Give Me an Answer - All Religions Do Not Say the Same Thing. Jesus Is Different From the Rest. (1)

The speaker questions the belief in multiple gods and multiple ways into heaven. They argue that belief in heaven is based on trust, as no one has ever been there. They discuss how different religions contradict each other and suggest that either they are all wrong or one of them is right. They emphasize the need to study the Gospels and evaluate the evidence for Jesus being the truth. The speaker also addresses the problem of evil and suffering, arguing that if there is no God, there is no objective definition of good. They explain that God gave humans free will, which can lead to evil and suffering. They also discuss the existence of suffering in the animal kingdom and attribute it to the consequences of human rebellion against God. Why can't there be multiple gods that we can believe in? And why can't there be multiple ways into heaven? Good. There can be. But you see, what you've got to answer, ma'am, is, why would you believe in heaven? Have you ever been there? Neither have I. So in light of the fact that you've never seen heaven, why would you, as a thinking human being, believe there's a heaven? I mean... Why? Through the Christian faith, is there not the communication that if you do live by the faith, and you are forgiven, you go to heaven? Yes. But ma'am, my being convinced that I'm going to heaven is based on one thing. The trustworthiness of Jesus Christ. Because I've never been to heaven. I don't know if there's a heaven or not, from my experience. And I can promise you, Austin is not heaven. Okay? It's a very nice place, but it's not heaven. Okay? You see, ma'am, when it comes to heaven, you're going to have to trust somebody the same way I'm going to have to trust somebody. And the question is, why do you trust whoever it is you trust? So because Muhammad contradicts Jesus, and because Jesus contradicts the avatars of Hinduism, and because the avatars of Hinduism contradict Siddhartha Gautama Buddha, and because they all contradict Baha'i faith, you've got to be on the intellectual level of a cockroach if you say, they're all saying the same thing. They're not, ma'am. They're contradicting each other. So either they're all wrong, or one of them's right. And now you've got to study the Gospels for yourself, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, and you've got to ask yourself, does the evidence point to Jesus being the truth? And if it does, trust him. But if the evidence is that Christ is a liar, you'd be a fool to trust him. Do not trust Jesus if the evidence is he's a fraud, he's a hypocrite, he's a liar. Don't trust him. But if the evidence is he's totally reliable, if the evidence is he really did die and rise from the dead, then you can trust him, and he's the one who promises heaven to everybody who puts their faith in him. A lot of my friends are atheist and agnostic, okay? And here's something that my atheist agnostic friends have to acknowledge, if they're being intellectually consistent. Because they believe there's no heaven, no day of judgment, that has big implications for now, today. And the implication is, what you and I do with our lives is ultimately meaningless. Meaningless. Why? Where are Hitler and Mother Teresa if there is no heaven and no hell? Where are Hitler and Mother Teresa? The same place. The fertilizer pit. They're decomposing. Which means, ultimately, it does not matter whether you are Adolf Hitler II, or whether you're Mother Teresa II, because we're all going to the same place, the fertilizer pit. You see, Jesus says, no. There is eternity out there, and there's a heaven and a hell, and there's a day of judgment, which means the decisions that you make today are really significant. They really matter. And you are really valuable. Because God wants you to live for eternity with him in heaven. And becoming fertilizer is not God's plan for you, and desire for you. Does that make any sense? Thank you so much for reading that. Yes, sir. There's been a couple issues of things that you've been saying that I have questions of, but I'm just going to do a quick short one. One of my main questions that I always have is just, given what you touted earlier, a tri-omni-God, an omnipotent mission, all-powerful, all-knowing, all-caring, how do you explain the existence of evil and suffering? You bet. Very slowly, having to acknowledge I can't give you a complete answer. I do not know ultimately why God allowed evil, suffering, and death. But here's my first point. If you're an atheist or if you're an agnostic, what is your solution to the problem of evil and death? My solution to the evil? No, solution. What is your solution to the problem of evil and death? If you're an atheist, if you're an agnostic. The solution for everybody is as good as possible. Everybody should aim for being good. According to their own definition of good, right? Yeah, their own definition of good, whether it's objective good from God or objective good from another source. Well, remember the atheist or agnostic says either there is no God or I don't know whether there's a God. Yeah. So good is not defined by God if you're