1. Does life have a purpose?
In short, yes! You were made to be part of something that lasts, something significant and magnificent. Haven't you ever wondered why people are drawn to heroic stories of triumphing
over evil and establishing justice, joy and peace? Those stories are echoes of God's plan for the world. God invites you to get to know Him, and take your place in His plan:
"Bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the end of the earth, everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made."
(Isaiah 43:6-7)
2. Is there a God?
The basic reality of God is plain enough. Open your eyes and there it is! By taking a long and thoughtful look at what God has created, people have always been able to see what their eyes as such can’t see: eternal power, for instance, and the mystery of his divine being. So nobody has a good excuse. (Romans 1:20).
Listen to this scientist explain why he believes God exists:3. Why does God allow pain and suffering?
First of all, God created a perfect, suffering-free world, and he plans to restore it. Pain and death happen because human beings made the wrong choice: they chose to do life apart from the source of goodness, love and life. God is right now re-connecting as many as will receive Him, to Himself. When that is done, He'll come back to get rid of every source of suffering. In the meantime, we're not alone in our pain. God experienced it with us when He entered the world as a human being named Jesus. Hear his words: "I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many difficulties and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33)
4. Is Christianity too narrow?
Jesus famously said "I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." He's claiming to be the exclusive way home. The only words you can completely trust. The exhilarating aliveness we're all looking for. People have more in common than we like to admit! What if we were made to belong to a specific person, in a specific place, for a specific reason? Nowhere else feels quite right. No one else perfectly fits. No other purpose quite satisfies. Jesus claims to be the answer to these deep longings of your heart. No one else will do. Saying yes to him is like a marriage vow. Will you turn from all others and follow him alone?
Consider diving deeper by reading this book5. Is Jesus God?
People sometimes say that Jesus was a great moral teacher - a prophet even - but aren't willing to accept that he was God.
C S Lewis memorably said that "a man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher.
He would either be a lunatic ... or else he would be the devil of hell. You must make your choice ...
You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God,
but let's not come with any patronising nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us."
So what exactly did Jesus say that makes us have to choose to accept him as God, or reject him as a madman or a fraud?
Let's just take one example in which he uses the holy, unspoken name of God (I Am) to answer his critics:
"Very truly I tell you, before Abraham was born, I am!"
(John 8:58).
This was deeply shocking not only because he had spoken the name of God, but because Abraham (the father of their faith)
had lived centuries earlier! Jesus was claiming not only that he knew Abraham, but that he had existed eternally before Abraham.
Is he Lord, lunatic or liar? What he cannot be is just a good moral teacher. Read his story for yourself and decide -
6. Is the Bible reliable?
Yes, there is overwhelming evidence to prove the Bible's reliability - far more than for many other ancient texts, including Caesar's Gallic Wars. The Alpha Course spends an evening discussing the reliability of the bible. Why not attend a course near you? - Find an Alpha near you — Alpha UK - Stay Curious. Try Alpha While you wait for your course to start, watch an atheist grapple with this question in a true life story - The Case for Christ - available on movie streaming platforms.
7. Can I know God personally?
God knows you personally. He came into the world so that you could know him personally. "If you have seen me, you have seen the Father," Jesus said. He lived and died and rose again so that you could be reconciled to the Father, so that you could walk hand in hand with him always. Talk to him. Say, "Father, I'd like to get to know you." Come to church and talk to someone about how to grow your relationship with God.
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