An Idiot Abroad In India

Have you seen that tv show? It's made by – oh what's his name – he's a British comedian who brags about being an idiot, I mean an atheist. It'll come to me. Anyhow, as a practical joke he has taken a “friend” and sends him off to different parts of the world and requires his friend to enter into precisely those situations that his friend finds most uncomfortable. It's pretty unkind when you think about it but thanks to atheists in the entertainment industry we live in a time when laughing at people, ridiculing almost everyone and everything is a sign of intelligence and sophistication.

I've only seen two episodes of this show and the last one was called, “An Idiot (that's what he calls his friend) Abroad in India. My, my, my. What wonders Hinduism and Jainism have done for the people of India. In fairness, India is the world's largest functioning democracy so it's not a total screw up. And of course British colonialism hardly improved things. Pressure from Christianity has rid the country from the worst offences like the immolation of widows along with their dead husbands, and the so called ending of the caste system, there are still 100 million Dalits – the so called untouchables. Since Independence, crimes against Dalits have doubled with murder, arson and rape being the primary crimes. Yet the efforts of Christians to implant the notion of the equality of human life into Hindu society is seen by the Government as destabilizing and met with violence and persecution.

So why am I writing this? Well, curiously, Hugo has as much as said that his in-laws are so committed to their religion that through an act of “ACCOMMODATION” Hugo is willing to set the date for his wedding during the most favourable cycle of the moon, one that will give him the best chance of a good marriage.

This leads me to wonder if perhaps if Hugo doesn't recognize where he stands in the Hindu cast system, and whether his in-laws are hiding from him where he stands.

Hugo's fate rests on the following. The sacrifice of Purusha, the primeval man, from whose immolation came all creation, together with the four Hindu castes.

From Purusha's breath had come the Brahmans, the priestly caste;

From his arms, the warriors, or Kshatriyas;

From his thighs, the Vaisyas – agriculturalists and traders; and

From his feet the servile caste, the Sudras.

All other men were outcasts; dalits; 'untouchables' whose very presence was defilement. So I wonder if Hugo's in-laws let him know where he stands (fit only for cleaning clogged sewers or toilets) or if they accommodate him in order to not lose contact with their daughter.

As Hugo attempts to accommodate their beliefs by choosing just the right phase of the moon for his wedding, do they pretend to his face that he is acceptable to them? 

What Are You Waiting For?

I'd asked on an earlier post, “What more could God have done in order to make His existence known?”

There is another question along the same lines. The question is, “What more could God have done to provide for your safe arrival in heaven?”

. He's revealed His existence to us.

. He's told us the ground rules regarding our situation far in advance:

  - We're sinners in need of forgiveness.

  - We must repent of our sins and allow Jesus to be Lord of our lives.

. He's paid the penalty for our sins so we don't have to pay it ourselves.

Did you get that?

Jesus has already paid the penalty for our sins

Jesus has already paid the penalty for your sins

I said, Did you get that?

The penalty that is due as a consequence of your sins has already been paid.

Your sins are already forgiven!

It doesn't matter if you're an atheist, Buddhist, or Hindu. It doesn't matter if you worship Dung Beatles or if you have given your allegiance to satan.

Jesus has paid the penalty for your sins. All you have to do is reach out and accept that forgiveness. The guilt can be gone. You can be set free.

. It's like you've been acquitted of a crime. All you have to do is walk out of jail.
  - So why do you stay sitting in the cell?

. It's like you're lost in the desert, on the verge of death and there before you is a tanker truck full of water. A cup of cold water is handed to you. All you have to do is raise it to your lips and swallow.
  - So why do you throw the water out into the sand?

. It's like you're a starving street person standing outside a soup kitchen. All you have to do is go inside and enjoy the warmth and free food.
  - So why do you refuse what's being offered?

. It's like you are dying from HIV/AIDS. A cure has been found and it is free. All you have to do is go to the doctor's office.
  - So why not receive the health you so desperately want?

