John’s Faith Tested and Confirmed

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John Jones, a state university student, sat at his dorm room desk head bowed thinking how Professor Brown’s class laughed at him and raised objections against his new faith. Embarrassed and ashamed, he wondered if he could ever face them again.

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Since becoming a Christian, John felt life had purpose, excitement in the things we do, things we say; they make a difference now and eternally. God exists. He knows everything about us, cares about us, and is with us good times and bad. Someday, He will reward our service. John sought to share this good news with classmates and friends. But when he mentioned Jesus, they stared wide-eyed, open-mouthed, crossed arms, with horrified expressions it seemed forever.

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“That’s arrogant and offensive, narrow-minded, absolutist and intolerant,” they said. “How can you be that way?”

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Startled and perplexed, John determined to master world religions. He spent hours of intense study in the library. He knew he too once looked at it that way but rejoiced now in knowing and loving the Savior.

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The Beliefs of Non-Christian Religions

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John learned that China’s Confucians and Japan’s Shinto worshiped nature and honored ancestors. Buddha denied a personal God. Pantheistic religions--Taoism, New Age, Unity and Christian Science--claim the universe is God and a force, not a person. Zoroaster affirmed two conflicting Gods, but only one can be Absolute or God.

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Alone in a cave six centuries after Christ, Muhammad claimed the angel Gabriel revealed the Qur’an which corrected the scripture of Jews and Christians making him God’s final prophet. Similarly, centuries later, Joseph Smith Jr. said the angel Moroni led him to the Book of Mormon that made him God’s final prophet. Now nobody else saw the angels these men claimed to see. So what does such a claim prove? Nothing! Anybody could say the same thing.

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What is the truth—nature and ancestor worship, no god, two gods, the universe is god, millions of gods, or one god? They can’t all be right. John realized that world religions radically conflict. So, if one is true, the others must be false. He concluded from his study that non-Christian religions are human imaginings, mere speculations. These mystics and alleged prophets furnish no visible objective evidence of God--only teachings from inside their heads.

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Besides being contradictory, besides having no visible evidence of a real God, John realized they have no empirical basis to believe people exist after death. Pantheists base reincarnation upon karmic justice meaning you reap what you’ve sown in your last life. Nature moves in cycles of death and rebirth. Human defects as blindness and blemishes, dreams and déjà vu affirm reincarnation. We explain this today as due to the earths tilt circling the sun, human imagination,A and genetic defects. Even supposing one achieved nirvana (personal extinction) or absorption into Brahma (World Soul), it is unknowable since no one returns to tell us.

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Non-Christian religions, however, usually do claim some moral precepts. People everywhere have a conscience and human compassion. And people who lie, steal, cheat, rape, whatever, scream unfair when others abuse them. This seems to be the basis for ethical precepts in non-Christian religions. This too explains why people universally believe that if their good deeds outweigh their bad maybe they will make it to paradise, Heaven, the Elysian Fields, happy hunting grounds, nirvana, or whatever. But when we deny a personal and moral God who sets standards and holds us accountable--anything goes. No absolute Lawgiver spells relativism of truth and morals. Anything becomes all right that seems to work for the moment.

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The Beliefs of Biblical Christianity

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Unlike those religions, biblical Christianity furnishes objective, eyewitness accounts that God exists. He lived among us as the person Jesus Christ (Lk. 1:1-4; Jn. 1:1-3, 14; 19:35; Acts 1:1-3; 1 Cor. 15:1-8; Heb. 1:1-4; 2 Pet. 1:16). Persons walked, talked, touched and observed Jesus for over three years. Three accounts of Jesus’ life and a dozen letters about the faith concerning him appeared within four decades for friend and foe to verify. Ten secular writers mentioned Jesus including details about his life. Jesus’ life is no fable; it is history.

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Two lines of evidence show Jesus is our God. First, centuries earlier prophets predicted Messiah would be Mighty God (Ps.2:6-8; Isa.9:6-7), Immanuel and virgin born (Isa. 7:14) in Bethlehem but from eternity (Mal. 5:2), and would die for our iniquities (Isa.52; 53:5-7). What claimant but Jesus, qualifies? Angry Jews shouted this man Jesus blasphemed to claim deity (Mk. 14:60-64; Jn. 5:16-18; 10:31-33). Second, Jesus’ miracles verified his deity. Open-minded persons shouldn’t assume nature, science or anything else precludes miracles; only honest investigation can decide that.

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Crowds jeered Jesus while naked, bleeding, and dying for us upon the cross. Critics try in vain to disprove eyewitness accounts of his cross, empty tomb, and resurrection appearances published within three decades. It established Christ’s deity, authority, the Bible, the church, Sunday worship, and the western calendar.                

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So empty claims and speculative opinions are nothing. Only the authority of the risen Lord Jesus Christ is the basis for human dignity and rights, absolute truth, ethics and assurance of an afterlife of justice or reward. He alone makes sense of the universe, conscience, life and self-giving love. He’s the God-man who promises whoever trusts in him eternal life (John 3:36, 8:24).

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The Objections John Jones Can Now Answer

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The Bible tells Christians not to be arrogant or offensive but kindhearted and seek everyone’s good (1 Cor. 10:32; 1 Pet. 3:15). Christian missions bring God’s love, salvation and uplifting benefits to everybody. Truth is exclusive since it opposes falsehood. Christian faith excludes no one as untouchable, sectarian, or clannish; it welcomes everybody—God so loved the world. Objective, empirical evidence shows Jesus is Messiah, Savior and Lord. Non-Christian religions’ claims are subjective imaginings, speculative guesses. So the real obstacle is not Christian narrow-mindedness; it’s non-Christian closed-mindedness. And yes, Christianity is absolutist since only Christians have a solid empirical basis for their faith. Intolerant, yes; not of people but of ideas and practices known to hurt and destroy people.
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Unbelievers might call biblical Christianity human treason for exposing human inadequacy and dependence; Christians worshipfully call it the grace of God shown us prideful rebellious sinners.
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 But to us who believe Jesus is the hope and light of the world. The giver of eternal life, human dignity, ethics, rationality, truth, science, justice, love and makes sense of it all.  Non Christian  religions have no basis for any of these things. We who have objective evidence of God's love and hope of eternal life can help others to know the Savior. Ask the Lord to help you have courage to share Him and His offer of eternal life.

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