Question your faith

I encourage all who read this and who are Christians to question your faith. I have found it extremely rewarding to question and search out truth. I have read a few other religious works including the Koran and Atheist works. I intend to continue to read these works because they bring up more questions. The more questions I have the more answers I find. The more answers I find the more confident I become and the more willing I am to allow God to rule my life and my mind.

Misrepresentation #8

Claiming that Christianity is the only way is egocentric and exclusive.

This should be brief. The very fact that you are reading this and do not claim Christianity is evidence of the hypocrisy of this statement above. You are in fact claiming that the way you are living your life is the way you should be living it and Christianity is not the way. No matter your religious affiliation or lack thereof you are claiming your way is the way even if it is a philosophy that says all paths lead to God or no God. Because you are basically saying what others believe is wrong or incomplete. Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Atheism etc. all claim there way is the only way.

Misrepresentation #7

Jesus Genealogies as recorded in Matthew and Luke contradict one another.

This idea was introduced to me while I read the "The God Delusion" by Richard Dawkins. And yet again his attempts to invalidate the Bible is naive at best. His ignorance is also his biggest downfall as well as many other atheist arguments I have encountered so far. Instead of putting to much of my own energy into this post I am going to copy/paste from another resource there is a visual aid at the site to help explain:

http://www.apologeticspress.org/apcontent.aspx?category=6&article=932

One of the charges of contradiction brought by skeptics against the Bible is the surface appearance of contradiction between Matthew’s genealogical list (1:1-17) and the one provided by Luke (3:23-38). As is always the case, the charge of contradiction is premature and reflects an immature appraisal of the extant evidence. In every case of alleged contradiction, further investigation has yielded additional evidence that exonerates the Bible and further verifies its inerrancy. The alleged discrepancies pertaining to Matthew and Luke’s genealogies were explained and answered long ago (e.g., Haley, 1977, pp. 325-326; McGarvey, 1910, pp. 344-346; McGarvey, 1974, pp. 51-55; cf. Lyons, 2003).

When one places the two genealogical lists side by side, several factors become immediately apparent that combine to dispel the appearance of conflict.


First, Matthew reported the lineage of Christ only back to Abraham; Luke traced it all the way back to Adam. Second, Matthew used the expression “begat;” Luke used the expression “son of,” which results in his list being a complete reversal of Matthew’s. Third, the two genealogical lines parallel each other from Abraham to David. Fourth, beginning with David, Matthew traced the paternal line of descent through Solomon; Luke traced the maternal line through Solomon’s brother, Nathan.


A fifth factor that must be recognized is that the two lines (paternal and maternal) link together in the intermarriage of Shealtiel and Zerubbabel. But the linkage separates again in the two sons of Zerubbabel—Rhesa and Abiud. Sixth, the two lines come together once again for a final time in the marriage of Joseph and Mary. Joseph was the end of the paternal line, while Mary was the last of thematernal line as the daughter of Heli.

The reason Joseph is said to be the “son” of Heli (Mary’s father) brings forth a seventh consideration: the Jewish use of “son.” Hebrews used the word in at least five distinct senses: (1) in the sense used today of a one-generation offspring; (2) in the sense of a descendant, whether a grandson or a more remote descendant many generations previous, e.g., Matthew 1:1; 21:9; 22:42 (“begat” had this same flexibility in application); (3) as a son-in-law (the Jews had no word to express this concept and so just used “son”—e.g., 1 Samuel 24:16; 26:17); (4) in accordance with the Levirate marriage law (Deuteronomy 25:5-10; cf. Matthew 22:24-26), a deceased man would have a son through a surrogate father who legally married the deceased man’s widow (e.g., Ruth 2:20; 3:9,12; 4:3-5); and (5) in the sense of a step-son who took on the legal status of his step-father—the relationship sustained by Jesus to Joseph (Matthew 13:55; Mark 6:3; Luke 3:23; 4:22; John 6:42).

Notice carefully that Joseph was a direct-line, blood descendant of David and, therefore, of David’s throne. Here is the precise purpose of Matthew’s genealogy: it demonstrated Jesus’ legal right to inherit the throne of David—a necessary prerequisite to authenticating His Messianic claim. However, an equally critical credential was His blood/physical descent from David—a point that could not be established through Joseph since “after His mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 1:18, emp. added). This feature of Christ’s Messiahship was established through His mother Mary, who was also a blood descendant of David (Luke 1:30-32). Both the blood of David and the throne of David were necessary variables to qualify and authenticate Jesus as the Messiah.
Once again, the Bible’s intricate complexities shine forth to dispel the critic’s accusations, while simultaneously demonstrating its own infallible representations. The more one delves into its intricacies and plummets its intriguing depths, the more one is driven to the inescapable conclusion that the Bible is, indeed, the Book of books—the inspired Word of God.

