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Contents Page 3
4you.ie Magazine Issue VI
Islam -The Inside Story
Page 10-11 Science -Mind over Matter
The Top 10 Do you know the Ten Commands ?
Page 12
by Davood
Page 4-5
by John Blanchard
by Mike Tardive
Page 6-7
The Girl & The Lion
Page 8-9
Sky High in Dublin
by Ann Marie McGuire by Mark Ryan
& Resources
Page 13-14 What is God Really Like?
by Billy Hamilton
Page 15
From Lithuania With Love by Simona Fishel
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About Us We would like to take a few moments to
introduce ourselves. This magazine comes to you from an Irish Association of Bible-believing churches, called Aontas (www.aontas.ie ), who come together to cooperate in joint efforts such as this magazine. We are Christians who believe in such things as the Holy Trinity, the virgin birth and Divinity of the Lord Jesus, the sacrificial death of Jesus on Calvary and His subsequent glorious Resurrection.
Faith Alone
God the Father in His awesome mercy gives
Scripture Alone
Grace Alone
Christ Alone
Through the perfect life of the Lord Jesus and
because of His death on the Cross to take the penalty for the sins of every believer, the Lord Jesus has made a full and complete provision for the salvation of all who will come to Him seeking forgiveness and new life. Therefore, the Lord
4you.ie Magazine Issue VI
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Jesus Christ is the only one to whom we should look to for salvation. Acts chapter 4 verse 12““Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.””
Many of the churches who distribute the magazine are part of Aontas and some are not, but we all share a common faith in the teachings of the Bible. Here are some of the beliefs we share, together with the ones listed above.
God’s Holy Spirit so it is therefore the only reliable place for us to turn to in order to find the knowledge of God’s will for our lives. The Bible is the final authority for morals, ethics and Christian living. 2 Timothy chapter 3 verse 16, 17“All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.”
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by Paudge Mulvihill
complete forgiveness and an assurance of heaven to all who by Faith Alone, and not trusting in their own good works, come trusting solely in Christ for forgiveness and eternal life. Romans chapter 3 verse 28“Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law.”
We believe that the Bible is inspired by
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Grace is God’s attitude to us sinners in which
He does for us what we do not deserve and in us what we could never achieve. – Therefore salvation is by Grace Alone, through Faith Alone, in Christ Alone. Ephesians chapter 2 verses 8, 9“For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.” (Eph 2:8-9 NKJV)
To the Glory of God Alone
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ecause God is the splendid and majestic God of heaven and earth and because of His spectacular mercy towards us through Christ, all men ought to live their lives to magnify and glorify Him alone. Romans chapter 11verse 36 For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen.
4you.ie Magazine Published in Ireland by AONTAS © MMXI Editor Paudge Mulvihill
aontas
Correspondence to: 4you Magazine, 72 Rowan Drive, Castlebar, Co. Mayo Phone: 094 9023702 Email: info@4you.ie Web: www.4you.ie Design: Drinan Arthouse, Cork, Ireland www.drinan.ie Printer: PrintbyDesign Ltd. Publisher: www.aontas.ie
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My name is Davood and I grew up as
a Muslim in a Muslim family in a Muslim country. I was taught al-Qur’ān (The Koran) from birth, and made to memorize prayers and various passages in Arabic, a language I couldn’t understand as Arabic is not my mother tongue. I repeated the prayers 5 times a day, but understood very little of what I was saying. It was the same with most other aspects of my religion; I simply said and did what was expected of me. As I grew older my prayers and religious observances lost all meaning and I began to look for meaning, purpose and joy in other things. I had a good education and job, but turned more and more to drugs and alcohol to fill up the emptiness. Things only got worse, until one day I saw myself in the mirror and couldn’t even recognize my own face! I was only able to keep my job because my employer was a Christian who was willing to forgive me, and wanted to help me. I set aside the Bible he gave me, opening it only occasionally as I continued in my misery and deterioration.
Qur’an Chapter 4, vs 47 –
O you people of the book! (Jews and Christians) Believe in what has now revealed, confirming what was already with you. But gradually he changed his message and began disputing essential truths in the Bible: Qur’an Chapter 4, vs 157-158
Luke’s Gospel 6:27-36 – “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. Whoever hits you on the cheek offer to him the other also… And just as you want men to treat you, treat them in the same way… And if you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them… Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.”
