Four Foundations of Life

http://doesgodexist.org/JanFeb01/FourFoundationsOfLife.html

Some time ago, I had the privilege of hearing a fine lesson taught by Oliver Rogers in Bloomington, Indiana. The lesson dealt with the art of successful living, and the more I studied my notes from that lesson the more it seemed to be a great lesson of Christian evidences. I would like to share some of the of the concepts of that lesson with you.

All of us--whether we are atheists, agnostics, Christians, or of some other persuasion--have a keen interest in living successful lives. No one wants to be unhappy, frustrated, depressed, angry, empty, or any number of other conditions described by similar adjectives. We all want to be satisfied, fulfilled, happy, at peace, secure, and so forth. The CA big question is, "How do we do this?" What formula will give us a good life? The answer to this question can be derived both logically and biblically. There are four obvious foundations that every human being can build which will guarantee the best possible life we can live. This is not to say that there will be no problems or calamities in our lives, but it is to say that we can have a high quality of life no matter what happens, and it is also to say that we can control our lives and consciously build foundations that lead to this high quality. Let us now look at four basic foundations which lead to a successful life, and let us examine these logically as well as pointing out the biblical basis of each of these areas.

The Foundation of Faith

For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, the just shall live by faith (Romans 1:17).

But without faith it is impossible to please Him: for he that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him (Hebrews 11:6).

It may seem somewhat redundant to point out that the Bible places an emphasis on faith. The point that every person needs to contemplate on this matter, however, is that faith is essential to having a successful life. This is admittedly a controversial statement, but it is one that lies in a basic argument for the existence of God.

The person who believes in God has a sharp, identifiable purpose in life. They also have a guide for making decisions. The person who has no faith, on the other hand, has no fixed purpose in life. The only reason to live is the physical pleasure or emotional reward that one may obtain from whatever they do. There is no guarantee that the reward or pleasure will actually be there or that it will be what is expected. There is no Building supplies assurance that the basis of making decisions is correct. There is no security offered beyond the present and no common bond between oneself and a body of people who share a common bond or security.

It is interesting to notice how easy it is for those promoting things that offer a substitute for faith to draw adherents. We have discussed the religious nature of ancient astronaut claims, alien involvement in the Bermuda Triangle, UFOs, psychic phenomena, transcendental meditation, and a myriad of other similar claims in this publication in the past. For many people, this kind of thing offers a faith substitute but one that is woefully inadequate. It is the author's contention that the instability frequently observed in individuals involved in these things is a reflection of that inadequacy. I have personally observed in myself and others that atheists are frequently angry, hostile people--even with those they love.

Faith is not an inherited characteristic. Faith is something that is consciously built. The Bible tells us that we can know there is a God "through the things He has made" (Romans 1:19-23) and makes statements like "the heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament showeth His handiwork" (Psalm 19:1). The Bible tells us we can know that God is and gives us ways of building our faith, and that is what the Does God Exist? work which produces this bulletin is all about. It is important to understand, however, that one can have the element of faith in the head and not have faith in the heart; and having it in one's head alone is not the foundation we are discussing. Nikita Krushchev, the famous Russian leader, could quote Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John from memory, according to his contemporaries. Obviously he did not have a sustaining faith, and in fact epitomizes a man who had an angry, unhappy life.

The sad part of all this is that some who claim to be Christians have as poor a foundation for life as Khrushchev did. All of us must strive to build our faith and develop a confidence that sustains our lives. Romans 1:19-23 says that we can know there is a God--that there is no excuse for unbelief. We must strive to build our faith--not just wait for God to pour faith into us against our will or without our involvement.

The Foundation of Honesty
Working Carpenter

Recompense no man evil for evil. Provide things honest in the sight of all men (Romans 12:17).

One of the least recognized contributors to having a successful life is the foundation of honesty. Even the Internal Revenue Service receives literally thousands of dollars of "guilt money" every year. This is money sent in anonymously by taxpayers to pay for cheating that they have done on their income tax forms. Every so often, I have had a student come in and confess something that they had done in my class that was dishonest to "clear their conscience."

In Acts 24:16, Paul emphasizes the necessity of always having "a conscience void of offence toward God, and toward men." There is no way that a blatantly dishonest person will ever be happy or have a secure and positive life. The correlation between dishonesty and the occurrence of emotional and mental problems is extremely high at all levels of society, but especially when a high socioeconomic level is considered.

Honesty is critical for successful living in religion also. In 2 Corinthians 4:1-2, we read:

Therefore seeing we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint not; But have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully; but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God.

There are many unhappy religious people. In a huge percentage of people, their unhappiness is rooted in dishonesty and a deceitful handling of the word of God--either by themselves or by someone else. This lack of honesty can involve holding on to a religious position when it clearly is not found in God's word. It can involve placing taboos or restrictions on someone that are not found in the Bible. It can simply be someone who has all the answers and is unwilling to recognize that it is possible to misunderstand something. And it can also be the selfish, egotistical, criminal attempt to gain money or reputation by abusing and using others. We can be the cause or the victims of such people, but either way the result is a poor life built on a poor foundation.

The solution to religious deceit is to not rely upon others for our beliefs and understandings. We cannot trust any human, but we can trust God. "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling" (Philippians 2:12). "Study to show yourselves approved unto God, a workman that needeth not be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth" (2 Timothy 2:15).

The Foundation of Moral Integrity

Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God (1 Corinthians 6:9-11).

No one feels good about his or her life when they are lacking moral integrity. I make that statement on the basis of personal experience. During my years as an atheist, regardless of how much I claimed that I was happy and fulfilled, I was empty and frustrated. The anger and hostility evident Bricklayer building a wall in the lives of a huge percentage of atheists is a testimony to this fact.

In Galatians 6:7, we are told, "Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." It has been said that we sow a bushel of wild oats and get a whole field of trouble. Some of us have a hard time learning that, but life will teach you that it is true--eventually.

The beauty of Christianity in all this is its corrective capability. In the passage in 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 quoted above, Paul states "and such were some of you." These people had at one time been deeply involved in immorality, but their lives were no longer torn by the consequences of their life style. Paul says that they had been justified by becoming Christians. Being washed in the blood of Christ did to them what a justifying typewriter does to a typewritten page. When we justify a page, every line--no matter how out-of-balance and irregular it is--becomes the same. The blood of Christ does the same for us, taking our lives and bringing them even with God's design. We no longer need to be wracked with guilt by what we have done. We are cleansed, justified, and able to start over from where we are. There is no guilt in the Christian system. Our lives can be positive, secure, harmonious, and peaceful. We also can be people of ever-increasing moral integrity and our lives will be that much better as God gives us the ability to overcome the temptations around us.

The Foundation of Truth

Sanctify them through thy truth: Thy word is truth (John 17:7).

Philosophers and "great thinkers" have tried all kinds of interesting ideas to determine what "truth" is. A person who is not sure that what they are following is true is going to be an unhappy and insecure person. Listening to philosophers debate what truth is has always been a very depressing experience to me because it is obvious that they will never agree. In fact, based upon his own mental abilities, man will never know what truth is because one simply puts one fallible man's ideas against another fallible man's ideas. House

The Bible claims to have truth. If people will examine the teachings and principles developed in the Bible, they can see even in their limited human intellect a system that is radically different from man's. Not only is the system absolute in claim and design, but it is beautifully workable. We can be confident that we have truth if what we use to guide our lives is the Bible. This confidence not only is found in the claims the Bible makes, but also in observing the success that application of biblical principles brings. In moral areas especially, we can see the wisdom of biblical teaching. As man has gone through countless attempts to change or replace the biblical standards of moral conduct, he has consistently reaped all kinds of disasters. The system works and has consistently worked in the lives of people who have been willing to apply it to their lives for nearly 2,000 years. Something that is fraudulent cannot stand that test of time.

This is not to say that everything that men teach in the name of religion or the Bible is true. In Romans 1:21-25, we read:

Because that, when they knew God, they gloried Him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things. Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonor their own bodies between themselves: Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever.

Notice that "the truth of God" can be "changed.into a lie" by men. All one has to do is to look at the myriad of different teachings found in religions (all of which claim to be Christian) and the statement of the writer of Romans is clearly seen. We cannot trust men to give us truth. Only by the study of God's Word can we be confident that we have the "truth that will set us free." People work at making the Bible hard to understand and require "expert" help to get its message which is usually a man who knows no more than anyone else. By simply reading what Jesus said and following His message, we can have the answers to life's most complex problems.

If your life is not what you want it to be, there is an answer. All four of the foundations we have discussed are things that you can do! You can build a strong working faith in God by examining the evidence for His existence. You can build a life style of honesty and credibility which will serve you in all aspects of what you do. You can develop moral integrity in all aspects of your life. You can find truth through the study of God's word. You do not acquire these things genetically nor can they be given to you by someone else. They are foundations you lay and upon which you build your life.

