The Socratic Cafe Dialogue

                               The Socratic Cafe Dialogue

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Chris and two of his committed Christian friends John and Matt started a Socratic Cafe. They wanted it to start on a good basis so they laid down some specific rules. The Cafe would meet whenever convenient—monthly or biweekly. It would meet wherever convenient—at member’s houses, a church, coffee house, or national bookstore. It would meet for 2 hours at a convenient time such as Saturday or Sunday afternoon or a weeknight, and friends could socialize awhile afterwards. It could choose to provide light refreshments or a meal if persons desired.
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The group could start with a few people singles or married and grow into hundreds. Everybody’s ideas and opinions would be given respectful consideration. Each contributor would state his or her name such as Sue, Bill, Sharpe, etc and express their view for the group’s consideration. Questions may be asked and issues explored. Everyone is welcome Christian or non Christian.
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Topics for the next meeting would be announced and sources of books and GOOD NEWS MESSAGES suggested for study. Any topic of interested may be explored. Topics might be Evil and God, What Constitutes the Ideal Family? Is Christ God? What Is Biblical Salvation? What is Free Will or Predestination? What does a particular religion believe? Can evolution of man be demonstrated? How can we know God’s Will? When should Nations go to War? Is Abortion a Good Thing?

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Chris and his friends were excited. They left notices on house doors or car windshields inviting people, advertised it in the local newspaper, called or emailed friends about it. Everything was made ready and the meeting began.
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The first meeting was small but challenging. Besides the three founders Atheon, Skeptus, Pan, and Deeus showed up. The topic for this Socratic Café’s discussion is, “Does God exist and if so how could we know?” Chris asked, “Who would like to give their view first? We’re all friends here and as human individuals have our own viewpoints that need to be explored. Nobody knows it all and education and exploration of different ways to look at issues is good.”

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Pan: Well, I believe in god. God is the greatest thing there is and god is everywhere and everything. God is the trees, the clouds, the grass, the air, the ground. God takes a million forms. I’m even a part of god.

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Skeptus: I don’t know about that Pan. I have my doubts. It’s difficult for me to imagine all of nature as being god. How can god be so many conflicting things? I mean wouldn’t god have to be both mind and matter, both good and bad karma if we can even use the terms good and bad, both alive and dead. Sure, there’s energy and force in the universe but I can’t see that it’s all just one thing and all illusion. I mean it seems everything I do; I couldn’t do, if all is illusion.

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Deeus: I agree with Skeptus, Pan. I believe there’s more to God than energy, principle, force, or whatever you want to call it. I look at nature’s beauty, its complexity, its design, and am overwhelmed with awe. There just must be some kind of intelligence behind it. It just couldn’t come about from nothing. It seems to me there must be a Creator to explain all this. But then again, I don’t feel there’s any God who hears my prayers or has anything to do with me. I don’t know if there’s life after death or not. Life is difficult and I can’t explain why things never seem to work out the way I hope or would like.

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John: I think you’re right at least in part Deeus. All that suggests a personal God. He’s not just a principle or force. But God doesn’t give us everything we want. If there is a Mind great enough to create a universe, it seems to me there would be many things I don’t know or can understand. That seems reasonable to my limited understanding. I sure don’t know it all. Maybe too we are ungrateful for the things God does give us and really want nothing to do with God in our life. He could be trying to tell us things we don’t want to hear. That’s sure been true in my life and I hope I’ve learned some lessons. There was a time in my life when I wouldn’t think of going to church or pick up a Bible.

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Pan: I can see you guys have a much different background from me. My folks came from India and I’ve just went along with what I was told. I never gave it serious thought. I can see there are things I should consider. This meeting may be a real help to me.

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Atheous: Hey, not so fast! Let me get a word in here. I’m not going to let God off the hook. If there really were a God or at least a good God, there wouldn’t be such great evils in the world. The whole thing of God and evil seems like a contradiction to me. A good and powerful Creator of the universe would have eliminated these evils long ago or at least greatly reduced them to manageable proportions. What do you guys say to that?

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Matt: You have raised a serious problem here Atheous. Its bothers unbelievers and Christians alike. I believe it challenges all of us at times. I don’t think we can have a complete answer in specific cases. And it sure brings grief, confusion, and pain to our hearts and lives. But I don’t think God and evils, no matter how bad the evils, are a contradiction. Yes, murders, rapes, robberies and wars occur. But God could allow them for reasons we don’t understand. Deeus was right that a Creator of the universe with all its complexity, its design, and its beauty, must do things far beyond our meager understanding. Pan too had a point that there is a unity to the way things work out, but a reason to the way things interact together. Even the elements show a harmony of design. Nothing can’t create something--shaking his head—it doesn’t make sense. And all we know from science points to a beginning and a Beginner. There is a God. That God must be a HE, not an IT. That God must be intelligence and will evidenced throughout the design and harmony of the created universe.

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Skeptus: Well, I still have my doubts. I’ll concede we maybe can’t know in particular cases. But what about events in general? Even supposing there’s no contradiction between God and evils since God may have reasons for allowing so many evils, what are God’s reasons?

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John: It seems to me that if God suddenly quelled all the evils in the world, God would have to do away with all the people in the world. Don’t we all do some things we know aren’t right? I mean wouldn’t you tend to hate somebody who murdered you spouse or children? Isn’t even hatred a motive itself that leads to revenge and murder? Don’t we all find ourselves attracted to someone else’s spouse at times? But wouldn’t we abhor someone coveting the spouse we loved?

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Atheon: So, we’re all imperfect. But I’m no sinner and I’m not convinced there’s any personal God.

