COURSE 101: CHRISTIAN FOUNDATIONS TABLE OF CONTENTS

Transcription

1 COURSE 101: CHRISTIAN FOUNDATIONS TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER 1 WHAT IS LIFE?... 1 APPENDIX A: THE REASON FOR GOD CHAPTER 2 A GOOD THING GONE BAD...20 APPENDIX B: MORAL RELATIVISM...36 CHAPTER 3 GOD S REVELATION (BIBLE & JESUS)...41 APPENDIX C: RELIGIOUS PLURALISM...67 CHAPTER 4 OUR PROBLEM...68 CHAPTER 5 DEATH AND RESURRECTION OF JESUS...86 CHAPTER 6 OUR RESPONSE CHAPTER 7 A NEW LIFE OF LOVE

2 COURSE 101 VERSION

3 CHAPTER 1 WHAT IS LIFE? CHAPTER 1: WHAT IS LIFE? Man asks questions. A person can have all the creature comforts met, and yet find himself disturbed by the larger questions of life: Who am I? What am I here for? Where did I come from, and what is my ultimate destiny? These are not just academic issues. A lot hinges on your answers to these questions how you choose to live, what you value, and what purposes drive you. NATURE OF MAN At the core of the question of life is the issue of the nature of man. Am I a complex biological machine and no more, or am I a spiritual being with a soul? Richard Dawkins, an atheist writer, has said, We are survival machines - robot vehicles blindly programmed to preserve the selfish molecules known as genes. 1 [Richard Dawkins, The Selfish Gene] We are survival machines. - Richard Dawkins That is one possible answer-- maybe the only possible answer if we are not permitted to look beyond nature for our answers. Atheist Bertrand Russell bluntly enumerates the ramifications: That Man is the product of causes which had no prevision of the end they were achieving; that his origin, his growth, his hopes and fears, his loves and his beliefs, are but the outcome of accidental CHRISTIAN)FOUNDATIONS) 1)

4 CHAPTER 1: WHAT IS LIFE? collocations of atoms; that no fire, no heroism, no intensity of thought and feeling, can preserve an individual life beyond the grave; that all the labours of the ages, all the devotion, all the inspiration, all the noonday brightness of human genius, are destined to extinction in the vast death of the solar system, and that the whole temple of Man s achievement must inevitably be buried beneath the debris of a universe in ruins [...] Only within the scaffolding of these truths, only on the firm foundation of unyielding despair can the soul s habitation be safely built. 2 [Bertrand Russell, The Free Man s Worship] Do you agree with Russell on the consequences for life s meaning if we are just accidental collocations of atoms? The view espoused by Dawkins and Russell (and generally embraced in our world), also known as naturalism, says that all of reality is composed of the physical. This view is also called scientism because it tends to claim truths for science that are not themselves verifiable by science. If all of reality is physical, then it follows that we are no more than animated flesh. Any sense of self we may have that transcends our bodies is illusory. Quite literally, we are just our bodies, according to naturalism. Is this right? Here s a story from the Bible in which a man finds himself suddenly very wealthy. His approach to life turns out to be very modern. LUKE 12: And he said to them, Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions. 16 And he told them a parable, saying, The land of a rich man produced plentifully, 17 and he thought to himself, What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops? 18And he said, I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. 19 And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry. 20But God said to him, Fool This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be? 2) CHRISTIAN)FOUNDATIONS)

5 What is this man s anthropology, i.e., his view of the nature of man? CHAPTER 1: WHAT IS LIFE? What would be this man s life philosophy? What did this man fail to consider? If we are not just our bodies, if we are more than our bodies, then what is this more? Given that the rich man in the story thought his soul fed on grain (v.19), maybe the highest good we can find for man is to feed the appetites, to minimize pain and maximize pleasure. So, is the notion that life is supposed to be about more, that we are more than our bodies, that there are real, transcendent values beyond satisfying our appetites are these notions just unreal fluff? They must be, if who we are is just CHRISTIAN)FOUNDATIONS) 3)

6 CHAPTER 1: WHAT IS LIFE? bodies. But Jesus, the one who told this story, says that one s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions. If not possessions, then what is life about? Academic degrees? Pleasures? Like Shakespeare s Macbeth, some throw up their hands and say life makes no sense, that life is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. Or, as Danish philosopher Kierkegaard put it, is it the case that man is like a smooth stone thrown across the surface of a river it bounces along, until, like life itself, it loses momentum and sinks into nothingness. In other words, since we all die anyway, no matter what we try to construct out of our short lives, what meaning can we find? Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die, 1 as the saying goes. Obviously, this is an absurd view of man. Yet, better answers seem hard to find under an atheistic, naturalistic worldview. This difficulty, however, is entirely arbitrary, imposed on modernity by the irrational claim that there is no truth other than scientific truth, and there is therefore nothing real other than what science can detect (i.e., atoms). 2 In addition to being a bleak view that strips life of all its color, this view makes a huge claim that is simply asserted without evidence. Naturalism stifles deeper thinking in that it artificially reduces what we are allowed to consider in answering the most fundamental of questions. For a grander perspective that gives place to human nature, worth, and meaning find their place we need to start with the question of origin. In other words, where did we come from? Again the naturalist here is forced to paint with only one color: we did not come from anywhere. Matter is all there is. However, even the most ardent naturalist is forced to admit that this itself is an unverifiable claim that is simply asserted as a matter of dogma. For more on this, and on the larger issue of the existence of a creator and the origin of the universe, please read the article at the end of this week s material: Appendix A: The Reason for God 1 1 Cor 15:32 What do I gain if, humanly speaking, I fought with beasts at Ephesus? If the dead are not raised, Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die. This is the life philosophy the Bible sees as appropriate if we are no more than bodies destined to perish. 2 It has been pointed out by philosophers, atheistic and religious alike, that this widely-held view is itself not a scientific statement, and therefore self-defeating. Like the sentence, There are no sentences in English longer than 5 words, the statement that there are no truths apart from scientific truths, being a nonscientific statement, cannot be true on its own terms. It collapses logically, and is, essentially, meaningless nonsense. 4) CHRISTIAN)FOUNDATIONS)

7 CHAPTER 1: WHAT IS LIFE? If we have been created by God, it would follow that our attempt to locate ourselves apart from the larger story of creation is bound to be unfruitful. Further, if God, himself a spiritual being, made us to be more than our bodies, then it follows that we would have such a thing as spiritual longings which no amount of food or pleasures can satisfy. The Bible goes on to identify the reason for this longing: God has put eternity into man s heart (Ecclesiastes 3:11). In other words, the Bible claims that we can never be fully at peace with only the physical because we have been created by God with eternal souls, which long for something much more than a mere biological existence. C.S. Lewis describes an inconsolable longing which has characterized the human condition across cultures: I find in me a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation of which is that I was made for another world. If none of my earthly pleasures satisfy it, that does not prove that the universe is a fraud. Probably earthly pleasures were never meant to satisfy it, but only to arouse it, to suggest the real thing. 4 [C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity] THE CREATION ACCOUNT IN GENESIS So let s dive into the question of origin. Many seekers looking into Christianity often get stuck in the first few pages of the Bible because of a crucial misreading of the Genesis creation account. Imagine a person, upon reading a chemistry lab manual, exclaiming in exasperation, This book has no plot Such a person is misunderstanding the genre of what he is reading. A lab manual is not interested in character or plot development. It is only meant to describe how to run experiments. Therefore, it would be absurd to demand from a lab manual answers it is simply not interested in providing. Many read the creation account in Genesis as one would read a lab manual and demand from it answers that the book of Genesis is not interested in providing. Genesis is not concerned with the question of how but with the theological narrative of God s creation with a focus on the questions why and who i.e., why is there something rather than nothing? Who created this universe? Who is man, and what is his relationship to the Creator? IN THE BEGINNING Let s read Genesis 1. CHRISTIAN)FOUNDATIONS) 5)

8 CHAPTER 1: WHAT IS LIFE? 1 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. 2 The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. 3 And God said, Let there be light, and there was light. 4 And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day. 6 And God said, Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters. 7 And God made the expanse and separated the waters that were under the expanse from the waters that were above the expanse. And it was so. 8 And God called the expanse Heaven. And there was evening and there was morning, the second day. 9 And God said, Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear. And it was so. 10 God called the dry land Earth, and the waters that were gathered together he called Seas. And God saw that it was good. 11 And God said, Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind, on the earth. And it was so. 12 The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed according to their own kinds, and trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. 13 And there was evening and there was morning, the third day. 14 And God said, Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night. And let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and years, 15 and let them be lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light upon the earth. And it was so. 16 And God made the two great lights the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night and the stars. 17 And God set them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth, 18 to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. 19 And there was evening and there was morning, the fourth day. 6) CHRISTIAN)FOUNDATIONS) GENESIS 1 20 And God said, Let the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the heavens. 21 So God created the great sea creatures and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarm, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. 22 And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth. 23 And there was evening and there was morning, the fifth day. 24 And God said, Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds livestock and creeping things and beasts of the earth according to their kinds. And it was so. 25 And God made the beasts of the earth according to their kinds and the livestock according to their kinds, and everything that creeps on the ground according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. 26 Then God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. 27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. 28 And God blessed them. And God said to them, Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth. 29 And God said, Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food. 30 And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food. And it was so. 31 And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.

9 CHAPTER 1: WHAT IS LIFE? Note that the Bible does not attempt to persuade the reader of the existence of God. Rather, from its very first pages, the Bible declares the activity of God. All of the arguments regarding the origin of the universe aside (covered in Appendix A), the Bible simply states that everything has its being in the sovereign creation of God. What repeated statement describes God s assessment after each phase of creation? What is God s final assessment of the created order after he places mankind within the rest of his creation? (Genesis 1:31) List the ways in which the creation of man differed from the creation of the rest of the universe. (Genesis 1:26-31) What do you think it means for man to be made in God s image? Genesis 2:7-8 provides a bit more detail: then LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature. And the LORD God had planted a garden in Eden, in the east; and there he put the man whom he had formed. A special Hebrew verb is used in the creation account when God creates man. We see God taking a pause, almost taking a deep breath, deliberating, and forming man. We read that the other animals were created according to their kinds but the Bible declares that "God created man in his own image" and that God "breathed...the breath of life" into us, highlighting the special relationship between mankind and God. CHRISTIAN)FOUNDATIONS) 7)

10 CHAPTER 1: WHAT IS LIFE? According to the Bible, part of the reason for this special relationship is that we are spiritual, and not merely physical, creatures. Christianity asserts that every individual human being is going to live forever, and this must be either true or false. Now there are a good many things which would not be worth bothering about if I were going to live only seventy years, but which I had better bother about very seriously if I am going to live forever.... If individuals live only seventy years, then a state, or a nation, or a civilization, which may last for a thousand years, is more important than an individual. But if Christianity is true, then the individual is not only more important but incomparably more important, for he is everlasting and the life of a state or a civilization, compared with his, is only a moment. 1 [C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity] What can you conclude about God s intention and heart for mankind through the Genesis account? ANTICIPATING PARENT Genesis reports that God repeatedly declares creation as good, and finally, with man in place, very good. What is the basis of this goodness"? Parents expecting the arrival of a newborn don t get caught off guard. Before the arrival of the baby, they set up the room. They decorate it with pastel baby colors and line the walls with pictures of trains and clouds. They assemble a crib and pad it with cushion. At each stage, you can imagine the parents stepping back, looking at what they prepared and saying, This is good. There are many different perceptions about God: an aloof figure sitting at a distance, a powerful and vindictive force that should be avoided, perhaps an irrelevant and senile grandfather. Contrary to such views, the portrait of God as revealed in the very first pages of the Bible is that of a loving Father, who places man into an environment prepared for him. God blesses and gives and pronounces that creation is very good. 8) CHRISTIAN)FOUNDATIONS)

11 CHAPTER 1: WHAT IS LIFE? The majestic mountains, the pristine beauty of the meadows, the rivers, the trees, were all prepared for mankind, who uniquely among creatures is endowed with the strange propensity to find nature transcendently beautiful. Man was the crown of all of God s creation, sharing His nature, and meant to rule over it with love and wisdom. This is the message of Genesis. A FORK IN THE ROAD Let s consider once again the question we started with: What is life? The answer to that question is integrally linked with the question about God. As William Lane Craig puts it: Without God the universe is the result of a cosmic accident, a chance explosion. There is no reason for which it exists. As for man, he is a freak of nature a blind product of matter plus time plus chance. Man is just a lump of slime that evolved into rationality. There is no more purpose in life for the human race than for a species of insect; for both are the result of the blind interaction of chance and necessity. 5 [William Lane Craig, Reasonable Faith] Such notions are disheartening. However, if it really is the case that there is no God, then we ought to be clear about the consequences and accept them, which would mean we reject notions of value and meaning and align our lives in accordance with the belief that life is ultimately meaningless. On the other hand, if the Bible is true in its claim that the God who created us is a loving heavenly Father, that means we are more than mere molecules. We are more than our bodies. It means that our longing for something higher is not a futile desire, but that is arises out of the very core of who we are as transcendent beings. The weight of the evidence is on the latter. While some people think there must be some kind of leap in the dark involved, the actual state of the evidence to help you assess the truth value of the Christian claim is actually quite good. This course aims to lay out the foundations of Christianity. Whether you re a believer or just seeking answers, let s consider together the claims of the Christian gospel through the next few weeks. 1 Dawkins, Richard. The Selfish Gene, 3rd ed. Oxford University Press, Russell, Bertrand. "The Free Man's Worship." 1903w. 3 Lewis, C.S. Mere Christianity. Harper Press, Craig, William Lane. Reasonable Faith. Crossway Books, CHRISTIAN)FOUNDATIONS) 9)

12 APPENDIX A: THE REASON FOR GOD APPENDIX A: THE CLUES OF GOD THE REASON FOR GOD By Tim Keller (excerpted from Chapter 8 of the book) How can we believe in Christianity if we don t even know whether God exists? Though there cannot be irrefutable proof for the existence of God, many people have found strong clues for his reality divine fingerprints in many places. If one puts aside the existence of God and the survival after life as too doubtful one has to make up one s mind as to the use of life. If death ends all, if I have neither to hope for good nor to fear evil, I must ask myself what I am here for, and how in these circumstances I must conduct myself. Now the answer is plain, but so unpalatable that most will not face it. There is no meaning for life, and [thus] life has no meaning. [Somerset Maugham, The Summing Up] It was true, I have always realized it I hadn t any right to exist at all. I had appeared by chance, I existed like a stone, a plant, a microbe. I could feel nothing to myself but an inconsequential buzzing. I was thinking that here we are eating and drinking, to preserve our precious existence, and that there s nothing, nothing, absolutely no reason for existing. [Jean-Paul Sartre] I once met regularly with a brilliant young scientist who was haunted by a general sense that God existed. Much of what I am writing in this chapter and the next I discovered during my conversations with him. He looked at one argument for God after another, and though many of them had a great deal of merit, he found that ultimately every one of them was rationally avoidable at some point. This troubled him greatly. I can t believe unless I find at least one absolutely airtight proof for God, he said to me. I pointed out to him that he was assuming strong rationalism and he got some relief when together we realized that he had no airtight proof for that. Then we began to go back and review the lines of reasoning that he had been calling proofs and began to look at them instead as clues. When we went about it with that perspective he began to see that, cumulatively, the clues of God had a lot of force to them. The philosopher Alvin Plantinga believes that there are no proofs of God that will convince all rational persons. However, he believes that there are at least two to three dozen very good arguments for the existence of God. i Most readers who take the time to think through Plantinga s list will find some items compelling and others not. However, the accumulated weight of the ones you find appealing can be very formidable. I will trace out just a handful of them. 10# CHRISTIAN#FOUNDATIONS#

13 THE MYSTERIOUS BANG APPENDIX A: THE REASON FOR GOD Those of a more rational mind-set have always been fascinated by the question, Why is there something rather than nothing? This question has become even more interesting to people in the wake of the Big Bang theory. There s evidence that the universe is expanding explosively and outwardly from a single point. Stephen Hawking wrote: Almost everyone now believes that the universe, and time itself, had a beginning at the Big Bang. ii Scientist Francis Collins puts this clue in layman s language in his book The Language of God: We have this very solid conclusion that the universe had an origin, the Big Bang. Fifteen billion years ago, the universe began with an unimaginable bright flash of energy from an infinitesimally small point. That implies that before that, there was nothing. I can t imagine how nature, in this case the universe, could have created itself. And the very fact that the universe had a beginning implies that someone was able to begin it. And it seems to me that had to be outside of nature. iii Everything we know in this world is contingent, had a cause outside of itself. Therefore the universe, which is just a huge pile of such contingent entities, would itself have to be dependent on some cause outside of itself. Something had to make the Big Bang happen but what? What could that be but something outside of nature, a supernatural, noncontingent being that exists by itself? Sam Harris, in his review of Francis Collins book, makes the classic objection to this line of reasoning. In any case, he writes, even if we accepted that our universe simply had to be created by an intelligent being, this would not suggest that this being is the God of the Bible. iv This is perfectly right. If we are looking at this as an argument proving the existence of a personal God, it doesn t get us all the way there. However, if we are looking for a clue a clue that there is something besides the natural world it is very provocative for many people. THE COSMIC WELCOME MAT For organic life to exist, the fundamental regularities and constants of physics the speed of light, the gravitational constant, the strength of the weak and strong nuclear forces must all have values that together fall into an extremely narrow range. The probability of this perfect calibration happening by chance is so tiny as to be statistically negligible. v Again, Collins puts it well: When you look from the perspective of a scientist at the universe, it looks as if it knew we were coming. There are 15 constants the gravitational constant, various constants about the strong and weak nuclear force, etc. that have precise values. If any one of those constants was off by even one part of a million, or in some cases, by one part in a million million, the universe could not have actually come to the point where we see it. Matter would not have been able to coalesce, there would have been no galaxy, stars, planets or people. vi Some have said that it is as if there were a large number of dials that all had to be tuned to within extremely narrow limits and they were. It seems extremely unlikely that this would happen by chance. Stephen Hawking concludes: The odds against a universe like ours emerging out of something like the Big Bang are enormous. I think there are clearly CHRISTIAN#FOUNDATIONS# 11#

14 APPENDIX A: THE REASON FOR GOD religious implications. vii Elsewhere he says, It would be very difficult to explain why the universe would have begun in just this way except as the act of a God who intended to create beings like us. viii This has been called the Fine-Tuning Argument or the Anthropic Principle, namely that the universe was prepared for human beings. As an argument it must be a pretty powerful one, because there are a lot of fierce rebuttals being published about it. The most common rejoinder, which Richard Dawkins makes in his book The God Delusion, is that there may be trillions of universes. Given the enormous number of universes existing over enormous amounts of time and space, it is inevitable that some of them are fine-tuned to sustain our kind of life. The one we are in is one, so here we are. ix The odds against a universe like ours emerging out of something like the Big Bang are enormous. I think there are clearly religious implications. Again, as a proof, the Fine-Tuning Argument is rationally avoidable. Though there s not a shred of proof that there are many universes, there s also no way to prove that there aren t. However, as a clue, this line of thinking has force. Alvin Plantinga gives this illustration. He imagines a man dealing himself twenty straight hands of four aces in the same game of poker. As his companions reach for their six-shooters the poker player says, I know it looks suspicious But what if there is an infinite succession of universes, so that for any possible distribution of poker hands, there is one universe in which the possibility is realized? We just happen to find ourselves in one where I always deal myself four aces without cheating x This argument will have no effect on the other poker players. It is technically possible that the man just happened to deal himself twenty straight hands of four aces. Though you could not prove he had cheated, it would be unreasonable to conclude that he hadn t. The philosopher John Leslie poses a similar illustration. He imagines a man who is sentenced to be executed by a firing squad consisting of fifty expert marksmen. xi They all fire from six feet away and not one bullet hits him. Since it is possible that even expert marksmen could miss from close range it is technically possible that all fifty just happened to miss at the same moment. Though you could not prove they had conspired to miss, it would be unreasonable to draw the conclusion that they hadn t. It is technically possible that we just happened to be in the one universe in which organic life occurred. Though you could not prove that the fine-tuning of the universe was due to some sort of design, it would be unreasonable to draw the conclusion that it wasn t. Although organic life could have just happened without a Creator, does it make sense to live as if that infinitely remote chance is true? THE REGULARITY OF NATURE There is something about nature that is much more striking and inexplicable than its design. All scientific, inductive reasoning is based on the assumption of the regularity (the laws ) of nature, that water will boil tomorrow under the identical conditions of today. The method of induction requires generalizing from observed cases to all cases of the same kind. Without inductive reasoning we couldn t learn from experience, we couldn t use language, we couldn t 12# CHRISTIAN#FOUNDATIONS#

15 rely on our memories. APPENDIX A: THE REASON FOR GOD Most people find that normal and untroubling. But not philosophers David Hume and Bertrand Russell, as good secular men, were troubled by the fact that we haven t got the slightest idea of why nature-regularity is happening now, and moreover we haven t the slightest rational justification for assuming it will continue tomorrow. If someone would say, Well the future has always been like the past in the past, Hume and Russell reply that you are assuming the very thing you are trying to establish. To put it another way, science cannot prove the continued regularity of nature, it can only take it on faith. There have been many scholars in the last decades who have argued that modern science arose in its most sustained form out of Christian civilization because of its belief in an all-powerful, personal God who created and sustains an orderly universe. xii As a proof for the existence of God, the regularity of nature is escapable. You can always say, We don t know why things are as they are. As a clue for God, however, it is helpful. THE CLUE OF BEAUTY Arthur C. Danto, the art critic at the Nation, once described a work of art that gave him a sense of obscure but inescapable meaning. xiii In other words, while great art does not hit you over the head with a simple message, it always gives you a sense that life is not a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. It fills you with hope and gives you the strength to carry on, though you cannot define what it is that moves you. Leonard Bernstein once rhapsodized about the effect of Beethoven on him: Beethoven turned out pieces of breath-taking rightness. Rightness that s the word When you get the feeling that whatever note succeeds the last is the only possible note that can rightly happen at that instant, in that context, then chances are you re listening to Beethoven. Melodies, fugues, rhythms leave them to the Tchaikovskys and Hindemiths and Ravels. Our boy has the real goods, the stuff from Heaven, the power to make you feel at the finish: Something is right in the world. There is something that checks throughout, that follows its own law consistently: something we can trust, that will never let us down. xiv If there is no God, and everything in this world is the product of (as Bertrand Russell famously put it) an accidental collocation of atoms, then there is no actual purpose for which we were made we are accidents. If we are the product of accidental natural forces then what we call beauty is nothing but a neurological hardwired response to particular data. You only find certain scenery to be beautiful because you had ancestors who knew you would find food there and they survived because of that neurological feature and now we have it too. In the same way, though music feels significant, that significance is an illusion. Love too must be seen in this light. If we are the result of blind natural forces, then what we call love is simply a biochemical response, inherited from ancestors who survived because this trait helped them survive. CHRISTIAN#FOUNDATIONS# 13#

16 APPENDIX A: THE REASON FOR GOD Regardless of the beliefs of our mind about the random meaninglessness of life, before the face of beauty we know better. Bernstein and Danto are testifying to the fact that even though we as secular people believe that beauty and love are just biochemical responses, in the presence of great art and beauty we inescapably feel that there is real meaning in life, there is truth and justice that will never let us down, and love means everything. Notice that Bernstein, though by no means an orthodox religious person, can t refrain from even using the term Heaven when talking about Beethoven. We may, therefore, be secular materialists who believe truth and justice, good and evil, are complete illusions. But in the presence of art or even great natural beauty, our hearts tell us another story. Another prominent artist who is apparently telling us the same thing is John Updike. In his short story Pigeon Feathers a young teenager says to his mother, Don t you see, if when we die there s nothing, all your sun and fields and what not are all, ah, horror? It s just an ocean of horror. Later, in the presence of the beauty of pigeon feathers, of their texture and color, he is overwhelmed by a certainty that there is a God behind the world who will allow him to live for eternity. xv Updike seems to be saying that regardless of the beliefs of our mind about the random meaninglessness of life, before the face of beauty we know better. So what? someone might object. Just because we feel something is true doesn t make it so Are we, however, only talking about feeling here? What is evoked in these experiences is, more accurately, appetite or desire. Goethe refers to this as selige sehnsucht blessed longing. We not only feel the reality but also the absence of what we long for. St. Augustine in his Confessions reasoned that these unfulfillable desires are clues to the reality of God. How so? Indeed (as it was just objected) just because we feel the desire for a steak dinner doesn t mean we will get it. However, while hunger doesn t prove that the particular meal desired will be procured, doesn t the appetite for food in us mean that food exists? Isn t it true that innate desires correspond to real objects that can satisfy them, such as sexual desire (corresponding to sex), physical appetite (corresponding to food), tiredness (corresponding to sleep) and relational desires (corresponding to friendship)? Doesn t the unfulfillable longing evoked by beauty qualify as an innate desire? We have a longing for joy, love, and beauty that no amount or quality of food, sex, friendship, or success can satisfy. We want something that nothing in this world can fulfill. Isn t that at least a clue that this something that we want exists? xvi This unfulfillable longing, then, qualifies as a deep, innate human desire, and that makes it a major clue that God is there. THE CLUE-KILLER In our culture there is a very influential school of thought that claims to have the answers to all of these so-called clues. This is the school of evolutionary biology that claims everything about us can be explained as a function of natural selection. A book that seeks to explain all clues about God in this way is Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon by Daniel Dennett. Dennett claims that if we have religious feelings it is only because those traits once helped certain people survive their environment in greater numbers and 14# CHRISTIAN#FOUNDATIONS#

17 therefore passed that genetic code on to us. He sums up his view when he writes: APPENDIX A: THE REASON FOR GOD Everything we value from sugar and sex and money to music and love and religion we value for reasons. Lying behind, and distinct from, our reasons are evolutionary reasons, free-floating rationales that have been endorsed by natural selection. xvii Belief in God is an accidental by-product of other traits that did give adaptive advantage. In The New York Times Magazine, Robin Marantz Henig surveyed what evolutionists think about religion in an article, Why Do We Believe? How Evolutionary Science Explains Faith in God. xviii We know that the idea of an infallible God is comfortable and familiar, something children readily accept. xix Why? Some evolutionists such as David Sloan Wilson think belief in God made people happier and more unselfish, which meant their families and tribes survived and they got better mates. Others such as Scott Atran and Richard Dawkins posit that belief in God is an accidental by-product of other traits that did give adaptive advantage. Our ancestors who survived were most prone to detect agents in the brush even when they weren t there, and were most likely to impose narratives, causal reasoning, on everything that happened around them. However, these same traits make us more likely to believe in God to see agents and narratives and intelligences where they don t actually exist. xx Despite fierce debates within the field, evolutionary theorists all agree that our capacity to believe in God is hardwired into our physiology because it was directly or indirectly associated with traits that helped our ancestors adapt to their environment. That s why arguments for God appeal to so many of us. That s all there is to it. The clues are clues to nothing. However, there are many who believe not only that the clue-killer argument has a fatal contradiction in it, but that it actually points to another clue for God. If our cognitive faculties only tell us what we need to survive, not what is true, why trust them about anything at all? In the last part of Dawkins s The God Delusion he admits that since we are the product of natural selection, we can t completely trust our own senses. After all, evolution is interested only in preserving adaptive behavior, not true belief. xxi In a New York Times Magazine article, another scientist says, in some circumstances a symbolic belief that departs from factual reality fares better. xxii In other words, paranoid false beliefs are often more effective at helping you survive than accurate ones. I don t believe Dawkins or other evolutionary theorists realize the full implications of this cruel insight. Evolution can only be trusted to give us cognitive faculties that help us live on, not to provide ones that give us an accurate and true picture of the world around us. xxiii Patricia Churchland puts it like this: The principle chore of [brains] is to get the body parts where they should be in order that the organism may survive. Improvements in sensorimotor control confer an evolutionary advantage: a CHRISTIAN#FOUNDATIONS# 15#

