Rebuild and Restore

Why We Do Need God: A Response to “Why You Don’t Need God” CNN.com

January 15, 2015 0Comment

On January 8, 2015 CNN.com published an article entitled “Why You Don’t Need God”. The article is written by Ryan Bell who was once a Seventh-day Adventist pastor. He is now an atheist. The entire article can be accessed via the following link: http://www.cnn.com/2015/01/08/opinion/bell-god-atheism/index.html

When I first read Bell’s article, I was angry. I write many blog posts for people who are “searching”, searching for purpose and meaning. My personal opinion is that purpose and meaning can only be found through God and Jesus. Bell’s article is basically the antithesis. Therefore, naturally I viewed him as an enemy. However, I remembered that I am supposed to love my enemies. See my previous post: http://rebuildandrestore.com/my-ultimate-challenge-loving-my-enemies/

I’m glad that I remembered to love my enemies because it helped me realize that Bell had just given me template to tell people “Why we DO need God”. While I don’t agree with his opinions, I appreciate Bell using a straight forward and reasoned approach. He brings up some very valid points that believers in God should be able to counter with a straight forward and reasoned approach. You see, I am not one of those people who believe or don’t believe simply because it “feels” right. I’m not a “blind faith” kind of person. I am simply not wired that way. Before I can make a decision on something, such as the existence of God, I need the argument broken down. I need to see the evidence on both sides, and the evidence undoubtedly points to the existence of God. I believe in God because of the evidence, not in spite of it.

1) Bell says ” ….I couldn’t find any other way to find peace and clarity. I encountered major theological differences with my denomination and evangelical Christianity in general, including the way it marginalizes women and LGBT people.”

Response: I concede that churches and church leaders have sometimes marginalized women and LGBT. However, that is an issue with the followers of Christianity and not a problem with Christianity, itself. Christians believe that Jesus was part of God put on earth in the human form. Jesus never marginalized anyone. In fact, Jesus made it a priority to socialize with everyone. One of the greatest contemporary criticisms of Jesus was that he made a habit of socializing with sinners and social outcasts, such as tax collectors and Samaritans. Jesus may have been the first women’s rights advocate as well. See my previous post: http://rebuildandrestore.com/paul-liked-women-but-jesus-was-a-ladies-man/

2) Bell says, “I questioned the problem of evils and God’s general silence and inactivity”.

Response: I concede that there is evil in the world. Because humans are separated from God, we live in a fallen world. Hence, humans have a “mean streak”. The real issue for me is why God lets evil happen. Nevertheless, I want to focus on the second part of Bell’s statement: God’s general silence and inactivity. Conversely, I think God is very active. God is running the universe. You see, science tells us “how” things work: the Big Bang, the human body, quantum physics, etc. But science doesn’t tell us “why” things work. For example, we have laws of science. They tell us how things work, but “why” do we have laws of science in the first place???God???

3) Bell says, “I was struck by how unlikely my existence is.” and “But my experience is that acknowledging the absence of God has helped me refocus on the wonderful and unlikely life I do have.”

Response: I concede that the human existence is unlikely. However, it is this very “unlikeliness” that is actually evidence of God’s existence. Generally, when something odd or unusual happens, people say it is either coincidence or divine intervention. Well, the human existence is odd, unusual, and unlikely. For life to evolve, several factors must be in play: distance of the planet from the sun, the presence of an atmosphere, the presence of water, etc. While there is a little variability, all of the factors must work in the right combinations to support life. So, what are the chances that we could be born on a planet that has all of the factors for life to not only exist, but also to flourish? What are the chances that we could be born on a planet where life flourishes enough to produce intelligent life, such as humans? It “could” be a coincidence. I mean someone has to win the lottery, but what are the chances of you or me winning the lottery? Similarly, is our existence the equivalent of winning a cosmic lottery? Or is it more likely to be divinely inspired? My money is on the latter.

4) Bell says, “Ironically, my Christian upbringing taught me that this life ultimately doesn’t matter, which tends to make believers apathetic about suffering.” and “Without dependency on a cosmic savior who is coming to rescue us, we are free to recognize that we are the ones we’re waiting for. If we don’t make the world a fair and habitable place, no one else is going to do it for us.”.

