I hope you all enjoyed the article I posted yesterday about prayer and its effect on healing in the medical field. I also hope you took the eleven minutes or so to watch the video posted above: “10 Questions Every Intelligent Christian Must Answer.
By now you may be feeling several different emotions. You may be angry at the video, in deep thought, or downright questioning your faith.
I encourage you to do none of the above.
It’s good to question the bible and some of the aspects of Christianity. Think about school and learning in general. Teachers say that no question is a dumb question. If you do not understand, then ask. The same holds true to religion. If you are unsure of something, ask someone who may have the answer and then decide for yourself whether or not it’s logical.
It’s also important to remember that religion, like knowledge, is ever expanding and always changing. You can never learn enough, so consequently, you’ll never learn it all. While Christianity is consider “the truth,” it’s important to remember that we’ll never fully understand why on earth. Sure, we’ll believe that Jesus Christ died for our sins and was resurrected, but will we have ever answer about theology? Of course not.
The problem with the article I posted yesterday and the video today, is that both examples attempt to prove something we’ll never fully understand. God is not present on earth in a literal form so we cannot fully understand him. If you believe in Christianity, you do believe God appeared in human form through Jesus -but he is long gone (again, in a literal sense).
In John 20:29, Jesus tells the doubting Thomas who finally believed through sight, “Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.”
I do believe there is a little Thomas in all of us.
The problem is we want to explain, prove, pr disprove something that is not evident.
Why do other non-believers spend time and energy trying to disprove religion and Christianity more specifically?
I like to call it a moral obligation.
Which brings us to our conscience.
The conscience is perhaps the biggest loophole in fully understanding evolution. Sure, there is some evidence that points to this theory. Apes for example, are very intelligent, especially for an animal. Yet, we cannot prove whether or not they have a conscience.
I personally believe they do not and is the single biggest factor that separates humans from animals.
Animals are all about instinct and survival. It’s all about when the next meal will arrive and how will I get it.
Humans operate on such a higher plane.
So, the question becomes, if you believe like I do, how did humans receive a conscience? Was it merely by mistake and chance as evolution leads us or was some divine influence behind it all?
Faith is the evidence of the unseen.
If you believe in a God, then you automatically trust in something that is unknown to all of the human senses. The problem with non-believers is that they want to fill their spiritual side with facts and that defeats the process altogether.
I firmly believe that every human is blessed with physical traits, mental capacity, and a spiritual guide. The first two are a given. The spiritual side is up for debate. While some people may disagree, you would be hard pressed to find a logical argument. If individuals are not practicing religion, what are they doing in their free time to fill the spiritual side?
Yoga? Writing? Intellectual conversation about our purpose?
The problem with non-believers is that they want the answers when science does not even prove everything. Keep in mind that a “theory” in science is based on a series of experiments and studies that leads us to a final conclusion. The conclusion is up to debate and not bullet proof. In fact, some popular theories were and will continue to get disproved by newer and “more logical” theories. Does evolution fit under that bill? How about The Big Bang? Only time will tell.
I really believe that the majority of us believe in something more than just this universe. I use the term atheist a lot, but in all fairness, there are a lot more deists and other forms of “I think there is a God, but where he is or what he is doing is beyond me” in the world.
What’s ironic is these people are almost admitting, “Yes, there must be more to this world than just this, but I refuse to believe or acknowledge the God behind it all.”
These people understand that they’re specially crafted human beings and that there is more to this world, yet they refuse to compromise.
Instead they blindly search for all of the answers. They are fools who do not understand that nothing in this world is pure.
We’ll never have all the answers. The boredom…and danger of knowing everything is deadly. What would be the point in living if we had all the answers? Say there was no God. Would anything really make sense on this planet? What would be the point in rules, morals, and ethics when no consequences existed?
Some may argue that we could finally set our eyes on chasing money, fame, and power because that’s all that really matters. ALL THAT REALLY MATTERS! Have you seen the majority of celebrities in our culture? Most of them look incredibly unhappy. A lot of them are battling drug and alcohol addictions. Has anybody read Brian Welch’s story?
When will we get it through our heads that money and power cannot buy happiness?
Yet if we do not believe in a deity we automatically conform to earthly standards of living and success - which are money, power, and fame. ‘Cause you have to live for something, right?
