Friday, December 10, 2021

Why It's so Hard to Believe in Jesus

I understand why it's hard to believe in Jesus.  It's actually outside our common thinking processes as humans. At least it appears that way at first. It's mystical, esoteric, and it "feels" foreign to our thinking.  That's by design actually, if you were taught in the public schools, a very secular mindset is programmed into you, developed by people like John Dewey. If religiously based philosophical ideas seem foreign to your mindset, yes, it's by design. 

But then again, there's something else at work in religious thought, particularly we're of course speaking of biblical Christianity.  

This may seem very odd to you, but stay with me, within Christianity, God has placed a catch to displace the arrogant, the self-righteous, and those enamored by their own genius. The Bible calls it a stumbling block. Check this out: It's actually designed to appear fantastical. 

I kid you not. It's intentionally playing out in strange and mysterious ways to trip up people who are arrogant and prone to sneer. 

Why exactly is this stumbling block set up? I'm not entirely sure. Perhaps to prevent false converts? I can only speculate. 

But it's written there.  

"Instead, God chose things the world considers foolish in order to shame those who think they are wise. And he chose things that are powerless to shame those who are powerful. 28 God chose things despised by the world, things counted as nothing at all, and used them to bring to nothing what the world considers important. 29 As a result, no one can ever boast in the presence of God." -1st Corinthians 1:27-29 NLT

That makes it difficult. And it's apparently supposed to be difficult. One could call it a miracle even. 

But the source of this goes to the nature of reality, the universe, and everything. 

We are all always answering a question, and making a choice every single day, to either align ourselves with God's master design or to rebel. And to rebel is insanity. There is no escape from God. There is no victory over his power. There is nowhere to go. It's madness. 

The fundamental issue is free will: What will I choose? What will you choose? Life or death? Obedience or rebellion? The entire construct of our current fallen reality seems set up to pose the question to us over and over. Life or death? Obedience or rebellion? And we make the choice everyday. 

Yet we're caught in a state of fallenness, default, as a rebel. And somehow we must turn ourselves to God, and access that power, and experience a rebirth, in which we follow a new way, the way of truth. 

And it does end. Our window of opportunity is between birth and death. Most have already made it. 

8 billion people, the question before all of us, what choice shall we make?