Rejecting Moses

http://doesgodexist.org/JulAug01/RejectingMoses.html

We live in an age of disbelief. Our culture as a whole seems to pride itself in what it does not believe. Our newspapers are almost totally committed to negativism, and journalism as a whole has taken to interpreting the news and history of our day--not reporting it. This is bad enough, but the fact that the interpretation is almost always negative makes it even worse. Our political figures may have many negative qualities, but the media's obsession with their weaknesses instead of their strengths has caused many of us to become totally apathetic toward our government at best and opposed to it at worst. The problem of our schools makes the front page in our newspapers. I can tell you as a high school teacher with 41 years in the classroom that a vast percentage of those problems are completely misrepresented by the media. I can also tell you that when a teacher has something positive about the school or students to get presented to the community through the media, it is almost impossible to get the media to reproduce it without finding some negative way to present it. I have been told by media people that the negativism is necessary because it is the only thing that sells. The tabloids at the grocery store certainly back that view. Moses holding the stone tablets

This spirit of disbelief has manifested itself in an especially destructive way in matters related to faith. It is easy to get the media to put a story of religious failure or inconsistency on the front page. The good and the great stories of people who bring solutions to our world through their faith do not make the papers at all. It has also become fashionable in religious circles to disbelieve the Bible and attack its credibility. The classic example of this is the "Jesus Seminar," and there are religious periodicals like Biblical Archaeology Review, Biblical Review, and others that devote vast numbers of pages to the denial of sections of the Bible or at least to the inspiration of sections of the Bible. This seems to be unique to Western culture. Finding a Moslem, Buddhist, Hindu, or Bahai scholar who would write whole books denying the credibility of the Koran, Vedas, etc. would be very difficult to do. Rather than pursue the many reasons for this, what we would like to do here is suggest five reasons why the Pentateuch is in fact inspired by God and given to us through Moses--a suggestion that seems to be increasingly unpopular with many writers, both religious and skeptical.

The Pentateuch itself indicates Moses was the author.Exodus 17:14 and 24:4 both indicate Moses wrote the words of Jehovah. Claims that Moses could not write are not thought through. He was educated in Egypt and we know writing was prevalent in Egypt. In Numbers 33:1-2, the "journey of the children of Israel" are indicated as having been written by Moses. Skeptics respond that records of Moses are not found in Egyptian writings so the biblical record is not verified. There are two problems with this objection. The first is that we have no way of knowing exactly when Moses lived so we really do not know where to look. The more important point is that no nation makes exhaustive records of its failures. It is very difficult for me to explain the Viet Nam period of U.S. history to my students, especially the actions that were taking place here at home. The Kent State activities at that time are incidents I find very little discussion of today, and frankly I find them hard to discuss myself. I do not think you would expect Egyptian confirmation of the biblical account, but you have to virtually deny the Pentateuch itself to deny Moses as its author.

Other Old Testament writings refer to Moses. Joshua 8:31 records "As it is written in the book of the law of Moses.." Similar statements are found in Joshua 1:7-8; 1 Kings 2:3; 2 Kings 14:6; and 21:8. The assertion that "Law of Moses" is a phrase and concept invented in the days of Jesus is not supported by the evidence.

New Testament writings support the inspirations of the Pentateuch and of Moses as its author. In John 5:46- 47, Jesus said, "If you believed Moses, you would have believed me, for Moses wrote of me. But if you do not believe the words of Moses, how will you believe my words?" Many times Jesus referred to Moses and the Transfiguration certainly underlined the relationship between Jesus and Moses. Other passages say things that refer to Moses. An example is Romans 10:5 where Paul wrote "For Moses writes that.."

A wealth of secular evidence supports the Pentateuch as having divine origin. For the past 32 years, the Does God Exist? program has been presenting evidence Silver cup, scroll and candle on the credibility of the Pentateuch. Because our primary field is science and especially the physical sciences, we have focused on the Genesis account. Our archaeology consultant, the late Dr. Harvey Porter, in this journal and in our video series has shown the archaeological support for the historical validity of the Pentateuch as well as later Old Testament and New Testament accounts. It is true that not everything stated in the Pentateuch has been proven to be correct. It is also true that many things thought to be untrue 100 years ago have turned out to be correct.

Geneses 1:1 states that there was a beginning. The very first word in the entire Bible is a statement of testable scientific fact. Mankind's negativism has tried to disprove this and just about every other statement of the Bible. In cases like the Jesus Seminar, the criteria was the critics' own feelings of whether or not that statement was so hard to believe that they personally could not accept it. To ignore a mountain of evidence because there are some statements we cannot validate is an illogical decision. I believe that America is the greatest country in the world. I have not visited every other country in the world, and there are many things about this country that I do not understand--even a few I disagree with. The fact is, however, that I have a mountain of evidence that convicts me so strongly about this land in which I live that I would give my life to defend it. It seems to me that this analogy is very close to the belief that I have in the Bible as God's Word. The Bible

The consequences of rejecting the inspiration of the Pentateuch are horrific. The issue involved here is not just Moses, the Pentateuch, or the Old Testament. The whole concept of Christianity and the biblical way of life hangs in the balance. We are told in the New Testament that the Old Testament is a "school master" to prepare for the Christian system (Galatians 3:24-25). If the Pentateuch is rejected, then all references to it must also be rejected. This is not just a question about Israelite history, but statements like John 1:1, Colossians 1:16, and even Revelation 22:13 become at least disconnected.

Not only are the connections between Christianity and all of the Old Testament lost, but there is also a question that arises as to what we are willing to accept and what we are unwilling to accept. If we reject the creation account because we are unwilling to believe anything we cannot perceive through our senses, then we have flat out said we will not accept miracles of any kind. The spiritual world is totally rejected and all of our existence is reduced to our physical existence. This is, of course, atheism in its simplest form.

The problem is that in the process of doing this, the atheist has also closed the door to most of the soft sciences like psychology and to quantum mechanics and all of its spin-offs. This limitation of our thinking and rejection of wide areas of understanding is destructive in many ways. Just as we have faith when we drive down the road that the driver coming the other way will not cross into our lane and hit us head on, we need to accept God as the author and inspirer of the Bible, understanding that "All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable. (2 Timothy 3:16).

Why I Left Atheism--Another Chapter

http://doesgodexist.org/MayJun05/WhyILeftAtheismAnotherChapter.html

A majority of the readers of this journal have probably heard, to one extent or another, the story of my personal journey from atheism to belief in Jesus Christ. If you have not, it is available on our web site (doesgodexist.org) or free from us by mail. On February 28, 2005, at 12:45 PM I held the hand of my 93-year-old mother as she quietly passed from this life. With her passing comes another chapter in my life, and in the life of this educational program which we call Does God Exist?

My parents came to disbelief in God from very different experiences. They came back to belief in very much the same way. My father's father was a Methodist preacher from the old school. My father used to talk about getting a whipping because he bounced a ball on the floor as a child, and you did not do that on Sunday. My father chaffed under that kind of religious legalism, but his father died when he was a teenager and his mother remarried a doctor who did not have such austere concepts of God or church. Ultimately my father graduated from college with a degree in philosophy and went to Columbia University in New York City where he got his Ph.D. for his work on the teachings of John Dewey. Dewey's philosophy had many atheistic concepts involved in it, and my father became an intellectual atheist from an academic approach. He did not go to any kind of church service, lived a very moral and constructive life, but was highly critical of churches in general from an intellectual standpoint.

My mother was raised in a family that was very well-off financially when she was a child. Much of her early childhood was spent in Australia where her father was the head engineer in a steel factory. She rarely, if ever, went to any kind of church. When she was about 12 or so, her mother died. The father (who was a strong businessman but knew little about raising children) sent his son to a military school and his daughter to a relative. Within a few years, he also died. My mother was well cared for by family, but her inheritance was taken from her by people who told her God wanted them to have the money her family had acquired. When she met and married my father, she had virtually no money left, and she was bitter at God for the deaths of her parents and for the loss of her fortune.

My early childhood was saturated by comments by both of my parents at the stupidity of organized religion. My father's first college teaching job was at Talladega State Teacher's College in Talladega, Alabama. It was an all-black college, and I attended an all-black elementary school. As a child, I remember crosses burning in our front yard as a child as people objected to this white professor teaching in a black school, and I remember my mother taking me to the window of our house and saying, "See, John, this is what Christians do." I had a tonsillectomy when I was eight or so, and the doctors and nurses refused to clean me up after the surgery due to my father's job. I was wheeled out to an angry mother who saw her child completely covered with blood and with a nurse who said something to the effect of, "Here, lady, you clean up your nigger-loving son." I also remember my mother and the dean of students at the college, a lady who was a light skinned Afro-American eating in a restaurant in Birmingham and getting into an argument. The lady finally ended the argument by kiddingly saying, "Betty, if you don't shut up, I will tell the waiter I'm black." She knew that both of them would be booted out of the restaurant immediately if people found out that she was black. It was one of the few times I saw my mother back down, but later she made it clear to me that it was believers in God who did these kinds of things. When civil rights violations, immorality on the part of a religious figure, or violence by religious people took place, I was told by my parents that this is what religious people do. With this kind of indoctrination, I was claiming to be an atheist by the time I was eight years old.

My life as a child was a good one. After moving to Bloomingtoon, Indiana, on Sunday mornings we went swimming at the Brown County State Park swimming pool. Everyone was in church so we had the pool to ourselves, and my parents laughed about how much more we got for our money than religious people got for the money they paid in church. I never went to any kind of a church and had no contact with anything religious.

During my teen years with normal teenage rebellion, things got more complicated. My parents were very honest and moral people, and they did their best to teach me right from wrong. However, I had no reason to obey anybody's rules as far as I was concerned, and my parents even caught me stealing from them. My parents were appalled. When I would ask them why something was wrong, the response was that "civilized people just don't do these things," but that carried very little weight with me. If there was no one to answer to for what I did, then anything I wanted to do was acceptable. With no belief in God, this was true as far as I was concerned--unless I happened to get caught, and I was sure I could avoid getting caught. I remember my mother's final words on sex education one evening. when she said, "I just want you to not have to marry someone; I want you to be able to choose who you marry." In the 1950s, if you got a girl pregnant, you married her. A single mother was virtually unknown, and society put full financial responsibility on the male. My parents desperately did not want that responsibility to come to our family.