18 APPENDIX A: THE REASON FOR GOD fancier style of representing [the world] is advantageous so long as it enhances the organism s chances for survival. Truth, whatever that is, takes the hindmost. xxiv Thomas Nagel, the prominent philosopher and atheist, agrees in the last chapter of his book The Last Word. He writes that to be sure my mind is telling me what is really, truly out there in the world, I must follow the rules of logic because they are correct not merely because I am biologically programmed to do so. However, according to evolutionary biology laws of reason would have to make sense to us only because they help us survive, not because they necessarily tell us truth. So, Nagel asks: [Can we have any] continued confidence in reason as a source of knowledge about the nonapparent character of the world? In itself, I believe an evolutionary story [of the human race] tells against such confidence. xxv Evolutionists say that if God makes sense to us, it is not because he is really there, it s only because that belief helped us survive and so we are hardwired for it. However, if we can t trust our belief-forming faculties to tell us the truth about God, why should we trust them to tell us the truth about anything, including evolutionary science? If our cognitive faculties only tell us what we need to survive, not what is true, why trust them about anything at all? It seems that evolutionary theorists have to do one of two things. They could backtrack and admit that we can trust what our minds tell us about things, including God. If we find arguments or clues to God s existence that seem compelling to us, well, maybe he s really there. Or else they could go forward and admit that we can t trust our minds about anything. What is not fair is to do what so many evolutionary scientists are doing now. They are applying the scalpel of their skepticism to what our minds tell us about God but not to what our minds are telling us about evolutionary science itself. This is a huge Achilles heel in the whole enterprise of evolutionary biology and theory. Alvin Plantinga points out that Charles Darwin himself saw this major vulnerability. To a friend, Darwin wrote that: The horrid doubt always arises whether the convictions of man s mind, which has been developed from the mind of the lower animals, are of any value or at all trustworthy. xxvi Plantinga then proceeds to argue that it is ultimately irrational to accept evolutionary naturalism, the theory that everything in us is caused only by natural selection. If it were true, we couldn t trust the methods by which we arrived at it or any scientific theory at all. xxvii People like Dawkins hold that there is a conflict between science and religion the truth of the matter, however, is that the conflict is between science and naturalism, not between science and belief in God It s as likely, given unguided evolution, that we live in a sort of dream world as that we actually know something about ourselves and our world. xxviii Despite popular books like those of Dennett, Dawkins, and Harris, which try to use the evolutionary clue-killer on religion, more and more thinkers are seeing through it, and not just orthodox believers, but those like Thomas Nagel. Leon Wieseltier, the literary editor of The New Republic, points out the flaw in the clue-killer argument in his review of Dennett s book Breaking the Spell. 16# CHRISTIAN#FOUNDATIONS#

19 APPENDIX A: THE REASON FOR GOD [Dennett] portrays reason in service to natural selection, and as a product of natural selection. But if reason is a product of natural selection, then how much confidence can we have in a rational argument for natural selection? The power of reason is owed to the independence of reason, and to nothing else Evolutionary biology cannot invoke the power of reason even as it destroys it. xxix It comes down to this: If, as the evolutionary scientists say, what our brains tells us about morality, love, and beauty is not real if it is merely a set of chemical reactions designed to pass on our genetic code then so is what their brains tell them about the world. Then why should they trust them? THE CLUE-KILLER IS REALLY A CLUE I think that ultimately the supposed clue-killer ends up showing us one more clue for God to put beside the others. The first clue is the very existence of the world, the Big Bang. The secular person rightly responds, But that doesn t prove God exists. Maybe the Big Bang just caused itself. The second clue is the fine-tuning of the universe, the one-ina-trillion-trillion chance that our universe supports organic and human life. Again the secular person can very fairly respond: But that doesn t prove God. It could be through sheer random circumstance that this universe is the one that was formed. Another clue is the regularity of nature. All scientific, inductive reasoning is based on the assumption of this, though we haven t the slightest rational justification for assuming it will continue. When believers have responded that this is a clue to God s existence, nonbelievers retort, rightly, We don t know why nature is regular, it just is. That doesn t prove God. Another clue is the clue of beauty and meaning. If we are the product of the meaningless, accidental forces of nature, believers ask, how do you account for the sense we have that beauty matters, that love and life are significant? The secular person responds: This doesn t prove God. We can explain all such senses and convictions through evolutionary biology. Our religious, aesthetic, and moral intuitions are there only because they helped our ancestors survive. However, as many thinkers point out, if this argument proves anything at all it proves too much. If we can t trust our belief-forming faculties in one area, we should not trust them in any area. If there is no God, we could not trust our cognitive faculties at all. Oh, but we do, and that s the final clue. If we believe God exists, then our view of the universe gives us a basis for believing that cognitive faculties work, since God could make us able to form true beliefs and knowledge. If we believe in God, then the Big Bang is not mysterious, nor the fine-tuning of the universe, nor the regularities of nature. All the things that we see make perfect sense. Also, if God exists our intuitions about the meaningfulness of beauty and love are to be expected. If you don t believe in God, not only are all these things profoundly inexplicable, but your view that there is no God would lead you not to expect them. Though you have little reason to believe your rational faculties work, you go on using them. You have no basis for believing that nature will go on regularly, but you continue to use inductive reasoning and language. You have no good reason to trust your senses that love and beauty matter, but you keep on doing it. C.S. Lewis puts this vividly: You can t, except in the lowest animal sense, be in love with a girl if you know (and keep on remembering) that all the beauties both of her person and of her character are a momentary and CHRISTIAN#FOUNDATIONS# 17#

20 APPENDIX A: THE REASON FOR GOD accidental pattern produced by the collision of atoms, and that your own response to them is only a sort of psychic phosphorescence arising from the behavior of your genes. You can t go on getting very serious pleasure from music if you know and remember that its air of significance is a pure illusion, that you like it only because your nervous system is irrationally conditioned to like it. xxx Of course none of the clues we have been looking for actually proves God. Every one of them is rationally avoidable. However, their cumulative effect is, I think, provocative and potent. Though the secular view of the world is rationally possible, it doesn t make as much sense of all these things as the view that God exists. That s why we call them clues. The theory that there is a God who made the world accounts for the evidence we see better than the theory that there is no God. Those who argue against the existence of God go right on using induction, language, and their cognitive faculties, all of which make far more sense in a universe in which a God has created and supports them all by his power. i A survey can be found in Alvin Plantinga s lecture notes, Two Dozen (or so) Theistic Arguments, available at and many other places on the Internet. See also the summary of William C. Davis, Theistic Arguments, in Murray, Reason for the Hope Within. ii Stephen Hawking and Robert Penrose, The Nature of Time and Space (Princeton University Press, 1996), p.20. iii In an interview on Salon.com, last accessed on March 9, iv Harris, Sam. last accessed on March 9, 2007 v For a short summary of this argument see Robin Collins, A Scientific Argument for the Existence of God: The Fine-Tuning Design Argument, Reason for the Hope Within, Michael J. Murray, ed. (Eerdmans, 1999). vi In an interview on Salon.com, last accessed March 9, vii Boslough, John. Stephen Hawking s Universe (Avon, 1989), p.117. viii Hawking, Stephen. A Brief History of Time (Bantam, 1998), p.131. ix See Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion (Houghton Mifflin, 2006), p.107. x From Alvin Plantinga, Dennett s Dangerous Idea, in Books and Culture (May-June 1996): 35. xi 18# CHRISTIAN#FOUNDATIONS# Recounted in Collins, A Scientific Argument, p.77. xii See Science Gets Strange in C. John Sommerville, The Decline of the Secular University (Oxford University Press, 2006). See also Diogenes Allen, Christian Belief in a Post-Modern World (John Knox, 1989). xiii Arthur Danto, Pas de Deux, en Masse: Shirin Neshat s Rapture, The Nation, June 28, xiv From Leonard Bernstein s The Joy of Music (Simon and Schuster, 2004), p.105. xv Quoted by Robin Marantz Henig in her article Why Do We Believe? in The New York Times Magazine, March 4, 2007, p.58. xvi xvii xviii The classic statement of this argument is found in the chapter on Hope in C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (Macmillan) Quoted in Leon Wieseltier, The God Genome, New York Times Book Review, February 19, The New York Times Magazine, March 4, xix Henig, Why Do We Believe? p.43. xx Ibid., p.58. xxi Dawkins, The God Delusion, p.367ff, Our brains themselves are evolved organs evolved to help us survive. xxii Henig, p.7. xxiii In his foreword to Richard Dawkins s The Selfish Gene, Robert Trivers noted Dawkins s emphasis on the role of deception in animal life, and added if indeed deceit is fundamental to animal communication, then there must be strong selection to spot deception and this ought, in turn, to select for a degree of self-deception, rendering some facts and motives unconscious so as not to betray by the subtle signs of self-knowledge the deception being practiced. Therefore, the conventional view that natural selection favors nervous systems which produce ever more accurate images of the world must be a very naïve view of mental evolution. Quote from Robert Wright, The Moral Animal (Pantheon, 1994), pp Cognitive psychologist Justin Barrett writes: Some cognitive scientists assume that because our

21 APPENDIX A: THE REASON FOR GOD brains and their functions have been designed by natural selection we can trust them to tell us the truth; such an assumption is epistemologically dubious. Just because we can successfully survive and reproduce in no way ensures that our minds as a whole tell us the truth about anything especially when it comes to sophisticated thinking what a completely naturalistic view of the human mind can safely embrace is that our minds were good for survival in the past. Justin L. Barrett, Why Would Anyone Believe in God? (AltaMira Press, 2004), p.19. xxiv Patricia S. Churchland, Epistemology in the Age of Neuroscience, Journal of Philosophy (October 1987), p.548. Quoted in Plantinga, Warrant and Proper Function (Oxford University Press, 2000), p.218. xxv Nagel, The Last Word, pp xxvi Quoted in Alvin Plantinga, Is Naturalism Irrational? in Warrant and Proper Function (Oxford University Press, 2000), p.219. xxvii For the full argument, see A. Plantinga, Chapters 11 and 12 in Warrant and Proper Function (Oxford University Press, 2000) xxviii From Alvin Plantinga s review of Richard Dawkins s The God Confusion in Books and Culture (March/April 2007): 24. xxix Wieseltier s review, The God Genome, appeared in the New York Times, February 19, xxx C.S. Lewis, On Living in an Atomic Age, in Present Concerns (Collins, 1986), p.76. CHRISTIAN#FOUNDATIONS# 19#

22 CHAPTER 2 : A GOOD THING GONE BAD A GOOD THING CHAPTER 2 A GOOD THING GONE BAD According to Genesis, humanity was to be the centerpiece of God s creation. No other creature was given the privilege of such a special relationship with God. However, part of the nature of this relationship involved the ability to reject God. LOVE MUST BE FREELY CHOSEN God created things which had free will. That means creatures which can go either wrong or right. Some people think they can imagine a creature which was free but had no possibility of going wrong; I cannot. If a thing is free to be good it is also free to be bad. And free will is what has made evil possible. Why, then did God give them free will? Because free will, though it makes evil possible, is also the only thing that makes possible any love or goodness or joy worth having. A world of automata of creatures that worked like machines would hardly be worth creating. The happiness which God designs for His higher creatures is the happiness of being freely, voluntarily united to Him and to each other in an ecstasy of love and delight compared with which the most rapturous love between a man and a woman on this earth is mere milk and water. And for that they must be free. 1 [C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity] Free will, though it makes evil possible, is also the only thing that makes possible any love or goodness or joy worth having. C.S. Lewis A man who proposes to a woman at gunpoint besides deserving imprisonment would be completely mistaken about the nature of love. Love, if it is to be genuine, must be freely chosen. To love is the most free thing we can do. Our hearts are entirely ours to give or withhold. Even a king, if he seeks genuine love, must allow the peasant girl the real option of rejecting him. If there is no way to reject someone, then any "love" under such circumstances would be illusory. THE CHOICE TO REJECT 20# CHRISTIAN#FOUNDATIONS#

23 Read the passages from Genesis 2 and 3. GENESIS 2:4-10, CHAPTER 2 : A GOOD THING GONE BAD GENESIS 3:1-9 4 These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens. 5 When no bush of the field was yet in the land and no small plant of the field had yet sprung up for the Lord God had not caused it to rain on the land, and there was no man to work the ground, 6 and a mist was going up from the land and was watering the whole face of the ground 7 then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature. 8 And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed. 9 And out of the ground the Lord God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. 10 A river flowed out of Eden to water the garden, and there it divided and became four rivers. 15 The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. 16 And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die. 1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, Did God actually say, You shall not eat of any tree in the garden? 2 And the woman said to the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, 3 but God said, You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die. 4 But the serpent said to the woman, You will not surely die. 5 For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. 6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. 7 Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths. 8 And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. 9 But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, Where are you? Consider what the Garden of Eden was like. Far from a wasteland of cacti and sand with that lone, succulent (but forbidden) fruit tree in the center, Eden was filled with trees that were pleasant to the sight and good for food (Genesis 2:9). Many people misconstrue the forbidden fruit (Genesis 2:17) as some kind of trap that God designed for the downfall of mankind, but nothing could be further from the truth. CHRISTIAN#FOUNDATIONS# 21#

24 CHAPTER 2 : A GOOD THING GONE BAD There was probably nothing inherently special about the fruit itself. The fruit was a tangible representation of the freedom that Adam and Eve had to reject a relationship with their Creator. If Adam and Eve were to choose to reject God, they could do so unambiguously by taking the fruit, crossing the one boundary that God gave them. If we think about it, every significant relationship has its own forbidden fruit. What would be the forbidden fruit in the following relationships? FRIENDSHIP MARRIAGE SOLDIER These prohibitions are not merely incidental to the relationship, but they actually define the very meaning of the relationship and provide the boundary lines within which it can flourish. In fact, the more important the relationship is, the weightier the forbidden fruit and thus the heavier the consequences of crossing that boundary. Notice that eating a fruit is a morally neutral act. Without understanding the relational significance of the forbidden fruit, it can seem odd that the ominous Original Sin of the Bible centers on such a morally ambiguous act. Imagine that a married man approaches his wife after an argument, and without a word, hands her his wedding ring and walks out of the house. What would this seemingly neutral act of giving back the ring communicate? In a similar way, taking the forbidden fruit had dire consequences, not because the fruit itself was sinful, but because it meant that Adam and Eve were rejecting God as their Creator and heavenly Father. 22# CHRISTIAN#FOUNDATIONS#

25 CHAPTER 2 : A GOOD THING GONE BAD Recall the tender picture of creation in Genesis 1: the portrait of the waiting parent preparing a place for his beloved child. Having been given the dignity of free will, however, mankind chose to reject that relationship. To reject someone who has a relationship with you is one of the most hurtful things that can be done. That is why any form of betrayal (a weapon only in the hands of those you love) back-stabbing, adultery, desertion leave such deep wounds. The more you love, the deeper the wound. Imagine a college-bound high school graduate who, toward the end of August, rises early one morning, packs her belongings in a few suitcases, calls the taxi, and sits her parents down for a talk. In a calm, cold tone, she says to her parents: "Mr. and Mrs. Lee, I thank you for your efforts on my behalf all these years. I benefited from the shelter, clothes and food you provided. I could barely tolerate your values and your personalities, and so I waited for this day. I have received a full scholarship admission from a good university. I will not be telling you where I will go to college. Please do not attempt to contact me. I will be changing my name. Please don t consider me your child any longer, and I will no longer consider you my parents. I hope to never see either of you again. Good bye." It s chilling to even think about such a scenario. Yet, the Bible presents precisely such a scenario as the accurate depiction of the situation between man and his Creator. (See Luke 15: 11-32) LUKE 15:11-32 The Parable of the Prodigal Son 11 And he said, There was a man who had two sons. 12 And the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the share of property that is coming to me. And he divided his property between them. 13 Not many days later, the younger son gathered all he had and took a journey into a far country, and there he squandered his property in reckless living. 14 And when he had spent everything, a severe famine arose in that country, and he began to be in need. 15 So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him into his fields to feed pigs. 16 And he was longing to be fed with the pods that the pigs ate, and no one gave him anything. 17 But when he came to himself, he said, How many of my father's hired servants have more than enough bread, but I perish here with hunger 18 I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. 19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants. 20 And he arose and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him. 21 And the son said to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. 22 But the father said to his servants, Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet. 23 And bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate. 24 For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found. And they began to celebrate. CHRISTIAN#FOUNDATIONS# 23#

26 CHAPTER 2 : A GOOD THING GONE BAD 25 Now his older son was in the field, and as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing. 26 And he called one of the servants and asked what these things meant. 27 And he said to him, Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fattened calf, because he has received him back safe and sound. 28 But he was angry and refused to go in. His father came out and entreated him, 29 but he answered his father, Look, these many years I have served you, and I never ESSENCE OF SIN disobeyed your command, yet you never gave me a young goat, that I might celebrate with my friends. 30 But when this son of yours came, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him 31 And he said to him, Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. 32 It was fitting to celebrate and be glad, for this your brother was dead, and is alive; he was lost, and is found. In Genesis 3:5, the serpent tempts Eve with the words, When you eat of it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. The alluring suggestion is that if they take the forbidden fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they would determine good and evil for themselves and effectively be their own gods. Sin is believing the lie that you are self-created, self-dependent and selfsustained. Augustine Sin is essentially a departure from God. Martin Luther I am the master of my fate. I am the captain of my soul. William Ernest Henley, Invictus What makes this suggestion to take up the authority to determine good and evil for ourselves such an appealing offer? 24# CHRISTIAN#FOUNDATIONS#

27 CHAPTER 2 : A GOOD THING GONE BAD Adam and Eve had made their choice. From now on, no authority would be allowed to determine for them the boundaries of good or evil. Truth, along with morality, would have to give way to their personal choices and preferences. And now that they had removed God from the position of authority in their lives, they had become their own boss ; they would rule their own destinies by means of their own wits. This is the essence of sin: the rejection of God and the placement of self on the throne. They wanted, as we say, to "call their souls their own." But that means to live a lie, for our souls are not, in fact, our own. They wanted some corner in the universe of which they could say to God, "This is our business, not yours." But there is no such corner. 2 [C.S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain] This problem is not limited to the early chapters of Genesis. The tale of rebellion man's self-assertion, self-rule, self-determination against God has been repeated down to this very day. This inner desire to rule over self and play "God" in our own lives is utterly intuitive to fallen humanity but runs completely contrary to our original design. If it does not feel like an illegitimate power-grab, it s only because we are so accustomed to thinking of ourselves as the natural lord and master of our own lives. The Bible uses the term "sinful nature" to refer to this desire of man to become his own authority, to have his imperious self reign without restraint. And from this sinful nature comes all the moral evil we recognize both in the world and in our own lives murder, greed, cheating, etc. Simply put, our "sin" (desire to be our own god) is the root that produces the fruit of "sins" (behavior contrary to God's laws and commands). How much can you relate to this desire to call your own shots? In what area does this come up? SIN IS AGAINST GOD Notice that the first sinful move is not some gross moral transgression. It is, rather, a relational-spiritual enmity toward God, much like the analogy of the outrageous college student. In other words, far from being a neutral desire for self-actualization, the first sin was an act of hostility and treason against God s rightful claim on our lives. This God-directed nature of sin must be kept in mind. CHRISTIAN#FOUNDATIONS# 25#

28 CHAPTER 2 : A GOOD THING GONE BAD It s easy for people to see the many manifestations of sin in our world and, more pointedly, in their own lives, and come to a hearty agreement that sin is a huge problem for man in general, and even for themselves personally. However, this would be mistaking the symptoms for the disease. At the root of our numerous moral failings is a cold, hostile heart of enmity toward God. But from this seemingly morally neutral act, Adam and Eve had unchained the earth from its sun, as Friedrich Nietzsche would put it. Things started falling apart once they banished God from his rightful place. What is your response to God s rightful claim over your life? IDOLATRY The irony of rejecting God is that mankind ended up serving far inferior things. Naturally given to worship, mankind has substituted other things for God something the Bible calls idolatry. As G.K. Chesterton said, When we cease to worship God, we do not worship nothing; we worship anything. 3 G.K. Chesterton When man ceased worshipping God, his rule over creation was lost, and in a ghastly reversal, creation began to rule over man. Read Romans 1: Claiming to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. 24 Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, 25 because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever Amen. 26# CHRISTIAN#FOUNDATIONS#

29 What did the people end up doing upon rejecting God? CHAPTER 2 : A GOOD THING GONE BAD Of course, the idols of previous eras have been replaced today with shinier, fancier things, but no one doubts that the outlandish scale of our obsession with wealth and sensuality borders on outright worship. What are some of the most prevalent idols of today? What do people hope these idols will deliver? RELATIVISM Another consequence of our rejection of God is relativism, which is the worldview that truth and morality are up to the individual. If idolatry confuses what is valuable, relativism confuses what is true. We say things like, Truth is whatever people believe to be true, or Right and wrong are determined by the individual. After all, we are now gods over our own lives, so the desire to "call our own shots" has led to a self-serving outlook that we are free to choose from a smorgasbord of shifting morals, values and truths, picking and choosing as we please. Although statements such as truth is relative sound sophisticated, such sound bites quickly lead to a culture of extreme shallowness. Armed with the blind belief that everything depends on what the individual feels, the modern man is relieved of any need to investigate truth claims. If truth is relative, there is no longer any need to deeply consider any idea, since your beliefs are just as good as mine. Shallowness reigns under the guise of intellectual and moral openness. Terms like truth, good, evil and right are discarded as antiquated and irrelevant concepts along with every regulation that threatens to hinder our desires. CHRISTIAN#FOUNDATIONS# 27#

30 CHAPTER 2 : A GOOD THING GONE BAD God is dead. And we have killed him. Nietzsche Nietzsche, one of the greatest influences of the twentieth century, portrayed his ideology in a stunning way in The Madman, his parable about a man who breaks the news to the world that we have killed God. The madman jumped into their midst and pierced them with his eyes. Whither is God? he cried; I will tell you. We have killed him you and I. All of us are his murderers. But how did we do this? How could we drink up the sea? Who gave us the sponge to wipe away the entire horizon? What were we doing when we unchained this earth from its sun? Whither is it moving now? Are we not plunging continually? Backward, sideward, forward, in all directions? Is there any up or down left? God is dead. And we have killed him. How shall we comfort ourselves, the murderer of all murderers?... Is not the greatness of this deed too great for us? Must not we ourselves become gods simply to seem worthy of it? 3 [Friedrich Nietzche, The Gay Science] In what ways have we killed God as a society? Nietzsche s haunting prediction of moral chaos came true before a watching world as Hitler would later proclaim the dawn of a new race of men, saying: I freed Germany from the stupid and degrading fallacies of conscience, morality we will train young people before whom the world will tremble. I want young people capable of violence, imperious, relentless, cruel. If morality is indeed relative, then the rest of the world could not denounce what the Nazis did. In fact, the Nazis defense at the Nuremberg trials was that they conducted themselves in strict accordance with German law. However, we all recognize a higher law to which we are all accountable, regardless of what a particular society or culture may have decided. Display in the Auschwitz Holocaust Museum 28# CHRISTIAN#FOUNDATIONS#

31 Does such a higher law exist? CHAPTER 2 : A GOOD THING GONE BAD What are the implications of your answer on moral issues like civil rights, protection of the weak, etc.? Do you believe these implications should be implemented? (For a more thorough discussion on moral relativism, please refer to Appendix B, Moral Relativism.) BROKEN RELATIONSHIPS A third consequence of our rejection of God is in our relationships. We become alienated first with ourselves, and then with others. Read Genesis 3:7. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths. Adam and Eve did not know guilt or shame until they sinned against God. But from the moment they rejected God, their conscience caused an uneasiness that they could not resolve. Their awareness that they had violated something fundamental brought a self-consciousness and discomfort regarding themselves, experienced as a shameful sense of nakedness. Suddenly they found it necessary to hide their shame with fig leaf coverings that protected them from the gaze of God and even from each other. CHRISTIAN#FOUNDATIONS# 29#

32 CHAPTER 2 : A GOOD THING GONE BAD How much can you relate to a self-consciousness and discomfort regarding yourself? We, too, find it hard to adjust to ourselves. Plagued with a general sense of personal inadequacy, we know that our true selves must be disguised. Like Adam and Eve, we begin to manufacture fig leaf coverings. We hide behind carefully crafted masks each fitted for different social settings. Even as we succeed in impressing others with our well-managed image, our inner loneliness grows as we come to see that there is no one who really knows us. Having worn so many different masks before different audiences, we eventually find ourselves asking: "Who am I? We have become strangers to ourselves. How much can you relate to this sentiment that "we have become strangers to ourselves"? Not only do we become alienated from ourselves, we do not know how to relate to others. After the Fall in Genesis, the once loving Adam ruthlessly points the finger of blame at Eve, triggering the note of discord that will only get louder and louder in the coming generations. In the very next generation, Adam s son Cain kills his brother Abel, kicking off the miserable cycle of violence and competition driven by the will to power over others, which has been the sad history of mankind. 30# CHRISTIAN#FOUNDATIONS#

33 Read Genesis 4:1-10. CHAPTER 2 : A GOOD THING GONE BAD GENESIS 4 1 Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, I have gotten a man with the help of the Lord. 2 And again, she bore his brother Abel. Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, and Cain a worker of the ground. 3 In the course of time Cain brought to the Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground, 4 and Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat portions. And the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering, 5 but for Cain and his offering he had no regard. So Cain was very angry, and his face fell. 6 The Lord said to Cain, Why are you angry, and why has your face fallen? 7 If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it. 8 Cain spoke to Abel his brother. And when they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel and killed him. 9 Then the Lord said to Cain, Where is Abel your brother? He said, I do not know; am I my brother's keeper? 10 And the Lord said, What have you done? The voice of your brother's blood is crying to me from the ground. Like Cain, we too compare ourselves with others, sizing each other up to see who is taller, prettier, stronger, wittier, or smarter. The tragic result is that our interactions with others are tainted with envy and comparison. We can t simply rest before others but must either feel superior or inferior. How much can you relate to this sentiment: We can t simply rest before others but must either feel superior or inferior. This competition fuels the world. Wanting to be special or better than others, we cease to view others in terms of their humanity. Instead, we view them only in terms of externals, dehumanizing them. A more cruel form of dehumanization happens as we then assign value only to those who are attractive to us, while those who are not become unworthy of our attention. CHRISTIAN#FOUNDATIONS# 31#

34 CHAPTER 2 : A GOOD THING GONE BAD We do not find it easy to adjust to other people. We tend either to despise them or to envy them, to have either superiority or inferiority feelings Sometimes we are full of self-pity, at other times of self-esteem, self-will or self-love. [ ] All this is due to man s sin. We cannot trust each other. We need protection against one another. It is a terrible indictment of human nature. 4 - John Stott WHAT CAN FIX THIS MESS? Most of us have at some point seen that there is something fundamentally wrong with this world. Believers and non-believers alike agree that our world is not as it should be. Moreover, when we are honest, we can sense that there is something very not right with ourselves: we know we are not the people we ought to be. Reformers have for centuries tried to improve the lives of their citizens. Education continues to expand with the hope that better-informed people will behave better. Medical discoveries have lengthened our life spans. The past century saw unprecedented increases in knowledge, wealth and creature comforts, but it was the same century that witnessed more humans killing each other than all of the previous centuries combined. Dorothy Sayers asks a timely, if rarely heard, question: It is encouraging to feel that progress is making us automatically every day and in every way better, and better, and better but does history support that view? 5 [Dorothy L. Sayers, The Mind of the Maker] According to the Bible, what is wrong with the world is not a lack of better government, education, or technology. The Bible is unapologetic in its claim that what is wrong with the world is human sinfulness. The imperious self is the problem yours and mine. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, who was a victim of the terrors of the Soviet prison camps, expressed this very idea: If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart? 6 [Daniel J. Mahoney, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn] How much do you agree with Solzhenitsyn s view of man supported by the Bible? Explain. 32# CHRISTIAN#FOUNDATIONS#

35 CHAPTER 2 : A GOOD THING GONE BAD What are the implications of this fact that every human being has evil right within himself? ORPHANS BY CHOICE How did we get here? Our trajectory began when we dethroned God from our lives. It began in the Garden of Eden but has been repeated in each and every human life born thereafter. It s your story and my story. We peer into what the Bible is depicting, and see a self-portrait. We, too, find it so easy to live as if we created ourselves, rarely taking time to marvel at the mystery and miracle of our own existence. We are naturals when it comes to playing the role of god in our lives. We find it almost self-evident that we exist for our own pleasure. CHRISTIAN#FOUNDATIONS# 33# Our minds seem almost warped against God s claims, and warped in favor of believing things that support our autonomy. We, like Cain, find the idea of a personal God exerting his claim on our lives unwelcome, if not outright repulsive. We find it much easier to assume, without much investigation, that the universe is bereft of anything spiritual or supernatural, that God is not there, and if He is, He is remote and unknowable, an energy field of some sort anything but the divine, loving, personal, authoritative figure presented in the Bible. This personal sovereignty we won from God, however, turned out to be a mixed blessing. With God dethroned, values became reversed as man worshipped the creation rather than the creator, truth and morality became relativized and privatized, and his relationships became fraught with competition. Without God to worship, worthless and dead things became substitute objects of worship. Without God to undergird the truth, man lost all absolute standards by which to measure truth or good. Without God calling him to higher responsibility and love for his brother, man found others as simply objects to use, fear or envy. By proclaiming our liberation from God s authority, we have separated ourselves from God s love as well, and we are left with an unmet inner yearning to be known and loved. In rejecting God, we find ourselves orphaned in the world, yet it was by our choice that it should be so.