an atheist. Yeah. If you're an atheist, good is defined by your culture or by the power elite or by yourself or by majority opinion. It could be just defined as good just exists, whether God or not. How can good just exist? Good could possibly, because I don't know if there's a God or not. But, I mean, if there is such a thing as a God that is out of time, like that is eternal, why can't other concepts like good just be out of time and eternal, just a thing that exists like God? Okay. Sir, good is an intangible value. You cannot see good. You can't see God either. Exactly. You cannot measure good, right? You can't measure God. It exists eternally, just like. It could just be God. It could just be God. It could not be just God. It could just be the existence of good and evil that just exists in the world. But given a tri-omni-God who's all-powerful and all-caring, why evil and suffering exist doesn't make sense to me. Okay, good. Hang with me and we'll go. In order to understand goodness, there has to be a mind. This tree has no understanding of good. This cement has no understanding of good. Good can't just exist, because goodness requires definition, and it's an intangible value that you can't measure. You can't grab goodness, which means you've got to have a mind involved in defining what is good. If we're going by that definition, then what is defining God? We'll get to that. We'll get to that. All the arguments you could give for God could also go for good, just in a general concept. It could just exist eternally out of time, unmeasurable. No, sir. That's not fair. If God exists, God doesn't depend on anybody. If goodness as an intangible value exists, it depends on a mind to define it. God could also be intense. That's obvious. It's like coming from a different viewpoint, outside of trying to see where, you know, the reasoning for things. You could say that it could be what we define as God, societally, could just be the existence of good, in the same context of eternal and timeless and all that. If there is no God, goodness is not eternal, because goodness demands a mind to define it. Which means? Then, in giving that same argument, then what mind defines God? There would be something above him if something had to make him or define him. No, God can be an eternal being without beginning, without end. I don't think you see my point, because goodness could be the same thing. You're not listening, sir. You're giving goodness a different definition. You're not listening to me, and I don't appreciate it. I told you flat out, and I think you're smart enough to get this point. Goodness demands some mind to define it. The tree, the cement, has no ability to understand goodness. You've got to have a mind. Do you see that, or do you disagree with me? I think we're coming to different definitions of good, because then, like, there's still, outside of that, though, given your definition of good, still, why does evil and suffering exist? Forget my definition of good. Your definition of good. I'm just saying, given yours, why does evil and suffering exist? You're evading that part of the question. But, sir, I've got a real problem with your thinking, all right? I don't think you're being honest with yourself. That's not fair. You know very well that I've cornered you totally, intellectually. You know very well that you cannot have goodness without some type of mind to create and define it. It's impossible. This does not define goodness. That does not define goodness. And that camera does not define goodness. And your glasses do not define goodness. Neither does your shirt, your pants, or your sneakers. You've got to have a mind to define goodness. So, you have no option, intellectually. It has nothing to do with God. It has nothing to do with Jesus. It has to do with simply thinking fairly. All right. Moving on to the next. Your point is, okay, but if this good God exists, why is there evil and suffering? It's real simple, sir. If an all-powerful God chooses to partially limit his power by giving you a free will, by giving me a free will, then if I go up to her, slap her in the face, and say, God made me do it, what am I? A liar. A total liar. God gave me a hand for a purpose, to respect this woman, to love this woman. But because I have a free will, I don't have to respect her, I don't have to love her, I can steal her backpack, I can smack her around, I can abuse her. And if anybody says, God made me do it, they are a liar. Flat out. So, why does evil exist? Evil exists because God limited his power, he's all-powerful, but he limited his power by choosing to give her a free will, me a free will, all of us a free will. Does that make any sense? It kind of answers it for humanity, that suffering also exists in animals. Good. Why does a zebra deserve to get its throat crushed to death by a lion? Like, how is that caring or just, like, coming from a Christian standpoint, we have sinned as humans, coming from the Christian standpoint, so we are, you know, we have free will and we can make mistakes and all that. Yep. But why not, why have animals just, you know, not have their perfect little ecosystem where nothing has to suffer and only humans