Faith #4: The Preposterous Gospel of Christ

Number 4 on my list of top 10 reasons for faith in Jesus is probably the most compelling reason, because this preposterous Gospel of Christ was born in a hostile culture and has succeeded in the most hostile nations, growing miraculously in the worst conditions.

The way of faith in Jesus is not designed to be imposed on its followers, nor is it designed to bring its leaders wealth or respect in this world. It was not intended to be sold or marketed - it is difficult and some would say impossible to spread this faith without the miraculous work of the Holy Spirit. Even after Jesus was resurrected and appeared to over 500 of his followers, the kingdom that he established in heaven only "went viral" after Christ had been seated on his throne and sent the Holy Spirit to those he called.

[Note: If you haven't noticed from my other posts on this "Reasons for Faith" topic, the kingdom of heaven has nothing to do with religions and governments.]

The gospel message itself is called "foolishness" to the nations of this world, and a "stumbling block" to the Jews whom Christ came to reach first. Of all the improbable ways to start, this kingdom began with the King himself being whipped and hung naked on a cross to suffer and die with criminals. To make it even more unlikely, he called his followers to take up their own cross and follow him - which almost all of them did - leading to lives of eternal impact that ended in persecution and death. These are not the ways of charlatans or philosophers, but rather simple men who were transformed by a revolutionary gospel piercing deep into their hearts by the Holy Spirit of God.

This is the Gospel of Christ:

1. God created this world and gave mankind authority over his creation.
2. Mankind sinned by rejecting God and choosing to live by their own knowledge.
3. Sin resulted in the mortality and depravity of mankind.
4. As he promised, God sent his only Son to redeem mankind from their slavery to sin and death.
5. The accumulated debt of the sin of mankind could only be paid by the precious blood of God's perfect sacrifice - the death of his only Son.
6. The resurrection and ascension of Jesus to the right hand of God makes him the Lord of all creation.
7. We are saved from sin and death when we believe in our heart and confess Jesus as Lord.
8. When we receive Christ we are blessed with joy, eternal life and the riches of heaven.

This preposterous gospel of an all-powerful but merciful, self-sacrificial God is the message of the eternal kingdom that rules the hearts and minds of believers. It is built on things only God can do and continues only by His grace and the power of his Holy Spirit. It is this grace that provides my faith and sustains my soul.

Faith #5: The Resurrection

This is Number 5 on my top 10 reasons for faith in Jesus.

The defining reason why Christians over the millennia have professed faith in Jesus is the resurrection. Without the resurrection there would be no Christian faith. Even though Jesus performed miracles and preached a revolutionary and very righteous message, without the resurrection Jesus would be viewed as perhaps just another Old Testament prophet, or just a good man as many humanists believe.

The resurrection of Jesus is one of the most irrefutable events in the Bible, and its impact on his followers and on world history are undeniable. Early in my journey from skeptic to believer I was presented with the evidence for the resurrection by Josh McDowell. Rather than creating my own list of proofs I will just refer to this page "Evidence for the Resurrection" for background.

To summarize, the disciples of Jesus were so convinced of the resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ to the right hand of God that they were willing to suffer and die to obey him and spread the good news to the ends of the world. They did this not out of greed, nor were they converted at the point of a sword or spear.

To the contrary they resisted these forces and spread the gospel in the face of opposition from both their own culture and the rulers of the world. This is not the response expected from a group that had been scattered in fear while their Rabbi was captured, tortured and crucified by soldiers acting on the demands of an angry radicalized mob.

The resurrection of Jesus and the coming of his Holy Spirit changed the disciples into a fearless group of evangelists who changed the world. The truth of the resurrection means that Jesus lives forever as the Lord of all creation for all time.

Faith #6: The New Covenant

Number 6 on my top 10 reasons for faith in Jesus is the New Covenant - the covenant of Grace, sealed by the blood of Jesus, which provides the promise of redemption, forgiveness, and eternal life.

