Whom to follow?
B5 clip season 1 episode on dominant religions earth cermony– choices, choice, choices
There is a religion for every taste, desire, and even lack of taste. It is a veritable all you can eat buffet when it comes to finding a religion,
There is literally something for everyone.
If you enjoy jumping up and down in order to gain a transcendental state of mind there are gurus willing to teach you how, if you want to live a moral life in an attempt to appease god you have a myriad of religions to pick from, you can even find a religion that claims sex is a ploy of the devil utilized by women to steal the life force from men (needless to say this one never attracted many people) and all of these religions have one thing in common.
The promise to give you the one thing we are all seeking.
Truth
But as Pilate asked Jesus what is the truth?
If all of these religions claim to be true than what is the truth?
The world we live in has gotten lazy, no longer are they trying to answer the question, instead they are trying to take the easy route and say they are all true as long as they are true to you but how can that be when there are religions that are mutually exclusive.
So, not all of these religions can be true. Hinduism, Islam, and Christianity are mutually exclusive religions, if one of these religions is true than the others cannot be for the message of each is invalidates the other.
If Hinduism is true than Islam and Christianity are false because Hinduism maintains that life is an illusion that must be escaped and that there are multiple gods that must be appeased in order to escape the illusion of life, while both Islam and Christianity maintain there is only one god.
If Islam is true than Christianity and Hinduism must be false because Islam maintains that salvation comes through the complete obedience to the Law of god as it is passed down to the people through the Koran, while Hinduism claims that the route to oneness is through the release of the self through they veil of illusion by means of meditation and a life built on good karma, and Christianity is denied for salvation comes only through faith in the Son of God by the grace of the Father.
If by their very nature they all can not be true; who is true?
Who has it all right?
Contrary to lazy people who in the name of tolerance have declared it’s all good
As CS Lewis once asked if there is no such thing as a universal truth then why are people always arguing over what is true. For as he posited there must be a universal objective truth because everybody is arguing about what the truth.
As with many things Lewis was right. There is a universal objective truth and that is the truth revealed through Jesus Christ.
That there is one God who created the heavens and the earth and who dwell within and loves the people that created so much that despite all the false gods they have followed all the pain and suffering they have caused he was willing to give up his son in exchange for us.
That is the truth the sole universal objective truth but how do we convince people that it is the truth.
Do we try to convince through logic?
Do we draw up a logical argument like a scientist trying to prove a hypothesis?
Do we line up the physical evidence like a prosecutor?
Could we prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the tomb is empty because Jesus physically rose from the dead?
We can’t even prove which tomb was the one he was placed in.
I couldn’t even imagine trying to draw up a logical argument to prove the validity to our claim that the universal truth is found solely in Christ Jesus
Of course I am not a logical person.
I have a degree in the hard sciences but I believe in the supernatural and unexplained phenomena.
And I drive Julie nuts when she tries to debate me because my logic can be very much off the wall.
But I digress
We do ourselves no favors by trying to prove the truth of Jesus by means of logical argumentation because the very nature of the Gospel is illogical
What kind of logic would drive the decision to sacrifice one self for people who have hated and despised you?
We are hard pressed to help those who have hurt us.
It makes more sense to seek retribution for the pain that they have caused rather that to give up our comforts much less our lives to help out people who have caused us great pain.
It makes more sense to us that God would rather smite us in his anger than to try and save us.
Why else would ever other religion stress the importance of earning their deity’s favor by living a good and right life.
Why would they think it is necessary to offer their idols sacrifices in order to keep them happy.
It just makes more sense.
Look at our judicial system.
If we want to keep our government and others happy we obey the laws.
Although it does seem to work in the reverse with speed laws.
But that doesn’t negate my point.
When we obey and respect the laws of our government they are happy with us, but when we break them they are swift to seek retribution.
Instead of forgiving somebody who made a mistake or did something wrong we sue them and everybody associated with them.
One of my favorite shows is Law & Order SVU, I like many others find themselves rooting for the detectives and prosecutors as they try to catch and punish these people who have done despicable things.
I have even found my self wanting to see the bad guy pay horribly for the tragedy they have wrought.
It makes sense to us they did something absolutely horrible so they should suffer just as horrible in punishment.
But this idea that God is merciful to the point of offering His own son in return for us the people who have done horrible things to him, it just doesn’t make any sense, it is completely and total illogical.
How do we prove the illogical through logic?
We can’t.
So how do we prove that the truth given to us through Jesus Christ is the one universal objective truth?
We tell it like it is.
We rejoice in the illogical reaction of a God who cared enough to send the best.
This is how we know who is the real God.
That he was willing to lay down his life in order to save us from the ravaging lion of death.
All the other gods, turned tail at the sight of death leaving us to our own devices. Telling us we have to earn our way into their favor and just maybe, just maybe they’ll let us into the club.
Where the others abandoned us, the Real God hung in there for us on a lonely tree, enduring the shame.
The real God never gave up his love for his creatures
And when love is involved strange things happen.
