You Can't Ask That!: 50 Taboo Questions about the Bible, Jesus, and Christianity

by Christian Piatt (Editor)

Overview

Have you ever had a burning question that seemed off limits or inappropriate to ask about Christianity, the Bible, or Jesus? You Can’t Ask That! gathers 50 of the most provocative, challenging, or otherwise taboo questions that many of us have wondered about but few have actually asked. Edited by Christian Piatt, who once had a bible thrown at his head for asking too many questions during a Sunday school class, this collection considers nothing off limits and takes the hard questions seriously. Responses from theology professors, pastors, lay leaders, and other progressive Christians range from the personal to the profound and from sarcastic to deeply touching. By offering multiple perspectives to those banned questions, readers can craft their own answers. Better yet, they’ll understand that questioning faith is not taboo; it’s the foundation of a strong and growing faith.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780827244320
Publisher:	Chalice Press
Publication date:	10/06/2020
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	216
File size:	982 KB

About the Author

Christian Piatt is an author, editor, speaker, musician and spoken word artist. He co-founded Milagro Christian Church in Pueblo, Colorado with his wife, Rev. Amy Piatt, in 2004. Currently he serves as the Director of Acquisitions and Author Development for CrowdScribed, and as the Director of Growth and Development for First Christian Church (DOC) in Portland, OR.

Table of Contents

Foreword vii

Introduction 1

Questions:

Can I be a Christian if I don't believe the Bible is perfect, handed down directly from God to humanity without error? 3

Aren't women treated poorly throughout the Bible? Why would any intelligent modern woman today even want to read the Bible? 9

How can a God be all-loving yet allow people to be thrown into hell? 13

What does the Bible really say about homosexuality? 15

Why haven't any new books been added to the Bible in almost two thousand years? Is there a chance that any new books will ever be added? Why or why not? 21

Did God write the Bible? If so, why didn't God simply create it miraculously, rather than using so many people over thousands of years to write it down? 25

How do we reconcile the Old Testament command for vengeance (eye for an eye) with Jesus' command to turn the other cheek and love our enemies? 29

Is there a right or wrong way to read the Bible? 33

Does God justify violence in scripture? What about genocide? 37

Hell, Sheol, Hades, Gehenna, and Tartarus are all labeled as "hell" by most Christians. Are they really the same? Are they all places of fiery torment? Are such things to be taken literally, metaphorically or as myth? 40

How can we begin to take the Bible literally when it seems to contradict itself so often? 44

Are Lucifer, the Adversary, Satan, the Beast, and the Antichrist all the same? If so, why use so many names? If not, what are their different roles, and who is in charge? 48

Was Mary Magdalene a prostitute? 50

Are there any mistakes in the Bible? Like what? 54

In some cases, Paul (the purported author of many New Testament books seems to support women in leadership roles in church, and in others, he says they have no place. Which is it? And why the seeming contradiction? 58

Are some sins worse or better than others? 63

If people have to be Christians to go to heaven, what happens to all of the people born before Jesus or who never hear about his ministry? 66

Why would stories about a father murdering his daughter (Judg. 11) or handing his daughters over to a crowd to be raped and killed (Gen. 19) be included in the Bible? 69

Why would God send Jesus as the sacrificial lamb of God, dying for the sins of the world, instead of just destroying sin or perhaps offering grace and forgiveness to the very ones created by God? Why does an all-powerful being need a mediator anyway? 73

Many Christians embrace the phrase, "I believe Jesus is the Christ, the son of the living God, and I accept him as my personal Lord and Savior," but I can't find this anywhere in the Bible. Where did it come from? 79

In John 14:6, Jesus says, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." Do people have to choose to follow Jesus to go to heaven? And what does it mean to choose his way? 83

What happened during the "missing years" of Jesus' life, unaccounted for in the Bible? 88

Why should I believe that Jesus was resurrected? What does it mean to the Christian faith if he wasn't resurrected? 91

Does it really matter if Jesus was born to a virgin or not? What if Mary wasn't a virgin or if Joseph (or someone else) was the father? 96

Did Jesus really live a life without any sin? What do we base this on? And does it matter? Why? 99

Why did Jesus cry out "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" from the cross? Did God really abandon him? If so, doesn't this mean that Jesus wasn't actually God? 103