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John: Atheon, I’m glad you feel free to express your honest feelings and convictions. But I hope all of us are open-minded enough to hear opposing viewpoints and give them honest consideration.

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Matt: About those general reasons why God may allow evils, I can think of two definite reasons. One, to prevent evil, God would have to make us puppets and pull our strings. We would be forced to do God’s will. That would make God a tyrant and us no better than programmed machines. That neither honors God crediting him as love nor honors us as being any different from machines. Moreover, the Bible shows that our first parents chose to eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil choosing a world of both good and evil. We wouldn’t be any different in their place as we do wrong things or sin in various ways every day.

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Atheon: All right! I’ll admit if God exists, he could have reasons for allowing evils in the world and we limited human beings may not understand them. But that doesn’t give me reasons to believe God exists. And I’ll try to be open-minded if somebody can give me reasonable evidences. I’ve experienced a lot of pain in my life from my father’s harsh treatment and it’s not easy to see a good God in the world. Some psychologists say God is delusion. Maybe they’re right.

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Matt: I mentioned science shows the universe had a beginning that points to a Beginner or God. This is shown by the universe’s expansion, by its use able energy running down, by the fact that we can’t backtrack eternally or we wouldn’t be here today. The Creator of space, matter and time must be eternal, self-existent, unchangeable, immaterial Personal consciousness and will or He could never decide to create. A nonexistent unintelligent force can’t create anything.

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Deeus: But Matt, even supposing God created, that doesn’t have anything to do with me personally. I have to face this world of sweat, blood, and tears.

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Matt: Yes, we all do and it can be painful. But our Creator knows this firsthand. He took on a human body and nature and was tempted in all points like us. God became man and walked among us. Jesus, the God-man, told us many times and ways that he is our God. It was no empty claim—he fulfilled hundreds of ancient Jewish prophecies only God could fulfill. Jesus walked on the water, commanded angels and demons, lived without sin, died in our place to save us from our sins and arose from the dead. He said anyone believing in him will be given eternal life.

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Atheos: What do you mean? I’ve never heard of Jesus. It sounds too good to be true. I want to hear more.

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Chris: Good. I assure you, you will. But time is up. So much turmoil and revolt is occurring in the Muslim world. Would you people like to discuss next meeting the question, “Can non-Christian governments under dictators and Shari’a law gain real freedom of religion and representation for their people? All hands voted yes for this being the next discussion topic.

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Some time later, it seems regretfully, there's no foundation for freedom and different faiths.

Human Evolution--Did We Climb from the Slime?

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#Evolution
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Even though we are regarded as experts in our field of science, philosophy, theology, or whatever, we still may have biases. We can feel so certain we're right about the facts but they turn out not to be facts at all.  We may so intensely want something to be true that we stretch the truth and dismiss alleged contrary evidence as foolish. Even the great Albert Einstein so wanted the universe to be self-existent that he miscalculated his theory of General Relativity because it implied a definite beginning of time, matter and space. He didn’t like the fact that a beginning implied a self-existent Beginner or Creator.
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Our bias may be peer pressure from our colleagues, a prestigious good paying job we don’t want to lose, too much pride to admit we’re wrong, or other series consequences affecting our lives. Sometimes it takes real integrity and courage to be honest.

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Now it’s often said science is fact, but religion is mere theory and preference. Well, are you sure? I know that what’s often been called scientific fact in one decade is found to be error the next. And what has sometimes been called theological nonsense at one time was discovered later to be true and known before science discovered it. For example, science a century ago discovered what the Bible said centuries before that life is in the blood and that quarantine of diseases prevents their spread. Isn't that an amazing fact? That being true but unknown to science, might other Bible teachings be true and worthy of honest investigation?

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I believe I can show several reasons we didn’t climb from the slime and that God created us with a dignity and destiny evolution won’t allow. In this article, I will discuss evolutionist’s unproved assumption, spurious arguments, ignoring of evidence, and human destruction.

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Naturalistic Evolutionist's Unproved Assumption

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Yes, multiple life forms exist, but that they all by chance descended from one single cell millions of years ago can't be demonstrated by science. No scientific experiment proves it. No fossible remains exist to show all the necessary steps in evolution and the divisions animals and plants take. No spontaneous generation is known to occur from dead chemicals. The probability against the right chemicals combining is immense.  As far as we know every life form descends from it's own kind though verities of kinds exist within the genetic pool. Naturalistic evolution is only an assumption.
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For three reasons it seems impossible for  naturalistic evolutionists to say no Creator who made man directly and in his image exists or can act in our world. One, in the universal circle of knowledge our knowledge is limited to a small dot. We don't even know what exists or may occur in the next room, outside our office, or down the road. Two, if God be an all pervading Spirit everywhere as the Bible teaches, then he is all around us and our limited senses can't detect him. Three, if God be a Creator upon which the world and life depends, then he designed and made all things conform to his will and can change them any way any time he so desires.
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If God exists people may have souls, angels may appear, God may speak,  and miracles may occur. For a Creator of the universe, miracles and God’s intervention and revelation would be trivial. God could do anything He desires, any place He chooses, for any reason He thinks best. Only an unwarranted bias could deny a supernatural God. So such things must be demonstrated by honest credible eyewitness testimony and cannot be dismissed by philosophical prejudice. See my other articles for evidence of God and his actions within our world.

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Evolutionist’s Spurious Arguments

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Good science is demonstrated by repeatable measurable controlled experiment. Experiments were conducted on fruit flies since they had a very short lifespan. All that many generations of fruit flies proved was that they can be made to have mutated and handicapped wings and legs but not become anything other than fruit flies. Evolution failed the experiment and isn't based on experiment.