I hit bottom in my college years after I had run away from home several times, an attempted suicide, and a stint of activism in organized atheism--all of which have been described in the Why I Left Atheism material mentioned earlier. When science forced me out of atheism and my studies of various religions led me to Christianity, my parents were incensed. Every argument that ensued would find them saying, "You were a nice person before you became a Christian," which was of course not true, but got to me because I was struggling with the Christian concepts of love, compassion, and turning the other cheek that Jesus taught.

Eventually I married the Christian girl of my dreams, with my parents opposing the marriage but realizing there was nothing they could do to stop it. When we took a child with multiple handicaps to be our son, my parents objected violently and even called and threatened the adoption agency. Our Christian beliefs that caused us to take on a situation that obviously would bring hardship to us was beyond their comprehension. We had moved 200 miles away, and contact with my parents became less and less frequent.

Eventually my father retired from Indiana University where he was a professor. They traveled for several years, and then he became ill with leukemia. All of a sudden everything changed. I was welcomed and encouraged to be a part of the family struggle. My father endured chemotherapy and I made visits and we talked about God and faith. One night after he was released from the hospital, I stayed beside him all night and put water in his mouth as he fought dehydration and the debilitating effects of the chemotherapy he had received. I asked him why he was so moral when the teachings of Dewey and others in the intellectual community deemed religion as an invalid basis for morality. After a long silence he said, "I guess it was the way I was raised." His admission that his religious teachings had a sustaining effect upon him even as an atheist adult shook both of us. I was reminded of the atheists who started a town with no churches in Liberal, Missouri. Later they abandoned it because they could not control crime and vice, and the leader said he never again wanted to live in a town with no churches (The Story of Liberal Missouri, by O. E. Harmon, Liberal News, 1925, reprinted in 1995 by Liberal Area Civic Group). My father came back to his childhood faith that God is. While he still struggled with Christianity as he continued through the last year of his life before the leukemia returned, he went with me to lectureships and to a measure of faith. He died during his second chemotherapy treatment while I was in Black Hills Bible Camp, and so I never got to discuss his final views or response to God.

My mother survived the loss of her husband surprisingly well. She was an incredibly strong person, and she moved into a university retirement home and lived there until she was 90 years old. She was active in the groups of retired people associated with the university and started being influenced by many of the older university people who had some church connections. She never went to more than two or three church services, but her attitude softened. A year or so after her 90th birthday, she started having small strokes; and before her 92nd birthday, she had a severe series that forced her into nursing care. Her worst fear was that she would end up in a nursing facility unable to manage her affairs, and that seemed to be what was happening. I was allowed back into her life and took charge of her affairs, ultimately moving her to the South Bend area where I live. She had repeated mini strokes and ultimately it became obvious she was going to have to relinquish more of her independence.

Mom on her 93rd Birthday
Mom on her 93rd Birthday

After a significant hospital stay, she was moved to a retirement facility a few miles from my home where she could have her own room, but where she could have constant care. The administrators and nurses were people who had strong Christian beliefs, and some became close friends with her. The friends back in Bloomington that kept in constant touch with her were those friends who were very religious people. One of her nieces who is a devout Christian made constant contact with her. In less than six months, Hospice became involved in mother's situation, and the nurses in their group were all strong Christian people. We were able to have her at the house to eat several times a week; and at least once a week I would take her to a local restaurant. One night she had suffered a toilet accident, and I was cleaning her up. She said something about hating the situation where her son had to wash her rear end, and I told her I was glad to do it, and that I was just glad that we had been able to get back together and have such a positive time together at this stage of her life. There was a silence, and then she said, "You know, I want to be a Christian. I can't see not believing in Jesus with what I have been through."

My mother died peacefully and quietly as I held her hand on February 28. Both of my parents came to faith in God and in Jesus as God's son at the end of their lives. Their disbelief had come from very different sources, but their return to faith came from a common evidence--it is the Christians who are there to help when there is a problem in life that is bigger than you are. It is the Christian who takes care of you when you cannot take care of yourself. When all the things that had meaning to you in life are gone, it is the realization that there is still hope and joy and laughter for those who look beyond this physical world that speaks the most eloquently of the existence of God.

I have regrets that my parents did not find and obey God in their youth and vitality. I think the productivity of their lives could have been much greater than it was. Still, they have fostered a family with great potential and strength, and the example and strength they showed to us will have an effect on the generations that come after them. Hopefully their positive traits can be enhanced by the faith of their children and ultimately much good will be done indirectly from their lives and examples. My book is not finished, but my parents taught me in special ways right to the end of their own physical existence how vital and necessary Christianity is.

Why I Left Atheism

http://doesgodexist.com/AboutClayton/PastLife.html

Of all the lessons that I present concerning the existence of God and of all the material that I try to make available to people to learn about God's existence, the present lesson, "Why I Left Atheism," is the lesson in the series that I frankly do not like to present. I guess none of us like to look back in our lives to a time when we made poor judgments and foolish mistakes--when we took rather really idiotic positions--and admit this, especially to people we are not well acquainted with. I present this lesson, however, because it is my fervent hope and prayer that perhaps by exposing my mistakes and by pointing out the things that were a part of my early life, some who might be following the same paths (to a greater or lesser extent) might not make those same mistakes. Someone once said that nobody is totally useless; if we cannot do anything else, we can at least serve as a bad example. That is sort of my situation. I am hoping that by presenting these materials and telling you something about my early life, some of you may be able to recognize the lack of wisdom and perhaps the poor judgment that is involved in rejecting God and living a life that demonstrates such a rejection.

Most of the time when I speak to religious groups or to people who believe in God, someone will ask me somewhat incredulously, "Well, were you really an atheist? Did you really not believe in God?" I want to start by asserting that the answer to that question is a very affirmative "Yes." At one time in my life, I was totally and firmly convicted that there was no such thing as God and that anybody who believed in God was silly, superstitious, ignorant, and had simply not looked at the evidence. I felt that believers in God were uneducated and were just following traditions, superstitions, and things that really made no sense to a person who was aware of what was going on around them. Of course, that kind of life and conviction led me to do and say things and to be something that was really very unpleasant. I lived a life that was immoral and which reflected a lack of belief in God. I lived in a way that was very self-centered and that satisfied my own pleasures and desires regardless of whether or not other people were hurt in the process of what I was doing. In the process of doing this, I did a lot of things that affected me through my whole life. It is because of this that I present these materials hoping that perhaps some of you will not make the mistakes and suffer the consequences that I have suffered. I cannot clearly remember all of the events that took place or the proper sequence of events because I was not taking notes. I never expected that I would be trying to recall these things, much less tell someone else about them. Still, I can recall in a general way much of what happened, and I am very sure of the concepts. The concepts are what will be most useful to you.

I guess the reason that I was an atheist is the same reason that many of you are believers in God if you are. That was because I had been indoctrinated in that particular persuasion. My background, the variables that were exposed to me as a child, led me very strongly in that direction. Just as many of you believe in God because your parents believe in God and because they instilled this belief in you, I also questioned, challenged, and rejected God because that was the kind of indoctrination that I received as a child. I can remember my mother saying to me as a child something like, "Do you really believe there is an old man, floating around in the sky, blasting things into existence here upon the earth? Do you really believe that crummy looking structure on the corner could be something beautiful called `the church?' Do you really believe that there is a hole in the ground that I am going to be thrown into and burned eternally if I do not live just the way some preacher thinks I ought to?" Of course, I could not conceive of these things as a child and did not know enough to realize they are not what the Bible teaches. Consequently, I came to believe that anybody who believed in God was just silly, superstitious, ignorant, and unlearned. You may wonder how it would be possible for a person coming out of this type of background and kind of learning situation to become a strong believer in God today, devoting his life to trying to help people to understand that there is a God in heaven and that the Bible is His literal and verbally inspired Word. It is the purpose of this booklet to try and point out at least some of the things that entered into my acceptance of God, Jesus Christ, and the Bible as God's Word.

My high school career was one in which I grew quite rapidly academically. I enjoyed science and decided that I wanted to be a scientist of some kind. I entered Indiana University majoring in the field of physical science. It was actually at this point that one of the great changes that occurred in my life took place. I enrolled in a course in astronomy at the feet of one of the great astronomers of our day. In that particular course, we were studying the problem of origins--the creation of matter from nothing. As we discussed this particular subject, we went into all those theories that are in that particular material. We talked about the big-bang theory, the quasistatal theory, the continuous generation theory, the planetessimal theory, etc.

When we got to the conclusion of that discussion, I asked the professor which of the particular theories was the one that is most acceptable and that satisfactorily explains the creation of matter from nothing. He leaned over the desk and looked me straight in the eye and said, "Young man, you need to learn to ask intelligent questions." That rather upset me. I did not appreciate that and I said, "Well, what do you mean?" He said, "This is not a question that a scientist tries to answer. This is a question for the philosopher or theologian, but this is not something that falls into the realm of science." In today's discussions of black holes and parallel universes, things have not changed. The basic question of the creation of matter/energy from absolutely nothing is not an area that can be scientifically explored. I was very disturbed by that answer. I had always felt that science could ultimately answer all the questions that man had--that there was nothing that science could not eventually take care of as far as what man might challenge and want to know about. Yet this learned man, an expert in his field, said that this was an area that the scientist should not even try to answer--that it was totally beyond the capacity of science to explain and explore.

Not too long after that, I enrolled in a course in biology at the feet of one of the great primitive life scientists in the country. As we discussed the initial beginning of life upon the earth in that class, we talked about the synthesis of various primitive chemical materials such as deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA). As we discussed this, I once again asked a question related to the one that I had asked previously. I asked this professor what the process was by which the original life--the original living cells upon the earth--came into existence. How did the structure or generation of DNA occur? Once again, this man said, "Young man, that is not a question that falls within the realm of science." In today's world we understand more about biochemical processes, but we cannot answer how in the environment of the primitive earth these processes came into operation. I guess what was happening to me was the same thing that Lord Kelvin, a very famous British scientist, described in his writings when he made the statement, "If you study science deep enough and long enough it will force you to believe in God." That is what happened to me. I began to realize that science had its limitations--that science, in fact, strongly pointed to other explanations than natural ones to certain questions.

