Sunday, June 27, 2010

faith of a child; III


This was fowarded to me via email recently from a christian friend of mine with the instruction to share it with friends so I thought I should post it here for many who are yet to receive it.
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An Atheist Professor of Philosophy speaks to his Class on the Problem Science has with GOD, The ALMIGHTY.

He asks one of his New Christian Students to stand and-

Professor:    You are a Christian, aren't you, son?

Student:       Yes, sir.

Professor:    So you believe in GOD?

Student:      Absolutely, sir

Professor:    Is GOD Good?

Student:      Sure

Professor:    Is GOD ALL POWERFUL?

Student:      Yes

Professor:    My Brother died of Cancer even though he prayed to GOD to heal him. Most of us would attempt to help others who are ill. But GOD didn't. How is this GOD good then?

(Student is silent)

Professor:    You can't answer, can you? Let's start again. Young Fella! Is GOD Good?

Student:      Yes.

Professor:    Is Satan good?

Student:      No

Professor:    Where does Satan come from?

Student:      From…GOD

Professor:    That's right! Tell me son, is there evil in this World?

Student:        Yes

Professor:    Evil is everywhere, isn't it? And GOD did make everything. Correct?

Student:      Yes.

Professor:    So who created evil?

(Student does not answer)

Professor:    There is Sickness; Immorality; Hatred; Ugliness. All these terrible things exist in the World, don't they?

Student:      Yes, sir

Professor:    So, who created them?

(Student has no answer)

Professor:    Science says you have 5 Senses you use to Identify and Observe the World around you. Tell me son! Have you ever Seen GOD?

Student:       No, sir

Professor:    Tell us if you have ever heard your GOD?

Student:      No, Sir

Professor:    Have you ever felt your GOD, Tasted your GOD, Smelt your GOD? Have you ever had any Sensory Perception of GOD for that matter?

Student:      No, sir. I'm afraid I haven't.

Professor:    Yet you still believe in HIM?

Student:       Yes

Professor:    According to Empirical, Testable, Demonstrable Protocol, Science says your GOD doesn't exist. What do you say to that, son?

Student:      Nothing. I only have my Faith.

Professor:    Yes. Faith. And that is the Problem Science has

Student:      Professor, is there such a thing as Heat?

Professor:    Yes.

Student:       And is there such a thing as Cold?

Professor:    Yes

Student:      No sir. There isn't

(The Lecture Theatre becomes very quiet with this turn of events)

Student:        Sir, you can have Lots of Heat, even More Heat, Superheat, Mega Heat, White Heat, a Little Heat or No Heat. But we don't have anything called Cold. We can hit 458 Degrees below Zero which is No Heat, but we can't go any further after that. There is no such thing as Cold. Cold is only a Word we use to describe the Absence of Heat. We cannot Measure Cold. Heat is Energy. Cold is Not the Opposite of Heat, sir, just the Absence of it

(There is Pin - Drop Silence in the Lecture Theatre)

Student:       What about Darkness, Professor? Is there such a thing as Darkness?

Professor:    Yes. What is Night if there isn't Darkness?

Student:      You're wrong again sir, Darkness is the Absence of Something. You can have Low Light, Normal Light, Bright Light, Flashing Light, but if you have No Light constantly, you have nothing and its called Darkness, isn't it? In reality, Darkness isn't. If it is, you would be able to make Darkness Darker, wouldn't you?

Professor:    So what is the point you are making, Young Man?

Student:      Sir, my point is your Philosophical Premise is flawed.

Professor:    Flawed? Can you explain how?

Student:     Sir, you are working on the Premise of Duality. You argue there is Life and then there is Death, a Good GOD and a Bad GOD. You are viewing the Concept of GOD as something finite, something we can measure. Sir, Science can't even explain a Thought. It uses Electricity and Magnetism, but has never been seen, much less fully understood either. To view Death as the Opposite of Life is to be ignorant of the fact that Death cannot exist as a Substantive Thing. Death is Not the Opposite of Life: just the Absence of it. Now tell me, Professor, do you teach your Students that they evolved from a Monkey?

Professor:    If you are referring to the Natural Evolutionary Process, yes, of course, I do.

Student:        Have you ever observed Evolution with your own eyes, sir?

(The Professor shakes his head with a Smile, beginning to realize where the     Argument is going)

Student:      Since no one has ever observed the Process of Evolution at work and cannot even prove that this Process is an on - Going Endeavor, are you not Teaching your Opinion, sir? You're not a Scientist but a Preacher?

(The Class is in Uproar)

Student:        Is there anyone in the Class who has ever seen the Professor's Brain?

(The Class breaks out into Laughter)

Student:     Is there anyone here who has ever heard the Professor's Brain, Felt it, touched or Smelt it? No one appears to have done so. So, according to the Established Rules of Empirical, Stable, Demonstrable Protocol, Science says that you have No Brain, sir. With all due respect sir, how then do we Trust your Lectures?

