The Shadow Proves the Sunshine

// December 16th, 2008 // My Life, My Thoughts

After several discussions with serious atheists recently I found myself more sure of my relationship with God than I have ever been. Interestingly most atheists are not adamantly against the existence of God, but choose to withhold their final answer at the point that God’s existence is “proven”.

The truth is that most athiest are so appalled by the huge history of representative “Christians” and their bad behavior, that it is impossible for them to beleive in God.
I do remember an instance in my life in which my experience with some christians led me to think “If that is really who God is- I can’t beleive in that!”
For the first time I realized that nothing that we beleive can be taken for granted.
what we beleive has to be measured against truth. You may say “of course” but what do you call truth? You probably sign on to all of the cliches of modern christianity that everyone else does. Does that mean that it is true?
Modern Christianity practices exclusionary supposition to determine truth. in for further clarification if there is an established rule of doctrine then everything that does not fit that rule is ignored and/or restructured as exclusions.
A good example is spiritual gifts – there are many explanations and suppositions as to why the whole “be healed” and they are healed does not just happen right out of the box on demand!
there was obviously no manual for it but everyone in the early church had no problems figuring it out. sooo… what gives… does it work or not? Why?
Some other suppositions that are a little weird that I have heard.
  • God is a loving God – therefore God does not cause “bad” things to happen to you
  • Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever – so if I beleive “fill in the blank” then “fill in the blank” must be true!
  • because people today are so damaged and faulty – surely the Holy Spirit does not speak with the same authority through people today as he did in the early church.
If one of the above hits a nerve then good!
We all build our beleifs based on assumptions of truth, but if you build what you beleive on somone elses assumptions then you may be heading for some dissillusionment.
If you beleive something that depends on other beleifs- go back and prove them- check to be sure they actually even make sense!
for instance- why is it so important that the Bible be the “infallible and incorruptible”?
(I am not trying to cast doubt by argueing the point) but why is that so important? what does that prove? why does it prove it!? why is so many peoples faith based on the “infallible” written word of God.
follow me for a bit here…
the bible as we know it was not in existence untill hundreds of years after the death of Christ. The early church had a collection of old testament texts that were preserved through Judaism. but the new testament books were not found for a very long time. Granted the “letters” had been passed around during that time among the early church- but these were “letters” from the apostles as pastors of churches.
The assumption that many base the “infallibility” of the Bible on is that all of those books were preserved for a reason. But there are many more books that were written! so why only these? what about the apocrypha? those are in the catholic bible why not the protestant? are they not infallible? and who chose to decide if they were or not? do you decide that something is infallible by the fact that you cannot find dissagreement ? or that you can explain any disagreement away?
Paul said
“All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”
does that prove the “infallibility” ?
All of these questions are not to cast doubt in your heart but to challenge you to go further than the rhetoric of yesterday.
Why do you beleive what you beleive?
I have had faith in God in the past, I would say that my faith was equal to thinking “God must exist because of the bible and all of that stuff”
But my friend now I KNOW JESUS!!! I KNOW MY FATHER GOD!!!! and so faith takes a different tangent! faith becomes a trust in the character of somone you know. not just the trust that they exist!
The Shadow Proves the Sunshine… What does that mean to you?
Think about what you beleive…. Jasonthebaldguy
Tags: Apple, Art, beleive, christian, Christianity, christians, Faith, God, jesus, Religion, righteousness, spirit, sun, the past, truth

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3 Responses to “The Shadow Proves the Sunshine”

  1. Autumn says:
    December 16, 2008 at 11:36 pm

    Another great read….thought provoking!
    One rule: “i” before “E” except after “C”- what can I say- I’ve been teaching for 27 years!!!!!
    SOMEBODY STOP ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :)

    Reply
  2. Jason The Bald Guy says:
    December 17, 2008 at 12:16 am

    hah! I still do that ALL THE TIME! its like I never graduated! LOL

    Reply
  3. Justin The Bald Guy says:
    December 17, 2008 at 5:32 pm

    A perspective from the “Other Bald Guy”

    …All the questions and arguments…all the reasons and rationales, all the “Chinks” in the christian’s armour…We have allowed ourselves to be defined by these arguments and education…the ability to properly explain our doctrines and the reasons for them. We are to be defined by ONE thing…CHRIST! Thats it… was it the amazing apologetics performed by the followers of Christ in Antioch that got them called Christ-ians? Or was it that they couldnt stop talking about Jesus Christ? How many of them do you think, were highly educated and able to explain all the prophecies leading to the appearance of Jesus? One of my favorite answers to people when they start asking all those questions about “Bad things happening to good people” and speaking in tounges and healing and all that… I always say… “I Dont know all that stuff, but if you wanna talk about Jesus, now Him I can tell you about.”

    Understand, I am not saying logical explanations for things are not necessary. I know they are sometimes, and they are there. You don’t have to lose your brain to be a Christian. There is AMPLE proof that Jesus existed, was a man, was God’s Son, was real, died, was resurrected, ascended and is sitting at the right hand of God. There is ample evidence for the authenticity, inspiration and authority of the Canon of scripture that have, and good darn reasons the rest of those “writings” aren’t included in it. All that is important…but I would say, most folks just want to hear good news… we believe stuff all the time without extensive proof and evidence explained to us, (the media for example?) so before you get all bumfuzzled trying to answer the complicated questions and figure out every detail of every doctrine, remember, the message of Jesus is a simple one… it’s called the GOOD News…all you need to know is there was a Man who was God’s Son, who did everything needed to save you from the penalty of sin you incurred upon yourself…and He is ALIVE, and He loves you and wants you to accept Him.

    The other stuff? We can Get to that later.

    If you guys are interested, I can give you some good information on the authenticity of scripture and the historical proofs for Christ… let me know and I can do it in installments.

    Reply

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