. It's like Someone has offered you eternity in paradise. All you have to do is be willing to say, “Thank you. I accept.”

That's all you have to do. God has done everything else.

In fact, your missing out on this opportunity, and going to hell, will require more effort than is required of you in order to go to heaven. For going to hell will require the deliberate act on your part of stepping over the dead body of Jesus in order to get there.

The debt for your sins has been paid.

All you have to do is reach out and take the receipt.

What kind of person would reject an offer of that kind of Love?

A Search For Truth

I have a relative who says she just can’t find a Christian Church where she feels comfortable.

“I feel as though I don’t fit anywhere.”

. It doesn’t occur to her that the search for truth does not begin with the assumption that one is already in possession of the truth.
. It doesn’t occur to her that she will never fit in a Christian Church when what she believes to be true is diametrically opposed to what Jesus the Christ taught.

For example, Jesus taught:
I Am the Way,
I Am Truth,
Real Life and Real Living are found in no One but Me
No one will ever come to the Father except through Me.

This woman believes that any and all religions will lead to acceptance with God as long as one is sincere in h/her believes. If Jesus taught the former while she believes the latter, of course she is not going to find a “fit” in a Christian congregation.

Her solution? She’s going to take a class in Comparative Religions.
Translation: “I’m going to pay someone to teach me what I already believe, i.e., no one religion has a corner on truth.” It would be far cheaper if she just joined a Baha’i congregation. She’ll eventually reach that point. Why put it off?

After having taken this class, there are several possibilities regarding what conclusion she might arrive at. One thing that any of us can know for sure is that while all the religions she learns about might be wrong, they can’t all be right.

There can’t be One God (Christianity) and 5,000 gods (Hindu).
There can’t be Creator God (Christianity) and god is creation (Pantheism)
There can’t be Jesus is God (Christianity) and Jesus is not God (Islam)
There can’t be Creator God (Christianity) and no god (atheism)

I’ve come to believe that while we can’t know beyond ALL doubt, we can know beyond a reasonable doubt which belief system is more likely to be correct than the others.

Let me explain:
. On a table before us are six stacks of literature explaining six different religions.
How can we know which religion, if any, is correct and which are in error?

. On a table before us are six Rolex watches produced by six different companies.
How can we know which Rolex is genuine and which are counterfeit?

. On a table before us are six fifty-dollar bills produced by six different machines.
How can we know which fifty-dollar bill is genuine and which are counterfeit?

. On the table before us is a mathematical problem for which six students have produced six different solutions.
How can we know which solution is the correct one and which solutions are wrong?

We know that not all religions (including atheism) can be correct in what they teach.
Like the religions, we know that not all the Rolex watches are the real deal.
Like the religions, we know that not all the fifty-dollar bills are genuine.
Like the religions, we know that there is only one correct answer to the math problem.

Right off we know that atheism / materialism is wrong. We don’t know what existed prior to the Singularity BUT we do know what didn’t exist. Matter and Energy did not exist prior to the Singularity and that is why we know that there was NOT a material cause of the universe. Our choices for a cause are limited.
1) Either Matter is eternal - or The Creator of matter is eternal
2) Since Matter can’t be eternal, nor can Matter bring itself into existence -
An Eternal Immaterial Creator brought matter into existence
3) Either inanimate, inorganic matter produces specified, formulated, complex, coded information for the production of life - or
An Intelligence (and only Intelligent Agents have ever) produced specified complex coded information such as is found in DNA / RNA that produces life.
4) Either Matter produces a life of meaning and context and purpose - NOT! - or
Creator God produced a life of meaning and context and purpose.

. Any philosophy that believes that matter is eternal or that the material infinite exists in any form, or that there can be an infinite regress of cause is wrong - period. So much for atheism.
. Any philosophy that believes that everything material can come from literally nothing by nothing is wrong - period. (Now THAT’S a belief in magic!) So much for atheism.

