God is Love vs. God is Just: What is Just?

     On a crisp clear night in the bustling cityscape of New York, two friends bump into one another.  Gabe and Drake had grown up together; they lived in the same neighborhood and went to the same church most of their lives.  Both Gabe and Drake went away to college and didn't see each other or talk much during the school year.  Tonight they had randomly met while walking through their peacefully noisy city.  Two years had passed since they had last had an in-depth conversation and tonight would be the night to change that.

Jesus and the Cross

     Jesus' death on the cross doesn't really make sense as a sacrifice, but His death to fleshly desires does. We are called to be Christ-like and are called to be living sacrifices, so wouldn't it be safe to venture that Jesus' sacrifice was a living sacrifice? Sacrifice for atonement of sins was a specific practice for the ancient Hebrews and was nothing like what Jesus did for us on the cross. Sacrifice for the Hebrews consisted of choosing an animal without blemishes, projecting their sins onto the animal, slaughtering the animal, and laying it before God. Jesus came and was set before God at His baptism, slaughtered His flesh in the desert when He was tempted by Satan, projected His cleanliness onto us, and rose again because He was perfect in the sight of God.

Science or Christianity: Why Not Both?

     We see a common trend between scientists and theologians in the world today and it seems to be a competition of who is right and who is wrong.  This is a major issue because neither side will ever when because they are looking at two separate issues: the scientists are concerned with how and the theologians are concerned with why.  You can't argue against how with why any more than you can argue against why with how.  Imagine two parties examining a mouse trap and the first is studying how the mouse trap is built and how it works, whereas the second is studying why it was built in the first place.  Now lets assume that they come to a realization about how and why the mouse trap was built.  It was built with a block of wood, a spring, and some metal (there are obviously more details, but lets keep it simple) and when a plate is pushed down the spring releases the metal and it smashes into the wood.  The purpose of the mouse trap is to kill a mouse.  Now how ridiculous would it be for the first group to tell the second group that it is not meant to kill mice because it is wood, a spring, and some metal and it only clamps down when it is moved; it would be equally ridiculous for the second group to tell the first that it doesn't clamp down and kill the mice, it just kills them.  Do you see how ignorant this sounds?  This is an extreme example, but it is exactly what is going on today.  The scientists know for a fact that the earth is more than 6,000 years old, but they have no idea why it came to be in the first place and try to use how the earth is more than 6,000 years old to prove that God doesn't exist.  The theologians are just as bad; they try to tell scientists that the world has to be 6,000 years old because God created it.  Neither of these arguments make any sense, but you may say, "The Bible clearly shows that the world is 6,000 years old because Jesus lived 2,000 years ago, Adam lived 4,000 years before that and God says He created the world in 6 days in the Bible.  My response to that is that God does not say anything in the Bible.  The Bible is inspired by God, not spoken or written by God and the Bible even says so itself*.

Willful Ignorance: The Plague of Christianity

     A major issue that is plaguing Christianity today is willful ignorance.  Willful ignorance is defined by the Urban Dictionary as, "The practice or act of intentional and blatant avoidance, disregard or disagreement with facts, empirical evidence and well-founded [arguments] because they oppose or contradict your own existing personal beliefs." (http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=willful%20ignorance)  Ignorance in itself is not wrong; it is actually impossible not to be ignorant because ignorance is just not knowing something.  Willful ignorance is knowing that you don't know something and refusing to learn about it.  Many Christians today believe that willful ignorance is something holy and that you must be ignorant in order to love God.  They will deny fact and say things such as, "If it's not in the Bible, then I don't believe it!" or "I will not read or listen to anything outside of God's word!".  It's just too bad that they believe that God and his words are limited to the Bible.  Do they not know that all knowledge is knowledge because God made it to be so?  Do they not understand that if they believe in the Bible, then the world around them is all God's words that came into being*?
     If you are truly reading the Bible, then you should know that knowledge is something that we are told to attain.  We are told to seek knowledge and to be wise**.  Many Christians would claim that Paul tells us to forsake knowledge and love***, but he tells us that Jesus is the embodiment of knowledge<>.  Are we to forsake Jesus?  What is happening in Christianity today is that many people are missing the point when Paul forsakes knowledge in the wake of love.  What he is saying is that we are not to use knowledge to make ourselves feel important, but we are to love others and build them up.  He further explains this when he claims that knowledge without love is nothing, however, he doesn't say that you cannot have knowledge along with love.  His point in saying all of this is that if you are standing on knowledge alone, you will fall because people will reject you.  What is knowledge if you cannot share it?  However, if you have love, then people will listen and you will have solid ground to stand on and share your knowledge.
     What Christians need to realize is that knowledge is a part of God because He created it and when they abandon knowledge; they are abandoning a part of God.  How could we know things if God had not first given us the ability to?  I will continue to do everything I can to learn because the more I learn, the closer I get to God!

*Genesis 1

**Nearly all of Proverbs

***1 Corinthians 13:7 & 8:1

<>Colossians 2:2-3

A Good Christian Must Be A Conservative/Liberal Christian?

