QUESTIONS OF FAITH

1. DOES GOD REALLY EXIST?

Yes, I believe that God truly exists.

But can I prove God in such a way that no one can doubt anymore?
No... and often that is not because of the evidence.

And perhaps that difference is important.
Not everything that is truly experienced can be fully observed from the outside.

Suppose someone has an intense dream tonight. He sees people, hears voices, feels fear or love, and perhaps experiences an entire story.

Put a camera next to his bed, and what do you see?

A sleeping person.

The camera can prove that he was lying there. But the camera has recorded virtually nothing of what he was experiencing in the meantime.

Does this mean that the dream did not exist? No. 
The experience was real — even though someone standing beside the bed could not directly observe it.

Of course, that in itself does not prove that God exists. But it does show something important: what we can measure and observe is not necessarily everything that can be experienced.

Even a miracle does not force anyone to believe.

Jesus tells in Luke 16 about a rich man and Lazarus. After his death, the rich man asks whether Lazarus can be sent to his five brothers to warn them.
Abraham ultimately answers:
“If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone rises from the dead.”
— Luke 16:31

That is a remarkable thought.

Suppose I were to ask God to make a bolt of lightning strike beside me, precisely at my command — and it immediately happened.

For me, that might be overwhelming.

But would everyone believe because of it?
Probably not.
Someone might say: coincidence.
Another person might try to calculate the probability. 
Someone else might look for a natural explanation.

And that in itself is not wrong: extraordinary claims may be investigated.
But it does show that evidence and conviction are not always exactly the same for everyone.

Testimonies
A large part of what we know about the past is known because people experienced events, told others about them, and wrote them down.

The same applies to the Christian faith.
The first Christians did not merely claim that they had invented a beautiful idea about Jesus.

They proclaimed that events had taken place which they had witnessed — above all, that Jesus had been crucified and afterward had risen from the dead.
Paul even refers to an appearance to more than five hundred people at the same time (1 Corinthians 15:3–8).

Their testimony can be investigated, accepted, or rejected. But a written testimony does not automatically cease to be a testimony because the witnesses have since died.

And then it becomes personal.

I can only honestly tell you where I myself stand.
I have believed in God all my life. In addition, I have had events and experiences in my own life that have deeply affected my faith.

Can I transfer my personal experience to someone else as if it were an object that I could place on a table?

Who believes me when I say that I have experienced an answer from God?

And who will believe my story when, one day, I am no longer on this earth?
I cannot force another person to share my conclusion.
But I do know what I myself have experienced.

That is why, for my own faith, I do not need a bolt of lightning from heaven.

The Bible says:
“The heavens declare the glory of God; the firmament proclaims the work of His hands.”
— Psalm 19:2

And:
“For the invisible things of Him have been known and clearly seen from the creation of the world through His works.”
— Romans 1:20

For one person, faith begins with creation. 
For another, with the person of Jesus, the historical testimonies, an answered prayer, a personal experience — or simply with the desire to know whether God truly exists.

Perhaps, therefore, this first question does not need to end with an attempt to capture God in a formula.
Perhaps it should end with a question to the person reading this:

I believe in God.
Do you believe in God?

And if the answer is, “I don't know”: would you be willing to seek Him?

“You will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.”
— Jeremiah 29:13

2. WHO IS GOD?

Who is God?
For me, the answer begins very simply:
God is the One who gives life and builds up.

He gives life.
He created heaven and earth.
He brings order where there is chaos.
He speaks truth.
He comforts.
He heals.
He forgives.
He saves what was lost.
He loves.
And He reveals Himself as a loving Father.

We see this from the very beginning of the Bible.
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”
— Genesis 1:1

Where there was nothing, God creates.
Where there is darkness, He speaks light.
Where the earth is formless and empty, He brings order.
Where life does not yet exist, He gives life.

And when, centuries later, God reveals His name to Moses, He says:
“I AM WHO I AM.”
— Exodus 3:14

God does not say that He came from somewhere.
He is.
He is not a part of creation. He is its Creator.

The God who brings order

God does not only give life; He also teaches mankind how that life is meant to be lived.
We see this, for example, in the Ten Commandments.

Love God.
Honor your father and your mother.
Do not murder.
Do not commit adultery.
Do not steal.
Do not lie.

God draws boundaries around things that are precious: life, love, marriage, truth, possessions, faithfulness, and our relationship with Him and with one another.

His commandments, therefore, are not simply a collection of prohibitions.
They show us something of who He is.

God builds up — evil tears down
In contrast, we see an adversary in the Bible.
Jesus says about the devil:
“He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him.”
— John 8:44

And Jesus describes the difference very powerfully:
“The thief comes only to steal, kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it abundantly.”
— John 10:10

There is a remarkable contrast.

God gives life — evil brings death.
God creates — evil tries to corrupt.
God brings order — evil brings chaos.
God speaks truth — the adversary lies.
God saves — the adversary wants to destroy.
God forgives — the accuser accuses.
God loves — evil hates.
God is faithful — the father of lies cannot be trusted.

This does not mean that everything that hurts us is directly caused by Satan. We also live in a broken world, and people make their own choices.

But the contrast does help us understand something about the character of God.

And above all: God loves

Perhaps the best-known summary of this is found in John:
“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”
— John 3:16

God did not look at a lost world and say:
Figure it out for yourselves.

He came to meet us.

Ultimately, the Christian faith does not only tell us about people trying to reach God.
It tells us about God coming to seek and save what was lost.

Who is God to me?

And here I can no longer give only a dictionary definition.
Because to me, God is not only the Creator of everything.

He is my Father.
My support and refuge.
My help in times of need.
My anchor when the storm comes.
The One to whom I owe my life.
I do not only believe that God exists.
I love Him.

And the more I learn about Him, the more I understand that I will never be able to fully comprehend Him.

He is the Beginning and the End.
“I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End.”
— Revelation 21:6

The Creator of heaven and earth.
The God who gives life.
The God who saves.
The God who loves.

My dearly beloved Father, to whom I owe everything.
🙏🏻⚓️

Who is God to you?

3. IF GOD HAS ALWAYS EXISTED, WHERE DID GOD COME FROM?

The short answer is:

He was always there.

That is difficult for us to imagine, because almost everything we know has a beginning.

A person is born.
A tree grows from a seed.
A house is built.
A star comes into existence.

That is why we automatically ask:
“If God made everything, who made God?”

But according to the Bible, God does not belong to the things that were created.

He is the Creator.

“Before the mountains were born, and You brought forth the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God.”
— Psalm 90:2

Think of a circle

Perhaps a simple image can help.
Look at a circle and ask:
Where does it begin?
You can point to a spot somewhere and say: here.
But why there?
You could have chosen any other point. The circle itself has no natural starting point and no ending point.

Of course, a circle is not God and does not prove God's eternity.
It is only an image that helps us imagine something that is difficult for us to comprehend:
without beginning and without end.

