Give Up Already...Jesus is Taking Over

Last night we received an email from a high school aged girl that had recently visited us on a Gateway team trip. She had experienced a class in her high school that blatantly tried to undermine her Christian faith. One could certainly sense the young student's frustration with a teacher that clearly tried to use sophomoric logic to denigrate Christianity. I (Marcel) wrote a rather lengthy apologetic response to the teacher's, frankly, strange deductive skills but also encouraged the student not to give up but take advantage of such opportunities to study reasonable answers to counter objections to Christianity. I have to be honest, I love playing the apologist. I cherish a challenge to Christianity and finding a strong defence of the faith and orthodoxy. I received a very gracious and thankful response from the student. Yet this incident had me think all the more about something. Why do people resist Christianity? We have the greatest message ever told. Jesus died on a cross taking upon himself our sin and shame, He extended His unmerited favour to us so that we can not suffer the effects of sin. To me it is a beautiful story, to others it's silly. It is like what it says in the Bible, "For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God." 1 Cor. 1:18 Others want to find their own way to God but resist the way He communicated to them. To me, this is foolishness. Where there is resistance, there is the sense of fear that soon they will be taken over. Resistance is done by the weak toward the strong out of fear to the potential of change. Religion that takes up armed resistance in the name of their god does so because the followers do not believe their god is sufficient to defend himself or the system it created. Religion that defines itself by what it is not shows, it has few original thoughts but those of a charismatic yet not overly cerebral leader. Religion that blames Christianity for displacing indigenous religions fails to recognize that unlike indigenous religion, Christianity transcends cultural boundaries. There may be some last gasp efforts on the part of some to reintroduce ancient religions such as Egyptian worship of Isis, Celtic paganism or Aztec sun worship as seen in the pictures at the top of this page, but they could never be great religions because they are locked fast into their unique culture. As much as people want to make it seem that Christianity has been the aggressor of other religions, and though there is a measure of truth in this when it comes to Catholicism, was the displacement of indigenous religion all that bad? (see Mel Gibson's movie Apocalypto) When Hernan Cortez came from Spain to what is now Mexico City, he noted the large size of the city, beautiful buildings and a market that rivaled anything in Europe. Yet as he approached the center of the city, he came across the central pyramid when he could see blood that ran down the steps and the smell of human death in the air. It was the place of human sacrifice. Tens of thousands of people (and I'm being a tad conservative about that) were sacrificed to appease a pantheon of gods. Is this what people today want to go back to? People being sacrificed for gods! To it is amazing that people are willing to resist Christianity that has God sacrificing one person and that is His own Son - God Himself? God sacrificing Himself for people! This is the opposite of very other religion which is some way shape or form demands humans to be sacrificed. This aspect of Christianity is not only preferable but stands out about the loving and redeeming nature of the God of Christianity. Hence, if our God is willing to sacrifice Himself for us, ought not we follow and worship such a God? Our God need not be defended with the armed resistance because we are people that uses the strength of His Word to expand a kingdom that transcends cultures and resistance one heart at a time. As the Bible says, "For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ..." 2 Cor. 10:3-5