You should never feel condemned or bad if you consider yourself an agnostic. God is not looking for little robots that can only do what He says to do. He is looking for those who “desire” and want to receive help from Him. God understands how you feel and He knows exactly “why” you have the questions that you have. He is NOT angry at you for that.

 

Did you know that the Bible talks about a group of people who were actually commended for having questions about God and what His Word, (the Bible) says. They wanted to prove that what they were being told about God and His messages was verifiably TRUE. They diligently searched daily to make sure that what they were being told was true, and they were considered the be NOBLE because of this.

 

They were the Bereans. Here is what the Bible tells us about those living in Berea and their beliefs:   Act 17:10 - 11 "That same night the believers sent Paul and Silas to another city named Berea. When they arrived there, they went to the Jewish synagogue. The people in Berea were more noble-minded than those in Thessalonica. They were so glad to hear the message Paul told them. They studied the Scriptures every day to make sure that what they heard was really true."

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To me, that is awesome! The God of all Creation looks at you and thinks of you as more noble (of higher than normal value, prestige, excellence, grand, stately, a cut above the rest) because you want to know things are true and don’t just blindly accept everything that you are told.

 

God knows that when you have fully convinced yourself that He does exist and that His teachings are trustworthy and true, that you will be to use those attributes of being more noble to reach others! He makes ALL of us to be unique and the way we are. So you can thank Him that He made you to question things and prove them out. You are exactly where you are supposed to be at this moment! Congratulations!

 

Oh, and if you have ever wondered what “faith” is, let’s take a moment and see what His Word tells us about “faith”.  Heb 11:1  "To have faith is to be sure of the things we hope for, to be certain of the things we cannot see." 

Instead of seeing “faith” as just “blindly” believing in whatever someone tells you, please consider that we ALL have some faith in ordinary circumstances every day, based on the definition above.

 

For example, I am sure to a certain extent that you have hope that your alarm clock will go off in the morning so you are not late for work, and I would say it is a safe bet that you are pretty sure that it will go off every time you set it. So, you are sure of the thing you hope for. You might say, “yeah, but that verse also says “to be certain of things we can not see” and I can see my alarm clock. Yes, this is true, but you can not see time, you can not see the gears inside that are moving and causing the alarm clock to count down.

 

But lets give another example, When you get in the shower to take a shower before you go to work, it’s safe to say that you are hoping everything is working with the water plant providing water to your home and your are hoping that water will come out of the shower head. In fact, I bet you are pretty sure that water will come out when you turn the knobs. I am also betting that you are pretty certain that the water you cannot see will come out when you turn those knobs.

 

So, we don’t have to mystify “faith” talked about in the Bible to be any different really. When you order something on Amazon or another online site, you are sure that the object you are hoping for will show up after you pay for it. You are certain of the thing that you can not yet see, because it has not arrived yet. Yet, you have no doubts that it will show up, very likely on the day that the site tells you that it will arrive.   

Did you know that the Bible tells us that: Heb 11:6  Without faith no one can please God. Whoever comes to God must believe that he is real and that he rewards those who sincerely try to find him.  

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One more example, for you to ponder: Let us consider this story of Abraham and his son Isaac. If you aren’t familiar with the story, that’s ok, let me briefly explain it.

 

Abraham was very old, like 99 years old, yet God had told him years earlier that the number of his children and their children, or his descendants, would be like the sands on the sea shore or the stars in the sky. Abraham’s wife Sarah was 89 yrs old and the Bible said she was what was considered “in the normal” to be “beyond child-bearing age.”

 

Abraham believed that God would give him a son, even in his old age. But Sarah doubted that she could have a child. Long story short, Sarah got pregnant and had a son. They named him Isaac. Years later, God told Abraham to take Isaac to a mountain that he would show him and build an alter and place wood on the alter and sacrifice his son Isaac, as an offering to God. It was a test. But Abraham trusted that God truly loved him and that God would still fulfill His promise to give Abraham a son, who would have more children, and that they would have more children, etc... until one day the number of these children would be multitudes!

 

Many Bible preachers and movies when they re-tell this story, they portray that Abraham was angry at God for asking him to sacrifice Isaac and that Abraham doubted God would keep His promise. But that is not what the Bible actually teaches us. Let’s read the story below from the Bible and then I will give you one last thing to consider about faith.

