A Dialogue on Molinism
As best as I can explain, the doctrine of Molinism is a way of reconciling Arminianism and Calvinism. It supports human free will while also affirming God's providential hand, even when it may rely upon man's free responses. It is rather hard to explain and so that may sound confusing but I give an example of it in this dialogue. In essence, God uses His middle knowledge to know how each individual would freely react in any given circumstance they would be placed in and thus can divinely ordain events in our lives. For instance, my friend was considering looking into a job of profiling for law enforcement and before he even mentioned it to me I told him a story of how I met a profiler and how awesome that experience was. So under Molinism it could very well be that God wishes for him to go down that job route and He knew that had He made me friends with him and I had recently had this encounter that I would freely share this story with my friend in order that it might encourage his taking that route, wether I was aware of it or not. It is also a way of reconciling how those who had never heard the Gospel would freely respond if they had heard regardless of if they were a 1st century Jew or modern day American. All who would accept Christ have been given the opportunity to hear His Word. The following is a dialogue over Molinism that I had with my dear friend Kel.
Me:
I think I've found a good way to explain Molinism. I want you to explain the story of Jonah to me.
Kel:
The story of Jonah? Well God told Jonah to go tell the Ninevites that unless they repented that God would destroy them. Jonah was scared that they would harm him and he also didn't think they deserved salvation so he tried to hide from God on a boat. But, since God is everywhere at all times, He began to create turmoil on the ocean and Jonah knew it was because of him so he told the crew to throw him overboard. Once he did he was swallowed by a giant fish and stayed there three days and nights praying to God the entirety before being spat out. Once out he preached the news to the Ninevites, who immediately repented and sought God's mercy. Expecting God to still destroy them, Jonah sat from a distance and watched. God tried to protect Jonah from his judgment but because of Jonah's unwavering heart He punished him.
Me:
Perfect, could not have explained it better myself. Now here is where the questions come in: Did God know that the Ninevites would repent? Did He know Jonah would flee? Did God know that those exact sailors would agree to throw him overboard? Did God place the big fish there knowing it would swallow Jonah up? And finally the bigger picture question here is: did God know this story would be an example for future and current believers to see God's power and it all be furthered by Jonah's reluctance?
Kel:
I don't know if God knew any of that or if He didn't, what is said about the story of Jonah in the New Testament is that it is a representation of the miracle of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Me:
Indeed it is. But then do you believe that God knew this would be a prototype of Christ (as there are countless others in the OT) or was it more so coincidental?
Kel:
Well everything in the Old Testament is meant to point towards Jesus so I would say that yes God intended the story of Jonah to point towards the coming of Christ.
Me:
How then could this be explained through Arminian free will?
Kel:
Ha nice one. That's an excellent point. I would say that it is still a balance of the two because yes God did intend it and everything since the fall has been leading up to Jesus as our ultimate salvation but the choice on how we react to Gods gift of salvation still remains with us.
Me:
That falls in perfectly with Molinism. And the way the Molinist would explain the story of Jonah or any other act for that matter is that God, through His middle knowledge, knew how Jonah would freely act in those sets of circumstances if He were to create Jonah just as well as He knew how you and I were to freely react if we were made in Jonah's place. This also can be used to explain how it says that The Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart in order that His glory would further show just as much as Pilate, Herod, and Judas betraying and condemning Jesus which was a sin but also necessary for our salvation.
Kel:
What your saying makes sense but it almost sounds like you believe God chose to determine the courses of action of a select few in order to save many, is that correct in saying?
Me:
That's not determining anyone's courses because they had free will. I'm saying that God placed people in circumstances knowing how they would freely respond in order to further His glory, love, and mercy.
Kel:
Ah alrighty, I think that follows logically and makes sense. That is definitely a valid option for how God works.
Me:
Indeed. And although any option (mainly Calvinism, Arminianism, and Molinism) is viable for how God works I just see Molinism as the most plausible and always an interesting point of discussion. That's why I wished to further explain it to you.
Kel:
I'm glad you did, I think I fall somewhere in the middle of armenianism and Calvinism, possibly molinism but I'm not sure. I enjoy these talks.
