What of science?

Science in our modern age has been put on a pedestal.  The media and our educational systems have succeeded to a very large degree in convincing most people that unless something can be quantified and experienced by our five senses, it cannot possibly be for real.  Or at least this is the argument that science uses to try to discredit the unseen, for example things like spiritual experiences and God and the credibility of the Bible.

Yet it is science that attempts to explain and rationalize ideas like the Big Bang and the Theory of Evolution, ideas that are just that - ideas, not facts.  They have required creative imagination and great "faith" in light of their alarmingly conspicuous absence of conclusive, quantifiable scientific evidence.

Yet proponents of these ideas - these pipe dreams, really - appeal to "science" in order to support their existence.

Call me naive, but when I was a science student in public school and in university, I recall that one's hypothesis in a science experiment had to be backed up by quantifiable, visual evidence resulting from the conducting of the experimental procedure in order for it to be considered "scientific" evidence.  How is such evidence possible when one is trying to scientifically explain or rationalize the Big Bang, the Theory of Evolution, or even the Bible and the existence (or non-existence) of God?

In an article entitled "Can We Still Believe in Demons Today?" by Clinton E. Arnold (Professor of New Testament Language and Literature, Talbot School of Theology, California), the argument is made that science "is inherently incapable of answering" the question of whether demons exist.  He further argues:

"Some critics grant science authority to make judgments on issues it is incapable of judging.  Just as science is incompetent to adjudicate on morality, so it is also beyond its jurisdiction in trying to decide the question of demonic existence.  Science seeks to describe and explain natural phenomena.  There is no reason to assume it has the power to answer questions regarding the supernatural, such as whether these beings exist."

This argument can be extended to include the fallacy of using the guise of science to try to explain and rationalize the things I've mentioned above, things like the Big Bang, the Theory of Evolution, and the Bible and the existence (or non-existence) of God.  Science has it limitations, yet its disciples persist in thinking that it is the be-all and end-all of standards by which we can judge something as being true or real.

Scientists and their disciples mock and reject any notion of God or the writings of the Bible because they require non-tangible concepts like faith and belief.  They think that ideas like the empty tomb suggest that Jesus didn't actually exist or that his body was stolen and buried elsewhere.  In their minds, it would be too fanciful to take the Biblical account at face value, to actually accept its claim that Jesus rose physically from the dead and ascended to Heaven forty days later and after being witnessed by over 500 people and even physically touched by a few of them.  They ignore the historical, archaeological, and legal evidences of this and all other Biblical accounts because they can't put them in a test tube or analyze them under a microscope.  Or even if they can, in the case of archaeological evidences, they ignore them and move on to try to poke more holes instead of accepting that they might have been wrong in their assumptions.

In any case, such people are quick to embrace accounts of the Jewish Holocaust of World War II because there are several witnesses to this atrocity who are still alive, who we can still see and touch.  But years after these survivors are gone, you can bet that the detractors, those who deny the Holocaust - who existed even during WW II - will gain followers simply due to the lack of witnesses to stand up against them.

Funny thing, there were still several witnesses to the life and miracles of Jesus - believing and non - while every one of the New Testament letters were being penned, yet somehow none of the skeptics decided to write things contrary to the claims they presented, such as the deity of Jesus Christ.  It has been suggested that there were simply too many witnesses that would have made them appear as fools and thus, knowing they didn't have a case, therefore didn't make one.

So why do skeptics in this day and age think they have a legitimate case against the claims of the Bible?  Why do they think the historical, archaeological, and legal evidences that have always supported its claims are somehow null and void just because two millenia have passed?  It's sure easy to try to discredit something once the living witnesses have all died off, and so the non-believers and mockers of this generation follow in vain the footsteps of those before them, often dredging up old arguments that were put to rest in generations past.

However, their greatest fallacy is the claim that there is no "scientific evidence" for the Bible and therefore the credibility of its God and its claims.  They tend to overlook the scientific evidence that abounds with respect to archaeology, and the historical and legal evidences that many have undertaken through history and found to overwhelmingly support the credibility of the Bible.

