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Sunday, May 7, 2017

Why I Am a Christian

Wow, this seems like a thing I did ages ago. After months of journaling on this site (and a year of neglecting it), I realized I never introduced why I believe in God and Jesus Christ. I think it's interesting that society has created a picture of what Christians believe, but has not really touched on why Christians believe in the Gospel. I questioned the same thing, too.

I have grown up in the church my entire life. I have my Christian community where everyone understands each other: Christian language easily slips off my tongue, and I'm constantly encouraged and pointed back to the Word of God. We have a mutual understanding that God is good, Jesus is our Lord and Savior, and that we are to proclaim His Name to all the earth. We have coffee dates asking each other how our walks are with the Lord, we encourage each other with Bible verses, we cry and laugh about how God is challenging us and molding us in mysterious ways. I post Instagram photos with a slightly faded filter of some grand view on some tall mountain, and I write about God's faithfulness in every season. Because He is faithful and good and just and merciful and loving, and I felt that those things were true. It was easy for me to maintain and proclaim my faith in this small group of people that love me, accept me, and care for me. Never did I want to share what I believed because it was so much easier keeping it to myself. There is no shame, there is no condemnation, there are no arguments if everyone agrees with you. And all I wanted was to be accepted. All I wanted was for people to love me, but was I loving them the way they deserved? Was I loving God the way He deserved? Believing in God became a culture that I became so attached to, and that's when I started to question why I believed in God in the first place.

I realized that there needed to be a truth. One truth that is right in this world. I know that many people have their own versions of truth, but I never believed that all those truths could be the truth simultaneously. That type of thinking has never occurred to me as a plausible conclusion. Whether it's creation or evolution, there can only be one. Whether it's reincarnation or the resurrection, both cannot coexist, but I didn't want to refuse other possibilities simply because I was stuck on my own. Now, how did I come to my conclusion? There are many reasons why I came to the conclusion I did (aka many late nights watching debates and reading articles and attending conferences) because finding purpose is really important to me. I could not and cannot believe that I have zero purpose. So here I am explaining why I believe what I believe. I hope you don't see this explanation of my views as a way of pushing my convictions onto you. I recognize that I alone have no power to do so. My only hope is that my measly, inadequate explanation would simply, God willing, spark conversation and/or inform others about why I, and other Christians, decided to accept this as our truth.

Before I get into details, here is the Gospel. The focus of the Christian faith. Our proclamation. I believe that God created the world we live in, and that He created man and woman to be perfect. Everything from our physical features to our souls God created, and He created us in His image (perfect). Satan came into the Garden of Eden and tempted Eve, and she fell into sin along with Adam. While God told Adam and Eve what was best for them, He also gave them a choice because God did not and does not want slaves. He did not and does not want robots who simply obey Him because that is their only choice. No, God gave them a choice and they chose to fall into their temptation. Therefore, we were separated from our perfect God as a result of this choice. It wasn't God who chose to separate Himself from us. It's us. I believe in the Trinity: God the Father, Jesus the Son, and the Holy Spirit. God, in His mercy, rather than being forever separated from us, sent Jesus down to atone for our sins. The thing that gets me most is that God is capable of anything. That includes getting rid of us and starting over, but He didn't. He sent His son to die for something He didn't do. For sins He didn't commit. That's not all (but wait there's more!). Jesus Christ died on the cross and resurrected from the dead three days later. WHAT?! You heard me. He ascended into Heaven and sits at the right hand of God. I believe that my God is not dead. It's not that God hates us, and He is restricting us from all the good and fun things in life. He knows that, in the end, these things that we continuously seek are meaningless. They do not give us worth or value. Being a child of GOD does.

Here are just three (out of many) reasons I believe that there is a God:

Morally, I believe that there needs to be a starting point. What is considered good and what is considered evil? What is a deed worthy of praise and what is a deed worthy of punishment? I wondered where these ideas came from, and I kept thinking that if a human decided what was good and what was bad, then why can't we? Are we not just as human as they are? Are our opinions not as important as the founders of all moral standards? If so, who are they to tell us what is wrong and what is right, what is good and what is bad? If these things are societally created, why is it that we judge cultural habits, parenting procedures, life decisions, lawbreaking acts, teaching methods, job choices, etc.? Why hasn't someone come out and said "MURDERING IS NOT WRONG!"? I believe that these ideas are not man made, but created by a higher being. Morals and standards and right and wrong are innate because God created man to acknowledge these standardized truths (thank goodness, am I right?).

The Big Bang vs. Creation. Now, I'm not a huge science person, but I do know that the Big Bang is the theory that a lot of high energy and high temperatures created a "Big Bang" and the creation of the universe began, generating the application of the current laws of physics and the arrival of the earliest molecules. These molecules evolved into the universe we know today. For me, this theory sounds like something came from essentially nothing. How did the molecule come to be when there was nothing present that could form such a molecule? Let's talk about sexual organs. Did an asexual organism split into male and female? How? I feel as though that's less effective and efficient, so why did organisms evolve that way? For me, the idea that a being, a Creator, creating the world sounds more plausible than energy and heat creating an explosion that produced living molecules that have transformed into the world we live in now. Is the Big Bang not faith in the unseen, as well? (Please let me know if I got the science wrong, and if you have answers to my questions. That'd be greatly appreciated :) ).

Evil. Now this one's tricky. It's not one that is easy to look over because the presence of human suffering is abundant in our world today, and, oftentimes, I'm confused why God would allow innocent people to suffer in such horrible ways. Whether that's the crisis in Syria, the totalitarian government in North Korea, or cancer, I know that people question how I could believe in a God who allows these things to happen to His people. First, I believe that without evil, there cannot be true goodness. What is the meaning of good without evil? How can we see the magnificence and glory of God if we are blinded by comfort and safety? God did not create suffering, but He does allow suffering to take place. Maybe it's to push us back to the cross, maybe it's to make Him known in other ways. You know why? Eternal suffering in Hell is far worse than our sufferings on this earth. God recognizes this and uses suffering to point us to Him. And if I believe in God, I can't just believe the God who makes me #blessed with stuff. I also have to accept the fact that God is just and the fact that Hell exists. Now I know what you're thinking. Sarah, you've never endured these things, and you wouldn't know what suffering is because you've never truly suffered. How can you speak of suffering so nonchalantly? You'd be absolutely right. I haven't suffered, and I don't want to suffer, and I wish others didn't suffer. I'm ineloquent and inadequate, but, because I have accepted the Gospel I know and proclaim that this life is not mine. This isn't my life to control and waste away. God gave me this life for some reason, and, if I do suffer, I hope I recognize and remember that my purpose is not in my circumstances and not in my lavish life, but in glorifying God and making His name known. WHY? Because He could've gotten rid of me when I committed numerous sins, but He hasn't and He isn't going to.

Again, I do not say these things from an aggressive place. These questions are not directed to attack people with differing views. I simply ask them because these are the questions I have, and they are the questions that led me to the conclusion I am at now. Because I want to see why people believe or disbelieve what they do, I would like others to see what I believe and, more importantly, why I believe it. I hope that people will read this with grace because I do not have all the facts, I am not all knowing, and there is no way I wrote this perfectly. At the end of the day, I just hope that people care enough to seek the truth. If I had the truth locked away in a box, would I be loving my neighbor?


-S.Park

Some resources I found helpful:
Cold Case Christianity by J. Warner Wallace
Rosaria Butterfield and Russell Moore http://www.russellmoore.com/2016/11/25/signposts-conversation-rosaria-butterfield/
I Don't Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist by Frank Turek
"Unbelievable" podcast with Justin Brierley