They boast, “We killed Christ Jesus the son of Mary, the Messenger of Allah”, my room, I asked Jesus, called Isa Messiah but they killed him not, nor crucified him, Luke 23, vs 44 -Jesus’ prayer for those in the Koran, to forgive me and help me but so it was made to appear to them, and who were putting Him to death – the way He helped so many others…and “Father, forgive them; for they do I fell asleep. Jesus heard and answered my those who differ therein are full of doubts, not know what they are doing.” prayer! The peace that was there the next with no certain knowledge, but only conjecmorning, and the fact that a day or two lat- ture to follow, for of a surety they killed him er my sister asked me how I had gone from not. Nay, Allah raised him up into Him- Matthew’s Gospel 26:52 Jesus said, “All who live by the looking so old and worn out to looking self; and Allah is Exalted in Power, Wise. young and fresh again, assured me that Jesword, will die by the sword.” Finally, one night as I sat in desperation in
sus is indeed the LORD, and from that moment on He has been my Saviour as well.
Because Islam is constantly in the news these days, I’m often asked what the differences are between my “birth religion” and being a Christian. I find the easiest way to answer is to compare what Mohammad, Allah’s messenger, said and what the LORD Jesus said and did. In the beginning, Mohammad began teaching that Jews, Christians and Muslims all believe in the same God, as these verses in the Koran indicate: Qur’an Chapter 3, vs 84 –
We believe in Allah. And in what has been revealed to us and what was revealed to Abraham, Ishmael, Isaac, Jacob and the Tribes, and in the books given to Moses, Jesus, and the prophet, from their Lord: we make no distinction between one and another among them. www.4you.ie
And again, Allah instructs Mohammad how to treat “Kafirs” (those who are unbelievers and/or oppose “Allah and his Messenger”):
Of course, the only way to see the whole picture clearly is to compare the Bible and the Koran yourself.
Qur’an Chapter 33, vs 60
They (kafirs) will be cursed, and wherever they are found, they will be seized and murdered. It was Allah’s same practice with those who came before them, and you will find no change in Allah’s ways. These few verses highlight the nature and direction Mohammad’s life and message took, and explains something of what’s happening in the world today. Now compare them with these words spoken by the Lord Jesus, and the difference will be immediately obvious.
It is the love of God that the Lord Jesus lived and preached that makes Him unique, and it’s my personal experience of His love that encourages me to live for Him, and tell others about Him wherever I go. My sincere prayer is that all who read this will be helped, and that you will come to know the Jesus Christ as your personal LORD and Saviour. 4you.ie Magazine Issue VI
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an the Ten Commandments get anyone to heaven? Just have a look in the Bible and see if it is possible. If you are honest, you will have to agree that it is impossible! Only God’s Son can get you there!
Exodus 20 And God spoke all these words, saying: “I am the LORD your God...
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“You shall have no other gods before Me.”
Who or what is your god? How do you know? Generally, what motivates you and influences you the most is your god. For some it is money, for others it is sensual pleasures, for others it is popularity. Many worship self, as they will do whatever is necessary to make themselves happy. God said that letting anything besides Him influence or motivate you is putting other gods before Him, and this is the sin of idolatry. He created you, and He demands and deserves your whole-hearted worship.
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“You shall not make for yourself a carved image—any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath…you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God.”
To pray to a statue, picture or relic of any kind is also idolatry. To pray to a physical representation of God is violating the second commandment. God does not want you to use these so-called “helps.”
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“You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain.”
This is a far too common violation of the Law of God. Many do this without knowing that they were committing the sin of blasphemy! To use the name “God” or “Jesus Christ” in an expression of anger, frustration or surprise is offending the God who created you. If you are not talking to Him or about Him, yet you are using His name, you are using it in vain. He says here that in the Day of Judgement, unless you get your sins forgiven now, you will be declared guilty. Your insulting of God in this way will not be overlooked.
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“ Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labour and do all your work…For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.”
God says you have 6 days to do what you want and need to do. One day of the seven is His. He wants you to keep a day for Him and His worship, not to do whatever you fancy.
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“ Honour your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the LORD your God is giving you.”
