Response to Chalmers Post

This is part of an ongoing discussion with my good friend Alex who has some views which vary from mine, we have always gotten along very well, and I apprecieate his friendship.  For the rest of the conversation please see:

http://www.achalms.blogspot.ca/2012/03/response-to-response-of-original-post.html?zx=5392f7fc3f566eff

You are right in that it does seem confusing when you look at John 8:7, combined with Matthew 5:18.  Before I provide my explanation, I want you to know that I am not one of these Christians who feels He has to have all the answers.  The truth of the matter is that I admit that I do not by any means have all the answers.  I don’t believe I ever will until I get to Heaven.   There are things that I struggle to understand.  There are things that I wonder why God chose not to make them more clear; but with that said, I understand that God is God, He chose to do things His way, and I will trust Him regardless of what questions I have because He has proved Himself faithful over and over in my life.  I think one of the most dangerous things to do is to decide that I will not believe something unless I can 100% completely understand it.  Now this does not mean that I should not ask the questions, and that I should believe just anything, all I am saying is that I have to understand that there are certain things that God has chosen for me not to understand, and I’m going to be okay with that because He is God and I know from His track record in my life He has my best interests at heart.

In regards to John 8:7, Jesus definitely was upholding the law of stoning as the penalty of adultery.  He said, “He that is without sin cast the first stone”.  He was not saying not to stone her.  The penalty from the Old Testament laws was that she was to be stoned and He acknowledged this by what He said.  I believe the lesson Jesus was teaching here was that we must not be so quick to judge, because while the penalties for different sins may be different, sin is still sin, and we are all guilty of it.  Now one might say that He was not upholding the law because He let her go unpunished.  He did that because He was God, and God has the power, and the right, to condemn or to show grace.  And His grace is one of the greatest gift He gives to those who choose to believe in Him.  In this case He displayed mercy and grace to the adulteress telling her to, “Go and sin no more”.  This too is a great message to all those who choose to follow Christ.  While He died to pay the penalty of our sins, He still tells us to repent from our mistakes and to go and stop sinning.

Now in regards to Matthew 5:18; Jesus does say that the law will remain; however, this does not mean that it is therefore okay to nowadays go out and stone someone who commits adultery.   We have to recognize that the contexts are very different between now and then.  With this said, the fact that we carry out punishments for breaking the law differently today, does not mean that the law has changed.  The law still states that adultery is wrong, and therefore the law has not changed, and therefore what Jesus said in Matthew 5:18 is accurate and in no way a contradiction.

Now I know that you said that you don’t buy into the “context” argument.  You say that Jesus teachings should still apply to us today if He was truly the Son of God.  They do!  Please try and find for me one teaching of Jesus that does not apply to us today.  If there is one, I would love to examine it, because I can’t think of any.   You say that His teachings should still apply today so that we do not fall into “iron-age morality”.  His moral teachings do still apply today.  As mentioned above, the societal punishments may now be carried out differently, but the moral principles are all the same.  And I agree with you, if Jesus was the Son of God, His teachings should still apply today, and I hope this helps reveal that they in fact do, further proving that He is in fact the Son of God.

You talk about how the Bible is exactly how we expect it to be because of the fact that it was passed down from generation to generation.  I mean, how else would it have been recorded?  I understand when people make the argument that it seems like the accounts may be unreliable, and therefore this “proves” that it is false.  But remember, we are talking over 2000 years ago.  It’s not like there were data banks to record information and keep it “safe and sound” until computers and other technological advances came along so that we could preserve them that much better.  And even if there were such data banks, the Jews and/or Romans would have simply destroyed all of the texts.  They killed Jesus because of what He preached, so they definitely would have destroyed any literature which proved that he was God, and that they were idiots for killing Him. 

