VALidations

Mere Christianity, Book II What Christians Believe, Chapter Four  The Perfect Penitent If Jesus was not a crazy person or a liar, then we are left with only one possibility.  He was in fact who He claimed to be: God in human form.  But why?  When He was alive, He did do a lot of teaching, but Christians will tell you that the main reason He came was to suffer and die, and then be raised from the dead.  Believing this is the foundation of Christianity.  Every Christian, regardless of his or her denomination, believes that Jesus was God, and that He died and rose again, and that this single unimaginable act somehow put us right with God.  That, in a nutshell, is Christianity. Now, there are many different theories out there to explain how  Jesus' death and resurrection put us right with our Creator once again, and defeated death (and the devil) for all time.  But please remember that these theories are not  Christianity.  "The cen...

Mere Christianity, Book II, Chapter 3, The Shocking Alternative Christians believe that the devil is real, and that he is a fallen angel.  This causes some difficulties.  If God is good, why would something He created go so horribly wrong?  If He is all-powerful, why allow Satan to do any harm, and if He is all-knowing, why create him in the first place?  Lewis proposes that these difficulties are the price to be paid for free will. He responds to the question, "How can anything happen contrary to the will or a being with absolute power?" with this example: "It may be quite sensible for a mother to say to the children, 'I'm not going to go and make you tidy the school-room every night.  You've got to learn to keep it tidy on your own.'  Then she goes up one night and finds the Teddy bear and the ink and the French Grammar all lying in the grate.  That is against her will.  She would prefer the children to be tidy.  But on the other hand, ...

Mere Christianity, Book II, Chapter 2, The Invasion We are actually going to talk about two other ideas about how the universe operates: Christianity-and-water and Dualism.  Please remember I am not a philosophy or world religions expert.  I am just doing my best to follow what Lewis is proposing here.  If he is wrong, I wouldn't know, so please inform me if he is mistaken on his explanation of these philosophies. He ended the last chapter by explaining how atheism is too simple.  He also believes the "Christianity-and-water" view to be overly simple.  This view says that God is good and everything is great, leaving out the stuff nobody likes to hear about sin and hell and the devil (and also, therefore, redemption).  He calls atheism and this idea "boy's philosophies."  Pretty harsh, huh? Lewis then goes on to describe how real things are not simple.  If something is too simple, we are often suspicious of it, are we not?  He gives an ...

As promised, here is the next section of  Mere Christianity.   Book II, Chapter 1, The Rival Conceptions of God In this chapter, CS Lewis explains what he believes are the divisions of humanity as far as what people believe about God.  The first paragraph is one of my favorites, and something I've not heard many Christians say (at least not in this particular way), so I thought I'd include the whole paragraph in this post. "I have been asked to tell you what Christians believe, and I am going to begin by telling you one thing that Christians do not need to believe.  If you are a Christian you do not have to believe that all the other religions are simply wrong all through.  If you are an atheist you do have to believe that the main point in all the religions of the whole world is simply one huge mistake.  If you are a Christian, you are free to think that all those religions, even the queerest ones, contain at least some hint of the truth.  When ...

Don't worry, I will be getting back to Mere Christianity  next time, I promise.  But tonight I can't sleep until I write down the things that won't turn off in my brain.  After writing my last two posts, sharing with you my doubts and fears, I feel like I HAVE to share what I've learned.  It wouldn't be right to leave this one hanging.  So, here goes: God is VERY real.  He is more real than ANYTHING.  How have I come to this conclusion?  Well, that is pretty much impossible to put into words, but I suppose I should try.  I guess the process could be described by Jeremiah 29:13 "You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart."  In my own words, I think God was getting fed up with me doubting Him, and showed me how absurd those thoughts are.  He kind of said, "Seriously?  How can you even say you aren't sure about me?"  I don't think it is wrong to have doubts and that you should just blindly accept ever...

Related to the beginning of my last post, I just wanted to share the lyrics to a song by Nickel Creek, written by Chris Thile, an AMAZING mandolin player. Doubting Thomas what will be left when i've drawn my last breath besides the folks i've met and the folks who know me will i discover a soul cleansing love or just the dirt above and below me i'm a doubting thomas i took a promise but i don't know what's safe oh me of little faith sometimes i pray for a slap in the face then i beg to be spared 'cause i'm a coward if there's a master of death i'll bet he's holding his breath as i show the blind and tell the deaf about his power i'm a doubting thomas i can't keep my promises 'cause i don't know what's safe oh me of little faith can i be used to help others find truth when i'm scared i'll find proof that it's a lie can i be lead down a trail dropping bread crumbs that prove i'm not rea...

Mere Christianity, Book I, Chapter 5, We Have Cause to Be Uneasy Let me start by telling you some of the things that go through my head.  I'm not sure what event it was that started this, but the last year or two, there have been times when I think, "What if there is no God?"  I became a Christian when I was just six years old, and as a child it was so easy to believe in the ideas of God creating the world, and of Jesus being raised from the dead.  Those things just made sense and were easy to accept.  Perhaps this is just my coming of age, and I actually want more explanations for those things, outside of what the Bible says.  I hear all the time that Christians are stupid, and are blind to the reality of the world we live in, even that we are evil.  Is that true?  I wouldn't call myself a stupid or evil person.  So, what's the problem then?  Should someone like me really believe all that stuff about God?  If someone would ask me why ...