Veracity of Christianity

I base all of my opinions on the Bible, the Holy Book of Christianity. I disagree with everything that disagrees with the Bible.

One might ask me, "How do you know the Bible and Christianity is true? How do you know you're not wrong? Many other people like Muslims and Buddhists believe just as sincerely in their religion as you do yours, so how can you say you're right and the others are wrong?"

These are valid questions. Truth is the most important issue anyone could consider. All people should ask these sorts of questions of themselves, how do I know my core beliefs on truth really are true?

When the world's religions are compared, one can only come to one logical conclusion: 0nly one religion, if any, can be right. The religions terribly contradict each other in their teachings: Eastern religions say everything is god, and worship idols, when others like Islam and Christianity teach there is only One God, separate from creation, and worship should be directed to Him, not idols. Other religions teach a person must earn their conception of paradise by deeds, works, and acheivement, while Christianity teaches that no one can earn eternal life, but it is given as a free gift to anyone who trusts in Jesus Christ as his Savior - salvation by faith, not works.

In response to these questions, I do have reasons for what I believe. In my personal journey of study of the different religions, I now hold strong conviction that Christianity, as outlined in the Bible, is true, and other belief systems are false, deceiving, and mislead - this may seem to be an audacious, crass statement to the politically correct postmodernists of today, but the evidence for Christianity is so strong in comparison to the evidence for other systems, I can say it confidently. Jesus Christ is, as He said, "the way, the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me." (Jn 14:6).

Many scholars, atheists, agnostics, and skeptics have examined Christianity and put it to the test - men like C.S. Lewis, Josh McDowell, Sir William Ramsay, and Dr. Simon Greenleaf - and then find themselves moving from open hostility toward Christianity to becoming Christians themselves because of the great weight of evidence their investigation produced.

Developing a strong argument for Christian truth is a little bit too lengthy for this blog, so to examine the evidence for yourself, read the article, "Christian Evidences" by David Bishop.

I challenge you to examine the evidence for yourself, and also read the follow up article, "Christianity Compared to Other Religions." In light of the fact that 10 out of 10 people die, it would be utter foolishness to not embark on a quest to discover which belief system is true.

Rebels with a cause

Welcome to Aletheia Outpost! Aletheia is the Greek word for "truth." Truth is the primary aim of this blog. Contrary to popular opinion of liberals, eastern religionists, and liberal Christendom, I believe there is such a thing as absolute truth. I believe the only source of totally reliable eternal truth is the Bible. On this blog, we are going to examine today's issues in light of the Scriptures. Many Christians have described this practice as a "Biblical worldview." Only by examining culture, current events, and ideas through a Biblical worldview can one be accurate in his or her views. This doesn't mean my understanding of the bible is infallible. Even though I try my best to discover the answer to the major issues and questions facing our day through a lense of Scripture, I do make mistakes. Nonetheless, those are my mistakes, not mistakes in God's revelation through the Scriptures; the fact remains that absolute truth is only found in Scripture and we should live by Biblical principles.

There is a culture war waged right now that has been intensely waged since the 1960s over the very heart and soul of America. This conflict centers around the question: Will we live under God, as dictated in His Holy Scriptures, or make our own rules according to the whims of man? Will we worship God, or worship gods or goddesses of our own ideas?Let's take a little history lesson. In the 1960s, the West experienced a cultural revolution against the “establishment”, or the traditional Judeo-Christian ethic that was the predominant standard. The roots of this revolution go back farther than the 1960s (with the emergence of Ralph Waldo Emerson’s transcendentalism* and Charles Darwin’s Naturalistic Evolution** in the 1800s), but nonetheless, it exploded in the 60s as a vast, powerful, growing revolt against whatever was good and true. The rebels made up their own truth and redefined “good” to mean whatever they wanted it to mean. This is really when modern liberalism sprouted itself into the hearts and minds of mainstream America.

