Overview of Headings - Full List

You may use the menu of headings below to find bible passages giving insight into God’s perspective on common questions that hinder belief.

Basic aims and propositions of site
Coexisting Faith and Reason both
Gaining a God Perspective
The problem of suffering: God has an enemy
God Has a Dilemma
Belief, Faith and a Knowing of the heart
Common 'objections' in perspective
Implications of Unbelief
Testing the Hypotheses
Hearing and Responding to God's Heart
God's invitations to an action of transaction

Rationale for Site

Basic aims and propositions of site

• Basic aims of site

• Core propositions

• Focus, aims and purpose

• Discovering from the heart

• Note to reader

• Disclaimer

• Scepticism

• Belief

• A note for the non-believer

• A note for those who consider there is not enough evidence to overcome doubt

• For the hostile or antagonistic

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Coexisting Faith and Reason both

Faith has been getting some bad press

• Is our human capacity for faith something we can afford to dismiss?

• Does faith suspend reason?

• Do atheism and non-belief also involve faith?

• If having faith and believing in God is so important, what can be wrong in wanting more convincing evidence of his existence?

• What about those who do not disbelieve, but think it is not possible to know and that therefore we can only ‘wait and see’?

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Reasonable grounds for God and faith?

• Considering issues from God’s perspective rather than our own

• Discovering God’s heart

• What is the hope of faith?

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Basic objections about God:

Basic objections to belief in God: Some you may identify with:

Objections listed: below on this page

Objections introduced with links to background lists of references: Basic objections about God

Objections listed with introductory discussion: see Common 'objections' in perspective

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Next: Gaining a God Perspective: what is God like?

God speaks a language of the heart

• Dimension of the Spirit

• Convinced of His Love

• Words of Promise and Hope

• His Appeal to the Human Heart

• In Consideration of our Response

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Nature and Role of ‘Repentance’

• An exercise to convey meaning: a ‘change of mind to believe and receive’ 

• God’s Kindness and Goodness leads to repentance

• Gift of Repentance

• Turning towards – believing and receiving

• Examples of repentance – not just turning away from, but turning towards:

• Related References:

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God offers ‘salvation’ - to life redeemed and transformed

• How shall we be made right if we neglect so great a salvation?

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The need to believe

• What Jesus said about Belief

• Demands for 'Evidence'

• Challenges to faith that are commonly experienced:

• Passages on Belief: for reflection and further reading

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Benefits of Faith when we choose to Believe

• Believing

• Faith and Perseverance

• Forgiveness and Salvation

• Mercy, Grace and Blessing

• Protection and Justice

• Provision

• Healing and wholeness

• Comfort and Care

• Calmness and Inner Peace

• Prosperity, Success and Influence

• Integrity and clear conscience

• God’s Sovereignty and Faithfulness

• God’s Abiding and Intimate Presence

• Development of Christian character

• Hope, Strength and Confidence

• Shared Inheritance and authority with Jesus in the Kingdom

• Abundant and Everlasting Resurrection Life

• Passages for Reflection:

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God is improbable beyond human imagination

Comparison with ‘Gods’ that are made up by humanity

• Infinite Beyond Knowing

• Unrivalled Omnipotence

• Infinite Foreknowledge, Destiny and Purpose

• Awesomely invested in Destiny and Purpose of humanity

• Individual and Intimate Knowledge and Care

• Infinite Goodwill

• A God who is merciful and forgiving – He will abundantly pardon

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Is there a positive in God's apparent fixation with 'sin'?

Why does God seem to take so much issue with shortcomings and ‘sin’?

• Considerations on ‘universal’ effects of the fall

• God’s Salvation now provides a choice:

• Parable of the Lost Son

• Implications: warnings and invitations

Some further concepts:

• God’s perfection and ‘holiness’

• Nature and Source of ‘sin’

• Pride and self-will

• Rebellion and independence

• ‘Sins’ identified

• Humanity’s sinfulness - inherited / inherent

• Deceptiveness of sin - irreversible, irreconcilable

• Consequences of sin and sinning - separation from God

• God’s rescue plan – His own Son

• God reaching out with mercy as a loving, longing Father

• Victory and Triumph over sin and death

• An Inheritance of Overcoming and Deliverance

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Paradoxical nature of God’s Truths

• An example: Believing is Seeing:

• Other paradoxes of spiritual reality:

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Barriers to knowing God:

• Limitations of natural mind and human understanding

• Alienation through fallen nature in fallen world

• Our tendency to put hope in things we find more visible and understandable

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Faith provides access to a God dimension that is unseen

An Unseen realm we relate to by faith

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Common 'objections' seen from a God perspective

Basic objections about God:
Basic objections to belief in God: Some you may identify with:

• If God is good, why would he allow cruelty and suffering?