36 CHAPTER 2 : A GOOD THING GONE BAD What are the symptoms of people feeling like they are orphaned in the universe? CHRISTMAS TREE OF LIFE During the Christmas season, people put up Christmas trees in their homes, decorating them with candy canes, stockings, little figurines, ornaments, tinsel and lights. Some trees are sparsely decorated, while others are so lavish that you can hardly see the tree underneath all the ornaments. Either way, it s a dead tree we decorate. A Christmas tree certainly looks lush and green. It fills the house with the fresh aroma of pine. But because it has been cut from the root, it is dead. Although the tree gives the illusion of life, the tree's fate is sealed. Soon after New Year's Day, the tree, by then dry and brittle, will be stripped of its ornaments and unceremoniously taken out to the garbage can. The Christmas tree is an apt metaphor for human life. The life that we live may seem full of vitality and strength, but only for a short time. People live as if the ornaments are what deserve all of our attention and efforts. All through our short lives, we decorate ourselves with the ornaments we hope others will admire: academic degrees, symbols of wealth and status, nice cars and houses, and even an attractive spouse. It s all about decorating ourselves as best as we can. What happens at the end of 70 or 80 such years? Even the most impressive, most vibrant of lives, boasting the best worldly adornments, will wither and decay while the greatest problem sin and death will tragically not have been dealt with. The uneasy awareness of that ever-approaching reality of death is what dampens man's spirit, keeps him thoughtful, and makes all shallow optimism seem so out of place; it brings man to a contemplation of his eternal destiny. Yet sometimes, the glow of the ornaments makes them seem so much more worthy of our attention compared to the uncomfortable reality of death. 34# CHRISTIAN#FOUNDATIONS#

37 CHAPTER 2 : A GOOD THING GONE BAD The Bible claims that we have cut ourselves off from God, who is the source of life. Still, God calls us and awakens in us the longing for true life in a love relationship with Him. But what can be done? Can a tree cut from its root be reattached? Who could work such a miracle? What is your personal response to this week s material? 1 Lewis, C.S. Mere Christianity. HarperOne, Lewis, C.S. The Problem of Pain. HarperOne, Guinness, Os and Seel, John. No God but God. s.l. : Moody Press, Nietzche, Friedrich. The Gay Science. Vintage, Stott, John. Basic Christianity. IVP Books, Sayers, Dorothy L. The Mind of the Maker. HarperOne, Mahoney, Daniel J. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, CHRISTIAN#FOUNDATIONS# 35#

38 APPENDIX B: MORAL RELATIVISM APPENDIX B: MORAL RELATIVISM The professor stands behind a podium and poses a question, Who here thinks that it would be wrong to steal expired food to feed your starving dog? A mixed response in the class prompts the professor to make the statement, What you see here is proof-positive that what is right and wrong is not set in stone. It depends on your personal values and the culture in which you were brought up. Such sentiments are espoused not only behind the podiums of university campuses but also on the local streets and on the media. Right and wrong are seen today as mere conventions or preferences that are either determined by the individual or prescribed by the surrounding culture, which ebbs and flows with the times; hence the mantra, morality is relative. Everyone has the right to determine their own moral laws to live by. Who are you to say that someone else is wrong? Right and wrong are determined by society. You shouldn t impose your moral values onto others. Living in our postmodern culture, such statements as the ones above are espoused so commonly that we can t escape them. However, before echoing such 20-second sound bites from television shows, we must carefully examine their underlying principles. In this appendix, we will consider the major forms of relativism (subjectivism & conventionalism) and examine some of their fundamental problems as ethical systems, as well as explore moral objectivism as a viable alternative. REASONING FROM DIVERSITY Going back to the professor s reasoning, he argued that since there is no consensus about what is right or wrong, morality must be relative. The lack of consensus does not lead to the conclusion that there is no objective morality. Indeed, reasoning from diversity may be the most widely used and accepted logic behind moral relativism. However, upon some examination, one can see that the line of reasoning is illogical, for lack of consensus does not lead to the conclusion that there is no objective morality. If I were to stand before a randomly chosen group of people and ask the question, What is the derivative of hyperbolic sine? I am sure to get a variety of answers (probably more wrong than right). However, this diversity does not mean that the true answer lies therefore in the eye of the beholder. If this question were on a test, a student who got the answer wrong would find it difficult to convince his math instructor that the answer must be relative since there are so many different answers. Obviously, the lack of consensus in the class does not lead to the conclusion that mathematical truths are relative. Likewise, the fact that different people have thought differently about ethical issues is just an observation about a lack of consensus or perhaps poor ethical reasoning. It does not logically follow that morality is relative. SUBJECTIVISM One of the most commonly held forms of moral relativism is the belief that morality is determined by the individual (called individual relativism or subjectivism). Subjectivism holds that every person has the right to define for himself what is right and what is wrong thus the expression, What is good for you might not be good for me, or the famous, Who are you to say what is right? However, one serious problem with subjectivism is that it undercuts the very concept of morality, destroying its function as an ethical system. As Pojman states, There seems to be a contradiction between subjectivism and the very concept of morality that it is supposed 36# CHRISTIAN#FOUNDATIONS#

39 APPENDIX B: MORAL RELATIVISM to characterize, for morality has to do with proper resolution of interpersonal conflict and the amelioration of the human predicament. 1 In other words, by making morality an entirely individual matter, subjectivism denies morality its power in a social context; it denies the concept of the should despite the desires of the individual to the contrary. For example, according to subjectivism, statements such as You should not discriminate against handicapped people become meaningless because morality is up to the individual, so no one can say that another person should or should not do anything. But if that s the case, in what sense are we still talking about morality? Consequently, in the cases of a conflict of beliefs (e.g., the beliefs of a racist versus the beliefs of an egalitarian), subjectivism actually eliminates any possibility for resolution by its assertion that each individual has the right to determine what is good or evil. As a result, any disagreement about right and wrong would be relegated to a shouting match the winner being whoever can shout Who are you to say? the loudest. When one understands the ramifications of subjectivism, it becomes apparent that it is a nonsensical moral system, for it destroys the very concept of should, making it possible for individuals to justify every action by saying that that s good for me. One common argument raised by moral relativists at this point is that relativists are in fact moral people. But this argument is really missing the point; the point is not about whether relativists themselves are moral or immoral, but rather, the issue is that moral relativism as a worldview lies on faulty grounds and therefore ought to be rejected. Further, we should note the irony underlying such an objection on the part of relativists. They defend themselves by saying that they live morally upright and good lives. This assumes, naturally, that I am able to recognize the picture of a morally good life. However, under relativistic systems like subjectivism, terms like morally upright and good are defined by the individual and therefore lose their meaning in the argument. CONVENTIONALISM Another form of moral relativism is conventionalism, which is the belief that morality is determined by the society of which an individual is a part. CHRISTIAN#FOUNDATIONS# 37# Good and evil are nothing more than sets of behaviors accepted or rejected by the local society. According to conventionalism, good is the set of behaviors that has gained cultural acceptance in a particular society, and conversely, evil is the set of behaviors of a kind disliked by the herd, 2 as atheist Bertrand Russell put it. By recognizing the "should" of morality in the social context, conventionalism seems to escape the pitfalls of subjectivism. However, further examination reveals that conventionalism results in absurd logical ramifications and faces similar problems as subjectivism. According to conventionalism, good and evil are nothing more than sets of behaviors accepted or rejected by the local society. It follows then that a particular society cannot possibly condemn another society for immorality, for it would be bigoted to do so. One disturbing ramification of this doctrine is that absolutely no moral judgment can be made regarding heinous acts committed by other cultures, such as the genocide committed by the Nazis. If conventionalism is correct, and good is defined as such by virtue of acceptance in a particular society, then it follows that what the Nazis did, according to the conventionalist definition, was actually a morally good thing. Indeed, at the Nuremberg trials, the Nazis defended themselves by stating that they were operating according to the laws of their own land. 3 To that defense, a counter-question was raised, and it remains to this day a question that needs to be answered: But is there not a law above our laws? 4 1 Louis P. Pojman, Ethical Relativism: Who s to Judge What s Right or Wrong? Ethics: Discovering Right and Wrong, 2d ed. (Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing Company, 1990), Bertrand Russell, Why I Am Not a Christian (New York, NY: Simon & Schuster, Inc., 1957), Ravi Zacharias, A Shattered Visage: The Real Face of Atheism (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 1993), 61 4 Ibid.

40 APPENDIX B: MORAL RELATIVISM Furthermore, conventionalism is a view that makes all talk of moral progress ultimately meaningless. A conventionalist cannot agree that the abolition of slavery, for instance, represents moral progress, for any idea of progress must assume that there exists some objective standard of morality independent of societal consensus that we are moving toward or moving away from. If conventionalism is correct, all that one can say about moral progress (like the abolition of slavery and the civil rights movement) is that morality is now different along the same lines as saying that my car used to be blue, but now it is beige. Moreover, by its own definitions of good and evil, conventionalism would have to denounce moral reformers, such as Martin Luther King Jr., because they often went against the social policies accepted by the majority in their society. Such an understanding of morality not only leads to ridiculous assessments but also forces us to condemn any current moral causes that one might be involved in (such as women s rights, human rights or child labor law reform) where one is trying to change the current policy held by the majority in a particular culture or society. Another major problem with conventionalism is that it conveniently refuses to define which society one belongs to, especially in light of the fact that an individual often belongs to a multiplicity of societies. Pojman gives a realistic illustration of a student who is a member of a racist fraternity in an egalitarian university located in a racist community that is a part of an egalitarian nation, which is within a racist world at large. Which is the society that he belongs to? In such a situation where he could choose any society that fits his fancy, a moral question no longer makes sense, for morality has lost its action-guiding function. 5 Like subjectivism, it turns out that conventionalism also strips morality of its action-guiding power. The imperative, You should not impose your own moral views onto others, is itself a moral imperative that gets imposed onto others. Perhaps the most vexing problem of moral relativism is the self-refuting nature of the imperative, You should not impose your own moral views onto others. This statement is the motivating force driving moral relativism. Yet this imperative itself is a moral imperative (note the word should ), which seeks to impose itself onto others as the morally right way to treat others; therefore, it is self-refuting. The only way a moral relativist could justify the imperative is by saying that this imperative is the only exception the only universal moral absolute that we must all abide by. But such an exception to the rule is completely arbitrary without some kind of higher authority, and moral relativism, having destroyed the obligation of morality and declaring itself triumphant, finds that it has cut the limb that it is sitting on. MORAL OBJECTIVISM The rejection of moral relativism necessarily means that one adopt some form of moral objectivism as the only viable alternative. When saying that something is objective, it means that it is true irrespective of the beliefs of individuals or cultures. 6 The statement, The earth is round, for example, would be an objective truth claim it is either true or false and its truth does not depend on the beliefs of people. The earth was round even when no one on earth thought it so. If a particular society still believed that the earth is flat, those people would be wrong. The statement, Torturing babies for fun is wrong, is, according to moral objectivism, another objective truth claim which does not depend on the beliefs of people. If a particular group of people or a society thought that it was morally fine for someone to torture babies for fun, the moral objectivist would say that those people are wrong. Such is the basic tenet of moral objectivism. UNIVERSAL MORAL PRINCIPLES One endorsement for moral objectivism arises from a response to the relativistic argument. We have already seen that a diversity of moral viewpoints does not mean that morality is relative. However, upon further examination, it turns out that even the very claim that there is 5 Pojman, Moreland and Geisler, 6. 38# CHRISTIAN#FOUNDATIONS#

41 APPENDIX B: MORAL RELATIVISM such a wide diversity of morality is highly questionable. C.S. Lewis observes that while the application of moral principles might be different, the core moral principles remain surprisingly consistent across cultures. 7 Anthropologist Clyde Kluckhohn agrees, listing regulations regarding murder, sexual behavior, lying, restitution, reciprocity and responsibilities in familial relationship as a few of the moral concepts that are altogether universal. 8 In other words, people by and large find these moral principles to be intuitive; the differences lie in the application of those principles and which principle takes precedence in cases of moral conflict. For example, let s take the contemporary moral controversy over capital punishment. It would seem on the surface that there is a fundamental moral difference between the parties on opposing sides of the issue. However, what are the moral principles that are involved here? They are justice, compassion and the value of human life. The interesting fact is that both camps uphold all these moral principles. Where then is the difference? It lies in the application of those principles, i.e., in the decision regarding which moral principle takes precedence in this particular situation (justice overriding compassion; value of human life overriding justice, etc.). They are not in disagreement about those basic moral principles as such. Likewise, when one examines issues like cannibalism, killing of the elderly and other typical examples put forth by relativists as irreconcilable diversity of morality, one finds that there are universal moral principles (such as protection of the tribe, civic duty to preserve tribal resources, etc.) that undergird those practices. Therefore the moral relativist s argument from diversity of morality is not only illogical, it is also a faulty observation arising from a superficial examination of cultural practices. A COMMON MISCONCEPTION At this point, one quick point of clarification may be needed to correct a common misconception about moral objectivism. Although the moral objectivist believes in objective moral truths that do not depend on the beliefs of people, the moral objectivist does not see all moral issues as black-and-white (i.e., he/she does not deny the existence of gray areas ). Moral objectivism acknowledges that 1) there are situations where one moral principle comes into conflict with another, and 2) in those situations, one must evaluate the applicability of the principles and obey the higher principle. For example, the principle of saving a life should take priority over the principle to tell the truth. As such, moral objectivism recognizes that there is such a thing as moral ambiguity, 9 but in those cases, moral objectivists believe that there is an objectively higher moral principle (e.g., given a crisis situation, the principle of saving human lives objectively takes priority over the principle of saving animal lives). Moral relativists, on the other hand, deny any kind of moral objectivity or priority, leaving the choice up to the person (e.g., Person-A can save human lives, Person-B can prioritize saving animal lives, and both would be morally justified, as long as they were true to themselves ). INTUITION Perhaps the strongest evidence for objective moral principles is our own intuition and every day experience. Everyone has observed or engaged in quarreling between children as well as adults. C.S. Lewis looks at these kinds of statements that are used in quarreling such as "That's my seat, I was there first" and "Why should you shove in first?" and makes the observation that "he is appealing to some kind of standard of behavior which he expects the other man to know about. And the other man seldom replies: 'To hell with your standard.' Nearly always he tries to make out that what he has been doing does not really go against the standard, or that if it does there is some special excuse. It seems as if both parties had in mind some kind of Law or Rule of fair play or decent behavior about which they really agreed. And they have. If they had not, they might fight like animals, but they could not quarrel in the human sense of the word. Quarreling means trying to show that the other person is in the wrong. And there would be no sense in trying to do that unless you and 7 The case for consistency in moral principles across cultures is made in C.S.Lewis, Mere Christianity (New York, NY: Macmillan Publishing Company, 1960), Clyde Kluckhorn, Ethical Relativity: Sic et Non, Journal of Philosophy (1955): LII, quoted in Louis P. Pojman, Ethical Relativism: Who s to Judge What s Right or Wrong? Ethics: Discovering Right and Wrong, 2d ed. (Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing, 1990), By ambiguity I do not mean that they are unknowable ontologically, but that they are not immediately knowable. CHRISTIAN#FOUNDATIONS# 39#

42 APPENDIX B: MORAL RELATIVISM he had some sort of agreement as to what Right and Wrong are." It has been argued that this cognition of what is right and wrong is so deeply ingrained in our moral psyche that it is in fact impossible to live out the contrary. C.S. Lewis again states in an illustration that although one may meet an individual who mentally rejects objective morality, as soon as that person is wronged in some way, he will reflexively appeal to moral principles as an objective reality and either demand restitution or an apology. Although he may give lip service to moral relativism, it seems that he cannot escape his own intuitive grasp of objective morality. In the end, perhaps the strongest evidence for objective morality is the traces of the universal law we find embedded in our own intuitions and hearts. BURDEN OF PROOF Although some evidence has been laid out, this appendix has not provided an airtight proof against moral relativism or an airtight proof for moral objectivism. However, one more thing can be said: There are certain intuitive statements that are reasonable to believe without further proof. For example, the statement, Other people exist, cannot be proven (since we could possibly be dreaming or in a computer simulation like the Matrix), yet we assume that other people do exist because it simply strikes us as being true. It is possible that we could be wrong about that since we can t prove it. However, the fact that we can t prove it shouldn t trouble us, because when dealing with such seemingly intuitive (also known as axiomatic) knowledge, the burden of proof really lies with the party that is denying that knowledge. So if someone were trying to convince you that other people don t actually exist because you are living in a computer simulation, the burden of proof lies with that person to provide some astonishing evidence. Now, according to moral objectivists, a statement such as It is good to be kind is a self-evident statement that does not require further proof. It simply hits us as true. Even moral relativists trying to deny the truthfulness of that statement readily admit that such a statement hits them as being true. But if that is the case, the burden of proof is not on the moral objectivists to prove that statement; rather, the burden is on the moral relativists to provide some astonishing evidence to prove that our intuition is completely wrong. Therefore, it is more reasonable for a person to assume that moral objectivity is true until enough evidence has been given to tip the scale. Proponents of moral relativism must do far more than simply trot out anecdotal examples of people who might have thought differently. SO WHAT? So what if morality is objective? Let's briefly consider its implications. As we observe ourselves from the inside, we find a strange urge or command trying to get us to behave in a certain way; we find that we are under some kind of law. But unlike physical laws, these laws are more like moral exhortations, which we often don t obey. The question is: What is the source of this moral law, which urges me to do right and makes me feel uncomfortable when I do wrong? We can make some educated guesses about the nature of this law: we know, for example, that inanimate objects do not issue moral exhortations. It seems that moral exhortations and instructions come solely from other beings that have minds and wills. We could reasonably conclude, then, that whatever moral impulse we possess has to come from a being that has something like a mind and a will. Moreover, this mind-like being must be authoritative enough to issue an objective moral law and is apparently intensely interested in right conduct fair play, unselfishness, courage, honesty and truthfulness. Yet human beings often choose not to obey these laws, all the while feeling uneasy, because we know that we should. Although it s not sufficient proof for Christianity, it s notable to recognize that the God of the Bible matches this description. The Bible claims that God is that Being from whom these laws came, and it describes our predicament as being in rebellion against his rightful authority. Although we live in a culture that considers it fashionable to espouse moral relativism, our own moral intuitions and conscience point us to the reality of the Moral Law, which in turn points us to the Lawgiver. 40# CHRISTIAN#FOUNDATIONS#

43 CHAPTER 3 : GOD S REVELATION (BIBLE & JESUS) CHAPTER 3 GOD S REVELATION (BIBLE & JESUS) Last week, we left off with a fairly bleak picture of the human predicament. Indeed, if God were, as many people are fond of claiming, just a far-off, unconcerned deity, then we are lost forever, without hope. However, this is not the picture of God we find in the Bible. From the very first chapters of the Bible, God comes to a fearful Adam and Eve and asks, Where are you? Yet, God s presence is not so blatant as to be tangible and unambiguous. So how has God acted in history to make himself known? This chapter will explore how God has revealed himself through the Bible, and ultimately, through Jesus. But first, let s consider some of the reasons God might have chosen to not disclose himself more directly. CHRISTIAN)FOUNDATIONS) 41) WHY DOESN T GOD JUST APPEAR? If God really exists, why in Heaven s name does God not prove that he exists instead of leaving us here in our terrible uncertainty? Why does he not show his face so that at last a despairing world can have hope? At one time or another, everyone asks such a question. In some objectifiably verifiable and convincing way, we want God himself to demonstrate his own existence. Deep down in our hearts, I suspect that this is what all of us want, unbelievers no less than believers. 1 [Frederick Buechner, The Magnificent Defeat] If an all-powerful God wanted to reveal himself to man, it would be a simple task. He could simply open the skies and shout for all to hear. Or, he could give a dramatic display of his splendor in the night sky in such an undeniable and magnificent way that everyone on earth would have to acknowledge that he is there. An argument can be made that since such a display would be easy for God, and given that such revelations do not occur regularly, God does not exist. The argument seems compelling at first; in fact, the statement, If God appeared to me right now in such and such a way, I would believe... has been uttered repeatedly throughout history. Why, then, does God remain so hidden? If man has lost the knowledge of God through

44 CHAPTER 3 : GOD S REVELATION (BIBLE & JESUS) centuries of sin, and God is a caring God who has the power to enter into history with a clear display of his presence, why hasn t he? Think for a moment: What would happen if God did what you asked him to do? Author Frederick Buechner imagines that such a spectacular display would cause an immediate response of terror, panic and awe. He imagines that churches would overflow into football stadiums and open fields, wars would stop, and a kind of uncanny hush would fall over the world. Then Buechner continues the imagined revelation: Several years would go by and God s proof of himself would still be blazing away every night for all to read. In order to convince people that the message was not just some million-to-one freak of nature, I would be tempted to have God keep on rewriting it in different languages, sometimes accompanying it with bursts of pure color or with music celestial that finally the last hardened skeptic would be convinced that God must indeed exist after all. 2 [Frederick Buechner, The Magnificent Defeat] Surely that would convince everyone of the existence of God. However, Buechner contends that the fundamental question is: So what if God exists? What difference does that make? Although it s a profound revelation that would shake the intellectual foundations for the first generation that experienced it, what would that accomplish besides a certainty of knowledge that a powerful being exists? We need to know what God created us for. If God created human beings so that we would just be impressed by him, then such a celestial revelation would probably do the job. But if God desires a loving, trusting relationship with us, does a celestial sign accomplish that? Does speaking from the clouds do that? At best, these demonstrations can inspire awe and obedience, but that would be a far cry from (and even counterproductive to) a person relating to God as a beloved child to his heavenly Father. Dr. Gregory Boyd in Letters From A Skeptic writes: Think for a moment what would happen if God did what you asked Him to do if God individually wrote a message in the clouds for every person alive. What if He wrote, Jesus is My Son. Believe in Him or perish? Would all people now put their love and trust in Jesus Christ? I suspect not. When Jesus was here on earth and did all His miracles, those who didn t want to follow Him still doubted. When the Father spoke from heaven, This is My beloved Son, those who didn t have a heart to believe said, It thundered. [ ] God desires a loving, trusting relationship with us. We were created to this end. Does speaking from the clouds do that? [...] At best they can wow or scare people into submission (and that only temporarily). They can coerce obedience. [...] But they do not produce love. 3 [Dr. Gregory Boyd, Letters From A Skeptic] 42) CHRISTIAN)FOUNDATIONS)

45 CHAPTER 3 : GOD S REVELATION (BIBLE & JESUS) Perhaps God is interested in something more than a mere display of his power. If God is interested in a personal relationship, he would need to reveal more than his power. Suppose you are a famous person eager for someone to get to know you. How would you get the other person to understand who you are as a person? VEILED OUT OF MERCY Another possible reason for God s hiddenness is that God is veiled out of mercy for us. He is veiled so that man can have some elbow room away from his overwhelming presence. Wise parents will sometimes deliberately reduce their presence when dealing with their children, knowing that to notice every infraction, every misdeed would stifle them. Occasionally, the parent will even look the other way to remain hidden. This, of course, is the loving thing to do. Love often expresses itself in shrinking oneself down so others will not be overpowered. The unveiled presence of God, in all his holiness, would probably be traumatic for sinful man to experience. Moses had once asked God if he could get a glimpse of his glory. God s reply to Moses is sobering: EXODUS 33:20 But, he said, you cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live. POWER GETS IN THE WAY Read 1 John 4:8, JOHN 4:8 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. 1 JOHN 4:16 So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. CHRISTIAN)FOUNDATIONS) 43)

46 CHAPTER 3 : GOD S REVELATION (BIBLE & JESUS) God is love (1 John 4:8, 16) is the shortest statement of God s nature in the Bible. Demands for a display of God s presence, which tend to focus on dramatic manifestations of power, miss this essential point. God is much more than mere power. He is love. In order for God to reveal this aspect of who he is, other aspects of his character namely, his power and glory must be veiled. If God is to relate to sinful and finite man, God must regulate his self-disclosure so that we are not overwhelmed by the more glaring aspects of his character. Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard tells a parable, The King and the Maiden : Suppose there was a king who loved a humble maiden The king was like no other king. Every statesman trembled before his power. No one dared breathe a word against him, for he had the strength to crush all opponents. And yet this mighty king was melted by love for a humble maiden. How could he declare his love for her? In an odd sort of way, his kingliness tied his hands. If he brought her to the palace and crowned her head with jewels and clothed her body in royal robes, she would surely not resist no one dared resist him. But would she love him? She would say she loved him, of course, but would she truly? If he rode to her forest cottage in his royal carriage that too would overwhelm her. He did not want a cringing subject. He wanted a lover, an equal For it is only in love that the unequal can be made equal. 4 [Soren Kierkegaard, Parables of Kierkegaard] If you were the king, what would you need to do to win the maiden s love? In order to convey the kind of personal knowledge required for a relationship, it is certainly understandable why God does not flex his cosmic muscles and reveal himself in a dramatic display of power. Further, because our understanding of power is often colored by themes of domination, conquest, fear and control, we are prone to misunderstand God s power. Human beings have a stubborn tendency to view power in terms of something we can utilize and harness. Given our limited understanding and fallen tendencies, perhaps an awareness of God s power would give us only one narrow, if not warped, perspective of who God is. God chose, rather, to portray himself through the narratives of the Bible and most vividly in the person of Jesus Christ. 44) CHRISTIAN)FOUNDATIONS)

47 NARRATIVES THAT REVEAL CHAPTER 3 : GOD S REVELATION (BIBLE & JESUS) Friends who know each other very well often say something like: We go way back we ve been through thick and thin together. To know someone means to know something about their character, values, habits and inner qualities. These are learned only by seeing how people conduct their relationships, how they react to events, how they stand up under pressure, how they remain loyal through difficulties, how kind or generous they are, etc. These, in turn, can only be observed across time through actual events. In fact, the Bible is full of just such narratives. The Bible is not so much a book full of commandments and legal codes as it is an account of God s relationship with people. Much of the Bible is comprised of historical narratives of God s relationship with certain individuals Abraham, Jacob, Moses and King David, to name a few. These stories give a sense of who God is and what he is like. Christians claim that the Bible is the Word of God; that is, the message by which God chose to reveal himself to humanity. But a fundamental difference exists between the Bible and the rest of the world s sacred writings. William Lane Craig points out: Christianity is not a code for living or a philosophy of religion; rather it is rooted in real events in history. To some this is scandalous, because it means that the truth of Christianity is bound up with the truth of certain historical facts, such that if those facts should be disproved, so would Christianity. But at the same time, this makes Christianity unique because, unlike most other world religions, we now have a means of verifying its truth by historical evidence. 5 [William Lane Craig, Reasonable Faith] There is a false notion that still gets passed around among the uninformed, which is that the Bible is a myth that has no connection to secular historical sources. However, archaeological discoveries, along with nonbiblical historical documents, have proven again and again the historicity of the Bible. From non-biblical historical sources alone, we can reconstruct the following facts regarding the events surrounding the New Testament: A young travelling rabbi named Jesus, born around 4 BC, started to teach in Israel around AD and gathered a following of disciples. When public opinion turned against him a few years later, he was tried by a governor named Pontius Pilate under Roman rule (whose record survives to this day), and he was executed by crucifixion. Shortly thereafter, his disciples caused quite a disturbance with their proclamation that Jesus had risen from the dead. CHRISTIAN)FOUNDATIONS) 45)

48 CHAPTER 3 : GOD S REVELATION (BIBLE & JESUS) Despite severe persecution by the government, Christianity, with this strange message of the resurrection, spread to the point where it dominated the Roman Empire. By AD 313, Christianity had become so widespread that it was the only thing that Emperor Constantine could use as the unifying factor for the entire Roman Empire, issuing the Edict of Milan declaring the legality of Christianity. The eyewitnesses and contemporaries of Jesus left behind a historical record of Jesus life, which together form the core writings of what we now call the Gospels. EVIDENCE FOR THE RELIABILITY OF THE BIBLE One might find it surprising that there is an overwhelming amount of supporting evidence for the historicity of the Bible. Although there is much to be said about the entire Bible, given our limitations in this reader and given that Christianity is primarily based on the historicity of Jesus and the events surrounding him, we will just touch upon Old Testament historicity and focus most of our attention on the reliability of the New Testament. As summarized by Dr. Gregory Boyd in Letters from a Skeptic, the approach should be the following: I m not asking you to accept on blind faith that [the Gospels] are God s Word. Forget about that altogether for right now. I m simply saying, look at them as you would any ancient document. Apply to them the same criteria historians apply to other documents when they research history. And my contention is that, when the Gospels are treated in this critical-historical way, they fare very well and can be trusted to tell us a good deal about the person of Jesus Christ, enough, in fact, to know that God was present with him and working through him in a most significant way. 6 [Dr. Gregory Boyd, Letters from a Skeptic] ARCHAEOLOGY Archaeology has confirmed countless passages in the Bible that were initially rejected by critics as unhistorical or contradictory to known facts. Many critics in the last two hundred years have looked for holes in the Bible. They asserted, for example, that there was no evidence that the psalms from the Old Testament were written at the time of David (more than a thousand years before Christ) because they contain information not known in those days. They also postulated that Isaiah chapter 53 (from the Old Testament) must have been written after Jesus by the Church to insert prophecies back into history because it contains Scroll of Isaiah, found among the Dead Sea scrolls 46) CHRISTIAN)FOUNDATIONS)

