My Personal Story: A Final Response to 'Religulous'

It has been said that a person with an experience is not subject to a person with a good argument. In other words, you might have a very convincing-sounding argument that strawberries are a healthy food and should be included in the diet, for example, but that argument means very little to a person who goes into anaphylactic shock every time he or she even tastes a strawberry.

Similarly, I am a Christian not only because it makes intellectual sense to me, but moreover because I have had experiences that are beyond anyone’s ability to explain away, such as the fact that God seemed to invade my life in my late twenties when I was anything but spiritual. I was an extremely immoral person who cared for nothing but fulfilling my own selfish and fleeting desires. I was violent and brutal, dishonest, sexually deviant, and an abuser of chemical substances. But in one overwhelming moment one spring afternoon in 1992, I knelt on a bedroom chair and asked God to take control of my life, and I have never been the same since. Virtually overnight I was different, and have been in a process of radical transformation ever since.

Those who knew me prior to 1992 know that a miracle happened, because it wasn’t a near-death experience that made me take inventory of my life. It wasn’t the death of a loved one, and it wasn’t a traumatic experience of any kind. It was simply a manifestation of God reaching down and taking notice of a messed up person who He wanted to make His own.

I don’t mean that I saw lightning bolts and heard claps of thunder. I didn’t feel warm sensations all over my body. I just came to the realization over time that I was a sinner and needed a Savior, and one day I called on the God Who provided a way for my sins to be forgiven through Jesus Christ.

Since then I have experienced amazing answers to numerous prayers that can only be attributed to supernatural intervention.

Trying to convince me that Jesus and the Bible are for intellectual weaklings is like trying to penetrate the hull of a battle ship with a BB gun. I know that I know beyond all doubt that God has intervened in my life, and that belief is bolstered by the common sense of following the example and teachings of Jesus, and the scientific and historical evidence proving the veracity of the Bible and the claims of Jesus Christ.

All that aside, however, let’s say just for argument sake that Christianity is just another religion thought up by some group of religious zealots. Let’s say that there is no life after death, or that all belief systems lead to the same place….some everlasting nirvana or something. If I discovered today beyond all doubt that the Bible is all a fairy tale, I’m not sure I would live any different, because my life today is so much more blessed – radically so -- compared to my previous life, that I would never consider for a moment going back. In fact, I wouldn’t trade places with anyone I know who is not a Christian. Following the principles of the Bible have proven to me to be a smart way to live if you want to be blessed. As Jesus said, “I have come to give life, and that more abundantly” (John 10:10), and as Proverbs 10:22 says, “The blessing of the Lord maketh rich, and He adds no sorrow to it.”

So why then would Bill Maher and those like him fault me for following the principles of the Bible and placing my faith in Jesus Christ? Why is that distasteful to so many people? Is it because I hold beliefs that are in opposition to their worldview? Why should that bother them? I’m not attempting to ram my beliefs down their throats, and I’ll bet that most of the Christians they know and you know are not trying to force their beliefs on anyone either.

Bill Maher and other non-Christians hold different beliefs than me, but that shouldn’t be an issue of divisiveness should it? Isn’t it the concept of tolerance that so many people today hold so dear? Do they mean tolerance toward everyone and everything except Christians? It certainly appears that way. You don’t make movies vilifying the beliefs of people who you want to be tolerant with. You vilify people who you want to portray as the scum of society. That’s what Maher has done, and sadly many non-Christian people who preach tolerance are giving Maher attaboys. Seems like an incredible hypocritical double-standard to me.

But friends, that’s the way it has always been. Christians have been vilified and persecuted in every continent on the planet for the last 2,000 years. Yet interestingly, the more the persecution, the more Christianity seems to thrive. The severest persecution seems to be like throwing gas on the fire. It just ignites a grassroots growth that nothing seems to be able to stop. If those in opposition to Christianity were smart, they would leave us alone and let us remain happy and lazily silent in our comfort and prosperity. But when the resistance gets hottest, that’s when the sleeping giant awakes.

China, for example, has the largest underground church in the world amidst a government that commonly imprisons, tortures, and executes Christians. Yet it has been reported that Christianity in China is growing faster than in any place on earth.

So go ahead. Ridicule us. Persecute us. Vilify us. Arrest us, imprison us, and execute us. It won’t stop us. We will only multiply. You may have achieved your goal of controlling the government, the media, the entertainment industry, and the schools and universities, but you cannot stamp out Christians. We are uniting. We are growing stronger. And it is your persecution, the very thing you hope will exterminate us, that is causing us to unite and grow stronger. So do your worst Bill Maher and all like him. Even if you drive us underground, you will not stop us. God’s Kingdom is advancing among people of all different backgrounds, ethnicities, and social, educational, and economic statuses across every nation on earth, and it will continue to do so.

"The Bible is Myth and Fairytale": Response to Religulous, Part 5

In continuing with our discussion on rebutting Bill Maher’s assertions on Christianity and religion in general, let’s take a look at just a few issues pertaining to the veracity of scripture.

The Bible claims to be the only inspired Word of God. But so do many other religious writings. From the Book of Mormon to the Koran, pretty much all religious writings claim to be divinely inspired. So what makes the Bible unique?

