"Why didn't God heal my Dad's cancer?" (and other questions) Amy Orr-Ewing, Ben Thomas & Ben Chang 

Watching this, and similar videos, I am struck by the fact that the best part of apologetics is the people, such as your guests here (and others elsewhere), whose obvious goodness (they would modestly deny it), courage and honesty are an example to us all - even those of us who struggle, and often fail, to find faith. They offer us hope. The God in whom they believe must smile to see and hear them.

Thank you for this interview. The stories and illustrations were especially powerful.

I made a few notes: 1. Why didn’t God reveal Himself to other civilizations than Israel? It’s rather convenient that a specific religion was only started in a specific place and only later spread to the nations. 2. You can’t choose to believe. You believe based on whether you are convinced, which I’m not. Effectively, I’m forced into Hell against my will, if it’s true. That’s despite me being raised Christian and really delving into deep faith questions. The deeper I go, the less I’m convinced. 3. Prayer works! And if it doesn’t, it’s just God being unknowable. This is confirmation bias. If God’s going to do what He wants anyway, why ask? 4. If God created, He is 100% responsible for suffering, even if free will exists. Why not just create us in Heaven, where sin is impossible? Plus, there’s no excuse for natural disasters. 5. Jesus gave us the Law of Love. It doesn’t apply here apparently, because there’s a few specific verses about it. I find it appalling that this man changed his whole life around because of a theological issue that wasn’t hurting anyone. It just goes to show that God’s word is not clear, and theology has to fill in the gaps using interpretation. What’s missing here is an informed discussion of real impacts, rather than taking moral claims at face value. 6. When God disobeys His own commandments, He has good reason to. They just don’t bother to explain it, because it’s beyond us humans. Plus, some of those people really deserved it apparently. Also, none of it matters because Jesus.

It is said suffering is a mystery, but if we go back to Genesis we see that suffering is caused by sin. For the believer suffering ends at death, for the unbeliever continues in eternity. Death for the believer is a mercy, for the unbeliever it is judgement. God chose to glorify Himself by allowing sin to be met by justice but also to glorify His mercy.

The first question betrays a failure to understand salvation. Salvation is not something we do. Firstly it starts with an interaction between the Father & Son: All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. ... No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day. (John 6:37, 44) Nowhere is there any mention of the sinner doing anything. Secondly, it is something we do not deserve. What we deserve is eternal damnation. Lastly, it is something done to us, we are born again. Amy Orr-Ewing just doesn't understand it. Salvation is not just, it is mercy & God has the right to give to whoever He wills His mercy. We are not judged on the basis of what we hear, salvation isn't judging, it is mercy. Judged we would all be in Hell. We have no excuse. We know who is saved by their fruit because they change when they become Christians.

Brilliant stuff

'We only read the old testament because of Jesus'...I'm not sure what that means. Many Christians act like God made a mistake and therefore the OT needs to be tossed. But you can't really believe Jesus is he Messiah without understanding the OT prophecies. Neither do any of Paul's or Jesus' references to OT characters or events make sense without the OT. It's a confusing stance to take on the Bible.

Elijah has returned, as prophesied, and testifies: If you only knew how SIMPLE and effective the cure is! But I've been able to share it with very few, because most people do NOT desire Truth, but instead desire Truth to be what they DESIRE Truth to be, which is the irrational desire that caused "The Fall" symbolized in the Bible's Book of Genesis when Adam (who represents ALL fallen souls) chose to partake of "the tree of (irrational) knowledge of Go(o)d and (d)evil. Those who desire Truth will seek and they will find, and I've given you all that you need in order to do so.

It is notable that Adam & Eve didn't get a choice, Christian young people shouldn't think in terms of romantic love. Romantic love is a deception, it isn't really love as the Bible describes it. In the Bible love is the placing of another person before yourself, it is hard work. It is not fancying someone else & living happily ever after. Christian, you should seek God first & in God seek your spouse.

Amy's free will defense is truly pathetic.

These speakers are earnest and apparently compassionate but their explanations are profoundly lacking. For example, the question was, How could God send so many innocent children to death? Doesn’t that make him evil? And the response was: “Well, God’s wrath is just towards the unrighteous.” Okay, but that wasn’t the question: the question specifically concerned his behavior towards innocent children. She also mentions that “hey maybe the flood wasn’t actually that large!” But that does nothing to assuage the moral challenge here - a smaller act of genocide is still genocide. Side note, “thought leaders like Jordan Peterson” ? lol 😂