Foto o' the Week

Foto o' the Week
U2

Monday, August 02, 2004

Why us?

So, here is the 40 dollar question for the night--I, Luke Helm, was born and raised in a Christian home. I was brought up to believe the basic Christian message. Now, lets say another person, an islamic person, was born and raised in an Islamic home, believing the basic Islamic doctrine. We both live our lives doing whatever it is we do with the time we have to spend hear on earth, and eventually we both die on. As fate would have it, both of us were born on the same day, and died on the same day. As we stand side by side, God looks us both over, quickly reviews our lives, and passes the verdict. "Mr. Helm, you lived a good Christian life, you gave your 10% of income to the church, you came to church whenever possible, and most importantly, you believed in Jesus as your Savior. You are welcome into my love." Turning to my Islamic counterpart, "You sir, on the other hand, failed to ever seek me out. Your faith is both philosophically and historically inaccurate, and you were never willing to truly and honestly seek out the truth in this world with an open mind and heart. You will spend eternity apart from all goodness." I am troubled by this decision, and I object, "but God, isnt that a little harsh? I mean all those things you said he never did...Well, come to think of it, I never really did them either." Thinking it over, God responded, "Hmm...well, you were a little off on that theology part, and historically, well, you were way off on that part; and you never came around to seeking out truth with an honest heart. But, of course, you were born into Christianity, and that taught you to say the right things---Good enough for me. Welcome."
For the 40 dollar question- Is that just?
I highly doubt that Traders Point Christian Church, even as well as it has taught me right from wrong, has the right answers to all the questions that mankind has raised throughout our tumultous tenure on this planet. This is, of course, a poor way to arrive at a conclusion discerning truth from falsehood. I must deal with the issues themselves, rather than generalities which base judgements on assertions. However, it is an interesting to think that those of us who have been raised in a Christian environment believe that we have the corner on all truth in the universe, yet we have never taken the time to actually look at what we believe and why we believe it.
Many people are born into cultures that claim to know absolute truth. Most of these cultures think all the other cultures are wrong. We think we we born into the culture knowing truth. Why us? Love Truth enough to find Him.

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