Misrepresentation #6

The Bible does not support evolution so it is not feasible.

This is not a creation versus evolution blog so I am not going to go into all the details. I work in the public school systems and I get to experience a lot of science on various grade levels. These courses, books, and other content such as videos and multimedia presentations are prepared and presented by those that hold Master and Doctor degrees in various areas of science. When explaining the origins of the universe or of our species, it all comes down to some basic words that come out of every scientists mouth: probably, must have, maybe, could have, if, perhaps, etc. And because these words haunt scientists they are operating on faith that it is true. Yes there is some evidence to support their theories but it only goes so far. They too have a valid faith that points in one direction, but exactly what the source is, is unknowable.

Romans 8:20-22:
"For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time."

"All of creation was subject to frustration," can also be translated as, "For every living thing was put under the power of change."

Natural selection is supported in scripture though scientists take it all the way back to the first living organism which cannot be proven. Its true that this process of change had to start somewhere and knowing that the word "day" in Genesis can also mean an undetermined period of time shows that science and scripture are cohesive in many ways. This also helps explain humanoids in the fossil record such as, Java man, Neanderthal, and Cro-Magnon man. 

It is encouraging to me when students hear these theories and blurt out, "Well how do they know for sure?" Because these theories are taught as fact. In a way science is asking us to have FAITH in what they think they know. Those who rely on these theories are hypocritical in their claims. Hypocritical because they claim Christians have no proof, but neither do they.

1 Corinthians 1:19: For it is written: "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate." It must certainly be a frustrating thing for those who are "wise" to not have proof (beyond reasonable doubt) for their theories.

Can the painting I create prove that I did not create it? No. And neither can our scientists prove God did not create the universe or us.

2 Timothy 4:3-4 "For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths."

The reason why the focus in the Bible is not on creation is because the creation is an index to God. "so that men are without excuse." Our real focus is on God and his love and spreading that love to everyone.

Misrepresentation #5

All of creation took place in 6 days.

The Hebrew word for day as used in Genesis chapter 1 is "yom" (accent excluded). This word can be translated as: an indefinite period of time or an undetermined amount of time.

What could this mean? It means it could have taken millions of years for God to make creation. As we look at all the complex structures that make up our universe, the idea that it may have taken God a while to create it all is not far fetched. This idea has been the source of much conflict between science and religion, but as we see here it does not need to be.

Misrepresentation #4

Christianity is a religion that has stolen its ideas from other religions.

This particular post will be a work in progress because though I have heard and read about this argument before, not many of those have given specifics.

One such "stolen" idea is that of the virgin birth of Jesus Christ. If we look at Isaiah 7:14 which states, "Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel." The book of Isaiah is one of the books found in the dead sea scrolls. It was written around 700B.C. Jesus was born around 10A.D. This gives us about 710 years for intercultural mingling. This means the prophecy of the virgin birth could have easily circulated into other religions as well and not the other way around.

The idea of a God that is triune seems to fall under speculation as well. If we look at Genesis 1:2 which states, "Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters." Here we see God the father and God the Holy Spirit, 2 out of the three. If we move over to Genesis 3:15 it says, "And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel." Its true that this is a very vague reference to Jesus Christ, but it was Jesus' purpose to to redeem mankind from the beginning. Jesus puts enmity between humans and satan through obedience to the father. James 4:7 "Resist the devil and he will flee from you." So at the very beginning of the Bible we see this holy trinity formed. Who copied who?

In Genesis 18:1-2 God appears to Abraham in the form of three men: "The LORD appeared to Abraham near the great trees of Mamre while he was sitting at the entrance to his tent in the heat of the day. Abraham looked up and saw three men standing nearby. When he saw them, he hurried from the entrance of his tent to meet them and bowed low to the ground." Yet another trinity reference. Gods triune nature is a foundation for Christianity going back to the beginning of creation.

