Struggle - Where will it end? #3

Continuing on from my last blog, we see that Atheism (The belief there is no God) and Pantheisim (The belief that 'All' is God) make a mockery of life, meaning and STRUGGLE, have no real hope to offer the Person struggling in life except that one day they will not be conscious of anything anymore because they will be dead, and have no good reason for believing they are true.

Today we'll consider Polytheism (The belief there are many Gods, all are true). 

First we'll identify the two main catagories of polythieism.

1) The religions of the ancient Greeks and Romans etc. They had a God for just about everything. God's of war, gods of death, gods of fertility, etc. a few famous ones being Zeus, Venus, Hades etc. This mythical system lacks any real credibility today and no-one really takes them seriously so I will skip over them. They are great stories, but that is it. But if you want me to post on them just let me know.

2) The eastern forms which are still very much alive today in Hinduism, Buddhism, Taosim, Confuscionism to name a few. Since many people still believe in these forms of religion, I will deal with them.

The two key central and connected doctrines of Polytheism ar Karma and Reincarnation.

Karma is the principle law of the universe whereby each person will reap what they sow. The crucial distinctive - and utter failure of this teaching is that the reaping and sowing is worked out in the process of Reincarnation.  

Reincarnation is the teaching that we have all lived numerous previous lives and when we die we will be born again into different circumstances. Some say we may previously have been a dog, cow or ant and in the next life we could be another species, others say reincarnation occurs only within species, so people will always come back as people, but just in different circumstance.

The circumstance you come back into depend on Karma. So Karma - this sowing and reaping means that in this life you reap what you sowed in your last life. This means that people who are rich and beautiful have lived a series of good lives, each life being better than the last as a reward for the last. The person in poor and deprived circumstances of suffering must have lived a series of bad previous lives.

On the face of it this sounds quite reasonably - but scratch beneath the surface and out come the maggots. This religious belief system is morally bankrupt.

If you go to India where people really believe this stuff (unlike many here who just think it's hip), you will find children living on rubbish tips trying to find food, you will see old men or women laying in the streets, crippled and suffering. No-one helps them. Why? Because of Karma! People think they are working out their Karma, they are reaping in this life what they sowed in the last one. They think that if they help these poor people they stop Karma which means the victims will have to work it out again in the next life. So the kindest thing to do is leave them.

Slum-dog Millionaire

This was a great movie telling the story of the plight of two brothers and a little girl. In the story is another little boy who can sing. His captors burn his eyes out with acid so that people will pity him more as he sits begging and singing. Now if that little boy believes Karma, he thinks he is suffering because of being bad in a previous life! Passers by who believe Karma will do nothing to help him because, even if they have compassion, they think he deserves it because of what he must have done in a previous life, they think he is working out his karma so the most helpful thing you can do is leave him.

This is clap-trap! Total rubbish and it is an evil deception. Imagine a little 5 year old boy, happily and quietly playing, when his parent sneaks up behind him and ... BANG! Whacks him round the head really hard and says to the little boy "that'll teach you a lesson". The boy, of he believes Karma will say, "I must deserve it or OT wouldn't have happened to me, I must have been really bad in my last life". But worse, the parent who did it will say "He must have deserved that or I wouldn't have done it to him, he must have been bad in his last life". 

The problem is, the poor child doesn't know what he's done wrong so how can he learn? How can he know he is not repeating the same mistakes? Karma is evil because it is abusive and teaches nothing at all except you deserve whatever you get.

But it is self-defeating too. You are meant to be good in this life in order to have a better next life. So, going back to our poor blind boy, you would think it is good to help him. But with karma is is evil to help him because you. Know you are not really helping him, you are making Hos next life worse because you stopped karma. So if you want to be really good, you leave him to suffer, you leave him to be exploited no matter how bad. In fact the more cruel his circumstances,mthe more terrible his suffering, the more important it is to leave him in His suffering so that he can get It out of the way in this life for a better next life.