Aren't Jesus' miracles similar to other healings and miracles recorded outside the Jewish and Christian tradition? 107

When Jesus participates in the Last Supper, doesn't that mean he's eating his own body and drinking his own blood? 111

Did Jesus understand himself to be God, like God, in line with God, or something else? Did he understand this from birth? If not, then when did he begin to understand it and how? 113

If Jesus could resurrect people, why didn't he do it more often? 117

Was Jesus a pacifist? 120

Did Jesus believe God wanted him to be crucified? If so, why did he ask God, "My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me" in the garden of Gethsemane? 123

Was Jesus ever wrong? About what? 127

Jesus forgave people of their sins before he died. How could he do this if he actually had to die in order to save us from sin? 129

Jesus broke certain biblical laws by healing on the Sabbath, associating with non-Jews, and not keeping all of the kosher laws. So how do we know which rules to follow and which are irrelevant to us today? 132

Can you be LGBTQ and be a Christian? A minister? More denominations and Christian communities are welcoming LGBTQ people, as well as ordaining LGBTQ as ministers. Is this really possible? 137

Preachers such as Joel Osteen preach about Jesus wanting us to be rich. Where does this belief come from? Wasn't Jesus poor? Didn't he tell rich people to give everything away? 141

Are Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses, Seventh Day Adventists, Spiritists, Christian Scientists, etc., really Christians? Who gets to decide? 144

Do Christians have to be baptized? Why do some sprinkle while others immerse? Which one is "right"? 146

If all Christians basically believe the same thing, why do they have so many different denominations? And if there are so many denominations struggling to survive, why don't they just combine with other ones? 148

Can someone be both an atheist and a Christian? If "Christian" actually means "follower of Christ," could someone be a student of the life of Jesus without accepting the claims of his divinity, or claims of the existence of any divinity at all? 150

What do Christians believe about disaster and suffering in the world? If God has a plan, why is suffering part of it? How do Christians reconcile suffering in their own lives? 153

It seems like most Christians focus a lot more on issues of sex and sexuality than any other issues. Why? 155

I hear Christians say all the time that, good or bad, everything happens for a reason. What about genocide? Famine? Rape? What could the reason possibly be? Does there have to always be a reason? 159

Where does the idea that so many Christians and political leaders maintain about the United States being a Christian nation come from? Do all Christians believe this? 162

How is it that so many Christians support-or even call for-wars when one of the names for the Christ they supposedly follow is "Prince of Peace," and Jesus urged love for enemies and nonviolent responses? 165

How do some Christians use their faith to oppose abortion, while also supporting the death penalty or personal gun rights? 169

Many Christians describe themselves as "evangelical." What does that mean? Is that the same as being conservative? 172

Do Christians still believe that wives should submit to their husbands? What do they mean by "submit"? 175

Is the Christian God the same God as the God of Islam and Judaism? If not, what's the difference? If so, why have three separate religions? 178

What do Christians believe happens after they die, and why? Do they believe they are judged immediately and are ferried off to heaven or hell? What about purgatory? 180

To be a Christian, is it necessary to believe that Jesus really (as in factually) healed the blind, made the lame to walk, rose from the dead, and ascended into somewhere called heaven, where he sits with someone he calls his Father? And, if not, why do Christians recite a creed that says that? 184

Why is the church growing in Africa and Asia, but declining in Europe and the U.S.? 187

Why is personal/individual salvation emphasized so much more in modern Christianity than global transformation of the world into the just peace realm of God's commonwealth? How can one person be saved while others continue to suffer? 189

Why do so many evangelicals seem to feel the term "social justice" is a bad thing? Why is it generally associated with leftist political activism? 193

Many Christians read and study the King James Version of the Bible. Some believe it is the best and most accurate translation there is. Why? Can I read a different translation? What about paraphrases such as The Message? 196

What does it actually mean when Christians say they believe that Jesus is the Son of God? And how, if at all, is this different from when other people are called "children of God"? 199

Do all Christians believe Jesus died for their sins? What exactly does this mean, and where did the belief come from? If some Christians don't believe this, what do they believe about the crucifixion? 202

Contributors to You Can't Ask That 206