Wednesday, March 26, 2014
Saturday, March 15, 2014
Christianity vs. Christianity as Exemplified in Modern Culture 1st Edition
Christianity vs. Christianity as Exemplified in Modern Culture 1st Edition
I'd first like to say thank you to Monica, Erin, Somer, Becca, Stephen, Bobby, Mackey, and Kel for helping me with this list.
It seems to me that the popular opinions on Christianity in our culture are skewed to the point where I can't blame people for their disbelief as I would not believe the things expressed as Christianity in our world today either. So with the help of some friends, I have compiled a list of common misnomers I wish to address. Note that I have labeled this "1st Edition" as I am sure that more of these will come my way and I wish to add to the list in order to shed as much light as possible on the subject for the sake of the unbeliever.
For starters, let's address the idea that angels are dead people. I hear this many times after someone passes and to comfort the family people will say "God needed a new angel." This is a repulsive idea and far from being biblically accurate. Angels are a separate part of God's creation which we differ from in many ways. Probably the most important way, however, is that angels have a very limited free will. They can choose to follow God or not but once they go against God there is no possible redemption for them. Christ came as man and was killed as an atonement for man's sins. Therefore we have free will to either obey or disobey God freely, a liberty which angels do not possess. Of course appearance, position, etc are also all ways we vary from angels as well. So the question then arises to what happens after we die? It seems that we will go to be with The Lord until a time when we receive our resurrection bodies and then we will be fulfilled. I believe this to be represented by scripture in 2 Corinthians 5:1-10 "For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands. Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling, because when we are clothed, we will not be found naked. For while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. Now the one who has fashioned us for this very purpose is God, who has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come. Therefore we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord. For we live by faith, not by sight. We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord. So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due us for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad." So just to be clear, no angelic metamorphosis. I feel like I have spoken adequately on this issue and would be happy to respond to any further inquiries you might have on this subject or any others, but for now we must move on.
God is a man in the clouds. - I hear this one so often, especially from atheists trying to show how ridiculous Christianity is. Make no mistake, God is not a man in the clouds. He's not some old guy with a white beard. God possesses all traits of personhood but He is without form and thus not limited to an enclosed space. In fact, God is omnipresent, meaning His presence is everywhere. The Bible speaks about this thoroughly but two key verses I wish to note are Jeremiah 23:24 "Can a man hide himself in secret places so that I cannot see him? Declares The Lord. Do I not fill heaven and earth? Declares The Lord." And Colossians 1:17 "And He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together." I believe that the modern depictions of God most likely came about as a way to visualize Him as a person of authority and wisdom, though this is merely speculation. Regardless, God has not a physical form.
Science vs Christianity - this one honestly might bug me the most because so many people seem to believe this false dichotomy, including Christians! I've brushed over the idea of how Christians might sense a dichotomy through poor hermeneutics in "How The Religious May Deny Science" and how we are to practice text interpretation in "Brief Response to Ted Talk by Dr. David Eagleman." These two writings should at the very least further my case of this dichotomy being a false one, so now I will try to briefly address the idea of miracles (which an overwhelming majority, if not all, Christians believe in). Miracles seem impossible because they can not occur through natural laws which govern how the entire universe operates. The trick is, however, that these laws express how nature works itself without any outside interference. Nature is a closed set, its laws then do not apply when this outside interference does in fact occur. These would be miracles. And to argue that miracles can't occur is to argue from a case that claims that atheism is already proven true, which it isn't; it would be begging the question. Again though, I encourage you to go to the two previous writings mentioned above in order to further explore this topic as I believe I have properly addressed it more at length there than is appropriate here.
God is like Santa - another favorite by those who mock religion. "He sees you when you're sleeping, he knows when you're awake, he knows if you've been bad or good so be good for goodness sake!" Some bearded magical guy who rewards the good and punishes the bad, who is omniscient, sounds a lot like God, right? Aside from the bearded magical guy remark which has already been addressed above there can be seen "some correlations" between the two, and by some correlations I mean "omniscience." That's about as far as they go. The rewards and punishment idea I will address later, but for now just take it at face value that God does not work that way. But do you want to know an even further difference between the two? There is actually evidence for God. So right there the whole correlation between God and Santa immediately falls apart. I've written briefly on some cases for God in "Arguments for Morality and Purpose" and "Atheism, Agnosticism, and Theism" but there are many other cases for God as well that I at least name in "Brief Response to Ted Talk by Dr. David Eagleman."
