ChristiansUnite Forums

Revised and translated to English in 2002



Let Me Share What I Believe by  Do Le (Paul) Minh


Foreword

Before I became a Christian, I thought that Christianity was just a religion teaching people to live morally. Although I respected attempts to raise human morality, I didn’t pay attention to Christianity because many other philosophies had unsuccessfully tried to do the same. Furthermore, I was a Buddhist then and Christianity, if it only taught people to live moral lives, was no different than Buddhism or any other religion. I agreed with the common Vietnamese perspective that “all religions are good.”

Another reason I didn’t pay attention to Christianity was that I had lost faith in organized religion. Like many other people, I equated “believing in Christ” with “joining a Christian organization,” in the same manner as “believing in Buddha” meant “joining a Buddhist organization.” I presumed that, like all other religions, Christianity had a hierarchy, and the higher you climbed up the ladder, the more “enlightened” you would be. Yet after observing the behavior and attitude of some religious leaders, I was disappointed because, for the most part, they were no different than anyone else.

As I result, I doubted the value of religion. Would joining Christianity or any other religion offer me anything other than a goal of reaching the top of a manmade hierarchy? Perhaps the criteria for advancement in religious institutions are different from those of the world. In the secular world, one needs intelligence and resourcefulness; in religion, one needs morality and obedience. But at the core, the two are the same. One must exhibit certain characteristics. The result must be recognized, by which the reward such as a title is given. Furthermore, compared to looking at external behavior, it is much harder to see the hidden side of human beings, to expose tainted thoughts camouflaged beneath sweet talk. Even if we could see this hidden side of people and reward them accordingly, how does the reward of religion compare to that of the world? Are religions simply human products that subtly replace the hierarchy of the world?

I began to realize that my view of religion was harsh. I recognized that any religion has unscrupulous members and that their activities draw more attention than the good activities of sincere members. Nevertheless, religion still did not attract me.

I wanted to see religion guide people to transcend the fate of mere humanity and become god-like. To me, the ideal religion was simply a means to support, encourage, and lead people down this path. In this religion, everybody should reach this goal solely by his or her own effort and ability.

Yet with our limited abilities, how can we attain such a lofty goal? On the other hand, if we set our sights low, seeking worldly goals (such as titles in religious organizations as we discussed above), then they are not even worth trying.

For example, suppose we are taught that our good deeds are steps in a ladder leading to heaven. If heaven is really a glorious place without tears or suffering, then who can say that he has done enough good to reach it? How much is sufficient? Do we need to give a few million dollars to charity or do we only need to give some old clothes to the poor? I am afraid that if we look at our own behavior, we would doubt whether we are really worthy of living in this very world.

If you add up the good deeds, then you should subtract the bad ones. Our immoral activities are like termites eating the steps of our ladder leading to heaven, and our dirty thoughts form the quicksand beneath it. Religion that aims at lofty goals but relies on our limited abilities ultimately can only make us frustrated and bitter.

In spite of my long-held cynical view of Christianity and of religion in general, I am now writing this book, because when I learned more about Christianity, I discovered that it doesn’t teach you to live a moral life. Neither is Christianity a religious institution or a teacher showing us a way along which we must travel by our own ability. I discovered that entering Christianity is entering into a love affair, or more precisely, renewing a once-broken love affair.

CHAPTER 1
JESUS WAS NOT A GREAT MAN

Christians can now renew this once-broken love affair not because time healed the wounds, but because of a person in history who reconciled the two sides. This person, who came into the world 2000 years ago, was called Jesus.

Because of ample historical evidence recording his activities and teachings, nobody denies that Jesus was a historical figure. The most important documents are the four books written by Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Matthew and John were two of the original twelve disciples of Jesus, Mark was a student of another disciple named Peter, Luke was a doctor. These four books are an important part of the New Testament, collectively known as the Gospels. We will study these four books to find out more about Jesus.

