Can You Defend Your Faith? -Philosophy

Philosophy- Literally, the love of, inducing the search after, wisdom; in actual usage, the
knowledge of phenomena as explained by, and resolved into, causes and reasons, powers and
laws[i].   Everyone everywhere has a reason on why they believe what they believe. Some just
want to make you scratch your head and scream while others you completely understand and
even believe. But I can promise you, we all have some kind of philosophy.

            Christianity is the largest religion in the world, and because it requires faith in biblical
revelation, it’s easy to assume that they can’t have a philosophy. The Apostle Paul warns
Christians to stay away from the philosophy the world has, one that depends on human tradition
 and the basic principles of this world, rather than Christ. Now I’m not saying that Christians
don’t believe in a philosophy the prophet Isaiah says for us to "Come now, let us reason
together," says the LORD (Isaiah 1:18a) We as Christians need to know why we believe that
God is the “real deal” He is the one who created everything, us, the earth, and the universe.

            Islam is the second largest religion in the world, and their beliefs on philosophy are very
much like the Christians belief on philosophy. They are both theist, have biblical roots, believe in
the supernatural, and miracles. They believe in Jesus and his many miracles, but oddly enough
their ultimate prophet Muhammad never did any big miracles like Jesus. They believe that any
time the Bible prophesizes about a coming messiah that it was not Jesus Christ but Muhammad.

           Secular Humanists have many different varieties of philosophical positions, but the main two being Naturalism and Materialism. If you take a close look at these you will see that they both are the same believing –“The philosophical belief that reality is composed solely of matter and that all phenomena can be explained in terms of natural causes e.g. law of gravity.” (UTT 101)  To them there is no real first cause, it just happened, the begging of the world. To them the supernatural cannot exist, and your brain is just a mass of evolved brain cells.

            The Marxist-Leninists have a view of dialectical materialism to understand and change
the world. They have a godless philosophy with everything ultimately real, rather than God. All
that exists is the matter we see in nature. Science is very important to the Marxist-Leninist it is
crucial to their theory of knowledge. Marxists rely on the notion that consciousness is just a
subjective reflection of objective reality.

            Cosmic Humanism believes in “all roads lead to Heaven” the New Age movement. They
reject naturalistic and materialistic philosophies, because they deny the all-pervasive
supernatural. They believe in Non-naturalism- The belief that everything is a part of God and in
essence, spiritual. The things that we can see and feel are only a manifestation of spirit, and all
matter will melt away when universal consciousness is achieved. (UTT 114)

            Postmodernism divides modern-day academia, they notion that truth is community-oriented. Postmodernism does not have one certain philosophy but many, although a few seem to keep popping up with the same idea. One being the denial of universal truth, another Anti-Realism which is the belief that reality is subjectively constructed by human thought; all in all they do not believe in Truth but truth, in other words they don’t believe in ultimate truths.

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[i] Webster Dictionary

Can You Defend Your Faith? -Theology

Theology- The science of God or of religion; the science which treats of the existence, character, and attributes of God, his laws and government, the doctrines we are to believe, and the duties we are to practice; divinity; (as more commonly understood) "the knowledge derivable from the Scriptures, the systematic exhibition of revealed truth, the science of Christian faith and life."(Webster Dictionary) 

Christianity- Christians believe that God is the one and only true God, they have a theism outlook. They also believe in Trinitarian theism, “The belief in one God who exists as three separate persons- Father, Son, and Spirit” (UTT 47). While this may be very hard to understand and grasp it plays a very big part in the Christian worldview. Christianity also believes that God sent his son, Jesus Christ, down on this earth to save us from eternal damnation, because of our sins. And that if you believe in him you will be forgiven and saved of your sins. They also believe that God is the final judge, and on one special day God will judge everybody justly. If you have asked Jesus to save you and you believe in him God promises you eternal life in Heaven, but if you do not accept him God tells us they will be damned. 