One of the most compelling evidences of the Bible’s divine origin is the fact that it contains hundreds of prophecies about future events. Consider the fact that including prophecies in a religious writing is a foolish thing to do if the person(s) compiling the writings are concerned at all about maintaining a following. If any of those prophecies ever prove to be inaccurate or false, the religious writing has just been soundly invalidated. However, not one of the prophecies ever written in the pages of the Bible have ever found to be inaccurate. Hundreds have already come true in uncanny accuracy, and more are unfolding before our eyes at this very moment.

Since my last post dealt with the Lordship of Jesus Christ, let’s visit the prophecies concerning the Messiah in order to prove the point.

The Old Testament was written hundreds of years before the birth of Christ. The Old Testament contains about 300 prophecies concerning the birth, life, and death of the promised Messiah. Many of these prophecies were things that someone could never have arranged themselves. For example, someone who read that the Messiah would move from one place to another could easily go from that one place to the other and proclaim that he had fulfilled that prophecy. But many of the prophecies concerning Jesus were things that He never could have arranged, such as what town He would be born in, what family line He would be born into, the fact that He would be betrayed for a specific amount of money, the fact that none of His bones would be broken at His crucifixion, soldiers gambling for His clothes at His crucifixion, etc. In all, there were more than 300 detailed prophecies that spoke of the coming Messiah.

A few years ago a team of over 400 mathematic professors and students at Westmont College analyzed the prophecies concerning the Messiah in order to determine the mathematical probabilities of someone coming along in history who could have by chance fulfilled even six of the prophecies concerning the Messiah. They determined that it would be one chance in 10…..to the 27th power! That’s a number with 27 zeroes behind it. There’s not even a name for a number that big. Then they analyzed 48 of the prophecies concerning the Messiah, and determined that for someone in history to come along and fulfill just that many was one chance in 10 to the 157th power!!!

Now, Jesus didn’t fulfill just 6 or 48 of the Old Testament prophecies concerning the Messiah. He fulfilled every single one of the over 300 prophecies down to the last detail. The odds of someone just accidentally fulfilling even 6 of those prophecies is mathematically impossible, yet Jesus fulfilled every one!

In an attempt to demonstrate the chances of that happening by accident, author Josh McDowell offers this scenario:

Imagine the state of Texas blanketed from one end to the other with a covering of silver dollars four feet high. One of those trillions and trillions of silver dollars has a distinguishing red mark on it, but no one knows where it is. Now imagine someone parachuting into the state of Texas blindfolded and picking up the silver dollar with the red mark on the first try. There’s a better chance of that happening than for someone to come along who could by random chance fulfill just six of the prophecies concerning the Messiah. Again, a careful review of history against Old Testament prophecy reveals that Jesus Christ fulfilled every one of the prophecies, more than three-hundred of them!

If there is any fairy tale here, it is the fairy tale that Jesus is just one of the many paths that lead to God and the Bible is a book of myth and folklore. Any reasonable person can see that Jesus was no ordinary man, and that the Bible is no ordinary book. The Bible is the only collection of religious writings that is clearly divinely inspired, and Jesus is the only religious leader Who is clearly divine. It is foolhardy to bet your eternal destiny on the Bible not being true and Jesus not being your only hope of salvation.

I’m not brave enough to bet against odds like that and stakes that high. Are you?

"Jesus is Simply One of the Many Ways to God": Response to "Religulous," Part 4

Josh McDowell (pictured) never intended to be a defender of the Christian faith. In fact, his goal was just the opposite. As a young man Josh considered himself an agnostic, and viewed Christianity as worthless and Christians as out of touch. But while attending Kellogg College in Michigan, he was challenged by a group of Christian students to intellectually examine the claims of Christianity. He accepted that challenge and set out to prove that Christ's claims to be God and the historical reliability of Scripture could be neither trusted nor accurately verified. The evidence he discovered, however, changed the course of his life. He discovered that the Bible was the most historically reliable document of all antiquity and that Christ's claim to be God was true. That brought him to the inescapable conclusion that Christ loved him and died to redeem him from God’s judgment against sin. Josh then trusted in Christ as the Son of God and his personal Savior.

Since then, Josh McDowell has spoken to more than ten million young people in eighty-four countries, including more than 700 university and college campuses. He has authored or coauthored more than one hundred books and workbooks with more than forty-two million in print worldwide, including his most popular works, The New Evidence That Demands a Verdict, More Than a Carpenter, Beyond Belief to Convictions, and his latest release, The Da Vinci Code—A Quest for Answers.

Josh McDowell’s original attitude toward the veracity of Christ’s claims to deity and the only way to reconciliation to God was not too unlike most of today’s skeptics. The only difference is that he set out to validate his position by investigating the evidence, and when the evidence pointed him in a different direction, he did not stubbornly cling to his original opinions, but humbly called upon the Savior. Unfortunately, it has been my experience that most people who doubt Christ’s claims of being the only way to salvation base their opinions on little more than what seems reasonable to them, but they have never bothered to investigate the matter in any depth.

The Loftiest Claim Ever Made
Many people believe that Jesus never claimed to be God or claimed that He was the only way to salvation. Even a cursory reading of the New Testament, however, shows otherwise. (Stay tuned for a discussion on the reliability of scripture in a later post.) On numerous occasions, Jesus made incredible claims, such as “I and the Father are one,” “If you have seen Me, you have seen the Father,” and the most incredible of them all, “No one comes to the Father except through Me.” It is clear that Jesus considered Himself God and to be the only way of salvation for mankind.