Tomorrow I will tackle all of the questions posed in the video posted at the top of the page. I will attempt to give “some rationalization” or “invent an excuse on God’s behalf” to defend Christianity.
I will attempt to become intelligent, despite the misconception that Christians are obviously dumb and ignorant. I will attempt to answer questions from the ‘grand master’ who obviously thinks he is very intelligent despite the well known principle that anyone who is wise is humble.
Yesterday I titled my message, “Faith not Fact.” Today I say, “Just because faith is not fact, it does not make it fiction.
Some may ask, “How in the world does this make any sense logically.”
It’s easy you see.
The Merriam Webster dictionary defines faith a : allegiance to duty or a person : loyalty
(1) : fidelity to one's promises
(2) : sincerity of intentions
•\tacted in good faith
(1) : belief and trust in and loyalty to God
(2) : belief in the traditional doctrines of a religion
(1) : firm belief in something for which there is no proof
•\tclinging to the faith that her missing son would one day return
(2) : complete trust
3 : something that is believed especially with strong conviction; especially : a system of religious beliefs
How can you make something a fact when it’s not direct evidence? How can you make something fictional, when situations occur daily that are not easily understood or explained by science and/or the medical field? How can you explain that of physicians polled believed religion and spirituality (including prayer) have a positive influence on health and recovery . Aren’t doctors some of the supposed “most intelligent” people on the planet? How then, do they overwhelming admit that prayer and other spiritual factors may have an influence on healing?
Yet the author of the video, “10 Questions Every Intelligent Christian Must Answer” seeks to poke fun at the intelligence of a Christian. He basically states that a Christian believes in an imaginary friend. I don’t know about you, but the last time I checked anyone who believes in an imaginary friend past the age of six is considered a little slow.
How can we be intelligent if we have an imaginary friend?
One way a person with low self-esteem attempts to hide his or her insecurities is by bashing others for what they stand for or what they enjoy doing. Rather than spending time enjoying your own hobbies and chasing after your own passions, these people waste precious time and energy trying to scrutinize the passions of others.
They tend to mask behind their own insecurity with statements about how intelligent they are and how much more they know. Yet, a wise person is never boastful because it contradicts everything about wisdom. Sometimes it’s wise to walk away but other times you have to stand up for what’s right.
The author of “10 Questions Every Intelligent Christian Must Answer” is not right, and despite some interesting points he brings up, he just does not get it. I’ll now try to make up a “lousy excuse for God’s behalf.”
Prayer and Healing
Prayer is considered one of the most powerful tools (and even weapons) in Christianity. One very popular example is about a young girl who was traveling alone through an alley where a victim was subject to rape just the day before. The rapist was waiting in the same alley again that day for his next victim. When the girl noticed the suspicious looking man, she instantly felt something was not right. She said a quick prayer, asking God to protect her. She continued walking and passed by the suspicious individual without harm. Weeks later the suspect was arrested and confessed to everything. The girl who walked by that day became a vital witness in the case. When asked why he didn’t attack this particular girl, the man responded, “Are you crazy? She had two men walking on each side of her.”
The guardian angel story is one of many miracles that cannot really be explained. It just happens and the parties involved are never the same again.
In the video, the author poses two questions about prayer and healing. Why does God not heal amputee legs and why does God not provide food for the millions that are hungry in Asia, Africa, etc?
Two great questions with no easy answer. In the Gospels, it does say that God will answer any prayer. Unfortunately, we do not know when the answer will come. It’s important to remember that God works on his time and not ours. If it was our time, everything would happen right away. We need to pray but we also must do our part to help. Are you donating money and other goods to those who need it over in Third World countries? Is the author of this video?
While God will answer prayers, we cannot just ask anything and assume it will magically appear. If that was the case, we would know God did exist and everyone would be a Christian. God is not a genie who grants you three wishes. He answers prayers in a very mysterious way. In today’s world we all want the quick fix, but God’s timetable is just not so. We have to look in the mirror before we point the finger at God. We also must trust completely in God and surrender everything to him before we can believe that anything will really happen.
I do not turn to another individual and demand that he instantly solves this issue for me. God is different yet if he solved everything instantly, the room for doubt would no longer exist.
God works in mysterious ways and you just have to accept it as truth if you really want to believe that he will eventually make a difference. Even non-believers in America without prayer must admit that they are not doing their part financially to support world poverty and hunger despite being in a privileged circumstance to actually have the ability to help.
