This is the last post on our “Problem with God” blog. We will continue to monitor the postings for comments and reply as needed. It’s been good talking and dialoging with you! My sincere prayer is that you find your heart’s true home.
I leave you with this extended quote from one of my favorite authors, Peter Kreeft, professor o philosophy at Boston College from his book, Handbook of Christian Apologetics.
“This claim – that all seekers find – is testable by experience, by experiment. If you are an honest scientist, here is a way to find out whether Christianity is true or not...
Perform the relevant experiment. To test the hypothesis that someone is behind the door, knock. To test the Christian hypothesis that Christ is behind the door, knock.
How do you know? Pray! Tell Christ you are seeking the truth – seeking him, if he is the truth. Ask him to fulfill his promise that all who seek him will find him. In his own time, of course. He promised that you would find, but he didn’t promise a schedule. He’s a lover, not a train.
But – you may reply – I don’t know whether Christ is God. I don’t even know whether there is a God. That’s all right; you can pray the prayer of the skeptic:
God, I don’t know whether you even exist. I’m a skeptic. I doubt. I think you may be only a myth. But I’m not certain (at least not when I’m completely honest with myself). So if you do exist, and if you really did promise to reward all seekers, you must be hearing me now. So I hereby declare myself a seeker, a seeker of the truth, whatever it is and wherever it is. I want to know the truth and live the truth. If you are the truth, please help me.
If Christianity is true, he will. Such a prayer constitutes a scientifically fair test of the Christian “hypothesis”—that is, if you do not put unfair restrictions on God, like demanding a miracle (your way, not his) or certainty by tomorrow (your time, not his). The demand that God act like your servant is hardly a scientifically fair test of the hypothesis that there is a God who is your King.
But all this King asks for at first is honesty, not faking a faith you do not have. Honesty is a choice of the will—the choice to seek the truth no matter what or where. This is the most momentous choice you can make. It is the choice of light over darkness, ultimately heaven over hell.”
Sunday, March 9, 2008
The Skeptic's Prayer
Saturday, March 8, 2008
Seek and You Will Find
The headline is a promise from the most amazing person to walk the face of this earth. Disagree with him, deride him, mock him, reject him – but do not underestimate the influence Jesus has exerted on this world or the power of his words. No one has affected the course of history more than Jesus Christ. This man from Nazareth – whom we Christians believe was both God and man – makes this amazing promise: “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.” Many have earnestly taken him up on those words – and have found them to be true. Moreover, they have found him to be true.
If you sincerely desire to know the truth, I encourage you to...
accept Jesus’ challenge. But, be honest. If you want to debate because you enjoy intellectual sparring, fine. Just don’t call yourself a seeker. Call yourself a debater. If you really want to know the truth, you can. Jesus said, “You will know the truth and the truth will set you free.” Pilate, who condemned him, asked Jesus, “What is truth.” The Answer was starring him in the face.
My mentor, Bob Tuttle, came to faith in Christ as a skeptical college student. He prayed, “God, if there is a God, I give all I know of myself to all I know of you.” God met him right then and there and his life has never been the same. Why? The Jesus of history is alive today working in people’s lives.
Religious historian Huston Smith says that only two people in history have caused their contemporaries to ask not, “Who is he?” but “What is he?” He said those two are Jesus Christ and the Buddha. And of those, only one said “I am the way.” Buddha says, “Here are my teachings, follow them.” Jesus said, “Follow me.” Buddha never claimed deity. Jesus did. Buddha died and remained buried. Jesus rose from the dead. “What is he?” indeed.
I will echo Daniel Taylor’s invitation. If you would like to speak with me or any other contributor to this blog, feel free to go to our church website and email us. As fellow travelers, we will be glad to point you in the direction of life that was once pointed out to us. Belief in God makes us no better than anyone else. Hopefully, it makes us better than we were. It’s been said that sharing faith is “one beggar telling another beggar where to find bread.” If you want to know where the bread of life is, we’ll help you find it.
Friday, February 8, 2008
The Uniqueness of Jesus
Q: I have a very difficult time believing that the ONLY way to God is through Jesus Christ.
A: This is more of a statement than a question, but there are a lot of questions wrapped up in it. We live in a time in history when certainty and truth is not a high priority. Our world and culture are regularly questioning and challenging the foundations that at one time where simply accepted. I actually think this is a good thing on some levels, because people are asking questions and wanting more information. It’s good to see people considering faith and spirituality more and more.
We live in a culture that struggles with the word “only” or any absolute. In this world, truth is relative to the person. In other words, whatever you think is true - is true. The problem with this approach to understanding the world, in my opinion, is that the person becomes the center of the world. The person gets to determine what truth is no matter how dysfunctional or disturbing. If a person wants to think or believe that flying airplanes into office buildings is a good thing then “poof” it is a good thing.