Reincarnation and Karma, the main doctrines of Polytheism go together and they are wretched, evil, wicked and cruel. But that doesn't mean Polytheism is not true. So, is it true?

Struggle - Where will it end? #2

Continuing from my last blog (see blog below) we can see that the answer from Atheists is, "sorry mate, we got absolutely nothing!" It's slightly ironic, they start with absolutely nothing (before the big bang) and they got absolutely nothing to offer the struggler (which is most people in the world) now or ever.

Atheism is for intellectuals sitting in ivory towers of relative comfort where they can Molly-coddle themselves with comfort whilst living a padded life-style where they are not forced to face the real tough questions about life that inadequate Atheism is hopeless to address.

"This is it and there's nothing more" is a lot easier to say when your "it" is a nice house with garden. Reasonably good bank balance, happy families and future prospects. When your "it" is real struggle, Atheism proves to be nothing more than idealistic trash.

What are the alternatives to Atheism? Well there is Theism - that is the idea there is some kind of God. There are three main types of theism. Polytheism (many gods), Pantheism (all is god) and Monotheism There is just one God. We'll consider here Pantheism.

Pantheism: Here in the west there is a  mixed bag of Pantheisim often called New Ageism which is really a pick'n'mix of eastern religions and ancient Celtic beliefs (and a bit more besides). you might call it neo-paganism.  It essentially believes God is all, and is in all. God is the trees, the sun, the stars, the air we breathe, the hills, mountains, streams etc. It is mother earth that is worshipped and exalted above all. it's difficult to nail modern Pantheism (neo-paganism) down because it is by nature 'pick'n'mix, but for our purposes we will focus on one element of it ...

Reincarnation.  

Neo-pagans generally believe a type pf reincarnation, that when we die we continue to live on by becoming part of the living earth. That is, the worms eat us and as they absorbis we become a part of them,  and of course they poo what they don't want of us out which fertilises and feeds the trees etc - so we become part of them too, and on we go, basically a glorified 'Green Party' ideal of recycling. We are all part of the whole and hang together, we will one day become part of the ground we walk on so should respect it, therefore we must aim to live as a harmonious 'one' with one another and the world. This is the neo-pagan view.

Mother Earth

Pantheists and Neo-pagans speak a lot about Mother Earth as the giver of life, provider, the supplier of all we need. But here's another perspective on this so-called mother. Here is the bootom line ... No matter what happens in this life, no matter how good or bad we are, no matter how we are treated or treat others, we all get the same reward from Mother Earth, we all get to become worm-feed. that is ultimately what we are - worm feed. That is all we amount to, worm feed! Most of us would not waste a good cut of steak on a dog, butour beloved  'mother earth' uses us, the children of mother earth, to feed the worms!  Think that through - such is our so called 'mother earth'. What a sick, sick mother that would be!

If this is true, and life is a struggle, it means life is a struggle and then you feed worms. So what is the point in the struggle? Why not just cut it out and go straight to feeding worms? Sadly, on Pantheism there is no rational answer.

We might say, "but not everything is always struggle, and even if it was there are things I value, people I love and people who love me. So for the sake of one another the struggle to live is worth it to enrich the lives of those we love."

I think that is the best answer Pantheism (neo-pagans) can give (and for that matter Atheists too). 

At that level I agree with them, it is true, people we love and the relationships we enjoy are both worth living for and dying for, it is deeply saddening that 'struggle' - be it poverty, hunger, hopelessness, despair, oppression, injustice, sickness, wickedness etc blights this precious life for so, so many people. 

Murder with impunity

But, though we probably all stand together in agreement on the above paragraph, the reality is, these precious relationships are all bound to destruction. The greatest tragedy of life is death, because death makes a mockery of life. It is like a terrible enemy - like a murderer that murders with impunity. Imagine a murderer breaking into your home and killing your wife and children - that is what death does! Death is going to murder me, my marriage, my wife, my children, death will murder everything that means anything to me and to you, Pantheism and Atheism has no answer to it. On Pantheism and Atheism, death has the last word.

