The Big Questions

Everything else the Bible says rests on who God is. Scripture presents one God who made all things, who is holy, just and good, and who has made himself known as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. He is not distant. He speaks, he acts in history, and he draws near to people who seek him.

The answers gathered here take up what God is like, how he has made himself known, and the hard questions people ask about him, including why he allows suffering and whether he can be trusted when life falls apart.

Christianity stands or falls on who Jesus is. The Bible presents him as the eternal Son of God who became human, lived without sin, died on a cross for the sins of the world, rose bodily from the dead, and now reigns as Lord and King. What a person decides about Jesus shapes everything else.

These answers look at who Jesus is, what he did, what he said about himself, and why his death and resurrection matter.

The gospel is the good news about Jesus: that he is the promised King, that he died for our sins, was buried, and was raised on the third day, just as the Scriptures said he would be (1 Corinthians 15:1-5). It is news before it is advice. It announces what God has done in Jesus to rescue people and to set the world right.

These answers follow that good news through the whole story of the Bible, from God's promises to Israel to the kingdom Jesus announced, and explain why Scripture calls it a matter of first importance.

People are saved by God's grace, through faith in Jesus, and not by earning it (Ephesians 2:8-10). Salvation is God's rescue: Jesus died for our sins and rose again, doing what we could never do for ourselves. The faith that receives this gift is more than agreeing that certain things are true. It trusts Jesus and gives him its allegiance. In the New Testament that faith turns from sin, confesses Jesus as Lord, and is baptized into him (Acts 2:38; Romans 10:9-10), and it keeps following him. We are saved for obedience, not by it.

These answers explain grace, faith, repentance, baptism and the new birth, along with the questions that follow, such as whether a person can be sure of salvation.

The church is not a building or an event. It is the people who belong to Jesus, gathered into local congregations to worship God, learn the Scriptures, share the Lord's Supper, care for one another and make disciples (Acts 2:42-47). The New Testament calls the church the body of Christ and the family of God, and it does not picture a follower of Jesus going it alone.

These answers address what the church is for, how it is led, what it does when it gathers, and what to do when church life gets hard.

Faith in Jesus is meant to be lived. The word the New Testament uses for faith, pistis, carries the sense of trust, loyalty and allegiance, so saving faith is faithful faith: trust in Jesus that gives him its allegiance as King and shows itself in obedience, love and endurance over a lifetime (James 2:17; Galatians 5:6). That allegiance reaches into every part of ordinary life, including money, marriage, sex, work, conflict, fear and suffering.

This is the largest group of answers on the site, so they are grouped by topic. They aim to show what Scripture says and how to act on it, and to be honest about where Christians are free to differ.

The Bible does not leave history open-ended. Jesus will return, the dead will be raised, every person will stand before God in judgment, and God will make all things new. Those who belong to Christ will live with him forever in a renewed creation; those who reject him will be separated from God. Christians have disagreed about the timeline and many of the details, but the return of Jesus, the resurrection and the final judgment are held in common.

These answers cover death and what follows it, heaven and hell, the return of Jesus, and the questions people ask about the last days.

Christians believe the Bible is God's word, given through human writers and trustworthy in all it teaches (2 Timothy 3:16-17). That is a claim worth testing. The text has been copied and handed down with great care, its books were recognized early and widely by the churches, and what it records can be weighed against what is known of the ancient world.

These answers cover where the Bible came from, which books belong in it, how it was passed down, why translations differ, and how to read it well.

People bring all kinds of questions to the Bible: dinosaurs, Cain's wife, ghosts, a verse that doesn't seem to make sense. Scripture speaks directly to some of these, gives principles for others, and is silent on a few.

These answers take each question on its own terms. Where Scripture is clear, they say so. Where it is not, they say that too.