Believing that Jesus Christ is the only way to God is most defiantly a foundational truth and teaching of the Bible and the Church. However, when the backdrop to this foundational truth is relativism or some kind of mix-and-match theology people will naturally begin to question the certainty of the Bible’s position.
It takes faith to believe in Jesus Christ and I don’t think it takes any less faith to believe that Jesus is the ONLY way to God. It seems arrogant for one particular religion to make such a claim and I understand why someone might think this about Christianity. However, Christianity is not trying to be arrogant or even exclusive in the sense that they are trying to keep people out; like some kind of religious country club. The Church is simply trying to state what we believe and what it clearly communicated in God’s Word.
I think that the word “only” is what really gets people tripped up. I like to think about it in terms of the uniqueness of Jesus Christ. The thing that makes Christianity different then other religions is Jesus Christ. He is the uniqueness. I realize that this word gets translated in all kinds of ways in various circles, but the fact still remains that Jesus was not trying to be exclusive or exclusionary—if anything Jesus was trying to be the most inclusive person ever to live on this earth. He wants all people to believe in him and find eternal life. Jesus is the difference when compared to other religions or other thoughts on God. He is the unique factor that sometimes gets misrepresented by people who are searching.
The Bible tells us that Jesus is the way to God. He is the uniqueness of our faith. He is not the great excluder. He wants all people to come to him and believe so that they might have eternal life.
Why do you have a very difficult time believing that the ONLY way to God is through Jesus Christ?
Wednesday, February 6, 2008
Does God cause illness?
Q: How do we explain to a loved one that God is not the one who makes them sick, bitter or have no joy?
A: It is all in knowing the character of God. The teaching of Jesus that best contrasts the work of God with the work of the devil is John 10:10. “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” If the scene of the accident has the fingerprints of death, disease and destruction all over it, you can be sure it is not of God. No where in the Gospels do we see Jesus going about distributing illness. We only see healing disease. No where do we see him oppressing someone with hardship or suffering. We see him tenderly alleviating suffering and bringing encouragement to the downtrodden. If you want to know what God is like, look at Jesus. Study the gospels. There you will see that God is good … all the time!
Why did the Father allow Jesus to die?
Q: A couple of weeks ago you spoke about a group of people who sacrificed their first born child as an offering – and that sounds so awful to us, but God sacrificed His son for us and we think it’s a noble, worthy cause?? Why would a father do that to his child? And I guess Jesus had a choice, but did he really have a choice – a little bit of guilt there – taking on the sin of the world? Why would he allow his son to go through that? He is supposed to be a loving God. The other people who did it were monsters for it, but God is love?
A: There is a world of difference between the two. As you already point out, Jesus had a choice. He said, “No one takes my life from me. I lay it down on my accord.” “The good shepherd lays down his life for...
...the sheep.” “Greater love has no one than this; that a man lay his life down for his friends.” In Galatians Paul said, “the son of God loved me and gave himself up for me.”
God, the Father, gave his son as a gift to the world. The son, as a gift to us, offered himself as the Lamb of God, taking away the sins of the world. Jesus said, “I and the Father are one.” To say that the Father did this to Jesus misses the key point that the Father, through his son, took the cross upon himself. They are one.
God allowed his son to go through the agonies of the cross because of his love for us. The penalty for sin is death. That is what God established in the garden and throughout history. Sin is a serious matter. Just as prison time is required for some crimes, blood is required for sin. Justice demanded that our blood be shed. Mercy meant Jesus shed his blood on our behalf. The One sacrificed for the many that the many could be saved.
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Judgment of Those Who Have Never Heard of Christ
A: In the first chapter of Romans, the Apostle Paul says that God, His qualities, have been clear to his creation from the beginning; God is imprinted on the heart so to speak. The implication that follows (and is given in a few other passages) is that the person who has not received the Good News of Jesus Christ will be dealt with gracefully by his or her response to that understanding of God. So, no, God does not send people ignorant of Jesus to hell based on a lack of acceptance to what they don’t know.
Someone may ask, then, “Why tell people about Jesus if those who never heard about him have a way outside of him to be judged?” The answer is twofold. First, we are told to do so by our Lord. Second, the Good News is not just for judgment day, rather Christ has the power to transform our lives with healing and truth. If we don’t send kids to school, their intelligence will never be evaluated the same way, but that doesn’t mean that education isn’t incredibly important to have.