Some saye the fact of death just makes life even more precious. I can see this reasoning. If death has the final answer we should value one another while we can. None of us know when this murderer of life will show. Death is very active, devastating lives and taking people out all the time all over the place. It may come for us and our loved ones at any moment. It has countless ways of achieving its end. 

A Helter Skelter

In some ways, life is like a Helter-skelter ride ... to destruction - so the best thing we can do is stick our fingers in our ears and close our eyes, enjoy the thrill of the ride until the final moment we are plunged into the brick wall at the end and  splat!  The end! To open your eyes and see what's really happening is too scary and will just ruin the ride.

Pantheism has no answers except the same as Atheists. The Murderer of life is coming for everyone of us, we may fight it off with medicine, technology etc, but it will have its way and Pantheism, neo-paganism cannot do a thing to help - but that doesn't matter because Pantheism is not true. There is a real answer to death which we will come to. In the next blog we will look at Polytheism - the belief there are many Gods, and we'll see what this says to the struggler.

For now, Atheism and Pantheism have got nothing.

Struggle - Where will it end?

This is a question my good cousin raised. This is such an important question. Life is, for loads of people I know, a real uphill struggle, and it seems relentless. Will the 'struggle' ever end? For some people it almost defies belief as they lurch from one struggle to another. It wears people right down, leads to hopelessness, despair and often depression.

Eg, No money, home in need of repair, broken washing machine, watching ya children struggle, joblessness, sickness, disease and disability, overgrown garden, old mattress ya can't get rid of coz you got no car, screwed up relationships and too much hurt to think about are just some of the struggles.

The old saying, 'life's a bitch and then you die' resonates with too many. But not for everyone. Some people just seem to breeze through life. Many are more than content, things have fallen into place, their life's hard work is well rewarded. 

Basically, life is really unfair. We live in a world which is 'built on insecurity' and oppression. So where does it all lead?

Over the next few blogs I'll share the answers on offer. First up ...

1) Atheism - There is no God, no Master plan, no point or purpose, only blind indifference: life is utterly futile and plagued with unresolved injustice. Hitler gets the same end as the innocent child victims he gassed. If your life is struggle - tough luck, that's just the way it is. There is no point or purpose in it. There is no ultimate reward. You struggle, you die, you are remembered for a few years by your children if you have any, then you are forgotten forever - in 100 years time it will be as though you never existed. No-one will know your struggles, joys, hopes and fears. The reward for a lifetime of faithfulness in the best of marriages is merciless separation by death. Your life will have been pointless. The only good thing being, you never lived to see some of your offspring struggle in a world that seems to be getting harder and more cruel and hopeless. I hate the thought that at least some of my offspring will experience terrible suffering, and it will be pointless.

As if that wasn't bad enough, on Atheism the whole universe will one day die a heat death. The last star will flicker out and eventually there will be nothing at all. On Atheism, the idea of purpose and meaning is, in the end, absurd. Atheists conveniently ignore these truths because they are unbearable to live with. All that is not to say we cannot all invent our own purpose or meaning, but in reality, there is none.

Thankfully, Atheism is clearly not true. How do I know? Well the first answer may not be convincing to you, but it is to me, that is, I know God. But though that may not be convincing to you, I also know Atheism is not true because it defies all logic and common sense.

You see, if Atheism is true, then everything in the universe came from nothing at all. When I say 'nothing at all' I mean, absolutely 'nothing at all'. There was no time, no space and no matter - these things came about after the big bang. Before the Big Bang there was nothing. Not a single microscopic cell, not an atom! There was not even such a thing as a 'moment'. But then, apparently, about 13.5 billion years ago, absolutely nothing became unstable (I know this sounds ridiculous - that's because it is!) which led to a massive explosion out of this nothing, and the result, hey presto, rabbits, elephants, rivers, mountains, stars, moons, people and galaxies so big that if you could fly at a speed of 186,000 miles per second, it would take about 46 billion years to get to the edge of the universe.