Nobody in history had as many unique characteristics as Jesus. One was the way in which he talked about himself. Every religious leader must define himself, letting others know from where he derives his authority. Some leaders consider themselves pioneers. Others consider themselves fortunate enough to have received a special revelation from God. 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 be thirsty.”1 “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”2 “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”3

When we read these sentences, it is hard for us to think of Jesus as a humble man. Note that he did not say that he was a teacher showing us to the source of life, but he said that he was the source of life. For other religious leaders, the matter of their identity is only important in so far as it gives them authority. Once their authority is established, their identity bears no relationship with what they teach. The same concept exists in education. On the first day of class, the professor says, “I am Dr. X, and thus I have authority to teach you this subject.” After that, his identity has no influence on the content of the course. He has authority to lead us to the truth, but he is not the truth. Professor Jesus, on the other hand, said, “I will teach you about myself because I am the truth.”

His statement was unusual but not unreasonable. Let us look more closely at what Jesus said about himself.

Jesus, the son of a poor carpenter in Nazareth, claimed that he was the Son of God.

The fact that Jesus claimed to be the Son of God was no small matter. It would not be surprising for a person who has no respect for God to consider himself a “little God.” But to Jesus as well as to the Jews at that time, God was the Almighty and the Creator whose glory was beyond their imagination. By claiming to be God, not only did Jesus imply that he was more “spiritual” than others, but he also elevated himself from the limited to the unlimited, from the mortal created to the immortal creator, from the ever-changing to the immutable, and from the finite to the omniscient and omnipresent.

According to the Jews, Jesus committed the grave sin of blasphemy by claiming to be the Son of God. At that time, it was not uncommon to stone blasphemers to death. John tells us that after Jesus said, “My Father and I are one,” the Jewish leaders in fact did try to stone him. He asked, “I have shown you many great miracles from the Father. For which of these do you stone me?” They replied, “We are not stoning you for any of these, but for blasphemy, because you, a mere man, claim to be God.”4 On another occasion, when the Jewish leaders objected to his healing of the sick on the Sabbath, Jesus responded to them, “My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I, too, am working.” For this reason the Jews tried all the harder to kill him, not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but also was he calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.5

In a society where even the name Jehovah of God was avoided out of extreme reverence, Jesus demanded that people worship him as God. He said, “He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him.”6

According to Jesus, to know him is to know God, to see him is to see God, to believe in him is to believe in God. He was the Son of God, and God revealed himself through him.

Not only did he explicitly claim to be the Son of God, Jesus also said that he had the ability to do things that only God could do. For example, he forgave the sins of others. Mark narrates the following story: “Some men brought their paralytic friend to Jesus to be healed, as he was teaching inside a house. Not being able to get through the crowd, they made an opening in the roof and lowered their friend through it, in front of him. Seeing their faith, he said to the paralytic, ‘Son, your sins are forgiven.’ Some of the teachers of the law thought to themselves, ‘Why does this fellow talk like that? He’s blaspheming. Who can forgive sins but God alone?’”7

These teachers were right. We can forgive those who sin against us, but no third party besides God can forgive a conflict between two other persons. Furthermore, if the weightiest sin that a person can commit is against God, then who can forgive such a sin but God?

Jesus also said that he has the ability to give life. Life is something that we receive from God and only God can bestow. Yet Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies, and whoever lives and believes in me will never die.”8 He compares himself to a “spring of water welling up to eternal life.”9 He considers himself a good shepherd. His sheep hear his voice. He knows them and they follow him. “I give them eternal life, they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand.”10

He warned us that he would judge the world. “The Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the son.”11 “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people from one another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.”12

Not only did Jesus say that he would judge the world, but he made clear that the criteria he used to judge people would not be the way that they treated each other, but their attitude towards him. Those who publicly acknowledged him in this world, he would acknowledge. Those who denied him, he would deny.13 He said, “Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesize in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’”14 This implies that Jesus professed to know everything and he would judge people according to their real attitude towards him, rather than their outward actions.

He also claimed to be able to satisfy the highest need of humans, a need that money cannot fulfill. “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.”15

The fact that Jesus made these statements cannot be denied. Furthermore, these statements are not isolated, but play an integral role in his teaching. Therefore we cannot dismiss these claims as being insignificant. If we want to understand him, we must study these claims further.

