Why Christianity—is it real, and what’s the difference?

Michael Martz

Description

Michael Martz asks why Christianity is different from all other religions, including the religion of evolution. What is it about?
Michael Martz asks why so many people don’t understand God, think the Bible is too complicated, and are convinced that being “good” is enough.
He challenges readers to take several steps back and reexamine what they believe to be true.
Consider questions such as:
• What’s the difference between Christianity and all other beliefs?
• Do we have to choose between Christianity or science?
• It is impossible to not have a religion—do you approach it forward, or backward?
• Why is there no such a thing as an atheist?
• What is salvation? Who decides? Why did the veil tear?
• Can we fall from salvation? Are all three OSAS views wrong?
• Why are so many who call themselves Christian, unsaved? Could that be you?
• What does the Bible say about homosexuality, pornography, and sin—who does God hate?
• What does scripture teach about universalism? Water baptism?
• Will Christians go through the tribulation? What is the danger?
• At the rapture, are wicked taken fi rst and righteous left behind?
• Why do Jehovah’s Witnesses and Mormons carry verses they do not read (or think are corrupted)?
This text strives to prove the reality and simplicity of the Bible, that it is scientific (but naturalism is not), and that a real person lived and died for us long ago, and returned from the dead. A person who claimed to be God, who now offers Himself for intimate communion with us.
So many people perceive God and Jesus and the Spirit as detached and distant. Can we experience God personally?

Sujets

• Philosophie
• Philosophie de la religion
• Religion
• Christianisme
• Christianity
• Philosophy
• Philosophie et théologie
• Religious

Informations

• Publié par: WestBow Press
• Date de parution: 25 janvier 2023
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781664288003
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

WHY CHRISTIANITY —is it real, and what’s the difference?
 
 
 
 
 
 
MICHAEL MARTZ
 
 
 



Copyright © 2023 Michael Martz.
 
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
 
WestBow Press
A Division of Thomas Nelson & Zondervan
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Bloomington, IN 47403
www.westbowpress.com
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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.
 
Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.
Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.
 
Scripture quotations taken from the New American Standard Bible® (NASB), Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation Used by permission. www.Lockman.org
 
ISBN: 978-1-6642-8799-0 (sc)
ISBN: 978-1-6642-8798-3 (hc)
ISBN: 978-1-6642-8800-3 (e)
 
Library of Congress Control Number: 2022923951
 
WestBow Press rev. date: 10/19/2023


To Robert—Brother T wice
who believed in this pro ject


CONTENTS
Prol ogue
Foreword (To Christ ians)
On Salva tion
What is Christian salvation? Can it be broken? (Or are we OSAS?)
OSAS Part 1—Carnal Christ ians
Conclusion—P art1
OSAS Part 2—Eternal Secu rity
Conclusion: Pa rt 2
OSAS Part3—Predestina tion
Conclusion—P art3
Part 4—Danger! (O SNAS)
OSAS Conclu sion
Appendix 1—101 Verses That Stand Against “ OSAS”
Appendix 2—Four Letters and “ OSAS”
Appendix 3—Pre Trib Rap ture?
Appendix 4—Those Who (and Predestina tion)
Appendix 5—To Calvin ists
Appendix 6—Universa lism
Appendix 7—On Bap tism


