Obstacles to Belief Coincidentally the five main obstacles to belief are also five events that have shaped our world and our lives. Four are history, one is future: · Creation. · The Fall. · The Flood. · Calvary. · The return of the Lord Jesus for his Church. Creation. Either we accept or not. As believers we are not obliged to be able to answer any or all objections or attacks that anyone makes on the scriptures. We are obliged to account for the hope that we have, 1 Pet. 3:15. The ‘big bang’ theory???? Explosions are destructive. Creation was constructive. The evidence available is the same for all of us. The difference is in how we interpret it. The Fall. The question about the origin of evil is one of the biggest problems that people have. Genesis 3 explains how evil was introduced into the perfect Creation. We have no concept of what conditions were like before Adam disobeyed God and spoilt it all. Gen. 2:15-17. God commanded Adam not to eat of the tree of knowledge before He formed Eve. Eve was deceived, Adam disobeyed. The Flood. We have no concept of what the world was like before the Flood. Nor have we much of an understanding of what actually happened when ‘the fountains of the great deep burst forth, and the windows of heaven were opened’, Gen. 7:11. This was a cataclysmic worldwide event that shaped the planet and gave us the earth as we know it today. Calvary. After the Flood God still recognised that the ‘imagination of mans heart is evil from his youth’, Gen. 8:21. He would have to do something else! And He did. He sent Jesus to die. A problem that many people have is that they cannot reconcile God with all the suffering that they see in the world. God knows all about suffering! Look at Jesus in Gathsemane and at Calvary. The return of the Lord for his Church. 1Thess. 4:16-18 says it all. The evidence for the four previous events is there. Why shouldn’t this event happen? · We cannot argue and debate people into the Kingdom, Jn. 10:26. · People knowingly ignore facts! 2Pet. 3:5-7. · What can be known about God is plain, Rom. 1:18,19. · Man is deprived, not depraved, Rom. 1:32. A big mystery for so many! A mystery is what is ‘that which is made clear to the initiated’! Only when we belong, then will we fully believe. We take that step into belonging to Him in faith; By saying ‘yes’ to him. 2Cor. 3:15-18, When we come to Him in faith then the veil is lifted and we see things differently. We see things as he wants us to see them..