In my senior year in high school and first in college I believed. But I felt the need to examine and be sure of my faith. One thing that prompted that was wondering if all the talk of priests and preachers I heard was really so, and did they believe it to be so? Did they really believe what they were saying.
To my surprise I found that many did not. They did not believe that Jesus was born of a virgin, that he physically arose from the dead, that he ascended into heaven. I found many did not believe his miracles. Now, since the miracles of Christ were recorded as evidence that we might "believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God" (Jn. 20:31), I understood that those clergy men did not believe that Jesus was the foretold Messiah, or that he was in origin in a unique way, the actual Son of God.
My next thought was to wonder why they used such terms as resurrection, hope, redemption, and eternal life. Their explanation was that these were connotation words that people responded to and were thus useful in conveying a concept of the spiritual into life in this material universe. For a young un-jaded mind it was not difficult to conclude that they believed all these words really conveyed a lie, but that they could use that lie to their own ends. That is a harsh judgment they would not eagerly accept. Yet, to this day, I believe that is a correct assessment.
Here is why. If Jesus Christ is not the son of God as the scriptures claim in prophecy, fulfillment and specific declaration, then the scriptures are misleading and a lie themselves. And if that is so, try this question. What do you know for sure about God? Now, for all the assertions of people making judgments about God, saying, "Well I just don’t believe God would or would not do such and such." Oh, really? Upon what basis? We can’t just make it up about God. Anything we conclude about God on our own has no basis. As Dostoyevsky declared through one of The Brothers Karamazov, if there is no God, there is no right or wrong, any behavior is acceptable. Of course, there are those who believe exactly that today. And if that is so, and Jesus Christ is not the son of God, and the scriptures are not his word, we have absolutely no hope or assurance of anything beyond this life. And one day when earth either freezes in eternal uninhabitable ice, or is obliterated by fiery collision, what will existence and life have meant? Human life will be no more than a match struck in the darkness of eternity, and then extinguished forever. It meant and means nothing at all.
And clergymen and women who do not believe, cannot give us an ounce of hope. All they can give us are lying words. And the answer to the question, "What do we know about God," is a resounding nothing. Well, what do those clergypeople have to offer us? Nothing more than their ivory tower existence in their religious organizations and the opportunity for us to give them our money. That’s it. Nothing more.
On the other hand, assessing the prophecies of the scriptures, seeing them all come together centuries later in Jesus Christ, seeing his teaching and works, finding no reasonable explanation for the empty tomb from which his disciples declared he was raised and whereof they were witnesses, and concluding he is the Son of God, and that the scriptures are the word of God, we can hope, we can believe in redemption and eternal life. We can believe there is truth to live by. Thank God.
For more information or discussion, contact me: dalsmelser@aol.com
Of visit our web site: www.nwchurchofChrist.net
Showing posts with label Belief. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Belief. Show all posts
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
Friday, February 02, 2007
Turtles Become Einstein and Pigs Fly
Man thinks he is brilliant. In fact we live in an anti-intellectual age where man really doesn’t know anything. Here’s why. If we live in an exclusively material universe, there really is no conscious intellect, nor is there any truth for it to comprehend, or facts that exist beyond the mechanics of material functions. There is no mind, only a brain which is just a chemical and material mechanism. Neo-Darwinism has killed reason. There are no great philosophical thoughts or truths beyond the material to contemplate.
To overcome that, some are willing to employ their concept of "faith." That allows man to speculate and seek something nobler than the non-volitional chemical and electric impulses in the brain. And that is also anti-intellectual, for to them faith is a blind, if noble, leap. So we hear, "You cannot prove faith, if there were a reason for it, it would not be faith." This makes faith nothing more than superstition.
Compare that to the profound and awesome information in the Bible about a Being, a Mind that has always existed, who designed and created all the complexity of the universe down to each of the one hundred trillion cells in your body, every one of which contains a six foot long coil of coded information spelling out assembly instructions to make all of your individual physical characteristics. This Creator being holy, has established noble, righteous, and absolute principles by which to live in relationship with one another, and ways to have fellowship with Him.
The Bible gives reasons to accept all of that. This says faith is based on reason. It is not just an ephemeral feeling or wishing, or supposing. Too many religious people treat it so, but that also destroys reason. There would be as many faiths as there are individual preferences or beliefs. Thus no one real truth to reason from. One can "believe" that turtles became Einstein and that pigs have wings.
