Through a Glass, Darkly

Job's friends illustrated from nature that life had order and justice.  Job argued that creatures would deny that life had order and justice.  Who was right? Would creatures state that God/life was just or unjust?

The Earth is the Lord's

1. What claim does Satan have to this earth? If any, how valid is that?
2. Who has a stronger claim to ownership of this earth, God, for creating us, or Satan because we humans choose to side with him?   

A Fallen World 

1. Was God's curse on this earth active or passive? Did God wreak havoc on the earth or did He just allow sin to take it's effect?
2. Can Satan do what he wants on this earth or is he restricted in any way by God? 
3. How involved was God in landscaping the earth after the flood? Did He merely allow things to grow as they happened to, or did He supervise regrowth?
4. What remnants of God's handiwork in nature survive?  

The Ruler of This World

1. If as the book of Job suggests, Satan was the representative of this earth, how much access did God have to this earth and its creatures? 
2. After the cross, did God reclaim any further control of this earth?  Why did God not resume full control of this world then? 
3. Does Satan have power to heal?  

The "Wisdom" of the World

1. What is the difference between knowledge, understanding, and wisdom? 
2. If there is a geo-scientific explanation for some miracles of the Bible, such as the sun standing still, the parting of the Red Sea and that of the Jordan, would that render those events as non-miraculous?  

Through the Eye of Faith

1. Can faith heal? Can doubt prevent one from getting well even though one takes the same treatment as that which makes another well?  Do placebos work?  Why or why not?
2. To what extent can we rely on faith and at what point does one need some evidence before committing one's self?

Creation and the Fall

The Serpent Was More Cunning

1. What do you think of this statement "To explain the origin of evil is to excuse it?"

2. What was right with what the serpent told Eve: (1) that she would not die, (2) that they would understand good and evil like God? What was wrong with what the serpent said?

The Woman and the Serpent

1. Why do you think Eve exaggerated what God's instructions were, adding that they should not even touch the fruit which God had not said?

2. Is it wrong to be more strict than the Bible requires?

Deceived by the Evidence

1. At what point had Eve sinned—when she took the fruit, when she ate it, or even earlier when she decided she would eat it?

2. What do you think made Eve observe that the fruit was "good for food?"

3. What do you think made Eve think that the fruit was pleasant to the eyes?

4. What do you think of Mark Twain's statement that God made a mistake in forbidding Adam and Eve to eat the fruit; instead He should have forbidden them to eat the serpent?

5.    What was the necessity of having a test for humans?

Grace and Judgement in Eden

1. Was God more willing to save Adam and Eve than He was to save all the fallen angels whom Satan misled?  Why or why not?

2. Whose sin was worse, Eve who was deceived by the serpent or Adam who sinned knowingly?

3. What difference does it make to Adam and Eve whether the promise of salvation was given before or after the curse was given?

4. Does “grace” imply that the requirements of the law were too severe?

More Questions

1. Why do you think God made it necessary for humans to eat? Couldn't He have just programmed our bodies to last about 70 years?

2. What do you think of the saying, "Your body knows what it needs?" How reliable a guide is appetite, feeling, and desire?

Creation and Morality

What makes something a “right” that should not be taken away?  How do we determine “rights?”

Our Dependence on the Creator

1. Is the Creator obliged to provide, protect, and/or preserve, what He creates,? 
2. Is the freedom of choice a “right” or does the Creator have the right to decide that?
3. Does a child have the right to freedom of choice? From what age does that become a right and on what basis?

In the Image of God

1. What rights do animals have? How do they differ from human rights?
2. Do animals possess the freedom of choice? If so are they responsible for their choices?
3. What makes humans aware of right and wrong?

Made of One Blood

1. In what ways are humans all equal today? In what ways is there inequality?
2. If all humans descended from one couple how can we account for the inequality that exists?
3. Is “survival of the fittest” a valid maxim?  Are the stronger obliged to protect the weaker? Why or why not?

The Character of God  

1. Is “right” and “wrong” absolute or is “right” whatever God is?  If God was “hate” instead of “love” would “hate” be right and love “wrong”?
2. Is it possible to truly love one’s enemies?
3. Why are there so few good Samaritans?

Morality and Accountability

1. Why are we subject to a judgement?  What gives God the right to make the rules and punish the disobedient?  Is that true fairness?  Why or why not?
2. Why are the goats and sheep separated on the basis of social concerns rather than doctrine? Is this really what determines who will go to heaven?  If so, why are we more hung up on doctrine rather than helping the needy?

