The Bloody Business Man

I met a man in the jail at 33rd who worshipped spirits and had been doing so for a long time. He said that he would have to cut himself and offer his blood as a sacrifice to his spirits.

While this may sound crazy, the fella was an average looking fella who was actually quite clever. He had been in a number of different prisons and described to me numerous systems and methods that he had used in order to thrive. He called it "wheeling and dealing." A favor for this guy leads to a a debt owed which can be cashed in for etc...that sort of thing.

I don't know if you're aware of this but some prisons have "Christian" dorms. What that means is that there is a particular part of the prison/jail that you can opt into that has Christian teaching available for anyone who wants it. You can ask to be moved into or out of the Christian area as not everyone likes it. For example, the Christian dorm in our jail (in Orlando) offers Bible study during times that other dorms would just be hanging out and watching TV.

The man described to me how he had found himself in a Christian dorm at another prison and how he had "come to power" there. It was there that he heard about Jesus and thought to himself (this is what he told me), "I will never bow down to such a wussy God like that."

The Christian dorm that he was in had a program where if you memorized a certain amount of scriptures they would give you a Bible. My friend being the business man that he is decided that he would memorize the scripture, get the Bible, and trade it for something that he wanted. What he didn't count on though was The Lord chasing after him through His Word.

As the man memorized more and more scriptures his heart began to change and he began to become genuinely interested in Jesus of Nazareth.

He described to me how as he began to follow Jesus, all of the things in his life that he worked for began to fall away. He was transferred to different prisons where his "wheeling and dealing" wouldn't work. The privileges that he had won/earned were taken away. He thought that life would get easier following Jesus but it actually became more difficult.

That night we had talked about how Jesus requires us to destroy our idols by bringing them to Him. That was what this man was experiencing. All of the areas of his life that gave him value and identity (apart from Christ) were being stripped away so that Jesus could fill the void for him and be his everything.

He now follows Jesus, he no longer worships spirits that require his blood. Instead, he serves the God that came down from heaven and spilled His own blood in order to redeem us. He serves the God that meets us in our messes and stops at nothing in order to draw us closer to Him.

Don't you want a God like that? A God who will pay any price to win your love, a God who knows all of your worst, most shameful deeds and thoughts and loves you anyway. There's nothing you can do to stop His love. Do you know Him? If not, He's waiting for you!

If you already know the Savior, let's praise him together for His unrelenting love as He strengthens us and continues to spread His kingdom through broken people like ourselves. A God who transforms us into the image of Christ for the sake of others.

Empty? Empty!

Luke 24:6–7 (RSV) — 6 Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee,7 that the Son of man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and on the third day rise.”

____

So you expect me to believe that a man rose from the dead? That's just ridiculous! I only believe in things that can be proven. Give me facts!

Well, let's talk about it.

The empty tomb of Jesus is actually much closer to fact than most people would lead to you believe. There are people whose entire job revolves around studying the New Testament documents that we have. Not all of these people are believers. Some are Jews, some are agnostics, some are atheists, some are Christians but all are very well educated.

Just because NT scholars believe something to be true, doesn't mean that it is. However, if scholars from both ends of the spectrum (believers and unbelievers in Jesus) agree on something, that usually means that there is compelling evidence for such an agreement.

Recently a scholar by the name of Gary Habermas did a survey of over 2,200 publications on the resurrection in English, French, and German since 1975. He found that approximately 75% of scholars accepted the historicity of the discovery of Jesus' empty tomb.

Also, according to Jacob Kremer, another NT scholar who has specialized in the study of the resurrection, "By far most scholars hold firmly to the reliability of the biblical statements about the empty tomb."

The evidence is so compelling that even a number of Jewish scholars, such as Pinchas Lapide and Geza Vermes, have declared themselves convinced on the basis of the evidence that Jesus' tomb was found empty.

Why is it important that his tomb was found empty? Because if we agree that the tomb was empty, then we are left with the task of explaining and it...

Let's look quickly at the different attempts to explain the empty tomb and you can decide which is best.

The Conspiracy Hypothesis
The disciples stole the body and lied about His resurrection appearances, thus faking the resurrection.

While this was a popular theory in the eighteenth century by European deists, today however, it has been completely given up by modern scholarship.

New Testament scholar N.T. Wright sums it up like this, "if you're a first-century Jew, and your favorite Messiah got himself crucified, then you've basically got two choices: Either you go home or else you get yourself a new Messiah. But the idea of stealing Jesus' corpse and saying that God had raised him from the dead is hardly one that would have entered the minds of the disciples."

The only place you really read about this theory anymore is in the popular, sensationalist press or Internet fantasies.

The Apparent Death Hypothesis

Jesus was not completely dead when He was taken dow from the cross. He revived in the tomb and escaped to convince His disciples He had risen from the dead.

Today this hypothesis has also been almost completely given up.

How would the appearance of a half-dead man desperately in need of medical attention have elicited in the disciples the conclusion that He was the risen Lord and conqueror of death? How would you explain the origin of the disciples belief in Jesus' resurrection, since seeing Him again would lead them to conclude merely that He hadn't died? They would not have concluded (upon seeing Him in this state) that He had gloriously risen from the dead.

