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Questions challenging the Character of God (assuming God exists)
L3/2 If God is a loving God, how can he allow the bad things to happen to people?
L3/3 If God is a loving God how can he send some people to hell?
Would God really communicate with humanity.
L4/1 Isn’t God merely an all pervading non-personal creative force?
L4/2 How can you argue that God is a personal God?
L3/1 How can I know God is good? There is so much evil in the world, does it not demonstrate God is as bad as human beings are?
This question could be asked by anyone and I will need to assume that the enquirer is really seeking hard evidence from which to begin her/his enquiry. I am assuming the enquirer does not want platitudes or Biblical claims (however well intentioned such answers might be). So I will commence by pointing out that just as you can’t judge a composer based on a shoddy performance of his work, so you can’t tar God with the same brush as humanity. However I will need to go further and provide reasons as to why we can accept that God really is good and not bad.
People have been given freewill to make choices to do good to others, or to act selfishly and wrong others. However that doesn’t mean that God is necessarily like humanity. Would you judge a Beethoven symphony on the basis of a poorly rehearsed performance by school children? Just because people choose to misuse their freedom, doesn’t make God (the giver of life and freedom) like us. But I can give you some solid reasons to think that God is good and that no evil resides in him at all.
First look at any good example that faith in God inspires – e.g., our local Hope 25:40 charity which looks after local homeless people by trying to get them off the street and back to work. The Bible teaches Christians that God is very concerned for the poor and disadvantaged and wants people to be like him in his perfection. Christians can testify that it is God who gives them grace to give altruistic care for people less fortunate than themselves. It is reasonable to acknowledge that it is God who puts concern for these less fortunate people on the hearts of others who then deliver some amazing results inspired by God’s grace to them.
Then think about the life of Jesus Christ: Christians believe that God was in him to bring all humanity into relationship with himself. Jesus faced evil, injustice, suffering and temptation, but turned these into good, both as an example for us to follow and through the gift of God’s Holy Spirit to give us the power to also begin to transform the bad in the world into good.
More generally, consider that most people have a desire to see good triumph over evil, to see justice rather than injustice, to bring peace rather than war and although they may often fail to achieve their aims and/or pursue them in a selfish manner, nevertheless this fact suggests that if there is a God, then he has made a desire for good, a part of our natures. It is reasonable therefore to conclude that God is good. It can also be argued that the words ‘good’ and ‘evil’ have no meaning at all unless they are measured against some absolute standard of goodness that stands behind the universe, and this standard must necessitate the character of God being good and without evil.
L3/2. If God is a loving God, how can he allow the bad things to happen to people?
In attempting to answer this question, I will need to address both why evil exists in the first place, and then why God doesn’t stop evil from happening to people. I will also need to define what is meant by evil and to do this I will point to distinct examples as well as the sources of evil, viz., moral evil (i.e. that perpetrated by human beings) and natural evil (i.e. that which is the consequence of the universe we live in), while acknowledging that any particular evil may derive from both moral and natural sources.
A longer answer example might be:-
This is a complex question so let me address it by providing some examples of what I think we are talking about when we speak of evil; then if you agree, I will try and give you some reasons as to why I think God has created a universe in which these examples of evil can exist. My typical examples of evil are:-
1. I think of soldiers in Syria brutally torturing children to death. This is just one example of the ongoing and worldwide inhumanity that ordinary human beings inflict on their fellows especially those who are more vulnerable.
2. I think of the gross self-indulgence of some living at ease in Western countries without thought for those who are destitute and starving in undeveloped parts of the world. This is typical of the desperate circumstances that many face combined with the individual greed and lack of concern on the part of many others who could help change the world for the better.
3. I think of those who died in the 2004 Asian tsunami. This is typical of the many unforeseen accidents waiting to happen, which people think of as evil.
I have chosen these examples since they reflect different mixes of what some people have defined as either moral evil or natural evil and any attempt at answering the question as to why God allows bad things to happen needs to address both these aspects.