The Bible is old and outdated, many books were written generations later and have been changed over the years. - In the third chapter of "The Case For Christ" Lee Strobel interviewed Dr. Bruce Metzger over this topic. I will simply highlight some of that interview here as I believe this issue is perfectly addressed by them, but I encourage you to read through that chapter, if not that book, for further inquiry.
-The NT, especially when compared to other ancient writings, has unprecedented multiplicity of copies that have survived.
- We have copies from just a couple generations of the originals where as other ancient writings might be upwards of 5-10 centuries after the originals were written.
- Many ancient writings will have anywhere from 1-10 manuscripts, the NT Greek has over 5,000 (24,000 total) "The Iliad" has the most apart from the Bible and it is 650, most of them coming around a thousand years after Homer lived.
- Almost every change made through the generations is a change in spelling, punctuation, or format. The NT is estimated to be 99.5% pure to it's original message.
Another chapter deals with the gospels and around what time they were written. All 4 can be placed within a generation of Christ and some of the earliest creeds are placed within 3-5 years of Jesus' death. Again, this is a phenomenal book that presents a strong case for the historicity and reliability of the Bible amongst other key foundations of the Christian faith.
God punishes/rewards certain people (as I mentioned above with the whole Santa idea). - Matthew 5: 44-45 "But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous." Both good and bad fall on the righteous and unrighteous alike. Our prosperity is not promised here on earth, but rather in Heaven. In fact, John 16:33 says "I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world."
Another quick point I would like to make is that the Westboro Baptist Church seems to be getting a lot of media coverage lately and I find it vital for me to share that this is a strong perversion of the Gospel, if it has even been understood at all by them.
The idea of the church being homophobic. - The church is tolerant of gay people (tolerance will be the next issue addressed). I think the main flack comes from the church's stance on same sex marriage, which is an oxymoron to Christians. God made marriage between a man and a woman and so the idea of same sex marriage is a bizarre idea. But make no mistake, being gay is not the sin, it is acting upon it that is the sin. We are called to either a life of abstinence or marriage. Sexual activity outside of marriage is immoral regardless of sexual orientation, the only difference being that homosexuality can not be anything but outside of marriage.
Tolerance - I remember coming across a quote from Allan Bloom in his book "The Closing of the American Mind." The quote reads, "Tolerance means though I disagree with what you say I will defend to the death your right to say it." We tolerate people, what we discriminate is their viewpoint. Somehow, society seems to have this idea reversed. We are to be accepting and loving of people, tolerating them, however we are discriminate their viewpoints and correct them if we believe them to be wrong. We live in this postmodern mindset of there being no objective right and wrong (which we inherently know to be false given proper prodding) and so the idea of discriminating beliefs or views seems taboo to us. Of course we discriminate against any view that discriminates views, but that's for another subject.
I've spoken over the idea of the "over religious" before in previous writings, so I will simply say the idea of someone being over religious is begging the question for atheism. That is to say that one could only be over religious if religion is false and so to assume someone is over religious is to assume that religion is false. Your religious beliefs or lack thereof tell you who you are, where you came from, where you're going, and what your purpose is (if any). The only parts of life that have any meaning (if life itself has any meaning at all) are spurred by our religious beliefs and so one simply cannot be over religious.
The Trinity. - This one may be obvious to most, but many of my Muslim friends believe the Trinity consists God, Mary, and Jesus. Jesus being the offspring of the first two. That is false. The Trinity is God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. They are one God in 3 persons. While we are on the subject of the persons of God and their correlation to each other...
Jesus is the Son of God. - John 1:1/14 "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." "The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth." Coeternal with the Father was the Word. The Word became flesh as Jesus. Jesus is God. However as God, He had to come down to usher in His kingdom and in the process He became the atoning sacrifice for our sins. So Jesus became human, while still being God. In essence, He possessed all requirements for both a human nature and a divine nature. He was fully God and fully man. The titles "Son of God" and "Son of Man" show Christ's two natures as He was begotten into this world, being virginally born of flesh. Also, in the Old Testament the term "Son of God" was used to describe the Messiah. "Son of God" is an office that Jesus held, it is not his genealogy. The Son of God is the person who ushers in God's rule or reign. Jesus' ministry was to usher in the Kingdom of God, that is why Jesus talks more about the Kingdom of God than any other topic throughout His ministry. Through the Son of God, God's Kingdom was established here on earth.