The Resurrection Hypothesis

God raised Jesus from the grave.

While this at face value may seem to be the least probable explanation, if God exists, this hypothesis seems quite probable especially given the life that Jesus lived and the claims that He made.

This theory requires only one new supposition: that God exists. Surely its rival hypotheses require many new suppositions. For example, the conspiracy hypothesis requires us to suppose that the moral character of the disciples was defective, which is certainly not implied by already existing knowledge; the apparent death hypothesis requires the supposition that the centurion's lance thrust into Jesus' side was just a superficial poke or is an unhistorical detail in the narrative, which again goes beyond existing knowledge; moreover, for the person who already believes in god, the resurrection hypothesis doesn't even introduce a new supposition.

The Conclusion

If you are able to give up a prejudice against miracles, it's hard to deny that the resurrection of Jesus is the best explanation of the facts. What do you think?

John 20:24–29 (NLT) — 24 One of the twelve disciples, Thomas (nicknamed the Twin), was not with the others when Jesus came. 25 They told him, “We have seen the Lord!” But he replied, “I won’t believe it unless I see the nail wounds in his hands, put my fingers into them, and place my hand into the wound in his side.” 26 Eight days later the disciples were together again, and this time Thomas was with them. The doors were locked; but suddenly, as before, Jesus was standing among them. “Peace be with you,” he said. 27 Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and look at my hands. Put your hand into the wound in my side. Don’t be faithless any longer. Believe!” 28 “My Lord and my God!” Thomas exclaimed. 29 Then Jesus told him, “You believe because you have seen me. Blessed are those who believe without seeing me.”

Revelation 1:17–18 (NLT) — 17 When I saw him, I fell at his feet as if I were dead. But he laid his right hand on me and said, “Don’t be afraid! I am the First and the Last. 18 I am the living one. I died, but look—I am alive forever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and the grave.

 _________________

William Craig, (2010). On Guard. Defending Your Faith with Reason and Precision. Colorado Springs, CO: David C Cook.
Jacob Kremer, Die Osterevangelien-Geschichten um Geschichte (Stuttgart: Katholisches Bibelwerk, 1977), 49-50.
Gary Habermas, "Experience of the Risen Jesus: The Foundational Historical Issue in the Early Proclamation of the Resurrection," Dialog 45 (2006): 292.
N.T. Wright, Sewanee Theological Review, 41.2, 1998.

Risen: Fact or Fiction?

Acts 13:28–31 (ESV) — 28 And though they found in him no guilt worthy of death, they asked Pilate to have him executed. 29 And when they had carried out all that was written of him, they took him down from the tree and laid him in a tomb. 30 But God raised him from the dead, 31 and for many days he appeared to those who had come up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who are now his witnesses to the people.

____

The resurrection is a fairy tale. The early church probably just copied the idea from other cultures at the time whose "deities" were also raised from the dead.

Let's consider it...

Where did the idea of Jesus' resurrection come from? What did the Jews themselves believe in regards to resurrection and what did the ancient world believe in regards to resurrection? The answers aren't what you'd expect.

First let's look at the cultural influences at the time. New Testament scholar N.T. Wright has done an impressive amount of research regarding these questions. He notes that the most influential thinker of the time was Homer and as far as Homer was concerned resurrection was just something that didn't happen. Wright provides a helpful summary, "Christianity was born into a world where its central claim was known to be false. Many believed that the dead were non-existent; outside Judaism, nobody believed in resurrection."

The writings of the Greek philosophers like Plato and Cicero portrayed the world in a dualistic view where the body was tainted and the spirit was pure. Those who followed Plato or Cicero did not want a body again; those who followed Homer knew they would not get one.

Wright concludes, "Nobody in the pagan world of Jesus' day and thereafter actually claimed that somebody had been truly dead and had then come to be truly, and bodily, alive once more."

What about the Jews themselves? What did they believe in regards to resurrection?

The teachings of Judaism were that at the end of the world, when time had come to an end, there would be a general resurrection to life for the righteous. However, the Jews had no conception of a resurrection that would take place in the middle of history for only one person. We often look back on history with our own knowledge reading into the situations of the past with our own biases. Jewish belief always concerned a general resurrection of the people at the end of time, not the resurrection of an isolated individual or in the middle of history.

Also professor Edwin Yamauchi has done research on the resurrection and concluded that there is no possibility that the idea of a resurrection was borrowed because there is no definitive evidence for the teaching of a deity resurrection in any of the mystery religions prior to the second century...which would have been way after the Christians were believing in it. It would seem that the other religions were actually influenced by Christianity!

The Jewish idea of Messiah was that a man would rise up in popularity and military/political power and overthrow the foreign powers that were oppressing the Jewish people. If you were following a man that you believed to be Messiah, and instead of rising up and conquering the foreign powers he is arrested by them, beaten, mocked, spit on, stripped naked and crucified, you would conclude that he was not the Messiah.

It would literally require a miracle for the disciples to believe that Jesus of Nazareth was the Messiah. The idea of an isolated resurrection in the middle of history was completely foreign to them, the man that they had been following as Messiah was just crucified (which in Judaism would literally mean that you were cursed by God - thus not Messiah), and they were hiding for their lives locked up in a room together so that they themselves weren't crucified for following Jesus.