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Gen 22:1 - 19  Some years later God decided to test Abraham, so he spoke to him. Abraham answered, "Here I am, LORD." The LORD said, "Go get Isaac, your only son, the one you dearly love! Take him to the land of Moriah, and I will show you a mountain where you must sacrifice him to me on the fires of an altar."  So Abraham got up early the next morning and chopped wood for the fire. He put a saddle on his donkey and left with Isaac and two servants for the place where God had told him to go. Three days later Abraham looked off in the distance and saw the place.  He told his servants, "Stay here with the donkey, while my son and I go over there to worship. We will come back to you."  Abraham put the wood on Isaac's shoulder, but he carried the hot coals and the knife. As the two of them walked along,  Isaac said, "Father, we have the coals and the wood, but where is the lamb for the sacrifice?" "My son," Abraham answered, "God will provide the lamb." The two of them walked on, and when they reached the place that God had told him about, Abraham built an altar and placed the wood on it. Next, he tied up his son and put him on the wood. He then took the knife and got ready to kill his son. But the LORD's angel shouted from heaven, "Abraham! Abraham!" "Here I am!" he answered. "Don't hurt the boy or harm him in any way!" the angel said. "Now I know that you truly obey God, because you were willing to offer him your only son." Abraham looked up and saw a ram caught by its horns in the bushes. So he took the ram and sacrificed it in place of his son. Abraham named that place "The LORD Will Provide." And even now people say, "On the mountain of the LORD it will be provided." The LORD's angel called out from heaven a second time: You were willing to offer the LORD your only son, and so he makes you this solemn promise, "I will bless you and give you such a large family, that someday your descendants will be more numerous than the stars in the sky or the grains of sand along the beach. They will defeat their enemies and take over the cities where their enemies live. You have obeyed me, and so you and your descendants will be a blessing to all nations on earth." Abraham and Isaac went back to the servants who had come with him, and they returned to Abraham's home in Beersheba.”

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Now, that was the actual story from the Old Testament book of Genesis, but let’s look quickly at what the New Testament book of Hebrews re-tells us about this story.

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Heb 11:17 - 19  It was faith that made Abraham offer his son Isaac as a sacrifice when God put Abraham to the test.

 

Abraham was the one to whom God had made the promise, yet he was ready to offer his only son as a sacrifice. God had said to him, "It is through Isaac that you will have the descendants I promised." Abraham reckoned that God was able to raise Isaac from death—and, so to speak, Abraham did receive Isaac back from death. 

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So, did you catch that? I bolded the sentence in Genesis where Abraham told his servants "Stay here with the donkey, while my son and I go over there to worship. We will come back to you." 

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But the part in the book of Hebrews that I bolded tells us “why” Abraham told his servants to stay there with the donkey. Because, “Abraham reckoned that God was able to raise Isaac from death.” That was why Abraham told the servants: “WE will return to you.” Because Abraham was sure that the thing he hoped for (that his son Isaac would live to have more children and those children would have more children, etc.. and that God would keep His promise) AND Abraham was certain of the thing he could not see, (His son Isaac raising up from the dead after he would sacrifice him in obedience to God.)

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God did not test Abraham to be mean or cruel. God wanted to bless Abraham with enough faith to actually trust and believe that God would bring Isaac back from the dead, so that Abraham would trust God completely.

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Another reason that God asked Abraham to give up his most precious gift (his son Isaac) was because many years later God would give His only Son, Jesus, to die on that same mountain. And then God would raise His Son Jesus from the dead! At the time Abraham took Isaac up on mount Moriah, it was just a mountainous pile of rocks. But many centuries later, this same mountain was also known by another name, Mount Zion, or Jerusalem!

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So, God sacrificed His only begotten Son, Jesus, on the same mountain where He instructed Abraham to sacrifice Isaac! In fact, the golden muslim “Dome of the Rock” is supposedly the very rock that Abraham was going to offer Isaac as a sacrifice. This is what Jews and Christians believe. Muslims on the other hand believe that Abraham was tested to sacrifice his son, Ismael. The muslims believe the Dome of the Rock is where the prophet Mohammed ascended on a horse to heaven. 

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So, the final thing I would ask you to consider is this: Please believe me when I say that God is not condemning you if you are questioning His existence or wondering if we can trust and believe or prove His Words, or the teachings in the Bible, to be true. He wants you to know that while we are still in a place of wondering if we can believe Him and trust Him, that He gave His Son, Yeshua, to die for ALL of our sins.

 

Did you know that the meaning or origin of the word “sin” or “transgression” is “to miss the mark, as an archer misses the bullseye when shooting at the target.” God does not condemn us for shooting and missing the target. He is there encouraging us to try yet again, until we hit the mark, and through practice, that we rarely ever miss the mark, when we shoot at it!

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Romans 5:8 - 10  But God expressed his love toward us, in that, while we were still yet sinners, Christ died for us. How much more then, being now justified by Yeshua’s blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Yeshua. Because if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, how much more, being reconciled, shall we be saved by Yeshua’s life! 

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Can I ask you one more thing, please? What is the number one thing that God would need “to do” to prove to you that He exists? What could He do to show you His extreme personal love for YOU? Don’t make this an easy task! After all, if He truly exists and truly loves you and cares about you, and created ALL things and is ALL powerful, as I am fully convinced that He is and does, then what one thing would it take for you to believe He genuinely loves you and truly cares about you? Just think about it, and give it a shot! It’s ok if you miss, but know that He never misses and will keep reaching out to you until you believe He does exist and that He gave His Only Son just so you could be reconciled in your relationship, back to Him!

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If you have any questions, or comments, please feel free to email us.

 

If you are a male, please email me at: wordsoflifequest@gmail.com

 

If you are a female, please email my wife at: graceisglory@gmail.com

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Thank you again for taking the time to read through, and consider these words of LIFE!