Christianity is a way in which people can feel self-righteous or "above" others. - I find this essential to address because, unfortunately, this is an issue in the church. There are those self-righteous Christians out there and they seem to be making lasting impressions on the masses. The truth about Christianity is, however, that the closer you draw to God the more corrupted and fallen you realize you are and how much more you need the salvation of God. You understand that sinning just once is enough to cause an infinite chasm between yourself and the Essence of Good, a chasm which can only be bridged by the Essence of Good willingly sacrificing itself for your own atonement. On what grounds then do we stand upon to feel self-righteous? On the contrary, Christianity calls us to be humble before others, just as Jesus Himself did. Philippians 2:3-8 "Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others. In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death - even death on a cross!" That passage alone should blow any notion of self-righteousness out of the water.
Christianity or believing in a god in general is a psychological construct to help us mentally cope with life's challenges. - The truth is belief in God does help us with life's challenges, but more importantly it shows us that life is worth something. However, just because it is beneficial does not mean it was created as a coping mechanism, that is fallacious and ultimately begs the question in favor of Naturalism. Showing something to be beneficial does nothing to discredit it or to assume its origins. And even still, this life will not become easier or more bearable or even tolerable, again I point you to John 16:33 "I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world." Christianity does provide hope for life eternal, but you will be persecuted here on Earth. It will solve your problems, but don't expect it to be an easy life.
Christianity is a set of rules. - It seems like the main view of Christianity is it is just a list of things we can't do, which is so far from the truth. Christianity is a personal relationship with God. The law was created to show how fallen we were and how we are in need of salvation. But Christ has already paid for every time we fall short of the law. That is why Jesus says in Matthew 5:17 "do not think I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them." The payment for the law was fulfilled with Christ's death. However, there is still objective good and wrong. The thing is though Christianity is not telling you to not do wrong, it is such an intimate acquaintance with good that we have no desire to do wrong. Although living in this fallen state we at times still do wrong, but Christ has already paid for it, our salvation has been granted and our punishment paid for.
Christianity means that you deprive yourself of joy and fun on earth to earn salvation eternally. - This one seems to go hand in hand with the idea of it being a set of rules. This idea is to suppose that joy and fun come from the things of this world that Christianity tells us not to do. True joy doesn't come from wrong or morally ambivalent activities here on earth. In fact, 1 Peter 1:8 claims "Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy." Joy is not exclusive from this world.
You have to get yourself together before you can even call yourself a Christian or evangelize to others. - We by no means should be living a life of sin and degradation, however we will never fully eradicate sin from our lives as long as we continue to live in the flesh. Christianity, being a relationship with God, means that our relationship with Him is always changing and growing stronger (hopefully). We do not need to be perfect in order to be a Christian or share the truth of Christ, for that will never happen here on earth. And even though we will never be perfect here, the moment we accept Christ we are considered the righteousness of Christ. 2 Corinthians 5:21 "God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God." Christ's righteousness has been imputed onto us and we are therefore seen as the righteousness of God, even though we continue to sin and mess up. And for evidence of God using those who didn't have it all together to share His word and evangelize, let us turn to the scriptures. Exodus 4:13-16 "But Moses said, 'Pardon your servant, Lord. Please send someone else.' Then the Lord’s anger burned against Moses and he said, 'What about your brother, Aaron the Levite? I know he can speak well. He is already on his way to meet you, and he will be glad to see you. You shall speak to him and put words in his mouth; I will help both of you speak and will teach you what to do. He will speak to the people for you, and it will be as if he were your mouth and as if you were God to him.'" Moses felt unqualified and was making excuses to not go, but God used him anyways. Jeremiah 1:6-10 "'Alas, Sovereign Lord,' I said, 'I do not know how to speak; I am too young.' But the Lord said to me, 'Do not say, ‘I am too young.’ You must go to everyone I send you to and say whatever I command you. Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you and will rescue you,' declares the Lord. Then the Lord reached out his hand and touched my mouth and said to me, 'I have put my words in your mouth. See, today I appoint you over nations and kingdoms to uproot and tear down, to destroy and overthrow, to build and to plant.'” Or to go to the New Testament, God tells Peter in Matthew 16:18 "And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it." Peter was the very foundation God used to build His church and yet he denied Christ three times! And even still, Peter in Acts 2 on the day of Pentecost gave the first public sermon after Christ's ascension and on that day over 3,000 people came to believe. But through all this, perhaps the most influential is Paul, who wrote a majority of the New Testament. Christ called him as he was on his way to persecute and kill Christians! He certainly didn't have himself together or was prepared to share, but he did. Because as Christians we are all called, no matter where we are, to share the good news. The cliché adage is true, "God doesn't call the qualified he qualifies the called." Today I tell you that as a Christian you are called.