It was about this time when another thing happened in my life and that was that a woman entered it. A lot of things begin with women (some things end with them, too). In this particular case, this young lady was by all means the most bull-headed, stubborn, cast-iron willed individual I had ever met in all my life. I can make those statements because some six years later I married her. This was the first girl I ever met that I felt I could respect. Sometimes you will hear preachers, who know absolutely nothing about what they are talking about from the role of experience, make statements such as, "If you hold on to your virtues and maintain your moral standards, a man will respect you more." Let me tell you, as one who has lived on the other side of the fence and has thought as one who is alienated from how God thinks, that statement is true. I will guarantee you that I never thought seriously about marrying anyone until I met this girl whom I could respect--who really stood for something. Not only did she stand for something morally, she believed in God and read her Bible. Though she could not answer all my questions, she kept going back to the Bible. I also learned quickly not to let her know what I was really like morally. I knew if she really knew that, she would have nothing to do with me. I did not seem to be able to break her faith as I had been able to do with other people and the thing that happened was that as a result of her stubbornness and refusal to reject the Bible, she forced me to read the Bible.

I read the Bible through from cover to cover four times during my sophomore year in college for the explicit purpose of finding scientific contradictions in it. By that, I mean statements in the Bible that were false that I could throw back at her to show her how ridiculous it was to believe in God. I had even decided to write a book called All the Stupidity of the Bible. Something amazing happened as I did this. As I considered and thought about these things, I found that I could not find a contradiction--to find some kind of scientific inaccuracy in the Bible. I just simply was not able to do it. I gave up writing the book because of lack of material! It is amazing to me that as I talk to people, I find many who claim to be Christians and who perhaps claim to have been Christians for many years who have not read the Bible through cover to cover once. I find it hard to believe that they believe in God very much if they do not even want to know what He has to say.

As I read the Bible through again and again, I began to realize that not all of the things I had been told about God and religion were what the Bible said. They may have been what organized religion said or what some men taught, but not what the Bible itself said. For example, the Bible did not say that God was an old man floating around in the sky, blasting things into existence here upon the earth. The Bible said, "God is a spirit:..." (John 4:24) and that God is not flesh and blood. Jesus made the statement, "...for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven" (Matthew 16:17). There are many people today who do not understand this. A Russian astronaut once made the statement, "See, I told you there was no God; I didn't see him when I was in orbit." The question might be, "What was he looking for?" I began to recognize that God was not an old man in the sky. I had an anthropology professor who made the statement in all dead seriousness, "We all know what God is; He is an old man with a long white beard and big flowing robes." I am sure that this was his concept of "God." I began to recognize that this was not the biblical concept of God.

I began to recognize that the Christian life was not an altruistic life. I had been told by several people as a child that if you ever become a Christian, you cannot ever be happy, you cannot ever own anything, and you have to walk around with a long sad face and your chin dragging on the ground. Yet when I read the Bible, I read statements like, "So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself. For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it,..." (Ephesians 5:28-29). I read about the Ethiopian eunuch who went on his way rejoicing because he had found Jesus Christ and the happiness that went with that acceptance of Jesus in his life. I have had many problems come into my life, but all I have to do is to look back at how miserable life was without Christ and I can realize that life, as it is now with Jesus, is beautiful in comparison.

I began to recognize that the Church was not a building. I can remember that when we lived in Alabama, there was a meeting place of some religious group just down the street from us. My mother used to point to that as we drove or walked by and say, "Look at that. How could anybody believe in God when the Church looks like that." I realized that the Bible did not teach that the Church is such a structure. 1 Corinthians 3:16 makes the statement, "Know ye not that ye are the temple of God...." As an atheist, I recognized that you could meet on the moon, in a submarine, out in the desert, or any place else and still be the Church. The Church was not a building. What a tragedy it is that so many today have invested enormous amounts of money in edifices and buildings, while other human beings have gone hungry nearby.

I began to recognize that hypocrisy was not confined to religion. I had the idea that every hypocrite in the world sat in a pew on Sunday morning, and thus that everybody who was not sitting in a pew was not a hypocrite. I remember the lesson I learned on this. There was a young man who would sit elbow to elbow with me arguing against the religionist from time-to-time. He was in the hospital once with a very serious ailment. I went up to visit him and as I opened the hospital door, I saw him down on his knees praying to God. I stood at the door of that hospital room screaming at him, "You hypocrite--you dirty hypocrite!" until I was escorted out of the hospital. It slowly began to dawn on me that hypocrisy is a function of humanity, not religion. You deal with hypocrites at the grocery store, at the filling station, on the job, at school, and at the golf course (maybe more there than anywhere else). You do not quit buying groceries because the grocer says one thing and does another. You do not quit your job because your employer tells you to do something that he himself would not touch with a ten-foot pole. You do not deprive yourself or your child of a good education because a teacher teaches one thing and lives something else. You do not quit playing golf because your buddy takes a stroke in the rough and does not count it when he thinks you did not see it. Sure there is hypo-crisy in the Church, because there are human beings in the Church, and as long as you deal with human beings, you are going to deal with hypocrisy. Do you want to get away from hypocrisy? Dig a 20-foot hole in your back yard, jump in, let someone cover you with dirt, and even then you are going to be sitting down there in the bottom of that hole with one hypocrite. There is not a one of us breathing air that is as consistent as we ought to be, but the person who says, "I'm not going to be a Christian! I'm not going to serve God! I'm not going to get involved in the work of the Church because there are hypocrites in the Church," is just logically inconsistent! We do not use that kind of thinking anywhere else in our lives. How can we do it in our relationship to God? There were many, many misconceptions that I had to get rid of to understand truly what the Bible really teaches.

Another thing that I think needs to be mentioned here as we discuss some of the things that led me to believe in God were things that had to do with my happiness. I remember that as a young person, I had what would be an ideal home by worldly standards. My parents were marvelous people; there was no divorce, unfaithfulness, or neglect in my family. We did things as a family. We enjoyed each other, yet I ran away from home. I was rebellious and antagonistic. As I look back at God's Word today, I can see why these things happened. In Colossians 3:20, for example, the Bible says, "Children, obey your parents in all things: for this is well-pleasing unto the Lord." Obedience was not a characteristic of John Clayton as a young man. Living in Bloomington, Indiana, Indianapolis was known as the party town, and if I wanted to go to Indianapolis, I went. When my mother said she did not want me to go, I disconnected the speedometer and went. I did anything and everything I wanted to do. After all, there was no God. All my parents were doing was restricting my fun and enjoyment in life; why should I obey them? I lived a life that was totally antagonistic to everything that my parents stood for. It is amazing to me today that some parents, who do not believe in God and demonstrate this lack of belief to their children by what they say or the way they live, wonder why their children will not obey them. Why should they? They have removed the only source of authority that they have, and no child is going to obey a parent who has destroyed that source of authority. I am convinced that much of our law and order problems center around this very question.

Years ago I was talking to a young man in Michigan who had been a participant in some of the riots at the University of Michigan. He made the statement to me that he had done these things and I asked him why he had not obeyed the law. He said, "What law?" and I said, "The law of the land--the law that God has instituted." He looked at me and laughed and said, "Man, I don't believe in God." I do not believe we can have law and order when we remove the source of the authority to that law and order. Certainly, my rebelliousness and failure to obey my parents brought a great deal of unpleasantness and misery not only into my life, but into theirs as well. The very next verse, Colossians 3:21, contains another statement that I think had a great deal to do with my unhappiness and rebelliousness as a child. The statement is made, "Fathers, provoke not your children to anger, lest they be discouraged." My parents had a tradition when I was a young man--a tradition they called the cocktail hour. I have never seen my parents drunk, but they would drink a few martinis and my mother would ask me questions that ordinarily she would not have asked. I remember, for instance, she would sometimes ask, "What did you do with the girl you took out last night?" That was the last thing I was going to tell my mother, so I learned to look her right straight in the eye and lie. I could lie to her or anybody else without batting an eyelash. I conditioned myself to do things that were wrong. I conditioned myself to steal. I remember the first time that I stole something. It was a box of raisins from the IGA store. I felt so badly that I took it back and apologized. Sometime later, I stole a comic book from a drug store; I took it back, but I did not apologize. Six months later, I was stealing almost anything I could get my hands on, not because I needed it, but because it was fun--it was a challenge. I even went so far as to be caught stealing money from my parents. That brings me to the next point, which is certainly another thing that had to do with my happiness.

When I read passages in the Bible like Psalm 53, for instance, I sometimes feel like God is describing John Clayton some years ago. Psalm 53:1-3 says:

The fool hath said in his heart, "There is no God." Corrupt are they, and have done abominable iniquity: there is none that doeth good. God looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, that did seek God. Every one of them is gone back: they are altogether become filthy; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.

Another statement, made by Solomon in Ecclesiastes 1:2-3, 14, says:

Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity. What profit hath a man of all his labour which he taketh under the sun?...I have seen all the works that are done under the sun; and, behold, all is vanity and vexation of spirit.

I have tried almost everything you can imagine to find pleasure and happiness. I will not try to tell you that I did not find pleasure using my own system of following my own desires, but I can guarantee you that I did not find happiness. I tried every conceivable thing you can think of. I tried all kinds of things--things that were immoral, that were wrong, that hurt other people, and things that I would not even want to describe. I did those things because I was trying to find pleasure and happiness and, as I say, I found pleasure sometimes. However, I never went to bed at night satisfied or happy with my life and enjoying my living. I never got up in the morning looking forward to a new day. Life was just one long chain of misery.

