The Case for Christ

Karen and I went to hear Lee Strobel tonight at church.  We remembered hearing Lee speak in 89 --91 at Willow Creek in Barrington when we lived in Chicago.  He gave a great talk tonight about his journey from being an outspoken Atheist to an outspoken Christian.  He started his talk tonight by saying that Christianity really boils down to one question:

Did Jesus die for our sins and rise from the dead?

This can be summarized by the word Execution.  Did an execution of Jesus take place?  Atheists and Christians agree that there was a man named Jesus and that he was indeed killed on a cross.  There is also clear evidence and agreement from both sides of the argument that he was dead.  He wasn’t put in the tomb alive and somehow recovered.  He died which brings us to the fundamental tenet of Christianity that Jesus died for our sins and on the 3^rd day rose again.

Early accounts of his rise from the dead.  It has been shown over time that legends take at least two generations to be formed.  In other words, if it is going to become known that I am 6’5” tall and I once was the strongest man on earth, it would take at least two generations for this legend to be created and be accepted as fact.  If someone in my generation or my kids generation or my grandkids generation made this up, there would be people alive that would be able to say that I was never 6’5” tall and would stop the legend from continuing.  Jesus’ death and resurrection was talked about immediately after his death by people who were alive when Jesus was alive and still alive after he rose.  In fact, early churches adopted a creed from the Apostle Paul.

Remember that the Apostle Paul was a devout Jew and a heavy persecutor of the Church.  The creed that he wrote in 1 Cor. 15:3-4 is
“For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,”

The reason that this creed is important is that the early Christian churches recited this and believed this to be true.  It is said that this creed was passed to the Christian churches as early as 2-5 years after Jesus’ death.  Again, think in terms of giant Tim.  Is it possible that a legend about how big and strong I was could start as early as 2-5years after my death and NOT be true. 

Empty Tomb  The undisputed reality is that the tomb was empty.  One thing that proves it was empty is that the guards immediately tried to blame someone for taking the body of Jesus.  If the tomb was NOT empty, they would have nothing to defend.

Eye Witnesses.  There are many eye witness accounts of Jesus’ resurrection that are recorded and talked about almost immediately after his death, resurrection, and eventual ascension to heaven.  In fact, it is documented that over 515 individuals witnessed Jesus alive after his crucifixion. 

It is amazing that there is so much evidence supporting the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. 

Crazy Solutions to our problems

Tell me if this is a Republican or Democrat view.  I'm not sure, but I know we need to get serious about fixing our problems.  Here's what I think we should do:

1.       Raise taxes by creating more tiers above $500K and $1mil and $100 mil.

2.       Treat Capital Gains and Dividends and Interest the same as income.  Too many very rich people don't pay what they could because of investment income being treated differently.

3.       Cut Defense by A LOT!!

4.       Cut Welfare by A LOT – make people work.  We have welfare generations.  Get crazy and penalize people on welfare when they have more kids rather than award them.  How – make it simple.  If you are on welfare and have another kid, your welfare payment goes down.  But, if you give up your baby at adoption and have drug tests that prove you were off drugs and alcohol during the pregnancy, give the woman a bonus.  (yes, fanatical, but we need to do crazy things)

5.       Cut Social Security – no increases for 5 years.  No ifs, ands or buts.  Make it "means tested" so that people who don't need social security don't get it.

6.       Cut Medicare by a lot – why do people with a bunch of money get medicare when they get a certain age.

7.       Let private markets dictate pay for public employees – they are paid too much.  Disallow unions for government works.  They are not fair.  Here's why.  If I am in the UAW and work at Ford, my union leadership has to fight hard for my pay and benefits, but they also know that if they push too hard they could ultimately make Ford non-competitive forcing them out of business.  As such, we have seen private sector unions offer concessions in recent years.  On the flip side, government works have no customer that can choose.  Therefore, they don't need to worry about their employer going out of business and only negotiate to get more without any thought or conseration to what the customer wants. 

8.       Invest a lot in roads and all infrastructure.

9.       Invest in charter schools.

10.   Find a way to reward people who move economic classes.  I don’t know what this means or how to do it, but people that can grow up in a terrible environment and turn out ok should be cheered for and rewarded.  Instead, we reward welfare moms!

11.   Cut more and more government funded social programs, but allow more than a 1 to 1 deduction for charity contributions.  Here’s the reality.  Locally run charities that aren’t saddled with all of these government rules make better use of the money that they have because they know that next year, Joe or Sue may give their money elsewhere.  If we can further encourage people to give to local charities, much of the government can disappear and resources will go where they are needed and where people want them to go.  A lot of giving is done because of the deduction, but make it 1.5 x and we'll see giving go up.  The tax revenue lost can be replaced by the cuts made to the programs. 

I'll write more on some of these at a later time.

Budget Deficit -- Raise Revenue or Cut Services

It really is crazy that both parties are being so ridiculous with their so-called proposals to solve the debt crisis.  Obama and the Democrats think we can keep spending and just tax the top 1 or 2% more.  Equally bad is that Ryan and the Republicans think we can cut spending without touching defense, social security, or medicare and they don't want to raise revenue.

Come on!

We have to raise taxes and cut spending. 

Here's a good video of David Stockman.

http://www.bloomberg.com/video/69402400/