Here’s a video where Greg Koukl and Deepak Chopra discuss the meaning of faith. Click the link to see the streaming video. (6:22 long)

Chopra seems to love saying what people want to hear rather than saying things that actually make sense. Is sin merely ignorance as Dr Chopra says? That seems ridiculous. Certainly if a person truly isn’t aware that what they are doing is immoral then we cannot blame them for what they are doing. But that is not what sin is. Sin is when people do things they know are wrong … and if we are honest with ourselves we know that we sin all the time.

On the topic of sin, Ray Comfort and Kirk Cameron encourage an evangelism style that confronts people with the Ten Commandments. They ask people if they’ve broken the Ten Commandments, and then when people inevitably admit that yes, of course they have, then therefore they are “sinners” in need of forgiveness. While true in a sense, a non-Christian could easily simply deny the Ten Commandments and their argument falls apart. After all if a person doesn’t believe the Bible is the word of God, why should they give credence to the Ten Commandments? However, IMHO it’s totally unnecessary to bring the Ten Commandments into the argument, and it works just as well without even mentioning them. Here’s why:

Regardless of whether a person is Christian or not, everyone has their own moral standards; aka their moral conscience, or moral rules. And whether a person accepts God’s moral rules or not, every person must admit that they have broken THEIR OWN moral rules.

The question then becomes: Who do you think has higher standards when it comes to morals … you or God? If you say God has higher standards, then we’re in a heap of trouble, because we’ve already admitted that even by our own standards we don’t measure up, so that means we fall WAY short of God’s own standards, whatever they may be. If someone were foolish enough to claim that we have higher standards than God, then they would be claiming that we have greater (more just, more accurate) moral standards than the God who is the source of all moral standards, which is absurd.

Greg makes a great comment near the end of the video regarding “guilt”, which is also made in an article on Greg’s website:

Folks, we don’t get rid of guilt through denial . We get rid of guilt through forgiveness. And that forgiveness can only come from the One whom we have offended. The One who gave the law in the first place. (Read Greg’s full article here.)

Further reading:

• I’m essentially a good person! What’s wrong with that? - Read one of my previous articles where I discuss what it means to be a “good person”.
• Why did Jesus have to die? - He paid the price for our sins so that we wouldn’t have to. The beautiful thing about grace is that it’s unfair: We don’t get what we deserve.

After posting my essay, I realized that there were some areas that should be expanded. There was a word limit on the paper when I originally wrote it so I had to shorten some sections and leave other things out entirely. I’m working on a rewrite to expand its scope and add more detail. When it’s done, it’ll be released as a PDF instead of HTML, since it’s way too time consuming to convert it. (Saving in a PDF: instant. HTML: an hour or more) Also it’ll be under a Creative Commons license so hopefully it’ll get copied & passed around.

So look for that hopefully soon! I’ll probably wait until I receive the copy of Mark D. Roberts‘ new book Can We Trust the Gospels? I ordered so I can review it before I post the new version of my article. (It’s on its way right now from Amazon! :))

I’m weird in many ways. One could say I’m abnormal, just like everybody else. One of the ‘weird things’ is that I don’t feel comfortable saying Jesus’ name aloud. I don’t really know why that is, but I’ve heard other people say that they have the same aversion. This was the case even before I became Christian, before I even started thinking about spiritual things. So it’s not like its a reverence thing per se … although I do of course revere Him now, I didn’t then. When I pray, I’ll usually say “Lord” or something as a circumlocution.

Maybe that’s why it bugs me when people take God’s name in vain. I don’t mean when people say “Oh my God” or even “Goddammit”, but more when people feel free to define Jesus however they fancy. I was deleting some spam on the ‘ol Discuss Da Vinci Blog today when I came across this old comment by “Shannon”:

Jesus said Who do you say I am.
Jesus is who you believe he is.
He will love you no matter what you believe!

Here’s my response … (I responded in the original post as well, but I prefer the expanded response below)

It’s true, Jesus did ask the question “Who do you say I am?” (Matthew 16:13-20, Mark 8:27-30, Luke 9:18-27). But he wasn’t asking the question rhetorically. Peter, as ever overzealous, responded by saying “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Jesus affirmed that Peter was correct. It seems as though there were potential answers that Jesus would not have accepted here, especially since He apparently deemed the general public opinion on His identity (”Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”) to be insufficient.

“Jesus is who you believe he is.”

So if I believed that Jesus was a Pagan sorcerer, or a 12-foot tall two-headed giant, or a rhinoceros, would these be valid options? No, if we really care about Jesus, we should want to know as much as possible about who He really is and not just create some imaginary image of Him in our minds, tailored to our own distorted whims.

“He will love you no matter what you believe!”

So if someone believed Jesus was ___ (fill in the blank with the most detestable thing you can think of) would Jesus still love them? Yes, but He would love them in the midst of His pain and sadness! I remember one of my seminary professors said that God’s wrath is His love burning hot. It pains Jesus when people turn away for him and worship the detestable idols that they’ve set up and affixed with his name.

You don’t get to know someone by imagining how you’d like them to be. You need to know about a person as they really are so you can get to know them on a personal level. The best way to learn about Jesus is to examine the writings of the people that knew Him personally, that knew Him best. These are not the writings of Rhonda Byrne, or JZ Knight, or Sun Myung Moon. The ones that knew Him best lived with Him for years: His disciples. Their writings are found in the New Testament. To know Jesus, this is the best, the only place to find Him.

Related reading:

• Watch the Jesus Film - Available in literally hundreds of languages … or click here for English.
• Jesus: Fact or Fiction? - Video interviews with leading scholars where they answer tough questions about Jesus
• LeeStrobel.com - Lots more streaming video answering tough questions from the author of The Case for Christ and his newest fantastic book The Case for the Real Jesus.

Do all religious paths lead to God? Greg Koukl says no, and I agree with him. Here he responds to the idea that all religions are basically the same and in a sense “all roads lead to Rome”:

Click to view the streaming video: »» (more…)