At Hillside, we spent two services doing question and answer based on our study of the book of Romans. At this point, we’ve preached through Romans 15:13. Consequently, it seemed fitting to take a break and answer any questions our Hillside Family might have about Romans (and anything else). People submitted their questions by text, living during the service, and also by email and slips of paper written in long-hand. Regrettably, we did not have time to answer all the questions people wished to ask. Consequently, we are going to answer the remaining questions in the Hillside Blog. You can listen to the Q and A here. Every few days I’ll be answering three or so questions in the blog (see below).
Regarding Job; I've read it several times and really have a hard time wrapping my head around why God allowed so much trauma and sorrow to come upon him . Can you speak to this ?
Great question! The key to understanding Job is found in Romans 15:4: “For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.” The purpose of Job is to remind us and teach us that there is a larger picture to this universe than what we detect with our five senses. Among the themes of Job is the reality of so-called “spiritual warfare.” As you read through Job you see periodic changes in venue. One moment we are on earth where Job leads a comfortable life among friends and family. The next scene we see the heavenlies (or spiritual realm) where there is a large spiritual conflict that affects the physical world.
Part and parcel of the dialogue between Satan and God is the reality that true believers, like Job, trust in God regardless of their circumstances. Satan contends that Job will only trust God in the good times. God proves him wrong.
Returning to the theme of spiritual warfare, Job’s friends ineptly ‘help’ Job cope with his situation. They look at his circumstances and assume the worst, “God must be punishing you for something—you must be terrible if bad things are happening to you…” The fact is, God is accomplishing a larger purpose through the hardships and suffering of Job. Job’s friends needed to learn to weep with those who weep and to rejoice with those who rejoice.
Among the lessons we learn are these, (1) the sovereignty of God over everything that happens, even Satan needs his permission to act (Job 18-12; Job 2:1-6). Jesus provides us this insight as well: “Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has demanded permission to sift you like wheat; 32 but I have prayed for you, that your faith may not fail; and you, when once you have turned again, strengthen your brothers (Luke 22:31-32).” This should be a great comfort for all of us from people here to far off missionaries that no harm came come to them without God’s watch-care and purposes. This is why James writes “count it all joy… whenever you encounter various trials (James 1:2).” This is why we say our suffering is never wasted.
A final lesson I’d like to address is that God’s higher purposes are often beyond our understanding or comprehension. His ways are perfect and good and His ends desirable but we often lack the capacity to grasp the forest for the trees. This is why we read that mysterious and awesome passage:
Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind and said: 2 “Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge? 3 Dress for action like a man;
I will question you, and you make it known to me. 4 “Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding. 5 Who determined its measurements—surely you know! Or who stretched the line upon it? 6 On what were its bases sunk, or who laid its cornerstone, 7 when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy? (Job 38:1-7)
We sometimes forget our place in the universe and the nature of our relationship to our Creator and Savior, God. This is also why Paul warns us in Romans 9:20, “But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, “Why have you made me like this?” Again, our suffering is never wasted. Things truly and really do work together for good for those who love God. But His plans are beyond our comprehension. We cannot understand God and His ways exhaustively or comprehensively. But we can understand Him sufficiently to know that He is good and in the scheme of eternity supplies what is best for us.
This brings us full circle, back to Romans 15:4. “For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope (Romans 15:4).” Through Job we understand there is a world we cannot see and a plan we cannot always comprehend. Job was written for our benefit. In the end, Job never learns all that went on behind the scenes of his trials. But he does learn that God is good and can be trusted. Job wrestles through his trials imperfectly but faithfully. And I suppose that is a lesson for us as well. “For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope (Romans 15:4).”
How to answer when someone thinks all religions lead to the same God and how come Jesus is the only way for salvation and having relationships with God.
At the core of this question is the assumption held in popular culture that all religions are somehow created equal. But the gods portrayed in the so-called holy books of the world’s religions are so radically different, morally and ethically, that they cannot be the same god, even remotely so. The god of Islam considers a woman to be half the value of a man. It allows for having one standard of morality in dealings with those outside the faith in contrast to dealings with those inside the faith. Islam is a monotheistic religion but it bears little resemblance to Judaism or Christianity. In Islam god is unknowable. In Christianity in Judaism God is knowable and personal. Christianity tells you to love your enemy, Islam says to kill them where you find them.
Hinduism is a polytheistic religion with millions of gods. It subjects its adherents to a caste system where not all people are of equal value. Dalits (untouchables), even today, function as what is tantamount to slaves in India. Through reincarnation people may advance to a better station in life in the next incarnation they experience. Or they could return as an ant or a slug. The gods are unpredictable.
To say that all these are the same god is nonsense. All of these religions contradict one another. They are radically different. Consider the truth claims of Jesus Christ: “I am the way the truth and the life and no one comes to the Father but by Me (John 14:6). Christianity teaches that salvation is a gift that cannot be earned and that even the good we do was ordained by God (Ephesians 2:8-10). All the other religions have humanity doing things to earn a salvation they cannot be certain of. There is no assurance of salvation. When it comes down to it, there are only two religions in the world. There is the religion of human achievement and the religion of divine achievement. The first contains all the world religions as denominations. In this religion you have to do something to deserve god’s favor and purchase, earn, or manipulate god’s favor. Christianity is the religion of divine achievement. God does for us what we cannot do for ourselves---save us: “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 6:23).” You see similar teaching elsewhere:
For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. (Ephesians 2:8-10)
All religions can’t be the same and they can’t point us to the same God unless such a god is an inveterate liar who invariably contradicts himself and confuses people through incompetence or outright deception. There is One God—the God of divine achievement who came among us and did for us on the cross what we could not do for ourselves. Accept no substitutes.
What are "majors"? What's the set of central truths about which Christians must agree?
Space does not allow a thorough, thorough answer to this question—one that it is exhaustive. However, our statement of faith does a decent job of pointing them out. You can find that statement of faith here. That said, if I had to distill it down to the most basic level it would be that salvation comes only through Christ by faith alone. That Christ died according to the Scriptures, rose from the dead, according to the Scriptures. That He is the virgin-born son of God and God the Son. And that there is salvation in no other. The other tenets in our statement of faith revolve around this.
Until next time!