You are also forgetting the fact that even though there are translations, incredible initiatives were taken to ensure that copies of these text were accurate and not deviating from the original writings in any way.  Research shows that it is crazy how much effort was put into this.  As well, it is my understanding (although I have not researched this personally I must admit) that we have a very significant amount of documentation of the Biblical text which has been recovered and restored.  While yes there have been many translations, we can always go back to the originals if we think things have gotten misconstrued.  I would prefer to have people go and examine the Bible in this way instead of just saying that we can speculate that it has been “tampered with”.    

And you mentioned about the fact that you are surprised that only one gospel contains accounts of the dead being resurrected.  While you make a good point that you would think that an individual would include that in their writing, but the fact that they didn’t cannot be held as proof that the Bible is unreliable.  What about the proof that shows that it is reliable.  What about the fact that there are different authors for each of the gospels, yet their writings are incredibly similar.  This is another counter argument to you saying that the “Bible is exactly what we would expect it to be”.  If that was true, then we would expect the various accounts to be incredibly varied.  It is the “broken telephone” principle.   If the Bible was a document created purely by humans, with no Divine inspiration, then we would expect to see the broken telephone principle all-throughout the texts.  Even today if you were to have two people write about an experience that they shared together – one where they were both in the same place at the same time and witnessed the exact same things.  If you had them write about their experiences, you would see that their perceptions of situations lead to varied accounts of the events.  We don’t see this in the Bible.  People try and find things of the sort and call them contradictions, but the fact is that the gospel accounts are overwhelmingly similar and that is because those accounts were inspired by God.   This is further proof that the Bible truly is the Word of God, and that because of these facts, God must exist, and if He exists and inspired the Bible, then what it says is true and needs to be taken very seriously. 

I’m a bit confused by your last point.  What do you mean by “knowing what we know” divinity is not a valid option?  You provided an option of what you think could have happened, but what exactly is it that we know which makes it so that we can’t accept Jesus’ divinity?

It's not worth not spending time with God

The last month or so I have found myself becoming somewhat complacent in my relationship with God.  I have allowed myself to get distracted by events taking place in my life and have not dedicated the time that I should to spending time with God in prayer and study of the Bible.  And it has been through this time that I have noticed that I don't have the same sense of fullfillment, peace, joy and general happiness that I have had during those times where I have been better focused on my relationship with Him.

The reason why I bring this up is because I have had discussions with people who dismiss my own personal experiences with God as valid proof of His existence.  While I understand why they may be hesitant to take my word for it, the fact of the matter is that my claims are true.  When I am putting forth my best effort in pursuing and developing my relationship with God, it is during those times that I am most fullfilled.  This past month or so has proven this that much further to me.  It's not something I'm faking.  It's just fact.  I know that when others hear this they often become skeptical because they feel that I am doing this in my own mind.  They think things like because I am so used to pursuing my relationship with God, that when I am not doing it in a way that I feel is putting forth my best effort, I don't feel "myself" and therefore I don't feel fullfilled, joyful, happy, etc..  I don't buy this argument for one second; with the reason being that if this were true - if people could simply "fool" themselves into happiness and fulfillment - then the universal truth that "money does not buy happiness" would not be exactly that - universal truth.  If God were not real, then the joy and fullfillment that Christians who pursue Him feel would all be in their heads.  And if this is true, then that means that we are able to make ourselves happy and fullfilled through anything that we truly believe will make us happy - as long as we believe strongly enough in it.  Well, a very large percentage of people in our world today believe very strongly that money can  make them happy, but human history has proven otherwise.  We cannot make ourselves happy by simply believing strongly enough in something.  In order to experience true happiness, joy and fullfillment, that "something" has to be real.  Jesus is real, and that is why when I pursue Him, love Him, and grow in my relationship with Him, I do feel fullfilled, joyful and happy; and when I am not pursuing Him like I should, I do not feel as much so.  It's not something I'm imagining, it's truth.  I'd love for all people to be able to experience this for themselves, but sadly most choose not to.  In the words of C.S. Lewis, "We are far too easily pleased".

