More Than A Tale

In the book "The Story of Reality," Greg Koukl explores the idea, that all religions are stories that try to make sense of our world. And this is what I found to be true in my faith journey. Everyone, whether religious or not, believes some sort of story about our world, why we are here, and where we are going. The stories we believe are often passed down from one generation to another and influenced by other factors, such as our environment, culture, social circles, etc. 

This is the story I used to believe: God created the universe and human beings. People rebelled against God, but He raised a nation, the nation of Israel, to be the only nation He would save through "a special human being" Jesus, God's son. Jesus established a church and raised 12 disciples to continue to lead the church after his death. But after his death, resurrection, and ascension, the church turned away and so God had to send someone else to accomplish what Jesus had started. This was all prophesied thousands of years before Jesus even arrived. Just as predicted, God sent a messenger to rebuild the church Jesus founded centuries ago. This time, the final prophet or messenger to deliver God's message in these last days would come from the Far East and Jesus' church would re-emerge from the Philippines on the day the First World War broke out. Just like Noah's arc, only a handful of people will be saved, so one must be a member of this church that bears Christ's name to have the right to enter heaven. Everyone who is not part of this church will burn eternally in the lake of fire. The world is wicked and one should not listen to the world or anyone who teaches something contrary to this church. The truth of God's word is revealed in the Bible, but only selected people appointed by God can encrypt its true meaning. Therefore, not everyone in this world will understand and believe this story. For that reason, it is of utmost importance to trust and submit to the leaders of the church, as they are representing God's authority here on earth to lead the "new nation of Israel" to the "new Jerusalem". Every sacrifice will be rewarded, therefore ultimate sacrifice is required. One should live in constant fear because Jesus can come any day and that would be the end. The members will then stand before the final judge, give an account of their lives, and hope that all their sacrifices outweigh their sins to earn a spot in heaven, while the rest of humanity will suffer eternally in a literal lake of fire.  

This is the story I believed from the very beginning. It's something that was passed on to me by my parents. I didn't get to choose what story to believe. But as you can probably tell, there are some major problems with this story when held up against reality. It just does not make sense. This story reduces all of creation, the universe, and the whole cosmos to a small country. It minimizes all of humanity to just one ethnicity. It cuts off a big chunk of human history and only focuses on a period after the First World War. It paints a picture of heaven that reassembles the Philippines, as in this story, heaven's residents will mostly be Filipinos. This story cannot be objectively true. This story ultimately paints a different picture of God, Jesus, the Bible, and reality. It's not the Christian Gospel in the Bible. But crucially, this story does not pass the truth test. 

So, I looked for a different story. This is the story that I almost believed. It's very popular, so you probably have heard some version of it: Billions of years ago, out of nothing, a molecule sparked everything into existence. Complex life started to form and eventually evolved into intricate human beings. Everything can be proven by science, if not, then it's not true. Morality is a social construct that develops over time. No higher power governs creation. The ultimate goal and purpose in life are to be happy and live "your truth". Happiness is whatever makes YOU happy - "You do you." You are, who you say are, it's all up to you. Your life, your choice. Just follow your heart and you will find all the right answers. Life is short, and then you die. #YOLO

This story sounded really good...at least initially. I have to admit, this story had some compelling elements to it. It presented the idea of having absolute freedom and autonomy over my own life. As if I can "be like God" over my own life. I wonder where that idea came from. However, if you follow this idea lived out in reality consistently, you'll also find some major problems. They aren't easy to spot at first, but if you keep applying the ideas in reality, they will eventually appear. It starts with the beginning. While I believe the Big Bang explains how the universe came into existence scientifically, science alone fails to explain how the Big Bang started in the first place. The fact is, stuff exists and there are only two options that could have made this happen: something or nothing. The story that the whole universe just started to exist and create itself out of absolutely nothing sounds like a tale. While a purely naturalistic worldview presented some compelling arguments for our existence, it is impossible to ground morality within this belief. Whatever we think of good and evil merely becomes a personal opinion. Without an objective moral standard outside of ourselves, which requires everyone to obey, everything merely becomes a matter of opinion. What ultimately got me to discard this idea, however, is the fact that anything immaterial, like souls, doesn't exist in this story. I was wrestling with the idea, that behind every person are just fizzing chemicals. In reality, we value human life above every other creature. We act and live as if human life has value more than what we can perceive. Having had personal experience with the effects of mental health issues, and having lost someone to its effects (suicide), it's just clear to me that life is so valuable, we know it's wrong to just end it when life gets tough. But in a purely materialistic world, there wouldn't be anything that objects to quitting life. Following this concept of reality ultimately would lead to nothingness. No meaning, no purpose, no hope. 

