The Descent of the West from God: From Theism, Naturalism, to Nihilism and Existentialism

We see a slide taking place in regard to worldview. For human history some form of religion or deism was the chief worldview. Yet over the history of humanity, we see the descent of human worldview, as if one were taking steps down a flight of stairs, from theism, the original underpinnings of western civilization, to deism, then into naturalism, and naturalism in turn gave birth to nihilism, and in response to the emptiness of nihilism, existentialism came to attempt to restore meaning. This is the descent from theism. We will consider the effects of this descent of worldview on contemporary humanity in western civilization, particularly the United States. We will see how the descent of worldview led to existentialism, and in turn existentialism split in two directions, one deeper into the abyss through the lenses of self, and one which led back toward God on uncertain footing. We will also see that nihilism and existentialism have a divided hold in the United States, vying for power and philosophical authority with the remnants of theism which previously held dominance in western civilization.

What is the trajectory taking place? First, we see theism, Christianity and Judaism and the influence they’ve had in western civilization. This worldview indicates that there is a creator of the cosmos, but not only that, he actively sustains the cosmos, has a moral right to judge the cosmos, and is personal and knowable by humanity. This is the perspective upon which documents like the declaration of independence and the constitution were founded. All humans have value because they are created by a personal God. Man should not murder. Man should not steal. Man should not commit adultery. These concepts were placed into the laws of the nation. Laws that make littering illegal, laws that make animal torture illegal, laws that make stealing illegal, laws that moderate speed limits on roads, laws that protect children, laws that mandate legal counsel for the accused, laws that make perjury illegal, all of these laws are built on the bedding one might say, of theism. God is moral. Humanity is moral. Humanity is made by God. All humans are equal and have basic intrinsic value. These are expressions of the theistic worldview being lived out in human society.

But then we see the descent to deism. If deism is true, there is a creator of the universe, however, this creator made the universe and simply disappeared. This creator has no current interaction in the universe. There are no miracles in which the creator intervenes in the universe. There is no final moral judgment. There is no heaven or hell. We can already see the effects that this worldview would have on laws and conditions of society. Is every human life sacred and equal if the only creator is one who created the universe and disappeared? Wouldn’t that perhaps lead to the conclusion that humanity is of little or no value, if the creator who made it desires no contact with the lifeforms he created? If that’s the case, why should humanity bar things like stealing or adultery or perjury or racketeering? Once one has lost the moral personal God and the value of humanity, this leaves deists to try to find the basis for absolutes and moral imperatives in nebulous concepts like natural law, and later, legal positivism. As soon as the moral personal God is removed, it’s as if we see an entire nation, buildings, people, land, animals, and water, being flooded away and off a cliff, like a dam has burst.

With naturalism we see the codification of the descent away from theism. Why even bother with any sort of deity? It isn’t needed. So here we find the concept that the only things that are real are the natural world, and human reason. There is no god. There is no spiritual realm. And the slide produced by the breaking of the dam truly surges in power in this departure from theism and deism. However, questions of morality, meaning, truth, and justice are largely left unanswered, or left to human reason, as the ultimate deducer of all things. But soon philosophers realized, “How can we trust human reason if there is no ontic referent?”

So next we see the development of the worldview of nihilism. Nihilism rejects all previous worldviews and regards itself as “the righteous and honorable resistance of a people crushed under an iron rule” (Gertz, 2019, p. 2). The iron rule being referenced are previous worldviews like theism and deism that often-regarded human nature as sinful or bad, or allowed for economic oppression or slavery (Gertz, 2019, p. 2-3). The solution to this problem of previous worldviews then, according to early Russian Nihilists, was to “destroy the society as a whole in order to build a new society out of whatever survived their destruction.”

How would this be achieved? “The Nihilists first attempted to destroy society by advocating for the destruction of social practices and traditional values, such as private property, marriage, and religion” (Gertz, 2019, p. 3). But as far as nihilism as a philosophy, it’s generally considered to be a worldview that sees the culmination of all things stated in the world to be nothing. It’s not as much an attempt to define nothingness, but more so a rejection of all current worldviews as nothing (Gertz, 2019, p. 8). When considering nihilism, it seems to me to simply be the logical outworking of naturalism. If Darwin was right, and the universe is nothing but pitiless indifference and all creatures are evolved from stardust, to the primordial soup, through the zoo creatures, to humanity, then truly, nihilism is logical, because nothing became something and something shall most certainly one day become nothing again, because from nothing the universe came and toward nothing the universe does now head.

And out of this inexhaustible vacuum came a worldview reacting against the nothingness of nihilism, existentialism. Existentialism comes in two forms, theistic existentialism and atheistic existentialism. Existentialism generally regards all of the key concepts of nihilism to be true, as well as general tenants of naturalism, the only difference being that an existentialist would say that one can find meaning, morality, and purpose through self-referencing. The existentialist believes that by looking inward, and seeing the value of the self, one can find personal meaning and value in life and the world. It gave birth to subjectivity. Something could be true, at least to one person, because they believed it. But it failed to provide a referent outside itself for morality (Sire, 2020, p. 120).

But what about theistic existentialism? Theistic existentialism is an entirely different animal. It reflects all the key tenants of Christian theism, and yet it makes many subtle adjustments on how Christianity is perceived. While atheistic existentialism was a reaction against dead nihilism, theistic existentialism was a reaction against dead religion. Many of the concepts of theistic existentialism can be seen in modern evangelical Christianity, the concept of following God is seen as a relationship, not rules to follow, the Christian life is seen as to live a life pleasing to the Lord, not simply obeying commandments, forgiveness is seen as a renewal of fellowship rather than simply the cancelling of a moral guilt (Sire, 2020, p. 125). History is viewed as less important in detail and more important as something to be presently lived in theistic existentialism, reason less important than faith, the personal experience more important than the words on the page, knowledge is seen as more subjective and paradoxical, and humans as alienated from the universe facing a difficult struggle to come to belief in God (Sire, 2020, p. 122-128).

So here we find two reactions to the bankruptcy of nihilism, atheistic existentialism and theistic existentialism. These are incredibly different departures from nihilism. Atheistic existentialism reacts away from nihilism by seeking out reason, morality, and truth in the subjective human experience, while theistic existentialism reacts against nihilism by climbing all the way back up the steps to Christian theism, but reviving it from dead religion to a living relationship. Yet, we also see certain concepts friendly to nihilism also forcibly inserted into Christianity, like subjectivity, the value of personal experience (above revelation), and a diminishing of the value of reason as well as history.