Many people regard Jesus as a great man, but not as the Son of God. I am afraid that after studying Jesus’ claim of being the Son of God, the two views would violently conflict. In considering his identity, we cannot have such a neutral attitude. His claims must be either true or false. If he truly is the Son of God, then we are obliged to worship him, regardless of his promises to reward us. On the other hand, if his claims are false, Jesus cannot be a great man, but he can only be a liar or a lunatic. We can either worship him or despise him (and prepare to accept the consequences of our path), but we cannot simply regard him as a great man.

To reach a more informed conclusion, let us study other aspects of his life.

CHAPTER 2
HIS MINISTRY

Jesus once asked his disciples point-blank, “Who do you say I am?” Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”16 Perhaps Peter gave such an answer because he had no alternative. More than anyone else, he knew the life and wisdom of Jesus. Converting this knowledge into equations and solving for Jesus’ identity, he was convinced that Jesus could not be a lunatic or a liar.

Probably few people think that Jesus was a lunatic who just considered himself the Son of God, when he was in reality only a human being. In fact, people claiming to be great, powerful, or omnipotent are not scarce. Mental asylums are full of people claiming to be emperors, Napoleon, or even Jesus. They were confined because nobody believes in them, except perhaps patients in the same institution. People do not believe in them because their lives are not consistent with their claims.

On the other hand, in Jesus’ case, not only do many people believe in him, but he also had a more profound influence on the world than anyone else. He was born into a poor carpenter’s family, but he has conquered the world much more than Alexander the Great. He had no college degree, but his teachings have allowed people to see themselves and God more clearly than any other philosopher. He never traveled more than 200 miles from his birthplace, but his reputation has been spread all over the world. He never wrote a book, but books written about him are more abundant than books about anyone else. He never wrote a song, but songs praising him are sung throughout the world.

People believe in Jesus because all the other aspects in his life are consistent with his claim of divinity.

Now if Jesus were really the Son of God, he must have been sinless. This doesn’t simply mean that he was never convicted for doing harm to others, but entails much more. It means that he was above sinful human nature. It is true that, with our limited knowledge, we cannot prove that Jesus was absolutely sinless. But we can say that while many people have attacked him and his teaching, but they have not been able to prove his sinfulness. Once, he challenged his detractor, “Can any of you prove me guilty of sin?”17 Nobody answered.

Mark records that the Jews accused Jesus of four sins. The first was blasphemy, because he claimed to be the Son of God. The second was friendship with people of ill repute, such as tax collectors. (To his accusers, these people were scoundrels that needed to be avoided.) The third was ignoring religious traditions because he didn’t instruct his disciples to fast weekly. The fourth was healing and letting his disciples pick some heads of grain during the Sabbath, which according to the Old Testament was the day that everyone had to rest.18 Let us look at each of these accusations.

As for the first accusation, if Jesus were actually the Son of God, why would it be blasphemous to say so? Indeed, it would have been lying to deny it. The second accusation that it is sinful to be friends with sinners is equally absurd. As a Vietnamese proverb goes, God “can be in the mud without smelling muddy.” He doesn’t have to avoid people of ill repute in order to keep himself clean. Furthermore, according to Jesus, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”19 Considering the third accusation, if fasting is to express sorrow20, why would his disciples have had to fast when they were near him?21 And as for the last accusation, if the Sabbath was the day that God instituted for man, and if Jesus really was the Son of God, then why would he be restricted by it? He once stated, “The Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.”22 How profound!

During his last days, when he was arrested and brought before the Jewish Supreme Council, those who opposed him hired false witnesses to testify against him in an effort to discredit him. Unfortunately for them, these witnesses contradicted each other. So then the high priest asked Jesus point blank, “Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed One.” When Jesus replied, “I am, and you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the mighty one and coming on the clouds of heaven,” the high priest tore his clothes, saying, “Why do we need any more witnesses. You have heard the blasphemy. What do you think?” The Council responded by condemning him as worthy of death.23 All of this was based on Jesus’ claim of being the Son of God.

