Good
morning everyone! My name is Hamish Anderson or An Tian En. The existence of
God to me has always been a fact that has been firmly imprinted in my mind and
something that I have always taken for granted. I remember the first time hearing
about God and Jesus wasn't at church but, ironically, at a public primary
school. They had Bible classes every Wednesday morning and I would hear about
all kinds of stories about God and Jesus. At that time I don’t think I
questioned whether or not I believed what I was being taught in Bible class.
They were stories that I accepted as a child just like how Jesus says in
Matthew 18:3 that we should become like little children and humble ourselves. I
treated them as morality stories about how we should always do good things and
never do bad things.
The
challenge to my faith came when I first started studying science, or what often
passes for science, during intermediate and in the first couple years of high
school. When I started reading science books I was perplexed as to why God was
never mentioned even once. I didn't stop believing in God but I did start to
question in my mind certain stories in the Bible particularly in the Book of
Genesis such as the Creation Story and Noah’s Ark. As a logical thinking type
of person I had to reconcile my analytical mind with what I thought at the time
were scientifically impossible events. I
had this perception, which I suspect a lot of people have, that Christianity was
incompatible with reason. Faith and science are complete opposites of each
other. Or so I thought.
Until
I started going to Auckland Christian Mandarin Church I didn't really go to
church on a regular basis on Sundays but relied on the Bible classes at
Henderson Primary and (later then, at Rangeview Intermediate, on the Bible
assemblies they had every second Wednesday morning) for my spiritual
nourishment. I vaguely remember that when my brothers and I were very young we
would sometimes go to the same church our cousins used to go to but I think this
was mainly for the fun childcare aspect rather than serious theology. We also
used to spend Sunday mornings at Chinese School in Mangere until my dad’s shift
work made that logistically inconvenient. For a few years after that, even
though I would waste my Sunday mornings watching What Now?, I still generally considered
myself a Christian at least nominally and culturally. In other words, New
Zealand is a Christian country (or it’s supposed to be) so being a good
Christian boy wasn't something I thought about much but was just the normal
thing to do. I didn't really have a proper Bible except this Children’s Bible in
365 Stories that I got at primary school that was supposed to be signed by
Jonah Lomu but was actually signed by another former All Black (Eroni Clarke). This was really
useful in helping me understand God’s Word but I didn't get a proper Bible
until I got this really little one that was on a keychain. Yes it was really
hard to read but it was still a real Bible! So, around this time I still took my Christian
faith for granted and did all the Christian stuff that you’re supposed to do such
as praying before dinner but I started to read a bit deeper and be more curious
about God’s Word. The weird thing was that, even though I called myself a
Christian, I didn't go to church every Sunday so it felt as though I was missing
out on some sort of systematic fellowship with other believers. This all
changed one Saturday morning in 2002 during violin lesson when the mother of one
of the students suggested
we go to Auckland Christian Mandarin Church. I was studying Chinese at
Rutherford at the time so I thought it would be a good opportunity to not only
be more familiar with Chinese but, more importantly, enjoy the mutual company
of fellow believers and spiritually feed myself on a regular basis. Even though I'm half Chinese I wasn't as fluent in Chinese as I’d like to be so I felt like
I was slightly socially isolated. Fortunately, I listened to the English
translations of the sermons and was put in an English speaking Sunday School
class so that made it easier to understand God’s Word. I started to grow more
socially over the next few years and develop better friendships with other
people at church. But it wasn't until the Oddfellows English fellowship was
started in 2008 that I felt like I belonged.