So what do we do with those claims? As Josh McDowell points out in his writings, you cannot say that Jesus was just a good man who meant well, or that He was a good religious teacher, if His claims about Himself were not true. Because if Jesus was NOT God as He claimed, then He was either a madman or a charlatan and cannot be trusted.

Was Jesus a Lunatic?
Perhaps Jesus’ claims to deity were the ravings of a madman. History records, however, that Jesus did not display the kind of behavior we normally associate with a madman. Even some of the most charismatic lunatics always display their insanity at some point. But Jesus always conducted himself with poise, had a commanding knowledge of scripture that even stumped the religious elite of His time, possessed incredible skills of reason that quieted his highly-educated opponents, and spent himself on behalf of the poor and needy. His recorded words have been the most quoted in human history, and have been the source of encouragement, peace, guidance, and wisdom to millions of people for more than 2,000 years.

Jesus could not have been the only way to salvation and the manifestation of God in flesh if He was a lunatic. But since the historical record rules out that possibility, we have to consider the next possibility.

Was Jesus a Charlatan?
There have been no shortage of pied-pipers leading unsuspecting followers to do their bidding for all manner of selfish and perverted motives. Many of these have been religious leaders who pervert the teachings of scripture for their own purposes. If Jesus was not the only way to salvation as He claimed, and if he was also not a madman, then that leaves only one other possibility. He must have been a lying charlatan.

The fact that Christ spent his entire ministry caring for the poor, ministering to the outcasts, and teaching His followers to love others even at their own expense, is evidence of the fact that His motives were not selfish ones. But for further proof in determining whether or not Jesus was a charlatan, we have to look no further than the testimony of his disciples. Having followed Jesus closely for more than three years, they were in the position to know whether or not Jesus was on the level or not. Yet all but one of those disciples were put to gruesome and torturous deaths for their testimonies about Christ. They were willing to face being boiled in oil, beat to death with clubs, skinned alive, sawed in two, and crucified upside-down on a Roman cross rather than to recant their testimonies. If the claims of Jesus were not true, the disciples were in a position to know it, and they would have never allowed themselves to be put to barbaric deaths for what they knew to be a lie. Many people are willing to die for a cause as long as they are convinced their convictions are true, but no one willingly dies for a lie. The disciples were obviously convinced that what they believed about Jesus was true.

Perhaps, however, the disciples were thoroughly brainwashed and deceived into believing that Jesus was God and that He was raised from the dead. That is a legitimate point, and so we must examine some of the evidence surrounding the resurrection of Jesus in order to determine if the disciples were brainwashed or involved in a cover-up.

Jewish tradition holds that Jesus’ disciples stole the body of Jesus and then claimed He had been raised from the dead. But a study of the times in Jerusalem during Jesus’ life and death indicates that this story is highly unlikely – indeed, probably impossible.

During this time in Israel’s history, they had been conquered by Rome and were now occupied by and under Roman control. Thus, when Jesus was crucified, the Jewish leaders approached the Roman governor, Pontius Pilate, and asked for a squad of Roman soldiers to guard Jesus’ tomb for fear that the disciples would steal his body. They remembered Jesus’ prophecy that He would rise from the dead, and they wanted to prevent a hoax. Pilate granted the request. So a squad of highly-trained Roman soldiers guarded Jesus’ tomb to prevent any tampering or theft.

After Christ’s resurrection, the Jewish leaders paid off the Roman soldiers and told them to say that they all fell asleep at their posts – a mistake that would have cost a Roman soldier his life. The Jewish leaders said if this report got back to the Roman officials, they would intervene and keep the soldiers out of trouble. So the soldiers agreed, and that was the story that was circulated in an attempt to quiet the hysteria surrounding the resurrection.

There are a number of problems with this story that make it difficult to accept.

First and foremost, Roman soldiers were highly trained in the art of warfare, and falling asleep at one’s post would be grounds for immediate execution. No Roman soldier would be that careless.

Secondly, even if by some remote chance the entire squad of at least a dozen soldiers would have fallen asleep at the same time, which in itself seems impossible, it seems equally impossible that the disciples could have rolled away the huge stone from the mouth of the tomb without waking anyone.

Thirdly, the cowering disciples, all but one of whom had scattered and abandoned Christ at the time of His arrest, had gone into hiding and were frightened about being associated with Jesus for fear that they too would be arrested. It seems likewise impossible that they could have mustered the courage to risk taking on a squad of Roman soldiers in order to retrieve Christ’s body.

Even so, the tomb remained empty, without any plausible explanation. All the Jewish leaders needed to do to put the issue to rest once and for all was to exhume Jesus’ body and parade it around the streets of Jerusalem for all to see. But there was no body to retrieve. And the hysteria about the resurrection gained ground as over 500 people reported seeing Jesus alive!

If the resurrection of Jesus was a hoax, the disciples were in a position to know it, and they would have never allowed themselves to be put to gruesome deaths for something they knew to be a lie. When you are faced with either recanting your story or being boiled in oil, logic says that recanting would make more sense than having your skin burned off of your body for something you know to be false. It also seems likely that at least one of the disciples would have caved in to this kind of pressure. But each and every one of Christ’s disciples died unimaginably horrible deaths because all of them refused to recant.