The first reaction to nihilism seems entirely useless as far as I can tell. It’s as if someone embraced all the core tenants of the very problem itself, nihilism’s emptiness, and while careening off the cliff turned inward and said, “Well, if I exist then at least that’s something.” They reference self, which, in itself seems to hold little value for finding renewed meaning. All they’ve done is deify the self, which in a pitiless universe means nothing, when death comes, the meaning is once again burnt out permanently.

The second reaction is much more interesting. One reacts against nihilism’s darkness by returning to the source, the original, the Christian theistic perspective, but tweaks it to find new life in what once was dead religion. This is of much more value in regard to solving the problems of nihilism. But it’s as if the individual solves the problem by returning to Christian theism, but also brings some of the material left over from nihilism, and molds it together with Christian theism. One would think of the statue depicted in Daniel chapter two in which the feet are made of iron mixed with clay, the iron being strong, but the clay mixed in weakens what might otherwise be a strong base for the structure.

From there, we see the theistic existentialist perspective split off into two camps. In one group we see liberal Christianity, progressive Christians, people like Rob Bell, who claim to be Christians but deny one or more of the key tenants of Christianity. This is the case in which theistic existentialism diverts too far toward nihilism, and ends in disaster, either apostasy (rejection of the key tenants of the authentic Christian faith) or a sort of a vapid milquetoast therapeutic deism, in which all things are acceptable, all roads lead to heaven, and no one is necessarily wrong about anything they do. This to me is a clear dead end. The elements of nihilism combined with Christianity have distorted and destroyed what Christianity actually is. In the second camp, I think we see a revitalized living, Spirit filled Christianity based on relationship, deep feeling, connectedness with Christ, and mystical experience, but all of these areas tempered and checked and balanced by scripture. We see Christians who find a new balance to their faith, balancing concept like rules and relationship, balancing theological truths like faith and works, repentance and renewal, heaven and hell, grace and truth. Out of the deep feeling, introspection, and communal focus of theistic existentialism comes a stronger faith, a faith balanced between hard truths of the scripture and the loving relationship between a gracious God of justice and the redeemed heirs of eternal life.

Could one even go back to the beginning of the fragmentation of worldviews, from deism, to naturalism, to nihilism, and existentialism and see that the descent began because of an experience of dead religion in the world? That may be a bridge too far. The truth is humanity is prone to wander, apart from whether Christianity was dead or spirit filled. But a dead religion may have encouraged the wandering. As always, there is a way back. But there is also a way out too. God gives all people free will, to seek Him, or to refuse Him.

Finally, we consider the present day effects on society of these worldviews. I see a society in the United States deeply divided in worldview. We see the remnants of theism, biblical Christianity, mainline Protestantism, Judaism, theistic existentialism and other theistic worldviews attempting from various angles and approaches to keep the USA tethered to concepts like objective morality, biblical authority, natural law, God given rights, and personal liberty. We see the slightly dominant worldviews of naturalism, nihilism, atheistic existentialism, and various secular forces attempting to change and rewrite society, jettison past norms of society, remove reference of God from government, and rework the laws and politics of the United States to center on more equality-based concepts of justice, law, and reason. Many of the intellectual elites of this movement would much rather jettison the current US system all together and start from scratch, which reminds one of the idea of tearing down society and starting anew which is prominent in the nihilistic worldview. Meanwhile many of the theistic perspective would rather see a society based entirely on biblical principles, and religion at the center of all public life. Here we see the worldviews splitting between warring factions, as fragmentation of worldview continues in the country, we see a country in deadlock, unable to move forward, because there is no longer near as much common ground to find, and so little of a shared vision of the future to work toward. And indeed, how can there be? Can there be anything more diametrically different than the concepts of the future described in worldviews like nihilism and atheistic existentialism when compared with Christian theism? Many consider the divide irreconcilable, and in fact it may be just that.

In any case, we see how the descent of worldview took place drifting from theism down the steps to deism, naturalism, nihilism, and existential. We see the paths split from existentialism, one road leading deeper into the abyss of the rejection of theism, and the second road leading back toward theism, either into a compromised milquetoast religion or into an energized biblical Christianity. And we see the battle of worldviews taking place in the United States as western humanity wrestles with who we are, who we were, what we are, and where we’re going. The struggle rages on and on to this very day.



References

Gertz, N. (2019). Nihilism. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Sire, J. W. (2020). The universe next door: A basic worldview catalog. Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, an imprint of InterVarsity Press.

Five Archaeological Discoveries that Verify the Biblical Timeline

This is an ancient Babylonian tablet dated back to 1750 BC. Do you know what it says? This is history’s first negative google review.
“For those of you who don't speak Old Babylonian, the gist of the message is that a dude named Nanni was promised "fine quality copper ingots" from a dealer named Ea-nasir. Unfortunately, the quality of the product wasn't up to his standards. He relays in hilariously dignified tones just how offended he is by the transaction and complains that the messengers he's sent through enemy territory to get his money back have all returned empty-handed. Yeah, working for Nanni was not fun.

The best part? The whole reason Ea-nasir stiffed Nanni was because Nanni owed him money in the first place. Nanni openly admits this in his complaint but argues that "one (trifling) mina of silver" shouldn't stop him from getting the star treatment. And they say this generation is entitled.”-Cracked article

It's quite fascinating what you can uncover in the Earth through the science of archaeology. Archaeology by it’s definition is “the study of human history and prehistory through the excavation of sites and the analysis of artifacts and other physical remains.”

I can’t tell you how many times someone has said to me, that they don’t believe in Greek myths, or the tooth fairy, or the Easter bunny so why should they believe in God? Well, like we talked about last week, recorded history matches with the Bible. And now today we consider the topic of archaeological discoveries. Do they prove or disprove the Bible?

We’re going to dig into a few examples from the historical record. First of all we consider the Tel Dan Inscription:

1.Tel Dan Inscription

“In 1993, excavators at Tel Da uncovered an inscription with the word BYTDWD on it. They convincingly argued that the word means “house of David” and dates to the ninth century BC. The inscription had been sealed by a later Assyrian destruction layer firmly dated to 733/722 BC. An ash layer is an archaeologist’s dream. Anything sealed beneath it must be dated earlier because there is no possibility of intrusion by later artifacts. Pottery directly beneath the destruction level dates to the ninth and eighth centuries BC, and from this period the so-called House of David inscription must have come. “ -John D. Currid (PhD, University of Chicago) is the Carl W. McMurray Professor of Old Testament at Reformed Theological Seminary.