suffer? Very good. Now we're thinking, alright? So, Genesis chapters 1 and 2, God creates a good world. God created this and God saw that it was good. God created that and God saw that it was good. God created this and God sees it's good. So when God created, he did a good job. No evil. But Genesis chapter 3 records how human beings rebel against God. And one of the consequences of human beings telling God, get lost, get out of here, is God honors our free will, takes a step back from planet Earth, and nature unravels. And so you're absolutely correct, sir. Animals suffer. I have suffered. We all will suffer. Not because God is sicking us, but because God created a world with free will, people with free will. We chose to tell them to get out. When he gets out, chaos fills the gap. Genetic breakdown. Death occurs. Because humans decided to reject God, God punished the animals. One of the consequences... It seems I'm carrying an unjust given a triumphant God. No, it's an issue of consequence. Who put Texas State together? Did they do it last summer? Well, the consequences go to the humans that did it. You don't punish someone else or somebody else's misdoing. That would be a nice way for things to happen. But unfortunately, because I have free will, if you're a husband and I smack you around, it might affect how you treat your wife when you go home tonight. It might affect how you treat your kids when you go home tonight. You see, for me to think that, well, I've got free will, and it's just me, and it's just you, and there are no consequences to the way I exercise my free will, that's a lie. Total lie. Well, how I would interact with animals is one thing, but how animals should interact with each other. Why does suffering exist between animals, not from humans to animals, but between animals, suffering exists. Why are they being punished for suffering between themselves if they didn't do anything wrong? Correct. You're absolutely correct. They didn't do anything wrong. The same way little babies that I have to bury didn't do anything wrong. But they're born into an unfair world where birth defects occur and so babies die, not because they've done something wrong. They have not done anything wrong. But they are born into an unfair, unjust, messed up world. Thanks for raising those issues. Yes, ma'am. They're also born with original sin, though. Okay, what does that mean? My good Catholic friend, what does that mean? It means that as a consequence of, correct me if I'm wrong, but as a consequence of Adam and Eve eating the apple, all the following children would be born with this original sin that would have been an effect of mankind previously, correct? Okay. Maybe. Also, the way I was brought up was that if you were not baptized or had your original sin reversed, you would not be able to make it to heaven. Yeah, I've told them not to do that. I don't think there's any biblical basis for that. But wouldn't, like, original sin be a spiritual birth defect? Good. Ooh, now I think we're onto something here. Okay. So what on earth is original sin? Original sin is simply this. I am born with a readiness to sin factor. Doesn't mean that everything I do is evil. My atheist friends do a lot of good. They've got a conscience. But all of us have sinned. Every atheist, every agnostic, every Christian, Jew, Buddhist, Hindu, we all have sinned. Part of the reason we have sinned is because we're born with a readiness to sin factor. Let me give you an example. When I was four years old, I was in the sandbox playing, and my friend had the audacity to hurt me. So very naturally, I took up the metal truck, and I said, really? Bam! Never seen that behavior model before. But I very naturally took up the metal truck, slammed it on my playmate's head, and it wasn't pretty. I am a sinner. That's my son over there, walking this way. He used to sit on a baby chair. I would put a glass of grape juice in front of him, and I would say, Stewart, do not knock this glass of grape juice off this tray. And with a smile from this ear to this ear, he would backhand that glass of grape juice off the tray. He was born a sinner, same way as old man, me, was born a sinner. Now what does that mean? It means we have a readiness to sin factor. But we cannot blame our sinful nature for what we do, because we still have a free will. So if I slap her, and you say, wait a second, what did you do to her? Why'd you do it? And I say, because of my sinful nature. That's a cop-out. Because I still have a will. And here's the challenge. The challenge for me is to overcome my sinful nature with my will, and make responsible decisions. And that's why the whole line of thinking at Texas State University, which is, I was born with this desire, therefore it's good, is a crock. Well, can I ask you then, do you believe that babies are born with an understanding of good versus evil, or do you believe that it was taught by human nature? Good, very good question. I'll answer this, and then, Stuart, you answer it. I am convinced that my little granddaughter, who is six months old, his daughter, has no understanding of what good and evil are. But I am convinced that when she comes of age, and I think for