What God should I believe in

On the Facebook Group Christadelphians we found the following letter we want to share with you:

I have been deconstructing my faith for some time now and found that I have not got a faith. I do believe though that God exists,somewhere, and that Jesus is his Son So I am not an atheist. But I now lean towards agnosticism. I have found that God cannot be relied on when I have needed his help I cannot believe that the bible is inherent and divinely inspired. And prayer is unreliable.

I did post a question Why did God need a human sacrifice to enable Him to forgive sin. I havent yet found an answer.

I read about the God of the Old Testament and cannot reconcile Him to the New Testament .John ch 3 v 16 in particular

In the OT we see God sanctioning slavery, Ordering the slaughter of Men, Women ,and Children, Genocide on a grand scale, ie the Flood. If all humans inherit Adams sin /Original sin then so did Noah and his family So why wasnt he destroyed as well as everybody else.

What God should I believe in

John Gale

Virginia McInturff replied

Man was created in God’s image. Man was given a choice to 1)follow God by blind faith or 2) do it his own way and learn good and evil.

God ket man go through the consequences of these choices to learn good and evil, allowing evil to exist. God can do good; God can do evil, just as we can all in His image do. He chooses to have good for His children, which Jesus in his many miracles that God did through him, all were good. Jesus didn’t harm or kill people. He did curse a tree. He could have called thousands of angels to save him…

All the evil we see is consequence of God allowing mankind to learn that, choosing to disregard God’s guidance, thus causing God to allow it.

He hates evil because it harms His children, His creation… air, water, creatures, land, plants… to the point of destroying it.

His plan for a world cared for by His children is wonderful and will happen, after the children of Adam are brought to learn that God is right.

Meanwhile God allows people to learn evil. It all comes from Him. He wants good for His creation. Eden held good, but outside the gate was the other side of God’s world.

Man has the power of being able to keep the good going by caring for the animals and earth, working it in balance with the things that are wholesome and healthy for the dirt, water, air, animals, our bodies and minds. The battle comes when shortcuts are chosen because of lusts and pride. So trust God’s promises that He wants good and has a good wonderful plan for our earth and His children. We will live and appreciate His choice to rid the world of evil!

Julie Snobelen adds:

I’ve been thinking a lot about gardening in terms of our lives… the Bible often alludes to this analogy for example in the parable of the sower. And I have been reading about no-till agriculture and cover crops and how it is so much better for the soil instead of thinking that a field has to be ploughed and harrowed and left bare for a while each year. This may not seem to have a lot to do with your questions, but I have found that thinking that I have to have all the answers to all the difficult questions is a bit like ploughing up the soil – it destroys all the little micro-ecosystems that have built up and eventually makes it difficult for anything to grow without a lot of chemical fertilizer and chemical pest control. I think sometimes we just need to count up all the ways that God is good, all the little ways that He is faithful – they are there even in trouble if you look for them. It is really human pride that thinks we have to have all the answers and be able to understand all the ways of God before we can give Him approval. I don’t mean we ignore the questions we may have but do we give God the benefit of doubt when we try to find the answers,? I hope you can find your way back to faith.