For those in Newtown, CT

Today, my prayers go out to the friends and families of the victims in Newtown, Connecticut. May God shed His grace on you.

Why it is Rational to Believe in a God - Part 3

The God of the Bible

I understand that the Bible is not always an easy book to understand. Last week I was told that a verse I gave to one of my coworkers was vague, and I could not argue with the claim. Indeed, there are parts of the Bible that seem vague and verses that are rather general. But is this book truly reliable historically, archaeologically, and practically?

Why the Bible can be trusted:

1. Fulfillment of Prophecies
This is one of the strongest arguments for Jesus as the Messiah, the Christ. Countless prophecies were made about the Christ in the Old Testament from Genesis 3 to Malachi 4. If Jesus was just a man, He would have had no control over the fulfillment of most of these prophecies. For instance, in Micah 5:2 it is predicted that a Ruler, who has always been, will come from Bethlehem. Hey, guess what - about 400 years later Jesus Christ was born in Bethlehem.

And seeing the trustworthiness of so many prophecies fulfilled already, I have no problem trusting ones made about the future.

2. The Unity of the Scriptures
It has long been known that the Bible has a unified, non-contradictory message. If there were any true antitheses in the Bible, they would have been exposed long ago and the Bible would not be trusted still.

It is amazing that a book so large could have a harmonized message, but it does because it is God's word.

3. Historical and Practical Details
To that one might argue, "Well, the Qur'an doesn't have any contradictions either."

What sets the Bible apart from any other religious book is its detail. It does not merely tell of a miracle - it states what kind of miracle. And not only did the Bible record miracles, but it gave the specific setting.

There are several claims in the Qur'an that no one else can write a surah as beautifully as is in the Qur'an itself (Qur'an 2:23; 10:37-38; 17:88; 52:33-34). Not only is this challenge - the likes of which never appear in the Bible - so vague, but it has been argued by many that surahs that are as artistically beautiful as the ones in the Qur'an can be written both in English and in Arabic.

4. The Testimony of Witnesses
Had Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John reported falsehood in any of their manuscripts, it would have been known all over Jerusalem. The first gospel was published within 30 years of Jesus' death, so the events would have been witnessed by many people of the day, and all lies would have been exposed. Also, there would have been an uproar in the early church that one of its own members was writing lies about Jesus, the builder and cornerstone.

None of the authors of the gospels wandered out and sat under trees claiming they had a "revelation." They didn't claim to have seen visions of angels or plates or anything of the like. They wrote historically, accurately, and specifically. No other "holy book" can adhere to such standards.

5. The Affirmation of Historians to Follow
Of course, the main historian Christians point to is Josephus. But there were also others after the time of Christ who came and reported the things being spoken by people of the day. Those testimonies affirm the validity of the resurrection story as laid out in the Bible.

Consider this quote by Josephus from Antiquities, book 18, chapter 3:

Now there was about this time Jesus, a wise man, if it be lawful to call him a man; for he was a doer of wonderful works, a teacher of such men as receive the truth with pleasure. He drew over to him both many of the Jews and many of the Gentiles. He was [the] Christ. And when Pilate, at the suggestion of the principal men amongst us, had condemned him to the cross, those that loved him at the first did not forsake him; for he appeared to them alive again the third day; as the divine prophets had foretold these and ten thousand other wonderful things concerning him. And the tribe of Christians, so named for him, are not extinct at this day.

6. The Death of the Apostles
Out of the 12 apostles mentioned at the outset of Luke's book of Acts, 11 were killed for their faith; and the one who wasn't, John, was exiled. James was beheaded, Peter was crucified upside down, and Andrew hung on an X-shaped cross for three days. It is probable that the others were burned or beheaded. But why would they suffer their all at the expense of a lie? Had they not fully believed the things that they saw with their own eyes, they would have refused to be hunted and killed for Jesus' sake. But their convictions were set because they knew the truth firsthand, and they sealed that truth in their blood.

7. The Conversion of Skeptics
It is painfully evident there are few people today - if any - who hated the idea of the deity of Jesus as much as the Hebrew Saul did. He was a savage toward the early church. Even Jesus' brother James was unbelieving at first.

However, James was persuaded otherwise. Today one of his books, bearing his own name as title, is contained in the New Testament.