Contrast that to what the Bible says about faith. "Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, a conviction of things not seen" (Heb. 11:1). God is contemplated by faith because we have not seen him, but there are assurances, and information producing conviction. That is not preposterous. You probably believe in Iraq, but most of you have not seen Iraq. "Oh, but," one says, "I have seen pictures of Iraq." No, you have seen pictures someone told you were of Iraq. But based on the source and convincing nature of the evidence, you believe in Iraq. Without having seen Iraq you accept its existence by faith. Faith in God requires the exercise of the intellect in dealing with the information God has given in his word and in his creation.
For instance, the Greek word which describes faith in the passage above and which is translated "conviction," means, "Such a conviction as is produced in the mind by the demonstration of a problem, after which we see from it that the thing cannot but be true." Faith is not a whimsical supposition. Biblical faith claims to be so intellectually supported that it patently true. Again, the word is defined, "A demonstration of the certainty of a thing by sure arguments and indubitable reasons." Aristotle used the term for a mathematical demonstration. Facts truly perceived and applied produce and stand behind true faith. Iraq exists. God is.
Darwinism, being totally material, destroys any ground of absolute and moral truth. It is thus anti-intellectual. The Bible on the other hand calls upon us to examine its convincing information. Properly perceived and applied it leads to faith, a conviction based on evidence. It is profoundly intellectual and thus appeals to and provides things for the spirit and mind of man.
contact me: mailto:dalsmelser@aol.comor visit our website: www.northwestchurchofchrist.net
To overcome that, some are willing to employ their concept of "faith." That allows man to speculate and seek something nobler than the non-volitional chemical and electric impulses in the brain. And that is also anti-intellectual, for to them faith is a blind, if noble, leap. So we hear, "You cannot prove faith, if there were a reason for it, it would not be faith." This makes faith nothing more than superstition.
Compare that to the profound and awesome information in the Bible about a Being, a Mind that has always existed, who designed and created all the complexity of the universe down to each of the one hundred trillion cells in your body, every one of which contains a six foot long coil of coded information spelling out assembly instructions to make all of your individual physical characteristics. This Creator being holy, has established noble, righteous, and absolute principles by which to live in relationship with one another, and ways to have fellowship with Him.
The Bible gives reasons to accept all of that. This says faith is based on reason. It is not just an ephemeral feeling or wishing, or supposing. Too many religious people treat it so, but that also destroys reason. There would be as many faiths as there are individual preferences or beliefs. Thus no one real truth to reason from. One can "believe" that turtles became Einstein and that pigs have wings.
Contrast that to what the Bible says about faith. "Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, a conviction of things not seen" (Heb. 11:1). God is contemplated by faith because we have not seen him, but there are assurances, and information producing conviction. That is not preposterous. You probably believe in Iraq, but most of you have not seen Iraq. "Oh, but," one says, "I have seen pictures of Iraq." No, you have seen pictures someone told you were of Iraq. But based on the source and convincing nature of the evidence, you believe in Iraq. Without having seen Iraq you accept its existence by faith. Faith in God requires the exercise of the intellect in dealing with the information God has given in his word and in his creation.
For instance, the Greek word which describes faith in the passage above and which is translated "conviction," means, "Such a conviction as is produced in the mind by the demonstration of a problem, after which we see from it that the thing cannot but be true." Faith is not a whimsical supposition. Biblical faith claims to be so intellectually supported that it patently true. Again, the word is defined, "A demonstration of the certainty of a thing by sure arguments and indubitable reasons." Aristotle used the term for a mathematical demonstration. Facts truly perceived and applied produce and stand behind true faith. Iraq exists. God is.
Darwinism, being totally material, destroys any ground of absolute and moral truth. It is thus anti-intellectual. The Bible on the other hand calls upon us to examine its convincing information. Properly perceived and applied it leads to faith, a conviction based on evidence. It is profoundly intellectual and thus appeals to and provides things for the spirit and mind of man.
contact me: mailto:dalsmelser@aol.comor visit our website: www.northwestchurchofchrist.net
Tuesday, December 26, 2006
"If God Would Show Me a Miracle, I Would Believe." Wanna Bet?
How many times have I heard someone with an, "It’s-God’s-fault" attitude, and superior tone say, "If God would perform a miracle for me I would believe in Him." Don’t be too sure such a person is being completely honest. Jesus worked many miracles while on earth as evidence that he indeed was from God. Yet many who actually saw those miracles refused to believe. It turned out that their own personal desires and interests were more determinative than what their eyes clearly saw. They would not believe anything that required them to do or give, what they did not wish.
