recent reading.

As I set out to read this book, I quickly realized that my first assumption was entirely wrong. I thought I was going to read something that merely compared the Christian faith to other religions. Instead, the reality of the material that I was reading started to sink in. Things that I had known (but still seemed a little foggy to me) about the faith that I ascribe to suddenly became much clearer. And it stood in sharp contrast to the confusing and contradictory belief systems that it was compared to. Some subjects that I would politely avoid in conversation I now understand to a much fuller extent simply because of this small book. The bulk of this book was specifically about the Christian faith, therefore, I still intend to do some further study specifically into Hinduism and Islam before traveling to India.
Although not an expressed purpose of this book, justice was a major theme running throughout the text, which is appropriate since justice is close to the heart of God and this was a book about Jesus!

Zacharias writes that “Evil is questioned from at least three sides: the metaphysical problem (what is the source of it?), the physical problem (How do natural disasters, etc. fit into the discussion?), and the moral problem (how can it be justified?)” (pp110). However, it is the justification of suffering that gets the most attention; likely because it is generally brought up as a main argument against the existence of God. It is an age-old question, “...if God is fully good and all-powerful, how can He allow suffering in the world?” In fact, I took a class in college that was almost entirely centered on that very theme. Even though this seems to get mainly focused on Christianity, it is also true that every religion must answer this question. Zacharias states: “I am convinced that there is no more comprehensive answer to the problem of suffering and evil than the one that the Christian faith affords” (pp106). Hinduism, for example, has no monotheistic answer to suffering. Jesus, however, faces this “problem” head on numerous times. His response to the man who was born blind was: “This happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life. As it is day, we must do the work of Him who sent Me. Night is coming when no man can work. While I am in the world, I am the light of the world” (John 9:3-5).

“Objective moral values exist only if God exists. Is it all right, for example, to mutilate babies for entertainment? Every reasonable person will say no. We know that objective moral values do exist. Therefore God must exist” (pp113). This quote stood out to me above the rest in relating exactly what people are claiming when they claim that there is no God. It is absurd! But I still want to pick apart a little bit of what was written in this book about Jesus and how He compares to the claims of other religions.

Jesus is fully God, immaculately conceived. The virgin birth is even confirmed in the Koran, and in that respect provides a huge stumbling block in the teaching of Islam. Jesus’ life was without blemish – even through temptation from Satan in the desert, whereas Mohammad and Krishna both were overcome by temptation.

Jesus knew that He was God; this is seen in numerous scriptures where He refers to God as His father. In John 8:54-58, “Jesus replied, "If I honored myself, it would mean nothing. My Father is the one who honors me. You claim that he is your God, even though you don't really know him. If I said I didn't know him, I would be a liar, just like all of you. But I know him, and I do what he says. Your father Abraham was really glad to see me. “You are not even fifty years old!" they said. "How could you have seen Abraham?" Jesus answered, "I tell you for certain that even before Abraham was, I was, and I am" (NIV).

The true God of the Bible is relational, and is referred to as our Father! In Hinduism, it takes much effort to “win” the blessing of the one he worships in the ‘sanctity’ of the temple – the only place of possible encounter with god. However, Jesus said that WE are temples – God is with us at all times! Because our body is a temple, Jesus gives sanctity to human-ness! If this weren’t true, there would be no sacredness to the body. This is why Justice without Christian ethics doesn’t have much foundation. Where is the line drawn if human beings were not sacred? “The ethical law comes out of the fact that we are a dwelling place for God” (pp70). John 2:20-22: “The Jews replied, "It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days?" 21But the temple he had spoken of was his body. 22After he was raised from the dead, his disciples recalled what he had said. Then they believed the Scripture and the words that Jesus had spoken” (NIV).

The bible speaks of communion with Him (nourishment, fellowship, friendship, celebration, pleasure, bread of life). This stands in sharp contrast to the self-deification practiced in Hinduism (pp 97, 119). Jesus offers us to partake in His body, “This is my body…lifts the listener from food-dominated existence to the recognition of …hunger…that could only be filled by a different bread” (pp79).

Islam specifically points to teaching to show the particular way. “But Jesus was identical with His message! No portion of scripture claims to be scientifically technical” (pp168). Also, the distance between Allah and humanity is vast.

New age religion and spirituality “violates science and religion – reduces my being to sheer matter while spiritualizing it, and exalts the mind to spiritual supremacy while naturalizing it” (pp68).

Testing faith? ...the test itself doesn’t pass the test – the mind to ask the questions is already a miracle, proof of intelligent design. How can there be intelligence from non- intelligence? The statistical probability of forming a single enzyme (which is building block of gene, which is a building block of a single cell) is 1 in 10 to the 40,000 power. Crazy!
“Faith is a confidence on the person of Jesus Christ and in His power, so that even when His power does not serve my end, my confidence in Him remains because of who He is.” (pp 58).

“Meaninglessness does not come from being weary of pain, but from being weary of pleasure” (pp137). Mmmmm, good food for thought, eh?

Cheers!