Another book I am reading is called 101 Myths of the Bible by Gary Greenberg. In this book he tracks the origins of many stories we now see in the Bible. Most of whom track back to Egypt. This should be no surprise seeing as Judaism began in Egypt with Abraham being called out of Egypt by God. One of the things that appears contradictory to the stories is the fact that the Egyptians wrote down the stories first, but the Jews were known for their oral tradition. The stories are not exactly the same. The Egyptians were Polytheistic and Jews Monotheistic. An interesting thing that the author notes is that the people of those times thought of these stories as true and not myth. Part of the reason for the delay by the Hebrews to write down these stories could be the fact that they were not as technologically advanced as the Egyptians and were also slaves to the Egyptians for 400 years. Now because of this intercultural mixing and the oral tradition of the Jews it is hard to know who in fact the stories originally belonged to. The main idea that I have come up with so far to these alleged stolen stories is the fact that despite the disadvantages that the Hebrews had it was their history, their stories of these accounts that survived into the 21st century and now have over 230 million followers and reached almost every corner of the world. Not Egyptian, Babylonian, or Canaanite religion. This could only be the working of a God who has given his people the power to defy the odds of this world.

more to come...

Triune Designs

A thought occurred to me awhile back. If my God is a triune being, Father /son/holy spirit, yet one being then there must be other triune structures existing that are yet one thing in this reality. In fact I would say that reality is triadic. God emulates this through the life of Jesus. Jesus is connected to God by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is often referred to an interceder for us and that it dwells in us. So I am connected in the seen realm to God in the unseen realm by the Holy Spirit, but yet it is one reality. One other thing I started to notice is that the Holy Spirit is a linking function and that other triadic structures might have a linking function as well.

For example a husband is linked to his children through his wife which equals one family.

You are connected to me through our interactions which equals one relationship.

Birth is connected to life through death which equals eternal life.

Faith is triadic because the promise is connected to the resolution through the contradiction.

Our thoughts are triadic yet one: iconic-indexic-linguistic

Language itself can be triadic yet express one thought: "God" is a concept or subject; "you" is a concept or direct object, what links the two? A verb. “God” is a concept, "God loves" is information; "God loves you" is a complete thought. Noun-verb-direct object.

Time is triune. The past is connected to the future through the present.

I think it is no coincidence that all of matter in the universe is triune. Protons, Electrons, Neutrons= 1 Atom. Its also interesting that the earth is the third planet from the sun.

The most basic necessity to sustain life is a triune molecule. Water. Two hydrogen+one oxygen connected though a chemical bond.

Universal Lie: Doubt

Fear and shame are the result of one more thing, doubt. Because Adam and Eve doubted God they experienced shame and then fear. So who is the author of these things? Satan; who ties to create these three things (fear/shame/doubt). Satan is actively trying to spread these messages and as long as he does, and humans believe it, humans can’t know the triadic freedom that comes from God. God=Love, Jesus=Forgiveness, Holy Spirit=Hope. That’s why it is called spiritual warfare. But what many don’t realize is that the battle is already won. This is why missionaries continue to spread the true message in the face of this lie, as well as many other lies. To suffer, to be persecuted, and to die for our fellow man in the name of God is to know the love of Jesus Christ. Does the end justify the mean? Hauser’s Moral Dilemma agrees. A few Million died a mortal death so that a few Trillion could live an eternal one.

Romans 5:7-8: “Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. 8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

Universal Lie: Fear

Another by-product of man is fear. Fear is a universal lie. Fear is the opposite of love (with the exception of reverent fear of God). If I react to someone out of fear, I can’t know the love that could exist between us. This is one of the current biggest misconceptions within Christianity. The fear of outcomes is the SAME fear that those who choose to have abortions deal with. They are not immoral, wicked, and life hating. They fear that they will lose their freedom, won’t have financial means to provide, will be a bad mother; will be ostracized by others, etc. They fear the outcomes and because of that fear, love is not known. Throughout the Bible we are told not to be afraid or ashamed. These two things are universal lies and they don’t come from God. Rom. 8:15

God’s vision even before the creation of the world (Ephesians 1)was that he chose human beings above all the other natural creatures that he made to share in his holiness—his uniqueness—and that his pleasure was not to create creatures he could control or dominate but could give them the gifts by which they could conform to the image of his Son—to make them holy, blameless and loved—the vision that God has for us—by faith expressing itself as love. (Romans 8:28-29). The message of Christ is that we can become this vision and that the creation of man as a natural creature was just the beginning, but human beings are made complete when they learn to love God because he first loved them. God’s will for us can only be accomplished because of Christ’s love for the Father and the Father’s love for us expressed in the sacrifice of his son to make us holy as he is holy. (1 John 4, Hebrews 10). God’s will for us can only be accomplished when we learn obedience through the suffering of temptation (even Christ had to do this as a man—Hebrews 5:7-9), which is love for God. Every time we choose to act on his words and sacrifice our own understanding, it is an act of love—that is why God calls obedience “love” not following rules. When we still fear punishment (1 John 4) we have not been made complete in love.