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Treating our parents with respect, no matter how old they are, or how old we are, is commanded by God. As adults, we may no longer have to obey them. But we must always honour them in our speech and treatment. In a day when children are not required to honour their parents, we are seeing the wholesale disrespect for authority reaping its bitter fruit.
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“You shall not murder.”
Are you thinking, “At least I am okay on this one”? But are you okay? Jesus, preaching on this commandment, said, “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder, and whoever murders will be in danger of the judgment.’ But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment. And whoever says to his brother, ‘Raca! (empty head)’ shall be in danger of the council. But whoever says, ‘You fool!’ shall be in danger of hell fire. (Matthew 5:21,22)
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The Bible teaches that God has created sex for the enjoyment and oneness of those who are married. Therefore, to have sex outside of marriage makes a person an adulterer. Again, when preaching about this command, Jesus said, “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” The heart is again in focus as to have any lustful thoughts about a person not your husband or wife is committing adultery in your heart. The Bible says, “as a person thinks in his heart, so is he.” You are what you think! Can any say they are innocent here? Can any say, “I am such a good person God will certainly let me into Heaven”? My friend, your fanciful thoughts about yourself do not line up with God’s clear revelation to you. Be honest, we are now on the 7th commandment and can you really say you are a “good” person?
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8. “You shall not steal.”
To take anything that does not belong to you, no matter how small, is to make yourself a thief.
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“You shall not bear false witness against your neighbour.”
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The heart is in focus again. To have excessive desires after anything that belongs to someone else is a sin of discontent against God.
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To hate or to hurt or to murder one’s character with a bitter heart or unkind words is in the eyes of Jesus Christ akin to murder. You see, with God, it is always a heart issue. And if you have sinned with your heart, by anger or saying unkind words, then you are guilty of heart murder.
“You shall not commit adultery.”
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“You shall not covet your neighbour’s house; you shall not covet your neighbour’s wife…nor anything that is your neighbour’s.”
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To lie or deceive in any way is sin. How many murders does it take to be a murderer? Just one. How many lies to make a liar? Just one.
So - What do I do?
…Jesus came to Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel.” (Mark 1:14-16)
1. Repent. Be willing to turn from your own sinful way, looking to Him for the spiritual strength to be able to do so. 2. Believe that Jesus hung on a cross suffering the wrath
of God for your sins, thus taking the penalty for the sins of every believer in all ages. Jesus says, “the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out.” And “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes on Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” We cannot make ourselves right with God by keeping the commandments because we are not able to keep them consistently enough. Therefore we need to be rescued. The commandments are the mirror of our souls that show us our need for God’s forgiveness—and our need for His life. Jesus also said, “I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.” Now that you have looked into the mirror, will you say “I don’t like the way I look, it must not be me”, or will you repent? God does not want you to try harder because you will never make it on your own. He wants you to trust in what Jesus accomplished when He died on the cross. Will you choose death or abundant life? Repent and believe today for the forgiveness of your sins!
“Now choose life, so that you and your children may live” -Deuteronomy 30:19 4you.ie Magazine Issue VI
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[ l\ ANIMAL HISTORY SERIES
LIONS IN EUROPE & BIBLlCAL TIMES
Did you know that the mighty lion once roamed free around
Europe and the Middle East, extending even to China? The domain of the ‘European Lion’ (Panthera Leo Europaea) ranged from the Iberian Peninsula, across southern France, Italy and east to northern Greece. Unfortunately, it was hunted to extinction by the Greeks and Romans who loved the blood thirsty games of the Arena, where both beast and gladiator met death for the sake of public entertainment. Many early christians also met a martyr’s death by being fed to lions at the Roman Arena. The European Lion became totally extinct in the first century AD. In modern times, only the African Lion continues to exist in the wiild across Sub-Saharan Africa with an estimated population of 30,000 lions. (A small population of 300 Asiatic lions live in one location in Northern India and some Barbary Lions have been discovered in various zoos worlwide). The African Lion population has been in sharp decline in recent decades and is now on the IUCN Threatened species list as ‘vulnerable’.
Lion Facts -Did You Know?
