Reasonable Faith

Somehow, faith has become a bad word these days. Somehow, faith has been divorced from logic these days. Somehow, faith rules the heart but reason rules the mind these days. When did this happen?

It used to be that faith and reason walked hand in hand. Faith led to scientific discovery. Faith formed nations. Faith changed people. Faith without reason was fantasy. Not so today. Somewhere during the Renaissance, faith left its rational roots and became some sort of hocus pocus.

Earlier I said that I grew up in a Christian home. My faith defines me, but my faith is not irrational. My faith must remain consistent with reason otherwise it is fancy. If my faith were not rational, I would be a fool for holding to it. Faith without reason leads to all sorts of craziness. My faith is so rational that without it, my world would crumble. If my faith proved false (not the logical order) then my faith would be useless, and I would be the most pitiful fool. Anyone that holds to irrational faith is just asking for ridicule. Apologetics is all about the reason for faith. Yes, faith has a supernatural quality to it, but if it doesn’t make sense it will guide you to places you shouldn’t go. Be ready to give reason for your faith, not to defend it against others to convince them, but to keep it steady in your life.

Totally Biased

I grew up in a Christian home, with Christian parents, with Christian stories. I accepted Christ at a young age. I have been a Christian for about twenty-four years. So I must admit bias. But is that bias wrong? Is it wrong to be biased? How would we function if we weren’t biased?

We all have our biases. They are part of our worldview. Some biases are harmful, to us and to others, while some are neutral, and others are helpful. Without them it would be difficult to comprehend our world. Unfortunately, in terms of spirituality, it seems Christian biases are the only ones perceived as bad. An Atheist is biased against God, so any evidence presented that indicates God would be immediately dismissed, and this would be a good thing. A Christian with the bias that human life is sacred and thus abortion is wrong? Oh, you silly Christians, we know better now.

You and I cannot function without our biases. Biases should only become wrong when they prevent us from accepting the truth. But our biases must be rational. They help us to weed out bad information or faulty logic. They keep us from blowing on the wind of every new idea. Without them, we would not have the technology we have today. They guide us in our daily lives as our default mode of thinking. They can lead to stagnation, true enough, but without them we cannot progress. Hold to your biases, but not so tightly that you shut your eyes to everything else. Compare the new ideas to your bias, and if they make more sense, make new biases. 

Jesus, One Among Many

There are many out there that claim that Jesus is just one savior among a host of other saviors. There are many cultures before Jesus’ time that had similar persons that showed up claiming deity, being born of a virgin, having disciples, performing miracles, and saving mankind. Admittedly, I had never heard about these others until I started looking into the opposition, so I was a little taken aback at first.

Then I engaged my brain. How many of those “saviors” fulfilled over 200 prophecies written as much as a millennium before His arrival? How many have changed the lives of millions of people? How many started a religion that has lasted over 2000 years?

The logical train of thought would be that, if He were just one among many, He should have followed suit along with them. What makes Him different, beyond the Christian belief that He was God? For one, He was real. Many of the “saviors” were merely mythical, stories told as tales. He was a real person in time. For another, He was consistent. He preached the same message from the beginning of His ministry until His ascension into Heaven. I’m sure there are a few more, but these are sufficient for my point.

When you come down to it though, He is the one true Savior because He has stood the test of time. From an earthly perspective, that just does not make any sense. He should have followed in the footsteps of His predecessors, but He did not. Ultimately, the reason He hasn’t faded into the obscurity of history and myth is because the Holy Spirit is active in keeping His followers true. Without some sort of external force, Jesus would have been a footnote in the history of failed religions. He is singular in His ministry, His life, His death, His resurrection, and His ascension. He is the Lord on high, and in the end, EVERY knee will bow and EVERY tongue will confess that He is Lord and Savior.

Jesus The Madman

The argument is out there that Jesus was either Lord, liar, or lunatic. Rationally, He could only be Lord or lunatic. Most people lie to improve their lot or the lot of others. It would be irrational for Jesus to maintain the lie while in front of the High Priests, or even further in the court of Pilate. At that point, any sane person would hold up their hands and recant. So, either He was God as He claimed, or He was insane.

Opponents to Christianity like to claim He wasn’t a real person, but that has been refuted time and again. The next claim is that He wasn’t God. He was a moral teacher, or a good person, but certainly not God. But if He wasn’t God, in what sense could He be seen as a moral teacher? If He was so insane as to go to His death on the claim that He was God (make no mistake, He made that claim clearly and repeatedly), how could we possibly look on Him as any source for moral life? He was INSANE! We don’t look to the crazy people for Truth.

I recently read in a book (Evidence That Demands A Verdict) about how He could not be a liar because of how consistent He was. I have more to read on His lunacy, but I imagine the argument could be made equally well as applied to His insanity. From beginning to end, Jesus was calm, cool, rational, loving, coherent, and consistent (barring His two clearings of the temple). It would be extremely difficult for someone concocting this illusion to remain as consistent as Jesus was during His ministry. It would be nigh impossible for a lunatic to do what Jesus did. Insane people that believe themselves to be God do not maintain such an even personality.