Only the resurrection of Jesus would have so changed them and convinced them that Jesus was in fact Messiah. Only an appearance from Jesus who had conquered death could take these cowards and change them to so boldly and fearlessly proclaim that Jesus of Nazareth was the Messiah and had risen from the grave. Only an appearance of the risen Messiah would have prompted these men to be willing to die for the belief that Jesus had risen from the dead.

Men are willing to die for what they believe in, but no one dies for what they know to be a lie. These men were willing to die proclaiming Jesus has risen!

Matthew 28:6 (NLT) — 6 He isn’t here! He is risen from the dead, just as he said would happen. Come, see where his body was lying.

These cowards were so fundamentally different that they went on to accuse, to their faces, the very people who were responsible for the death of Jesus........these same guys were, before the resurrection appearances of Jesus, hiding in a locked room like little girls terrified of them.

Acts 3:15 (NLT) — 15 You killed the author of life, but God raised him from the dead. And we are witnesses of this fact!

Acts 5:30 (NLT) — 30 The God of our ancestors raised Jesus from the dead after you killed him by hanging him on a cross.

Once cowards, these men had become ferocious and dedicated their lives to the spreading of the gospel message....the message of life, forgiveness, and redemption through Jesus of Nazareth.

Acts 10:39–43 (NLT) — 39 “And we apostles are witnesses of all he did throughout Judea and in Jerusalem. They put him to death by hanging him on a cross, 40 but God raised him to life on the third day. Then God allowed him to appear, 41 not to the general public, but to us whom God had chosen in advance to be his witnesses. We were those who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. 42 And he ordered us to preach everywhere and to testify that Jesus is the one appointed by God to be the judge of all—the living and the dead. 43 He is the one all the prophets testified about, saying that everyone who believes in him will have their sins forgiven through his name.”

 _________________

*N.T. Wright, "The Resurrection of the Son of God" (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2003)
*William Lane Craig, "Did Jesus Rise from the Dead?" in Jesus Under Fire: Modern Scholarship Reinvents the Historical Jesus, ed, Michael J. Wilkins and J.P. Moreland (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1996)
*Edwin Yamauchi, "Easter: Myth, Hallucination, or History?" Christianity Today, March 15, 1974 and March 29, 1974

Who's on First

1 Corinthians 15:3–4 (NLT) — 3 I passed on to you what was most important and what had also been passed on to me. Christ died for our sins, just as the Scriptures said. 4 He was buried, and he was raised from the dead on the third day, just as the Scriptures said.

____

I can't believe in the Bible because it contradicts itself. Even the gospel narratives don't line up! How can you believe in this Jesus guy if even your own "holy book" is full of errors?!

Let's talk about it...

It is true that not all gospel accounts record the exact same story. But what do they differ on? 

The details....

When Jesus is sending out his disciples to preach the gospel, heal the sick, and cast out demons Luke records

Luke 9:3 (NLT) — 3 “Take nothing for your journey,” he instructed them. “Don’t take a walking stick, a traveler’s bag, food, money, or even a change of clothes.

Mark says...

Mark 6:8 (NLT) — 8 He told them to take nothing for their journey except a walking stick—no food, no traveler’s bag, no money.

Here's another one...

Mark 16:5 (NLT) — 5 When they entered the tomb, they saw a young man clothed in a white robe sitting on the right side. The women were shocked,

then in Luke

Luke 24:3–4 (NLT) — 3 So they went in, but they didn’t find the body of the Lord Jesus. 4 As they stood there puzzled, two men suddenly appeared to them, clothed in dazzling robes.

So what are we to believe?! Is it all false?

Think about your own experiences. When people witness an event, do they all recount the event exactly the same? If 2 people witnessed a car accident, would they be able to line up all of the details exactly the same? Probably not, but they would get the main and plain things right. 

In our accounts above, in the first story Jesus is sending out the disciples and the point is that they are not to rely on what they can pack, but rather they are to rely on God to provide. 

In the second story the point is that angels were there and one of the angels ended up speaking to the women who discovered the empty tomb.

If all of the gospel accounts have exactly the same information, that would actually damage their credibility. It would appear that they had all met up and corroborated their stories before writing them down, like you would have to do if you were making up lies. 

Because the gospel accounts don't line up on every detail but still say the same things about the main and plain it actually lends to their credibility!

So what do the gospel accounts all have in common then? What is the main and plain of the gospels?

All four gospels agree that:

Jesus of Nazareth was crucified in Jerusalem by Roman authority during the Passover Feast, having been arrested and convicted on charges of blasphemy by the Jewish Sanhedrin and then slandered before the governor Pilate on charges of treason. He died within several hours and was buried Friday afternoon by Joseph of Arimathea in a tomb, which was shut with a stone. Certain female followers of Jesus, including Mary Magdelene, having observed his interment, visited his tomb early on Sunday morning, only to find it empty. Thereafter, Jesus appeared alive from the dead to the disciples, including Peter, who then became proclaimers of the message of His resurrection.

