Thinking about God, Jesus and The Big Questions

Many people have a fear of missing out. They are insecure and don't want to be left out of something that's going on. Yet, I've noticed that fear of missing out is almost always applied to things like parties and get-togethers, but almost never to anything crucially important. For example, what about being saved? You'd think many people would have a huge fear of missing out on that. You'd think the people who were worried about missing out on something as minor (in the long term) as parties would all flock to churches so as not to miss out on the good news of Jesus. You would expect they'd all want to be saved. Of course, fear of missing out is not a good reason in and of itself to want to be saved by Jesus. We should want to be saved because we truly believe in Jesus, not just out of a fear of missing out. Missing out on a party only affects us in the here-and-now. But if we miss out on salvation, it affects us for eternity. This is something that w...

Lately, I found myself wondering exactly what I would say to a close friend if I was to explain what the Christian beliefs are.  It is actually pretty simple to explain. God the Creator God is the creator, and created everything in the universe. He also created Heaven. Heaven is a real place, a place of happiness where there is no sickness and no death. The one thing that can separate us from God There is only one thing that can separate us from God: sin. Sin is when we do bad things. God hates sin (he does not hate us , he hates our sin) and does not want to be around it. This is a problem for us, because we all have a sin nature. Adam and Eve, the first man and woman, fell into the temptation of sin. We all have that same nature, so we all sin, even though we try to be good. None of us are perfect. None of us can meet God's standards. A path for us to be saved While this sounds like quite a hopeless situation, it's not, thanks to God. This is why: God made a way fo...

I've talked before about what the Bible says about the Mark of the Beast and you can recap that here . Up until now, there wasn't an implanted technology in everyday use that was actually being utilized to make payments as described in Revelation 13. This has recently changed. NPR reported that a U.S. company has offered to implant chips in the hands of their employees (see reference 1). These chips allow them to make cafeteria-style payments. In other words, a chip inside their hand will be used to identify the employee and to deduct funds from their cafeteria account when making purchases. It is an opt-in program, so the employees are not being compelled to do it. Let's take a look at what the Bible says about the Mark of the Beast: Also it causes all, both small and great, both rich and poor, both free and slave, to be marked on the right hand or the forehead, so that no one can buy or sell who does not have the mark, that is, the name of the beast or the number o...

Even if you are not concerned about your own soul, what about your children's? Did you know that there is a huge battle going on, over your child's soul? I know that to you, it seems literally unbelievable. But if you will, just for a second, pose the (admittedly scary) question "What if?" Just because you don't believe in something doesn't mean it's not real. Imagine us trying to explain the existence of the atom to someone from the Middle Ages. We can understand why that person simply won't believe it, but the atom was still 100% real in the Middle Ages - regardless of whether the people of that time could a) detect it or b) believe in it. Let's switch over a little. Have you ever watched the movie "The Matrix"? It is set in what seems to be a very real world, but in fact turns out to be a virtual world surrounded by an external, real, world. Right now, the Earth, planets, galaxies and everything in it are like the inner world o...

I've noticed that it's deceptively easy to get so busy at fighting against other things, that we can fail to recognize and fight the real enemy. The real enemy, obviously, is Satan. Yet, we often spend a lot of our energy fighting all kinds of other (more secular) things, such as taxes, political leaders, and so on, that we don't ever bother fighting Satan.  Indeed, this is playing into Satan's hands.  There is nothing he would like more than for you to be distracted into thinking that someone else is the bad guy. It's not that we shouldn't care at all about what's going on in the world, and things like social injustice. We should care, and caring translates into action. Going off on a rant or yelling at people is not really going to help. If caring about an issue translates into constructive action, fine.  But I feel it's all too easy for me to do something totally non-constructive such as complain about something that's going on in the world, w...

