After Hours July 20

Does God exist?

Cause & effect. Every painting requires a painter. How is there so much impeccable order and beauty?

Morality. Every person of every society has a sense of right & wrong. Where does that come from and how is it so deeply embedded into us? A moral God who programmed us.

Which religion is correct or are they all basically the same?

If there were several independent gods who pro-created the universe, again how does it have such unification.

On the surface or 10,000ft view they are the same:

There’s either God, gods, or not

There’s a terrible problem = pain, suffering, evil

Offer a solution = eliminate desire, various disciplines, good works, moral uprightness

Overall objective = no more suffering, no more existence, eternal life = blissfulness

But at the core they are different. They can’t all be right so long as any of them claim to be the only way - which generally they all claim to be the only way. So there’s a built-in conundrum we must face = which one is right?

1. The other religions bring you a prophet/sage and say: “This is the way to find God.”

2. Asfd

The other religions bring you a prophet/sage and say: “This is the way to find God.”

Christianity says: “Jesus is God and he was raised from the dead to prove it.”

Moreover, the other religions give prescriptions on how to work your way to eternal bliss. But in Christianity God says you can’t earn your way to bliss - in fact the situation of human immorality and God’s judgement is so dreadful that unless He intervenes no one will see eternal bliss. And so he comes to earth to live a perfect life and to take upon himself the punishment of mankind’s transgressions, to set us free from God’s judgement. All we have to do is believe that Jesus existed, that He was and is God, that he lived perfectly and paid the penalty of death for our transgressions, and ask Him to be our savior - and then start obeying His commands.

How can we know Jesus was raised from the dead?

NT Wright wrote a book, The resurrection of the Son of God—890 pages of top flight historical research. What he basically shows in that book is not that you can prove anything from history (including the resurrection)—he admits that—but what he tries to show you is all alternate explanations for the data are even more difficult to believe.

the most likely explanation for:

The most likely explanation for hundreds of eyewitnesses going around being willing to die for what they said they saw (at one point 500 people saying Jesus appeared to them at once, so that's not a hallucination - you don't have group hallucinations) is the resurrection.

hundreds of eyewitnesses going around being willing to die for what they said they saw; at one point 500 people saying Jesus appeared to them at once, so that's not a hallucination (you don't have group hallucinations); we know the accounts are extremely old because Paul talks about them in his letters and that's only 15 years after the events;

Finally, personal experience. If you have any inkling of faith or trust in the reliability that Jesus is who he says he was and did what the accounts say he did, then in prayer ask him to reveal himself to you, to forgive your moral flaws (forgive the moral flaws of others) and offer yourself to become his disciple. He either was a phony and wasn’t raised from the dead so it won’t matter, or he will encounter you in the place of prayer. For some people it’s immediate and others it’s a glorious unfolding over time.

is the resurrection.

A final distinction between Christianity and other religions

Other religions give prescriptions on how to work your way to eternal bliss. But in Christianity God says you can’t earn your way to bliss - in fact the situation of human immorality and God’s judgement is so dire that unless He intervened no one would ever see eternal bliss. And so he came to earth to live a perfect life and to take upon himself the punishment of mankind’s transgressions, to set us free from God’s judgement.

Therefore, all we have to do is believe that Jesus is the Son of God who came and paid the penalty of death for our transgressions, and quit living in transgressions (repent), and be baptized in the name of Jesus.

What good would it do us to believe that Jesus came to pay the penalty of our moral transgressions, say thanks, and then continue living in

Acts 2:38 NLT

Peter replied, “Each of you must repent of your sins and turn to God, and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. Then you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Believe & Confess

Romans 10:9 NLT

If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

Repent/Reform/Change

Repent. What good would it do us to believe that Jesus came to pay the penalty of our moral transgressions, say thanks, and then continue transgressing God.

What good would it do us to believe that Jesus came to pay the penalty of our moral transgressions, say thanks, and then continue transgressing God.

What good would it do us to believe that Jesus came to pay the penalty of our moral transgressions, say thanks, and then continue transgressing God.

Hebrews 10:29 NLT

Just think how much worse the punishment will be for those who have trampled on the Son of God, and have treated the blood of the covenant, which made us holy, as if it were common and unholy, and have insulted and disdained the Holy Spirit who brings God’s mercy to us.

Baptism

A public symbol of being washed clean from sin, as well as being reborn. A practical statement that you believe Jesus is the Son of God and paid for your transgressions, and you want to be washed clean by him and honor his gracious gift of freedom by repenting/reforming = sinning no more.

A public symbol of being washed clean from sin, as well as being reborn. A practical statement that you believe Jesus is the Son of God and paid for your transgressions, and you want to be washed clean by him and honor his gracious gift of freedom by repenting/reforming = sinning no more.

Martyn Lloyd-Jones: “[Baptism] represents our being washed from the guilt of sin…and into Christ by the Holy Spirit.” (Life in the Spirit in Marriage Home and Work, 159)

represents our being washed from the guilt of sin.

Life in the Spirit in Marriage Home and Work, 159

Tony Sargent, Gems from Martyn Lloyd-Jones: An Anthology of Quotations from “the Doctor” (Milton Keynes, England; Colorado Springs, CO; Hyderabad, AP: Paternoster., 2007), 28.