Thus, the lives and deaths of Jesus’ disciples are evidence that Jesus was not a charlatan. So if Jesus was not a madman, and he was not a charlatan, then the only other option we have left is that He was exactly who He said He was – the manifestation of God in flesh, the only way for mankind to be saved. You cannot say that Jesus was just a good man who meant well and one of the many ways to God if He was a madman or a charlatan. But if He was neither, then that leaves us with the only other logical conclusion: His claims about Himself were true, and He represents the one and only path God has chosen in order to reconcile mankind to Himself.

More on this in the next post.

"Religion Causes War and Atrocities": Response to 'Religulous," Part 3

Bill Maher of the new movie, Religulous, has pointed to religion as a source of wars and atrocities. I believe he is partially correct. Certain religions have been a source of wars and atrocities. The Jihad (holy war) carried out by Muslims is a great example. The Qur’an (Koran) encourages the slaying of one’s enemies -- anyone who does not follow Islam.

Jesus Christ, however, taught to love one’s enemies, to do good to even those who mistreat you, to offer the other cheek to someone who slaps you, and to bless those who curse you. And Jesus commanded that we should treat others the way we ourselves would want to be treated.

No one, therefore, who has read the Bible or observed the humanitarian efforts carried out by Christians could ever say of Christianity that it has done more harm than good. When you look at the deeds of Christians like Mother Teresa and organizations like Samaritan’s Purse, World Vision, and Feed the Children, to name just a few, you begin to get an idea of the compassion for mankind that faith in Jesus has inspired. It would be difficult to count the number of hospitals, orphanages, and schools that have been built with funding by Christian individuals and organizations, not to mention the impoverished that have been fed and clothed, the diseased who have been cared for, addicts who have been ministered to, and the lonely and hurting who have been taken in and nurtured. Society would be much different in a way that you and I would not like if it were not for the influence of the Church of Jesus Christ.

Yet many atrocities have been committed by those who have abandoned true Biblical Christianity and practiced a perverted form of it by those still claiming to be acting for God. The Bible says of such people that they will get their just rewards in eternity. The early Roman Catholic Church, for example, morphed into an unbiblical monstrosity of historic proportions, which sparked the first Christian Reformation led by Martin Luther and others.

In more recent times, people like the infamous Jim Jones, and later David Koresh, who claimed to be Jesus Christ Himself, did much damage with their insanities and perversions of Biblical teaching. However, what these people and organizations practiced was not something you will ever find encouraged in the Bible, but were heresies inspired only by their own lust for power and control over people and societies.

Similarly, people practicing true Biblical Christianity are grieved by the conflicts in Ireland between the people calling themselves Catholics and Protestants. Christianity is not militant. It is peace-loving.

The Bible says that the fruits of a life truly devoted to Christ will result in love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (see Galatians 5:22-23). True Biblical Christianity is a faith that inspires compassion, morality, peace-loving, equality, and justice for all. In fact, it was a black Christian man, a preacher no less, who led perhaps the most historic movement of equality the modern world has ever seen. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was inspired by his faith, quoted from the Bible often in his memorable speeches, and ultimately paid the ultimate price for pioneering the kind of equality He saw demonstrated in the pages of his own Bible.

More than a hundred years before Dr. King was Abraham Lincoln, who was also an outspoken and devoted Christian. It was Lincoln’s own hatred for slavery that led to emancipation for the oppressed negroes of his time, and it was his Biblical convictions that inspired his policies. If you doubt Lincoln's commitment to Biblical principles influencing his policies, you may be suprised to learn that Lincoln once wrote, “It is the duty of nations as well as men to own their dependence on the overriding power of God… and to recognize the sublime truth announced in the Holy Scriptures and proved by all history, that those nations only are blest whose God is the Lord.”

Shortly before Lincoln was William Wilberforce, a Christian member of British Parliament whose tireless efforts have been credited in almost single-handedly bringing about a ban of slave trading throughout the British Empire.

The argument by Maher that religion is a source of wars and atrocities also seems to assume that no wars have been fought and no atrocities have ever been committed by those who don’t claim any Christian convictions, which of course is the farthest thing from the truth. All I need to do to prove that is mention the names of a few folks whose stories you might be familiar with: Charles Manson, Adolph Hitler, Joseph Stalin, Saddam Hussein, etc. These are people whose hatred for certain groups of humanity led them to commit the most egregious acts in human history. In fact, two of these notorious and sinister figures in particular, Hitler and Stalin, were humanists and whose racism was fueled by their devotion to evolutionary ideas. Hitler’s dream of a perfect race was based in part on his understanding of evolutionary thought, and he reasoned that the German race would have the unhindered opportunity to evolve to a higher state than was ever possible before given the right circumstances where races and people groups that he considered lower forms of humanity (Jews, in particular) were exterminated from the human gene pool. Hitler thought he was doing mankind a favor, and his madness was fueled by ideals that differ starkly from what the Bible teaches.

To say that religion is the source of wars and atrocities is a sweeping generalization that cannot be fairly applied to Biblical Christianity.

What about the Crusades then? Okay, let’s talk about the Crusades.

Pop culture has led us to believe that the Crusades were carried out by ruthless Christians who were carrying out an expansion conquest of Europe. But history tells a very different story. The Christian Crusaders were actually being terrorized in many cases by Muslims who had been persecuting them for years. Under the duress of persecution, the Christians were themselves victims of the expansion conquest being carried out by Muslims through Jihad, or so-called holy war. Thus, the Christians decided to fight back or face possible extermination. The Crusades were actually the only way the early European Christians could save their own lives, but that version of history has been conveniently re-shaped to suite the modern humanist worldview, just as the founding of our country by Christian men and women whose intent was that America be solely a Christian nation has been revised as well.