Second, because we know that matter WAS created, out of nothing, multi god religions are wrong for there can be only one Greatest Conceivable Being > Occam’s Razor.

Third when we consider the attributes of what the Creator must have possessed to bring about the universe we observe, we arrive at a Creator that is (timeless, immaterial, eternal, infinite in power and knowledge etc.) exactly the same type of Creator that is described in the Bible. This description of the Creator is arrived at, not from the Bible, but from logic.

We know that to identify the genuine Rolex watch, the real fifty-dollar bill and the solution to the math problem, we must go to the creators, the originators, the producers of the genuine article to know which is genuine and which is counterfeit.

If my relative wants to find a Church that will agree with what she already believes, that will happen sooner or later. If however she wishes to discover Truth, then she must go on a journey that requires openness of mind and self-honesty.

I believe that God, in the form of Jesus, came and lived among us to show us the Way. He came to prove to us that He is Truth. Jesus proved by His life and His actions that eternal Life will not be found in anyone but Himself.

If you genuinely compare the person of Jesus and what He taught, with ANY religious figure from ANY other religion, while you might not like what He taught, I think it will become clear that Jesus is leagues ahead of any of the other religious leader in His explanation of life as you observe it.

Unlike Mohammed, Jesus was not a paedophile.
Unlike Buddha, Jesus did not reject his wife and children to go in search of truth.
Unlike the thousands of Hindu gods and goddesses, Jesus is grounded in history.

Unlike any other leader of a major world religion, Jesus said,
“If you have seen Me, you have seen God.”
“If you knew Me, you would know My Father, the One who sent Me”
“He who hates Me, hates My Father also”
“I and the Father are one.” The word that Jesus used for “one” means, one in essence.

You can reject any religion, including atheism and if you are wrong, nothing major or significant happens to you.
If you reject what Jesus taught and you’re wrong, you’ve got a problem of eternal proportions.

Don’t take this lightly. Do your utmost to discover as much as you can know. Don’t be afraid to use science for science itself points to Creator God.

“It may seem bizarre, but in my opinion science offers a surer path to God than religion.”
Physicist Paul Davies

Are You On The Bus?

John knows that the bus is about to leave, but he refuses to step out of the shelter and into the rain to do what it takes to get on the bus. As the bus drives away, Bob, who’s just coming into the shelter, tries his hand at small talk.

“I hope that wasn’t your bus” he says with more of a giggle than a laugh.

John cheerfully and with surprising confidence says, “Actually that was my bus. I’m on my way.”

“What do you mean you’re on your way? You’re still here.”

“Nope. I’m on the bus,” counters John.

“You sound very sincere in your beliefs,” Bob says politely, “but how can you be here, and on the bus at the same time?”

“Well, I’m not sure,” ponders John. “I just know that I must be on the bus because a loving bus driver would never leave me standing in hellish weather when he knows that I want to go to the Shopping Mall at the end of his route.”

“Did you make any effort to accept the ride that was being offered by the bus driver?”

“No, not really. But I didn’t cause any trouble while I was standing in this shelter either. That’s why I get to be on the bus - because I’m an example of a respectful, decent bus passenger.”

“But to be a bus passenger, even a decent bus passenger, you have to actually do what it takes to get on a bus!”

“You’re too narrow-minded Bob. In my belief system, if the bus driver loves me, he’ll ensure that I simply appear at the mall, even if I don’t want to ride with him.”
======

It’s difficult to believe that anyone could be as deluded as John. On the other hand, you’ve probably heard someone comment - “A loving God would never allow a good person to go to hell when He knows that person would want to go to heaven.”

No doubt, this kind of wishful thinking is very appealing. The problem is, you cannot be a Christian and not be a Christian at the same time. And the fact is, trying to be a good person does not make someone a Christian. If that were the case, then there would be Buddhists, Muslims, Hindus and even atheists who were Christians. There is no logic to that kind of thinking.

