Defending The Gospel
Part two of a topical teaching by Pastor Mac outlining a historical view of God’s grace upon humanity.
Or watch on Youtube
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@goodboy You are the defender of the Gospel of Grace on this forum. Now any time I see this topic I think of you! 
God Bless!
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You’re too funny! LOL! 
Yeah, the only reason I am saved today is because someone shared with me that salvation was a FREE GIFT!!! 
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Why Christianity? (My Testimony)
Beginning
When I was about 13 years old I had the thought, “is there really a God”? I had been raised as a Christian, but I had not really decided for myself that God really existed. Using my logic and viewing creation, I decided that there must be a creator. Was the creator in fact God? I mean the God of the bible, who is so mysterious and seems to only communicate through things like Prophets and such. Why couldn’t God be more human like? Why couldn’t he be just like a human, only on a much higher level?
I decided that there was indeed a Supreme Being. So who was this Supreme Being? Well I thought to myself, that he must be far more intelligent than any human that ever existed. In fact I thought that he would make Einstein look as if he were an idiot! Continuing with my logic, I thought that if Einstein would have a hard time explaining his theory of relativity to the average person, how hard would it be for the Supreme Being to explain things to us. I therefor concluded that the Supreme Being used the Bible stories as a way of communicating on our level. I concluded that these stories were not to be taken literally, but were given as a way for us to understand the Supreme Beings expectations, morals and values.
This all sounded very good to me, but there was one flaw in my thinking, I made it all up! What I mean is, that nothing I came up with was based on facts, just a theory that sounded very good to me. By facts I mean things that can either be proven, or collaborated by reliable sources. So even though I enjoyed my theory, I had the thought “what if this religious stuff really is true”? “What if there really is a Heaven and a Hell”? “What if there really is a God who will judge me”? “What can I tell this God as an excuse for not believing”?
I thought to myself “what do all the religions I know of have in common pertaining to God”? The answer I came up with was that “God is just”! “OK”, I thought, “now I’m getting somewhere”! I now had the perfect excuse I needed! If God was to ask me why I didn’t become a Muslim, a Jew, a Buddhist, a Catholic, a Jehovah’s Witness or whatever, I had the perfect answer. I would simply tell God that I would have been perfectly happy to become whatever religion was the right one. The problem I had was, that they ALL claimed to be the right one. Rather than choose one that went against God, I thought it better not to get involved. If God was indeed just, and as I really meant what I said, he would have to accept my excuse!
So I went along in life with my Supreme Being theory and my excuse, just in case my theory was wrong. Well when I was about 28 years old a co-worker ruined my excuse. He was sharing some things with me about how he came to be as he called it “saved”. He was telling me how he was literally lost and feared that he would die. Out of fear, he prayed to the God he did not yet believe in. He promised God that if he would be rescued or find his way out, he would then seek God out. Well he did find his way out and he did seek out God, and guess what he said he found? He said he found God, and was converted.
Well that made an interesting story, but it did not convince me of anything, besides I still had my excuse. Being curious, I asked the co-worker how someone might get “saved” without encountering a situation were they feared for their life? I of course was expecting him to say “if only you become a such and such or “if only you would do so and so” or “if only you would attend my something or other”. I wasn’t going to fall for that, how did I know his religion was the right one! Well, he said something that took me by surprise. He said that all I had to do was to pray a short prayer stating that “I was accepting Jesus Christ as my personal savoir”. I said, “That’s it”? “That’s all I have to do”? “That will take me about 30 seconds”! “What do I have to do after that”? He said, “Nothing else”.
Now as I stated before, he had ruined my excuse. If God was to ask me why I never accepted his son Jesus Christ, what could I say? I could no longer say that I didn’t want to get involved in something that went against him, because I wasn’t getting involved in anything. I couldn’t say that I didn’t have the time (30 seconds). The only way to get my excuse back was to pray the prayer and see what happened. If nothing happened, then I could tell God, I tried that. I also thought, this is a good thing no matter what happens. If I find it to be true, then that’s great! If I find it to be false, then that’s good too, because I will be ready for the next person who tries to convert me.
Well I prayed the prayer and waited for some miracle of some sort to happen. Well nothing happened, at least nothing miraculous anyway. It took God about a month, but he then convinced me in a way I cannot explain. We only think of our five senses, but this was another sense. This was even more powerful than all five of my senses put together. I know that God and Jesus exist, more so than I know and believe in what I see, hear, taste, smell and feel! How is this possible? That I cannot explain, I only know it to be so.
So that’s how I got saved. You may say “that’s good for you, but why should I choose Christianity”? Well I will give you some things that make Christianity different from ALL other religions, although I’m sure this is the short list.
- Time itself is based on Jesus Christ. What does the year 2024 AD mean?
- The Christian Bible is the most widely translated and widely distributed book ever to exist.
- Some of the predictions in the Bible have already come to pass. It is apparent that others also will.
- The Bible has several different authors from different areas and times, yet it blends perfectly.
- Although it has been attempted, the primary truths within any version of the Bible have not changed.
- More and more historical accounts in the Bible have been proven to be correct.
- Christianity is the only religion where the ONLY requirement is to accept what God has already done.
- Because acceptance is the ONLY requirement, no one has any greater access than anyone else.