PROLOGUE
You stand there, holding this text in your hands. What are you thinking? “Will I be able to understand this? Do I need a theology degree to understand the Bible?” Luke was a physician, Paul was a learned man. What about the others? Fishermen, tradesmen, no theological training. All of them were writing to first century people, common folks. Can a lay person accomplish correct exegesis (analysis and understanding) of scrip ture?
But why even bother with the Bible? The Bible is just a collection of fanciful fairy tales and myths, mankind is only the product of blind random chemical accidents, those chance combinations which benefit individuals selected by nature—until mankind gained consciousness enough to create God in man’s own image. Right? You don’t need the crutch of superstitious religious fiction that restrains people from realizing their potential. After all, religion is restrictions by which men are shamed away from excellence . Religion writes volumes of backward tales which only serve to cause guilt and thwart men from achieving humanistic tri umph.
If you applaud any of the previous paragraph, then you fail to realize that you have a religion, one with far more faith than any recognized church. Your members worship, proselytize and persecute more than any other religion ever has. Do you have the intellectual curiosity (and honesty) to read far ther?
DO WE CHOOSE BETWEEN INTELLIGENCE OR FAITH? BETWEEN SCIENCE OR RELIGIOUS SUPERSTI TION?
If you attended public school you may think you must lay aside your intellect to even think about God; but is that really the choice? Does it have to be faith or brains? Christianity or science? Real science is open -m inded , by definition drawing conclusions from observable phenomena. However, it is terribly hard to be objective and open -m inded . Throughout this text you will discover that prejudices and preconceptions, both in secular and spiritual arenas, die hard. You are challenged to take several steps back and reconsider even what you know to be true. Albert Einstein proposed an incident where two lightning -b olts strike a train track at displaced points simultaneously. But then he questioned that very statement. If you are closer to one bolt than to the other, they do not appear simultaneous because the image of the far strike takes longer to reach the observer, so the near strike appears to have occurred first. Intelligence then is perhaps better measured by the number of questions one asks, and by the willingness to reconsider ideas that previously had been presumed correct . Scientists by definition are curious—are you?
Do you have the honesty to read this text objectively and dismiss nothing because of it being obviously wrong? Is anything so sacred to you that you cannot be convinced by facts? If you are atheist, humanist, agnostic or secularist, you might be tempted not to read further; but you would be missing a great opportunity to expand your hori zons.
ATH EISM
Atheists are those who know there is no God; to them this whole text is ridiculous and unnecessary. Actually, there is no such thing as an atheist. If you call yourself an atheist, please consider five questi ons 1 :
1. Do you know all there is to know in the Universe? (There is no choice, the answer must b e no.)
2. Do you know half of all that there is to know in the Universe? (Again the answer must b e no.)
3. Could God could exist in the half you do not know? (Every person must answer yes. If one knows less than half the universe, then God may be in the unknown half. Acknowledging that, you are no longer an atheist; you have become agno stic.)
4. Now you’re an agnostic, you do not know if God is real or not. You are a doubter – right? (The former atheist must now answer, yes.)
5. Are you an honest doubter, or a dishonest doubter? (What is the difference between an honest Agnostic, and a dishonest one? An honest Agnostic does not know if God exists, but would really like to know. A dishonest doubter does not know if God is real but simply does not want to know. Which are you?)
EVOLU TION
All atheists, most agnostics, and all of the non -r eligious , are evolutionists. The field of science has become founded on evolution; all public television shows preach the idea diligently. An East Coast producer airs shows like an account of the miracle of a human being developing from conception to birth. The film begins by saying, “Winds blew random molecules together, and life evolved.” Really? What word describes that state ment?
Every evolutionist holds dearly the Miller/Urey Biogenesis Experiment, which theorized that life on earth began in an organic soup. Stanley Miller put into a flask water, ethane, methane, and ammonia (these were thought to reflect primordial earth). To represent lightning, a high -v oltage arc was imposed on the soup. After a few days of running newspaper headlines proclaimed, “Scientists Create Life in the Laboratory!”. But that is not what really happ ened.
The experiment was a fraud on at least four levels—it had a circulation system ( non -n aturally occurring), which means the experiment was open, and not closed. That’s a biased stunt—not an experiment. Second, the circulation system had an amino -a cid trap to catch and protect amino acids, which also does not occur naturally. Without the trap the destruction rate was billions to one and zero amino acids would result. Third, it had no free oxygen in the soup. Oxygen would poison the mix and prevent amino acids, but nowhere in the geological stack is there evidence of no free oxygen. Fourth, the amino acids produced were very simple and nowhere near the complexity of our four building blocks of life—adenine, cytosine, thymine, and guanine. The simple amino acids created came in equal quantities of right -h anded and left -h anded molecules. All life on Earth utilizes only left -h anded molec ules.
But imagine that the experiment was not a carefully crafted fraud. Somehow only left -h anded amino acid molecules can pull themselves out of solution and form into a living, self -r eplicating sequence. Imagine an organism with only ten components—and we’ll be incredibly generous and give the probability of simultaneous occurrence of each of the ten parts, one chance in a thousand. Therefore for all ten to occur together, the probability is 1 chance in 10³º. That is, 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 to one against a ten -u nit “first living organism”. Does that sound like a large number? It’s not—it is identically zero. We’re only talking about a ten unit DNA with an over -g enerous probability of simultaneity, but Human DNA has sequences of three billion—times twenty -t hree pairs, forty six chromosomes total. If you counted to three billion, three per second (no breaks), it would take over thirty years; and human DNA has another 45 of those. Even the simplest bacteria have millions of proteins. The Universe is thought to have 10 80 atoms, simple life one chance in 10 120 —do you really think life can start by ch ance?
Yet that is exactly what Darwinian Evolution cl aims.
It gets worse—proteins cannot arrange into functioning DNA without cellular walls, and cellular walls are built by DNA. Which came first? They conjecture, “Perhaps the biogenesing proteins were contained in porous cavities in rocks, perhaps around oceanic volcanic vents (black smokers), until they learned to create their own cell walls”. (A new proposal is soap films—really? Billions of mutations f