You asked... here's our response...

These are questions which came back on the reply cards. Thank you for them! They're great! They show that people are really thinking and coming back with stuff which is both honest and though through. Well done you.

Now we're not claiming that what we've said below is The Ultimate Answer to any of those... more like just a few ideas to keep you thinking! So keep the debate going. If you don't agree with the answers we're suggesting, come back at us and argue. We're big kids. We won't burst into tears and think you're horrible. In fact, we quite like a good argument...!

How can generations go on what one man said?

You're right, Jesus said this stuff a very long time ago. And we've progressed a lot since then... and history has thrown up new ideas, new problems, new voices. Isn't it dangerous just to follow one ancient voice blindly?

Well, that depends on the truth of what he said, doesn't it. People do sometimes say things which have an enduring value for the rest of time. We're still reading Plato and Aristotle. Galileo and Copernicus changed our view of the universe decisively, and their conclusions still aren't out of date. Sometimes old ideas can still be valid. If they work.

And that's the point. Christians aren't rushing like lemmings in the footsteps of an outdated prehistoric prophet who said his bit nineteen hundred years before cornflakes were invented. They're still following him because what he says still makes sense, and does so increasingly in today's world. The Christian church has never grown so fast as it is doing today. Not in Western Europe, maybe, but in South East Asia, China, Latin America, sub-Saharan Africa - and not in primitive countries that don't know any better, but in super-technological societies at the cutting edge of today's issues.

If you look down through history, you see that Christianity has been relevant consistently, over and over again. Millions of individual lives have been transformed by Jesus. Societies have become more compassionate, fair, just and equal. And it's still happening now.

Maybe the problem with this question is that it sees Christianity as "going on what one man said". Actually, as we're going on to explain in Week 3, you can be sure about Christian faith: it isn't just a matter of reverently doing what Jesus said and then hoping to heaven you were right to do so. Hang on in there for another week and we'll tell you why.

Meanwhile, here's a statement to think about from Jurgen Klopp:

'All of these really likeable guys who I meet week in week out at matches or in some cases even in training, have one thing in common: they have noticed at some stage in their careers that there must be more to life than championship and relegation battles.

'They relate how a relationship with God has changed their perspective.'

How can you put all your hope in something that could be uncertain or untrue?

Actually we do this all the time. When was the last time you sat down on a chair? Probably before reading this? OK - did you carefully check the joints and screws before you did, to be sure it would take your weight?

We take a lot of things on trust, every day. And if you object that, well, it's not very likely that the chair would have screws missing, I'd say the same about Jesus. It's just possible that Jesus could be saying something that is "uncertain or untrue", but pretty unlikely; I've seen hundreds of people I know take the big jump into trusting him, and never once has any of them been let down. I've proved it in my own life. And I know from history that in every age of the last two thousand years, people who have taken a chance on Jesus have found that, yes, he really is there, and life does make a whole new kind of sense.

I often hear people who have become Christians at Belmont saying, "I really find it hard now to remember how I thought before I was a Christian! It all seems so obvious and true now - I feel like I was wandering about in the dark for ages!"

And as I've said above, in Week 3 (March 26th), we're talking about this super-important subject of how you can be sure. So don't miss it whatever you do!

P.S. You might wonder: why doesn't God just prove he's there by coming down and doing a few miracles? Well, if he did, you'd have to follow him, wouldn't you - even if it was just out of fear and terror! But God doesn't want that. He wants a relationship with us, a friendship based on trust, not compulsion. It's a bit like having a boyfriend or girlfriend: it's a growing thing, and at the start you may not be very sure whether they really like you, or whether they might just get off with your best friend behind your back! But as time passes the relationship grows, and so does love, and so does assurance.

Did he achieve his mission in saving the world?

Depends what he was trying to do. If he was trying to get everybody believing the same thing - no. If he was trying to force the world to live in peace - no. But actually he was shooting for something far bigger than that.

What Jesus was trying to do was to bring God and humans into a friendship with each other again. He died on the cross to deal with the sin, wrong and evil that stopped us from coming home to a loving Father. And he made it triumphantly possible for humans to have this whole new life we're talking about, this breathtaking friendship with a God who is increasingly real as you get to know him.

But you can only give that to people one life at a time. Every individual needs to say Yes.

And down through the centuries, countless millions have come into that great relationship. Jesus has changed the world unbelievably for everyone who has accepted his offer of eternal life and friendship with God. But there's room for loads more. You, even.

What will happen to people who are never told about Jesus?

Great question. Short answer: the Bible doesn't tell us. But we do know three things for sure.

First God is fair. Nobody will ever be condemned by him because they never had a chance. It says seven times in the Bible, "God is no respecter of persons" - which means "God doesn't play favourites". So there are likely to be some unexpected people in heaven!

Second, God is love. He gets no thrill out of condeming people! Centuries before Jesus, he was making that clear through the prophet Ezekiel:

Do I take any pleasure in the death of the wicked? declares the Sovereign Lord. Rather, am I not pleased when they turn from their ways and live? (Ezekiel 18:23)

So God hates it when any of his creations turn away from him. He loves them infinitely. So if there's the slightest chance of including somebody in, God is going to take it.

Third, God knows us. He knows how people would have responded if they'd had the chance. And he judges fairly on that basis.

No, if anyone ends up on the wrong side of God's judgment, it will be because they've chosen that for themselves. They've had the chance to accept God's forgiveness, mercy and love; they've looked at it and understood the implications; and they've said, "No thanks." God respects us too much to overrule our free choice; he'll let them be condemned if that's what they want; but he won't be happy about it.

Could Jesus have been anything other than mad, bad or God?