Judge Roy Moore of Lawton, Oklahoma, who deals with the legal problems precipitated by the presence of Fort Sill in that area, once made the statement to me, "I've never seen a young man on drugs live more than seven years without taking his life." You may not be able to understand that, but I have sat on the edge of my bed with a .22-caliber rifle between my legs, trying to have enough guts to pull the trigger. I bottomed out that low; I got that emotionally disturbed and upset with my desire and attempt to find happiness. Please listen to me and profit by what I am saying. You can try every conceivable thing that this world has to offer. You can try sex, drugs, alcohol, stealing, and all kinds of things in a desperate attempt to find happiness. I can testify from experience that you may find pleasure, but you will not find happiness. I can go back to Bloomington today and meet people who refuse to believe that I have changed my life--people that I hurt and who knew the kind of life I lived. The reason that I think many things happen with young people today is because they try to find happiness living their own way. It simply does not work. Have you ever wondered why it is that when a person gets clean from drugs, gets rid of the problem of alcohol, or conquers some of the problems like the ones I had, that the person always seems to get involved in some religious cause, halfway house, or something like that? Why is that? I can tell you from my own experience that we have learned that the only place you find happiness is in using God's system--in following God's way. Perhaps people that have lived without God appreciate so much more than people that have grown up in religious structures--what you have in the Church. You do not find happiness living your own system, but only in living God's way and in being a part of God's system.

As perhaps you are beginning to realize as we get into this discussion more thoroughly, there were a variety of things that led me to believe in God. One other thing that I think ought to be mentioned is the fact that I entered a period of military service about this time. For the first time in my life, I came in contact with death. I began to think about the reasonableness of death as I Iooked at it as an atheist. Perhaps a more accurate way to describe this was the way that I had to look at life because of death. As an atheist, I realized that I had to look at life with all of its problems, difficulties, and terrible things that I experienced as the best thing that I could ever look forward to. Yet I realized that as a Christian, I would be able to look at life with all of its joys, beauties, and wonderful things that we all enjoy as the absolute worst that I was ever going to have to experience. Yet from a philosophical point, I began to realize that Christianity offered a great deal in this particular area. I did not get scared into believing in God, but I think this area together with all these other things helped me to realize that there really was quite a change in my understanding of what Christianity and God are all about. I began to recognize that perhaps there were some things about the Church and what it had to offer that were important to me.

About this time in my life, I decided that other religious systems might be as good as the Bible. To check them out, I began reading the Vedas, Koran, Sayings of Buddha, writings of Bahaullah and Zoroaster and found that other religions taught many things I could not accept. There were teachings in their writings concerning what life was like after this life that were unrewarding and unrealistic and there were descriptions of God that were illogical and inconsistent. There were also many scientific inaccuracies in their works. There were many teachings about life and how to live it that were not workable. This included the role and position of women in the Koran, the Holy War concept of Mohammed, the pantheism of nearly all other systems, reincarnation, idol worship, polygamy, and a myriad of ideas which I had expected to find in the Bible, but did not. I began to realize that nothing matched the Bible's system of life. Only in the Bible could I see statements which would stand in the face of the scientific facts that I knew to be true and only the Bible offered a system of life that I felt was reasonable and consistent. I decided that if I ever came to believe in God, it would be a belief based upon the Bible.

The next question was that if I ever became a believer in God, which of all the religious organizations claiming to be Christianity would be the correct one. I recognized that I did not want to be a part of all these traditional religious bodies that taught the error that I had been taught and had believed in my early years, so I started visiting the various religious organizations in southern Indiana at that time. I visited almost every religious organization that I could get into, to try and see what they taught, to see if they followed the Bible and if they understood what the Bible had to say or if they followed men's theologies. My experience was that as I went from one to another, each of them taught something that was not in the Bible. They honored some men above other men, they taught that unreligious writings were equivalent to the Bible and they did not follow the Bible literally and verbally. I had had enough of religious confusion and error. I did not want any more of that sort of thing, so I continued looking. In a real sense, I guess you could say I am still looking--I am still trying to find that true Church. I did find the religious group that seemed to me to follow the Bible very closely. In Bloomington, there was a group of people who met on the corner of 4th and Lincoln streets. They were called the Church of Christ. These people still did not totally follow what I understood to be the biblical system. My challenge today to young people who are Christians would be to do a job of totally restoring New Testament Christianity. This group did have the doctrine of Christianity pretty well restored as I understood it. I recognized that passages like 1 Peter 3:21 ("The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us....") had to be interpreted as meaning what it said, and this group did interpret that in a way that I felt was consistent with that passage. This group did interpret Acts 2:38 ("...be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins,...") in a way that I felt was consistent and they did reject men as their source of authority.

As a matter of fact, I remember hearing one of the first lessons that I ever heard in that building preached by a man named Raymond Muncy. Mr. Muncy said, "Now, don't you ever listen to anything any preacher says," and I said amen to that. He went on and talked about how we should not rely upon man and I want to tell you here an now that you should never believe anything any preacher says. Do not ever listen to any preacher, under any circumstance, unless you can find for yourself in the Bible that what that man says is consistent with God's Word. This is, in essence, what Mr. Muncy was saying and I was very impressed by it, but that group of people did not give as they were prospered. Yes, they worshipped according to God's format, but they did not give as they were prospered. They were not involved in teaching their neighbors about Jesus Christ. There was a very small percentage who were active in the work and they certainly did not manifest the kind of love and appreciation for each other that I understood the Bible to teach. The generation before you has restored the doctrine of Christianity--I believe that. However, they have yet to restore the spirit of New Testament Christianity and that is your challenge. Restore the spirit of New Testament Christianity--the love and the concern for the souls of others that the early Church had. I recognized that the Church of Christ was the closest thing that I had seen to what the Bible taught. I determined that if I ever became a Christian, I would become a member of this group--a group that was trying to follow the Bible literally and verbally, that would not accept the teachings of men and would not try to be influenced by the traditions of the past.

I guess the real straw that broke the camel's back occurred some six months later. I was enrolled in my first geology course at Indiana University. The professor was a brilliant, well-known atheist. On the first day of class, in response to a discussion, he made a statement something like, "I'm going to show you that the Bible is a bunch of garbage," and I thought, "Now this is going to be great," because I was getting concerned. I was still saying that I was an atheist to those who knew me well. I was still rejecting God and holding on tenaciously to my lack of belief. It is hard to change a life that has gone a certain direction for years and all of a sudden make it go another direction, I was not ready for that. I thought this man was going to be able to provide me with some arguments that would finally defeat this girl that I had been dating all these years. She was a Christian--although perhaps not as strong as she might have been. I was going to show her that this religion stuff was really a lot of bunk and I was even convinced that I might even be able to show Ray Muncy that belief in God was not realistic. Mr. Muncy was a man who had great patience and knowledge, but he had not been given much of an opportunity to convince or teach me much of anything.

The professor started the class out by showing us the various methods of dating rocks and other parts of the creation. He then asserted that everyone knew that the Bible said the earth was 6,000 years old. I asked where it said that. He replied that he believed it was in Genesis the 52nd chapter. I started looking, not knowing much about the Bible, to Genesis 40, Genesis 49, Genesis 50, Exodus 1--I said, "Wait a minute; Genesis only has 50 chapters." He sputtered around a few minutes, but he never did find that passage. Of course, the Bible does not say the earth is 6,000 years old. The Bible is totally silent on the age of the earth and I realized that. This man made the statement that the Bible says that God created two cocker spaniels, two English terriers, and two German shepherds. We all had a good laugh when we figured out how big the Ark would have to be to hold the 20 million groupings of this kind. Once again, I asked where the word kind was defined in that way. It did not seem to me that the word kind meant that. We looked at it and he finally said he guessed that maybe it did not. 1 Corinthians 15:39 is the only definition of the word kind and that is a very broad definition ("All flesh is not the same flesh: but there is one kind of flesh of men, another flesh of beasts, another fishes, and another of birds."). Genesis 1 uses the same terminology and the same break-down as 1 Corinthians 15. To make a very, very long story fairly short, when I turned in my final exam the last day of class, I said to this learned professor, "Sir, you have not really shown me any contradiction between what we have studied in this course and in what the Bible has to teach." He jerked my paper away from me and said, "Well, I guess if you really study it, there is no contradiction." I was shocked! I was appalled! Here was a man who had a Ph.D. and was a leading atheist, yet he could not answer the silly questions from an ignorant college junior who was on his side. I remember that February day very clearly. I walked back to my room in the dormitory in a state of shock. I could not believe what had happened. I got to my room about 11:00 and sat on my bed thinking what a stupid, ignorant fool I had been. I had rejected God; I had been dishonest. I had actually been stupid in my response to the evidence available to me. I did not like people who refuse to look at the evidence and draw intelligent conclusions. I did not like people who could not break free of their parents' thinking and do their own thinking. I had always accused the religionists of doing this, yet I recognized that I had been guilty of the same thing. I had refused to be honest--to look at the evidence. I had refused to make comparative choices based upon what was available to me. I was miserable.