We live differently.
We are born, and from that moment our time runs:
beginning → life → end
But the Bible says about God:
“I AM WHO I AM.”
— Exodus 3:14

Not: I once came into existence.
But:
I AM.

But how can that be?
I cannot fully explain that.
And I think we should be honest about that.

I can say that according to the Bible God is eternal, but that does not mean that my human mind can fully comprehend eternity.

Yet the alternative is at least as difficult.
If there truly was once absolutely nothing — no God, no space, no time, no matter, nothing at all — why does anything exist now?

Eventually, we reach the limits of our understanding.

According to the Bible, behind existence there is not an even earlier creator, and behind that creator another creator, and behind that one yet another.

At the beginning of everything stands the One who Himself has no beginning:

God.

He was there before us.
Before the earth.
Before the stars.
Before the beginning as we know it.
“I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End.”
— Revelation 21:6

So where did God come from?
Nowhere.
He is not the One who once began to exist.
He is the One through whom the beginning began.

We have a beginning.
God does not.
🙏🏻⚓️

4. IF GOD IS THE FATHER, WHO IS THE MOTHER?

The short answer is:
God does not have a wife, and according to the Bible there is no heavenly “mother” alongside God the Father.

The confusion probably arises because we automatically understand the words Father and Son from the perspective of our own earthly existence.

We know:
father + mother → child

So when the Bible speaks about God the Father and the Son of God, the following question seems logical:
“Who, then, is the mother?”

But by doing so, we are trying to explain something heavenly according to the rules of the earthly and physical.

Earthly — the flesh

We humans are born into a physical world.
We have a father and a mother. We receive a body of flesh and blood and live within space and time.
But according to the Bible, a human being is more than just the body we can see and touch.

Paul writes:
“Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless...”
— 1 Thessalonians 5:23

The Bible therefore speaks about body, soul, and spirit.

Exactly how soul and spirit should be distinguished from one another is understood differently among Christians, but the most important point here is simple:

according to the Bible, our reality consists of more than just the visible flesh.

Heavenly — God is Spirit
Jesus says:
“God is Spirit.”
— John 4:24

God the Father is therefore not a human man who physically had a child together with a heavenly woman.

The words Father and Son do not describe human sexual reproduction.
Therefore, no divine mother is needed to explain the existence of the Son.

And in fact, right at the very beginning, the Bible already shows that even human life does not always require a human father and mother when God Himself gives life.

Adam had no father or mother.

Who were Adam's father and mother?
There were none.

Adam was truly human, but he was not born from a human father and mother.
The Bible says:
“Then the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.”
— Genesis 2:7

God gave Adam life directly.

And Eve?
She also had no human father and mother. God made her from Adam.
— Genesis 2:21–22

Only after that does ordinary human reproduction as we know it begin:
father + mother → child

Adam and Eve therefore already show us something important:
God is not dependent on human reproduction in order to bring forth life.

But didn't Jesus have a mother?
Yes. Mary.
Jesus was truly born as a human being from Mary.

But even Mary asked a question very similar to ours.

When she was told that she would have a Son, she asked:
“How will this be, since I have not had relations with a man?”
— Luke 1:34

The angel's answer was:
“The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore also, the Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God.”
— Luke 1:35

Nowhere is there any mention of a sexual union between God and Mary.

It is a miracle of God.

Mary is therefore truly the human mother of Jesus.
But she is not a female divine partner of God the Father.

But something even greater is happening here
We must also be careful not to simply compare Jesus with Adam.
Adam began to exist when God created him.

But according to the New Testament, the Son did not begin to exist when Jesus was born from Mary.

John writes:
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”
— John 1:1

And a little further:
“All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.”
— John 1:3

And then something extraordinary happens:
“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.”
— John 1:14

Notice the difference:
Adam became a living human being.

But:

The Word was — and became flesh.

The birth in Bethlehem was therefore not the beginning of the existence of the Son.
It was the moment when the One who already existed became human and came to dwell among us.
Before Mary — before Bethlehem — before the world

Jesus Himself speaks about this when He prays to His Father:
“And now, O Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was.”
— John 17:5

That is a remarkable statement.
Before Mary.
Before Bethlehem.
Before Adam and Eve.
Before the world.
The Son was already there.

Why, then, Father and Son?
Because this is how God reveals Himself to us.

At the baptism of Jesus, a voice from heaven says:
“This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”
— Matthew 3:17

And Jesus says:
“I and the Father are one.”
— John 10:30

The words Father and Son therefore tell us something about their relationship, unity, and love.

How the Father and the Son can be one God and yet be distinct from one another ultimately brings us to another question on this page:
What is the Trinity?
We will explore that in greater depth later.

So... who is the mother?
If we are asking about Jesus in His earthly, human birth:
Mary is His mother.

If we are asking about a female divine partner of God the Father:
according to the Bible, there is none.
God is Spirit.

Adam also shows us that God does not need a human father and mother in order to bring forth life.

But Jesus goes even further than Adam:
Adam was created.

The Son was already there.

And ultimately:
the Word became flesh.

Perhaps the question “Who, then, is the mother?” arises mainly because we are trying to fit the reality of God completely within our human biological rules.

But the Bible actually turns it around.
God does not fit within our reality.

Our reality came forth from Him.
🙏🏻⚓️

IF GOD IS GOOD AND LOVING, WHY IS THERE SO MUCH EVIL AND SUFFERING?

This is not a small question.

For someone who has just lost a loved one, experienced a war, witnessed terrible injustice, or is suffering deeply themselves, a simple answer can even sound painful.

So let us not pretend that one Bible verse explains all the sorrow.

The question is valid:
If God is good... why isn't the world good?

WAS THIS THE WORLD GOD MADE?

According to the Bible: no.

When God completes His creation, we read:
“Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good.” — Genesis 1:31

Death, murder, hatred, deception, and war are not presented there as God's original intention for humanity.

Then something happens.

Human beings are given freedom — and they also use that freedom to turn against God.

Genesis 3 describes the rupture that follows.
Sin enters the human world, and with it alienation, pain, and ultimately death.

Paul writes:
“Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin...” — Romans 5:12

So the Bible does not begin with:
God made a world full of misery.

But with:
God made something good — and a rupture occurred.

BUT HUMANITY DID NOT FACE THAT CHOICE ALONE

There is something else important that belongs to the story of the Fall.
Human beings misused their freedom, but according to Genesis, this did not happen without outside influence.

There was a tempter.

“Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field...” — Genesis 3:1

The serpent calls God's words into question:
“Has God really said...?”
And then:
“You will surely not die.” — Genesis 3:4

Humanity was therefore tempted.

That does not remove human responsibility — Adam and Eve ultimately made their own choice — but it shows that evil in the biblical story does not simply begin with human beings deciding, out of nowhere, to turn against God.

There was temptation.
There was deception.
There was a lie.