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Evolutionary theory is that life forms are improving in ability to survive. A law of physics (Second Law of Thermodynamics) is that things naturally deteriorate. Breeding can improve life forms but only from what is already in their genes as no new genetic material is created. Acquired characteristics and mutations are not a sufficient mechanism to change one life form into another. Genes are fixed by inheritance. A great many mutations designed to function together would be required. But mutations are detrimental and are not passed on. So atoms didn't on their on accord arrange themselves into Adam--God made us. and in His rational, moral, immortal image.
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Useless appendages are said to be a carryover from evolution. But that is an argument from ignorance. It was once thought there were over a hundred useless such appendages such as the appendix. But further research demonstrated these appendages have been found to have specific uses in an animal’s life cycle after all. Only a small number are in doubt today. Another evolutionist's argument based on ignorance.

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We can classify similarities of life forms in an order of complexity that shows evolution. We could if creation were true as well. And yes, a monkey’s arm is similar to a man’s arm; life forms have similar organs, systems, fluids and DNA. But there’s no rule God must make every life form different. Indeed, birds must have wings to fly, land animals legs to walk, fish fins and a tail to swim and all require lungs, mouth, and a reproductive system and so on. What really needs explanation is how sex differences throughout the animal and plant kingdoms could come about except by or from a Creator. This is a problem evolutionists are without answer while creationists do--the almighty will of God. 
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 The human embryo’s development shows the steps of transition from its animal ancestors. Absurd! What was once thought to be a fish’s gills and a monkey’s tail were no more than undeveloped parts of a human baby. Abortionists use this silly argument to torture with acid or cut up and murder human babies without mercy. Evolution doesn't enhance human dignity but diminishes it and leads to human destruction. Aren't the Brits correct to call it EVILution?
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We know varieties of animals exist and so given enough time we are all related to a common ancestor. Yes, there are varieties of dogs, horses, monkeys, and men. But we don’t know that dogs change into horses or monkeys evolve into men. Genetic limitations forbid it. Microevolution (limited change) is known fact; macroevolution is speculative theory. And the real evidence can best be explained by a  Common Designer, not a common ancestor. Dead mindless molecules can’t arrange themselves into men no matter how much time. Design requires a Designer—a Living Intelligence and will.

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Missing links show man descended from a lower form of life. That would be the real proof of evolution. But even the term “missing links” is prejudicial influencing persons to believe evolution. That molecules can arrange themselves into men would require thousand of bones demonstrating it step by step. But all we have is a few disputed hoaxes. Paleontologists occasionally announce they have found the missing link to enjoy world fame for a brief time until their find is shown to be only some kind of monkey form. The Tennessee Scopes trial convinced Americans Nebraska man was the missing link that proved evolution. So science was right and religion wrong and shouldn’t be allowed to be taught in school textbooks. The fossil found turned out to be an extinct pigs tooth. Still in many minds it caused God and morality to take a nose dive. Get real! The alleged ape-men turn out to be either monkeys or men. Why not give human dignity and destiny serious and honest consideration with all the evidence for the God-man, the Lord Jesus Christ.

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Evolutionist’s Ignoring of Evidence

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First, evolutionists know only life can produce other life. There’s no spontaneous generation from the non-living, but this is required in evolution theory. Further, everything that is alive must have been designed to be that way from the start or what is termed specified complexity. Imagine a single celled amoeba taking on multi-cells, developing legs to walk outside water and eyes to see where it’s going and somewhere along the line a brain to control everything. And what about when these things are only partially developed—a partial eye, leg, digestive or reproductive system? It seems ridiculously funny but that must be what must take place. If any one of those organs or systems were destroyed, the organism would become helpless. Do unconscious, mindless chemicals arrange themselves into people? That’s what evolutionists must believe.

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Evolutionist’s Theory of Human Destruction

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If the theory of evolution is true, then we’re only soulless dirt. We come from the elements of the ground to which we return. People’s skin even takes the colors we see in dirt being brown, black,  white, red and yellow. As soulless dirt, somehow evolved by chance from slime, we are only a more evolved animal. Our only law is survival of the fittest, which means we must exercise power over weaker animals. Whoever gains power can manipulate and murder us without remorse. What a terribly sad wicked state evolution has brought to us!
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The Savior and Lord who died and rose again, Jesus Christ, gives back everything evolution takes away—absolute truth, human dignity, rights, ethics, justice, love, Heaven. Doesn’t it make more sense to trust our lives into His care?
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If we don't knell before our Savior now, we will knell before Him as Judge at the great white thrown. So will you knell now and say, Jesus I come to You as a humble sinner and trust You  as my Lord and Savior right now and forever. So be it.  Sharing these blog articles can bring about immense good in people's lives both now and eternally. Just link them with your blog.
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Isn’t God Universal Energy?

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Things appear vastly different to us as plants, animals, persons and stars. But these apparently different things in size, shape, color, temperature and density are all forms of energy. Everything is dying and being reborn or always changing form.
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 It is simply illusion to think there’s any one permanent substance other than universal energy. I am part of that energy that will die and take other forms thousands of times. Everything forever moves round and round in cycles (samsarah). It is reality and so obvious it hardly needs proof. If all is ultimately, one substance we call energy, and what’s ultimate we call god, then as part of it, I can say I am god and there can be any number of gods.

