What If?

Anglican Youthworks PO Box A287 Sydney South NSW 1235 Australia Ph: +61 2 8268 3344 Fax: +61 2 8268 3357 Email: sales@cepstore.com.au Website: cepstore.com.au Published October 2014 Copyright © Kristen Young 2014 This book is copyright. Apart from fair dealing for the purposes of private study, research, criticism and review as permitted under the Copyright Act, no part of this book may be reproduced by any process without the express permission of the publisher.

Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®.

Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. All rights reserved worldwide. Used by permission.

NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION® and NIV® are registered trademarks of Biblica, Inc. Use of either trademark for the offering of goods or services requires the prior written consent of Biblica US, Inc. National Library of Australia ISBN 978-1 92504-146-0 Managing editor: Natasha Percy Theological editor: Belinda Pollard Design: Bethany Abbottsmith

CONTENTS Foreword

6

INTRODUCTION: DOUBT 1. What if ... I have doubts?

2. Dealing with doubt

8 20

PART 1: GOD 3. What if ... God is real?

4. What if ... I can know what God is like?

5. What if ... science doesn’t get rid of God?

30 46 56

PART 2: JESUS 6. What if ... Jesus is real?

7. What if ... Jesus didn’t stay dead?

71 81

PART 3: THE BIBLE 8. What if ... truth exists?

9. What if ... I can trust the Bible?

10. What if ... Genesis is how the world began?

96 103 115

PART 4: ME 11. What if ... I don’t feel like a Christian?

12. What if ... I fail?

13. What if ... I can’t stop sinning?

129 143 153

PART 5: LIFE 14. What if ... bad stuff happens?

15. What if ... Christians do bad things?

164 179

Conclusion Endnotes

192 193

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WHAT IF?

FOREWORD This book has been designed to give you the beginnings of answers to some of the big questions about God, Jesus, the Bible and you. It’s not exhaustive— thousands and thousands of pages have been written over the years on some of these topics! But if you want to know more, each chapter has extra reading and helpful websites which you can use as you keep searching.

Some answers are easy to find. Others take a little more work and thought.

My prayer is that you find the answers you’re searching for.

If you are super keen, you can read this book from start to finish. But it’s more likely that you have a burning question on your mind—one that’s particularly pressing for you at the moment. We’ve grouped the answers to the questions into sections: Introduction: Dealing with doubt What if ...? About God What if ...? About Jesus What if ...? About the Bible What if ...? About me What if ...? About life

Feel free to flip through to the questions that appeal to you. If you can’t find the exact question you want to ask, that’s OK too: we’ve included further links and ideas for other resources you can use.

DOUBT INTRODUCTION

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WHAT IF?

1 WHAT IF ...

I HAVE DOUBTS? THE STRESS OF DOUBT Doubt. It’s kind of like going to bed and waking up on a chunk of wood in the middle of the ocean. Everything shifts. Once upon a time you knew which way was up, but when doubt settles in, ‘up’ could be anywhere—if only someone could tell you where ...

When we were kids, everything seemed so simple: don’t run with scissors, don’t eat with your mouth full, don’t talk to strangers, clean up your room.

If you were brought up in a Christian family, you may have learned some other things: God made us, Jesus loves us, God keeps his promises, the Bible is God’s word.

Then we grow up, and life becomes a little more complex than we expected.

Salt isn’t just salt—it’s sodium chloride (and occasionally some other elements and compounds thrown in). Mathematics starts using letters instead of just numbers. Cinderella meeting her handsome prince stays in

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the world of fairytales and we discover the pleasure and pain of real-world human relationships, infatuations and break-ups.

A lot of these new, complex things are exciting and mind-expanding. But sometimes there is an unwanted passenger in the middle of the journey through all this new stuff: doubt.

IS DOUBT WRONG? Don’t be surprised if you start to doubt things. The world we live and breathe in is full of alternative ideas and world views (that is, the way people give meaning to the world and how they fit into it). We hear different messages delivered to us every day from teachers, friends, peers, and things we see on TV or in movies or watch online. So when you come across new ideas, it’s natural that little (and large) doubts begin to appear.

It often begins with the question ‘What if ...?’

Everyone has doubts at some stage in their lives. Sometimes questions can even be a good thing. They can push us to a deeper understanding of life, the universe and everything—if we’re willing to search for the answers.

Doubt isn’t wrong. But how we deal with it does matter.

Jesus once came across a man who needed his help. The man asked Jesus to heal his son. ‘I do believe!’ the man cried. ‘Help me overcome my unbelief!’