First to try and understand why a good God permits us the possibility of moral evil to exist in our lives, we need to accept that we would not be independent moral beings if we did not possess the freedom to choose to do good or evil. If we lacked that freewill we would merely be puppets. Christians believe that God was in Jesus Christ to bring people back to a good relationship with himself and that Jesus demonstrated how evil can be turned to good. He prayed for and forgave his enemies while he suffered and died a cruel death on a Roman cross. Further Jesus life and example under suffering has drawn many millions of people to faith in God and to experience the joy and strength of living unselfish lives and caring for those less fortunate than themselves. So I believe the possibility of moral evil is necessary for the possibility of moral good to exist, and that God is looking for us to live in the joy of good relationship with God and other created beings; however God very clearly does not want anyone to misuse their freedom by doing evil to others.
Second to try and understand why a good God has created a universe which science tells us commenced with massive explosion and has continued to evolve with cataclysmic cosmic events resulting in the formation of countless millions of stars and planets of which earth is but a tiny speck. To understand why God necessarily created the universe this way with for example planet earth cooling from a fiery ball of matter forming tectonic plates with volcanic eruptions and earthquakes long before life on earth was possible; and then when life eventually came to be (and evolved such that the intelligent moral beings we call ourselves now exist on the planet), that this life had to necessarily suffer the ongoing effects of this. To ask why God allows us to suffer the consequences of the natural evil of ongoing tectonic plate movements, tsunamis and volcanic eruptions for example, is I believe to ask questions that go too far.
Some critics of God have asked why God could not have created us with moral freedom in a universe devoid of the possibility of all natural evil, but if you think about it that would not be an existence worth living. It is surely better to face the challenge of living in the natural environment that we do have with all its inherent risks, than to exist in some cotton-wool existence. If we choose to face the world and our fellow human beings with the strength and courage God will give us, we can strive with God’s help to overcome all evils in the world, both that which is potentially within ourselves as well as that inherently in the universe.
Another and much shorter answer example:
There are two categories of evil, moral evil and physical evil. Moral evil exists because humankind is created with freewill and that necessitates that God allows humans to live out their freewill without interference. That means that humans can and sadly frequently do reject their innate moral sense in preference for self-centred non-altruistic goals and consequently other humans suffer bad things.
The second category of physical evil is the result of how the universe is necessarily created. No religion has ever claimed that God is a type of benevolent old grandfather who would spare us from all suffering! In fact it is clear that as long as we live on earth we will experience suffering and, hard as it may be to accept, the fact is that all human suffering can have a greater purpose than we might see at the time.
It is only out of adversity that greater human achievement and deeper love for others is achieved. Hence we must conclude that God has created a universe by which we can grow in character and love by means of suffering and by drawing on God’s grace to help us succeed. The commitment by God to help us in this endeavour is clearly shown us through Jesus Christ suffering for us and dying a cruel death so we can come into the joy of personal relationship with God. From an eternal perspective faith tells us that all things work for the good of those who love God.
L3/3. If God is a loving God how can he send some people to hell?
In answering this question, I will need to address the quite erroneous conception of the seven levels of hell that our culture has inherited from the Middle Ages. I will need to try and present the few metaphorical concepts given in the Bible as well as concepts suitable for modern minds such as put forward by C.S. Lewis in his book ‘The Great Divorce.’ These concepts tell us that people put themselves in hell rather than God sending people to hell.
The Bible tells us it is not God’s purpose that any one should be in hell, and that it is God’s purpose that everyone should come to experience the eternal joy of close relationship and life with God. However we also understand that we have been given free-will, i.e. it is not God’s purpose to force anyone to love him or serve him. It is not possible for the eternal joy of living with God to exist in a situation where that relationship is not based on our freewill. If anyone doesn’t want such close relationship with God then they will logically exist without it both now and possibly in eternity.
I do not believe God sends anyone to hell, so the question should be, ‘Why should we want to live with God rather than have our own way for all eternity? I can hear someone saying, ‘Living with God would be boring, I would prefer to live with like-minded friends for both now and eternity even if you Christians call that living in hell!