• If there is a God in control, why does he not prevent evil and disaster?

• Why does God not provide clearer explanations for the existence of obvious and distressing problems in this world?

• Isn’t God by his actions and laws, as seen particularly in the Old Testament, shown to be harsh, cruel, and vindictive?

• Why is there not more convincing evidence for God if we are supposed to ‘believe’ in him?  

• Why don’t Christian believers accept that other people have their own sincere beliefs?

• Why should we believe in a religion of vested interests that has caused so much conflict and been so abusive and hypocritical?

• Isn’t it time to stop believing in ideas handed down for which there are no proofs?

• If God created everything, then who created God?

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Why doesn't God 'do something' to end evil and suffering?

• We can know God’s plans and purposes for resolving the challenges facing this planet

• Human Perspective and Attitudes Foretold

• God’s Perspective about Being Prepared

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Does God bring judgement on people because of sin?

Is there judgement for sin?

• There is no Condemnation

• Is there a coming judgement?

• When Jesus becomes Judge

• What can lead to a person receiving judgement?

• How to Stand when there is Judgement: by faith, not good works

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God has a plan

• God’s Plan in Place from the Beginning

• The Revelation of God’s Purposes towards People has been Evolving in an Unfolding Plan

• God’s plan to ‘do something’ is being worked out in this present world

• God’s plan significantly invested in his church

• A New Earth and a New Heaven

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Next: Implications of Unbelief

An action of transaction

• A prayer of faith to come into right relationship with God by believing

• How to pray a prayer to become saved by believing, in faith:

• *Our relationship with Him can begin with a simple heartfelt prayer of acceptance and declaration with the following ingredients in our own words:

• Request for follow up information

If you have prayed such a prayer and wish to maintain and grow in your faith, you may request a simple page of information that comes from the bible about ways to do this.

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Persevering in new life of faith

A Call to Persevere

• Persevering in new life of faith

• The Virtue of Perseverance

• Rewards of Persevering

• Promises about Persevering

• Perseverance in Right Living

• Downsides to not Persevering

• Encouragement in Persevering

• Setbacks and failure: all shortcomings dealt with

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As Captives of Hope

Held Captive by Hope

Final Reflections

• The Day of the Lord Will Come

• Themes of this site and the message of the bible in one passage: A psalm of praise. Of David. Psalm 145: 1-21 NIV

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What is God Like?

Gaining a God Perspective: what is God like?

Seeing from God’s Perspective

What the bible says about itself

What the bible says about God

• Eternal - without beginning or end

• Creator

• Attributes

• God's Unseen Reality and Being

• Executive Functions

• Personhood

• Generosity and goodwill towards all people

• Father's Heart

• Intimacy and Comfort

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What God says about Himself

• Overwhelming Awesomeness and Brilliance of His Presence in His Unseen Realm

• His Purposes in Creation

• Familial Relationship with Humanity

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How does God reveal himself and make himself known?

• Drawn by His Spirit

• Revealed to the humble

• Revealed in His Creation

• Revealed through His Word

• Revealed through His Son, Jesus

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What the Bible says about Jesus

• As Foretold by ancient prophets

• What God says about Jesus

• What Jesus said about himself

• Purpose of Jesus’ coming - to save the world

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How Jesus related to ‘the scriptures’

Discovering God’s Heart

• His Care for the one

• God’s purposes toward people are for good

• What Jesus said about God as our Father

• What God says about this world, about the human condition, and His purposes towards people

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The problem of suffering: God has an Enemy

