Theological Thursday Archives

Evolution vs. Creation Debate

February 20, 2014 by Gilbert 2 Comments

Two weeks ago Ken Ham and Bill Nye the Science Guy had a live debate on Evolution vs. Creationism. If you haven’t seen it, you can watch it below and then I’ll give my thoughts.

Ok so here are my 2 cents on this. First, I don’t think Ken Ham did followers of Jesus a favor by limiting this to Creationism being strictly defined by the Young Earth argument. In fact he is in the minority even amongst Protestant pastors according to the last time Gallup poll. For a debate like this it would have been much better if he went with “intelligent design”. In other words whether you believe in the Young or Old earth, all creationists believe that behind every creation there is a creator.

But here is the real point I want to make. My faith is not dependent on is the earth young or old. My faith is not dependent on the flood of Noah or the dozens of other things that these two gentlemen debated. My faith is based on “Did Jesus rise again from the dead or not?” You see as I discussed in this message and as Andy Stanley has said so well, “Christianity isn’t based on teachings but rather on an event”. No matter how good the teachings of Jesus are or the rest of the bible for that matter, if Jesus didn’t rise again from the dead then our faith is useless (1 Cor. 15:7).

This then is the question all of us must investigate and then answer for ourselves. I don’t care if your an atheist or a person who attends church each week. I don’t care if your an evolutionist or a creationists. Did Jesus really rise again from the dead? If He did then we must take His teachings and the bible seriously. If He didn’t then none of these debates really matter because our whole existence is pointless.

So again I’d encourage you to investigate this for yourself. I’d recommend you read,”The Case for Christ“. In this book an investigative reporter interviews scholars, archeologists, medical doctors, historians and others to see if there is enough evidence to not only see if Jesus lived, but if He died and rose again. It’s worth the read and then you draw your own conclusions.

Aren’t All Religions the Same?

January 23, 2014 by Gilbert Leave a Comment

This is a pretty common question and it’s sometimes asked this way…”Don’t all paths lead to God”? Or sometimes people will say, “Each of us should be free to connect with God however we feel?” Now to that last one, yes we all have the freedom to choose our own religion but that doesn’t make them all the same or equally right.

Let’s start this conversation by acknowledging that in many of the major world religions there are some basic morality issues that all have in common. Things like, don’t lie, cheat, steal, murder, etc. are widely held beliefs even amongst people who choose to not follow or practice a religion. However, the argument that all religions are the same and that no matter which you choose will ultimately get you to God is simply false.

Some claim there is no God, others that there is one true God and others believe that there are 1000’s of gods.
Some say that we are made in the image of God, while others believe that one day we can become God.
Some claim that at death we cease to exist, others that all go to be with God, others that heaven or hell await all, others that we will be reincarnated and still others that we will go to a place of utopia.
Some say there is no such thing as sin, others that only God can forgive sin and still others that say we must do good deeds to overcome the bad that we’ve done.

The above is just 4 issues of many where it’s impossible to say, “Oh all religions teach the same thing”. Obviously they don’t, so now we get back to the issues we’ve talked about in previous weeks. If you haven’t already read my posts on intolerance and how Christianity can be mathematically proven. Please do so now…don’t worry…I’ll still be here when you get back.

Going back to 2+2. The only correct answer is 4. You can’t say that there are other correct answers or that if someone else gives a different answer that they are equally right. No!!! 2+2=4, it always has and always will. So when it comes to religions, all claim to be the truth, but as we have seen, all claim something different. So then it comes down to, can any of them be proven as correct?

The answer if yes! Now all will claim that they can, but only Christianity can back that up. And it’s done in 3 ways…

1. Personal stories of life change: Now this is actually not a great way because all religions can share stories of how people’s lives have been changed. This one is very subjective so it’s the least reliable way to prove anything. In fact, this one actually doesn’t prove anything at all but I wanted to throw this out because many people will try to use this as to why their religion is the correct one. The problem though is just because you are sincere about something doesn’t mean that you are not sincerely wrong. If you’ve been taught all your life that 2+2=5, it doesn’t matter how sincere you are in that belief the fact is you still have the wrong answer.

2. Archeology- This is where you begin separating Christianity from all the other religions (with the exception of Judaism, their Torah and our Old Testament are the same). For years the stories of the Old Testament and New Testament have been labeled by many as nothing more than fairy tales. But yet each year as more and more archeological work is done, the digs result in finds that back-up the times, places, people and events that the bible records. Many critics of the spiritual claims of the bible now readily admit that as a history book the bible is pretty accurate in what it records.