We complain about the fast pace of life today.  I understand.  When I was working 50 hours a week regularly (and I realize this isn't all that much compared to the 60+ hours a week worked by some), it seemed I never had time to take care of even the basics. Things like laundry, groceries, washing dishes, cooking food, cleaning, and so on seemed to use up what little time I had left over in the day.  How, then, could anyone expect to have any time to think about any of the big questions, like whether God exists? Even for Christians (believers), how can any of us make time to study God's word? It seemed like the business of just living took up all my time! Yes, I made time to attend church and Sunday School each week.  I did volunteer activities.  Somehow, I fitted this in.  Yet, with or without these, I still felt sorry for myself and for our generation. I felt we didn't have enough time to think about God and study His word. But when I stopped to real...

If I choose not to believe in God, would that make Him any less real? What if we asked the same about gravity? The important thing is to seek the truth.  All too many people say they are busy seeking the truth, yet are blind to what is under their very eyes.  You won't necessarily find God merely by investigating the physical laws of the universe: this tells you a lot about the universe, but very little about whether there is a Creator.  You could, however, seek God by asking Him if He is there - and then listening.  Surprisingly, many unbelievers have never actually tried the asking, and even fewer of those try the listening. If you are really truly a seeker of the truth, why not try talking to God?  If there is no God then truly you have nothing to lose (except a few minutes in the privacy of your own home or other area).  If there is a God, then you have everything to gain - everything.  You will not lose a thing if there is no God....

One thing about which Christians can rejoice is that no-one can strip you of your religion.  Although this fact sounds obvious, there are many people who try to act as though they can forcibly remove religion from people.  The truth of the matter is that they are absolutely powerless to do so.  Unlike for example a jacket or a pair of shoes, no-one can take your beliefs away from you.  Even if a law were to be passed abolishing all religion, you are still free to have your own beliefs.  (You may be persecuted for them, but you can still have those beliefs - no-one can physically locate and grab your beliefs and take them away against your will.)  As an example, suppose a dictator didn't like the notion of, say, gravity, and said that believing in gravity was illegal, as was talking about it to others.  Well, whether or not you talk about it to others, odds are that you will continue to believe in gravity. If someone thinks your religion is a l...

Christians believe that this earth (and outer space) are created by God.  In addition to this universe we have managed to detect using physical measurements, there is another Universe, which contains basically everything else that isn't here, such as angels and Heaven.  Our universe is nested within the other Universe. We are a universe within a Universe.  This is not a surprise to Christians, but some atheists find it hard to believe. The difference between the universes: Our universe is enemy-occupied territory (Satan has considerable, but still limited, power on Earth).  Our universe is ephemeral and will not last forever (a really long time, but not forever).  In contrast, the outer Universe is permanent and out there somewhere in it there is a big battle between various heavenly beings over each of our souls (yes, a battle is being fought over us, strange as it may seem).   Some secular themed examples of the concept: This concept of a univ...

This is the long-promised post on the issue of those who reject the Bible because it isn't "complete" (by their standards).  The Bible isn't meant to be a science textbook The Bible is sufficient to generate faith.  The Bible is not meant to contain all the answers to scientific questions, nor is it meant to be a manual on how the universe works.  It is a guide to God and Jesus.  Just as a music textbook needn't include for instance a section on English literature, neither does a book on God and Jesus have to include sections on music, engineering, science, etc.  However, it is surprising how many atheists expect that the Bible should do all these things!  What would happen if the Bible DID contain 'everything'? Let's consider for a moment what would happen if the bible was very "complete" (by atheist standards).  This would result in a huge and lengthy tome which no-one would ever read! Even with the life expectancy of today, even a B...

The more I read the Bible, the more I am aware that we need to choose our spiritual words with care. This is because there is a vast spiritual world out there which is bigger, vaster and more real than than our physical world.  The spiritual world is eternal, i.e. it goes on forever.  In contrast, our physical world exists for only a short time.  A body can die or be killed, but this will not affect how long the soul lasts: Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell. Matthew 10:28  Our words and actions can have spiritual impact on others - whether positive or negative: “If anyone causes one of these little ones - those who believe in me - to stumble, it would be better for them if a large millstone were hung around their neck and they were thrown into the sea.  If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life maimed ...