Question:

If God exists why doesn’t he appear or show himself, or even make known
his existence? Sure maybe he did ages back but not in recent centuries so
anyone can see. And also why can’t I have sex with my girlfriend? Why did
God make love if we can’t use it? I love my girlfriend. Why did God create
sin? If not then who did, and why? And finally, to prove to me that man
didn’t create right and wrong, tell me specifically why the rights and
wrongs he chose were selected, and why they’re better than all the laws in
other religions?

Answer:.

God gives us free will. As it says in Romans 1:18-23, the fact that God
exists is obvious. God is not interested in forcing us to believe and to
put our faith in him. If he were dropping notes out of the sky or
speaking to us directly, that would remove free will from the equation.
The existence of God is plain enough to anyone willing to accept the
implications that we must respond to him and love him as he loves us. Yet
the existence of God is not so in-your-face to remove the element of free
will from us. Luke 16:19-31 may be helpful in this regard. Here a man
who did not acknowledge God is begging that some miracle be given to his
brothers so that they may believe. The response is that we already have
sufficient reason to believe (in this case, “Moses and the Prophets”).
Even if a letter were dropped from the sky or if God were to speak to us
directly, those with a hard heart would still not be changed.

So, I say God has made his existence sufficiently obvious to anyone
willing to simply look at creation and think about it. Add to that the
clear and obvious inspiration of the Bible. You say that in past ages God
appeared to man more, but that is not true. Only in an extremely small
number of circumstances and only for a very good reason did God intervene
directly, such as at Sinai with Moses or during the lifetime of Jesus.
God?s pattern for 99.99% of the time is to let people decide for
themselves and to not intervene in blatant ways.

The reason God does not want you to have sex with your girlfriend is
because he loves you. Sex between a couple committed to one another for
life is a beautiful thing. It causes closeness and cements the
relationship. Our hormones tell us differently, but sex outside of
marriage may give brief pleasure, but it causes hurt to relationships in
the long run. If you want to have great sex, I strongly advise you to
have sufficient self control to save yourself for your wife when you are
married.

God did not create sin. God created qualities and desires which have good
uses and also uses which are not good for us. God warns us against that
behavior which is bad for us. His prohibitions are for our good, not for
our harm. Man created sin when we rebelled against God. God does not do
evil and he does not tempt us to evil. (James 1:13-15). I suggest you
give it a try. Try simply obeying God?s commands in the Bible in your
life and see if you are not happier and more fulfilled. I lived a life of
swearing, drinking, drugs, selfishness, pride and so forth. I was NOT
happy. Now, as a committed follower of Jesus my life is so much better
that I can never get over how fortunate I am to have submitted my will to
my Creator. It appears that you have a false idea about God?that he is
trying to spoil your fun. You could not be more wrong. He wants you to
have a fulfilled life, which is only possible if lived in accordance with
his will. I will refer you to Deuteronomy 30:19-20. It is up to you.

John Oakes, PhD