3. Predictive Prophecy- This goes back to my post about math and the astronomical odds of all those prophecies in the bible just merely being chance. Again if you haven’t read that post, please do so now. Ok, now that you’ve done that, let me point out that Christianity is the only world religion to have something like this, with the exception being Judaism and Islam.

Again the Jews Torah is the same as our Old Testament and there are other prophecies that were predicted and fulfilled in the Old Testament times that we both acknowledge was the handiwork of God. However, the Jews somehow take the hundreds of prophecies that Jesus fulfilled and say, “Nope He’s not the right man, someone else will need to fulfill them”. Now to be fair, most Jewish people have just been told by their leaders that Jesus isn’t the promised Messiah and haven’t been presented with the facts like I laid them out. In fact, I’ve helped led a couple of Jewish people into a relationship with Jesus just by simply reading some scriptures to them and then asking, “Who were they referring to?” They say, “Your Jesus.” I then ask, “How do you explain that?” Of course they ask, “Explain what?” I then say, “Well everything I just read to you was from your Torah”. All along they assumed I was reading from the New Testament, when in fact I was reading from the Old.

Islam also has a few predictive prophecies in the Qur’an. Muhammad on multiple occasions told his Muslim troops that they would have victory in battles, which they subsequently did. However, what good general doesn’t tell his troops that they will have victory? Also, Muhammad predicted that he would return to Mecca. However this is called a self-fulfilling prophecy. It would be like me saying, “I’m going to go to Florida for vacation this summer”. Now it’s possible that it might not happen, but largely the outcome of that is influenced by me. In any case, these types of prophecies that Muhammad made are not even close to the statistical improbability that we’ve seen that Jesus fulfilled.

So are all religions the same? No. Which means they all can’t be equally true. Is there a way for one of them to be proven true? Yes. But you still have freedom of choice. I pray that you choose wisely. For further study I suggest the book, “The Case for Christ” which details an investigative reporters own personal journey in determining if there is enough scientific and other data to prove the bible and the claims of Jesus.

What Do Jesus and a Russian Spy Have in Common?

January 9, 2014 by Gilbert Leave a Comment

My post last week on Why Are Christians So Intolerant turned out to be quite popular. It was interesting to watch it statistically spread, first throughout the USA and then into, as of today, 23 other countries. I’ve been following some of the comments and one gentleman said something to the effect of, “I’m glad he found Jesus if that’s working for him, but his claim that Christianity is an absolute truth is inaccurate because it can’t be mathematically proven like 2+2=4 can.”

Today, I want to show why that is not an accurate statement, but first a story. During the 1940’s, a U.S. Army Sergeant by the name of David Greenglass was working on helping the U.S. to develop the atomic bomb. What no one knew at the time though was that Greenglass was also working as a spy for the Russians. For 2 years he passed along top secret information by working with couriers. Finally though, under a cloud of suspicion, he needed to make his escape to Mexico where he would then be given means to get to Czechoslovakia. For this to work though it would require working through other spies stationed in Mexico. Here are the instructions Greenglass was given along with a form letter that would help pull all this off…

Upon David’s arrival in Mexico City, he was to send the letter to the Soviet Embassy and sign it “I. Jackson.” Three days later after he sent this letter, David, carrying in his hand a guide to the city with his middle finger between the pages of the guide, was to go to the Plaz De La Colon at 5 p.m. and look at the statue of Columbus there. He would wait until a man came up to him, when David would say, “That is a magnificent statue,” and tell the man that David was from Oklahoma. The man would then answer, “Oh, there are much more beautiful statues in Paris,” and would give Greenglass a passport and additional money. David was to go to Vera Cruz and then go to Sweden or Switzerland. If he went to Sweden, he was to send the same type of letter to the Soviet Ambassador or his secretary and sign the letter “I. Jackson.” Three days later, David was to go to the Statue of Linnaeus in Stockholm at 5 p.m. where a man would approach him. Greenglass would mention that the statue was beautiful and the man would answer, “There are much more beautiful ones in Paris.” The man would then give David the means of transportation to Czechoslovakia, where upon arrival he was to write to the Soviet Ambassador advising him of his presence.

Now I told that story for a simple reason. Notice the details that went into making sure the correct man was identified. I count 7, some of which I’ve lumped together.

