6. If God created us, who created God?

7. How could Noah's ark have possibly held all the species of life on the earth?

8. Why did Jesus speak in parables?

9. The Trinity just does not seem to make sense. How can one person be two persons and three persons all at the same time?

10. Does God play favorites? Is God a Zionist because He has been supernaturally assisting the Jews?

If God created us, who created God?

This question is one of the most often asked questions there is. The problem comes in assuming that God is restricted to our "time" just as we are.

We live in one dimension of time, like a man walking a straight line. There was a past, there is a present, there will be a future on this line of time. We are all used to this; it is all we know.

But recently astronomers have determined that our universe of matter, energy, space, and time had a beginning. This means that time was created. All that is in this universe is restricted to that time. But the Creator has to, by definition, be outside of this time. He has at least two dimensions of time, if not dozens, if not hyperdimensions of time. Bottom line: His realm need not have beginnings and ends. It is possible that He just is (c.f. His insistence on the title I AM, not I WAS or I WILL BE).

Of all the holy books, the Bible is alone in this claim that time is created and that God is beyond it. It is stated clearly in Titus 1:2 and in II Timothy 1:9. The Bible declares that the grace of God we now experience was in effect before the beginning of time. The Bible unabashedly declares that God has no beginning, no end, and works outside of time to relate to humans imprisoned in their one dimension of time.

How could Noah's ark have possibly held all the species of life on the earth?

The ark was big - really big - nearly the size of an aircraft carrier. But even a boat this big would be too small to hold the millions of animal species found on planet earth at the time of Noah, and a fourteen-month food supply for them. Moreover, the eight people aboard could scarcely care for the teeming millions by daily feeding and watering and eliminating wastes. Wonderful visual, huh?

No need to fret!!! We're not saying the Bible story of the Flood is incorrect. (We hold that Genesis is full of actual stories.) What you need to know is that the Bible does not claim that every species on earth was on the ark. Huh???

Genesis 6-9 describes the animals taken on ark with the two Hebrew words, nephesh and basar. Nephesh critters are used to describe mammals and birds only. Basar is even more specific in describing those animals which contribute to the livelihood of man. What is just as important is that the Hebrew word for "world" refers to mankind and the area he occupied - not the whole globe.

So, if the Flood covered just the inhabited land, not the globe, and if Noah and family were only taking aboard the critters described above, then it's not such a stretch to see that it could easily happen. Several hundred - at the most a few thousand (not millions) - were taken on the ark. The ark was plenty big enough for these animals and their food. And, Noah's family of eight would be fully capable of caring for these animals on board.

Notice we never say the Bible is wrong or poetic or a book of myths or inaccurate. The Flood really did happen. Want to read more on it? Go to Bridge Over Troubled Waters and read to your heart's content!

Why did Jesus speak in parables?

Jesus' own reply to that question (Mk 4.12) is so that "they may be ever hearing but never understanding, otherwise they might turn and be forgiven." What's up with that??? That's not fair. A closer look at this passage, however, shows that He was commenting on people's spiritual condition, not expressing a wish to see them condemned.

An overview of the whole Bible reveals a consistent pattern in God's style of communication with man. God addresses an audience with plain, direct teaching in all those situations where the listeners have the humility to receive it directly.

For those audiences so caught up in pride and self-justification as to resist His direct teaching, God uses parables. These wordplays put people outside of their direct situation in hopes that they may see their own rebellion or pride through another's situation.

And, then, there are those audiences whose level of rebellion will not allow them even to hear a parable. In such cases, God's tool is an object lesson.

Finally, there are those audiences incapable of any degree of humility or repentance. Since such people are bent on infecting others with their extreme evil, God ultimately removes them.