Saul was struck down in an encounter with Christ. Having later been renamed Paul, his life took the most drastic change in all of history as he was joined to the church he once persecuted. Eventually he wrote 13 Scriptural letters (and others not placed in the New Testament) to defend the faith he once tried to destroy.

Through the ages, several instances of the like have occurred because of the living and active word of God.

8. The Survival of Israel
If, as God declares in the Bible, Israel is God's chosen people to be saved in the last day (Rom. 11), Israel's establishment as a geographical nation and endurance as a people fits in perfectly. How can such a small nation of not so many people survive in the hardest geographical area of the world?

Their only hope: Emmanuel.

9. Practicality
I could never bring myself to trust the Bible if it were not for its practicality. No one wants a religious book that gives only abstract statements and general commands. The more I study the Bible on my own, the more I see its usefulness in the real world, and the better I understand the person of Christ Himself.

Every major area of life - sports, marriage, child-raising, depression, fear, anxiety, love, hardship etc. - is dealt with in a specific way in Scripture. In fact, because of the teachings of Paul (1 Cor. 9:24-27; 1 Tim. 4:8), I exercise, and I do it with a purpose in mind. Why? Because the writings are specific and practical.

10. Personal Testimony
I used this argument in a previous post for the existence of a god. But this can also be applied to the authority of the Bible as God's word. There are several people I know, and many people through history, whose lives have been radically shaken by the word of God. C.S. Lewis, the atheist-converted-Christian, became one of the 20th century's greatest thinkers and authors. A.W. Tozer was also a member of the 20th century whose life was radically shaken when he heard the word of God preached. J. Hudson Taylor, C.H. Spurgeon, and many others had mirroring experiences.

And I myself will testify to the power of God's word. It truly is eternal life to those who are being saved (1 Cor. 1:18). When I began junior high school, I was not a true follower of the Lord Jesus Christ. However, in my new youth group, of which I am now a co-leader, I was challenged to read the word of God. I did it to gain approval and reward. But in the end, I found a much greater reward than I had ever imagined. Truly digging into God's word for the first time brought me to repentance and saving faith in a way that has permanently changed my life.

I am changed - God is witness.


These are only some of the arguments. There are still more. But I don't think they are necessary because herein I find every reason to believe that (1) God exists, (2) He is the God of the Bible, (3) His Son is Jesus Christ, (4) Jesus rose from the dead, and (5) salvation is found in no one else.

Here I charge not only that it is rational to believe in a God but that to believe in any thing else or to worship any god other than the God of the Bible would be irrational. I say this with deep conviction and affectionate love for all agnostics, atheists, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses, Catholics, and members of every other religion or institution. I do not condemn anyone because it is not in my authority or will to do so, but I also firmly hold to my deep-felt conviction of the truth.

And I humbly invite you to share with me the joy I have found in knowing God and being found in Him.

The First Christmas

I have decided to break from my series of a theodicy of God and point my readers' attention to what that first Christmas was like for Joseph, Mary, and Jesus.


Jesus could have been born any night that week,
But the night He was born on was the last one Mary wanted.
It was a historic evening, to be sure,
But it was also one of the worst Christmases had by a person in all of history.
The angel informed her of the Holy Spirit,
But she still must have wondered, How did this happen? -
And Joseph must have thought, What in the world did this girl get me into?

Christ was born among cattle
And greeted by shepherds.
He had no clothes -
Only cloths.
He was placed in a feeding trough
Of the very animals His providence fed.
The hands that held Him
Were the hands He formed.
There were never three kings who came to see Him -
Only one who tried to kill Him.
He was the only person in history who was born
So that He could die.
He is the only God
Who washes feet.
He is the hero with no cape
But a cross.
He is the Life-giver who makes life sacrificial
And death precious.
He is the King of kings
Who wore a crown of thorns,
The Prince of peace
Who was hated by all men,
The God of gods
Who was treated as garbage.
He was the homeless man
Who offered Heaven,
The street-wanderer
Who built a street of gold,
An outcast
Who knew God the Father,
A criminal
Who saves forever from death and from its power.

And because of Him,
We live and move and have our being.
The breath of that baby's cry which broke 400 years' silence
Is the very breath that commands our existence.
The hands that were pierced by nails
Form the universe.
The feet that were nailed through
Run to the poor.
The face that was spat upon
Is the face of love and justice.
The body that was marred as a sacrificed lamb
Held the spirit and strength of a lion.


Merry Christmas.