49 CHAPTER 3 : GOD S REVELATION (BIBLE & JESUS) specific details of Jesus life and death. Since the earliest copies of Isaiah known to scholars were from the Middle Ages, the skeptical theory of these critics held sway. Dead Sea Scroll fragment A sanctuary in Hattusa, the capital city of the Hittite Empire, today in Turkey Then in 1947 came the discovery of the Dead Sea scrolls, known as the greatest archeological discovery of the 20th century. Today no reputable scholar would maintain the same argument that he had before the discovery. The entire scroll of the book of Isaiah was also found, including the famous chapter 53, dated to be from around 300 BC. It was also fashionable among critics to claim that the Old Testament made up stories about a non-existent Hittite Empire of which there was no other historical record. They had theorized all sorts of reasons why the writers would be theologically motivated to fabricate an entire empire. Yet within the last few decades, archaeologists have discovered that there was indeed a Hittite Empire, just as described by the Bible, with a highly defined language. Another such example involves King David of the Old Testament: Before the discovery of the House of David inscription at Dan in 1993, it had become fashionable in some academic circles to dismiss the David stories as an invention of priestly propagandists who were trying to dignify Israel s past after the Babylonian exile. But as Tel Aviv University archaeologist Israel Finkelstein observes, Biblical nihilism collapsed overnight with the discovery of the David inscription. 7 [Jeffery L. Sheler, Is the Bible True? ] By the way, fashionable in academic circles means that many university professors and scholars believed this and wrote their Ph.D. dissertations on the various theories about the purpose for which these David stories were invented; their literary style and who or what group would have benefited from the fabrication. It means that scholars who wrote these things were considered cutting-edge. Such papers were easily published and such scholars would have been invited to speak at academic conferences. It means that an entire generation of college students would have been taught that most of the Old Testament was a fabrication. And it turns out that much of such so-called scholarship amounted to speculation on top of speculation piled upon the thin ground of, We have not yet found any evidence of such a Hebrew dynasty as the Davidic line of kings, so it must not have existed... There are numerous archeological discoveries that verify the biblical accounts, such as the discovery of the Pilate Stone, the discovery of Caiaphas tomb, along with countless numbers of uncovered cities, tablets and inscriptions that fill today s museums. House of David inscription CHRISTIAN)FOUNDATIONS) 47)

50 CHAPTER 3 : GOD S REVELATION (BIBLE & JESUS) Such examples abound, but the archeological evidence for the places and people described in the Bible does not, by itself, show that the Bible is necessarily accurate history. To establish historical accuracy, many more criteria need to be satisfied. We will go over these. But at minimum, the archeological evidence shows that the Bible presents itself not as meditative, mythical writing, but as a historical record to be taken seriously. Unlike the ancient myths of pagan religions (which were written to be read symbolically), the Bible s narratives have a solid foundation in human history. BIBLIOGRAPHICAL ANALYSIS Archaeology is not the only resource a historian has to verify the historicity of a document. One can determine the authenticity and accuracy of documents by looking at what is called the bibliographical evidence. Accurate Copies of the Original? Given any historical document, one must ask: How do I know if the document that I hold in my hand has the same content as the original? After all, there were no copy machines or electronic files on computers to ensure that the content remained the same. historical documents, not just the Bible, had to be hand-copied because the papyrus and scrolls on which the originals were written simply decayed. In order to determine whether or not accurate copying was done, historiographers look for the number of ancient copies (manuscripts) we possess. If there are only a handful of manuscripts, it means that any error introduced during the copying process would propagate more easily, and it would be exponentially harder to detect the mistakes because of the lack of alternative manuscripts to compare it with. For example, if we only had one copy in existence, we would have no idea if there were any corruption or errors introduced during the copying process, since the original and any subsequent copies are no longer in existence. If there were three copies total, we would have a slightly higher level of confidence; however, if there were any differences between the copies, we would not have much confidence about which is the more accurate copy of the original. If there were thirty copies in existence, you can imagine that even if there were differences, one could potentially look at the other copies (especially if some of them are earlier) and arrive at a more accurate approximation of the original. Please refer to Table 1, the last column (# of manuscripts). The other works listed are similar documents from antiquity with the 2nd, 3rd and 4th strongest manuscript base after the New Testament. As the numbers demonstrate, when it comes to the manuscript authority of the New Testament, the abundance of material is almost embarrassing in contrast, with over 20,000 manuscripts in existence today. All Papyrus P45, Gospels, Acts, Epistles, Revelation 48) CHRISTIAN)FOUNDATIONS)

51 CHAPTER 3 : GOD S REVELATION (BIBLE & JESUS) TABLE 1 Book Author Written Earliest Copy Time Gap # of Manuscripts Poetics Aristotle 343 BC AD 1, years 5 Gallic Wars Caesar 50 BC AD years 9-10 Illiad Homer 900 BC 400 BC 500 years 643 New Testament <Various> AD AD 125 < 80 years 20,000 + Because of the sheer number of manuscripts available for comparison and analysis, the New Testament documents enjoy an extremely high level of reliability in terms of their fidelity to the original. Corruption of Copies Over Time? Although the number of manuscripts helps historians to reconstruct the original, how would we know that the records didn t get corrupted during the time period before our earliest copy in possession? For example, if a historical event happened in AD 500 but the earliest copy of the manuscript we have is from AD 1,500, we would have a time gap of 1,000 years during which corruption could have happened. But let s say we were to discover copies dated at AD 600, reducing the time gap to 100 years. In that case: 1. We can compare the more recent copies with the older and eliminate errors. 2. If there is very little difference observed, we can gain a level of confidence about the copying process utilized. And this is exactly the situation that we have with the New Testament manuscripts. Refer back to Table 1, the Time Gap column. Again, when it comes to the New Testament, the time gap between the date of writing and the date of the earliest copies that we have is extremely short. Sir Frederic Kenyon, director of the British Museum (the most revered of such institutions) and foremost authority on manuscript verification, concludes: In no other case is the interval of time between composition of the book and the date of the earliest extant manuscripts so short as the New Testament The interval then between the dates of the original composition and the earliest extant evidence becomes so small as to be in fact negligible, and the last foundation for any doubt that the Scriptures have come down to us substantially as they were written has now been removed. Both the authenticity and the general integrity of the books of the New Testament may be regarded as finally established. 8 CHRISTIAN)FOUNDATIONS) 49)

52 CHAPTER 3 : GOD S REVELATION (BIBLE & JESUS) The New Testament cannot be a result of legend accumulation. When compared to other works, which enjoy the presumption of transmission accuracy, the New Testament passes with flying colors. Given the combination of the short time gap plus the overwhelming number of manuscripts, there is universal agreement (even by historians critical of the Bible) at least on this: the New Testament we have today is an accurate representation of the documents written by the original writers. One might consider such a conclusion to be rather weak in establishing the actual historicity of the content of the Bible. So what if the New Testament today is what the authors wrote back then? Let s think for a moment about what we can minimally conclude at this point. If the Bible we have today is an accurate copy of the original written by Jesus contemporaries, then that means we can safely dismiss the rather popular legendary accumulation theory, which claims that legendary tales accumulated through hundreds of years of rewriting and copying. Moreover, as we will see in this and later chapters, the Bible s fidelity to the original turns out to be essential in establishing the historical validity of the content of the New Testament. OUTSIDE SOURCES Given that the copies are faithful to the original, how do we know that the original itself was telling the truth about an actual event? One of the criteria is to see if there are some cross-references from outside sources that corroborate the same event or situation. There are numerous other extra-biblical sources and historians that recorded the events surrounding Jesus and the early church: Suetonius (AD 120), Plinius Secundus (AD 112), Tertullian (AD 197), Thallus (AD 52), along with numerous Jewish Talmuds that speak of Yeshu of Nazareth (the Jewish name for Jesus) who was hanged on the eve of Passover for leading Israel astray. It s interesting to note that even the Jewish Talmuds, which were written by the enemies of Jesus, do not deny that Jesus performed signs and miracles, although they try to explain them away as demonic. In fact, as mentioned previously (p.4), much of Jesus life, ministry and the early church events can be reconstructed through extra-biblical sources. Hence to suppress the rumor, he falsely charged with the guilt, and punished with the most exquisite tortures, the persons commonly called Christians, who were hated for their enormities. Christus, the founder of the name, was put to death by Pontius Pilate, procurator of Judea in the reign of Tiberius: but the pernicious superstition, repressed for a time broke out again, not only through 50) CHRISTIAN)FOUNDATIONS)

53 CHAPTER 3 : GOD S REVELATION (BIBLE & JESUS) Judea, where the mischief originated, but through the city of Rome also. [Cornelius Tacitus, born AD 52-54, Annals XV. 44] At this time there was a wise man who was called Jesus. And his conduct was good, and (he) was known to be virtuous. And many people from among the Jews and the other nations became his disciples. Pilate condemned him to be crucified and to die. And those who had become his disciples did not abandon his discipleship. They reported that he appeared to them three days after his crucifixion and that He was alive; accordingly, he was perhaps the Messiah concerning whom the prophets have recounted wonders. [Flavius Josephus, born AD 37, Antiquities xviii. 33] The New Testament was also quoted extensively by the early Church Fathers. It has been observed that even if all of the biblical manuscripts were lost overnight, it would still be possible to reconstruct the entire New Testament from quotations by extra-biblical writers, with the exception of verses. These extensive quotations serve as yet another layer of cross-references, allowing historians to verify the fidelity of the text. These independent accounts prove that in ancient times even the opponents of Christianity never doubted the historicity of Jesus, which was disputed for the first time and on inadequate grounds by several authors at the end of the 18th, during the 19th, and at the beginning of the 20th centuries. [Encyclopaedia Britannica, 15th edition.] INTERNAL ANALYSIS Another test for historicity comes from directly analyzing the content of the text itself. The authors themselves were in the position to give authoritative accounts of the events. If an Englishman in the 21st century wrote an original historical account of what happened in 3rd century China, you would be right to doubt its authenticity. However, the Gospels were written as eyewitness historical accounts by the contemporaries of Jesus who had access to the information most directly. The writings present themselves as documents reporting on historical occurrences. For example, the gospel of Luke begins, Inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the things that have been accomplished among us, just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses (Luke 1:1-2). Repeatedly, the Gospel writers state that they are attempting to CHRISTIAN)FOUNDATIONS) 51)

54 CHAPTER 3 : GOD S REVELATION (BIBLE & JESUS) give an account of facts, things that they were eyewitnesses to (see 2 Peter 1:16, 1 John 1:3, John 19:35 below) or that were collected from eyewitnesses. C.S. Lewis, a formerly atheistic professor at Oxford and Cambridge and an expert on ancient mythology, said, As a literary historian, I am perfectly convinced that whatever else the Gospels are they are not legends. I have read a great deal of legend, and I am quite clear that they are not the same sort of things. 9 52) CHRISTIAN)FOUNDATIONS) 2 PETER 1:16 We did not follow cleverly invented stories when we told you about the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. 1 JOHN 1:3 We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. JOHN 19:35 The man who saw it has given testimony, and his testimony is true. He knows that he tells the truth, and he testifies so that you also may believe. In advocating their case for the gospel, the apostles had appealed to common knowledge concerning Jesus, even when confronting their most severe opponents. They not only said, Look, we saw this or We heard that but they turned the tables around on adverse critics and said, You also know about these things You saw them; you yourselves know about it (Acts 26:26). One had better be careful when he says to his opposition, You know this also, because if he isn t right in the details, it will be shoved right down his throat. ACTS 26:26 For the king knows about these things, and to him I speak boldly. For I am persuaded that none of these things has escaped his notice, for this has not been done in a corner. The presence of self-damaging or embarrassing material is actually yet another sign of its authenticity. Tim Keller, author of The Reason for God, explains: Why would the leaders of the early Christian movement have made up the story of the crucifixion if it didn t happen? Any listener of the gospel in either Greek or Jewish culture would have automatically suspected that anyone who had been crucified was a criminal, whatever the speaker said to the contrary. Why would any Christian make up the account of Jesus asking God in the garden of Gethsemane if he could get out of his mission? Or why ever make up the part on the cross when Jesus cries out that God had abandoned him? These things would have only offended or deeply confused first-century prospective converts. They would have concluded that Jesus was weak and failing his God. Why invent women as the first witnesses of the resurrection in a society where women were

55 CHAPTER 3 : GOD S REVELATION (BIBLE & JESUS) assigned such low status that their testimony was not admissible evidence in court? It would have made far more sense (if you were inventing the tale) to have male pillars of the community present as witnesses when Jesus came out of the tomb. The only plausible reason that all of these incidents would be included in these accounts is that they actually happened. Also, why constantly depict the apostles the eventual leaders of the early Church as petty and jealous, almost impossibly slow-witted, and in the end as cowards who either actively or passively failed their master? Richard Bauckham makes similar arguments about the depiction of Peter s denial of Jesus, even to the point of his calling down a curse on his master (Mark 14:71). Why would anyone in the early church want to play up the terrible failures of their most prominent leader? 9 [Tim Keller, The Reason for God] EVIDENCE FROM THE HEART If the Bible is indeed some kind of revelation from our Creator, then one can expect that it would contain intimate knowledge of mankind. As an analogy, imagine a situation where all of mankind had been wiped out, leaving a few cars who had somehow become conscious. All the sentient cars got together and started to discuss the issue of their identity, struggling with the question: What are we? Some cars discussed how they thought they were gigantic paperweights; others advanced the theory that they were really just living quarters. Finding it difficult to come to a satisfactory answer, they all started to drift toward the answer: We are whatever we make ourselves to be. Just then, one of the cars came out with a book called The Owner s Manual and proceeded to show the rest of the cars how it explained so many mysteries. It explained their need for gasoline; it explained the doors and the seats. Not only that, the manual explained and described components under the hood that the cars themselves were not aware of until they, following the guidelines of the manual, opened their hoods and looked inside. They realized that this manual must have been written by someone who intimately knew what they were and how they were put together. In this example, note how the evidence for the validity of the manual came as they subjected themselves to introspection. Likewise, when we approach the Bible with an open and introspective heart, we find, to our own surprise, that it shows a deep, intimate knowledge of us a knowledge that could only come from our Creator. Many of us, as we study the Bible, encounter this unnerving experience of being addressed ever so CHRISTIAN)FOUNDATIONS) 53)

56 CHAPTER 3 : GOD S REVELATION (BIBLE & JESUS) personally by the Bible. We find that the Bible describes our true condition and gives voice to deep longings that we didn t know how to express. It seems that the author knows us, in many cases, better than we know ourselves, suggesting that the Bible might indeed be the word from our Creator. JESUS OF NAZARETH God revealed himself through Jesus. Earlier in this chapter we dealt with the question, Why doesn t God just appear? Ironically, the answer to that question is that he did appear but not in the way that we might have expected. Throughout the Old Testament, God spoke through the prophets and expressed his character through his acts in history. But then God finally uttered his most eloquent, full and complete expression, And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us (John 1:14). In a grand miracle that Christians call the Incarnation, God took on flesh and came to be with humanity. If a picture paints a thousand words, how much more eloquent is a life? If God created us to relate with us in love, then what better way than to come to us in a manner that we understand best? And that s indeed what we have God revealed himself ultimately by coming to us as a person: Jesus of Nazareth. To start off, it needs to be noted that Jesus coming into the world is no ordinary historical event, but something that had been foretold throughout the Bible. In about 740 BC the prophet Micah predicted that Jesus would be born in Bethlehem. Mary, Jesus mother, lived in Nazareth. Because of an order from the Roman government, she had to travel to Bethlehem and was there when Jesus was born. At the time that Mary conceived, even she could not have guessed that this would happen. Isn t it interesting that Isaiah 53 was written hundreds of years before Christ was born In those days the use of a cross as an instrument of execution was totally unknown. Yet, the words pierced through in Isaiah 53:7a fit both the use of nails in crucifixion and the sword wound in Jesus side. Furthermore, note Isaiah 53:9. How could anyone have guessed that Jesus would be assigned for execution with wicked men (the two robbers on the crosses at either side), and yet end up with a rich man in His death (Joseph of Arimathea, who buried him)? 10 [Ralph Neighbour, Jr., Survival Kit] The advent of Jesus was the fulfillment of over 300 Old Testament prophecies regarding the coming of a Messiah (meaning anointed one ). This Messiah would be a Savior who would deliver them from their sins, and a King who would reign over the people of God forever. Romans 1:2-4 reads 2 which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy Scriptures, 3 concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord 4 and was declared to be 54) CHRISTIAN)FOUNDATIONS)

57 CHAPTER 3 : GOD S REVELATION (BIBLE & JESUS) the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord. The fact that Jesus matches the description prophesied hundreds of years before His birth is not some coincidence. using the modern science of probability in reference to eight prophesies, we find that the chance that any man might have lived down to the present time and fulfilled all eight prophecies is 1 in [Josh McDowell, Evidence that Demands a Verdict] To understand what the probability of 1 in (1 in 100,000,000,000,000,000) is like, suppose we had dollars in silver dollar coins. If we were to place each of those coins side by side, it would be enough to cover the whole surface area of the state of Texas two feet deep in coins. Now, imagine that one of those coins was marked with an x. What is the chance of someone with a blind-fold finding that coin on the first try? When we consider 48 of the prophecies, the likelihood of one person fulfilling them becomes an incomprehensible 1 in That number is approximately the total number of electrons in the entire known universe. Imagine the probability of someone finding the right electron with the x on it on the first try. That s the probability of one person fulfilling just 48 of the prophecies, let alone over 300. However, the fulfillment of prophecies surrounding Jesus is just one part of the story. JESUS A PORTRAIT When we turn our attention to Jesus, what we find is the amazing portrait of someone who embodies the qualities of God Himself. In Jesus, the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily. (Colossians 2:9) The portrait of Jesus is richly painted in the section of the New Testament called the Gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Each is a written record of how Jesus lived, what he did, how he treated people, how he viewed power, fame and wealth, and what he thought and valued. Jesus lived a perfect life by almost anyone s standards. He did not do anything a normal person would consider sinful. There is no vice that shows up in His character. There is no virtue that He did not have. The life of Jesus shines out as the ideal for all humanity. 12 [Michael Green, Who is This Jesus?] Many misconceptions about Jesus depict a detached, mystical guru-type figure. Some imagine a young, naïve teacher who did not realize how much trouble he was creating by attacking the establishment. The Gospels portray someone completely different: compassionate and merciful, yet authoritative and intolerant toward hypocrisy and oppression. The insecurities and fears that plague most did not bind him. His elevated teaching was matched by his courageous actions. His heart was for the downtrodden and poor the sick, the prostitutes, the thieves, and children, even daring to touch those who were considered loathsome and CHRISTIAN)FOUNDATIONS) 55)

58 CHAPTER 3 : GOD S REVELATION (BIBLE & JESUS) impure. He confronted powerful rulers, inspiring reformers such as Martin Luther King, Jr. and Gandhi. And he seemed to have an intimate knowledge of each person he encountered, eliciting responses showing that he somehow touched their deepest longings and desires. The Gospels show that Jesus quickly established intimacy with the people he met. Whether talking with a woman at a well, a religious leader in a garden, or a fisherman by a lake, he cut instantly to the heart of the matter, and after a few brief lines of conversation these people revealed to Jesus their innermost secrets. People of his day tended to keep rabbis and holy men at a respectable distance, but Jesus drew out something else, a hunger so deep that people crowded around him just to touch his clothes. 13 [Philip Yancey, Jesus I Never Knew] THE IMPACT OF JESUS Speaking on a strictly historical level, the impact that Jesus life had on the history of mankind is unfathomable. I know men and I tell you that Jesus Christ is no mere man. Between Him and every other person in the world there is no possible term of comparison. Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne, and I have founded empires. But on what did we rest the creations of our genius? Upon force. Jesus Christ founded His empire upon love; and at this hour millions of men would die for Him. - Napoleon Bonaparte If ever the Divine appeared on earth, it was in the Person of Christ...the human mind no matter how far it may advance in every other department, will never transcend the height and moral culture of Christianity as it shines and glows in the Gospels. - Goethe Christ is the most unique person in history. No man can write a history of the human race without giving first and foremost place to the penniless teacher of Nazareth. H. G. Wells 14 [Calvin Miller, The Book of Jesus] 56) CHRISTIAN)FOUNDATIONS)

59 ONE SOLITARY LIFE He was born in an obscure CHAPTER village, the child 3 : of GOD S a peasant REVELATION woman. He grew up (BIBLE in & JESUS) still another village, where He worked in a carpenter's shop until He was thirty. Then for three years He was an itinerant preacher. He never wrote a book. He never held an office. He never had a family or owned a house. He did not go to college. He never visited a big city. He never traveled two hundred miles from the place where He was born. He did none of the things one usually associates with greatness. He had no credentials but Himself. He was only thirty-three when the tide of public opinion turned against Him. His friends ran away. He was turned over to His enemies and went through the mockery of a trial. He was nailed to a cross between two thieves. While He was dying, His executioners gambled for His clothing, the only property He had on earth. When He was dead, He was laid in a borrowed grave through the pity of a friend. Nineteen centuries have come and gone, and today He remains the central figure of the human race, and the leader of mankind's progress. All the armies that ever marched, all the navies that ever sailed, all parliaments that ever sat, all the kings that ever reigned, put together, have not affected the life of man on this planet so much as that one solitary life. - James Allen Francis Although his positive impact on history was unparalleled, Jesus remains one of the most controversial figures of history. Why? CHRISTIAN)FOUNDATIONS) 57)

60 CHAPTER 3 : GOD S REVELATION (BIBLE & JESUS) A PECULIAR CLAIM There is little controversy over the majority of facts surrounding Jesus life. Moreover, there is widespread agreement that Jesus teachings were sublime and that his life was exemplary. But wherever he went, Jesus kept making a peculiar claim about himself. He repeatedly stated that he was God in the flesh. One of the most startling things in the New Testament is Jesus unmistakable claim to be the incarnate Son of God. 58) CHRISTIAN)FOUNDATIONS) The most striking feature of the teaching of Jesus is that He was constantly talking about Himself...This self-centeredness of the teaching of Jesus immediately sets Him apart from the other great religious teachers of the world. They were self-effacing. He was selfadvancing. They pointed men away from themselves, saying, That is the truth, so far as I perceive it; follow that. Jesus said, I am the truth; follow me. The founder of none of the ethnic religions ever dared to say such a thing. 15 [John Stott, Basic Christianity] It didn t take long for the people who knew Jesus to realize that He was making astounding claims about Himself. It became clear that His own claims were identifying Him as more than just a prophet or teacher. He was obviously making claims to deity. He was presenting Himself as the only avenue to a relationship with God, the only source of forgiveness for sins, and the only way of salvation [Josh McDowell, More Than a Carpenter] If you think of these two words, Son and Father, they are a brilliant choice. Jesus was a human being, not God in disguise. But He was not only a human being: He shared God s nature. What better imagery than Father and Son? A son shares his father s nature, and yet has his own distinctness. And the intimacy between father and son can be the greatest in the world. Jesus claimed that shared nature, that shared intimacy with almighty God. 17 [Michael Green, Who is this Jesus?] He kept pressing the question: Who do you say I am? He said that anyone who had seen him had seen God. He said that he came to find and redeem men and women who are lost. To the Jews, all these claims were blasphemous, and to the religious leaders, Jesus blatant declaration of his divinity was reason enough for his execution. Jesus claim to be the Son of God was a claim to deity. This claim, accompanied by his insistent demand that people repent and follow him personally in order to be forgiven and receive eternal life, was what caused such a disturbance among the people of his day. In addition, Jesus assertion to divinity emerges when he boldly claims for himself what can otherwise be attributed only to God. Jesus not only accepted worship from people, but he even commended those who worshipped him. No good man would have done that.

61 CHAPTER 3 : GOD S REVELATION (BIBLE & JESUS) Jesus response would be mind-boggling in any culture. But in Judaism it has the added significance that they were all passionate monotheists. They would not offer any kind of worship to any man or statue: only to God alone. The implications of Jesus accepting worship are obvious. He knew it was His due. Humble though He was, full of love and service to all, He nevertheless knew who He was and where He had come from. "He had come from God and was going to God," as the apostle John put it [John 13:3]. 18 [Michael Green, Who is this Jesus?] I AM Significantly, Jesus made explicit claims to deity through his use of the words I am. In the words of Michael Green: The force of these little words is often blunted in English translations because you can't just say, "I am": you need to say "I am he" or something of the sort. But "I am" is the most holy name of God Himself in the Old Testament. He is the source of life, the everliving One. When Moses saw the bush burning without being destroyed in the deserts of Sinai, sensed God's presence, and dared to ask His name, the answer was "I am." That name for God was much revered in Israel. That is exactly the claim we find Jesus making---the divine "I am." We find it in Jesus' conversation with the woman of Samaria [see John 4]. She wonders if Jesus could be the Messiah. He seems to correct her and says, "I am, I the one who is speaking to you (John 4:26) There is a freak storm on the Sea of Galilee. The disciples, hardened fishermen, are terrified. They are even more terrified when they see Jesus walking on the waves. He says to them, "Take heart, I am. Have no fear." [see Matt. 14:22-33]. The divine name accompanies the divine action of stilling the storm. Then, in debate with the Jews about Abraham, Jesus claimed that Abraham rejoiced to see His day. The indignant reply of His assailants was, "You are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham?" Jesus said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am" [John 8:57-58]. We are told that they picked up rocks to hurl at Him. They knew quite well what He was claiming. Again, at the height of His trial, when the chief priests charged Him with being the Messiah, Jesus replied with these two same little words, I am... He was using those words CHRISTIAN)FOUNDATIONS) 59)

62 CHAPTER 3 : GOD S REVELATION (BIBLE & JESUS) with all the depth of the Old Testament name of God behind them. Not just the Messiah but God in person. No wonder the chief priests tore their clothes and cried blasphemy. And finally, on that precious last evening He spent with His disciples, He foretold the way Judas would betray Him and said, "I am telling you this now, before it takes place, that when it does take place you may believe that I am he" (John 13:19). He wants, above all, for His followers to be sure of His identity. 19 [Michael Green, Who is this Jesus?] THE TRILEMMA Jesus made extraordinary claims about himself. Yet people try to blunt the intensity of his words by saying that Jesus was just a respectable moral teacher. However, the problem is this: the distinct claims of Jesus to be God eliminate the possibility of him being merely a good moral teacher. C.S. Lewis states the choices as follows. I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I'm ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don't accept His claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic - on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg - or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse... You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come up with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to. 20 [C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity] Confronted with the staggering claims Jesus made about himself, what are the possible options available to a genuine inquirer into his identity? Was He a Liar? If, when Jesus made His claims, He knew that He was not God, then He was lying and deliberately deceiving His followers. But if He was a liar, then He was also a hypocrite because He told others to be honest, whatever the cost, while He Himself taught and lived a colossal lie. More than that, He was a demon, because He told others to trust Him for their eternal destiny. If He couldn't back up His claims and knew it, then He was unspeakably evil. Last, He would also be a fool because it was His claims to being God that led to His crucifixion. 21 [Josh McDowell, More Than A Carpenter] 60) CHRISTIAN)FOUNDATIONS)

63 Was He a Lunatic? CHAPTER 3 : GOD S REVELATION (BIBLE & JESUS) This view of Jesus, however, doesn't coincide with what we know either of Him or the results of His life and teachings. Wherever Jesus has been proclaimed, lives have been changed for the good, nations have changed for the better, thieves are made honest, alcoholics are cured, hateful individuals become channels of love, unjust persons become just. After all, it's possible to be both sincere and wrong. But we must remember that for someone to think himself God, especially in a fiercely monotheistic culture, and then to tell others that their eternal destiny depended on believing in him, is no slight flight of fantasy but the thoughts of a lunatic in the fullest sense. Was Jesus Christ such a person? Someone who believes He is God sounds like someone today believing himself Napoleon. Yet in Jesus we don't observe the abnormalities and imbalance that usually go along with being deranged. His poise and composure would certainly be amazing if He were insane. 22 [Josh McDowell, More Than A Carpenter] Was He Lord? The only other alternative is that Jesus spoke the truth. From one point of view, however, claims don't mean much. Talk is cheap. Anyone can make claims. There have been others who have claimed to be God. I could claim to be God, and you could claim to be God, but the question all of us must answer is, "What credentials do we bring to substantiate our claim?" In my case it wouldn't take you five minutes to disprove my claim. It probably wouldn't take too much more to dispose of yours. But when it comes to Jesus of Nazareth, it's not so simple. He had the credentials to back up His claim. He said, "Even though you do not believe Me, believe the evidence of the miracles, that you may learn and understand that the Father is in Me, and I in the Father." 23 [Paul E. Little, Know Why You Believe] The New Testament clearly presents Christ as God... The Scriptures attribute characteristics to Him that can be true only of God. Jesus is presented as being selfexistent, omnipresent, omniscient, omnipotent, and possessing eternal life. 24 [Josh McDowell, More Than A Carpenter] Please read the following accounts from the people who were closest to Jesus, some of whom were constantly in close proximity to him and able to observe him closely. CHRISTIAN)FOUNDATIONS) 61)