Minor discrepancies don't affect our case. Historians expect to find inconsistencies even in the most reliable resources. No historian simply throws out a source because it has inconsistencies. Otherwise we'd have to be skeptical about all secular historical narratives that also contain such inconsistencies, which is wholly unreasonable.

There are a lot of people that do not want the Bible to be true, but the fact remains, we have good reason to believe that Jesus of Nazareth walked this earth and really did rise from the grave.

The historian, Kenneth Scott Latourette, says, “As the centuries pass, the evidence is accumulating that measured by his affect on history Jesus is the most influential life ever lived on the planet.” 

The non Christian, Historian, H.G. Wells, says, “I’m a historian. I am not a believer, but I must confess as a historian that this penniless preacher from Nazareth is irrevocably the very center of history. Jesus Christ is easily the most dominant figure in all of history.”

Even Fidel Castro, the great Communist Dictator and Revolutionary in Cuba, who does not love and worship Jesus Christ as we do, says this, “I have always considered Christ to be one of the greatest revolutionaries in the history of the world.”

Charles Haddon Spurgeon, the great Reformed Baptist Preacher, says this, “Christ is the central fact of the world’s history. To him everything looks forward or backward. All the lines of history converge upon him. All the great purposes of God culminate in him. The greatest and most momentous fact which the history of the world records in the fact of his birth...”

Matthew 1:21 (ESV) — 21 She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”

John 3:17 (ESV) — 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.

Acts 2:21 (NLT) — 21 But everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’

Acts 4:12 (NLT) — 12 There is salvation in no one else! God has given no other name under heaven by which we must be saved.”

2 Timothy 1:9 (NLT) — 9 For God saved us and called us to live a holy life. He did this, not because we deserved it, but because that was his plan from before the beginning of time—to show us his grace through Christ Jesus.

 _________________

Craig, W. L., (2010). On Guard. Defending Your Faith with Reason and Precision. Colorado Springs, CO: David C Cook.

No God, No Evil

John 17:3 (NASB95) — 3 “This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.

____

How can God exist if there is so much evil in the world? If He's all-powerful why doesn't he stop it? If He's all-loving why does he allow it? The presence of SO much evil in the world proves that there isn't a God!

These are very serious concerns and I would like to offer some thoughts to consider.

First off, evil actually proves the existence of God! 

If God doesn't exist then there is no objective way to determine what is good or evil. Let me define objective. Objective moral values are values that are absolute, apart from human opinion.

Without the existence of God good and evil are subjective, they depend on our definition of the terms. Maybe you think something is evil but someone else may not think it's evil and there would be no way of determining whose way is correct! Even if there was a consensus, that doesn't make it objectively binding. It would still be subjective because people decided on it.

If there is no God, morality is just something that has evolved to help with our survival, a herd instinct much like how guerillas take care of each other for the betterment of the whole. That means that my murdering babies for fun is socially discouraged but there is nothing objectively evil about it. It's just like wearing white socks with a tuxedo or belching out loud in public...it's frowned upon and rude.

If atheism is true, we have no grounds for saying that the Holocaust was objectively evil. It was just something that the German people had reached a consensus on and decided was good for the flourishing of their society at the time.

But, if you are like me and think that murdering babies for fun is truly evil, or that the Holocaust was truly evil....then that itself attests to the existence of God.

1. If God does not exist, objective moral values do not exist.

2. Evil exists.

3. Therefore, objective moral values exist (some things are evil).

4. Therefore, God exists.

Also if the Christian God exists, then suffering has meaning. 

Let me explain...

Christianity says, "the chief purpose of life is not happiness, but the knowledge of God."

John 17:3 (NASB95) — 3 “This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.

We naturally assume that if God does exist, His main purpose is to make our lives easier. But what if that's not His #1 priority? 

Christianity says that God's main priority is that more and more people come to a knowledge of Him. Because only by knowing God can anyone have everlasting fulfillment. If that is his main goal it gives meaning to evil/suffering because it is through suffering that we have the greatest opportunities to depend and trust in God. This goes for the one suffering or those around him/her.

Patrick Johnstone's Operation World shows that it is in countries that have severe hardship that Christianity is growing at the greatest rates!

China:

It is estimated that 20 million Chinese lost their lives during Mao's Cultural Revolution. Christians stood firm in what was probably the most widespread and harsh persecution the Church has ever experienced. the persecution purified and indigenized the Church. Since 1977 the growth of the Church in china has no parallels in history. Researchers estimate that there were 30-75 million Christians by 1990. Mao Zedong unwittingly became the greatest evangelist in history.

El Salvador:

The 12-year civil war, earthquakes, and the collapse of the price of coffee, the nation's main export, impoverished the nation. Over 80% live in dire poverty. An astonishing spiritual harvest has been gathered from all strata of society in the midst of the hate and bitterness of war. In 1960 evangelicals were 2.3% of the population, but today are around 20%.

Ethiopia:

Ethiopia is in a state of shock. Her population struggles with the trauma of millions of deaths through repression, famine, and war. Two great waves of violent persecution refined and purified the Church, but there were many martyrs. There have been millions coming to Christ. Protestants were fewer than 0.8% of the population in 1960, but by 1990 this may have become 13% of the population.