For many years there was no evidence that King David from the Bible ever existed. Until 1993 when archaeologists discovered the Tel Dan inscription. It proved King David was real. Next there is the famous Gilgimesh inscription:

2. Epic of Gilgamesh

“In 1872, George Smith announced he had discovered an Assyrian account of a flood among tablets stored in the British Museum from excavations of mid-seventh-century-BC Nineveh. Called the Epic of Gilgamesh, the story comprises 12 tablets, with one tablet containing a tale of a great deluge.”

It’s absolutely fascinating how different cultures from around the world all have recorded histories of a “great flood” that occurred long ago, and swept away the world, aside from one man and his family. Modern scientists dismiss these accounts as “flood myths” because it doesn’t fit their ideology. But it’s amazing to see all the evidence for a biblical flood as recorded in Genesis.

3. The Siloam Pool: Where Jesus Healed the Blind Man

Next, we consider the famous pool of Siloam. “During construction work to repair a large water pipe south of Jerusalem’s Temple Mount, at the southern end of the ridge known as the City of David, archaeologists Ronny Reich and Eli Shukron identified two ancient stone steps. Further excavation revealed that they were part of a monumental pool from the Second Temple period, the period in which Jesus lived.” -biblicalarchaeology.org

The pool of Siloam, where Jesus famously healed the blind man, was discovered in fall 2004, accidentally by a sewage repair team. Once again, we see clear evidence that these places and events really took place. They are real historical truth.

4. Augustus Caesar

Sculptures and coins found of Augustus Caesar are shown here. If you recall in the gospels, it’s recorded that Augustus Caesar declared that a census would be taken. And that was one of the reasons that Jesus was born in Bethlehem, because his parents had to return to their home city to participate in the census indicated by this guy, Augustus Caesar.

Busts of Augustus Caesar have been found, several in fact, one in Meroe, Nubia shown here. This simply confirms another historical marker that indicates the bible is real history.

5. Pontius Pilate

And finally from the new York times, Pontius Pilate Seal Ring

“The name of Pontius Pilate, the Roman procurator who interrogated Jesus and then ordered him crucified, has turned up for the second time in the archaeological record. The first time his name and title were found engraved in a stone discovered in 1961 in secondary use at Caesarea Maritima. Just a few weeks ago, scientists announced that a seal ring excavated in the late 1960s at Herodium, a desert palace just outside of Bethlehem, also carried the inscription “of Pilates.”

If you recall when Pilate questioned Jesus, Jesus said to him all who obey the truth listen to me. And Pilate replied, “What is truth?” I imagine he said it in a sarcastic way, because it says next that he simply walked away. And sometimes we do the same thing. We look at the Bible and say, “oh who can really know? Where is the evidence?” Well, here is the evidence. And there is a ton of evidence. You could spend weeks, months, studying the archaeological evidence for the Bible, there's so much of it. But sometimes it’s not that we really want evidence. We just want an excuse to keep living our own selfish lives. Well I’m done with that. I’ve seen the evidence, and it’s powerful. God is real. The Bible is real. Jesus is real. And I need to give my life to God.

All this evidence, and guys this is just the tip of the ice berg, I found dozens of articles, just by a simple google search, there must be thousands and thousands of discoveries around Jerusalem and the middle east that prove that the bible is historically accurate. This is proved through archaeology.

10 Video Shorts on the Evidence for Christianity

These short videos are incredibly powerful.  So many facts have been hidden from us.  So many truths have been pushed aside and minimized by a radically secular education system and media.  We've been deceived, and driven from the truth by a deceptive agenda.  It's madness.  These video shorts will blow your mind.  You'll be amazed.  Share these videos far and wide, share them with your atheist and humanist friends.  Share the facts, share the truth, because the world needs it!

1. The Kalam Cosmological Argument

2. Does God Exist? Four Arguments


3. The Fine Tuning of the Universe
 

4. The Moral Argument


5. Leibniz’ Contingency Argument


6. Did Jesus Rise from the Dead?

7. Evolution Refuted


8. Fossils and the Flood


9. Does Science argue for or against God?


10. God and Suffering


Consider these facts, and have a change in your mind. Facts are stubborn things.  The truth is powerful, it moves us and demands an answer.

Related Posts:

1. Origin, Meaning, Morality, & Destiny: An atheist and a Christian on discuss Worldview
2. Seven Objections to the Bible and Seven Reasonable Responses
3. Quick Fact Sheet: Four Points to Consider
4. 10 Answers to Common Questions Raised by Skeptics
5. Believing in the Miraculous: The Work of Jesus Christ on the Cross
6. Can you see through the illusion? 
7. Philosophy, Science, Logic, and History: Presentations on the Truth of Christianity from Multiple Disciplines
8. No Evidence for God? 
9. Declaration of Worldview (What we Believe) 
10. Reasonable Evidence for Christianity  

The War on Principles & the Hope in our Worldview

The Pilgrims pray for their journey fleeing religious persecution

Daniel in the Lion's den

We live in a culture where really, values are passe.  You aren't allowed to have values.  Morality, principles are scorned by the media, ignored by academia, dismissed in politics, and mocked by Hollywood.  Especially for young people, if you have values your a loser.  If you carry a Bible around at public school, your a laughing stock.  If you believe in moral behavior, your backwards.  If you believe in principles in the political realm, then your an ideologue.  If you believe politicians should make decisions based on Constitutional principles, then your an ideological purist.  If you think sex is something sacred that should be reserved for marriage, then your a backwards rube, a traditionalist fool.  If you refuse to endorse, support, finance, and celebrate gay marriage then you are evil, bigoted, homophobic, racist, sexist, and the very definition of wickedness.  You are really worse than Hitler or Stalin if you don't endorse and celebrate gay marriage.  If you think the Bible is real, then you're an ignorant and dangerous fundamentalist.  If you think a fetus represents a sacred life, you're waging a war on women.  If you're blind to race, then you're actually a raving racist and white supremacist.  If you think a sovereign nation should police it's borders and prevent certain persons from entering illegally, then you are a heartless bigoted anti-immigrant hater.  The list goes on, ad infinitum.  

Insanity is the new sanity.  Lies are the new truth.  Depravity is the new holiness. Hate is the new love language.  Sin is the new standard.  Outrage, the new free speech.  And if you disagree, then they will silence you, or get you fired from your job.  And media will have a field day dancing on your ashes and celebrating your demise as the latest victory for social justice.  

I'd like to say something about all that.  And I hope you'll join me.  I hope I'm not alone in saying this: "No.  You are wrong.  Values still matter.  Religious faith should be respected.  Gay marriage is still wrong.  The Constitution is not out of vogue.  And yes, even the dreaded heresy of heresies: Jesus Christ is alive, and he is God."

In a world of lies, half truths, where we are astounded by the fact that all that we oppose in life seems to have full control... in the limelight of culture, media, and academia, we must be guided by marrow deep principles.  We must be guided by a worldview that is unshakable and firmly set within our souls.