God's Enemy: Satan

• History of Origin

• Nature and motivation

• Scope of Operations

• Influence in God’s created world and strategies against humanity

What Jesus said about the enemy

• Jesus resisted Satan’s temptations

• Jesus’ parables about the work of the enemy

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God’s good, acceptable and perfect will

• God’s sovereign will works for an ultimate good, even over things not purposed by Him

• God’s declared will provides a pattern for how to live in this world, but choices we make determine how well it is followed or not

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Finding meaning and making sense of suffering

• God doesn’t ‘inflict’ trouble directly, but we live in a fallen world caught up in a spiritual conflict

• God promises to be always a present Help and Comfort

• If we give it over to him, God offers to redeem the bad and turn it to good

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Why is evil allowed to continue and not been stopped

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God has a Heart for Justice and those who offer it

• God’s Passion for Justice and Right Dealing

• Responding to Injustice and human need is an expectation well regarded and rewarded by God

• The Justice in society that God seeks comes through heart transformation

• Jesus always helped people up towards an empowering wholeness of body, mind and spirit

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A God of Compassion, Mercy and Forgiveness

God’s heart of compassion, mercy and forgiveness

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God has a Dilemma

• God’s Compassion is set against His Perfect Righteousness - His acts of mercy and forgiveness beyond all accusation of Injustice

  The Mystery of How Justice and Mercy have been satisfied

• Justice and Mercy meet in the laying down of Jesus’ Innocent Life

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Jesus came to bring reconciliation

• The role and purpose of Jesus in ‘laying down his life’ for us

• What Jesus Achieved by his Resurrection (risen)Life in the (unseen) Eternal Realm

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From ‘severity’ of the Old Testament / Covenant to God’s ‘grace’ in the New

The Covenants (Agreements/Contracts) of God

• Old Covenant of God (Old Testament)

• Jesus paid the penalty for our shortfalls to meet the just demands of righteousness

• New Covenant of God (Jesus and New Testament)

• The new covenant brings fulfilment of the old

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An Enemy in Retreat

• Satan’s Defeat

• Satan’s destiny and ultimate end

• Jesus’ Role and Authority in God’s Kingdom

• For us - standing in a Victory Won

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Next: Belief, Faith and a Knowing of the heart

Warnings about consequences of unbelief are not motivated by hate

Implications of not paying heed to warnings

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Myth of being neutral about belief

Impossibility of remaining ‘Neutral’

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A Testable Hypothesis: God is not 'hiding' from those who honestly and seriously seek for him

• Some assurances given by God about seeking him

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Considerations on belief in God being not unreasonable

Considerations for why coming to know God by believing is not ‘unreasonable’

• Believing is needed to relate to God because it is by Faith that he, himself, achieves what he purposes

• Being exhorted to believe is a consistent message of the bible

• Realities of the spiritual realm described in the bible are invisible

• It is in the heart, rather than the mind alone, that those who believe come to ‘know’ spiritual reality

• Faith and Believing enable access to the Benevolence of God and the Goodness he desires to bestow

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How does God ‘reason’ with us?

How does God ‘reason’ with us

• God uses an appeal to the heart for revealing things of himself that challenge human understanding

• What happens when human reasoning challenges God?

• He invites us to engage with him and raise our issues, but to also consider them in terms of who he is

• People who ‘wrestled’ with God

• People who interceded with God on behalf of others

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How do we get faith?

How can we get the faith needed for knowing God?

• By ‘Hearing’ God’s Word:

• Faith imparted

• Faith activated

• Maintaining and growing in Faith

• Living in the fullness and benefits of faith

• Things that strengthen and grow our faith

• Faith grows step by step in making many individual choices of obedience

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How can we know?

How can we know?

• It is in the heart that the reality of God becomes known

• It is a knowing that comes through faith and believing

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God's invitations for an experiential knowing

God offers an experiential knowing

• God is always offering invitations

• Seek and you will find

• Taste and see

• Try me, Test me, Prove me

• Seek with your whole heart and a persistent desire

• Come to Him - with humility, confidence - both

• Him Living in me and me living in Him

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How should we respond?

• Take a step - towards God

• Peoples’ hearts failing them from fear

• Many are called - few choose to accept

• Do not be discouraged

• The time is NOW

• Understanding the times

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Next: God's invitations to an action of transaction