If somehow it could someday be proven beyond any doubt that there is no God and that the Bible is a book of myths and fairytales, I don’t think it would be a good idea to let the Christians know that, because so much good for humanity is being carried out by Christians who believe that when they do good to their fellow man, they are following the example of Jesus.

From time to time I watch Extreme Home Makeover, and one year they went to all 50 states to find selfless families who had let their homes and finances be decimated as they helped others before themselves. It was astonishing to find that almost all of them were Christians.

So my advice to Maher and to all who share his sentiments is to leave the supposedly delusional Christians alone. It would be a disservice to humanity to discourage us. Since there aren't any atheist hospitals, orphanages, or humanitarian groups, leave the Christians and Jews alone and let them take care of the world. We are better off for it.

"Christians are Intellectual Weaklings": Response to 'Religulous' part 2

The new movie, Religulous, dramatizes what its creator, Bill Maher, has been saying for years, that religious people are intellectually underdeveloped. In many respects it is understandable how Maher comes to this conclusion, because many people who consider themselves spiritual or religious, including New Agers, do not really know why they believe what they believe, except that it just feels right to them. However, that is not true of Christians who have truly investigated the claims of Jesus Christ and the veracity of the Bible.

For example, Dr. Simon Greenleaf (pictured) is the author of the textbook that all law students are required to study on the laws of evidence and was one of the principle founders of Harvard Law School. There is perhaps no one in the world who knows as much about law and the laws of evidence as Dr. Greenleaf did. Having once been an atheist, Greenleaf decided to use his deductive genius to disprove the “ridiculous” notion that Jesus Christ was raised from the dead. After years of investigation, Simon Greenleaf came to a surprising conclusion. He said, and I quote, “I can prove to any court in the land that Jesus Christ was an actual historical figure who was crucified according to the scriptural account, and who was raised from the dead three days later.” He also said, "According to the laws of legal evidence used in courts of law, there is more evidence for the historical fact of the resurrection of Jesus Christ than for just about any other event in history."

But something happened to Greenleaf during his investigation. For him the evidence supporting the most important event in history went beyond simply an intellectual exercise. He became convinced that because Jesus Christ was truly raised from the dead, then Jesus must have been the Messiah and only way to God that He claimed. Greenleaf, a genius and staunch atheist, was intelligent enough to know that the claims that Jesus made and the scientific and historical proof of His Lordship demanded a response, and Greenleaf therefore decided that the only choice left to make was to become a disciple of Jesus Christ! He spent the rest of his life using logic and evidence to defend the claims of Christ and the Christian faith.

In more recent years, Sir Lionel Luckhoo, a British defense attorney who holds the Guinness world record for successfully defending 245 consecutive murder cases, embarked on his own investigation of the claims surrounding the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Having come to the same conclusion as Simon Greenleaf, he stated, “I say unequivocally that the evidence for the resurrection of Jesus Christ is so overwhelming that it compels acceptance by proof that leaves absolutely no room for doubt.”

No room for doubt? Wow! That’s an extremely profound statement, especially coming from someone who is called the modern day Perry Mason and whose deductive genius and mastery of the laws of evidence are legendary. And what was Luckhoo’s response to these revelations? He, too, became a devoted Christian.

Yet again, former atheist Lee Strobel, once an investigative journalist with the Chicago Sun Times, embarked on a similar 2-year investigation of the claims of Jesus Christ and of Christianity, and he too came to the same conclusion as Simon Greenleaf and Sir Lionel Luckoo, that Jesus Christ was and is exactly who He claimed to be…the Messiah and Son of God, the only way for mankind to be reconciled to God. Strobel has gone on to publish his findings in numerous books such as The Case for Christ, The Case for a Creator, and others.

Why didn’t Maher interview Lee Strobel or one of the countless others like him who can intelligently defend their faith? Well, that wouldn’t sell a movie or Maher’s worldview, would it? But you can listen to Strobel here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NxiddSTtKpA&feature=related

I am considered unintelligent by Maher and those who share his views because I believe that the Bible is the inspired Word of God and that He created the world and that I did not evolve from some primordial ooze in the bottom of a slime pit. Yet for those who are truly open-minded enough to investigate the facts, it becomes clear that the Bible is historically and scientifically defensible (ask me for examples if you are interested), whereas every other religious belief system fails under the same scrutiny. Evolutionary thought, likewise, as far as I can tell from my own research over many years, is not scientifically defensible when placed under a microscope untainted by humanistic biases. (See my post on evolution by clicking here.)

If you take the evolution thing to its reasonable end, you come back to the question of the Big Bang. Where did the gases that supposedly interacted with one another that produced the Big Bang come from in the first place? No one can tell you. It’s taken on faith. Yes, faith. It can’t be proven where those gases came from or how they got there, or if they were ever really there at all, but it is just assumed that this is how the whole world with all its intricate complexities began. An atheist once told me that it is just assumed that those gases "were just always there." Hmmm.