My
understanding of Christianity started to change as I began to have my
misconceptions challenged. Before going to ACMC I always thought of myself as a
Christian but didn't really understand what that meant. Originally I always
thought that being a Christian was just being a good boy like study hard, reading
your Bible every day and being nice to everyone. But then one day I came across
a tract that I think was entitled “Why Not All Good People will Go to Heaven” and this changed
my whole outlook on what Christianity is about. I had always considered myself
a Christian in the sense of always trying to do the right thing but, until I
went to ACMC, I thought there was a conflict between my Christian faith and my
rational reasoning abilities. This was one of the many misconceptions I had
because Isaiah 1:18 says “Come, let us reason together” and 1 Peter 3:15 says
that we should always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks us the
reason for the hope we have. Furthermore, Jesus says that the first and
greatest commandment is to love the Lord your God with all your heart and with
all your soul and with all your mind. This means that being a Christian isn't about blind faith and believing in Jesus just for the sake because then that wouldn't be loving God with all your mind. I used to think that being a
Christian was about following a bunch of rules and regulations but I still didn't really think about what makes Christianity so special. As I started
reading more of the Bible and about the Bible I came to the realisation that
Christianity actually makes sense. God
created us with free will but Adam and Eve had to ruin things by eating the fruit
from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Because of their deliberate
act of disobedience sin infected the world in such a way that everyone is born
with a sinful nature. This completely shattered my simplistic thinking of
Christianity which went something like this: If you’re good you’ll go to Heaven
but if you’re bad you’ll go to Hell. I had this idea in my head that as long as
I tried to be, what I considered good boy, then I would get into Heaven and
that Hell was only for really evil people like Hitler and Osama bin Laden. The
problem was that I treated Christianity just like any other religion and focused
my attention on my good works and how I could please God with my own efforts
instead of realising that nothing I could ever do would make me good enough for
salvation. Other religions are all about doing good works to try and earn your
way into Heaven but Christianity stands above the rest because it isn't just any
old religion but a loving relationship with our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Ephesians
2:8-9 says that it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is
not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can
boast.
If you think
about it this actually makes sense because if we could be saved by our own
efforts then that means there was no point in Jesus dying on the cross and
rising from the dead to save us from our sins. People often question the
fairness of not allowing a good person into Heaven just because he or she is
not a Christian. But that begs the question as to how you define fairness and
what constitutes a good person. God created Heaven to be perfect not just good.
Therefore, there’s no room for any sin. Even if you tried your hardest not to
sin and followed every rule in the Bible you will inevitably feel pride in your
righteousness. But then pride itself is a sin so that immediately disqualifies
you from Heaven. Fortunately God provided a way for us to have a loving
relationship with Him by sending his only son, Jesus Christ, to take the sins
of the world upon the cross and conquer death on the third day. Many atheists
claim that they respect Jesus’ teachings but don’t believe in His resurrection.
Problem is they let their preconceived naturalistic worldview cloud their
objectivity. Also they deny the fact that Jesus is God. If Jesus was just a
normal person then it probably would be reasonable to not believe he rose from
the dead. But that assumes that God is bound by the rules of science instead of
allowing for the fact that God Himself created the rules of science and can
suspend them any time He likes to display His glory.
A few other
facts support the historical evidence of Christ’s resurrection such as the fact
that Mary Magdalene was the first to witness Christ after His resurrection. In
those days a woman’s testimony was not considered trustworthy so, if Mary
Magdalene was making up crazy stories, why would the apostles accept her
testimony and risk looking stupid? Another fact is that Jesus’ tomb was empty –
something that not even the Roman and Jewish authorities denied. Some atheists suggest
that maybe the disciples stole Jesus’ body. But they would've had to not only
overpower the professionally trained Roman guards but also remove the one and a
half to two tonne stone at the entrance of Jesus’ tomb. Others argue that the
Romans or Jews probably stole His body. But if that was the case why didn't they just produce Jesus’ body and crush Christianity once and for all.
I have also
heard the theory that Jesus didn't really die but was just really wounded and
somehow managed to escape from His tomb. Even if you put aside the fact that
crucifixion (a punishment so severe it was only reserved for the very worst of
the worst and never applied to Roman citizens) is physically impossible to
survive, it is hard to believe that a weakened and wounded Jesus would've been
able to overpower the Roman guards (who were so strictly disciplined that failing
their duties would've resulted in death) let alone remove a stone that weighed
almost two tonnes.
