Christianity has always been a part of my life. I was born and raised in a Christian family and I’ve attended church for as long as I can remember. Yes, Christianity was something that was fostered and encouraged throughout my childhood, but there are many “merits” of this faith that convinced me on my own personal level to commit myself to this worldview and lifestyle.
I could probably write a twenty page paper on my Christian faith. However, for time concerns, I will attempt to be concise.
I am a Christian first and foremost because of Christ. The word “Christian”, when broken into its Latin roots, translates to “Christ-like.” Jesus Christ is God’s Son who saves all of us from our sins. Ever since Adam’s fateful disobedience to God thousands of years ago, the earth and all within it have been cursed by sin. This sin, which is inherent in all human beings as a result of Adam’s sin, separates us from God and condemns all of us to hell.
However, this is where Jesus comes in. God loves us, and He sent His son to save us from His own wrath that was our due because of our sins. He came down to the earth, was crucified, and bore the penalty of every sin that you and I have committed. Through this amazing act of love, each of us is forgiven of our sins and can have eternal life in heaven when we die. After three days in the grave, God raised Him from the dead, and shortly thereafter, Jesus ascended into heaven.
A Christian is someone who believes this story, and, out of love, adoration, and thankfulness, tries to be more like Christ (hence the word: “Christian”) and heeds His teachings. I am a Christian because of Jesus’ sacrifice for me. He has forgiven me and given me eternal life. Because of this fact, I can live right now as a young man with hope, peace, and joy, because I know that this life is temporary and my eternal destination is secure. Jesus gives me something to look forward to when things in this life seem grim. I have a purpose in life: to worship the one who saved me from eternal damnation. On top of that, I can have a personal relationship with God; the one who created the heavens and the earth and all within them. For these reasons and many others, I am a Christian.
Many of you may not buy into this whole Christianity idea. In most of my experiences, it is not the merits of Christianity that are questioned, but rather the fundamentals of Christianity itself. It may seem just too strange and too intangible. You may ask: “Prove God exists,” or “Prove the Bible is true.” I can answer both of these questions with questions: “Prove you’re not going to blink in the next twenty seconds. Prove you won’t stop breathing at this instant. Prove you won’t die in the next year.” Do you get the idea? There are a lot of things in life that require us to rely on faith. You have faith that you won’t die in the next year and that you will continue to breathe as you read this blog. The accuracy of the Bible and the existence of God are no exception.
Nevertheless, there is astounding evidence for the accuracy of the Bible. Various historical documents from ancient times recount the same events that are written in the Bible. Archeological expeditions have revealed exquisite accuracy in the documentation of events and geographic locations that are mentioned in the Bible. The accuracy of the Bible is indisputable for these reasons (among others of course).
The astounding fact is that the Bible was written in a period of time that spanned over thousands of years by kings, physicians, tax collectors, farmers, fisherman, singers, and shepherds. Yet, the marvel is that the Bible is cohesive, and it all points to the same person: Jesus Christ. Such a book could not have been written without divine intervention; the Bible proves the existence of God.
God’s existence can be shown in many other ways. The natural world screams of a creator. The complexity of a cell, the intricacy of our DNA, and the earth, stars, galaxies, and beyond are much too incredible to have been created merely by chance. There are thousands upon thousands of variables that would need to be perfectly balanced with each other if life were to occur with a big bang and through evolution. The theoretical probability was calculated by some scientists, and the probability was smaller than 1/googleplex, which is essentially zero. This proves that we could not have been created merely by chance; God most certainly exists.
As I conclude, I want to ask you a question: “Where are you going when you die? Heaven or Hell?” We all have the ability to make decisions in this life, and our decisions will determine the answer to this question. Will you acknowledge your sinful life, ask Jesus for forgiveness of your sins, and give your life to Him? Or, will you continue to live as you always have? Think about it.
4 comments:
You certainly show your reader that your faith is important to you. That you can write so openly is testament to your inner strength and fearlessness.
As I read, I was reminded of a book that some people find irreverent. I found it interesting because it asks some questions that I have wondered. It takes a sense of humor to read, at least, I think it does. It gives us another person's perspective. The title is God, and the author is Jack Miles.
http://www.jackmiles.com/default.asp?ID=15
Another book is Misquoting Jesus by Bart Ehrman. It differs from Miles' book. It provides some interesting information, but at various points, Ehrman's scholarship is questioned. It is a good read, however, for it makes us ever alert to the problems in authenticating text.
http://tinyurl.com/7sqmq
I'd first like to say I commend you for posting this. Like the Teach said, it's obvious that you are incredibly strong in your beliefs, and you articulate these beliefs well. I personally do not know what I believe in half the time, so I'm always interested when people ademantely defend any cause.