The Bible describes many covenants between God and men. Here are a few:

• The covenant with Noah (Genesis 9) - the promise of natural order based on Noah's faith and sealed by the shedding of blood.
• The covenant with Abram (Genesis 15) - the promise of land based on Abram's faith and sealed by the shedding of blood.
• The covenant with Abraham (Genesis 17) - the promise to make Abraham the father of many nations through faith and sealed by the shedding of blood in circumcision.
• The covenant with Israel  (Exodus 19) - the Law given through Moses that effectively became the constitution for the nation of Israel. This covenant was also sealed by the shedding of blood. This covenant promised blessings or curses conditioned by Israel keeping the covenant.
• The covenant with David (2 Samuel 7) - the promise of God to establish the Kingdom of David and the everlasting kingdom of his descendant, prophesying the Messianic age.
• The promised covenant of grace (Jeremiah 31) that would be fulfilled by the coming Messiah.

The fact that this ancient faith prophesied its own fulfillment in a way that its most ardent proponents did not even understand is testimony to the truth of the Gospel. The prophets of the Old Testament even prophesied the rejection of the Messiah and the obsolescence of the old covenant of blessings or curses. This mysterious ending was intentionally hidden until it was fulfilled and revealed by the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.

Then a shoot will spring from the stem of Jesse, and a branch from his roots will bear fruit. The Spirit of the Lord will rest on Him... (Isaiah 11:1-2)

The covenant of faith remains, sealed for all time by the blood of Jesus and available to people of every nation because of His resurrection and enthronement at the right hand of God. The covenant with Israel and the Law of Moses with its Levitical priesthood was made obsolete at the same time by the priesthood of Jesus.

What we are left with from now until the end of this age is what all Christians trust and believe, which is the Kingdom of God and Jesus Christ at his right hand, ruling our hearts through the power of his Holy Spirit. The kingdoms of this world and our own sinful flesh remain to be destroyed at his coming. It is this promise, the hope of glory, that gives me faith to live in this present age.

Faith #7: Messianic Prophecy

Number seven on my list of reasons for faith in our Lord Jesus is the set of Messianic prophecies found in the Hebrew scriptures of the Old Testament. Jewish Rabbis and Church Fathers both recognized these prophecies as Messianic, but the fulfillment of these prophecies in the life of Jesus reveal the astonishing surprise ending.

The Old Testament or Covenant between God and Israel was given to Moses as recorded in the Torah or Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible. The books of history, poetry, and prophecy comprise the rest of what we call the Old Testament, and many of these books contain prophecies of the Messiah as a "man of sorrows." The Jewish Rabbis did not understand these messianic prophecies and would not accept their fulfillment in the life of Jesus. Yet the prophecies still testify to this day to Jews and Christians alike for those who choose to study them.

Here are the verses that are most compelling to me:

Genesis 22 - The Sacrifice of the only Son

He said, “Take now your son, your only son, whom you love, Isaac, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I will tell you.” Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son, and he took in his hand the fire and the knife. So the two of them walked on together. Isaac spoke to Abraham his father and said, “My father!” And he said, “Here I am, my son.” And he said, “Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?” Abraham said, “God will provide for Himself the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” So the two of them walked on together.

Christians recognize this story as foreshadowing God's sacrifice of his own Son for our sins. The location of Moriah is understood to be Zion, where Jesus carried the wood for his own sacrifice on the cross. It was a very specific place God had in mind for this sacrifice, and Abraham presented the perfect picture of what a great sacrifice this was for a father to give his only son whom he loved.

God did provide a ram for the sacrifice, and as the writer of Hebrews says, He gave Isaac back to his father as a foreshadowing of the resurrection. The Lamb of the final sacrifice would be fulfilled in Jesus, and His resurrection would demonstrate that He alone has become Redeemer and Lord of all creation.

Psalm 22 - The Crucifixion of Christ

For dogs have surrounded me; A band of evildoers has encompassed me; They pierced my hands and my feet. I can count all my bones. They look, they stare at me; They divide my garments among them, And for my clothing they cast lots.

Psalm 22 is a graphic prophecy of the crucifixion of Messiah Jesus. It is quoted in the New Testament in the last words of Jesus on the cross - "My God, my God, why have you forsaken Me?" There is astonishing detail here written about this cruel execution method, thousands of years before the Romans used it in Judea. Here's a good post on Psalm 22 from Jews for Jesus.