We call this viewpoint monism because it claims that ultimately all is one substance and pantheism because that ultimate substance we call god. This is the view of Hinduism and religions derived from this way of thinking such as Buddhism, Taoism, New Age Religion, Christian Science, Unity School of Christianity. While these religions differ on some particular points and applications, they are essentially as described above. I trust I have stated this way of thinking accurately.

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 As a Christian and Bible believer, however, I have reasons to think it is not the whole truth or reality. Also, I have reasons to believe my Christian faith is truth, fact and reality. I’m not open to discuss  the pantheist view  as I don't want to waste my time with e-mails. God's ministry is too vital. People need to know and share the truth of God's Word which is the hope of humanity--period!

Reasons to think the pantheist way of thinking is not the whole truth or reality

 First, unlike pantheists I don’t deny the realty of pain, sickness and death. These things exist in reality and we must cope with them, not excuse them with the idea of karma. Karma is the concept that we get what we earned in a former life and to interfere with karma only delays the inevitable. How do we even know we had a former life or lives?

Even supposing the world of things is ultimately illusion it is not presently illusion. Pantheists cannot live as though the world or all existence is mere illusion (maya). They like everyone else must wear clothes, take baths, eat, make purchases, look in the mirror, look both ways for coming traffic and bury the dead. Our human senses tell us these things are not illusions and we must act on them even if they will one day disappear. How can such a philosophy or worldview be illusiion when we cannot consistently apply to our lives?

Second, our human conscience and compassion tell us otherwise. When we all experience sickness, pain and agony, and see these same things in our friends and relations, how can we harden our hearts and turn our backs on such appalling need? Would we not appreciate someone honoring our thirst with a drink of water? In countries where pantheism is dominant persons are seen everywhere in need and passed by without conscience or compassion. Indeed, these persons treat wild beasts with more respect than themselves. Cows are treated better than real people!

Third, mind precedes and transcends matter. A real and distinct difference exists between mind and matter, the physical and the immaterial. Matter is compact energy but is not the same as mind and requires mind to explain it. A rock is not the same as a person--that should be obvious.

Unconscious energy has no capacity and will to plan and create complex life forms we see everywhere in plants and animals. From beginning to end, the structure of life forms requires planning of an infinite intelligence and will. Moreover, everything must begin complete and functional. No living thing can survive with a partially developed digestive system, reproductive system, lungs, eyes, ears, arms, legs, wings. No evidence exists that mutations and acquired characteristics will bring it about--mindless molecules do not arrange themselves into men even if in eternity. Think about it.

Frankly, if I didn’t know about Christian faith and all the evidences and benefits it brings human lives, I might think pantheism made ultimate sense, but at the same time have heartless despair. Pantheism destroys human personality, rationality, human dignity, social concern, absolute truth and ethics. If we are only energy that ends in absorption into Brahma, the World Soul (Atman is Brahman), then what purpose or incentive to life can there be? It seems only escape from a terrible human existence.

Reasons to believe Biblical Christianity is reality

History reveals Jesus is our Creator, Redeemer, and Judge.

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him  nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men . . .   And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as   of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.” John 1:1-4, 14. 
 In 350 B.C., the great philosopher, Plato, said this: “We wait for one, be he a God or an  inspired man to instruct us in our duties and to take away the darkness from our eyes.”

 “God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the  prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son . . . when He had by Himself  purged our sins.” Hebrews 1:1, 3-4.

 “How shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation, which at the first began to be  spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed to us by those who heard Him, God also bearing  witness both with signs and wonders, with various miracles, and gifts of the Holy Spirit,  according to His own will?” Hebrews 2:3-4.

“He commanded us to preach to the people, and to testify that it is He who was  ordained by God to be Judge of the living and the dead. To Him all the prophets witness that, through His name, whoever believes in Him will receive remission of sins.”  Acts 10:42.

First, Jesus is Creator. It is reasonable that a finite dependent universe requires an eternal, infinite, independent Creator. Energy dispersion points to a beginning point. Human conscience suggests a moral order. But besides creation and conscience, do we have any personal, visible, objective evidence God exists? Yes, but only in Christian faith. Our planet earth has been invaded by the man from Heaven—the God-man, our Creator and King.

It is no problem for the universe’s Creator to become a man. Jesus Christ not only told us He is God, He demonstrated it visibly in fulfilling ancient prophecies of the Jew’s Messiah, in living a perfect sinless life, in performing hundreds of public miracles spontaneously before astonished disciples and hostile critics, and in predicting his own death and resurrection.

Besides the Bible, more historical evidence exists for Jesus Christ than for Aristotle or Julius Caesar. Check it out. Read, He Walked Among Us, by Josh McDowell & Bill Wilson, or The Historical Jesus, by Gary R. Habermas. The resurrection is the crucial test and while brilliant skeptics have industriously applied their wit to demolish it, the resurrection defies every attack—Jesus is God.  

Hear Peter, the chief apostle of Christ and traveling companion more than three years. He told the Romans to crucify him upside down because he didn’t feel worthy to die the same way as his Lord. Peter would never have died if he knew Jesus-the God-man was only a lie!

 "We did not follow cunningly devised fables when we made known to you the power  and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of His majesty.” 2 Peter  1:16.

Unlike pantheism, things make sense since we have a personal, ethical Creator as the source and foundation of everything. He provides all we need and cherish—human dignity, rights, ethics, purpose, hope, love, truth, rationality, justice, life beyond the grave and the basis for science and creativity that arise from this.