Good people go to heaven, bad people go to hell. - This one always gets me. Psalm 14:1 "there is no one who does good" and Romans 3:10 "There is none righteous, not even one." This idea of good people going to heaven and bad to hell causes Christianity to become a works based religion, which is the exact opposite of what it is! Christ has done all the work for us, we just need to accept His work as our free gift, our salvation. Man is corrupted at heart and left to his own devices could never redeem himself. But even still, if we want to use "good" in our society's terms we can say that good is not determinative of salvation. There are good people who don't believe in Jesus, there are those who are altruistic and compassionate and yet deny God. But even still, no matter how good we may be we can never be saved upon our works, we are solely saved by faith in Christ Jesus and if you don't believe, no matter how good you may be, you cannot save yourself.
All Christians believe the same thing. - Not all Christians take the Bible literally, not all Christians believe in the Bible's inerrancy, not all Christians follow the same doctrines (hence denominations). For example, some Christians are Young Earthers, some are Old Earthers. Some believe in evolution, some do not. Some believe in free will, some do not. None of these issues determine our salvation. At the core of Christianity is Jesus is God and He died for our sins, the rest essentially is an in-house discussion.
If you can think of any others to add to this list, please feel free to send them my way. Similarly, if you believe I have misrepresented anything in this writing please correct me. The purpose of this paper is to correct as many misnomers about Christianity as possible. This has definitely proven to be the most research and work I have had to put into any of my writings as of yet and again cannot thank the people who helped me enough. Lastly, if you would like to continue this discussion or any spiritual conversation, I am always available.
I'd first like to say thank you to Monica, Erin, Somer, Becca, Stephen, Bobby, Mackey, and Kel for helping me with this list.
It seems to me that the popular opinions on Christianity in our culture are skewed to the point where I can't blame people for their disbelief as I would not believe the things expressed as Christianity in our world today either. So with the help of some friends, I have compiled a list of common misnomers I wish to address. Note that I have labeled this "1st Edition" as I am sure that more of these will come my way and I wish to add to the list in order to shed as much light as possible on the subject for the sake of the unbeliever.
For starters, let's address the idea that angels are dead people. I hear this many times after someone passes and to comfort the family people will say "God needed a new angel." This is a repulsive idea and far from being biblically accurate. Angels are a separate part of God's creation which we differ from in many ways. Probably the most important way, however, is that angels have a very limited free will. They can choose to follow God or not but once they go against God there is no possible redemption for them. Christ came as man and was killed as an atonement for man's sins. Therefore we have free will to either obey or disobey God freely, a liberty which angels do not possess. Of course appearance, position, etc are also all ways we vary from angels as well. So the question then arises to what happens after we die? It seems that we will go to be with The Lord until a time when we receive our resurrection bodies and then we will be fulfilled. I believe this to be represented by scripture in 2 Corinthians 5:1-10 "For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands. Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling, because when we are clothed, we will not be found naked. For while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. Now the one who has fashioned us for this very purpose is God, who has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come. Therefore we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord. For we live by faith, not by sight. We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord. So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due us for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad." So just to be clear, no angelic metamorphosis. I feel like I have spoken adequately on this issue and would be happy to respond to any further inquiries you might have on this subject or any others, but for now we must move on.
God is a man in the clouds. - I hear this one so often, especially from atheists trying to show how ridiculous Christianity is. Make no mistake, God is not a man in the clouds. He's not some old guy with a white beard. God possesses all traits of personhood but He is without form and thus not limited to an enclosed space. In fact, God is omnipresent, meaning His presence is everywhere. The Bible speaks about this thoroughly but two key verses I wish to note are Jeremiah 23:24 "Can a man hide himself in secret places so that I cannot see him? Declares The Lord. Do I not fill heaven and earth? Declares The Lord." And Colossians 1:17 "And He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together." I believe that the modern depictions of God most likely came about as a way to visualize Him as a person of authority and wisdom, though this is merely speculation. Regardless, God has not a physical form.
