Why does God make it so difficult to believe?

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Jerome100

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If God wants all to be saved and come to knowledge of truth, why does he make it so difficult to believe? Why all the suffering in the world and in our lives? Why allow churches to close for months during the pandemic cutting us off from the sacraments? Why not make his existence and love for us crystal clear??
 
You will find it easier if you act in love. I don’t find His commandments to be burdensome. God wants selfless devotion and He is very much deserving of it. Suffering arises in our lives because we are attached to temporal things. We suffer because we have cravings for temporal things. Not all temporal things are bad-- but when we exalt these things to a station which they do not belong to, suffering happens.
 
God’s love, presence, and care seems pretty evident to me. I think you’re looking at the glass half empty. Try looking at the glass half full.
 
Jerome100 said:
… Why all the suffering in the world and in our lives? …
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Free will allows for good and evil which has impacted the world. Without free will one could not be a partaker of the divine nature.

Catechism of the Catholic Church
272 Faith in God the Father Almighty can be put to the test by the experience of evil and suffering. God can sometimes seem to be absent and incapable of stopping evil. But in the most mysterious way God the Father has revealed his almighty power in the voluntary humiliation and Resurrection of his Son, by which he conquered evil. Christ crucified is thus “the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.” It is in Christ’s Resurrection and exaltation that the Father has shown forth “the immeasurable greatness of his power in us who believe”.
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Jerome100 said:
Why not make his existence and love for us crystal clear??
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It is crystal clear. You have merely to look at all of the good in the world.

How much clearer can it be than him sending his son, who died on a cross for us? If God’s love was clear to Jesus even though he died a torturous death, why is it not clear to you, who have been saved from it and by it?
 
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Why’s are often so difficult to answer, humans want to understand things and sometimes we just can’t. But rest assured that God does have a plan and strategy. Things do happen for a reason (at least some things do) for your spiritual benefit. We don’t always understand but it’s ultimately for our good!
 
HE doesn’t. WE do.

None of the things you mention truly make it difficult to believe in Truth, goodness, kindness, peace, and the Word Made Flesh, Jesus Christ. Who, I remind you, took on every single sin ever committed onto HIS shoulders and paid the price so that WE, unworthy as we are, could take His free gift of salvation.

Suffering? Nobody has suffered more than Jesus. Yet He took that suffering —a crown of thorns—and made it an everlasting crown of glory.

So can we, but only with His help. The good news is that all we have to do is ask.

The bad news is that instead of asking, we TELL Him what WE expect Him to do. We only listen for Him to say what WE want to hear. We assume that our limited and fallible minds and ‘reasons’ are better than His, and our judgments are more just and merciful, and so if it appears that He isn’t leaping to concur with us we storm that “He isn’t any help, He’s not doing it ‘right’.

Sad.
 
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Most people believe, therefore it is not difficult. For the believer no proof is needed, and once believing, the whole worldview falls into place.
 
  1. Suffering leads to belief. It deepens it, if employer correctly.
  2. An easy life and plenty of creature comforts lead away from faith.
  3. Suffering: Did Jesus suffer? Are we members of His Body?
  4. Christ suffered. He said we will suffer.
  5. Suffering is redemptive. Offer your suffering to the Father for good purpose.
  6. Early Korean Catholics waited 12 years for a priest; 12 years for Sacraments. God tested their faith just as He tests ours.
  7. Can’t we wait a few months? 12 Years? We cannot even wait 12 weeks!
 
God doesn’t make it difficult to come to him. Our own sin separates us from God and makes it difficult for us to recognize God in our lives. We need God’s grace to turn our hearts to him. God has so loved the world that He sent His Son so that if we believe in Him we will be saved (Jn 3:16). And Jesus started a church to help us to come to him and recieve forgiveness and grace. He established the Sacraments to help us with that. He wants everyone to be saved. If anyone is making it difficult it is the devil who wants to turn as many away from God as he can. But he is a liar and a thief. Don’t listen to him. Jesus said if we believe and are baptized we will be saved (Mk 16:16). He died for us so we can be reconciled to God. He loves you. Trust in Him.
 
