The Right Reason for Believing

THE Korean book 31 Reasons Why Young People Leave the Church asserts that many stop going to church because they cannot find satisfying answers to their questions. For instance, they ask, ‘Why do people who believe in God suffer?’ and ‘Why must we accept everything that the churches teach when many of the teachings are confusing and contradictory?’

Disappointed by the answers given by their clergy, many conclude that there is no answer in the Bible. When a clergyman gives an explanation that is based solely on his personal opinion, the result is often a misunderstanding, even a rejection, of God and the Bible.

That was the experience of Abel, who was brought up as a Lutheran in South Africa. He recalls: “The church teaches that everyone who dies is ‘taken’ by God. But I could not understand why a God of love would ‘take’ parents from their children. In rural Africa where I grew up, we would not slaughter a hen until the chicks were grown. If we found that a cow was pregnant, we delayed slaughtering it until the calf was born and weaned. I could not understand why a loving God did not show the same consideration for humans.”

Aram, a Canadian, had similar doubts. “When I was 13 years old, my father died,” he relates. “In the funeral service, a leading clergyman explained that God wanted my father to die so that he could get closer to God in heaven. ‘God takes good people away,’ he said, ‘because God loves the righteous ones.’ I did not understand how God could be so selfish.”

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Troubling Questions That Needed Answers

“While being trained in the hospital as a medical student, I saw good people groaning in pain because of diseases and disasters. If there is a God, why do these things happen? Is religion just a means to gain peace of mind?”​—A former Presbyterian in Korea.

“I often wondered whether my father, an alcoholic, had gone to hell or to heaven. I was terrified by the dead and by the idea of hellfire. I could not understand how a loving God could send someone to suffer eternally in hell.”​—A former Catholic in Brazil.

“What does the future hold for the earth and for mankind? How would mankind be able to live forever? How is mankind to attain true peace?”​—A former Catholic in Germany.

“The teaching of reincarnation did not make sense to me. Animals do not worship, so if for some reason you are reincarnated into an animal to pay for your sins, how do you rectify matters and progress from that state?”​—A former Hindu in South Africa.

“I grew up in a Confucian family, and I used to participate in the ceremony for the repose of our ancestors. As I took part in setting the sacrificial table and bowing down, I wondered if the dead ancestors came to eat the food and to see our bowing down to them.”​—A former Confucianist in Korea.

All these individuals found answers to their questions when they studied the Bible with Jehovah’s Witnesses.