Whats the Point of Going to Africa?

I’ve been asked a few times,   “Why exactly are you going to Africa?”  I thought it might be good to give an answer here, and when I return I promise we will get back to the evidence for the resurrection.

One of the first things I did when I became a Christian, was to read the Bible cover to cover.   I wanted to know what God was like, and what he wanted from me.  To me, there were three things that jumped out at me about God from the Bible.

-He wanted me to get over myself.
-He is very interested in orphans, widows, poor people  and others who are disenfranchised.
-Jesus is what life is all about, and He wants me to be his representative here on earth.

1. This is difficult, but I think one of the hardest things about trusting in God is getting over myself.   Here in America we have a tendency to believe that with enough hard work we can accomplish anything.    That people who have a lot, have earned it and those who don’t have, just haven’t put in the effort.  That God helps those who help themselves.   All of these are false.    That last line especially is a devious lie, and could not be further from the true message of Jesus.  

The facts are that I personally have not earned my position at all and neither have you.    You or I could just as easily have been born in Ethiopia, orphaned from birth with HIV, no access to medicine, education or even parents.  Do you really think that child is in that position because he didn’t work as hard as you?   The truth is that everything I have I owe to God, all the way down to my very life.    I need to get over myself, because without God, I have no power over my present situation.  He sustains our lives day to day and until I embraced that fact, I would never really know him. 

“He who has found his life will lose it, and he who has lost his life for My sake will find it.”  - Matthew 10:39

2.  There are countless verses about how God loves orphans and widows and how we are to treat them.     If Christianity is about God taking the heart of Jesus and transplanting that into me (being born again), then suddenly I should find myself hurting for the things God hurts for, and loving the people God loves.  

Part of this just takes obedience.  When I became a Christian a year ago I didn’t find that I immediately started feeling like I needed to help orphans and poor people.   Instead, I just decided as an act of obedience, that I would start sponsoring children through compassion.com.   This was a tiny step of obedience to be sure…(only $39/month) but God was faithful.

When  I got my first letter from Jony, my new eleven year old pen pal from India, that’s when I knew my heart really had changed.   I felt a compassion and love that didn’t exists inside me before.   Supernatural, is the only way to describe it.  In a matter of months I had been changed from a selfish, hedonistic and bitter person, into someone who was deeply moved by words of encouragement from an  eleven year old on the other side of the world.   The Lord gave me my faith, the ability to be obedient, and he changed my heart to be more like his own.  He is faithful to his promises.   When he says you will be conformed to the image of Christ, that’s exactly what he means.

“Learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow’s cause. Come now, let us reason together, says the LORD: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool.”   Isaiah 1:17-18

“And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. ²⁹ For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren; ³⁰ and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified” Romans 88:28-30

3.   God wants me to represent him here on Earth.  So when I go to Ethiopia to play with these orphans and show them that they matter, really I am just representing Jesus.  Jesus shows me love, and so I show him love back by spending my money, my time and my emotion on these children and widows whom he loves.   I show my love to the Lord by showing love to his people.

“Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers,  you did it to me.”  – Matthew 25:40

God is absolutely everything that I could  ever need.   That said, he has decided for whatever reason to bless me with a sound mind, the ability to make a good salary, and to put me in a context where I can advocate for him to many people.    I can do none of these things on my own accord.  All of this is a free gift.

I am going to Ethiopia as an act of worshipful obedience to God.  I am going  to show some love to the types of people that again and again the Bible reminds us that God loves.    Finally, I am going to preach Jesus to the poor, the one thing that they need more than anything I could ever give of myself.

“My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one can snatch them away from me.” - John 10:27-28

Good vs. Evil

I just wanted to take a quick break from the resurrection to drop a truth bomb on anyone who cares to read my blog.  One reason I came to believe in God is the question of "Good and Evil" or "Right and Wrong. The question is simple.  What is the difference between good and evil? How do we know which things are right, and which are wrong?

Consider this  the next time you look at a situation and say "That’s not right." or "That man is a good person". What are you basing that determination on? What is good? What is Evil? Honestly, it is really hard to define when someone asks you, but you know the answer intuitively when you are presented with a situation to judge.

The dictionary provides vague definitions that don’t really mean much of anything.

Bad:

1. not good in any manner or degree.

2. having a wicked or evil character; morally reprehensible:

Right. So you're saying that bad..... is not good? Okay fine, lets try to define good.

