Why put your faith in Jesus Christ?
Can I keep this short? I'll try.
The world around us should force us to ask "why?" over and over again.
Why is this beautiful? Why is that ugly? Why does most of the world agree about these observations? Why is this right? Why is that wrong? Why does most of the world agree about these judgments? Why do awful things happen? Why do good things happen? Why am I here? How did I get to exist on this privileged planet? Why do I have a mind? Why am I different than animals? Why do I feel such extreme highs and lows?
These questions then lead us to ask, who can answer these questions?
The problem is most of these questions are not materialistic. Answers can't be found in science, which can only attempt to explain material patterns. Science can't explain why there is order in our world instead of chaos either. Hence, we look to those who claim to have answers to these non-material questions. But there is an industry of charlatans. A sucker is born every minute and if they have any money, someone is always willing to take it from them. Therefore, one needs to weed out the charlatans. But how?
Someone who can speak authoritatively about matters supernatural would be worth inspecting if they could act supernaturally. Is there anyone who can violate the order of nature? Can those violations have non-random effects? Can that person perform miracles, not illusions, but genuine miracles? How could the illusions be distinguished from the miraculous? There are many wise people who speak religiously, but does anyone combine wisdom and miracles? Is there anyone who combines wisdom and miracles and refuses any profit to themselves? Is there a supernatural person who it wise and of the highest ethical standard?
Mohammed? Benefitted from a large harem.
Confucius? Buddha? No miracles.
Moses? Pointed toward someone in the future.
Jesus Christ? Wisdom, ethics, supernatural.
His wisdom, ethics, ans supernatural were recorded by four witnesses within 30 to 60 years after his ministry. These three qualifications are interdependent. If he wasn't supernatural, then his claims to divinity are either unethical or foolish. If he wasn't wise, then no fool's babbling, despite amazing feats, would assist anyone in their quest for meaning. If he wasn't ethical, then he'd be a fool for not using his supernatural powers to defeat his enemies and declare himself king.
Are the four gospel accounts of him trustworthy? They are in agreement with each other. They describe the same person, and the same miraculous deeds, and the same teachings and parables. Ten of the twelve disciples all preferred grisly executions to denying Jesus was their God, one was nearly tortured to death and died in exile, and one killed himself before Jesus was resurrected.
Resurrection. That's the big topic. Jesus raised a few people back to life, including a guy who had been in a tomb for four days. But all those people eventually died again. Unlike them, he came back to life, after a death none worse can hardly be imagined, and never died again. There are many people in the world today who have near death experiences. But he was gone for at least 48 hours, then came back! If that isn't true, then why do all the other resurrection stories fade to black but this one keeps shining? The body wasn't stolen. The wrong guy wasn't executed. The witnesses could not be shut up. Here is someone who has answers about our existence after death, and he's the only one with credibility. He came from one place, heaven, and when he died visited the other, hell. Before his death he proclaimed himself the gatekeeper to heaven. He said no one comes to the Father but through him. Who is the Father? That's how he referred to God over and over again. He modeled an emotionally intimate relationship with God. And he said he and God were one. He even referred to himself by one of the holiest names for God in Jewish culture, I am. Can one be of the highest ethics, teaching things like love your enemies and love your neighbor as yourself, and at the same time declare themselves God, and be listened to at all, by anyone? One can if one can back up that claim. His resurrection certainly gives him credibility. Forty days after his resurrection he floated up to heaven, before many witnesses. They lived convinced lives ever afterward.
How does one little religious sect take over the world without violence?
Proof in courage, in conviction, in love, in miracles, in wisdom, in ethics.
No Christian can live up to the standard of Jesus Christ, but that doesn't change who Jesus is, just proves he can conquer the world with weakness.
It's impossible to come to faith in Jesus, as God, as savior, without acknowledging weakness. God hates pride and the proud.
But for those who admit their weakness,
The world around us should force us to ask "why?" over and over again.