64 CHAPTER 3 : GOD S REVELATION (BIBLE & JESUS) MATTHEW 16:16 Simon Peter replied, You are the Christ, the Son of the living God. JOHN 11:27 She said to him, Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world. JOHN 20: Eight days later, his disciples were inside again, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, Peace be with you. 27 Then he said to Thomas, Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe. 28 Thomas answered him, My Lord and my God 29 Jesus said to him, Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed. How would you sum up all of the above testimony of who Jesus is? Jesus claims to divinity make it impossible for us to stay neutral he is the wedge in humanity that goes through history, dividing mankind into two groups. Throughout history, many have been offended by Jesus claims to be more than a man; yet many others have considered his claims and found them to be true. 62) CHRISTIAN)FOUNDATIONS)

65 CHAPTER 3 : GOD S REVELATION (BIBLE & JESUS) There are many men and women we find throughout history that either inspire or appall us. However, no other person demands a response from us like Jesus, not because of his exemplary character or impact, but because he makes this startling claim that he is God incarnate. Why is it impossible to remain neutral with regard to Jesus? What is your response to Jesus claim? CHRISTIAN)FOUNDATIONS) 63)

66 CHAPTER 3 : GOD S REVELATION (BIBLE & JESUS) So where do you find yourself on this chart regarding the identity of Jesus? 64) CHRISTIAN)FOUNDATIONS)

67 CHAPTER 3 : GOD S REVELATION (BIBLE & JESUS) If this penniless preacher from Nazareth really is who he claimed to be, everything changes. Life cannot go back to business as usual: life's purpose, direction, and very meaning are utterly transformed. Not only that, Jesus came with a purpose that very much has to do with each of us. Did he come to eliminate world poverty, redistribute wealth, quell our racism and bigotry, or cure cancer? Jesus said, For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many. Of all the great problems in society, Jesus pointed to our sins as the issue he has come to address. And the solution that he offers has impacted human history like none other. What is your personal response to this week s material? CHRISTIAN)FOUNDATIONS) 65)

68 CHAPTER 3 : GOD S REVELATION (BIBLE & JESUS) 1 Buechner, Frederick. The Magnificent Defeat. s.l. : HarperSanFrancisco, Ibid. 3 Boyd, Gregory. Letters from a Skeptic. s.l. : David C. Cook, Kierkegaard, Soren. Parables of Kierkegaard. s.l. : Princeton University Press, Craig, William Lane. Reasonable Faith. s.l. : Crossway Books, Boyd, Gregory. Letters from a Skeptic. s.l. : David C. Cook, Sheler, Jeffery L. Is the Bible True? U.S. News and World Report. 1999, Oct Kenyon, Frederic G. The Bible and Archaeology. University of Berkeley : G. Harrap, Lewis, C.S. God in the Dock. s.l. : Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, Keller, Timothy. The Reason for God. s.l. : Riverhead Trade, Neighbour, Ralph. Survival Kit. s.l. : Convention Press, McDowell, Josh. Evidence that Demands a Verdict. s.l. : Here's Life Publishers, Green, Michael. Who is This Jesus? s.l. : Regent College Publishing, Yancey, Philip. Jesus I Never Knew. s.l. : Zondervan, Miller, Calvin. The Book of Jesus: Touchstone, Stott, John. Basic Christianity. s.l. : IVP Books, McDowell, Josh. More Than a Carpenter. s.l. : Living Books, Green, Michael. Who is This Jesus? s.l. : Regent College Publishing, Ibid. 19 Ibid. 20 Lewis, C.S. Mere Christianity. s.l. : HarperSanFrancisco, McDowell, Josh. More Than a Carpenter. s.l. : Living Books, Ibid. 23 Little, Paul E. Know Why You Believe. s.l. : InterVarsity Press, McDowell, Josh. More Than a Carpenter. s.l. : Living Books, ) CHRISTIAN)FOUNDATIONS)

69 APPENDIX C: RELIGIOUS PLURALISM APPENDIX C: RELIGIOUS PLURALISM ABRIDGED FROM ARTICLE HOW CAN CHRIST BE THE ONLY WAY TO GOD? BY DR. WILLIAM LANE CRAIG "How can Christianity claim that other religions are wrong?" It is frequently asserted that it is arrogant and immoral to make any kind of exclusive religious claim because one must then regard all persons who disagree with one's own religion as mistaken. This appears to be a textbook example of the logical fallacy known as argument ad hominem, which is to try to invalidate a position by attacking the character of those who hold to it. This is a fallacy because the truth of a position is independent of the moral qualities of those who believe it. Even if all Christians were arrogant and immoral, that would do nothing to prove that their view is false. Not only that, but why think that arrogance and immorality are necessary conditions of exclusive religious claims? Suppose I ve done all I can to discover the religious truth about reality and I m convinced that Christianity is true, and so humbly embrace Christian faith as an undeserved gift of God. Am I therefore arrogant and immoral for believing what I sincerely think is true? Finally, and even more fundamentally, this objection is a double-edged sword. For the pluralist also believes that his view is right and that all those adherents to non-pluralistic religious traditions are wrong. Therefore, if holding to a view that many others disagree with means you re arrogant and immoral, then the pluralist himself would be convicted of arrogance and immorality. Or to give another example, it is frequently alleged that Christianity cannot be correct because religious beliefs are culturally relative. For example, if a Christian believer had been born in Pakistan, he would likely have been a Muslim. Therefore his belief in Christianity is untrue or unjustified. But this again seems to be a textbook example of what is called the genetic fallacy: trying to invalidate a position by criticizing the way a person came to hold that position. The fact that your beliefs depend upon where and when you were born has no relevance to the truth of those beliefs. If you had been born in ancient Greece, you probably would have believed that the sun orbits the Earth. Does that therefore imply that your belief that the Earth orbits the sun is false? Evidently not And once again, the pluralist pulls the rug from beneath his own feet: had the pluralist been born in Pakistan, he would likely have been someone who believes in a non-pluralistic religion. Thus, on his own analysis his pluralism is merely the product of his being born in late twentieth century Western society and is therefore false or unjustified. In these ways, the common pluralistic arguments against Christianity frequently found in literature can be shown to be rather unimpressive. Once we see through the thin pluralistic arguments, we can move from the endless uncertainty of pluralism and on to the business of actually seeking with the potential of finding some answers. Using our rationality to consider the evidence presented in this course, we can have hope that it is actually possible to have a reasonable amount of confidence in the truthfulness of a particular worldview, such as Christianity. CHRISTIAN)FOUNDATIONS) 67)

70 CHAPTER 4 : OUR PROBLEM CHAPTER 4 OUR PROBLEM In the previous chapter, we examined God s self-disclosure to man in the form of the Bible and most fully in the person of Jesus. We covered the most important aspect of the person of Jesus: his claim to deity. The evidence points from multiple angles to the conclusion that Jesus is the Lord of history, the Son of God. The focus of the gospels, however, is not so much his identity as his mission, i.e., what he came to do. His message was that we are sinners under the wrath of God who need to repent of our sins; his mission was to die in our place, and so offer us forgiveness and reconciliation with God. At the end of Chapter 2 we left off with a stark picture of how our rejection of God has resulted in idolatry, moral relativism, and enmity toward others. THE DOWNWARD SPIRAL Rejection of God s authority does not remain stagnant but sets in motion a relentless downward journey. Romans 1 charts the progression of sin in human spiritual history. ROMANS 1:18 24; For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. 19 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. 21 For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. 24 Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, 25 because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever Amen. 28 And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. 29 They were filled with all manner of 68# CHRISTIAN#FOUNDATIONS#

71 unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, CHAPTER 4 : OUR PROBLEM 31 foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. 32 Though they know God s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them. ROOT AND FRUIT According to this passage, what is at the root of human sin is an issue of the will: They did not see fit to acknowledge God (Romans 1:28), by their unrighteousness suppress the truth (Romans 1:18), although they knew God, they did not honor him as God (Romans 1:21). Human pride finds it humiliating to acknowledge God or honor him as God. Thus, thoughts of God and the idea of God as someone to honor is suppressed. Thomas Nagel, celebrated professor of philosophy, writes: I want atheism to be true and am made uneasy by the fact that some of the most intelligent and well-informed people I know are religious believers. It isn't just that I don't believe in God and, naturally, hope that I'm right in my belief. It's that I hope there is no God I don't want there to be a God; I don't want the universe to be like that. My guess is that this cosmic authority problem is not a rare condition and it is responsible for much of the scientism and reductionism of our time. One of the tendencies it supports is the ludicrous overuse of evolutionary biology to explain everything about life, including everything about the human mind. 1 [Thomas Nagel, The Last Word] Or, in the words of an atheist from a previous generation: For myself, as, no doubt, for most of my contemporaries, the philosophy of meaninglessness was essentially an instrument of liberation. The liberation we desired was simultaneously liberation from a certain political and economic system and liberation from a certain system of morality. We objected to the morality because it interfered with our sexual freedom... There was one admirably simple method of confuting these people and at the same time justifying ourselves in our political and erotic revolt: We could deny that the world had any meaning whatsoever. 2 [Aldous Huxley, Ends and Means] Most people probably do not engage in such a consciously calculated suppression of the idea of God. But whenever we find ourselves asserting our pride, claiming for ourselves the right to do as we please and rule our own destiny, we place ourselves squarely in the description in Romans 1. Whenever we find ourselves irritated by the possibility of a divine authority figure, we are experiencing the spiritual hostility innate to Adam s children. CHRISTIAN#FOUNDATIONS# 69#

72 CHAPTER 4 : OUR PROBLEM But as Romans 1 lays out (and as we saw in Genesis 3 and 4 in Chapter 2), this is only the first move in the journey of sin. Like the taking of the fruit, it hardly seems terrible. But once we have removed God from the picture, chaos is unleashed upon our lives. The list of corruption, immorality and crimes that follow (Romans 1:28-31) are but the fruit of this root hostility toward God. It s a list that makes us cringe just to read it. ROMANS 1: And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. 29 They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, 31 foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Explain how removing God from our lives could naturally lead to the commission of other sins (e.g., lying, cheating, stealing, adultery, murder, etc.). 70# CHRISTIAN#FOUNDATIONS#

73 CHAPTER 4 : OUR PROBLEM Of all the sins that man could possibly commit, which sin should we be primarily concerned with? GUILT AND SHAME CHRISTIAN#FOUNDATIONS# 71# Man is the only animal that blushes or has any reason to. - Mark Twain Man's greatness lies in his capacity to recognize his wretchedness. - Blaise Pascal, Pensees Charles Darwin once remarked that mankind is the only animal that blushes. Or has any reason to, Mark Twain later added. This observation that while man is immoral, he also recognizes the shame of it affirms the biblical portrait of the fall. We are conflicted in our corruption; the traces of God s image that remain inside us groans over the sins we have committed. The blushing face may be the truest reflection of our current reality: sinners fallen from God s original will. Thus, the Fall of Adam and Eve is personal to each of us. It is not general humanity that is afflicted with the deadly cancer of sin. It infects every human life, including ours. At its root, it s a move away from God; its many fruits wreak harm and destruction upon us and those closest to us. However, because we are loath to blush, we come up with many ways to evade indictment. I M NOT THAT BAD... One way we avoid conviction of sin is by comparing ourselves only against those obviously more wicked. We employ sentiments such as, It may not have been acceptable 20 years ago, but it s normal today, or I m not as bad as (insert name of terrorist, genocidal dictator or school thug). Or, we take comfort in statistics, I am only one among a large percentage of people who drink and drive. Everybody does it. Like a man who tries to blunt the evil of an adulterous affair by citing the high percentage of marital unfaithfulness (around 50% in America), we make pathetic attempts to dodge guilt, but this only further reveals the twistedness of the human heart.

74 CHAPTER 4 : OUR PROBLEM Although we are quick to recognize sin in others, each of us is quick to deny any suggestion of our own personal guilt. When confronted with an example of our sinfulness, we excuse it away I was just having a bad day I was stressed anyone in my situation would have done the same. Or, we admit it but characterize it as a rare exception, a minor blemish in an otherwise admirable character. We assert that our occasional moments of good deeds and kind thoughts are our normal, characteristic conduct while we dismiss, or actually do not remember, our more typical selfish and sinful behavior. In this way, we edge toward a dangerous precipice: complete lostness to ourselves. Do you remember a time when someone denied doing anything wrong to you when in fact he actually did? How did you feel? How do you usually respond when you re confronted with your sinfulness? IT S JUST A PSYCHOLOGICAL HANG-UP Another way of avoiding our sin is to simply dismiss the entire idea of sin as a mere psychological hang-up or a holdover from archaic, repressive ethical systems. We have been told that the truly mature person can shake off guilt and assert his or her own morality about promiscuity, greed, truth-telling, etc. However, our attempts at liberating humanity from the bondage of the supposedly outdated idea of sin have proven to be a colossal failure. Hobart Mowrer, renowned professor of psychology at Harvard and Yale and president of the American Psychological Association, a man who was not religious, wrote, to the shock of his colleagues: 72# CHRISTIAN#FOUNDATIONS#

75 CHAPTER 4 : OUR PROBLEM For several decades we psychologists looked upon the whole matter of sin and moral accountability as a great incubus and acclaimed our liberation from it as epoch making. But at length we have discovered that to be free in this sense, that is, to have the excuse of being sick rather than sinful, is to court the danger of also becoming lost... In becoming amoral, ethically neutral and free, we have cut the very roots of our being, lost our deepest sense of selfhood and identity, and with neurotics themselves, we find ourselves asking, Who am I, what is my deepest destiny, what does living mean? 3 [Hobart Mowrer, Sin : The Lesser of Two Evils] Sin is real, and our guilt and shame are much more fundamental than just unpleasant emotions. Sin captures the very core of our true condition. MORALITY AS PURELY PERSONAL The very notion of sin immediately suggests an accountability to some higher Being. An individual can no more claim independence from a higher moral law than a nation can. However, sinful man, ever jealous to guard his autonomy, goes to great lengths to base morality on purely personal, subjective grounds. This is the world of my morality and your morality. There is no one who has higher morals than anyone else (this makes any claims to moral progress meaningless). We all simply need to look into ourselves and act from our personal desires. Some go further and try to ennoble this absurd point-of-view by claiming that it alone involves being honest to oneself. Thus, our society applauds the guy who is true to himself (whatever that means). Often this turns out to be an open-ended justification to surrender to our basest instincts. Under this insane system, every unfaithful husband, criminal, molester and racist (and even Hitler) becomes an honest person who acted in a way true to his deepest self. Bertrand Russell, the philosopher and mathematician, a well-known atheist, admitted that as much as he wanted to hold to the subjectivity of ethics, he found it hard to believe that the only thing he could say against murder was that he happened to not like it. Even this famous atheist had to admit that certain things are wrong in an absolute sense, and that personal preference could not be the final arbiter of good and evil. Do you agree that it is inadequate to explain sin as a psychological hang-up or a matter of a personal interpretation? How would you feel if someone who has wronged you treated sin in this way? CHRISTIAN#FOUNDATIONS# 73#

76 CHAPTER 4 : OUR PROBLEM CONFRONTING THE TRUTH 1 JOHN 1: If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us. As the Bible states in 1 John 1:8-10, we subtly claim we have not sinned. We use a wide range of strategies designed to minimize, deny, dismiss, excuse, blame, beautify, and/or rationalize, everything but admit our sin. Honest admission of personal guilt and taking responsibility is nearly nonexistent in our culture. Often this state of numbness to our sinfulness is accomplished in complete passivity we simply don t think about it. An unreflective life is the surest guarantee that we will never confront our true nature. Rarely engaging in self-reflection, we remain strangers to ourselves, so that when God calls out to sinners, we respond with, Who? Me?" How has lack of honest admission of personal guilt and taking responsibility led to the break of relationships in the world? We may be tempted to sidestep the truth of our sinfulness, thinking that such an admission can only lead to a sense of dejection. However, in sweeping our sinfulness under the rug, we end up missing out on surprising news from God: an invitation to forgiveness and salvation. 74# CHRISTIAN#FOUNDATIONS# Christ takes it for granted that men are bad. Until we really feel this assumption of his to be true, though we are part of the world he came to save, we are not part of the audience to whom his words are addressed. 4 [C.S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain]

77 CHAPTER 4 : OUR PROBLEM Although we live in a culture bent on denying, normalizing, or even glamorizing sin, this resilient sense that there is something fundamentally wrong, even corrupt, within each of us must not be suppressed. Any person who seeks self-understanding must begin with an affirmation of the reality of sin. THE GOOD PERSON Ironically, the recognition of one s sinfulness may be most difficult for those who are conventionally considered good and nice. Being accustomed to measuring ourselves only outwardly, we can easily believe that as long as we keep a clean record in the eyes of others i.e., we don t commit crimes, do what s expected of us, pay our taxes we are cleared from the label sinner. The biblical assertion of human sinfulness sounds like it s for other people. During Jesus time, there was a group of religious elites called Pharisees who had a very similar problem. They were quite good at keeping a clean external image and complying with all the rules. So they had a hard time relating with Jesus invitation for all sinners to come to him. In response to them, Jesus said that the true source of uncleanness does not depend on the outside but rather comes from within. Jesus warned them: MARK 7: [ ] What comes out of a person is what defiles him. 21 For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, 22 coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. 23 All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person. Jesus pointed to the heart. That s the question that we must ask ourselves: Who am I inside? Who am I when no one is looking? What will emerge when there are no negative consequences to my actions? If our secret actions, motivations and thoughts were somehow known to others, we probably would not have a hard time feeling convicted of our sinfulness. It turns out, then, that our difficulty in embracing our identity as sinners is a fiction that can only be maintained as long as our sinful hearts remain unknown to others. Take away that secrecy, and we immediately recognize ourselves as sinners. But God, who knows us perfectly, tells us that the secret is out. He refuses to play along with our fiction. He wants to address us as who we really are inside. That is why the Bible characterizes mankind in such unambiguous terms: MARK 7: For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, 22 coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. 23 All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person. CHRISTIAN#FOUNDATIONS# 75#

78 CHAPTER 4 : OUR PROBLEM Though we may cringe at this description of our hearts, it is a painfully true picture of ourselves. None of us is an exception. In Romans chapter 3, we read these words: 5 ROMANS 3:10-12, as it is written: None is righteous, no, not one; 11 no one understands; no one seeks for God. 12 All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, [ ] 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God If only we take an honest look within, we would be confronted by this ugly truth. We generally manage to maintain an image of civility in the presence of others, but there are dark forces underneath that we can barely keep a lid on. Right underneath the façade of politeness, how many of us truly care about anyone other than ourselves? Even in the midst of talking with our friends, how often are our thoughts just about ourselves? We envy our closest friends and cannot rejoice at their good fortune. Behind pretended interest in other people, we find ourselves asking, "What do the others think of me? Are they impressed with me? Why are they not paying attention to me? How many of us have a clear conscience with nothing to be ashamed of in the past, with nothing to hide today? All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God - Romans 3:23 How much do you agree with the Bible's assessment of mankind that "all have sinned"? Explain. 76# CHRISTIAN#FOUNDATIONS#

79 OFFENDED BY SIN CHAPTER 4 : OUR PROBLEM Now at the moment when a man feels real guilt moments too rare in our lives all these blasphemies vanish away. At such a moment we really do know that our character, as revealed in this action, is, and ought to be, hateful to all good men, and, if there are powers above man, to them. A God who did not regard this with unappeasable distaste would not be a good being. We cannot even wish for such a God it is like wishing that every nose in the universe were abolished, that the smell of hay or roses or the sea should never again delight any creature, because our own breath happens to stink. When we merely say that we are bad, the wrath of God seems a barbarous doctrine; as soon as we perceive our badness, it appears inevitable, a mere corollary from God s goodness. 5 [C.S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain] We must remember that one consequence of God s love is His wrath. When we speak of the wrath of God, it is not some emotional outburst or capricious reaction. It refers to God s just response to sin. [ ] all loving persons are sometimes filled with wrath, not just despite of but because of their love. If you love a person and you see someone ruining them even they themselves you get angry The Bible says that God s wrath flows from his love and delight in his creation. He is angry at evil and injustice because it is destroying its peace and integrity. 6 [Tim Keller, The Reason for God] Wrath and justice are undeniable necessities to anyone who has personally experienced real brutalities. The indignation and the cry for justice doesn t come from vindictiveness but from a virtuous love for the good. It is telling that the idea of a God without wrath comes from armchair theologians in comfortably prosperous nations. As a good, just God who created us in His image, God cannot ignore our sin, nor could (or should) He turn a blind eye towards our sin. 6 [There is a] huge solace of thinking that our betrayals, greed, cowardice, murders are not going to be judged [but] all religions recognize that our deeds are imperishable. 7 - Czeslaw Milosz Another way to understand the idea of God s wrath toward sin is through recognizing that our conduct matters. Our sins matter to God because we matter to God. In other words, we are taken seriously. CHRISTIAN#FOUNDATIONS# 77#

80 CHAPTER 4 : OUR PROBLEM We instinctively grasp that our moral choices must be taken seriously if our lives are to matter at all. The struggle to choose to be virtuous rather than immoral, to choose to tell the truth rather than lie, to sacrifice for a friend rather than to be selfish these are the things that make up the drama of human life. Without moral accountability, we lose human dignity, and we would be no different from beasts who live by appetites and instinct. The greatest insult to our existence would be to have absolutely no consequences to the choices we made, whether good or bad. Imagine working hard on a difficult paper on a topic that s very meaningful to you. You stay up many nights, struggle with the readings, and present some of your ideas in a carefully crafted paper, poring over each word in order to convey the precise shade of meaning you desire. You turn it in when you have each paragraph expressing exactly what you want. Imagine receiving the paper back two weeks later with an average grade, and you later learn that the teacher didn t even read the paper; everyone automatically got the same grade. What would be your response? When Christianity says that God loves man, it means that God loves man: not that He has some disinterested,... indifferent concern for our welfare, but that, in awful and surprising truth, we are the objects of His love. You asked for a loving God: you have one. The Great Spirit you so lightly invoked...is present: not a senile benevolence that drowsily wishes you to be happy in your own way, not the cold philanthropy of a conscientious magistrate, nor the care of a host who feels responsible for the comfort of his guests, but the consuming fire Himself, the Love that made the worlds If God is love, He is, by definition, something more than mere kindness. And it appears, from all the records, that though He has often rebuked us and condemned us, He has never regarded us with contempt. He has paid us the intolerable compliment of loving us, in the deepest, most tragic, most inexorable sense. [ ] 78# CHRISTIAN#FOUNDATIONS#

81 CHAPTER 4 : OUR PROBLEM We may wish, indeed, that we were of so little account to God that He left us alone to follow our natural impulses--that He would give over trying to train us into something so unlike our natural selves: but once again, we are asking not for more Love, but for less. 8 [C. S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain] Is it good news or bad news that our conduct matters? Explain. In saying Thou shalt not and Thou shalt, God is expressing his highest love for man. The Bible affirms that our conduct matters and that our lives count; what we choose to do with our life our bodies, talents, time matter in the highest courts of heaven. God treats each human life as highly significant and charged with great stakes because each person s decisions have ultimate consequences. IF GOD IS SO LOVING, THEN WHY HELL? Before we talk about the biblical understanding of hell, let s first dispel the prevalent notions about hell that so often come to mind, e.g., a fiery cavern ruled by a red, horned creature eternally torturing hapless souls with his pitchfork. This picture, derived primarily from European medieval art and literature and popularized by the media, is not quite the description of hell found in the Bible. The Bible s depiction of hell is not so much a specific place as it is a state of permanent being an existence that is utterly and eternally excluded from the presence and life of God. Images of hell used in the Bible are darkness (symbolizing isolation), gnashing of teeth (regret), and fire (torment). The most prominent imagery of hell that Jesus used was being outside (exclusion). Hell is not a giant torture chamber; it is a CHRISTIAN#FOUNDATIONS# 79#

82 CHAPTER 4 : OUR PROBLEM condition where one is finally removed from God s presence. For those who all their lives have known nothing other than self-assertion, hell is the continuation of a godless existence. As C.S. Lewis has said, in the end there are two kinds of people: those who say to God, Thy will be done, and those to whom God says, O.K., your will be done. 9 80# CHRISTIAN#FOUNDATIONS# If the happiness of a creature lies in self-surrender, no one can make that surrender but himself, and he may refuse [...] The problem is not simply that of a God who consigns some of His creatures to final ruin. That would be the problem if we were Mohametans. Christianity, true, as always, to the complexity of the real, presents us with something knottier and more ambiguous a God so full of mercy that He becomes man and dies by torture to avert that final ruin for His creatures, and who yet, where that heroic remedy fails, seems unwilling, or even unable, to arrest the ruin by an act of mere power [...] And here is the real problem: so much mercy, yet still there is Hell. Picture yourself a man who has risen to wealth or power by a continued course of treachery and cruelty, by exploiting for purely selfish ends the noble motions of his victims, laughing the while at their simplicity; who, having thus attained success, uses it for the gratification of lust and hatred and finally parts with the last rag of honor among thieves by betraying his own accomplices and jeering at their last moments of bewildered disillusionment. Suppose further, that he does all this, not (as we like to imagine) tormented by remorse or even misgiving, but eating like a schoolboy and sleeping like a healthy infant unshakably confident to the very end that he alone has found the answer to the riddle of life, that God and man are fools whom he has got the better of, that his way of life is utterly successful, satisfactory, unassailable. We must be careful at this point. The least indulgence of the passion for revenge is very deadly sin. Christian charity counsels us to make every effort for the conversion of such a man; to prefer his conversion, at the peril of our own lives... But that is not the question. Supposing he will not be converted, what destiny in the eternal world can you regard as proper for him? Can you really desire that such a man, remaining what he is (and he must be able to do that if he has free will) should be confirmed forever in his present happiness should continue, for all eternity, to be perfectly convinced that the laugh is on his side? And if you cannot regard this as tolerable, is it only your wickedness only spite that prevents you from doing so? Or do you find that conflict between Justice and Mercy, which has sometimes seemed to you such an outmoded piece of theology, now actually at work in your own mind, and feeling very much as if it came to you from above, not from below? You are moved, not by a desire for the wretched creature's pain as such, but by a truly ethical demand that, soon or late, the right should be asserted, the flag planted in this

83 CHAPTER 4 : OUR PROBLEM horribly rebellious soul, even if no fuller and better conquest is to follow. In a sense, it is better for the creature itself, even if it never becomes good, that it should know itself a failure, a mistake. Even mercy can hardly wish to such a man his eternal, contented continuance in such ghastly illusion. I have begun with the conception of Hell as positive retributive punishment inflicted by God because that is the form in which the doctrine is most repellent, and I wished to tackle the strongest objection. But, of course, though Our Lord often speaks of Hell as a sentence inflicted by a tribunal, He also says elsewhere that the judgment consists in the very fact that men prefer darkness to light, and that not He, but His "word," judges men. We are therefore at liberty since the two conceptions, in the long run, mean the same thing to think of this bad man's perdition not as a sentence imposed on him but as the mere fact of being what he is. 10 [C.S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain] What popular misconception about hell does this dispel? Hell is the point in an unrepentant sinner s history where all restraints will be removed, and all of man s monstrous depravity will be unleashed. Think about all the downward spiral of self-destruction that sin has brought into your life, even in the midst of many restraining forces of civilization. What would it look like for that downward spiral to continue on and on? Lawless, formless, and without boundaries, separated from God, who is the only source of light, love, and peace this is what the Bible calls hell. Hell is God s great compliment to the reality of human freedom and the dignity of human choice Cliff Knechtle, Give Me an Answer How could a loving God allow such an existence? Because God will not force anyone to repent and turn from his or her ways. He will not force anyone to be his. Love, when refused, must ultimately concede defeat. Hell is the ultimate affirmation that God takes us, and our decisions, seriously. CHRISTIAN#FOUNDATIONS# 81#

84 CHAPTER 4 : OUR PROBLEM GOD S HEART What is God s heart toward our rebellion and ultimate fate? The Bible uniformly reports that God is grieved by unrepentant sinners headed toward an eternity separated from him. MATTHEW 23:37 O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing EZEKIEL 18:23 Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked, declares the Lord GOD, and not rather that he should turn from his way and live? 2 PETER 3:9 The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. OUR TERRIBLE SITUATION Universally, we acknowledge the basic moral codes and recognize them as noble, honorable and beautiful. In our better moments we even wish, with a deep sigh, that everyone lived like this. We see the precious value of honesty, authenticity, generosity, sacrifice, loyalty, kindness, sexual fidelity, contentment and peace. But when we move to embrace this beautiful moral order, we become aware of a serious problem. We are often dishonest; we wear masks and abandon authenticity and integrity when it suits us; we are not generous; we have come far based on others sacrifice, but we are loath to engage in sacrifice ourselves we ask, what s in it for me? Where is the payoff? We are not loyal, are often unkind depending on our mood, how much sleep we got the night before and the fidelity we expect from our spouses seems sharply in discord with our own sexual morality. For the trouble is that one part of you is on God s side and really agrees with His disapproval of human greed and trickery and exploitation. You may want Him to make an exception in your own case, to let you off this one time; but you know at bottom that unless the power behind the world really and unalterably detests that sort of behavior, then He cannot be good. On the other hand, we know that if there does exist an absolute goodness it must hate most of what we do. That is the terrible fix we are in. If the universe is not governed by an absolute goodness, then all our efforts are in the long run hopeless. But if it is, then we are making ourselves enemies to that goodness every day, and are not in the least likely to do any better tomorrow, and so our case is hopeless 82# CHRISTIAN#FOUNDATIONS#

