True Story -
Auschwitz - 4 million Jews and assorted gypsies and homosexuals killed. Brutality ruled the day. Someone has escaped from the death camp and the rule is that for every one person who escapes, ten will be kept in a room with no food or water until dead.
All the prisoners are brought into the yard and made to stand at attention. Last night’s escape is announced. Ten men are selected to die. One of the selected men begins to sob and plead for his life. “I have a wife and children. Please! I want to see them again.”
Such foolishness.
His name? Franciszek Gajowniczek.
Frank wants to live. Such a request could have gotten him killed on the spot, but today is different.
There is a stirring among the ranks. From several rows back, a man shuffles forward and asks to speak to the Commandant. This too, on a normal day could have gotten him shot. Today is different.
His name? Maximilian Kolbe. A priest.
“Herr Commandant,” said Max. “I would like to die in this man’s place. I don’t have any family. Please. I would like to give my life in exchange for the life of this man.”
Today is different. The request is granted.
Mr. Gajowniczek survived Auschwitz.
Every year he returns to the Auschwitz Memorial, a place where his life almost ended.
Every year he returns to Auschwitz to give thanks to, and pay homage to the man who voluntarily gave his life in exchange for Frank’s.
Would you?
Would you thank Someone who gave His life for yours?
Would you thank Someone who volunteered to pay your punishment?
Would such and act of mercy arouse any gratefulness in you?
Christians are deeply, deeply thankful to Jesus for what He did. (See Romans 9:22,23).
Atheists sneer and mock -
"We don't need God in order to be a good person."
"We don't need a Saviour!"
"We don't need anyone to rescue us!"
"We're good people who don't need forgiveness!"
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Yes, I would have thanked Maximilian, especially if I had observed it happen. If I hadn't observed it happen, however, I would probably need some evidence other than 2000 year old testimony about supernatural events from people who believed in the supernatural.
ReplyDeleteEventually, this account will be 2,000 years old. Will it no longer be true?
ReplyDelete"Atheists sneer and mock -
ReplyDelete"We don't need a Saviour!"
"We don't need anyone to rescue us!"
"We're good people who don't need forgiveness!"
You show your ignorance more and more everyday. Anyway, to say "We don't need a Savior!" is embarrassingly ignorant. To qualify for the statement, one has to believe that a savior has some sort of context in one's worldview. Your complaint makes no sense, except under the paradigm of Christian folklore. Not one atheist I've ever spoken to, has ever made such a statement with the meaning you suggest.
And as far as needing forgiveness, well... that's the same issue. A statement like "we don't need forgiveness" under the Christian connotation, is not applicable under the atheist paradigm. It doesn't make sense to say. It would be like, not believing in big foot, and then saying "I don't care how many people big foot kills, as long as I endure." It doesn't make any sense. Now if you suggest that atheists never request forgiveness from other people, then your sadly and profoundly mistaken.
Anyway, its a good story, up until you oddly throw atheists in there, out of nowhere.
"Eventually, this account will be 2,000 years old. Will it no longer be true?"
ReplyDeleteThe facts of what happened won't change after 2000 years, but the story will likely evolve depending on how well it was originally documented, how it is spread, who retells it, etc. I suspect a video recording of the actual Auschwitz event, if such a video existed, might not perfectly match the current version of the story after just these 60-plus years. It certainly wouldn't surprise me if there were elaborations in the current story that didn't actually happen. Eyewitness testimony is notoriously unreliable, and it's not unheard of for storytellers to add details to their stories to make them better stories.
As Napoleon allegedly said, "History is the version of past events that people have decided to agree upon."
At some point, Christians decided to agree upon a version of the legendary story of Jesus' life that included his resurrection, and that's what made it into the New Testament.
Although it does not automatically follow that being "old" makes a story false, it does make sense to make a reasonable attempt to verify the authenticity of an "old" story, especially if the story could be life-changing if true.
The truth of the content is irrelevant, if we all write about how great this blog is, encourage people to do so, and are willing to die while claiming that it's divine revelation, for some people in 2,000 years ago, that might be sufficient proof to consider it as divine revelation, and hum...
ReplyDelete...that means that...
Rod could be worshiped as a prophet!!!
Oh my!! why don't we start a cult right now!?