Science vs Christianity - this one honestly might bug me the most because so many people seem to believe this false dichotomy, including Christians! I've brushed over the idea of how Christians might sense a dichotomy through poor hermeneutics in "How The Religious May Deny Science" and how we are to practice text interpretation in "Brief Response to Ted Talk by Dr. David Eagleman." These two writings should at the very least further my case of this dichotomy being a false one, so now I will try to briefly address the idea of miracles (which an overwhelming majority, if not all, Christians believe in). Miracles seem impossible because they can not occur through natural laws which govern how the entire universe operates. The trick is, however, that these laws express how nature works itself without any outside interference. Nature is a closed set, its laws then do not apply when this outside interference does in fact occur. These would be miracles. And to argue that miracles can't occur is to argue from a case that claims that atheism is already proven true, which it isn't; it would be begging the question. Again though, I encourage you to go to the two previous writings mentioned above in order to further explore this topic as I believe I have properly addressed it more at length there than is appropriate here.
God is like Santa - another favorite by those who mock religion. "He sees you when you're sleeping, he knows when you're awake, he knows if you've been bad or good so be good for goodness sake!" Some bearded magical guy who rewards the good and punishes the bad, who is omniscient, sounds a lot like God, right? Aside from the bearded magical guy remark which has already been addressed above there can be seen "some correlations" between the two, and by some correlations I mean "omniscience." That's about as far as they go. The rewards and punishment idea I will address later, but for now just take it at face value that God does not work that way. But do you want to know an even further difference between the two? There is actually evidence for God. So right there the whole correlation between God and Santa immediately falls apart. I've written briefly on some cases for God in "Arguments for Morality and Purpose" and "Atheism, Agnosticism, and Theism" but there are many other cases for God as well that I at least name in "Brief Response to Ted Talk by Dr. David Eagleman."
The Bible is old and outdated, many books were written generations later and have been changed over the years. - In the third chapter of "The Case For Christ" Lee Strobel interviewed Dr. Bruce Metzger over this topic. I will simply highlight some of that interview here as I believe this issue is perfectly addressed by them, but I encourage you to read through that chapter, if not that book, for further inquiry.
-The NT, especially when compared to other ancient writings, has unprecedented multiplicity of copies that have survived.
- We have copies from just a couple generations of the originals where as other ancient writings might be upwards of 5-10 centuries after the originals were written.
- Many ancient writings will have anywhere from 1-10 manuscripts, the NT Greek has over 5,000 (24,000 total) "The Iliad" has the most apart from the Bible and it is 650, most of them coming around a thousand years after Homer lived.
- Almost every change made through the generations is a change in spelling, punctuation, or format. The NT is estimated to be 99.5% pure to it's original message.
Another chapter deals with the gospels and around what time they were written. All 4 can be placed within a generation of Christ and some of the earliest creeds are placed within 3-5 years of Jesus' death. Again, this is a phenomenal book that presents a strong case for the historicity and reliability of the Bible amongst other key foundations of the Christian faith.
God punishes/rewards certain people (as I mentioned above with the whole Santa idea). - Matthew 5: 44-45 "But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous." Both good and bad fall on the righteous and unrighteous alike. Our prosperity is not promised here on earth, but rather in Heaven. In fact, John 16:33 says "I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world."
Another quick point I would like to make is that the Westboro Baptist Church seems to be getting a lot of media coverage lately and I find it vital for me to share that this is a strong perversion of the Gospel, if it has even been understood at all by them.
The idea of the church being homophobic. - The church is tolerant of gay people (tolerance will be the next issue addressed). I think the main flack comes from the church's stance on same sex marriage, which is an oxymoron to Christians. God made marriage between a man and a woman and so the idea of same sex marriage is a bizarre idea. But make no mistake, being gay is not the sin, it is acting upon it that is the sin. We are called to either a life of abstinence or marriage. Sexual activity outside of marriage is immoral regardless of sexual orientation, the only difference being that homosexuality can not be anything but outside of marriage.