(Mark 9:24). He wanted Jesus to help him, but he also acknowledged his own struggles. Jesus challenged his unbelief, but he fixed the problem (you can read more about him in Mark’s Gospel, in the Bible). The man knew he was struggling to believe the claims of Jesus, so he asked for help. Jesus gave him the help he needed.

Ignoring a doubt isn’t going to make it go away. The best thing to do is search for the answers. Seek the truth. As Jesus said, ‘Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you’ (Matthew 7:7). Seeking won’t always give us that iron-clad, photo-

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WHAT IF? quality, 120% solid in-our-face answer that we need, but we won’t have a chance of finding the answers if we try to pretend nothing is happening.

WHY DO WE DOUBT? Doubts sometimes seem to jump out from nowhere, but more often they hit us because other stuff is going on at the same time. Maybe something or someone has hurt us, or beaten us up emotionally. Sometimes doubts are a warning sign that something bigger is going on.

This book is designed so you can just flip through to the question that’s bugging you. But before you flick over to any of the other chapters in this book, it’s really worthwhile to ask yourself some questions first: 1. What was happening in my life when this doubt first hit me?

2. Was there a specific event that raised this doubt in my mind?

3. Was there a specific person or group of people who asked me this question first?

4. What would make me feel better—the answer to my question, or something else?

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Imagine your house has a hole in the roof. You can mop up the puddles that appear on the floor when it rains, but unless you deal with the hole in the roof, you’re just going to keep on getting wet. So if there’s a bigger event behind your doubting question, you might need to fix that first before you mop up the other questions.

Do any of these scenarios sound like you?

SOMEONE YOU RESPECT IS SAYING THINGS THAT MAKE YOU DOUBT Doubts can come to us via people we look up to—someone we think is really smart, or someone we want to impress. It might be an adult (a relative, co-worker or teacher) who mocks people who believe in God. It could even be a group of friends at school who make fun of you, or don’t invite you to things because you’re one of the ‘nerdy youth group kids’.

Paul* was a normal Christian kid. He read his Bible, and learned all about how much God loved him and sent Jesus to save him. But then he went into Mr Williams’ class at school. Mr Williams* was the kind of teacher everyone loved. He made learning fun. But he also made fun of Paul because Paul went to church and mentioned God at school. At first it was just subtle jokes, laughing at Paul’s expense and calling him a ‘Bible basher’. He didn’t mark Paul down in his tests or anything, but Paul was never given the place of respect or honour in class.

Paul started to ask big questions at home and at church. ‘Who made God?’ ‘How do we know God exists?’ ‘What about evolution?’ But underneath all those questions was something a little more raw and scary. What he was really saying was, ‘I want Mr Williams to like me, but he thinks I’m stupid because I believe in God. I feel trapped’.

There was a lot of emotion here. Paul experienced feelings of rejection, worries about looking stupid, anger that things weren’t easy, fear that perhaps he was on the wrong team. The relationship between student *Names have been changed.

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WHAT IF? and teacher isn’t an equal one. How do you choose between a teacher and your parents, between being popular or being true to what you think is right? Sometimes following Jesus really is tough. There’s a reason Jesus said these words: ‘Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it. What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul?’ (Mark 8:34–36)

Sometimes being a follower of Jesus means making the tough choice to be loyal to him instead of something or someone else.

THE TRUTH COMES IN AN UNPLEASANT PACKAGE Would you choose what was true, even if the truth came in a package that you really, really, really disliked?

Jane* had parents who wanted her to go to youth group. But Jane didn’t like the other people in the group at all. They weren’t the popular kids at school. Some of them were socially awkward. Some of the kids had issues—like Sheldon Cooper from The Big Bang Theory, but worse. Nobody had the right clothes. When one of the youth group kids wanted to hang out with Jane at school, she was embarrassed. They were so, so, like, … ugh.

She gave excuses, and tried to keep away from them as much as possible.

Suddenly, believing in the Bible and Jesus seemed to be code for ‘becoming a complete loser’. Jane wasn’t sure she wanted that at all …

It’s a sad fact that our beliefs are often tied up with the niceness or attractiveness of the people who hold them. For example, if a person is someone we look up to, we’re more likely to accept their ideas. But if they grate against us, if they hurt us, or if they’re just unpleasant to be around, then no matter how true their opinions are we don’t want to agree with them. In fact, there are times when we’d rather gnaw off our own arm than admit some people might be right!

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Another example of this might be if you go to a Christian or ‘church’ school, where important stuff about God is being taught alongside wearing your uniform correctly and keeping quiet in chapel. ‘Following God’ can become linked with ‘being the teacher’s pet’. It’s hard to take a step back and look at the claims Jesus made, because then you look like you’re not rebelling enough, or you’re sucking up to the teachers, or ...

