Smoodock's Blog

I’ve heard many true accounts of folks who lost their faith, because some terrible event, perhaps the loss of a spouse or a child, destroyed their belief in God. I have even discussed testimony of one such person, a young man named Chris, who recorded his journey away from Christ on YouTube.[1] According to Jesus, such folks who construct their faith upon anything other than his sayings, base their faith on a foundation of sand, and can be easily destroyed by the storms of life. Only those who base their faith on what Jesus says, have a strong foundation, which Jesus likens to a rock. And, these conclusions are only logical.

One cannot, or at least shouldn’t try to, base one’s conclusions on what a man says or upon a worldview based upon the conclusions of a group of men. One needs to discover what the original man or worldview claims. In other words, don’t judge Christianity on what people say it is or based upon what you think God should or shouldn’t do, which is actually based upon your own conclusions about what Jesus says is true about himself and God.

So, Jesus describes those folks, who listen to what he says and embrace his teaching and prove his claims, by doing what he says to do. Jesus describes those disciples, as men who build their house or foundation of their faith on a rock (Matthew 7:24). Therefore, when the storms of life come along, they cannot be moved (Matthew 7:25). In other words, Jesus is claiming, he is telling the truth about how one may come into and enjoy the Presence of God, which he labels the Kingdom of Heaven. In other words, the Kingdom of Heaven is where God rules.

To come into God’s Presence implies embracing the basic rules defined from the very beginning, namely one would seek to be like God (Genesis 1:27), and trust him to lead men into all truth, namely showing him is really good and what is really evil (Genesis 2:17). In other words, to be in the Presence of God is to cease one’s rebellion (cp. Genesis 3:1-6), which amounts to deciding for oneself what good is and what evil is. Doing this declares one’s independence of God, but to embrace Jesus’ sayings (Matthew 5, 6 and 7) is to repent of one’s rebellion and return to the Lord.

On the other hand, those folks, who listen to what Jesus has to say, but refuse to prove his claims and believe what he tells them about God and being in his Presence, are foolish and will find they are unable to build a lasting worldview (Matthew 7:26-27). I find that Jesus’ conclusion about these things are very similar to what we call the six steps of the Scientific Method:

• Ask a question (Does God exist? How do I enter his Presence? etc.).
• Do background research (What do religions conclude?).
• Construct an hypothesis (What Jesus says seems most probable to me!).
• Test your hypothesis by doing an experiment (Test what Jesus says by actually doing the things he says to do).
• Analyze your data and draw a conclusion (How did my experiment turn out? Did I sense the Presence of God? Am I able to conclude that God exists? Is this a working worldview? etc.).
• Communicate your results (If I’ve been honest in my query, my conclusion will, therefore, be honest, so I don’t need to be afraid to tell others about the truth I’ve discovered).[2]

Many folks who become believers waver in their faith, because they don’t practice what Jesus tells them, about the fact that they’ve come into God’s Presence. They assume, what other folks tell them, is true, and, when they discover that’s not, they stumble in their faith. What needs to be done, in order to make an accurate analysis of Jesus’ claims, is to do what **HE** says about God and man. What would life be like, for example, if we were to practice a sense of need for God to tell us what truth is? What would happen, if we actually viewed his Kingdom as an “upside down” approach to life?[3] What would life be like, if I actually stopped acting like the world does and behave, as though I were one of God’s ambassadors? It is this kind of approach to Jesus’ sayings that actually proves his claims as true or false. All else is hearsay.

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[1] See my series of studies: From Christ to Atheism. Chris was a young man who lost his faith in college, and he decided to record that journey for folks like me, who may be interested. Chris has, since, updated his website and there are more videos there than when I recorded my thoughts about how I received his testimony. I haven’t, yet, listened to the newer videos, but hope to soon. Also, he may have updated the videos I originally listened to. So, I’ll have to listen to them again and decide, if my conclusions about his testimony are still valid.

[2] I don’t mean to claim faith is science, but I find it interesting that the so-called Scientific Method works in this instance, according to my understanding of faith in God.

[3] See my earlier study: The Beatitudes