Second, Jesus is Redeemer. Secular professors and dreamy optimists can talk about the goodness of man all they want to--it just “ain’t so.”  Earth’s soil is drenched in human blood. Human history records the decimation of properties and peoples, violence, rape, murder, crime, everywhere. Why do all nations have armies, jails, police, judges, locks on doors, security guards? Is it because everybody’s so good and trustworthy? Certainly not! Why do people everywhere steal, lie, cheat, fight, hate, gossip? The list of human abuse is unending.

We ignore our sin and blame God for the world’s evils when God created a good world and paradise for man. Like Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, Satan still deceives us to deny God and have our own self-centered rebellious way. Many people mention God’s name but in profanity rather than in praise and thanksgiving.

We need a Redeemer and only the sinless God-man qualifies. Only the willfully blind would deny it. Try as we may, we cannot keep God’s perfect standards. We cannot even keep our own standards, which are much lower. We tend to criticize other’s sins while blind to our own. And we find ways to justify our habitual sins or claim I’m working on them.

 Moreover, any human notion of an imperfect God won’t do. How can we trust an imperfect God? He might betray us, have problems he can’t handle, be too busy for our concerns, or lose patience with us. Good deeds that outweigh bad deeds are unacceptable to a perfect God. Only 51% goodness cannot assure us of a sinless Heaven. Most religions don't believe in an ethically perfect God and that we can make it on our own.  Are they realistic about the real world around them? Sinful human nature cannot attain perfection--we need a loving forgiving Savior. 

Being God, Jesus can save us. Tested in all points like ourselves as a human being, Jesus proved worthy to be our Savior and assure us of a perfect Heaven. His bloodshed on the cross paid for our sins, made us acceptable with God and worthy of Heaven.   

And finally, Jesus is Judge. The risen Lord promised our every thought, word and deed exposed before Him will receive justice. Jesus, the all-knowing, perfect Ruler of the universe offered us forgiveness, His purity and eternal life. Now we receive our eternal reward or punishment for deeds done in the body and for our acceptance or rejection of Him, the only Savior. Our goodness will not avail. We must humble ourselves and trust the Savior alone as our only answer to sin, death, and Hell.

"He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him" (John 3:36).  Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me (John 14:6). Friend, won't you acknowledge your sin, and say Lord I trust You now and forever to be my Saviour and Guide.

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Christian Heroes # 4

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What are Christianity’s roots? Jesus sent believers to preach the gospel worldwide (Matt. 28:18-20; Acts 8:4). Saul, the greatest persecutor of Christians, became Paul the greatest preacher of Christ. Saul’s credentials made it so unthinkable—tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews, zealous Pharisee, legally blameless, church persecutor, Gamaliel’s scholar, destined for Jewish greatness (Acts 22:3-21; Phil. 3:4-6). Only his Damascus Road vision of Christ is adequate to account for his sudden conversion. Thanks to NavPress and Dr. Rick Cornish’s 5 Minute Church Historian, we continue paragraph sketches of great Christian heroes.

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John and Betty Stam (1906-1934). More Christians were killed in the twentieth century than all previous centuries combined. Jesus said they will be greatly rewarded in Heaven (Luke 6:22-23). John and Betty met at Moody Bible Institute, got married and became missionaries with China Inland Mission and had baby Helen. Communists assured them safety, but just two weeks later arrested them. They were forced marched to their execution. They overheard soldiers discuss how to get rid of the baby. A Chinese farmer pleaded with the soldiers to spare the baby’s life. They asked him would he trade his life for the baby’s life. He agreed, and they killed him immediately. John and Betty were shamefully paraded through crowed streets in their underwear. A Chinese doctor pleading for their lives was killed. Forced to their knees, they were beheaded. A Chinese pastor found three-month-old Helen in an abandoned house and smuggled her over the mountains in a basket to her grandparents. Once news reached America, hundreds of young people volunteered for the mission field and missions giving greatly increased. Tyrant governments recognize no higher authority, and have little respect for human life and freedom even of their own people. America is headed in that direction. May God’s grace enable us Christians to die for the Lamb of God slain for us to take away our sin and give us eternal life.

Dietrich Bonheoffer (1906-1945) “When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die,” said Pastor Bonheoffer. He was one of eight children born to Berlin’s leading psychiatrist. He studied liberal theology under its last master, Adolf von Harnack. Dr. Bonheoffer had a brilliant mind and pastor’s heart. When other pastors choose to follow Hitler, he stood firm for Christ. The Nazis cost him his professorship at Berlin University. He founded a small illegal seminary at Finkenwalde that Nazis shut down when they demanded pastors swear allegiance to Hitler. Dietrich visited America but couldn’t stay while knowing German Christians faced the Nazi nightmare. In Germany again, he joined the plot to assassinate Hitler but it failed. In 1943, he was imprisoned for smuggling Jews into Switzerland. In prison, he wrote Letters and Papers from Prison, The Cost of Discipleship, and Life Together. He challenged Christians to replace indifference and cheap grace with disciplined commitment and service. At only thirty-nine and shortly before the allies liberated Germany, he went to the gallous for his faith in Christ. The church gained a martyr and the world lost a hero.

Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968). Does a name influence a destiny? Perhaps King’s father thought so and named his son after an earlier reformer to become another great reformer. The Bible is clear everybody is descended from Adam and Eve, and created in God’s image with dignity, rights, moral responsibility and an eternal destiny; we’re not just soulless dirt. But our self-centered nature makes us want to put down persons a little different from us. Unfortunately, that’s been true with black persons. Dr. King had a dream that black people would not be judged “by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.” He lead  Civil Rights marches in America applying Jesus’ teaching of love with Gandhi’s nonviolent means of addressing social injustice. He became the conscience of persons without conscience.  He helped organize the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, and Time magazine named him “Man of the Year.” His efforts brought about passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 that mandated desegregation in all areas. The third Monday in January is named Martin Luther King Jr. Day in his honor and more streets are named for him than for President George Washington. May we all follow this Baptist pastor’s dream to treat every person with the same respect and concern.

