S'been a while...

This is an email I wrote to an Atheist who manages a blog I stumbled across. I hope I did okay.


So, I am a Christian, and right now, I am going to say that you are obviously much smarter, and probably older and have more knowledge of things than I do. So I will also say that I am not going to try and convince you outright that your beliefs are wrong and mine are right. But I am going to say, that if you are a reasonable person, you will at least give me a chance to defend myself (as you have clearly called me ignorant as well as other things), and read what I have to say, and take my thoughts into consideration as you continue to judge "the religious."

Now, I have only read up until and a little bit into the section of your main blog entry titled "Nature of Belief", so I might cover things that you have already explained later on, but I assure you that I intend to read that entire entry another time, as it is getting late where I live and it would take me all night to read that entry, and email you in response.

OK, to get things rolling, I will tell you about me to prove that I am completely serious, and I will not hide behind the mask of "anonymous". I am only 18, as I have already said, and I am a pretty smart guy who has gone through good and bad times like everyone else. I have not always believed what I believe and since I can confidently say that I am a smart guy, I have not blindly believed anything that I currently hold as my faith, because other people believe it, or it seems right, or any other ignorant reason, but I have actually spent much of my life considering all of the things that matter to me, and all of the things that the world deals with and considers important, and though many times I have had doubts and tried to believe otherwise, I can currently stand very firm in my faith in Jesus Christ, and nothing will change that.



First of all, I would like to defend the fact that although most, or at least some religions, are quite tolerant of each other, in the way that they accept that others don't believe what they do, but can support the others' beliefs as well, even though they don't agree.
I would like to immediately separate Christianity from all other religions, by explaining that if you are a true Christian, you will not tolerate other beliefs by simply believing that, "Since we are right, you can't be." Although there are obviously extreme cases in the middle east and other areas, where yes, they do not accept other religions but there own either, I am confident that of all of the widely accepted North American religions, Christianity is the only one that does not simply "tolerate" all other beliefs. Just as you believe Evolution is correct, you must therefore believe that no other beginning of Man is correct, right? So, since I am a Christian, and believe that my way is right, and all others are wrong, I will not try to defend "Religion", but I will defend Christ.

Now, so that you don't confuse the "types" of Christianity with mine, I will separate the right from the wrong, within the North American church.
In my understanding of Christ and the Bible, the simplest and most accurate unarguable definition of a Christian, is someone who recognizes that they are a sinner, and will not be otherwise in this lifetime, and that a man called Jesus, was born of God and Man, and therefore was both at the same time, lived a sinless life, while still facing all types of temptation, and then was beaten and killed for crimes he was found guilty of, but was innocent of in fact. This man was then buried, and was resurrected from the dead three days later, fulfilling prophecies of the Old Testament, and allowing all people to have a personal relationship with God, through Jesus Himself, that was otherwise impossible. A Christian accepts that the Christ died for our sins, and is the only way we can have a relationship with the one and only God. A Christian also believes that because we are sinners, we need to continually ask for mercy and forgiveness for our sins, without any rituals or sacrifices (because Jesus was the ultimate sacrifice). So all we need to do is ask and He will forgive us of our sins.
Now, I am not as good a writer as you, so the odd long sentence or mistake might be in that paragraph, but if you put all of those things together, that is what my faith is, and what I think a Christian is. Notice that none of it has to do with Homosexuality, Abortions, or Evolution.