Later, Revelation calls this adversary:
“the ancient serpent, who is called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world.” — Revelation 12:9

So the Bible describes the history of evil not only as a struggle within humanity, but also as a spiritual struggle for humanity.

WHY, THEN, DID GOD GIVE US FREE WILL?

Because love without the possibility of not loving would ultimately not be a genuine choice.

Suppose God had created people who could only say:
“I love You.”

Not because they chose to, but because they were incapable of saying anything else.

Then we would be more like programmed machines than people who are truly capable of loving.

Real freedom makes love possible.

But unfortunately, that same freedom also makes something else possible:
rejection.

And when people are truly free, they can use that freedom to do good...
but also to lie, steal, oppress, wage war, and even kill.

Much of the evil we see in this world is therefore not caused by God commanding people to do evil.
It is caused by people doing precisely what God has forbidden.

GOD ACTUALLY SAYS: DO NOT DO THIS

We can see this very simply, for example, in the Ten Commandments.
Do not murder.
Do not steal.
Do not lie.
Do not commit adultery.
— Exodus 20

When someone then murders, steals, deceives, or is unfaithful, we can hardly say:
“Why is God doing this?”
God actually said:
Do not do it.

A large part of human suffering arises because we do things to one another that directly go against what God has taught us.

BUT THAT STILL DOES NOT EXPLAIN EVERYTHING

Because this answer may partly explain a murder.
But what about an earthquake?
Cancer?
A baby who becomes ill?
A flood?
Famine?
A child born with a serious condition?

You cannot simply say:
“That is because of his or her free will.”
And the Bible does not do that either.

Jesus, for example, is asked a question about a man who was born blind:
“Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”
Jesus rejects that simple reasoning.
— John 9:1–3

So not every instance of personal suffering means that the person who suffers has done something wrong.

A BROKEN WORLD

The Bible paints a larger picture.
It is not only people who are broken — creation itself is no longer as it was ultimately intended to be.

Paul writes that:
“the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together.” — Romans 8:22

So according to the Bible, we no longer live in Genesis 1, where everything is “very good.”
But neither do we yet live in Revelation 21, where everything has been restored.
We live in between.

And that means we know a world in which beauty and love exist...
but also disease, decay, natural disasters, and death.

WHY, THEN, DOESN'T GOD INTERVENE EVERY TIME?

That may be the most difficult part.
Because according to the Bible, God can intervene.
So why doesn't He prevent every murder, every illness, and every accident?

I do not know why God intervenes in one particular situation and not in another.
And I think we should be careful with people who claim that they always know exactly why.

But another difficult question arises:
Where should God stop intervening?
Only with murder?
Also with abuse?
With theft?
With adultery?
With a lie that destroys a marriage?
With a hurtful sentence?
With a thought that ultimately leads to a wrong action?

If God immediately made every wrong human choice impossible, how much genuine human freedom would remain?

How will people learn from their faults?

That does not explain all suffering.
But it does show that the question “Why doesn't God stop evil?” is more complicated than it may first appear.

DOES FAITHFULNESS PERHAPS ALSO NEED TO BECOME VISIBLE?

Here we come to a thought that we should not present as a certainty, but that is interesting to consider alongside this question.

The book of Job begins with a remarkable scene.

The heavenly beings appear before God, and Satan is also present.

God points to Job and his faithfulness.
But Satan then asks a devastating question:
“Does Job fear God for nothing?” — Job 1:9

In other words:
Job only loves You because You are good to him.

Satan points to everything Job has received and, in effect, claims:
Take away his protection and prosperity, and his love for You will disappear.

That is much greater than merely an attack on Job.

It is an accusation against the sincerity of human love for God.

God could, of course, have immediately sent Satan away.
But consider the question:
What would that have proven?

The accusation would have been made, but not answered.

We should not fill in what the other heavenly beings might have thought — the Bible does not tell us.
But the question could, as it were, have remained hanging in the air:

“Could Satan perhaps be right?”

And then something remarkable happens.

God allows Job to be tested.

Not because Job is evil.
On the contrary: right at the beginning of the story, God calls him blameless and upright.

Job loses almost everything.
He does not understand why.
He complains.
He struggles.
He asks difficult questions.

But in the midst of his misery, he ultimately does not turn his back on God as Satan had predicted.

And through this, something happens that before the trial could only have been said:

Job's faithfulness becomes visible.

Satan had said:
He only loves You because of what You give him.
But Job proved through his life:

No.

That makes an interesting thought possible.
Perhaps one of the reasons God allows a world in which people can truly choose, in which temptation exists, and in which faithfulness sometimes comes at a cost, is that genuine love and faithfulness can thereby truly become visible.

Not only:
“I love God because everything is going well.”

But:

“Even when I do not understand, I remain faithful to Him.”

That absolutely does not mean that every person who suffers is personally being tested by God in the same way Job was.

We may not draw that conclusion from the book.
But Job does show us something remarkable:
Faithfulness that is never tested can be claimed.
Faithfulness that remains when everything goes wrong can be seen.

And in the end, it was not Job who was put to shame.

Satan's accusation was put to shame.

GOD DID NOT REMAIN AT A DISTANCE

And here, for me, the Christian answer changes fundamentally.

The Bible does not tell us about a God who watches our suffering from the safety of heaven and says:
“You're on your own.”

According to the Christian faith, God entered our broken world.
Jesus knew hunger.
Sorrow.
Rejection.
Betrayal.
Injustice.
Pain.
And ultimately a horrific death on the cross.

At the tomb of Lazarus we find perhaps one of the shortest, yet most powerful verses in the Bible:
“Jesus wept.” — John 11:35

He knew that Lazarus would rise again shortly afterward.
And yet He wept.
I think that is important.

Sorrow is not treated in the Bible as though it does not matter simply because God will ultimately restore everything.

Sorrow matters.

AND AT THE CROSS?

There we may see the strangest answer of all.
God does not merely observe evil from a distance.
In Jesus, He Himself becomes the victim of human evil.

An innocent man is betrayed.
Falsely accused.
Mocked.
Beaten.
And crucified.

But according to the Christian faith, that very cross, which looks like the victory of evil, becomes the means through which God ultimately overcomes sin and death.
So evil does not get the final word.

THE BIBLE DOES NOT END WITH SUFFERING

This may be the most important part.
The Christian answer is not:
“Suffering really isn't that bad.”

That would be terrible.
The answer is:

The suffering is real.
The evil is real.
Death is real.
But none of these things gets the final word.

The Bible ends with a world in which God says:
“And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying, nor pain.” — Revelation 21:4

This means that the Christian story moves from:
creation → rupture → salvation → restoration
We are still in the middle of that story.

BUT WHY DID GOD HAVE TO ALLOW IT AT ALL?

A mystery remains.
Why God has allowed precisely this world, with this amount of freedom, suffering, and time before He restores everything, I cannot fully explain.