At that time, the Jews were under the authority of the Roman Empire. Thus Jesus’ death sentence had to be approved by Pontius Pilate, the provincial governor. Not convinced by the arguments, Pontius Pilate many times tried to avoid the responsibility of sentencing Jesus. Finally, he acquiesced under strong pressure from the Jews and agreed to have Jesus executed. However, before doing so, he washed his hands in front of everybody and declared, “I am innocent of this man’s blood. It is your responsibility.”24 He asked, “What crime has he committed?”25

When we are around people of low moral standards, we do not feel as sinful as when we are near those of higher standards. When we are contrasted with perfect purity, we feel dirty; when we stand beside perfect beauty, we feel ugly. This was the perspective of the Jews: Although they may have looked down on others, none of them in their right mind claimed to be absolutely sinless, since they knew of the absolute righteousness of God. The Bible tells the story of the prophet Isaiah seeing God in heaven, sitting on a glorious throne. His immediate reaction was, “Woe to me. I am ruined, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips.”26

Yet, while Jesus proclaimed that he was with God, he did not feel sinful. “The one who sent me is with me. He has not left me alone, for I always do what pleases him.”27

If I say, “Einstein likes to talk to me because he thinks I’m very smart,” then people would view me either as crazy or as exceptionally smart. Likewise, if we put ourselves in the perspective of the Jews at that time, we would have had only two choices: Either Jesus was a shameless impostor or he was the Son of God, absolutely sinless and always doing what was pleasing to God.

Throughout the Gospels, Jesus always taught that people were sinful. Yet, there is no evidence that he considered himself sinful.

Actually, if he had any secret sins, it would be hard for us to imagine that he could be the author of the many excellent sermons recorded in the Bible. Here are a few excerpts from the Sermon on the Mount.

“Blessed are the poor in spirit,

for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are those who mourn,

for they will be comforted.

Blessed are the meek,

for they will inherit the earth.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,

for they will be filled.

Blessed are the merciful,

for they will be shown mercy.

Blessed are the pure in heart,

for they will see God.

Blessed are the peacemakers,

for they will be called sons of God.

Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,

for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.28

“You have heard that it was said, ‘Do not commit adultery.’ But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell.29

“You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’ But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if someone wants to sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. If someone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.30

These sermons are not irrelevant teachings, but have authority. The Jewish leaders once asked each other, “How did this man get such learning without having studied?” Jesus answered, “My teaching is not my own. It comes from him who sent me. If anyone chooses to do God’s will, he will find out whether my teaching comes from God or whether I speak on my own.”31

Should we believe him, or did Jesus simply have a knack for boasting?

You might say, “Do not listen to what Jesus said, but look at what he did.” Let us do that.

According to Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, Jesus did many things that can only be regarded as miracles. He walked on water32, converted water into wine33, made five loaves of bread and two fish into food for five thousand people34, made the lame walk35, the mute speak36, and the blind see37. He held the hand of a child who was already dead, and the child stood up38. He laid his hands on the coffin, and the man inside sat up39. He called “Lazarus, come out,” and Lazarus came out of the tomb, although had been buried for three days.40

It is easy to be suspicious of these miracles and say that they were just figments of their authors’ imagination. Perhaps the following two arguments will diminish some of the doubt.

First, these miracles were normally performed before a crowd, not before some pre-selected group. The Gospels were written not very long after the recorded events, within one or two generations after the witnesses. If they were fabricated, surely someone would have disputed them. But for example, after Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, Jesus’ enemies didn’t deny the miracle, but rather they gathered together, and said things like, “Here is this man performing many miraculous signs. If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him. Then the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation.”41

Jesus contemporaries, from his disciples to his enemies, all admitted that he could perform miracles. However, his enemies claimed that he was the devil, using the power of the prince of demons to drive out demons. To this accusation, he explained, “Every kingdom divided against itself will be ruined, and every city or household divided against itself will not stand. If Satan drives out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then, can his kingdom stand?”42

