Sneak Peek of 7 Big Questions Coming Out October 4

Do you ever wonder, "why is life hard?" "why is there suffering?" or "what is my purpose in life?"? You are not alone. No matter your faith background, we all have questions about God, our purpose, and why bad things happen. Trying to find reliable answers can be overwhelming. It's hard to know who to trust with the questions you are most afraid to ask.

You need a safe space to ask these common questions about faith.

The 7 Big Questions invites you to explore some of the most common questions about faith.

1. Does life have a purpose?

2. Is there a God?

3. Why does God allow pain and suffering?

4. Is Christianity too narrow?

5. Is Jesus God?

6. Is the Bible reliable?

7. Can I know God personally?

Bruce B. Miller guides you through a thoughtful approach to finding answers for yourself in his latest book, The 7 Big Questions, coming out on Tuesday, October 4. 

Enjoy this excerpt from the Introduction of 7 Big Questions, coming out on October 4. Pre-orders will be available soon. 

Several years ago, I took a trip to see my daughter, son-in-law, and grandchildren in Austin, Texas. While there, I noticed signs all over the place with simple, consistent messaging: “We all have questions. We all wonder. Explore God.” There were yard signs in front of people’s houses, banners outside churches, and billboards on the highway. I wondered what in the world was going on. Since Google knows everything, I did a quick search and found ExploreGod.com.

Usually, I’m on a website for only a few seconds, maybe a few minutes. But that day, I watched video after video, reading article after article. Though the “About Us” section said that Explore God is a team of Christians, I saw something I’d never seen on a Christian website before. In the videos, I watched people of different ethnicities, backgrounds, and ages—artists, entrepreneurs, pastors, theologians, and writers—tell real stories of their faith journeys. They were all (even the church leaders!) honest about their doubts, transparent about their past and current struggles, and sincere in sharing their responses to the hard questions.

I saw a unique approach to sharing Christian answers to tough spiritual questions in the articles. Everything was presented casually and conversationally. It felt like I was wrestling through each question with the author instead of just being told what I was supposed to believe was “the” answer. I got the sense that all they wanted was to enable a person to discover answers through their exploration of God, the Bible, and faith. When I found my way to the Explore God Facebook page, I encountered what felt to me to be exactly what they said they were trying to create: a safe, nonjudgmental place to ask hard questions and explore the truth. It didn’t seem to matter your background, where you were in your faith journey, or what you believed (or didn’t believe). You were welcome to ask your questions, seek out the truth, and explore answers with the community.

I could identify with so much of what I saw there. I’ve asked my share of hard questions about God and the Bible before and after becoming a pastor. Later, I talked with my daughter and learned that her church and hundreds of others from over a dozen different denominations were coming together in a community-wide initiative. They invited the whole city to explore some of life’s big questions together through a sermon and discussion group series called The 7 Big Questions. Churches were encouraging people of any or no faith to explore God by freely asking questions that they might not usually feel comfortable asking in a traditional religious setting. We all naturally avoid things we fear will cause us to feel shame or embarrassment. Christians may be hesitant to ask because they think they should already “know” the answers, and they worry that their questions will show a lack of faith. Non-Christians may have had bad experiences with religion in the past and simply don’t feel safe giving voice to their curiosities or questions. But the idea here was to shed light on our doubts, not ignore them. I was intrigued.

Two years later, hundreds of churches in the Dallas area—including my own—united to do an initiative like the one I saw in Austin. That fall, we did The 7 Big Questions series in our church through both sermons and discussion groups. Small groups met in homes, coffee shops, and restaurants to watch Explore God videos and discuss some of the hard spiritual questions. At my house, a group of atheists, spiritually minded people, and a Christian couple met weekly. The videos sparked rich, challenging conversations. We questioned each other’s assumptions—and our own. We laughed and teased each other on those evenings, but we also shared our hearts. We found ourselves compelled to go deeper and explore more about what we believed and why.

Though we all have individual struggles, some questions are more universal than others. In this book, we’ll look at seven big life questions many of us share, based on Explore God’s aptly named series, The 7 Big Questions:

• Does life have a purpose?
• Is there a God?
• Why does God allow pain and suffering?
• Is Christianity too narrow?
• Is Jesus God?
• Is the Bible reliable?
• Can I know God personally?

But let me lower your expectations right from the start. It’s unlikely you’ll have all your questions answered in this book. In fact, it’s much more probable that you’ll walk away with follow-up questions, just like the young man I mentioned above. Your doubts may not be eradicated (and you won’t be able to completely erase anyone else’s either), but hopefully, you’ll find insights and information that help you discover, rethink, and solidify your beliefs. I’m not here to tell you what to believe or to force you to accept something blindly. It’s vitally important that we each take ownership of our faith. It’s not enough to believe in something simply because someone told you; there’s no depth to that. We must be critical and intentional in pursuing truth and letting the answers we discover inform our beliefs. As Explore God says, it’s the realizations we uncover on our terms that have the potential to transform our lives. It’s the realizations we discover on our terms that have the potential to transform our lives.