Jesus entered a synagogue on the sabbath to teach and saw there a man with a withered hand. It was not just a sore hand, or with some unseen pain, it was visibly shrunken and shriveled. Jesus told the man to stretch forth the hand and he miraculously made it whole. The people clearly saw a miracle. And their response? "But they were filled with madness and communed with one another what they might do to Jesus" (Lk. 6:11). He violated their traditions and clergy-made laws about the Sabbath. They preferred their traditional ways to the changes required in following him.
On another occasion Jesus healed a man known to have been blind all his life. And what did the religious leaders do? They called the healed man and put him on trial, demanding that he renounce Jesus as a sinner. When he would not, they kicked the healed man out of the synagogue (Jn.9:34).
Then there was the miraculous feeding of the 5,000 with five loaves and two fish, after which there were 12 baskets full of left over food. Surely those present would follow him the rest of their lives. It would seem that way, but when Jesus denounced their materialism and selfishness, saying that food was more important to them than Jesus’ credentials of Messiahship, and when he insisted they must partake of him, they turned and walked away from him (Jn. 6:66).
Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead. Many witnesses were there from Jerusalem attesting that Lazarus had been dead and in a closed tomb for 4 days. And the response? Instead of believing, Jesus’ opponents tried to kill Lazarus and destroy the evidence. They were afraid that if the people followed Jesus, the Romans would remove them from power. They plotted about what they could do about Jesus, "for this man does many signs" (Jn. 11:47).
So what people were and what they were most interested in was more important to them than what the miracles indicated about Jesus. He said, "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God" (Mt. 5:8). But for those who had pride in their own intellectual superiority, they didn’t see God (Mt. 11:25-26), miracles notwithstanding.
God could have had his word written to appeal to whomever he wanted. He could have had it written so that only nuclear physicists understood it. But he had it revealed in such a way that the pure in heart could see it. So that those seeking truth, really objectively seeking truth above all else, could see it. Those who have their own reputations and power to maintain, those who treasure their own religious traditions and preferences ahead of truth, and those who just want to sin, will never see the truth about Jesus — even if they saw a miracle.
Jesus entered a synagogue on the sabbath to teach and saw there a man with a withered hand. It was not just a sore hand, or with some unseen pain, it was visibly shrunken and shriveled. Jesus told the man to stretch forth the hand and he miraculously made it whole. The people clearly saw a miracle. And their response? "But they were filled with madness and communed with one another what they might do to Jesus" (Lk. 6:11). He violated their traditions and clergy-made laws about the Sabbath. They preferred their traditional ways to the changes required in following him.
On another occasion Jesus healed a man known to have been blind all his life. And what did the religious leaders do? They called the healed man and put him on trial, demanding that he renounce Jesus as a sinner. When he would not, they kicked the healed man out of the synagogue (Jn.9:34).
Then there was the miraculous feeding of the 5,000 with five loaves and two fish, after which there were 12 baskets full of left over food. Surely those present would follow him the rest of their lives. It would seem that way, but when Jesus denounced their materialism and selfishness, saying that food was more important to them than Jesus’ credentials of Messiahship, and when he insisted they must partake of him, they turned and walked away from him (Jn. 6:66).
Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead. Many witnesses were there from Jerusalem attesting that Lazarus had been dead and in a closed tomb for 4 days. And the response? Instead of believing, Jesus’ opponents tried to kill Lazarus and destroy the evidence. They were afraid that if the people followed Jesus, the Romans would remove them from power. They plotted about what they could do about Jesus, "for this man does many signs" (Jn. 11:47).
So what people were and what they were most interested in was more important to them than what the miracles indicated about Jesus. He said, "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God" (Mt. 5:8). But for those who had pride in their own intellectual superiority, they didn’t see God (Mt. 11:25-26), miracles notwithstanding.
God could have had his word written to appeal to whomever he wanted. He could have had it written so that only nuclear physicists understood it. But he had it revealed in such a way that the pure in heart could see it. So that those seeking truth, really objectively seeking truth above all else, could see it. Those who have their own reputations and power to maintain, those who treasure their own religious traditions and preferences ahead of truth, and those who just want to sin, will never see the truth about Jesus — even if they saw a miracle.
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