Supper time came and I was sitting there. My roommate came in and said, "Are you ready to eat?" I said, "No, I'm not hungry." He said, "Are you sick?" I said, "Yes, I'm sick of me!!! I'm sick of being selfish, I'm sick of using people, I'm sick of being dishonest, I'm sick...." I was still telling him what I was sick about as he left for supper. At the time, I did not understand what was happening, but I do now! That is what repentance is all about--to get sick of a selfish, egotistical, destructive life and turn to God's way--to turn to a life that has value, meaning, and direction. My roommate went on to eat and I just sat there determined that I had to do something. I could no longer sit back and be dishonest and continue to refuse to accept the obvious evidence that was available to me. About 6:30, I got up and started walking toward the building where the Church of Christ met on Wednesday nights. The invitation was extended at the Church of Christ that evening for anyone who wished to accept Christ and come forward. I went forward, understanding that I now believed totally and completely in God. I recognized that I needed to start a new life and be willing to tell people that I accepted the existence of God and believed that Jesus is His Son. I also realized that I was totally and completely lost in my sins and that I needed to be baptized to have forgiveness (as the Bible commanded). I started down the aisle that night and Raymond Muncy went into a mild state of shock. I remember the expression on his face. I do not think he believed that the power of God could ever reach a man as divorced as I was from anything good, decent, and godly. I was baptized into Christ that evening for the remission of my sins, as I understood the Bible to teach. To show you how far I was from God, I called this girl, I had been dating for some six years at that time. I said, "Phyllis, I've become a Christian!" She said, "I don't believe you. You quit lying to me." I had to have the preacher's wife talk to her to convince her that I had, in fact, become a Christian. There are people today who still do not believe it--that the power of God could change a man that was as divorced and alienated from God as I was--but I want to tell you that in many respects, this is just the beginning of this story. God promised His help to those who are His followers. Having a close personal relationship to God and to other followers enable us to conquer enormous problems and do things we could not possibly do on our own (see Philippians 4:13).

I had a lot to overcome. I could not talk without swearing. You could not go to the preacher's house and say pass the @$#%& potatoes. I had to learn a new way of talking, a new way of living, a new set of values, and a new morality, because I had lived in opposition to God. I asked God's help in these things and I found I was able to overcome things I had never been able to overcome before. I have a whole new set of problems--a whole new set of things that I have to work on--but the problems I have today are nothing like the problems I had in the past. If anyone had told me twenty years ago that I would be openly using my limited abilities to publicly convict disbelievers of God's reality, I would have thought they were insane. Nonetheless, God has blessed my feeble efforts in spectacular ways--totally beyond anything I could have ever done.

I want to close this lesson by asking you a very simple question--a question that you need to answer for yourself and that each person needs to answer I suppose nearly every day. Are you an atheist (not perhaps as man would define it, but as God defines it)? Are you an atheist? Oh, I realize you may not be the kind of atheist that I was. Perhaps you are not immoral or hurting people or dishonest or doing the kinds of things that I did. I am thankful that you are not, but do you realize the way Jesus views an atheist? Matthew 12:30 says, "He that is not with me is against me; and he that gathereth not with me scattereth abroad." What is He saying? He is saying that you are either for God or you are against God. You are either an atheist or a Christian; you cannot be both. I can understand how a man can be an atheist. I have been an atheist a good part of my life. As an atheist, I believed (and still believe) that my life was consistent, reasonable, and defendable.

For a few years now, I have been trying to live what I understand to be the Christian way of life. Once again, I believe my life is consistent, reasonable, and defendable with what I believe, but I will never understand (and if you understand, I wish you would explain it to me) how a man or a woman or a boy or a girl can say, "Yes, I believe in God. Yes, I understand that the Bible is God's Word," and then not do everything and anything within their power to make sure their lives conform to what that God teaches. That is not consistent, not reasonable, and not defendable, yet I am sure there are many people who know that their life is not consistent with God's way of living. Jesus said, "He that is not with me is against me; and he that gathereth not with me scattereth abroad." Are you for Christ? Are you working for Christ? Is your life radiating the kind of living that Jesus taught? Are you really a Christian or are you an atheist? There is no middle ground. It is my hope that by revealing to you the kind of person I have been and the mistakes I have made, you have realized that God is the only way. It is my prayer that you have realized that there is nothing that can be a part of your life that God cannot help you overcome and that you also realize that there is no better time than right now to begin the Christian way of living. Will you not give yourself to God and live Christ's Way? If you do not know a person or group of people in your community following the Lord, write me and I will try to help you.

By Their Fruits

http://doesgodexist.org/MarApr05/ByTheirFruits.html

By Their Fruits...

We live in an age of incredible human stupidity. It is difficult to read the newspaper or watch the news and not have some glaring example of human stupidity forced upon us. I am sure that this has always been the case, but it is worse today than in the past because there are more people available to do stupid things and because we have a media determined to make sure that we do not miss an opportunity to learn about it.
What is perplexing about the media in this matter in today's world is that when something stupid is done by a religious person it will make the front page in our newspapers and get huge amounts of time on our television sets, while other acts of human stupidity by people who are not religious will rarely make the news and if it does, it will be on the back pages where no one sees it. We know more about the pedophile problems the Catholic Church is struggling with than we do about the high incident rate of homosexual rape in the gay population, even though the incident rate of homosexual rape is extremely high. We also have had almost no press given to the fact that many cases of claimed abuse have turned out to be spurious.

In spite of all of this, there is massive evidence available to all of us today which testifies to the positive nature of the Christian system, and while every kind of abuse must be condemned and corrected no matter who is responsible for it, to continue to ignore the positive aspects of Christianity is intellectually dishonest and prevents people from making good and informed decisions about God. We would like to share some things with you that speak to the positive aspects of Christianity and to the fact that the stupidity of a handful of people who claim to be religious but who do awful things cannot be allowed to cloud the massive amount of good done by those who are trying to follow the teachings and examples given to us by Christ.

Feeding of the Hungry both Here and Abroad. We live in an area of about 500,000 people. There are several large universities in the area and a wide diversity of religions and ethnic groups. Because this is an old industrial city that has had a large loss of industry over the years beginning with the closing of the Studebaker plant in the early 1960s, there is also a great deal of unemployment and need. I taught in an inner city high school for 41 years and had close association with a large number of kids who came to school at 6:30 a.m. and stayed until 9:00 in the evening because they had no home and no way to eat. The only reason they left was because security guards drove them out as they secured the building.

Where did these kids go to get food and shelter? Was there an atheist organization that provided them with a bed and offered a meal to them? Did the Moslems, Hindus, or secular humanists offer a place for them to go? In South Bend, Indiana, there were four Roman Catholic agencies who offered food, clothes, shelter--a place to spend the night. There was a place called the Hope Rescue Mission--a homeless shelter operated by a coalition of Protestant denominations which housed a large number of individuals and families. There were a dozen Protestant churches which had programs that aggressively offered help to people in need.

May I suggest to you that while this is where I live, the same is true of where you live. Our music and drama productions will constantly talk about "The Mission," and we all know what that means. In my travels around the world, I have seen this to be true in societies which were atheistic and governments that were hostile to the Christian faith. It is easy to find fault with individuals who claim to be Christians and do stupid things, but the fact remains that Christianity in its broadest sense has always addressed the food needs of people in all cultures, and continues to this day to be the single most effective agent in meeting hunger on planet Earth.


Promotion of Education and Improvement of Living Conditions. Skeptics enjoy chastising the mission work of Christianity. The typical charge is to accuse Christians of forcing their values and culture upon primitive cultures who were functioning beautifully before they came. Almost always when this charge is leveled, some act of stupidity by a Christian is included--such as bringing syphilis to primitive cultures.

The fact is that the conditions in these cultures before the missionaries arrived were not utopian. All one has to do is to read the diaries of early explorers to see how wretched conditions were in most places they visited. Tribal wars, abuse of women, cannibalism, human sacrifice, worship of nature in barbaric ways, and wretched living conditions dominate the writings of those who first came in contact with cultures which had no connection to the Christian world. Teaching a culture not to throw humans in the caldera of a volcano to appease Pele (the volcano god) is not a negative thing.

One of the things almost always done by Christian missionaries was to establish schools. Education is the one single most effective catalyst to positive change. Early missionaries not only taught people their faith, but they also taught agriculture, animal husbandry, sewing, personal hygiene, and how to get along with theirr neighbors. For every case of abuse by a missionary, there are hundreds of stories of men and women who lived with primitive people and helped them eliminate war, pain, diseases, hunger, and abuse. To be sure, there have been people who went beyond the biblical teachings and forced their own personal opinions on people, but those cases were far less numerous than the success stories. We have allowed the media to skew our understandings about what really went on in most of the mission works that were done. Even in the United States, we have had numerous Christian groups and individuals like former President Jimmy Carter initiate things like "Habitat for Humanity" to address local problems.

It is also important to note that the great scientists of the past have been dominated by men and women whose Christian belief systems led them to their scientific investigations and careers. For the past several years in this journal, John Hudson Tiner has had a series of articles on the religious beliefs of famous people like Newton, Pascal, Maxwell, and others who boldly stated that their Christian convictions were the basis of their scientific studies. Christianity's emphasis on learning and on the orderly and intelligent design of the cosmos in which we live has led to the marvels of modern science.

Acts of Healing and Medical Help. There is no country in the world that has not had Christian mission works brought to it to relieve disease, pain, and suffering. I am amazed at the daily requests I get from church groups seeking finances to carry on medical mission works today in primitive cultures. Christian groups have purchased medical ships which go from country to country bringing a wide range of medical services. There is a group of opthamologists who bring eye care to people all over the globe. There are a dozen medical care groups which go into an area for two weeks and treat everything from lice to malnutrition to AIDS.

When you make a statement like the last paragraph, someone will point out that there are people involved in these relief programs who are getting paid for what they do. There have even been cases where only a small amount of the money given actually did anything for the people it was solicited for. That is undoubtedly true, and no one questions the capacity for stupidity in human beings of all bents and stripes. The fact is, however, that enormous good is being done, and the exploiters are a small percentage of the people doing the work. I cannot as a Christian hide behind the human stupidity and refuse to do what Christ commanded because someone may do something stupid with my money. That is between them and God, but my God commanded me to do something about human pain and illness, and much is being done by Christians that no human philosophical society or atheist group has even begun to do.

