A Cold-case Detective is Speaking

...The Gospels Make A Case For God’s Existence

I first became interested in the existence of God after reading the gospels. I read them as a curious atheist. A local pastor aroused my curiosity by providing a few choice samples of Jesus’ teaching, and I was simply curious to see if the gospels contained any additional wisdom. I was no more committed to Jesus as an ancient teacher than I might be to Buddha, Socrates or any other ancient sage.

But the gospels resonated with my experience as a detective and demonstrated many characteristics of eyewitness testimony. I was quickly engaged in a forensic statement analysis of the gospel of Mark and it wasn’t long before I was taking what the gospels said seriously. I discovered:

1. The gospels were written very early
2. The gospels were transmitted carefully
3. The gospel information was protected and preserved
4. The gospel claims about Jesus were consistent with non-Christian sources
5. The gospel accounts were testable 

If the Gospels Are True, God Exists

In the end, I came to the conclusion that the gospels were reliable eyewitness accounts that delivered accurate information about Jesus, including His crucifixion and Resurrection. But that created a problem for me. If Jesus really was who He said He was, then Jesus was God Himself. If Jesus truly did what the gospel eyewitnesses recorded, then Jesus is still God Himself. As someone who used to reject anything supernatural, I had to make a decision about mynaturalistic presuppositions.

The evidence for the reliability of the gospel eyewitness accounts caused me to reexamine the evidence for God’s existence in general. If Jesus rose from the dead, miracles are possible. If Jesus, claiming to be God, could raise himself from the grave, there was little rational reason to disbelieve any miracle attributed to God, including the miracle of creation. The gospel accounts became the foundation from which I examined the cosmological, axiological, teleological, ontological, transcendental and anthropic arguments for God’s existence. I didn’t begin generally and then move to Jesus specifically, I began with Jesus and then moved “backward” to the broader evidence for God’s existence. As someone who worked regularly with cumulative circumstantial cases (as a cold-case detective), the connectivity of all the available evidence seemed obvious as I assembled the case. Any one of these pieces of evidence was sufficient to make the case for God’s existence, but when considered cumulatively, the weight of the evidence was overwhelming.

Jesus Is A Critical Piece of Evidence

Even though the life of Christ was a critical part of my personal investigation, I still find myself arguing for God’s existence, at least initially, as though I wasn’t a Christian at all! When sharing what I believe with skeptical friends and family members, I have to make a conscious effort to remember that Jesus’ life alone demonstrates the existence of God. If the gospels are true, none of us need any additional proof. Jesus is sufficient evidence that God exists.

(For the whole article, please click the link below)

     Jesus Is Evidence That God Exists | Cold Case Christianity

http://coldcasechristianity.com/ 

Rational people won't buy that!

Dear SS:

Just as you said in previous email, 

"Rational people won't buy that!",
 (you mean you are not able to be against your own rationality to do something irrationally.)

even more so, God wouldn't and couldn't compromise His holiness and righteousness to count sins as no sin, to just forgive our sins. God is Love so He couldn't stop loving us( this is from our human perspectives), that is why Jesus has to die for us in order to save us from eternal dooms and condemnations. Jesus indeed has died in place of us.

As for Hitler, I think you have admitted before that we humans all have our dark sides, though you don't want to call them sins.

what if we had Hitler's absolute powers and charisma, his multitudes of followers...etc., who knows if we could have been tempted and corrupted to do the very selfish acts like him, when all our dark sides are allowed to play out without any restraints. That is when our inner hell is all out!!

What do you think? Don't we all have a little Hitler, a little mean person hidden in us? If so, then, we don't need to complain that God gives the notorious sinners chance to repent and be forgiven. Agree? It is actually you and I and all the humankind who had nailed Jesus on the cross. It was all human sins piled on Him. We do have our shares of guilt even the crucifixion happened about 2000 yrs ago. Realizing this point will help us understand why Jesus had died for us.

I hope you wake up to this truth!

May God open your eyes and mind!

Why can't God just forgive our sins?

Dear SS( Sincere Seeker):

You said in #2 below, Some sins are so severe that even God should not forgive. The sinner has to pay the price. Think about this, if Hitler repented, should he be cleansed for his sins?

Basically, I think most people would agree with your above statement too.( me too, deep down inside me I like to echo with you the same disgust if someone like Hitler repent and get forgiven because we all have a built in sense of justice and fairness, right? After all, we are all made in the image of God. And our Creator God Himself is Righteousness and Justice) 

However, after we justify this kind of thinking and agreement, then come back to your favorite Q" Why can't God just drink a cup of coffee and forgive our sins? ( Why Jesus has to die for us?) Isn't that clear now why God can't "just " forgive sins?Can the Justice Himself judge unjustly? God being totally righteous and just, has to condemn the sinners to death penalty.(  that is the fact of life, we are all facing it as we age.) Yet, God Himself is Love, He loves us sinners, He doesn't want us to perish forever so He Himself( Jesus, God the Son) shouldered and bore all our sins on the Cross, so whosoever accepts His offer of salvation will be saved to have eternal life living in front of this eternal God. (You see that no one “just” forgives, if the evil is serious. Forgiveness means bearing the cost instead of making the wrongdoers pay the sin debts or penalties.)

Now imagine you would just drink a cup of coffee and forgive Hitler even if he doesn't repent or not really repent at all. You think that is fair? Are you contradictory to yourself? You ask God to "just " drink a cup of coffee and forgive all the sins, Can the Cosmic "Just" Being just do that to become the most corrupted Judge?( since He has the ultimate right to write and set up the laws, the rules.) You want God to be the worst judge and worst cosmic dictator?( worse than Hitler?)

In a word, you want  the Judge of all the earth not do justice?'

I hope this shed new light on you. Now read your #1 sharing  of your thoughts again.

1. You said "Jesus died for you" was really a silly idea fabricated by his followers.(It is absolutely not a silly idea, it is not fabricated by His followers.You are surely being misled and have deep bias about truthfulness of this statement.)  You said "God created you. God defined the sins. God can forgive you if you repent honestly and sincerely, and do not repeat. He doesn't have to hurt himself a hair at all to forgive you." (Please rethink! Although God is almighty, God is not able to do things against Himself, against His very Being and attributes.)  

 2. You said "Some sins are so severe that even God should not forgive. The sinner has to pay the price. Think about this, if Hitler repented, should he be cleansed for his sins? There is no such a nice thing that you sin and someone will bear that for you."( It is a sure thing that Jesus has died for us and borne all our sins.That is why it is called good news. This is a costly Grace in Christ because it costs God's own life.( Jesus is God/man) So Christians or others shouldn't abuse this costly Grace. Can Christians stay sinning all the times and treating this costly Grace as cheap grace? Not at all! I would tremble greatly before God if I purposely keep sinning; God will deal severely with those who abuse this costly Grace and God certainly knows who is abusing it. So we don't need to worry that the Judge can't judge justly and fairly.)

Jesus is still knocking at your door, open the door of your heart and let Him in!

May God's truth shine like the Sun!