I like asking and answering questions on Yahoo Answers. I recently asked the question, “What would you most like to ask a Christian?” I received 22 responses and I decided to answer a few at a time. I won’t pretend to have all the answers, but I will do my best to find a response that reflects a biblical viewpoint. Some of my answers will be links to other sites that have already answered the question, much better than I ever could. Here are my responses to the following questions:

If God loves the non-believers, why does He send them to hell?

God has given everyone evidence of His existence through creation. All we have to do is look around and observe the world around us to see God’s handiwork. Although God has made His existence known, many choose to reject Him anyway. God’s decisions are made through the character of His nature. Just as God loves, He also upholds justice. He won’t allow sin to remain unpunished. The balance of His character is seen in the fact that He executed justice by providing Jesus as a payment for our sin, but we must choose to accept and believe in Him.
See also The Path of Salvation From the Book of Romans.

God is the Creator, who gives and ends life. Why then would He send aborted/miscarried/still born babies to hell, considering it is not in their hands nor their parents to revive and baptize them?

Grace to You Questions/Answers responds by stating, “Scripture is clear that children and the unborn have original sin–including both the propensity to sin as well as the inherent guilt of original sin. But could it be that somehow Christ’s atonement did pay for the guilt for these helpless ones throughout all time? Yes, and therefore it is a credible assumption that a child who dies at an age too young to have made a conscious, willful rejection of Jesus Christ will be taken to be with the Lord.”

Why would God need to die for the sins committed by His creations? Doesn’t it imply that He is bent to our will, and not the other way around?

Because God is righteous He can not overlook sin or pretend it doesn’t exist. It is by his great mercy that He provided a scapegoat in Jesus. Jesus took the punishment that was meant for us. God poured out His wrath on Jesus once and for all for our sin. The payment was made. Is God’s will bent toward our will? No. God didn’t have to provide a way of escape for us. He did this because He loves us. We must willfully choose to accept and believe in what Jesus did for us. Our will must bend towards His. Also see Heart of the Gospel.

If Jesus is the son of God, why did he need human parents in the form of Joseph and Mary? Adam and Eve didn’t after all.

The old testament prophesied of a coming Messiah to save the people. The prophesies say that the Messiah will be in the lineage of King David, a Jewish King. Mary and Joseph can both trace their lineage to King David, so Jesus really was heir to the Jewish throne. Joseph’s lineage is found in Matthew 1 and Mary’s lineage is found in Luke 3.

Isaiah 9:6 “For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; and the government will rest on His shoulders; and His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness. From then on and forevermore, the zeal of the Lord of hosts will accomplish this.”

Besides that, the bible says that Jesus can understand our human experience, and that starts with the basic experience of being in a family.

Hebrews 2:17 “Therefore, He had to be made like His brethren in all things, that He might become a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.”
Hebrews 3:15 “For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin.”

If Jesus is God, why did he need to be born at all, and wait until he was an adult to reveal himself? Why not come to earth directly as an adult?

My answer is similar the last question. Jesus was the prophesied Messiah. The prophesy in Isaiah 9:6 makes it clear that they were waiting for someone who would be a child (human) and God. Jesus was both. Why did He do it that way? Because God wanted us to see that Jesus could sympathize with our weaknesses and what we go through as human beings (Hebrews 4:15). When we suffer we know that Jesus went through suffering as a human as well.

I’m confused on the explanations I’ve been given on the divinity of Jesus…some say God filled Jesus with the Holy Spirit, and came into him(or something like that). If that’s the case, doesn’t that mean that all the while before, he was only a human? Why don’t you just worship God then?

Jesus was more than human from the moment of conception. He was born to Mary, a virgin, who was with child by a miracle of God. Jesus came to earth as a man, but He has existed from all eternity, just as God the Father. Here are some passages to back that up.

Proverbs 30:4 (He was with God in the beginning)
Who has gone up to heaven and come down?
Who has gathered up the wind in the hollow of his hands?
Who has wrapped up the waters in his cloak?
Who has established all the ends of the earth?
What is his name, and the name of his son?
Tell me if you know!

Colossians 1:16 (He was the creator—which also shows He is one with the Father)
For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him.

John 17:5 (Jesus was with the Father before the world was)
And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you
before the world was.

God the Father is to be worshiped, but Jesus said in John 14:6, “Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” To reject Jesus is to reject God the Father.

If he has always been God, did people believe this before the crucifixion? Why did he need to come down in human form only for that particular civilization, and why didn’t he do this before? Why not now(I know about the second coming, but its been years).

Before the crucifixion, the Jewish people were looking for the Messiah. They knew that someone was coming to save them. They didn’t completely understand this because they thought the Messiah would save them from the Roman power and restore them to a kingdom controlled by their own king. Even though Jesus was in the lineage to be king, He said that his kingdom was not of this world. He came to save us from the punishment of sin, not rule an earthly kingdom. Why did He choose the time that He did for Jesus to manifest Himself? Only God has the answer to that, just as the Father is the only one who knows when Jesus will return the second time. There was a progression leading up to the coming of the Messiah. Jesus fulfilled all of the prophesies about the Messiah. Daniel prophesied when the Messiah would die, and Jesus fit into the time period prophesied. Check out Daniel’s 70 week prophesy.

If Jesus is God, how did mere human beings have the power to kill him, considering life and death is in His hands? Also, why would, and how can God die? I know the “He died for our sins” belief, but that’s not the answer I’m looking for.

Jesus offered Himself up to die. Of course He could have stopped it, but He knew He had to die in order to pay for our sins. Read John 18:4-6. When the soldiers came to arrest Him, they fell to the ground when He spoke to them. He had the power to stop them but He chose to sacrifice Himself instead. That was the plan from the very beginning, as prophesied in Isaiah 53. This amazing prophesy was written way before Jesus was ever born and it talks about how He was pierced for our transgressions. You said this isn’t the answer you are looking for, but it is the answer that Jesus Himself gave. If He had chosen not to allow
them to crucify him, there would be no payment for sin and we would not have the possibility of salvation. We would all have to stand condemned before God for our sin with no way of escaping punishment.

John 3:16-18
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.

If any further questions arise after reading these responses, please comment and ask for clarification.

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