Truth doesn’t change depending on the person telling it to you. God is still God whether you’re learning about him from a dorky teacher or the nicest, bestest-looking person you can imagine. Sometimes we need to step back and think, ‘Hang on. Am I making a decision based on what is true, or do I just want to stick with people I like? Do I even care whether they’re right or wrong?’

We are often faced with choices when it comes to following Jesus, and sometimes our discomfort is actually a sign that God is challenging our hearts. Jane had to decide what was more important to her: the truth about Jesus, or wearing the right clothes and being seen with the right people.

For her, it was really hard to cope with the possibility that she might lose social credibility because of her youth group associations. Her doubts weren’t about the intellectual questions. Her doubts were about whether she was willing to sacrifice social acceptance for the sake of Jesus. Deep down, she wanted to follow Jesus just as long as he was the ‘popular’ or ‘cool’ option. Deep down, she wanted to be accepted—by people. She hadn’t quite understood what Jesus’ ‘good news’ was all about—sinners being saved by God’s undeserved love.

SOMEONE LETS US DOWN This is related to the last point. Whether we like it or not, our faith can easily become attached to people rather than to God or truth. So if someone we trust betrays that trust or hurts us, it can throw into doubt the beliefs that came to us through that person.

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WHAT IF? Karen* went to a large youth group. It was awesome. There were so many older boys and girls who seemed to be really full-on for Jesus. Jay, her Bible study leader, was really good at explaining stuff in a way she could understand. He was funny, and he really seemed to care about her too. She loved going to Bible study and learning more about God and his awesome plan.

But then something awful happened. Jay left youth group and church.

The rest of the leaders were quiet about what really happened, but they briefly mentioned ‘unhelpful relationships with some of the girls in the group’. Karen was devastated. What was going on? If her leader had done something wrong, did that mean everything she knew about God and the Bible was wrong too?

While the youth group was in turmoil, Karen started asking difficult questions. ‘Why does God let bad things happen to good people?’ ‘Where is God?’ ‘Does he listen?’

If people let us down, we can think God has let us down too. It is really hard to separate the facts from the people, especially when the people aren’t living the way God intends for us to live. But if we like watching footy, we don’t suddenly stop watching if one player cheats or spear-tackles another. For a true football fan (of any code), the game doesn’t stop being worthwhile if one or two players don’t follow the rules. In the same way, the truth about Jesus doesn’t stop being awesome if some of his ‘followers’ don’t live his way. If this is your situation, check out the chapter, ‘What if ... Christians do bad things?’ later in this book.

BAD STUFF HAPPENS In the Western world, life can be pretty sweet most of the time. We don’t have to beg for our food. Most of us have houses to live in, internet access, chocolate, everything we need. You could almost think that we’re living in heaven on earth!

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But it isn’t heaven, is it? Bad stuff happens. People get sick, and some of them don’t get better. Relationships break down. Mental illness affects a large portion of the population. Car accidents take away people we know and love. When the unthinkable happens, we can feel as if someone pulled out the rug from under our feet and we’re crashing to earth with a thud. In the middle of the anguish and grief, we send out the ragged cry, ‘Why???’

Sometimes our lives echo the words of Westley in The Princess Bride: ‘Life is pain, highness. Anybody who tells you differently is trying to sell you something’. Sadly, some people are hit with what we think is more than a fair share of hardship, and it isn’t their fault. It is a natural response to start questioning things. If you’re going through a horrible, horrible time, you want the situation to be fixed. You might even want to go back to a happy time when everything seemed rosy.

If you are asking questions because you’re going through a tough time, there is hope. Turn to the chapter ‘What if ... bad stuff happens?’ to find out more.

YOU’RE WONDERING IF IT’S ALL WORTH IT Christianity makes really big claims. It also demands our whole lives.

‘Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me’, Jesus said (Matthew 16:24). That’s not a random afternoon commitment. That’s everything.

Vanessa* was another girl who’d grown up in a loving Christian family.

She went to youth group on weekends, and hung out with mostly Christian people. But there was something about the kids at school that made her wonder if she was missing out on something. While her youth group leaders were telling her that sex was designed for marriage, the relationships of her schoolfriends looked exciting. They went to parties and drank alcohol. They’d hook up—and the sky didn’t fall on their heads!

They had exciting stories to tell on Monday about what they got up to on the weekend.

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WHAT IF? Then one of the guys in her year who wasn’t a Christian asked her out. He was really hot, and she said yes. She began to ask questions. ‘What if everything I’ve been told is wrong?’ ‘Am I wasting my time with this God stuff?’

If you’ve been brought up in a Christian family, there comes a time when you have to make the decision for yourself: I know Jesus came to die for my sins, but am I going to let him be my Lord and King as well? Or am I going to make something else in my life more important?

