“Why aren’t more people coming to Christ?” When sin came into the world, everything got ruined. EVERYTHING. And not just mildly, but through and through. Calvin called it “total depravity”: There is not a single cell of us that is God-oriented. We are totally wrecked. Romans 3 says there is none that seeks after God, there is not one who is righteous. Not one who does good. All have turned away; they have become “worthless’ (Rom. 3.12). Sin has infected the entire person (body, mind, emotions, and will).

What’s remarkable is that ANYONE comes to Christ. God has seen our condition, created a plan, plowed through all obstacles, sacrificed Himself, conquered death, issued the invitation, offered us forgiveness by grace, and given us the gift of faith. It’s miraculous (literally) that ANY of us come to Christ. And that’s the point. It’s a miracle of God.

“But why don’t more,” you ask, “since God does all this stuff as you just mentioned above?” Because people are enslaved to sin. Their minds are dark (Rom. 1.21; Eph. 4.18) and their hearts are hard. People are proud and stubborn, and even those that aren’t can’t think straight (in terms of who God is, what salvation is all about, etc.). We really really ruined ourselves. It’s the story of the Bible: we NEED God to get to God. We are DEAD (worthless) in our sins (Eph. 2.1). We have no resources to find our own way, to recognize anything, to move in God’s direction.

“Why is there so much a divide in beliefs these days?” We live in a very individualistic country where we have been taught for generations to walk to the beat of our own drum. That plays out very well in civics (well, sometimes it creates a lot of problems there, too), and can be helpful in theology (we can really think things through well), but is mostly detrimental to theology. Lots of people seem to think they can contrive their own understanding of the Bible instead of finding out what the proper understanding of the Bible is.

“Why am I struggling with this so much?” Here’s a question I don’t know the answer to. I don’t know what’s in your past or your present that has brought you to this place. For some people, though (since I’m not trying to make you feel guilty or if you have failed somewhere along the way), they are just more introspective, more questioning, less settled. I’m sort of that way myself. I don’t easily just “accept”stuff, I need to question, investigate, doubt, tug, question some more, wrestle, and maybe then I’ll come to a place of peace. I have actually come to that place of peace after long period of struggle. You are still on the way. It’s OK. It’s OK to question, to doubt, to ask, to investigate, and wrestle.

“When someone is struggling in their faith, what does God do—just wait?” Oh, no, not at all. God is always teaching, tugging, meddling, challenging, disciplining, testing, and drawing. God doesn’t want anyone to move away from Him, and He is perpetually active to move people to Himself. The Bible says God is an instigator, always tugging at our hearts.

So God is real and not made up, why aren’t more people coming to Christ? Why is there such a divide in beliefs these days? Then there’s me—why I am struggling with this so much? Or better yet, why does anyone struggle in their faith?

When someone is struggling In their faith, what does God do, just wait for them? We might have talked about this already. I can’t remember.

Great question, Nic J. I’ll tell you with the deepest sincerity I can muster, it's absolutely impossible that all this God stuff is made up. I’ll tell ya why.

1. The resurrection. Anybody can say anything they want, but when somebody comes back from the dead, they have my attention. Anybody can claim anything about religious truth, but nobody, nobody, comes back from the dead unless something is very real about who they are what power they said they have. The reality of the resurrection, the evidence for the resurrection, and the reasonability of the resurrection assures me, if nothing else did, that “God” is not made up. I’ve done plenty of funerals. Nobody comes back. Jesus put his money where his mouth is, and the resurrection proves all kinds of things.

2. Creation. We’ve studies science; we’ve read the arguments. There’s NO WAY what we see on earth and in nature and in space, both the hugeness elements and the tiny-biny elements. It’s not possible that all this just sort-a happened without input. Impossible.

3. First Cause. Something had to have caused the universe. Science tells us it had a beginning. OK, then what caused it to Bang? It couldn’t cause itself to bang, because it was a non-dimensional singularity (the science of the Big Bang) where the forces of nature were not only not working but non-existent. Something caused the Bang, and that something had to have been eternal, timeless, intelligent, powerful, and personal.

4. There is purpose in the universe. There is purpose to things in the universe. There is purpose to cause and effect in the universe. But if it’s all just random, chance, accidents, genetic mutation and natural selection, there is no “purpose.” But there IS purpose. There is design.

Besides, personality can only come from a personal source. Morality can only come from a moral source. Reasoning can only come from previous informational data. Purpose can only come from personal input. ON and ON it goes.

These are just four (there are more), but these are enough. It’s absolutely impossible that all the God stuff is made up. Nature by itself cannot even get close to explaining what we see.

I have one question: what if all this God stuff is made up? What if we die and there is no God or heaven or hell. Is this a bad question to ask? I know God is real. I am asking this out of curiosity.