Finally, Jesus made the claim that He was God repeatedly and clearly, so clearly that the Jews were always trying to stone Him for His blasphemy. Either you believe His claim and follow Him, or you don’t believe Him and ignore His teachings. You cannot do a little of both and be consistent or rational. To believe He was just a man with good lessons would be a horrible position to take.

Punishments of Sin

One of the arguments against Christians is that we claim that the Bible is God’s Word, and yet we don’t follow all of it. Most often it is in reference to the Old Testament, and even more often the punishments are pointed out. Children stoned for disobedience, adulterers stoned, and so on. Often those in the debate are put on their heels when someone brings up the Old Testament punishments. I don’t see a problem with believing that the Moral Law still holds while the punishment for disobeying that Law doesn’t. We do it all the time even today in America. It used to be that the punishment for premeditated murder was death. Over time we have changed the punishment for murder, but we haven’t changed the belief that murder is wrong.

That is the exact teaching of Scripture to Christians about the Law. We are no longer held under the punishments of the Law, but we are still held to the morality of the Law. It is still a sin to disobey your parents, or to commit adultery, or to have sex outside of marriage, or to have homosexual sex. The fact that we no longer hold the same punishments for those sins doesn’t mean they are no longer sins. Christ came to fulfill the Law, not remove it. Without the Law, it becomes difficult to delineate right and wrong. We can see that clearly in our society today. We want to redefine right and wrong so that we can do what we want to do. The Law says that homosexual activity is a sin, but since there are those among us that want to participate in homosexual activity, we must redefine the Law, and since we no longer punish homosexuals with death, then it must be alright, right?

Don’t let the world fool you. What God considered sin 5,000 years ago He still considers sin today. The fact that the earthly punishment for those sins has changed doesn’t diminish the fact that they are still sins. Ultimately, the punishment has remained the same for all sins for all time, “The wages of sin is death.” Temporally, punishments shift, but the sin remains sin.

Opposition With My Allies

I often find myself confounded by the things people say they believe. A famous atheist said that he would believe aliens deposited life on Earth before he’ll believe God did. Really? And the fact that that still doesn’t answer the question about the origins of life doesn’t faze you? While I can’t see this as a reasonable statement, it would be consistent with an atheistic view. The ones that really irk me are more often the beliefs professed by Christians, and I think rightfully so. Nobody likes to see their personal belief system maligned by others, and it is especially worse when the insulter is on your side.

I may balk at the claims made by my opponents, but I must cringe and shake my head when my abettors say things completely antithetical to our side. When Christians rally with signs and shouts of “God hates gays”, I must cringe. That is hateful speech, not loving, and is completely unbiblical. But the ones that really get to me are the ones that clearly contradict Scripture. I once heard a widely respected pastor tell a woman that she did not need to love her husband if he didn’t love and respect her. That one made me scream at the heresy. Scripture in fact tells the complete opposite, love your spouse no matter what they do. Or how about the claim that God refuses to directly interfere with the thoughts and actions of people? It is foolish for a Christian to hold this position because Scripture clearly teaches and shows examples of God directly interfering with people’s thoughts and actions, and nevermind the fact that it is in opposition to the Sovereignty of God. And the list goes on.

Unfortunately, this is a sad outcome of the wide “popularity” of Christianity. I’ve heard claims that the United States is made up of as much as 85% Christians. That number seems absurdly high to me, seeing as how Christians are being attacked on so many fronts. My concern in all this is consistency. I would rather debate someone who I disagree with vehemently who is consistent than be sided with someone I agree with who is inconsistent. 

Why Must The Bible Be Historically Accurate?

In my study of the opposition, this question has come up repeatedly. Honestly, the question answers itself, but that would require thinking about the implications of the question. Why does it matter if the Bible is accurate? The implied statement is, the Bible is a religious document just like any other. And that is the answer to the question. If the Bible is not accurate, it is merely myth book, or a morality play, not the inspired Word of God and holds no more authority than any other religious text.

“But it still holds good ways to live among others,” is often the response of Christians that don’t hold to an accurate Bible. Unfortunately, they aren’t thinking this through. It becomes merely a social gospel without authority. Christianity is based on the authoritative teachings of Christ. We must believe that Christ is who He claimed to be, and if the Bible isn’t accurate, how can we believe the words He said? If the Bible is not accurate historically, it moves out of the realm of inspired Word of God, and into the realm of conglomeration of writings by several human authors trying to teach a lesson.

People try to remove the authority of Scripture because they know it claims that authority. They also know that without that authority, it is no more important to live by than any other religious text. Sure, it has good social teachings, but so do many others, but they are no more authoritative than this blog. Without the morality given by God through His Word, morality becomes fluid and only conditional on the culture’s definition of what is moral. Hold to the accuracy of Scripture, because without it, we are the most pitiful people.