One particular strong point of your essay is the fact that you incorporated essential components of the Christian faith throughout it. This allows your audience to see exactly where you're coming from and why it is you believe in certain aspects of it.
However, I feel that while it is evident that you believe in the existence of God, I'm not sure this is something you want to attempt to prove in this particular essay. You state that "The theoretical probability was calculated by some scientists, and the probability was smaller than 1/googleplex, which is essentially zero. This proves that we could not have been created by chance; God most certainly exists." This screams fallacy. Which scientists calculated this? Does essentially zero guarantee anything? Technically the miniscule margin of possibility that exists that we were created by chance implies that we COULD have been created by chance. I'm not convinced.
You counter the ever compelling command to "Prove God exists" with "Prove your not going to blink..." While I see what your saying here, I think you have to consider that the breathing and blinking examples are of a different nature. The empiricist who says "I don't see or hear God, therefore he does not exist" will not be convinced by your counter question, simply because it can be proved empirically. Your next argument of not knowing whether you will die tomorrow is a far stronger argument.
Overall I think you did a very nice job expressing your beliefs. I would just keep in mind your audience more in your writing because you speak as if all these components of the religion are self-evident, and while they may be for you, they will not be for some.
Thank you very much for your responses. I will most certainly take both of your suggestions into consideration in the future, and I apologize if I do not address all of them in this response. I appreciate an audience that is critical amongst a society that often fails to think and take every thought captive.
But let’s be careful not to think too much. Yes, this is a terribly unusual statement; however, it applies startlingly well to this topic.
Humans have been constantly looking for answers to every conceivable question. Human existence has been marked by this passionate pursuit, and at each point we make a discovery, we seem to uncover another question, or puzzle. We are peeling back an infinitely thick onion, with layers upon layers of more and more information about our universe. We are thinking so much and searching so hard that we forget to believe in any thing or anyone. That’s the danger in thinking too much; we will question so vehemently that we will never believe in something ourselves. Perhaps that’s where some of us are right now, and why some have so much trouble with religion.
Many people look at religion and just see all the holes in it; and I’ll admit, there are many. It seems like we’re looking for a “silver bullet;” something that will satisfy our every question, every desire, and every emotion. I’m telling you right now that you won’t find that anywhere on earth (and yes I’m including Christianity). However, Christianity will answer many of these questions and satisfy numerous desires.
I feel like the premise of our discussion is shifting towards the topic of faith, rather than logic. A friend of mine posted a blog that discussed this quandary, and you can find it here: http://lightinglady.blogspot.com/
The funny thing when you talk about religion is that it is not entirely based on logic; the other half of that is faith. These two components work together extremely well: the lack of logic causes us to use faith, and likewise, faith helps us see the logic. I’d rather live a life of blind faith with a sense of direction (that comes from Christianity) than walk through life blindly with no faith.
I did my best to argue the merits of my belief in Christianity relying primarily upon logic in my post. Rigby and the Walrus – you accurately identified fallacies in my argument; I’ll admit that I could have done a better job recognizing my audience when I wrote the blog. I sincerely apologize, and I apologize if I confused you even more with the content in this blog.
Rigby and the Walrus – a clarification: a googleplex is 10^100. When you divide 1 by such a large number, a very small value is produced. Such a value is so small and insignificant that all possibility of “chance” is dismissed for practical purposes. I’m not sure how much else to explain it; all modern theories of creation (that I’m aware of) rely upon chance. However, when these theories are tested (and I’m sorry I don’t have the source of the “googleplex” statistic at hand), they are so improbable that they are considered impossible. Only the theory that does not rely upon chance is left: Creationism. That is why I said “God most certainly exists.” Hopefully that makes the logic in my argument a little clearer…
Theteach – I will look into both books; they seem very interesting. The link that you sent me that dealt with Misquoting Jesus delves into a topic that has always intrigued me, but I have never truly sat down and dissected it. Yet, this was by choice. Call me ignorant, but the words found in the Bible have impacted my soul (and millions of others as well) so radically, personally, and spiritually that, even though the words may (you mentioned that “Ehrman's scholarship is questioned” at various points) have been altered by scribes many years ago, I can read it and have complete faith that the words are divinely inspired.
Another startling (though probably self explanatory and obvious) discovery as I typed this response:
Faith is Fallacy
Wow that’s a good blog topic for the future… :)
You write: "Another startling (though probably self explanatory and obvious) discovery as I typed this response:
Faith is Fallacy
Wow that’s a good blog topic for the future… :)"
I hope you purse the topic I look forward to reading your thoughts.
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