Sunday Special Feature
At The God Question, we’ve launched a special series that responds to real-world religious messages—statements, sermons, and claims being made from pulpits and platforms across the country.
Why? Because these messages shape minds. They influence how people understand suffering, morality, identity, and truth.
This week, we’re examining a sermon titled “Trusting God Even When It Doesn’t Make Sense,” delivered on March 23, 2025, by a pastor from First Baptist Church in Boaz, Alabama.
🔹 Core Message of the Sermon:
- Life is often painful.
- We may not understand what God is doing, but we should trust Him anyway.
- God is always “working behind the scenes.”
- Trials and suffering have a divine purpose.
- Worship and faith are the proper responses, even in despair.
🎯 The God Question Responds:
Using our core philosophy—truth-seeking through reason, evidence, and skepticism—we challenge the claims made in this sermon.
🧩 Claim 1: “God is still good even when life is hard.”
This is an emotionally appealing idea, but it lacks evidence. It assumes that suffering and divine love can coexist without contradiction, but offers no objective support for this reconciliation.
Would we call a human parent “good” if they watched their child suffer needlessly and did nothing—perhaps to “build character”?
🧩 Claim 2: “God is working behind the scenes.”
This is a non-falsifiable claim. In other words, it cannot be tested or disproven—and that makes it unreliable as truth. Believers often interpret any outcome as part of God’s invisible plan.
This is classic confirmation bias: interpreting all events as evidence of divine involvement—regardless of the outcome.
🧩 Claim 3: “Pain has a purpose; trials grow our faith.”
Some people do grow through hardship. Others collapse under it. Many abandon their faith in the face of intense suffering.
So which is it—evidence of God’s hand, or randomness of life?
If suffering grows faith, what about those who lose faith because of suffering?
🧩 Claim 4: “Worship through the pain.”
Worship can be emotionally soothing—but when paired with the idea that suffering is divinely intended, it becomes a tool for normalizing spiritual neglect.
Why praise a God whose presence is indistinguishable from absence?
If help never comes—just silence—what are we really worshiping?
💬 Why This Matters:
This message was delivered to a local congregation, including young minds who are absorbing ideas about God, truth, and how to make sense of a painful world.
We don’t question anyone’s sincerity. But sincerity isn’t the same as truth.
These ideas deserve scrutiny—not because we want to destroy faith, but because critical thinking demands it.
🙋♀️ Ask Yourself:
- If God is real, all-knowing, and all-loving, why is suffering still necessary?
- Wouldn’t a powerful God have better tools for growth than trauma?
- If we don’t understand God’s plan, how can we be so sure there is one?
🧠 The God Question Perspective:
Faith is not a substitute for truth. And when a message tells you to trust blindly—even when it doesn’t make sense—that’s a red flag.
We challenge you to question, think, and explore.
That’s the path to truth.
God or Delusion? 