Good:

1. morally excellent; virtuous; righteous; pious

Thanks for the help dictionary.com. So like I said, it is hard to define, but we know it when we see it. Or do we?

It is my thesis (and many others) that there is no such thing as right and wrong, if God does not exist.

Notice what I did not say. I DID NOT say that you have to believe in God in order to do good things. Quite the contrary. Many atheists do good things every day. What I AM saying is that the whole concept of good and evil is an illusion and is not real, if there is no God.

If you take an atheist worldview then you are also forced to take the view that right and wrong are simply constructs of our brains. Nothing is objectively wrong, it is only wrong to the person perceiving it to be wrong. The concept of wrong is just something that humans invented. Atheists, who don’t believe in anything but the natural world CANNOT rationally believe in objective good or evil.

But no one, not even the atheist, lives this way. Indeed, there is such a thing as right and wrong. Everyone knows this fact instinctively. For example, we all instinctively know that torturing a child for fun, is wrong.  You say - well Adam, that’s an extreme example, obviously that’s wrong, hardly anyone in the world would disagree with that. Well yeah, that’s kind of my point, but lets try something a little less obvious in today’s modern world.

It is objectively true that discriminating against someone based on race or gender is wrong, true or false? I would say that is true, as I am sure many of you would. Try going to Iran or any other nation under Sharia law and saying the same thing.  In Iran, millions of people agree that women should not have the same rights as men. Are they wrong to believe this? Again, I say yes! Of course yes! But how do you explain this to them if right and wrong are just made-up constructs, and not real?

As a Christian theist I have a very good reason why they are wrong to believe this:

Genesis 1:27 "So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them"

In other words, God created both men AND women in his own image, and they have the same worth, because their worth is derived from the same place, namely, God.  Men have no more or less value than women and therefore women should not be discriminated against because of the fact that they are women.

How does an atheist explain to the Iranian law makers why discriminating against women is objectively wrong? I'm not sure how they can.  After all, we don’t get mad at adult male gorillas for killing any other male gorilla in their territory just for being male.   If humans are just animals, how much sense does it make to call a man who does this kind of thing "evil" or "wrong"?

The fact is that if we know some things are good/right and other things are bad/wrong, we need to also be able to determine where the idea of good and evil comes from.      This is called the axiological argument for the existence of God, and its one of my favorites.   Comments, challenges, suggested readings?

Is Christianity a "faith-based" religion?

Hello everyone!

I wanted to start this blog for my friends and family and anyone who cares to read it. In particular, those who are unbelievers. Personally, I have undergone a pretty extreme transformation in the last year. I have entered into a personal relationship with the God of the Universe and I have dedicated my life into finding out as much as I can about Him.

Some of you, no doubt, think that I’m crazy. The more polite among you think that I am just misguided. The truth is that the evidence for Christianity, the world-view taught in the Bible, is completely overwhelming. In other words, if I was going to remain an intellectually honest and rational person, I could no longer live as though Jesus was not real and God did not exist.

I’ve researched the main arguments for atheism and none of them are convincing at all. Quite often they are simply flat out fallacious. Frankly, I have not seen a single positive argument for atheism that, when scrutinized even superficially, is plausible. In contrast, plausible positive and negative arguments for theism, in particular Christian theism, are legion.

Anyway, I plan to use this space to describe the reason behind my faith in God. People often say Christianity is a faith-based religion. This is partially true. God gave us brains and we are to use them to reason. In this modern world, it does not make sense to believe things blindly and without evidence. There is tremendous evidence for the truth of the Bible. The “faith” comes in when you decide whether or not to trust the implications of the evidence.

For example, I have evidence to show that when I cross the Manhattan Bridge it will not collapse. But do I really know for sure that when I do cross it, it won’t collapse? No, I don’t know for sure. The reason I cross it everyday is because I have “faith” in the evidence and I put my trust in it. It’s the same way with faith in Jesus. I don’t put my faith in his claims without evidence. I’ve put my trust in him because of the evidence.

2,000 years ago, when asked what the greatest commandment was, Jesus responded, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” (Matthew 22:37) Yes, we are called to love God with ours hearts, and our souls. These are hugely important ways to love God, but on equal footing is to love God with all your mind.

Ultimately, I hope I can introduce people to the real Jesus through this blog. The Jesus who lived in the Middle East, 2000 years ago. The Jesus who lives even today.