• Lions can have a lifespan of 14 years in the wild and can live for over 20 years in captivity (zoos/parks) • Lions are very sociable animals and often live in a collective group called a ‘pride’ • Adult males can reach the height of 1.22 m and be 270 kg in weight. • The first lion to be the mascot for the famous MGM Film Studios logo was born in Dublin Zoo in 1919 and was called ‘Slats’!
LionS in The Bible
As they were once common in Israel and across the Middle East, lions are easily recognised as a symbol of strength, power, majesty & ferocity in the Bible. The most famous mention of lions is in the Book of Daniel, where Daniel is thrown into a Lions Den. In the New Testament, Jesus is refered to as the “Lion of the Tribe of Judah” (in Revelation 5) because He is the Messiah (deliverer) who would come from the Jewish people to successfully rescue people, throughout history from our slavery - slavery to sin & selfishness (and the separation from God that results.)
“Do not weep! See, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has triumphed. He is able to open the scroll and its seven seals.”
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Mark Ryan GOES
SKY HIGH
From DUBLIN To The Dubliner Mark Ryan looked to alcohol and drugs to escape his problems until one day he hit rock bottom in the Bronx, New York
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come from Raheny in Dublin's north side. When I was a young boy my parents split up and my dad left. This had a devastating impact on my life. At night as a young boy I would cry myself to sleep in secret praying to God to bring back my daddy. As the days, weeks, months and years passed I stopped praying to God and I stopped crying. In my teenage years I became very angry. Growing up I loved Gaelic football and hurling. The mentors in the local club, Naomh Barrog, were like fathers to me. When I started to drink in my early teens my life began to spiral out of control. I got kicked out of school and began to drink more and more. I shook my fist at God and the world. And often in a drunken stupor, I would curse my creator. My dad had moved to New York in the early eighties; I hadn't seen him in years. So I decided at eighteen to try and make a new life for myself by going to New York. My dad lived in an Irish neighbourhood in the Bronx and there were about twenty Irish bars in walking distance from where we lived. My drinking went from bad to worse. I couldn't hold
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down a job. I was always getting into fights. I was very bitter and angry towards my dad. And this oozed out especially when we drank together.
Drink wasn't enough for me any more and cocaine was
freely available. So I began snorting coke and it wasn't long before I started smoking crack. The weight fell off me and I looked like death. I would often go on binges that lasted for days. I was lying, cheating and stealing to get my drink and drugs. I hated what I had become, and often thought about suicide. One night I was so out of it and upset I took a blade to myself and just started cutting. I had also fallen foul of some of the ex-paramilitaries in the neighbourhood after trying to burn down one of their bars. I was more or less told, anymore trouble out of me and I would be shot. One night after a two or three day binge on crack I was in my dad's apartment looking for something to steal. I caught a glimpse of myself in the bathroom mirror www.4you.ie
From Dublin to the Bronx & Back to slag years ago for being a Bible basher. He invited me to a home Bible study expecting, me to say no. But I jumped at the offer. I loved going to the Bible study. The people were very friendly and all seemed to have a lovely peace about them. The first statement from the Gospel of John that really got my attention was when Jesus said “I am the bread of life, he who comes to me will never go hungry and he who believes in me will never go thirsty” John 6:35. To me Jesus seemed to be saying that I could find peace and contentment in Him. I went along for a few more weeks and each week was fascinated at what Jesus said.
... cried out, “If there is a God up there, please show me the way out of this mess.”
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and couldn't believe what I saw. My face was sunken in from not eating. Blackened rings encircled my eyes which had the look of death. I knew I couldn't go on much longer. In desperation I fell to my knees and cried out, “If there is a God up there, please show me the way out of this mess.” In that moment I stopped shaking my fist at God and cursing Him, and now I begged Him for mercy. God heard my cry. And within a week I was back in Dublin.
