Hello and, Welcome to: Live Above 3D
Today, I will let you in on why I am a Christian.
Why am I a Christian?
Religion is like a clique. Today, it is like a cabal. Religion is like an ethnic group, a gathering of people of like interests. If you grow up in a country of 95% Christians then, every astronaut you know will likely be a Christian. The best footballer and sports women and men will be Christians. The wisest people would be Christians as well as the best doctors. In such situations, what would save one from being a Christian, a Muslim, a Hindu or a Buddhist.
There are countless religions out there. Could there be a true religion. If there be one, could a person know? Well I tell you; these are the reasons why I am a Christian:
Why I am a Christian. Reason number One. Only God can establish a religion. In this case, I speak particularly to the Abrahamic religions. Religion captures the relationship between God and man. The terms of this relationship has changed over time. We will call each phase an epoch. In the first epoch, humankind was a Ruling caretaker. Hence God themselves commissioned Adam to: “Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth”. God could have sent a cherub or an arch angel. He could have sent one of the sons of God. However, God commissioned Adam himself.
The next epoch began after Adam and Eve sinned. Again God himself read out the terms of the new epoch. See Genesis chapter 3 verses 14 to 24.
Later, God himself came in the form of a man, to Abraham, to institute a new kind of relationship (Genesis chapters 17 and 18). No wonder then that when God wanted to establish a new relationship which would fulfill the requirements of the previous relationships, he came himself. I am talking of the New Testament, which was instituted by Jesus, the Christ.
To Christians, I inclusive, Jesus is the Word of God, made flesh, who dwelt amongst humans. Let’s not argue about this. Rather, focus on the truth that: Only God can establish a religion. This is the case in spiritual matters. Hmm, it is also the case in legal matters amongst men. The highest legal authority in the land is usually responsible for the swearing in of a new President in most countries. Some countries call this legal authority the Chief Justice. So, the Chief Justice swears in the new President. It is that important. The Torah, Bible and Koran all tell us that God is the Judge of all. No wonder, only God is recorded to have started a new epoch of mankind. Think about this.
God bless you as you think about it with sincerity.
Why I am a Christian. Reason number Two.
What has your God done for you? Mine died for me.
We are not talking of God doing something that cost him nothing. Something like creating the beauty we see. Something like giving us wisdom. All that and more cost God nothing. I will include atheist and scientists in my address by illustrating with a thought experiment.
Six persons present their ideology to you. Each asks you to accept their unique ideology. Each tells you that followership will bring you great rewards. What do you do? Being very pragmatic, you think to follow all six, specifically if their requirements all have to do with living a morally good life. Well, three of the six, each say that their way is exclusive; that following any of the other five will result in great regret. The other three say their way is not exclusive. At this point, you conclude that it would be safer to follow one of the three exclusive ideologies. But which one? You head back to the drawing board. While contemplating, you commit a crime punishable by death. One of the three remaining persons decides to die in your place. They tell you that death is not a problem for them, but rather that you should live to make the right choice. Hypothetically, which of the three remaining ideologies would you select?
I suspect that children will immediately identify the answer. For adults, we often side-step the conundrum by introducing irrelevancies. For example, one could say: An all-powerful God cannot be killed. This is irrelevant to the question. Our question does not assume God is all powerful. The relevant questions are: Did he die? If he died, did he think he was paying the price for something? If so, what was he paying for?
In Christianity, God is said to prove His love for humankind by paying the price of death as a man. This is unlike any other religion. It is a serious claim. On the strength of this alone, wisdom dictates that we investigate this claim. Be careful though, there are more half-truths about Christianity out there than anything else.
Meanwhile, if you like how I have approached these issues so far and want to learn more, simply ask in the comments section, or send me an email to my email address which is specified.
One last note.
Here is my position. If God is our creator, then it makes no sense to reject Him. However, when you add the fact that our God not only confesses great love for us, but He also proved it, openly, then I gladly follow His way. Think about this.
God bless you as you think about it with sincerity.
Why I am a Christian. Reason number Three.
Jesus set a record that cannot be broken.
Please die and resurrect. If you want me to believe you, die and resurrect, or do something that no one else has done and no one else can do.
The more common way of setting up a religion is to bring in some “new revelation”. Some revelation which you claim is a higher wisdom than that provided by previous religions. The problem is, if one person can do this for those religions that come before; what stops any other person from doing the same thereafter?
You could come out today, and tell the world that God took you to heaven, and He showed you that all religions are corrupted. God also commissioned you to start the one true religion. The only problem is you went to heaven in secret (or in the presence of a handful of believers). This is reproducible by anyone. It is easy to deceive (or conspire with) a few believers. Let me see you try that with hundreds of people. Then, you will learn the import of free will. Jesus appeared multiple times, even to a gathering of 500 people. 1 Corinthians 15:1-8. Till this day, people from all over the world. All religions claim to have seen Jesus. What mass delusion. In particular, many Christians know at least one Christian, who claims to have seen Jesus. Even if only one in hundred thousand, of the worlds about 2 billion Christians have seen Jesus. We are looking at a number upwards of 20,000 people. So, Jesus continues to appear till this day. This is madness. Yet there’s more.