Isaiah 49-53 - The Suffering Servant

But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, And by His scourging we are healed. All of us like sheep have gone astray, Each of us has turned to his own way; But the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all To fall on Him. He was despised and forsaken of men, A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; And like one from whom men hide their face He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. Surely our griefs He Himself bore, And our sorrows He carried; Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, Smitten of God, and afflicted.

This One who is called the arm of the LORD - the Servant of YHWH - is prophesied in these chapters of Isaiah to suffer in our place and bear our iniquity. These most treasured scriptures give a clear description of substitutionary sacrifice, demonstrating the goodness and righteousness of God in scriptures that were hidden in plain sight for hundreds of years before Christ.

Daniel 9 - The End of Sin and the New Covenant

“Seventy weeks have been decreed for your people and your holy city, to finish the transgression, to make an end of sin, to make atonement for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the most holy. So you are to know and discern that from the issuing of a decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince there will be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks; it will be built again, with plaza and moat, even in times of distress. Then after the sixty-two weeks the Messiah will be cut off and have nothing, and the people of the prince who is to come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. And its end will come with a flood; even to the end there will be war; desolations are determined. And he will make a firm covenant with the many for one week, but in the middle of the week he will put a stop to sacrifice and grain offering; and on the wing of abominations will come one who makes desolate, even until a complete destruction, one that is decreed, is poured out on the one who makes desolate.”

These verses in Daniel are difficult to understand but are clearly Messianic prophecy, repeated by Jesus himself in reference to the destruction and desolation of Jerusalem. The end of the Old Testament system of ritual sacrifice is accompanied by a New Covenant initiated by the blood of the perfect Lamb of God, which is an everlasting covenant of righteousness, based not on our works, but the finished work of Christ on the cross.

Faith #8: The Declaration of Creation

[I have been working on this post for a couple of weeks, but yesterday the pastor of my church made this his sermon topic, which confirmed my conviction on this subject.]

Number 8 on my top 10 list of reasons for a reasonable belief in God is the testimony of His creation.

The heavens are telling of the glory of God

And their expanse is declaring the work of His hands.

Psalms 19:1

The more I learn about the universe, the more I appreciate the miraculous Power that crafted it, and the more thankful I am for this little blue speck we call Earth. From the unimaginably large space stretched across an incomprehensible span of time to the intricate anatomy of life, everything we can now observe shouts "MASTERFULLY PLANNED AND CREATED."

Our main problem understanding creation is that our understanding of God is too limited. Simply put, the nature of the Almighty Creator is far beyond human comprehension. Therefore we need to stay a little more flexible on the box we try to put Him in, however big that box may be.

That being said, the Bible does not shrink from extolling the attributes of God and the magnificence of His creation. Even the Name of God is amazing - Yahweh, the One who always IS. There is no time or place where God is NOT. As a matter of fact, God exists outside of time since He created the dimensions of time and space. This is explained as something that we understand only by faith.

By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things which are visible. 

Hebrews 11:3 

About a year ago I discovered a very advanced concept in the original Greek text of this verse. It literally says "the ages (aionas - also translated universe or worlds, from which we get the word "eon") were prepared (katertisthai - crafted to perfection) by the spoken word of God (rhemati Theo), not a phenomenon (phainomenon - made visible), but an act of creation (gegonenai - brought into being - the Greek word from which we get "Genesis"). This verse makes it clear that the things which we can observe through all our scientific tools and reasoning did not just suddenly appear, but were carefully prepared and set in motion for a specific purpose. This is an assurance that is not only incomprehensible without faith, but once understood - reinforces your faith.

The ancient book of Genesis starts out with this unimaginable miracle in the very first verse. The beginning is a concept which I believe encompasses the transition from "timeless" to "the beginning of time" to the eons that elapsed before sunlight first appeared on the surface of the earth. The remainder of the creation account describes the supernatural power of God creating this perfect habitation for mankind. 

