Big questions, answered from the Bible and the church's long witness
God
- Does God exist?The Bible does not try to prove God's existence by argument. It says that creation and the human conscience point to him. The existence and order of the world, and our sense of right and wrong, are signposts rather than proofs, so faith is not a leap in the dark but trust in a promise that those who seek will find.
- Who is God?The Bible does not sketch God as a philosophical idea. It introduces him as the one who makes himself known. He is eternal and unchanging, holy, compassionate and gracious, the Creator and Father. Christians believe this God has shown himself most clearly in Jesus Christ.
- What is the Trinity?The Trinity is the confession that God is one, and that this one God exists eternally as three persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. It does not mean three gods, nor one person who appears in three modes. The doctrine is the church's long effort to keep everything Scripture says about God, and it leads to the confession that God is love within himself.
- Why can't we see God?The Bible says God is spirit and therefore invisible, yet that he makes himself known through creation, Scripture, his Son Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit. It does not hide the fact that God can seem to hide, and it gives believers the psalms of lament as words to pray in that darkness. Christians hold that this hiddenness belongs to a God who invites love instead of compelling it.
- Do science and faith conflict?Scripture presents a God who made an ordered world, so Christians have long seen the study of nature as a way of looking at his wisdom. Science asks how the world works, while Scripture also asks who made it and why. Christians read Genesis 1 in different ways, but they agree that God is the Creator of everything.
- How does God speak?Scripture says God spoke long ago through the prophets and in these last days through his Son. Today his word is heard above all in the God-breathed Scriptures, together with creation, the Holy Spirit and the discernment of the church. Christians differ about how the Spirit guides individuals now, but they agree that no claimed word from God may contradict Scripture.
- Are miracles possible?If God exists and made nature, then his acting within nature in a special way is no contradiction. Scripture reads miracles not as breaks in a closed system but as signs that point to God's kingdom. Hume's objection deserves a fair hearing, but its force depends on how much of the answer is assumed before the evidence is weighed.
- Can God do anything?Scripture says that nothing is too hard for God, and the church has confessed this as his almighty power. Omnipotence is the power to do all that is consistent with who God is, not the power to do the self-contradictory. That God cannot lie is not a weakness but his perfection, and his power is a comfort because it belongs to the one who loves us.
- Does God change his mind?Scripture says that God does not change, and it also says that God relented. The church has confessed that God does not change in his being, character or purpose, and has read his relenting as his response to people who turn. How best to read those texts is still discussed, but on any reading prayer is not in vain.
- Is God male?No. God is Spirit, not a being with a human body or a sex. Men and women alike are made in God's image, and Scripture calls God Father while also comparing his love to a mother's. The church has kept the name "Father" not because God is thought to be masculine but because it is the name of the relationship Jesus revealed.
- How can I know God's will?God has already made known in Scripture the will we are to obey, and he tells us to renew our minds and to seek wisdom and counsel so that we can discern it. But we do not have to find a single hidden right answer for every choice. God guides the one who entrusts to him what is hidden and does what is revealed. Traditions understand this guidance in somewhat different ways.
- Does God have feelings?Scripture says that God loves, rejoices, grieves and is angry. The church has taken this seriously while teaching that God is not tossed about by emotion or overwhelmed by what happens outside him. Whether God suffers is still discussed among Christians, but all agree that God is not indifferent to us.
Jesus
- Who is Jesus?The church has confessed Jesus as the promised Messiah, the Son of God and the Lord. In the words of the Council of Chalcedon, he is one person, truly God and truly man. This is the testimony of those who followed him most closely, and it answers a question Jesus himself put to his disciples and still puts to every reader.
- Did Jesus really exist?Almost all historians of the ancient world hold that Jesus really lived and was crucified under Pontius Pilate. Scholars who are not Christians largely agree. The earliest New Testament witnesses and Roman and Jewish writers point to the same basic facts.
- Did Jesus really rise from the dead?The church has always confessed that Jesus died on the cross, was buried, and rose bodily on the third day. This is not a matter of mathematical proof but of weighing evidence. The empty tomb, the appearances to many different people, and the change in frightened disciples are, Christians believe, best explained by the resurrection itself.