Because this is such a dead-end for evolutionists and humanists, I have had discussions with some people who say that they believe that life on earth was spawned by aliens, and they said it with a straight face! And of course no explanation is given for how the aliens came to be either. Yet Christians are the ones without a sound basis for their faith?! Even Richard Dawkins, author of the book, The God Delusion, and one of the world’s foremost spokespersons for atheism, suggests that life on earth may have been spawned by aliens, and then turns right around and says that those aliens probably somehow evolved on their own world. I don’t know how you read that, but it seems like an incredible copout to me.

Why is the Big Bang theory or the alien theory any less ridiculous than the idea that God created the world and all its complexities? If the definition of religion is believing in something that cannot be proven by science, then evolutionists and New Agers are as staunchly religious as anyone on earth. Yet evolutionists are hailed in pop culture as setting a scientific standard and New Agers are supposedly enlightened, but I am a religious fanatic because I believe that an Intelligence beyond this world created the universe and that that Intelligence provided a clearly outlined plan of salvation in the pages of the Bible.

How many paths of “enlightenment” can claim that what they practice can be found standing after subjected to the scrutiny of science, historicity, archeology, antiquity, and the laws of evidence? I’ll tell you. None but Christianity. If you disagree, that’s fine, and I respect your opinion. But on what facts do you base your opinion? If you are staking your eternal destiny on what you believe, you might at least give yourself the assurance of your eternal security based upon a spirituality that can survive being put to the test. The time to find out whether or not you were wrong is NOT after you get plunged into eternity! Given the incredibly high stakes, I figure I have a lot less to lose if I am wrong about Jesus being the only way to salvation than others do if their chosen path is wrong.

For anyone who truly has an open mind and who is willing to investigate the evidence, the body of evidence supporting the Biblical account of creation, the Lordship of Jesus Christ, and the veracity of scripture as divinely inspired is extensive and impressive indeed. And for many reasons other than that of creation vs. evolution, true Biblical Christianity (not the modernized TV evangelism version of it) is a faith for the thinking person.

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God did indeed leave a trail of evidence validating the Bible as being divinely inspired. I’m so glad I that the path I have chosen to follow can be validated under scrutiny. Anything else just leaves one guessing at which path to follow. I don’t like leaving my eternal destiny to chance. If you feel good about guessing, that’s up to you. But I feel better about knowing, and as far as I can tell Christianity is the only faith that is intellectually satisfying for the truly open-minded seeker who wants the truth, no matter how uncomfortable or inconvenient.

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2 Excellent Resources:

Mere Christianity, by C.S. Lewis

Why I am a Christian: Leading Thinkers Explain Why They Believe

My Response to 'Religulous,' Part 1

Bill Maher is the host of a new documentary movie called, Religulous, which marries the word religious with ridiculous in an all-out full frontal attack on the beliefs and values of those who hold any religious convictions. You can view the trailer here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nahmIajIzfA and a YouTube response to the film here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ImcOSa4frKA

Maher pretty much lumps all religious groups into the same category, portraying Christians, Jews, and Muslims alike as brainless weirdos who have no ability to think rationally. So because Maher and those who share his opinions have chosen to be so bold as to assume this attack mode, suggesting that Christians and Jews are a threat to the sanity of our society, I think that it is reasonable and fair that I speak up in defense of myself and those who believe like me.

I want to make it clear that my purpose here is not to prosyletize. What I wish to do is promote intelligent dialogue. I do not disrespect those who believe differently than I do. I have never wished to ram my convictions down anyone’s gullet. But since it is increasingly clear that society wants to ram their worldview down mine, isn’t it reasonable that I ask those who may share Maher’s views to at least look at both sides before you judge me and my fellow Christians? I want to tell you WHY I believe like I do, and demonstrate that Christianity is a faith for rational people and critical thinkers. So please hear me out. I think much of this will make sense to you.

I am the first to acknowledge that there have been a lot of weirdos and charlatans who are religious, or who appear to be religious. And I also recognize that there are charlatans and weirdos in every facet of life - law enforcement, government, medicine, education, the arts, etc. But the weirdos and charlatans in these areas do not negate the importance of these entities in society, just as the religious wackos do not negate the claims of Christianity and its massive postive influence on society (I'll elaborate on that point in a later post).

In his film, Maher portrays Christians as people who do not know why they believe as they do and who cannot defend their faith. Yet most of the people I have ever met who practice nearly any religion, including New Age, cannot intelligently articulate WHY they believe like they do, but largely rely on their own feelings and opinion and not hard facts (i.e. "I believe such and such because I just FEEL that...").

I agree that most American Christians have not read enough of their Bibles to know why they practice what they practice, and Maher’s street interviews expose a few of them. But my primary issue with the movie is that it is horrendously slanted because Maher makes no attempt to show those in Christian circles who are off-the-charts intelligent – those who practice law, who are physicians, scientists, artists, professors, politicians, and entrepreneurs – and who know what they believe and why they believe it and can articulate it intelligently, and who can demonstrate the sound reasoning behind their beliefs. No, Maher would have no part of them. His movie shamelessly promotes his worldview on his terms, and he will have it no other way.

So in this and the posts following are just a few short responses on some of the issues that Maher and others like him use to call into question the legitimacy of the Christian faith in particular.