I Don't Want to Be "Religious"

The following are notes that I took in church this past Sunday while listening to a great message by Rick Buck, the Pastor at Emmanuel Church in Barrie, Ontario. 

Religion is never a good substitute for love of God and others. 

Love God passionately and others selflessly If God truly has our heart then we will do this.  We should never be focused on being religious, but rather on simply loving God and loving others as He loves us, for when we do this, we are living as Christ calls us to.  We will be in the position to live for Him and be used by Him as He sees fit.

It is about relationship not religion.  The acts that we do for God needs to be from love and devotion to Him not out of "religious duty" for that is foolish and meaningless. 

I don't want to be seen as a religious person.  I want to be seen, and to be a person who is in absolute love with God and who's actions are always a reflection of that love.  The Bible is not about mechanics, it is about an amazing relationship with God.  And this makes sense because if you look at any relationship, it is always about the meaningful experiences you have with that other person.  If relationships were about "mechanics" or "rituals" which had to be performed, then the relationship would not be meaningful.

And a true relationship with God must be about what we can do for Him, not about what He can do for us.  And the cool thing about this is that when we pursue God in this way it is only then that we can truly benefit from the relationship with Him.  But when our focus is on us and what we can gain then we will not fully benefit from the relationship as we could/should.
 
One of the biggest strategies of satan is to attempt to get us complacent in our relationship with God.  It is an attempt to get our relationship to be surface level and about acts of "religious duty".  He wants us to feel like being a Christian is about following very specific ritualistic guidelines (i.e. read your Bible for 30 minutes every night - any less and you aren't a Christian).  The reason why he wants us to think this way is because such guidelines are meaningless, annoying and leave us feeling empty rather than excited.  God wants us to be excited about the relationship we have with Him, and it is a very exciting thing when understood and pursued the appropriate way - and that way is to develop a meaningful relationship with Him which is based on love for Him, and love for others.

Response to Alex's Blog

The following is a response to my friend Alex's blog....

Thanks man for giving me the chance to read the blog.   You say you are a poor writer, you’re definitely not, you write very well. 

Here are my thoughts.  I put them quite bluntly, not out of disrespect, but because based on how you write your blog, I believe this is what you prefer and appreciate.

You say that you don’t know whether or not God exists, but it seems like you’re writing is simply a way to try and take Christian arguments and look for the way that you can disprove them.  I believe that any topic can always be argued against in some way, shape or form.  I respect the fact that you admit that you don’t have all the answers (neither do I; none of us do), but it seems like you spend your time arguing against the existence of God.  Therefore, it seems like you are saying that you don’t know if God exists, but at the same time trying to prove that He doesn’t.   I feel like you may be sitting on the fence here, when you have to choose one side or the other.  Either God exists and you accept Him, or you choose to believe that He doesn’t, and like you’ve described in your blog, if you are wrong, you will absolutely spend eternity in hell, because this is what God, Whom you chose not to believe in, said would happen.  (Again, I know this is blunt.   I don’t mean for it to sound disrespectful or obnoxious, but based on what you wrote in your blog, I believe that you agree that these statements are true if God does in fact exist).  Now, I believe in God for many different reasons.  I have chosen to be on the God side of the fence.  I gotta tell you honestly, if I were to look at this circumstance from a probability standpoint, like it seems you do, I see myself as being in a no lose situation.  And I see anyone who chooses not to believe in God as being in a situation where they could end up losing.  What I mean by this is as follows:  If God does not exist, then when I die nothing happens, and I do not end up in hell.  From a worldly standpoint, this is a win (I say worldly because I believe this to be the thought of most non-believers, for I can’t see them sitting back and accepting that they were going to hell).  But if God does exist, then I get to spend eternity with Him in Heaven because I chose to live my life for Him.  I don’t think anyone would argue that eternity in Heaven as it is described in the Bible is anything but the greatest “win” imaginable.  Now the non-Christian on the other hand, the only “win” they could possibly obtain is if God does not exist; but if God does exist, then they spend eternity in hell because this is what God said would happen.  Eternal damnation is a big-time lose!  The reason why I bring this up is because you have admitted that you don’t know, but are going off of what you consider as most probable.  I have to say that I think you are putting yourself in a very dangerous place.  As a Christian I am in a position whereby if I’m wrong I don’t end up damned for eternity in hell, but if you are wrong then that is exactly what ends up occurring.  Based off of your argument of probability, I feel that as a Christian, I am in a circumstance where the probability is in my favour, with the reason being that I can’t lose.  (Please don’t think that the reason why I personally am a Christian is to “play it safe”, although I am thankful for the reality of this argument).  I also know you spoke about the fact that if you end up at the pearly gates and have to answer to God, you will tell Him that you used the brain that He gave you to come to a conclusion based on probability.  I can’t say exactly what He’ll say back in that moment, but I know what Jesus said when He was here on Earth, and that was, “You believe because you have seen me, but blessed are those who have not seen me and still believe” (John 20:29).   And in general, Jesus’ entire message was one of repentance and salvation.   The Bible makes it very clear that God gives us the choice while we are here on earth, and only then.  We have to make that choice now.  He’s given us everything He feels fit to give us, and yes, we have the choice to question it, but in the end we have to answer to Him for whatever decision we make. 