Miraculous things began to happen. Doors began to
open. I got a place in St. Michael's detox unit in Beaumont when normally there would be a six month waiting list. After that I went to the Rutland Centre, one of the best rehabs in the country at the time. Normally it would cost €3000, but I got in for nothing. God was preparing me for an encounter with His Son, Jesus. I was clean and sober for a year, going to counselling and AA and NA meetings. But I became more and more unhappy just being clean and sober. Surely I thought, there must be more to life that this. God's timing was perfect. Just as I contemplated going back to drinking, I bumped into a Christian who I used
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t dawned on me that God offered me eternal life as a gift. There was nothing I could do to earn it. Christ did it all. That day I put my hand in the hand of the Good Shepherd. And He has been with me on this adventure ever since. I got married to Emily, my beautiful wife on May 16th 1997. And we have two beautiful children, Mark and Amelia. The Lord has brought great healing in my heart, and has given me a life beyond my wildest dreams. He also brought great healing with my dad who died this year. That's another story for another day. “O Lord my God, I called to you for help and you healed me. O Lord you brought me up from the grave, you spared me from going down into the pit.” Buiochas Le Dhia (Thank you God).
Mark
THE IRISH IN AMERICA: • 43,500 People of Irish descent live in the Bronx • in the 2009 U.S. Community Survey, 36,278,332
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Americans—Approx. 11.9% of the total US population— claimed Irish ancestry. • The Most Irish American town is Milton, MA with 43% of residents being of Irish descent.
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*2009 American Community Survey
Bron x and back
owever, my whole world fell apart when, after the Bible study one night, one of the lads asked me a simple question. “Mark, if you died tonight and stood before the Lord, do you think would you get in to heaven?” I went home and thought about this. The more I thought about it the more I got upset. My sin overwhelmed me. Nothing I could do now or in the future could ever change the bad things that I did in the past. Jesus could never accept me because of my past. He was holy and righteous and I was sinful. It was as simple as that. I wept bitterly. After much crying I picked up a Gideons New Testament which someone had given me. I turned to the back and there was a statement that caught my eye. It said, “Confessing to God that I am a sinner and believing that the Lord Jesus Christ died for my sins on the cross and was raised for my justification, I now repent of my sins and receive and confess him as my Lord and Saviour”. It dawned on me that God knew all about the life that I had lived and all the terrible things that I had done but in spite of this God sent His Son the Lord Jesus Christ to save sinners like me. By paying the debt that I owe with His life, He was my blood substitute. I broke the commandments, Jesus paid the price. I was overjoyed. There was a little place where I could sign my name & the date which I did. The 22nd of February, 1993.
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M IND OVER M A T T E R
Richard Dawkins is possibly the best-known atheist in the world, partly because of his best-selling book The God Delusion, in which he launches a bitter attack on religion of every kind. He gets so much time and space on the media that unthinking readers, viewers and listeners may assume that he must be right in what he says — but exactly the opposite is the case. Here are some examples:
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Author John Blanchard examines the many claims of Richard Dawkins and asks ...
Sc ien c e
He is wrong about science. On the television programme Soul of Britain he said that science had taken the place of religion in explaining ‘why we are here, what is the origin of life, where did the world come from, what life is all about’. Strong stuff — but not a word of it is true! Science is the ongoing process of discovering truth about the natural world, but its reach is strictly limited and it gives none of the explanations Dawkins suggests. It cannot explain the meaning of the universe; it can only speculate about the origin of life; it cannot tell us why we have something instead of nothing; and asked elsewhere about the purpose of life, Dawkins replied, ‘Well there is no purpose, and to ask what it is is a silly question.’
What Went Wrong?
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Mind Over Matter?
E v o l u ti o n
He is wrong about evolution. He pins his worldview to the theory that given limitless time evolution by natural selection gives us the entire variety of living organisms and species we now have. Yet for there to be natural selection there has to be something to select! — and Dawkins cannot tell us what the ‘something’ is, or where it came from.
Religion
He is wrong about religion. He says that religion is ‘very largely an enemy of truth’ and the root of most of the world’s evil. Nobody can deny that religious people sometimes do bad things, nor can we sensibly defend all the things done in the name of religion. Yet to claim that religion has been responsible for more evil than Nazism, Marxist-Leninist Communism and other atheistic movements including those that left 70 million dead in Mao Tse-tung’s China and 1.3 million dead in Pol Pot’s Cambodia is ridiculous. As Alistair McGrath rightly says, ‘Dawkins is simply in denial about the darker side of atheism.’
Morality
He is wrong about morality. He says that man is gradually solving the moral problem and that ‘the progressive trend is unmistakeable and it will continue’. This is extraordinary! It says that whatever the headlines say man is gradually and inevitably getting better. Dawkins makes an even bigger mistake when he claims that we do not need God to define morality. He even goes so far as to say that in a world governed by blind physical forces ‘there is, at bottom, no design, no purpose, no evil and no good, nothing but blind, pitiless indifference’. The truth is that without God-given moral absolutes we have no way of deciding what is right or wrong, fair or unfair, just or unjust; moral choices would be on a par with choosing items from a restaurant menu. He is wrong about God. In what he calls ‘the central argument’ of The God Delusion he says that although there appears to be design in the world this is not the case. All we have is an appearance of design — and in any case, if there were design it would raise the question ‘Who designed the designer?’ It is amazing that he should lean so heavily on such a juvenile question. Men have invented thousands of ‘gods’ over the centuries, but the God of the Bible is of a different order altogether. He is ‘the eternal, God’ one who is ‘from everlasting to everlasting’. Simply put, he is uncreated — so that the question becomes, ‘Who created the uncreated God?’, and is therefore nonsense. Dawkins calls God ‘a pernicious delusion’; the fact is that he does not even grasp the nature of the God about whom he says millions of people are deluded.
H u m a n it y He is wrong about mankind He says that human beings are ‘just bytes and bytes of digital information’ and
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‘throwaway survival machines’ and that the only reason we exist (if we could call it a reason) is to pass on our genes. The Bible makes it clear that ‘God created man in his own image’, which among other things means that in contrast to every other living thing on our planet we are capable of having a living relationship with our Creator both in this life and in the life to come. Dawkins says, ‘We are all descended from what might have been something like bacteria’. But if this is the case, how did we get our unique sense of dignity, our self-consciousness, our moral dimension, our ability to review the past, assess the past and plan for the future, our aesthetic dimension or our creative skills? Are there any hints of these in bacteria?
S c rip t u r es He is wrong about the Bible. Dawkins calls the Bible, ‘Plain weird … a chaotically cobbled together anthology of disjointed documents.’ He even goes so far as to say that the only difference between The Da Vinci Code and the New Testament gospels is that ‘the gospels are ancient fiction while The Da Vinci Code is modern fiction’. This is pretty strong stuff, but we can judge how reliable he is when we read him saying that it was the apostle Paul who first came up with the idea of taking the gospel to the Gentiles, when in fact the last command Jesus gave to his disciples was to ‘make disciples of all nations’. He also says that when the gospels were written nobody knew where Jesus had been born — and that when Matthew and Luke say he had been born in Bethlehem they were just making it up! Anybody who treats Scripture in that way can be safely ignored on the subject.
Ch ris t ia n it y
He is wrong about Christianity. He calls Christian theology ‘a non-subject …devoid of coherence or content.’ Small wonder that one reviewer of The God Delusion said that reading Dawkins on theology was like hearing someone lecturing on biology when his only knowledge of the subject was The British Book of Birds!
J e s us He is wrong about Jesus. Amongst other things he says that Jesus ‘probably existed’ and that if he did there is ‘no good historical evidence that he ever thought he was divine’. Yet the evidence for Jesus’ existence is overwhelming, both in the Bible and elsewhere, and to say that he never claimed to be divine is ludicrous. Of the many places we could quote, one of the clearest is the testimony of his enemies, who wanted to stone him to death, ‘because you, being a man, make yourself God.’ (John 10:33). Has Dawkins never read this? — or has he chosen to ignore it? The God Delusion is mainly an attack on Christianity, yet virtually ignores the resurrection of Jesus, on which Christianity stands or falls. As Andrew Wilson says, to ignore the resurrection and then claim to have destroyed the Christian faith is like chasing mice out of the sitting room and then announcing that the house is free of animals while there is an elephant sitting on the sofa!
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What IS
GOD LIKE?
