a less than elequent collection of personal thoughts
I just finished reading Jill's article and the resulting comments regarding religion and Hell. Jill's thoughts on the subject are not new., and I greatly respect her right to have and voice her views. I have heard and read these views before from many people. Many of the comments also reflect many common ideas which have been around for a great many years.
Many scholors, philosphers, and religious leaders from all over the world have argued and debated these ideas for centuries. For this reason, I am certain as I write this that there is nothing my meager intellect, studies, and experiences could contribute anything of substance to influence these ideas one way or the other.
The only reason I feel compelled to write anything at all on this subject is the strength of my own convictions on the subject and the sadness I feel when I believe people have missed out on a great truth and wonderful gift from God. While I firmly believe these things to be true, I must say at this point that I have not always believed in this way. I was a very outspoken aethist for many years, and it was only my personal experiences which convinced me that I was wrong in that view.
While true Faith requires no proof, only a fool would have such a Faith without some pretty strong evidence upon which to base their a Faith. I will lay out a few ideas which lend some evidence to the idea that Jesus was and is in fact The Son of God as described in the Bible and believed by Christians. I use the word Christian here to describe all who believe in Jesus Christ as Saviour and not to indicate any particlular denomination as I belong to no denomination. I will also avoid any strictly denominational references.
Historically, we know that every single one of Christ's apostles, (the men who lived with Jesus, traveled with Jesus, and knew Jesus better than anyone), all preached that Jesus was the Son of God. They all preached that Jesus was executed on the cross. These men were eye witnesses to the death of Jesus. They also preached of the return of Jesus after being executed, to which they claimed to also be eye witnesses.
Ok, up to now this is the basis of what we know they all agreed upon and is commonly known about Christianity in general. Now, what lends credibility to these claims is the fact that every one of these men were imprisioned, beaten, tortured, and eventually executed for preaching these things. Any one of them, at any time, could have stopped the beatings and torture by simply confessing that what they were preaching was untrue. They could have saved their own lives by simply saying that what they claimed to be witness to didn't happen. To a single man, every one of them went to their executions still insisting that what they claimed was the Truth.
If they were simply trying to keep a lie going, they were sure pretty dedicated to that lie, weren't they? I can't imagine too many people willing to die for a lie that doesn't benefit them in any way. Can you? What could possibly motivate these men to go through all of that, including execution, except that they were witness to something very very compelling?
And then there's Saul. Saul was a very religious man. He believed that the Christians were preaching blasphemy and deserved death. He actively hunted these people down and brought them in for trial and execution. These crazy Christians would never give up their blasphemous claims. They always preferred to be executed. All of them. Every single one of them.
Saul truly believed in his cause to rid the world of these Christians and their false teachings. What could possibly change a man so much that suddenly he begins preaching the very same message as the people he persecuted? What could change him from Saul the persecuter of Christians to Paul the greatest evangelist of all time? That must have been some truly powerful event to change a man so greatly!
Many speak about the Bible as if it has undergone a great many changes over the centuries; edits, rewrites, etc... But I have studied the modern versions of the Bible as well as many of the old texts, including some copies of first century books of the New Testament and I can find absolutely no significant changes in the past 2000 years. Languages change, society changes, but the Bible has remained the same in all this time. Yes, there have been some attempts at creating rewrites and they can be found out there, but they have all been rejected by biblical scholars as soon as they appear. Personally, I prefer the NIV to the KJV because the language is easier to understand. I don't speak thee and thou and neither does anyone I know. I have compared the two, verse for verse, and except for the language differences, they are the same. They both contain the same message as the earliest manuscripts I have had the great honor to inspect.
The reasoning behind why Jesus died for us seems quite simple to me. Jesus was God incarnate; a perfect man. Only a perfect payment could be made to a perfect God for the sins of the world. Nothing we could do, as imperfect human beings could do it. Only God Himself could provide the perfect payment, so He did it for us because He loves us.
I know I have written nothing here that will make the slightest impact on those who refuse to believe, who ridicule Christianity, who refuse to believe that just 'being a good person' isn't enough . But that's ok. I am not writing this with any foolish ideas that I will somehow 'save the world'. I felt compelled to add my persective on the subject, and knew that it would take more space than a simple comment should take up.
Many people make all kinds of arguements about why God's plan of salvation is unfair for this reason or that, and they want their religion to fit into their ideas of what is right and wrong. Their fatal mistake is in thinking they can make God conform to their ideas instead of conforming their ideas to God. God created the world. His world, His rules. Personally, I think a being who can create a universe by simply speaking it into existance just might know a little more about how things should work than a mere human being, no matter how many intelligent-sounding little remarks that human can come up with.
These are my beliefs, and though they are thought to be foolishness to the world I find great wisdom and insight in the Bible and hold it to be the honest, inerrant Word of God. I pray that somehow, in some way, God will influence some of the people who's comments I have read on this subject and lead them to learn the Truth. I respect and love each and every one of them whether I agree with them or not.