Also God's purposes are not limited to this life alone, but reach beyond the grave.

Christianity says that this life is terrible, but it is short and not even worth comparing to how great things will be with God in eternity.

2 Corinthians 4:16–18 (NLT) — 16 That is why we never give up. Though our bodies are dying, our spirits are being renewed every day. 17 For our present troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever! 18 So we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever.

Romans 8:18 (NASB95) — 18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us.

The presence of suffering is a sobering reality, but God permits suffering and evil because it will accomplish an even greater good. We can see this most clearly on the cross where Jesus' suffering and torment allows for a greater good in the redeeming of our souls for those that will believe in Him.

1 Peter 2:22–25 (NLT) — 22 He never sinned, nor ever deceived anyone. 23 He did not retaliate when he was insulted, nor threaten revenge when he suffered. He left his case in the hands of God, who always judges fairly. 24 He personally carried our sins in his body on the cross so that we can be dead to sin and live for what is right. By his wounds you are healed. 25 Once you were like sheep who wandered away. But now you have turned to your Shepherd, the Guardian of your souls.

_________________

Craig, W. L., (2010). On Guard. Defending Your Faith with Reason and Precision. Colorado Springs, CO: David C Cook.

All the Same?

John 14:6 (NLT) — 6 Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me.

____

The morals and family values of yesteryear are gone (not that it was ever perfect), we live in a cultural where it seems everything is relativized  "What's good for you is good for you and what's good for me is good for me." However, there is a new moral absolute, a new value that has risen above all the others and reigns supreme...tolerance.

Tolerance is great, but what we have is not true tolerance. It is not a tolerance that allows/supports all beliefs equally, rather a tolerance that heralds non-traditional beliefs and quiets traditional beliefs.

This has also spilled over into the religious realm. Eastern philosophy has flooded into Christian thought to the point where most people can't even distinguish the two. "God is everything, you are God, I am God, God is creation, all the love that exists exists in me now, I am able to choose how to define God." All it really equates to is "Therapeutic Moral Deism." You define/believe in God in a way that makes you feel good, you think you can call on Him when you're in trouble, but other than that He has no real bearing in this world. He set world going and just kind of sits back until you're in trouble.

When you define God for yourself you're not worshipping a real God, you've now created a pretend, false god and you are worshipping this false god, a dead god who can do nothing to help you. In the Bible it's known as idolatry.

If you only pick the attributes of God that you like, and sweep the others under the rug, this too is worshipping a false god. You have to worship God as He is, as He has revealed Himself to the world.

So let's talk about that, not everyone agrees on that last point.

____

There is a very old and famous fable—of either Buddhist or Jain origin—that has been used through the centuries to illustrate what is thought to be a fundamental truth about the religions of mankind. Several blind men were led into a rajah’s (king’s) courtyard, where they encountered an elephant. One felt a tusk and concluded that an elephant is like a spear. Another touched a leg and thought that an elephant is like a tree. Yet another bumped into the side of the beast and thought that it is like a wall. And so on. The rajah heard the activity, came out on his balcony, and told the blind men that they were each encountering only one small part of the magnificent whole.

The lesson by analogy, of course, is that the different religious traditions of the world are all stumbling upon only one particular aspect of ultimate reality and are blind to the total picture. But all the religious hands are touching the same essential truth.

It is easy to see the appeal of this unifying approach to the broad spectrum of religious beliefs. After all, exclusive claims to religious truth are seen by many to be the root of so much violence and suffering in the world as believers in one tradition fight those of other traditions—sometimes for centuries. If at their core all religions are the same, or each is heading toward the same end, then there is no real reason for conflict or quarrel.

Ironically, this fable has built into it an element that is not highlighted in the traditional interpretations but may be the most important issue in the story. How do the blind men discover the truth about their encounter with the elephant? It is revealed to them from above. The rajah steps out on his balcony and from his transcendent perspective, and with his intact sense of sight, communicates to those below the full picture of their experience. The more profound real-world question that emerges from the fable is where is our “Rajah” who can see all and can reveal to us the truth that is not accessible from our limited perspective?

Unless there is some word from above to tell us that all religions are basically the same, there is no good reason to conclude they are, because the evidence is stacked heavily against it. Although one can identify common beliefs and practices, some of the differences among the traditions are stark and irreconcilable.

Compare, for instance, Mormonism, Buddhism, and Christianity on the critical question of what is ultimately real. Mormon scripture teaches that ultimate reality is material or physical and that even God and spirits are material objects whose constituent matter has existed for all eternity. Mahayana Buddhists believe that ultimate reality is emptiness (sunyata) or beinglessness (nisvabhava)—no gods, no matter, no spirit, no self. Christians, by contrast, see ultimate reality in God, who is an eternal, personal, triune Being who created all there is—both physical and nonphysical—from nothing. By any measure these are dramatic differences.

The conflicting ideas are multiplied once other issues are addressed. What is a human being? Why do we exist? What is good? Why is there pain and suffering? Where is history going? How do I reach salvation or enlightenment? Given the deep divergence on such timeless questions, it is completely legitimate to wonder if the essential unity of all religions is really just a noble wish or a pious hope. Indeed, without a word from the “Rajah” to tell us that the contradictions among the great faiths can be overcome, the notion that all religions are the same seems utterly untenable.

