You Can't Have It Both Ways!

I have many friends who put me to shame. They, as atheists, seem to be able to behave in a way that is more consistent with MY faith in Christ!!! As I fail every day to be the man I would like to be, these guys seem to calmly display the characteristics of Jesus that I want so desperately to embody. I call them "Christian" atheists. They have no belief in God, yet continue to see Jesus as an incredibly wise teacher and a source for moral behavior. They tell me that they believe in what he represented, but only consider him to be a man ahead of his time...

I do think that Jesus had many good things to teach us. But I wonder if we can be selective about what we choose to accept and what we choose to ignore when we examine his teaching. Can we embrace his moral commands and ignore the one most profound thing he came to teach us? Can we accept all the secondary teachings while we reject his primary claim? Can we consider Him to be a good teacher and then ignore the most important thing He ever taught?

Yes, Jesus established the moral code that has been embraced (even unknowingly) by our culture, but more importantly, he told us that HE WAS GOD. And he told us that unless we believe in Him, our material death will also be our spiritual death:

John 10:24-30
The Jews gathered around him, saying, "How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly." Jesus answered, "I did tell you, but you do not believe. The miracles I do in my Father's name speak for me, but you do not believe because you are not my sheep. My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father's hand. I and the Father are one."

John 11:25-26
"I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die.

It seems to me that we can't have it both ways. We can't live as though we accept Jesus' teaching about life, love and the moral code, yet deny His teaching about who He is. We cannot embrace the teaching of a man if we find him to be a liar. We just can't have it both ways...

jim

Please visit us at www.PleaseConvinceMe.com

You Can't Have It Both Ways!

Back at the Task of Digging Out the Truth!

Well we are back from Utah and it was quite a trip. If there is one thing we have learned from trips like these, where we examine the way that people over the centuries have drifted from the truth of Christianity, it’s that two errors repeatedly surface in the creation of cults.

First, there is the tendency to negate the reliability of the Bible. That is certainly something that the Mormon Church has done from the very beginning, claiming that the Bible has been mistranslated or corrupted over the years. Second, there is the tendency to reduce the nature of Jesus, claiming that he is something less than God. The Mormon Church has also done this, claiming that Jesus was by nature only a man who ascended through good works to Godhood.

It’s important for us to make sure that we uphold the truth about the Bible and about Jesus. That’s why we took the time to write the “Power of the Book” series, and why we are now in the middle of a series on the “Person of Jesus”. Now that we are back from Utah, it’s time to rejoin our quest for evidence and the truth about God’s Word and God’s Son.

Jim

Please visit us at www.PleaseConvinceMe.com

Back at the Task of Digging Out the Truth!

Utah Missions Trip Day Seven!

Good Morning (since you’ll probably be reading this in the morning). Boy what a day we had today. We are completely wiped out. We started early and drove out after breakfast to the Cathedral of the Madeleine, an absolutely beautiful Catholic cathedral right in the middle of downtown Salt Lake City, just blocks away from the Mormon Temple. We took about 30 minutes to sit in this inspiring environment and pray earnestly for the people of Utah. It was a powerful opportunity and I have to tell you that the architecture is so stunning, and hearkens back to the powerful history of art and design that has always accompanied Christianity.

After our visit to the Cathedral, we drove back to the Temple and spent the rest of the morning witnessing for the last time before we leave. Again, there were a number of very powerful conversations and opportunities to hand out information and DVD’s (by the way, we gave away 100 of the “Bible vs. the Book of Mormon” DVD’s!!!). We finished up at the Temple (including our group photograph) at about 1:00 and drove back to the church where we had lunch and changed clothes.

Then we drove out to Donut Falls and took out annual hike up to the top of the mountain. It was so beautiful, and a chance for us to relax after an exhausting week. We walked and hiked and jumped over creeks for about two hours. Then we drove back into Salt Lake City and ate dinner at the Rubio’s Fish Tacos restaurant near the capital building. Afterwards, we drove up to an amazing little park that is sitting on op of a hill behind the capital building. It has a sweeping view of the city.

By this time, it was about 9pm and the sun was setting over a stormy skyline. I was praying that God would give us a couple of hours in this spot without rain. God is good, and we stayed dry as we sang worship songs and reflected on our time in Utah. For me personally, this is always the best time of the trip. We have truly poured ourselves out over the last 7 days. We are empty. It has been a very emotional trip and a physically exhausting trip as well. No sleep, few breaks, and a difficult task ahead of us each day. We were under-prepared, overtaxed, and completely dependent on God. What a week. Tonight we got the chance to talk about it.

Of course everyone is so emotionally drained that we end up in tears and in pieces, grateful that God is able to hold us together, and grateful that we are part of this church family. And that is truly what we have become. Each and every time that we go on a trip like this, we are drawn together in a way that we really can’t explain completely when we return. There is something about standing side by side in the most important spiritual battles of our short lives. There is a certain foxhole fellowship that binds us together as a Band of Brothers and Sisters. And that is truly what we have become.

We ended our time on that hilltop by paying for the people we met this week, and by paying for the city and the State that was before us. We didn’t get off the hill until about 10:30! We then drove back to the church, cleaned and showered, packed our bags and listened to the traditional Brett Kunkle Concert. At the end of every trip, Brett writes a number of songs about our team members and then sings them to us on the last night. Tonight was great, VERY funny as usual! It’s about 12:30 right now and everyone is finally in bed. The trip is almost over. We are a family. And we are coming home tomorrow.

jim

Utah Missions Trip Day Seven!