God’s Demand on Death
The author cites Exodus 35:2, Deuteronomy 21:18-21, Leviticus 20:13, Deuteronomy 22:13-21, and other verses in the Old Testament as examples of an unloving God who was quick to put people to death based on the old law. It’s important to remember that the Old Testament and New Testament are highly different and each represent a different covenant.
As I stated last week, it’s important that we retain some of the old law such as the Ten Commandments. However, it’s obviously that not everything in the Old Testament is correct and or relevant to today’s society. The old law, which the four examples cited above fall under, was broken when Jesus Christ arrived on earth and died for our sins. His death on the cross represents the new covenant between God and man, one that broke the old covenant in the Old Testament.
Remember, back in the Old Testament only certain priests and certain prophets were filled with the Holy Spirit and only those individuals had direct communication with God. The law was established under Moses to keep “God’s people” under check as they left Egypt during Exodus.
The people in Exodus constantly complained and gripped in the desert despite just months earlier being freed from bondage in Egypt. They wanted instant answers much like the author of the video. God continued to show up and make known his presence. The people would flea in fear and then return to bitching as soon as God left.
If you have studied Exodus like I have, I think it’s quite clear that God is actually very loving and forgiving. God had plenty of opportunities to ditch this earth, starting with the original sin, yet he never left.
Yes, the four scriptures cited in the video talk about putting individuals to death, but they were all very serious offenses at the time. What’s to say it’s any different from a death penalty (which is even no longer considered politically correct) that punishes murderers?
Some may argue that killing someone for not honoring the Sabbath is very extreme yet they do not understand the importance of the Sabbath on Jewish culture. Others may say that killing disobedient teenagers is rash, yet couldn’t we afford to punish our rebellious teenagers just a little more in today’s culture. I’m not saying we kill them, but we’re way too soft on the young generation.
Homosexuality and fornication are two issues that each individual must decide whether or not is just. At the time these laws were written, they were nearly as serious as murder. You have to understand the time period and that they no longer apply today because of the new covenant.
In fact, when Jesus appeared, he said “the greatest commandment was to love God and the second was to love your neighbor.”
He preached love, mercy, and passive aggressive behavior rather than the person the author of the video makes him out to be.
The ultimate battle in today’s society is the warfare between science and the warfare of religion. Many religious individuals instantly neglect anything that is scientific and write it off without checking the facts. Individuals in science on the other hand are too focused on just the facts and often judge anyone who actually believes in a higher power.
An individual with a world that revolves around science is afraid to take risks. For them, everything is centered on what they know and what they can prove. If faith is the belief in something you cannot prove, how can you acknowledge God and religion?
One of the biggest bashes against the Bible include references to passages that go against scientific theory. Obviously God creating the world in six days completely goes against “The Big Bang Theory” and what science understands about earth’s creation. The great flood that also wiped out the entire earth is heavily discouraged in science. The video also cites Jonah living inside a whale for three days and Adam being created from a handful of dust.
Sure, Elijah was carried up into heaven in a “fiery chariot” into heaven too. How can you possibly prove that someone can enter heaven before dying? How can you prove that Jesus walked on water?
You cannot. Some of these circumstances in the Bible completely go against physics and basic scientific reasoning but does that make them fairy tales? Of course not. If you really believe in God and Jesus Christ as supernatural being, than you agree that they can make the impossible possible. I know I cannot walk on water, but I do not know the same about Jesus.
Could I alone live in a whale’s stomach for three days? No way. But what about under the supervision and power of God? You bet.
How does someone just one day decide to wake up after being induced for years in a coma? Is it mere chance or a divine power? Science cannot prove everything either.
A good friend of mine constantly states that one of his beefs with the Bible is the fact that it says “slaves, obey your masters.”
Like the author of this video, for my friend, this just does not make any sense.
What kind of rational person would warrant slavery?
This question that haunts every believer, but once again you have to consider the time period. At the time these passages were written, slavery was very common and accepted as “status quo.” Obviously a time arrived in society when the majority of the world tossed out slavery as taboo.
The video says that any intelligent person cannot support slavery, yet many of the forefathers of this great nation owned slaves. Abraham Lincoln, great of a man as he was, made slavery illegal in part because of peer pressure as much as doing what he knew was right. Are we saying all of our forefathers were dumb? If so, this nation was built on a lie.