When Christians maintain a prayerful attitude, they are aware of a presence outside of themselves we call God, quietly at work all around them. God can also provide a sensitivity that helps people help other people and sometimes in situations that they had no pre-knowledge of. Christians believe that this awareness of experiencing and working with God is the start of eternal life. If God is quietly and continually at work in our lives, it is reasonable to conclude that God has purposed this new life to continue albeit in different milieu beyond the grave. Christians believe that God has clearly shown us how we may enter eternal life through faith in Jesus Christ and that this eternal life as we call it starts here. We can’t know now who will be in heaven, but we can know that heaven is where God is and where perfect love will be worked out in the new lives of its citizens.
If there is a heaven then hell would be a state of exclusion. W live in a cosmos that will end, and there is no Biblical certainty of any life other than by the gift of God beyond the grave, so some Bible scholars (ref. Our God is a consuming fire, Michael Greed, Westbow press 2014) have concluded that properly understood the Bible teaches that there is no continuation of life beyond God’s judgement day other than the gift of eternal life given by God through the Christ. On this understanding there is no hell beyond the day of judgement. So the few biblical metaphors that refer to hell as an ongoing place of torment need to be understood as hyperbole for the finality of those choosing not to accept God’s grace offered on the day of judgment. And for sure none of these metaphors give any indication any ongoing human relationships with other people will exist other than as part of God’s heaven. The biblical metaphors for heaven tell us that it will be a state where human relationships will be enhanced through closer fellowship with God. We can also reasonably conclude that if it is possible for God to be merciful to anyone finding themselves in a state of hell prior to the day of judgement who wants to be perfected in God’s love then God most definitely will be merciful.
L3/4 Why did Jesus need to die for our sins? Couldn't God just forgive us?
I approached my answer by providing ‘practical reasons’ why Jesus needed to die for our sins.
None of us ever lives a selfless life in relation to other people let alone God. So, once we are aware that it is God’s intention that we should live a life here and now of obedience to him (Jesus said, ‘Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect!’), we come to know we have sinned and we feel unable to do much about changing our nature. Not knowing whether we can be forgiven or not by God is unlikely to help us to change. But knowing that God will forgive us our sins might not change us either – we might conclude that we may as well continue with sins anyway – besides which would we really believe such a message! If you came to believe as some Muslim extremists do that by dying as a martyr when killing fellow less committed Muslims, or killing Christians or Jews that you are so showing you really love God and that by so doing you would be going straight to heaven with all your sins forgiven, then you might mistakenly take that course of action (despite the fact that the Qur’an states that God regards Christians and Jews as his children well as Muslims).
So how can we really believe that God has truly forgiven us? For example would a statement given by Moses or Confucius or Mohammed stating ‘God has forgiven you all your sins’ be likely to change you? I think not because however much you revered the prophet as a man of God, you would still only have the prophet’s word for it. The fact is that none of these three men made any such statement. Mohammad for example, as recorded in the Muslim Haddith, stated that he ‘prayed ninety nine times a day for the forgiveness of his own sins.’ This admission alone shows that even the great prophet of Islam himself did not feel confident about the forgiveness of sins.
However really knowing that God has loved us so much that he has personally carried all the penalty we deserve for our unbelief is the only practical way we might come to ‘fall in love with God’ and then start to believe that we can change with his grace working in us and through us. And that is exactly what Jesus Christ has showed us by his death. This was not just theoretical –you might ask how has God who is all perfect really suffered the loss and sorrow of our imperfection? Well Christians believe that God was in Jesus Christ and because the eternal God is spirit, the separation Jesus felt from his Father when offering himself for our sins on the cross, wasn’t just an event of 2000 years ago. It is also a permanent and spiritually painful marker in the heart of God. It was not that Jesus carried in his body the physical death that we deserve as some believe: it is rather that Jesus (complemented by God his Heavenly Father) carried in himself the spiritual separation that our sin deserves. If we come to God accepting Christ’s sacrifice was personal for us, we will really find God’s grace to change us!