Islam- Muslims also believe in a one true God, thus having a theism look, but they believe in a Unitarian theism, not a Trinitarian theism, meaning that there are no other parts of God. Muslims do not believe in the deity of Christ, they do believe He was a good man and even a prophet of God, but most definitely not God’s son or equal to Him. Islam also believes in an afterlife, were God will choose who goes to Paradise and who goes to Hell. Because they do not believe in the deity of Christ Muslims believe that if you do enough good deeds to outweigh your bad ones then God will allow you into Paradise.

Secular Humanism- Secular Humanists do not believe in any god at all, they are atheist. Because they do not believe in a god they believe that “humanity is the highest of all beings and truth and knowledge rest in science and human reason.”(UTT 60) . They do not deny Christ being on this earth, they think of him as a good moral man, but nothing more than just a man. Secular Humanists see absolutely no need for a god that the human race is good enough to help itself, all they need is good science. They think that humans should be in control of everything. Because they do not believe in any supernatural higher power, they also do not believe in an afterlife; especially one that is determined by a god or your deeds.

Marxism-Leninism- Marxism-Leninists are full blown atheists, believing that there is no god. They rely on science and facts, and the facts prove that there is no God. They also believe that man is the highest form of being out there in the world, humanity is God. They think that believing in a god and in an afterlife is completely absurd.

Cosmic Humanism- Or also known as the New Age movement does not believe in theism or atheism. They in a way just combine what they want of each religion “We can take all the scriptures, and all the teachings… and all the marshmallows and have a jolly good bonfire and marshmallow roast, because that is all they are worth.” (UTT 72) They are still Humanists; they believe that they in a way gods. As for afterlife most Cosmic Humanists believe in reincarnation, meaning after your body dies your soul comes back in a different form.

Postmodernism- Postmodernists believe that there is no God; there atheistic view sees that there is no logical way there was or can ever be a God. Postmodernists believe in a strong science, that with science there is no reason for a God, Friedrich Nietzsche said, “God is dead; we have killed him.” (UTT 78) As for afterlife, they do not believe in such a thing.

Can you defend your faith?

I am going to start a new series on worldviews. I believe that us Christians really need to be able to defend our faith. What I am going to do is focus on one basic thing of seven different religions and what each one believes on that subject. The seven worldviews are, Christianity, Islam, Secular Humanism, Cosmic Humanism, Marxist-Leninist, and Postmodern.

Here is the first one it is one their actual worldview, some are a bit watered down-

Worldview-..is the way we view our world, and our place in it.[i]  Every person in the world has some sort of worldview, even if they don’t think so, how? Because a worldview is how you view your world and everything else, if you think that God does not exist and we have no reason, then that is your worldview. There are though some major worldviews, which one do you believe?

Christianity- Christianity is one of the largest worldviews with over 2.30 billion people (as of 2010)[ii] Christianity is a monotheist religion that believes the one and only God is the creator of all things, including the world. That he sent his son holy and perfect down to die for us, because we are sinners, on a cross, and three days later he rose from the grave and is now living. Christians believe in a afterlife, that if you believe in Jesus is God’s son, and you are a sinner, and that the only way to Heaven is by believing that Jesus died and rose again to save you from eternal damnation. It does not believe in anything contradicting the Bible, because the bible is God’s holy word, it does not have any lies in it.

Islam- The Islamic religion is also a very large religion, with 2.1 billion people as of 2011[iii] The Islamic religion is a monotheist religion also, and believing in Allah, the Islamic and Christianity religion are very close and also very different. They believe that Mohammad was Allah’s ultimate prophet, and that Jesus was just a good man and also a prophet, but Mohammad was Allah’s last prophet and most important. They have very strict beliefs, they must be able to repeat, “There is no God but Allah, and Muhammad is his prophet.” They also must pray 5 times a day, facing Mecca. They believe that one day there will be the final judgment by God where he will decide wither you go to Heaven or Hell. They do believe in the Bible, but Muslims do not believe it is 100% true instead they believe the Qur’an was God’s final and full revelation.