different people that's different, she will develop her own understanding of good and evil. Will that understanding be heavily influenced by her environment? Yes, ma'am. Will her understanding of good and evil be limited by her environment? No. Once again, smack. Sorry you're getting hit so many times today. You ask me, Cliff, why'd you do it? And I say to you, because I grew up in an environment that taught me that women who wear this color sweatshirt deserve to be smacked. It doesn't cut it. Because although my environment taught me that, I still have a conscience, a rational mind, and I am responsible before God to exercise that and to contradict my culture, to contradict my environment when I begin to realize my environment is wrong. Let me give you one quick example. I played major college basketball. I was the worst guy on the team. I had good seats for every game. But I can promise you, almost, not everybody, but almost every guy who I played college basketball with had a very clear understanding of what human sexuality was all about. It was all about getting as many good-looking women into bed with them as they could. And so I had to exercise my conscience and my rational thinking. I had to ask, is that why God gave me my sexuality? To have sex with as many good-looking women as I can. And was it tempting to follow their example? I mean, that's the environment. I mean, shoot, we flew on a jet to different... played against UCLA, St. John's, NC State, Wake Forest. I mean, we were high-flying. Okay, so we all knew what we did at night. All right? So I had to make a decision. Is that the right way to live? Is that the right way to treat women? Is that the right way to express my sexuality? Or has God created my sexuality for a different reason? So I had to contradict my culture. And guess what? I've learned to respect people who contradict their culture and don't support racism. I work with some skinheads. And those skinheads grew up in a culture that said, white superiority is clear. But there's some skinheads who said, no, it's wrong and I'm not going to follow my culture. That's how I think through that issue. All right, so what do you think? I would just add to that. Because we've talked so much about the moral, ethic side of things, it's important, again, to remember that the Christian faith is not about just be a good person, somehow you'll get into heaven. Just be a good person. I'm a good person, so I'm in. No. To your question, many babies are born into it. It's a crack baby or whether it's a baby born into a very religious home or an Amish baby, let's just say. They're typically born into homes that are very tender, loving, as long as they don't leave, right, and they get excommunicated. Tender, loving, they get taught ethics. See, when you become a Christian, cynical, pharisaical, judgmental Christians will say, oh, well you should be, say, nine out of ten on the ethic standard rung in terms of you should be a great person. But no. Christ understands that the baby born into an Amish family versus the baby born into a crackpot family, this baby, when they come to know God from a very young age, they're going to be higher ethically in terms of how they live than this one who is, say, probably ethically living a pretty messed up life, at least at first, and yet they both have eternal life because they've accepted Christ. It's not like somehow this one is going to be higher in heaven, like there's levels, than this one. But then why give original sin to something that doesn't even have a working conscience? I'm glad I heard you say give original sin one more time because I could say that earlier. Because God doesn't give original sin. See, I debated an atheist on YouTube not too long ago. He's a comedian. And that's what he kept pushing me on. Out of the book of Isaiah, briefly talks about how God creates evil. But if you look at the interpretation, what it means is God judges different people groups when they have done tremendous evil. So just like that passage with original sin, God doesn't give us original sin. He gives us free will, just like with Satan, to decide whether to worship him, to love him, to have a loving relationship with him, or to just go our own way, to live for ourselves, to live any old way we want. And then that, based off Genesis 3 and what happened in the garden with Adam and Eve, what they decided that were, God, we're going to flip you off. We could care less about you. Then they lived their own kind of way and original sin started. But, to your point, absolutely, we're born into a messed up world, so we do have a readiness to sin factor, I believe you said that, from the earliest of ages. But babies will also be in heaven. Because when David's baby dies, his wife was Bathsheba, he said, I will go to you, you will not come to me. So babies will be in heaven, based off of the question earlier on suffering. Does that make any sense? Yes. Thank you so much for raising that. Yes, sir. So I believe in God, and I turned Christian, and I know it's only because I'm American, and obviously the main religion in America is Christian, so that's why I lean towards Christian. But I have a question. It's not a good