Monthly Archives: March 2024

Resurrection, What is God Like?

Is He, Or Isn’t He?

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A Critical Question About Jesus

Forward

I didn’t know my journey would start when I was so young….

My parents divorced when I was six, and my brother was barely two. I remember when my dad knelt, held me close, and said,

“You can call me uncle now.” 

I had no idea what this meant, but I knew it hurt.  Soon, my mom, brother, and I moved in with my grandmother.   During those early years, my grandmother had a great influence on me for God, but an elder in her church would turn me to atheism even though he thought he was doing the opposite. The questions about God began at age eight.

Mom began working full-time as a switchboard operator for a trucking company. So, for about four years, Ronnie (my brother) and I were raised by our sweet grandmother, whom we called “Mamaw.” She fed us, bathed us, and loved us. Though it seemed large then, the house had only two bedrooms and two showerless bathrooms. I slept in Mamaw’s bedroom on a cot beside an unused fireplace; Ronnie and Mom were in the other bedroom, which was part of an open duplex or apartment.

 In her room at night, just before we all retired for the evening, I heard my grandmother talking to God.  It frightened me initially, but after a few nights, I felt comfortable listening to her talk to her God as if they were close friends, unlike the elders of her church who prayed to Him with choice, carefully enunciated flowery words.

Though I never looked at her praying, I imagined her sitting on the floor with Jesus as they discussed her family and their problems.  As the oldest grandson, my name came up near the end of the lengthy conversation.  I could “see” my name floating to the throne room of God the Father, bore on the wings of the Holy Spirit.  I liked the God of my grandmother; He seemed likable, but I would meet a new god at Vacation Bible School a few years later.  This god, I did not like.  He scared me.

Vacation Bible School was fun.  I especially liked the crafts.  On the last day of VBS, all of us children waited anxiously for our parents to arrive so we could show them what we had made during the week. I had painted a King Edwards cigar box black and put decals and shells on it.  It made a perfect jewelry box.  My mom loved her jewelry.  But, before the moms, dads, and grandmothers arrived, we all met in a little room to hear an elder tell us about the upcoming service and how we could participate.  He wanted us to be baptized, so he began to tell us how much Jesus loved us.  I knew this God!  My grandmother talked to Him every night!

Then, the elder told us what would happen if we were not baptized.  We would go to “hell” and burn forever.  He described hell in disgusting detail. This didn’t sound like the God my grandmother talked to each night!  Something was wrong here. It was my first step toward unbelief.  No one, especially my grandmother’s Jesus, could be so cruel as to let all this happen!  Was my uncle in hell because he didn’t believe in Jesus but was a good husband and father?  Later in my journey, I would figure this out through scripture alone. 

Time marched on for my brother and me. I went through elementary school, high school, and eventually to college. In an ancient history class, I learned more than history; I learned about atheism directly from an atheistic professor. He made sense to me as I considered the contradiction of the two gods I had met when I was younger: one very loving and the other watching to ensure I was good or I would burn forever.

At age 18, I married a sweet, petite Christian gal.  We had three lovely children, but before that, we had some tough times and separated for a while.  When I returned, she (Julie) had been attending some “evangelistic” meetings.  I instantly began to make fun of her, telling her how silly it was to believe such nonsense.  I harassed her so much that she threw a dare at me.

“Eddie, if I am wrong, take this Bible and my notes and prove me wrong.”

My snarky response was, “Sure, this will be easy.”

For months, I went to the library for secular information (no web back in 1975) and began to read the Bible and her notes.  Quickly, I realized my attack had to be on this character, Jesus.  He had made some bold claims about Himself.  So, it came down to three questions: 

1.)  Did He exist? That was an easy question, even in secular history. 

2.) Was He all He claimed to be? and

3.) What was I going to do with what I learned? I had no idea. 

The primary and most critical question was, “Is He, or Isn’t He?  The following is just a small portion of my journey to know for myself about Jesus without the influence of denomination, tradition, or opinion.  The result?   I fell in love with Jesus and was baptized into His church, His body. Julie was right.  I was wrong.  My personal story is in my second book, “The Pig Returns To Its Mud.”

 Along the way, I realized that, as followers of Jesus, we must be united on the core beliefs based on God’s grace, compassion, and love expressed perfectly through Jesus. This is where God’s power is most effective. People can know the real Jesus for themselves if they only take time to look and hear. Too many beliefs, opinions, and traditions block out the sunlight of truth as found in Jesus. 

I will likely step on some toes in this book, but I pray that the initial pain will turn into something that will help the reader understand Jesus, as revealed by the prophets, kings, disciples, and apostles. This is my source material. While other “holy books” are written by one man, the story of Jesus is written by 35 to 40 men throughout thousands of years. That should tell us something.

I have settled these questions about Jesus. My atheism changed to a full-fledged believer in Jesus because I searched for the truth, and God directed my paths. He does this for everyone who will search with “all their heart.” It is not a casual search.  There are obstacles along the way. 

The journey continues. I am by no means perfect, but He is! He is worthy. I am not.  I hope that as you read this, you will discover Jesus’ reality and His faithfulness, whether you are a believer or not.  The reward will be greater than you can imagine.  Thank you, Julie.  May you rest in peace knowing God Himself directed your dare.  He knew what I needed.

“And this is the way to have eternal life—to know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, the one you sent to earth.” John 17:3 NLT

Introduction

The world is full of, to use an old Yiddish word, “Shysters.”  There are a multitude of con artists, liars, and cheats who are typically motivated by money, fame, self-gratification, or even worship! The knowledge of a person’s true identity can have life-and-death outcomes.

As I write this, countless writers and speakers are making money and fame from conspiracy theories, health-related topics, and merchandise that have no basis in facts, science, or common sense. They exist off the pocketbooks of the naive, uneducated, and those without critical thinking abilities. Deception includes marketing products, broadcasting news, education, music, and, of course, philosophy. These “industries” make billions of dollars of their victims each year.

Recently, I heard of a woman whose name I will not mention. She writes books and charges money to her fans to listen to her speak on various naturalistic remedies for almost every ailment, including cancer.  You would think she would be a doctor or someone with excellent credentials and that her presentations would include facts and figures to demonstrate her success rate.  On the contrary, this person failed in the medical industry and has been banned in several countries because of her unfounded and often dangerous instructions.  What confounds me is that she packs the house whenever she speaks!  Those in her audience are the anti-doctor, anti-vaccine, anti-science, anti-everything they don’t like.  In my opinion, it would seem that if we want something to be correct, we can find those who will help us feed our disillusionment.  Instead of searching for truth systematically, they search for confirmation from flawed information, reasoning, or feelings. This routine has been going on since the beginning of time.

Then comes Jesus onto the scene. In one of His prayers, he boldly states, “Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.” John 17:3 A knowledge of God the Father and Jesus Christ leads to eternal life. If this is true, we need to know if He is true. Is He, or isn’t He?

He walks, talks, teaches the ordinary people, and tries to reach the religious people who feel they have everything to know about Jehovah.  The religious leaders, the Pharisees, Scribes, and Sadducees prided themselves in thinking they had God all figured out and processed the authority to speak on behalf of God and express His will.  But Jesus claimed to be four things. He states, without hesitation, that he is “ The way, the truth, and the life, and no one comes to the Father (Jehovah) except through me (Jesus).”  John 14:6

       The question is, “Is He? or Isn’t He?  Is Jesus like one of the many Shysters of history and today that prey on the naive, uneducated, and those without common sense? Either Jesus is all He claims to be, or He is not.  His statement in John has no middle ground or room for compromise.  He is either the only way, or He is not.  His disciples took three and a half years to conclude that Jesus was real. What convinced them to die for their faith in Jesus as “… the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Matthew 16:16 was not in wars between cultures but at the hands of those of their culture who hated them.  What convinced them should also convince us, although we aren’t able to physically handle and touch Him as they did.  They could rightly say, we have “…heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, concerning the Word of life—” 1 John 1:1We cannot.      

However, others existed before Jesus was born who never saw or touched Him but saw Jesus in the future. These were the many prophets, kings, and inspired writers of the Old Testament. On the other hand, modern society has had all this testimony from people for many generations. Those before Jesus looked forward in faith; the disciples and apostles lived by faith at the moment, and we today live in faith, looking back at the record of those before us. There is a need to study these patriarchs to determine Is He, or Isn’t He.  As we discover Jesus, our faith will grow in Him.  Therefore, we can say, “Little time with Jesus and the Bible will result in little faith in Jesus.  Conversely, much time with Jesus and the Bible will result in much faith in Jesus.    “Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word about Christ.”  Romans 10:17

After the resurrection of Christ, Jesus first saw Mary and then showed up on a dusty road talking with two men who thought he was a stranger who just happened to walk up and begin a conversation.  They were walking away from the discouragement and sorrow of Jerusalem on a journey to a new beginning in Emmaus,

 As they walked along, Jesus gave them a study from the scriptures.  What is unusual about this study was that there was no New Testament pocket Bible for Jesus to pull out of His robe because printing, as we know it, had not been invented. Still, even more important, the New Testament had not been written yet!  So, this was a “Scripture” study from what we call the Old Testament and what the modern Jews call the Tankah.  It contains the writings of the many prophets and inspired writers.  Something happened to these men that greatly increased their faith in Jesus and set their hearts on fire: “Then Jesus took them through the writings of Moses and all the prophets, explaining from all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.” Luke 24:27. Jesus did this from memory! 

The men were familiar with these writings, but now they had meaning about Christ (the long-awaited Messiah).  Their eyes were opened, and their hearts were greatly encouraged by Jesus because they had heard Him and later looked across the table at Him!    They were so amped up that they ran back the seven miles to Jerusalem to find the other eleven disciples behind closed and locked doors, afraid of what might happen to them. (A side note from a former runner:   If they were seven miles away and ran back within the hour (Luke 24:33), this was equivalent to less than a seven-minute mile pace.  That is fast!  I’ll bet today’s runners could not do that in a robe and sandals!) 

When these two speed-runners made it back to Jerusalem and found the original disciples, they noticed they weren’t gathered to conduct Sunday worship in honor of the resurrection.  No!  They were in a state of disbelief and thought that the body of the One they loved was dead in a tomb in the beginning stages of decay (John 20:9).  Just as our two runners show up, Jesus pops into the sealed room.  The disciples think He is a spirit! (Luke 24:37).  After inviting them to touch him, He said some critical words for us to hear that I will discuss later.  “Look at My hands and My feet. See! It is I, Myself! Touch Me and see for yourself. A spirit does not have flesh and bones as I have.” Luke 24: 39

Then, Jesus did something that conflicted with their expectations of a resurrected immortal body: He asked for food, and they gave him fish and a honeycomb, and he ate it in front of them! (Luke 24: 42, 43).  What does that say about our resurrected immortal bodies and our heavenly experience?  At the very least, we will have bodies that enjoy eating, and we will live in flesh and bone bodies!  Our bodies will be just like His!  I don’t know about you, but that is much more exciting than sitting on a cloud plucking a harp as a ghost! “…we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.”  1 John 3:2

So, after the short meal, Jesus conducts the second Scripture study of the day. This time, He has the eleven disciples plus the two believers who ran back to Jerusalem from seven miles away in less than an hour. Wow! I’m still amazed by their athleticism, but I digress. 

Jesus expands the scripture study to include the Psalms (These are the poetic books of the Bible that include Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Solomon.). From these writings of thirty-five men, he showed them “all the things that must be fulfilled” about Him! Luke 24 44, “These are the words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms concerning Me.  And He opened their understanding, that they might comprehend the Scriptures” Luke 24 45.  After this study, Jesus covered all of the Old Testament divisions: The first five books of the Bible (Law of Moses), the major and minor prophets (the Prophets), and the poetic books (Psalms).  Jesus is there in those many books!  How could we miss that?  It may be because we are not looking or want it to be true.    

Is He or isn’t He all those things written in the Scriptures and the eyewitnesses of the New Testament?  For us to know that Jesus is all He claims to be, our eyes must be opened to understand the scriptures.  Otherwise, we will be like the pious religionists who knew and practiced religion the way they desired it to be, with all the trappings of pride, power, and control.  They didn’t want Jesus to be faithful.  They wanted a king to come riding on a white horse into Jerusalem with a giant sword, chopping off the heads of the Romans whom they despised. 

There is danger in creating a Jesus we want rather than what He really is.  What He is can be found in the Old and New Testaments, not by a popular speaker, philosopher, or even our particular religion/denomination or set of beliefs. 

I take this journey as a person wanting to discover the depth of the Jesus of Scripture, not of my denomination (not that they are bad) nor of what I want Him to be.  At whatever point I am along the way, I desire to feel the presence of Him in my life.  That is enough even if I never have enough time to reach my literary and study goals, I hope you will join me in this Jesus Journey and that Scripture and the Holy Spirit will lead us into a deeper understanding of the One who claims to be the way, the truth, and the life.

Aplogetics, Reasons to Believe

Will the Real God Please Stand Up?

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Exclusivity

Remember the former things, those of long ago; I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me. Isaiah 46:9

The God (Jehovah), who claims to have created everything, claims exclusivity.  He says there is “none like me.”  But others make the same claim.  How can we know the truth about the real God with so many choices?  Can there be many gods?

Elijah gave the people a choice between a false god and a true God:

 “How long will you falter between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow Him; but if Baal, follow him.” But the people answered him not a word. 1 Kings 18:21

Most of the people of Elijah’s time were on the side of the prophets of Baal.  It is an exciting story to see how proof was provided to those who were deceived by the hierarchy of religion to believe in a non-existent god.  The story is recorded in 1 Kings 18: 1-40.

Anyone can claim to be God.  Anyone can claim to “know the truth,” even non-believers, i.e., Atheists.   Agnostics may say, “There is no such thing as truth,” or “Truth is whatever you want it to be.” “You have your truth, and I have mine.”  These phrases are an easy, neat, clean set of words that are opinions without any meaning or proof. They have no basis in reality and are lazy world views. Reality states that a truth is true whether we like it or not.  The law of non-contradiction states that two opposing claims cannot both be true.

The World of Gods.

In this section, we will explore the world of gods, those claiming to be gods, and those claiming to have the truth. Our objective is to ask the real God to stand up and give us some reason to believe he is the real God.

This is such a massive topic. This is by no means an exhaustive study. Nevertheless, I want to ensure that facts are carefully explored with proper and fair use of resources. So, hang on, here we go. Let’s start by asking quantitative questions: How many gods exist worldwide? How many religions? How many groups claim to have the truth? This will give us the scope of all this.

Below is a ranked listing of the major religions and the estimated number of followers according to Encyclopedia Britannica.

I am including Atheists as a religion.  Like some religions listed below, they do not believe in any god but have a belief system and faith in their philosophy and worldview.   Like many churches, Atheists are Evangelical.  They often try to proselytize others through campaigns, books, meetings, merchandise, social media, etc.  They claim to know the truth!

The less biased researches regarding the number of Atheists vary, but several sources put the number at about 1. 4 million or 2% of the population worldwide.  It is very complex to identify an unbeliever or an Atheist, but even the higher numbers put them at a low percentage of the world’s population.   Based on these numbers, they would rank about #17 on the list below.

World Religions and Approximate Number of Followers:

Christianity: 2.1 billion

Islam: 1.3 billion

Hinduism: 900 million

Chinese traditional religion: 394 million

Buddhism: 376 million

African Traditional & Diasporic: 100 million

Sikhism: 23 million

Juche: 19 million

Spiritism: 15 million

Judaism: 14 million

Baha’i: 7 million

Jainism: 4.2 million

Shinto: 4 million

Cao Dai: 4 million

Zoroastrianism: 2.6 million

Tenrikyo: 2 million

Atheists: 1.4 million

Neo-Paganism: 1 million

Unitarian-Universalism: 800 thousand

Rastafarianism: 600 thousand

Scientology: 500 thousand

Within each religion are thousands of “denominations,” “factions,” or “sects.”

World Christian Encyclopedia estimates there are 33,000 Christian denominations alone! (World Christian Encyclopedia by Barrett, Kurian, Johnson Oxford Univ Press, 2nd edition, 2001).

In the Christian world, there is a split between the Roman Catholic church and those churches that “protested” against the tradition and misuse of the Bible and power.

The Atheists like to use these numbers as “proof” that “God is imaginary.”  The inference is that if God were real, there would be only one religion and one truth.  In a perfect world without any enemies, this might be so.    I must admit that all their claims about God and truth are difficult arguments to address if it weren’t for the Bible.

Other arguments by unbelievers start with the same type of reasoning. “If” God were real, why is there so much suffering in the world?  “If” God is real, why are there so many wars and death?   Again, the implication is that God would not allow any suffering or death at all, and again, this is a difficult question to answer. But there is an answer.

We have a couple of options to address such difficult questions.  We can put our heads in the sand and enjoy life as it comes to us and be placed in our graves after our time on earth.  Such is the philosophy and the battle cry of the Atheist, “Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die.” This attitude was that of the rich fool Jesus described in Luke 12: 13-21 parable.   

And I’ll sit back and say to myself, “My friend, you have enough stored away for years to come. Now, take it easy! Eat, drink, and be merry!”’ Luke 12 19

The more aggressive evangelical atheist tries to convince others that because mankind is in such an emotional need of a higher power, they create God in their own image.  Their fervent dedication to atheism is to destroy religion, which they see as harmful to society.  Indeed, they have a good case as you consider the many wars, death, and destruction caused by “religion.” Many believers are confused by the terror on this earth, but I am not sure embracing their philosophy would make the world a better place and stop war. To them, the concept of God is a crutch for the weak-minded.  It is about men controlling other men and wealth.  It appears to make sense.  Their formula for the existence of life and purpose is simple:

No one + nothing = everything (Evolution), which means:

No god + no purpose = no meaning to life (Enjoy while you can.)

After many years on this earth and many experiences, I have discovered that people with no answers can make themselves look intelligent by asking questions without easy answers.  

Example:  A young man doesn’t know why the country fell into a recession, so he asks, “Is this really a recession? Has the government manipulated the numbers for political reasons?”  These types of questions bring doubt and no real answers. It only adds to the confusion.

Just as Atheists don’t have an answer for the many religions, their question brings doubt about the reality of a Creator God, but no real answers or proof of the “no-God” theory.  They only have circumstantial evidence with their twist on its interpretation.  But the same is true for the believer.

Undoubtedly, there is an element of deception in religion and philosophy.  However, the atheist believes all religions are false and have deceived all men.  But what if one of these gods is the real God, and how would you know?  This is what we will explore.

A scientific approach to discovering the real God would be to seek evidence and the claims of those claiming to be gods.  Then, interview them and their followers to see if the real God is there.  But what criteria would you use to determine who is true and who is false?  What would be your basis for truth?  We need to consider this in our search.

There was a popular TV show back in the 60’s called To Tell the Truth.  Three contestants would be introduced, and all three would claim to be a particular person who had performed some unusual feat.  For example, the show would start with all three contestants saying, “Hello, my name is John Smith; I swam the English Channel with my hands tied behind my back.”

The celebrity panel of four would ask each contestant questions, observe their body type (typically, swimmers are athletic-looking), and evaluate their answers.  The contestants’ motivation was to deceive the four celebrities.  The more celebrities who guessed incorrectly meant more money for the contestants.  Of course, they had to lie or make up an answer sometimes.  However, the real John Smith could not lie.

When the celebrities were finished asking questions, they would vote on who they thought was the real John Smith based on the contestant’s answers to questions and their physical appearance.  Sometimes, it was unanimous; other times, the votes were split.  After all the questioning, the moment would come when the Emcee would ask,

“Would the real John Smith please stand up?”

Imagine the celebrities’ surprise when the best-lying contestants deceived them! This was a lot of fun, but it has a simple basis for answering our question about the real God.

First, if we want to know the truth about God, we must be willing to ask questions and seek answers rather than just guessing without some basis.  Many people don’t want to know the truth or have no motivation to pursue it.  They are comfortable with their head in the sand.

Is it possible that the real God wants us to know the truth?

In our search, are we willing to accept things that cut across our philosophy, set of beliefs, or worldview?  This is important.  Otherwise, we can mutate into close-mindedness or dogmatism.  We can feel we know everything and nothing new can be learned.  I know people like this in the church.  They know and understand the doctrines…maybe they could even recite the entire Bible, but the abstract thinking and the more profound appreciation for God are overlooked by knowledge.  As Paul said it this way,

“…always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.”  2 Timothy 3: 7

A good place to start is to examine the claims of each god.  As mentioned above, a few religions have leaders who do not claim to be gods but instead promote a particular philosophy about living and life.  Philosophies are highly subjective.   Many are nice-sounding words, but examining and testing for truth would be challenging.

Let’s try to start with the claims of each god or philosophy. We would need to study the answers to our common questions and compare them.   Also, we would need to see if they have done anything that would demonstrate god-like qualities or evidence of truth.

We must be willing to submit to the idea that some liars in the group have a hidden agenda for their followers.  There is truth, and there is error.  We will talk a little about absolute truth later.

Perhaps only one is telling the truth.  But keep in mind the law of non-contradiction.  Two who contradict each other can’t both be right.  The claim that all are right and there are many paths to eternity cannot be correct because of the contradiction of the claims on how to get there.  Of course, the atheists take the simple way out and claim all are liars, a very lazy, snobbish way of thinking.

Many unbelievers would also ask, “Why is there a need to do such a complicated, time-consuming search?” Why doesn’t God just show up at the World Cup Soccer matches and say,

“Hello everyone!  I am the real God, and to prove it, I will predict the winner, the score, and other facts you can’t possibly know.”  Even this would not convince many because they would claim mind manipulation.  One of my friends pointed to the deception in the last days by the beast of Revelation 13.  So how does someone become convinced they are following the real God?

Let’s take the “To-Tell-The-Truth approach to finding the real God.  The question as to “why” a search is needed is again typical of the person who has no answers and is not willing to do honest research or keep an open mind.  So, they ask difficult questions without easy answers to bring doubt and get the seeker off course because they are trying to protect their philosophy.  So, for now, we will ignore those types of questions.

Why are people a member of a particular religion or denomination?

Could we assume that people in these different religions are of that faith because they studied and selected that religion due to their research or because they were born into it?

If you are born in the Middle East, you will likely be Islamic.  If you are born in the southern states of the US, you are likely to be a Protestant Christian. You will likely be the same if your parents were Baptist, Methodist, Church of Christ, etc.

It would be safe to assume that our religion and denomination are determined chiefly by our ancestry, location, and environment.  Family roots and race is the most potent reason for someone’s religion.  People say, “If it was good enough for grandma, it is good enough for me.”

Of our 21 “religions” listed above, how many claim to have a god?

Some religions, such as Hinduism and Shinto, have thousands of gods.  Some have no gods but are led by gurus, teachers, philosophers, or politicians, such as Buddhism, Sikhism, Juche, and Jainism.

Many are recent “religions” such as Spiritism, Baha’i, Cao Dai, Tenrikyo, Neo-Paganism, Rastafarianism, and Scientology, which just started in the last couple hundred years.

Some are very nationalistic, such as Zoroastrianism. They attempt to reason to a conclusion rather than search the evidence.

One last question:  What if there is an enemy to truth?  Would it be natural for that enemy to use deception to steer people away from the truth, especially if he knew there was a source of truth?

Let’s compare the top two religions in the world and their leaders.  We will examine the claims of Jesus, Muhammad, Jehovah, and Allah in the next chapter.