- Why did Jesus have to die?The church confesses that Jesus died for us and for our sins. His death shows that God does not treat sin lightly, and just as much how deeply God loves sinners. Christians use several pictures to explain how the cross saves (ransom, victory, sacrifice, substitution, revealed love), but all agree that it was for us and springs from God's love.
- Is Jesus the only way?Christians confess that Jesus is the only way to God. But this is not a claim that Christians are better than others. It is a confession that salvation comes not from our effort but from the grace of one person. What happens to those who have never heard the gospel is a question on which faithful Christians hold several views.
- Is Jesus God?The church has confessed that Jesus Christ is truly God and also truly man. The church holds that this is not a doctrine added later: the Council of Nicaea set down what the New Testament testifies. God is one, and the Son is distinct from the Father yet of the same being.
- Was Jesus really born of a virgin?The church has always confessed that Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary. Matthew and Luke each tell it, and the Hebrew word in Isaiah 7:14 deserves an honest look. The confession says that Jesus' beginning was God's own initiative, something Scripture proclaims rather than proves.
- Why did God become human?The church confesses that the eternal Son became truly human. Scripture gives several reasons: to make God known, to save us as one of us, and to be our merciful high priest. Christmas marks the fact that God did not watch from a distance but came to where we are.
- Is Jesus the Messiah?Messiah and Christ are the same word, "anointed one," and Jesus' followers confessed him as the promised one. The apostles found their grounds in passages such as Isaiah 53, Micah 5:2 and Psalms 22 and 110. Jewish objections, above all that the world is not yet at peace, are weighty, and Christians answer with two comings.
- What did Jesus teach?At the centre of Jesus' teaching is the announcement that the kingdom of God is near, so repent and believe the good news. He called God Father, taught his hearers to love God and neighbour, and asked for the heart and not only outward obedience. Yet his teaching cannot be separated from the teacher, because he called people to follow him and to come to him.
- Why did Jesus speak in parables?A parable uses an everyday story to show what the kingdom of God is like. A story draws the hearer in and invites a verdict, so it opens the truth to the willing and leaves it veiled for the closed-hearted. The Gospels speak of both effects, and the church has understood Jesus to have intended both.
- Was Jesus really without sin?The New Testament testifies consistently that Jesus was tempted as we are, yet without sin, and the church confessed this at Chalcedon. Scenes such as the temple or the Canaanite woman can trouble a first reading, but a closer look finds no ground to call them sins. His sinlessness is tied to the very place on which our salvation stands.
- Why did Jesus perform miracles?The Gospels give three reasons. The miracles are signs that God's kingdom has arrived, acts of compassion toward people in pain, and signs that show who Jesus is. But he did not work them to satisfy curiosity or to prove himself on demand. Even his opponents accepted that extraordinary deeds stood at the center of his ministry.
- Where was Jesus during the three days?The Bible does not answer at length. What is clear is that Jesus truly died, that he promised the thief on the cross "today you will be with Me in Paradise," and that death could not hold him. The creed's line on his descent to the dead has been read as a proclamation of victory, as arrival in the realm of the dead, and as the anguish of the cross, and the church has allowed more than one reading.
The Bible
- Can the Bible be trusted?The Bible presents itself as God-breathed and as resting on the testimony of eyewitnesses. The number and early date of the manuscripts, and discoveries like the Dead Sea Scrolls, give reason to believe that today's Bible conveys the text as first written very closely. This is not proof but grounds for trust, and honest doubt is one way that trust gets tested.
- How did we get the Bible?The Bible is a collection of books written by many authors over about 1,500 years. The church confesses that it did not invent these books at a council but recognised and listed books already read as the word of God. Protestants, Catholics and the Orthodox differ on the extent of the Old Testament.
- Is the God of the Old Testament different from the God of the New?The church has always confessed that the God of the Old Testament and the God of the New is one and the same. There is mercy in the Old Testament and judgment in the New, and Jesus Christ is the clearest revelation of this God. Hard texts such as the conquest of Canaan must be faced honestly, and Christians do not all read them the same way.
- How should we read the Bible?The Bible reads best as God's word and as one story that points to Christ. Pay attention to context and kind of writing, meditate and obey, and read prayerfully, together with the church. That people interpret it differently is a reason to read more humbly and carefully, not to stop.