Then you have
the theory that Jesus’ disciples were just hallucinating. If there were only
one or two people who claimed to have seen Jesus alive again then maybe their
mental capacity could be called into question. But it wasn't just one or two
people who saw Jesus after his resurrection, it was over 500 people who saw Him
and not just at one time but over a period of 40 days until His ascension to
Heaven. Many of these witnesses originally didn't believe it was really Jesus
and thought it was just a ghost. For example, Doubting Thomas didn't believe he
was really seeing Jesus until he physically touched His wounds. Add this to the
fact that Jesus ate food at least four times after His resurrection and the
hallucination theory loses its credibility. Hallucinations, by definition, are
subjective to the individual person experiencing them so group hallucinations
are impossible. The resurrected Jesus didn't just appear to His disciples but
to his sceptical half-brother James and enemy Saul of Tarsus (who would later
be known as the Apostle Paul). Even if the hallucination theory is correct Jesus’
body should've still been in the tomb but the fact is that it wasn't.
At this time
Christianity was heavily oppressed by the Roman Empire and Christians were
heavily persecuted to death. These persecuted witnesses of Christ’s
resurrection chose to give up their temporary physical lives in exchange for
eternal life with God in Heaven because they couldn't deny what they believed
and saw with their very own eyes. If Jesus didn't die on the cross and rise
from the dead then these brave martyrs would've been stupid for not taking the
countless opportunities that were offered to them to deny their faith and save
their own lives.
After hearing
these facts some people claim that the Bible is old and too unreliable anyway.
But there’s only a 25 year difference between when the New Testament was
written and its earliest copy in contrast to the more than thousand year
difference between the writings of Caesar, Aristotle and Plato and their
earliest copies. So if the New Testament is unreliable then much of the rest of
ancient history is even more unreliable. As if this isn't enough evidence for the
life and resurrection of Jesus Christ there is also the fact that there are
numerous prophecies in the Old Testament that aren't just vague and generally
symbolic but, especially in Isaiah and Psalms, attest in great detail to Jesus
Christ’s life and ultimate destiny and thus God’s plan for our salvation. It
would be easy for atheists to say that this was just all coincidence but the
chances of one man fulfilling even eight of these prophecies is 1 in 10^17. That’s
1 with 17 zeroes. To put this into perspective, that’s the same chance as
covering the whole of Texas in coins 2 feet deep and getting a blindfolded guy
to pick up a randomly marked coin on his first try. Also, the Bible isn't just
one book but 66 books that were written by a whole range of people over a long
period of time. So it’s not like there was a whole bunch of people who conspired
to make up a huge story. When confronted with these facts some people still
argue that it doesn’t really matter whether or not Jesus was resurrected as
long as you follow His moral teachings. But if Jesus didn’t rise from the dead
then essentially He was no more than a raving lunatic and our faith is useless
because no one is saved. All of His good moral teachings would've been
worthless. Whether or not Christianity is true depends on whether or not Jesus
Christ’s bodily resurrection actually took place (1 Corinthians 15:17). This is
what separates Christianity from other religions which are just arbitrary
belief systems that can’t be proven one way or another.
I chose to be
a Christian because it makes more sense to me than atheism or any other
religion. As I continued to study the historical evidence supporting Jesus’
resurrection it became really easy for me to love God on an intellectual basis
and accept Jesus as my personal Saviour. But I knew that I also had to accept
Him as my Lord and give Him total control of my life. For too long I had
treated God as my personal genie to whom I would only pray if I wanted
something. I always thought of myself as in control of my own life and relied
on my own efforts to get into Heaven. Circumstances (whether at home, or work
or uni) would fluctuate between good and bad. However, as I have developed
spiritually (and especially since I started participating in this course called
Experiencing God), I learned to trust my life in God’s hands and let Him be
Lord of my life because He is above all kinds of circumstances and above all
things. I know that I am not perfect and
will never be perfect enough to please God. But that doesn't matter. To
paraphrase John F Kennedy, it’s not about asking what God can do for us or even
what we can do for God but about thanking God for what He has already done through
atoning for our sins and offering the ultimate gift of eternal life via a relationship
with Jesus Christ. Accepting Jesus Christ as my Lord and Saviour is not the end
of my spiritual journey, and I can’t predict what kind of hazards will lie
ahead, but he is my GPS and I know that by letting Him take the wheel He will
steer me in the right direction. Thank you and God Bless!
©Copyright Hamish Anderson 2013