Secular Humanist- Secular Humanists or just Humanists are between 4 to 5 million people[iv] they are an atheist religion, not believing in any god or higher being. They believe that we do not need a god, we are intelligent enough to be ethical and moral, It does not, however, assume that humans are either inherently evil or innately good, nor does it present humans as being superior to nature. Rather, the humanist life stance emphasizes the unique responsibility facing humanity and the ethical consequences of human decisions.

 Marxist-Leninist- Many people thought that Marxist-Leninist had gone away because they really are just communists. They are also atheist and materialistic. I must say that I had never heard of Marxist-Leninist until I read Understanding the Times. And now I am much more cautious with which college I will be going to, since that is where Marxist-Leninist really thrives.

Cosmic Humanist- Or also known as the New Age movement is very close to Buddhism and Hinduism believing that all is god, and we all have an inner god. They are also getting very close to the Native American religions. They are looking for a Utopia, they are an all road lead to heaven group, Cosmic humanists "blur the line between physics and metaphysics," reveals Debra Rae. "To them, all life is energy; composite energy is god; and the promised expectation is 'life beyond the grave' by becoming god."[v]

Postmodern- There are three unifying values: 1) A commitment to relativism; 2) an opposition to rationalism; and  3) the promotion of culturally created realities, all of which are designed to deny the true worldview or belief system for which we would be willing to kill or to die.[vi] They believe that definite terms, boundaries, or absolute truths do not exist. Most postmodernists are atheist or agnostic, but some do embrace the eastern thoughts and practices, while many are naturalists and humanists.

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[i] UTT pg. 15- UTT stands for a book Understanding These Times

[ii] Wikipedia

[iii] Muslimpopulation.com

[iv] Wikipedia

[v] Renewamerica.com

[vi] UTT pg. 26

Goodbye fire!

Many people were wondering how my house fire had gone, it has nearly been a year! Well the damage was a lot worse than what we were told, we had to live somewhere else for 6 months! The first month was in a hotel room, trust me you do not want to live in a small double hotel room for 6 weeks. But, God was so good, the people who lived across from us were moving and let us rent their house the rest of the time. As we were rebuilding the house it was like opening a can of worms, problem after problem arose. First, the inspector told us our roof and second floor wasn't supported at all. The was a 6 inch drop from the second floor! Then after that, we found out that our whole house had to be rewired because the last time it had been wired was in the 60's and that was most definitely out of date, our plumbing also had to be fixed because there were holes in most of our pipes, just leaking under our house, ew! Anyway I don't want to go into much detail, but in the end we got an amazing new house, that was safe. God had given us a blessing in disguise.

My God is so good, so strong, and so mighty, there's nothing my God can not do for you!



Single Light

     I was riding in the car the other day and above me were these street lights.  It was mid-day and I knew that none of them would be on, and I quickly shifted my attention to other things.  But I looked up and there in front of me was a single street light on.  I stared at it until it was gone from sight making sure that I wasn't seeing things.  But, it was true, there was a single street light on in the middle of the day.       I thought this was very odd and I couldn't stop thinking about that single street light, on in the middle of the day.  But then it hit, as Christians, we should all be like that single light shining brightly, catching every bodies attention.  Matthew 5:14 says "You are the light of the world..."  Why does Jesus call us to be the light of the world?  Just like how that single street light caught my attention, being a Christian should catch the unbelievers attention as well. 
     You want people to notice something different about you, something that they may not have.  Of course Jesus is saying that we are a light in darkness, not a light in mid-day.  Please keep that in mind!  That being said, we Christians, will shine even more brighter than the street lamp light I saw.      
     We should set an example for the unbelievers so that they to will wonder what is different about us, and hopefully become a Christian and a light to this world too. So as you go throughout your day please keep this in mind, Am I setting an examples for the unbelievers?  Do I look different from everyone else and am I acting like a light shining in the darkness?

This song may be for younger kids but it's meaning still means the same,

"This little light of mine,
I'm gonna let it shine.
This little light of mine,
I'm gonna let it shine.
This little light of mine,
I'm gonna let it shine.
Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine!"

