DaMulta, You believe, but do you have faith in and follow God?
James 2:19 You do well, the demons also believe and shudder. (They know that and who God is, but do not trust or follow Him or walk in His ways. They shudder because they know and believe what is to become of them).
20 But are you willing to recognize, you foolish fellow, that faith without works is useless?
Brother true faith works a change in us that causes us to trust and follow God even though we don't fully understand Him or His ways. Wanting to know, It causes us to seek to understand, especially when things "don't seem to line up" or make
sense. God does not want us to be ignorant, He wants us to seek the truth and claims that if we diligently seek it, then it will become known to us.
The world sees an angry, wrathful, murderous and hateful God in the Old Testament and refuse to believe; because they use this (false) truth as a lens to examine everything
through. I.E. If God is real and He is all of those things then why would I want anything to do with Him?
A (true) Christian comes to know and remember that God is merciful, loving, full of grace and kindness, has our best interests in mind and actively works for and in our favor. They use these truths as the lens to examine through to understand God and the world.
So when we come to a difficult scripture instead of saying, "Wow God is an unfair jerk!" We instead say, "God is love and mercy, so... what is going on here and why did He do things this way?" It causes us to seek to understand. Failing to understand doesn't change God into a hateful, unfair, murderous God, it just means we don't understand yet.
Paul gives an example of why alot of "bad" things happened to the Jews of old when they were disobedient and unbelieving.
1 Cor 10:1-12
1 For I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea;
2 and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea;
3 and all ate the same spiritual food;
4 and all drank the same spiritual drink, for they were drinking from a spiritual rock which followed them; and the rock was Christ.
5 Nevertheless, with most of them God was not well-pleased; for they were laid low in the wilderness.
6 Now these things happened as examples for us, that we should not crave evil things, as they also craved.
7 And do not be idolaters, as some of them were; as it is written, " The people sat down to eat and drink, and stood up to play."
8 Nor let us act immorally, as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in one day.
9 Nor let us try the Lord, as some of them did, and were destroyed by the serpents.
10 Nor grumble, as some of them did, and were destroyed by the destroyer.
11 Now these things happened to them as an example, and they were written for our instruction, upon whom the ends of the ages have come.
12 Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.
(NASB)
This life on earth is the temporary illusion, what comes after is the lasting and real.
There are plenty of things in the Bible that are part of history, or what did happen. They are not necessarily an example of what should happen, but it is there so that we know God's heart on the matter.
You said that you believe in God. If God can create all that there is and is the author of life, then He most certainly can cause His chosen vessel to become pregnant by His spirit in order to carry Jesus to term and be born. We humans think of sex as the spark of life. It only takes God willing an egg in Mary's womb to spring to life, nothing dirty or filthy about it, and no sex involved in it.
I can go tit-for-tat on the examples you gave for the questions or doubt that you have but that is not what is needed.
When faith is added to your believe, that God is who He says He is; and you begin to trust in Him, and ask Him to reveal the truth to you; and seek to know Him... Then scripture is revealed to you in a way that is not possible without faith.
The apostles said Lord we believe, increase our faith.
Without faith it is impossible to please God. He teaches that He confounds the wise (hides the truth from the intelligent) and reveals wisdom to the young or simple.
Brother if you believe but also doubt, then ask God to increase your faith. James says that we don't have because we don't ask, or that we ask with the wrong motives so receive nothing.
The Bible teaches that God knew when and where to place each person in all of history. It teaches that Jesus has not lost even one of all those that the Father had entrusted to Him. It teaches that He doesn't want any to be lost but desires that all should come to a saving faith, (even though we know not all will). The evil that goes on in this world is part of our refinement and testing too. But don't think for a moment that someone somewhere could possibly die before "having a chance"... If there is a place in time on earth anywhere that a person can be saved then that is when and where he will be born and live out this temporary life. If there is no place or time that a person would ever be saved due to the hardness of their hearts, then does it really matter when and where they live? The worst that this life has to offer will be better than an eternity spent separated from God.
If a man tries to understand the Bible or God without faith then his understanding will always fall far short. Those of us who have faith and believe still only see through the glass dimly, we have to perpetually trust in God. He's worthy to be trusted is He not? One day we will see God as He is because we will be like Him (please don't read that as "we will be gods"), we will know as we are known when we are in our glorified bodies, not needing to ask God why but knowing because we will then be sharing His very mind and heart.
I don't think so!
