On the crisis of faith

I think it is a fair statement that anyone with a deep faith in God has at some point questioned the validity of that faith. By that I mean being confronted with a severe problem, something that shakes the very foundations of your faith, something that if accepted holds the potential to completely destroy your faith. For some it is science, others a book or a movie, while others personal loss of friends or family. Last weekend the Discovery Channel aired a documentary directed by James Cameron (think Titanic) that claims that they have found the tomb of Jesus and his family, including wife Mary Magdalene, and son Judah. This is reminiscent of the attacks that came as a result of The Da Vinci Code. I don't know if Cameron has a vested interest in destroying Christian faith, or if he is just trying to make a quick profit through religious controversy, but the fact remains that a cursory survey of history is enough to disprove most of these allegations. The most damning fact to his case is that what he presents is not new, though the advertising seems to indicate this is all breaking news. The tomb was excavated in 1980! It has been around for twenty-seven years, and Cameron certainly isn't the first to make these accusations. The problem? The tomb where Jesus was buried is historically in another place, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and this documentary does nothing to honestly challenge that. Never mind that the inscription on the limestone box is not clear, nor that Jesus was a common first-century name, nor that the supposed coffin of the founder of Christianity was almost completely unadorned. All ridiculous, but I have little doubt there are those out there who will see this 'documentary' and have their world shaken to the foundations.

There is something in our society that says believing in God is out-dated. We live in a nation of absolutes where everything is observable and measurable. I find great comfort in that. The very philosophy used to deny the existence of God, I in my faith use to affirm him. Let's look at one of these absolutes. When I become weighed down by all the purported evidence that secularists use to bombard my faith all I need do is look at people. I see one absolute that secularism has yet to remedy, or even explain for that matter: man's fallen condition. The secularist will say that science, both nature and nurture, can explain all of man's failings, and that by addressing those issues, a perfect society can be created, a veritable utopia. Unfortunately for them, such a society has not been produced, even after hundreds of years and countless failed attempts, all because they deny the absolute nature of sin.

I see hurting people, who are entrenched in sin, eagerly plodding down a path that ultimately leads to self-destruction. I see people with a vacuum in their hearts, trying in vain to fill it with the empty promises of post-modern humanism. And from personal experience and observation I have seen only one thing that can save man from that emptiness, or more rightly, have met one person, Jesus Christ. Try as men might to destroy God, the grace of God reigns supreme. By his grace and to his glory we are saved, renewed, and sustained. Soli Deo Gloria!

Romans 1 ²⁰For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. ²¹For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. ²²Professing to be wise, they became fools, ²³and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures.