John 11:35 says that Jesus wept. It’s the shortest verse in the Bible, and yet those two words are extremely important. Why would Jesus cry? In context, the verse refers to the death of Lazarus, Jesus’ friend, and brother to Mary who had poured perfume on Jesus’ feet. It would seem reasonable that one would cry over the loss of a friend, but Jesus was not just any friend. He was the Son of God. He of all people understood what it meant for someone to die here on earth. He knew what Heaven looked like, and what Lazarus must have been experiencing and seeing. He also knew that He would resurrect Lazarus. So why would Jesus weep?
The Bible doesn’t say specifically. It says that He cried when He came to the tomb and that as He approached the tomb entrance He was deeply moved again. As a man, I’ve lost people close to me and I have cried over them, but I cry because I will not speak to them, or see them again as long as I’m alive. So, for the years that I have left on this earth, I cry because I’m going to miss them. But Jesus knew that He would see Lazarus again within moments, and yet He still cried.
Perhaps it was because He was sensitive to what those close to Him were going through. Maybe He cried because He saw the pain that His friends were experiencing, but even that is difficult to understand. He was about to raise Lazarus from the dead. The pain that they suffered from was about to be completely wiped away and replaced with jubilation. He did not cry when he resurrected the Centurions son. Even as He hung dying on the cross, His mother, Mary, was below Him in absolute agony watching her son die a brutal and unjust death; and yet, He did not weep for her. Of all of the sick that He healed and the blind that He gave sight, the Bible only references Christ crying on two occasions. The first was in Bethany, before he resurrected Lazarus, and the second was for Jerusalem.
The second incident holds the key to that question for me. He cried over Jerusalem because He knew they would not accept the gift that He was about to give them.
Jesus did not cry for the dead, He cried for those whose heart still beat that He could not save. He cried because even though He was about to suffer as no man has suffered before, some would reject the gift He was trying to give them. The Bible says the way is narrow and the road is rough, so most will choose the easy path, and die because of it.
I believe that as He watched Mary and Martha and the rest of Lazarus’ family grieve the loss of their brother, He realized that despite the gift He was about to give them, many, many people would reject it. He knew that He would grieve the loss of each one of those people much more, and for much longer, than any one of the people around Him were grieving the loss of Lazarus.
If God loves us as much as the Bible says He does, then it is more than we can comprehend. That being said, I know how difficult it was for me when I lost my mother. I can only imagine how hard it is for someone who has lost a child, but how much harder must it be for God to lose one of His children? And to lose so many! To love each and every one of the millions of people that will reject His gift that much, and to lose so many, is a pain we can not understand. As brutal as the cross was and as much as Jesus dreaded what He knew was coming, He must have been eager to do it rather than lose all of us.
And for what? Because we don’t want to know Him? Why not?
I’m an introvert by nature. I don’t particularly like meeting new people. It just doesn’t come naturally to me, but I find that in most cases, when I do meet people, I usually enjoy knowing them. In this case, we’re talking about the perfect person. God being perfect doesn’t just refer to His lack of sin. He has all of the positive personality traits that exist, and none of the negatives. He is the perfect person. No one that knows Him doesn’t like Him. Have you ever met a Christian that doesn’t like Jesus? I have met people who claim to be Christians that are angry at God, I was one of them, but those people don’t really know Him. I didn’t. What’s not to like?
The only other reasons to reject His gift are either because we choose not to believe, or we believe, but don’t want to give up our sin.
Do you think God created sin? If so, do you think He did it just to make life difficult for us? If you look at sin objectively, and consider the ramifications of it, you will soon realize that there is not a sin that doesn’t bring pain and suffering with it. If you commit adultery, it causes strife, mistrust and jealousy in your marriage. Coveting in and of itself is a negative emotion. Liars get caught in their lies, losing the trust of the people important to them. Murderers have to live with knowing they took another life. Worshiping and praying to false gods doesn’t accomplish anything, and creates unhappiness. All of the things God has asked us not to do only bring calamity back on ourselves when we do them. If there is a “victimless” sin, please tell me what it is.