Tolerance - I remember coming across a quote from Allan Bloom in his book "The Closing of the American Mind." The quote reads, "Tolerance means though I disagree with what you say I will defend to the death your right to say it." We tolerate people, what we discriminate is their viewpoint. Somehow, society seems to have this idea reversed. We are to be accepting and loving of people, tolerating them, however we are discriminate their viewpoints and correct them if we believe them to be wrong. We live in this postmodern mindset of there being no objective right and wrong (which we inherently know to be false given proper prodding) and so the idea of discriminating beliefs or views seems taboo to us. Of course we discriminate against any view that discriminates views, but that's for another subject.
I've spoken over the idea of the "over religious" before in previous writings, so I will simply say the idea of someone being over religious is begging the question for atheism. That is to say that one could only be over religious if religion is false and so to assume someone is over religious is to assume that religion is false. Your religious beliefs or lack thereof tell you who you are, where you came from, where you're going, and what your purpose is (if any). The only parts of life that have any meaning (if life itself has any meaning at all) are spurred by our religious beliefs and so one simply cannot be over religious.
The Trinity. - This one may be obvious to most, but many of my Muslim friends believe the Trinity consists God, Mary, and Jesus. Jesus being the offspring of the first two. That is false. The Trinity is God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. They are one God in 3 persons. While we are on the subject of the persons of God and their correlation to each other...
Jesus is the Son of God. - John 1:1/14 "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." "The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth." Coeternal with the Father was the Word. The Word became flesh as Jesus. Jesus is God. However as God, He had to come down to usher in His kingdom and in the process He became the atoning sacrifice for our sins. So Jesus became human, while still being God. In essence, He possessed all requirements for both a human nature and a divine nature. He was fully God and fully man. The titles "Son of God" and "Son of Man" show Christ's two natures as He was begotten into this world, being virginally born of flesh. Also, in the Old Testament the term "Son of God" was used to describe the Messiah. "Son of God" is an office that Jesus held, it is not his genealogy. The Son of God is the person who ushers in God's rule or reign. Jesus' ministry was to usher in the Kingdom of God, that is why Jesus talks more about the Kingdom of God than any other topic throughout His ministry. Through the Son of God, God's Kingdom was established here on earth.
Christianity is a way in which people can feel self-righteous or "above" others. - I find this essential to address because, unfortunately, this is an issue in the church. There are those self-righteous Christians out there and they seem to be making lasting impressions on the masses. The truth about Christianity is, however, that the closer you draw to God the more corrupted and fallen you realize you are and how much more you need the salvation of God. You understand that sinning just once is enough to cause an infinite chasm between yourself and the Essence of Good, a chasm which can only be bridged by the Essence of Good willingly sacrificing itself for your own atonement. On what grounds then do we stand upon to feel self-righteous? On the contrary, Christianity calls us to be humble before others, just as Jesus Himself did. Philippians 2:3-8 "Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others. In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death - even death on a cross!" That passage alone should blow any notion of self-righteousness out of the water.
Christianity or believing in a god in general is a psychological construct to help us mentally cope with life's challenges. - The truth is belief in God does help us with life's challenges, but more importantly it shows us that life is worth something. However, just because it is beneficial does not mean it was created as a coping mechanism, that is fallacious and ultimately begs the question in favor of Naturalism. Showing something to be beneficial does nothing to discredit it or to assume its origins. And even still, this life will not become easier or more bearable or even tolerable, again I point you to John 16:33 "I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world." Christianity does provide hope for life eternal, but you will be persecuted here on Earth. It will solve your problems, but don't expect it to be an easy life.
Christianity is a set of rules. - It seems like the main view of Christianity is it is just a list of things we can't do, which is so far from the truth. Christianity is a personal relationship with God. The law was created to show how fallen we were and how we are in need of salvation. But Christ has already paid for every time we fall short of the law. That is why Jesus says in Matthew 5:17 "do not think I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them." The payment for the law was fulfilled with Christ's death. However, there is still objective good and wrong. The thing is though Christianity is not telling you to not do wrong, it is such an intimate acquaintance with good that we have no desire to do wrong. Although living in this fallen state we at times still do wrong, but Christ has already paid for it, our salvation has been granted and our punishment paid for.