The Bible gives us parts of the answer:
Freedom.
Sin.
Temptation.
A spiritual adversary.
A fallen world.
Human responsibility.
God's patience.
Faithfulness that can become visible.
Salvation.
And ultimately restoration.

But we are not given an explanation for every individual tragedy.
And perhaps sometimes we must also dare to say:
“I don't know.”

Job also asked about his suffering.

In the end, he did not receive a simple explanation for every part of it.

But he encountered God.

SO WHERE IS GOD WHEN IT HURTS?

According to the Bible:
not only above the suffering.
He entered into the midst of it.
He wept.
He bled.
He carried a cross.
And He promised that what is broken now will not remain broken forever.

Therefore, the Christian hope is not that we will never suffer.

Jesus never promised that.

The hope is that even suffering and death are not powerful enough to defeat God's ultimate plan.

The first pages of the Bible tell of a world in which God dwells with humanity and everything is very good.

The final pages once again tell of God dwelling with humanity — but now with this promise:
no more death.
no more sorrow.
no more tears.
no more pain.
Evil exists between those two worlds.

But it does not get the final word.
🙏🏻⚓️

6. WHY DOES GOD ALLOW INNOCENT PEOPLE AND CHILDREN TO SUFFER?

This may be even more difficult than the previous question.
Because when an innocent child suffers, it hardly helps to simply say:
“We live in a fallen world.”

That may be true, but it does not take away the pain.
And I also do not want to claim that I know exactly why God allows every individual case of suffering.
I do not know.

But perhaps the Bible gives us a clue as to why God has not yet intervened once and for all.

Why is God still waiting?

The Bible says that a day will come when God will ultimately put an end to evil, injustice, and death.

But when that day comes, something final also begins.

Judgment comes.

The door closes.

And that is why Peter addresses a remarkable question: why does God seem to wait so long?

His answer is:
“The Lord is not slow concerning His promise, as some consider slowness, but is patient toward us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.”
— 2 Peter 3:9

Perhaps God's waiting, therefore, is not a sign that He does not care.
Perhaps it is actually a sign of His grace.

Every day that the door remains open is also another day in which someone can still find God.

Today someone comes to faith.

Tomorrow perhaps someone else.

People die physically, but at the same time people are still being born again of the Spirit and coming to Christ.

Jesus says:
“Unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.”
— John 3:5

A door that is still open

And there is a painful thought here.
We can ask God:
“Why don't You intervene today and put an end to it?”

But suppose today really were the final day.

What about the person who would have come to Christ tomorrow?

What about the person who would have repented next week?

What about the person who does not yet know God, but will soon seek Him?

We do not know who they are.

God does.

Therefore, it could be that while God truly sees the suffering of this world, He keeps the door open a little longer.
Not because the suffering means nothing to Him.

But precisely because behind that open door there are still people He wants to save.

God does not watch without feeling
I do not imagine a cold God looking at a suffering child and simply saying:
“Just wait a little longer.”

Jesus showed us something different.
When He saw sorrow and death:
“Jesus wept.”
— John 11:35

We should therefore be careful when we try to describe God's feelings precisely.
But the God Jesus shows us is not indifferent to human pain.

Perhaps He keeps the door open a little longer while He Himself sees the sorrow.

Because closing it is final.

And the innocent?

Especially when it comes to children, we must remain humble.
I believe we can confidently entrust them to God's justice and grace.

Jesus had a special love for children:
“Let the little children come to Me, and do not forbid them; for of such is the kingdom of heaven.”
— Matthew 19:14

I would therefore not dare to say that a child who suffers terribly here has been forgotten by God.

On the contrary.

God sees it.

And when God ultimately judges, no one will be able to accuse Him of injustice.
Perhaps God's waiting is itself a sacrifice of love

That brings us to a possible thought.
Perhaps God does not only ask us to be patient.
Perhaps He Himself shows patience.

He sees every war.
Every murder.
Every mother who weeps.
Every child who suffers.

And still, the door remains open a little longer.
Why?

Perhaps partly because of the person who will walk through that door tomorrow.

Because once the final judgment comes, the time for choosing is over.

Peter therefore does not say that God waits because He does not see the evil.
He says that God waits because He is patient and does not want people to perish.

That does not make the suffering any less terrible.
Nor does it explain every individual case.

But perhaps it gives us another way of looking at God's waiting:

Not as indifference.
But as grace.

The door is still open.

And as long as it remains open, people can still enter.

But it will not remain open forever.
🙏🏻⚓️

7. WHY DOES GOD SOMETIMES SEEM SILENT?

Perhaps you have prayed.
Perhaps even several times.

And yet there was no voice, no sign, and no clear answer.
Then a painful thought can arise:

“God, do You actually hear me?”

But there is a difference between:
God is not there.
and:
I do not notice God at this moment.

FOOTPRINTS IN THE SAND

There is a well-known Christian text about someone looking back on his life and seeing two sets of footprints in the sand: his own and the Lord's.

But during the most difficult periods, he sees only one set of footprints.
He asks why God left him alone precisely at those times.

The answer is that the one set of footprints was not his own.

They were the footprints of the Lord, Who was carrying him at that very time.

It is not a Bible story, but I think the thought behind it is beautiful.
Sometimes we look back at a period when we did not feel God and think:
“I was alone there.”

While perhaps it was precisely a period in which God was carrying us without us realizing it.

BUT HOW DOES GOD SPEAK?

When we say that God speaks to someone, we may immediately think of an audible voice from heaven.

But in the Bible, we see different ways in which God reaches people.

Sometimes through a vision.
Sometimes through dreams.
Sometimes very clearly.
Sometimes through other people.
Sometimes through circumstances.
And above all through His Word.

And perhaps God's guidance can sometimes come so close that we think:
“Was that God... or was that simply my own thought?”

We must be careful with that.
Not every thought comes from God.
Not every feeling is a message.

That is why the Bible says:
“Test the spirits, whether they are of God.”
— 1 John 4:1

So we may test what we believe we hear against God's character and against what He has already revealed to us in Scripture.

God will not “lead” us in a way that contradicts His own Word.

BUT DO YOU ALSO WANT TO HEAR GOD?

Perhaps there is also an honest question that belongs here.

If you say:
“Why does God never speak to me?”

have you ever sincerely asked Him:
“God, will You speak to me? Will You help me to recognize You?”

And why do you want to hear Him?
Only to prove that He exists?
To receive a miracle?
Or because you truly want to know Him?

Jesus says:
“My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.”
— John 10:27

A relationship does not consist only of speaking.
It also involves listening.

And listening may have become more difficult than ever in our busy world.

We fill almost every quiet moment.
Phone.
Television.
Music.
Work.
Social media.
Thoughts.
Worries.
Distractions.

And then we ask:
“Why don't I hear God?”

Perhaps sometimes God is not the One who is silent.
Perhaps it has simply become very loud around us.