So, seeing all the things I wrote up there, you can easily say that too much of it has to do with faith and not enough (if not none) of it had to do with fact. You can easily say that there is no way to expect anyone to understand the world around them, through that kind of faith. You referred to large scale natural disasters in your blog a few times so far, like Katrina and the Tsunami, stating that since God did not stop these events, he is either incapable, or does not care. By saying this, I am forced to come to the conclusion that every death that is not deserved or controllable in this world, such as car accidents, unpreventable diseases, or freak events, would fall under the same category as Katrina and the Tsunami, only to a lesser scale, correct? What does it matter if 100 000 or 1 person dies, because if God is all powerful, he could prevent both cases. Right? If this line of reasoning was true, it would mean that the only reasonable scenario for Christian faith to be plausible, would be if nobody ever died, except due to old age or human hatred. God would have to prevent every death that could not have been controlled by humans, for Christianity to even begin to be plausible, right?
My honest reason, that I believe and try to live by, for the fact that innocent people do die, and that horrible things do happen in this world, that God does not stop, my reason is that I DO NOT UNDERSTAND GOD. I do not understand what his plan is, and why he lets horrible things happen. But by using the things that I do understand to form my beliefs, I do not instantly jump to the conclusion that since someone died in the last three seconds and didn't deserve it, there is no God.

When you talk about fundamentalists being better than Moderates, who avoid answering questions like "why does God let good people die," I would like to say that Moderates are much less ignorant than fundamentalists. The fact that I do not know why thousands died in New Orleans that did not deserve to, is not only not something that makes my belief less plausible, but it actually makes my beliefs more reasonable, for this reason.

If I could understand the world, and everything that my God does, or allows to happen, then, I would not need Him at all, and He would not be God. If I had an answer for every argument you throw at me, no matter what, and I could explain everything I believed right down to solid fact, then I would in fact have to be God, and would be in control of the universe around me and everywhere else.

When you say, "what was God doing when Katrina laid waste to New Orleans?" If I said, "Because New Orleans was a Sin City and deserved to be destroyed!" That would mean I knew why God allowed it to happen or caused the hurricane. However, by answering with, "I honestly don't know why." It proves that I do not have the answers to important question, and have to put my FAITH in my beliefs and my God. Faith of course being the foundation of all religion and the most important part of mine. The fact that I don't know everything, and don't understand everything, means that I have to have Faith in the fact that what I do know and what I do understand, tells me that there is a God and He is in control, and knows what to do and is much better at doing things than I am.

Now, the first thing that comes to my mind in your argument is that "I could do a much better job than He does by not letting these horrible things happen, and having everyone innocent live, and everyone evil die” or something along those lines at least.

So, by taking away chance and decision in the world, what do you think we would be left with? Whatever it is, it does not involve free will. If God took that rapist murderer and smote him down to save that little innocent girl, then that means God would take out anyone who tried to do evil, which means anyone evil would be dead, and there would only be good in this world. However, since we are all sinners, or more accurately, we have all sinned at least once, even though it is much much more than that, we would all be dead, except little babies.

Anyways, that argument is just a good reason that I think defends why horrible things happen to good people. It could be completely wrong, and I can admit that, because again, I do not understand my God, and if I did, I would be God.

So, I guess I'm done for now, except for one thing I forgot. Taking into account that I have stated my beliefs and think all other beliefs are therefore incorrect, I would just like to clarify that neither good deeds, intentions, nor beliefs result in "getting into" heaven. Heaven is not a wonderful place created to reward people, and hell is not a horrible place created to punish people.

Heaven is wonderful BECAUSE the entire realm is completely 100% engulfed in Gods presence, because there is no sin present, and we are rewarded because of our faith in Jesus, by being invited into God's pure presence. Oppositely, Hell is horrible BECAUSE the entire realm is completely 100% removed from God's pure presence. God has no part of himself connected to Hell (while at the same time He is in control of it, which is another thing I can admit I do not understand and therefore have to accept that I don't understand it and hold onto the FAITH that I don't have to understand it). Satan is not in control of Hell, but instead is banished to Hell by God. He is allowed to have influence in the world until the end of time when God permanently banishes him into the lake of fire. Why God allows Satan to influence the world is another thing I do not understand, but I believe that Sin and Satan are not the same, but connected, and without one the other would not exist, and without both, there would be no free will, and there would be no God.
So forget about the whole "reward and punishment" aspect, because what it comes down to is faith in Jesus. Without it, you simply go do Hell, even if you are a pretty decent guy and live a pretty decent life. If you rape and murder a hundred women, but end your life with recognition of your sins and that without Christ you are nothing, and if you believe it with all of your being, you will be forgiven and accepted into God's presence. One could say that by that logic, you could rape and kill and steal all you wanted, and just ask for forgiveness in the end and make it to Heaven. But the key flaw in that statement is that to be saved you must genuinely want Christ’s forgiveness and to serve and obey him, which means that you can't fake it, you have to actually believe in him and follow his commands to the best of your ability.