Secondly, if we suspect that these miracles were fabricated, we must consider the disciples’ motives for the miracle accounts. The disciples did not record these miraculous stories to prove that Jesus was the Son of God or to make anybody believe in him. Jesus often told those whom he healed not to tell anyone about the miracle. Whenever he was challenged to perform miracles to prove his abilities, he always declined. For example, at the beginning of his ministry, Satan tempted Jesus:

The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.” Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’ “ Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down. For it is written: “ ‘He will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’ “ Jesus answered him, “It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’ “43

To Jesus, miracles were not clothes he wore to impress people. He even taught his disciples to be wary of those who did profess to perform miracles, because in the last days, “false Christs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs to deceive even the elect, if that were possible.”44

Nevertheless, Jesus still performed miracles. If I were a medical doctor, I would not need to put on a white coat and wear a stethoscope around my neck so that people would recognize that I was doctor. I could warn other people not to be deceived by quacks. However, if I saw a sick man, I would try to heal him. If people asked how they could know that I was a doctor, I could tell them to look at my work.

That was Jesus’ attitude. His miracles were not performed to show off, but to glorify God and to help other people. They are performed with grace and love, bringing many valuable lessons to those who look for a God, and harmonized naturally with his character and his ministry. Yet, when John the Baptist questioned Jesus’ identity, he replied to the messenger, “Go back and report to John what you have seen and heard. The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor. Blessed is the man who does not fall away on account of me.”45

Such was also the attitude of the disciples when they related Jesus’ miracles. They did not do so to make others believe. To them, Jesus’ performance of miracles was the same as a doctor healing, a professor teaching, or an athlete exercising. They were an integral part of his life, and therefore had to be reported.

The fact the he performed miracles without the intent of convincing people that he was the Son of God makes them more convincing. However, for those who still do not believe but want to know more about his miracles, then there remains his greatest miracle, the one that nobody else has ever performed. During the last 2000 years, many people have tried without success to discount this miracle in order to destroy Christianity. If this miracle never occurred, then the foundation of Christianity would collapse. If it is untrue, Paul wrote that of all the people in the world, Christians should be pitied the most.46

Let us analyze this greatest miracle.

CHAPTER 3
HIS RESURRECTION

Governor Pontius Pilate, having washed his hands in front of the crowd refusing to accept responsibility for sentencing Jesus to death, ordered him to be flogged. In addition to this severe beating, Jesus was also ridiculed by the Roman soldiers. They put a scarlet robe on his body, and a crown woven of thorns on his head. Next, they struck him on the head with a stick, spat on his face, and knelt before him, mocking him by saying, “Hail, King of the Jews.” After that, they took the robe off his back and put back on his own clothes. Couldn’t the soldiers possibly sense his suffering when they unclothed and clothed his bloodied body?

Then they led him to a hill called Golgotha to crucify Him.

Of all the execution methods used at the time, crucifixion was probably the cruelest. The condemned suffered immeasurable pain. Along their outstretched arms, broken blood vessels and crushed nerves transmitted waves of excruciating and maddening pain to the whole body. Having to support the full weight of the body, the wounded flesh and skin were torn away slowly, intensifying the pain. Furthermore, the condemned grew more and more thirsty; their throats burned of thirst; their heads felt as if they were in a vice; their vision was totally disoriented. Yet the physical pain was not strong enough to immediately knock them out or kill them. While they would have welcomed a swifter death to spare them from pain and shame, death came slowly, as if trying to roll up centuries of suffering into a few short hours on the cross.

On that historic Friday morning, which was the day before Passover, Jesus was crucified on the cross between two robbers. Above his body, Pilate had a sign posted saying “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.” From twelve noon to three o’clock, darkness came over all the land, as if the sun refused to witness this heart-rending scene. At three o’clock, Jesus said, “It is finished,” and then bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

Since the following day was the Passover, a very important festival, the Jews could not leave any dead body on the cross. So they asked Pilate to have the legs of the crucified broken to hasten their death. After breaking the robbers’ legs, the soldiers came to Jesus and found him already dead, so they did not break his legs. Instead, one soldier pierced Jesus’ side with a spear, causing an outflow of blood and water.