AND WHAT IF GOD STILL REMAINS SILENT?

Do not assume that silence automatically means that He has abandoned you.

People in the Bible also cried out:
“How long, O LORD? Will You forget me forever?”
— Psalm 13:1

That is simply there in the Bible.
Apparently, God is not afraid of that question.

So you may also say to Him:
“Lord, I do not hear You. I do not understand You. But I am seeking You.”
And perhaps that in itself is already a prayer.

Because sometimes we only discover afterward that God was present during a period when we thought He was silent.

Just like with those footprints in the sand:
Perhaps you saw only one set of footprints... 🙏🏻⚓️

8. WHY DOESN'T GOD ANSWER EVERY PRAYER?

(At the bottom of this answer, I give some examples.)

Perhaps you have prayed very sincerely for something.
Not just once, but for days, months, or perhaps even years.

And yet nothing happened.

Or at least: not what you had asked for.
Then it is easy to start thinking:
“If God hears me, why doesn't He answer?”

But there is a difference between:
God doesn't hear my prayer
and:
God doesn't give me the answer I was hoping for.

An answer from God does not always have to be “yes.”
It can also be:
No.
Not yet.
Wait.

Or: I have another path for you.
Jesus Himself prayed shortly before His crucifixion:
“My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt.”
— Matthew 26:39

Jesus told His Father what He desired, but ultimately placed it in His hands.
“Not as I will, but as thou wilt.”
Perhaps that is the very heart of true prayer.

SOMETIMES WE HAVE TO WAIT

The Bible is full of people who had to wait.
Abraham received a promise, but waited many years for Isaac.
David was anointed king, but he was not sitting on the throne the next day.
Joseph had dreams about his future, but the road that led there first took him through slavery and imprisonment.

So waiting does not automatically mean that God is doing nothing.

Sometimes, while we wait, our circumstances change.
And sometimes, we ourselves change.

SOMETIMES THE ANSWER IS DIFFERENT

Paul asked God three times to remove his “thorn in the flesh.”

It did not disappear.

Instead, he received a different answer:
“My grace is sufficient for thee.”
— 2 Corinthians 12:8–9
So Paul did not receive what he had asked for.

But he did receive an answer.

And sometimes we will not understand at all why something happens. When someone, for example, prays for healing and still loses a loved one, we should not casually say:
“God simply had something better for you.”

Sometimes we simply do not know.
And it is okay to say that.

BUT HOW CAN GOD ANSWER?

This is something I personally believe:

God does not always have to speak to us with an audible voice.

Sometimes a Bible verse can touch you at exactly the moment when something is on your mind. 

Sometimes events come together in such a remarkable way that you feel God may be pointing something out to you or encouraging you.

I have experienced this myself.

One day, I read in the news that archaeologists may have found Bethsaida.

That same afternoon, I received new King James Bibles. I picked one up and simply opened it.
My eyes fell directly on:
“…to Bethsaida.”

Out of all the hundreds of pages, I happened to open it right there.

That same evening, I made a video about it and posted it on this website.

Coincidence?
Perhaps someone would call it that.

But personally, I believe that God can also use moments like these to bring something to our attention.

AND ANOTHER EXAMPLE:

One evening, I had prayed about something.

The next day, during my break, I was walking outside in nature. 
Along the way, I opened my Bible app.

The verse of the day was Exodus 33:14:

“And he said, My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest.”

Those words connected exactly with what I had prayed about the evening before.

But then I noticed something else.

The background of the Bible verse showed a path between the trees.

I looked up from my phone… (top photo)
and at that very moment, I myself was walking along a path between the trees. (bottom photo)
🙏🏻

​

Coincidence?.. Take a good look...

A double confirmation: the verse gave an answer that connected exactly with my prayer, and at that very moment I was walking somewhere that looked just like the background of the verse.

Personally, I believe that this too can be a way in which God answers someone, encourages them, or reminds them:
I am going with you... 

He already knew where I would be walking that day.

So when you think you cannot hear God, do not expect only an audible voice.

Read His Word.
Pray.
Pay attention.
Test what you experience against the Bible.

And perhaps sometimes you should not only listen for God's answer…
but also look around you. 🙏🏻

9. WHO IS JESUS?

Who is Jesus?

A good teacher?
A prophet?
An extraordinary man?
The Messiah?
The Son of God?

When we read the New Testament, we discover that the answer becomes much greater than simply:
“Jesus was a good man who lived about two thousand years ago.”

According to the Bible, the story of Jesus did not begin in Bethlehem.

HE WAS ALREADY THERE

The Gospel of John begins with remarkable words:
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”
— John 1:1

A little later we read:
“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.”
— John 1:14

That Word is Jesus Christ.

His birth in Bethlehem was therefore not the beginning of His existence.
The One Who entered our world as a human being was already there.

Paul writes about Him:
“All things were created through Him and for Him.”
— Colossians 1:16

That is an enormous statement.
Everything was not only created through Him.
Everything ultimately exists for Him as well.

AND YET HE CAME AS A HUMAN BEING

And then something extraordinary happens.
The One through Whom everything was made entered His own creation.

Not as a powerful earthly king in a palace.
But as a child.

He grew up.
He knew hunger and weariness.
He walked among ordinary people.
He touched the sick.
He spoke with people who were rejected by others.
He forgave.
He healed.
He served.
He even washed the feet of His disciples.

And He taught people not only to love God, but also:
“You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
— Matthew 22:39

And even:
“Love your enemies.”
— Matthew 5:44

His goodness therefore did not consist only of beautiful words.
He lived what He taught.

HE KNOWS WHAT IT IS TO BE HUMAN

Perhaps this is one of the most remarkable things about Jesus.
He did not only come into our world to tell us something about God.

He experienced human life Himself.

Jesus knew hunger.
Weariness.
Sorrow.
Rejection.
Loneliness.
Betrayal by someone who was close to Him.
Mockery.
Injustice.
Physical pain.
Torture.
And ultimately death.

At the tomb of His friend Lazarus we simply read:
“Jesus wept.”
— John 11:35

He knew what sorrow was.
In Gethsemane, shortly before His arrest, He said:
“My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death.”
— Matthew 26:38

And afterward He was betrayed, abandoned, falsely accused, mocked, beaten, and ultimately crucified.

That is why the Bible says something very remarkable about Him:
“For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses...”
— Hebrews 4:15

That means something when someone comes to Jesus with pain.

Perhaps you have been betrayed.
Jesus knows what betrayal is.

Perhaps you have been humiliated or mocked.
Jesus experienced it.

Perhaps you have cried over someone you loved.
Jesus cried.

Perhaps you have known physical pain.
Jesus knew pain.

Perhaps you have felt abandoned.
Even those words came from His mouth on the cross:
“My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”
— Matthew 27:46

No matter how good or how bad your life has been up to this point..