Universal Lie: Guilt

The reason why the idea “God wants us to feel shame and that we owe him something in return for what he has done for us,” is so powerful is because it is a LIE!

Guilt or shame is the by-product of man when he violates his conscience. You do not have to be religious to feel guilt. It’s a universal lie. There are 3 ways in which you get rid of guilt.

1. You can justify your actions to yourself so that they do not appear as guilt, but the violation still occurred and is not rectified (pride).

2. You ask for forgiveness and the violation is then rectified. The message of Jesus is that he rectifies that which was not rectified.

3. Another way people try to ease their conscience is to blame others.  We see both the self-justification and the blaming of others in the garden immediately after Adam and Eve’s sin.  Blaming of others transforms us from the actor who is responsible for what has happened into a victim that does not bear this responsibility but was harmed by another’s actions instead of the one doing the harm. 

God has already taken the guilt out of our lives through Jesus Christ who represents forgiveness.

Universal Truth: Life

Another universal truth occurred to me during my studies. It had to do with women. Why did God stop creating after he made women? And why after looking at all he made, women being last, did he say it was very good (Genesis 1:31)? Being someone who lives in a house full of girls, even the dog is a female, I should investigate why. Women are historically the most oppressed, violated, and mistreated beings on our planet. This is mostly due to the fact that men are physically stronger, generally speaking, and women are "weaker." Thats when it hit me! God shows great power through weakness, and weakness is a matter of perception (1 Corinthians 12:9-10). Jesus/God teaches that if we even look at another women lustfully we are sinning (Matthew 5:28). So we are commanded to change our thoughts based on these beings. Another point, as a man I am asked to lay down my life for my wife. Why? Because she is weak? No! Because she is powerful. She has the power no man has. She has the power to create the image of God. She has the power to create life. Life, a universal truth. Our God is the God of life (Matthew 22:32). Life which is very good, full of love, and redeemed through justice. Its why as Christian men we are asked to give up our lives for our women as Jesus gave up his life for the church (Ephesians 5:22-33). Because through the true message of the church eternal life endures just as life endures through women. Men, we are to be servants to our wives, revere them, respect them, protect them, and lift them up in the eyes of God because to him they are Queens worthy of the crown of creation.

Universal Truth: Justice

Justice

My God is just. What is justice? Webster dictionary says, "reward or penalty as deserved." Why do we seek it? We want to see something good come out of something evil. Those who seek justice seek truth, and truth is good and produces more good. So those who seek justice are of God, they are acting in his likeness. Because disobedience to God is evil, the consequence is death. A deserving penalty. Before Adam sinned he had life and after he sinned he was promised death and not able to be in the presence of God face to face (Genesis 3:22-23).  History occurred, evil reigned, good was produced but not yet completed. In comes Buddy Christ. We know the story pretty well so I will respectfully shorten it. Jesus is God in human form. Seeing as Gods dwells in us through these other forms, goodness, and love, its not to hard to believe he can become like us. Jesus taught what was good, what was love, and what was justice. This wasn't so we could simply be saved, or forgive and forget, "try to do better next time," an attitude commonly seen in immature christians. Jesus was perfect (1 Peter 1:19) the very embodiment of good. Jesus taught us how we should represent this world and each other. And because he lived an obedient life he was not subject to the law of sin and death. He was determined to see justice done. He did struggle with this decision asking the father in heaven to find another way (Matthew 26:36-46). But because he wanted to be obedient to God more than he wanted to satisfy his own fleshly desires, such as avoidance of pain and suffering, he allowed himself to die on the cross. A great injustice, the death of a truly innocent being. Through this act of injustice something else emerged. Jesus took on the sin of the world through all time so that the law of sin and death would no longer apply and a way to achieve eternal life was made, a gift of love from God. Gifts are representations of love and love is good so eternal life is of his "kind." So out of injustice comes redemption, dictionary.com gives the description "deliverance; rescue." In Christianity it is called salvation, salvation from that which is evil. Rescue from that which is not Gods "kind." So the point here is that through good/obedience we can conquer evil to the point where it does no longer produce evil but good, and not only goodness but joy and so much joy that we have more at the end than we ever had at the beginning. Thats why in James 1:2 we are told to rejoice when we face struggles because we have the ability to conquer all things through good. "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose" (Romans 8:28). Its how oppression becomes freedom, how family trauma is healed, how victims of heinous crimes can produce joy, its how darkness can breed light. Its why I continue to search for truth in Christianity, and seek to quench the misrepresentations of it. Its how I can now see everyone as a child of God, a product of his kind, adopted royalty of a King who is Love, Just, and Good. So if God is for us, all of us, who can be against us?(Romans 8:31)

