The Things Your Philosophy Teacher Doesn't Teach You

So today was my first philosophy class. I knew going into this class that this would be a struggle for me, as I am bound to disagree with many of the philosophies my professor lives by. As we were sitting in class the professor started going off on why we are on this world. He was soon to mention that Christianity is a bunch of bogus, which I was kind of assuming would happen eventually, but his argument for why was completely invalid.

The professor proclaimed that God is love. This is a true statement. We can find this in 1 John 4:8, 16. The professor then proceeded to ask if God is love, why would He send people to hell and let bad things happen in the world. I raised my hand and stated that God is also a just God, and He has given us commands that we are to live by, so that we can live our lives for Christ.

The professor then proceeded to go on for a fifteen minute rage about how if a God really loved, he wouldn't punish people for eternity in Hell. He argued that Hitler doesn't deserve eternity in Hell, rather he'd only deserve roughly 15million years for all the people hurt and killed in WWII. I'm not going to argue whether or not Hitler deserves Hell, because God is the ultimate judge and it is not my place to make that decision; however, what I will say is that my professor is wrong.

When you look in the Bible, that passage from 1 John 4 is where my professor is getting His statement that God is love. What he failed to mention is why Christians are suppose to believe that there is a Heaven or a Hell, which we will spend eternity in when we die. When you look throughout the Old Testament, which is many years before John wrote this letter one will be able to see that God is clearly just, before He was love. God provided people with a law that we were to follow, and if we failed to comply we were punished to eternal death.

This is really no different then breaking a law today. If I were to go up to someone and shoot them in the head, I could easily expect life in prison, the death penalty, or any other form of punishment for my actions that we see today. When it comes to the 10 commandments, and other laws that God and Christ have provided us it is no different. We are suppose to follow the laws, or else we can expect that our punishment will be eternal death.

Eventually God began to show his loving side to the people. He made a pact with Noah to never flood the entire earth and kill everything on it, by showing a rainbow which can still be found today. He provided Abraham with the circumcision and food laws. These are just a couple of the pacts that God has presented to His people in order to try to give them eternal life.

Eventually God realized that it was impossible for Human beings to keep the law, so he ultimately showed His loving side to the people once and for all.

"For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son so that we may not parish, but have eternal life."-John 3:16

The fact of the matter is now simple. God gave His Son to come on this earth as the perfect sacrifice so that we may inherit eternal life when we put our faith in Him.

"For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith-and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God- Not by works, so that no one can boast."- Ephesians 2:8-9

"As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead."- James 2:26

We are now able to receive eternal life from God through our faith in Him. We must profess that Christ is our savior, when we are able to do this and believe it with all of our heart then the Holy Spirit is able to consume our bodies and actions, it is at that point when we are able to start doing the deeds that James talks about. Our faith must precede works, but faith alone is not enough, we must deny ourselves and take up our cross. (Matthew 16:21-28)

So to get back to my professor's point of God not being a loving God is completely irrelevant. The Bible clearly gives us the law. We must follow it, if we fail we deserve eternal death and punishment. We all fail, and technically all deserve death. However our God is love and He has proven this by sending His son for our sins. In return we need to believe and trust Christ, repent our sins and be baptized. It is at that point where the Holy Spirit consumes us and we are able to live a life like Christ. When we reach this point we can earn eternity in Heaven. If we fail to comply to God's demands, then He shows that He is still just and will send people into an eternity in Hell.

With that being said, I would now like to address the last part of my professor's statement, that Christian's will never listen to and understand what he says. Once again he is wrong. I used to have many of the same question as he does. I couldn't understand why God would hurt. I couldn't understand why God took the man who was like my 2nd father out of my life way before his time. I couldn't understand why He let the person who showed me God completely turn her back on me. I can't understand why He lets natural disasters happen. I can't understand many things in life. However I do know that through all of the hardships in my life, God has had a bigger and better plan for me. God has made me stronger through my failures, and tragedies, and I now have a hope for a life in eternity with Him, where absolutely nothing matters, except for worshiping Him.

"Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom He has given us."-Romans 5:3-5


I don't know why bad things happen. I only know they are able to eventually build hope in me. My hope will never die, regardless of the opinions my professor would present me with for being wrong if he read this. I thank God for this opportunity, may His name get the glory.

God Bless,
Chris Arians