BillY Hamilton asks the big Question
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hat an important question! Philosophers and kids love to ask it. It is a question which lurks in the depths of our being and it has been asked in every age of man. Most people have an answer to this question and it goes something like this: “I like to think of God as…”
them about the UNKNOWN GOD. What did he tell them? Did he grovel before these ancient ‘brights’? No! He spelled out to them in clear language the God of the Bible. Let’s look at his message. He told them that—
But why should we think that we get to decide what God is like? When we construct our own god it is always a god who suits us, one who panders to our likes and dislikes. The Bible calls this ‘idol making’. God hasn’t left it to our imagination, He has introduced himself and He tells us what He is like in the pages of the Bible. When Paul the apostle (a famous New Testament Christian and writer) visited the intellectual capital of the world, Athens, and spoke to the wise men, the scholars, and the philosophers, he told
Some of those whom Paul addressed believed that the universe was just a chance combination of atoms. Paul says, No! God made it. If God made it he is bigger and greater than what he has made. So He cannot be confined to our little human concepts or ideas. If we stand in awe at this vast universe, how much more should we be in awe of the Maker of it. What a majestic being! God is not only the Maker of this universe, he also—
GOD IS THE MAKER OF ALL THINGS.
SUSTAINS IT.
He holds it all together. This means that we are completely dependent upon Him. He is the One who gives us life, breath and everything we need. We (that’s you and me!) cannot last a single hour without our Maker. He keeps us living. Many like to think that they are the masters of their own lives and destinies. How foolish! Some boast of their selfsufficiency. This is pure delusion. We think too highly of ourselves. Further, He is— THE GOD WITH NO NEEDS. God does not need us. He never gets lonely (He is the three-person God). God can get on very well without us. He doesn’t need our love or our service— that’s a privilege He gives us. He is the only being in this universe who is truly self-sufficient. But the picture of God is even bigger than this—
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GOD CALLS THE SHOTS IN HIS WORLD. He is Ruler. He is in complete control and that includes your life. For example, think about where you live and the times you live in (post-Celtic tiger times). God has determined these. God didn’t just set the world in motion and then leave it. No, he holds it together, he keeps it going. Again, we don’t live in a chance universe and we are not at the whim of cosmic forces. It is written about the Lord Jesus Christ that he is “sustaining all things by his powerful word”. Your life is included in the “all things”. This great God— IS CLOSE AT HAND. God is not distant or aloof. He is not confined to one place. He is closer than you dare to think. For some this is an intrusion for others it is immensely encouraging. How does it make you feel to know that God is near? You know that he knows everything about you. He knows the skeletons you have hidden in your mental cupboards. The soiled rags you want no one else to see. But isn’t this so encouraging? This God is near. One man wrote of his experience, ‘This poor man called, the Lord heard him; he saved him out of all his troubles’. This near God is near to rescue and save. He is only a cry away. GOD IS THE JUDGE OF THE WORLD For the well-being of society we needs laws and we need judges. It’s true, sometimes
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4you.ie Magazine Issue VI
earthly judges get it wrong. We have also heard of corrupt judges, judges who can be bought. God is not like that—he is completely fair. But judge he must. Because God is Holy and our sin is serious, He must judge. If we have broken his laws we must face his justice. This is why God cannot just forgive our sins. Justice is part of his nature and if sin is not punished, God would cease to be just, just like an earthly judge who would let people off without any punishment for their crimes. We should always remember that our day in God’s court is already fixed, the date is set, and you and I will be there. IT WILL BE THE GOD-MAN JESUS WHO WILL JUDGE. There is something truly ironic about this. Jesus himself experienced God’s judgement. Remember the terrible darkness and his cry of dereliction, ‘My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?’ He was experiencing God’s judgement. Was that not a miscarriage of justice? From the human angle, yes, because Jesus was innocent. From God’s angle, no! Because he was standing in our place, carrying our sins, just like the prophet said:
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‘ ut he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.’ This is truly great news. Jesus has taken the judgment we deserve, the punishment for our sins. We will either be saved by Jesus or judged by Jesus. There are only two options. It is either trust in Jesus’ cross work on our behalf or reject him and face his judgement. This is why Paul called on his audience to repent, to turn away from sin, and to trust in the risen Lord Jesus Christ. On the day that Paul spoke to the intelligentsia in Athens he got some interesting responses. Some sneered or burst out laughing, others wanted to hear some more on a later date and some believed in Jesus and became followers of the risen Christ. This has a contemporary ring about it. People make similar responses today. What will you do? Will you laugh? Will you search further? Will you believe in Jesus and be rescued from sin and judgement? Bible verses quoted: Acts 17:16-32. Hebrews 1:3 Psalm 34:6 Isaiah 53:5
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From Lithuania with Love
SIMONA FISHEL
Su Meile Iš Lietuvos
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to whom there is nothing impossible. And I wanted to know God like that; but no matter how hard I tried I was still the same old me. What did I need to do to have this faith for my own? My strong friends shared with me the source of their faith. As I already knew, God is one God in three persons: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. God the Father loved a sinful world and sent His Son to save it. Jesus Christ, God’s Son, willingly came and took upon Himself our sins so we could be forgiven forever. I saw how God the Father and God the Son applied to my life, but not how the Holy Spirit. Who is God the Holy Spirit?