Like I mentioned before, you will always be able to argue against any point of view or argument.  One can always find a way to try and structure the argument in one direction or another.  For this reason, will non-Christians who say they need absolute proof ever be able to find it?  Will they ever be fully satisfied?  No they will not, because an argument can always be posed, and they often want facts which are indisputable.  Christians look at the evidence we do have and see it as enough to go off of, but unfortunately for non-Christians, they always want more.  They are never satisfied until there is nothing that can be argued.  The fact is that we will never have all the answers.   I encourage all people, Christians and non-Christians alike, to ask themselves: “Is it not possible that some truth simply cannot be proven from a worldly standpoint?  Is it not possible that to accept the truth means accepting that God chose for us not to have all of the answers, but left us enough to be able to follow Him, which is what He wanted?”  He hasn’t given us all the answers, and honestly I don’t know why; but with what He has given us I choose to believe in Him, and love Him, and know that He loves me.  I believe that He has given us more than enough to go off of, and I don’t want to forgo living my life for Him and securing a spot for myself in Heaven just because I was not satisfied with the fact that I was not given all the answers. 

The fact is that yes, there are a lot of arguments out there that sound very convincing in proving that God does not exist, and because of these, many people choose not to seek after God for themselves.  Like I’ve said, I don’t have all the answers.  I honestly can’t explain why each and every argument, which is out there going against the existence of God, is false.  I’m not smart enough to do that.  But what I am smart enough to do is to know that I have personally sought after God and now have a personal relationship with Him, and because of that, I know that what anybody else says about why He does not exist simply cannot be true.  It cannot be true based off of my personal experiences.  I recognize that the following is not the best analogy, but it is something like if someone was to say to me that my parents don’t love me.  They could create some very convincing arguments.  They could bring up all the mistakes that my parents ever made, and tie all those life events together as proof to show that my parents simply don’t love me.  They could even take all the good things they’ve done, and contrast them to their mistakes to find a convincing way to show that their mistakes are actually a clearer picture of how my parents feel about me than are the things they did a good job at.  Well, I know based off of the experiences of my life that my parents do in fact love me.  While all those arguments that were posed may in fact be true, or at least appear to be true, I cannot deny the fact that my parents love me, and I will not allow myself to buy into the idea that they don’t.   It is the same with God.  I can’t explain why every argument against Him is false.  They very well may seem to be true, but based off of my personal life experiences, I cannot deny His existence. 

