AlwaysLoved
11-21-2013, 12:09 PM
I heard a comment by someone who said apologetics has the purpose of filling the potholes along the way rather than being the ultimate end of spiritual life.
On page 566 of The Apologetics Study Bible, Craig J. Hazen wrote, "Compare, for instance, Mormonism, Buddhism, and Christianity on the critical question of what is ultimately real. Mormon scripture teaches that ultimate reality is material or physical and that even God and spirits are material objects whose constituent matter has existed for all eternity [similar to atheism with a spiritual twist to infinite regress of cause and effects].
"Mahayana Buddhists believe that ultimate reality is emptiness (sunyata) or beinglessness (nisvabhava) - no gods, no matter, no spirit, no self" [Very impersonal!].
"Christians, by contrast, see ultimate reality in God, who is an eternal, personal [and relational], triune Being who created all there is - both physical and nonphysical - from nothing [or as I like to say out of Himself]. By any measure these are dramatic differences.
"Jesus Christ is a radical figure in the history of the great religious traditions in that he is the only leader who claimed to be the one eternal God in human flesh.
"Jesus did not leave us with 'blind faith'.... He established the truth of His claims objectively through His glorious resurrection from the dead - the central miracle of human history.
On page 566 of The Apologetics Study Bible, Craig J. Hazen wrote, "Compare, for instance, Mormonism, Buddhism, and Christianity on the critical question of what is ultimately real. Mormon scripture teaches that ultimate reality is material or physical and that even God and spirits are material objects whose constituent matter has existed for all eternity [similar to atheism with a spiritual twist to infinite regress of cause and effects].
"Mahayana Buddhists believe that ultimate reality is emptiness (sunyata) or beinglessness (nisvabhava) - no gods, no matter, no spirit, no self" [Very impersonal!].
"Christians, by contrast, see ultimate reality in God, who is an eternal, personal [and relational], triune Being who created all there is - both physical and nonphysical - from nothing [or as I like to say out of Himself]. By any measure these are dramatic differences.
"Jesus Christ is a radical figure in the history of the great religious traditions in that he is the only leader who claimed to be the one eternal God in human flesh.
"Jesus did not leave us with 'blind faith'.... He established the truth of His claims objectively through His glorious resurrection from the dead - the central miracle of human history.