Francis Schaeffer (1912-1984). Too many Christian pastors and parents tell young people “Don’t ask questions; just believe what we tell you and don’t think too much.” That’s a big reason Christianity is declining in some parts of the world where people only want to be entertained. Christianity provides the right answers, if Christians will only abandon their private individual anti-intellectual fear mentality and witness intelligently to others. Francis Schaeffer realized this. His church’s mission board sent him to investigate the battle with theological liberalism in Europe. In Switzerland, he invited international students to his home for small group chats on the big issues of  truth, philosophy, and religion. It developed into L’Abri Fellowship where thousands of students found that Christianity is a worldview that applies to every aspect of life with answers that make sense. Dr. Schaeffer wrote twenty-four books including Escape from Reason and The God Who Is There. The church’s entertainment anti-intellectual attitude is losing even its own youth in the cultural war. The universities set the cultural climate and unless we produce capable scholars to engage young thinking minds and future leaders we won’t win many people to Christ.

Mother Teresa (1910-1997). Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu, an Indian citizen of Albanian descent, became known as Mother Teresa. Her mother cared for an invalid neighbor and six orphans in their home though they had little means themselves. That example inspired Agnes to minister to the very poor. She became a nun who taught schoolgirls of India geography and led them into the streets to minister to the poor in the slums. She lived among the untouchables in the streets. In 1950, she founded the Missionaries of Charity home to care for and dignify the dying. Harvard gave her an honorary doctorate. Queen Elizabeth and the U.S. Congress paid her honors and she received the Nobel Peace Prize. More than four thousand nuns serve in hundreds of homes she founded in many countries to serve the sick, poor, and dying. It’s not that the world can’t provide food and health care, but that selfish indifferent people, tyrants, bad laws and bad religions promote abject poverty and disgrace. Jesus spoke more about the abuse of money than about any other subject. Mother Teresa showed us real love by simple acts of kindness.

Alexander Solzhenitsyn (1916-2008). Though raised Russian Orthodox, the Soviet education system converted him to Marxism. His degree was in science but he dreamed of writing of the glories of Russian’s revolution. While a captain in the Red Army, he made the mistake of writing in a letter about Stalin as “the mustachioed one.” The secret police put him eight years in the Gulag or prison system. Under brutal hellish conditions, he saw the best and worst of humanity. Anatoly Silin wrote and memorized theologically rich poetry and shared it with Alexander who became a Christian. When the Soviets released Solzhenitsyn, he wrote, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovish and Gulag Archipelago exposing terror and murder of a typical day in the Gulag. The Soviet revolution brought about sixty million deaths. Proverbs 8:36 tells us that those who hate God love death. Solzhenitsyn won the Nobel Prize for literature and world fame. His books were smuggled out of Russian to be published and he was expelled being too much trouble to keep and too famous to kill. After taking on the evil empire, he tongue-lashed the elites of Harvard for abandoning their Christian heritage and moral influence. The West had not lost God by tyranny he declared, but abandoned him for materialism and decadence. This caused some who once praised Solzhenitsyn, to condemn him. The truth is unpopular whether in the Gulag or at Harvard with those who don’t want God. As God’s true people, we are to speak the truth about the Truth no matter the cost (John 14:6).

The Lord Jesus Christ gave Stephen a standing ovation. He was the first Christian martyr who lived for Christ, fearlessly spoke out for Christ, and died for Christ. That’s what it takes to win people to Christ. May we be as faithful today as he was faithful then (Acts 6:5-7; 7).

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Christian Heroes # 3

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John the Baptizer announced Jesus as the man from Heaven, Son of God, and Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. I find it far more reasonable to believe someone who knew Jesus personally, even gave his life for his faith, than to believe twenty-first century critics whose naturalistic assumptions won’t allow them to admit the supernatural. Once again, I thank NavPress and theologian Dr. Rick Cornish for his 5 Minute Church Historian. John said, “Jesus must increase, but I must decrease (John 3:30). “ That’s certainly true if we’re to be God honoring faithful useful servants. It’s his loving Holy Spirit working in and through us. Let’s be encouraged by more of God’s great heroes.

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Blaise Pascal (1624-1662). Pascal was an Enlightenment genius. He earned the reputation of a mathematician, scientist, inventor, philosopher, mystic, and Christian apologist. At age fifteen, he worked out thirty-two of Euclid’s propositions that he didn’t know. He invented the first calculator, the vacuum cleaner, the wristwatch, and figured out the principles of atmospheric pressure. In Augustine’s writings, he learned that life’s mystery and suffering met its match in God’s wondrous grace. He sought answers to life’s most vexing questions in the Bible and found peace in Christ. Dying early at just thirty-nine, he left notes. His friends collected and published his notes in a book called Pensees or thoughts. Many regard it as one of the greatest books of all time. It presents persons as wretched creatures transformed by faith in Christ.