- Does the Bible contradict itself?There are passages in the Bible that plainly look different from one another. The church has understood these as differences of perspective among witnesses, summary and rounding, copyists' variants, and genre, though honesty admits that some explanations remain only possibilities. Christians differ on whether every detail can be harmonised, but agree that what matters most is the events the witnesses report and the message they carry.
- What about the 'other gospels'?Writings such as the Gospels of Thomas, Judas and Mary come mostly from the second and third centuries, and many carry Gnostic ideas, that the material world is flawed and that salvation comes through secret knowledge. The church received only the four Gospels, judging by apostolic origin, early and wide use, and agreement with the faith it had been given. Some of the other writings were suppressed later, which is true, but the church's verdict is that the four are the earlier and more secure witness.
- Is Genesis history?Genesis testifies that God made everything, that humanity fell, and that God promised redemption, and all Christians affirm this. How to read chapters 1-11, whether as literal history, as history with literary features, or as theological narrative, is a question on which faithful Christians differ. Chapters 12-50, the stories of Israel's ancestors, stand much closer to the ordinary ground of history.
- Does the Bible approve of slavery?The Bible assumes the servitude that existed in ancient societies and limits the power of masters within it, but it does not teach slavery as God's ideal. Kidnapping people to sell them is a grave crime in both the Law and the New Testament, and the teaching that every person bears God's image, and that master and slave are brothers in Christ, undermines slavery at its root. Yet it is also true that Christians defended slavery for a long time, and that Christians led its abolition.
- Does the Bible put women down?The Bible says that men and women alike are made in God's image, and Jesus treated women as disciples and witnesses in ways that broke the customs of his day. A few passages about roles in the church and home are read differently by faithful Christians. On every reading, the Bible gives no permission to despise or abuse women.
- Do Christians have to keep the Old Testament law?Christians are not saved by keeping the law but by grace through faith in Christ. That does not mean the law was thrown away. It is holy, it exposes sin and shows God's character, and it finds its fulfilment in Christ. How each command applies today is a question the church has long worked on, and faithful believers differ somewhat.
- Has biblical prophecy been fulfilled?Biblical prophecy is first of all speaking God's word to people, and only in part telling the future. The New Testament points to many Old Testament words as fulfilled in Jesus Christ, and Christians treat this as a ground for trust. Not every citation is equally clear, scholars debate some dates, and the Bible warns against fitting today's news to prophecy or calculating times.
- Which Bible translation should I read?You do not need Hebrew or Greek to know God. Scripture was given from the start to be heard in words people understand. Translations run from word-for-word to thought-for-thought, and each has strengths and limits, so it helps to read mainly in one and keep another beside it for comparison.
Salvation
- What is sin?In the Bible, sin is more than a list of bad acts. It is turning away from God and his good purpose, wanting to be our own authority, and it begins in the heart. Everyone is under it, and it binds us and separates us from God, from others and from ourselves. Yet the Bible sets beside the wages of sin a gift that God gives.
- What is grace?Grace is the favour and gift God gives freely to people who have not earned it, and it both forgives us and changes us. The Bible says it appeared most clearly in Jesus Christ. Grace is not a licence to take sin lightly; it is the power that teaches and brings about a new life.
- What is faith?In the Bible, faith is not a leap into the dark but trust in a person who has proved faithful, and a willingness to rest your weight on him. It comes from hearing God's word, bears fruit in a changed life, and can live alongside doubt that asks for help. Christians have always held that it is not faith itself that saves, but the Christ in whom faith rests.
- What does it mean to be saved?In the Bible, salvation is God rescuing us from sin, guilt and death and bringing us into life with himself. It is already given, still being worked out, and yet to be completed, and it comes by God's grace, received through faith, not earned. Christians have always confessed that this salvation is found in Jesus Christ.
- Can salvation be lost?Christians agree that salvation rests wholly on Christ and that the Bible's warnings are real. They disagree on whether someone who truly believes can finally fall away, and Reformed, Lutheran, Wesleyan-Arminian, Catholic and Orthodox Christians have answered differently. This essay sets out each view at its best and listens to what Scripture says to the anxious.
- What is repentance?Repentance is a change of mind about sin that turns a person around to face God. It is different from regret or from lingering in guilt, and it is a journey home to a God who is already waiting. The Bible treats repentance both as a response we are called to make and as a gift God gives, and it says heaven rejoices when even one person returns.