Whether or not you choose to believe is another issue; one that I have written about before. In the interest of not becoming redundant, I’ll simply point out that you can’t know what you have missed in a relationship with someone if you never had that relationship to begin with. Where God is concerned, I believe that people know there is something missing, or not right, but they either choose to ignore it, or they continue to search in all the wrong places to find it. I feel sorry for those people. Not only because they are the cause of Jesus’ tears, but also because they will miss out on so much while they’re still here on earth.
While my heart hurts for those people, I’m glad that after so many years of being one of the people Jesus cried over, I have come to realize that He is what I was missing. I am excited about the way my life has changed, not just spiritually and emotionally, but in tangible ways as well.
Monday, April 12, 2010
Thursday, April 8, 2010
Atheists, Agnostics and Believers
Atheists, Agnostics and Believers
Browsing the internet this morning I came across an article titled “Why I left Atheism” (http://www.doesgodexist.org/AboutClayton/PastLife.html). It was written by a scientist, and reads much like you would expect an article composed by a scientist to read; rather long and boring. It was not the first such article I’ve read, having become interested in the subject lately, but this one in particular posed some interesting questions and points for me. I decided to put my own opinion on paper, and to help define what each of the classifications means to me.
The easiest way to start this journey is, I suppose, to debunk the silliest classification among the three; agnosticism. Dictionary.com defines agnosticism as an “intellectual doctrine or attitude affirming the uncertainty of all claims to ultimate knowledge”. Well gee, that makes a lot of sense. By that logic there is NO ultimate knowledge. There is absolute truth such as: the sun does create heat, or air contains oxygen. But I suppose where it relates to God, some may think that it is a reasonable argument. My issue is that if you do not believe, or do not know, that the Bible is the Word of God and has relevance today, you would be a fool not to investigate it. If you are truly uncertain, then there must be some level of curiosity in you, or you would just declare yourself an atheist. But if you believe that there is a chance that what the Bible says is true, then you should certainly make up your mind before you die, or before the rapture. Either way, you don’t know when that day will come, so there should be a sense of urgency to do your research. If you have not, you are either lazy, or scared of what you will have to do once you have made that decision. You will either have to fully declare yourself and atheist, thereby spitting in the face of God, or you will have to change the way you live and the things you do, and put yourself in submission to God and His will. Being afraid of change seems a little insignificant since we are talking about your eternal soul, so if I were you, I’d get right on that.
Atheism is a little more difficult for me. I’m not a biblical scholar, (yet) nor am I a highly educated philosopher. An atheist has made his decision. He is, or had better be, firm in his belief and decision. He has attempted to educate himself on the subject, and has amassed some ammunition to support his argument. My belief and salvation is based on faith, because I had not begun the study on the subject. Personally, how the earth was created was never really in question for me.
In the article I mentioned above, the author tells of 2 different occasions in his college years where he approached a professor in 2 different areas of study and asked them to explain how matter was created from nothing. He wanted to know how his professor believed the world was originally created; was it the big bang, or something else. Both of his highly esteemed professors answered that it was not within the realm of science to answer that question. In other words, all of the scientific knowledge and technology we have today could not answer that question. Answering that question was the job of philosophers or religion.
I found that interesting. To me, that is the most important question. Every thing else related to science and philosophy hinges on that answer. Sure, we can understand pollination, and break down DNA, and know the structure of a molecule, but we can’t explain how the plants, the DNA, and the molecule got here in the first place. Why do we even teach evolution in science classes anyway? It’s only a theory, and it’s a theory originating from philosophy, not science! That tells me that an atheist is basing his opinion and gambling his soul on someone’s best guess. And yet, most atheists think that believers are ignorant, superstitious and foolish. Really?