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Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1727). Many in science were in Christ who actually motivated their science being the proof that a rational God made a rational and good world. Consider Galileo (astronomy), William Harvey (medicine), Robert Boyle (chemistry), Charles Babbage (computer science), Louis Pasteur (bacteriology) and numerous others. But you won’t find their faith mentioned in science textbooks and will likely find it suppressed in secular colleges. Textbooks writers never mention that Newton ranked Scripture above his scientific discoveries hoping his theories would bring men to God. He wrote more about the Bible and theology than about science. Born on Christmas day, he grew up on a farm, loved books and enrolled at Cambridge. Like many of us at some time, he had doubts about the Trinity and about Christ. His Mathematical Principles blended the physics of motion into a single law of gravity. He and Rene Descartes shaped modern science until the twentieth century. While science and Scripture aren’t at war, the fallible interpretations of men often seem to be.

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John Wesley (1703-1791). Two of the greatest John’s are Jonathan Edwards a Puritan scholar and pastor used of God to bring revival to New England and America, and John Wesley an ocean apart used to bring it to England. Born into a family of nineteen children, Susanna, Wesley’s mother established a pattern in her children’s lives of teaching them the Bible one-on-one once a week. John attended Oxford where he read devotional classics of the early church Fathers. With others, he formed a Holy Club other students taunted calling them “Methodists” for seeking a method to attain spirituality. It consisted of Bible study, prayer, fasting, and service to the downtrodden. Wesley’s discipline enabled him to preach several times a day to common people. He traveled on horseback sixty miles a day preaching throughout England, Scotland and Ireland. Wesley stressed God’s love and holiness of life. Researchers estimate he traveled 250,000 miles and preached 40,000 sermons.

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William Carey (1761-1834). Christians regard William as the Father of Protestant modern missions. Born to a poor English family, at twelve he taught himself Latin. When working as an apprentice shoemaker, he studied the Bible and often fasted to save money for books. He understood the church should take the gospel to everybody. If meant only for the apostles, it would have died with them and people since then would go to Hell. He preached: “Expect Great things {from God}; Attempt Great Things {for God}.” He and a teacher and printer friend planted churches, learned languages, translated and printed Bibles, published grammars and lexicons, founded colleges, and reformed Indian culture. At Fort William College in Calcutta, he became professor of Sanskrit, Bengali, and Marathi. He tried to end the practices of killing babies and burning widows. The keys to this hero’s success were faith, determination, and persistence. Imagine what we might do to apply his preaching to our lives.

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John Paton (1824-1907). Paton, a tough compassionate missionary, survived cannibals, diseases, threats and attacks on his life, and death of his loved ones to tell savages of love and salvation in Christ. Born to a poor Presbyterian family John quit school to help his family knit stockings to feed the family of eleven children. His father led the family in devotions morning and evening and all attended church on Sunday. John’s first ministry was in the slums knocking on doors to share the gospel. Hearing of Pacific islanders without the gospel, he determined to go regardless of the dangers. He took his bride, Mary Ann, to the South Pacific island of Tanna where his son was born. Both his wife and baby soon died. Heartbroken and in tears, he buried them with his own hands. Alone and lonely, Paton went from village to village sharing God’s love in Christ. He remarried and on the island Aniwa where the Patons planted a church, started schools, build orphanages, and translated the Bible. Uninformed persons think Christians ignorant. A large part of the world would be ignorant, savage, in poverty and despair if it weren’t for Christian missions, Bible translations, schools, orphanages, and hospitals.

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J. Gresham Machen (1881-1937). Machen defended Christianity in a day of deflection. “False ideas are the greatest obstacles to the reception of the gospel,” he warned. Educated at Johns Hopkins and Princeton University’s, he became professor at Princeton Seminary. He believed the fundamentals of theology but rejected fundamentalism’s narrow anti-intellectualism and legalistic tendencies. He was a scholar’s scholar who didn’t retreat from learning and thinking when liberal forces took over American universities and pulpits. Liberals forced him to leave Princeton. So he founded Westminster Seminary in Philadelphia. His liberal adversaries couldn’t dismiss his thoughtful logical arguments. In Christianity and Liberalism, he showed liberalism not an updated version of Christianity but a new humanist religion. It was deceptive using the Christian vocabulary but denying the Trinity and deity of Christ. He advised Christians must study hard, think well, and defend the faith or they will lose the cultural war. Cultural Christians accommodate secularism and forsake biblical faith. In effect, secular humanism makes us soulless dirt without foundation for human dignity, rights, freedom, truth, and ethics. It brings chaos and opens the door to tyranny.

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C.S. Lewis (1989-1963). Clive Staples Lewis was born and raised in a Christian home but became an atheist as a teen. He interpreted his mother’s death as God rejecting his prayers. Lewis became professor of English literature at Oxford and Cambridge. He noticed the writings brilliant colloquies he admired were Christian and he couldn’t escape the evidence and logic that supported the gospel. His vast knowledge, vivid imagination and literary skill propelled him into world fame. He appealed to human imagination as well as intellect in his children’s stories, popular apologetics, and scholarly studies. Among his works is Mere Christianity, Miracles: A Preliminary Study, The Problem of Pain, The Chronicles of Narnia, and The Screwtape Letters. Lewis published thirty-nine books, hundreds of poems, essays, pamphlets, short stories, and critical reviews. The influence of Christianity’s most popular defender is beyond calculation.

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Christian Heroes # 2

Christian Heroes # 2

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Continuing the Christian heroes’ series, I’m indebted to Dr. Rick Cornish’s excellent book 5 Minute Church Historian. I also highly recommend his 5 Minute Theologian and 5 Minute Apologist especially for college students needing quick answers.

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The Lord Jesus said “He who does not take his cross and follow Me is not worthy of Me. He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for My sake will find it (Matt. 10:38-39).