Why Christianity? Because of all of the different religions Christianity stands alone! Remember when I said that I had no facts to back up my “Supreme Being” theory. I also stated that a fact is something that can either be proven, or collaborated by reliable sources. Well Christianity is just that, a fact. It can be proven if you are willing to test it. It also can be collaborate by reliable sources, it you are willing to research. Think for a moment of things that you believe as a FACT. Other than gravity that you can personally put to the test, most things you believe are based on collaborative reliable resources. I say to you that the Bible will surpass most everything you now believe as a fact, when it comes to both proof and collaborative resources.
So why then doesn’t everyone believe in the Bible and Christianity? Because our standards for believing in God, religion, or the Bible are much, much higher than our standards for believing in other things. You may say, “well that’s good”. “This is such a critical and fundamental subject that it should have a higher standard.” I won’t argue with that, but if you put ALL religions to the same factual test, I assure you that you will find that Christianity far surpasses any other religion.
I hope this inspires or motivates the reader to at least do what the Bible states “Seek and you shall find!”. God promises, that ANYONE who truly seeks him without a preconceived notion of who he is, will indeed find him. May God reveal this to your heart!
End
This is why sharing the TRUE GOSPEL OF GRACE is so, so important to me. It is what separates Christianity form all other forms of religion.
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Should be Pastor Leitu covering the Galatians book.
So beautiful, Susan. It reminds me of the song in my childhood: Jesus Loves Even Me. Now I will be singing this all day. I love the last verese. Thank you!
- I am so glad that our Father in Heav’n
Tells of His love in the Book He has giv’n;
Wonderful things in the Bible I see,
This is the dearest, that Jesus loves me.
- Refrain:
I am so glad that Jesus loves me,
Jesus loves me, Jesus loves me;
I am so glad that Jesus loves me,
Jesus loves even me.
- If I forget Him and wander away,
Still He doth love me wherever I stray;
Back to His dear loving arms would I flee,
When I remember that Jesus loves me. - Oh, if there’s only one song I can sing,
When in His beauty I see the great King,
This shall my song through eternity be,
“Oh, what a wonder that Jesus loves me!” - Jesus loves me, and I know I love Him;
Love brought Him down my poor soul to redeem;
Yes, it was love made Him die on the tree;
Oh, I am certain that Jesus loves me! - If one should ask of me, how can I tell?
Glory to Jesus, I know very well!
God’s Holy Spirit with mine doth agree,
Constantly witnessing Jesus loves me. - In this assurance I find sweetest rest,
Trusting in Jesus, I know I am blessed;
Satan, dismayed, from my soul now doth flee,
When I just tell him that Jesus loves me.
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Love this song.
And lol, this remins me of a very old hymn. Don’t remeber the whole song but just this:
Amazing Love, how can it be?
That Thou my God should die for me!
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This is such a beautiful song. Now I am singing it too. Got a song in my heart today. Thanks sis!
Amazing Love (Praise and Worship)
I’m forgiven because You were forsaken
I’m accepted, You were condemned
I’m alive and well, Your spirit is within me
Beause You died and rose again
I’m forgiven because You were forsaken
I’m accepted, You were condemned
I am alive and well, Your spirit is within me
Beause You died and rose again
Amazing love, how can it be?
That You, my King, would die for me?
Amazing love, I know its true
It’s my joy to honor You
Amazing love, how can it be?
That You, my King, would die for me?
Amazing love, I know its true
It’s my joy to honor You
In all I do, I honor You
I’m forgiven because You were forsaken
I’m accepted, You were condemned
I am alive and well, Your spirit is within me
Because You died and rose again
Amazing love, how can it be?
That You, my King, would die for me?
Amazing love, I know its true
And it’s my joy to honor You
Amazing love, how can it be?
That You, my King, would die for me?
Amazing love, I know its true
It’s my joy to honor You
In all I do, I honor You
You are my King
You are my King
Jesus, You are my King
Jesus, You are my King
Amazing love, how can it be?
That You, my King, would die for me?
Amazing love, I know its true
It’s my joy to honor You
Amazing love, how can it be?
That You, my King, would die for me?
Amazing love, I know its true
It’s my joy to honor You
In all I do, I honor You
In all I do, I honor You
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I once read that if we expose our children to the Word of God from a very early age, it’s pretty much guaranteed that they will believe in God.
I had the same thought. The analogy I use is “an adult trying to explain Geometry to a baby”.
Such creativity!
True. But only Jesus stated that all other ways (religions) were false. Real Christianity has the audacity to exclude all other religions on the authority of Jesus’ words.
This is a very nice read…
Beautiful… your words made me think of what Jesus said to Nicodemus in John 3, particularly verse 8 below.
You just know it.
For example, take just one fact – the Reliability of the New Testament in the Bible, compared to other major and well respected writings in history:
Amen.
Yes, all other religions ask you to do something, only Jesus said the work we must do is just BELIEVE:
Thank you so much for sharing your fascinating story of how you came to believe. Imagine, if we get such great joy in our hearts when we believe in Jesus, what will it be like an eternity with Him? It’s beyond amazing, no wonder we will need glorified bodies to handle all the soon coming joy of being with our LORD forever!
God Bless!
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