Response: Life matters. If it didn’t, Jesus’ death wouldn’t have atoned for our sins. Additionally, I have come to accept that there will be suffering on the Earth. However, I am not apathetic towards it. Furthermore, I don’t think other Christians are apathetic about suffering either. Otherwise, we wouldn’t have organizations like the Salvation Army and Compassion International.

I concede that Christians sometimes wait for God to fix something, when God actually wants to use Christians to fix something. It’s like the Matthew West song goes: we shake our fist at God and ask him why he doesn’t do something. Then God replies, I did. I created you. We were created to serve God and do his work. Furthermore, even if Christians were apathetic towards suffering, that’s an issue with Christians, not God. God has given us the directive to do his work. We simply struggle to carry out that directive.

In summary, it appears that many, but not all of Bell’s issues with God come from his experiences with Christians. In my very first blog post, I explained the shortcomings of Christians. See http://rebuildandrestore.com/three-things-that-ticked-me-off-or-why-churches-fail-to-reach-people/

However, God set the bar pretty high, when he sent Jesus as an example. One of the basic tenets of Christianity is that we have failed to live up to God’s expectations, and we need a savior. So, while disheartening, the struggle of Christians is not only understandable, but it is also expected. However, is it unfair to doubt the existence of God simply because his followers can’t get it right.

For more on the existence of God, and more specifically the existence of Jesus, see: http://www.leestrobel.com/channels/CFChrist.php and http://coldcasechristianity.com/ .

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Apologies, Clarifications, and Such

January 6, 2015 2Comments

You ever say something that just didn’t come out right? Well, I wrote something that just didn’t come out right. In my last blog, “Stay Humble and Carry on”, I explained how God had blessed me. Then, I explained my shortcomings with humility. After that I explained how I cope with my shortcomings. And lastly, I explained how Jesus was the ultimate example in humility. However, I wrote a blog about humility and managed to sound anything, but humble, especially when I discussed my blessings…

Okay, update. I just re-read my blog again. Now I think that there are two issues with it. Firstly, as I said earlier, some things just didn’t come out right. I meant to say that I was arrogant in my younger days and became more humble when I started honoring God. Maybe I didn’t do that very effectively. Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, it may reflect my need to be more humble. I mean if my blog about humility sounds arrogant in a few places, I may have an issue with humility….just saying. It’s also ironic that my blog about humility has humbled me. Nothing like your own words coming back to bite you, huh?

On a somewhat related note, my newly discovered need for more humility brings up another point: there can be a fine line between confidence, which is a biblically endorsed asset and arrogance, which is the lack of humility. Sometimes the distinction is easy. The person who can’t stop talking about himself/herself is arrogant. The person who never admits mistakes is arrogant. The person who can’t value another person’s opinions is arrogant. But what about the fuzzy, gray area between confidence and arrogance? Did I cross the line when I spelled out my blessings in my previous post? Where is the line between confidence and arrogance? And when do we cross the line between confidence and arrogance?

I simply don’t know the answers to the preceding questions. And I bet if we asked ten people, we’d get ten different answers. I just googled the difference between confidence and arrogance. While there were some good articles, we should be hesitant to ask “the world” about gray areas. I personally think “the world” errs on the side of arrogance. The best thing we can do is to follow Jesus’ example and to pray. I kinda wish I had prayed before publishing the last post. If we ask Him for guidance, he’ll tell us where the line is before we cross it.

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Stay Humble and Carry On

January 4, 2015 2Comments

“Whoever honors himself will be humbled and whoever humbles himself will be honored.” Mathew 23:12

Sometimes it’s easy for me to get cocky and borderline arrogant. I was smart. I made good grades in school. I was on the academic team and won several awards. I was also athletic. I played sports. I went to college on an academic scholarship. When I started working, I moved up quickly. By the time I was 24 years old, I was in charge of a business with over a million dollars worth of assets. After I began my career as a public servant, I was promoted to a supervisory position within 4 years.

