Not what I expected

On Sunday we started the mini-series on why we believe. But I wanted to take the approach by looking at the objections to Christianity. Well I was surprised. One of the main objections that the class said that people had to Christianity was the problem of suffering. However, what surprised me was that it was the question that seem to give the class members the most difficulty as well.

He just doesn't get it.

Deepak Chopra said in the Washington Post; "The Rev. Rick Warren has a record for trying to smooth the waters, but he also flirts with intolerance - toward gay marriage - and since his rational is that a "loving" God shares the same prejudices, what's to stop others with worse tempers from following the same logic? When your God hates, you have permission to hate."
Sin is nothing but a prejudice to Chopra and hate is when you stand against sin. He just doesn't get it.

You can't see through everything

Some people's approach to truth is as if they can see through everything, explain everything, approach everything as if it is relative. However there comes a time when you have to see something. What if you looked through a window and could see through the garden. What then, what are you looking at? It is like Mathematics. Sometimes you have to accept some facts as truth or you have nothing left.

A bear in the tent

I used to go canoeing and camping with my sons and sometimes we would encounter bears who would not leave us alone. If you had food in or near your tent then the bears would be there.
Suppose one of the boys told me that there was a bear in the tent. It would only take a moment for me to tell if that was the truth. However, if he said that there was a no-see-um in the tent then just because I couldn't see it doesn't mean that it wasn't there.
Likewise just because we cannot see a reason why God might allow something to happen doesn't mean there can't be one. Sometimes we may see the reason and other times we may not but because we cannot see doesn't prove that there wasn't a reason.

How do you describe an elephant?

One of the arguments against the exclusivity of Christianity is that each religion sees part of the spiritual truth but none can see the whole truth. The use the example of the blind men that try to describe an elephant by the part that they touch. One says it is long and flexible like a snake as he holds the trunk. Another says it is like a tree trunk as he feels the leg. A third says it is flat like a wall as he examines the side.

So what is the problem with this example? The problem is that it is told from the point of view of someone who is not blind. How could you know that each blind man only sees part of the elephant unless you claim to see the whole elephant?
So "how could you possibly know that no religion can see the whole truth unless you yourself have the superior, comprehensive knowledge of spiritual reality who just claimed that none of the religions have." Tim Keller in Reason for God.

More than what we believe

The next two Sundays I want to address the issue of why we believe what we believe. I think many of our youths as they leave High School and head off to university often find their faith challenged. Now they know what they believe but they don't know why so when they are challenged they have no argument to put forth themselves.
The first question that we must address is the one about the exclusivity of Christianity. Many will say that all religions are leading to the same thing and often they will go so far as to say that we all worship the same God. The argument is that we who call ourselves Christians have a superior attitude but this should never be the case. We did nothing to earn our salvation. It is by grace alone. That does not make us superior to anyone else but it make Jesus superior.

Computer Crash Therefore Change of Plans

The one who is doing the graphic layout for our study guide had a major computer malfunction on Friday therefore we have decided to delay the lessons on Hebrews for a couple of weeks. Meanwhile I would like to look at some issues involving the objections that people have to Christianity. I will start listing those tomorrow.