(The Room is Silent. The Professor stares at the Student, his face unfathomable)

Professor:     I guess you'll have to take them on Faith, son.

Student:      That is it sir, the Link between Man and GOD is FAITH. That is all that Keeps Things Moving and Alive.

                           The FAITH of a child

That student was Albert Einstein

Monday, June 21, 2010

“The soul that sinneth shall die,” should not be taken in the physical sense.

A friend on mine on face book recently insisted that a man must be punished if possible by death if he was guilty of breaking the laws of God so I had to make this little post.

An adulterer was brought to Jesus by a group of people. They were led by some teachers and executors of the law. For her sin, she was to be stoned to death according to their law. But before then, they wanted to test Jesus.

Would Christ because of his preaching about love ask that she be set free, and thus go against the law? Or would he ask that she be put to death and thus make nonsense of his stance on love and forgiveness?

He did neither! Instead He asked that whoever was without sin should cast the first stone. One by one they began to leave. Eventually none was left.

Why? BECAUSE NOT ONE WAS WITHOUT SIN!
Why then did they think they had the right to take the life of a FELLOW SINNER on account of her sin?

With His action, Jesus wanted not to change the law but to clarify it.

The carrying out of justice on the Laws of God is done by God not man. When it is said that “the soul that sinneth shall die,” the death referred to is not physical death. Both those that live good lives according to God's will as well as and those that do not, would experience physical death. It therefore cannot be punishment for going against the Laws of God.

Taking the life of a man for sinning against the laws of God can only shorten his life on earth, and not punish him according to the law. The grace of God which permits the sinner to learn of the ways of God and make a change on his life is taken away from him by people who themselves are sinners and yet by still being alive, enjoy this grace which comes from God alone. Do they have more right to life?

The Justice of God is PERFECT and FINAL. No one can escape it. It does not depend on being caught first by his fellow man to be guilty of offending the Law. Whether done in hiding or in the open; whether seen by his fellow man or not; the one who engages in sin is GUILTY. If he has not adapted to a new life as willed by his Creator by the time he dies and leaves this world, then he shall surely DIE.

He would then not be permitted to have Eternal LIFE in Paradise. By his own choice he would have chosen DEATH. He would have chosen Damnation for Eternity.

That is why the gift of being allowed to live and learn is given to man. He is permitted to make mistakes but to learn from the mistakes; to fall but to stand up again. The grace of God is lavished on him that he may eventually become that man that is willed by The Almighty. The Grace is given to all equally.

We are permitted to make our own earthly laws which help to ensure a happy co-existence. It is important to draw these laws from the laws of God. But we must be careful how we interpret these laws, lest in trying to serve God, we might just be serving another who already has the stamp of death upon him.

Saturday, June 19, 2010

Why was Christ born?

Take a look at this scenario.

A lady returns home from work very late. Her car broke down on her way back and she had to have it towed to the mechanics for repairs before finally heading for home. She resides with her husband, three kids and a nanny but her husband is not always around since he works with an oil firm offshore.

On this particular night he is on duty at work. She reaches her home to find it is on fire. There is a crowd outside and her nanny is at the side of the building crying. She looks around for her children but doesn’t find them. She is told they are still inside. In sheer apprehension she crashes in through a side door and begins to look for them. She can hear her baby who is barely a year old, crying and following his voice eventually finds him in his pram in the parlour.

There is smoke coming from the rooms so she leaves him in the parlour and rushes off to the children’s room to get the girls, hoping to bring them to the parlour also, so she can set off outside at the same time with all three of the kids. But she is prevented from doing so. The ceiling caves in at the passage way separating the rooms from the parlour. She can’t go back to the parlour through this passage. She has to get the girls out fast through the back door and then go back in, for the baby some other way.

But as she steps outside, with arms clasped tightly around both girls held to her chest, she hears a loud noise. She quickly drops the girls with some of the neighbours and rushes to the front of the house to find that the roof in front has collapsed. The entire building is now engulfed in flames and her baby is still inside. She can still hear him crying and can’t bear to think of what might be happening to him right now.

Despite all the attempts to restrain her she breaks away from the neighbours and crashes into the building through the front door. She makes her way through the flames heading for the parlour. Her clothes catch fire, but that’s the least of her worries right now. She has to get to the baby! She finds him in the pram where she left him. Luckily the fire hasn’t reached him. Her clothes are burning but she still ignores it. She has to move fast. She picks up the baby, pulls down a curtain, and rushes off to the kitchen where she soaks the curtain in water. Then she pours some water on her burning clothes, wraps the wet curtain around the baby, makes her way to a side window through the flames that has now engulfed the entire building, and crashes out.

Her baby is unharmed and the girls are safe.
She is rushed off to hospital in severe pains, but doesn’t make it.
She dies on the way.

Strange, but it seems she had a smile in her face when she died.

If the tabloids carry the story, some of the possible captions would be;
*Woman dies to save children
*Lady sacrifices her life for her children’s   
*Woman dies that her children may live
*Woman pays supreme sacrifice; dies for her children

Now the question is did she want to die? Was suicide the reason she entered the fire? Was she happy because she was dying at last?