A particular letter had to arrive at the Soviet Embassy.
That letter had to be signed I. Jackson.
The meet up had to be exactly 3 days later.
He had to be carrying a particular guide.
He had to have his middle finger tucked into it
This all had to take place at a specific place , time and statue.
The conversation had to be exactly as described.

This was all done to ensure that there was absolutely no mistake in identifying the proper man. A random person may get lucky and have 1 or 2 or 3 of these characteristics thus temporarily confusing the spies, but to get every detail correct would mean it was all a part of the plan and you had found the right person.

You’re going, “Ok Gilbert, but what does this have to do with absolute truth?” I know you want to get there, but indulge me with one more thing. What if today I was able to tell you in detail about your great-great-great-great-great-(and a few more greats)-grandchild who will live 400 years from now. Let’s say I gave the location of their birth, when they will be born, what their name will be, what they will do for a living, where they will live, the name of their spouse, when they will die, and how they will die. 8 things in all. If somehow today we were able to know that I accurately predicted all of those things, you’d go, “Gilbert that was amazing! How did you do that?! I mean what are the odds?”

Well actually someone has figured that out. Dr. Peter Stoner and 600 of his students in the Math Department at Pasadena City College,in the 1950’s, put the odds at 1 chance in 10 to the 17th power (10^17). In case you forget what they looks like, here it is 1 chance in 100,000,000,000,000,000. That number is too big for our mind to conceive so they came up with a way to illustrate it.

If you mark one of ten tickets, and place all the tickets in a hat, and thoroughly stir them, and then ask a blindfolded man to draw one, his chance of getting the right ticket is one in ten. Suppose that we take 10^17 silver dollars and lay them on the face of Texas. They’ll cover all of the state two feet deep. Now mark one of these silver dollars and stir the whole mass thoroughly, all over the state. Blindfold a man and tell him that he can travel as far as he wishes, but he must pick up one silver dollar. The odds of him picking up the marked coin? 1 chance in 10^17!

Here is where things get really crazy. If you up that number to 13 predictions instead of just 8, now we don’t just cover Texas with silver dollars, but the entire earth. And not just 2 feet deep either…now it’s from the earth to the moon deep. Moving on to 48 predictions, we find the chance is 1 in 10^157. To put that in perspective, try quickly counting to 100 in the next minute. Ready…set…go. Did you do it? If you did great, but to count to 10^157 you’d have to repeat that every minute, of every day, for the next 47.5 million years!

OK, so here it is!!!! How do you explain that? You might be asking, “Explain what?” Well I told you about David Greenglass and his 7 signs for being properly identified. I told you the odds of 8, 13 and 46 predictions all coming true. Did you know that there are 456 prophecies about Jesus found in the Old Testament of the bible?!! Now to be fair, some of them are a little ambiguous, but even once you take those out you are left with 333 specific prophecies. Now you saw how the numbers grew from 8 to 13 to 46 predictions…our mind can’t even conceive of the chances of 1 man fulfilling all 333. Again think of David Greenglass. Getting all 7 of his signals correct was a pretty strong sign that you had the correct man. In Jesus case there were 333 of those signs!

Now a bit of background. The Old Testament was completed and being circulated into other countries 400 years before the birth of Jesus. So there is no way that others later went back and changed it so He met all these predictions. So then your left with two options…

The 30 writers of the Old Testament just got lucky and defied astronomical odds.
Each of these writers was inspired by God in what to write.

As I mentioned in last week’s post, it actually would take me more faith to believe option 1 than it does option 2. So as follower’s of Jesus, we really do believe that the bible is God’s Word to us. We really do believe that Jesus was the perfect fulfillment of prophecy that God would be born among us. So with that said, we really take the life and teachings of Jesus seriously. And it was Jesus who said that He is truth. Not has truth, but IS truth.

So to the person who commented that mathematically Christianity can’t be absolute truth and to all of you reading this, I hope you’ve been challenged that actually it can be.

2+2=4.
David Greenglass + 7 signals= You’ve found the right man.
333 predictive prophecies + Jesus fulfillment= We’ve found the right man and He is the way, the truth and the life.

Next week I’ll explore some of the implications that this post has to do with our lives, beliefs and world. Until then keep checking back each day as I write on a variety of topics.

Ministry Monday’s
Topical Tuesday’s
Whatever Wednesday’s
Theological Thursday’s
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Why Are Christians So Intolerant?

January 2, 2014 by Gilbert 1 Comment

I recently had a conversation with a man who asked…

“Why are you Christians so intolerant?”