But as believers let's face it:  Jesus could appear to each and every skeptic on this planet and perform miracle after miracle and claim after each one that they are the result of being the one and only Son of God - the ultimate display of evidence - but there would still be skeptics not because of lack of evidence, but because of a lack of desire born out of pride and ego that would prevent them from believing.

Oh, but wait a minute, Jesus did appear to believers and skeptics alike during his first time here on earth, and guess what:  some of those who saw him and his miracles and heard his claims were also skeptical despite this ultimate display of evidence!  Why?  How could this possibly be the case in light of the overwhelming evidence?  Because - ta da! - they lacked a desire to believe that was born out of pride and ego, not because of a lack of evidence.  Or to put this another way, it's not that they couldn't believe, it's that they wouldn't. 

Some of these people had a lot of worldly status, prestige, and possibly wealth to lose - or so they thought - if they believed that Jesus is the Messiah and the one true Son of God, and so they simply chose not to believe in order to try to protect themselves.  Not to mention their fear of ridicule and the possibility of losing the respect of family and so-called friends.  The exact same is true in this day and age when people are presented with the gospel of Jesus Christ.

So what of science and its supposed lack of ability to give credibility to the Bible and thus God and Jesus?  Well, it ultimately doesn't matter.  What matters is individual men and women getting over themselves and making a decision in their heart to accept or reject the claims of the Bible regarding Jesus Christ.  Science can't make this decision for them, but only their desire to believe or not believe can.  And no amount of scientific thought or reasoning will be able to rescue them from their fate should they ultimately choose not to believe.

Why don't people believe? Part II

Part I of this topic explained how some people don't believe in God because they like to do things their way, regardless of how immoral some of these things are. And people will do the immoral things ("evil", according to God's definition) because they "love" living in "darkness" apart from God instead of in the "light" of God's forgiveness and presence in their lives.

With this recap, I will suggest another reason why some people don't believe in God (or more accurately, choose not to believe in God). Some people simply get upset by how Jesus claims to be the only way to know and come to God. Jesus explained it this way:

"I am THE way, THE truth, and THE life. NO ONE comes to the Father except through Me." (Capitalization added for emphasis.) -- John 14:6

The hornets' nest is stirred up even more when they read claims like:

"The one who has seen Me [Jesus] has seen the Father [God]." -- John 14:9

Jesus equates Himself with God even more blatantly in the following passage:

"The Father [God] and I are one." -- John 10:30

As you can imagine, most Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, and followers of other religions and cults who don't use the Bible as the scriptural basis for their beliefs are upset - and some even completely outraged - by such statements. They accuse the Christian of being "exclusive" and "narrow-minded", among other things. They accuse Jesus of being a fraud and of being delusional. Such statements also fly in the face of modern spiritual thinking that there are "many ways" to God instead of "the way" that Jesus Christ claims to be.

So who's right: Is Jesus the only way to God, or is He not?

There are so many ways that this question can be explored. One can look at the mountains of archaeological evidence that give credibility to biblical names and places and use this to conclude that the Bible and whatever is written therein must be true. One can look at the extra-biblical accounts of Roman concern over the unrest caused by the ministry and teachings of Jesus and use this for evidence in His existence and in biblical credibility and teachings. One can look at the number of biblical prophecies fulfilled by Jesus and the infinitesimally small possibility of them being fulfilled by one man alone and use this to form the basis of their faith in Jesus. (Here's a great article about the odds of Jesus being this man.)

But rather than going on a search for evidence at this point - something that you can embark on if you wish - let me instead suggest that you first consider the following:

What if Jesus was right?

What if He was actually for real and was actually in the presence of His Father God in heaven, since before the dawn of time, before being placed into the womb of a Jewish teenager and living on earth as simultaneously the Son of God and the Son of Man for 33 years before being crucified on a Roman cross (according to God's plan and purpose) then bodily rising from death from a guarded tomb and appearing to 500 of His disciples at one time - and also His apostles, including one who actually touched one of Jesus' crucifixion wounds - and others over a 40-day period, then taken up into a cloud into heaven in the presence of several people and even two angels? (Whew!!)