“Religious People are Close Minded”
With due respect to Maher and those who share his views, that criticism is a bit like the pot calling the kettle black, because in my experience most (not all) of the people who have ever engaged me in debate over religious matters wish only to do all the talking and recoil if I attempt to share my views. I’m not implicating everyone who disagrees with my views, but I’m just sharing my experience. I have been in perhaps hundreds of religious discussions with non-religious people. A few of those people have been very nice and most others have been combative and adversarial, but there has never been a single time when I have been in a religious discussion with someone where my counterpart seemed to care what I thought and offered something like, “So… tell me why you believe like you do.” It seems like everyone just assumes to know what I believe and why I believe it and are interested only in attempting to show me why I’m wrong.

I, for one, have investigated most of the world’s main religions in more detail than probably 99.9% of the American population, which really isn’t saying a whole heck of a lot. And I am therefore a Christian because it is the only faith that makes rational and intellectual sense to me, whereas atheism, deism, agnosticism, Buddhism, Islam, Hinduism, and Universalist/Unitarianism have never resonated with me because I have never been able to reconcile any of these other beliefs with rational thought and historical/scientific scrutiny. But lest I get ahead of myself, that's a discussion for another post.

It is difficult for me to imagine how someone who is not even willing to engage an intelligent Christian in a meaningful exchange of ideas can accuse Christians of being close-minded. On numerous occasions I have quietly and respectfully sat across the table from someone who is opposed to my beliefs and listened to him or her rant and rave about why I am wrong and he/she is right. It has often been difficult to get a word in edge-wise. A respectful offering of my thoughts was not allowed without a combative and close-minded response. Yet I am the one who is supposedly close-minded. Again, I am not generalizing. I am just sharing my experiences.

Maher, likewise, along with numerous others, believe staunchly that how they feel about religion and spiritual matters is absolutely correct. Yet I have never heard anyone intelligently defend his/her anti-Christian beliefs with any compelling facts. If a scientist attempted to defend a scientific hypothesis with some of the weak, circular reasoning that I have heard some people use to defend their spiritual (or lack thereof) convictions, they would be thrown out of academia. Yet they hold to those beliefs as if they were proven with 10,000 double-blind placebo controlled peer reviewed trials, and they are not open to any concepts that come from the Bible. Yet I am the one who is supposedly close-minded.

While I know my language is revealing how incredulous I am at all this, I really do try to respect those who differ with me. I know some people do have some intelligent and reasonable objections to what I believe, and I am not opposed to discussing those objections. But I am not one to force my beliefs on anyone, and I like to live by the axiom, "live and let live." Sure, I would like to see more people share my views, but all who are reading this are like that as well. If you are a liberal, you want more people to be liberal so that you can live in the kind of society you think is best. So how is that any different than me wanting more people to see things my way so that the world can become a place that I believe it will become by more people observing Christian principles -- a place of love, peace, mutual respect, and justice for all people? (Of course, my concern for people's eternal destiny motivates me as well, but that is another matter.)

Perhaps Maher and others believe that I am close-minded because I believe a certain way and will not compromise my values with those with whom I disagree. But Maher and those who believe as he does are not willing to be persuaded by those with whom they disagree either, and that is supposedly an expression of open-mindedness. Pardon my frankness, but how does that make sense? Our society supposedly values open exchange of ideas and tolerance toward those who hold different views than ours. As it appears to me, that tolerance is extended to just about everyone but Christians. I would hope that those who truly are open-minded and intelligent enough to investigate both sides of any issue would be willing to respectfully accept the invitation to discuss this issue with a spirit of mutual respect.

Well, enough for now. In the several posts following I am going to address critcisms such as "Religious people are weak-minded and base their beliefs on fairy-tale ideas," and "religion is a source of war and atrocities," and "Christianity is just one of many ways to God," and others. I welcome your RESPECTFUL feedback (badgerings will not be posted or responded to), and hope that you can take in these arguments with an open mind.

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Blessings until next time. Stay tuned.

10 Ways to Pray for Barack Obama

Dear Reader,

As most of you know, I have been a vocal opponent of Barack Obama's extreme left-wing policies that include using tax-payers' money to pay for abortions abroad, to reverse the ban on the horrific partial-birth abortion, his openly socialistic views, etc. But now that the election is over, we must continue to remain steadfast on opposing these issues, but in a spirit of love and respect toward those who disagree. Likewise, this is not a time to give up on our commitment to prayer. Rather, it is a time to step it up, because the fervent prayer of the righteous avails much (James 5:16b).

The rest of this post will feature an article by J. Lee Grady, editor of Charisma Magazine. I have found it to be helpful in giving me the proper perspective on this issue and helping me to know just how to pray when the right words and emotions escape me. Let's continue to pray fervently for our country and our President.

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10 Ways to Pray for Barak Obama. J. Lee Grady
Whether you are happy about this week’s election results or not, all Christians must unite in prayer for our new president. Please don’t forsake this responsibility.

It’s over. We’ve reached the end of the longest, angriest and most nerve-wracking presidential campaign in American history. Finally the “I approved this message” ads have ceased. The endless robot phone calls have stopped ringing. The debates, and the annoying post-debate comments from “experts,” are history—until the next election cycle.

More than half the nation is celebrating today while others are mourning. We are a divided nation, split into unhappy fragments by abortion, gay marriage, global warming, a failed economy and an unpopular war. Those who voted for Barack Obama have claimed a historic victory; some on McCain’s side are already looking for scapegoats. Politics is politics.

