ignoring and rejecting scripture for whatever reason, some people take another approach: questioning God’s character.
They doubt His fullness of love, justice, mercy, and grace. Some intentionally take this Character-Questioning perspective to justify why they decided to push away from God.
From this Character-Questioning perspective, it can sound like, “Since God acted this way in the Bible, God must not be loving.”
However, quite often, questioning God’s character might be done inadvertently. People might read the passage and struggle with how to reconcile alongside God’s perfect righteousness.
Why can we be confident in God's Character?
I hope to encourage you to take a Character-Confident perspective instead. This approach stands strong on God’s perfect character, even when unsure how it reconciles the actions we see in scripture.
From a Character-Confident perspective, this sounds like, “Since God is fully loving, how is his love present in this passage?”
This article will reveal how all of God’s actions are consistent with His perfect character. In other words, the answer to His actions can’t be anything less than fully good, fully just, or fully loving.
Two key facts reinforce God’s Character-Confident perspective. And if these two facts are true, we can be assured that God’s actions are good.
Fact 1: God's Perfect Character
The first fact is that God’s character is perfect. His greatness, love, goodness, and justice characteristics can be no less than perfect.
Humans have these characteristics too, but often fall very short of the ideal. However, this is impossible for God.
By definition, God is “maximally great,” meaning that there is no way He could be greater. God is all loving and cannot be more loving because He is the definition of love. There is also no way He could be more good because He is already absolutely good. Finally, God is Holy, and his justice reigns supreme.
Alongside logically seeing how God’s character must be perfect, we find this truth in scripture when we read that God’s essence is love, justice, and goodness (1 John 4:8,16; Hebrews 6:10; Psalm 106:1, Psalm 89:14).
Fact 2: God Acts Within His Character
The second reinforcing fact is that God must act within His character. God’s actions must align with His righteousness, which we know is unequivocally perfect. Considering how God is fully just, this requires that all His actions be just. The same goes for His other characteristics.
He is incapable of doing evil because His absolute goodness requires His every action to be good. To take things a step further, what is even more incredible is that all of God’s characteristics co-exist perfectly. For example, His actions must also be fully just while acting lovingly. He cannot ignore justice at the expense of love or any other trait.
The clearest example of God’s characteristics perfectly intertwining is found in Jesus’ sacrifice for our sins. In love, God desired closeness with us, but in justice, we faced separation from Him. Also, in justice, payment was due for our sins, but in love, God sent His son Jesus as the payment for our sins.
Both facts are so valuable because they establish a Character-Confident perspective of God. We can then ask and tackle difficult questions with the assurance that we will find the answers in God’s perfect character.
How to find God's Character through the Guess Who game?
We all have assigned specific characteristics to God based on our understanding, doubts, and questions about why God acted in a certain way or said a particular thing. Let’s find God’s actual character through a simple family game called Guess Who.
The board game has many characters with face distinctions and attire differences. You secretly choose one character, and your opponent does the same. The game begins when one player asks questions and starts to narrow down and guess who you picked.
Each opponent may ask one question at a time, like, —does the character have blonde hair? Is it wearing a red shirt? Are its glasses round? With each new clue answered, the player can discard specific faces from the gameboard. The more you ask, the more characters get discarded from your gameboard, finally leaving two or three options to Guess Who the character is.
We can apply the same approach to God. The more questions we ask about His character, the more we can discard who God is not. Is God all loving? Yes. Is God just? Yes. Is God good? Yes. Is God evil? No. Is God a liar? No. Ultimately, we end up with a clear picture of who God is and who He is not.
So when we are confronted with these difficult passages and have found God’s true character through the Guess Who game, we can apply the Confident-Character perspective to God’s actions and intentions, which are true, good, and perfect. We now know the nature of the answer lies consistent with His character.
We Can Rest
Accepting God’s character in light of these difficult questions is easier said than done. From our viewpoint, we wonder why God didn’t do things differently in a much “better” way. But we are not God, who is all-knowing, all-wise, and all-good. We can not pretend to know more than what our perfect God knows. Our heart yearns for answers that feel more just. However, God’s heart longs for those things even more than we, who are imperfect.
Although we won’t always be able to narrow down all the possible answers to our tough questions, we can rest assured in knowing that the answer lies within God’s perfect parameters. Even if we haven’t uncovered precisely how God’s actions are consistent with His character, we can confidently know it is.
Amazingly, Christians have sifted through the Scriptures and offered solid responses to many questions. Some share the most likely answer, while others narrow down the possibilities. They have taken advantage of the opportunity we all have to seek after God’s possible reasons and offer us details that align with God’s perfect character.
However, sometimes God’s reasonings are outside of our ability to comprehend. We are told in the Bible that God has secret things not yet revealed to us (Deut 29:29).
All in all, we can rest knowing that hard questions don’t have to leave us uncertain about God’s character, but rather grounded and encouraged that God’s desires and actions are perfect.
For Today's Situation Too
Finally, the Character-Confident perspective not only applies to God’s past actions seen in scripture but also to His actions that we grapple with today. There are situations we find ourselves in and wonder why God would allow those things to happen.
It could be the loss of a job, an unwanted season of singleness, not seeing healing yet, or even the loss of a loved one. Many of these situations carry great weight and genuine hurt and make it difficult to understand God’s reasoning while confronting these realities.
We learned today that these situations are not causes for us to misinterpret God’s character and take a Character-Questioning position, but rather take a Character-Confident perspective, knowing everything He does is in His perfect nature of love, goodness, and justice.
We are getting an opportunity to experience forgiveness, grace, and mercy; it might be something He wants to teach us, an area where we need to grow, or even an opportunity to help others.
Remember, our God is unchanging, and so is His character. He is our father and wants the best for us, His children.
My Encouragement To You
From all of this, I urge you to take up a Character-Confident perspective about God. If you have questions, allow them to strengthen your faith. Be curious and pursue answers with the correct lens.
Most importantly, don’t allow Satan to isolate you in your questioning. If he can get you to doubt, he can get you to question God’s character! Find support in your local Church, and ask different pastors and people who study the Bible. Gain a broad perspective with those around you as you wrestle through these tough questions. In the end, you will benefit significantly in your walk with God.
Press on in the Christian life, knowing that we can be confident in God’s existence, Jesus’ Resurrection, and the reliability of the Bible. Find rest, knowing that whatever the reason, it must be consistent with God’s perfect character.
Find below some links to helpful resources that can help answer many of your questions. Responses to some of your questions might be brief, while others offer a deeper dive into a plausible answer. Regardless of the length, take this opportunity to reflect on the solutions and allow God to speak to you.
Resources
Got Questions is a great resource with 706,002 questions answered, this is a great website to find answers to your theological questions. Click Here
Trains Christians to think more clearly about their faith and equips them as ambassadors of knowledge, wisdom and character. Click Here
Trains Christians to think more clearly about their faith and equips them as ambassadors of knowledge, wisdom and character. Click Here
CARM is a nonprofit, non-denominational, multi-staffed Christian Apologetics Ministry that supports evangelism, radio outreach, and provides full-time support for several foreign missionaries. Click Here
How To Wrestle With Tough Bible Questions
