“The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”
These are the first
words of Jesus in the gospel according to Mark and I find it very
interesting that the first command that Jesus gives is “repent” because
that literally means “to think again” or “to rethink”.
I say I find it interesting because it is not rare to find people who
view Christians as people who do the exact opposite – who don’t think
and refuse to think. And while I will not deny that there are Christians
who give support to this view, I will submit
that this problem is not limited to Christians but is fast becoming the
default condition in the world in which we live. You could call this the
age of skepticism, where people are encouraged to question but NOT to take the time to seriously think about the question. There is a skepticism that
encourages thought and discovery but that is not the kind of skepticism
that you will see flourishing today, where people are content to pass
through life without seriously considering the big questions of life. An
example might help - two men are both skeptical
about the existence of the state of Michigan. They both have one or two
good reasons for this skepticism but here is where they differ: one of
the men uses this skepticism to delve into the evidence, to search out
for the truth, to find answers to the hard
questions while the other uses his skepticism to disregard the question
altogether, to stop seriously thinking any more about the issue,
relying on that one reason to support his choice.
Here is the point,
regardless of whether or not you say you believe in Jesus Christ, have
you thought about it? I mean really thought about it? Have you read and
considered the words of Jesus himself? Have
you read and considered ANY of the writings of the many great thinkers
of the past – Christian and non-Christian? Have you used your skepticism
to search out the truth, to stimulate thinking? Or have you become
content living the rest of your life without seriously
investigating whether or not your beliefs are true? Whether or not your
beliefs correspond with reality? Jesus believed that his words, his
life, his worldview would hold up under serious thinking. He commands us
to think again about life. To think again about
serious questions related to our existence. To think again about a life
spent with him. Will you?
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3 comments:
Interesting thoughts, Corey. I have to say I find myself thinking less and less about the whole faith thing, and find myself happier because of it lol. The problem with your analogy, is with Michigan, there's a very easy way to apply the scientific method and test the hypothesis of whether Michigan exists. You cannot apply the scientific method to God. There is no scientific evidence, it's all circumstantial at best, pure speculation at worst. The bible is obviously a great start, but the legitimacy of its evidence is dependent on whether or not you believe, so for someone like you it is amazing evidence, but for someone who is seriously questioning, not as much....
A better analogy, in my opinion, would be whether or not Ohio State is better than Michigan. I fervently believe with all my heart that it is, but I could never scientifically prove it. I could research for the rest of my life and be no closer to proving it. I would enjoy doing it, and would feel like a "bigger buckeye fan" in doing so (just as you enjoy researching your stuff and feel like "a stronger Christian" because of it) but to someone who doesn't feel the same way, the evidence is pretty hollow, as any "facts" I present would be able to be interpreted multiple ways.
I have come to the personal realization, that if there is a God, it is on him to make me believe, as I honestly tried to do it on my own and it felt fake. As we've talked about before, I don't believe there isn't a God, I just don't really know that there is one either, and if there is, I don't think any of us really know who he is anyway haha.
How can one come who has not been called?
Hey Justin, thanks for the reply. Looking at it now I will admit that the Michigan example was rather lazy. I did not intend for that to be the focus. I just thought of some random example so I could get across the main issue, imo, which was showing that certain skepticism can discourage you from thinking about something. But I agree with your analysis of that. The one thing I would point out in regards to your sentence that starts with, "The bible is obviously..." is that while that certainly has some truth in it, there have been people who have looked into the legitimacy of the Bible in order to show how weak it was and ended up believing in part because they perceived the strength of it. Now there are of course stories where that didn't happen but I wanted to point that out - hopefully that was beneficial.
Justin, it is a common misconception that circumstantial evidence is somehow unreliable or less persuasive. In a court of law, you usually want to see both direct evidence and circumstantial. In fact, many legal experts believe circumstantial evidence is actually more important. It is much harder to fabricate or suppress. When it comes to Christianity, you have both types.
There is direct evidence, e.g. the eye witness accounts of what Jesus said and did. And there is also circumstantial evidence, e.g. the fine-tuning of the universe, the fact that the universe has a beginning, the moral law written on your heart, the empirically verifiable fact of sin in this world, the fact that everyone struggles with sin, and the changes in the lives of those who have encountered Christ, whether after being eye witnesses of the resurrection thousands of years ago or after believing in Jesus in modern times.
I actually like one thing about the Michigan example, being an Ohio State fan. Of course, we can all see that Michigan exists. But that doesn't stop us from failing to honor it's existence. Others may think that is strange, but we have our reasons... This is what the bible says mankind has done concerning God in the book of Romans: "For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened."
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