Faith & Reason

Faith and reason interplay.

"God has put enough into this world to make faith in Him a most reasonable thing, but has left enough out to make it impossible to live by sheer reason alone. There's an interplay - it is not faith in nothingness or subjectivity, it is the systematic reasoning that God gives to us, it says, 'You're the One whom I want to lean on for this.' So the dimensions are there, both. And the fact of the matter is, the scientist too lives an awful lot by faith."
--Ravi Zacharias

Mind and Heart Q&A (Part 1 0f 4)
An open forum with Dr. Ravi Zacharias and two top scientists - Louw Alberts and David Block. Continue reading →

Has Christianity Failed You?

"In the effort to become relevant, we have forgotten that some things are going to be irrelevant, and it is we who need to become relevant to the truth - not the other way around. Imagine the old, whole idea of a square peg in a round hole... trying to force it - what you do in the end is just damage the edges of the peg. And sometimes we force God into our mold, and then when He doesn't fit, we damage God. We say, 'This is what I expected of you, but it has not turned out.' What I think I have concluded is this: That the greatest of loves will often come at the greatest of cost. The greatest of loves will never come cheaply. It takes everything you've got to honor that love, and it takes everything you've got to honor that trust. And the greatest of love that you and I could have is that relationship with God."
--Ravi Zacharias

Has Christianity Failed You?:

Part 1
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Part 3 (Coming Soon)
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Spirituality

What you need to do is not be spiritual, but be spiritually right. You have a right to believe whatever you choose, but what you believe must be right.
--Ravi Zacharias

Click here to hear the entire answer to the question: Do we have to say it's only Christianity that will save the world or will Spirituality? Continue reading →

Postmodernism and Christianity

Is there any consistency between Postmodernism and Christianity?

Postmodernism brings us two things:

1. No truth, no meaning, no certainty.
   
2. The denegration of propositional truth. Language is not at the command of the author. The interpretation is at the command of the reader.

You take no truth, no meaning, no certainty and that the objective truth of the writer is gone, what's left of the Bible? What's left of Christianity? So, there is no common ground in their epistemology (The base from which they come to truth.) However, Postmodernism has done something positive for us...


Postmodernism reminds us of two very important things in life:

1. The Importance of the Story. There is a story that people love to hear. If we do preaching only at a cerebral level and just at a level of logic and reason, without the story, it will come unhinged and unmoored.


2. The Importance of Community. Here, the church has a lot to learn. The church sometimes has become ruggedly individualistic and forgotten the community. In fact, those who are hurting or those who have blown it or those who have made mistakes, we are the first one to pounce on them and pulverize them and pummel them to the ground when we should be the ones waiting for them to come so that we can help them in their need.

These points were taken from Ravi Zacharias. Click here to hear everything he had to say, concerning this particular question (Is there any consistency between Postmodernism and Christianity?)

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Faith

"What is faith?"

As Christians, we often tell people that we have "faith" and that our "faith" is in Jesus Christ. But just what is this faith that we speak of? What does it mean to have "faith"?

Hebrews 11:1-3 & 6(NIV)
1 Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. 2 This is what the ancients were commended for. 3 By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God's command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.

6 And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.

For reasons only (fully and truly) known by God, we (mankind) have been called to have faith in God.

Why am I telling you this?

To simply acknowledge that it does indeed take faith to be a follower of Jesus Christ. In previous posts, I have talked about how unshakably true the Word of God is and how the Christian faith and the Bible have withstood the fiercest scrutiny. Yet, even when the facts stack up and all things point to the Bible being true... you come to that point where you have to have faith. You've never seen God, you've never heard God, so you don't know that He is real (a lot of times as humans, we don't believe it unless we see it), but His Word tells us that He is and He asks us to have faith.

"How can I REALLY, TRULY know that God is real? If He is real, why can't I see Him? Why can't I hear Him? Why......"

