Allow me to begin by saying, as a Christian, I believe the Gospels should be taught with love and kindness. Not guilt, ridicule, or a confrontation.
What prompted me to write this essay is to conclude an internal conflict regarding faith. A new challenger has emerged. An Atheist. During a recent debate (argument) on my boss’s radio show, she challenged me to learn more about the views of Sam Harris and Christopher Hitchens in order to understand why Atheists don’t believe in God.
She said, “I’ll read something of the Bible that you suggest, if you check out a video by one of these Atheists.”
My boss egged her on and encouraged me to accept the challenge. The thing is…while she openly admitted that she knew very little about the Bible or what it meant to be a Christian, I actually have been through my Atheist Phase. I already knew a lot about Atheism. Allow me to explain…
If you’ve never been in a fight…how do you know how well you’ll react or what you’ll do? If you’ve never practiced or taken a single self-defense class, but step into the octagon against a trained Martial Artist, do you think you’ll win that fight?
“Well the answer is simple, Rock. I wouldn’t step into the octagon!”
Too late. You were born. You exist. Whether you believer it or not, you are on the battlefield. Life is full of victories and losses.
How many times have we heard something along the lines of, “You shouldn’t have to go outside without worrying about being profiled, or experiencing racism, getting kidnapped, being stalked, fearing for your life, worrying about your child going to school, fearing a bombing, fearing a mass shooting, getting raped, or being abused.”
“But, Rock. People are just saying you “shouldn’t” have to…”
Here’s the thing…Who told you that? Who told you that you should be able to do whatever you want, go wherever you want, and nothing bad should ever happen to you? Is it in the Bible? Are there conditions to it? Let’s put a pin in that for now. But keep it in mind as we begin.
If you’ve never been in a fight, but face off against a trained Martial Artist, you’re going to get wrecked. Why? Because you’re vulnerable to all kinds of attacks. You don’t know how to defend yourself, or how the person’s gonna attack, or what to do when you’re getting hit.
“What kind of God allows murderers and pedophiles to exist?”
“If God was real, he would never allow so much pain and suffering to go on!”
After the Parkland Shooting where seventeen students were killed by a gunman in my own state of Florida, I passed by an employee from a different department, an older white woman.
So emotional, she said, “Why does this keep happening!”
And I confess…I smirked. Sounds horrible doesn’t it?
If God is so loving and merciful, then why is the path to heaven narrow?
“The narrowness lies in the fact that you cannot manufacture your own truth. Jesus says anyone who comes onto him will not be turned away. Anyone. You don’t have to pay money. You don’t have to be born into a certain class. You don’t have to be a certain race or gender. Anyone.” – this was Ravi Zacharias’s answer.
The path certainly doesn’t seem narrow to me. I encourage everyone to watch his Question and Answer segment here. He answers questions like, the aforementioned. As well as ones such as “Why are Christians against racism, but discriminate against homosexuals?” or “Why is the Old Testament God so vengeful, but the New Testament God so loving?” The answer to that last question I loved so much. Because it’s exactly what I thought. Imagine it. You part the Red Sea. You deliver Manna everyday and twice before Sabbath, you demonstrate so many miracles and still they disregard your instructions.
But after growing up and reading the bible from cover to cover, I’ve come to realize that I didn’t hate organized religions. What I hated was the fact that I never felt like I fit in with any of them. But that’s not anyone’s fault. This post isn’t about my inability to fit in. It’s about something else.
Too many times, I’ve seen individuals, intellectual individuals tout Jesus Christ as a wonderful man with awesome and amazing teachings. Then, these same individuals would go on to discredit and doubt the apostles that followed in the rest of the New Testament. Primarily, the likes of Paul, John, Peter, and Timothy.
Two nights ago, I watched a feminist named Naomi Wolf compare Jesus Christ to a social justice warrior. She mentioned how he stood up against the strict conservatives of the day and befriended individuals of all walks of life. Then, just a few sentences later, she says how she doesn’t like Paul because Paul claimed women shouldn’t preach.