But this is truly absurd. We all know, 'out of nothing at all comes nothing at all.'

We also know that everything that exists has a cause. The universe exists, therefore the universe has a cause. That cause must itself be uncaused. 

This ultimate, uncaused cause is what we call God. In a future blog I will show how this God has revealed Himself so we can know Him. For now though, it is sufficient to say, There is God, therefore there is purpose.

Atheists are Religious Worshippers too.

Atheists are like the person with the cam-corder shooting the amateur video at the wedding. When you watch the video back, everyone is in it except the person shooting the vid! 

Atheists tend to think they are in an unbiased position and from that position judge 'religion'. Of course they are wrong. For starter, when we catch them on the video we see they are very religious. Here are just two ways they're religious.

1) Atheism is a faith position.

Atheists tend to criticise faith and claim they do not have faith and claim to base their conviction on fact. But the truth is, that's the same with Christianity - I can't speak for all other religions!

For example, Atheist, based on the evidence tend to believe in some form of evolution. But the fact is, so do lots (not all) of Christians. They look at the same evidence. Even Christians who do not believe Evolution still look at the same evidence. They all look at fossils, sedimentation, rock strata etc, etc, etc, then based on the available evidence, the Atheist says, "this evidence points to the conclusion there is no God" and the Christian Theist concludes "this evidence points to the conclusion that there is God".

The step from 'evidence' to 'conviction' is a 'faith' step. Even evolution is not a fact and to suggest it is, is just a sloppy use of terms. The truth is, Evolution is an interpretation of evidence. So evolution is itself a 'faith' position.

2) Atheists are Religious Worshippers

The truth is, most people are Worshippers - Atheists as much as Christians - we just worship different Gods. Christians claim to worship the one true God who is worthy of praise and devotion. Atheists (and most people) worship that which is a poor substitute for God. 

For many it is their lover. Just listen to the worship songs they sing, for example Bruno Mars 'It will Rain'

There's no religion that could save me

No matter how long my knees are on the floor (Ooh)

So keep in mind all the sacrifices I'm makin'

To keep you by my side

To keep you from walkin' out the door.

'Cause there'll be no sunlight

If I lose you, baby

There'll be no clear skies

If I lose you, baby

Just like the clouds

My eyes will do the same, if you walk away

Everyday it'll rain, rain, rain

This song is full of religion ...

The song speaks of salvation, how his God (in this case his lover) is the only Sufficient Saviour. Without his particular God-Saviour (his lover), no [other] religion could save him. He sings about 'sacrifices' he makes to please and to keep his God-Saviour from leaving him. He sings how, without this person there is basically only misery - rain being the metaphor.

In fact, Atheists not only write their own worship songs to their gods, they borrow Christian worship and apply it to their lovers too! Two examples ... 

Van Morrison's (A Christian) 'Have I told you' was written as worship to God but people use it as a love song.

Have I told you lately that I love you

Have I told you, that there's no-one else above you

Fill my heart with gladness, take away all of my sadness

Ease my troubles that's what you do.

Again, another great worship song misapplied by most written by Candi Staton in 1986, popularised by Florence and the Machine ... 'You got the love'. It's about God! He's got the love, He is "my daily bread". But as God is to the Christian so are people's lovers to them!

Atheists, like everyone have a deep, deep need to worship something or someone.

The problem is, none of their objects of worship are really worthy of such devotion. Take a lover. When we apply songs like "you got the love" to ordinary people we are pretending they are divine - we are literally idolising them - no-one is that good, so people pretend they are and kid themselves "this girls is perfect"!

Other choice objects for worship and idolising are children, ideologies, money, materialism, hobbies, sports, self.