We aren't people who are guided by talking heads in the media, or by big personalities in culture, or even by the latest "experts" and their speculations and calculations as to what is right and true.  Instead we are guided by presuppositions based upon value sets.  And so are they, those on the other side, the atheist, progressive, secular, Marxist, Freudian, anti-religious, democratic socialists, and all the other various ideologies and views of life that vie for power in our country.

They attack us for basing our worldview on the Bible, the Constitution, and moral behavior.  They say that those presuppositions can't be proven.  I would say, and have said many times that our presuppositions are more provable than theirs are.

The Bible is a respected historical document which lines up with outside historical accounts.  The Bible has transformed hundreds of millions of lives for the better.  The Bible is a remarkable document that only arrogant, condescending naturalists in academia have the gumption to mock.  Read a full case here.  The Constitution is not perfect, but given empirical reality, it has functioned very well to guide the prosperity of an amazing nation: The United States.  Moral behavior, well that flows from both of those sources, and it's value to society goes without saying, it is self-evident.    

Consider the alternative: various forms of Marxism, which have led to decay, economic collapse, and brutal genocides.  Consider the alternative of a society that doesn't value life, like Hitler's Germany.  Genocide followed, when one group of people were made to appear as the enemy.  Today conservative Christians are being scapegoated as an enemy.
  All the many names that fit under this crowd of seculars base their worldview on presuppositions.  Their presuppositions are that humanity is basically good, that humanity must look to itself for it's utmost and highest.  Is humanity good?  The state of the world, and the history of humanity should be enough, in short form, to disprove that immediately.  As Malcom Muggeridge the noted journalist said," The depravity of man is at once the most empirically verifiable fact while at the same time being the most intellectually resisted."  

Second, our adversary believes that only the natural world exists.  They believe in only the physical world.  Is that presupposition provable?  Absolutely not.  It's a presupposition.  It's a prior belief system based on faith in the doctrines of naturalism and evolutionary biology.

Third, they believe government should fix everything.  They tend to believe more government programs will help cure the ills of society.  They appeal to government in fact to transform America into a sort of capitalist-socialist hybrid.  They look to Europe and seek to make the USA look more like Europe.  Well, so far so good, our debt and stagnating economy certain now look more like Europes'.  (Many European countries have debt exceeding their GDP which America has had since the Obama presidency)  

Now I work for the Salvation Army, and charities are what we believe in on the Constitutional vein.  We don't believe we need to appeal to government when there is a problem.  Instead we appeal to heaven.  We create charities, church organizations, and temperance movements to transform the society to deal with social ills.  We don't believe the government should fix these things, instead we look to people to form organizations and charities to deal with social ills.  And when we do that, wonderful things happen.  

When we demand government fix everything, well, the United States is now over 30 trillion dollars in debt.  When we appeal to government to make the economy better, we get crony-capitalism.  When we appeal to the government to fix social problems, we get massive debt and failing government programs.  We get record numbers on government assistance, and debt spiraling out of control.  
The point here is, these ideologies don't work.  They don't function!  They are destroying our country.  These fools have destroyed the moral structure of our nation.  They've driven this country into debt.  And they've made political war on Christians.  They've mocked and ridiculed Christians, conservatives, and Constitutionalists.  Madness!  They've created these problems and then they swoop in to fix them, with government programs. 

They've removed morality, religious thought, and personal responsibility, now propagating their destructive ideologies in public schools and university institutions.  Is it any wonder that so many millennials feel an absurd sense of entitlement?  That everything should be free?  That government needs to care for them and give them free stuff from cradle to grave?  And is it any wonder that these young people are devoid of spiritual thought, given how so many in academia, politics, media, and public discourse make it a point to routinely mock Christianity?  And is it working for these millennials?  Is it?  Divorces skyrocketing, teen pregnancy skyrocketing, drug addiction on the rise! Is that working?  I've lived in two towns, Wausau Wisconsin and now Escanaba Michigan.  People in both these cities are dumbfounded by the flood of drugs moving in.  It's like the fabric of the societies are starting to give way.  This process began in the public schools, and in broken families and broken homes, and now it's come to it's full fruition; a generation devoid of morality, devoid of religious thought, and devoid of personal responsibility. My generation has been so lied to, so deceived, so tricked into turning away from the values that made this nation great. It's sick! They think the world owes them everything and they think meaning is to found in multicolored pills and in glass pipes.  I understand why.  They've been raised in a value-less public school system, matched with overworked families breaking apart under attack, then multiplied by a depraved media pushing sex, drugs, alcohol, theft, violence, and immorality of all kinds.  Is it any wonder given this destructive equation that we see young people are messed up in the head and broken inside and out?  No it isn't.

In this mess, this soup of chaos we must be that much more determined to be linked to our values, our principles, and our Christian worldview.  We've got to stick to our guns day and night; metaphorically speaking our principles and our worldview.  Let's look at these principles that have changed the world and brought about such profound liberty and prosperity. What are the basic precepts that make up this worldview?  Once again let us turn to Dr. Norm Geisler's key categories.  They are as follows:

Origin - Where did I come from?
Identity - Who am I?
Meaning - What is my purpose?
Morality - What is my code?
Destiny - What is my future?

Despite all the information imparted to young people, imagine if they could answer definitively these five questions.  Imagine young people armed to the teeth with this sort of rock-ribbed worldview.  Maybe they wouldn't be killing themselves in record numbers every year?

Origin - Where did I come from?
If your a naturalist, an atheist then you believe laughably that you came from rocks which were formed by energy released by a big bang 13.82 billion years ago. (Note: As the years go by the age of the Earth keeps getting older and older as scientists attempt to account for the insane complexity of the universe.) Yes, people actually believe this stuff.  Naturalists can't stand the miraculous.  But their own worldview requires miracles.  The miracles of naturalism, atheism are as follows:
1. Getting something from nothing - There is a universe, it can't explode from nothing. Basic logic, and if they throw "well who created God?" Well, they are making a category error.
2. Getting life from non-life - We've never observed that in science, ever.
3. Getting order from chaos - entropy, the second law of thermodynamics indicates that a system will tend toward disorder not order (and yes, this law applies to our universe.)
4. Getting the immaterial from physical matter - amazing how they don't realize their own miraculous claims.