So, that's that, and now I just have some closing remarks.


I can respect, not tolerate, your beliefs or lack there of, only if you actually seek out both sides of the issue in depth. The fact that I am interested in your blog and will continue to read what you have to say shows that I do not just have my beliefs and that's that. But instead I actually look and research what others believe and compare and contrast their beliefs with mine. I am looking for someone to prove me wrong with iron clad proof, just as you are, which will never happen for either of us. Because I can't prove that evolution is a joke beyond a shadow of a doubt, and you can't prove that God is a joke beyond a shadow of a doubt. My point is that only in researching both sides of the argument can one have concrete beliefs. Staying in the shallow end of the pool results in mediocre faith and no arguments when challenged by others, other than, "No I'm right!" So, if you have not seriously read the Bible, meaning you read it with an unbiased view, and then make conclusions afterwards, I suggest you do so, or else you have no right to condemn my beliefs in any sense, because you do not know what they are to any amount of accuracy.

I would also urge you to consider something very obvious that I doubt you ever consider. By using the process of elimination, you need to choose the most sensible position in the following scenarios:

If you are right, there is no God in any sense, and we will die without purpose very soon in relation to the length of time the Earth has been here. If that is correct, then existence will simply cease, and there will be no pain or happiness, only nothing after death.

BUT

If I am right, then there is a God, and Jesus is the only way to get to Heaven, and every other life results in an eternity of pain and suffering beyond human comprehension. If that is correct, than the decisions made in this lifetime are critical, because they affect the rest of my existence for all eternity. You talk about comparing 80 years to 100 000 000 years, but think about comparing 80 years to infinity.

So if those are the only two scenarios, or at least accepting that all other scenarios could fall into those two categories, then which one is the safe bet? If you are right, then my faith has been a waste of my life, and I will simply die and cease to exist along with everyone else. Therefore, I will end up no different from you. But if I'm right, then I will go to Heaven, and live in peace and joy and and the most wonderful place for all eternity, and you will go to Hell for all eternity, with a new body that does not die, but simply endures pain and suffering for all of eternity.

For me, I am covered either way, but you are in a win/lose scenario, where the win is not even something to look forward to. If nothing else, having faith in an afterlife of any kind is worth a second thought if it means your eternal existence, right? If you use logic, you will admit that it is worth thinking about and diving deeper into, but if you just deny it, you betray yourself.

And in defending myself one more time, I have just given you a reason to believe in God, that I do not use as my reason for my Faith. If I simply had my faith for fear of going to hell, than you could tear me apart with words and accusations and make my faith into a joke. But the fact is my faith has little to do with hell, and any true Christian would say the same thing.



So, since I can't convince you to believe whatever I say, because I think you are smarter, older, and know more than I do about many things, I will just say that I hope you at least use that intelligence and experience to realize that this should be the most important issue in your life, and you should be very serious about these things. Because your eternity will either depend on it, or it won't. You'd just better be pretty sure of yourself is all I'm saying.


A Follower of Christ Jesus, our Lord and Savior (no matter what we believe),

Barry Gitzel


PS. If nothing else, I wish you would have a little more respect for my faith, instead of stereotypically picking Jesus as the "God" to pick on and poke fun Christianity. Hop off the bandwagon and joke about Buddah or Muhammad or someone else for a change. It's easy to follow the crowd, but maybe don't use His name as a curse as I'm sure you often do.