Whatever, every Atheist is a person of faith and has at least one object of worship. They are both Worshippers and people of faith, in that sense - just like  me!

Why Jesus is Relevant for you NOW

Why Is Jesus relevant to you today?

We have seen in previous blogs that Jesus really did exist and that, if resurrected He really is who He claimed to be. But still, so what? So what if some bloke came back to life 2000 years ago.

The answer is simple - He has been appointed by God as judge. You will give an account to Him for all your life, and He will judge you..

In most cases, we don't need to worry about religion because, if any of them are true, then most of them are true because they all say stuff like "we all worship the same God anyway" and "religions are like rivers, in the same way all the rivers lead to the ocean, so all the religions lead to God". Also, they all basically teach this life is part of reincarnation. Live well now, you get a better life the next time round. So, with most religions you just need to be good.

But if Jesus is who he calmed to be - everything changes. Jesus (and the Apostles) claimed that He was the ONLY way to God. All other attempts utterly fail.

Acts 4[12] Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.”

Basically, the Bible teaches that God created us to live forever. After this life our soul departs from our body - leaving our body to decay. But where does our soul go? It goes to await judgment.

The Bible teaches we will all be judged. We naturally hate this idea, we think, "what kind of God 'judges'". We think of God as judgmental.

But it is good and really important that God does judge. If God does not judge, then Adolf Hitler, the wicked who are rich, powerful and greedy who exploit the poor - get the same reward as your average Joe Who is just trying to get on in life. It means the murderer, rapist and child abuser that never got caught gets clean away with it! In the end, it makes life utterly absurd.

But there is a judge, so no-one really gets away with anything. Everyone of us will give an account to God.

This is why we need salvation. You see, I'm glad Adolf Hitler won't be getting away with anything, and I'm glad the exploited children of our world have the hope of a new life with God forever on a new earth without sadness, suffering and sorrow. But I'm not glad I will be judged, because that is bad, bad news for me.

You may be wondering what I have done that is so bad? Well, lots of things actually. But there are four things we all need to know.

1) God will judge us by His standard, which is perfection.
2) God will not sweep a single failing or sin under the carpet - He will be perfectly and precisely just, punishing every sin without exception.
3) God judges us, not only only on what we have done but also on our thought life - yes, every imagination and fantasy, violent, sexual, greedy etc - because God says that it is what we are on the inside that is who we really are.
4) God will judge us against His most important Law which is "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all Your soul, All your mind and all your strength".

This means we have all utterly failed the judgement already! But worst of all is our rejection of Jesus our Saviour.

You see, God sent Jesus to deal with the problem of our sin and guilt before God. Jesus has dealt with it! This is good news because it means we can all know total forgiveness and a new life that pleases God. Jesus is now establishing as King of God's Kingdom and right now Jesus is in the process of recruiting people to it.

Here's the deal, if you want, you can be part of His Kingdom - you can come back to Him with Jesus as your Lord, God and King. But you don't have to. However, if you reject Jesus and His Kingdom in this life - your decision carries over into eternity. This means you will be shut out of God's kingdom forever, the Bible calls this hell.

This is why Jesus is so important and relevant to all people now. Jesus is not just some silly little fairy-tale, and God is not to be treated with contempt like a salesman. There are eternal consequences to the decision you make about Jesus now.

Wanna know more. Look out for my next blog.

Jesus - If He was raised, He is God and Christianity is true!

What If Jesus was resurrected - does that mean He is God and Christianity is true?

I have had a few people say to me, "Actually Julian, even if Jesus was raised to life, it just means that He was raised to life, it doesn't necessarily follow that He is God or Christianity is true".

I would answer the following...

1) The fact that the resurrection of Jesus is embedded in Old Testament prophecy connects the resurrection of Jesus to those Old Testament prophecies and explanations.
2) This means the resurrection of Jesus is not just an isolated event; it is part of something bigger. To ignore that 'something bigger' is to ignore the context of the resurrection - without which it becomes nothing more than meaningless magic!

