10 questions for your pastor

[Drich]

1. Why is God called loving or merciful when, in the Old Testament's stories of the Israelite conquest, he specifically orders his chosen people to massacre their enemies, showing no mercy to men, women, even children and animals?

Why is God called loving or merciful? Because Loving and merciful does not extend to the unrighteous. God is loving and merciful to those who receive God's Love and mercy.

2. Does it make sense to claim, as the Bible does, that wrongdoing can be forgiven by magically transferring the blame from a guilty person to an innocent one, then punishing the innocent person?

Yes. why? God's creation, God's rules.

3. Why does the Bible routinely depict God as manifesting himself in dramatic, unmistakable ways and performing obvious miracles even before the eyes of nonbelievers, when no such thing happens in the world today?

God is also depicted in the benign ways as well. "we" look for signs and wonders because this is the only side of God we wish to see. "we/you" want to see if God can defy 'science.'

4. Why do vast numbers of Christians still believe in the imminent end of the world when the New Testament states clearly that the apocalypse was supposed to happen 2,000 years ago, during the lifetime of Jesus' contemporaries?

Same Book and chapter, but continue reading through verse 32.

5. Why do Christians believe in the soul when neurology has found clear evidence that the sense of identity and personality can be altered by physical changes to the brain?

Why do you assume that the 'personality' is the limits or defining characteristics of the soul?

6. If it was always God's plan to provide salvation through Jesus, why didn't he send Jesus from the very beginning, instead of confusing and misleading generations of people by setting up a religion called Judaism which he knew in advance would prove to be inadequate?

Without the establishment of sin and sacerfice Christ's efforts would be meaningless.

7. Since the Bible states that God does not desire that anyone perish, but also states that the majority of humankind is going to hell, doesn't this show that God's plan of salvation is a failure even by his own standard? If this outcome is a success, what would count as a failure?

The plan is to provide oppertunity for salvation. Failure would be the lack of attonemnt for all who ask and seek for it.

8. Why didn't God create human beings such that they freely desire to do good, thus removing the need to create a Hell at all? (If you believe this is impossible, isn't this the state that will exist in Heaven?)

Do you mean why did God created humans to be more like dogs? Perhaps because He did want a dog.

9. Is it fair or rational for God to hide himself so that he can only be known by faith, then insist that every single human being find him by picking the right one out of thousands of conflicting and incompatible religions?

Yes it is Fair and rational. Why? Because if we absolutly knew of God before we made the desision to follow Him of our own free will, then 'free will' would not be apart of the equasion. Self perservation would be the force that drove your desision.

10. If you had the power to help all people who are suffering or in need, at no cost or effort to yourself, would you do it?

No.

If so, why hasn't God done this already?

Because suffering in this world is only temporary. This 'suffering' is useful to the ones who endure it on many different levels, and it is useful to those who use the suffering of other to decide their eternal fate, as it helps them form an opinion of God.

In short suffering serves a vital purpose in the human condition, in this life and the next.