Back in 2006 I was reading the Bible and I realized that there were so many celebrations for exciting moments in the life Israel. I decided to celebrate my own festival every year on February 1st to commemorate choosing to do what it says in the book of Romans 10:9…
| If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. |
Every year I celebrate in different ways, sometimes alone, sometimes with others. This year I’ve been taking an online class that is a mix of philosophy, religion and logic. It has been very interesting and one of my assignments was to summarize why I believe what I believe: I want to share it this year as a way to celebrate.
Step 1) I think every human has the question inside, ‘Where does everything and everyone come from?’ I heard this funny story: if you landed on a planet and saw some rocks arranged in a triangle you could make the case that they landed like that randomly. It would be questionable but you wouldn’t have to posit an intelligent designer put them like that. But if you kept walking and then came to another set of rocks arranged in a message that said, ‘Hi Angela ‘ it would be very difficult to believe that it was chance. When you look at the human DNA strand, or the complexity of the eye, or the brain, it is very difficult to believe that it is just like that by chance. That is almost like saying a bunch of letters were lying around in a warehouse and there was an explosion and now we have a dictionary. To me it takes more faith to not believe in a God. Now that is step one for me.
2) There are other things I consider (like where does the innate sense of right and wrong come from, and how do we distinguish the difference, explaining the miracle of love, and the concept of relationships) but I do come back to Jesus and I need to do something with him. With all the historical references to him right during his life time, even by authors who were not sympathetic to him, it is pretty much impossible to say he didn’t exist. But if he did, and if he wasn’t God in flesh, then what happened to his body? And why were the people who spent the most time with him, and then who ran off in fear when he was crucified, ready to suffer extreme pain and die for him (all but one died because they kept telling people Jesus was God and that he rose from the dead)? The best explanation of the evidence is that he really did rise from the dead. So that means I should probably take what he said seriously. He claimed to be God and that his death and resurrection brought new life to anyone who would receive him. So 28 years ago I remember closing my eyes as a young teenager, and saying to God, “Jesus, without you I feel purposeless and helpless, and I feel shame. I invite you to come into every area of my life. Thank you for dying for me and for giving me your resurrection life!” I knew that day I was forever changed.
Happy freedom festival to me :)
