10 Questions that Christians do not like to answer!
by Ijaz Ahmad

?????? ????? ????????????? ?????????? ,

In this list, I intend to present 10 questions which critique the Christian faith in an indepth manner. Whether you’re a Christain who is well educated or lesser educated, these questions are meant to provoke deeper thinking concerning your faith:

? If the earliest Christians within the first two centuries after Jesus did not need a New Testament to qualify their faith, why do modern Christians have such a need? If they did not sanction or consider any other writing beside the Old Testament to be scripture, then isn’t it a digression from the ‘true faith‘ of the earliest believers to incorporate something new as scripture? The first New Testament was codified and canonized by the heretic Marcion who believed that the Jewish YHWH was not the true God, the first time the largest Christian Church sanctioned a New Testament was during the 2nd Ecumenical Council of Carthage in 397 CE, some 360+ years after Jesus.

? In continuing with the New Testament, most scholars accept that Paul’s writings were the first of the New Testament to be written. Dr. Dale B. Martin dates 1st Thessolonians to be from 47 CE, Prof. Bart Ehrman dates it to be from 49 CE, either way the earliest Christian New Testament ‘scripture’ can theoretically be traced back to a man who admitted to being a fool (2 Cor. 11:1, 16), to being demon possessed by a satan sent by Christ (2 Cor. 12:6-11), who stole the name of a Pagan Roman leader (Acts 13:7-9), and who disagreed with the brother of Jesus, even fighting with the Disciples who lived with Christ and referring to them as not true believers! Heck, he even denounces a significant portion of two Gospels by criticising the biographies included in them in Titus 3:9.

? If Christ died for the sins of mankind, then by his sacrifice we are all sinless. On the cross and before his death he did not specify any criteria for his sacrifice to be upon us. He never put such conditions as belief in him as a deity or that we must accept the yet to be announced religion of ‘Christianity’ or to profess belief in the ‘Trinitarian Godhead’. If there are conditions, (let’s say to believe in him), then mere belief in his existence satisfies this condition. If Christ did die, then he died for you, me and everyone else and we are therefore sinless through his death. If it is claimed that he died only for the elect, then his death was useless as he claimed to die for all (John 3:16), but his death was not good enough to save everyone. The logic behind his death is also of great interest.

? According to Psalm 37:28, God would not forsake the faithful and just, He would protect them forever. Jesus on the cross claimed to be forsaken, as such, if Jesus did claim this, then according to Psalm 37:28, he was not faithful and just. The verse also mentions that the wicked would perish, since Christ died/ perished, then this verse would lead us to believe that God considered Christ to be wicked. If Psalm 37:28 does not apply to Jesus, what is the reasoning for this claim?

? If the Bible is the Word of God, and Psalm 119:89 claims that there is one eternal scripture preserved in the heavens, then which Old Testament and New Testament should we believe in? If you are a Bible believing Christian, this is a serious issue as no Bible post-John Mill’s GNT is derived from one holistic text but from a compendium of MSS codices, see the Nestle-Aland GNT. For more information, see here for an expansion of this line of questioning.

? If Jesus came with the intention of dying for everyone’s sins, then it must be understood that ‘intentionally killing one’s self‘ is considered to be suicide. Therefore Jesus’ death is suicide. If God is the Most Loving, why would he (a) murder his own son instead of forgiving (as He did for those who repented) or (b) commit suicide? Both of these are sinful acts. Can salvation be obtained through murder-suicide?

? Since Jesus said the ‘Father is greater than I‘ and we understand that God the son is co-equal to God the Father, then this is an inherit contradiction in the doctrine of the Trinity. For if one is greater than the other, how can God be greater than God? If one God is greater than another God we have a bigger issue as they are therefore not co-equal and are two distinct entities, therefore they are two Gods and not one. For if they are one, how can one be greater than the other?

? Who exactly is YHWH? Is YHWH Jesus, the Son and the Holy Ghost? Or is YHWH solely the Father? If the son-Jesus is YHWH, why does He never identify himself as such? Despite this problem/ confusion as to who YHWH actually is, another issue has arisen. According to 2 Corinthians 12:4, the inexpressible name of YHWH is actually a man made name, derived to substitute the loss of the real name of God. Yes, Christians and Jews do not really know the name of God. Exegete Adam Clarke explains in detail this conundrum. How can you call people to Christianity, if you don’t actually know who God is?

? The doctrine of the Immaculate Conception refers to Mary’s purity from the original sin upon conception. According to the doctrine of the Original Sin, all born of women, inherit the sin of Adam and Eve. Since Jesus is born of a woman, then he automatically inherits this sin. However, he doesn’t, because of the sinless nature of Mary. Whether you are Catholic or not, in order for Jesus to have been born sinless, then you must believe that Mary at one point or another did not have the original sin and was thus sinless. The question therefore begs itself, where does the Bible say Mary is sinless or was born sinless? To further this argument, if we do inherit the sin of Adama and Eve, why do we not also inherit their repentance and good deeds?

? We’ve covered the Bible, Paul, Jesus, Creeds and Doctrines, Christology/ Theology, the Law and Salvation/ Soteriology. For the last question, I ask something very simple. Since God is the Creator and He created us, it is fitting that God should tell us our purpose of life or why we were created. Therefore, I’m asking for where in the Bible does God-YHWH-the Son-the Spirit or Paul, mention why God created us?

wa Allaahu ‘Alam. — with Ijaz Ahmad, Mohammed Abdullah, Asif Ali Shaikh and Hamza A.A..