- What is the gospel?The gospel is good news. God's kingdom has come in Jesus; Christ died for our sins and was raised on the third day; and so anyone may turn, trust him, and receive forgiveness and a new life. It is news about something that has happened, not advice about what to do, and it is received rather than achieved.
- What is justification?Justification is God's acceptance of a sinner as righteous because of Christ. Every major church confesses that it comes by grace through faith and not by our merit. Churches have explained differently whether it is a courtroom declaration or also includes making a person inwardly new, and how faith and works belong together, though today many of them better understand one another's meaning.
- How does a Christian grow holy?Sanctification is God's work, by the Spirit, of changing believers into the likeness of Christ. It is God's doing and also the believer's answering obedience; it grows through word, prayer, the sacraments and fellowship; and in this life it happens amid struggle and failure. Reformed, Wesleyan and Orthodox traditions differ on how far to expect it to go.
- What is predestination?Predestination is the Bible's teaching that salvation begins in God's grace and that he chose a people in Christ before the world was made. Faithful Christians have long disagreed about what that choice rests on and how it meets human freedom. All traditions confess that salvation is a free gift and that no one who comes to Christ is turned away.
- What is the unforgivable sin?The sin Jesus called blasphemy against the Spirit has been understood as knowingly and stubbornly calling the Spirit's plain work of God the work of Satan, and so refusing the very path of forgiveness. The church has distinguished it from a moment of failure, from doubt, and from intrusive blasphemous thoughts. The fear of having committed it has long been read as a sign that God is still at work in that person.
- What happens to children who die?Scripture does not say directly what happens to a child who dies young. But David's hope, Jesus' welcome of children, and the justice and mercy of the Judge of all the earth have led Christians to hope deeply for them. The churches differ in how they put this hope, but almost none today pictures God turning these children away. This essay does not claim certainty where Scripture gives none, and it speaks to grieving parents of the hope we can have.
- Can someone who dies by suicide be saved?Scripture never calls suicide an unforgivable sin. Salvation rests on Christ, not on the last act of a life, and only God knows and judges a person's final moments. At the same time life is God's gift, and if you are thinking of ending your life, what God wants is for you to live and to get help.
Suffering and evil
- Why does a good God allow evil?The Bible does not dodge this question, but it does not hand over a theory that explains everything either. It says the world was made good and broken by sin, that God works good even through evil, that he met Job with himself rather than with reasons, and that on the cross he entered suffering. It promises a day when evil ends.
- Does suffering have meaning?The Bible does not attach a reason to every sorrow, and it does not say that suffering is always punishment. It welcomes lament as the speech of faith, shows Christ with us in our weakness, and says that those who have been comforted can comfort others. Meaning is given less as an explanation than as presence and hope.
- Does God answer prayer?The Bible says God hears prayer and answers it, but it never promises that the answer will be exactly what we asked. Jesus taught us to ask the Father, and both Gethsemane and Paul's thorn show that a refusal, or "My grace is sufficient for you," can also be an answer. Prayer is not talking to oneself but speaking to a living Father, though no one can prove its answers in a laboratory.
- Is God in control?The Bible says that God cares for a single sparrow and for every step we take, and that he works all things according to his purpose. It also takes human choices and responsibility seriously. Christians have stressed different ways of joining the two, but they agree on the comfort that we are in the hands of a good Father.
- Why do children suffer?The Bible does not offer a theory that explains a child's suffering. It says that God sees it, that harming children is evil, that those who do it will be judged, and that Jesus is the one who took children in his arms. It also promises a day when children will no longer weep. This essay admits that the promise does not erase present pain.
- Why are there natural disasters?The Bible does not say that people killed by an earthquake or a storm were worse sinners than others. It says that the whole creation is still groaning and not yet made whole, that God is present with those who suffer in it, and that he promises a new creation. Not pretending to know the reason for every disaster is the most honest place to begin.
- Is sickness a punishment for sin?The Bible clearly forbids judging the sick as sinners. Jesus rejected the question of whose sin made a man blind from birth, and Job's friends were rebuked by God. Scripture does mention cases where illness was tied to sin, but it never makes that a rule or tells anyone to apply it to another person's illness. Jesus is the one who heals and forgives.