John 20:24-29 (NIV)
24 Now Thomas (called Didymus), one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came. 25 So the other disciples told him, "We have seen the Lord!" But he said to them, "Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe it." 26 A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you!" 27 Then he said to Thomas, "Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe." 28 Thomas said to him, "My Lord and my God!" 29 Then Jesus told him, "Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed." Continue reading →

Worship

How do we regain or retain the integrity of worship? The risks we flirt with today in the Christian world, where worship has become an experience rather than a way of life, is a very very risky proposition. How do we keep worship holding it's theological integrity, and finding its existential relevance? If we do not understand how to retain its integrity and maintain relevance, we will lose one of the two in the process and the church either becomes irrelevant or loses truth in the process.
-- Ravi Zacharias

Secularization: Its Control and Power
by Ravi Zacharias

• Part 2 0f 2
• Part 1 of 2

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Proceed with Caution

This is a reminder/warning to those who claim to be followers of Jesus Christ. The Bible is the infallible Word of God. It is our ultimate source of truth. It is good to read books and listen to audio by Christians, but BE CAUTIOUS. Remember, they are a sinner, just like you, therefore their understanding may not be correct.

Ecclesiastes 7:20 (NKJV)
For there is not a just man on earth who does good and does not sin.

Also, there are men who appear to be righteous, and of God, but are in fact - not.

II Corinthians 11:12-15 (NIV)
12 And I will keep on doing what I am doing in order to cut the ground from under those who want an opportunity to be considered equal with us in the things they boast about. 13 For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, masquerading as apostles of Christ. 14 And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light. 15 It is not surprising, then, if his servants masquerade as servants of righteousness. Their end will be what their actions deserve.

Anything written or said outside of the Bible should be handled with caution. Some people even try to twist what is written in the Bible for their own purposes or ideas. When you listen and/or read, use discernment. Compare what is said to what is written in scripture. If everything they say seems to line-up with what the Bible says, that's great, but do not be followers of men... be followers of Christ. The reason I say this is because we are all capable of getting off the path, and if we follow someone too closely, and their teaching somehow becomes corrupt, we might just become corrupt right along with them. Always take a mental stance that the Bible is the constant, unchanging source of truth. I love Dr. Ravi Zacharias, and he has yet to say anything that I disagree with. However, I must remember that he is not the Christ. Yes, even if he somehow became corrupt (which I don't think for a moment that he will), the things he has spoken, that are true, remain true. But, where the warning comes in is if he were to start teaching things that weren't true, and I was sold on the idea that "Ravi Zacharias is truth", then I am putting myself at risk.

On the other hand, let us be careful not to completely discredit those God uses, just because we don't agree with EVERYTHING that they say. It is important to listen, and then separate what is right and what is wrong. You'll find that you will not agree with everything that every pastor or teacher says. We must first ask ourselves, "Does the good outweigh the bad?" If so, then we can mentally decide (if we choose) to keep learning from that teacher or preacher. But, there is one more thing we must do before we decide to keep learning from the individual. We must analyze the "bad".

How bad is it? Has the person stated that we must lift our hands in the air when we worship? If so, and you disagree, that is a matter of opinion and/or personal preference. Correct me if I'm wrong, but the Bible does not give us a specific description of how to conduct a church worship service. It does not say, "Sing hymns, not contemporary Christian music." or vise versa. So, if you disagree with the person on that issue, that's fine, but be careful not to go around telling everyone that everything that person says is wrong because you disagree on the one topic.

Has the person stated that all we have to do is love our neighbor and do good things and we will be accepted by God, and go to heaven when we die? This is a doctrinal error and not a matter of opinion or personal preference. This is a matter of truth and should not be taken lightly. When something like this happens, we have to pray and consider if this person is truly being led by the Holy Spirit to preach or teach. Even if they said 99 other things and they were all correct, this one statement still holds much concern and we need to be wary of the one that said it.

Don't live a life of paranoia, always doubting everything that is said because "there is no one who does good, not even one." (Romans 3:12). Remember that God used sinful men all throughout scripture. Study God's Word, grow in your relationship with Him, and He will give you discernment and help reveal who is speaking in truth and who is not. Life may throw us curveballs sometimes, and righteous men may fall. This warning is written to help you prepare your heart and mind for those moments.

Final note - This is a quote from myself and something I remind myself of constantly:

When others around us fail, it's encouraging to know that Jesus never did. Continue reading →

Christianity is for Dummies

If you are reading this and you are a Christian, please know that I'm not ACTUALLY suggesting that Christianity is for dummies. If you are not a Christian and you are reading this, please know that this is in NO WAY sarcastic in any sense and is not a slam against the "non-believer" (as we refer to you in the Christian worldview). This note is very serious and is mostly written to encourage you to think about life, God, the Bible, and the Christian Worldview vs. other worldviews.

