Why Do You Believe What You Believe?

Why Do You Believe What You Believe?

 

We’re going to take a side trip from our Sermon on the Mount series to cover something that coincides with what you’ve been learning in Sunday school. And that is “Why Do You Believe What You Believe?”

            That is a difficult question to ask yourselves. It is a question that demands complete honesty, because if you are not going to be honest with yourself, who are you going to be honest with, and what’s the point of asking if you’re going to lie? The second reason why it’s hard to answer is because we almost never think about it. We only think about it when we’re asked and we’re almost never asked. I’ve been asked one time why I believed what I believed. It was a Catholic friend of mine trying to convert me to Catholicism. I asked him the same question because I was trying to convert him to Protestantism. We had a lot of interesting discussions, but neither one of us swayed the other. Why? Because not only did we both know what we believed, we knew why we believed it. It’s not enough to know what you believe in (although that is a good place to start), you also have to know why you believe in it.

I personally believe The Ohio State University is a superior school for many reasons--awesome campus, best sports teams, great research, great cancer center. Is all of that true? Yes. Could other schools argue the same thing? Yes. So why do I think OSU is better than the rest? Because I was born in Ohio and raised a fan of everything Ohio State.

            When we get right down to it, most of us believe what we believe because our parents, or another influential person, trained us to think that way, which is why the ACLU case against the Santa Rosa School Board was so important. Schools are becoming increasingly open to other religions, homosexuality, and a whole host of alternate lifestyles, while Christianity and conservative values are becoming more and more closed. Why is that? Because they know if they can control the way you think, they can control what you believe. If they control what you believe they can control the way you behave. The ultimate goal is for a liberal, godless society tolerant of everyone. Unfortunately, that would be a disaster.

            So the question remains: Why do you believe what you believe? Why are you a Christian? Why are you Catholic or why are you protestant? If you’re protestant, why are you Baptist? Why are you here at Ferris Hill Baptist Church and not at another church? For many of you it is because your parents are Baptists or whatever denomination you consider yourself to be a part of. But what about Islam, Mormonism, or Buddhism? Are they not false religions teaching false doctrines? Are there not people born and raised into that faith? What would you say to them? Will they get to go to heaven if their excuse is they believed what their parents believed?

            Let’s create a scenario. You meet someone either at a place you hang out like a paint ball field, school cafeteria, or on a sports team. The two of you really hit it off and become best friends. You’re a Baptist and they are Mormons. What would you say to that person to sway them to your beliefs? Or would you say nothing to them, and be cool with them going to hell when they die? They may have a very superficial belief in their religion based only on the fact that that is the only religion they are familiar with and been raised on. Unfortunately, you probably have a very superficial belief in your religion, too, based only on the fact that that is the only religion you are familiar with and been raised on.

            This is why it is important to know what you believe in and why. First Peter 3:15 says, “And if someone asks about your Christian hope, always be ready to explain it.”

            I believe Jesus Christ was the very Son of God as well as being an integral part of three part Godhead. I believe He died on the cross as a perfect, once for all, sin offering forever taking away the guilt and punishment of sin from those who believe in Him. I believe Jesus was telling the truth when He said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father bur through me.” (John 14:6) In other words, a right relationship with Jesus Christ is our only hope of going to heaven. All other claims are false, born in the pit of hell to distract people from obtaining fellowship with the true God.

            The question remains: Why do I believe that? I have several reasons. 1) Fact- The historical documented evidence is overwhelming; 2) Scripture—The inerrant Word of God has withstood every test of man while other books believed to be true aren’t scrutinized nearly as hard; 3) Faith—Jesus said to Thomas, the disciple who doubted Jesus’ resurrection saying, “I won’t believe until I’ve touched His nail pierced hands.” Later on he did and believed to which Jesus said, “You believe because you see? Blessed are those who believe and yet do not see.”; 4) Revelation—Through general and specific revelations God still speaks to His creation.   

            Today we are going to look at the two types of revelation. The first is general revelation. Do you ever wonder what happens to the people who never have an opportunity to hear the gospel? I used to think about that a lot. Some people believe that they get a free pass into heaven no matter what god they served. This couldn’t be further from the truth. If this was true then I would not send another dime to a missionary for fear that he might share the gospel with someone who has never heard it before, because they might reject it, die and go to hell. According to that belief it would have been infinitely better if they had never heard the gospel at all. Secondly, we all can trace our lineage back to a man named Noah who built a large boat. Noah was a faithful believer in the one true God. We can blame our ancestors along the way for not passing on their faith more diligently as the reason we have so many false religions. Thirdly, scripture says that we are all without excuse. Romans 1:19-20, “They know the truth about God because he has made it obvious to them. ²⁰ For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God.” In other words, God placed a knowledge of Him deep inside each one of us, and even if we choose to ignore that all of creation speaks of Him.

            The philosopher Blaise Pascal said, “There is a God shaped void in each one of us.” There is a God shaped hole that can only be filled by God. It’s like that toy toddlers play with—there is a square, a round, and a triangle shaped block with corresponding holes. As hard as you push you can’t force the square block through the triangle hole. Only the triangle block will fit in there. This is where the term referring to someone as a square peg in a round hole came from—they just don’t fit. People have this God shaped hole in their heart and they try to fill it with girls, boys, pot, beer, pornography, fame, money, attention, and many other things. And when they get where they thought they would be happy, they aren’t and are left more hurting than when they begun because now they don’t know how to make themselves happy. Look at Charlie Sheen. Is he happy? He’s got fame, fortune, girls…. Yet he just got fired from his job for being strung out on cocaine all the time. Something is calling out from inside of him but he’s trying to drown it out with everything else.