I said, “I’ll answer that but first tell me what you mean.”

He said, “Well I constantly hear about Christians who are judging others and try to tell others what is right and wrong. Why can’t you guys just accept other people’s viewpoints…it’s so intolerant!”

To which I said, “So what you’re saying is that whenever someone tells someone else their viewpoint is wrong that is intolerant and it should stop?”

He said, “Yes”.

I then politely pointed out that he was doing the very thing right then that he was accusing me and other Christians of. He was saying that another person’s viewpoint (mine/Christians) was wrong and that we should accept his viewpoint.

Now I’ve known this guy for awhile and I know he was asking the question sincerely but he felt the need to quickly apologize even though I told him that wasn’t necessary. We then went on to have a great conversation about how the definition of tolerance has become distorted in America. First, I’ll start with the dictionary definition of tolerance and then share some of the things I shared with him.

Webster’s DictionaryTolerance: sympathy or indulgence for beliefs or practices differing from or conflicting with one’s own

Look at that again. By it’s very definition, tolerance means there will be conflicting viewpoints and that’s OK. For example, I’m a huge fan of the Redskins and Capitals which is a bit of a problem when you live in an area that is filled with Steelers and Penguins fans. If I were a fan of the Steelers and Penguins then no one would have to tolerate my like of REAL teams (FYI tongue firmly in cheek when looking at this year’s standings). What I’m saying is, tolerance is only needed when there are conflicting points of view.

What our society however has tried to make tolerance into is that not only must we accept each others point of view but that we must also accept that each others point of view is equally valid or truthful. This is then where we must look at the difference between relative truth and absolute truth.

Relative truth says that what may be true for you may not be true for me. It is what many people want we they say the word tolerance. “You live your life, I’ll live my life and we won’t judge each other”.

Absolute truth on the other hand says that there are certain things that are true for all people, at all times and in all places. Examples would be gravity, that you need oxygen to breath, that you can’t have a stick with one end, that 2+2=4. With absolute truth, you can sincerely believe that gravity won’t impact you or that 2+2=7 but that just makes you sincerely wrong. Now I can tolerate you having the wrong answer but that doesn’t mean it’s still not wrong.

Think of it this way, if your 1st grader kept insisting that 2+2=7 wouldn’t the most loving thing for you to do is try to correct them? Would anyone accuse you of being intolerant? Of being judgmental? No of course not…you want what’s best for someone that you love.

With that being said, Christians truly believe that Jesus was God in the flesh, was crucified for our sins and came back to life just as He said He would. We also believe Him when He says that He is truth and that NO ONE can come into a relationship with God except through Him. We also take serious His command that we are to teach others all that he taught us.

Now why we believe everything in the previous paragraph is the subject of an entire other post but hopefully you can see now why Christians feel obligated to speak out about moral issues. It’s not because we don’t love you…it’s because we do love you. We accept that you have a differing point of view (that’s tolerance) but at the same time want to lovingly point out that there is a better way because 2+2 does not equal 7.

Now I’ll be honest, how some Christians go about doing this can be wrong…we are instructed by the Apostle Paul in Ephesians 4:15 to speak the truth but do it in love. So, I apologize to some of you who have been hurt by Christians who violated this principle. However, I hope you see that the intentions behind it are pure…not based on something that is our opinion but rather instead on something based on truth.

Again, I know some of you are saying that it may not be true so I’ll have to blog about the why’s in the future. I’ll just say this for now. I didn’t become a Christian until I was 20 years old…in investigating the claims of Jesus/the Bible I eventually got to the point that the evidence was so overwhelming that it was all true that it actually would have taken me more faith to believe it not to be true than to believe it is.

One last thought. If you think that Jesus was tolerant based on our society’s definition, then please read the Gospel’s. Constantly Jesus was pointing out the sin and error of people’s ways and telling them to change. However, He does this not so that people would feel condemned but rather so they would turn to Him for the forgiveness of sin. He then instructs us His followers to do likewise. My point being this…while some Christians want to categorize sins into “the big ones” and the “small ones “, to God all sin is sin and the purpose of sin being pointed out isn’t to make you feel bad but so you turn to Jesus for forgiveness.

“If we confess our sins to God He is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and to cleanse us from all of our unrighteousness”. -1 John 1:9

“Now there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus”.- Romans 8:1

“If you love me then you will obey what I command” (Jesus) –John 14:15