The truth of the matter is that as I write this, I know that I myself can’t change your mind.  I believe God can, but He’s the only One.  You’ve spent a lot of time looking for proof of God.  I respect this, I really do.  You’ve done more than many other non-believers have.  But I have to be honest with you; I believe strongly that you’ve spent your time searching for the wrong thing.  If you really want to know the truth, which I believe you do, I would recommend you actually seek after God Himself.  The Bible says, “You will seek Me and find Me, when you seek Me with all of your heart” (Jeremiah 29:13).  Rather than seeking after proof that the world tries to come up with, why wouldn’t you simply seek after God, Whom you are trying to discover about?  Pursue Him through prayer and reading of the Bible, and through commentaries and meaningful conversations with those who do believe.  In general, seek after Him.  You’ve spent a lot of time seeking after what the world says about God, but I encourage you, that if you really want to find the true answers, you at least owe it to yourself to seek after Him, and to do it on a personal level. 

I enjoy our conversations man, and I look forward to many more!  Heck, we should do it over a beer sometime.  I’m not one of those Christians against alcohol…just don’t expect me to get drunk, because in case you haven’t realized, I have a moral standard I’m trying to stick to….lol.

Non-Christians Have a Hard Time Understanding Christians

I often think about how non-Christians view Christians and the church in general.  What do they think when a Christian says, "I have Jesus in my heart", or, "I am completely surrendered to Christ", "I am in love with Jesus", "I would die for Jesus", and other sayings of similar nature?

Each of these sayings above, I personally claim, and I do so proudly and unashamedly; but at the same time I definitely understand why a non-Christian might get "wierded out" by such statements. 

I was thinking about this last night while driving in the car on my way to hockey, and I came to the realization that many non-Christians find these things odd due to the fact that they don't fully understand what it means to have a relationship with God.  They don't understand the excitement, the joy, the fullfillment of it.  The reasons why I can boldly make statements like those listed above is because I am experiencing a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, and the love and joy that comes with such a relationship leads to me saying these things about Him does not come out of obligation, but because it is how I actually feel.  Having a true, meaningful relationship with God leads to such joy, and so while it is hard for non-Christians to understand, Christians definitely understand, and are excited about all that they are experiencing. 

I've Never Accomplished Anything Significant on My Own.

I was just thinking about how I can't think of any time where I have ever set out to accomplish something, and done so based off of sheer will.  You hear all these great stories about how successful people go out and accomplish what they set their mind to because they never gave up until they reached their goal.  Even though I consider myself a pretty driven person (with certain things), I don't have any stories like that.  I can honestly say that anything I've ever accomplished has happened when I least expected it, not because I decided that I was going to go out and get it done. 

With this said, there have been many things that I have gone out and tried to accomplish, and some of them I have actually accomplished, but the interesting thing is that my statements above still hold true.  Even though I accomplished them, they happened when I least expected it.  They happened in God's timing, not my own.  Where I have most often found this to be true in my life is in sports.  One example was with a particular goal that I set out to accomplish in my Freshman year of college golf.  I wanted so badly to accomplish this goal, but I figured that in order for it to happen I was going to have to work my tail off and will myself to do it.  The crazy thing was that I did end up accomplishing it in my Junior year, but I did so when I was actually playing some of the worst golf that I had played in my entire college career.  I all of a sudden had a really good day on the course which led to me accomplishing the goal.  I don't know how else to explain it, but to say that it was a blessing from God.

Now when I say these things, I am not saying that God "fixes" results - in sports or in any other areas of life.  Truth be told, maybe He does, He's God and He can do whatever He wants.  If I had to bet on it though, I would bet that He doesn't do this.  I do believe however that He blesses, and that He blesses efforts when we do our part and work our hardest. 