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Many mistakenly believe that Christian belief, because it involves faith, is unsupported by reason and evidence and that becoming a Christian requires checking your intellect at the door and accepting Christian truth claims unquestioningly. But anyone who has truly studied Christian theology and apologetics understands that Christianity rests on a powerful body of evidence and that reason and intellect are its allies, not its enemies.

Before you cavalierly assume that there are unanswerable contradictions or unfathomable paradoxes, before you reject Christian theology out of hand because you witness Christian hypocrisy, before you dismiss the Bible as merely a wonderful piece of literature with some instructive moral stories, do yourself the favor of reading it for yourself. And read what other believing, conservative scholars and theologians have written on the subject.

You will come away enriched beyond your greatest expectations and no longer able to say that Christianity is for dummies -- or ducks the tough questions. Debunking the stereotype of the Christian as a nonthinker and that Christianity discourages intellectual examination, Ravi says, "We are fashioned by God to be thinking and emotional creatures. The emotions should follow reason, and not the other way around."

-- David Limbaugh, Townhall.com Columnist

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It's easy for us to become overwhelmed by the great number of "truths" in our world. Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Mormonism, Jehovah's Witnesses, Darwinism, Catholicism, and more. The easy solution would be to look at all these and say, "They can't all be right, so they must all be wrong!" Why is that the easy solution? Because it requires a lot less effort and thinking.

Remember when you were in school and you had the multiple choice questions and occasionally you got the "D. None of the above." option? You probably feel like circling that in the test of life, don't you?

I'm going to ask you some questions and I want you to REALLY think about them:

Do you REALLY think that life is a random accident?

Think about your own body, your own emotions, and the world around you... did this all REALLY come from nothing? Even scientists will support the notion that the earth, and life itself for that matter, is not eternal. Science says that the earth does indeed have an "age" though they're not certain how old it actually is. Nobody in the scientific world is saying "The earth has ALWAYS been, there is no beginning." If that were the case, maybe we would have less to be concerned about.

So, we (mankind) had a beginning... almost everyone can agree on that (except the extra stubborn). Do you care? Does that matter? Why should it matter? Does "not caring" make it any less important?

...

Ravi Zacharias argues that a coherent worldview must be able to satisfactorily answer four questions: that of origin, meaning, morality, and destiny. He claims that while every major religion makes exclusive claims about truth, the Christian faith is unique in its ability to answer all four of these questions. He routinely speaks on the coherency of the Christian worldview, claiming that Christianity is capable of withstanding the toughest philosophical attacks. Why do I bring him up? Simple, he's a thinker. Ravi Zacharias is no "sheeple". And he's not the only one... there are many Christians out there who have weighed Christianity against the other religions/philosophies of this world and walked away believing in the God of the Bible. That's powerful stuff and not something to be taken lightly.

So what's the point? What am I trying to say?

There is something very powerful about Christianity that has withstood history. I am challenging you ask yourself a very simple yet complex question - Why?

I would also challenge you by suggesting that your strongest resistance to the faith may be it's moral implications. With that said, I would like you to think about a few things that are related to this topic of morality and that happen to be two very popular and accepted things here in the United States:

The Bible says: “Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit.”

You may have a problem with that because you “like” to get drunk, but let me ask you this: Why do you drink? When you drink, do you feel full of life, or do you feel empty inside? Does the alcohol make your problems go away, or are they just temporarily removed from your mind?
The Bible is against pre-marital sex, and all sex outside of the bond of marriage, between one man and one woman.

You may have a problem with that, but let me ask you this: Why is it that people who have sexual relations with multiple partners and/or same sex partners are much more likely to get a sexually transmitted disease? Why do they only have medications that treat the symptoms of these diseases, but there is no actual "cure" for most of them? Why does “free sex”, as the hippies called it, lead to so many health problems? Do you agree with the Trojan Condom company that we just need to “evolve” and use “protection” and ignore that this type of lifestyle is literally bad for our bodies otherwise? Do you REALLY agree with that? Does that REALLY seem "logical"?

...

Would it really be ALL THAT BAD to give up these things that are really quite harmful (or at least not helpful) anyways?

One last time (in this note) I will quote Ravi:

“A man rejects God neither because of intellectual demands nor because of the scarcity of evidence. A man rejects God because of a moral resistance that refuses to admit his need for God.”

Let me suggest that there just might be more to the Christian life than you currently understand and/or more than you'd care to try and comprehend. And I'd also suggest that it's something worth examining further.

Just something to think about......

Psalm 14:1 (NKJV)
The fool says in his heart, "There is no God." Continue reading →