85 CHAPTER 4 : OUR PROBLEM again. We cannot do without it, and we cannot do with it. God is the only comfort, He is also the supreme terror: the thing we most need and the thing we most want to hide from. He is our only possible ally, and we have made ourselves His enemies. 12 [C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity] We find ourselves on the other side of the judge s stand, trying to offer a defense for our actions and for what we have become. But there is no defense. What can we do? The very good we embrace slays us; the very standards we affirm condemn us. The Apostle Paul expresses our predicament in Romans 7: ROMANS 7: So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good. 13 Did that which is good, then, bring death to me? By no means It was sin, producing death in me through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure. 14 For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin. 15 For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. 16 Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. 17 So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. 18 For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. 21 So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. 22 For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, 23 but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. 24 Wretched man that I am Who will deliver me from this body of death? Reflect on the fact that we are a walking paradox. We love good but are evil. We are free but imprisoned. CHRISTIAN#FOUNDATIONS# 83#

86 CHAPTER 4 : OUR PROBLEM WE NEED A SAVIOR The cry of our hearts echoes the cry found in Romans 7:24: Wretched man that I am Who will deliver me from this body of death? Have you ever been so disgusted at yourself that you wanted to just disappear? If so, then have you ever experienced a general desire to be rid of your bad self? If someone could rescue you from yourself, in what ways would that be an attractive offer? We know that we cannot stand under God s judgment. The just response to our sin is death. We look for hope from within, and we find emptiness. We look to others, but they offer no satisfying solutions. All options are inadequate. The guilt remains. The condemnation is too hard to bear. Where can we go? What can we do? Should we grit our teeth and say, I ll just take the punishment? Should we lie to ourselves and say, It doesn t matter, I don t matter, nothing matters? Is there some hope for our cure? Is there some stream where we can wash and be clean? Is there someone who can save us from our sad predicament? What is your personal response to this week s material? 84# CHRISTIAN#FOUNDATIONS#

87 CHAPTER 4 : OUR PROBLEM 1 Nagel, Thomas. The Last Word. New York: Oxford UP, Huxley, Aldous. Ends and Means. London: Chatto & Windus, Mowrer, O. Hobart. " Sin : The Lesser of Two Evils." American Psychologist 15.5 (1960): Lewis, C. S. The Problem of Pain. New York, NY: HarperOne, Ibid. 6 Keller, Timothy J. The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism. New York: Riverhead, Milosz, Czeslaw. The Discreet Charm of Nihilism. New York Review of Books. Nov. 19, Lewis, C. S. The Problem of Pain. New York, NY: HarperOne, Lewis, C. S. The Great Divorce: A Dream. New York: HarperOne, Lewis, C. S. The Problem of Pain. New York, NY: HarperOne, Knechtle, Cliffe. Give Me an Answer. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, Lewis, C. S. Mere Christianity: A Revised and Amplified Edition. San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, CHRISTIAN#FOUNDATIONS# 85#

88 CHAPTER 5 : DEATH AND RESURRECTION OF JESUS A LOWLY BIRTH CHAPTER 5 DEATH AND RESURRECTION OF JESUS The Nativity scenes on Christmas cards often portray a nice, cozy setting with clean hay, bathed in a warm, yellow glow. In reality, however, Jesus entered the world as a baby who didn t even have a proper place in which to be birthed. In Luke 2:4-7, we read a description of the conditions of the birth of Jesus. Not being able to find a place fit for human birth, they had to go to an animal stable, and the trough on which animals ate their slop had to be quickly emptied to receive the new baby. This was how Jesus chose to come to us in a dirty, lowly manger. LUKE 2:4-7 4 And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, 5 to be registered with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child. 6 And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth. 7 And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn. We find it odd that the debut of the Savior of the world would be so obscure. We find it natural to look for him in the halls of power, in the courts of kings, in the places where most of us would like to operate. We think that if God wants our attention, he should do something grand or impressive. understand why Jesus was born in such a lowly place, we will never understand the heart of God. DIVINE SELF LIMITATION Please read Philippians 2:4-8. But unless we 4 Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. 5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 86# CHRISTIAN#FOUNDATIONS#

89 CHAPTER 5 : DEATH AND RESURRECTION OF JESUS When a father wants to say something tender to a child, he often kneels so that his face is eye-level with the child s. He may also limit his vocabulary so that the child can understand. Limiting oneself is the very nature of love. What are some examples of love and self-limitation going hand in hand in human relationships? Author Philip Yancey describes this self-limitation: Before Jesus, almost no pagan author had used "humble" as a compliment. Yet the events of Christmas point inescapably to what seems like an oxymoron: a humble God. The God who came to earth came not in a raging whirlwind nor in a devouring fire. Unimaginably, the Maker of all things shrank down, down, down, so small as to become an ovum inside a nervous teenager. "Immensity cloistered in thy dear womb," marveled the poet John Donne. He "made himself nothing he humbled himself," said the apostle Paul more prosaically. One night in the cold, in the dark, among the wrinkled hills of Bethlehem, two worlds came together at a dramatic point of intersection. God, who knows no before or after, entered time and space. God, who knows no boundaries took on the shocking confines of a baby's skin, the ominous restraints of morality. "He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation," an apostle would later write; "He is before all things, and in him all things hold together." But the few eyewitnesses on Christmas night saw none of that. They saw an infant struggling to work never-before-used lungs. Could it be true, this Bethlehem story of a Creator descending to be born on one small planet? If so, it is a story like no other. Little wonder a choir of angels broke out in spontaneous song, disturbing not only a few shepherds but the entire universe. 1 [Philip Yancey, The Jesus I Never Knew] SLEEVES ROLLED UP There is a passage from the Bible that describes the state of mankind and God s heartache for us, written in Isaiah 59:8-16. CHRISTIAN#FOUNDATIONS# 87#

90 CHAPTER 5 : DEATH AND RESURRECTION OF JESUS ISAIAH 59: The way of peace they do not know, and there is no justice in their paths; they have made their roads crooked; no one who treads on them knows peace. 9 Therefore justice is far from us, and righteousness does not overtake us; we hope for light, and behold, darkness, and for brightness, but we walk in gloom. 10 We grope for the wall like the blind; we grope like those who have no eyes; we stumble at noon as in the twilight, among those in full vigor we are like dead men. 11 We all growl like bears; we moan and moan like doves; we hope for justice, but there is none; for salvation, but it is far from us. 12 For our transgressions are multiplied before you, and our sins testify against us; for our transgressions are with us, and we know our iniquities: 13 transgressing, and denying the Lord, and turning back from following our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart lying words. Judgment and Redemption 14 Justice is turned back, and righteousness stands far away; for truth has stumbled in the public squares, and uprightness cannot enter. 15 Truth is lacking, and he who departs from evil makes himself a prey. The Lord saw it, and it displeased him that there was no justice. 16 He saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no one to intercede; then his own arm brought him salvation, and his righteousness upheld him. What did God do when he saw that there was no one to intervene for mankind? What does this say regarding God s heart for mankind? 88# CHRISTIAN#FOUNDATIONS#

91 CHAPTER 5 : DEATH AND RESURRECTION OF JESUS Into this cycle of sin all of humanity at once both the victims and perpetrators, sinning and being sinned upon God enters with His sleeves rolled up. As much as mankind has fallen into the depth of sin, God travels that unfathomable distance downward to meet us here. John 3:16, perhaps the most quoted verse in the entire Bible, reads: 16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. God has sent an embodiment of himself, his son Jesus, to rescue us from the downward spiral of sin. The love of God is not merely a heart-warming affirmation God made his love manifest by coming to us in the flesh. A LOWLY DEATH God the timeless, all-powerful Creator broke into time and space. This miracle, called the Incarnation, is bewildering enough. But in a turn of events that no one could have foreseen, Jesus came and did something that is so unbelievable that mankind has been amazed by it ever since. Jesus an embodiment of God himself, the most powerful being to ever walk the earth came to die the lowliest of deaths. He was crucified on the cross, the Roman government s official means of torturously executing its worst criminals. What is crucifixion like? The prisoner would first be publicly humiliated by being stripped naked. He was then laid on his back on the ground, while his hands were either nailed or roped to the horizontal wooden beam, and his feet to the vertical pole. The cross was then hoisted to an upright position and dropped into a socket which had been dug for it in the ground. Usually a peg or rudimentary seat was provided to take some of the weight of the victim s body and prevent it from being torn loose. But there he would hang, helplessly exposed to the intense physical pain, public ridicule, daytime heat and night-time cold. The torture would last several days. 2 [John Stott, The Cross of Christ] Jesus death would have been just another tragic death of a heroic figure and no more, if it were not for Jesus identity. If Jesus is who he claimed to be, if Jesus is indeed God incarnate, then we need to face the disturbing question: What, out of all the places he could be, is he doing hanging on the cross? CHRISTIAN#FOUNDATIONS# 89#

92 CHAPTER 5 : DEATH AND RESURRECTION OF JESUS THE PRICE OF SIN As we covered in Chapter 4, sin is real and a holy God cannot overlook evil or pretend that it doesn t exist. God is the eternal antithesis to sin. God abominates sin with the whole intensity of his divine and perfect and holy nature. And God not only hates sin, he cannot tolerate it. God cannot compromise with sin. That is what we want, of course. We want God to compromise with sin. We want a God who says: 'All right, I know you have done this or that, but it is all right. Slip into heaven.' God cannot do that. God cannot compromise. There is no compromise between light and darkness, good and evil. They are eternal opposites, and God, because he is God hates sin. God must therefore punish sin. 3 [Martyn Lloyd-Jones, The Cross] Why can t God just dismiss our sins and forget them? Why does he take our actions and sins so seriously? When we see instances of evil and sin, we recognize that there must be some kind of response. There must be justice. However, there is a problem. We are guilty. We have done wrongs that cannot be erased. And despite our efforts to rid ourselves of guilt and shame, these continue to press upon us. This sentiment is made clear by a heartbreaking letter written to Ann Landers, an advice columnist, from a woman who signed her name as Forever Guilty : Six years ago on New Year s Eve, my husband John and I went to a party at the home of friends. We were in the mood to celebrate. After five years of scrimping and saving, we had bought a modest house and we had paid in full our college loans. John had one more semester at law school, and excellent job prospects. We were really in the mood to live it up. John and I are not drinkers, but that night there was a lot of champagne around and we had several glasses. Everyone was having a wonderful time the party didn t break up until dawn. Actually, saying goodnight to the host was the last thing either of us remembers until after the 90# CHRISTIAN#FOUNDATIONS#

93 CHAPTER 5 : DEATH AND RESURRECTION OF JESUS accident. God forgive us we ended the life of a thirteen year-old boy who was delivering bakery goods on his bicycle. Witnesses said that he was dragged more than 200 feet. The doctors did everything they could to save him, but his injuries were too extensive. The lad never regained consciousness and died after four days. In those few moments when we got the news, the entire world changed. Never again will it be the same. That little boy who was the light of his parents life will never grow up, fall in love, and be a source of pride to his family and a contributing member of society. Why? Because he happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. We called on the family, but they refused to see us. Who could blame them? The day of the funeral, we sent roses and sat in the back row of the church. When we came home, we found rose petals and broken stems scattered over our front steps. My husband never finished law school. He lost his job, he couldn t concentrate. He was unemployed for several months. I ate compulsively and gained forty pounds. Neither of us slept much. There were recurring nightmares. Intensive therapy and support from family and some friends kept us going. People kept saying, Life goes on. It does if they mean the sun comes up every day. The kind of existence we had could hardly be called living. I must keep writing before I lose my courage. Maybe this letter will make an impression on someone. It only takes one drink for some drivers to become involved in a tragedy like ours. If you don t hurt, maim, or kill yourself or a loved one, you might kill a little boy who s trying to earn some extra pocket money. -Forever Guilty. 4 ROMANS 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Sin leaves behind an indelible mark in time; our sin reaches out and disfigures people, relationships, and our very soul. We casually utter careless, cruel words and move on, probably forgetting we ever said anything unkind, perhaps even feeling like we did not do anything at all. But something HAS been done. And the person scarred by those words is in some way marred permanently. There is something about life that is so obvious as to sound silly when expressed but in practice proves actually quite elusive to keep in mind. It is this: When we do something, we re actually doing it. Children at play often say: That one did not count. As adults, we may harbor some illusion that our actions do not count, that somehow our conduct has no effect. Often, we are like a reckless driver who sets off a series of accidents and continues on his way, unaware of what he just did. Oblivious to the extent of the chain reaction we started, or the far-reaching effects we contribute to the web of sin in this world, we think our sins can easily be swept away. On the contrary, when we sin, in great and small ways alike, we are actually making a permanent mark on history and marring the moral fabric of the universe. CHRISTIAN#FOUNDATIONS# 91#

94 CHAPTER 5 : DEATH AND RESURRECTION OF JESUS In what ways have you been living as if your sins don t count? How can God be both just and merciful? That moral fabric that we mar with our sins is none other than the very heart of God. Our offenses are against the very authority of God. It violates his holiness and challenges his rule over creation. It grieves his heart and brings wrath on our lives. Sin is vandalism against the structure of God s will and a stain upon the moral landscape he intended. Read Psalm 38: There is no soundness in my flesh because of your indignation; there is no health in my bones because of my sin. 4 For my iniquities have gone over my head; like a heavy burden, they are too heavy for me. Romans 6:23 says, For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. The price of sin, the Bible tells us, is death not merely the death of our physical bodies, but our spiritual death: separation from God forever. We sinned. Yet we cannot bear the penalty of our sin; the debt is too great for us. Notice the dilemma: we are stuck between two dire choices: Do we ask God to just erase our sins and do away with justice? Or do we ask God to uphold justice and do away with sinners? God unveils His surprising solution: God took on the payment for sin upon himself. Jesus paid the debt of sin by voluntarily dying on the cross on our behalf. 92# CHRISTIAN#FOUNDATIONS#

95 CHAPTER 5 : DEATH AND RESURRECTION OF JESUS Therefore, the cross stands as a powerful testament to justice, authenticating the Bible s claim that indeed the wages of sin is death and upholding the pillars of justice. At the same time, the cross stands as a powerful demonstration of God s mercy, showing the extent of God s love to forgive sinners. The Bible testifies to this unexpected culmination of justice and mercy in Romans 3:25-26: 25 whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. 26 It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. THE PRICE OF FORGIVENESS Although forgiveness is offered freely, it is rarely actually free. Someone is bearing the cost of forgiveness. Imagine a woman who discovers after 10 years of marriage that her husband has had a string of affairs throughout their marriage. What does she feel like doing? Leaving him in a fit of rage, wishing that he would writhe in pain all alone? He would deserve that. But let s say she decides to forgive him. She tries to do the impossible for the sake of the children and perhaps out of mercy toward her husband, who is now genuinely sorry. But this is no easy task. It is a double pain: first she has been wronged. The vows they made on their wedding day, all the years of her toil, faithful love and sacrifice, have been trampled upon by her husband. But now, in addition to that, she has to take on the burden of forgiving this man. It s like trying to swallow poison. She says to herself: I ll forgive him. I will receive this outrage; I will absorb this wrong. All that sin, let it all just flow into me, soak into my heart. She must take it all in and hopes that she will be able to cope, that she won t go crazy, that her heart is big enough that this poison won t kill it. Some people do not recognize the difficulty, the near impossibility of real forgiveness because they have not had strong enough relationships of love to experience the woundedness of betrayal and the near-death experience of offering genuine forgiveness to the offending party in order that the relationship may be restored. Whoever has tried such a thing knows what a miracle and gift any act of forgiveness is. Every act of genuine forgiveness is this costly; it involves a kind of death. If we understood how costly forgiveness is, we would not ever dare demand it, and when offered it, we would be struck with awe and gratitude. CHRISTIAN#FOUNDATIONS# 93#

96 CHAPTER 5 : DEATH AND RESURRECTION OF JESUS Describe a time when you have felt a kind of death that comes when you try to forgive someone. Before we see the cross as something done for us, we have to see it as something done by us. - John Stott Notice that there really is nothing that the husband can do, other than just feel very, very sorry, and very, very rotten inside. No amount of gifts, treats, good deeds, or I ll make it up to you promises can alter the fact that the wrong has been committed. What can he do? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. He stands totally at the mercy of the forgiver. And he watches with helpless anguish the terrible pain his wife is willing to take on in order to salvage their marriage. Similarly, every sinner stands utterly helpless before God. If we, with our desensitized, calloused moral sense, sometimes react in disgust and shame at our sin, how much more is God s perfectly pure and holy heart affected by it? Yet, God says, I will absorb it. The holy God says, I will pay for it; I will absorb all that poison, the cesspool of all human sin, upon myself. This is the cross. All of our sins became a giant wound in the heart of God. This is what Jesus is doing there, hanging on a cross, having taken on the sins of the world, dying as a sacrificial lamb slain for your sins. Are you in agreement that forgiveness is costly? What is your response to the cost that God bears in order to forgive you? It s important to note, once again: sin is against God. Sin is a rejection of God, a violation and offense to his holy nature and a rebellious challenge to his rule over our lives. Sin is not committed in a vacuum, or only against ourselves, or even just against our fellow men. It is not about letting ourselves down, or failing to actualize a beautiful life for ourselves, and so feeling disappointed and remorseful that we have not 94# CHRISTIAN#FOUNDATIONS#

97 CHAPTER 5 : DEATH AND RESURRECTION OF JESUS become the people we had hoped. Sin is primarily against God. And the cross is God s forgiving saving action toward wayward rebels, his magnanimous kindness toward those who have turned away from him. Whether we reach out and grasp onto the lifeline God extends to us depends a lot on the degree to which we come to realize this. WHAT THE CROSS SHOWS US Parents experience a new kind of fear. Before you become a parent, the world could hurt you, of course, but with a child the world can hurt you in ways that truly terrify you. There is a pain greater than any that come from your own suffering: it is the suffering of someone you love. Some years ago, there was a video against drunk driving that started out showing a family picture frame on top of the mantle. The mom s in the kitchen doing dishes, and there s a man in the living room. It seems like they ve just finished dinner. A teenage boy is in his room listening to music. In between the family scenes, the video cuts to a young woman driving on a rainy road at night. There is another car with a young man driving, with an open bottle wrapped in a brown paper bag from which he takes sips. He looks drunk, as he tries to focus on the road. The video returns to the family scene, and the next time we cut away to the scene on the road there s a slow motion head-on collision between the two cars. When the cars collide the video cuts away to a surreal scene back at the home. The entire sink full of dishes, water and all, explode upward as the mom flys violently backwards. The furniture in the living room flies and crashes into each other, and the man is thrown from the couch. The teenage boy is violently thrust upward. This is when the viewer realizes that she is the daughter of the couple and sister to the teenage boy. When that drunk driver collided with the young woman s car, it was as if a train had run into her house back at home. The drunk driver does not just kill the woman; he wrecks her entire family. Imagine the scene of the drunk driver coming up to the grief-stricken parents of the young woman whom he has killed, and wondering why they are so deeply affected. After all, he killed the woman, but did nothing to them. One of the insights that the cross gives us is this: our sins wreck God s heart. Human sin causes this much pain to God because of his great love for every person on earth. God is personally involved in every act of sin. The question What does God have to do with my moral failings misses this message of the cross. In addition, the cross shows us the gravity of sin. First, our sin must be extremely horrible. Nothing reveals the gravity of sin like the cross. For ultimately what sent Christ there was neither the greed of Judas, nor the envy of the priests, nor the vacillating cowardice of Pilate, but our own greed, envy, cowardice and other sins, and Christ's resolve in love and mercy to bear their judgment and so put them away. It is CHRISTIAN#FOUNDATIONS# 95#

98 CHAPTER 5 : DEATH AND RESURRECTION OF JESUS impossible for us to face Christ's cross with integrity and not to feel ashamed of ourselves. Apathy, selfishness and complacency blossom everywhere in the world except at the cross. There these noxious weeds shrivel and die. They are seen for the tatty, poisonous things they are. For if there was no way by which the righteous God could righteously forgive our unrighteousness, except that he should bear it himself in Christ, it must be serious indeed. It is only when we see this that, stripped of our self-righteousness and self-satisfaction, we are ready to put our trust in Christ Jesus as the Savior we urgently need. [ ]Before we see the cross as something done for us, we have to see it as something done by us... Indeed, only the man who is prepared to own his share in the guilt of the cross, wrote Canon Peter Green, may claim his share in its grace. 2 [John Stott, The Cross of Christ] Have you come to see that you have sinned against God? How does the cross highlight the gravity of sin? What does the cross of Jesus say regarding your sins? 96# CHRISTIAN#FOUNDATIONS#

99 CHAPTER 5 : DEATH AND RESURRECTION OF JESUS And when I look at that cross and see him dying there, what he tells me is this: you have nothing whereof to boast. The cross tells me that I am a complete failure, and that I am such a failure that he had to come from heaven, not merely to teach and preach in this world, but to die on that cross. Nothing else could save us. I could not keep his teaching. How could I obey the teaching of the Lord Jesus Christ in the Sermon on the Mount, I who cannot live up to my own code, who cannot please other people? 3 [Martin Lloyd-Jones, The Cross] Not only does the cross show us the depth of our sins, but it also shows us the depth of God s love. Read John 15:13, Romans 5:8, and 1 John 4:9-10. JOHN 15:13 Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. ROMANS 5:8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 1 JOHN 4:9-10 In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. 10 In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Jesus demonstrated the greatest love for us by laying down his life. He died for a world that hated and despised him. He was dying for the very people who were nailing him to the cross. THE RESURRECTION OF JESUS If we were to stop our discussion of Jesus life at the cross, what would we be left with? As inspiring as his life might have been, we would still be left wondering if Jesus was indeed who he claimed to be, since in the end, Jesus, like all human beings, was silenced by death. In fact, upon Jesus capture and crucifixion, his followers fled and went into hiding, disillusioned and even bitter that they had falsely hoped that Jesus was the awaited Messiah. By all accounts, Christianity should have fizzled out and disappeared there, a few steps away from the dead body of Jesus near Jerusalem. However, history tells us that Christianity spread explosively shortly after Jesus death. Why? It wasn t because his followers wanted to honor their teacher by passing on his CHRISTIAN#FOUNDATIONS# 97#

100 CHAPTER 5 : DEATH AND RESURRECTION OF JESUS wisdom. Their main message, from the very beginning, was that Jesus was raised from the dead, and that they were witnesses to this incomprehensible miracle. Without the resurrection, Christianity would be meaningless. Jesus claims about his identity as God incarnate and his promises of forgiveness would have been nothing more than unverifiable assertions, were it not for the resurrection. As Apostle Paul put it, 17 And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. 18 Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. 19 If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied. (1 Corinthians 15:17-19) A compelling case for the resurrection can be made using only facts that are historically attested. However, the resurrection shows us that Jesus was indeed who he claimed to be. And humanity has been impacted by it ever since. What does this mean? Through the cross, Jesus made atonement for our sins. Through his resurrection, Jesus brings eternal life. The resurrection becomes the hope and end of the Christian faith, the proof that Jesus indeed has the authority and power to usher in eternal life. Now, what is the missing chapter in this case, the chapter which Christians are offering? The story of the Incarnation is the story of a descent and resurrection. When I say "resurrection" here, I am not referring simply to the first few hours or the first few weeks of the Resurrection. I am talking of this whole, huge pattern of descent, down, down, and then up again. What we ordinarily call the Resurrection being just, so to speak, the point at which it turns. Think what that descent is. The coming down, not only into humanity, but into those nine months which precede human birth, in which they tell us we all recapitulate strange prehuman, subhuman forms of life, and going lower still into being a corpse, a thing which, if this ascending movement had not begun, would presently have passed out of the organic altogether, and have gone back into the inorganic, as all corpses do. One has a picture of someone going right down and dredging the sea bottom. One has a picture of a strong man trying to lift a very big, complicated burden. He stoops down and gets himself right under it so that he himself disappears; and then he straightens his back and moves off with the whole thing swaying on his shoulders. Or else one has the picture of a diver, stripping off garment after garment, making himself naked, then flashing for a moment in the air, and then down through the green, and warm, and sunlit water into the pitch-black, cold, freezing water, down into the mud and slime, then up again, his lungs almost bursting, back again to the green and warm and sunlit water, and then at last out into the sunshine, holding in his hand the dripping thing he went down to get. This thing is human nature; but associated with it, all Nature, the new universe. 5 [C.S. Lewis, Grand Miracle] 98# CHRISTIAN#FOUNDATIONS#

101 CHAPTER 5 : DEATH AND RESURRECTION OF JESUS ACTS 2:32 This Jesus God raised up, and of that we all are witnesses. The resurrection goes hand in hand with the death of Jesus. Through the death of Jesus, we can be forgiven our iniquities. Through the resurrection, we can be raised to a new birth, a new life in Jesus Christ. If Jesus actually resurrected, what implications would that have on your view of God, on Christianity, what the world is about, or what human beings are? HOW CAN YOU BELIEVE? Dead people don t come back to life. Over a hundred billion dead people testify to this fact. Some argue that since dead people don t resurrect, Jesus could not have resurrected. Therefore Jesus is not God incarnate. But that would be a faulty circular argument. That kind of logic is akin to Christians arguing that the Bible is the word of God because the Bible says so. (That s a bad circular argument). Of course dead humans don t resurrect. But that s exactly the point: Jesus resurrection shows that he s not a mere mortal but indeed who he claimed himself to be. So an honest investigator needs to be open to the evidence without dismissing it prematurely. That is where we turn our attention next. Is there any actual evidence for the resurrection of Jesus? The evidence for the resurrection is better than for claimed miracles in any other religion. It is outstandingly different in quality and quantity. 6 - Anthony Flew EVIDENCE FOR THE RESURRECTION We have previously made the case that the New Testament, when evaluated as historical documents, demonstrates a high degree of reliability. If these arguments are valid, then we can reasonably believe that the resurrection occurred by the fact that the event is recorded in the New Testament. However, there is CHRISTIAN#FOUNDATIONS# 99#

102 CHAPTER 5 : DEATH AND RESURRECTION OF JESUS still a compelling historical case to be made for the reality of Jesus resurrection even if we don t rely on the historicity of the Bible. In this method, called the Minimal Facts Approach, we will first reconstruct four facts, the veracity of which are accepted even by skeptics and anti-christian scholars for reasons that we will survey below. Then we will discuss what theories can best make sense of these facts. Fact #1 Crucifixion & Burial Jesus was crucified under the Roman government and was given an honorable burial. There is little to argue about the historicity of Jesus crucifixion. Testament, it is affirmed by non-christian sources: 7 Not only is it recorded in the New Josephus: Jewish historian Tacitus: Roman historian Lucian: Greek satirist Mara Bar-Serapion: Syrian philosopher Jewish Talmud [collection of Jewish laws and traditions] The fact that Jesus was given an honorable burial is also hard to argue against. The Gospel accounts record that Jesus was buried in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea, a member of the Jewish ruling council called the Sanhedrin. The historicity of this burial account is agreed upon by the majority of scholars for the following reasons: There was strong resentment against the Jewish leadership for their role in the condemnation of Jesus. It is therefore highly improbable that Christians would invent a member of the court that condemned Jesus who honors Jesus by giving him a proper burial. 8 [William Lane Craig, The Resurrection of Jesus, Reasonable Faith] If the burial account was fabricated, it would not make any sense for Christians to name such a high-profile figure as the owner of the tomb, since the truth of the burial account could easily be verified. No other burial story exists. If the burial by Joseph were fictitious, then we would expect to find either some historical trace of what actually happened to Jesus corpse or at least some competing legends. 8 [William Lane Craig, The Resurrection of Jesus, Reasonable Faith] 100# CHRISTIAN#FOUNDATIONS#

103 Fact #2 Empty Tomb CHAPTER 5 : DEATH AND RESURRECTION OF JESUS Shortly following his crucifixion, Jesus tomb was discovered empty. Similarly, there is wide agreement on the historicity of the empty tomb: The site of Jesus burial was known to Christians and Jews alike. If the tomb were not empty, it would have been nearly impossible for a movement founded on the belief of the resurrection to have begun in Jerusalem, the very city where Jesus was publicly executed and buried. There are written accounts of arguments between Christian leaders and opponents of Christianity. In these accounts, we can see that the early critics of Christianity accused Jesus disciples of stealing the body (see Matthew 28:12-13; Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho 108; Tertullian, De Spectaculis 30). Before addressing the validity of their accusation (which we will do later), we can discern what such an accusation acknowledges as true: the only reason the opponents of Christianity were trying to give an alternative explanation for the empty tomb was that the tomb was, in fact, empty MATTHEW 28:12-13 And when they had assembled with the elders and taken counsel, they gave a sufficient sum of money to the soldiers and said, Tell people, His disciples came by night and stole him away while we were asleep. The fact that the Gospels report women as the first witnesses of the empty tomb supports the authenticity of the account, because this would have been embarrassing for the disciples to admit. Given that women were not regarded as reliable witnesses in a court of law during that time, a fabricated account would not have placed women as the witnesses. Pilate condemned him to be crucified and to die His disciples did not abandon his discipleship. They reported that he had appeared to them three days after his crucifixion and that he was alive. 9 - Flavius Josephus, Jewish-Roman historian (38-97 A.D.) Fact #3 Post-Mortem Appearances The disciples believed that they had seen the risen Jesus. Please note that the above factual claim is not that Jesus resurrected. The claim is that the disciples believed that they had seen the risen Jesus. The reason even non-christian scholars concede this fact is outlined below: CHRISTIAN#FOUNDATIONS# 101#