Perhaps you’re wondering whether there’s something the big wide world can offer you. No matter how well we can answer your other questions, your ultimate question may well be, ‘Do I really want to submit my whole life to Jesus?’ You might really be asking yourself, ‘Is following Jesus worth it?’

SEPARATING THE TRUTH FROM THE EMOTION For all of these doubt-creating scenarios, there is a lot of emotion. It can be hard to separate what we think from how we feel. But it’s worth taking a step back from the situation and trying to look at it carefully.

STEP 1: ACKNOWLEDGE YOUR EMOTIONS ‘I shouldn’t be feeling this’ is a common statement. But it’s important to be honest with yourself. Understand what it is that you’re feeling. Are you sad? Afraid? Angry? Confused? Sometimes our thoughts can become tangled like a knotted ball of wool. Getting those feelings out there can help us move on. Stomping on them and squashing them down doesn’t make them go away. It’s like ignoring an open wound.

Write down below (or in a journal) how you feel about your situation.

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What is causing these emotions? Can you answer this? Think back to when they started.

The way we deal with doubts changes depending on what has caused them. Here are some questions to think about: •

Is this purely intellectual? Will my fears go away if I find the right answer to this question?

•

Am I worried about someone’s opinion of me? Why do I want them to like me? What is painful about believing in God if others don’t think I’m clever, or if others make fun of me? If I’m completely honest with myself, whose opinion matters more to me—God’s opinion, or that of my friends/teacher/ parents/people around me?

•

Is there something I want to do that I know deep down isn’t God’s way of living? Am I searching for a ‘way out’?

•

Am I hurting? Is it really hard to see the answers because of the pain that has been caused in my life?

Asking these questions can help you to see more clearly what is really going on.

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WHAT IF? STEP 2: DON’T WALLOW IN NEGATIVES While it’s important to acknowledge what you’re feeling, we don’t want to stay down there. We want to begin to move upwards—to find solutions and seek the truth. Negative emotions can create a spiral of downward thinking, so we need to do more than just say, ‘Argh! I wish the bad feelings would stop!’

How do we move on from the negatives? It can be a long process, and most of this book is designed to help you wrestle with this. Different personality types will find coping with doubt easier than others. Some people are naturally optimistic and able to ‘brush off’ uncertainty. Others can really be knocked about by doubts or concerns, and are more likely to want to tie down everything into neat, known facts. We look more carefully at definite, positive steps you can take in the next chapter.

No matter how we’re feeling, though, reality doesn’t change. A train is still a train whether we like it or hate it. Our school is still school whether we want to be there or not. Jesus is still the Son of God no matter how we feel about him. It can be a really brave step to say, ‘I am feeling bad about this, but I want to get to the truth’.

STEP 3: SEEK ANSWERS I remember when I got a major assignment for Ancient History. The teacher gave us the whole term to do the task. It was huge. Everyone was worried, but our teacher said we could get it done easily if we did a little bit of work each week. But did any of us do that?

As if!

For the first few weeks I had maths homework and music practice and a thousand other little things to worry about. It was easy to forget about the major assignment for the first half of the term.

Two weeks before it was due, I finally thought that I’d better get into it. I took one look at the assignment paper and freaked out. I was so panicked

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about getting it done that I couldn’t even think about it for another few days.

A lot of us were up really late the night before the assignment was due.

Some of us were even writing it on the bus on the way to school.

Two of us were still writing it at the beginning of the lesson.

When it comes to the big questions of life, it’s easy to put off finding answers until it’s too late. But don’t be a procrastinator like I was with my assignment. Answers can be found. You don’t need to stress about the big questions. Here is what Jesus says: ‘Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.

Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light’. (Matthew 11:28–30)

STEP 4: KNOW THAT YOU’RE NOT ALONE When it comes to the questions of God, Jesus, the Bible and you, we’re not talking about something abstract. It’s not as if we’re debating with each other about whether there was a certain medieval peasant in the 14th century who liked owning dogs. We’re talking about things that matter here and now: life, your place in the world, a God who loves and cares about you, where you fit in the universe.

In the middle of the doubts, it might be hard to see beyond yourself and your own worries. But one of the central beliefs of Christianity is that because of Jesus we can know a personal God who loves us, who cares about us, who is with us no matter where we are. So cry out to him. Yell at him if you must. Ask him to help you to find the answers. You don’t have to stumble around in the darkness alone. Doubts can be scary and horrible, but you don’t have to cope with them on your own. Take that step of faith that says, ‘I believe. Help me overcome my unbelief!’

In the next chapter, we’re going to look at some more positive ways to deal with our doubts.