Monday, January 28, 2008
Wishy-Washy Jesus
Q: I keep thinking about Fitz’ comments about which Jesus you know and the “wishy-washy Jesus” whose followers that whatever people believe is OK (sic). I’m having trouble reconciling those thoughts with my beliefs in religious freedom and tolerance. Wouldn’t more tolerance be good, especially in terms of today’s topic? Is it tolerance versus acceptance? If so, how do you balance those?
A: Tolerance. Now there's a popular word in the common vernacular these days. It's a tough one, though. According to Dictionary.com, it means a fair, objective, and permissive attitude toward those whose opinions, practices, race, religion, nationality, etc., differ from one's own; freedom from bigotry. Taking that into consideration, what do you do with the person that believes differently than you do? Should you give that person the right to believe however they want to, be permissive about their beliefs? Yes, I believe that's fine. Anyone can believe what he/she wants. We don't have to force them to believe what we believe. However, that does not make an alternate truth that someone else believes to be equally true as the truth (which we believe is found in Jesus Christ, the way the truth and the life - John 14:6). There can only be one truth. Two opposing things can not be true philosophically. For example, you can not have someone who is a married bachelor. Each of those elements - married and bachelor - have a truth to them that can not be combined to the other without a violation of their inherent definitions. Along the same lines, two sets of beliefs that are contradictory to one another can not both be true. One has to be true, and the other false. As Christians, we believe Jesus to embody that truth. If another set of beliefs contradicts Him, then we believe it to be false. If that is intolerant, then Jesus was intolerant since He was the One that made the claim to be the truth. If someone wants to believe to be true what we believe to be false, they have that right. We do not, however, have to accept it as truth.
So, out of respect for the individual, we should let everyone choose for themselves what they want to believe, right? I would answer that with a no. Out of respect and love for the individual, wouldn't we want what is best for them? Let me make a ridiculous example to illustrate: If we have a loved one that believes that drinking a mixture of plutonium and acid will help them to live forever, and we know the truth to be that it will kill them - and rather rapidly - would we not want to tell them the truth? Of course we would. So if we know the truth, why would we be OK with our loved ones - and people we don't know, for that matter - to believe in and live with untruth? We shouldn't be. So while it seems to be more caring for the individual to allow him/her to believe as he/she wants, it is far more caring to them to show them what real truth is. Jesus didn't call us to be tolerant and accepting, but He did call us to love.
Wednesday, January 9, 2008
Is it all made up?
Q: How do you know what is true or not? We have no proven facts of Jesus’ being on earth, so how do you know it really happened? Maybe it is a made-up story.
A: A number of submitted questions, like this one, fell under the “existence/proof” category. This question, at its root, is about history and how it can be trusted. A couple things need to be said about this: First, when it comes to ancient history, we should apply the same standards to the Bible that we do to other ancient literature. There is far more manuscript evidence for the Bible than many of the other accepted pieced of ancient literature. When it comes to historical figures, there is far more proof for the existence of Jesus Christ than Julius Caesar! In the end, it comes down to eyewitness accounts. If a newspaper or TV news crew is trying to get the scoop on a story, what do they do? They try to find eyewitnesses. This works in collecting news, in gathering evidence for the courtroom and in research by historians. The New Testament is filled with the testimonies of eyewitnesses. The Holy Spirit saw to it that we have not one, but four gospels, which are eyewitness accounts of Jesus’ life. There is far less proof that Socrates actually lived, which few historians question. When the same standards are used for the Bible as all ancient literature, the Bible has much greater reliability if for no other reason that the sheer volume of eyewitness accounts.
Could it be “made-up?” At first glance one might think that is a reasonable alternative. But, as they say in the NFL, “upon further review…” it doesn’t add up. First, other eyewitnesses of the same era (folks who had a vested interest in the failure of this new movement) could have produced their own witnesses who contradicted the Christians’ view of events. The Jewish leaders vehemently disagreed with Jesus’ claims. The Romans were none too happy about the early Christians’ Christ-centered living since they refused to worship Caesar as god. Yet, they never claimed Jesus didn’t exist. They simply took issue with the meaning and nature of his existence.
Two, the stories ring true; they don’t sound or read like typical made up stories. Little details are passed along that are totally unnecessary, yet would only be mentioned if an eyewitness was telling the story. The writers are ok with seemingly contradictory accounts; people who are holding together a made up story are extremely careful to corroborate every detail. Made up stories are “slick” and seamless; not so the gospels. Finally, writers making up history tend to put themselves in the best possible light. The apostles are sometimes bumbling, other times faithless and oftentimes clueless. Take Peter for instance. He supplied Mark with the material for his gospel. Why would Peter let the whole world in on his great failure in denying Jesus? The only explanation is that it really happened.
