Does God exist? The following offers honest, straight-forward reasons to believe in God...
By Marilyn Adamson
Just once wouldn't you love for someone to simply show you the evidence for God's existence? No arm-twisting. No statements of, "You just have to believe." Well, here is an attempt to offer some of the reasons which suggest that God exists.
But first consider this. If a person opposes even the possibility of there being a God, then any evidence can be rationalised or explained away. It is like if someone refuses to believe that people have walked on the moon, then no amount of information is going to change their thinking. Photographs of astronauts walking on the moon, interviews with the astronauts, moon rocks...all the evidence would be worthless, because the person has already concluded that people cannot go to the moon.
When it comes to the possibility of God's existence, the Bible says that there are people who have seen sufficient evidence, but they have suppressed the truth about God. On the other hand, for those who want to know God if he is there, he says, "You will seek me and find me; when you seek me with all your heart, I will be found by you." Before you look at the facts surrounding God's existence, ask yourself, If God does exist, would I want to know him? Here then, are some reasons to consider...
1. Does God exist? The complexity of our planet points to a deliberate Designer who not only created our universe, but sustains it today.
2. Does God exist? The human brain's complexity shows a higher intelligence behind it.
3. Does God exist? "Chance" or "natural causes" are insufficient explanations.
4. Does God exist? To state with certainty that there is no God, a person has to ignore the passion of an enormously vast number of people who are convinced that there is a God.
5. Does God exist? We know God exists because he pursues us. He is constantly initiating and seeking for us to come to him.
6. Does God exist? Unlike any other revelation of God, Jesus Christ is the clearest, most specific picture of God pursuing us.
to be continued and elaborated on at http://everystudent.com/sg/features/isthere.html...
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Who is Jesus? A quick summary on the life of Jesus Christ - and reasons to believe in him...
By Paul E. Little
It is impossible for us to know conclusively whether God exists and what He is like unless He takes the initiative and reveals Himself. We must know what He is like and His attitude toward us. Suppose we knew He existed, but that He was like Adolf Hitler--capricious, vicious, prejudiced, and cruel. What a horrible realisation that would be!
We must scan the horizon of history to see if there is any clue to God's revelation. There is one clear clue. In an obscure village in Palestine, almost 2,000 years ago, a Child was born in a stable. Today the entire world is still celebrating the birth of Jesus.
He lived in obscurity until He was thirty, and then began a public ministry that lasted three years. It was destined to change the course of history. He was a kindly person and we're told that "the common people heard Him gladly." And, "He taught as One who had authority, and not as their teachers of the Law" (Matthew 7:29).
It soon became apparent, however, that He was making shocking and startling statements about Himself. He began to identify Himself as far more than a remarkable teacher or prophet. He began to say clearly that He was God. ...
Jesus Christ - the Son of God?
As we face the claims of Christ, there are only four possibilities. He was either a liar, a lunatic, a legend, or the Truth. If we say He is not the Truth, we are automatically affirming one of the other three alternatives, whether we realise it or not.
(1) One possibility is that Jesus lied when He said He was God--that He knew He was not God, but deliberately deceived His hearers to lend authority to His teaching. Few, if any, seriously hold this position. Even those who deny His deity affirm that He was a great moral teacher. They fail to realise those two statements are a contradiction. Jesus could hardly be a great moral teacher if, on the most crucial point of His teaching--His identity--He was a deliberate liar.
(2) A kinder, though no less shocking possibility, is that He was sincere but self-deceived. We have a name for a person today who thinks he is God. That name is lunatic, and it certainly would apply to Christ if He were deceived on this all-important issue. But as we look at the life of Christ, we see no evidence of the abnormality and imbalance we find in a deranged person. Rather, we find the greatest composure under pressure.
(3) The third alternative is that all of the talk about His claiming to be God is a legend--that what actually happened was that His enthusiastic followers, in the third and fourth centuries, put words into His mouth He would have been shocked to hear. Were He to return, He would immediately repudiate them.
The legend theory has been significantly refuted by many discoveries of modern archaeology. These have conclusively shown that the four biographies of Christ were written within the lifetime of contemporaries of Christ. Some time ago Dr. William F. Albright, world-famous archaeologist now retired from Johns Hopkins University, said that there was no reason to believe that any of the Gospels were written later than A.D. 70. For a mere legend about Christ, in the form of the Gospel, to have gained the circulation and to have had the impact it had, without one shred of basis in fact, is incredible.
For this to have happened would be as fantastic as for someone in our own time to write a biography of the late John F. Kennedy and in it say he claimed to be God, to forgive people's sins, and to have risen from the dead. Such a story is so wild it would never get off the ground because there are still too many people around who knew Kennedy. The legend theory does not hold water in the light of the early date of the Gospel manuscripts.