Universal Truth: Love

Love My God is also Love (1John 4:8). Anyone who loves, or has been shown love has seen God and has the capacity to know God. Another reason why who is right and wrong is irrelevant. Everyone has God in them, and I should love them for that alone. Love has the power to produce good in the forms of patience, kindness, and gentleness, etc. (1 Corinthians 13:4) which are good and produce even more "fruit." Those who choose to treat others how they want to be treated are showing love, like when when you show respect to someone even though you don't think they deserve it (Romans 13:10). So through love we show obedience to God, even if we (humans) do not except him as our God. As believers the greatest commandment is "Love your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind" (Matthew 22:37). And how we show that love is by showing it to others so that they may see his image and recognize him.

Universal Truth: Goodness

Goodness

My God is good (Romans 12:2). Everyone has a system of good and bad, right and wrong, that exists in their lives. In Christianity I think it can be more accurately described as obedience and disobedience to God. God is taught of as being good. Therefore anyone who strives to do good has or has had good shown to them has experienced God. Good can be seen in what it produces, which is more good. Therefore the more good we do the more good we produce. This is why the Bible often uses "fruit" as a metaphor. This is also why I no longer believe in who is right or wrong. If anyone is producing good, even though they do not recognize the source as God, they are showing characteristics of God. We are made in his image, a product of his kind. The other side of course is evil. That which is not in his image, not of his kind. When we choose to do evil we are called enemies of God because it is not of his kind, not in his image. That which is evil creates more evil. That is why Jesus speaks of turning the other cheek. Because revenge against evil produces more evil. The magnificent thing about that which is good is that it can create good from evil, and evil cannot create good because evil does not understand it (John 1:5). That means anything that is the product of evil can be conquered (Romans 8:28).

Universal Truth: Faith

Faith

Everybody operates on some system of faith. Faith in a religion, government system, social system, family or self. Dictionary.com has this definition "belief that is not based on proof." How can one prove their faith is valid if there is no proof? How do you prove something that is invisible? Maybe proof isn't in anything measurable by the senses. Perhaps our faith is proved through there immeasurable qualities. The criteria I came up with was "the validity of ones faith can be verified by the amount of good it produces."  Seeing as I am a Christian by choice I am going to use this criteria to validate my beliefs. What is faith to God? Looking up Hebrews chapter 11 is a great start. Verse 6 summarizes it pretty well, we cannot please God without it. Also its a choice. A choice that has existed from the beginning of time. Who are we going to choose? That which is Good, God's image, or that which is evil, Satan's image. Also faith is ones hope that what they believe will yield set results. I hope the message of my faith and activation of it will result in good.

Misrepresentation #3

There is only one valid faith.

All faiths are valid to an extent. When Moses approaches Pharaoh in Exodus chapter 7 he is told by God to throw down his staff and it becomes a snake. Then Pharaoh summons his sorcerers and they are able to do the same thing. This was also the same case with water to blood and the plague of frogs. I had to go back and read this again. I always grew up knowing that God allowed Moses to do these great things but never realized that the sorcerers could do it as well. How was this possible? Where did they get their power from?

I could say it was the work of demons or something, though that area I lack some knowledge in, but I think their is a better answer. If we look further into the plague incidents we see that the magicians can no longer conjure up these tasks. So their faith is valid, but only has a limited amount of power. Perhaps God allowed the sorcerers to have these powers for this very reason. To prove that his power was supreme. His power held the most weight. Its not a far stretch to think this is how God operates. In the book of Job Satan has to ask for permission before he is allowed to harm Job. So God allows "harmful" things to happen so that his power may be known to man by redeeming their situations. Therefore anything "perceived" to be harmful can be redeemed.