Why is this beautiful? Why is that ugly? Why does most of the world agree about these observations? Why is this right? Why is that wrong? Why does most of the world agree about these judgments? Why do awful things happen? Why do good things happen? Why am I here? How did I get to exist on this privileged planet? Why do I have a mind? Why am I different than animals? Why do I feel such extreme highs and lows?
These questions then lead us to ask, who can answer these questions?
The problem is most of these questions are not materialistic. Answers can't be found in science, which can only attempt to explain material patterns. Science can't explain why there is order in our world instead of chaos either. Hence, we look to those who claim to have answers to these non-material questions. But there is an industry of charlatans. A sucker is born every minute and if they have any money, someone is always willing to take it from them. Therefore, one needs to weed out the charlatans. But how?
Someone who can speak authoritatively about matters supernatural would be worth inspecting if they could act supernaturally. Is there anyone who can violate the order of nature? Can those violations have non-random effects? Can that person perform miracles, not illusions, but genuine miracles? How could the illusions be distinguished from the miraculous? There are many wise people who speak religiously, but does anyone combine wisdom and miracles? Is there anyone who combines wisdom and miracles and refuses any profit to themselves? Is there a supernatural person who it wise and of the highest ethical standard?
Mohammed? Benefitted from a large harem.
Confucius? Buddha? No miracles.
Moses? Pointed toward someone in the future.
Jesus Christ? Wisdom, ethics, supernatural.
His wisdom, ethics, ans supernatural were recorded by four witnesses within 30 to 60 years after his ministry. These three qualifications are interdependent. If he wasn't supernatural, then his claims to divinity are either unethical or foolish. If he wasn't wise, then no fool's babbling, despite amazing feats, would assist anyone in their quest for meaning. If he wasn't ethical, then he'd be a fool for not using his supernatural powers to defeat his enemies and declare himself king.
Are the four gospel accounts of him trustworthy? They are in agreement with each other. They describe the same person, and the same miraculous deeds, and the same teachings and parables. Ten of the twelve disciples all preferred grisly executions to denying Jesus was their God, one was nearly tortured to death and died in exile, and one killed himself before Jesus was resurrected.
Resurrection. That's the big topic. Jesus raised a few people back to life, including a guy who had been in a tomb for four days. But all those people eventually died again. Unlike them, he came back to life, after a death none worse can hardly be imagined, and never died again. There are many people in the world today who have near death experiences. But he was gone for at least 48 hours, then came back! If that isn't true, then why do all the other resurrection stories fade to black but this one keeps shining? The body wasn't stolen. The wrong guy wasn't executed. The witnesses could not be shut up. Here is someone who has answers about our existence after death, and he's the only one with credibility. He came from one place, heaven, and when he died visited the other, hell. Before his death he proclaimed himself the gatekeeper to heaven. He said no one comes to the Father but through him. Who is the Father? That's how he referred to God over and over again. He modeled an emotionally intimate relationship with God. And he said he and God were one. He even referred to himself by one of the holiest names for God in Jewish culture, I am. Can one be of the highest ethics, teaching things like love your enemies and love your neighbor as yourself, and at the same time declare themselves God, and be listened to at all, by anyone? One can if one can back up that claim. His resurrection certainly gives him credibility. Forty days after his resurrection he floated up to heaven, before many witnesses. They lived convinced lives ever afterward.
How does one little religious sect take over the world without violence?
Proof in courage, in conviction, in love, in miracles, in wisdom, in ethics.
No Christian can live up to the standard of Jesus Christ, but that doesn't change who Jesus is, just proves he can conquer the world with weakness.
It's impossible to come to faith in Jesus, as God, as savior, without acknowledging weakness. God hates pride and the proud.
But for those who admit their weakness,
- their need for forgiveness from Him because they can't maintain their own ethics, not to mention His
- their foolishness, acknowledging their own wisdom is minuscule or even wrong before the one who created everything
- their inability to stop nature, their need for supernatural intervention
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