Promotion of Constructive Family Living. There is a huge battle going on in the western world today over gay marriage. Not only is this issue a political football, but it has implications for the welfare and educational systems in our culture. I am sure that one way or another, the human rights aspect of this debate will be answered. The fact remains, that no one challenges the wisdom of the system for the family that God has given us. The gay activist groups may argue that they should be included in the system, but they do not challenge the wisdom of the system or say that they have a better one.

A loving home whivh involves one man and one woman who have become "one flesh," cannot be challenged as an inferior way to raise children. The notion of woman and man being one implies partnership, roles, love, respect, identity, and stability. There are men and women who have imposed their personal needs on God's plan, but the concept of a man loving his wife as himself and a woman loving and respecting her husband to the point of reverence is unchallengeable. Children who grow up in a stable, loving, peaceful, nurturing, caring, positive, secure family have the best shot of becoming successful productive stable adults.

As Christianity spread throughout the world, it encountered polygamy, polyandry, communal living, and a variety of alternative lifestyles quite different from what the Bible teaches as ideal. In the early days, there were books written by people like Margaret Mead which seemed to show that these alternative lifestyles were very positive, but as time has progressed it has turned out that not only were these portrayals inaccurate and unscientific, but they were in many cases completely false.

What happens in polygamy where one man has many wives? Proponents argue that it gives women stability and security and in terms of property that may be true, but what about individual worth? What about the number of children produced and the strain it puts on resources? What about diseases of all kinds? I would suggest that even sexual pleasure and fulfillment is impossible in a system of this kind. What happens to children in such a system? How can favoritism not develop when wives have different statuses and there is no daily close association with one child and one father? In polyandry, where one woman has many husbands, virtually all of the problems we have cited exist except the production of too many children. In both systems there is the inevitable problem of a number of people with no husband or no wife. The Christian system is clearly superior to the alternatives, and bringing something better to people is the whole point of evangelism.

Those who argue that the nuclear family taught in the Bible is no better than the alternatives are ignorant about real sexual pleasure and fulfillment and the psychological needs of all people in the culture. Christianity began in a part of the world that embraced polygamy and where the relationships between father and child were distant at best. Jesus gave a better way, and enjoined responsibilities upon both parents that are not questioned by responsible scholars today.

Promotion of Tolerance and Mercy. Islamic extremists have given us a picture of the clear contrast between Christian fundamentalists and Islamic fundamentalists. It is not the purpose of this article to point out the errors of either group but to point out where their fundamentalist mentality takes them. No one can read the Koran and not see the lack of tolerance in some of the things Mohammed taught. Modern Moslems will point out that they do not interpret those things in that way and that violence is not a part of their belief and practice, and we applaud them for that. The fact is, however, that a Christian fundamentalist will find nothing in the teachings of Jesus that allows him to do violence to anyone. You can read Matthew 5-7 and see things like "Love your enemy.," "Do good to those who do evil to you.," "As much as it depends upon you, do good to all.," "Turn the other cheek.," and the like, and not realize that the Bible emphasizes extreme tolerance, mercy, love, and patience.

Skeptics are quick to point to the Crusades, the Ku Klux Klan, or to lesser extremes in which God is implored to aid a personal fight and say that these acts contradict the point we are making here. It is true that those who wear the name Christian have been guilty of some awful things, but we are not talking about human distortions of what the Bible says in this article. There are atheists who have done some incredibly stupid things, but to accuse all atheists of being guilty of what some brutal atheist in the past has done would be nonsense. The question is not about the stupidity of man, but what the system teaches, and Christianity clearly teaches tolerance, love, forgiveness, and mercy that is so unique many people find it hard to believe.

Even with human errors and stupidity, the Christian system has blessed the earth. Christianity is a way of life that provides man with the best of everything important. When Christ taught his disciples about how to sort out the claims of people, he gave them a simple test to be conducted. As he discussed false prophets and humans that would do and say stupid things, Christ said:

Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into fire. Thus by their fruit you will recognize them. Not everyone who says to me "Lord, Lord," will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my father who is in heaven (Matthew 7:15-21 NIV).

For more reading on this subject, we encourage you to secure a copy of Under the Influence, by Alvin Schmidt, Zondervan Publishing, ISBN 0-310-23627-1, 2001, a book reviewed in our Does God Exist? journal in March/April 2003.

Are the ideas of Jesus and Christianity borrowed from Mithra and Zoroastrianism?"

http://www.gotquestions.org/Jesus-Mithra-Christianity-Zoroastrianism.html

Question: "Are the ideas of Jesus and Christianity borrowed from Mithra and Zoroastrianism?"

Answer: Did Judaism and Christianity borrow the Messiah, the resurrection and final judgment from Zoroastrianism / Mithra? Many doctrines of the Christian faith have parallels in Zoroastrianism, i.e. virgin birth, son of God, resurrection. Some scholars say that Zarathustra (a.k.a. Zoroaster) lived around 600-500 BC. If that were the case, David, Isaiah and Jeremiah (all of whom mention the Messiah, the resurrection and the final judgment in their writings), lived and wrote before Zarathustra. Some scholars say that Zoroaster lived sometime between 1500 and 1200 BC. If that were the case, the case for Christianity borrowing from Zoroastrianism would be stronger, but the fact is we don’t know when Zarathustra lived (hence the disagreement among scholars) and so this argument is speculative at best. The Greek historian Herodotus (5th Century BC) doesn’t mention him in his treatise on the Medo-Persian religions, though Plato, who was born roughly around the time Herodotus died, does mention him in his Alcibiades (see Wikipedia’s entry on Zoroaster; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoroaster).

But establishing when Zarathustra lived is only the first step. Next we have to establish what he actually taught (as opposed to what modern Zoroastrianism claims he taught). The only source for Zarathustra’s teachings is the Avesta, and the oldest copies we have of the Avesta date from the 13th Century AD. The late date for this collection of writings lends no support whatsoever to the idea that Christians borrowed from Zoroastrianism (the oldest copies of the Jewish Scriptures which we have today date centuries before Christ and the oldest complete manuscripts of the Christian Scriptures we have date from the 4th Century AD).

This looks to me to be another case of skeptics citing a pre-Christian religion, assuming that the post-Christian form of the religion (which we know about) has remained faithful to the pre-Christian form of the religion (which we know nothing about), and speculating that the similarities between the religion and Christianity are due to Christianity borrowing from the religion in question. It’s a philosophical argument without solid evidence to back it up. Have we any good reason not to suppose that it was Zoroastrianism which borrowed from Christianity and not vice versa? We know that Zoroastrianism borrowed freely from the polytheistic faiths of the region in which it became popular. Mithra, for example, was a Persian god who found a prominent role in Zoroastrianism. Mithra’s Hindu counterpart is the god Mitra.

All philosophical arguments aside, we know that Jesus Christ was a real historical figure, that He fulfilled specific prophecies written and preserved hundreds of years before His life, that He died on a cross, and that He was reported to have risen from the dead and interacted with men and women who were willing to suffer horribly and die for this testimony.

If God Doesn't Exist, Why Are There So Few Atheists?

From: http://lastdebate.blogspot.com/2007/01/if-god-doesnt-exist-why-are-there-so.html

Many atheists regard religion as nothing more than fairytales invented to explain the unexplainable or fantasies of hope in a hopeless world; “the opium of the masses” goes the popular quote. They claim religion defies logic and rejects reason, resting on beliefs which could appeal only to the hopelessly stupid, the desperate or the manipulative. They tend not to give religion very much thought, because they assume its adherents have given it virtually no thought at all.

They ask questions like, “If God exists, how can there be so much suffering in the world?” and because they cannot provide an answer, they assume there isn’t one. Indeed, like the Sam Harris piece I linked to earlier this week, they triumphantly tout their unanswered questions with a distinctly defiant “A-ha!” tone of voice. “You Christians never thought of that, did you?” goes the subtext.

Compounding this problem is that (especially in America) there are multitudes of Christians who frankly have not given such important questions sufficient thought, and who spew forth copious nonsensical verbiage blaming natural disasters on homosexuals, for example. Primetime Christianity is not, alas, an intellectually serious or theologically coherent movement. Fundamentalist Christians, for all their protestations of belief in Biblical inerrancy, are often ignorant of what Jesus said about tragedy and suffering.

But that doesn’t mean no Christian has ever pondered tough questions and come away with faith intact. John Stott wrote, “The fact of suffering undoubtedly constitutes the single greatest challenge to the Christian faith. Its distribution and degree appear to be entirely random and therefore unfair. Sensitive spirits ask if it can possibly be reconciled with God’s justice and love.”

At the heart of the misunderstanding is anthropomorphism, the old “If I were God” conundrum. “If God is omniscient,” they want to know, “then how come (fill in the blank)?” Are you claiming omniscience? The answer (forgive my snark) is that God knows what you don’t. Just as a good parent often makes decisions that a child will reject as unfair, God acts in our lives in ways that often do not become clear until we have gained perspective with the passage of time and the accumulation of experience and wisdom. Good parents sometimes have to let their kids stumble and fall, so they learn from their errors.

That dismissive atheists like Harris have not really put much thought into their judgments on religion is readily apparent in issues like suffering. If the question is “How can God permit so much suffering,” I have a couple of questions in return.

First of all, what is suffering? If I plan a trip to the beach but it rains, I am unhappy. Would you say, though, that I am suffering? Probably not. If I am a teenager in Darfur who has just witnessed his village burned and his family massacred in the middle of the night and I am fleeing for my life naked into the desert, you would probably say I’m suffering. Fair enough. But where is the dividing line between unhappiness and suffering? In order for a loving God to exist, must we never be unhappy?