What does atheism have to offer? If there is no God, there is no afterlife. So this is it. You can spend your whole life chasing pleasure and happiness, but you will only find one of them. It is impossible to be happy if you have nothing to live for. Again I go back to Dictionary.com where it defines happiness as “good fortune; pleasure; contentment, and joy. Pleasure, by definition, is temporary. Good fortune doesn’t last forever either. You could be the luckiest person on the planet, but even you will run out of it at some point. That leaves contentment and joy. Those things don’t come from circumstances. Circumstances change. The only way a man can be truly content is if he is fulfilling a purpose. To follow the bends in the river of life, floating along in whatever direction it takes you may be relaxing, but it can’t make you happy. Life is ugly, and you can only enjoy the view for a short time. An atheist cannot be truly happy because he has to believe that there is nothing else. The pain, loss and suffering that come with life is the absolute best that there is, and when it’s over, it’s over. Like a movie that fades to black after the last scene.
In contrast, Christianity contends that life on Earth is the absolute worst. Even the best of what life has to offer pales in comparison to what the Bible says Heaven will be to those who believe. Not only is the afterlife something to look forward to, but our current life offers fulfillment and purpose. Service to God comes in many different forms, and we were created for it. A God that loves us, and created us for a specific purpose would not put us into a service that makes us miserable. I’m not called to drop everything and move to Zimbabwe. Those that are do it because, ultimately, they want to. I was called to do this. To write about what I’m experiencing and going through. Ironically, I was doing this long before I made a decision to develop a relationship with Christ, because I love doing it.
Christianity is not scary. It’s not hard. In fact, each day that goes by, I realize that it is far easier than living without it. The benefits are incredible. God has given us the opportunity to tap in to all of the power and knowledge that he possesses. Wisdom, discernment, healing, faith, and so many more are gifts that He gives us that can be used for His service, but for ourselves as well. Most Christians don’t even use these gifts, but they are available to us.
We have the promise of an incredible future of wealth and power beyond this life, as well as a fulfilled and happy life here, and an atheist believes that this is as good as it gets. Lord Kelvin, a very famous British scientist once said “If you study science deep enough and long enough it will force you to believe in God.” I believe that. Like I said, I’m no scientist, but I have spent several hours reading and studying scientific arguments from both sides, and I’m convinced that any objective scientist can not make as strong an argument against God as one can for Him. Do the research for yourself.
What ever you do, don’t claim to be agnostic for more than another day or two. You really will look silly.
Browsing the internet this morning I came across an article titled “Why I left Atheism” (http://www.doesgodexist.org/AboutClayton/PastLife.html). It was written by a scientist, and reads much like you would expect an article composed by a scientist to read; rather long and boring. It was not the first such article I’ve read, having become interested in the subject lately, but this one in particular posed some interesting questions and points for me. I decided to put my own opinion on paper, and to help define what each of the classifications means to me.
The easiest way to start this journey is, I suppose, to debunk the silliest classification among the three; agnosticism. Dictionary.com defines agnosticism as an “intellectual doctrine or attitude affirming the uncertainty of all claims to ultimate knowledge”. Well gee, that makes a lot of sense. By that logic there is NO ultimate knowledge. There is absolute truth such as: the sun does create heat, or air contains oxygen. But I suppose where it relates to God, some may think that it is a reasonable argument. My issue is that if you do not believe, or do not know, that the Bible is the Word of God and has relevance today, you would be a fool not to investigate it. If you are truly uncertain, then there must be some level of curiosity in you, or you would just declare yourself an atheist. But if you believe that there is a chance that what the Bible says is true, then you should certainly make up your mind before you die, or before the rapture. Either way, you don’t know when that day will come, so there should be a sense of urgency to do your research. If you have not, you are either lazy, or scared of what you will have to do once you have made that decision. You will either have to fully declare yourself and atheist, thereby spitting in the face of God, or you will have to change the way you live and the things you do, and put yourself in submission to God and His will. Being afraid of change seems a little insignificant since we are talking about your eternal soul, so if I were you, I’d get right on that.