- Why doesn't God heal everyone?God can heal and still does, and Christians are told to pray for the sick. But Scripture never promises that every illness will be cured in this life. Paul's thorn and Timothy's frequent ailments show that grace can be sufficient where healing is not given, and the full healing of the body waits for the resurrection. A lack of healing is never a sign of someone's weak faith.
- How can I bear grief?Grief is not a sign of weak faith; it is love in another form. Jesus wept at the tomb of Lazarus, and Scripture asks believers to grieve with hope, not to stop grieving. Grief takes time, God is near the brokenhearted, and the church is called to weep with those who weep.
- Is depression a lack of faith?No. Depression is an illness of body and mind, not a verdict on anyone's faith. Elijah, the psalmists and Jeremiah all passed through deep darkness, and God met them with care, not condemnation. Seeking medical and counselling help alongside prayer and the church is not a failure of faith but a use of the means God gives.
Life and meaning
- What is love?The Bible explains love less as a feeling than as the character of God and what he has done. "God is love" is shown most clearly at the cross, and that love becomes a call to love God, our neighbor, and even our enemies. Love includes feeling and bodily response, but at its heart, as the Bible tells it, love is giving oneself for the good of another.
- Why do we exist?The Bible says we are not accidents. God made us, and made us for himself, to know him, to love him and to make his goodness known, and love of neighbour flows from that. The objection that we make our own meaning deserves a serious hearing, and the Bible replies that meaning is first of all something received, not something manufactured.
- What is a human being?The Bible describes a human being as a creature formed from dust and yet made in God's image. Every person therefore carries the same dignity, though the image has been marred by sin and is renewed in Christ. To the objection that we are only animals or only matter, the church replies that our bodies and our earthly roots are real, but are not the whole story.
- How is forgiveness possible?The Bible explains forgiveness as something the forgiven pass on. Because God in Christ cancelled a debt we could never pay, we can release those who have wronged us. Forgiveness is not pretending nothing happened or excusing the wrong, and it does not give up on justice; it hands judgment over to God.
- What is hope?Biblical hope is not ‘I wish things will turn out well’ but a confident expectation grounded in God's promises and in the resurrection of Christ. It makes us wait with endurance for what we cannot yet see, and it holds on to God's faithfulness even among ruins. Its end is a new heaven and a new earth where tears are wiped away and all things are made new.
- How should we live?The Bible sums up the way to live not as a list of rules but as love. It means to act justly, love mercy and walk humbly with God, and it is a response to grace already received, not an effort to earn it. The charge that Christians are hypocrites stings and is partly deserved, and it was Jesus who first condemned hypocrisy.
- What is happiness?The Bible speaks of happiness as blessedness and joy found in a right relationship with God, not as a passing mood. It promises a joy that can last through trouble as well as ease. And it pictures happiness less as something to be grasped directly than as a gift that follows from loving God and neighbour.
- What is true freedom?In the Bible, freedom is not the absence of every tie but release from slavery to sin so that we can serve in love. It is not something we win for ourselves but something the Son gives at a cost, and it stands opposite to licence. The objection that obeying God takes freedom away deserves a serious hearing; the Bible answers that no one lives without a master.
- What is truth?In the Bible truth first means what is reliable and faithful, and the New Testament says this truth has appeared in a person, Jesus Christ. That truth exists is one thing and that we know all of it is another, so Christians are called to speak truth in love and with humility. The claim that everything is relative deserves a fair hearing, but stated without exception it undoes itself.
- Who decides right and wrong?The Bible teaches that the standard of goodness is neither human agreement nor God's whim but God's own good character. He wrote that standard on the human conscience, spelled it out in the law, and summed it up in love. Being able to explain how our moral sense arose does not by itself settle whether that morality is true, Christians believe.
- How can I overcome anxiety?The Bible does not scold anxious people; it points them to someone to hand their worries to. God cares for us, prayer is the way to bring fear to him, and his peace comes as guarding rather than as a feeling. Anxiety disorders are illnesses, treatable like illnesses of the body, so seeking a doctor or counselor alongside prayer is no sign of weak faith.
- How should I think about money?The Bible does not call money evil; it warns against loving and serving it. Everything belongs to God and we are stewards, so the way is to work and provide, to be content, and to give generously. The teaching that faith guarantees wealth does not fit the whole of Scripture, though the Bible is clear that God cares about our material lives too.