     We constantly see conservative "fundamentalist" Christians in the media for speaking out against the LGBTQ community, trying to force Christianity on others, speaking poorly about Muslims, ranting about the liberals, and speaking about the anti-Christ and the "end times".  However, we also see liberals feeling that sin is ok because it will always happen and they believe all roads lead to heaven.  I personally find my comfort in the middle ground between them.  I think both sides have gone off their rails and are halfway down the slippery slope to self-destruction.  Before I go on into my real motive for this status, I would like to dive deeper into the issues of the far-left and far-right mentioned above.  The right would love to keep the LGBTQ community oppressed because they are "sinning", but you would know that is untrue if you read my last post, (http://somewhereinthemiddleground.blogspot.com/2014/03/homosexuality-yesno.html).  Then we have forcing Christianity on everyone; how can you force your beliefs on others in the name of Christ when Christ explicitly gave people the choice and left if they rejected Him.  The next issue on the right is about Muslims.  Muslims and Christians have a bad history, but we are cousins who just follow different sons of Abraham and we worship the same God (Elohim, Elah, Allah) and there is no reason to spew hate between us.  The right wing and the left wing are guilty of this one; attacking the opposite end of the spectrum which needs no explanation to why it's wrong.  The last thing that the right wing does that really aggravates me is it is always speaking of the "end times" coming and Obama or some other figure being the anti-Christ.  I will delve further into this later.  Let's move onto the left wing.  I don't know much about the left wing because I was raised in a right wing home, but what I do know is that they are really passionate about the idea of all roads leading to heaven.  This is something that is severely scriptural and I cannot support it completely because God speaks of only one way to Him and that is through the son.  However, this is cleared up by the scripture that says all tongues shall confess that you are God and therefore, it can be assumed that all will be saved.  They also seem to believe that we can just continue to live in sin with no intent to change and lead holy lives, which is scriptural.  I will admit that I identify more with the left-wing Christianity than the right, but both have issues and I find it better to be somewhere in the middle ground between them.
     Right now, I would like to focus on the conservative side of Christianity that loves to preach about us living in the "end times" due to the oppression of the church and 9/11.  These Christians believe that right is becoming wrong and vice versa just like the Bible says the end times will be.  Some will even stretch to say that 9/11 was caused by the U.S.'s tolerance of the LGBTQ movement.  I would like to suggest that today's Christianity is the cause for the oppression of Christianity.  We see everyone attacking Christianity and even the U.S. and most Christians are so blind to their own failings that they assume that it is the end times, but I think that they are abandoning the teachings that Christ gave to us and therefore rejecting God and His protection just as Israel did when it was continuously conquered in the late Tanakh (Hebrew Bible/Old Testament).  I would also propose that this is the same reason that the 9/11 attacks happened; not because of the U.S. tolerance of the LGBTQs, but the Christians intolerance.  If it weren't the Christians, then why would the church still be oppressed and not blessed by God and made favorable in the eyes of men?  I propose that Christianity is what is wrong with Christianity because we have forgotten the love of Christ and adopted the condemnation of Hell.
     You may have seen what I have said as extreme, but this is a big and controversial question that demands a radically different answer than what we have seen.  I am merely providing my readers with food for thought and knowledge that Christians today, much like the Ancient Israel, have strayed from God and rejected Him and therefore, are dealing with the consequences.

Life Is Beautiful

     In our modern culture we too often are too busy to step back and appreciate the beauty of life.  Have you ever just stopped and looked at the trees, flowers, animals, or even the ocean and just thought about how perfect all of those things are?  Have you ever thought about everything it takes for something to live and how beautifully perfect it is?  Look at the stars and take in the amazing sight that they are for they are the light in the darkness!  Look at the plants that live and grow into such beautiful things that give life to everything around them!  Look at the animals who live and do only what is necessary for survival!  There is such an awe striking quality in the complex simplicity of life!  Life gives life so that it can continue to live and grow!  Life never stops, it just moves on from one being to the next!  When one thing dies it provides life for the next, so is it truly dying?  When a living thing dies it can either decompose into the ground and become fertilizer for plants, or it can be eaten by animals and give them energy; both of these things are used to keep living things alive.  Life is the most complexly simple beauty that we have available to us!

 "Nothing.  Nothing cannot exist, because it is the opposite of existing.  To believe in nothingness is just that nothing.  Like death, death is not a state, its the absence of state.  Death to me is very unreal.  All I see is life.  In a dead body, I see simply life, the bacteria have already begun to decompose it.  Where then is death?" -- Chris Featherstone

     Biblically speaking God created all life.  Let that soak in for a moment.  God created all life!  Remember this next time you go outside soak in the life around you and recognize that God did all of it.  The next thing I want you to recognize is that God is life.  God breathed life into Adam and he became alive*.  Breath is commonly associated with spirit in ancient texts, therefore God gave Adam part of His spirit to bring him to life.  We all have God's spirit dwelling in us no matter who we are or what we believe!  God is in the plants and the animals.  God is life!  Therefore life cannot begin or end because God does not begin or end.  God is in all things and thus all things are Holy; this is why it is a sin to kill.  The Bible states that man is not to live by bread alone, but also by the words of God**.  God's words are what created all things and life itself, therefore we are to live by scripture and the world around us!  We are to love the world as God does because it His creation!

