adam-morgan Today a new member has joined the team – me. I guess that would now make us a “quadrinity”?

I’d like to start by stating my official position when it comes to Christianity which can be best described using the words of Gregory Koukl:

I am a follower of Jesus Christ. I have been influenced deeply by the teachings of an ancient teacher named Jesus of Nazareth. And as I began reading Jesus, I came to the conviction, as I considered what He said, that He actually got it right. That His understanding of the way the world is was accurate. That He saw things the way they really were.

I became a Christian for one reason and one reason only. I did not become a Christian because Jesus will solve my problems; He hasn’t. I did not become a Christian because it would make me happy; Jesus has not made me happy. I did not become a Christian so that I would have a wonderful abundant life. In my sense of abundance, that hasn’t happened.

I became a Christian because of one particular reason, and one reason only. Because Jesus is the Truth. Period. Whether I like it or not, doesn’t change it. Whether I like what Jesus does – with whatever God does with my life – is insignificant and inconsequential. It is a lot better to be a sorry Christian than a happy fool. Because what you get from being a Christian lasts forever. But what you get from being a happy fool lasts for a little while. Ultimately happy fools are going to have to pay the price.

But is this just because I believe it? And do I just believe this because it suits me?. No! I believe because it’s True! It isn’t that I choose what I like; I don’t like Christianity, I like Pantheism better, that’s much more fun. But there’s one problem with Pantheism. It’s not True.

I could go my whole life believing something else like that and sooner or later I’ll have to face God and say, “yeah I’ve been a Pantheist, but now I guess I got to be a Theist. Now I’ve got to believe in You ’cause, there you are…with a sword!…ok whatever you say, what do you want me to do?” and He will say “Depart from me, you who do iniquity, I never knew you”.

I don’t want that.

For most of my life I was what you might call an apathetic agnostic. I’d had my brushes with Christianity but nothing came of them. I sort of believed in God but I just didn’t care. Not until I was about 30 did this change. At that point in my life I was exposed to some Young Earth Creation evidence and started to look at the world through Biblical glasses. I guess you could say that this was the point at which God sent me the Holy Spirit because from that point on I have been understanding Truth in a 1 Cor 2:12-14 kind of way.

1Cor 2:12-14

“Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God, which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words. But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised.”

It wasn’t really an “ah-ha” moment or a sudden realisation that Christianity was the way and that the Bible accurately describes the world in which we live. For me it was gradual. The information from “Answers in Genesis” on creation and young earth evidence hooked me in and convinced me that what we find in the world is explained in the Bible, and it makes sense. Since then my interest has moved away from creation apologetics to big picture apologetics, philosophy and other religions/cults.

Initially writing on Duane’s Blog “Duane’s Mind”, I have now accepted an invitation to contribute to the Aristophrenium and will, like my bio says, contribute mostly with material I have discovered rather than original material from the depths of my minds ponderings. While I will be posting on general theology, you may notice that I will be majoring in other religions and cults. I have posted in the past on Catholicism, Jehovah’s Witnesses and touched on the eastern religions of Hinduism and Buddhism. So I will redress these here for my new audience. Mormonism is on my to-do list so stay tuned. Or if there are any specific cults or religions that you want info on, then feel free to ask and I’ll look into it. I should be able to give some hints or some direction to more information if not a comprehensive response.

I look forward to interacting with you with regard to the Truth and the depthless mercy and grace of  Jesus Christ, our Lord

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