You do not first have to explain to Jesus what pain is.

He knows it.

Not only as the One Who knows everything.
He entered our world and experienced human suffering Himself.

Therefore, according to the Christian faith, you do not come to a Savior Who looks coldly at your sorrow from a distance.

You come to Someone Who can sympathize.
Who knows what tears are.
Who knows what rejection is.
Who knows what pain is.
No matter how deep your pain goes, you do not have to be afraid that Jesus cannot understand it.

LOVE WITHOUT SETTING JUSTICE ASIDE

But why did Jesus actually have to die?

Why couldn't God simply say:
“I forgive everyone. Done.”

Because according to the Bible, God is not only love.
He is also just.
He is truth.
He is holy.

And if these things truly belong to God's nature, He cannot simply set aside His own justice when it does not suit us.

Imagine a human judge saying to someone who is truly guilty:
“I am loving, so let's pretend nothing happened.”

We would not call that a just judge.

Evil must truly be treated as evil.
What is broken must be made right.

And that creates a problem for humanity.

The Bible says:
“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”
— Romans 3:23

And:
“For the wages of sin is death...”
— Romans 6:23

So reconciliation had to take place.
A price had to be paid.

And that is exactly where Jesus stands.

HE PAID WHAT WE COULD NOT PAY

Jesus did not only come to tell us that God wanted to forgive us.
He made that forgiveness possible.

Peter writes:
“Who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree...”
— 1 Peter 2:24

And Jesus says about Himself:
“For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.”
— Mark 10:45

That is the wonder of the cross.

God did not say that sin suddenly no longer mattered.
He did not say that truth and justice could simply be set aside.

The guilt was truly faced.
But the One Who did not owe the price chose to bear it Himself.

Jesus paid for what we could not repair.

That is why the cross is at the same time so terrible and so loving.

It shows how serious sin is.

But it also shows how far God was willing to go to save humanity.

Justice was not thrown away.
The price was paid.
And the sacrifice came from Him Himself.

Paul writes that God did this:
“...that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.”
— Romans 3:26

So in order to save humanity, God did not have to stop being just.
At the cross, justice and love meet.

AND THE TOMB DID NOT REMAIN CLOSED

If the story had ended at the cross, Christianity would be a very different faith.
But the heart of the Christian message is:

Jesus rose from the dead.

His disciples did not only proclaim that Jesus had been a great teacher.
They proclaimed that they had seen Him alive after His death.

Paul writes that Christ died, was buried, and was raised on the third day, and then appeared to His followers and to more than five hundred people at the same time.
— 1 Corinthians 15:3–8

That is why the resurrection is not a small part of the Christian faith.
Without the resurrection, the Christian message falls apart.

Paul even says:
“And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile.”
— 1 Corinthians 15:17

So the cross was not the end.

Death did not have the final word.

SO WHO IS JESUS?

According to the Bible, He is much more than a wise teacher from history.
He is the Word Who was already there in the beginning.
The One through Whom and for Whom everything was created.

The Messiah.

The Son of God.

The One Who came to live among ordinary people.
Who healed the sick.
Sought out the rejected.
Forgave sinners.
Loved His enemies.
Served His disciples.
Came to know our pain.
Bore our sins.
Gave His life.
And rose from the dead.

Through Him forgiveness became possible.
Through Him reconciliation with God became possible.

And perhaps the most impressive thing of all is this:
The One through Whom everything exists chose to enter our world and descend into the deepest human suffering in order to save people.
The Highest became a servant.

The One through Whom life exists underwent death.
And the One Who died rose again.

Jesus said:
“He who has seen Me has seen the Father.”
— John 14:9

Who Jesus exactly is, and how He can at the same time be the Son of God while the Bible also makes divine statements about Him, deserves a question of its own.

We will return to that in the next question.
But for now:
Who is Jesus?

The Bible does not present Him merely as someone who showed us the way to God.

He IS that way.
🙏🏻⚓️

Is Jesus God, the Son of God, or Both?

The Bible calls Jesus the Son of God, but at the same time it also speaks of Him as God.

This does not mean that Jesus and God the Father are the same Person. 
Jesus speaks to His Father, prays to Him, and was sent by Him.

John writes:
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”
— John 1:1

Here we can already see both sides.

-The Word was with God — so there is a distinction.
-And at the same time, the Word was God - unity.

John then writes:
“And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us.”
— John 1:14
The Word became flesh in Jesus Christ. Jesus walked among us in the flesh, while His Father was in heaven. 

But this did NOT BREAK their UNITY in the spirit.

Jesus said:
“I am in the Father, and the Father in me.”
— John 14:11

Perhaps a simple dutch saying can help us understand something of this:
“When you see one, you see the other.”
We sometimes say this about two people who resemble each other so closely, and think and act so much alike, that in one you can almost see the other.

With Jesus and the Father, this unity goes much deeper than it ever could between two human beings. 

But remarkably, Jesus Himself said something very similar:
“He that hath seen me hath seen the Father.”
— John 14:9

Jesus was not saying that He is the Father. The Father is not the Son, and the Son is not the Father. 
But Jesus perfectly reveals to us who the Father is.

And when Thomas later sees the risen Jesus, he says directly to Him:
“My Lord and my God.”
— John 20:28

So we can answer the original question simply:
Jesus is the Son of God, and the Bible also speaks of Him as God. 
He is not the Father, but the Father and the Son are one.

We do not have to understand everything about this completely in order to believe what Jesus Himself said:
“He that hath seen me hath seen the Father.”
— John 14:9
🙏🏻🤝🏻

11. DID JESUS REALLY RISE FROM THE DEAD?
The resurrection is at the heart of the Christian faith.
The Bible tells us that Jesus truly died, was buried, and rose on the third day.
But it was not just one person claiming to have seen Him.
Paul writes that Jesus appeared to Peter, the apostles, and then:
“to more than five hundred brethren at once.”
— 1 Corinthians 15:3–8
Different appearances are also described, at different places and times.
After the crucifixion, His disciples were afraid and defeated. Yet shortly afterward they openly began proclaiming:
Jesus is alive.
Some early Christians faced severe persecution because of their faith, and according to early Christian traditions, several apostles died as martyrs.
That in itself does not prove the resurrection — someone can be sincerely convinced and still be mistaken.
But it does show that their proclamation was not merely a casual story to them.
Paul even makes clear how important this is:
“And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile.”
— 1 Corinthians 15:17
The Christian faith therefore stands or falls with this event:
Jesus died — and His followers testified that afterward they had seen Him alive again.
🙏🏻⚓️