What I am saying now may seem hypocritical.  It may sound like I am saying that I have never been able to will myself to accomplish something, but then just said that God doesn't fix results and that you have to do your part and work your hardest to get things done.  Truth be told, I am having a hard time putting my thoughts into words, but what I am actually trying to say is the following:  I have learned that I need to always work my hardest at everything I ever pursue as if the results depend solely on me, but I must recognize in doing so that they do not depend on me, they depend on God.  Therefore, I need to work my hardest at all things, and then surrender all results to God.  I believe that this is why I feel like I have never been able to will myself to accomplish things.  My efforts have definitely played a part in the accomplishments, but I have put the efforts in, and then had to wait on God and His timing for whether or not the goals are accomplished.  And truthfully many times they haven't been, but that's okay because I believe that God knows what's best for me, and I only want to accomplish that which He wants me to.

I have sometimes thought about this and thought, "I wish I could will myself to accomplish things.  I wish I could be one of those people who wills themself to success".  I now think differently.  I love the fact that it is God who decides what I accomplish.  He is in control of all things, and is good enough to allow me to pursue my goals and dreams, as long as my attitude in doing so is pleasing to Him.  I am thankful for the fact that I can honestly say that anything I've ever accomplished has been directly related to His timing and His blessings, that it has been Him who has been in control of the results of all my efforts in life.  I'm glad that I'm not willing myself to accomplish things that I think are best for me when they really aren't.  I'm glad that the One who knows what's best for me, and has my absolute best interests at heart, is the One in control of the things that I accomplish in life.  I find this exciting because it means that the God of the universe, the ultimate "Celebrity" takes an interest in me and my life.  He cares about me, wants what's best for me, and is leading me along the path that He wants.  I think that's pretty cool.

Pride vs. Humility

"God opposes the proud but favors the humble."
(James 4:6)

Too often I have read this verse, and recognized that it teaches me the importance of being humble, but I have failed to really recognize what it is saying despite the fact that it states it very clearly.  Not only is it telling me that God wants me to be humble, but He is opposed to me when I strive to draw attention to myself rather than to others, and to Him.  This is a very serious fact.  When the Creator of all things, and the One in control of all things, says that He is opposed to me when I am prideful, that is downright frightening.  This goes to show just how serious He is about the subject.

Honestly, pride is something I've struggled with.  I have no problem being the center of attention, and I tend to enjoy it.  I'm not happy to say that, but I also can't deny it.  The thing that makes me even more stupid is the fact that I have always felt better about myself whenever I have strived to be humble.  Jesus said, "Those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted".  So not only have I been stupid because I have been prideful, but the attention that I seek actually comes when I don't pursue it.  I am not saying this to say, "Just don't be prideful, and then you get the attention that you desire", because this also is not the proper attitude.  If we are truly being humble, Jesus is clear that we will end up being exalted, but true humility does not desire the attention in the first place.  True humility strives to draw attention to God and to others.

The other side of the coin is that no one likes one who is prideful.  I believe that this could be one of the reasons why Jesus said what He did about the humble being exalted.  Nobody wants to exalt someone who exalts themselves.  They don't want to "feed" their ego any more.  Quite frankly, prideful people are annoying, and nobody wants to be around them when they act those ways.  It makes everyone annoyed and uncomfortable.  Why would I ever want to behave in these ways?  It's foolish and stupid.  What I want is for people to see Jesus when they look at me.  I want them to see all the amazing things that He's done in my life, and to see how He's been constantly working on me and changing me to make me more like Him.  Pride is the exact opposite of what I want to display.

I also want to make sure that I am not falsely humble.  I believe it is still pride when we attempt to appear humble before others, when all the while we are craving that attention.  There is no fooling God, and He is the Judge, and I believe He is opposed in these situations too, for it is still pride.

In order to be humble, I need to actively work to draw attention to others, in positive lights, and away from myself.  I need to make sure that I do more listening, rather than talking, and am focusing on the needs and desires of others rather than my own.  I need to seek to serve others like Jesus did, not be served.  I praise God for my wife Bryane, because next to Jesus, she is the best example I have ever seen of what it means to be humble.  She never seeks attention for herself, and is always doing whatever she can to build others up, and to serve.