Atheism is a little more difficult for me. I’m not a biblical scholar, (yet) nor am I a highly educated philosopher. An atheist has made his decision. He is, or had better be, firm in his belief and decision. He has attempted to educate himself on the subject, and has amassed some ammunition to support his argument. My belief and salvation is based on faith, because I had not begun the study on the subject. Personally, how the earth was created was never really in question for me.
In the article I mentioned above, the author tells of 2 different occasions in his college years where he approached a professor in 2 different areas of study and asked them to explain how matter was created from nothing. He wanted to know how his professor believed the world was originally created; was it the big bang, or something else. Both of his highly esteemed professors answered that it was not within the realm of science to answer that question. In other words, all of the scientific knowledge and technology we have today could not answer that question. Answering that question was the job of philosophers or religion.
I found that interesting. To me, that is the most important question. Every thing else related to science and philosophy hinges on that answer. Sure, we can understand pollination, and break down DNA, and know the structure of a molecule, but we can’t explain how the plants, the DNA, and the molecule got here in the first place. Why do we even teach evolution in science classes anyway? It’s only a theory, and it’s a theory originating from philosophy, not science! That tells me that an atheist is basing his opinion and gambling his soul on someone’s best guess. And yet, most atheists think that believers are ignorant, superstitious and foolish. Really?
What does atheism have to offer? If there is no God, there is no afterlife. So this is it. You can spend your whole life chasing pleasure and happiness, but you will only find one of them. It is impossible to be happy if you have nothing to live for. Again I go back to Dictionary.com where it defines happiness as “good fortune; pleasure; contentment, and joy. Pleasure, by definition, is temporary. Good fortune doesn’t last forever either. You could be the luckiest person on the planet, but even you will run out of it at some point. That leaves contentment and joy. Those things don’t come from circumstances. Circumstances change. The only way a man can be truly content is if he is fulfilling a purpose. To follow the bends in the river of life, floating along in whatever direction it takes you may be relaxing, but it can’t make you happy. Life is ugly, and you can only enjoy the view for a short time. An atheist cannot be truly happy because he has to believe that there is nothing else. The pain, loss and suffering that come with life is the absolute best that there is, and when it’s over, it’s over. Like a movie that fades to black after the last scene.
In contrast, Christianity contends that life on Earth is the absolute worst. Even the best of what life has to offer pales in comparison to what the Bible says Heaven will be to those who believe. Not only is the afterlife something to look forward to, but our current life offers fulfillment and purpose. Service to God comes in many different forms, and we were created for it. A God that loves us, and created us for a specific purpose would not put us into a service that makes us miserable. I’m not called to drop everything and move to Zimbabwe. Those that are do it because, ultimately, they want to. I was called to do this. To write about what I’m experiencing and going through. Ironically, I was doing this long before I made a decision to develop a relationship with Christ, because I love doing it.
Christianity is not scary. It’s not hard. In fact, each day that goes by, I realize that it is far easier than living without it. The benefits are incredible. God has given us the opportunity to tap in to all of the power and knowledge that he possesses. Wisdom, discernment, healing, faith, and so many more are gifts that He gives us that can be used for His service, but for ourselves as well. Most Christians don’t even use these gifts, but they are available to us.
We have the promise of an incredible future of wealth and power beyond this life, as well as a fulfilled and happy life here, and an atheist believes that this is as good as it gets. Lord Kelvin, a very famous British scientist once said “If you study science deep enough and long enough it will force you to believe in God.” I believe that. Like I said, I’m no scientist, but I have spent several hours reading and studying scientific arguments from both sides, and I’m convinced that any objective scientist can not make as strong an argument against God as one can for Him. Do the research for yourself.
What ever you do, don’t claim to be agnostic for more than another day or two. You really will look silly.
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