Another irony about the fable presented here is that there is excellent reason to believe that there really is a Rajah who has spoken to mankind and has given us the transcendent perspective we need to know the truth. Jesus Christ is a radical figure in the history of the great religious traditions in that he is the only leader who claimed to be the one eternal God in human flesh. He knows the beginning from the end and knows the deepest religious yearnings of all people. He said definitively that there is only one God and only one source of salvation: Jesus Christ Himself. Moreover (and this is very important), Jesus did not leave us with “blind faith” as the only means to know that His claims are true. Rather, He established the truth of His claims objectively through His glorious resurrection from the dead—the central miracle of human history.

The King has indeed spoken from on high. All religions are not the same. And although we are all blind in sin, we can still hear the Savior’s words. He who has ears, let him hear the voice of the King.^[1]

1 John 5:11–12 (NLT) — 11 And this is what God has testified: He has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. 12 Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have God’s Son does not have life.

John 3:31–36 (NLT) — 31 “He has come from above and is greater than anyone else. We are of the earth, and we speak of earthly things, but he has come from heaven and is greater than anyone else. 32 He testifies about what he has seen and heard, but how few believe what he tells them! 33 Anyone who accepts his testimony can affirm that God is true. 34 For he is sent by God. He speaks God’s words, for God gives him the Spirit without limit. 35 The Father loves his Son and has put everything into his hands. 36 And anyone who believes in God’s Son has eternal life. Anyone who doesn’t obey the Son will never experience eternal life but remains under God’s angry judgment.”

John 1:10–13 (NLT) — 10 He came into the very world he created, but the world didn’t recognize him. 11 He came to his own people, and even they rejected him. 12 But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God. 13 They are reborn—not with a physical birth resulting from human passion or plan, but a birth that comes from God.

John 1:18 (NLT) — 18 No one has ever seen God. But the unique One, who is himself God, is near to the Father’s heart. He has revealed God to us.

---

^[1] Cabal, T., Brand, C. O., Clendenen, E. R., Copan, P., Moreland, J., & Powell, D. (2007). The Apologetics Study Bible: Real Questions, Straight Answers, Stronger Faith (566–567). Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers.

You're Terrible? I'm Worse!

1 Timothy 1:15 (NLT) — 15 This is a trustworthy saying, and everyone should accept it: “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners”—and I am the worst of them all.

____

I think there's this misconception that Christians are people that have their act together. It's actually the opposite, Christians are people that realize they're terrible and need help! Let's talk about Saul/Paul.

Okay, let's try and put ourselves in a first century Jewish mindset. Imagine that church and state are united. Imagine that the guy at the top of politics is also the guy that the head of the church. Saul is one of these guys, he's the "ish." Not only is he apart of this group, he's one of the best of them! When this whole Jesus-rose-from-the-grave debacle arose Saul hated it. He spearheaded the effort to wipe these guys out. At that time Christianity was still a sect of Judaism called "the way."

There was a preacher named Stephen who was proclaiming Jesus as Messiah and Son of God. He was stoned to death in Jerusalem for blasphemy.

Acts 7:59–8:1 (NLT) — 59 As they stoned him, Stephen prayed, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” 60 He fell to his knees, shouting, “Lord, don’t charge them with this sin!” And with that, he died. 1 Saul was one of the witnesses, and he agreed completely with the killing of Stephen. 

Acts 9:1–2 (NLT) — 1 Meanwhile, Saul was uttering threats with every breath and was eager to kill the Lord’s followers. So he went to the high priest. 2 He requested letters addressed to the synagogues in Damascus, asking for their cooperation in the arrest of any followers of the Way he found there. He wanted to bring them—both men and women—back to Jerusalem in chains.

...This guy Saul, he actually went on to write most of the New Testament. So the question arrises, what does it take to change ones convictions so drastically?

Jesus himself...

Acts 9:3–6 (NLT) — 3 As he was approaching Damascus on this mission, a light from heaven suddenly shone down around him. 4 He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul! Saul! Why are you persecuting me?” 5 “Who are you, lord?” Saul asked. And the voice replied, “I am Jesus, the one you are persecuting! 6 Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.”

Saul has a personal encounter with Jesus. A personal encounter is what changes lives...

Think about this, if you were to list it out on paper, what are all the reasons to get married? It might not actually be that good on paper. You have to share everything you have, if you earn money, you don't get to keep it all. You don't get to make all of your own decisions, you don't always get to spend your time the way you want to, etc. 

So why do people get married? He meets her, or she meets him, then all of those concerns get minimized because of the personal encounter. The concerns are real, but the relationship itself is bigger than those concerns.

Acts 9:19–21 (NLT) — 19 ...Saul stayed with the believers in Damascus for a few days. 20 And immediately he began preaching about Jesus in the synagogues, saying, “He is indeed the Son of God!” 21 All who heard him were amazed. “Isn’t this the same man who caused such devastation among Jesus’ followers in Jerusalem?” they asked. “And didn’t he come here to arrest them and take them in chains to the leading priests?”