            Nature is also a very big factor in letting us know there is a God. The sun rises and sets everyday at a precise time that can be calculated. The tide comes in the tide goes out. Fishermen make a living knowing precisely when that will happen. The earth sits at the exact right spot in its continual orbit around the sun. If it was any closer we’d all melt, if it was any further we’d all freeze. If the moon was any closer it would throw off the gravitational pull of the earth that would make life on earth impossible.

            Many of you will remember we watched a Louie Giglio video last year where he discussed how extremely large the galaxy was and how God made himself known through it. He showed a picture from the Hubble telescope of the center of a black hole with a cross clearly displayed in it. Then he shifted gears and went the exact opposite direction talking about laminin, which is a protein that is literally the glue that holds every cell in our body together. Guess what shape laminin was? A cross.

            But that’s general. Let’s talk about specific revelation. God still talks to people, and through those conversations reveals information about Himself. The information He reveals changes depending on the circumstances of who He’s talking to and why He’s talking to them, but the information never conflicts with scripture. If God is talking to you and is telling you to kill someone, come see me or Pastor Brian. Preferably Pastor Brian, he’s bigger than me. God has spoken to me on a couple of different occasions, usually confirming things I already knew but was hesitant on. Once He clearly guided me in a different direction than where I was planning on going.

            Let’s look really quick at two different examples of God specifically revealing Himself. Acts 9:1-6 “Meanwhile, Saul was uttering threats with every breath and was eager to kill the Lord’s followers. So he went to the high priest. ² He requested letters addressed to the synagogues in Damascus, asking for their cooperation in the arrest of any followers of the Way he found there. He wanted to bring them—both men and women—back to Jerusalem in chains.

 ³ As he was approaching Damascus on this mission, a light from heaven suddenly shone down around him. ⁴ He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul! Saul! Why are you persecuting me?”

 ⁵ “Who are you, lord?” Saul asked.

   And the voice replied, “I am Jesus, the one you are persecuting! ⁶ Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.”

            Saul was the great persecutor of the Christian church. He knew all about Jesus and His church, but God revealed to him the truth about Jesus in an instant.

            The second passage comes from Acts 10:1-6, “In Caesarea there lived a Roman army officer named Cornelius, who was a captain of the Italian Regiment. ² He was a devout, God-fearing man, as was everyone in his household. He gave generously to the poor and prayed regularly to God. ³ One afternoon about three o’clock, he had a vision in which he saw an angel of God coming toward him. “Cornelius!” the angel said.

 ⁴ Cornelius stared at him in terror. “What is it, sir?” he asked the angel.

   And the angel replied, “Your prayers and gifts to the poor have been received by God as an offering! ⁵ Now send some men to Joppa, and summon a man named Simon Peter. ⁶ He is staying with Simon, a tanner who lives near the seashore.”

            In this passage a gentile soldier, who somehow became a devout believer in the Jewish God, received a message from God that someone would be coming to his house to tell him about Jesus. When Peter came to his house, Cornelius had invited all of his friends and family and a great number of them became believers that day and were baptized.

            Jesus is still being revealed today through visions and dreams. There is a phenomenon going on in the Muslim world today where they are receiving dreams and visions of Jesus. Here’s a quote from http://www.jesusvisions.org/, “Since the first edition of “The Jesus Visions,” the phenomena of dreams and visions outpoured in the Middle East have increased—I would almost dare to say--exponentially.
 We can hardly keep pace with reports of dreams and visions of our Lord Jesus! An article published in ‘Mission Frontiers’ magazine reported the following, based on questionnaires completed by over 600 Muslims who had placed their faith in Jesus:
 Though dreams may play an insignificant role in the conversion decisions of most Westerners, over one-fourth of those surveyed stated quite emphatically that dreams and visions were key in drawing them to Christ and sustained them through difficult times.

A typical ‘Jesus dream or vision’ with innumerable variations is usually described by Muslims as a peaceful face that they somehow recognize as Jesus. Often they encounter a compassionate figure in a white robe, calling them to come to Him. Sometimes His hands and arms are extended wide, or Jesus reaches toward them in love and invitation. Many dreams are preparatory experiences to encourage Muslims with the possibility of following Jesus. Other visions or dreams are “epic” experiences of such magnitude that the person knows unquestioningly that he or she is destined to walk the lonely path of faith, even martyrdom, with Jesus.”

            So the original question, why do you believe what you believe still must be answered. Do you think Paul after his conversion experience ever doubted that God was for real? Or how about Cornelius? He was  praying and an angel came and prophesied about a future event. You may not ever have an experience like these two, but God will speak to you like He spoke to me. And when He does, people will have a hard time telling you He didn’t.

            And then when we look at nature, we have to ask ourselves, why would God go to such great lengths to place a cross on a black hole, and a tiny protein and then give us the ability to find them if He didn’t want to tell us something. What He wants to say is, “I’m for real, and you can’t pretend I don’t exist anymore.”