A Not-So-Wild-Man Of Borneo?

A reader writes:

I got your email address from your website, jimmyakin.org. I
started listening to the Catholic Answers Life by downloading files
from the show archive recently (sorry, this may have nothing to do with
your website) . As a Catholic, I m very keen to learn more about the
faith. 

Since I m in Malaysia (State of Sabah, North Borneo),
Ah! Apa kabar? Saya bisa bicara bahasa Melayu–sedikit-sedikit saja–though I’m guessing you may be Chinese (in which case, Ni hao!).

I would like
to know if it is possible for me to ask questions through the internet.

Sure! You’re welcome to ask them here, though I can’t promise to answer them all. For additional help, I’d recommend going to the Catholic web boards at forums.catholic.com and forums.catholic-convert.com and (if you prefer bahasa Indonesia) ekaristi.org.
By the way, if you’re going to reply this email, I would like to
ask you just one question which is always on my mind. The question is
‘Why does God allow division among Christians (Catholic, Protestant,
Orthodox, etc.), or did He?’ Could you suggest any books/references on
this? (sorry, that’s more than 1 question)

I’m not sure that I can recommend any books on why God allows people to have disagreements in the Christian community, but I hope that the following thoughts may be helpful:

  1. The problem has been with us since the first century. Jesus prayed that his disciples would be one (John 17), knowing that divisions would arise among them. If you read 1 Corinthians, especially chapters 1-3, it’s very clear that there were divisions in the early Christian community, and St. Paul writes against these divisions.
  2. Since the existence of divisions in the Christian community is evil, this makes the existence of such divisions a part of the overall "problem of evil" (i.e., why God allows evil in general).
  3. We do not have a complete answer to why God allows evil, but since he always has adequate reasons for what he does, we can reason that there must be an adequate reason for God to allow this.
  4. Knowing that, we can speculate about what the reson or reasons he allows evil are.
  5. One of the most popular suggestions for why he allows evil in order to allow a certain kind of free will to exist in this life, the kind of free will whereby he allows people to make a free choice for good or evil. Letting them do this means letting them sometimes choose evil, which means allowing the existence of evil.
  6. While it is not certain that this is the reason God allows evil, it does fit with the facts that in this life people do sometimes choose evil and God does allow it.
  7. It also fits with the fact that the divisions in the Christian community have arisen because different people (the founders of different sects, in particular) have exercised their free will in such a way that they have left the unity of the Catholic Church and founded their own communities.

Hope this helps, and hope you’ll visit and participate in the blog regularly!

Author: Jimmy Akin

Jimmy was born in Texas, grew up nominally Protestant, but at age 20 experienced a profound conversion to Christ. Planning on becoming a Protestant seminary professor, he started an intensive study of the Bible. But the more he immersed himself in Scripture the more he found to support the Catholic faith, and in 1992 he entered the Catholic Church. His conversion story, "A Triumph and a Tragedy," is published in Surprised by Truth. Besides being an author, Jimmy is the Senior Apologist at Catholic Answers, a contributing editor to Catholic Answers Magazine, and a weekly guest on "Catholic Answers Live."

3 thoughts on “A Not-So-Wild-Man Of Borneo?”

  1. Hello Jimmy!
    Apa khabar, Jimmy? (How are you doing, Jimmy?)
    Not only am I Malaysian – I’m from Borneo too =)Would that confer on me the title of “The Wild Woman from Borneo”? Lol! – that would be pretty cool.
    I read your blog every day – there’s so much for my education, thought and good entertainment here; and of course, it has helped strengthen my love for the Faith and the Church.
    Keep up the good work!
    Amare Et Severe,
    Anne Louise

  2. Hi,
    My name is Jimmy too. So how this “No so wild Borneo Man happened to be one of my pal. For correction, he is not a chinese. (so i from Sabah, Malaysia also) i want to share my recent experince with a freemasonary. Through discussions he shared his knowledge on Scinece and Religion (attempting to influence one on the secular thinking, Naturalistic). The encounter is so real. If one do not really understand the real teaching of the church, may fell into this sort of deception/disguise.

  3. Howdy, Jimmy!
    It is always good to meet another member of the Jimmy-brotherhood!
    Thank you for clarifying about the reader who I was responding to. I hope he writes soon.
    Thank you also for sharing your experience with the Freemason.
    If you read my other posts on this blog, you will see that I have respect for science and also religion.
    His naturalism is so blur.
    I hope you will visit the blog more and write more soon!
    –Jimmy
    (NOTE TO ENGLIGH-NATIVE READERS: Above I have used Malay-English, or Manglish, conventions to express myself.)

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