“A
Letter to a Skeptic”
(It is not often that I post two
times in a day but as I read the following from a Facebook interchange, I
thought it well to go ahead and post it.)
Again XXXX, I agree that there were
excesses and reprehensible things done in the name of Christ and in that
respect philosophic Christianity does not differ in large part from other
movements who've impressed their will through violence, coercion, and
manipulation. However, if you give an honest reading to history, you find
that these were cases of institutional Christianity far different from the born
again, heart changing Christianity that Jesus taught.
The reality of Jesus is that He
changes the hearts and lives of those who give themselves to Him. Those people
do not do the things of which you speak. You see, in the vast majority of cases
those things were done out of selfishness and for political purposes. The real
deal Christian lives on a much different level.
Indeed it is the real deal
Christians who have sacrificed and given not taken. It is the genuine article
that has gone where no one would go (to serve and care for the dying during the
black plagues), give beyond one's capacity to give to the needy, provide for
the betterment of children (the first education of factory children was by real
deal Christians), going to primitive tribes in order to give them a written
language and thus access to written information, and so much more.
However as someone observed,
"The atheist is better at smelling rotten eggs than laying good
ones." The reality is that all you can do is disparage Christians based
upon the excesses, however, if you gave history a fair reading (not some
revisionist view) you would see that it is the genuine Christian that has done
far more good than any of the extreme examples of egregiousness that you cite.
However, I cannot change what you
choose to believe. Those are choices you make and the sad part is that there is
always a consequence to what one believes. Believe and build on a foundation of
truth and one derives one kind of outcome. Believe and build on a foundation of
false information and one derives another kind of outcome.
Time is the test and true
Christianity has been tested and has stood the test of time. The only way that
one can disparage such veracity and validity is to focus upon the exceptions
and not the realities of what coming to faith in Jesus Christ has done through
the centuries.
XXXX, the reason that Christians
have challenged your thinking is that even though we’ve never seen you, each of
us in our own way cares about you. We are not here to harass you or degrade
you. We are here to as accurately as possible share Jesus Christ with you with
the hope that you find the genuine real deal truth about Him. To decide
upon Jesus based upon misinformation and the view of the cynical skeptic is to
make a less than informed decision about Him.
Sincerely,
Alvie