Is it possible that all other religions of the world and the cults have gotten it all wrong? Is it possible that all of their attempts to worship and please their gods are totally in vain because their gods do not even exist? Well, according to the Bible and the words of Jesus, these things are the case!

The saying "Pride comes before a fall" is taken from the book of Proverbs, chapter 16 verse 18 (Proverbs 16:18). Humans love to acquire wealth and power and prestige and self-achievement and so on, and the root and result of these things is none other than pride. Pride likes to thumb its nose at others - and God - and say, "Look at what I have done. Look who I am. Look at what I have accomplished." Pride makes dependence upon anyone else - especially God - impossible. Pride also never wants us to admit that we might actually be wrong.

The reason why so many people throughout history have been insulted, angry, and even enraged to the point of murder about the claims of Jesus is not so much because they fear Him being right, but more so because they fear being wrong. They simply don't want their pride to be dragged through the mud of truth. In the case of people who have risen to religious prominence apart from the teachings that Jesus is God and the only way to come to God and that the Bible is infallible, they also risk the loss of wealth and power and prestige if Jesus is proven correct. The hyper-religious Pharisees and Sadducees of Jesus' time are prime examples, and they stopped at nothing to kill Jesus (or so they thought) and his followers. Modern-day Pharisees live on in the form of the non-Christian religions and cults of this day.

Before you decide to protest or complain about what you have just read, just remember that it's no use shooting the messenger, me in this case. I'm only re-stating what Jesus said and what the Bible records. Your real issue is not actually with me or with this blog, it's with God. Your anger is actually anger towards God, whether you believe in Him or another god or not.

And you need to ask yourself why, exactly, you are mad at God: Are you mad at a Christian or someone else who claims to know God who wronged you at some time in the past? Are you mad at the suggestion that you might actually be wrong, whether you're an atheist or a member of another religious group? Or are you mad at the possibility that God actually did make Jesus the only means by which we can come to Him and know Him?

If you disagree with the claims of Jesus, what I suggest you do from here is really start to ask some serious questions about your current beliefs. If you decide to close your mind and live and die on your current assumptions that you're right and God/Jesus/the Bible is wrong, then the consequences for you as outlined in the Bible will be eternal, and I wouldn't wish these on anyone.

Please don't assume these claims aren't for real without giving them a serious look. Please don't let your pride lead to a fall that will last for an eternity.

Why don't people believe? Part I

There are many reasons why people don't believe in God, specifically in Jesus (who claimed to be the Son of God and the only mediator between man and God, or the only "way" for us to come to God).

One huge reason why people don't believe in God (or Jesus) is addressed by Jesus Himself while answering the inquiries of a man named Nicodemus, one of the top religious leaders of His day who came secretly to visit Jesus one night:

"Anyone who believes in Him [Jesus] is not condemned, but anyone who does not believe is already condemned, because he has not believed in the name of the One and Only Son of God [Jesus].

This, then, is the judgment: the light [good news, or "gospel" of Jesus] has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than the light because their deeds were evil. For everyone who practices wicked things hates the light and avoids it, so that his deeds may not be exposed."

When I first came upon this passage in the New Testament of the Bible, in the book of John chapter 3, versus 18-20 (John 3: 18-20) after I had decided to become a believer in Jesus Christ, it explained to me the main hang-up that I had had with God before I came to believe.

Before I wanted anything to do with God, I completely ignored anything to do with God. This is because I knew that if God did exist, then I for sure was doing things He didn't like and I didn't want to face His wrath and judgment. So I thought that ignoring God was the best way to deal with this. If there was a heaven and hell, I reasoned, I would try to explain to Him at the "Pearly Gates" all the good things I did while alive so that He might cut me some slack and let me live a peaceful eternity up there in heaven.

I didn't realize at the time that only the forgiveness of Jesus would get me there, not my pathetic attempts at being good! I also didn't realize that only perfection gets one into heaven, and that Jesus becomes our perfection for us - our representative before God - only once we ask Jesus to forgive us for all the things we've done to displease God (our "sins").

