A Question I Had To Answer!

A Question I Had To Answer!

http://tinyurl.com/A-Question-To-AnswerWelcome to this SBG Cast on the Spiritual Path. As we’ve said before, this is the most sensitive and personal path we walk, and we must each be thoughtful as we stay true to our beliefs, while not being disrespectful or contentious to those who don’t share them. In my walk down this path, I have struggled for years with the question “What do I do with Jesus?” Christianity today has been almost subdivided into what I think of as “Cultural Christianity” versus “Evangelical Christianity”. Let me explain.

By the simple virtue of the fact that I was born in the late 20th century, in the middle part of the United States, it was a high probability that I would be born into a Christian home environment. Thus, from a very early age, I was raised with Christian, or even one might say, Judeo-Christian values. These values were largely shared by the society at large and had formed the foundation of “the American Experience”. As the turmoil of the 1960’s progressed through the 1970’s, we saw a resurgence of traditional Christian values arise in the 1980’s. Groups like the Christian Coalition, The Moral Majority and others rose up to capture the minds and hearts of millions of Americans. But what really caught their heart? Was it the traditional culture values found in our Judeo-Christian tradition, or was it the reality of Jesus, to whom we so readily assign the title of Christ? In my walk, it would be true if I said there is much of the traditional Judeo-Christian tradition that I like. I like having a moral compass. I like our children having boundaries. I like culturally the melting pot that was America more than the Patch-work Quilt that America is becoming. So it was comfortable for me to be a “cultural Christian” during much of my life.

But a question kept begging at me, “What about Jesus?” As a cultural Christian, I didn’t worry much about Jesus’ true deity. I mea
I can go to church, sit in the right pew, know the right versus, and sing the right hymns, but does that happen because I’ve understood Jesus claim to be God? Here was my question simply stated. If Jesus really is God; if the claims he made of his own deity are true, than in many ways, what else matters other than that? This is the purest of Boolean mathematical questions. Yes, or No. Was Jesus God? If he is, then everything we read in the Scriptures is by default true. If he’s not, than it calls into question all of the Scriptures. It’s really that simple.

And fundamentally to me, if Jesus is God, then the salvation plan he offers is truly all that matters. You see, if it is true, simply because someone doesn’t believe it doesn’t make it not true. So the only real question of importance any of us face is “What will you do with Jesus”. Will you accept him as God, or simply view him as a historical figure, and perhaps a wise teacher. For me, on my path, I came to believe through study that Jesus is God, the one and only Son of God, who lived, was crucified, and did rise from the dead. I’ve published some of my thoughts on this in my E-Book, A Personal Spiritual Journey, and I continue to build my knowledge. The more I know, the more I believe.

I want to end this SBG Cast with a re-assertion that we are an open community and we welcome all faiths. This SBG Cast, and indeed all of the SBG Casts in the Spiritual Path are simply my path, with choices. However, simply by virtue of me holding my beliefs, I hope that it won’t stop a dialogue if your beliefs differ. This lack of civil discourse is growing exponentially in our nation and it is serving to create problems that we may not be able to solve.

I’m Steve Beaman and thanks for listening.