In reply to the August 22 letter from Jake Hjorth—as a former priest and minister, who found the Bible an interesting document, it is no wonder that you are now an avowed atheist who believes that there is no God.
You state your perspective that Paul, and the Bible, teach that Christ’s death on the cross is foolish, (2) it must be true, and (3) believing this divine foolishness is the only way to salvation!
The atheist takes words like “foolishness” out of context to misrepresent what the Bible says. Paul’s words (1 COR 1:18) are “the preaching of the cross, to them that perish is foolishness.” Those that perish are unbelievers and atheists who claim by science, reason and logic that no one has ever risen from the dead.
Paul’s preaching of the cross was what he had personally witnessed: Jesus alive, crucified and died. Then God raised Jesus to life again after three days! Paul saw Him later.
Did Jesus die on the Cross? Written evidence says he did. To be sure that Jesus was dead, a soldier stuck a spear in his body, and blood and water rushed out, and medically speaking when the heart stops, blood and water separate.
Was he laid in a tomb? There are four written accounts of at least two men and three or more women who prepared his body and laid him in the tomb.
Did Jesus become alive again? Again the written accounts say He was touched and talked to by over 500 people. It is recorded that these 500 men went throughout the world telling others what they witnessed. The majority of these men were tortured and killed yet they maintained to their very end, that God and His Son Jesus are real—they exist forever!
Men will not die for a lie and the results of their witness produced the Christian faith, which had progressively made the world a better place for over 2000 years.
Atheists can only cling to their belief that these documents are a fraud and their worldlywisdom, which the Bible calls “foolishness!”
Actually the Bible is God’s love letter to all His sons and daughters on earth. As the song goes “Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so.” Jesus tells us that God would have everyone of us call Him Abba, which in Hebrew means Daddy, and there can be no more tender, loving relationship in a family, then what is expressed by this word.
My salutation, Jake, is may God continue to bless the United States of America, for in this county everyone can choose what to believe and who to be with as family, forever.
Chuck Flickinger
Hovland
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