But the resurrection of Jesus is part of something much bigger than itself and it can only be understood in the light of the Old (OT) (and New (NT)) Testament.

Below I show how Jesus Life, Death and Resurrection are embedded in the Old Testament. I have taken two Old Testament passages, one long passage from the book of Isaiah, and the other - just a short prophecy from Zechariah 2:10, and I have shown how they point to Jesus by quoting corresponding verses from the New Testament.

All the Old Testament verses are in blue and the New Testament verses are in red. You don't need to read all these, the black, bulleted headings explain the verses, but the verses are there if you want to check them.

• Jesus will appear as an ordinary man without privilege or advantage in life. (Compare Isaiah 53:2 with NT Mark 6:3)

Isaiah 53 [2] He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.

Mark 6:
[3] Isn't this the carpenter? Isn't this Mary's son and the brother of James, Joseph, Judas and Simon? Aren't his sisters here with us?” And they took offense at him.

• He was despised and rejected (Compare OT Isaiah 53:3 with Matthew 27:22,23)

Isaiah 53 [3] He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces, he was despised and we esteemed him not.

Matthew 27 [22] “What shall I do, then, with Jesus who is called Christ?” Pilate asked. They all answered, “Crucify him!” [23] “Why? What crime has he committed?” asked Pilate. But they shouted all the louder, “Crucify him!”

• He was led like a lamb to the slaughter though he was innocent and did not open His mouth (Isaiah 53:7 with Mark 14:53-61)

Isaiah 53 [7] He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth.

Mark 14 [53] They took Jesus to the high priest, and all the chief priests, elders and teachers of the law came together. ... [55] The chief priests and the whole Sanhedrin were looking for evidence against Jesus so that they could put him to death, but they did not find any ... [60] Then the high priest stood up before them and asked Jesus, “Are you not going to answer? What is this testimony that these men are bringing against you?” [61] But Jesus remained silent and gave no answer.

• He was considered stricken by God Himself (Compare Isaiah 53:4 with NT Galatians 3:13)

Isaiah 53 [4] Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted.

Galatians 3[13] Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.”

• He was wounded, bruised, pierced, marred and disfigured (compare Isaiah 52:14, 53:5 with Mark 14:61, 15:16-20, Mark 15:15, 25)

Isaiah 53 [14] Just as there were many who were appalled at him — his appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any man and his form marred beyond human likeness

[5] But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.

Mark 14 [65] Then some began to spit at him; they blindfolded him, struck him with their fists, and said, “Prophesy!” And the guards took him and beat him. [15] Wanting to satisfy the crowd, Pilate released Barabbas to them. He had Jesus flogged, and handed him over to be crucified. [16] The soldiers led Jesus away into the palace (that is, the Praetorium) and called together the whole company of soldiers. [17] They put a purple robe on him, then twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on him. [18] And they began to call out to him, “Hail, king of the Jews!” [19] Again and again they struck him on the head with a staff and spit on him. Falling on their knees, they paid homage to him. [20] And when they had mocked him, they took off the purple robe and put his own clothes on him. Then they led him out to crucify him.

[25] It was the third hour when they crucified him. 

• He was killed (Compare Isaiah 53:8 with Mark 15:37)

Isaiah 53 [9] He was assigned a grave with the wicked,and with the rich in his death, though he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth. 

Mark 15:37 With a loud cry, Jesus breathed his last.

• He was assigned a grave with the wicked and the rich (Compare Isaiah 53:9 with Luke 23:50-53)

Isaiah 53 [9] He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death, though he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth. 

Luke 23 [50-53] Now there was a man named Joseph, a member of the Council, a good and upright man, Lk 23:51 who had not consented to their decision and action. He came from the Judean town of Arimathea and he was waiting for the kingdom of God. Lk 23:52 Going to Pilate, he asked for Jesus’ body.  Lk 23:53 Then he took it down, wrapped it in linen cloth and placed it in a tomb cut in the rock, one in which no one had yet been laid.

