I've been a christian my entire life, but I'm having some trouble finding some answers to questions I have.  One of my biggest questions is: if God created everything and knows everything, why would He create sin, knowing that's a choice that mankind will choose?  And why can't He just make sin go away?  I know that not everyone can go to heaven because it's a perfect place, and sin cannot be there, but why wouldn't God just completely get rid of sin, so all these people He's created and loves can be with Him in heaven?

Sincerely,
Hope For All

Dear Hope For All,

God didn’t create sin; the devil did.  The Bible says that Satan is the father of lies (Jhn 8:44).  Sin only exists when we turn our back on God.  Sin is a lot like darkness.  Darkness isn’t really a thing – it is the absence of light.  God is the father of lights and every good thing (Jas 1:17).  When we stop following the Lord, we no longer walk in the light.  Sin is the absence of godly living.

God can do whatever He wants, but God has chosen to give us the freedom to choose sin or choose life (Deut 30:19).  God doesn’t desire any of the wicked to perish (Ezek 18:23).  His desire is for all mankind to choose Him, but God also honors our freewill by giving each of us an entire lifetime to choose for ourselves whether we want to spend eternity with Him or away from Him.  If God simply removed sin, He would also be removing our freewill.  God respects the freedom He gave us.

     A lady told me her preacher had a stroke.

1. Was this illness from God?
2. If the preacher was a true christian, why did God not answer the preacher’s prayers for 100% recovery?
3. Did God have apostles that were handicapped?
4. This lady was questioning the preacher’s christianity.  How can I answer her using the Bible?

Sincerely,
Far From A Physician

Dear Far From A Physician,

We can’t tell you whether or not this preacher is a faithful man, but we can tell you that his stroke doesn’t mean he isn’t a christian.  The best passage to show this lady is 2 Cor 12:7-9.  The apostle Paul had a “thorn in the flesh”, some sort of illness that vexed him deeply.  Paul, being the faithful apostle that he was, prayed to God three times that the sickness would be removed.  God said, “No.”  Paul accepted the illness as part of his life and went on to preach very successfully in spite of it.

Good people suffer, too, and God blesses the faithful even through trials (Rom 8:28).

Is it a sin to marry or have a relationship with your first cousin?

Sincerely,
Taboo?

Dear Taboo,

The Bible never condemns marrying your first cousin.  Even in the Old Testament, the prohibition only extended as far as aunts and uncles (Lev 18:12-14).  It isn’t a sin to marry your first cousin.  In fact, it hasn’t even been culturally taboo for very long.  Even two or three generations ago, it was much more common to marry a first cousin.  Today, it is an odd thing to see a first cousin marriage, but it isn’t wrong.  Cultures change all the time, and this is a cultural issue, not a Biblical one.

Did God make mistakes when he made homosexuals?  Why did Jesus not rebuke homosexuals?

Sincerely,
Looking For Answers

Dear Looking For Answers,

We’ll answer your second question first.  Jesus did rebuke homosexuality, but He didn’t do it specifically.  Jesus answered the question of homosexuality when He taught on marriage.  Jesus said that marriage was intended between a man and a woman (Matt 19:4-5).  Any sexual activity outside of God’s plan for marriage is fornication.  Homosexual behavior, pre-marital sex, adultery, etc. are all sinful and Jesus condemned them all when He taught the right way for men and women to behave.

Now let’s address the issue of people being made homosexual.  God doesn’t force anyone to act upon same-sex attractions, just like God doesn’t force an alcoholic to the bottle or a wrathful husband to strike his wife.  How we act is a choice, not a genetic equation.  There is a lot of debate over why some people have same-sex attractions, but at the end of the day, those temptations need to be mastered.  When Cain was angry, God told Cain to rule over sin or it would devour him (Gen 4:7).  Same-sex attractions are a temptation that stems from within a person, just like anger, unhealthy opposite-sex attractions, and a thousand other temptations (Jas 1:13-14).  The key is that there is always a way of escape from those unhealthy desires (1 Cor 10:13).  God didn’t make a mistake when creating us; it is when we turn from the path He has designed for us and follow our own desires (which are often unhealthy) that we sin (Jer 10:23).

    In the news, a boy brought a gun to school and shot his classmate.  The teacher asked him why he did it, and he said his classmate acted “too girly”.  Do you think that the christian church is perplexing young minds and making them do silly things like this?  Also, how should we teach a child about diversity and homosexuals?

Sincerely,
Coexist

Dear Coexist,

The church needs to teach what the Bible says, and the Bible says that homosexuality is wrong (Rom 1:26-27).  Is it right to shoot people because you disagree with them? Absolutely not.  Vengeance, judgment, life, and death belong to God – not us (Rom 12:19, 1 Pet 4:4-5).  The Bible doesn't teach people to hate.  There are people who try and wield the Bible as a book of hatred, but when you read the Book yourself, it teaches forgiveness for sins, the love of God, and hope for the repentant sinner – this includes repentant homosexuals.

We should teach our children what the Bible says about men and women.  God designed marriage and sexual relations to be between one man and one woman (Gen 2:24, 1 Cor 7:1-2).  Homosexuality is a sin, but it is a sin that can be forgiven like any other.