Last week, I wrote about how we cannot simply ignore the written eye-witness testimonies regarding Jesus of Nazareth, the miracles He performed, His resurrection from the dead, etc. As in today’s court system, such eye-witness accounts are, and should be, taken very seriously and are often cited as some of the most powerful evidence of any given case.
Typically, one of the most common things that I’ve heard skeptics say to argue against the existence of God is, “show me the evidence that God exists.” Whether through discussions with them, reading their blogs, listening to their podcasts or reading their books, one thing seems to be quite common. That is, they only want the evidence that hasn’t already been found.
There is a common occurrence that I have seen among both skeptics and Christians alike. This has to do with some of the things that the Bible says about certain things. Many people seem to read more into some Bible passages than they perhaps should.
To be completely fair, this is probably more for me than for anyone else. At times, it seems as though I have a tendency to assume that the same mistakes that I’m making are the ones that many Christians out there are making. With that, my hope is that someone who actually is making the same mistakes as me might read this and that it would somehow bless them.
If someone were to ask the question, “What’s the best way to refute the teachings of the Christian Bible,” I suppose the answer would be…”Simple. Just take everything out of context.” It really is just that easy. The sad truth of the matter is that both skeptics and Christians have been notorious for doing this very thing for centuries.
Now, I’ll be the first to admit that Christians can often be one-sided when it comes to controversial issues. We are not necessarily any better than others when it comes to ignoring important information when it may seem to weaken the arguments for our own conclusions.
In the past, I have never devoted much of my time to politics. In fact, in my younger years, there was pretty much no time in my life for such things. As far as I was concerned, politicians were just a bunch of power-hungry, lying thieves who’s decisions only mildly impacted my life.
With all the articles, blogs, tweets, e-mails and news reports about the recent deaths of Michael Jackson, Farrah Fawcett and Ed McMahon, one more would probably make little difference. So, here’s another one.
If there is one thing that the American (and world) media is good for, it’s desensitizing us to things that should shock and appall us. For years, we’ve seen recording artists push the envelope of what is or is not acceptable in our society. We’ve seen the same thing on television and in the movies. We’ve even seen it on the radio with the “shock jocks.”
There is a very popular passage in the Gospel of Matthew about judging others. It’s one of those passages that is so well known that even non-Christians will sometimes quote it. The passage is Matthew 7:1-5.