For a Christian we understand that all life has value.  My life has value and so does yours.  The life of the most staunch atheist has value, even the life of Hitler or Stalin has value.  Why?  Because all life has value.  Every person is made in the image of God.  They are in fact a beautiful and unique snowflake.  Isn't that excellent?  This value guides so much of what we does as Christians and Constitutionalists.  We are willing to allow opposing opinions, because we know that every person has value and therefore has certain inalienable rights.  We don't engage in silencing people like progressives do, we believe that all people have the right to their opinions and should be treated respectfully.  The implications are huge for this simple fact, but I'll leave it there for the sake of time.

Identity - Who am I? 
I think we really covered that more so in the first category.  We are beings created by God, is our origin, and our identity is that of having infinite value and worth.  We are beings worthy of protection and ought to have life, liberty, and the ability to pursue happiness.  Which is why we must, must, must appose abortion.  Abortion is the organized genocide of our day; abortion takes life, liberty, and the ability to pursue happiness from the most precious among us: children.

Meaning - What is my purpose?
If only young people understand that life does have meaning.  And it's not the meaning we make up in our heads.  Life has objective meaning.  There is in fact a purpose to life and to the world and to the universe.  

What is the purpose within the Christian worldview?  Our purpose is to come to know the being who created us, and the being who created the universe.  Our purpose is to come into full relationship with God almighty, and to love God and be loved by Him.  In addition, just as important is our imperative to love.  Love is the very center of our mission and purpose on Earth: We are charged to love those who are unlovable, to care for those who are careless and to stand for those who can't stand themselves.  It is a beautiful charge, and a life of supreme meaning.  We are to lead a life sharing the message of the gospel, of Jesus Christ, to the lost and broken of this world.  It is a life that leads to charities being founded, it's a life that leads to mission trips to dig wells in 3rd world countries, it's a life that leads to orphanages being built and hospitals being founded.  It's a mission that seeks to fight injustice and destroy slavery and worldly evils.  It's a life that turns a person inside out, from selfish, lonely and miserable to loving, merciful, and serving to those in need.  And truly it is a hard life, it is a difficult challenge, and it's a cause that requires every inch of who you are.  It's not a pale grim path, but a path of danger, darkness, light, sorrow, joy and awe.  It is a beautiful, magnificent purpose that is true, and real.  It's not true because it's good, that is an added bonus, it's true because it's the actual state of reality; how things truly are.

Morality - What is my code?
The Bible and the Constitution articulate an astounding moral code.  This moral code gives instruction in every area from personal growth to sexual practices, to how to treat the poor and how to deal with evil.

This is where the rubber meets the road.  How am I going to live?  What am I going to do?  And I mean really, when it's tough.  When a lovely young lady wants to take you home to bed.  Yet she's married.  Or she's your best friend's girl?  Are your values going to transition into that situation?  Or are they going out the window for the sake of pleasure?  Are we hedonists or are we principled conservatives?  And another area, money.  Are we giving 10% of our income to charity?  Are we caring for our family?  Or does our money go only to our wants and desires?  These two areas are the most crucial I think.  Sex and money.  These are the areas where either we'll stick to our principles or we'll give in like hedonists every time.  What about drugs?  Or alcohol?  What about telling the truth?  What about cheating others for a profit?  These are the questions we need to ask.  

When Ben Carson had the option, either I endorse a principled conservative and get nothing in return, or get a seat in Trump's administration if I kiss the ring... what decision did he make?  What would you have done?  What do we do in these situations?  Can we stand with our principles when it means we lose?  Can we ignore a bribe and take a pounding for it?  Can we side with the American people and be hated by the elite in Washington?  Can we tell the truth about those in power and receive the full weight of their scorn?  We need to look at these situations through the lens of our convictions, and act accordingly.  Otherwise we're just hypocrites and deserve nothing good in life.

Destiny - What is my future?
Finally, what is my future?  If your an atheist, naturalist then you believe your future is to blink out of existence.  No life after death, and no reason to live rightly now.  If you die and no longer exist, why not live it up in sexual acting out, drugs, parties, bars, strip joints, and all the rest?  In other words, this worldview is not a sustainable one for a healthy society.  A healthy society can't function with those who believe life has no meaning; because people who believe that behave in self destructive ways, tending to bring disorder to the society.  Isn't that self evident?  It really is.

What is your future if your a Christian?  Your future is to live in glory with God almighty, in a restored universe, a perfected reality that people such as us cannot even imagine.  Not because we're pie in the sky types, not because we're afraid of death, but because such a position tracks with reality.  It tracks with near death experiences.  It tracks with the spread of Christianity worldwide.  It tracks with the default understanding within the human heart that what we are now is only a pale reflection of who we truly are and what we truly shall be.  Or as C.S. Lewis said, "If I find within myself a desire which nothing on Earth can satisfy the logical conclusion is that I was made for another world." Or as the writer of the book of Ecclesiastes recorded: "God has placed eternity upon the human heart."  We know these things.  They are self evident.  They are natural truths built within our very souls.  It is only by the false rabbit trails created by secular culture that we could be convinced to believe otherwise.  

Understand this: God is real, even if we don't want Him to be.  God is real.  He did in fact send us a savior, a God-man into the world named Jesus Christ, born in Bethlehem, grew up Galilee who did in fact die on a cross, put to death by the Romans, who also did in fact resurrect bodily from the dead, in the power of the creator of reality, demonstrating to us his victory over death and the hardline formula for the salvation of humanity.  This formula is simple, profound, magical, yet firmly planted in the ground.  It is a reality of life.  

There will be a day, not too far from now when each and every single person who lives today and has ever lived, will stand physically before the God who made the universe.  Each of us will give an account of what decisions we made and what things we did.  It's true, believe it.  We are morally accountable beings.  Our actions really do have consequences.  Our bad decisions cause evil in the world.  Our good decisions cause hope, rejuvenation, and joy in the world.  We will one day have to answer for our choices.  And we will have to answer the question as to who is for us.  On that day I will be certain to say and to know that Jesus Christ is my savior, that he has paid the penalty for all my poor actions, my sins against God.  For those who are unable to answer with such a statement, they will be removed from the presence of God, just as any of us would no longer seek to be in the company of those who reject us.  And they will then be in a place of sadness, a place of darkness.  And there is no escape from such a place.  It's true.  And God is just, right, and good to do so.  Believe it, and act accordingly.

In conclusion, in this crazy world of moral relativism and secular ideology it's more important than ever to have the courage to live out our principles.  Our principles are grounded in God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit who works within us to help us stand against any and all temptations.  Continue to stand firm in the Christian worldview, and the rights found in the Constitution.  It's not too late.  There is still hope in our culture.  There is still hope for a new great awakening.  It could be right around the corner, closer than we all imagine.  It's always in the darkest moments of history that people come together to do great things, right before the moment of no return.  That moment is today.  Live accordingly. 

