There is Evidence; Want To Hear? - November 11, 1994 

This will not be too hard to imagine. Imagine a disease so horrible, so destructive, that it spreads from person to person and thoroughly destroys that person. Can you imagine such a disease? Perhaps it would be like the aids epidemic which has tragically destroyed millions of people. Perhaps it would be worse.

But then someone comes up with a cure. Imagine that: take this pill and in ten minutes you're completely cured forever with no chance of getting sick again. So what does this person do? Well, he realizes that he has a pretty good deal going, so he gives it to his family and doesn't tell anyone else about it. "They don't need to know," he imagines, as he keeps this antidote to himself. "They're doing fine on their own," he thinks as he throws away his formula. As more people are destroyed.

If I have one message, it is that we are unfortunately suffering from a societal disease. I do not want to get political, but don't you see that our leaders lie to us, our role models allegedly murder their wives, our priests are molesting little boys, our fathers are beating their sons, and rock singers are blowing their brains onto their apartment floor? These are symptoms. These are a big red flag that something is wrong. This is not political, I'm asking you to please please please see that this country is hurting. And yes, students like us are in pain. Oh, this disease is real bad. And no, it does NOT have to be like this. There's a saying, "Can't we all get along?" Well, can't we?

You see, we were designed to live without this hurting. Insecurity, anger, hardships: these things were not made for us; no wonder there's so many problems when we live this way. The Word of God is very clear: we were made to live peacefully with God, but God will absolutely not accept robots. He will not force us to love him. It's our choice.

If you want to reject Christ, God's only hope for all of us, that's between you and Jesus. I'd love for you to love Jesus and I'd love to see you in Heaven, but ultimately it's your choice. I just want you to know what choice you are making. The reason I write this column every week is because there is a disease out there and the cure is Jesus. I can't be content to keep quiet when others can benefit from a relationship with God. Hey, look at it this way: if you had a great tasting piece of cake, you'd share it, right? Think of Jesus as a fantastic sponge cake with your choice of frosting.

Of course, there is always the option that God and Christianity are all a fraud. I did not grow up a Christian. I grew up in a Jewish family. I had a Bar-Mitzvah at the age of 13, and I went to Hebrew school and the whole works. So my trusting Christ is not some product of being taught it from birth. On the contrary, I trust Christ because it is an intelligent faith. I trust Christ because he rose from the dead. Yes, he actually did. And the evidence for that is not just because the Bible says so, but actually much more than that. There, I put my cards on the table and I place my bets on the resurrection.

To those who want to shut up Christianity once and for all, here's how you do it: disprove the historical resurrection of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. If you do, Christianity falls and I shut up. But if you see that Jesus lives, then he is absolutely the only hope for this mad world. We're in pain. We're in a lot of pain. Jesus heals.

I actually really appreciated the article written by Ben Locke. I do not hate him. I am not angry with him. I think he's a very talented writer and I enjoyed his comments. I want to sincerely thank him for an article well written, and well thought out. Now I'm not going to hold back that I think that perhaps there are a few points in his article that I think he took for granted and he made some heavy assumptions. I hope that he is willing to meet with me so that we can talk intelligently. I hope that he will use his writing skills in the future to alleviate the pain of so many people.

Now I am certainly no expert in any religion, not even Christianity, nor Judaism. But I am not blind to the pain, and I can not ignore it. God is so able to heal if we'd just trust him. This isn't crazy, folks. Jesus is real and he's reaching out to people every single day.

But I'm still learning, and if Ben or anyone else would like to teach me some things, then call me at 862-8427 and we'll get together. I'd love to get coffee at the Licker Store and go over what I may be missing in my thinking. And conversely, I hope you'll look at evidence for the resurrection of Jesus. I can only promise to hear you out.

The last thing I'd want to do in this world would be to trust Jesus if he's not true. But on the other hand, the last thing any of us should want to do is NOT trust him if he IS true. So there it is: is he true? That ultimately is the question that must be answered. Let's sit down and discuss. I'll be waiting for your phone call.