Why it is Rational to Believe in a God - Part 2

The Eternality and Supernaturality of God

I would like to further expound upon my first point in yesterday's post. Please allow me to summarize. My first argument for the assertion that it is reasonable to believe in a god is the idea of cause and effect. Everything visible to the human eye has a cause. All things are composed of something, and everything comes from somewhere by some process at some definite specific point in time. These are our boundaries. To say that the universe has always been would violate the boundary of time because if the universe has always been we never would have come to this point in time. It is physically and scientifically impossible.

However, would it not be just as irrational to say that there is a god who has always been? After all, does that not demand the question Who created God?

This is a good question. But I do not believe it is illogical or irrational to believe in a god who has always been. If he has always been, however, he must meet certain criteria:

1. God is not primarily a physical being.
I say this because I have just explained that everything we see - everything that is physical - has a cause. If we can see God with physical eyes in a physical place - that is, if God is only or primarily a physical person - he must be a created or caused being. However, the biblical idea of God recognizes this in the following statement: "No one has seen God at any time" (John 1:18).

Here I am not saying - not yet, anyway - that this means the God of the Bible is the one true God. All I claim thus far is that God must be a supernatural deity who transcends the universe and its natural laws. Also, I find it necessary to take a look at the following statement in the book of John: "The only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him." This is the reason I said God is not primarily a physical being. Of course, if He is sovereign, God can take on any form He wants. But His beginning makeup, His primary being is not a physical one. It is superphysical.

2. God is the greatest being that is.
Either He is the greatest, or He is equal to the greatest. Humanism claims that matter has always been. But where did that matter come from? Other matter? Okay, where did that matter come from? And so we go on and on and eventually end up with self-existing, eternal matter (which I think is rather silly).

Let us take an alternate approach. Matter comes from matter and changes form by natural process. But who set matter in motion? Who created it? God did. Okay, who created God? Once a young child was asked that very question; her response: "A bigger god." So then we do the same thing with God and come up with a self-existing, eternal God. If God created all matter and God was all there was before He created, God must be the ultimate transcendent being. He Himself is that bigger God. He has always been.

So, the argument goes, why can you say that God is self-creating and that it is not matter? Why do we need God if they do the same thing? This drives us back to my first point: matter is primarily - and strictly - physical. It is bound by time and the other laws of the universe. It would be a contradiction to say that matter could have always existed. However, since God is supernatural, not natural, He is not bound to those same laws. It is reasonable, and even expected, to believe that God has always been.

This is not to say that He self-created. By definition, that is impossible. He has always been. And if He has always been, He could never have not been to have created Himself. And even if He had not been, nothing ever would have come into being because He could not bring Himself into being since He was not there to do it. In short, self-creation cannot happen. God is eternal.

Conclusion
Here we find ourselves having come to the conclusion that God is eternal, supernatural, and the greatest being in all of existence. This was reached on the premises of reason and science alone. It is the only thing that makes sense.

I shall continue this series soon.

Why it is Rational to Believe in a God - Part 1

Allow me first to be honest here: my heart is broken by the events of this month and last. I am quite sobered that I feel the necessity during the Christmas season to draw up a confession of my most basic belief - God exists. Indeed, I would much rather be posting about Philippians 2 or Luke 2 in lieu of this time of the year, but I see first a more basic need.

Allow me to disregard the opening of books and re-listening to debates and to just speak from my mind and heart. Hereafter is my confession of faith that God exists, and the following are the reasons why:

1. There must be a cause for the universe because every visible thing in the universe has a cause.
There is only one "thing" in all of existence - the universe or elsewhere - that has no cause, and that is God. Every visible thing we see comes from somewhere. Mammals and humans are made by reproductive systems. Ash comes from wood and fire. Clouds come from water. It's a seemingly self-containing system. But how was it set in motion? In answering this question, to say that matter has always been would be a logical fallacy because that would imply that the universe has always been. The universe is governed by time, so if the universe has always been, time has always been. And if time dates infinitely to the past, we never would have gotten to this point. It would be impossible. There must have been a beginning, and before that beginning - if you will bear with me in such a foolish statement - there must have been someone or something which transcended the laws of time on which this universe runs.