reason to lean towards Christian, okay? I appreciate your honesty and your ability to analyze yourself, but please do not believe in Jesus Christ because you grew up in America. Not a good reason. No, no. So I believe in God. Good. And I didn't before. Right. But I'm still stuck on this whole Jesus thing. Yes. Because if he's sinless, or if he's sinless, is there a possibility that there will be another person born that's sinless? Or is Jesus the only one? Well, Jesus is the only one that I know of, so far, who's been born sinless. And I think it's highly unlikely that someone will be born sinless. I guess my main question is, I can believe in God because I know I can't see him factually, but I have a belief in him. Yes. But I don't know if I can believe in Jesus because he was on earth. Yes. And not everybody was there to prove whether he was sinless or not. Like, he wasn't surrounded by people 24-7. Good point. Very good point. So maybe Jesus did sin at some point. But I have to follow the evidence. And the evidence is the apostle John lived closely with Christ for three years. And in 1 John, John writes, in him is no sin. So you're right. John didn't live with Jesus, incidentally, for 33 years. Just for three years. But I can promise you, if a dude lives with Jesus for three years and can honestly say, I've never seen the guy sin, that's pretty impressive. Then in John chapter 8, Jesus looked at the faces of his enemies and asked them, which one of you can prove me guilty of sin? And his enemies were silent. Whoa! I can promise you, my enemies can point out many times that I have sinned. Stuart? Tacitus? Pliny the Younger? Josephus? Many of these external sources, he was talking about internal sources of the Gospels, talk about not so much Jesus. Jesus was talked about in a way where he was a magician, Josephus talked about, how he was nasty. But then other sources contradict to him saying that he just hated Christianity. That's why he was saying that about Jesus. So I would look more so at his followers to talk about the sinlessness. Because they were known for a few different things. One, against infanticide. They were pulling babies off of garbage heaps. Two, egalitarianism. They treated everybody equally. Three, they were made up mainly of slaves who were coming into the church. Fourthly, they were non-retaliatory. They were known in a very weird kind of way to actually not get revenge on other people groups, which was huge during that day. So I'd look at Christians as the evidence for Christ. And I like you a lot. You're being honest, so keep going. So maybe this is just the belief part, but I have a hard time believing that part. I can believe in God because I know I can never see it. I mean, we can never see God. Well, we can never see him visually. Is that why you believe in God? Because you can't see him? No. No. I mean, I couldn't get too deep into it, but it would take a long time. But I'm saying, just reading the book and believing that there was a human that did that, I have a hard time believing that. Like, a really hard time. Okay, but I'm pleading with you. You've got a good mind, sir. You articulate and think well. Now remember, you can't believe in God simply because you believe in God. You believe in God because there's evidence. A lot of it's common sense. Well, my evidence is that there is an objective truth. Good! And that from that, there is a good. All right! But I don't see Jesus in all that. I don't see the equation of that. Remember, we're starting off then with defining faith. You don't believe in God simply because you believe. You believe in God because there's evidence that God exists, right? Excellent! Now, just do the same thing with Jesus. Read the Gospels, and yes, it's going to be different. The evidence that God exists is not historical. It's philosophical. Right. You see order and design, points to a designer. You see a moral absolute, an objective moral, points to a moral lawgiver. You've got your evidence. Now, when it comes to Jesus, it's not going to be philosophical. Why? Because he claimed to be God in human form. But I like that. Because that means we can historically analyze Christ. Which is why Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 15, if Jesus Christ is not risen from the dead, we're idiots for believing in him. Because the veracity, the truthfulness of Christ is based on his claim, I'm going to die and rise from the dead. That was a big mistake, Jesus. What's a mistake? You gave us a way to verify you or falsify you. If you don't rise from the dead, you, Jesus, are a liar. But if you did rise from the dead, you, Jesus, are the truth. When you move to a new town, oftentimes the best place to meet people is in the church community. We are Grace Community Church, located in New Canaan, Connecticut. We are a Bible-based, non-denominational church. My name is Stuart Keneckley, and I'm one of the pastors at Grace Community Church. I'd like to invite you to one of our services. We have a 9am, a 10am, and a 4.30pm. Check us out more online at www.gracecommunity.info and hope to see you there. Grace Community Church www.gracecommunity.info Grace Community Church www.gracecommunity.info