I can't think of too many other possibilities. You could claim, I suppose, that Jesus never made the outlandish claim to be God - but you'd be flying in the face of all the historical evidence; he clearly did. You could probably claim that the Bible stories about him are garbled, and he never meant to say anything of the kind; but that's pretty difficult to maintain. We have too many good manuscripts; we're not in any doubt whatsoever about what Jesus claimed, and nor were the first Christians. From the very get-go they were proclaiming Jesus as God. It wasn't an exaggeration invented by the fan club some time later; it was part of the original message.

So either Jesus believed what he was claiming ("I am God"), or he didn't. If he did believe it, there has to be something wrong with his mind, hasn't there? Sane people don't make that kind of claim. If somebody started claiming that today, they'd probably be sectioned in a mental health unit pretty quickly.

And if he didn't believe it, he was lying. Which kind of makes all his teaching about integrity and honesty look a bit sick. Even if he was pretending to be God for honourable reasons (to fool everybody into living the way he said, and being nice to each other), I can't see why he'd carry it on to the point of crucifixion. If he knew he wasn't God, why would he take the pretence all the way to the cross? Wouldn't he have been able to influence people a lot more by somehow staying alive? No, it's hard to see what he could possibly have been playing at.

So however you look at it, you're back to three choices. Lunatic, liar - or Lord. Mad, bad - or God. Unless you can think of another one?

Week 2 questions

How can you put all of your hope and life into something that might not be real?

This sounds pretty identical to one of the questions from Week 1: "How can you put all your hope in something that could be uncertain or untrue?" If you haven't looked at our reaction to that one yet, scroll up and start there...

But when you say, "It might not be real", that's slightly different from "uncertain or untrue". That's not so much about the claims Christians make, as about the experience they base their faith on. Is it possible you're just pinning your hopes on a cosmic Invisible Friend, with no real proof at all, just to make yourself feel better about the fact that actually the universe is pointless and dangerous and life is a sick joke? Do you just have to keep hoping desperately that when you die, the gamble will have paid off, and suddenly you'll be surrounded in bliss by God and all his angels, thinking to yourself, "Whew! So my guess was right after all!"?

If it really was that way - if you just had to keep hoping against hope - I don't think I'd have the stamina to keep on going as a Christian. Because I can't live with just a pleasing fantasy. I have to know one way or another whether I've invested my life in the right place.

But that's not the way it works. The New Testament says this:

I know whom I have believed, and I am persuaded that he is able to keep safe everything I've committed to him until the day he comes back.

That's 2 Timothy 1:12, written by an ageing Christian who had been knocked about, persecuted and ill-treated for decades, and who still clung on to his faith. Not because he was pig-headed, ignorant and stubborn, but because he knew. And notice, he didn't know a bunch of facts and theories - he knew a person. "I know whom I have believed." He was sure he was on the right path because he had a personal relationship with the most amazing person in the universe. God was not just a theory, but - thanks to Jesus - a living presence in his life, there day by day, undeniably real. The New Testament rings with this conviction again and again:

When I am raised to life again, you will know that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.

And this is the way to have eternal life—to know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, the one you sent to earth.

For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love.

And since we died with Christ, we know we will also live with him.

For God, who said, “Let there be light in the darkness,” has made this light shine in our hearts so we could know the glory of God that is seen in the face of Jesus Christ.

Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ.

I am writing to you who are mature in the faith because you know Christ, who existed from the beginning.

And we know he lives in us because the Spirit he gave us lives in us.

I have written this to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know you have eternal life.

And we know that the Son of God has come, and he has given us understanding so that we can know the true God.

That's a random listing of just ten quotations from the New Testament; there are loads of others. Clearly the early Christians were convinced that Christianity was more than a hope-so affair: they believed they knew God in an undeniable way.

And that's precisely what Christians today still believe. So don't give up on exploring it until you've worked out exactly why they're so sure. If you don't get that, you'll never understand any of it!

Suffering???

OK, a one-word question, but we know exactly what you mean. For many people today, it's the biggest question of all. If there's a God of love, why do people suffer?

Yes, it's a tricky one. Because your experience of living in the world has shown you two things, over and over: first, life can be great; most people enjoy it and like being alive; and, second, life can be terrible. The question is: how do you reconcile these two conflicting sets of data?

Well, first, you could believe that life has no meaning; it's just a purposeless accident in space; there is no God, and all religions are just collective delusions.  But the problem with that is that you're ignoring so much:

• the genuine evidence of design and purpose in our world
• the fact that people instinctively expect life to be consistent, fair, purposeful and enjoyable, and feel upset whenever it isn't
• the fact that the majority of human beings has always believed in God, and that continues (in fact it's growing) today
• the millions who claim to have had a personal encounter with a God who has made sense of life for them. (And that includes many who haven't had an easy life - yet still believe in the goodness of God, not as a comforting escapist fantasy, but as a spur to real involvement in making the world a better place)

And I could go on. But second, you could believe that God exists, but is evil: a sadistic monster who loves volcanoes, tsunamis, car crashes, earthquakes, wars and bombs. In that case, though, I think you'd have a hard time explaining the existence of joy, happiness, love, creativity, etc., etc., in a world created by an evil God.

Third, you could believe that God exists, and he's good, and that he created a good universe, but that it's been spoiled. Which is what the Bible actually claims: that God made us, not to be mindless robots, but to be free beings who would respond to him with love and gratitude. However, we misused the gift of free will which he gave us, hijacked the planet, went our own way and started ignoring God. When we did that, we wrecked the whole basis of God's creation - so it still "works", but it works in a damaged way. The seasons go round, the sun rises and sets, the crops grow every year; but there's also pain, suffering, injustice, inequality.

Now that argument seems to me to fit the facts of our experience a bit better than the other two. (And there are lots of other reasons why evil might exist in a universe created by a good God - I haven't got space to talk about them here, but I'm always good for a discussion if you want one.)