2. The complexity of creation.
It has been determined that caterpillars have 228 distinct muscles in their heads. Yes, 228. In their heads alone. A DNA strand of a single human being would stretch for miles and miles upon miles if it were unbound. Feel your chest. That beating heart is currently outputting enough pressure to shoot your blood 30 feet. If it's clear, you will have opportunity tonight to look four years into the past because the light from the stars we see is four light-years away. All matter is composed of what scientists call quarks and leptons. These are the tiniest particles known to man. They make up atoms, and they cannot be divided; they can't even be seen under microscope. What's more, there is nothing smaller in the universe, so their essence is themselves. And if their essence is themselves, they are made of nothing, and if they are made of nothing the universe as well is made up of absolutely nothing. Yet it is evident there is still something. Science alone cannot explain this mystery of nothing and everything physical.

3. Morality.
Engraved on the personality of every human being, however weak or strong it may be, is a sense of morality. Humanism utterly fails to explain this because if man is all there is, no one is to say that I could not have kicked in the stomach the pregnant woman I saw in Panera today. If there is no god, each individual is subject to no greater standard of right and wrong - man himself is the standard. And if I am the standard, I will do as I please, thank you very much; there is no such thing as a conscience (we can't see it after all). But we know better because God has given us such knowledge. No gene or strand of DNA can explain where this knowledge came from. Only a moral creator could have set it within us, and thus we are subject to a divine moral law.

4. Personal testimony.
There is not one personal witness in favor of atheism because in order for atheism to be proven to be true, one would have to see everything visible and invisible at all points of time in all of history and in everything before, after, between, and beyond history. However, there have been countless stories and testimonies of supernatural events, people coming back to life, the sick being healed, and dreams leading to the way of God. To be sure, many of these are vain attempts to manipulate the faith of easy-believing people. Yet I myself have experienced God personally and intimately, and I know several people who have done the same. Moreover, none of those people are medically insane - or even irrational - people. So then, based on the witness of personal testimony alone, it would not be irrational to believe in the supernatural.

So then, based on the above reasons, I find it completely rational to believe in a god. 

In the following post(s), I will explore the rationality of belief in the God of the Bible.

An Open Letter to God

Psalm 142:1

With my voice I cry out to the LORD; 

with my voice I plead for mercy to the LORD.

O God, 

I am writing this open letter to You for Your glory, my good, and others' benefit. I don't know if I'm allowed to do this. I feel as a small child uncertain about his parent's connotation toward something. But I'm a child to You. I'm Your child. And I need help.

So many times I've prayed without giving a thought to who You are, who it is I'm trying to touch base with. Maybe I pray more to myself than I do to You. O Yahweh, You are enthroned above the highest of heavens! How could I ever attain to Your holiness? Who can glimpse upon Your majesty?

Your throne, O God, is forever.

But tonight I pray that You will hear this small voice, this little child. This month I celebrate the time when Your Son became a baby, an infant who entered the world out of amniotic fluid. You heard that first smack of a hand spanking His skin and the break of His first cry. The cattle may have been lowing, and that baby awoke. And He cried.

Perhaps by some miracle of mercy You will peek through light-years of galaxies to see this little life, this baby. Maybe the sound waves my cry, distorted as they are, will bounce of some corner of the universe and reach Your ears. Maybe it is Your presence here in me - a thought I cannot grasp - that will cause You to listen. Because the only good or desirable thing in me is You.

Father, my Abba, captivate me with nothing other than You. My prayer, O God, this night is that my heart will be drawn to no one other than Christ. At any cross of mine, let me take up His; may I lay down my life to find His, and may I give up my own pleasures to be lost in His joys. I lay myself at His mercy and plead for Your grace. On His merit alone I come.

Change my life. I'm a wicked sinner deserving of Hell. It's a miracle I awoke today, but even before the dawn broke You had saved me today, and Your grace will save me again tomorrow and every day after until days will be no more. Your mercy rises with the sun. And I need it.

Oh, how I need it!

Oh, how the world needs it!

And how will they get it if I don't tell them? And how will I be able to tell them if I have lived today as I lived yesterday and if I live tomorrow as I live today? And yet, how can I change unless it is You who changes me? I need Christ.

If I prove to live for myself and not for You, let me die.

If I do not preach the gospel, take my life.

If I indulge in sin and vain things - please kill me first.

The power of life and death are in Your hands. And the vein of my life is in Your hands. I'm tired of trying to alter drops of blood - give me a heart transplant. Let me bleed the blood of Christ. Let me feel the nails in His hands and feet and cringe at the piercing of His brow. 

And let it cause me to never live another day negligent of the gospel.