Besides not wanting to face God and be accountable to Him for what I did, I enjoyed the things I was doing: the pornography, the relationships with different women, swearing in ways that would make a trucker look like a saint, getting drunk, and so on. If I allowed God into my life, I reasoned, then I wouldn't be able to do any of these things and life wouldn't be "fun" any more. I even went so far as to assume that believing in God (which I wrongly equated to "being religious") would mean becoming and hanging-out with Ned Flanders-types around a campfire and singing Kumbuyah.

Basically, at that point in my life, I was fulfilling scripture, I was confirming and validating the words of the Bible. I loved darkness rather than the light because my deeds were evil. They weren't evil in terms of modern human standards, but they were evil in the eyes of a perfect God! I hated what God had to offer me through Jesus and therefore avoided it because I didn't want the things I did to have to be dealt with and changed. Only now can I look back on this mindset and realize how closed-minded and naive I was, forming stereotypes and assuming things about God that were not true.

But a funny thing happened while I was trying to avoid God and live life my way. I started reading some self-help books because I knew there were things wrong with my life, but I didn't know how else to go about changing them. I was unhappy and unsatisfied, and there was something missing that I couldn't find in all my pursuits because the pleasure was always so short-lived and empty feeling. There was no long-lasting peace or joy that came out of these things. So I decided that these books had the answer, and I started reading classics like "How to Win Friends and Influence People" because, for example, I thought more friends and success would give me the peace and joy I was missing.

As I got into more books, I remember one time reading one that mentioned the word "God" on the second page of the book. I was so enraged that this author was trying to bring God into the mix when all I wanted to learn about was success and wealth that I returned the book! If you've read this blog or just this post so far and think that I've always been a believer, I can assure you that few who have ever lived were more violently opposed to anyone trying to tell me about God than I was!

Anyhow, as I delved deeper into my self-help journey, I came to realize (with much resentment at first) that all success principles have their origin in the Bible. I was surprised by this because I thought the Bible was only about God's wrath and judgement, but here I was being exposed to a loving God that actually wants the best for us and wants us reconciled to Him so that we can have an eternal relationship with Him and not apart from Him in the "other place".

Over time, I began to open myself up more to God and what the Bible had to say. I began to think deeply about my assumptions about the origins of life, for example, and while looking at my hand and it's intricate musculo-skeletal motions began to wonder how something so complex and precise could have possibly arisen from blind, random evolutionary processes apart from a creative force like that of God. I thought about the human creative design poured into things like a watch or a camera, things far less complicated than the human hand, and realized that it was foolish to assume that the hand was not created by something far more powerful than the human mind.

But the kicker for me was the realization that I had to stop always assuming that the Bible was wrong or only half-true and instead realize that perhaps I was wrong. I did not want to take the chance of assuming that hell wasn’t real only to end up there someday. If I did, it would be a mistake that I would have to live with for an eternity with no way out. I did not want the Bible to prove me wrong after it was too late.

So what really happened after I finally broke down and decided to come to God through Jesus and ask to be forgiven for all the things that I had done to displease Him (my "sins")? Did my life suddenly fall apart as God said "Aha!!" and began to punish me for all the sexual immorality and drunkenness I had committed? Did I get the sudden urge to give away all of my possessions and move to the tropical rain-forest and preach the Gospel to a cannibalistic tribe while living a life of celibacy and self-denial?

Actually, much the opposite happened. I felt a sense of release and forgiveness and peace unlike anything I had ever experienced. I sensed a great love from God, not a feeling of guilt and condemnation. Whenever I went back to those habits that had caused those temporary feelings of happiness before, I instead felt a great sense of meaninglessness and emptiness and I would actually get depressed. But whenever I would pray or flip open the Bible - which actually made sense to me now that God's spirit (the Holy Spirit) was living inside of me, teaching me how to interpret the Bible - that sense of forgiveness and peace and love would return.

The neatest part to this story, however, is how God eventually replaced my old habits with new ones that give me far more satisfaction and happiness! I no longer feel the urge to engage in any of the sexual sins (marital sex is not a sin, by the way!) or the drunkenness that I used to want so much.

So this was a much longer version than I had anticipated about explaining why people don't believe, because I also wanted to explain what wonderful good can happen when a person decides to get over the objection or stumbling block to their disbelief. In other posts, I will discuss other major reasons why people don't believe in God.