- What is work for?In the Bible work is not a punishment that came with the fall but the first calling God gave to human beings. What changed after the fall was the toil and frustration that now cling to work. Christians receive work as a way of serving God and neighbour, neither a way to earn salvation nor a proof of one's worth, and they learn its limits through rest and grace.
- What does the Bible say about sex and marriage?The Bible treats sex and marriage as good gifts of God, and places sex within the lifelong faithful union of one man and one woman. Singleness is an honoured calling too, and the Bible never sanctions abuse of any kind. This has been the church's teaching throughout its history, though some churches today judge its reach differently. On neither side is there reason to despise anyone.
- Is it okay to doubt?The Bible does not turn away people who doubt. Thomas, John the Baptist and the psalmists asked honestly, and God received them. Still, a doubt that seeks understanding and brings its questions to God differs from unbelief that has hardened into refusal. Doubt can be worked through patiently, in community, in Scripture and in prayer.
- Why should we rest?In Scripture rest is not laziness but a rhythm God blessed at creation and a gift of freedom to a people once enslaved. Jesus is Lord of the sabbath and promises rest to the weary. To rest is to admit that our work does not hold the world together and to trust God. Christians differ on how to keep the sabbath and the Lord's Day.
Church and practice
- Who is the Holy Spirit?The church has confessed that the Holy Spirit is not an impersonal force of God but a divine person, one God with the Father and the Son. The Spirit was at work in creation, came as the Helper Jesus promised, brings new birth, points to Christ and shapes character. How the gifts of the Spirit work today is a question on which Christians understand things differently.
- Why do we need the church?The Bible calls the church the body of Christ and the family of God before it is a building or an organization. Faith is personal but not solitary, and it is made to grow in word, prayer, the sacraments and fellowship. The church has left wounds and failures behind, and the case for it can be made without hiding them.
- What are baptism and the Lord's Supper?Baptism and the Lord's Supper are two holy rites Jesus himself commanded. Baptism points to union with Christ and a new life, and the Supper to remembering his death and sharing in him. Christians agree on that much but have understood differently who should be baptized and how Christ is present in the Supper. This essay sets out the main views as fairly as it can.
- Why Christianity and not another religion?Christianity claims that it is not a road humans build up to God but the story of God coming down to us. Forgiveness by grace rather than achievement, God met in Jesus, and a historical claim, the resurrection, that can be examined: these are what make it distinct. Christians should respect what is true in other faiths and be honest about their own failures.
- What about those who never heard?The Bible says God is a just judge who wants everyone to be saved, and it also says salvation is found in Christ alone. Christians hold different views about the fate of those who never heard the gospel, and differ on how directly Scripture answers the question. What is clear is that God does no wrong, and that we are sent to tell the good news.
- How can I begin to believe?The Bible pictures the beginning of faith as an invitation, not an entrance exam. Jesus calls, a person turns and trusts him, and God runs to meet the child who comes home. You can begin without certainty, with doubts, and feeling unworthy. There is no need to hurry, and no one needs to push you.
- What is worship?Worship is the response of the whole person to God as he truly is, with praise, thanks, reverence and obedience. It begins in gathered praise and reaches into the whole of ordinary life. Churches worship in different forms, but all worship the one God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and it is the Father who seeks worshippers in spirit and truth.
- How should I pray?Prayer is speaking with God as our Father, in a relationship rather than a technique. The Lord's Prayer gives a pattern of praise, requests, forgiveness and protection, and the Spirit helps us when we do not know what to ask. No formula guarantees a particular answer, but God welcomes anyone who comes honestly.
- Why are there so many churches and denominations?The church divided for more than one reason. Some divisions came from convictions about truth, others from pride, quarrels, politics and cultural distance. Scripture grieves division, yet teaches that unity in Christ is not sameness, and divided churches still confess the same Lord in the same creed.
- How do Catholics and Protestants differ?Catholics and Protestants confess the same triune God, the same Christ, and the same cross and resurrection. They differ over where authority rests (Scripture and tradition, the pope), how to describe salvation (justification), the number and meaning of the sacraments, Mary and the saints, and the shape of the church. This essay tries to state each position as that church itself would.