On the other hand, was she happy because she had successfully saved the lives of her children and it didn’t matter if it cost her, her own life?

This question is very pertinent.

The children need to understand that the reason their mother entered the fire was not to die but to save them from a certain danger.

They must see that because of her love for them, she was prepared to lose her own life in order to save them from this danger.

They must know this danger.

If they cannot appreciate the real reason for her entering the fire; if they must place more emphasis on her death rather than on the danger from which she was trying to save them, then they would not be in the best frame of mind to avoid courting the danger in the future. In order words, the threat of the danger will for ever be present. Even after the great sacrifice of their mother.

So why was Christ born?

It is said that He came to die for our sins.

Is this true? Did He really come for that purpose? Did He come to be abused, flogged, stabbed and finally murdered to please God, his father in order for our sins to be forgiven?

Let’s put it this way. If as a sinner, I had offended God by killing my fellow man, would He require that I beat up His Son and finally murder Him in order to be forgiven for murder?

Is this thought or opinion not blasphemy?

Who tempted the Pharisees and the Scribes? Who tempted Judas?

Was it God?
…Or Satan, the devil!

If indeed God had wanted His Son to be killed He would either have needed to tempt man Himself, relied on the devil to do it for Him, or probably have worked hand in hand with the devil to achieve it. It also means that all those who helped to make it possible would be blessed. Why then should Judas who made the death of Jesus possible not be a Saint? Why is the name "Judas" not being happily given by parents to children? After all he did make it possible for man to be saved.

But God couldn’t have worked with the devil; He couldn’t have wanted His Son to be murdered.

And that is why in speaking about the betrayal of Judas, Jesus says in Matt 26:24, “How terrible for that man who betrays the Son of Man; it would have been better for that man if had had never been born!”

And in Luke 23:28 He told the women to weep, but not for Him, rather for themselves and their children. He actually told them to weep.

Again we see in Matt 27:45&51, that the whole country was covered in darkness for three hours as he suffered on the cross; the curtain hanging in the Temple was torn in two from top to bottom as He breathed His last. The earth shook and the rocks split apart. Surely, these signs cannot mean that the death of Jesus was pleasing to His Father.

In Matthew 21:33-39 the Son of God gave a clear picture of the evil that was about to happen. See 37 “Last of all he sent his son to them. ‘Surely they will respect my son.’ He said.” And 38 “This is the owner’s son. Let us kill him and we will get his property!”

Indeed God sent His Son to save mankind

He did this because He saw the path we were treading and where it was leading. He saw how far we had sunk. There was so much evil and it was spreading rapidly. Those who were supposed to guide us were themselves lost. The works of the prophets were no longer understood. There could have been only one outcome…Hell.

So as an act of emergency and out of His Grace, He sent His Son to save us from Satan; from self destruction and from death. The coming of Jesus was prophesied but the prophecy was misunderstood. The Jews had expected a king that would deliver them from hands of the Romans. An earthly king! But when he offered no resistance to his arrest and crucifixion, when He allowed Himself to be insulted, flogged and finally murdered, with no help whatsoever from God, He either had to be a fake or a Messiah sent to die for mankind. He was neither!

The mission of the Son of God was not a physical or earthly one. It was a Spiritual one! Yes, He was a Messiah, but not one sent to establish an earthly kingdom neither was He a Messiah sent to die. Rather he was here to point the way to a Spiritual Kingdom. A kingdom where He reigns as king; where all activity is in harmony with the will of God His Father!


In John 18:37 Christ said “I was born and came into this world for this ONE purpose, to speak about the Truth. Whoever belongs to the Truth listens to me.”

Let us not be deceived! Christ came to show us His Father; He came to tell us about His kingdom; to warn us against sin and by so doing to save us from eternal damnation. He came to show us the road we must follow; the kind of lives we must live. He came to ask us to live a new life, to be born again.

And He also came to tell us that, “unless a man be born again, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.”


Saturday, June 12, 2010

Find it out in the Bible

I stumbled on a small discussion recently on the brain teaser "which came first, the chicken or the egg"  and was really surprised that the answer wasn't apparent so, noticing that they were all christians, I decided to re-phrase the question and asked, "which did God create first."


And they all smiled. Now it was obvious! The chicken, they said.

You see, when it is asked which came first, the chicken or the egg, the mind might tend to wander around bit but when asked which did God create first, the mind especially of most christians, immediately goes to that great book that talks about creation. The bible!

And what does the bible say about it?

Well it didn't say that God created the egg and asked it to go ye and multiply. Definitely not the egg of a warm blooded creature like the chicken!

No, instead the bible says that God created Light and separated it from the darkness; and then He created everything else...and the birds of the air. He also created the land animals and finally man.  And then He said; "go ye and multiply?"

So when next someone asks you a somewhat tricky question, and you're not so sure which way to go, check out the bible. You just might find the answer somewhere in there.