How much suffering is “so much” that God could not possibly exist? People often point to the Holocaust, in which 13 million people were exterminated. How could God let that happen? (The better question, which God would like an answer to, is how did we let that happen?) If the Nazis had only killed 12 million, might there be a God? Six million? A hundred-thousand? Ten? One? Where is this line we cross between enough suffering that God is a possibility and too much? This is a difficult question to answer, especially since we’re not even clear on where mere unhappiness ends and suffering begins.

Here’s a question for atheists to answer, one posed by St. Augustine in the 4th century: “If there is no God, why is there so much good in the world?”

The fact that even atheists like Harris claim to be able to identify a distinct difference between the way the world is and the way it ought to be means there is a universal supposition of a standard of supreme good to which we should all aspire. Is that merely a byproduct of evolution? Frankly, the desire to kill others we judge different from ourselves sounds like the more Darwinian instinct.

Why didn’t God create a world without suffering? The simple answer is, He did. But he also gifted humanity with free will, which would be meaningless without the freedom to choose to do harm. Free will is either unconstrained or it is an impossibility.

Imagine a world without suffering. Really imagine it. It would be a world devoid of any of the human traits we value the most. What is generosity without poverty? What is heroism without danger? What is altruism without imbalance? What is sacrifice without cost? What is justice without cruelty? What is acceptance without bigotry? Courage without fear? Could we define sweetness without bitterness? For that matter, how could we prize unconditional love so highly if there were no hatred?

And if we have never suffered, how would we learn compassion?

We must also consider that even grotesque evil and senseless tragedy contain within themselves the potential for good. How many of us can say we have been through difficult periods in our life but are nonetheless better for having learned from the experience? Suffering gives us insight and earns us credibility.

Let’s go back to the Holocaust. It is likely the civil rights movement of the 1960s could not have taken place without the perspective that humanity gained from the racism of Nazi Germany. We learned – well, some of us did – that when we classify people merely according to arbitrary characteristics such as ethnicity, nationality, skin color, religion, gender or sexual orientation, when we group them by random categories of our choosing, we stop seeing them as individuals, and we stop valuing them as humans. Before we know it, we’ve killed 13 million of them.

When we start to consider these factors, it becomes clear that a life without suffering is a life without meaning. And if anything suggests the absence of God, it would be a meaningless life.

Are You Ready To Ride?

http://doesgodexist.com/JanFeb07/AreYouReadytoRide.html

When I first saw the picture on the cover of this issue of our bimonthly, I laughed for several minutes--not just because of the oversized boots and all the hardware, but also because of the hobby horse behind our good guy in the white hat. A friend of ours designed the first of those spring-supported horses. Our oldest daughter used to ride it so violently that the whole frame would come completely off the ground as she moved it up and down. The horse would gradually slide across the floor as she moved it from front to back. It was a source of great fun for a long time, and always invoked stories of fantasy and journeys of imagination.

Our culture seems obsessed with fantasy rides that not only deny common sense, but which have massive amounts of evidence against what most people in the world believe. The little boy on our cover will quickly discover that he is not ready to ride into the real world and solve all of its problems. Unfortunately the adult world seems much less able to deal rationally with the evidence and much less ready to accept the realities of life. What we would like to attempt in this article is to explore some common fantasies that exist within our culture, which have implications for faith and the things that Christianity proposes as a path to real fulfillment and happiness.

Television and the media in general portray pleasure as the ultimate source of happiness for human beings. Portrayals of parties, vacations, amusement parks, foods, drinks, and sex all carry the message to our society that if you get the toys necessary to find pleasure, this will lead to happiness. From the crowd at Dairy Queen on Friday night to the strip joints in Las Vegas, pleasure is peddled as the path to happiness and what everyone wants. Those who work with people who have attempted suicides universally report that those people are not people who have been unsuccessful in obtaining the toys of pleasure. Drugs, sex, material things, and success with their peers are not lacking in most people who are suicidal. They have simply not found happiness when these things were achieved.

One of the most interesting discussions of this point is found in Ecclesiastes 1-2. Solomon was a man who achieved everything possible in terms of pleasure. He was a king, he had numerous wives, great wealth, and was revered by his peers. He looked at his life and his statement is "Vanity of vanities, all is vanity." He looks at his intellectual success and says "I gave my heart to know wisdom" and concludes "in much wisdom is much grief: and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow" (1:17-18, KJV). In chapter 2, Solomon continues by saying he gave himself to laughter and to wine. He goes on to talk about gaining material possessions and says "whatsoever my eyes desired, I kept not from them, I withheld not my heart from any joy" (verse 10). He tells us that these too brought "vanity and vexation of spirit" (verse 11) and says he hated life (verse 17).

It is pure fantasy to believe that drugs, money, sex, success, or any combination of these things will bring happiness in life. Our society becomes more and more anguished as people continue to pursue these things as keys to finding what they want in life.


I have often said that whoever invented the term "golden agers" must have been a teenager themselves. Those of us who are up in years have phrases that more accurately describe what it is like to be old and getting older--phrases like "growing old ain't for sissies." The fact is that being of retirement age brings a whole new set of problems, and that people who work their whole lives for the happiness they think they will find when they get old are badly deceived.

No matter who you are, how much money you have, or how well you have taken care of yourself throughout your younger life, you are going to have pain and frustration in old age. The process of aging wears out a person's body, and there is a constant growing list of things that hurt. Pleasures that were available when you were younger become harder to find and more difficult to achieve. This includes everything from sex to travel. In addition to all of the physical pain and problems, a person's own concept of self worth becomes an issue. When you can no longer be successful in your secular employment, and when your role in other areas outside of your work is diminished, personal struggles with purpose and value in life become an issue.

Old age is not golden. It is a fantasy to believe that if you work hard all your life, and take good care of yourself that you are going to be in paradise when you retire.


I just went through a three-month battle with a hypersensitive tooth that involved multiple fillings, a crown, and ultimately a root canal. Multiple nights with throbbing pain, constant aching, and hypersensitivity to even moderate temperature change made this tooth the focus of my thoughts. I frequently thought if I could just get this stupid tooth taken care of my life would be wonderful, and all my problems would be over. After an abscess, antibiotics, and the root canal I finally was able to go to sleep with no pain, and I could even drink cold water again. So now that my tooth problem was over, all my problems were gone--right? Wrong!!

Every one of us has gone through what I just described. The current problem is always the one thing that stands between us and happiness as far as our thinking goes. This is pure fantasy, because life does not work that way. It is true that some problems are more exhausting and traumatic than others, but believing that we will be totally happy when a certain situation is resolved is self-deception.


Turn on your TV, listen to your radio, or read any periodical that comes your way and someone will be telling you how to solve all your problems. From Dr. Phil to the herb specialist on the corner, everyone has an answer. Some of these solutions offered by every kind of person imaginable may actually be helpful. There are psychological and nutritional helps for what ails us. My wife has lived nearly sixty years with insulin-dependent diabetes, and the number of people who have sent us answers to how to cure her diabetes is astronomical. We have had special lights, herbs, diets, drinks, pills, medical procedures, massages, electrical treatments, and miracle workers offered to us. I have spent hours researching things sent our way by well-intentioned people. Some of the treatments were actually dangerous. We had one herb recommended which it turned out would have been catastrophic for my wife's failing kidneys. Some of the suggestions might have helped, but were impractical for our situation.

The bottom line is that very few people have lived with insulin-dependent diabetes for 60 years, and modern medicine and some amazing answers God has brought our way have allowed us to have a very high quality of life in spite of the chronic disease that my wife has had to contend with. We have frequently had the medical establishment make mistakes, and sometimes have had to go against the advice of doctors. No one has all the answers. It is a fantasy to suggest that one procedure, chemical, treatment, or diet will eliminate old age or the natural consequences of certain failings of our bodies.


Remember the title of this article, and the picture that triggered it? Are you ready to ride? Have you decided what is really important in life, and are you ready for the journey to where real joy and happiness can be found? As a "Golden-Ager" I have found great comfort and joy in doing what Jesus has called me to do. When the Bible calls us to a life of service to others, it is not presenting something that is a martyr complex; it is giving us a formula for how to find real happiness. Not only will we find satisfaction and contentment in this life, but we have the hope of the ultimate joy and happiness in eternity. The Bible is full of admonitions along this line. "It is more blessed to give than to receive" (Acts 20:35) is not just a cute saying or a way to extract money from people. It is a formula for finding real contentment and joy in life. Doing whatever ministry to which God has called you is a ticket to the greatest fulfillment and joy in life.

I have had people ask me, "when are you going to retire from your ministry?" The Does God Exist? program was started in 1968 and I had worked in this general area for several years before that. I have been involved in this ministry in one way or another for well over 40 years. I do not plan to retire until I can no longer do the work. Why? Because I have some complex that makes me want to take abuse? The answer is that what I do brings me great satisfaction and joy. There are many things I can no longer do or enjoy that I used to be able to do as a young man. Mountain climbing is no longer an option for me, and I cannot run anymore. I need more help than I used to while white-water rafting, and tennis is much harder for me than it used to be. None of these things ever brought me the fulfillment or the joy that my ministry has brought me, and as my wife and I have worked together our relationship has been enriched and nurtured by what we have done together to serve God.

There are a lot of fantasies out there, and we need to be aware of the fact that they are fantasies and not buy into them. Find your ministry, your way of serving others, and jump into it with prayer and with dedication. God will make good things happen, and you will find the greatest joy this life has to offer. Are you ready to ride?