"Thinking out of the box"? (1)

“Think out of the box” is a frequent heard quote in this century. People are driven to do so because they intend to break-through the bottleneck in different aspects of their lives ( business, career, relationship etc). Thinking out of the box is actually a process to search for a hidden or higher truth, hoping that the new found truth will bring them to the next level.

Is God in a Box? Can God “work out of the box”? No box can contain God in the 1^st place, for He is unlimited, omnipotence and omniscience. Only the limited being like human will be trapped in our own limited understanding & knowledge. But as God reveal us the truth, it will set us free from the box ! In John 8:31-32, it clearly shown that it is God’s will to set us free from all the wrong and incorrect conceptions toward God and life, so that we will live a life according what He intended.

“To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free”

Jesus constantly challenged His disciples & the  people’s thoughts through his teachings and the way He conducted Himself. Jesus dwelt among the sinners- Tax collectors, prostitute; he healed the sick on Sabbath; Jesus chose the lowly men to be His disciples whom he would ultimately pass on the great commission of God; He chose a church-persecutor (Saul) to be His messenger to spread the gospel! All these go against the norm practices of  religious leaders and human rationale.

Even the salvation plan of the Messiah was totally different from what the Jews expected! They were longing for the Messiah to free them from the Rome regime, but he was hung on the cross by the Roman soldiers! That is why many Jews still could not accept that Jesus is the Messiah, and they are still waiting for their Messiah to come. This was the pitfall which the Jews faced,  In Luke 2:34,  Simeon was inspired by the Holy Spirit and said to Mary,  “This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be spoken against…” Only those who draw near to God (like Simeon) will know His purpose and plan; Only those who draw near to God will be freed from the box of pitfall.

Why Jesus has to die on the cross?

If God is all-powerful, why did He took all the trouble to come into the world and die for us? Isn't it much easier to use His supernatural power to cleanse us? Perhap just a "click", all of us are saved. Why He chose a hard way?

First of all, we must understand God’s righteousness, it means that the law of God being a true expression of His nature, is as perfect as he is. God behavior will not contradict with His words and promises. As God have set a severe punishment which require the death of those who sin at the very beginning, He did not exempt himself though He have the good intention of saving man from eternal death. He paid every single cost required for His good intention.

Jesus became flesh dwelt among us, bore the cross and died for us as the atonement for sin. Its because we have a God who will never go against Himself (the law He set), an unlimited God limiting Himself within the boundary he set for man, a God with true righteousness! He would not indulgently release people from the consequences of sin. It means if He wish to save mankind, He need to follow the procedure even though He is the creator of the universe.

Even so, a majesty God does not have to do this, He can forsake us and move on. The real question here is why He chose to pay the price for man. The bible told us that “ For God so loved the world….”,it all because He love us. This had demonstrated both the complete Justice and the Greater Love of God.

Natural Theology VS Gospel

There was once Newton spent a month at his basement to make a model of solar system. It was a tedious process, from builing the skeleton, molding the planets to scaling the sizes and distance between the planets,  piece by piece and inch by inch, finally he put together the whole model!

One day, his atheist friend visited him. The friend was amazed as he saw the model, and cried out," Wow, what a beautiful piece of handicraft!! Newton, you made this?" Shrugging his shoulder, Newton answer, "Its not me."  "Then, who made this?" the friend continue asking.

"I don't know, i just heard a bing BANG came from my basement one day, and the whole model emerged just like that!" Newton answer with a clueless expression. The friend was annoyed and replied," Pls stop fooling me, how can things collide together and make up such perfectly organised model?! Its unreasonable!!!"

Newton smiled while calming his friend down and replied wisely," Dear friend, if it is unreasonable for this little model to emerge by itself, how can you believe the vast orderly universe was exist by chance? Don't you think there must be a highly intelligent creator behind all these?"

I often use this story to begin my gospel sharing, because i found its difficult to share the gospel of Christ before you can prove to the atheist friend that there is God. Like what Thomas Aquinas said, all the non-Christians would find difficulty to connect when Christian Theologian cited the Bible or the teaching of the church. "If any real impact was to be made on these persons, it would be necessary to enter some neutral arena where no special authority need be appealed to, and to settle the matter on terms accepted by all rational persons." He stressed in his book - Summa Theologica.

According to Thomas, all truth belongs to one of two realms. The lower realm is the realm of nature which may be known by reason, while the higher the realm of grace must be accepted on authority (special revelation from the bible & church).

However, there are still critiques of Natural Theology like if the proofs are inadequate, then in rejecting the proofs, the unbeliever may also reject the Christian message.

Aware of the critique of natural theology, I still stand with Thomas point of view when confronting the atheist, If we could not settle the core problem in their heart, sharing gospel to them alone will be impossible to convince them. Since they do not believe in God, undertaking reasoning approach of Natural theology to prove the existence of God would be a better way to pace and lead them to the gospel of Christ.

Having say so, I think God's supernatural intervention in the process of evangelism is crucial, let us not depend solely on men wisdom, but the spirit of God who can accomplish all thing.

Human Freedom

I was sharing gospel with a close friend of mine a year ago, and we had a little debate on the existence of God. However, after my "powerful speech", he seems to be convinced that there is God. But he asked me a question after that, "does it means i have to abandon my current lifestyle if I believe your God?"

"if it is so, then I don't think this God should exist, and he cannot exist, because i will let nothing hinder my ability to choose, to decide my destiny, to pursue my pleasure. My freedom is everthing to me!" he stressed. I only got to know recently thru Millard Erickson that human freedom is one of the basic axiom of existentialism.

One thing that sparked me here is that without having to go thru the philosophical reading to form his life- conception, my friend had already possessed such kind of philosophical thoughts inside him! What is the implication behind? I wondered. When I read Psalm 10:4,

"In his pride the wicked man does not seek him; in all his thoughts there is no room for God."

it clearly stated that the sinful nature of man will naturally arouse such kind of thoughts, its does not matter if he is a highly-educated philosopher or an ordinary person. So, is it really the philosopher's thoughts which causing the havoc to the world? Think again.

"Nothing outside a person can defile them by going into them. Rather, it is what comes out of a person that defiles them"  Mark 7:15