A man named Joseph, who was a member of the Jewish Council and a longtime secret follower of Jesus, came to ask Pilate for Jesus’ body for burial. With Pilate’s permission, Joseph and a man named Nicodemus wrapped Jesus’ body in strips of linen with a mixture of myrrh and aloes, in accordance with Jewish customs. They then placed his body temporarily in a tomb of rock, cut out of the hillside near the site of the crucifixion. They rolled a big stone against the tomb entrance. Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Jesus followed and witnessed the event.

Having buried Jesus, they went home before dark to prepare for the Sabbath, in obedience to Old Testament laws.

Very early on Sunday morning, Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James brought spices to the place where Joseph had temporarily laid Jesus’ body to anoint it. On the way, they wondered whom they could ask to roll the stone away from the tomb entrance. They were not prepared for what they saw when they arrived: An unknown force had rolled the stone rolled away from the entrance, and when they entered the tomb, they did not find Jesus’ body. Astonished, they hurried back to Jerusalem to tell his disciples. One of them, Peter, ran to the tomb, entered it and found only the strips of linen but did not find Jesus’ body anywhere!

Neither the women nor the disciples or anyone else to this day has been able to find any part of Jesus’ body. Those who believe Jesus to be the Son of God have an explanation for this phenomenon. Unbelievers also have their own explanations. Let us first examine some of the theories advanced by the unbelievers.

The first explanation of the disappearance of Jesus’ body came from the Jewish chief priests. Matthew recorded that while the women hurried away to tell the disciples, some of the guards also went into the city and reported everything that had happened to the chief priests. The priests discussed with the elders and devised a plan in which they gave the guards a large sum of money, instructing them to accuse the disciples of stealing the body during the night while they were asleep. If the news got to the Governor, they assured the soldiers that they would explain it away to keep the soldiers out of trouble. So the soldiers took the money and did as they were instructed.47

It is worth mentioning that, according to the request of the chief priests, soldiers were assigned by Pontius Pilate to guard Jesus’ tomb. On the day after Jesus’ death, they went to Pilate and said, “Sir, we remember that while he was still alive that deceiver said, ‘After three days I will rise again.’ So give the order for the tomb to be made secure until the third day, otherwise, his disciples may come and steal the body and tell the people that he has been raised from the dead. This last deception will be worse than the first.” “Take a guard,” Pilate answered. “Go, make the tomb as secure as you know how.” So they put a seal on the stone and posted a guard.”48

Although it is not known whether the guard was of the Roman army or the Jewish Civilian Defence Corp responsible for guarding the temples, we do know that both groups had strict penalties for soldiers who fell asleep while on duty. For the Roman soldiers, the punishment for this offense was death! Facing such a penalty, no guard would admit to falling asleep. A guard would admit this only with the approval of his superiors, who knew quite well that it was just a concocted story.

Bear in mind that, when Jesus was arrested, the disciples became bewildered and lost faith in him. They never expected to see their Lord so powerless to the extent of being executed in such a disgraceful manner. In the night immediately after Jesus’ arrest, three times people recognized Peter as Jesus’ disciple, and three times Peter denied Him! How would these timid disciples find courage to evade the watchful eyes of the professional guards?

Just as the disciples had failed to grasp the meaning and the significance of Jesus’ death on the cross, they also failed then to recognize the meaning and the significance of the disappearance of his body. They had neither the ability nor the motivation to steal Jesus’ body.

After Jesus appeared to the disciples and explained everything to them, they became new men. They were transformed from a group of frightened and timid men who confined themselves in a locked room into enthusiastic and courageous people. Despite beatings, threats, imprisonments, and ridicules, their new personalities remained. Ever since, they have transformed the whole world. How could a group of people completely change their lives for the better on the account of a story that they invented to deceive the public? Later, all but one disciple, John, died as martyrs. One may be prepared to die for what he believes to be true, although such belief may be wrong; but no one will die for what he knows to be wrong.

Two other details worth relating to the stone blocking the tomb entrance and the linen cloth used to wrap around Jesus’ body are worth noting. Assuming the disciples were attempting to steal Jesus’ body, how could they possibly roll away the large stone without waking up the guards? Also, if they did steal the body, why would they bother to remove the linen cloth and leave it behind? Note that the cloth was left intact, folded up flat by itself as if Jesus’ body had evaporated through it.49 How can such a phenomenon be explained if the disciples had stolen Jesus’ body?

