Thirsty...

Well the marathon at the weekend was a hot one, no I wasn't in it that really is a step too far! I have been known however to take a gentle trot down the road, one of the things that keeps me going on such times is the thought of an ice cold water when I get back, especially if the sun is beating. Imagine you have been in the desert for a couple of weeks without water, someone offers you a car, or a fantastic job in the city, £50,000 or a glass of water. Which do you take? That gloriously cold glass of water no hesitation.
I think this is a great illustration of life, we are deeply thirsty for something, we try and quench our thirst with cars, money, work, relationships, sex, family and so on, however what we need is that glass of water, that thing that will give us what we really need. God makes the same offer, he says why do you go to all these things that will not satisfy when you have the living fountain on offer. Don't mistake what I am saying for meaning coming to Jesus means all your problems fade away, you still face hardship, you are still in the desert for the time being, however you will not die because you have that water. You will make it out of the desert...

Hope

The sun is shining and all seems well with the world when the sun is out, it gives us hope, it's just nice to sit in the sun and bask in the rays to be honest.
That has got me thinking about hope and the fact we have just celebrated the most hopeful event in all of history. Easter is all about Jesus being crucified and then rising back to life 3 days later. As a Christian I follow someone who is alive, that is one of the key differences all other worldviews follow people who are dead. The biggest black cloud that threatens to block out our sun is death, we can climb a mountain, run a marathon, get a promotion, have a family but we cannot beat death. However if Jesus really did then this gives us hope beyond hope.

One of my main objections to the Christian faith just a few years ago was the claim that Jesus rose from the dead. Come on I said "his followers just said that to get a following", "they were hallucinating" "they were grieving and really wanted him to come back". Besides all those people back then were fairly primitive and they believed in miracles and resurrections we know now that these things simply don't happen.
I am going to break those down into three areas
Made up story
Hallucination
Primitive

Made up story - There are so many factors here, as always this blog will not do justice to all the evidence. When Jesus had died, the Roman authorities wanted to make sure that no one would take the body, armed guards were posted on the tomb. A large stone was in front, this could not have been removed without someone noticing. Both the Romans and the Jews at the time did not want this body to go anywhere. The first people that discovered the empty tomb where women, so what? In the culture women were second class citizens, there evidence was not permissible in a court, they were not taken seriously. Look, if you were going to make up a story you definitely wouldn't have used women as your initial eye witnesses. You would only put something like that in there if....it really happened. During the days that Jesus was dead his followers had literally deserted him, they had put all their hope in him only to find that he had died. They ran away and hid, we have accounts of them hiding in a room for fear of the people. They went back to their jobs the following week because they thought it was over. We then see as they begin to visually see Jesus this radical change in events, they begin to move out into the cities, other countries proclaiming what had happened. This was under huge danger to their lives, in fact many of them die for their beliefs. Now, you and I might die for something we sincerely believe but would you die for a lie? They claimed that they had seen Jesus alive, now either it was true or it was a lie, they died holding on to their statements. Now either these people died for a lie or they were telling the truth, I know which one I opt for.

This brings us on to an argument people often given - hallucination - maybe these people simply wanted Jesus back so much that they really thought they saw him. You hear of stories now where people have seen dead relatives maybe that is what happened. Again let’s look at the evidence, when Jesus came back people like doubting Thomas touched his side; he also ate with his disciples, separate sightings of him. But for me the crucial evidence is Jesus then appears to over 500 people, including the apostles, other followers, a large group who he talks to, his doubting family members, you can have one hallucination but a group cannot all see the same hallucination. We could go further with this, but seriously this is such a far stretched idea. Please drop me a line if you feel I haven't answered it.

Primitive - this is a commonly held theory that 2,000 years ago people were fairly backward, they didn't really understand the world, they thought it was flat for goodness sake; surely they had a view of the world that meant they expected Jesus to rise from the dead that's just how they saw things. This expectation gave rise to legend and things got out of hand and by the time we get on the scene who knows what really happened. - The first thing I would like to correct is that the world view of the day had any expectation on resurrection of the dead, the religions of the time never thought this likely. The jews believed there would be a resurrection at the end of time for everyone, but not in bodily form now that would be absurd. This was not something they expected, far from it. So much so that even Jesus' followers when they found the empty tomb thought someone had stolen the body rather than he was raised, even though Jesus had been telling them time and again that he would be raised! The people weren't primitive by any means; you only have to read the literature of the time. What would case this sudden rise of the Christian movement in a hugely dramatic way, just think for a moment how you would react if you saw him alive? You would probably pick your jaw up from the floor and then run and tell people, what happened, exactly that and this movement began that has seen billions and billions of people turn to Jesus, lives changed, I cannot explain it any other way. Do you know that serious critiques of the gospels even agree that Jesus appeared but they try to explain it away by suggesting that Jesus had twin brother, rather than come to the truth with humility. It really happened.
When a lawyer takes evidence, he takes the facts and they paint a picture of what happened. There are so many facts that the painting is almost painted for you, you can see the truth you just need to take that plunge....
Anyway it has been a long blog and I could write pages! If Jesus rose from the dead it really means that he is God, that he has conquered death. That what he said is true, that we need to turn away from our own way of doing things and turn to him. The Son is indeed shining and all will be right with the world, will you come and bask in his rays or will you stay in the dark?
Please drop me a line with your thoughts - georgeosborn@hotmail.com

Is Christianity exclusive?

Doesn't Christianity seem a bit exclusive, the claim that Jesus is the only way to God is offensive. In fact it is that sort of claim that causes war, fighting and division. Christianity needs to get with the times. How can there possibly be only one answer, what about all the other religions? Haven't we all got a piece of the truth, whatever works for us and makes us feel the happiest is the right way?

That is a strong objection and one that I had against Christianity for quite a while. I then realised how exclusive the above claim was, I also realised that truth by its very definition is exclusive. If I say that this type font is size 12 then that excludes all other possibilities. It cannot both be size 10 and size 12, it can only be one or the other. So we need to know what the truth is.

Saying that we should tolerate everybody and that anyone that claims otherwise we shouldn't tolerate is a contradiction. It appears on the surface so tolerant to say everybody is valid, but then you don't tolerate those people who disagree with you. Let me give you an illustration. There are 4 blind men who believe they have the true religion, they walk into a room with a large elephant. One goes up to the leg and says God is like a thick tree with wrinkles on it, another walks up to the trunk and says God is like a long snake that moves around. Another walks up to the tail and says no God is like a small worm with a fluffy bit on the end, another walks to the body and says it is like a huge expanse. - Now the theory goes that all these people have some part of the truth, some part of who God is, that these people are like the different religions in the world who have some part of truth and really they all lead to God. However look more closely and notice the viewpoint of the person who is telling the story, that assumes the one telling the story knows the whole truth that it is an elephant they are feeling. That is exclusive, to say that all religions have some part of the truth and I know the whole truth. You cannot escape the fact that truth is exclusive.

How about we have a religion that says we are all equal, a religion that says we are saved not by our own good works, which creates pride and says I am better than you, how about a religion that breeds tolerance by saying love your enemy and friend alike. How about a religion where God comes and gets involved to show us what he is like so we don't have to walk around blindfolded feeling our way, how about a God who shows us rather than tells us? How about something we could test to see if it were true, an event in history that we could examine......

georgeosborn@hotmail.com