How is Christianity the most powerful? Because our God has taught us that striving to die for our fellow man so that they may know his love is the most powerful and noble task a Christian can attain. If we as Christians strived to LOVE our fellow man to death, no matter race, religion, or social status, we would be more than conquerers.

Misrepresentation #2

Original sin

This idea suggests that we are all born sinners from the start as babies, but it is false.

Adam was made sinless and then exchanged the truth about God for a lie. Every time we do this it’s a sin. I’m not sure how many times you have been unjustly told that you were a liar but I have been called that several times in the past two weeks. I work at a middle school. It wasn’t true on all accounts and hurt me on the inside, then it turned to anger towards them. Eventually I had to forgive and forget because they are prideful ignorant brats. Jesus is the interceder for us against God’s wrath.

Matt. 18:2-3 He called a little child and had him stand among them. And he said: “I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.”

God is the one who makes us innocent again. So if children are innocent then they can’t be sinful.

Here is something my friend Liz wrote:

God’s vision even before the creation of the world was that he chose human beings above all the other natural creatures that he made to share in his holiness—his uniqueness—and that his pleasure was not to create creatures he could control or dominate but could give them the gifts by which they could conform to the image of his Son—to make them holy, blameless and loved—the vision that God has for us—by faith expressing itself as love.  (Romans 8:28-29).  The message of Christ is that we can become this vision and that the creation of man as a natural creature was just the beginning, but human beings are made complete when they learn to love God because he first loved them.  God’s will for us can only be accomplished because of Christ’s love for the Father and the Father’s love for us expressed in the sacrifice of his son to make us holy as he is holy.  (1 John 4, Hebrews 10).  God’s will for us can only be accomplished when we learn obedience through the suffering of temptation (even Christ had to do this as a man—Hebrews 5:7-9), which is love for God.  Every time we choose to act on his words and sacrifice our own understanding, it is an act of love—that is why God calls obedience “love” not following rules.  When we still fear punishment (1 John 4) we have not been made complete in love. 

The purpose to seek to please or to obey his will is because we know by faith that we will have, do and become more than we could ask or imagine on our own or by our own effort.  For God’s will to be accomplished in our body is to be holy, blameless, loved, eternal.  That is why we obey—not because of fear of punishment (that is only the beginning—to know that our survival depends on God) but because of what he is pleased to do for us if we let him.  His word cannot enter our body and do its will without our permission.  That is the work of faithful obedience.  To let perseverance finish its work so that we are mature and lack nothing.  (James 1)

Misrepresentation #1

Only Christians can go to heaven.

Matthew 7:1-2 "Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you."

When I was in the sixth grade I told someone they were going to hell because they didn't believe the same thing I did. Needless to say that was the last time we spoke. Also the last time I ever told anyone that phrase. This idea has shattered many relationships and alienated countless others. I think this phrase is used because we as Christians want to feel special and we are, but it so happens so is everyone else. I also think it is a lame attempt to scare others into believing what we believe and that that is easier than actually loving someone.

Luke 12:5 "But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear him who, after the killing of the body, has the power to throw you into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him."

Why fear God? Because he has the ability...Ability...ABILITY to throw you into hell. That doesn't mean he will.

Romans 9:14-16 "What then shall I say? Is God unjust? not at all! For he says to Moses, 'I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.' It does not therefore, depend on man's desire or effort, but on God's mercy."

Fear is just the beginning and also the sign of an immature Christian. If the only reason you are a Christian is because you fear hell, then you need to continue to study. 1 John 4:18. How much more awesome and more loving is God if he allows those who don't fully understand him or know him at all mercy because of his love for them as sons and daughters. I'm not saying all paths lead to God but its not a black and white issue. I can take comfort in the fact that God is just and righteous. He is the one who justifies us. God defines himself as a relationship not a single personality, but a relationship between the Father and the Son. It is the Father who is holy and the enforcer of justice, but it is the Son who takes on the punishment of that justice so that others can be redeemed and justified. God can only justify the wicked because of the mercy made possible because of the Son who became our sin so that we can become his righteousness. (2 Cor 5) Even in the holy of holies both justice and mercy were represented side by side---there was judgement and there was the atonement or mercy seat. God’s justice---perfect justice—is both restitution and mercy.

Christian Extremist

"Some religious extremists will die for God and take you with them. But a TRUE Christian Extremist will die in your place so that you may know the love of Jesus Christ." Rik Roushar

Romans 5:7-8 "Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us."