Showing posts with label Jesus Christ. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Jesus Christ. Show all posts

Thursday, February 20, 2014

True Christianity is Unique Among all Religions...



If one is to look at the various world religions one finds a common core.  It is centered upon the notion that one must perform in a certain fashion and in doing so work their way into the good graces of their particular deity.  Of course this notion in Buddhism is that such leads to good karma in the next life.   

This is often described as a works theology.   Of the many problems attendant to such a notion, three are as follows.  To begin with if acceptance is based upon good works, then those incapable of same are immediately eliminated.  Second, is the matter of what constitutes an acceptable good work.  Who really knows?  Then there is the quantity problem in that no one is quite sure how much is necessary.

There is but one exception.  That exception is found in genuine Christianity. 

To be sure there are many facsimiles of Christianity which in reality are distortions of the genuine.  The problem is not with what Jesus Christ taught and lived nor is it with what the Bible teaches.  The problem lies with what man has attempted to add.   In some sense it is the idea that one can improve upon genuine Christianity.

This amalgamated "christianity" does two things.  First, it simply does not work as God had intended and thus eventually will self destruct and fail.  History teaches such is so.  Second, it presents a wrong picture of what Jesus was all about and thus gives much fodder to His critics such as Christopher Hitchens, Richard Dawkins, and the like. 

Mahatma Gandhi was such a critic.  Upon his departure from South Africa he said, “I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.”   Jesus Christ was genuine, while the Christians Gandhi had in mind were the facsimile. It is said that he frequently read the Sermon on the Mount and had in his immediate possession a copy of the New Testament.

What sets the unique and genuine Christian faith apart is this.  One does not add some performance or another in order to work his way into a right relationship with God (salvation).   Such is quite impossible and most certainly leaves a wrong impression of what being a Christian is all. 

However, having said that,  there are expected changes in behavior.  One such change is the move from "selfishness" to "otherness."  As a part of that change a person begins to look outward from himself.  In that "otherness" one sees and is touched by the needs of others.  Thus his behavior toward other people moves from a selfish intention to that of the best interest of the other.  History is replete with example of those who gave their all in service of another.

A study of such things will reveal that almost all of the helping agencies and social movements are the result of such Christian "otherness."  Even leaving Christian "otherness" aside for the moment, few if any helping organization start without a concern for the needs of others.  They all pretty much began with an "otherness" attitude. 

The summary is this. The performance of good works is not to earn one’s way into the good graces of the Divine but it is the expected outcome, indeed the change that takes place when one enters into that right relationship with God through His Son, Jesus Christ.

More to follow...

Monday, November 25, 2013

“A Letter to a Skeptic”



“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






Wednesday, September 26, 2012

"Okay, You Convinced Me, I No Longer Believe!"

Yes, that is true, I no longer believe.  What, how could this be?

You Cannot Show Me 

You cannot show me and therefore you cannot prove to me and therefore I no longer believe.

No longer do I believe in some physical things.  For example, no longer do I believe in wind, show me wind!  Show me microwaves.  Show me radio waves.  What does electro-magnetic energy look like.  Show me a light wave-particle.  I have never seen one of these things therefore none of these things exist.

Oh then there is theoretical mathematical physics theory.  Draw me a picture of theory. Or maybe you could tell me what theory feels like.  Is it course or smooth--certainly you must have touched it.

No longer do I believe in good, show me good!  Show me love, when I touch love what does it feel like!  Prove to me rationally that love exists, quantify it for me.  Give me a formal proof that love exists.  Show me what kindness looks like.  What color is patience or what does it taste like?  So if I cannot rationally understand it, measure it, or sense it I no longer am going to accept its existence.

If you can give me a picture of any of these things I will gladly put it up where now exists a black (absence of color) square!   These things are simply absent.  But there are many more!

No longer do I believe in trust.  For the same reasons, trust simply does not exist.  What I mean is no one can show me trust, paint a picture of trust, rationally prove trust.  Therefore, trust does not exist.  Want more of what I no longer believe?  I am convinced that even believe does not exist.  Show it to me, what does it sound like, look like, feel like when touched.

One can readily see that much of what people argue gives quality to life is not longer existent in my life. Oh, there you are two more.  Draw me a picture of life.  Is it big or small?  What color is life?  Show me the other one, quality.  What does quality taste like?  Have you touched quality?  Paint a picture of quality.  "Can't do it," you say.  Okay then give me measurable formal proof or a formal rational argument that proves quality!  See you cannot do it so therefore quality goes on my list of things that no longer exist. 

Well now you may argue that Alvie has completely lost it, gone over the edge of mental-emotional health.  Okay then explain to me "it."  Draw me a picture of "it" whatever that is.  Prove to me the existence of mental--have you seen it, tasted it, etc.  If you cannot show it along with emotion to me then obviously I've not gone over any edge for if the descriptors do not exist then the edge does not exist.  There is no edge to go over!!!

Of the millions and millions of images and videos on the www, there are none of these things and therefore they simply cannot be proven or experienced and so in my new belief system they simply do not exist.

What a hopeless mess in which to live you say.  Well, then, what is hopeless?  Show it to me.  Drop on by the house with a piece of hopeless for me to see.  Do you have a formal proof?  Give me a rational argument for hopeless or any of these other things.  Oh, before I forget, the one who says that they do not agree and yet cannot prove these things tempts being arrogant for they postulate that their "I believe" will count for more than my "I no longer believe."

Besides, they do not know what it is like to "no longer believe" while I know what it was like "to believe" in these things so again, they are bested in the argument. So therefore, since none of these things exist and you argue that you "believe," whatever that is, you are then setting yourself up as an the authority for their existence and that means that you value your authority more than my authority for saying that they do not exist and such makes the one who counters my claim nothing more or less than arrogant.