If we may divert for a paragraph, by the most basic definition, “liberalism” is the rejection of a standard, the desire to be free from an absolute standard, or freedom to do something. The basic definition of “Conservatism” is the adherence to an absolute standard, conserving established traditions or institutions and opposing changes to them. When we look at these basic definitions through the lenses of a Biblical worldview, we find that being liberal or conservative can be good or bad – depending on what the standard is. If the standard is Communism or Wahabbi Islam, then it is good to reject that standard and be free from it, yet it's bad to conserve it. If the standard is the Bible or the U.S. Constitution, then it is good to conserve it, not try to be free from it. However, in these times, we are talking about Modern Liberalism, which is the desire to be free from absolute standards and morals, especially those of the Scriptures. “Liberalism” today generally refers to ideas that are against the standard of God, the Bible, and the Judeo-Christian ethic.

Getting back to the historical background, with the 60s revoluton, Modern Liberalism slammed its way into American politics, government, education, religion, and science. They have infiltrated every possible aspect of American life and culture. The rebels of the 60s are no longer rebels against the Western establishment of civiliation - they are the establishment. They now control western civilization; they own it. Look at Spain, Italy, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Canada - they are overwhelmed with liberalism, and the Judeo-Christian ethic is almost destroyed. European couples live together more than they marry, homosexuality is rampant, euthanasia of inconvenient people (like unborn babies and the elderly) is law, most people do not attend any church, and Christianity is universally hated. America is the last western nation to fall, and it is on its way if it does not turn from its present course.

Someone may say, "Hasn't America had a Christian President and been under Republican control (many of whom are Christians or hold to the Christian ethic) for the past 6 years? Conservatism is blasting liberalism away!" While President Bush and so many Congressmen and government officials hold to the traditional morality, liberals are still the established, "politically correct" view for the most part. Liberals make up a large block in elected government (Especially with the recent election), and with the help of the media, which is also established as liberal, they can cut off much of the effectiveness of the other elected moralists. Further, I have noticed that many Republicans are rather passive, fighting for more of a status quo, that is, not letting liberalism get any worse instead of trying to make things get better. Further, the public elementary schools, high schools, colleges and universities are totally controlled by the Liberal worldview, and are, therefore, the settled establishment. Americans are being taught an atheistic, materialistic, humanistic, pagan worldview in education programs. Liberals are more active in "proselytizing" activity than the conservative Biblical Christians, and far too many Christians are caught up in Biblical illiteracy, confusion, selfishness, hate, legalism, hypocrisy, and apathy towards influencing the world for Christ.

If you are not a Christian, then I encourage you to participate in this blog to see the philosophy behind Christianity, and what the worldview that the Bible, the Holy book of Christianity, declares. I encourage you to look at the data objectively, with an open mind, and you may be surprised at the outcome: that Jesus Christ is the Son of God who died for our sins and rose from the dead, and that the Biblical worldview is the most logical and truthful worldview of all.

If you are a Christian, I hope The Aletheia Post will strengthen your faith and help you understand what you believe, Who you believe, and why you believe. Christians should serve God, learn more about Jesus, and live for His glory, as well as not being ignorant of controversies regarding the teachings of the Bible and of this world.

I advocate that Christians - those who have trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior - make Christ their cause. To proclaim the glory of God, to make known His saving grace through faith to all men, and to live out the law of Christ and not tire of good works. Jesus Christ is worth living for, fighting for, and suffering any measure of persecution for – even death, because He died for our sins and saved us. People who choose to stand for God are outnumbered. We're called fundamentalist fanatics, extremists, bigots, and many other deragatory terms that are not fit to speak here (though I must say, being an extremist can be a good thing: what's wrong with being extremely courageous, extremely loving, extremely noble? I guess they don't mean it in that way though...). Those who led the revolution against the traditional values in western culture, in an effort to replace them with Modern Liberalism, are now the establishment themselves. In a sense then, we are rebels… but we are rebels with a cause!



*Transcendentalism is an idea founded by Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) that emphasized man's closeness to nature; that man and nature possess divinity, and that man has divinity within him and must therefore trust himself, and not God.**Naturalism is the idea that nature is all that there is; there is no God or supernatural.