12. WHY IS JESUS THE ONLY WAY TO GOD ACCORDING TO THE CHRISTIAN FAITH?
Because Jesus Himself says it very clearly:
“I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”
— John 14:6
According to the Christian faith, the problem between God and humanity is sin.
Good deeds can accomplish much good, but they cannot undo the guilt of what we have already done wrong.
That is why Jesus came.
He bore sin and made reconciliation with God possible.
Peter says about Jesus:
“Nor is there salvation in any other...”
— Acts 4:12
That does not mean Christians should consider themselves better than people of another faith.
Quite the opposite.
The message is that no one can save themselves.
Salvation is not a reward for being better than someone else.
It is grace.
That is why the Christian faith ultimately does not point to a church, denomination, or exceptionally good person as the way to God.
It points to Jesus.
He did not merely show the way.
He said: “I am the Way.”
🙏🏻⚓️

13. IS JESUS REALLY COMING BACK?
According to the Bible: yes.
Jesus Himself spoke about His return:
“And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again...”
— John 14:3
After His ascension, the angels told His disciples:
“This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will so come in like manner...”
— Acts 1:11
The Bible does not describe His return as a hidden symbolic event, but as something that will ultimately be unmistakable.
Jesus says:
“For as the lightning comes from the east and flashes to the west, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.”
— Matthew 24:27
Exactly when this will happen, we do not know.
Jesus specifically warned against thinking that we can determine the exact moment:
“But of that day and hour no one knows...”
— Matthew 24:36
Christians differ in their understanding of some details and the order of events surrounding the end times.
But the heart of the message is much simpler:
Jesus came.
Jesus died and rose again.
Jesus went to the Father.
And He promised to return.
Therefore, for a Christian, the return of Jesus is ultimately not only something to fear.
It is a promise to look forward to.
🙏🏻⚓️

14. WHAT EXACTLY IS SIN?
Sin is more than just doing something very bad.
According to the Bible, sin is anything that goes against God's will and His purpose for our lives.
It can be visible in our actions, but also in our words, desires, and attitude toward God and other people.
The Bible says:
“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”
— Romans 3:23
So no one can say that they have never done anything wrong.
The problem is that sin separates us from God.
And good deeds cannot simply erase the wrong things we have already done.
That is why we need forgiveness.
And that is exactly where Jesus comes in.
“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins...”
— 1 John 1:9
Forgiveness does not mean that God says the wrong thing was not really wrong.
It means that the guilt is truly forgiven.
That is why the message of the Gospel is not:
“First become a perfect person, and then come to God.”
But:
“Come to God, receive His forgiveness, and let Him change your life.”
🙏🏻⚓️

15. CAN GOD REALLY FORGIVE ME FOR EVERYTHING?
Perhaps you have done things that you deeply regret.
Things you are ashamed of.
Maybe you even think:
“If God really knew what I had done, He would never want me.”
But God already knows.
And yet He invites you to come to Him.
The Bible says:
“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins.”
— 1 John 1:9
Look at some of the people in the Bible.
David committed serious sins.
Paul persecuted Christians.
Peter even denied knowing Jesus.
And yet the door to forgiveness was not closed to them.
That does not mean sin has no consequences, or that repentance simply means saying “sorry” and continuing as before.
True repentance means turning to God and wanting to leave what is wrong behind.
Jesus says:
“The one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out.”
— John 6:37
Your past may be serious.
But God's grace is greater than your past.
🙏🏻⚓️

16. AM I SAVED BY GOOD WORKS OR BY FAITH?
According to the Bible, we are not saved because we have done enough good things.
Salvation is a gift of grace, received through faith in Jesus Christ.
Paul writes:
“For by grace you have been saved through faith... not of works, lest anyone should boast.”
— Ephesians 2:8–9
So good works do not buy our salvation.
But that does not mean good works are unimportant.
The very next verse says that we were created in Christ Jesus for good works.
— Ephesians 2:10
James also explains that genuine faith becomes visible in the way we live:
“Faith without works is dead.”
— James 2:26
So the order is important:
We do not do good works in order to earn salvation.
We do good works because genuine faith begins to change our lives.
Salvation is God's gift.
Good works are one of the fruits that can grow from it.
🙏🏻⚓️

17. WHAT DOES “BORN AGAIN” MEAN?
Jesus said:
“Unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
— John 3:3
He was not talking about being physically born a second time.
To be born again means receiving a new spiritual beginning with God.
You recognize that you need God, turn away from sin, place your faith in Jesus Christ, and receive His forgiveness.
Paul writes:
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.”
— 2 Corinthians 5:17
Being born again does not mean that you suddenly become perfect.
You will still learn, grow, make mistakes, and need God's forgiveness and guidance.
But something fundamental has changed:
Your old life is no longer the direction you want to follow.
A new life with God has begun.
It is not simply becoming a “better person.”
It is beginning again — with Jesus.
🙏🏻⚓️

Some things are easy to forgive.

Other things leave a deep wound.

Maybe someone lied to you, betrayed you, hurt you, or did something that changed your life.

Then the question can arise:

“Do I really have to forgive that person?”

Jesus shows us something very remarkable.

Jesus even washed the feet of Judas

On the evening before His crucifixion, Jesus washed the feet of His disciples.

He already knew what was going to happen.

He knew that Peter would deny Him three times that very night.

And He knew that Judas would betray Him and set in motion the events that would lead to His arrest and crucifixion.

Still, Jesus knelt down and washed the feet of His disciples.

Judas was there too.

Jesus did not wait until everyone had proven themselves worthy of His love.

But that does not mean the betrayal suddenly stopped being serious.

About His betrayer, Jesus said:

“The Son of Man goes as it is written of him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed!”
— Matthew 26:24

There we see something important:

Forgiveness does not mean that evil suddenly becomes good.

You can forgive someone and still acknowledge that what they did was wrong.

You can forgive someone without immediately giving that person the same trust again.

You can forgive someone and still set boundaries.

Forgiveness does not mean:

“It was nothing.”

It means something more like:

“What you did to me will not be allowed to poison my heart. I give up my right to revenge and place judgment in God’s hands.”

Peter received a new chance

Peter had denied Jesus three times.

When he realized what he had done, he wept bitterly.

But his story did not end there.

After His resurrection, Jesus sought Peter out again.

And Jesus asked him:

“Do you love Me?”

Not once.

Not twice.

But three times.

Three times Peter had denied that he knew Jesus.

And three times Peter is given the opportunity to confess his love for Jesus.

The third time, Peter even becomes grieved.

But Jesus does not leave him imprisoned by his greatest failure.

After each confession of love, Jesus entrusts him with something again:

“Feed My lambs.”
“Tend My sheep.”
“Feed My sheep.”
— John 21:15–17

That is more than forgiveness alone.

That is restoration.

Peter cannot undo his past.

But Jesus also does not let Peter’s past determine who Peter must be from now on.

Peter fell.

Peter repented.

Jesus restored him.

And then He gave Peter responsibility again.

Forgiveness does not erase the past.
But grace can make sure the past does not determine your future.

How often must I forgive?

Peter himself asked Jesus a question about this.

How often should I forgive my brother?

Seven times?