It’s around the 18 minute mark
Last week, I watched a spoken word video by Jefferson Bethke called “Why I Hate Religion, but Love Jesus.” In the video, Jefferson claims that Jesus was given by God, but religion was invented by man.
Here’s the thing…first off. I see a benefit to having points of view like Naomi Wolf and Jefferson Bethke. As I told one of my buddies, I think it’s at least cool that these individuals are using their words, their art to reach others and get them involved in learning about God. And hopefully, if the individual truly does pick up the Bible and read it through and through, they’ll come to learn, as I have, that there’s more to it than their cherry-picking/misleading messages.
My first point is something I’ve been told by my betters years ago. It’s the general statement of, “you can’t pick and choose what you want from the Bible and discard the rest.” The only problem I had was that it was never efficiently explained why. And when you’re talking to someone with limited faith, you really have to use logic to reach them. Hitting them with Bible verses when they already doubt the scriptures’ credibility is about as pointless as splashing them when they’re already wet. So allow me to take a stab at it.
Try to wrap your brain around this, I mean, really just think about it. If you’re one of those who likes what Jesus preached, how can you deny the words of his Apostles when everything you know about Jesus was written by his Apostles? Jesus didn’t write the Gospel of Matthew, Mark, John, or Luke himself. Man did.
Which brings me to Jefferson’s logic about how Jesus was from God, but religions were invented by man. If my logic in the last paragraph holds water, then Jefferson’s statement is debunked. More importantly, there’s numerous examples in the Old Testament where God encourages the people to worship as a congregation, the word “assembly” is used abundantly.
Thus, when Jesus commanded his Apostles to go and tell the world about him, it’s only natural that they’d create congregations, essentially establishing the church. That’s why you have the letters to Romans, Galatians, Ephesians, the Thessalonians and Colossians. I won’t lie. In today’s current PC society, those letters teaching people how they should live life would be considered outrageous.
But if you do consider them outrageous, it is my opinion that your heart is exposed. And you’re not alone. That’s alright. No one’s perfect, but accepting your own flaws is the first step to change. I’ll give you an example. Last night in re-reading 2 Samuel, there’s the story of Joab. A general named Abner killed Joab’s little brother. And after King David made peace with Abner, Joab more or less stalked Abner down and murdered him. King David then cursed Joab’s for his actions.
When I read that, I felt conflicted. I definitely understand Joab’s feelings and if I was in his shoes, I’d probably do the same thing (I’m protective of my brothers). But really, those feelings of revenge is an exposure of wickedness in my own heart. Something I need to work on. And by the grace of God I hope I do improve.
I know that when you look at Christianity with a broad lens, it’s like staring at a field blanketed with snow. If there’s but one piece of charcoal on the field above the snow, it’s glaring. It stands out. If there’s charcoal sprinkled all over the field, it’s easy to assume that the field is covered with charcoal, when really a majority of it is still snow.
If you really believed in Jesus and what he taught, then you should appreciate and smile upon them. Why? Because they’re doing exactly as Christ commanded them. To mock them, to insult them, to belittle them is to belittle the teachings of Christ.
More importantly, this nonsense about comparing Christ to social justice warriors…Aside from the fact that his main purpose was to teach repentance and reliance on God, Jesus Christ most endearing quality was that he was self-sacrificing. From what I’ve seen that quality is quite lost upon the SJWs.
Too many times, I’ve seen people bend and manipulate Christ’s teachings to conform to their lives, instead of people conforming themselves to Christ’s teachings. I’ve been hit with the “Well, Jesus hung out with prostitutes and sinners!” or “God made me and God is perfect. So I’m fine the way I am.”
Jesus gave the perfect explanation that so many tend to leave off. Jesus illustrated that its similar to physicians going to visit the sick people. Why would a physician need to visit the healthy ones? He kept company with sinners to help them. And as far as “God making no mistakes”. You’re right. He doesn’t. We’re the ones who constantly err almost on a daily basis. We’re the ones who are imperfect. Jesus Christ, his disciples, his followers, the congregations and religions established in his name, I firmly believe with all of my heart that a majority of them are here to help.
Stage In The Sky 