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Spheres of Truth in the World: the Bible, Science, & Politics

As a young man in a strange world I often wonder about life: Why am I here?  What is this society?  What does human history mean?  What is the purpose of government? How does culture change?  What philosophies undergird life?  

Let's look at five key areas of truth in the world.  No one ever taught me this stuff.  I was never taught how various disciplines fit together.  I had to teach myself through a lot of reading.  I encourage the same for all of you; knowledge is power.

For young people like me, you've got to search out the truth, it will not be handed to you.  In fact, it will be actively hidden from plain sight.  

Let's look at interdisciplinary truth as it fits into a Christian worldview.  And when I say Christian worldview really what I'm saying is the truth about what life really is.  It's the eyeglasses that bring a blurry world into focus.  We can see clearly only through it.  But it's not projecting an illusion, it's bringing the world into focus.


1. Bible - The most important aspect in interrupting the delusion of materialism is found within the pages of the Bible.  Here we find our manual to life.  Many suggest: If only life came with a manual.  The truth is shockingly clear: Life does come with a manual.  It's found in the Bible.  And really all "Bible" means is book.  So in essence, the manual for life is "The Book."  A description of reality defined by a God who identifies his name as "I am."  A God who created the first man Adam, which means "Man."  And the first woman, Eve, which means "woman."  Fascinating isn't it?  The titles provided are the categories themselves, Bible means book.  God means "I am" or "I am who I am."  The heavens mean the universe.  On and on it goes, a base definition of the existence of reality.  Do you know what Jesus Christ means?  God our savior.  Immanuel?  God with us.  

Within the Bible we find the description of reality as it really is.  Every situation is described perfectly, the state of the universe, the state of the Earth, the state inside your heart and mine, all perfectly described as it actually is, instead of how we would prefer it to be.  What a tough, tough "the book" to read though.  No wonder so many toss it aside!  Dare I say, that it tells me exactly who I am, without any filters or white lies!  In fact it does just that.  And it isn't pretty.  The guide book is clear.  The truth is tough.  But ultimately the truth is what matters the most, find it in 'the book' about 'I am.'

2. Science - Science describes the universe around us.  Despite what you may have heard, the greatest scientists have always been believers in God.  Galileo Galilei, Isaac Newton, Francis Bacon, and John Kelvin just to name a few of the fathers of modern scientific disciplines.  One might come upon the mistaken conclusion that science argues against religious faith.  And one would be wrong in that assertion.  But there are many in that field who so desire to erase God from western civilization.  We must not let them.  

There are two areas that I've found particularly intriguing, one is the study of the universe and it's beginning as basis for the necessity of a timeless omnipotent eternal being.  There are many, many great books and video presentations on such topics.  I suppose it all depends on how you like to learn.  I myself prefer listening to audio or watching video of speakers.  I've found audiobooks and Youtube to be a real blessing for such endeavors.  But if you love reading a good book, well, shouldn't we all be so lucky?  My goodness I could list off so many good books and speakers, but I'll just give a few of the best: Francis Collins, watch him speak, or read his book "The Language of God."  Search for him on Youtube.  Second, of course a personal favorite of mine Ravi Zacharias. And thirdly, the remarkable Dr. William Lane Craig.  The last two were roommates in college, imagine that?  I wonder what they talked about!

Secondly, the study of the cell.  Scientists look into human cells, anatomy, physiology and they see harmonious complexity which points to... God.  And I'll recommend a few more brilliant minds.  Most notably we have Stephen Meyer of the Discovery Institute.  Search for him on Youtube or purchase one of several of his books: Signature in the Cell or Darwin's Doubt.  Secondly I'll recommend Ken Ham of Answers in Genesis.  Thirdly, I'd recommend the great minds over at the Institute for Creation Research, most notably John D. Morris. 

3. Politics - "We are told as followers of the savior, that we must check our faith at the door (into politics). Do you know why they are telling us this? Because the only people who will defend the traditions that America is based on are people who believe in God. Without those people our system must fail. They mean to keep the army of freedom off the battlefield, by telling us we don't have the right to show up. We not only have the right before God, we have the obligation." -Alan Keyes, Progress and Peril.

Government and politics are obviously extremely important.  The reason we have the freedom to share the gospel is because Christians were good stewards of their nation; even and especially at it's founding.  

Christianity has changed the world, especially in the area of government.  But you will never, ever hear this truth in schools, universities or in the public square.  You will never hear about it on television or in any popular media.  When you really research it, my goodness is it astounding!  Christianity preserved human history during the dark ages.  Christianity transformed the ancient Roman empire.  Christianity blunted the blades of barbarian tribes.  Christianity established the first orphanages and hospitals.  Christianity was a bulwark against the Muslim invasion of Europe.  Christianity was the foundation of the greatest nation on Earth, the United States of America.  Christianity today is streaking through Africa, changing the entire continent.  Christianity today is flourishing in the hearts of the underground churches of China, inspiring the hearts of once oppressed peoples.  Peoples now set free in heart and mind, in the gospel of Jesus Christ.  Christianity has done more to invigorate and transform humanity than all the exhortations of Greek philosophers, grand designs of Freemason sages, and systematic designs of benevolent conquerors combined. 

Today Christians in the United States are under prolonged, constant assault.  The situation is quite bleak.  Amazingly the forces that Reagan crushed during the Cold War, managed to survive in ideology, quietly sweep into academia, and seed themselves throughout our culture.  Today they are finishing off a systematic toppling of every sector of our once prosperous nation. They've toppled morality, they've toppled the family, they've toppled free markets, they've toppled the Constitution, religious liberty, and now they are consolidating their victories.  This is the secret history of western civilization state-side.  You will never hear this story in the popular media, because the popular media has largely been seeded by these progressive socialists. But believe me when I say, you've been led astray.  We can all tell something is wrong.  Very wrong!  I couldn't quite place it for so long.  But eventually I discovered the truth.  And it isn't pretty.

This is a great topic to get educated on.  I'll recommend some books and speakers to discover.  Alan Keyes is great, for one.  The Truth Project dvd set is probably your best systematic source to learn the most.  It will wow you.  Another excellent dvd series is "How Should We Then Live?" by Dr. Francis Schaeffer.  I would also recommend a documentary called "Agenda: Grinding America Down."  Some great speakers that have captured my attention recently are these people, definitely Youtube them: Ben Shapiro, Ted Cruz, Mark Levin, Ben Carson, Dinesh D'Souza, Paul Joseph Watson, Dennis Prager, and Alan Sears.

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A Rational Inquiry of the Bible: Is it reliable? Is it the word of God?

"It's just a book of stories."

"It's the writings of man, not God." 