Up until about 10 years ago, I thought that I had accomplished all those things on my own wit and determination. I didn’t realize that all of those accomplishments were blessings from God. I had started to honor myself. I was honoring my intelligence, my athleticism, my determination, and my hard work. And God humbled me. In the span of about two years, I was passed over for promotions three times in a row. Back then, I found my identity and self-worth in my work. Being passed over for promotions three times in a row was devastating to me. I became angry, bitter, and completely pessimistic. But God isn’t a mean, vengeful God. After he taught me the lesson, he put me on a trajectory where I wound up with a much, much better job. Today, I work for a very prestigious law enforcement agency.

You may be wondering what’s wrong with being smart, athletic, determined, hardworking, etc? Nothing. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with those things. I simply forgot WHO made me smart, athletic, determined, and blah, blah, blah. I started honoring myself, instead of honoring God. And he taught me a lesson that was painful, but necessary.

So, how can we avoid those painful lessons in humility? Don’t be a glory hound. Don’t expect praise. Emphasize other people’s contributions. Don’t brag, boast, or flaunt, but maintain a quiet confidence. When we need an example of humility, look to Jesus. He was all-powerful. He was part of God himself. He could have been born into a royal family. Instead, he was born in a manger. He could have had aristocratic friends. Instead, he hung out with fishermen, prostitutes, and tax collectors. He could have had servants. Instead, he was a servant. He could have chosen not to die. Instead, he chose to die. He could have chosen to die an “honorable” death. Instead, he chose to die like a common thief. My friends, that is hard-core humility.

I’ll never be as humble as Jesus. But when I need an example or a reminder, I know where to look.

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Does God Really Give a Crap?

December 20, 2014 2Comments

1)Did you know that there is about 92 billion light years of observable universe? A light year is the distance light travels in a year. And light travels just over 186,000 miles PER SECOND…. Obviously, that’s a lot of real estate. Here’s the entire article: http://www.space.com/24073-how-big-is-the-universe.html

2) Did you know that there are actually more stars in the universe than grains of sand on all of the beaches in the world? Here’s the entire article: http://www.theguardian.com/science/2014/dec/03/astronomers-mystery-universe-missing-stars

3) There’s also about 7 billion people on Earth, according to Wiki.

In summary, that’s quite a bit for someone to create and to manage. So, is it possible that a God big enough and all-powerful enough to create and to manage the universe, would give a rat’s rear end about one person writing a blog in Kentucky? Well, not only is it possible, I believe it’s a fact.

I have two instances in my life where I’m absolutely sure that God exists AND that he cares about my life. Instance number one happened about 6 years ago. I had very bad encounter with a co-worker that almost ended in a fistfight (yes, I am talking about two grown men). Regardless, after a few days of decompression, I felt like God was telling me to “make it right”. I can remember sitting outside a shady apartment complex doing surveillance. I had decided to call my co-worker. However, I know first hand how prideful and stubborn law enforcement people can be. So, I was praying to God that he would give me the patience and humility to remain calm, if my co-worker spurned my peace overture. Here’s what happened. I was literally about to press the call button on my phone, when it rang. It was actually my co-worker calling me to apologize. You simply can’t calculate the probability of that happening by chance.

Nevertheless, I guess if someone was a hardcore atheist, he/she might call the preceding instance coincidence. That’s why I have yet, another instance….

Two Thursdays ago, I had another instance where I was absolutely sure that God exists AND he cares about my life. By that Thursday morning, I had already written my previous blog about loving my enemies, citing Matthew 5:43-48. However, I hadn’t published the blog yet. On that Thursday morning, I was sick, and I really didn’t feel like being at the church at 0630 for my men’s group. In fact, it took some ill-received encouragement from my wife to get me out of the bed. When I arrived at the church at 0640, my group was reading bible verses. Therefore, I picked up a stray, anonymous Bible from the counter. After the group ended, I noticed that someone had bookmarked a page. The page contained verses, Matthew 5:43-48. Not only was the page bookmarked, the verses were also UNDERLINED.

What are the chances that I found a Bible with that particular page bookmarked, with those particular verses underlined, just after I wrote an unpublished blog with those particular verses? Isaac Newton couldn’t calculate the odds of that happening by chance.

You just can’t call that a coincidence. That was God’s little way of telling me, “I exist and I care”.

Why We Do Need God: A Response to “Why You Don’t Need God” CNN.com

Apologies, Clarifications, and Such

Stay Humble and Carry On

Does God Really Give a Crap?

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