Dr. Gary Cass of the Christian Anti-Defamation League answers the most important question in Christendom today: If god's so great, why do you keep losing? Nonbelief is gaining popularity, as is secularism, and despite its loud shrieking otherwise, christianity as a whole is become increasingly irrelevant in the world today. Why is that?
Apparently because god's got a plan, and it's insane.
God is always most concerned about his people and is constantly working all things together for their good and His own glory. including, but not limited to, rape, slavery, child molestation, torture, disease and any other sort of suffering humans are capable of When we read the scriptures we see some predictable historical patterns.
First, God graciously saves and delivers his people. from the danger he placed them in Then there is a honeymoon filled with blessings. and after the new belief smell wears of . . . Then God’s people become complacent and backslide into various sins and idolatry. which god didn't see coming why? So God sends prophets to call his people back. he could have just spoken to them directly, but whatever. The prophets are killed. wait a minute. sure, the romans killed jesus, but god killed moses. So foreign enemies, drought and wicked kings etc. are sent to afflict his people. because just appearing directly in front of the people is too much to ask. After suffering, sometimes for long periods, the people cry out to God for mercy and they repent. Then God sends a savior to rescue them. The people are blessed and the cycle starts over. that's insane.
suppose you marry a person and they slide into alcoholism. maybe they always drank a little too much, but before you married them, you didn't really notice quite how bad it was. your spouse's alcoholism starts to effect your marriage and your life, and you hold an intervention. your spouse walks out and ends up homeless, still an alcoholic. eventually, life on the streets wakes your spouse up, they get into rehab and come begging to you for another chance.
if it's the first time this has happened, you might even say yes. alcoholism isn't anyone's fault, your spouse is clean and really seems to have everything under control.
what if it's the 5th time? the 20th? the 50th? would you keep doing that over and over and over again?
i didn't think so. so why does this make sense for an omniscient, omnipotent deity?
This tells us a lot about human nature and God’s providence. This pattern is most vividly on display in the book of Judges where we see a downward spiral of Israel after taking up residence in the Promised Land.
Thursday, August 13, 2009
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If god's so great, why do you keep losing? Nonbelief is gaining popularity, as is secularism, and despite its loud shrieking otherwise, christianity as a whole is become increasingly irrelevant in the world today. Why is that?
ReplyDelete"If we live in the wrong neighborhood, we risk missing the most important development of our time: the global revival of religion.......In a recent survey, Pippa Norris andRon Inglehart sum up the evidence. Despite the advance of secularization in the West, they write, "The world as a whole now has more people with traditional religious views than ever before, they constitute a growing proportion of the world's population." Consequently, the West is more secular but "the world as a whole is becoming more religious."
We often read that Islam is the fastest growing religion. Not true. Christianity is the fastest growing religion in the world today. Islam is second. While Islam grows mainly through reproduction-which is to say by Muslims having large families-Christianity spreads through rapid conversion as well as natural increase....
The new face of Christianity is no longer white and blond butyellow, black and brown...The vital centers of Christianity are no longer Geneva, Rome, Paris or London. They are Buenos Aires, Manila, Kinshasa and Addis Ababa....
More than two out of three evangelical Christians live in Asia, Africa and South America...There are more churchgoing Presbyterians in Ghana than in Scotland...
In Brazil, for example, there are now 50 million evangelical Protestants whereas a few decades ago there werent enough to count....And the Catholic numbers remain huge: Brazil had 50 million Catholics in 1950 but now it has 120 million....
Despite the limitations imposed by the Chinese government, it is estimated that there are now 100 million Christians in China who worship in underground and Catholic churches...at current growth rates...China will in a few decades become the largest Christian country in the world. In Korea, where Christians already outnumber Buddhists, there are numerous megachurches with more than 10,000 members. The Yoido Full Gospel Fellowship reports 750,000 members. The Catholic church in the Philippines reports 60 million members, and is projected to have 120 million by mid-century....
This Third World Christianity is coming our way. South Korea has become the world's second-largest source of Christian missionaries, with 12,000 preaching the faith abroad. Only the United States sends more missionaries to other countries. We may be seeing the beginning ofof a startling reversal. At one time Christian missionaries to the far continents of Africa and Asia, where white priests in robes proclaimed theBible to uncomprehending brown and black people. In the future, we may well see black and brown missionaries proclaim the Bible to wide-eyed and uncomprehending white people in the West...
The Washington Post reports that there are 150 churches in Denark run by foreigners as "part of a growing trend of preachers from developing nations coming to Western Europe.""
The above is from...D'Souza, Dinesh:Whats So Great About Christianity?, Chapter 1, Tyndale House Publishing, 2007
ReplyDeleteIf anything is becoming "increasingly irrelevant in the world today" I would posit it is the farcical parody of an intellectual movement known as atheism.
ReplyDelete“The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results”
ReplyDeleteScripture in a nutshell.
@JD - Farce aside, atheism isn't (and doesn't claim to be) an "intellectual movement". Nonbelief and high IQ do have a strong correlation, but causation hasn't been inferred from that.
ReplyDeleteDo you really think that a man lived inside a fish for three days?
Do you really think that a man lived inside a fish for three days?
ReplyDelete"A little girl was talking to her teacher about whales and how she had heard in Sunday School about how a whale had swallowed Jonah.
The teacher said it was physically impossible for a whale to swallow a human because even though it was a very large mammal its throat was very small.
The little girl remained steadfast in her position and reiterated that indeed, a whale had swallowed Jonah.
Irritated, the teacher again stated that a whale could not swallow a human; it was physically impossible.
The little girl said, "I'm not sure how it happened, but when I get to heaven I will ask Jonah."
The teacher replied smugly, "What if Jonah isn't in heaven?"
The little girl replied, "Then you ask him."" Link
what this little "story" you spouted "really" means is that religion does not belong in a Public school.
ReplyDeletenot that i expect you to understand that.
This post has been featured on Angie the Anti-Theist's Sunday School
ReplyDelete