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Patrick (c. 389-461). Surprisingly, the patron saint of Ireland was neither Irish nor Roman Catholic. He was born into a Christian home in Britain but at sixteen slave traders captured and sold him to an Irish pig farmer. For six years of captivity, his Christian faith grew but he yearned to be free. Dreaming that a ship was waiting for him, he escaped to the coast to board a vessel carrying dogs. Tending them gave him free passage to France where he joined a monastery. Returning to Britain and family, he received another dream similar to Paul’s Macedonian man (Acts 16:9-10) of the Irish begging him to bring them the gospel. Returning to Ireland, he worked among the Celts trusting God’s power to enable him to prevail against the death treats of Druid priests. Patrick focused on winning tribal kings to Christ hoping to gain the people also. Three years later he died. Historians estimate he planted two hundred churches and baptized thousands. He is credited with preserving civilization and ancient texts throughout the Dark Ages and of ending the Irish slave trade. During the two centuries following hundreds of Celtic monks took the gospel to Western Europe. Patrick’s faith, forgiveness and sacrifice should inspire us.

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Thomas Aquinas (c. 1225-1274). Great intellects are needed in crises times. Thomas, a quiet, serious, thinking person was the greatest theologian since Augustine. He sought to reconcile faith and reason with the secular discoveries of his day. He believed God is known by general revelation in nature and conscience as well as by special revelation in Jesus Christ and Scripture. God’s world and God’s Word don’t contradict. He applied reason to understand God’s truth and wrote prolifically. He summarized Christian beliefs in Summa theologiae and defended the faith in Summa contra Gentiles. His writings were standard texts throughout the Middle Ages. He died at age forty-nine. Because he wrote more about angels, he’s called the Angelic Doctor and due to his big size is known as the Dumb Ox although he was anything but dumb. Both Catholics and Protestants refer to his  works. He taught us to grapple with intellectual challenges for the glory of God and faith of people.

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John Wycliffe (c. 1330-1384). John gained the title the Morning Star of the Reformation because his views preceded Martin Luther’s by 150 years. He believed the Bible, not the church or the pope, was God’s authority and should be translated into the language of common people. Priests should preach Scripture not intermediate between man and the people. A person’s relationship with God was supremely important and not Rome’s religious system. Christ’s cross work merited salvation not our own. Teachings not found in the Bible were not true. He translated the Bible from the Latin Vulgate into English. He was the leading theologian at Oxford University. But the pope condemned his radical views, caused him to lose his professorship and had parliament pass a law making his ideas a crime punishable by death. Wycliffe Bible Translators carry on his work today putting the Bible into the heart language of common people.

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Martin Luther (1483-1546). Luther believed the ideas of Wycliffe and that priests could marry. His father wanted him to go into law but when nearly struck by lightning, he vowed to become a monk and joined an Augustinian monastery. Feeling God’s wrath, he felt overwhelmed by his sin. Reading Romans 1:17 he realized that righteousness comes through faith in Christ and not by our good deeds. He was reborn and the reformation began. He posted his ninety-five theses stating his beliefs on the door of the Roman Catholic Church at Wittenberg, Germany. The newly invented printing press enabled his ideas to spread rapidly throughout Europe. He broke Rome’s stronghold exposing its corruption and false theology. The emperor responsible to defend the faith ordered Luther to the city of Worms to justify his writings. Luther refused to recant his writings unless someone could prove them wrong by Scripture or reason. He even offered to burn his books. His conscience was captive to God’s Word and he declared, “Here I stand, so help me God.” He escaped capture and execution when Fredrick the Wise, prince of Saxony, kidnapped him and hid him in his Wartburg Castle. Martin translated the New Testament into the common language of the German people. His courageous stand laid the foundation of Protestantism. One man’s courage changed the world.

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William Tyndale (c. 1494-1536). Since God revealed his Word to us in Hebrew and Greek, each generation must translate it from those original languages into their own language. Being a wiz at languages, William mastered French, German, Italian, Greek, Hebrew and Latin. He knew the Roman Church kept the people captive interpreting the Bible with the allegorical method and through languages, they didn’t know. Stunned by ignorance of priests, he vowed to translate the Bible in the language that a boy behind a plow could read. When the English king prohibited Bible translation into English, William went to Germany and translated the New Testament from Erasmus’s Greek New Testament. Sympathetic merchants smuggled it into England but opponents bought and burned all they could find. The king’s men caught him and burned him at the stake. He died praying, “Lord, open the king of England’s eyes.” Within a year, King Henry V111 approved an English Bible that was 70% Tyndale’s work. God’s enemies hate his word and kill to keep it from the people.     

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John Calvin (1509-1564). Calvin was a lawyer-scholar, genius at logical argument, deep thinker and cool organizer of theology. At age fourteen, he enrolled at the University of Paris to become a lawyer but became more interested in Protestant ideas and theology. At twenty-seven, he wrote his first edition of his Institutes of the Christian Religion. Being forced out of France for his Protestant ideas, he became the leading citizen in Geneva Switzerland that became known as “the Protestant Rome.” Calvin wrote Bible commentaries, preached verse by verse and applied the Bible to all of life. He is known for his emphasis on God’s sovereignty and predestination. He showed that the Bible teaches a worldview with instructions about politics, law, economics, art and every part of life. While some Christians don’t agree with all he taught, his influence spread throughout Europe and early America and in Reformed minded protestant denominations.

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I can only touch on a few of these great heroes of Christian faith in these three articles. They came from every kind of background and all loved and trusted the Lord. They gave of themselves to make a better world. They often endured rejection, persecution and martyrdom. Let us pray, trust, love and work to use what God has given us to become his heroes.

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