"It's been changed by man, there's no way of knowing if any of the original writings survived." 

"The Bible is full of contradictions."

"Miracles are impossible."

"Who knows?  There's no way to know for certain."

"It's  a book of myths, fables.  Just like Greek myths."

"It's been changed, by the council of Nicaea." 

The skepticism regarding the Bible is very extensive in our culture today.  The Bible has been trusted for generations, but in modern times people aren't as willing to trust the ancient document and it's statements about the world.  

The Bible does claim from within itself to be the word of God.  In conjunction with a sense of the presence of God, conscious contact with God through prayer, and the evidence of changed lives around them, many are willing to take the Bible on a sort of "blind faith."  There isn't anything wrong with that, in fact that may be the wiser path given a straight forward analysis of empirical reality.  

But some like myself prefer a more objective scientifically and historically rendered approach to the authority, inspiration, and reliability of the 66 books of the Bible document.  

However, we must understand ourselves.  As the Oracle said in the Matrix film: "Know thyself."  Why are we so skeptical?  Is it an honest skepticism?  Or do we have a vested interest in the Bible being false?  For many, it may be that they reject the Bible because if the Bible were true, it would mean they would have to change the way they live.  That is a very real possibility, especially for those who reject out of hand, without a moment of reasonable inquiry.  

Or as a great man once wrote: “There is a principle which is a bar against all information, which is proof against all arguments and which cannot fail to keep a man in everlasting ignorance—that principle is contempt prior to investigation.” -Herbert Spencer

Once we've looked at ourselves and cleared out any prejudice, we turn to the Bible documents.  Are they real?  Are they reliable?  Even if they are both, are they really instructions from God?  

Theology is the study of the documents within the Bible.  Apologetics is the study of the information surrounding the Bible (history, science, archaeology, etc) that help determine the reliability of the document.  We will start with apologetics, then move into theology.  

Before I came to believe that God was really God, I tended to believe that the Bible was nonsense.  But why did I believe that?  I think about 99% of objectors are in this same category that I was.  I hadn't really read any scholarly articles, journals, books, or essays.  I hadn't studied much of anything.  I was too preoccupied with self indulgence and the American good life, especially the young good life: parties, jaunting about the town, drinking, some light drugs, and entertaining cute girls.  And anything that might interfere with that good life needed to go.  But I still had a mind.  I needed a little dirt on the Bible, so I could quickly dismiss it under a pretense. 

And like an anti-hero riding out to save me, there it was, the Da Vinci Code.  A scholarly, deeply researched, non-fiction piece of work... but wait, when I started reading it, it was a novel.  A fiction novel.  Well, no matter.  That one disciple in the Da Vinci painting of the last supper definitely does look a bit girly.  I'm not sure if that proves anything.  But who cares?  

Yes, yes, the Da Vinci Code.  Now I didn't really care that it was a novel.  Just shut up with that God crap, and let me party already.  Let me paint my day dream walls, and stop interrupting with your "truth" nonsense.  I want to do what I want to do.  And why are you judging me anyway?  You Christians are such backwards homophobic bigots, blah blah blah, and leave me alone I'm going to show God that I don't need him.  That's just how I roll.

So really, the apologetics wouldn't have mattered to me then.  They matter to me now.  But I didn't care.  I just wanted the quickest escape from the possibility of an objective moral code.  I didn't want to have to deal with any sort of accountability.  I didn't want an arbiter of my sex conduct.  Because 'I'm just experimenting', on my journey, and that's the ethic of today: 'Do whatever works for you.'  'Just don't hurt anyone else.'  But so often, we do hurt others, don't we?  And we sweep it under the rug.  

It turns out that upon further inquiry, the truth was staggering.  There are over 25,000 partial and full manuscripts of the 66 books of the Bible.  When compared to one another they are 99.7% accurate the discrepancies being minor word changes that in no way affect the content.  Leading archaeologists have admitted that no archaeological discoveries have ever contradicted the biblical

Fragment from the Dead Sea Scrolls

documents regarding ancient history.  The Bible documents are scientifically accurate, describing the Earth as a sphere (Isaiah 40:22), stars as innumerable (Jeremiah 33:22), and that the Earth hangs in empty space (Job 26:7). The discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls in 1947 provided further evidence for the authenticity of the biblical documents.  Within the cave of the Dead Sea Scrolls were manscripts preserved from over 2,000 years ago.  When compared with manuscripts used to translate the Bible, they matched perfectly.  The Da Vinci Code was a farce, and a lame farce at that.  The evidence is clear, the documents that we have today are the Bible of yesteryears.  

Click here to read an article that lays out an apologetic along these lines. 

But wasn't the Bible changed at the council of Nicaea?  The council of Nicaea was an event that took place shortly after a long period of intense persecution of the Christian faith in the ancient Roman Empire.  Many Christians were martyred for their faith during this period in history.  The survivors convened at the council of Nicaea mainly for the reason of confronting a growing heresy called Arianism.  Arianism asserted that Jesus Christ was the son of God, but was a created being made by God, not co-eternal with God.  The 66 books of the Bible were not altered or removed during the council.  Various churches at that time in history taught from the accepted books, and occasionally had to weed out forgeries and hoax books, like what have come to be called the "Gnostic gospels."  The Gnostic gospels were attempts by the inclusive mysticisms of the time period, the pagan religions, to force the exclusivist Christian faith back into the over-arching mystical framework of the time.  Those attempts failed, and the gnostic gospels were discarded as fakes.  Today the forgeries are often trotted out by college professors in an attempt to cast doubt on the biblical gospels.  Believe me, you are being mislead.  The vast majority of respected scholars are in agreement that the gnostic gospels are forgeries.  It's a historically accepted fact.  If you want an appeal to authority, or a "scholarly consensus" there it is.

The issue is that the Gnostic gospels sync well with ancient Greek philosophy.  They lend themselves to syncretism, an "all religions lead to the same place" mentality.  But that doesn't change the fact that the gnostic manuscripts tend to be internally inconsistent.  They are most certainly forgeries.  A college professor with an emphasis in the Greek philosophies might prefer them over the synoptic gospels though, given their testament to syncretism.  

Well then you say, perhaps they are the original documents.  But how do we know they aren't just the writings of man?  How can we know if they are the writings of God?  And what about all the contradictions?  What about the odd references to not eating shell fish or pork?  What about all the strange and "mean spirited" commands in the Old Testament?  

Let's look at how we can know if these are the writings of God or man.  Is there evidence to suggest that God inspired the books of the Bible?