Theological reasons
Of course there are also theological reasons for why Jesus needed to die. There are at least five valid theological reasons, but suffice to mention one that Evangelicals love to quote, viz. that all sin carries a penalty and since God is the God of justice, the only way we can be saved from the eternal death of separation from God that our sins deserve, is for God himself to carry the sentence which is prescribed. And this is what Isaiah prophesied (Is.53) and what Jesus fulfilled.
Other answers given
God just forgiving us would undermine what he wants to achieve with us. The two greatest commandments are all about relationships with Him and then with each other. God wants an eternal relationship however he has left us free to decide for ourselves. Nor does God want in his presence, the dirty and damaged creation we have caused both in relation to ourselves, others and our environment. The only way to cleanse ourselves individually so we can present ourselves to him is through Jesus and then we need God’s Spirit to get us into shape for an ongoing relationship with God. Suppose you were a professional footballer and presented yourself as being fully fit to the manager when you were not only unfit but injured, thus putting your team at risk of losing. Essentially we are that injured and unfit footballer until we accept Jesus as our medic and God’s Spirit as our trainer to get us both well and into shape to be ready to perform for God.
Paul writes (Rom.3:25) that “God presented Jesus as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood.” St. Paul is here saying that we are aware of God’s righteousness and that he will judge us for our sins (and we should tremble at the prospect!): however, the Gospel is that God has provided a way for the just deserts of our wrong doings to be met. God presents us (Paul declares) with Jesus sacrifice for us and this is an all sufficient sacrifice to cleanse us from the guilt of our sin. Our only response needed is to turn from our own way to God and to believe that Christ’s sacrifice is sufficient to cleanse us from all sin.
To overlook sin without dealing with it would make God unjust, because God does not tolerate sin. The sinful attitudes of our hearts must be eradicated with God’s grace for eternal relationships to be possible. So, salvation from sin is not simply about being forgiven, it is about being united with Jesus. God became man so that we could be united with God and share in his life. By dying on the cross Jesus faced God wrath for us and took the spiritual death that we all deserve. God then showed us that judgement and separation are overcome by raising Jesus from the dead and giving us the power to live a new life free from sin – just as Paul also writes in Romans 6:4, “We were buried with Jesus through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.”
Questions that challenge why God would or could communicate with humanity.
L4/Q1 & Q2. Isn’t God merely an all-pervading non-personal creative force? How can you argue that God is a personal God?
This question might be asked by a Buddhist or a Deist, i.e. someone who believes in a supernatural creative force but denies the possibility of human relationship with that force: they would not describe God as personal in any sense that humans could relate to. In answering this question I would clarify that the creative force we are both talking about is not naturalistic and since we understand that the universe had a zero space-time origin we are not just talking about the laws of physics, we are talking about the creative force behind the laws of physics and the universe.
By using the term creative force, we are talking about that which creates both the laws of physics and the material universe. This creative force implies direction to create; anything that has direction to create implies in some sense a personal mind. It is very difficult to prove, or even provide evidence for, the nature of God, aside from the revelation God has given. My understanding of God as personal comes from the fact that I believe that he has revealed himself to a variety of people over time, and he has done so in a personal manner. Many such revelations are recorded in the Bible. In particular, I believe that God revealed himself in the person of Jesus. I think the evidence that Jesus rose from the dead is compelling to anyone willing to consider the evidence dispassionately – while it is impossible to prove an event such a long time ago, I think the evidence is very much consistent with the historical resurrection and is inconsistent with any other explanation for the origin of Christianity. If the resurrection did happen, this gives very strong reason to accept the basic Christian understanding of God, which portrays him as personal.