But when I got up this morning, I turned all my attention to the fact that Jesus Christ is still on the throne. His government is what is most important. Regardless of who sits in the Oval Office, the Bible says “the nations are like a drop from a bucket” to God (Is. 40:15, NASB). That includes the United States. We may boast about being “the greatest nation on earth,” but He who sits in heaven has a different perspective. Let’s take a big sigh of relief now and remember that God is sovereign.

I’ll admit this election did not turn out as I had hoped. I supported McCain primarily because I am pro-life and I prefer his small-government mindset. But now that the election is over, I’m not going to harbor bitterness toward Obama supporters or go into attack mode. Obama has been elected president of this country, and that means I have a biblical responsibility to support him in prayer—even if I challenge his policies.

Whether you voted for Obama or not, you need to pray for him. Here are 10 ways I plan to intercede for him regularly:

1. Pray for Obama’s protection. We already know that some weird, neo-Nazi fanatics in Tennessee plotted to kill Sen. Obama during his campaign. Let’s pray that racist hatred is not allowed to spread. Let’s cancel every assassin’s bullet in the name of Jesus. May civility triumph over bigotry.

2. Cover his wife and daughters in prayer. It is not easy to live under constant media scrutiny. Pray for Obama’s wife, Michelle, and their two daughters, Malia and Natasha, as they face invasive cameras, nosy reporters, maniacal fans and dangerous enemies. Obama is not only a politician but also a husband and a father.

3. Pray that Obama will govern with God’s wisdom. God rewarded Solomon because he asked for wisdom instead of wealth, long life or vengeance on his enemies (see 1 Kings 3:11-12). Pray that Obama will order his priorities like that. Despite Solomon’s tragic character flaws, his legacy was wisdom. We can ask God to give our president the same grace.

4. Ask God to keep our president humble. Many great American leaders became corrupt after they moved to Washington. The fatal attraction of fame, wealth and power proved irresistible. The only thing that will guard a man or woman from this pitfall is humility. May God deliver President Obama from the curse of pride.

5. Pray for wise and righteous advisers to surround him. Godly leaders cannot do their job alone. Even the best leaders have failed because they trusted the wrong people. Pray that Obama will not select his counselors based on party, race, pedigree or political cronyism but on godly character and proven wisdom. Pray also that he will not allow secret traitors into his inner circle.

6. Ask for the spirit of reconciliation. Some segments of our deeply divided society want nothing to do with Obama now that he has won the presidency. Even some Christians will be tempted to harbor resentment and nurse political grudges throughout his term in office. Pray that God will grant forgiveness and healing so that leaders on all political levels can have constructive dialogue.

7. Pray that Obama will adopt pro-life convictions. Many politicians have changed their views on key issues while in office. In the 1800s some leaders who favored slavery later denounced it. In the 1950s some who opposed racial integration later became champions of it. Even though Obama won approval from many voters because he sanctions abortion, God could soften and change his heart.

8. Bind all evil forces assigned to manipulate our president. The specter of Islamic terrorism looms over the United States, and dark forces are ready to infiltrate. Our only hope lies in prayer to the God who is able to expose and outwit the schemes of the wicked. This is truly a time for spiritual warfare, and intercessors must not come off the wall in this hour! Pray that no foreign government, terrorist organization or demonic principality will use Obama as a tool. We must stand strong against the spirit of antichrist that promotes dictatorship, persecution of Christians and hostility toward Israel.

9. Pray that Obama’s door will remain open to the church. The loudest voices of secular culture—from Bill Maher in Hollywood to atheists in academia—would be happy if religion were removed from public life. Pray that Obama, who claims to have a personal faith in Jesus Christ, will unapologetically welcome Christian leaders into his company and seek their counsel. And pray that false religious leaders (who claim to know Christ but deny His power) will not have his ear.

10. Pray that our nation will enjoy God’s peace and blessing during the Obama administration. The apostle Paul instructed early believers to pray for all in authority “so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity” (1 Tim. 2:2, NASB). God’s will is for America to experience peace and prosperity so that we can continue to export the gospel to the nations. This must happen whether a Democrat or a Republican is in the White House. As we cry out for God’s mercy on our wayward nation, pray that He will allow us to be a light to the world as we finance global missions, feed and heal the world’s poor and share Christ’s love at home and abroad.

The Blood of Bulls and Goats

I'm reading through the Bible again this year. Currently I'm in the book of Leviticus. Today I read about Nadab and Abihu, two priests who were the sons of Aaron. In chapter 10 they presented an offering that was unauthorized by God, and fire came out from the presence of God and annhilated them.

Volumes can be written about the serious nature of worship and how God wants our worship to be thoughtful and meaningful and in accordance with His instructions. But that's not what struck me this morning as I was reading. What struck me most is how under the terms of the Old Covenant, God demanded meticulous adherance to set a prescribed instructions for rituals of sacrafice for sin. Sin must be considered an incredibly heinous thing to God, because the sacrafices to atone for sin were blood baths. There was so much involved in the sacrafices that it made me wonder if the priests ever prayed for a job transfer.

An understanding of the nature of Old Covenant sacrafice for sin and the role of the priests creates a new level of wonder and appreciation for what Jesus did on the cross. Jesus is the High Priest that ended the priesthood; the Sacrificial Lamb that ended the need for sacrafices. His own bloody sacrafice satisfied all the written code of the Law and the rituals of sacrafices. He is our Scapegoat so that all guilty sinners can go free when we place our trust in Him. May His Name be praised forever!