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I lost both my parents last year to cancer. Both were Christians, and so am I. I know many people find Christianity and the subject of faith to be uncomfortable, even offensive. But that's because the Christian message _is_ offensive. It makes claims that exclude all other options, that evil is real and that we are responsible for it. To me, either the message is true or it isn't. There is no grey. Either Jesus Christ was a liar, a lunatic, a legend, or He is Lord God Almight. Penn Jillette, the famous atheist and half of Penn and Teller had it right, that if we removed all the scientific research in the world we would be able to rebuild it all, but religions would be all different. I agree with him, and so does the Bible. It says that God reached down to us, delivered messages in ways that statistically rule out purely human effort, and gave us a choice to trust Him or not (have a look at http://thebibleproject.com) . In the end, everyone's going to get what they want (if you want Jesus Christ you get him, if you don't you won't). That's why for my Dad and I, we both had to be convinced that the Bible was not simply human in origin. Whatever your view, I can only speak to my own experience. The loss of my mom September 1st, 2015 to double-hit lymphoma was very, very painful (she was 68). But in the midst of the pain was a hope and peace as explained in Philippians 4:4-9 (http://bit.ly/phil4_4-9). Then, unexpectedly 120 days later, my dad died from lung cancer (age 72), leaving my brothers and sisters and I with a property and 47 years of marriage and memories for us to sort through and deal with. We are all going to die. The question is not if but when. To put off the discussion about what happens after you die is to deny reality itself, and telling others not to have that discussion or that their position is stupid or foolish is really dumb. Oh, and in case you think the Christian message is foolish, the Bible agrees with you that it is http://bit.ly/1cor1_18-25 |