Creation, A Biblical Theme

Creation in Gen 2

1. After describing the creation in chapter 1, why does Gen 2:5 say that there were no plants and herbs yet? (1)
2. Does Gen 2:19 inform us that animals and birds were created after Adam and Ever were created? (2) 
3. How could the river Euphrates described in Gen 2:14 survive the flood? (3)

Creation in the Psalms

1. Did God create the heavenly bodies with His word or with His finger (as according to Ps 8)?
2. Do humans have dominion over all creation as the psalmist says? What about lions and sharks, (and for women, mice and spiders)
3. Though nature has been marred, what aspects still inspire admiration?

Creation in the Book of Job

1. When Job questions God's justice why does God silence him by pointing out the marvels of creation? (4)
2. Why does Job keep quiet after all those embarrassing questions?  Has he received his answer or is he cowed down?

Creation in the Prophets

1. Why did the prophets keep reminding the people that their God was the creator God--the God, creator of heaven and earth? Why don't pastors refer to God like that today?
2. Why did the sailors get so terrified when Jonah told them that he "was a Hebrew who worshipped The Lord God who had made the sea and the dry land?" (5)

Creation in the New Testament

1. What gives one more right to possess: having made something or having current ownership of it? 
2. The angel in Rev 10:5,6 swore by the name of the one who had made heaven and earth: Is it all right to swear like that--testifying to God's creatorship?
3. Why do you think nobody questioned the theory of creation till modern days? Or do you think some might have?

Some Answers
1.  The words are those used for weeds and crops that came about after sin. See Gen 3:18.
2.  The grammar can be translated "had (already) made."
3.  Just because it had the same name does not mean it was the same river.
4.  Justice and order in the physical world inspires confidence of justice and order in the moral world.
5.  Hebrew comes from the word to "cross over," or "defect."  See Jon 1:10.

The Creation Completed

Why did God take such care to emphasise the literalness of the evenings and mornings?

Sun, Moon, and Stars

1. Can the earth exist without a sun?
2. Was the solar system created to fit God's plans for this earth or did God plan according to what was available?

Creation of Air and Water Animals

1. Some see the second set of three days as days of filling--removing the "void" description of the earth as compared with the "forming" of the first three days.  Where would you place the sun moon and stars?  Forming days, or filling days?  Where would you put vegetation, forming days or filling days?
2. Are air and water creatures more primitive than land animals?

Creation of Land Animals

1. To what level of classification does "after its kind" refer, species, genus, family, order?
2. On which day were amphibians created?

The Creation Completed

1. When we say that the "heavens and the earth were completed and God ended His work of creation," do we mean that God completed his work of creation on this planet or that He has stopped creating anywhere in the universe?
2. Does each created world have their own Sabbaths or does the whole universe keep one day?

The Literal Day

1. How could there be evenings and morning before the fourth day?
2. How would "one day equal to one thousand years" destroy the creation story?
3. What do you think of the theory that the days of creation were literal but not consecutive, i.e., they were separated by long periods of time in between? 

Creation: Forming the World

Without Form and Void

1. How much gap was there between Gen 1:1 and 1:2?
2. Did God design the exact environment to sustain life or could he have fitted life into any environment?

Let There Be Light

1. How could there be day and night before the fourth day?
2. Why is light considered “good” and “darkness”bad?

The Heaven Created

1. What are the different levels of “heaven?”
2. Why do you think God didn’t allow rain till the flood?

Space For Living

1. Why do you think God wanted dry land instead of limiting creation to the waters?
2. We speak of the first three days as days of reversing the “without form”and the next three days as reversing the “void,”or emptiness.  Why do you think vegetation is included in the three days of “providing  form” and not the next three days of “filling?”

God’s All Powerful Word

1. Did God “say” “Let there be . . .?” or did He just have to think it?  What is the difference, if any?
2. Does the text “By the Word of the Lord were the heavens made . . .” refer to God speaking or Jesus Christ the Word?

Jesus, Creator of Heaven and Earth

In The Beginning

1. What does the term "creator" mean? What can anyone make some thing out of nothing?
2. What is the difference in meaning of 'eternal' and 'everlasting'? Which one describes this earth? the universe?

The Heavens Declare

1. What effect does glancing at the heavens have? What happens as you examine it closer and closer?  Why is one filled with awe and wonder?
2. Which is more awe-inspiring, looking up at the large bodies in space or looking within into smaller and smaller things of nature?

The Power of His Word

1. What do we understand by the term "laws of nature?"
2. Why is there so much power in small things (atom, homeopathic doses)?

Jesus, Creator of Heaven and Earth
Why is Jesus called the 'Word?"
Why does Paul refer to Him as the "first" of creation?

The Creator Among Us
Does God work through or against the laws of nature?
Does a miracle work through or against nature?