Also, to come at the question from a more abstractly philosophical angle, if God is not personal, then that means that ‘personality’ is not a part of the real world; it is simply an artefact of sub-atomic particles interacting with each other. This means that life and humanity is just an accident. Now, while you could consistently believe this to be the case, I fail to see that there is any necessity to believe it (aside from a pre-judged anti-theistic bias), or even any strong likelihood for this. Humanity is highly complex and highly developed life form, and I think there is every reason to suppose that we are the product of the mind of a personal creator. We cannot prove this, but I think it is perfectly rational to believe it. (A)
Another answer
The question suggests that God is the all-pervading creative force and it is quite easy to assume that this God is non-personal. It may be best not to try and understand God using our created human brains; might it not be better to understand God by acting as if God is personal and wants to relate to us? When we do so, in my experience we can discover God is personal. Christianity is based on the fact that anyone can have a personal relationship with God. All through history there are accounts of people who have had personal relationships with God. They have experienced God when going through difficult situations or have heard God speaking to them. (H/G)
For myself I know God is personal God. By the experiences that I have been through, by reading the Bible and praying to God I know he can guide and lead me. Therefore I know that God is not merely an all pervading non-personal force, because I have a personal relationship with God.
Another Answer
The philosopher William Lane Craig provides another argument for a personal God. He argues that the universe must have a beginning or not. But the idea of time continuing infinitely into the past is illogical (we could never get to now if there were infinite time in the past), so it must have a beginning. That beginning must be caused or uncaused. But since everything we know of has a cause, it would be illogical to suppose that the universe itself is uncaused. There are two types of cause: things that happen according to natural laws (e.g. gravity) and those that are chosen by rational agents (e.g. people). The cause of the universe cannot be a natural cause, since the beginning of the universe is the beginning of all nature, and a thing cannot cause itself. Therefore, the cause must have been a conscious choice – i.e. that of a ‘personal’ God-mind existing outside of nature! (A)
Another Answer
For the universe to have been created from a zero origin (as science now tells us it was) by a ‘creative force’, that so-called force would necessarily be super-natural. The reason for this is that all we can call ‘natural’ (space-time, energy and matter) is the legitimate realm of science and can also be potentially be investigated, but the creative force that brought the natural into existence can’t be natural (since nothing creates itself) and so neither is it the legitimate realm of science. That which creates the natural is by definition supernatural. Such a creative force would itself be uncreated and so timeless in its existence, but simultaneously able to create space-time.
Science has discovered that all nature (the created universe) hangs on and is determined by certain fixed parameters or laws. The creative force itself can’t be subject to these laws rather these laws are determined by something within the supernatural. Other realities such as those accessible truths which humanity can see by means of pure mathematics, reason and logic, also inhabit this supernatural realm. Life and the earth and heavens would not exist but for the existence of these supernatural realities.
‘Rational judgements do not depend on a causal relation between causes and their effects, but on a logical relationship between premises and the conclusions we infer from them’ (C .S. Lewis quoted by Stuart Greenstreet in ‘Philosophy Now’ issue 90). It is the natural which generally complies with logical truth and not the other way round; thus logical truth itself is beyond the natural realm and is therefore in the realm of the uncreated creative force that produced the natural realm. It is indicative of human reasoning that a supernatural reality exists that supports the very notion of the truths that we can deduce.
The creative force supports both human reasoning ability and the truth to which that reasoning points and so it is reasonable to conclude that some kind of supernatural reasoning is part of the creative force. Since it takes what we would call a personal mind to actually appreciate and understand logic and utilise reasoning, it is also reasonable to call the creative force ‘Mind’ personal, and for Christians to call that uncreated personal force, the Personal Creator God. (M)
L4/Q3. Why would God bother with one product of material evolution on one small planet in one insignificant solar system amongst an infinite number and variety of solar systems?
The questioner is challenging the Christian notion that earth and humanity in particular is special because it has been visited by God in Christ. In answering the question I will need to avoid any implication that life is unique to planet earth and concentrate instead on why God is personally interested in humanity in the same way he would be personally interested in any other intelligent life form wherever it might exist in the universe.
We don’t know how many other planets exist that support intelligent life capable of sharing to some extent the reasoning power of God. There could be millions of them, but regardless of how many such life-forms exist, it is quite reasonable to suppose that our one and only personal creator God created each and everyone for God’s pleasure. Since the variety of life-forms created on earth alone vary from viruses of molecular proportions to complex intelligent beings such as ourselves capable of human reason and also of understanding to some degree the mind of God, it is logical to suppose that our creator God is interested in every product of creation, but particularly so of those beings such as ourselves capable of a reasoning and personal relationship with God. It is also evident that our universe is temporal in the sense that its energy will one day decay, hence it is reasonable to suppose that God’s personal purpose in creating relational life-forms is not limited to this universe, but has an eternal significance. Such a vision gives added reason for God to bother about humanity in the here and now, and that is because we have an eternal destiny.