Jesus answered:

“I do not say to you seven times, but seventy-seven times.”
— Matthew 18:22

Of course, that does not mean we should make 490 marks and at number 491 say:

“Now it is over.”

Jesus removes forgiveness from calculation.

But there may be an even deeper layer in His words.

Long before Jesus, we read about Lamech.

He speaks precisely about revenge:

“If Cain’s revenge is sevenfold, then Lamech’s is seventy-sevenfold.”
— Genesis 4:24

There the number is connected with retaliation.

When Jesus later speaks to Peter about forgiveness and uses similar numerical language, He seems almost to reverse that old way of thinking.

Where humanity says:

“How far can my revenge go?”

Jesus teaches:

“How far can your forgiveness go?”

Not further and further into retaliation.

But further and further into grace.

And immediately after that, Jesus tells the parable of a servant whose enormous debt was forgiven.

That same servant then refuses to forgive a much smaller debt owed by someone else.

With that, Jesus comes to the heart of the matter:

We are not called to forgive because evil is unimportant.
We are called to forgive because we ourselves live by forgiveness.

Forgiving does not mean forgetting

This is important.

Forgiving does not mean pretending that nothing happened.

It does not mean trust must be restored immediately.

It does not mean giving someone another opportunity to hurt you.

And it certainly does not mean staying in a dangerous or harmful situation.

Forgiveness and trust are not the same thing.

Forgiveness can take place in your own heart.

Trust sometimes has to be rebuilt.

And the restoration of a relationship often requires something from both sides.

Sometimes forgiveness also does not happen in a single moment.

A wound can hurt again.

A memory can return.

And sometimes you may need to lay the same pain before God again.

That does not mean your first act of forgiveness was not real.

It means some wounds need time to heal.

Give it to God

In the end, forgiveness does not mean:

“What you did was not serious.”

It means:

“What you did was wrong, but I will not let it rule my heart for the rest of my life.”

I do not have to take revenge.

I do not have to reopen the account every day.

I give judgment to God.

I lay my pain before Him.

And I choose to move forward.

Jesus washed the feet of someone He knew would betray Him.

He forgave Peter, who denied Him three times.

And He even gave Peter a task again.

So forgiveness may not begin with the question:

“Does that person deserve my forgiveness?”

But with another question:

“Do I want to keep carrying what that person did to me?”

Forgiving is not saying that the offender was right.

It is refusing to let that person’s act become the owner of your heart.

Release revenge.
Give judgment to God.
And let grace become stronger than the wound.

18. IS THE BIBLE WRITTEN BY PEOPLE OR BY GOD?
The short answer is:
According to the Bible: both.
The Bible was actually written by people — different writers, living in different times and circumstances, each with their own language and writing style.
But Christians believe that God guided them through His Spirit.
Paul writes:
“All Scripture is given by inspiration of God...”
— 2 Timothy 3:16
And Peter writes that people:
“...spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.”
— 2 Peter 1:21
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A significant part of the Bible contains prophecy — statements about events that, at the time they were written, still lay in the future.
Of course, someone could say:
“People can make predictions.”
That is true.
But the remarkable question is not whether someone could make a prediction. It is whether those predictions correspond with events that happened later.

And some biblical passages become particularly interesting when viewed from our modern world.

For Christians, fulfilled prophecy — together with prophecies that they believe may still await fulfillment — is another reason to see the Bible not merely as words written by human hands, but as Scripture inspired by God.
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19. HAS THE BIBLE CHANGED OVER THE CENTURIES?
The Bible was copied by hand for many centuries.
Because of this, differences arose, such as spelling variations, copying errors, and sometimes different readings of a passage.
But today we have many ancient manuscripts that allow scholars to compare these differences.
A remarkable example is the Dead Sea Scrolls, discovered beginning in 1947.
Among them is an almost complete scroll of Isaiah from around 125 BC — about a thousand years older than the major medieval Hebrew Bible manuscripts known before this discovery.
Although there are some little textual variations, this ancient text of Isaiah agrees to a remarkable degree with the Hebrew text passed down in later centuries.
Ethiopia provides another interesting example.
The Ethiopian Christian tradition preserved ancient writings such as 1 Enoch in Ge'ez for centuries. Much later, far older Aramaic fragments of 1 Enoch were discovered among the Dead Sea Scrolls.

The Bible itself refers to writings that are not included in our current biblical canon, for example the Book of Jasher (Joshua 10:13; 2 Samuel 1:18), the Book of the Wars of the LORD (Numbers 21:14), and other chronicles. Moreover, Jude 14–15 contains a prophecy that corresponds with 1 Enoch 1:9.

The Bible therefore has a long history of handwritten transmission, but much of that history can now be examined through the many ancient manuscripts that have survived.
🙏🏻📜⚓️

20. WHO OR WHAT IS THE HOLY SPIRIT?
According to the Bible, the Holy Spirit is not simply a force or energy.
He is the Spirit of God.
Jesus speaks of the Holy Spirit as Someone who teaches, guides, and remains with believers:
“But the Helper, the Holy Spirit... He will teach you all things.”
— John 14:26
The Holy Spirit convicts people of sin, helps us understand God's truth, and works in the lives of those who belong to God.
Paul writes:
“Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?”
— 1 Corinthians 3:16
The Bible also connects the Holy Spirit with God Himself. Peter, for example, speaks about lying to the Holy Spirit and then calls this lying to God.
— Acts 5:3–4
That is why Christians believe in one God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Not three gods, but one God.
Exactly how this is possible goes beyond our full human understanding.
But put very simply:
The Father is God above us.
Jesus is God who came to us.
The Holy Spirit is God who works in and with us.
🙏🏻⚓️

21. HOW DO I KNOW THAT CHRISTIANITY IS TRUE AND NOT JUST ONE RELIGION AMONG MANY?
The fact that many religions exist does not automatically mean that they are all true — or all false.
Their most important claims often differ greatly.
The Christian faith ultimately centers on Jesus Christ and on a remarkable historical claim:
Jesus died and rose from the dead.
Paul even makes Christianity testable at this point:
“And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile.”
— 1 Corinthians 15:17
So Christianity does not only ask:
“Do you like this way of life?”
It also asks:
“Who was Jesus really — and did He truly rise from the dead?”
His first followers proclaimed that they had seen Him alive after His death. Paul even mentions more than five hundred witnesses.
— 1 Corinthians 15:3–8
Jesus also stands within a much older Biblical story of creation, sin, covenant, prophets, Messianic expectation, and ultimately salvation.
But faith is personal as well.
Jesus says:
“Seek, and you will find.”
— Matthew 7:7
So investigate.
Ask difficult questions.
Read the Bible.
Compare what different religions actually teach.
And sincerely ask God Himself to lead you to the truth.
Because ultimately, the Christian faith is not merely about choosing a religion.
It centers on the question:
Who is Jesus?
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