A Christian is someone who believes and acts upon what Jesus Christ taught about Himself, about life, death, sin, forgiveness and the resurrection (His and ours). Jesus taught that a follower of His is a person who depends upon Jesus alone for salvation. He taught that a Christian is someone who depends upon what Jesus calls His Word (The Bible), and upon His Spirit for guidance and strength in daily living.

Beyond that definition, the single biggest difference between what Jesus taught and what other religious leaders have taught, is that Jesus made it perfectly clear that there is nothing that we can DO to merit salvation. If we could earn our salvation, then Jesus died for nothing!

John 6:28,29 - Then they asked Him, what must we do, to do the works God requires? Jesus answered, “The work of God is this, to believe in the One He has sent.”

All other religions, and even some cults that call themselves Christian, have “Good Works” and/or the observance of ritual as a base for one’s entrance into their concept of paradise.

The Bible tells us in:
Mark 16:16 - Jesus said, “Those who believe and are baptized will be saved but those who refuse to believe will be condemned.”
John 1:12,13 Jesus said, “Unless you are born again, you can never get into the kingdom of heaven.” There is no eternal doom awaiting those who trust Him to save them. But those who don’t trust Him have already been tried and condemned for not believing in the only Son of God.
John 5:24 - Jesus said, “I say emphatically that anyone who listens to My message and believes in God who sent me has eternal life and will NEVER be damned for his sins. He has crossed from death into life.”
John 8:24 - Jesus said, “For unless you believe that I am the Son of God, the Messiah, you will die in your sins.”
Romans 3:27,28 - Our acquittal is not based on our good deeds, it is based on what Christ has done and our faith in Him. So it is we are saved, by faith in Christ and not by the good things we do.
Galatians 2:19 - It was through reading the Scriptures that I came to realize that I could never find God’s favour by trying and failing to obey the law. I came to realize that acceptance with God comes by believing in Christ.
1st Thessalonians 1:8,9 - The Lord Jesus will bring judgement on those who do not wish to know God and those who reject His plan to save them through our Lord Jesus Christ. They will be punished in everlasting hell, forever separated from the Lord, never to see the glory of His power.

These verses literally scream for our attention. The basis for what they say is this. God is completely Holy. Nothing less than complete Holiness can come into His presence. Jesus taught that we are separated from His Holiness by our sinful nature, and neither religion, nor a moral life, nor some concept of spirituality can fix that. In other words, we can never be ‘good enough’ to be good enough for heaven (Romans 3:22,23).

That’s why the Bible explains to us that the result of sin, the wages of sin, the consequences of sin, the cost of sin, is banishment from God. But there is good news folks! Out of His enormous love, Jesus paid the penalty of sin for us. Our part of the bargain is to step out of our self-created shelter and accept that payment on His terms.

To those who are still searching for peace with God, Jesus says, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life, no one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6). Notice that Jesus didn’t say, “I know a way,” or “I’m one of the ways.” He said “I Am the way.” He wasn’t being narrow minded or judgmental. Total and eternal separation from God, what we know as Hell, is so awful that Jesus wants to make sure that the way of salvation is crystal clear.

This is serious stuff! If what Jesus taught about eternity is true, then making the decision to accept Him or reject Him as our Saviour has got to be the single most important decision that you and I will ever make. And it’s urgent. Strokes, fires, heart attacks, falling, car accidents, violent storms; Statistics show that for most of us, our ability to make a decision for Jesus will end suddenly, with little or no warning.

“Seek the Lord while He may be found, call on Him while He is near. Turn to the Lord, and the Lord will have mercy on you”(Isaiah 55:6,7).

You can’t just stand in what you think to be a neutral position.
A decision is being made even as you read this.

“I tell you, now is the time of God’s favour, now is the day of Salvation.”
(2nd Corinthians 6:2)