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Jerome100 said:
If God wants all to be saved and come to knowledge of truth, why does he make it so difficult to believe?
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Catechism : 50 By natural reason man can know God with certainty, on the basis of his works.

Belief is a choice we make.
Jerome100 said:
Why all the suffering in the world and in our lives?
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Jerome100 said:
Why allow churches to close for months during the pandemic cutting us off from the sacraments?
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People have free will, people in authority have free will to make laws or legal orders. God never violates free will.
Jerome100 said:
Why not make his existence and love for us crystal clear??
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He did, Christ became man and died for us.
 
Thank you for the reply. But…if I have the ability to prevent my child from suffering from a terminal illness and do not prevent it, would not my child ask if I really loved him?
 
Irishmom2 said:
How much clearer can it be than him sending his son, who died on a cross for us? If God’s love was clear to Jesus even though he died a torturous death, why is it not clear to you, who have been saved from it and by it?
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How is it crystal clear that Jesus is God’s son?
 
Jerome100 said:
Thank you for the reply. But…if I have the ability to prevent my child from suffering from a terminal illness and do not prevent it, would not my child ask if I really loved him?
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A child could ask that if it is asked before death that is. Asking a question has no bearing on the truth however.
 
Servant31 said:
Why’s are often so difficult to answer, humans want to understand things and sometimes we just can’t
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If God wants us to believe in him, he should give us enough to reasonably believe. And he knows what “enough” is for each person.
stpurl said:
None of the things you mention truly make it difficult to believe in Truth, goodness, kindness, peace, and the Word Made Flesh, Jesus Christ.
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If I taught my children that human beings were created by all loving, all good and all powerful aliens who wanted to share life and all it’s richness with human beings my children would ask, “Why do the aliens allow humans to suffer terrible diseases and natural disasters?”
TheLittleLady said:
He did, Christ became man and died for us.
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How is it crystal clear that Jesus is the Christ? Plenty of people believe he was “made God” by his followers. Some of these same followers seemed to have also believed Jesus was to return in short order.
 
Vico said:
A child could ask that if it is asked before death that is. Asking a question has no bearing on the truth however.
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But how does one know the truth if not by evidence? And so a child asks why there appears to be counter-evidence to what it has been previously told.
 
Now you are moving the goal posts.

I wish you well in your journey.
 
Jerome100 said:
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Vico:
A child could ask that if it is asked before death that is. Asking a question has no bearing on the truth however.
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But how does one know the truth if not by evidence? And so a child asks why there appears to be counter-evidence to what it has been previously told.
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Evidence is an outward sign or testimony. However, there are many lies.

John 8
42 Jesus therefore said to them: If God were your Father, you would indeed love me. For from God I proceeded, and came; for I came not of myself, but he sent me: 43 Why do you not know my speech? Because you cannot hear my word. 44 You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and he stood not in the truth; because truth is not in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father thereof.
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Jerome100 said:
Plenty of people believe he was “made God” by his followers.
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Plenty of people believe the earth is flat and the moon landings were fake, plenty deny the Holocaust and the Sandy Hook murders, heck, half-ish of Americans believe our recent election was fake.
Jerome100 said:
Some of these same followers seemed to have also believed Jesus was to return in short order.
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And every day I pray “come quickly, Lord Jesus”. Jesus told us that no one knows the day or the hour, people have been trying to prove Him wrong on that one for centuries.

Belief is a choice. One chooses to believe.
 
Jerome100 said:
If God wants us to believe in him, he should give us enough to reasonably believe. And he knows what “enough” is for each person.
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The thing is I believe He does do this. Only He may judge souls, and He judges the based on what they know. I think many people want an answer like a roadmap in linear fashion. I don’t think faith works like this tbh.

It seems like you have a complaint in there somewhere possibly, something we could answer? Do you feel like God is out of reach for you?
 
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