That being so, the Christian claim is reasonable, viz., that God was in Christ Jesus for the purpose of bringing humanity into an eternal relationship with God. Jesus exemplified that God loves the world and wants all humanity to enter into the family of God. There is every reason why God should bother with humanity despite our frequent rejection of all that is good, and I have no doubt that God has the same commitment to all other species of intelligent life wherever they may have been created in the universe. (M)
L4/Q4. If God exists maybe he just set the universe going for some reason and has left us to get on with it ~ why should we think God wants to communicate with us?
This question is one that is posed by Deists and is similar to L4/Q2 and is probably best answered by reference to personal testimony and the testimony of countless believers past and present.
Why would God set the universe going and then ignore it? Surely if you create something, it is because you have some interest in it. If God is personal, and created personal beings in his universe, the reason for this is most likely to be in order to communicate something of himself with them: otherwise his behaviour would be quite irrational. However the main reason why I believe God wants to communicate with us is because it is the testimony of countless people down the centuries that he has communicated with us and continues to do so, and has communicated the fact that he wants to communicate. (A)
Yes God has left us to get on with living our lives and that because he has allowed us freewill, but he has not left us without a sense of the Moral law, i.e., how we ought to live in relationship with one another. Furthermore it is the testimony of millions that God prompts them, corrects them and helps them to live more altruistic lives than they otherwise would do. Christians also believe that God has communicated his love for us most clearly in and through Jesus Christ and that through faith in this communication, we are further enabled by God’s Spirit to walk in good relationship with God.
L4/5 If God made the universe, does he not have a metaphysical non-temporal existence that is necessarily outside of the universe? Whereas we are part of the universe and so how would God be able to communicate with the universe and us?
(I assume this philosophical question could be asked by anyone, Christian or otherwise)
This is a tricky philosophical question that the important and famous philosopher Descartes tried, but failed to answer! It is true that if we accept that God is other than the universe and in that sense also timeless (eternal), then it is logical that since human consciousness is part of the created universe and exists in a timeframe, it is very likely that we are not of the same essence as God. Hence there is an apparent problem that you and others before you have articulated.
However if you were alternatively to accept that God in creating the universe somehow (beyond our understanding) moved into the universe and time by that action, then it is not too unreasonable to accept that God might be able to communicate with us if our consciousness is capable of interacting with that communication. A material model of this might be that of a radio set being capable of receiving and tuning into radio wave communication, and so our consciousness might act as a kind of radio set that could interact with God’s spiritual communications.
Our relationships with other people are outward relationships, while if we have a relationship with God it is an inward relationship and his communication is at a higher level than our own thought processes. God can use many different ways to communicate with people. We should not limit God in the way he communicates with us. God can communicate to us through dreams, visions, through events or through something another person may say to us.
Sometimes God directs Christians in ways that we would otherwise have no knowledge of, and then the outworking of our response proves to us that God spoke to us. To hear God, you have to be open to the possibility that there is a God, and then you need to actively seek God and be close to him so that you can be ready to know and hear when God is communicating to you. God speaks to us individually and uniquely. There are many things that we don’t understand and struggle to have the answers for, but as Christians we believe and trust in God that he is able to do what seems impossible to us.
L4/6 If as you claim God came to earth in the person of Jesus Christ, isn’t it a bit like claiming that a house builder wants to communicate with the bricks he has built and so he becomes a brick?
(I assume this is asked by a sceptic.)
Well yes, but then I expect you are going to tell me that it’s impossible for a householder to become a brick and if he could he would not be in a position to communicate the householders’ original thoughts with the other bricks because he would be just like them: so what’s the difference with God and Jesus Christ?