Written by Jammin-Jelly

Fire

Were to start....... Ok, on the first Wednesday of December my house caught on fire and my life was completely flipped upside down. No my house did not burn to the ground, but we were told 5 more minutes and it would have been, but the smoke damage all over the house was horrible, I couldn't believe my eyes as I walked in once they said that the fire was gone and it was ok I just wanted to roll up in a ball and cry, my house was destroyed, every wall was coated in smoke and the windows were cracked the molding bubbled and burnt, it was like we'd never bought curtains because there wasn't even any trace that we had curtains, the blinds and fans had all melted, I could go into more depth but I wont. The love and care of so many people was amazing, The Red Cross showed up while the firefighters were hosing the fire out, they were so amazing, even though we didn't even know them they stayed there and comforted us and got us in a hotel room, some of our neighbors came over and took my younger brothers and sister to their house and fed them pizza so they wouldn't have to see the house. The next day at my co-op they prayed for us and comforted us, my best friend let me stay at my house ad let me borrow her clothes, since the smoke had ruined most of my clothes, and people we had never really talked to came up to us and offered extra rooms in their house or even their guest house.Our church was just so amazing supporting us and just taking us under their wing, the love was so abundant I don't know how we could of gotten so far. I thank to all those people Christ truly shone through you guys.
The house inspector told us to repair all the damage we would be out of our house for 3 months. It has been 1 1/2 months now and slowly but surely we are coming through. Even though all this has happened to me I still know that this happened for a reason and I praise God everyday how He is blessing me everyday for many other things, and no one in my family got hurt. :)

Question of the month...........FINALLY!

It's November and we haven't done a question in a VERY long time, but here it is

 Have you really gotten down on your knees and thanked God for some serious stuff, not the blessing over your food, but real genuine thankfulness for everything?

Thankfulness

     Me and my family were sitting around the dinner table looking at our yummy food.  Tonight was my littlest sister's turn to pray.  We all bowed our heads and waited for her to pray.  In her cute high voice she said, "God, thank you for everything, amen."  Then we began eating.  But, I kept thinking.  That prayer she had just prayed meant so much.  In just six words she had thanked God for everything.  She thanked Him for the food in front of us, the house we live in, the clothes we wear, our parents job, and so much more.  As I was eating my food, I was thinking, "Am I thankful for everything?"  Yesterday I complained on how it was to cold.  Yet, there are people who live in freezing conditions on a regular basis.  I didn't like the food I ate last night.  Yet, some people will be lucky to find something in the trash to eat.  We complain so much.  But we need to be thankful for everything.We should be thankful the country we live in.  The food we ate, the bed we slept in, the car we drive, our family, and the greatest thing of all, that Jesus died on the cross for ALL of us.

A letter from God

Everyone longs to give themselves completely to someone-
To have a deep soul relationship with another-
To be loved thoroughly, and exclusively.
But God says:
"I want you to be satisfied, fulfill and content
With being loved by Me alone-
With giving yourself totally and unreservedly to Me-
With having an intensely personal and unique relationship
With Me alone.
When you discover that only in Me is your satisfaction to be found,
Then you will be capable of the best human relationship
That I have planned for you.
I want you to be united with another after you are united with Me.
I want you to stop planning, stop wishing,
And allow Me to give you the most thrilling plan existing-
One that you can't imagine.
I want you to have the best-
Please allow Me to bring it to you.
You just wait.
That's all.
Don't be anxious.
Don't worry
Don't look around at the things
Others have gotten or that I've given them.
Don't look around at the things you think you want.
Just keep looking at Me.
Or you will miss what I want to show you.
And then, when you are ready, I'll surprise you with a love
Far more wonderful than any you would ever dream of.
You see, until you are ready and the one I have for you is ready.
(I am working even at this moment to have both of you ready at the same time),
Until you are both satisfied exclusively with Me and the life I have prepare for you,
You won't be able to experience the love that exemplifies your relationship with Me.
And this is the perfect love.
And dear one, I want you to have the most wonderful love.
I want you to see in the flesh a picture of your relationship with Me.
And to enjoy materially and concretely the everlasting union of beauty, perfection, and love.
That I offer you with Myself.
Know that I utterly love you.
                         God