Don’t get me wrong. I completely oppose slavery, but you have to consider the times. Abortion for example, is becoming more and more accepted in society. Yet a “radical” could argue that abortion is genocide in disguise. If we fast forward six hundred years and abortion is no longer legal, would people in that generation automatically write off our generation as dumb and ignorant? Despite all our technological advances, would we be haunted by one major misconception?
Why Do Bad Things Happen to Good People?
One of most mysterious questions in all of Christianity yet often misunderstood. Surprisingly, the author of the video “10 Things All Intelligent Christians Must Answer” skips over this question very quickly. Instead of backing it up with misguided information, the author merely poses the question, says “it makes no sense,” and then skips over to the next question
I’m going to take longer to answer this question because you deserve better
It’s a very fair and worthy question right? You may either be suffering now or have suffered dearly in the past. Now you want to get even with God and ask, “Why have I suffered so much?”
To get a better feel of this question, I encourage everyone to turn to their bible. I challenge you to look past Job, the king of suffering. Nearly every individual whose story is in the bible endured a long period of suffering. From Moses’ forty years in the desert, to David’s flee from King Saul, to Paul’s prison term in Rome - all great individuals in the bible often spent years in the lowest of lows.
Yet out of these great trials all of these men and women rose up to become stronger and better than ever.
While it seems unfair, there is a reason we suffer. Pain changes us like nothing else. If we are to be “the light and salt of this world,” we also must understand what’s it like in the darkness. Who goes and preaches to a group of people whom he or she knows nothing about?
People in this world hate nothing more than a fake or poser. Yet when you attempt to reach someone who is suffering, and you have not suffered, that person will automatically recognize you as someone who simply does not understand and shut down.
Jesus himself endured one of the greatest periods of suffering in the history of mankind. He was sentenced to death for no legitimate reason. He was tested through a long period of brutal punishment, however he did not waver in the garden of Gethsemane and took up his cross for the good of mankind.
At the heart of Christianity is Mark 8:34
Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. The verse is no hidden secret brothers and sisters. At the heart of the gospels Jesus tells his followers to “take up their cross” long before he was executed by the very same means. It appears Jesus already knew how he would die that way long before it happened and this statement was a foreshadow into the future of what every Christian must endure.
It’s a myth that once you become a Christian everything is fine and you have no worries or problems. A lot of things are fixed in your soul, but you must prepare for suffering and brace for pain. It’s just part of the walk.
Christianity is a sacrifice, and no sacrifice comes without pain.
Good people must suffer. No one wants the pain, but after every dark night we rise up to a warm, sunny day. After every long trek up a mountain, we reach the summit and a view like nothing we have ever seen before.
I encourage you all to read the 365-day devotional, “Streams in the Desert” by L.B. Cowman. It deals a lot with suffering and why we must suffer.
Lack of Evidence to Support Jesus’ Miracles
The video takes a bizarre turn with question eight. According to the author of the question, he wonders “Why didn’t Jesus leave behind any evidence of his miracles?”
Once again he quickly skips the question to the next.
I’m confused by what exact evidence the author is seeking. Perhaps he wanted Jesus to leave behind a note on a gigantic rock that reads, “Hello, this is Jesus, I took off but I’ll be back soon”? What about a photo of Jesus’ arm wrapped around the back of Peter while they stand on the water smiling? Perhaps he wanted to find a tomb with a body still in it?
Miracles, both past and present, rarely leave behind evidence for the long-term. For example, the recent emergency landing on the Hudson River. Some may say the pilot was very lucky while others may say the angels were there that day and it was actually a miraculous event. Sure lucky odds can describe anything, but when do they become so great that it’s hard to ignore a higher power?
Jesus, according to the bible, raised people from the dead, healed leprosy, removed demons, and cured other disorders to name a few of his many miracles. Unfortunately Lazarus is no longer around to tell us if the story is true or not.
The bread that fed thousands was ate centuries ago.
f you’re searching some hidden or lost clue that may prove or disprove Christianity, you’re a helpless idiot like Tom Hanks in ”The da Vinci Code.”
Has Jesus Appeared to You?
The author of the video claims that you should be able to pray to Jesus and he will magically appear to prove that he exists.