• He will not remain dead but will come back to life (Compare Isaiah 53:11 with Luke 24)

Isaiah 53 [11] After the suffering of his soul, he will see the light└ of life┘ and be satisfied; by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities.

See all of Luke 24

• Many Nations will come to Him (Compare Isaiah 53:11, Zechariah 2:10 with the fact that now Christianity is a global Faith)

Isaiah 53 [11] After the suffering of his soul, he will see the light of life and be satisfied; by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities

The Bible also tells us that this servant, the Messiah is God (LORD) in person. We can see this from Zechariah 2 ...

• Jesus – the one who was sent is in fact God in human form.

Zechariah [10] “Shout and be glad, O Daughter of Zion. For I am coming, and I will live among you,” declares the LORD. [11] “Many nations will be joined with the LORD in that day and will become my people. I will live among you and you will know that the LORD Almighty has sent me to you.

Ok, so this is a little hard to understand but it is also clear. It says, "For I am coming, and I will live among you". Who is the "I"? We are told, "Declares the LORD". The word LORD, when it appears in capitals is actually the divine name 'Yahweh' which is the Old Testament name for God. It is God who will come and live among us.

So this tells us that God Himself will come and live among men and through Him many Nations will be joined to Him.

The confusing bit is that it then says,

"I will live among you and you will know that the LORD Almighty has sent me to you."

So that means the LORD sent the LORD, or Yahweh sent Yahweh. How should we understand this?

Well Jesus said He was sent by His Father. Christians teach the Trinity, that means God is one and He is called Yahweh in the Old Testament. But this one God Yahweh, is three persons, Father, Son (Jesus) and Holy Spirit. So in this verse from Zechariah we have God (Yahweh) the Father sending God (Yahweh) the Son. As the Meerkats would say "simples!".

So Jesus stepped onto the stage of this world and fulfilled all the OT prophesy. The Apostle Paul tells us that the Resurrection itself is the final nail in the coffin of the skeptic.

So, when a person says, "Ok, so Jesus came back to life, but that doesn't mean He is God or that Christianity is true", my answer is this ...

That may be true. But the Prophecies and explanations of the OT were all pointing to Jesus resurrection in the first place. If Jesus did rise from the grave fulfilling predictive prophecies and explanations, surely it would be unreasonable, irrational and foolish to ignore those explanations that predicted and explained it in the first place.

To summaries let me put it like this.

It was written in the Old Testament hundreds of years before Jesus was born that ...

God (Yahweh - LORD) is going to come to earth in the form of a man, He will claim to be the Messiah - the 'Son of Man' (see Daniel 7:13 / Matthew 26:64).  He will be rejected and suffer, he will be killed, but He will come back to life.

Well, Jesus (whose name means 'Yahweh Saves') came, He called Himself 'The Son of Man', was rejected, suffered, was killed on grounds of blasphemy by the Jews (claiming to be God) and sedition by the Romans (claiming to be a King). Jesus was raised on the third day. Jesus' resurrection was the ultimate vindication proving His alleged blasphemous claims to be in fact true. To then say, "Just because Jesus came back to life does not mean He was God" is to either ignore the picture as a whole or just be in denial, either way, it would seem disingenuous or ignorant.

If Jesus came back to life, the claims of scripture about Him are true. If the claims of scripture about Jesus are true, Jesus is God and Christianity is true.

Jesus - The Facts, Did Jesus Actually Live? #2

So in the last blog I chatted about how scholars all agree Jesus really did exist. Here we look at one reason why they agree, and why we can also be confident that Jesus really did exist.

Extra-Biblical references to Jesus. What does that mean? It ,just means 'references to Jesus outside of the Bible.  If you was to watch the BBC News today you will hear about an investigation going on into the tragic abduction and murder of April Jone's, a five year old girl. She was taken from her hometown of Machynlleth 1st October 2012, 7 months ago. Sometimes we hear reports about real things that happened much further back in the past.