     *Genesis 2

     **Matthew 4:4

Defending Christianity With Other Beliefs

    When someone questions, denies, or attacks your beliefs you are to defend them if you are a Christian*.  In order to defend your beliefs, you must know what the other person is saying about your beliefs.  To know what the other person is saying about your beliefs, you must know what they believe.  To know what they believe, you must research the ideas of their beliefs.  If you do not do this, then they will not listen to you because you will not be able to defend your beliefs against theirs.  Once you do know what they believe and the main points of their beliefs, then you will be able to have a conversation with them without looking(and sounding) like a fool.  Many Christians today would avoid everything about other religions at all costs because they believe that even discussing them will lead to confusion and the dangers of "falling off the path".  They believe that learning about these religions is a sin because you are somehow denying God.  These are the same Christians who are generally sola scriptura and they have no idea that they are denying the Bible by refusing to learn about other religions*.  The scripture reference that you will find on the bottom of this post tells us to always be ready to defend our faith, but to do it with care and respect.  This doesn't mean to tell them that we claim our faith because of something in the Bible or something that we have experienced.  Why, because they don't believe in the Bible and are not going to start because we can quote a scripture and if we try to use our own experiences they will write us off as crazy.  Once you realize this, you may ask what else you can do.  You can research their beliefs and find out what makes their beliefs so appealing to them.  Show them the common points in your beliefs and how they tell the same story and how their beliefs actually point to yours because that will affect them a lot more than mindless quoting of scripture.  Now you may ask how you would stay respectful and kind in doing this.  My answer is that you present your common points and show them that you understand where they are coming from and then explain how the Bible shows where everything adds up in the gray areas of their texts.  This won't offend them and the worst that could happen is they think their beliefs suit them better and then you can still talk to them regularly and gain a new perspective on the world.  Another way to share your faith is to not be disgruntled or angry when it is questioned.  So many Christians fall into the trap of non-Christians and get angry, defensive, and confrontational when their beliefs are disrespected or questioned.  Instead of going into a frenzy and trying to throw scripture at the attacker, defend your faith by showing that it is real.  How do you do that?  You do not get angry and throw insults back, you respectfully disagree and either move on or do as I have instructed above.

Lets face it, you cannot defend God, convincingly. You can offer explanations and all that but the truth is no one is bound or obliged to believe how you think your God is good. To an atheist, a Muslim praising his God, a Buddhist praising Buddha and a Christian praising Jesus is all the same.  Most atheists display a remarkable ignorance of faith and its inner working. And so very often if you are going to quote your bible, my bet is it is not going to work because to the atheist it is a “crap load of fabricated stories”.

 Regardless of what you believe, he is entitled to his opinion. But my point is, do not step into something you can not achieve, and that is you can not defend God and the truth is you are never asked in the scriptures to defend God. There is a difference, you are called to show how God changed your life. Don’t be pissed off, do not be angered, frustrating as it may be, do not give into it. God is more than adequate to defend himself, for that he doesn’t need you. But your faith is something that only you can defend and that is something you should always remember.

Read more:  http://johnadavid.wordpress.com/2012/09/21/defend-your-faith-not-god/

 

    The Bible calls us to defend our faith and argument against that are not Biblical.  Some will say that the word of God doesn't need to be defended, but in defining what the word of God is you are defending it.  If someone asks you what exactly the word of God is and you tell them it is the Bible, then you have just defended the stance that the Bible is the word of God.  If you claim that someone talked into faith can be talked out of faith and use that as a defense against reasoning someone into believing in God, then you need to read 1 Corinthians 15, for in it Paul gives reason for believing in Christ**.

Those who oppose these clear biblical teachings and examples may say, "The Word of God does not need to be defended!"  But which of the world's writings are the Word of God?  As soon as someone answers that, he is doing apologetics.  Some claim that human reason cannot tell us anything about God-but that statement itself is a "reasonable" statement about God.  If it's not, then there is no reason to believe it.  A favorite saying is, "If someone can talk you into Christianity, then someone else can talk you out."  Why is this a problem?  Did not Paul himself give a criterion (the resurrection) by which Christianity should be accepted or rejected in 1 Corinthians 15?  It is only misplaced piety that answers in the negative.

Read more: http://www.gotquestions.org/defend-faith.html#ixzz2wnPOM2wf 

    There are countless other passages that would reinforce reason in the Bible and if you need more, feel free to ask me.

     *1 Peter 3:15 - "But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord.  Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.  But do this with gentleness and respect," New International Version

     **1 Corinthians 15