fter coming back home to Lithuania, after our first year in Ireland, my husband and I were sitting in a small, cozy cafe sipping tea when my eyes fell upon a pile of magazines. I happen to open the one that had a special article on Lithuanians in Ireland. I wasn’t surprised at all when I read a few sentences in the first paragraph: “Most Lithuanians know this country, not as a Mecca for tourists but as a second homeland. If you go to Ireland it means you’re going there to work...” I remember the first time I went to work abroad. In 2001, only eighteen, I went straight to New York. I lived with a family who had three girls, and worked for them as an Au Pair. Adjusting to this new life and culture was very difficult. My life felt better though, when I met a couple of girls who seemed just like me: living in the same suburb, working as au pairs, and homesick. One girl, Maurisha, from Namibia and the other, Sophia, from Sweden, began spending quality time with me, sharing stories, and struggles. But most especially, we found ourselves united by our faith.
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grew up in a non-Christian family but was searching for God since childhood. My father would get drunk, arouse fights at home, beat my mother. Desperate, I would pray to God. At the age of ten, looking for further help, I became Catholic, was baptised, and took the Sacraments of First Communion. I found myself coming to the church when there was big trouble. I used to sit quietly in the darkened church, enjoying its peacefulness. Overwhelmed I would speak to God in my heart.
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However, Sophia’s and Maurisha’s faith was something special. They spoke openly about God, prayed about everything, and when they had life questions, anxieties, fears, or struggles, they read from the Bible. The few times I had attempted to read the Bible, back in Lithuania, I found it confusing. But these girls were so familiar with its pages. When they spoke about God they spoke about Him as their Heavenly Father, as their closest Friend, as the Creator of this universe
ReapingRACE Sports-fun comic strip
esus said to His disciples long ago, that it was better for Him to return to heaven after He dies for our sins, because He would give in His place, the Holy Spirit to us (John 16:7-15). The Holy Spirit would connect us to God forever. And the Holy Spirit would begin bringing sincerity to our prayers, understanding in our Bible reading, inward power to live a holy life for God’s glory, give richly God’s love into our hearts, and seal us forever in God’s almighty hands. After this important discovery I rededicated my life to God, asking Jesus Christ who had died for my sins and rose from the dead after three days, to send also His Holy Spirit into my life. Like Sophia and Maurisha, I wanted to know God personally too. Do you?
“A cheerful heart is good medicine” -Proverbs 17v22 HistorY Note: Jack Charlton (known as ‘Big Jack’) is a former English footballer and manager who was part of the England team who won the famous 1966 World Cup. In 1986 Jack Charlton was invited to be the manager of the Republic of Ireland soccer team, and led them to become the first ever Irish team to reach the World Cup quarter-finals in 1990. Look up: The Bible sometimes uses images from sport/athletics. Look up a reference to Running in Hebrews Chapter 12 verse 1.
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4you.ie Magazine Issue VI
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GLOBAL WARNING
NOT A HOPE IN HELL The roots of our problems in Ireland are not Political & Economic but are Moral & Spiritual. Each of us has individually sinned against our Creator & have little idea of the consequences this incurs in this world and in the afterlife. Rejecting Jesus Christ in this life means you will spend eternity separated from him. Jude 5 (from the Bible) states what will happen If our society rejects God’s laws & his free offer to rescue us (The Good News Message): “In a similar way, Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding towns gave themselves up to sexual immorality and perversion. They serve as an example of those who suffer the punishment of eternal fire.” There’s no hope in hell. Find hope & a future in God’s rescue plan - His son, Jesus. (More details in this magazine)
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