Mark,
Have you written anything that speaks to the unbeliever who is convinced that because there are bad things in the world that, if there is a God, he is bad? My brother can't see a good God because he created a bad world. Animals kill other animals, some people are unfairly disabled or poor and starve, storms kill us, pain is necessary but severe pain isn't and God has the power to change all the bad but doesn't so he is bad and so my brother doesn't want to go to heaven. He says God doesn't give us free will, we don't have a choice, there is only one choice and that is to bend to God or he will send us to hell.
I do pray God will change his heart but he really needs help.
Any help reaching my brother's heart will be appreciated.
Sincerely thankful for all you do and for the gifts God has given you that you might touch others.
God Bless you and your work,
Tina Magee
Dear Tina,
The obvious reply here, it seems to me, is that if God is as bad and all-powerful as all that, then how does all the goodness slip through the cracks and keep happening? And, if it comes to that, what's the point of talking about “not bending to God” if we don't have free will? If your brother has the ability to say, “Screw you!” to God, doesn't that indicate he does have free will? Or is God making him defy Him for some weird and inscrutable reason (in which case, he's still obeying God).
I think your brother has painted himself into a corner. If God's intentions toward us are malicious, then he will send us to hell no matter what we do. Meantime, it seems like an awfully elaborate bit of trouble for the Almighty to go to: creating the world, enduring crucifixion and all, creating us and enduring the existence of beings he both hates and totally controls, only to then put us in hell. There doesn't even seem to be the satisfaction of amusement in it. So why bother?
I would point out to your brother that people don't go to hell for asking questions. Indeed, God doesn't “send” people to hell, they send themselves there. A man is not in danger of hellfire when he asks a question of God. He is only in danger when, having gotten a clear answer he knows is true, he shuts his eyes to that answer and shouts “La la la! I'm not listening!” Job asked plenty of sharply-worded questions of God and was never rebuked for it, because he listened to God's answers. In fact, he was rewarded for it. The people who were rebuked by God were the people with the pat answers; the people who told Job to shut up and stop questioning. The people who were already convinced they knew all the answers.
So there are two basic reasons we ask questions: to find things out and to keep from finding things out. Your brother needs to make clear which sort of questioner he is. Perhaps this will help: Questioning in Faith.
Your prayers and love are probably the best thing you can do for your brother. Usually difficulties with God such as this have as much to do with the will as the intellect. Apologetics can address the intellect and remove barriers relatively simply. But only the Holy Spirit can soften and change the heart to receive what it formerly refused to receive. Most of your brother’s objections can be made short work of. But giving up the will to cling to those excuses for rejecting Christ can only be done by a miracle of grace. Happily, the Holy Spirit specializes in such miracles. So by all means keep praying!
May God bless the love you show your brother with fruit in his soul through Jesus Christ!
Mark Shea
Senior Content Editor
Catholic Exchange
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