If you accept that there is something about humans that God is capable of communicating with (i.e. humans are capable of conscious relationship with God), then the short answer is that Christians believe that God was in Jesus communicating to humanity. They also believe that Jesus was not only fully human, but in an additional way his personality was also that of God. So he was not just a prophet or Messiah, but represented the very essence of God as far as a human being is capable of. Jesus did not claim to replace God in anyway, but nevertheless he lived a life that demonstrated God as a human being. So if we look at Jesus, we can now see we can now really know who God is and how God thinks about us.
Jesus did have and spoke out the thoughts of God and proved this by doing good and performing those miracles that he was aware God was doing through him. The people around him recognised that the God of the Jewish prophecies (Old Testament) was really at work in Jesus on planet earth!
L4/7 How can we know God really communicates to humanity? Prophets and Messiahs may just be the product of social evolution (people speaking out of their ultra social egos)?
We assume this question could be asked by anyone who might be questioning the reality of God communicating with humanity as opposed to thinking their own thoughts.
At one level we can ask how we can know anything at all. Early Modern philosophers such as Descartes and Hume demonstrated the impossibility of knowing anything with absolute certainty. When we are ask how we know that God really communicated, we are not therefore asking for 100% certainty, but are asking to be shown that it is the most plausible option on the table.
It is highly probable that many prophets and messiahs have been fakes, frauds or deluded individuals. There have been so many, with so many contradictory messages, that we simply cannot believe in all of them. It might be argued, therefore, that the most rational approach is to reject all of them. However, this is not really a rational approach, since we have to live our lives on some basis, assuming that something is true. If we reject some prophets and messiahs, we will have to accept others or else make ourselves into one. Just because not everyone calls themselves a prophet or messiah does not mean that they don’t fill that role! In modern society, celebrities and media stars function as prophets just as much as an itinerant teacher might have done thousands of years ago. They propagate their philosophy of life and encourage us to believe and follow it.
The prophets whose teachings are going to be most plausible are those that are consistent and workable. Many prophets’ teachings can be discounted because it is clearly designed to benefit themselves or their own group at the expense of others. A prophet whose teaching is credible and genuine should be one whose teaching is for the benefit of all. Other prophets can be rejected because they make claims that can be disproved – they make claims about themselves that are shown to be false, or they predict things that do not come about. Some prophets avoid this problem by making no testable claims at all, but these might also be suspect for this reason.
When we look at the biblical prophets, and particularly Jesus, we find that they fit the test for genuine prophets. Their teaching primarily encourages good living and justice in action on the part of their hearers. They do not attempt to accumulate wealth or seize power; indeed, many of them persisted in their teaching despite persecution and even death and where they make claims, these things usually came to pass.
While it is true with many of the Old Testament prophets that we cannot always be certain whether the prophecies we now read were written before or after the events they predicted, with Jesus we have an additional piece of evidence that gives him a strong claim to being genuine: his resurrection from the dead. Once again, while we cannot prove with certainty that this event occurred, in my view the historical evidence is overwhelmingly more consistent with the view that he actually did rise than with the view that this story is a later myth or invention. For one thing, Jesus’ disciples were all persecuted and nearly all executed for their claim that they had seen him after his resurrection. (For more detailed historical analysis, books such as Frank Morrison’s ‘Who Moved the Stone?’ or NT Wright’s ‘The Resurrection of the Son of God’ would be recommended reading.)
When I compare the teaching of Jesus with the teachings of our modern-day ‘prophets’, the modern-day opinion-formers seem more commonly to be out for themselves, encouraging behaviour that is destructive of individuals and societies, and focused on short-term gain at the expense of long-term sustainability. By contrast, Jesus’ vision of what life can be is positive, wholesome and deeply fulfilling.
Yes potentially many prophets and messiahs can come to us proclaiming many things in God’s name and sometimes they probably are speaking out of their ultra-egos, however Christians believe that if you read the Gospels with an open mind you will know that God is communicating with you. As I have said, if we look at Jesus, how he lived, what he did, we can see and recognise how God was acting on earth through him. If we look at him we can recognise God communicating to us.