Jesus didn’t just rise from the dead; He also claims that he has the keys of Death and Hades (Revelation chapter 1 verses 17b and 18). This means that no one can rise from the dead, without His permission.
A lot of apologetics focuses on the fact that Jesus is resurrected. I like that. However, I want to expand our focus a bit. It is easy to claim that God, or an angel gave you exclusively a new revelation. Not so easy, but possible to fake your own death. How about claiming that no one can resurrect without your permission. This statement is credited to Jesus. This does not seem like a wise statement to make, for it could be easily refuted; yet no one has been able to rise from the dead to refute the claims of Jesus’s followers. So, keep creating religions. Discredit Jesus if you will. However, be assured that you are unable to take up His challenge. Food for thought.
Hmm. There is still a question hanging over all this food and thought. Why did Jesus have to die? The answer to this question is the fourth and final reason I am a Christian.
Why I am a Christian. Reason number Four.
The message and the messenger.
The bible tells us that God loved the world so much, he paid a high price to save us. No matter what you have heard before, or what you think now, first remember that this is a story of love. What baffles me is this; many have heard that their creator paid a high price for them; yet they have made little or no effort to find out what or why. What price, why and how God paid the price, as well as the outcome, is the message of Christianity.
Listen to it now.
There is a life that sustains life. The bible calls this kind of life, Zoe. It is the life of God. Zoe sustains other life by constantly renewing it. Zoe automatically eliminates corruption. Zoe is shadowed in the physical. For example, fire burns impurities from gold. Likewise, white blood cells destroy diseased cells in our body. In the spiritual, corruption cannot survive the presence of Zoe. Hence, the bible records that the consequence of sin is death. This death is a spiritual death; that is, to be cut off from Zoe.
So, what exactly is sin? Before we answer that question. I feel there is something you need to hear. There are some who are opposed to submitting to a creator God. Even if a loving creator revealed themselves to these people, they would still not submit. Whatever you do, make sure you are not being influenced by such people. Thank you.
Now, what is sin?
Sin is more than disobeying God. At the core of sin is trying to be like God. Lucifer did this and was expelled from the presence of Zoe. Then He told Eve she could be like God. Meanwhile, Adam was not confused, neither was he hungry. Rather, he wanted to be like God. If Adam had disobeyed out of hunger, then Zoe could repair that state of corruption, and there would have been no cutting off from Zoe. However, Adam disobeyed because he wanted to be like God and was cut off from Zoe. After Adam sinned and was cut off from Zoe. The residuals from Zoe sustained his physical body for 930 years, before his physical body gave in to decay and died. Gradually, subsequent generations died earlier, and earlier. Death has a cascading effect over generations.
Sin, like entropy, will continue to increase. This is because, corruption can only deteriorate further. Given any two or more ever-living people and any sufficiently large period, then the smallest sin will result to hell. If we factor in timelessness, then that future resulting to hell is now. We create hell the moment we permit the smallest sin. This means that the idea of balancing our bad deeds with good deeds is a fallacy. Prove me wrong. Preaching the message of Christ is about inviting people to submit to the correcting influence of their creator over time. It is this group of people who can live for eternity, without try to be like God and resulting to hell for everyone.
God saved humankind from hell being our definite outcome. God achieved this legally; I mean justly. Birth is the legal way of becoming a human. The Word of God became flesh, was born, lived amongst humans as Jesus. Jesus needed to live, obeying God all His life, as a counterweight to Adam’s disobedience. He also needed to die, to be able to descend to hades, where many spirits were held captive by death. Death is the legal way of reaching hades. One may ask, why the violent death of Jesus? The violence was not necessary. It is entirely devil’s machination. God foresaw it though.
In hades, the spirits of people whose bodies grew old and suffered physical death due to lack of Zoe, were held captive. Jesus set those captives free. Thereafter, he obtained the key to death and hades. This is good news because, whereas death had a cascading effect on all physically born generations of Adam; Life now has a cascading effect on all spiritually born generations of Jesus. Jesus is called the second Adam. This is the core, of the message, of Christianity.
One may ask, who are the spiritually born generations of Jesus. These are humans from all ethnicities, works of life, religions and more, who have accepted to live under the influence of the Spirit of God, so that living forever will not result to hell for all. All you need to do to be one of such generations is to believe what Jesus achieved for mankind and say it out.
I sense that, having heard all your creator has done for you, you are ready to accept his love and become one of the spiritually born generations of Jesus.
Ready? To accept God’s love, revealed through Jesus the Christ, repeat after me.
Dear God, I come before you today with a humble heart and surrender my life to you. I believe that Jesus Christ is your Word become flesh, who lived free of sin, died on the cross as a payment for my own sin, and is resurrected so that I am saved from death through the presence of Zoe in me. I receive Zoe. Thank you father. I gladly submit to your influence through Christ today and forever more.
Welcome to the family. Right now, your spirit is a newborn. It needs special care including food; I mean spiritual food; that is words spoken by God, through humans, including you when you read the bible. Pray to the father to show you where to get this special care, including spiritual food. You can also reach out to me in the comments section or send me an email. Remember, God has received you, and nothing can take that away. So, never be afraid.
God loves you.