Many, in our country today, think science answers all problems, so Christianity must be false. They fail to see why they should care, when they have the impression that they can be good without God. They often see losing your faith as growing up emotionally.
The thing is that Christians can and probably are wrong on a lot of things. They likely do add their culture to their faith and have questionable politics. The thing is, despite all their flaws, what if the Bible is actually true?
The Bible does not give easy answers and does not end our suffering in this life. But God never claimed to. God is completely honest and the Bible does explain why the world works the way it does. Many of the ideas expressed are not even fully accepted by Christians.
Christ is central to our thinking, but many, on both sides, only like certain aspects of Him. We like prophecy today, because it is our side winning and everyone agreeing we are right. We fail to accept all of who Christ was. Christ would be considered a big failure, by current Christian and secular standards.
He was God in the flesh and He could not even convince those, who were experts on the Bible, in their time, that He was fulfilling prophecy. Is it better to win and be understood by people or reconciled with God? We often see our biggest problems as physical like illness, poverty, or crime. Christ said our biggest problem is sin.
We seem to think that the disciples understood and accepted Christ’s teachings, were perfect examples, and not real people, with the same problems we have. This is perfectly explained in the Apostle Paul’s letters, to the various churches. Even the greatest heroes of the faith made fatal errors and thought they were totally unqualified, to do what God asked of them. Yet they still carried on His message.
Christ pulled at least two major revelations, that must have shook the disciples’ faith, to its very core. Christ appeared to them, to have been totally defeated and later left them completely. We see this all as inevitable and comforting, but I think they thought, at the time, that was hard to accept.
So the situation the Church in America sees itself today is not something so different conceptually, than we see in the Bible. This is actually very much a proof the Bible is still relevant today. I often was frustrated, when I could not communicate well and I felt misunderstood, but Christ was the most misunderstood Person of all time.
Many of those in the Church focus on the suffering Christ went through on the cross. We fail to see things and cannot fully comprehend how difficult it must have been, for Him to live as a person. When we see the temptations of Christ in the wilderness, by the devil, they were all about finding a shortcuts, to solving real needs, but doing it in the wrong way.
Christ must have been very discouraged, even before His ministry. He had at least all the authority of God, but couldn’t use it to help Himself or others. He also had to be a helpless baby, later realized He was God, and then had to follow human parents, who later thought He was crazy. He also never had a wife.
We think we have been defeated and are helpless and alone. We do not really know what that means, to really be in that situation. Sure, we suffer extreme tragedies, but at least our losses don’t compare to God having to totally turn on His son. He did this, to save some people, who think they are too good to follow Him.
Life is difficult, because the consequences of sin in the world are severe. It is exasperated by selfishness and pride of other people. Furthermore, we cannot change any of this, outside our limited bubbles and often not there either.
The Bible should encourage anyone, who feels misunderstood, but it comes at the price that we cannot be in control. It is not our right, to tell others they are wrong, or think we are better morally than them. We also do not have the full picture, or have anyway to know who is really a Christian.
Our job is to obey, not to agree. It is ok to not understand, or to struggle with God. The proof of your faith is to follow Him, despite this.
We have to have faith, to please God. Even in Heaven, faith is still important. We might get shocked, when we go to Heaven and ask for answers, as to why we had to suffer. Christ may very well say, why have you allowed sin in your life?