Sermon Central
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A Reasoning Faith
Contributed by Ray Ellis on Mar 2, 2009 (message contributor)
Summary: Christian truth stands up to all criticisms from science, philosophy and religions. Either the Bible is the true inspired Word of God or the Bible is a book of fables and fairy tails.
A Reasoning Faith
This morning our theme is “A Reasoning Faith” – know what you believe and why you believe.
Here are some comments made by children on various teachings of the Bible.
- Adam and Eve were created from an apple tree.
- Noah’s wife was called Joan of Ark.
- Lot’s wife was a pillar of salt by day, but a ball of fire by night.
- Moses led the Hebrews to the Red Sea, where they made unleavened bread, which is bread made without any ingredients.
- The Egyptians were all drowned in the desert.
- Afterward Moses went up on Mount Cyanide to get the Ten Amendments.
- The First Commandment was when Eve told Adam to eat the apple.
- The Fifth Commandment is “Humor thy father and mother.”
- The greatest miracle in the Bible is when Joshua told his son to stand still and he obeyed him.
- Solomon, one of David’s sons, had 300 wives and 700 porcupines.
- When Mary heard that she was the mother of Jesus, she sang the Magna Carta.
- Jesus enunciated the Golden Rule, which is, “Do one to others before they do one to you.”
When we talk about a “Reasoning Faith,” we have two alternatives, God exists or God doesn’t exist.
Christian truth stands up to all criticisms from science, philosophy and religions. Either the Bible is the true inspired Word of God or the Bible is a book of fables and fairy tails.
C.S. Lewis, the author of the Chronicles of Narnia, Mere Christianity and other books was a modern day Apologist and Philosopher. Lewis grew up in the Church of Ireland but during his teen years he became a skeptic and agnostic. In his early 30’s through the influence of J.R. Toikien, author of Lord of the Rings, and others he put his faith in Jesus and became a defender of the Christian Faith.
In Mere Christianity he writes about the person of Jesus: “I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: “I’m ready to accept Jesus as great moral teacher, but I don’t accept His claim to be God.” That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic – on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg- of else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God; or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.” Page 41
I. A Faith Worth Investigating
If the Word of God is true, then it will stand up to any critical investigation. Truth is either absolute or relative.
If all things were relative then you would have to say in mathematics that 2 + 2 equals 4 most of the time. In Chemistry H20 is water most of the time. In theology God exists, some of the time and God doesn’t exist, some of the time.
I believe truth is absolute and therefore can say with confidence, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” Genesis 1:1
As a seeker after truth our goal is to see things the way God sees them.
The two disciples on the road to Emmaus is a case in point that Jesus wants us to have a reasoning faith. The two disciples of Jesus had been in Jerusalem and had expected Jesus to give leadership as their Messiah. As they were walking along the road from Jerusalem to Emmaus they explained to the stranger what they were discussing before he joined them. They described Jesus, the stranger, who had become their traveling companion: “He was a prophet, powerful in word and deed before god and all the people. The chief priests and our rulers handed him over to be sentenced to death, and they crucified him; but we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel. And what is more, it is the third day since all this took place. In addition some of our women amazed us. They went to the tomb early this morning but didn’t find his body; they came and told us that they had seen a vision of angels, who said he was alive. Then some of our companions went to the tomb and found it as the women had said, but him they did not see.” (Luke 24:19-24)