A part of me wanted this story to be true, but I concluded, that this can't be the story of reality either. So, I kept searching and investigating all the other stories that try to make sense of our world. At one point I believed we can never truly know. Maybe no one story makes sense of everything. Maybe we all just make up our own stories. Maybe we don't need a story at all. But I learned that we all live as if we can know some things to be certain. We all believe something about reality. If we don't make up our minds about what we believe about it, someone else will tell us what to believe. And we may end up with parts of different stories, that we put together in an attempt to make all the different puzzle pieces fit. This was something I did not want to happen again. But I also realized that reality does not offer options. There can only be one reality. What differs are all the different lenses we use to view reality. Our lenses are typically influenced by things like culture, upbringing, etc. However, if one has the option to make an informed choice, wouldn't we all pick truth over a tale?  

Every story has a beginning, a conflict, a resolution of conflict, and an ending. In the Christian story, God, the main character, created everything and everything was good. God also created man - finite, limited, human beings. Human beings bear the mark of God - imago dei. Because man is made in the image of God he is innately beautiful, has value, and has the law of God (morality) written in his heart. Human beings are given free will, which allows man to make decisions, and form relationships with each other and with his creator.  God created human beings out of the overflow of His love. He didn't need human beings. He is God with or without people, but He desires to have a relationship with humans.

Here's the conflict: Man rebelled against his creator. The first human beings, representing all of humankind, chose to believe the biggest lie of all, that we can "be like God" and be free on our own. This rebellion brought brokenness into the world. It broke the relationship with God, the relationship with each other, and the environment, and ultimately broke the whole world. Rebellion makes God angry. What grounds His love, also grounds His anger against evil. How could He be good, if He let evil go free? Now, He didn't create human beings evil and He didn't create evil. Evil is not a thing that can be created. Rather, it's a lack of something. Evil is the lack of good. And when human beings, by our free will choose to go against what is good, in other words, rebel or sin, we allow evil to happen. God is love and good, but He is also just. His perfect justice requires punishment. But His perfect mercy requires forgiveness. So how does that work? If we violate a law, we have to pay a penalty. A good judge would not let a criminal go free without paying the price for the crime committed. Apologizing to the judge won't let a criminal off the hook. Likewise, no amount of good work can liberate a criminal from the death penalty. 

Well, God did not just leave man lost & helpless. God himself stepped into the story in the person of Jesus and initiated a rescue plan. Jesus is Immanuel - God with us. He stepped down from His deity and took on flesh to rescue humanity from imminent danger - God's wrath upon evil.  Jesus paid the penalty that humans cannot pay. He is the only one who can pay off our debt and satisfy God's wrath. He took the punishment that was directed towards humanity. The judge paid the price we owe for the crime we committed, so we can be free. That is grace. That is Good News. All He asks in return is to believe, or in other words, have faith in Him and trust in the only one who is capable of rescuing. The savior died on the cross and rose again from the dead, proving He is the God of the universe, so whoever repents, in other words, follows and believes in Him can enjoy a wonderful friendship with the sovereign God and creator, in the perfect world our hearts have always yearned for.

Christianity, I found, is the best and most reasonable explanation of the material and immaterial things we can experience. The story of Christianity is not a tale, not a fiction, but history. It's a picture of reality. 

"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.  For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.  John 3:16-17