'Nothing Made Everything' - how atheists think they have the answer to everything

Many people are under the impression that atheism = intelligence and Christianity/creationism = stupidity. I would like to share a video with you that I just can't get enough of. You can try to argue against this all you want if you're an atheist, in which case, leave me a comment answering the questions Todd poses in this video. You can't. I present, the stupidity of atheists...

"Why did God let the Holocaust happen?"

Since it's Holocaust Memorial Day in Europe and I am an Ambassador for the Holocaust Educational Trust (HET), I thought today would be an appropriate time to answer the above question. I've been asked this question a few times, most frequently when I visited the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camps in Poland, as part of my work as an Ambassador for the HET.

I'd like to start this post by directing you to this post over at GotQuestions? They have answered (with reference to Bible verses) the above question for the most part and since they've done it so well, I won't spend time repeating what they've said here. Instead I will summarise (and you can read in its entirety and and check the references) and I'll add what that post didn't say.

In short:

• God's permission is not the same as God's approval. Just because something bad happens, doesn't mean God approves of it
• We will never understand God's plans because we do not have infinite knowledge like He does. His knowledge includes possibilities, past, present and future
• Humans are sinful and pursue sinful, selfish desires. They have the choice to turn from this but many do not. The sinful actions of the Holocaust therefore rest with those involved, who made that choice - not God
• God is just and thus those involved in the atrocites will be punished accordingly
• One good thing to come out of the Holocaust was the establishment of Israel as a nation for the Jews, fulfilling prophecies in Ezekiel 37 and Matthew 24

To add a little more:
The key issue here is free will. Sin exists in the world and it always will. God gave us free will (that's a whole post in itself) so that we could choose to love and follow Him, as opposed to being robot-style humans 'programmed' as it were to love God because He made us that way.

Due to free will, people can do disgusting acts like the Holocaust. God can intervene, but if He did this all the time we'd have 2 problems:

1. This would remove free will. No one would ever get round to actually doing something against God, because He'd always stop them
2. We would stop helping ourselves because we would expect intervention from God all the time. A bit like a superhero situation.

We need to turn from evil and choose good for ourselves and try to convince others to do the same. My last thought on the issue is that when I was at the camps, I felt closer to God. It sounds strange, but it is the eeriest, scariest, quietest, most frightening and morbid place I have ever been, even without prisoners and SS officers. I realised the cruelty of man and the contingent, fragility of life. That brought me closer to God. It made me realise that He is the only way.

If we are saved, if we believe and trust in Jesus Christ and follow Him, life on earth is as bad as it will ever get for Christians. One day we will join our Lord in the place He has prepared for us (John 14:2-4)

"I can't believe in something that I don't fully understand, so I'm not a Christian"

A few people have said to me that the reason they don't read the Bible or choose to follow God and become a Christian is because they don't understand the Gospel. The basics of Christianity are really quite simple:

• God created everyone with a purpose and He wants a relationship you
• You have sinned, which means you have disobeyed God's plans for you, like every single person on the planet
• God is upset by this and as a just and righteous God, He must punish you accordingly - which means Hell
• But God will not give up! He loves you so much that He sent His only son Jesus to take the punishment for your sin
• The punishment for sin is death. Jesus, in his perfection, took it upon himself to die an excruciating, horrific death so that we could be forgiven of our sins
• He showed his power and glory, when God resurrected Jesus from the dead
• The price has been paid for us, so that if we believe in God, trust God, choose to obey God now and apologise with sincerity then we fail, we will be saved - we will live with God in Heaven and avoid being sent to Hell

(For a more in-depth explantion of that, you might want to see my posts on why God sends people to Hell and how you can avoid it here and here. You may also want to visit Got Questions?)

If you would prefer to watch a video explaining the Gospel message clearly and concisely, check this out, it's done in the format of spoken word poetry:

credit to Odd Thomas and WretchedRadio

But if at this point you're still thinking "ok, I get that much, but I'm still confused by stuff like Jesus being resurrected, the Trinity, etc" here's my answer to you: yes, it is complicated stuff! God's plan is divine, it has been made with his ultimate understanding and knowledge, with his foresight and hindsight. We do not have this.

It is not important that we understand the ins and outs of His plan entirely, we just need to understand the basics which I have just explaned. God guides us and helps us to understand. It takes time to build up a close communication with God, through Bible study and prayer, as it does with any relationship. But He will reveal himself and help you understand. He listens and waits for you.

Now before you jump to thinking this is a 'cop out', think of it like this: what do you currently follow or believe that you do not fully understand? Do you understand...

• How the internet works? But do you believe that the internet exists? Do you frequently use it?
• How your phone works? But do you blindly use that without understanding it?
• How gravity works? Yet you believe you will stay on the ground
• How the universe exists? The movements of the Earth in relation to the Sun and the moon? But you expect that we'll have day and night

It is possible to know how the things I have just listed work. It is possible to understand God's unique plan for our lives. But both are complicated. If that is not a reason however to shy away or refuse to investigate the workings of the internet, why is it a reason to turn from God? If you can blindly follow worldly things without fully comprehending, why do you reject doing this with God?