Confirmation Questions

I've given my confirmation students the opportunity to ask some questions that are interesting to them and pique their interest.  Our regular material is good, but this gives them a break and allows them to engage more.  Here are some of the questions and my answers I provided:


Are there any real pictures of Jesus?

• There are actual pictures of Jesus. Obviously, there was not photography until the first picture was taken in 1826.  That being said, a lack of photographic evidence for Jesus doesn’t mean that he didn’t exist.  There are a lot of things we believe in despite photographic evidence: Egyptian kings, ancient Rome, George Washington, Plato, pyramids, etc.

 
What did God do to make Satan so mad at Him?

• According to the Bible, Satan (referred to as the “Son of the Morning”) rebelled against God.  Satan rebelled because he wanted the same authority as God.  God expelled Satan from heaven down to the earthly realms. God is the only all powerful (omnipotent), all knowing (omniscient), and all present (omnipresent).  Satan’s rebellion was about something that he could have never had in the first place. The question really is what did Satan do to make God so mad at him.

 
Is water really “holy?”

• Water is not, in its existence, truly holy.  Some traditions (like the Catholics) believe they can take regular water, pray over it, and make it “holy.”   We as Lutherans do not believe that.  What we do believe is that water, combined with the Word of God, can be used for holy thing – like baptism.

 
Were dinosaurs present in the Bible?

• Dinosaurs are not present in the Bible.  This being said, it doesn’t mean that dinosaurs did not exist.  The Bible is not meant to be a comprehensive history of the creation of the world and everything that existed.  Obviously, we have substantial evidence of dinosaurs. This evidence points overwhelming to the existence of dinosaurs.  The Bible is the story of God’s interaction with humanity, particularly His covenant with humanity and salvation through Jesus Christ.  There are many things that aren’t in the Bible that we are able to believe in: dinosaurs, the movement of tectonic plates, philosophical figures like Plato, Aristotle, the civil war, etc.

 
Where are the Ten Commandment now?

• The Ten Commandments were originally given by God to Moses in Exodus 31.  They were inscribed on two tablets.  Moses breaks the original tablets because of his anger at the Israelite people in Exodus 32.  God then gave Moses new stone tablets in Exodus 34.  According to the Bible the stones that have the Ten Commandments inscribed on them are in the Ark of the Covenant – this is seen in Exodus 40:20. We do not know where the Ark of the Covenant is.  Scholars believe that it is in a cave near Jerusalem.  The challenge is that cave has probably been buried by years of war and physical changes to the earth.