This Saul changed his name to Paul, he went around all the surrounding countries proclaiming Christ as Messiah, savior to sinners. Like we said before he went on to write most of our New Testament.

Jesus doesn't want you to clean up your act before you come to him.

Mark 2:16–17 (NLT) — 16 But when the teachers of religious law who were Pharisees saw him eating with tax collectors and other sinners, they asked his disciples, “Why does he eat with such scum?” 17 When Jesus heard this, he told them, “Healthy people don’t need a doctor—sick people do. I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners.”

If Jesus accepts Saul/Paul while he's on his way to persecute Christians by killing/imprisoning them, Jesus can/will accept you too.

Here's the rest of the verse that we started with...

1 Timothy 1:15–17 (NLT) — 15 This is a trustworthy saying, and everyone should accept it: “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners”—and I am the worst of them all. 16 But God had mercy on me so that Christ Jesus could use me as a prime example of his great patience with even the worst sinners. Then others will realize that they, too, can believe in him and receive eternal life. 17 All honor and glory to God forever and ever! He is the eternal King, the unseen one who never dies; he alone is God. Amen.

My Bro, My God?

1 Corinthians 15:7 (NLT) —7 Then he was seen by James and later by all the apostles.

____

A lot of people don't know that Jesus had a half brother. He actually had two half brothers that have contributed to the New Testament, James and Jude. We often hear of Jesus as being referred to as the Son of God, but we don't usually think about his humanity. He had a mom, half brothers and sisters.

During his life his family did not believe in him as the Messiah or Son of God, he was just Jesus the carpenter, and a weirdo at that.

John 7:1–5 (NLT)

¹ After this, Jesus traveled around Galilee. He wanted to stay out of Judea, where the Jewish leaders were plotting his death. ² But soon it was time for the Jewish Festival of Shelters, ³ and Jesus’ brothers said to him, “Leave here and go to Judea, where your followers can see your miracles! ⁴ You can’t become famous if you hide like this! If you can do such wonderful things, show yourself to the world!” ⁵ For even his brothers didn’t believe in him.

Or again,

Mark 3:20–21 (NLT)

²⁰ One time Jesus entered a house, and the crowds began to gather again. Soon he and his disciples couldn’t even find time to eat. ²¹ When his family heard what was happening, they tried to take him away. “He’s out of his mind,” they said.

Now what's interesting is later we have historical evidence to support that James has a change of heart and begins to proclaim Jesus as God! James became a pillar of the early Christian church in Jerusalem, penned the book we know as "James," and accrued such hatred from the Jewish leaders for his teachings that he was stoned to death before the sanhedrin.

The question arrises, what would it take for you to worship your own brother as God? Especially if while he was alive you thought he was a nut-case.

On top of that the Jewish conception of a Messiah was one who would conquer over the foes that were oppressing Israel, even if James thought his brother was the Messiah, his being put to death, naked, shamefully, on a cross like a criminal would have squashed that belief!

James became so convicted of his belief that Jesus was God that he was willing to be stoned to death for that belief. We see people today dying for what they believe in. What we never see is people dying for something that they know to be a lie.

What would it take for you to worship your own brother as God? The answer in James' case is that he saw his brother, risen from the dead, the God-man who had conquered sin and death. That's what it takes to change one's belief so drastically and so irrevocably. 

Jesus is alive, he has risen, his own brothers worship Him as God. Think about that.

John 6:29 (NLT)

²⁹ Jesus told them, “This is the only work God wants from you: Believe in the one he has sent.”

It's Just a Book of Fairy Tales...or is it?

Isaiah 14:24 (ESV) — 24 The Lord of hosts has sworn: “As I have planned, so shall it be, and as I have purposed, so shall it stand,

____

The Bible is often written off as just another book. It's often discounted because men wrote it, and men are just as prone to error then as they are now. And it wasn't even scholarly people that wrote the book! You have fishermen, tent makers, shepherds, tax collectors, men that lived apart from society in caves and deserts, etc. So if this rag-tag group of outcasts writes something, why do people give it so much weight/value?

Read what I'm going to write below and tell me who this is talking about. 

• “Those who hate me without cause are more numerous than the hairs of my head” (Ps 69:4).

• “The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers conspire together against the Lord and His Anointed One” (Ps 2:2).

• “Even my friend in whom I trusted, one who ate my bread, has lifted up his heel against me” (Ps 41:9).

• “Strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered” (Zch 13:7).

• “Then I said to them, ‘If it seems right to you, give me my wages; but if not, keep them.’ So they weighed my wages, 30 pieces of silver. ‘Throw it to the potter,’ the Lord said to me—this magnificent price I was valued by them. So I took the 30 pieces of silver and threw it into the house of the Lord, to the potter” (Zch 11:12–13).

• “They are striking the judge of Israel on the cheek with a rod” (Mc 5:1).

• “I gave My back to those who beat Me, and My cheeks to those who tore out My beard. I did not hide My face from scorn and spitting” (Is 50:6).

• “They pierced my hands and my feet” (Ps 22:16).

• “My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?” (Ps 22:1).