There are several lines of reasoning to sweep down, but here is a short clipping of various tracks of argument:

1. There are numerous Old Testament prophecies (many regarding Jesus Christ) that were fulfilled later in the history of man kind (during the period of time when the New Testament was written).  If the OT was written by man, how could man predict future events?  Fulfilled prophecies suggests a divine hand in inspiring the word.

2. The testimony of empirical history, specifically how the Christian faith, after the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ grew from twelve disciples and a few hundred loose followers into the dominant religion of the Roman Empire is of supreme importance.  The Roman Empire when first encountering Christianity was deeply hostile, and the first three hundred years A.D. were years when Christians were hunted down and murdered for their faith.  Yet by 1200 A.D. Christianity had spread across the entire Roman empire, into the eastern part of the world, across almost all of Europe and into North Africa.  That just doesn't happen, unless a divine hand is at work.  If Jesus had really died on the cross, and never rose to life, Christianity would not have spread.  It would have died in the cradle.  But it didn't.  Today Christianity is the #1 religion in the world with 2.1 billion adherents.  The Bible is the best selling book in human history.  That is empirical fact, it can't be ignored.  It suggest strongly that God wrote the Bible. 

3. The personal testimony of millions of people who indicate that their lives have been radically changed by Jesus Christ and the word of the Bible.  I myself am one of those people.  But I'm not alone.  Hundreds of millions of people testify that God did for them what they could not do for themselves.  Are they all crazy?  All of them?  I doubt it.  Some of them are whack jobs, some are doing it for money, but many more are doing it out of sincere love for a God who is really there.

4. The testimony of the experts, some of the greatest minds across history who have embraced the Christian faith, and the Bible.  They come from every field of inquiry, every walk of life, and from every part of the world.  This is a subject I've done a lot of research on.  There are many.  And many of the greatest names in history are people who were dedicated Christians.  Just to list a few of the great names from history (with notable accomplishments):

Martin Luther King Jr. - championed the civil rights movement
William Wilberforce - ended slavery in Great Britain
Abraham Lincoln - American president, ended slavery in the USA
Isaac Newton - famed scientist
Helen Keller - inspirational writer and overcomer
John Adams - American president, orator and statesmen
George Washington - American General, first President
Denzel Washington - famous actor
C.S. Lewis - famous author
J.R.R. Tolkien - famous author, wrote Lord of the Rings series
Francis Collins - famed for mapping the human genome
Blaise Pascal - French Scientist
Simon Greenleaf - founded Harvard Law school
John Polkinghorne - renowned theoretical physicist
Malcom Muggeridge - famed journalist
G.K. Chesterton - famed philosopher
Thomas Arnold - historian and Oxford professor

Just to name a few.  For the sake of time we'll quit there.  If expert testimony is viable evidence, the experts say Christianity is real.

5. Extrabiblical testimony corroborate the biblical documents, and archaeological discoveries support the Bible's account of history. Extrabiblical testimony - Click here to read an article along those lines.
Archaeological support - Click here to read an article on this.

Those are the apologetics.  Next we turn to theology.  Does the Bible contain contradictions?  That is a common charge.  Before I became a Christian I used to make that same charge.  Yet I had never really read all the way through the Bible.  Maybe I stopped a few times, like when it talked about God being jealous and thought "jealousy is bad so this must be fake."  But is jealousy always bad?  Wouldn't it be wise for a man whose wife has gone to be with another man to be jealous for his wife?  Wouldn't it motivate him to go after his wife and try to convince her to return to the one she ought to be with?  See jealousy isn't always a bad thing.  God said "I am a jealous God" regarding how Israel, his nation, his chosen people had turned away from him and were worshiping lumps of clay they put together with their own hands.  Assuming God is real, and he really made all of us, doesn't it make sense that we should in fact be with God, and close to him as a Father is to his children?  Isn't it good that God is "jealous for his people" and desires for his people to be close for him?  Such jealousy motivates God to come after his people, and encourage them to come back to him.  It makes sense.  There are other areas of concern, I would recommend these articles: Solutions to Bible Errors organized by book.

101 Cleared Up Contradictions  Click here to view it. 

In conclusion, there is strong scholarly evidence to indicate that the Bible documents are reliable, internally consistent, unaltered, and even the word of a living God.  All of that together, it's still a tough decision.  But the final closing point for me was the power of the message, both in it's description of the problem, and in it's description of the solution.  Culminating in the problem and the solution is the way of life intrinsic to the Christian worldview: Love God with all your heart, soul, and mind.  And love everyone around you with a full heart, just as you love yourself.  

1. Love God.
2. Love everyone else: friends, enemies, and strangers.
3. Love yourself too.

That is the perfect way to live life.  Those are the teachings of Jesus Christ regarding what is most important in life.  Love is most important.  And the Bible says God is love.  

Jesus describes the problem, it's sin.  A word none of us like to hear.  Yet we see it everyday.  We see it in the news.  It isn't called "sin" by the pundits, but that is the theological term for it.  Sin.  Sex slavery?  It's evil.  It's sin.  Murder, theft, violence, war, disease, death...  People living in poverty and debt.  Entire nations of people going without food or clean water.  It's sin. That's the problem.

And as many charities, political efforts, and altruistic movements try to deal with the problem, it's never really dealt with.  Why?  Because the problem is not outside ourselves.  It's within all of us. 

It's sin.  It's the empty hole in our chests that cry out for something eternal, that nothing in this world can really fill.  No fun party, no marriage, no entertainment, no drug, no drink, no massive bank account, no grand victory or goal achieved can touch: That hole of emptiness and disconnection.  

And only Jesus Christ, his perfect life, his perfect death, and his perfect resurrection, his victory over death can fill us.  When we believe that Jesus Christ really is God, and really died for us, and really accept that fact, we receive the Holy Spirit.  We're reborn, plugged in, that hole is filled and we are part of a new family.   

Despite all of the evidence, which is indeed compelling, I was finally full convinced when studying the life of Jesus Christ.  Jesus was awesome.  He lived love, and died for his friends.  As they spat on him, called him a fake, called him evil and a monster, and nailed his hands to the cross... as he lay dying on the cross, he looked to heaven and said, "Father forgive them, they don't know what they're doing."  

That is perfection my friends.  We can run from it.  We can keep trying to hide.  We can try to gorge ourselves on entertainment, self fulfillment, wealth, drugs, alcohol, sex or anything else.  But we'll always be empty, until we turn an about face, and look into the eyes of our savior and say: "God, you are truly God.  Lord Jesus Christ, you are my God.  I am through running from you.  I am through calling you a liar.  You are my Lord, and I love you, and I will serve you, so I may be with you in eternal life.  Amen." 

"Ecce Homo!" A depiction of the trial of Jesus, by Antonio Ciseri (1871)

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