Christianity means that you deprive yourself of joy and fun on earth to earn salvation eternally. - This one seems to go hand in hand with the idea of it being a set of rules. This idea is to suppose that joy and fun come from the things of this world that Christianity tells us not to do. True joy doesn't come from wrong or morally ambivalent activities here on earth. In fact, 1 Peter 1:8 claims "Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy." Joy is not exclusive from this world.
You have to get yourself together before you can even call yourself a Christian or evangelize to others. - We by no means should be living a life of sin and degradation, however we will never fully eradicate sin from our lives as long as we continue to live in the flesh. Christianity, being a relationship with God, means that our relationship with Him is always changing and growing stronger (hopefully). We do not need to be perfect in order to be a Christian or share the truth of Christ, for that will never happen here on earth. And even though we will never be perfect here, the moment we accept Christ we are considered the righteousness of Christ. 2 Corinthians 5:21 "God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God." Christ's righteousness has been imputed onto us and we are therefore seen as the righteousness of God, even though we continue to sin and mess up. And for evidence of God using those who didn't have it all together to share His word and evangelize, let us turn to the scriptures. Exodus 4:13-16 "But Moses said, 'Pardon your servant, Lord. Please send someone else.' Then the Lord’s anger burned against Moses and he said, 'What about your brother, Aaron the Levite? I know he can speak well. He is already on his way to meet you, and he will be glad to see you. You shall speak to him and put words in his mouth; I will help both of you speak and will teach you what to do. He will speak to the people for you, and it will be as if he were your mouth and as if you were God to him.'" Moses felt unqualified and was making excuses to not go, but God used him anyways. Jeremiah 1:6-10 "'Alas, Sovereign Lord,' I said, 'I do not know how to speak; I am too young.' But the Lord said to me, 'Do not say, ‘I am too young.’ You must go to everyone I send you to and say whatever I command you. Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you and will rescue you,' declares the Lord. Then the Lord reached out his hand and touched my mouth and said to me, 'I have put my words in your mouth. See, today I appoint you over nations and kingdoms to uproot and tear down, to destroy and overthrow, to build and to plant.'” Or to go to the New Testament, God tells Peter in Matthew 16:18 "And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it." Peter was the very foundation God used to build His church and yet he denied Christ three times! And even still, Peter in Acts 2 on the day of Pentecost gave the first public sermon after Christ's ascension and on that day over 3,000 people came to believe. But through all this, perhaps the most influential is Paul, who wrote a majority of the New Testament. Christ called him as he was on his way to persecute and kill Christians! He certainly didn't have himself together or was prepared to share, but he did. Because as Christians we are all called, no matter where we are, to share the good news. The cliché adage is true, "God doesn't call the qualified he qualifies the called." Today I tell you that as a Christian you are called.
Good people go to heaven, bad people go to hell. - This one always gets me. Psalm 14:1 "there is no one who does good" and Romans 3:10 "There is none righteous, not even one." This idea of good people going to heaven and bad to hell causes Christianity to become a works based religion, which is the exact opposite of what it is! Christ has done all the work for us, we just need to accept His work as our free gift, our salvation. Man is corrupted at heart and left to his own devices could never redeem himself. But even still, if we want to use "good" in our society's terms we can say that good is not determinative of salvation. There are good people who don't believe in Jesus, there are those who are altruistic and compassionate and yet deny God. But even still, no matter how good we may be we can never be saved upon our works, we are solely saved by faith in Christ Jesus and if you don't believe, no matter how good you may be, you cannot save yourself.
All Christians believe the same thing. - Not all Christians take the Bible literally, not all Christians believe in the Bible's inerrancy, not all Christians follow the same doctrines (hence denominations). For example, some Christians are Young Earthers, some are Old Earthers. Some believe in evolution, some do not. Some believe in free will, some do not. None of these issues determine our salvation. At the core of Christianity is Jesus is God and He died for our sins, the rest essentially is an in-house discussion.
If you can think of any others to add to this list, please feel free to send them my way. Similarly, if you believe I have misrepresented anything in this writing please correct me. The purpose of this paper is to correct as many misnomers about Christianity as possible. This has definitely proven to be the most research and work I have had to put into any of my writings as of yet and again cannot thank the people who helped me enough. Lastly, if you would like to continue this discussion or any spiritual conversation, I am always available.
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