The creation account establishes many principles of the law (the Torah) such as the sanctity of human life, mankind's accountability to God, and the penalty for sin which is separation from the life-giving power of God. Genesis also contains the first prophetic reference to the promised Savior of mankind, who will "step on the serpent's head". That prophecy is the beginning of the ultimate solution to the problem of evil that was introduced by sin.

The order of the creation account, the beauty of creation, the vast expanse of the heavens and the intricate details of life all testify to the Truth of God. If you have ears to hear, listen closely to the song of creation.

Faith #9: The Undeniable Presence of Evil

This is Number 9 on my top 10 reasons for faith in Jesus.

The Bible presents heaven and earth as the creation of an all-powerful God, who himself declared it to be good. It also presents the conflict that arises when man pursues independence from God and becomes subject to the power of evil.

This human evil - that was introduced by "the original sin" - is unique in creation. All living beings created by God are "lesser beings" - lacking the perfect goodness of God. Although people were created in the image and likeness of God, they were created innocent and totally dependent on fellowship with God. This fellowship was broken when they decided to assume the role of God in their own lives by seeking to be like Him, knowing good and evil.

Without the goodness of God, mankind quickly devolved into evil. In a fit of jealous rage, Cain slew his brother Abel and fled to the land of Nod, east of Eden and away from God. Cain and his descendants built a city there (the first form of government) where people could fashion their own protection and entertainment. Without God, these cities became cesspools of sin.

Why though, is the existence of human evil a foundation of my faith?

First, the Bible is unique in explaining that evil has its origin in moral knowledge. This differentiates sinful man from innocent creatures. It explains to me why innocent babies become accountable as sinners when they inevitably grow into moral knowledge. Paul describes this in the seventh chapter of Romans - "the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good" and "I was once alive apart from the Law; but when the commandment came, sin became alive and I died". The evil that grows in the human heart is fed by selfish ambition and pride, deceit and self-justification. Ultimately sin places itself above others to the extent that a person is capable of using his God-given intellect to lie, steal, and even inflict pain and death on others to preserve and promote his own interests.

Second, the Bible identifies this "original sin" in a time and place that is consistent with the development of civilization. There really is no other rational explanation for the sudden introduction of civilization into the timeline of history. The gradual evolutionary principal at the core of Naturalism cannot explain the sudden explosion of knowledge and communications that appeared a relatively short time ago in geological terms.

Finally, the utterly depraved nature of human evil leaves one with no other choice than to seek a supernatural solution. Outside the influence of the American experiment in constitutional democracy and rule of law, humanity has been dominated by the unspeakable cruelty of people who have fought their way into absolute power and from it become absolutely corrupt. Except in very primitive cultures, the advancement of knowledge has resulted in more and more power for the ones who possess it to dominate the ones who do not. Christian faith is an influence which, when exercised with restraint and separated from the institutions of government, produces virtue and progress for all who find it.

The undeniable presence of evil in this world cries out for faith in the goodness and mercy of God, which is demonstrated by His self-sacrificial love in the person of Jesus my Lord and Savior. Faith in this righteous and merciful God is what motivates me to leave this written legacy.

American Edelweiss

Recently I learned of Christopher Plummer’s death. I loved this man's role as Captain von Trapp in the Sound of Music (even though Plummer expressed contempt for the movie after it was released).

Captain von Trapp had pride in his country and would never accept domination by the Nazi Anschluss. One of his lines has a haunting resonance in American culture today:

"I was under the impression, Herr Zeller, that the contents of telegrams in Austria are PRIVATE! At least, the Austria.... I know."

Is there any privacy in America today, especially for those who are being “cancelled”? Most of our communications today go through companies who feel honor-bound to abuse the rights of anyone who swims against the tide of progressive globalism. And anyone can see that the global power that is coming will not be friendly to Americans who don’t collaborate.

Of course, Austria wasn’t a perfect place for people who didn’t have the wealth and power of the von Trapp family, and many Americans including myself owe their immigrant roots to ancestors persecuted by the Austrian empire.

America isn’t a perfect place either, but our liberty is a gift from God, established by people who had personal experience with government control and corruption. I am both praying for restoration of this precious gift and mourning its passing.

God bless America

Land that I love

Stand beside her

and guide her through the night

With your light from above!