Well, a man called Tacitus who was a kind of reporter (an Historian in fact) who lived around the time of Jesus and the Apostles, reported in AD64 about Christians and Jesus. Tacitus was a Roman and basically a hater of Christianity. But his report represents the strongest of evidence that Jesus really did exist.

Tacitus was not writing to prove a point about Christianity or Jesus, he was writing about the injustice and cruelty of Nero in blaming and persecuting Christians for the great fire of Rome.

He writes ...

"Nero fastened the guilt . . . on a class hated for their abominations, called Christians by the populace. Christus, from whom the name had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of . . . Pontius Pilatus, and a most mischievous superstition, thus checked  for the moment, again broke out not only in Judaea, the first source of the evil, but even in Rome. . . ."

So we can learn the following from this quote ...

1) Christians got the name 'Christian' from a real historical person called 'Christus'' which is Latin for 'Christ'.
2) Christ suffered the "extreme penalty" which for the 300 years leading up to that point in time and for another 150 years after, was crucifixion.
3) He was crucified during the reign of Tiberius (See the Bible, Luke 3:1)
4) He was Crucified "at the hands of ...  Pilatus (which is Latin for Pilate)" (See the Bible, Matthew 27:2)
5) The "superstition" (that is,mthe Christian faith) was checked for a short period - if you read the Bible, you will see in the Gospels and the book of Acts that Jesus was crucified during the Passover (Matthew 26:19-21) and the Apostle Peter Preached His first public sermon at Pentecost (Acts 2:1) when 3000 were added to the church - which marked the beginning of the spread of the Christian faith. Now between Passover and Pentecost there is a seven week period. So from the outside, after Jesus was crucified everything appeared to go quite (for 7 weeks to be precise), but then 7 weeks later it broke out afresh, first in Judea and spread onto Rome by the end of the book of Acts.

So, this short quote alone, which was not written by a Christian, has nothing at all to do with the Bible and if anything is clearly against the Christian faith, makes it clear that Jesus "Christ" really was a historical person.

There are other quotes too, if you want them just ask in the comments box below.

Jesus - The Facts, Did Jesus Actually Live? #1

There are a few wing nuts out there who reckon Jesus did not even exist. But this is rubbish. How can we know?

We can know this because there is a lot of controversy surrounding Jesus, and everyone has an opinion. But among those opinions are the opinions of scholars. Now scholars are not particularly special people, but their work is Peer Reviewed. that means they cannot just get away with saying made up rubbish. Many scholars that write about Jesus are not even Christians, some don't believe in the resurrection. Like everyone, they are biased, but they are biased in different ways. So considering all their different views, when they actually agree on certain things, those 'certain things' are pretty certain!

So what do they say? It isn't surprising that they have very different things to say about Jesus, but the controversies and disagreements are all around what Jesus actually said and did, not around if He existed. The idea that Jesus never existed is not believed by any credible scholars at all. Historians, Theologians, Philosophers, Scientists, Archeologists,  Atheists (people who believe there is no God), Theists (People who believe there is a God) and Agnostics (People who are are not sure)  all agree, Jesus clearly did live.

Now I disagree with informed Atheists particularly, and they disagree with me! But we do agree Jesus existed. 

When to people fall out big time and have an argument, they argue over 'something real'. So one might accuse another of stealing their sandwich. The accused might argue back by saying "I don't even like chicken and mayo sarnies, I saw it and the smellmof it made me sick!"

When people argue like that, we can be sure there was a chicken and mayo sarnie! That's how it is with Jesus! 

So, the fact that Scholars of all different biases, persuasions and opinions, different disciplines (fields of expertise such as history, Archeology, Psychology etc) all agree Jesus existed, then we have good reason to believe Jesus really did live. It's not the only reason, but it's good reason.