FAQ

I think the best answer to the question is that Jesus was fulfilling prophecy. He was quoting Psalm 22:1. The scripture in the New Testament is Matt 27:46. There are a number of prophecies that were fulfilled from that Psalm on that day, like the people ridiculing Him and saying that if He is the Messiah then God would save Him. I think this is probably the strongest answer to reason with, this and the fact that God the Father poured out His wrath on Jesus and His statement is indicative of this.

This is a classic question and has been answered by many other people far better than I could, but so that you don't have to look elsewhere: Firstly I think this question is a moot point as it still exists if you assume there is no God. Since most athiests assume people are basically good they have to answer the question themselves, i.e. how is it that good people do such bad things? The question of a good God creating evil things is answered as follows: God created us perfect and gave us free will. Genesis chapters 1 to 2 tell us about this. Genesis chapter 3 tells us about how man rejected God and chose their own way and as a result the whole earth is cursed and in decline. So everything is basically our own fault. The exciting thing is that in Revelation 20 we have God judging man for all the wrong he has done and bringing justice. In Revelation 21 and 22 we have God reinstating His order in the universe and the world.

This question demonstrates a misunderstanding of two things; firstly, the nature and consequence of sin, secondly, the holiness of God.

• The Nature and consequence of Sin
  In a human court of law perjury (lying in court) carries a maximum sentence of five years in America (see Wikipedia). In the UK the maximum penalty is apparently seven years. If we assume that the average person lies once a day (not big lies all the time, "white lies" too) then we have a total of 365 lies a year (not taking leap years into account). If we take an arbitrary age for culpibility of 10 years old (for a nice round number) we have 365 x 20 = 7300 lies by the time the average person is thirty years old. So in thirty years a person has told 7300 lies at a rate of one lie a day. Any good judge would consider this person a serial offender and would give them the maximum penalty for their crime. So (using American law) that would be 7300 x 5 years. So in a human court of law a judge would hand down a sentence of 36500 years. That would be just for lying, not covering theft, adultery, murder etc. which have heavier penalties associated with them.
• The Holiness of God
  I have heard this explained this way: If you were thirsty and bought yourself a 500ml bottle of water you would drink it. If someone was to put 1ml of sewerage, chances are very good that you wouldn't. The reason is that the 1/500th part of sewerage contaminates the whole bottle of water. God's holiness doesn't allow for any bit of sin (sin is breaking God's law), any bit of sin in any person who is meant to carry His presence (see John 14:23) is unacceptable to God in the same way that the contaminated bottle of water is unacceptable to us.

Good question! He is uncreated. See Genesis 1:1 and John 1:1-3. Usually when I tell people that they come back with "How ridiculous", but think about it; at some point in history there had to be the very first thing. Nothing can make itself. At the very beginning there had to be something or someone that has always existed which brought about the temporal universe that is all around us. Some scientists are saying that two dimensions collided to form this dimension (see here). Cool. The Bible says God spoke and there was light (Genesis 1:3). God (who is spirit) spoke and the universe (which is physical) was created.

Ok, so this is a statement more than a question. The thing is the statement is itself not a relative statement, it is absolute and therefore self contradicting and so cannot stand. It is better to say right and wrong could be relative. Truth could be relative, etc. Since this is a true relative statement it allows for the possibility of it being wrong. A true relativist should actually determine if it is true that all truth is relative.

This is an incorrect understanding of God. If you take a look at John 3:16-18 you will see that God does not just forgive us. God had to send His Son to take our punishment for us because we are 'already condemned'. If we don't accept what He has done for us then we will not be forgiven. God sees no-one as good Romans 3:12, so in His eyes we are not good, even if we think we are. If you think you are a good person then take the test at www.needgod.com.

Well, firstly I don't believe we are ramming the Gospel down people's throats. We simply stand up and make a case for what we believe in. My objective when I am preaching in the street is to get people to engage with me, for two reasons:

1. I want people to reason with me about what we believe. The truth will prevail. If I am wrong then people need to prove it.
2. It draws a crowd. It's always good to have a crowd, because then more people hear the what we are saying.

Take a verse that is evangelical in nature eg Isaiah 53 or Revelation 20:11-15 and try explain each verse in light of our salvation (see if you have a friend that will listen to you). You quickly learn what you need to study.

I think that Romans 4:5-8 answers this question best. I guess the answer must be follow your conscience.

Yes. In 2 Samuel 12:24 David talks about his son that died and says "I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me". I think this is adequate evidence that babies go to heaven. I know one cannot build an entire doctrine around one verse, but this does seem consistent with God's nature.