- Are angels and demons real?Scripture assumes and teaches that unseen beings made by God are real, angels who serve him and Satan and demons who oppose him. The church has always confessed this, but these beings are creatures, not rivals of God, and Christ has already won the decisive victory over them. So Christians are neither to deny the unseen world nor to be obsessed with it, but to live watchfully with their eyes on Christ.
- Must Christians tithe?The tithe was an Old Testament rule that set aside a tenth of Israel's produce for God. The New Testament does not command Christians to give a fixed percentage, but teaches giving that is cheerful, proportionate and generous. Christians differ on whether the tenth still binds or is a fair starting point for free giving, yet all agree that giving must never be coerced and must not forget the poor.
- How can I tell a heresy or cult?The tests Scripture gives are not first impressions or size, but Christ, the gospel, the authority of Scripture, and fruit. Ask who Jesus is said to be, how people are saved, whether anything is set above the Bible, whether a leader exalts himself, and whether people are controlled and cut off from others. Disagreements among faithful Christians are not heresy, and discernment should come from love for people, not from a wish to condemn them.
- Is Christianity a Western religion?Christianity did not begin in the West. Jesus was born in Asia, in the Jewish homeland, the gospel spread across Asia and Africa in the first centuries, and today most Christians live in Africa, Asia and Latin America. The painful history of Western missions entangled with empire is real, but the gospel belongs to no single culture; it is for every nation.
- Can Christians take part in ancestral rites (jesa)?Scripture commands honouring parents and forbids idolatry and fellowship with demons. Both are clear, but Christians judge differently where jesa falls between them. The Catholic Church in Korea permits modified rites as filial respect, and most Protestant churches hold a memorial service (chudo yebae) instead. Either way, love, conscience and respect for those who keep jesa must go together.
The last things
- What happens after death?The Bible teaches that those who die in Christ are with the Lord, that on the last day the body is raised, and that judgment follows. The ground of this hope is the resurrection of Christ, who defeated death. Christians describe the state between death and resurrection in different ways, but all confess that death is not the end.
- Are heaven and hell real?The Bible speaks both of the joy of living with God in a new heaven and a new earth and of the terrible reality of being apart from him. Heaven is not a resort in the clouds but life with God, and hell is God's just judgment on sin and the loss of the God who is our life. Christians hold different views on the nature of hell, and this essay sets them out fairly.
- Will Jesus come again?The church has confessed from the beginning that Jesus will come again. Scripture says he will return as he left, in person, visibly and in glory, to judge the living and the dead and to make all things new. No one knows the day, and the promise was given not to frighten us but to give us hope and keep us awake.
- What are the rapture and the millennium?The rapture is the teaching that at Christ's return believers are caught up to meet the Lord (1 Thess 4:17), and the millennium is the thousand-year reign of Christ in Revelation 20. Faithful Christians read these texts in three main ways, premillennial (in two forms), amillennial and postmillennial, and this essay sets them out fairly without choosing one.
- When will the end come?The Bible's answer is plain: we do not know. Jesus said no one knows the day or hour, and when his disciples asked about the time he would not tell them. Signs such as wars and earthquakes are reminders to stay awake, not timetables, and everyone who has set a date has been wrong. What Scripture asks is not fearful calculation but readiness and faithful living.
- What is eternal life?In the Bible, eternal life is more than endless time. It is the life of knowing the only true God and Jesus Christ whom he sent. It begins now for those who trust Christ, and it is completed in the resurrection of the body and the new creation. It is not a reward to be earned but a gift of God in Christ.
- What is the last judgment?The last judgment is the day when Christ returns, judges every life with justice and sets right what has been wrong in the world. Christians await it with hope as well as seriousness, because the Judge is the one who died and rose for them. How judgment according to works fits with salvation by grace is explained a little differently across Christian traditions.
- Will we recognise each other in heaven?Scripture teaches that the risen person is continuous with the person who lived on earth, so the hope of recognising one another rests on solid ground. But the Bible does not describe it in detail, and what we do not know should be left honestly open. The Christian hope is first to be with the Lord, and every relationship is fulfilled in him.
Written from the Bible and classic commentary, from the standpoint of historic Christian faith (the Apostles' and Nicene Creeds); where Christians disagree, the main views are presented. Scripture quotations: Berean Standard Bible.