(4) The only other alternative is that Jesus spoke the truth. From one point of view, however, claims don't mean much. Talk is cheap. Anyone can make claims. ...
Evidence from the Life of Jesus
First, His moral character coincided with His claims.
Second, Christ demonstrated a power over natural forces which could belong only to God, the Maker of these forces.
Third, Jesus demonstrated the Creator's power over sickness and disease.
Fourth, Jesus' supreme credential to authenticate His claim to deity was His resurrection from the dead.
Was Jesus' Resurrection Just a Story?
find out more at http://everystudent.com/sg/features/faith.html...
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More questions and answers.
Why is there so much suffering?
If God is good why does he allow so much suffering?
Why
Why do people get cancer? Why is there tragedy and death?
Is God a Good Director?
Is God directing this world very well? Questions to consider...
What Will Heaven Be Like?
Is it all just strumming harps and sitting on clouds?
Reincarnation, Karma & Life after Death
The problems of reincarnation and the law of karma.
Life after Death
How good do you have to be to get to heaven?
Why do I need God to be happy?
"I have found happiness in my life. Why do I need to derive a sense of purpose and happiness from the concept of a 'divine being'?"
Saturday, July 15, 2006
Days of our Pink Lives (1) & (2)
I decided to write short stories because I'm bored when waiting for dance to start in school. I wrote part 1 and 2 already. I intend to slowly include all the KPCians in it, so be patient!
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So Des was a girl who liked sugar, so she decided to move to the land of pink frosting. The land wasn't really pink, but got its name from the pink grasses made of frosting. Like the cadbury advertisement, you can see pink cows grazing frosting. (Mad Cow Disease!) Des decided to go live in a house made of pink frosting, so she bought one, made by elves. You made houses of pink frosting the same way African tribemembers make mud houses. You make it wet, leave it to ferment, then shape it.
Des moved into the elf-made house then sparkles started dropping from the ceiling, and she picked some up to eat them, but realized they were actually dancing fairies. She ate them nontheless. However, the fairies got rather mad that Des ate their friend, so they decided to call in their friends, the gremlins to declare Pink War III. The first and second Pink Wars were against Samuel, who insulted the Land of Pink Frosting by calling it smelly, and Kimberly, who refused to eat the exotic, but poisonous toadstools by giving a flimsy excuse that she was on a diet. So, they came prepared with marshmallow shields and swords made of liquorice, which just made Des hungrier. She plucked the weapons out of their hands, (by the way gremlins are about the size of your hands) and gobbled the marshmallow and liquorice. The gremlins were rather angered because they had taken years to travel back and forth between human lands and pink frosting land to gather enough sugar to create their weapons. Thus they started hurling exotic, poisonous toadstools at Des, who was rather perturbed by then. Des decided to just ignore them, and ignored them she did.
Then the fairies and gremlins went away, because they knew that they had to come up with a battle plan.
" DING DONG GONG! " An amazingly loud gong sounded at her front door, and thinking it was her doorbell, Des decided to open it. But nooooooo, it was Marianne H., standing there with Samuel's Cheena gong, because Samuel was currently being used by the gremlins as a scarecrow to keep the pigeons away from Amanda's house. So MH was her new neighbour! Des was rather delighted, as she and MH were old friends, having studied together in the secret spy school for ribbon makers.
*Threatening thunder booms* "It's going to rain! Run for cover!" The shouts came from the fairies, gremlins and other inhabitants of Pink Frosting Land. If you remember, they're about the size of your hands and smaller, so raindrops can be quite dangerous. MH grabbed Des and pulled her over to her house, which was made of chocolate. The moment they were in the house, both heaved huge sighs of relief. But a loud chomping sound made them freeze in fear. MH, the braver one, poked her head out of a window, and gasped when she saw a beggar. The beggar was eating her house!
"Please, Ma'm, let me eat your house, for I have not eaten for days," the beggar requested with her head down low. MH was about to take her marshmallow shield to clunk the beggar, but Des stopped her, telling MH to move in to her house, because after all, they could make hot chocolate out of the chocolate house. MH pondered for 5 hours before agreeing.After the beggar took a handful, little sparkles appeared and swarmed around her, turning her into a gorgeous princess. "Thank you Ma'm. I was turned into a beggar by the gremlins, because they tried to make me eat toadstools. I refused because they were poisonous, not because they were fattening, even though they are." The beggar-turned-princess Kimberly said. Kimberly was truly revealed by the magic of cocoa.
At that moment, it was still raining pigs and oysters, and several of the fairies who were swarming around Kimberly fell to the ground in gut wrenching pain, because the raindrops were about half their size. A passer by who was a Christian, witnessed it and began yelling, "Men down! Men down! We need a medic!" Afterwich, an ambulance arrives, blaring its horn and out jumps the resident medic, Daryl!