104 CHAPTER 5 : DEATH AND RESURRECTION OF JESUS The disciples were radically transformed. The same disciples that ran away during Jesus trial and denied even knowing him suddenly emerged as men who were willing to die for teaching about the hope of resurrection. What did they see that could change them so drastically? According to their own account, they saw the risen Jesus. And it wasn t only the previous followers of Jesus who were transformed. Paul, the author of a large proportion of the New Testament, once arrested Christians and gave approval to their executions until he witnessed the risen Jesus. James, the brother of Jesus, at first did not believe that his own brother was God, and so he was counted among the unbelievers. But Jesus also appeared to his brother James after the crucifixion (1 Corinthians 15:7), which caused him to be completely transformed and assume a position of leadership in the Jerusalem church in the first century. He was later killed for this belief in AD CORINTHIANS 15:7 Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Whether we believe the content of their testimony or not, what is clear from the history of the early church is that something happened to the disciples such that ordinary men from an obscure Roman province started a movement that transformed all of western civilization. Were the disciples lying when they claimed that they had seen Jesus resurrected? No reputable scholar holds to this position, because almost all of the disciples suffered persecution and martyrdom for teaching about Jesus resurrection. Peter crucified Andrew crucified Matthew killed by the sword John natural death, in exile for his beliefs James, son of Alphaeus crucified Philip crucified Simon crucified Thaddaeus killed by arrows James, brother of Jesus stoned Thomas killed by the spear Bartholomew beaten, then crucified James, son of Zebedee killed by the sword 10 Of course, a lot of people have died for a lie, so what does this prove? Yes, a lot of people have died for a lie, but they thought it was the truth. Now if the resurrection didn t take place (i.e., it was false), the disciples knew it. I find no way to demonstrate that they could have been deceived. Therefore these eleven men not only died 102# CHRISTIAN#FOUNDATIONS#

105 CHAPTER 5 : DEATH AND RESURRECTION OF JESUS for a lie here is the catch but they knew it was a lie. It would be hard to find eleven people in history who died for a lie, knowing it was a lie 10 [Josh McDowell, More Than a Carpenter] Given what we know of history and psychology, there is no doubt about the sincerity of the disciples. Even Gerd Ludemann, the leading German critic of the resurrection, admits, It may be taken as historically certain that Peter and the disciples had experiences after Jesus death in which Jesus appeared to them as the risen Christ. (9) Instead, the secular scholars theorize that these post-mortem appearances were hallucinations. We will cover this theory in the Alternative Theories section below. Fact #4 Birth of the Church Shortly after Jesus death, the Christian religion erupted onto the scene, rapidly spreading throughout the Roman Empire. The fact that Christianity spread rapidly in the early Roman world is so widely accepted that you can find these facts in any history of the early Roman Empire. What is interesting is the effect of Christianity. Although a particular belief taking hold of a culture does not prove anything other than its appeal, the rate and pervasiveness with which Christianity spread is something that demands historical explanation. The fact that Christianity first spread quickly in Jerusalem is telling, because that s the very place where Jesus was publicly crucified and buried. If the disciples claims were fabrications, there would have been a lot of people in Jerusalem who could have disproved the disciples, and Christianity would have died in its infancy. The impact that Christianity had on the rest of the Roman Empire was remarkable. [The Christian church] did not exist until about A.D. 30, and then, just as its leader was executed and his movement seemed extinguished, it suddenly burst into life and spread like wildfire. Something must have started it off. What can you suggest if not the resurrection of Jesus? Those first disciples had collapsed like a house of cards when Jesus was arrested. They had run away, some of them back home to Galilee. But now nothing can silence them. What is the cause of it if not the resurrection of Jesus? This new movement had no finances behind it. It had no proven leadership. It had no experience. It had no education. It had no training in evangelism. Yet it turned ancient society upside down. It was the start of a CHRISTIAN#FOUNDATIONS# 103#

106 CHAPTER 5 : DEATH AND RESURRECTION OF JESUS movement that survived the fall of the Roman Empire. It was the start of a movement that has penetrated every country on earth with the good news of Jesus and his love. 11 [Michael Green, Who Is This Jesus?] What could have happened that can make sense of these undisputed facts outlined above? Any alternative explanation must account for all of the accepted facts. Below, we will discuss some of the prevalent alternative explanations that have been attempted by non-christian historians who reject the resurrection theory. Alternative Theories " Disciples Stole the Body As mentioned above, this is the earliest alternative theory, proposed by the religious authorities in Israel. However, we ve already discussed the obvious sincerity that the disciples had regarding the post-mortem appearances of Jesus. Yes, they could have stolen the body and they could have lied about it. But they would not have died for the fabricated story that they just told. It is also highly implausible that unbelievers like Paul and James would have been co-conspirators of this plot. Therefore, this theory makes no sense of Fact #3 (Post-Mortem Appearances). " Disciples Made Up a Lie Perhaps the disciples simply desired to construct a new religion. This theory, however, still does not reasonably address the resurrection accounts themselves. First, the resurrection accounts lack details which would normally be included/excluded in a lie. For example, historians note that the resurrection accounts in the New Testament do not actually describe the resurrection itself. They anticlimactically describe the empty tomb, and the disciples only find out about Jesus resurrection through subsequent appearances of Jesus. If the disciples were conspiring to fabricate a religion surrounding the resurrection of Jesus, the fact that no one witnessed the actual moment of resurrection is quite puzzling unless, of course, they are simply reporting how it actually happened. Second, if the disciples had made up a lie, the opponents of their movement could have simply produced the body of Jesus, which they couldn t do. Third, the disciples, as a result of their testimony, had little to gain except death and persecution which is the reason historians concede that they were at least sincere in their belief. In short, this theory does not address Fact #2 (Empty Tomb) and Fact #3 (Post-Mortem Appearance). 104# CHRISTIAN#FOUNDATIONS#

107 " Disciples Hallucinated CHAPTER 5 : DEATH AND RESURRECTION OF JESUS This view was first proposed by New Testament critic David Strauss in the 19th century. We know that the disciples were sincere in their belief; however, how do we know that they were not hallucinating? Perhaps after the trauma of seeing Jesus on the cross, the disciples fooled themselves into seeing appearances of Jesus. Some reasons against such a belief are given below: Hallucinations, apart from drug use or mental illness, happen as the climax of a period of exaggerated wishful thinking, where the time, place and mood must be specifically conditioned to make a person open to hallucinations. However, when we turn to the Gospel narratives of the resurrection, these factors are missing. When the women first found the tomb empty, they wondered what happened, with one woman thinking that someone must have taken the body. Later, when Mary Magdalene and the other women witnesses reported that they saw Jesus, the disciples did not rejoice at the news of Jesus resurrection. Rather, they dismissed the women, because these words seemed to them an idle tale (Luke 24:11). Far from being wishful thinkers, the disciples responded exactly as any skeptic would have. Thomas was adamant in his refusal to believe unless he could actually see and feel the nail-wounds (which he eventually did). Furthermore, the hallucination theory does not explain the encounters of Paul and James the brother of Jesus, since, as we have mentioned before, neither of these men were positively associated with Jesus teachings. A bigger problem for the hallucination theory is that, whereas hallucinations are individual occurrences, these post-mortem appearances were seen by multiple people simultaneously.. As Gary Collins, former president of the national association of psychologists wrote, By their very nature only one person can see a given hallucination at a time. [ ] Since a hallucination exists only in this subjective, personal sense, it is obvious that others cannot witness it. (11) Clinical psychologist Gary A. Sibcy has commented, I have surveyed the professional literature (peer-reviewed journal articles and books) written by psychologists, psychiatrists, and other relevant healthcare professionals during the past two decades and have yet to find a single documented case of a group hallucination, that is, an event for which more than one person purportedly shared in a visual or other sensory perception where there was clearly no external referent. 12 [Michael Licona, The Resurrection of Jesus] CHRISTIAN#FOUNDATIONS# 105#

108 CHAPTER 5 : DEATH AND RESURRECTION OF JESUS Moreover, these post-mortem appearances were multiple events happening to different people under various circumstances, spanning over 40 days making the simultaneous hallucination theory exponentially more implausible. Also, this theory still fails to account for Fact #2 (empty tomb). If the disciples hallucinated, in order for the hallucination theory to hold, one must maintain that there was a series of unprecedented simultaneous hallucinations; unbelievers also hallucinated, and the Jewish authorities also hallucinated an empty tomb. That seems to strain the hypothesis beyond acceptance. " Jesus Resurrection is a Legend Developed Over Time How do we know that the entire story of Jesus is not an accumulation of legends over time as the story has been told and retold? Although this theory is a popular idea to throw around, we can note that this theory actually denies all four facts. Because of the widespread acknowledgment of the previously discussed four facts, the legend hypothesis has been largely abandoned by critics of Christianity. Classicist Michael Grant summarizes:... To sum up, modern critical methods fail to support the Christ myth theory. It has again and again been answered and annihilated by first rank scholars. In recent years, no serious scholar has ventured to postulate the non historicity of Jesus or at any rate very few, and they have not succeeded in disposing of the much stronger, indeed very abundant, evidence to the contrary. 13 Some of the reasons this legend theory can be safely dismissed is outlined below: If legend accumulation happened through increasingly exaggerated transmission of the story of Jesus, one would expect to see at least some amount of documentary evidence of this evolution, perhaps other competing legends that are written down in the earlier part of the first century. But no such evidence exists. Instead, what we have is a massive spread of the same story of Jesus resurrection from the earliest of manuscripts. There simply isn t enough time for legendary accretion. As N. Sherwin-White, historian of Ancient Rome at Oxford University, points out, the process by which historical events are corrupted and replaced with legend happens over centuries, not over a few decades. The New Testament is a collection of documents from multiple writers spanning several decades. If a legend built up, one would expect that the earlier writings would differ significantly from the later writings. Yet what we find throughout these writings, from early to late, is the same testimony about the divine identity of Jesus. Rather than being the culmination of a series of everincreasing exaggerations, reference to the resurrection occurs from the earliest writings. 106# CHRISTIAN#FOUNDATIONS#

109 CHAPTER 5 : DEATH AND RESURRECTION OF JESUS Some conjecture a much grander theory imagining that the Church controlled all the documents and secretly corrupted the copies; however, such conspiracy theories cannot be sustained in light of history. For the first several centuries, Christianity was a persecuted religion, and the copies of the manuscripts were proliferating chaotically; there was no institutionalized Christianity interested in its image or any centralized Church to speak of that had any control over the documents. For the above reasons and more, the Encyclopedia Britannica states the following about the legend theory: Even before the Gospels were written, Christians were reflecting upon the meaning of what Jesus had been and what he had said and done. It is a mistake, therefore, to suppose that such reflection is a later accretion upon the simple message of the Gospels. On the contrary, the early Christian communities were engaged in witness and worship from the very beginning. 14 [Encyclopedia Britannica, 15th ed. Article on Jesus Christ ] FINAL THOUGHT What could have happened shortly after Jesus crucifixion which explains these historical facts? The primary sources contend that Jesus resurrected, which makes perfect sense of all the facts. Cambridge Professor C.F.D. Moule summarizes: If the coming into existence of the Nazarenes, a phenomenon undeniably attested by the New Testament, rips a great hole in history, a hole of the size and shape of the Resurrection, what does the secular historian propose to stop it up with?... the birth and rapid rise of the Christian Church... remain an unsolved enigma for any historian who refuses to take seriously the only explanation offered by the church itself. 15 [Charles Moule, LeaderU.] What is your response to the evidence for the resurrection? CHRISTIAN#FOUNDATIONS# 107#

110 CHAPTER 5 : DEATH AND RESURRECTION OF JESUS IMPLICATIONS OF THE RESURRECTION What does the resurrection mean for us? Why would scholars on both sides of the issue devote so much time to this argument? Let us, for a moment, reconsider the stakes involved. The resurrection of Jesus is not an esoteric item of interest to those interested in Near Eastern studies. The resurrection, if it is true, means that the eternity written into the human souls is not a cruel cosmic joke. It means that death does not necessarily have the last word in life because Jesus overcame death. An important point should be made here: the significance of the resurrection of Jesus hinges on the identity of Jesus, not on the resurrection itself. The resurrection itself, in isolation, would not mean much to us except to demonstrate that there are some things in this universe that we don t understand. However, the disturbing fact is that it was Jesus of Nazareth who resurrected Jesus, whose birth and death were prophesied, who claimed himself to be God s Son, who claimed that he was going to die and rise again. The significance of the resurrection is that it was this man who rose from the dead. You might appreciate a person who waxes eloquent with lofty teachings and then dies. But what do you do with a man who claims deity and then rises from the dead? His resurrection vindicates his claims; it authenticates his teaching it obligates all of us to listen to him. On a more personal level, the resurrection validates his offer to us. Jesus said that he himself would one day pay the penalty of our sins by shedding his own blood on the cross. In Matthew 26:27-28, during the Last Supper, Jesus took the cup and told his disciples, Drink of it, all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. Jesus told us that God is like the waiting father, who desires to forgive His wayward children. Because the resurrection validates his identity, it means that those words are true. It means that s what God is actually like. It means the forgiveness offered by Christ is real. Finally, it also means that we too can have hope in the resurrection, as Jesus promised to his followers, Because I live, you also will live (John 14:19). Romans 6:4 echoes this eternal hope: just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. Jesus death and resurrection makes life beyond the grave possible for every follower of Christ. What is your personal response to this week s material? 108# CHRISTIAN#FOUNDATIONS#

111 CHAPTER 5 : DEATH AND RESURRECTION OF JESUS 1 Yancey, Philip. The Jesus I Never Knew. s.l. : Zondervan, Stott, John. The Cross of Christ. s.l. : IVP Books, Lloyd-Jones, Martyn. The Cross. s.l. : Crossway Books, Kushner, Harold. Who Needs God. s.l. : Fireside, Lewis, C.S. The Grand Miracle. New York:Ballantine Books, Habermas, Gary and Flew, Antony. My Pilgrimage from Atheism to Theism. Philosophia Christi. Winter, 2004, Vol. 6, 2. 7 Habermas, Gary and Licona, Michael. The Case for the Resurrection of Jesus. s.l. : Kregel Publications, Craig, William Lane. The Resurrection of Jesus. Reasonable Faith. [Online] [Cited: February 18, 2011.] 9 Josephus, Flavius. Antiquities. Chapter 18: McDowell, Josh and McDowell, Sean. More Than a Carpenter. s.l. : Living Books, Green, Michael. Who Is This Jesus? s.l. : Regent College Publishing, Licona, Michael. The Resurrection of Jesus. s.l. : InterVarsity Press, Grant, Michael. Jesus: An Historian's Review of the Gospels. s.l. : Scribners, Encyclopedia Britannica. Jesus Christ. 15th. 15 Moule, Charles. LeaderU. [Online] CHRISTIAN#FOUNDATIONS# 109#

112 CHAPTER 6 : OUR RESPONSE CHAPTER 6 OUR RESPONSE Up to this point in the course, we have described the condition of man and God s initiative in saving man from his dire predicament. In this week s material, we will examine how one personally responds to God s offer of salvation. INADEQUATE VIEWS OF SALVATION Before we talk about our proper response, we need to discuss some common misconceptions regarding salvation. In fact, the Bible encourages a self-examination regarding this most important matter. 2 Corinthians 13:5 (ESV) Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. 1. I#was#born#as#a#Christian.##I#was#born#into#a#Christian#home#and#have#been#a# Christian#my#whole#life. ## Read the following verses. ROMANS 3:23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God ACTS 3:19 Repent therefore, and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out 110# CHRISTIAN#FOUNDATIONS#

113 CHAPTER 6 : OUR RESPONSE What does the Bible say about the possibility of someone being naturally born a Christian? 2. I#believe#everything#the#Bible#says. # Intellectual understanding or belief in God by itself is insufficient for salvation. JAMES 2:19 You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe and shudder How does James 2:19 demonstrate the inadequacy of mere intellectual belief in God? As supernatural beings, demons believe the truthfulness of statements such as Jesus is the Son of God and Jesus died for mankind s sins with much greater certainty than human beings can ever achieve. However, we would all readily agree that their intellectual understanding of Jesus does not necessarily equate to them being saved. 3. I#cried#and#felt#the#presence#of#God#in#my#life. ## See James 2:19 again. What emotional response did the demons have regarding their knowledge of God? Emotions can be meaningful, but they do not equate with salvation. CHRISTIAN#FOUNDATIONS# 111#

114 CHAPTER 6 : OUR RESPONSE 4. I#have#assurance#of#salvation. ## Many people have been so solidly taught to never doubt their salvation that they think that having assurance is the same thing as being saved. Take a look at the Pharisees (a devout religious group during Jesus time). They are the prime example of people who were sincere about their assurance of salvation. Tragically, they were sincerely wrong. Read Matthew 23: But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites For you shut the kingdom of heaven in people s faces. For you neither enter yourselves nor allow those who would enter to go in. 15 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites For you travel across sea and land to make a single proselyte, and when he becomes a proselyte, you make him twice as much a child of hell as yourselves. 5. I#am#very#active#in#the#church. ## Read Matthew 7: Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 On that day many will say to me, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name? 23 And then will I declare to them, I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness. What are some of the things that people thought would get them into heaven? 6. I#accepted#Jesus#as#my#savior#at#a#church#event#once,#but#after#that#I#continued#to# do#whatever#i#wanted#with#my#life but#i#still#have#a#ticket#to#heaven. # Saying the right things, doing the right things, and even having spiritual experiences do not necessarily mean that you are saved. Matthew 7:21 says that many who never had a saving relationship with Jesus will call him Lord, Lord. Jesus also said that you can know a tree by its fruit. In other words, the genuineness of conversion to Christ cannot simply be determined by a few words a person once said but more importantly by an 112# CHRISTIAN#FOUNDATIONS#

115 CHAPTER 6 : OUR RESPONSE examination of one s life after the decision. A one-time confession, a simple prayer at a retreat or at the end of a gospel presentation, may very well be the point of genuine salvation. Or, it may have been just empty words, fleeting feelings and nothing more. After all, through our emotional highs and lows, all of us have said words in the past that we didn t really mean. So how can one know if that was a genuine decision? If such a confession was not based on an understanding of the gospel, or if it was not followed by obedience to Christ and a continuous walk with him, then it s doubtful that anything genuine happened at that point. Do any of the above inadequate views of salvation apply to you? BIBLICAL VIEWS OF SALVATION Salvation is a Free Gift First and foremost, salvation is described in the Bible as a gift from God. Ephesians 2:8 says that becoming saved is not your own doing; it is the gift of God. A gift, by its nature, can neither be earned nor demanded (as is the case with wages). There is nothing we can do to earn the gift of salvation through good deeds or religious rituals. The gift needs to be simply received with gratitude. Salvation)is)NOT) merely)a)free) admission)ticket)to) heaven.) Salvation is a Relational Gift However, when we think of gifts, our minds automatically conjure up nicely wrapped products items that become ours to keep and use. But, salvation is the gift of a relationship with God. It is not an object that you can grab and walk away with. It is the grant of an undeserved relationship like an orphan being adopted into a family. When people don t understand that salvation is a relational gift, they end up treating salvation as some kind of a free admission ticket to heaven that they can put in a bag, and move on with their lives largely unaffected. CHRISTIAN#FOUNDATIONS# 113#

116 CHAPTER 6 : OUR RESPONSE This is one of the inadequate views of salvation, where salvation is viewed as something that one acquires upon saying the right prayer. Perhaps it is the subtle connotation of the word gift that causes us to objectify salvation in that way. However, when we read the Bible, it becomes clear that salvation is an offer of a continual relationship. And this makes sense since the essence of our sin is the rejection of a love relationship with God. Thus, being saved from that would mean being reconciled to Him relationally. To illustrate this point, let s take a look at a story of a king adopting a beggar boy as his heir. One day a good king, as he is traveling throughout the countryside, comes upon a beggar boy. Out of his compassion, the king befriends the boy and asks him to become his adoptive son. The boy looks at the king, and somehow, he believes that the unbelievable offer of the king is not some cruel joke. In response, the boy entrusts his life to the king by climbing aboard the king s carriage. At that moment, the boy understands that his beggar days are over. He does not cling onto his beggar rags or his old ways of stealing and begging as much as these may have served him well in the past. How absurd it would be if the boy accepts the offer, but instead of going with the king to the palace, insists that he prefers his present life and would never dream of parting with his tin can? If that were to happen, in what sense would the boy be accepting this invitation from the king? From the moment the beggar boy climbs aboard the king s carriage, he enters into a new relationship with the king as his father. Acknowledging this relationship on a daily basis, the beggar boy begins a life of obedience, respect and love for his father, the king. Embracing his new relationship of being an adopted son enables him to adopt the qualities and values of the royal family. The gift of salvation is a gift of God s love and grace. It is a relational gift, very much like the proposal for marriage or the offer of adoption extended by a gracious king to those who have rebelled against him. JESUS IN MY PLACE Specifically, the gift that enables me to become a child of God is the gift of Christ s righteousness attributed to me. His worth is credited to me, and I am clothed in his righteousness. Author J.D. Greear explains: The gospel is that Christ has suffered the full wrath of God for my sin. Jesus Christ traded places with me, living the perfect life I should have lived, and dying the death I had been condemned to die. Second Corinthians 5:21 says [ For our sake he made him to be sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God ] that He actually became my sin so that I could literally become His righteousness. 114# CHRISTIAN#FOUNDATIONS#

117 CHAPTER 6 : OUR RESPONSE Saint Athanasius called this the great exchange. He took my record, died for it, and offers me His perfect record in return. He took my shameful nakedness to clothe me with His righteousness. When I receive that grace in repentance and faith, full acceptance becomes mine. He lived in my place, and died in my place, and then offered to me a gift. Theologians call that gift-righteousness. Jesus death has paid for every ounce of your sin; His perfect life has now been credited to you. Christ s obedience is so spectacular there is nothing we could do to add to it; His death so final that nothing could take away from it. Scripture says that we are not to come into the presence of God timidly or apprehensively but with boldness. The boldness that comes from knowing that God sees us according to the accomplishments of Christ. 1 [JD Greear, Stop Asking Jesus Into Your Heart] So, how does one receive this offer of salvation? The Bible uses three terms to describe our response of receiving salvation: repentance, faith and lordship. These are actually three aspects of one decision. REPENTANCE Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near (Matthew 4:17). These are the first words that were preached by Jesus Christ. See also Acts 2:38 and 3:19. ACTS 2:38 And Peter said to them, Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. ACTS 3:19 Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out REPENTANCE( What were Jesus promises upon repentance? CHRISTIAN#FOUNDATIONS# 115#

118 CHAPTER 6 : OUR RESPONSE Confess#the#Truth# Think about someone you are close to. There are probably very few secrets between the two of you, making it easy to be fully open and real with that person. On the flip side, can you feel a sense of closeness with those whom you have deceived or kept a false image in front of? Why not? Closeness in relationships cannot happen among people who deceive one another or who are in denial of something serious they ve done. Truth and confession are necessary for any close relationship. Imagine that a terrible wrong has been done to you by a friend, but you have made up your mind to forgive that person. However, as you seek to meet with this friend, he keeps avoiding you. Finally you catch up to him face to face. There you are, eager and willing to forgive him and continue the relationship, but he begins to make small talk. You try to bring it up indirectly but he keeps changing the subject. Finally you are forced to directly mention it. And when you do, he flatly denies it. Notice that no amount of willingness to forgive on your part can overcome a flat refusal to admit the truth. Likewise, God s gracious willingness to forgive must be met by an admission of guilt. Forgiveness can only be conferred when the parties agree on the truth. Avoiding repentance and stubbornly remaining in the realm of falsehood only serves to deprive us of the one source of true fellowship and liberation. What can you conclude about God s heart toward us from the fact that He invites us to confess and tell the truth about ourselves? 116# CHRISTIAN#FOUNDATIONS#

119 CHAPTER 6 : OUR RESPONSE Uttering the truth about ourselves is the first step of repentance. The frank and humble confession admitting the truth about our sinfulness, the sins that we committed, but more importantly, the sinner that we are is the key to receiving forgiveness. We find authenticity scary, knowing that full disclosure of ourselves will reveal a lot of ugliness. Yet, deep within each of us is the desire to be genuinely known for who we are. Ironically, we both want and do not want to be truly known. We desire it and fear it. God comes to us already knowing everything about us, with a desire to forgive and love us. Read Isaiah 1:18 and 1 John 1:8-9. ISAIAH 1:18 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. 1 JOHN 1:8-9 If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. What is the promise given to those who confess their sins? LUKE 5:31-32 And Jesus answered them, Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance. What kind of people did Jesus come to save, according to Luke 5:31-32? Therefore the question becomes: Who are you? Are you righteous? Do you claim to be without sin? Or are you a sinner? Then the call to repent is addressed to you. Take your place in the dust at the Savior s feet and acknowledge your guilt. Say, like the publican, God be merciful to me a sinner (Luke 18:11-14) and see how quickly He will pardon and bless you. 2 [D.L. Moody, The Way to God] CHRISTIAN#FOUNDATIONS# 117#

120 CHAPTER 6 : OUR RESPONSE What truths about yourself would you need to admit to in order to receive God s gracious offer of forgiveness? Make#a#UVTurn# Repentance, however, is more than the bare confession of sinfulness. Evangelist D. L. Moody defined it as right about face It involves making a U-turn away from a self-directed life and toward a God-directed life. Further, it involves the whole person (every aspect and part of that person) and brings about a whole new direction and purpose in life. It does not mean fixing a few habits or changing a few plans for the weekend. It means a total change from an old way of life controlled by you to a brand new life controlled by Jesus Christ. Repentance is NOT... Feeling sorry about our sin. Shedding tears over sin does not equal repentance Perhaps they are tears of shame, regret or self-pity. Or the embarrassment of being caught. These emotions might eventually lead to repentance, but they are not, in and of themselves, repentance. 118# CHRISTIAN#FOUNDATIONS#

121 CHAPTER 6 : OUR RESPONSE Confessing our sin Many people weep their way through a confession, but go right back to their sin. Their confession is not a change of mind about their sin; it s more of an emotional catharsis An emotional catharsis may feel redemptive [but it] cannot reestablish your relationship with God. Only Jesus can do that. Salvation is not about making you feel better, but about actually removing your condemnation before God. Getting religious Religious activity can be an attempt to pay God off in order to keep Him at a distance or to conceal the true state of our hearts Repentance IS Not the Absence of Struggle; It s the Absence of Settled Defiance [It] is acknowledging that Jesus is Lord of everything as a matter of who He is. Whatever your disagreement with Jesus, He is right and you are wrong. While you may not understand all of His ways yet, you recognize that He makes the rules. Period. Not Just about Stopping Sin, but Also, Starting to Follow Jesus Many people interpret repentance as merely stopping bad things, to cease and desist the breaking of the commandments. Jesus, however, called us to be His disciples, which means actively pursuing His agenda and mission Discipleship is not a passive posture in which we stop a few bad things. 3 [J.D. Greear, Stop Asking Jesus Into Your Heart] Jesus told a story called the Prodigal Son, which illustrates the act of repentance. Please read Luke 15: In particular, pay attention to what happened in verses LUKE 15: And he said, There was a man who had two sons. 12 And the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the share of property that is coming to me. And he divided his property between them. 13 Not many days later, the younger son gathered all he had and took a journey into a far country, and there he squandered his property in reckless living. 14 And when he had spent everything, a severe famine arose in that country, and he began to be in need. 15 So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him into his fields to feed pigs. 16 And he was longing to be fed with the pods that the pigs ate, and no one gave him anything. 17 But when he came to himself, he said, How many of my father's hired servants have more than enough bread, but I perish here with hunger 18 I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. 19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants. 20 And he arose and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed CHRISTIAN#FOUNDATIONS# 119#