While this concept is once again very ideal, it really does not make any sense. Just like I stated yesterday with Jesus instantly answering prayers like a genie, anyone who expects instant answers - especially from God is really misguided on the whole idea.
If Jesus would appear to anyone who asked through prayer, than once again the doubt would no longer exist. Everyone would be a Christian and the whole challenge of it all (your faith), would no longer exist. I mean after all, if God appeared to me, I would have to be the stupidest person on earth not to follow his word.
Even the great men and the bible had rare encounters with God and Jesus was even more obsolete. The bible does say that Jesus obviously meant a lot of people while on earth and twelve men in particular followed him religiously. John also notes that Jesus appeared to many crucial members in the Gospels days and weeks after he was resurrected. Acts 9 says Paul (then Saul) had a direct encounter with “God” (King James), but it fails to mention whether or not it was Jesus or just God’s voice from heaven as described as “a light from heaven.”
Interesting enough, Acts makes known that anyone who chooses to accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior is immediately filled with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Ghost (as commonly referred in the bible) is the east understood of the trinity. While I could spend an entire day explaining The Holy Spirit and what it means - I’ll break it down in a nutshell.
The Holy Spirit is not an inanimate power or force, but rather a person
The Holy Spirit is one with God
The Holy Spirit has many responsibilities (to instruct, to counsel, to intercede, to comfort, and to convict to name a few)
(if anyone would like direct scriptural references, please email me info@five9productions.com)
The most direct verse relating to The Holy Spirit and how Jesus is always within you is John 14:16
And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever. If you understand anything about Christianity you will understand that Jesus by spirit is always in you. You do not need him to come to you.
Communion
The author continues to show his misunderstanding of Christianity and the bible when he ignorantly asks, “Why would Jesus want you to eat his body and drink his blood?”
According to the author, eating one’s body and drinking one’s blood is from another pagan tradition but apparently he missed that in all of the Gospels, the books describe Jesus’ spending the Passover feast to honor the Jewish tradition and symbolize his sacrifice for mankind. Even when the declaration is made, the disciples do not immediately begin chewing on his body and drinking his actual blood.
Jesus symbolized his blood through wine and his body through bread. How can you possibly misunderstand that?
Anyone who takes that verse literal is an idiot.
Both the blood and the body have deep symbolic meanings. The blood represents the sacrifice Jesus made on the cross. At the time, the disciples were completely unaware of what Jesus meant by this but in due time they would understand. If you have a deep background in the Old Testament you will surely know that the original Passover involved Moses slaying a lamb and letting the blood drip on the altar to seal the covenant with the Lord. Some may find this act very unusual and even cruel, but the lamb’s slaying actually represented God’s pact with his people to free them from Egypt and to keep them safe.
When Jesus made this claim in the Gospels, he was directly stating the new covenant was between his blood and our sins. At the time the disciples were unaware of the impact this gesture meant and apparently some people are still unaware of it today.
Secondly, the body represented both Jesus as a human and his sacrifice. When the bread was broken, Jesus said, “This is my body which is given to you. This do in remembrance of me.”
Divorce in Christianity
The last question on the video is “Why do Christians get divorced at the same rate as Non-Believers?”
Apparently the author believes that once you become a Christian you are not allowed to make a mistake. Once again this is a really naive question and falls in succession with the past four or five questions.
Yes, a Christian marriage is a sacred celebration where family, friends, co-workers, etc join in union to witness the declaration and eternal commitment of two people. Unfortunately it does not always work out that way.
Does a man or woman become a Christian and never sin again? Of course not, so why would you expect all Christian marriages to last?
What is the downfall or cause of a divorce? Some may say two people no longer love each other anymore. Okay, that’s a fair assessment, but what makes them not love each other anymore? Is it lust, greed, or pride?
All three are valid explanations and all three are part of the seven deadly sins.
If you really expect all Christian marriages to succeed, you must say that a Christian will never sin again. We’re all human, so how can you expect that? I’m not defending Christian divorces but rather offering an explanation for why it happens.
Look at all the famous individuals of the bible once again. Show me an individual besides Jesus who did not sin and I’ll make you a rich man.
Hint - For those of you who do not get it, the answer is “You can’t.”
Everybody sins, everyone makes mistakes, and marriage is something that does not always work out for the parties involved.