Daryl enthusiastically starts pouring iodine on the fairies, and because they were too small, they actually drowned. "OOPS!" He giggles.The Cocoa Princess Kim runs over to Daryl and knocks him on his head. "You lousy medic! How could you do that to the poor fairies???? I want you to go to the B.ags I.n M.edics' B.odies' O.rifices Land (B.I.M.B.O.) Land to retrieve the elixir that will revive them! Daryl gasped, "But it is fatal!"
The Cocoa Princess Kim ignores this last statement, choosing instead to whistle, which goes along a this beat: Whistle------ Whistle-- Whistle------------ Whistle--! Out of nowhere comes this rushing pile of bodies, who in a screaming mass yells "TAU POK!" then pounces upon the poor medic.From the wriggling mass of bodies, Kim closed her eyes to avoid the gory sight. She could hear Daryl's death rattle hissing among the enthusiastic screams.What happened to Des and MH? Well, they were standing there, struck on the spot and not moving. Who did it?Answer: The Gremlins. That was their battle plan for avenging the deaths of their fairy friends when Des ate them. But they didn't like MH because she agreed to let the then beggar, Kimberly to eat her house, which was made by their grandfathers, the dwarfs.
"Oh nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo! What have I done???? No one can rescue those dead fairies again!!!!" Kimberly was dismayed. Moreover she had just killed her god-brother. "But who cares about him anyway?" Kimberly the Cocoa Princess tossed her hair and went off in search for someone who could travel to B.I.M.B.O. land to retrieve the elixir to revive the fairies. "And, I need someone to make Des and MH, my benefactors move again!" Kimberly realized.Thus she walked down the street, looking around for a "sign". She had no idea how to do anything, but her sharp eyes suddenly spotted a girl with a sign- " Will do anything for dog biscuits."
She walked up to the girl, who introduced herself as........ Marianne Lee the Bouncy Porcupine. (MLTBP for short).Kimberly explained to MLTBP that she needed someone to travel to B.I.M.B.O. land to get the elixir and something will would unfreeze Des and Mh. The moment Kim mentioned B.I.M.B.O. land, MLTBP began screaming in untold horror. "But.... but.... that's where the Queen lives! I do not want to go near her, for I cannot understand her." Kimberly nooded her head, agreeing, for she knew of the Queen's disease. However, as Kimberly began walking away dejectedly, MLTBP stopped her.
"Cocoa Princess, I do know of someone who can unfreeze your friends," MLTBP said. Kimberly simply grinned at her.So the arrangements were made and the next day, a giant named Evan walked down the street to Des's elf-made house and MH's chocolate house and she began blowing on them. The moment the wind started to blow, hurricanes in the far distance began to stir up in the Fluffy Desert. But Des and MH unfroze! "Finally!" MH exclaimed, "I was beginning to think I couldn't move." However, the giant Evan had humongous feet and ended up stepping on them.Kimberly rushed up to Evan, bellowing at her,"Why did you kill my friends? Now I have no one to turn to in my pathetic life!"Evan gravely apologised, offering to do anything to compensate.
Kimberly's eyes gleamed."Anything?" She asked gleefully."Yes."So Kimberly sent Evan to B.I.M.B.O. Land to retrieve the elixir, but Evan did not know of the Queen's disease or what was awaiting her. She took several MRT trains and a couple of SBS buses, complaining the entire journey there about the lack of space in the vehicles, not realizing that she was the only one in there.So, Evan finally got to B.I.M.B.O. Land and she was about to step across the moat when she looked down and saw something that made her smile.It was the wizard who had made her big!"My dear, what are you doing here? I thought after you wanted to become big, so that when you went fishing, you just had to jump into the sea the the fish would fly out!" The wizard was infinitely curious as to her presence."When I said I wanted to become big about 20 years ago, I meant that I wanted to be an adult. Not a giant. But I've grown used to it." Evan replied sadly."It's okay," the wizard consoled her. "I'll just cast the reverse spell!" He took out his wand, threw it onto the ground, jumped up and down on it, waving his hands wildly in the air and laughing even more than a hyena.
"Hahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahaha.....!"So it was Benjamin.Anyway Evan shrunk and became like a normal girl. She thanked Benjamin the wizard and walked calmly into the castle, ignorant of the dangers that lay ahead.
Cheryl at 8:19 pm
God is perfect, we are sinful, so there is a great gap between us. We may try to feel better through work, relationships, sport or religion. But all our attempts fail, because we have ignored the real problem - turning our back on God.
Jesus took the consequences of our self-centredness by giving up his life on the cross. He proved he had broken sin's destructive power by rising from the dead. Jesus offers us freedom from guilt and a bridge back to God.