122 CHAPTER 6 : OUR RESPONSE him. 21 And the son said to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. 22 But the father said to his servants, Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet. 23 And bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate. 24 For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found. And they began to celebrate. What were the elements of his turn-around? Intellectual: Emotional: Volitional: The Prodigal Son story highlights the redeeming quality of human beings that sets them apart from the animals. Even though the son ended up living like an animal, he could not make peace with that fact, and he came to his senses. The story conveys a very hopeful message: that even in the midst of a pigsty, as human beings we can come to our senses and begin to long for our heavenly Father. Repentance#is#Toward#God# The story of the prodigal son also highlights one of the most important facts about repentance. Repentance is toward God. A repentance, which is a form of self-loathing or a desire for self-improvement, is not really repentance. Forgiveness of sin can only come from Him against whom all sin is ultimately directed. This is a frequent pitfall of those who recognize the ugliness of their sinfulness but who are not yet ready to deal with God. It is as if the prodigal son in the story comes to his senses and realizes that he s in a pigsty, but he just sits there sulking or makes plans to improve, without thinking about his father or going back home. All sin is sin against God (please review Chapter 5 on this point). The root of all sin is a rebellion against God, and a turning away from Him as God. Since sin is against God, repentance involves recognizing this, 120# CHRISTIAN#FOUNDATIONS#

123 CHAPTER 6 : OUR RESPONSE saying sorry, and turning back toward God. God and God alone can condemn sin, and therefore He alone can tell us the loving words: Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more (John 8:11). Consider the following promises of God: PSALM 103: He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities. 11 For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him; 12 as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us. 1 JOHN 1:9 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. ACTS 3: Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out, 20 that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, If you have never verbally acknowledged your sinfulness before God, please consider doing so now in a prayer to God, uttering the truth about yourself, that you are a sinner, that this is not just a minor blemish about you, but that this is who you ARE through and through. Then, ask God humbly for his forgiveness, thanking him for the blood of Jesus on the cross, and trusting his work on the cross to provide the cleansing and forgiveness you need. (You may write the prayer in the space below.) If you don t feel ready to acknowledge your sinfulness before God, state some hindrances that are preventing you. CHRISTIAN#FOUNDATIONS# 121#

124 CHAPTER 6 : OUR RESPONSE FAITH The three aspects of salvation (repentance, faith and lordship) are not three distinct ideas, but they are an integrated whole, such that each aspect would not make any sense without the others. Implicit in our discussion of salvation is faith in God. A turning from sin is not possible unless there is a trust in God to whom you are turning. It would be nonsensical to talk of repentance (making a U-turn) and not trust the God that you re turning toward. Man s fallen state began when Adam and Eve decided not to trust in God s Repentance words and His generosity. They began to entertain the thought that God was holding something back from them, and decided to trust their own judgment in defiantly taking the forbidden fruit. Thus, faith represents a reversal of the Fall. It is the re-establishing of that lost trust relationship with God. What#Do#You#Really#Believe?# We hold to many beliefs about many facts: we believe that there are other planets in the solar system, and believe in the benefits of flossing regularly. But we hold to these beliefs only casually; they do not anchor our lives in any significant way. Likewise, a person could just as lightly claim that he believes that he is a sinner, that Jesus is the Son of God, and that he died and rose again. However, let us think for a moment: does it make sense for someone to hold such beliefs lightly, without having these truths drastically affect his or her life? Imagine that a person claimed that he believes that the building that he s currently in is about to collapse. But you observe that this person is spending his time decorating his wall and re-organizing his desk. How would you assess this person s belief? What might be going on internally that causes such an inconsistency? The Christian is one who believes the gospel as the most central truth in his life, so that he aligns his life and actions according to that truth. This is called faith. In fact, given the scope encompassed by the gospel, and the personal stakes involved eternity the message is simply too important for anyone to 122# CHRISTIAN#FOUNDATIONS#

125 CHAPTER 6 : OUR RESPONSE merely believe it without becoming entirely engaged in it and finding his life s core meaning and identity utterly bound up with it. Examine your own faith. Is your faith just head-knowledge or is it acted out in a life that relies on God? Is it merely casual belief, or is it faith? # # # # # How#Much#Faith?## We can be intimidated by the word faith, mistakenly thinking that we must somehow conjure up certainty of belief out of thin air. Some of us find it easy to have a high degree of certainty about things based on a few facts; others of us can amass a lot of evidence but only manage to draw tentative conclusions from them. However, it is not the quantity of faith that is important, but who or what we have faith in. Again, this is why faith should be properly understood as trust. Faith must have an object. When it comes to salvation, that object is Jesus Christ. If you were to take Jesus Christ away, then you wouldn t have salvation. The object is what gives value to the faith. Let s say you see a frozen lake. It s only about a quarter of an inch thick, but if you really believe the ice will hold you, will it? Of course not. You can have all the faith in the world, but if the object of your faith, the ice, is unreliable, you will fall into the lake. But suppose the ice is two feet thick. You, however, have little faith. You say, I really don t know if I could walk out there. But by faith, I guess I ll do it. Your faith is small, but the object is trustworthy. You go out on the ice trembling, but the ice holds you. CHRISTIAN#FOUNDATIONS# 123#

126 CHAPTER 6 : OUR RESPONSE This comes back to who Jesus is. If He is who He claimed to be the divine and human Son of God and I exercise faith in Him, placing my trust in Him as Savior and Lord, then I am saved. I have a relationship with God. My salvation is not based on my faith; it is based on who Jesus Christ is and what He did on the cross. Jesus is the basis of my salvation. 4 [Josh McDowell, False Concept of Faith] Trust# #the#key#to#relationships# We can trust the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the thick ice, the solid rock who will not let us sink. So we do not need to try to conjure up a certain amount of faith. We only need faith enough to trust him for our salvation and take a step. When we place our faith in Jesus for our salvation, it means that we believe he is the divine son of God, that he died and rose for my sins, and that God will forgive me and receive me because of Jesus. Trust is the indispensable ingredient in every relationship. We call it by different names love, in families; loyalty, in friendships but, in essence, all relationships are built on trust. God beckons us to place our trust in him, for trust is the baseline of all of our relationships, including our relationship with God. LORDSHIP The third concept the Bible uses to refer to salvation is the idea of submitting to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. This should not be a new concept, if you think about the implications of faith and repentance. If we repent, make a U-turn and trust Jesus with our lives, then it only makes sense that we obey Jesus as our Lord. Savior#but#Not#Lord?# Repentance When the Bible talks about receiving Jesus, it always means receiving Jesus as Savior AND Lord. As theologian John Stott laments: The astonishing idea is current in some circles today that we can enjoy the benefits of Christ s salvation without accepting the challenge of His sovereign lordship. unbalanced notion is not to be found in the New Testament. Such an "Jesus is Lord" is the earliest known formulation of the creed of Christians. In days when imperial Rome was pressing its citizens to say "Caesar is Lord" these words had a dangerous flavor. But Christians did not flinch. They could not give Caesar their first allegiance, because they had already given it to the Emperor Jesus # CHRISTIAN#FOUNDATIONS#

127 [John Stott, Basic Christianity, p. 112] CHAPTER 6 : OUR RESPONSE Some people think of being a Christian in an extremely compartmentalized way. When it comes to leisure activities, they make choices a certain way. When it comes to sexual ethics, marriage, career, and future, they have another way of thinking. And then when it comes to the category of religion, they check the box Christian. This makes Jesus out to be a religious figurehead, not the reigning Lord over their lives. To make Christ Lord is to bring every department of our public and private lives under His control. What is certain is that God calls every Christian to "ministry," that is, to service, to be the servant of other people for the sake of Christ. No Christian can live for himself any longer. 6 [John Stott, Basic Christianity, p. 113] The Bible does not give us an option to receive Jesus as Savior only and not as Lord. The truth is that Jesus is Lord. The truth is that God is the Creator and therefore owns all of me; he has a legitimate and total claim over all that I am and all that I have. The truth is that God is not my genie or my slave, or an occasional idol I need to bow to so that things will go smoothly for me. To receive Jesus in any other way would be equivalent to conjuring up some false picture of Jesus in our minds and receiving that lie rather than Jesus himself. Follow#Me# Let s look at Luke 9:23. LUKE 9:23 And he said to all, If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. What does this verse say about anyone who wants to follow Jesus? When Jesus said take up your cross to them, his disciples understood that those who wish to come after him must die to themselves. They must no longer run their own lives. John Stott elaborates on what it means to follow Jesus: Now there can be no following without a previous forsaking. To follow Christ is to renounce all lesser loyalties [ ] There must be a renunciation of self. In order to CHRISTIAN#FOUNDATIONS# 125#

128 CHAPTER 6 : OUR RESPONSE follow Christ we must not only forsake isolated sins, but renounce the very principle of self-will which lies at the root of every act of sin. To follow Christ is to surrender to Him the rights over our own lives. It is to abdicate the throne of our heart and to pay homage to Him as our King [ ] So in order to follow Christ we have to deny ourselves, to crucify ourselves, to lose ourselves. The full, inexorable demand of Jesus Christ is now laid bare. He does not call us to a sloppy half-heartedness, but to a vigorous, absolute commitment. He calls us to make Him our Lord. 7 [John Stott, Basic Christianity] Another way to put this is that to be saved, you must be willing to turn over the control of your life to Jesus Christ. Again, this is to reverse the Fall, in which Adam and Eve rejected God s rule. We reverse this only when we dethrone ourselves from the center and enthrone Jesus as King and Lord over our lives. Our sinful nature will balk at this, because it demands that we remain the lord over our lives. But the gospel is clear: Jesus needs to be Lord, the ultimate authority, and we need to follow him. That means his preferences take priority over our preferences, his morality over ours, and what he values in life will need to become what we value. Some people s notion of following Jesus is that they try to balance following him, allowing him to be Lord temporarily in certain areas while fundamentally still serving the self. C.S. Lewis addresses such a person: Christ says Give me all. I don t want so much of your time and so much of your money and so much of your work: I want YOU. I have not come to torment your natural self, but to kill it. No half-measures are any good. I don t want to cut off a branch here and a branch there, I want to have the whole tree down. I don t want to drill the tooth, or crown it, or stop it, but to have it out. Hand over the whole natural self, all the desires which you think innocent as well as the ones you think wicked the whole outfit. I will give you a new self instead. In fact, I will give you Myself: my own will shall become yours. 8 [C.S Lewis, Mere Christianity] Once we submit to the Lordship of Jesus, we enter into a relationship with him, uproot ourselves from this self-driven life and become planted in Christ. Then, and only then, will our lives begin to genuinely flourish as we return to the original design God had intended for mankind. OUR CHOICE Repentance, Faith and Lordship they really all refer to the same thing. When we realize that our selfdirected rebellion is sinning against God and leading us to eternal separation from Him, we must 126# CHRISTIAN#FOUNDATIONS#

129 CHAPTER 6 : OUR RESPONSE acknowledge our wrong [Repent], turn to the Lord in trust [Faith], and follow Jesus [Lordship]. They are three different expressions of the one reality. Perhaps you have now come to understand what is meant by salvation. Perhaps you ve had some serious misconceptions cleared up about what it means to be a Christian. The question that you face now is the question that Pilate asked: Then what shall I do with Jesus who is called Christ? (Matthew 27:22). Each person has to decide for himself what his response to Jesus Christ will be. You can receive Him as Savior and Lord or you can reject Him. God will not force you to love Him. The choice has always been left to each individual. So what are some choices that can possibly be made today? If you have never decided to receive Jesus as Lord and Savior, you can decide to do so. If you grew up in a Christian environment but never made a personal decision to follow Jesus, you can do so and actually make this most important decision your own. If you had a wrong understanding of salvation and want to clarify your identity, rather than try to sort out what happened in the past, the best approach would be to settle it by making a clear personal commitment today. Perhaps you re not ready to make a decision to become a Christian, but you ve come to realize that Christianity is worth seeking. If that s the case, you can decide to seek God seriously. What decision do you need to make? Read 2 Corinthians 6:2. For he says, In a favorable time I listened to you, and in a day of salvation I have helped you. Behold, now is the favorable time; behold, now is the day of salvation. Why is there a sense of urgency in this passage? It is because although we may feel that we have plenty of time left in our lives, unfortunately, life does not afford us many opportunities to think clearly. We know from experience that moments of clarity about life are few and far between. So the Bible implores us to seize the precious times of clarity that we do have. CHRISTIAN#FOUNDATIONS# 127#

130 CHAPTER 6 : OUR RESPONSE However, that is not to say that we should make a hasty decision. Before you rush such a decision, consider all that we have discussed. Even Jesus warned his would-be followers to think carefully and count the cost before they chose to follow Him. COUNT THE COST Read Luke 14: For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? 29 Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, 30 saying, This man began to build and was not able to finish. 31 Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? John Stott explains: If then, you suffer from moral anemia, take my advice and steer clear of Christianity. If you want to live a life of easy-going self-indulgence, whatever you do, do not become a Christian. But if you want a life of self-discovery, deeply satisfying to the nature God has given you; if you want a life of adventure in which you have the privilege of serving him and your fellow men; if you want a life in which to express something of the overwhelming gratitude you are beginning to feel for him who died for you, then I would urge you to yield your life, without reserve and without delay, to your Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. 9 [John Stott, Basic Christianity] While the Christian life is certainly not a bed of roses, it is the most meaningful and full life there is. Jesus described it as abundant life. It is a life of being in profound peace amidst tribulation. It is finally arriving home; it is achieving for the first time your original design. It is liberation, healing, freedom and joy. It is having an eternal purpose so much larger than your life that it calls forth from you your very best and highest. Yet, we often have trouble conceiving of a relationship with God, or thinking of eternal life along with all its implications. We find ourselves in the predicament of a small girl for whom the loftier tastes are foreign, who, upon being told of a great banquet can only ask, Is there chocolate there? Or, like a caterpillar who can only conceive of the life of a butterfly chiefly in negatives: the absence of crawling, the absence of chewing on leaves, etc. We, too, being impoverished by sin and trapped in our egos, often conceive of 128# CHRISTIAN#FOUNDATIONS#

131 the abundant life in Christ only in terms of its absences. CHAPTER 6 : OUR RESPONSE If the poor girl s palate is ever going to be initiated into the delights of the banquet, she ll have to trust the testimony of her parents who say it really is better to feast at the table than to clutch onto her sweets. She will have to trust that whatever joy she gets from her chocolates is a cheap imitation to the robust flavors of the banquet table. And trusting, she ll have to let go of the chocolates. The astonishing paradox of Christ s teaching and of Christian experience is this: if we lose ourselves in following Christ, we actually find ourselves. True self-denial is true selfdiscovery. To live for ourselves is insanity and suicide; to live for God and for man is wisdom and life indeed. We do not begin to find ourselves until we have become willing to lose ourselves in the service of Christ and of our fellows. 10 [John Stott, Basic Christianity] Jesus draws a stark contrast between the two kinds of lives: life lived for the self and life lived for Jesus. To refrain from choosing one would be the same as choosing the other. We cannot remain neutral. Nor can we drift into Christianity. Nor can anybody else settle the matter for us. We must decide for ourselves. 11 [John Stott, Basic Christianity] What is your personal response to this week s material? CHRISTIAN#FOUNDATIONS# 129#

132 CHAPTER 6 : OUR RESPONSE 1 Greear, J.D. Stop Asking Jesus Into Your Heart. Nashville, TN: B&H Publishing Group. 2 Moody, D.L. The Way to God. Kensington, PA: Whitaker House, Greear, J.D. Stop Asking Jesus Into Your Heart. Nashville, TN: B&H Publishing Group. 4 McDowell, Josh. Practical Christianity. Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, Stott, John. Basic Christianity. Downers Grover, IL: IVP Books, Ibid. 7 Ibid. 8 Lewis, C.S. Mere Christianity. San Francisco, CA: HarperOne, Stott, John. Basic Christianity. Downers Grover, IL: IVP Books, Ibid. 11 Ibid. 130# CHRISTIAN#FOUNDATIONS#

133 CHAPTER 7 NEW LIFE OF LOVE CHAPTER 7 : NEW LIFE OF LOVE In the beginning of the course, we posed the question: "What is life?" In light of what we have covered in the past few weeks, we need to reconsider this question with the seriousness that it deserves. When we do so, we are faced with the reality of our mortality. We can ponder life seriously only in light of death. THE OUTRAGE OF DEATH There are two events in life common to every man: birth and death. Yet we experience death as shocking and unnatural. A philosopher once wrote that the one constant in life is death. The horizon of death colors all that we do in life. The subject of death has been addressed by a majority of the great thinkers because it is the last enemy and the one common experience we are all forced to face. It is the great human equalizer. But it is also the one subject that is still shelved in the category of the Unknown, or relegated to a topic that is taboo in polite conversation - the intruder upon happy conversations. 1 [Ravi Zacharias, A Shattered Visage] If death is indeed the most natural thing, the one constant in life, why is it such an outrage when it happens? Children learn at a young age that all people die. Yet when we find ourselves sitting by the bedside of a loved one who crosses that mysterious line from the living to the dead, we experience it as an offense; it is an affront to the core of our beings. Our deepest intuition tells us that this is not how it s supposed to be; that surely there must be something more to life. Have you experienced this bewilderment of death in your life? How did you feel? CHRISTIAN)FOUNDATIONS) 131)

134 CHAPTER 7 : NEW LIFE OF LOVE We find ourselves oddly maladjusted to death; there is a part of us that cries out for continuity beyond the grave. Death hits us as such an offense because there is a stamp of eternity in our souls. During our quiet moments, we sometimes sense traces of our own transcendence almost as if we have a mysterious memory of having been originally created to be eternal. Almost the whole of Christian theology could perhaps be deduced from the two facts (a)that men make coarse jokes, and (b)that they feel the dead to be uncanny. The coarse joke proclaims that we have here an animal which finds its own animality either objectionable or funny. Unless there had been a quarrel between the spirit and the organism I do not see how this could be: it is the very mark of the two not being at home together. But it is very difficult to imagine such a state of affairs as original - to suppose a creature which from the very first was half shocked and half tickled to death at the mere fact of being the creature it is. I do not perceive that dogs see anything funny about being dogs: I suspect that angels see nothing funny about being angels. Our feeling about the dead is equally odd. It is idle to say that we dislike corpses because we are afraid of ghosts. You might say with equal truth that we fear ghosts because we dislike corpses - for the ghost owes much of its horror to the associated ideas of pallor, decay, coffins, shrouds, and worms. In reality we hate the division which makes possible the conception of either corpse or ghost. Because the thing ought not to be divided, each of the halves into which it falls by division is detestable. The explanations which Naturalism gives both of bodily shame and of our feeling about the dead are not satisfactory. It refers us to primitive taboos and superstitions - as if these themselves were not obviously results of the thing to be explained. But once you accept the Christian doctrine that man was originally a unity and then the present division is unnatural, and all the phenomena fall into place. 2 [C.S. Lewis, Miracles] Perhaps all of this is because the Bible is right when it records that death was not part of the original design. According to the Bible, death was an unwelcomed alien intrusion into God s plan. THE TRAGEDY OF DEATH Having cut ourselves away from God, we spend the majority of our waking hours pursuing ornaments to put on our Christmas tree lives. Hurried along by the rush of time, we hardly have the chance to stop and consider, "What is the point of all this? What's the most important thing in life?" When faced with death, however, all the false things we chase after in this world fade away and the one thing that brings meaning to life is unveiled. Of what use are all the degrees, money, and accomplishments as you lie on the brink of death? Do they give you meaning? Do they confer on you the assurance that your life was well-spent? 132) CHRISTIAN)FOUNDATIONS)

135 CHAPTER 7 : NEW LIFE OF LOVE Imagine the ridiculousness of a person who asks to see his degrees and bank statements for one last time on his deathbed because he'll miss them so much. After all, aren t those the very things that he worked so hard for? The reality is that when the time comes for us to breathe our last, we grieve for the love, not the possessions, we leave behind. Yet the human predicament is that just when we try to hold onto love, death denies us the happily ever after that should surely follow. Love in this world seems hopelessly coupled with tragedy because it is so easily defeated. Love inherently demands forever, and all relationships seem to have a built-in requirement that they endure. It appears as yet another sign of fallenness that all our relationships are either ruptured by sin or severed by death. When faced with death, however, all the false things we chase after in this world fade away and the one thing that brings meaning to life is unveiled. Edgar Allen Poe conveys this quite poetically as he laments for his lost love in the 1845 poem, "The Raven." Ah, distinctly I remember, it was in the bleak December And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor Eagerly I wished the morrow; vainly I had sought to borrow From my books surcease of sorrow, sorrow for the lost Lenore. But the silence was unbroken, and the stillness gave no token And the only word there spoken was the whispered word, Lenore This I whispered, and an echo murmured back the word Lenore Merely this and nothing more. 3 For the rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore, Nameless here forevermore.... Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing, Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before; This is why the Bible calls death the last enemy [1 Corinthians 15:26]. Death was not part of God's design. Death entered as a consequence of sin, and it comes as an intruder into the circle of our families and friendships, putting an end to those relationships. It turns the lives of thousands into an unfinished fragment. CHRISTIAN)FOUNDATIONS) 133)

136 CHAPTER 7 : NEW LIFE OF LOVE It is the one experience when we leave behind everything we have and take with us everything we are. It is the moment of truth, where there is no more showmanship. It is the individual alone against destiny. 4 [Ravi Zacharias, A Shattered Visage] LOVE S DEMAND FOR ETERNITY If death is the end to all things, life is indeed a cruel joke. The transcendence of our souls is merely a mirage and love s demand for eternity ultimately goes unanswered. Death has the last laugh. However, that is not the end, because at this point there's another whole story, the story of God's love for man. God s love story is not defeated by death. 1 John 4:8 and 4:16 say that God is love. It is the central feature of his character. 1 JOHN 4:8 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. 1 JOHN 4:16 So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. Man's love may grind to a sudden, cruel halt at death, but God's love does not end at death. Our hold on our loved ones is only as strong as our mortality. However, God s love story is not defeated by death. The resurrection of Jesus is but one sign of this. Having defeated death, Jesus initiates a relationship with us that does not come to a sad end at the deathbed. God s love is forever. JOHN 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. ROMANS 8: No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. 134) CHRISTIAN)FOUNDATIONS)

137 What is the message emphasized in the above Bible passages? CHAPTER 7 : NEW LIFE OF LOVE We can be comforted by this promise of God the promise sealed with his own blood that he will take us into his embrace no matter what happens. THE RESURRECTION: A PROMISE In light of the love of God that overcomes death, Jesus' mission on earth takes on a deeper, more personal meaning. The incarnation speaks eloquently about the nature of God, but the climax of the incarnation comes when God, after coming into this physical world where we reside, tastes death himself. God entered into the fabric of time and space and placed himself as a point in history, taking on a pinch of that fabric as his flesh. Then he descended into death, and rose victorious. Jesus triumphed over death. Jesus became flesh and resurrected in the flesh, and ascended into heaven, and thus God forever changed this fabric. Ever since the Fall, mankind has been going in a downward spiral toward death and decay. And just when we have lost all hope and strength, Jesus comes and resurrects, reversing the power of death. Jesus starts an upward spiral toward heaven, and all those who choose to trust him will share in this triumph as Jesus unites his destiny with ours. While the power of sin destroys and separates, the power of resurrection heals and unites. But only a Man who did not need to have been a Man at all unless He had chosen, only one who served in our sad regiment as a volunteer, yet also only one who was perfectly a Man, could perform this perfect dying; and thus (which way you put it is unimportant) either defeat death or redeem it. He tasted death on behalf of all others. He is the representative Die-er of the universe: and for that very reason the Resurrection and the CHRISTIAN)FOUNDATIONS) 135)

138 CHAPTER 7 : NEW LIFE OF LOVE Life. Or conversely, because He truly lives, He truly dies, for that is the very pattern of reality. Because the higher can descend into the lower, He who from all eternity has been incessantly plunging Himself in the blessed death of self-surrender to the Father can also most fully descend into the horrible and (for us) involuntary death of the body. The whole Miracle, far from denying what we already know of reality, writes the comment which makes that crabbed text plain: or rather, proves itself to be the text on which Nature was only the commentary. In science we have been reading only the notes to a poem; in Christianity we find the poem itself. 5 [C.S. Lewis, Miracles] 1 CORINTHIANS 15: But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. 21 For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. 22 For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. Jesus resurrection becomes the firstfruit of our own resurrection [see 1 Corinthians 15:20-22]. His resurrection issues a wonderful promise that we will likewise resurrect to be united with God. Read John 14: I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. 19 Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. 20 In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. 21 Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him. According to the above two passages, what phrase links our own lives to Jesus life? Many experience the future with anxiety. But to Christians, the future isn't a rapidly closing window to be grasped and squeezed for all its worth. Instead, it's a never-ending love story with God. Our eternal life with Christ starts now. 136) CHRISTIAN)FOUNDATIONS)

139 HEAVEN: THE PROMISE FULFILLED CHAPTER 7 : NEW LIFE OF LOVE Read John 14: Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. 2 In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. 4 And you know the way to where I am going. What is Jesus' promise? Ultimately, our love story with God is continued in heaven. Jesus said that he is going to prepare a place for us, so that we can be where he is. The event of the resurrection is a promise of everlasting love, of eternal dwelling with God in heaven. What will heaven be like? The image of baby angels flying around playing harps is a popular, but unbiblical, imagery that we have from old religious paintings. Parents experience a little bit of heaven every time they stare into the face of their child. They can stare into that face for hours, and it seems like only a couple of minutes. Love seems to take us out of time. Heaven is like that. Worship and adoration of God is at the center of heaven. Worship is experiencing and expressing the worth of something truly worthy of worship. The closest experience of something like this might be breathtaking scenery or a wonderful piece of music (or cheering on your favorite team and shouting in heartfelt approval of a worthy feat of athleticism). You experience being lost in that scenery or music; it is so wonderful that it takes you out of yourself. You might experience something like this in the midst of hilarious laughter. You don't care how silly you look at that moment, because you are quite oblivious to yourself. These are clues to how we were made God created us so that when we lose ourselves in adoration of something outside of ourselves, we experience life at its peak. That s what heaven will be like. It is a place where we will finally be free from the bondage of self, and be lost in worship of God. The problem is that we have been worshipping degraded, cheap things for so long that we don't know what it's like to be in awe of something truly worthy of worship. So when we try to conceive of heaven, we think of it in terms of its absences. C.S. Lewis said we're like a country boy who would prefer going on making CHRISTIAN)FOUNDATIONS) 137)

140 CHAPTER 7 : NEW LIFE OF LOVE mudpies in the dirt because he can't understand what is meant by the offer of a vacation by the sea. The problem is not that we desire too much; it is that we settle for too little. There is immense joy, a joy that we might have never known, in giving worship to God, the only one worthy of worship. LIFE WITH CHRIST Read Luke 9:24. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. An invitation to follow Jesus is basically an invitation to a relationship of trust and allegiance to Christ. It is an invitation to lose ourselves in love for Jesus, and ironically, in so doing, we find ourselves. Jesus is imploring us to let go of the tiring grasp we have on our lives that is causing us to bend forever inward. Instead, he calls us to experience life as it was meant to be lived. We need not be afraid that we won t be able to live a life worthy of the gospel. So many people, especially those who have successfully avoided failing their entire lives, are afraid of failure as a Christian. But that would be missing the point. We become Christians because we are fully acknowledging that we are sinners, and that means that we will fail. But of course that s the case with anything worthwhile (e.g., marriage and child rearing). However, we are not left to our own efforts when we walk with Jesus. God will help us through the Holy Spirit and through the church. Read John 16: Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. 8 And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment: 9 concerning sin, because they do not believe in me; 10 concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will see me no longer; 11 concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged. JOHN 16: I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. 13 When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. 14 He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. 15 All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you. 138) CHRISTIAN)FOUNDATIONS)

141 What are the things that the Holy Spirit, or the Counselor, will do? CHAPTER 7 : NEW LIFE OF LOVE FEAR NOT Fear not is the command most often stated in the entire Bible. We can understand why: because to respond to the Living, Almighty God is terrifying. You might have initially approached this course with nothing more than a light curiosity, and perhaps you ve been surprised to find many of your questions answered. Perhaps you ve been disturbed by the truthfulness of the gospel. This can sometimes feel a little startling. Men are reluctant to pass over from the notion of an abstract and negative deity to the living God. I do not wonder. Here lies the tap-root of Pantheism and of the objection to traditional imagery. It was hated not, at bottom, because it pictured Him as man but because it pictured Him as king, or even as warrior. The Pantheist s God does nothing, demands nothing. He is there if you wish for Him, like a book on a shelf. He will not pursue you. There is no danger that at any time heaven and earth should flee away from His glance. If He were the truth, then we could really say that all the Christian images of kingship were a historical accident of which our religion ought to be cleansed. It is with shock that we discover them to be indispensable. You have had a shock like that before, in connection with smaller matters when the line pulls at your hand, when something breathes beside you in the darkness. So here; the shock comes at the precise moment when the thrill of life is communicated to us along the clue we have been following. It is always shocking to meet life where we thought we were alone. Look out we cry, it s alive. And therefore this is the very point at which so many draw back I would have done so myself if I could and proceed no further with Christianity. An impersonal God well and good. A subjective God of beauty, truth and goodness, inside our own heads better still. A formless life-force surging through us, a vast power which we can tap best of all. But God Himself, alive, pulling at the other end of the cord, perhaps CHRISTIAN)FOUNDATIONS) 139)