Argument by Outcomes:

Simply stated we can know that these and other thing exist not because of formal measurable proof, not by rational explanation, not by some sense experience or another but by outcomes.

For example the microwave heats water, I can experience the outcomes of wave-particle light frequencies, mathematical concepts such as number make logical sense even though one has only seen the script representative of a particular number, and the way of a man with a maid gives ample proof of love.  The list goes on and on of how we cannot sense or in some cases define a reality such as those listed above.

If you then can accept the reality because of the outcome, it is not too much of a next step to look at faith in these terms.  The following does not apply to people who call themselves Jewish or Christian but to those who follow the teachings of the Jewish Torah and the Christian Scriptures.  It will be mostly termed by that which I am most familiar, Christian.


The Veracity of Being a Christ Follower:
 
Scrutinize those who are Christ followers, no matter their particular label (Liturgical or not) and you will find that amidst all of the differences in tradition and practice, there has been a history of service, even at the risk of life.

It was in the "glory" of Rome and little girls were often left out in the elements to die of exposure.  Christians would go to the garbage dumps of Rome and take in these little babies and raise them as a part of their own families.

It was during the Black Plague, that Christians took in and took care of the sick and dying often in the course of those activities losing their own lives.


In Nazi Germany it was a Christian Pastor, Dietrich Bonhoeffer who openly withstood Nazism and paid with his life.  It was not uncommon in the concentration camps for Christians to take the place of another in the death chambers.  How many of other faiths took such courageous actions.

Looking at today's plethora of religions, you find that by enlarge there is only one which has as a central plank selfless service.  It is only one that calls upon the individual to live up to their full God given potential and it is not the Muslim, nor the Buddhist, nor the Hindu.  It is those of Judeo-Christian Faith.

It is not hard to find and read the biographies of Christian missionaries who packed what they would need at their place of service in their coffin and embarking upon the ship, knowing that their feet would never again stand upon the soils of their homeland. The only vision that was greater than their final glimpses of their homes and families was that of their place of service.

Many military bases have a memorial if not a chapel dedicated to the memory of four chaplains who gave away their life preservers to soldiers and sailors and went to their death, arms linked, and praying in their own tradition.  One Jew and three Christians.  They are not alone in those who have given their all in serving those to whom they are called.

While the Muslim even today seeks to over throw more peaceful cultures with violence, it is the Christian who goes in harms way to provide care for the downtrodden, the out cast, and the one who is in bondage.  Keep in mind Mother Teresa was not a Buddhist nor a Hindu, nor a Muslim, but a Christian woman who made the choice to spend her life in service to the lower castes of India.  She is the one who is known for her service but there were and are multiplied millions who throughout the years of church history and even today go and do the same.

Untold thousands upon thousands of pastors work to pay their own way and not be a burden on those they serve.

Many Christ followers today travel the world to serve, even in cultures hostile to their message.  Quietly serving those who are in physical, mental, emotional, and relational need.

A college classmate of mine went behind the Iron Curtain and served those in need at personal peril.  Another serves today in a place that if discovered would at the very least be deported or even killed.  Why do they go?  Simply they go because the heart changed by Jesus Christ is touched by the needs of the downtrodden, the uneducated, the sick, those in jail and other kinds of bondages and they go and go and go and go.

How and why is it that the opponents of Christian faith conveniently look past the indications of the veracity of the Christian way and look at the excesses to bolster their case?  How is it that they focus upon Northern Ireland, the sale of Indulgences, the Inquisition, the Crusades, and deviant doctrine that leads to erroneous and destructive actions and fail to see that there is a vast wealth of good done by those of Judeo-Christian faith in general and Christ followers in particular?  In fact, put on a balance the good would far outweigh the bad.

How is it that they can champion their atheistic beliefs, view people of faith as out of touch with reality and conveniently look past those atheists like Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Pal Pot, and the like?  

It is Christians who even though defamed, physically attacked, and tortured when given the opportunity to respond, returned kindness to their captors.  Often those very captors and abusers have been so touched by the response of the Christians they in turn became Christians and were killed.  

It was Christians who started most higher level academic institutions (Oxford, Yale, Harvard, Cambridge etc.); Christians gave to the world hospice that gave rise to hospice, hotels, and hospitals (Council of Nicaea 325 AD); Christians gave us foundational science; the reason the Red Cross has a red cross symbol is that it was begun by Christians;  there is the YMCA--Young Men's Christian Association; and the list goes on.


Social movements?  Christians are responsible for the abolition of slavery; intervening in the selling of young girls into the sex trade, and here again the list goes on and on.  Even today while politicians and governments talk, it is Christians who are there even though in personal peril seeking to buy back young girls and even interrupting other forms of human trafficking.

As well, it does one well to remember that Christians were the ones who came to the new world to further the gospel and settled this land.  It was Christians who laid the legal foundations for our country and it was the black robed regiment that the Brits feared more than the Revolutionary Army.  See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dlfEdJNn15E for a brief history of Christianity in America.

It seems to me that the prudent would take a look, a very serious look at the Christ followers who have so much good and yet remain under greater attack than any other philosophy, belief system, or whatever.

Even today there are multiplied millions across the earth who are becoming followers of Jesus despite living in repressive cultures.  Why would people who know that to become a Christ follower is to tempt the possibility of being martyred still by the millions turn to follow Him?  And yes in answer to your questioning thought, they die by the scores for their decision.

Conclusion: 

It follows then that if you can argue by outcome for the veracity of wind, love, kindness, belief, etc., then by that same sort of argument you should be able to argue by their activities for the veracity of the Christ follower and then by implication the veracity of the existence of a Christ.