A Response to “Why I’m Not A Christian” by JT Eberhard at zerowing21.xanga.com (click on the link to read the article)
I can understand how you feel, but being nice doesn't earn your way to heaven. Actually, the bible teaches that there is nothing you can do to make it to heaven. Everyone is trying to work their way to heaven, but not one of us will make it on our own strength because we all have sinned. Since Adam and Eve sinned at the beginning mankind has been tainted with sin. None of us are able to make it to heaven because we are not perfect. God is perfect and because He is He cannot have sin in His presence. Since God is all loving He will not allow any evil in His presence. If you were to ask Him why He doesn’t just get rid of all the evil in the world and punish the wicked, He'd have to destroy the whole world or cast a flood because we are all guilty of breaking His law, but He won't because He promised us a way to be redeemed.
As in the beginning when Abel brought a spotless lamb as a sacrifice to God, and God was pleased with it, so throughout the past we have seen sacrifices of lambs and rams for sins. In so, when God asked Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac to prove his obedience, God stopped him and provided to him a ram as a substitute, and God said He would provide. In Leviticus it is said that if there is no lamb present for a sacrifice for sin (atonement for our iniquities) then a ram should be a replacement, or doves, or pigeons. Over 2,000 years ago God provided that sacrifice. A perfect and spotless lamb—Jesus Christ. He was God in the flesh—a sinless man. Only God could provide atonement for our sins. Only Jesus could fulfil the law. The law was God’s curse on us because since He knew we cannot be perfect He made a system for us to follow—the ten commandments, plus the sacrifices which foreshadowed the ultimate sacrifice in the future through the Messiah/Christ Jesus.
You see, only by God can we be redeemed. Only if you believe in what Jesus did on the cross for your sins, confessing your sins, then humbling yourself to him, then you’ll be forgiven. God must know you before you enter His gates. So many people believe or say they know Him but God doesn’t know them. It’s like walking up to Parliament Hill saying “I know the Prime Minister, let me in!”, or walking up to the White House and saying “I know the President, let me in!” The Prime Minister has to know who you are before you can be granted entrance into his house.
No one and I mean no one will enter heaven without repenting, confessing your sins and turning away from them (not to live perfectly, but to go into a new direction), turning to the narrow path which is the way Jesus Christ showed. He said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life, no one comes to the Father except through me.” John 14:6. No other religion will get you there. The Koran doesn’t even believe in sin, and neither do any other of the religions. They all teach you that you can work your way to heaven, or reincarnate yourself, or reality is just a figment of your imagination. Only Christianity gives you a real God, with a real world, and a reality in which we can perceive God and His invisible attributes. We are capable of knowing right from wrong by our conscience which God planted into us. The bible says, “I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts.” Jeremiah 31:33. But even the devil can deceive us of what is truth, just like he did with Eve in the Garden of Eden. We mistaken God’s truth and trade it for Satan’s lie. That is why we have the bible, and God’s word written by men not only inspired by God, but eye witnesses of Him. “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life.” 1 John 1:1.
Without God, we are left with the world and its naturalistic/material viewpoint. From the material worldview, or change concept of final reality, final reality is, and must be by its nature, silent as to values, principles, or any basis for law. There is no way to ascertain “the ought” from “the is.” On the basis of this viewpoint of reality there are no other conclusions that this view could produce. It is a natural result of really believing that the basic reality of all things is merely material-energy, shaped into its present form by impersonal chance.
The god of the Koran is a natural god, and that’s what attracts people to Islam. God is not involved or in a relationship with man, and bad things happen just because we are not perfect and Allah is okay with that because he understands... so you can outweigh the good with the bad. But how is that a loving God? A loving God would punish the law breaker. How is that a reasonable God? Try that in court.
The bible teaches us that God is a personal being. He is a relationship being—three persons in one. God the Father, the Son(the Word, and who became flesh to atone for our sins), and the Holy Spirit(who comes to dwells in us), all working in relationship as one. God is conceivable, not as a simulation in the mind, but in reality. He wants a relationship with us just like an earthly loving father would want a relationship with his own children. He is jealous for us to know Him. He loves us and was willing to humble himself and live lowly with us sinners to show who He is and to sacrifice himself to us. What brother wouldn’t give his life for another in battle? He knows we need a saviour, so He sent His Son to take on all the sins. He was baptised in the river for the people’s uncleanliness just like the sheep, then he fasted in the wilderness to be taunted by the devil for 40 days, as it was written in scripture, then was hung on a tree to take upon himself the wrath of His Father that we deserve.
Jesus said, if you even look at a woman with intent of lust, you have committed adultery with her in your mind. Jesus also said that if you hate someone, or call them an idiot, you are committing murder in your heart. God looks at the inside, at the heart, not what’s on the outside like all those false gods. He cares about your soul and wants you to be reconciled with Him forever. He loves you. Yes, He must punish law breakers but He does not delight in it. We can see that by example of Jesus in John 11:35, Luke 19:41,45 and by Elisha when he wept 2 Kings 8:11. It is because those people had turned away from Him and done vile and indecent acts. But God rejoices when a lost one returns to Him. Just read Luke 15. And because God loves us so much, we spares us from the wrath, only if we believe in Him. You see, we have lived our lives in rebellion to Him. If we ignore this message, we are spitting in His face, the one who gave us breath, food, our life! How could we turn down such a message? Because it sounds foolish, because it doesn’t fit to the god we have created in our own minds. It doesn’t fit our agenda, our point-of-view, or our life style. We reject His truth for our own.
Back to regarding to our own worldviews, we have to understand that it is one total entity opposed to the other total entity. It concerns truth in regard to final and total reality. And our view of final reality—whether it is material-energy, shaped by impersonal chance, or the living personal God and Creator—will determine our position on every crucial issue we face today. Please, think about this. Your life depends on the decision you make today about the message of the Gospel. God offers you life through Jesus Christ, today.
No comments:
Post a Comment