God is all-powerful and all-knowing. He can do anything.
God created each and every one of us and we owe all our abilities to him.
So why do so many people not believe in him and his son, Jesus? If God gives Christians the capability to believe and have faith in him, then there are lots of people who he didn’t give that capability too. According to cia.gov, 66.68% of the world are not Christians which means there are a lot of people who don’t believe in Jesus. If God gives believers their faith and ability to believe, why did he not give it to everyone else in the world too? Does he love some people more than others?
Logos from multiple faiths around the world
(Source: Multi-Faith Society)
Some people say that everyone knows Jesus Christ in their heart and are able to believe but choose not to, but this doesn’t make sense and seems to be an excuse for not knowing the true answer. To illustrate, here are a few examples of people who do not believe.
- A rationalist is someone who forms an opinion by using reason and rational arguments, rather than accepting it from other sources such as experience or people in positions of authority (eg. family, government). Rationalists rarely believe in the Christian God because it doesn’t make rational sense to them. In other words, they are not capable of believing in God. Why did God make the possibility of his existence irrational to these people? Why did he not give them the ability to believe and have faith in him?
- Some countries, such as Afghanistan, have essentially no Christian influence whatsoever. 99% of Afghanis are Muslim (cia.gov) which means that for most people they are raised as a Muslim and all of their friends and family are Muslim. There is no reason for them to believe in Jesus as they have had either no exposure to Christianity or only have a vague idea but no details. They haven’t been given the opportunity or ability to believe in the Christian God. Why doesn’t God give them the ability and opportunity to believe and have faith in him?
- Jesus’ birth, his life including his miracles, and his death all occurred within a fairly small geographical area (Image Source: Reach The People).
A map showing the location of significant events in Jesus' life
Even straight after he rose from the dead, how could anyone else in the world have known about him? Take, for example, Indigenous Australians who at the time were living 13,000km away across vast oceans. This was a time before the Internet, phones, radio and any other means of communicating over long distances. British colonisation of Australia didn’t happen until 1788 which means that all Indigenous Australian’s for over one and a half thousand years had no way of knowing about Jesus. The knowledge of him didn’t suddenly appear in their hearts on the day of the resurrection, or on any other day. His disciples didn’t even believe it until they saw it with their own eyes so how was anyone on the other side of the planet supposed to realise? And does this mean millions of people had no choice but to go to hell? How can we think God gave them the ability to believe and have faith in him and his son, Jesus?
Map: Jerusalem To Australia
(Source: ISPOR)
These 3 cases, most obviously the third, show us that many people have not been given the opportunity or capability to know and believe in Jesus. As it is well known, a person usually gets their religion from their family. If the ability to believe and have faith in God was random, this wouldn’t happen. Christians would be spread out across the world, but this isn’t the case. Christians are found in groups. In families, in regions and in countries.
If God is all-powerful and created us, then he must prefer certain families, regions and countries because some are much more Christian than others. If God has given all people the ability and opportunity to believe in him, why is 99% of Afghanistan Muslim? God must have chosen to not give them the ability or opportunity. Some may say those people are evil or have turned away from him, but God could have prevented that from happening if he wanted. He is all-powerful.
God created over 2 billion people with the opportunity and ability to believe and have faith in him, what about the other 4 billion? Does God love everyone?
