CAN YOU DEFEND YOUR FAITH?

The sad truth is most Christians can't even defend their faith because they themselves are ignorant of God's word.

Don't let anyone capture you with empty philosophies and high-sounding nonsense that come from human thinking and from the spiritual powers of this world, rather than from Christ. -- Colossians 2:8
"My people are being destroyed for lack of knowledge..." Hosea 4:6

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Saturday, April 30, 2011

MULTICULTURALISM

“When you shoot an arrow of truth, dip its point in honey.”
– Arab proverb

Primarily when we compare Christianity with other religion the most obvious difference is other religion focus on "self-effort" to achieve a fulfilling destiny.
   Now, we will try on this blog to show what are the other BIG differences real Christianity with other major faith including against those Christian "cults".

  • Other religions do not believe that Jesus Christ is both God and man.

  • They believe that the way to salvation (whatever they understand that to mean) is in trying to   do good things and avoiding bad actions. So they see it as earned, not free.

  • ‘God’, as they understand him, is distant and usually angry rather than loving. No personal relationship is offered. In some religions (including New Age) ‘god’ is seen as a sort of force within the physical universe, instead of being the creator and life-giver beyond space and time.

  • They have no firm promise of forgiveness and eternal life.

  • They have no understanding that God offers people a new and changed life by placing his own power inside them through his Spirit.


  • Read more: http://www.InternetEvangelismDay.com/religion.php#ixzz1KJRq9Qw0
    at Internet Evangelism Day
    Under Creative Commons License: Attribution


     YOU ARE WRONG, WE ARE RIGHT
       I would like to make it clear that not everything about other religions are completely wrong. Of course there are   also some true and recommendable teachings from other religions most especially those regarding how a person should behave. In concept, almost all religion value peace and harmony. We can agree with these things BUT the problem lies on "procedure".
       All religion aside from true Christianity tries to achieve salvation, harmony, reach heaven or Nirvana, and even worship via self-effort. Christianity relies all of these matter to God. Again, I am not saying that a Christian should be idle and expect everything to come down from heaven. Faith without action is dead. 
       When it comes to salvation, Jesus gave his life as ransom. We have peace and harmony in the presence of God. Jesus is the way, the truth and the life....so we don' t need to look for other ways like making conscious effort to reach heaven by giving donations to cause oriented programs. He gave the Holy Spirit to help us pray. All of these are graces, and grace lost its essence when it was achieved by self-effort. All was given to us for free.
       God want things easier for us but people are so proud of his and her own capabilities and think he can  bribe God for salvation. If these are the case, then wealthy people can reach heaven easier. But that's not what Jesus message when he was asked how to achieve an eternal life.  In Mark 10:25 Jesus said " In fact, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of God!". The verse made even the disciple shocked, "It is impossible!!!" That seems to be the common reactions. It is actually impossible, that is Jesus' point. "That is what I am trying to tell you," to paraphrase Jesus "You can not and will never do it on your own."
       God want us to be dependent on His power. He gave us the independence and free will so we can realized that we need Him. Pride is one of the seven deadly sin. From Satan's pride came rebellion.  
       Speaking of rebellion, these usually occur when a person or group of people is not satisfied with the system around them. Differences are natural and common traits of every Nation. In fact, among siblings, even if they came from the same one womb of their mother we still have differences in preferences or choice of food, fashion or even religious practices. Remember the story of Abel and Cain? They are serving the same God but the worship methods are different. 
        

    MULTICULTURALISM
       There's an interesting verse in the New Testament of your Bible that stands in direct contradiction to the multicultural idea. While "God shows no partiality" (Acts 10:34), we read in the same book that "He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their pre-appointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings" (Acts 17:26).
       It is also interesting to note that Jesus Christ, when asked, "What will be the sign of Your coming and of the end of the age?" (Matthew 24:3), warned that "nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom" (verse 7). A kingdom is a political entity. But the word "nation" here is translated from the Greek word ethnos, from which we get the words ethnic and ethnicity. In other words, Jesus was saying that immediately prior to His coming to establish God's Kingdom on this earth, there would be a time of great ethnic conflict—the inevitable result of mingling diverse people groups together.
       "...boundaries of their dwellings" hit the point. Mingling of culture are dangerous concoction and God knew these. When America open its door to immigrant many centuries ago it seems to be ideal and humanitarian. Giving opportunity to all races as a melting pot of culture. Now of course the same threat of terrorism came from that equal rights. 
       David Cameron's warning, along with the earlier warning from Angela Merkel, shows a growing concern about the inevitability of conflict in Western countries—conflict that will endanger the very unity and stability of Western nations.
       Thankfully, true harmony between peoples is possible through the One who gave His life for us all. Rather than maintaining our old ways, we need to develop Jesus Christ's ways of thinking and living.

    Ephesians 2:14-17 said this of Christ in relation to the division between Jews and gentiles: "For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation, having abolished in His flesh the enmity… so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace, and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity. And He came and preached peace to you who were afar off and to those who were near."
    When all people finally understand God's truth and humble themselves through Christ, they can at last come together as one in genuine and lasting peace and harmony.  WNP

    Read more: http://www.InternetEvangelismDay.com/religion.php#ixzz1JuUdzAOq
    at Internet Evangelism Day
    Under Creative Commons License: Attribution

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