• “Everyone who sees me mocks me; they sneer and shake their heads: ‘He relies on the Lord; let Him rescue him; let the Lord deliver him, since He takes pleasure in him’ ” (Ps 22:7–8).

• “They gave me gall for my food, and for my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink” (Ps 69:21).

• “I am poured out like water, and all my bones are disjointed; my heart is like wax, melting within me” (Ps 22:14).

• “Yet He Himself bore our sicknesses, and He carried our pains; but we in turn regarded Him stricken, struck down by God, and afflicted” (Is 53:4).

• “He was oppressed and afflicted, yet He did not open His mouth. Like a lamb led to the slaughter and like a sheep silent before her shearers, He did not open His mouth” (Is 53:7).

• “They divided my garments among themselves, and they cast lots for my clothing” (Ps 22:18).

• “He submitted Himself to death” (Is 53:12).

• “He bore the sin of many and interceded for the rebels” (Is 53:12).

• “You may not break any of its bones” (Ex 12:46).

• “He protects all his bones; not one of them is broken” (Ps 34:20).

• “They will look at Me whom they pierced” (Zch 12:10).

• “They made His grave with the wicked, and with a rich man at His death, although He had done no violence and had not spoken deceitfully” (Is 53:9).

• “For You will not abandon me to Sheol; You will not allow Your Faithful One to see the Pit” (Ps 16:10).

• “You ascended to the heights, taking away captives; You received gifts from people, even from the rebellious, so that the Lord God might live there” (Ps 68:18).

• “The Lord declared to my Lord: ‘Sit at My right hand until I make Your enemies Your footstool’ ” (Ps 110:1).

Who do you think this is referring to?

All of these scriptures are taken from the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible. This was all completed some 400 years before Jesus was born. This is a widely accepted fact, in fact these were all translated from Hebrew into Greek in Alexandria roughly 150 years before Jesus' birth.

These writings, these predictions are SO specific that they leave no room for error.

No other religious literature has prophecies so distinct, so specific that have been fulfilled in the way that Christ has fulfilled the Hebrew Bible.

Christianity is not just another religion, Jesus is not just another prophet, the Bible is not just another book.

1 John 5:11–12 (NLT) — 11 And this is what God has testified: He has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. 12 Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have God’s Son does not have life.

Was this guy Legit?

Matthew 5:17 (NLT)

17 “Don’t misunderstand why I have come. I did not come to abolish the law of Moses or the writings of the prophets. No, I came to accomplish their purpose.

____

We have better historical evidence for the existence of Jesus of Nazareth than we do for Alexander the Great. The question isn't, "Is Jesus real?" the question is "Was this guy legit?"

What was Jesus about? Was he really just a good teacher? Perhaps...the only problem with saying that he was a good teacher is what he actually taught. He didn't just say, "Now you make sure and behave nicely to other people, like you would want them to treat you," but rather he taught things like, "I am the Son of God, I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in me will live, even after dying." These claims are outrageous. So you have to come to the conclusion, this guy is either who he says he is, or he's a lying lunatic. Because of his teachings you can't say he's a good teacher, that wouldn't make sense. You are forced to pick a side.

So if we want to look into, "what if he is who he says he is," the question arrises, "What did he come here for?"

The culture of a first century Jew was obviously very different than our culture. Every culture has their distinctions that set them apart, for the Jews it was the law. There are over 600 laws given in the Hebrew Bible (our Old Testament). These laws govern all aspects of life. How to worship, how to do business, how to marry, how to divorce, how to...you name it. The guys in charge of government were also the same guys in charge of church affairs, the fancy word for it is "theocracy." This is the culture that Jesus was born into.

Jesus is extremely controversial because Jews believe there is only one God and this God gave them a law to keep, now here comes a carpenter from some hick town that is teaching people that he is the Son of God and he seems to be doing away with the law and teaching others to do the same.

To this end he says, "“Don’t misunderstand why I have come. I did not come to abolish the law of Moses or the writings of the prophets. No, I came to accomplish their purpose."

Think of this, there are two ways to do away with an acorn. You can set it on a stone and smash it to pieces with a hammer. Or, you can plant it in the ground and let it fulfill itself and become a tree. By becoming a tree, it would give meaning and purpose to the acorn. This is similar to Jesus relationship to the law. By fulfilling the law of Moses he gives it purpose and meaning.

Notice he did NOT say, "I did not come to abolish the law, but I have come to give you a new set of rules to follow." 

It's not about being a good person, it's not about following rules, it's about Jesus. 

“For no one can ever be made right with God by doing what the law commands. The law simply shows us how sinful we are.” (Romans 3:20, NLT)

“I do not treat the grace of God as meaningless. For if keeping the law could make us right with God, then there was no need for Christ to die.” (Galatians 2:21, NLT)

“But now God has shown us a way to be made right with him without keeping the requirements of the law, as was promised in the writings of Moses and the prophets long ago. We are made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ. And this is true for everyone who believes, no matter who we are.” (Romans 3:21–22, NLT)

So what do you think, is he legit? If so, what are you going to do next? Jesus' offer still stands,

“I tell you the truth, those who listen to my message and believe in God who sent me have eternal life. They will never be condemned for their sins, but they have already passed from death into life.” (John 5:24, NLT)