A more plausible theory might be that the Roman government or the Jewish elders had removed Jesus’ body. However, if they had placed guards in front of the tomb and had it securely sealed, why would either of them remove the body? Furthermore, after this event, the whole city of Jerusalem was in uproar over the rumor of the disappearance of Jesus’ body. Had the Roman government and the Jewish elders known its whereabouts, why didn’t they simply produce it to dispel the rumor of Jesus’ coming back to life? On the contrary, they could only have the disciples brought before them for questioning, “We gave you strict orders not to teach in this name. Yet you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and are determined to make us guilty of this man’s blood.”50 Although they were very furious and worried, no one could do anything to stop the disciples. Unable to find the body of Jesus, they resorted to arresting them, flogging them and ordering them not to speak in his name.

Others have put forward the theory that in the early morning the women had unknowingly gone to the wrong tomb. This theory is likewise unconvincing, since, again, the Roman government needed only to point out the real tomb of Jesus to rest their case. Besides, while the women might have possibly gone to another tomb, but could mean that the disciples and Joseph make exactly the same mistake? Note that the tomb was a private one and there was no other tomb nearby.

Another theory that has been advanced is that Jesus did not actually die on the cross. He merely fainted, then recovered and left the tomb. It is worth noting that this theory was not proposed until the eighteenth century. Before this time, no one disputed Jesus’ death.

However, the cross was a very effective instrument of death. Two outstretched arms caused the thorax to enlarge and the diaphragm to be pulled downward. Thus, crucified victims were able to inhale but not exhale, unless they used their legs to push themselves up. This was the reason Roman soldiers broke the legs of the condemned in order to hasten their death. Actually, it was very easy to determine whether the condemned were still breathing or not simply by looking at their abdomen and chest.

Jesus died on the cross much more quickly than others. When Joseph came to ask for his body, Pilate was surprised and summoned the centurion to verify his death. When the centurion confirmed Jesus’ death, Pilate then allowed Joseph to bury the body. These Roman solders were not inexperienced in recognizing death, and thus it is very unlikely that they could have been mistaken. Even if they had been mistaken, there were two other men, Joseph and Nicodemus, who took down his body for burial. How could they also have made the same mistake?

John recorded in noteworthy detail that when a soldier pierced Jesus’ side with a spear, blood and water flowed out.51 John recorded this detail before any medical knowledge on this issue. If Jesus had still been alive, and been stabbed in that manner, his blood would have gushed out in rhythm with his heart beats, rather than in a slow flow followed with water. Only much later was it discovered that there have been very few cases in which water would flow out after blood from the side of a dead body stabbed with a knife. One such case occurred when the condemned person suffered a cardiac arrest on the cross. Lacking this medical knowledge, John could not invent this fact to bolster his agenda for Jesus’ death and resurrection. He only related truthfully what he had witnessed.

Even if had Jesus not died on the cross, he would not have been able to survive the cold tomb, without fresh air, medical care and treatment following his severe beatings and hanging. How could he subsequently free himself from the burial cloth around his body, roll away the large stone at the entrance, evade the guards, and walk miles to meet the disciples and others in this condition?

Yes, not only the disciples but also many others have given testimonies to the fact that Jesus appeared before them in flesh and blood!

He did not appear just once, but over forty days he appeared at least ten times before those Peter referred to as “witnesses whom God had already chosen.”52 He appeared before Mary of Magdalene53, before the women who visited the tomb that Sunday morning54, before Peter55, before two disciples on the road to Emmaus56, before ten disciples in a locked room without Thomas57, before eleven disciples including Thomas58, before more than five hundred people at the same time59, before James60, before the disciples by the Sea of Tiberias61, before a crowd prior to his ascending to heaven62, and before Paul on his way to Damascus63.

Even if one agreed with some of the theories concerning the disappearance of Jesus’ body, his physical appearances would still have to be explained. If we doubt the sincerity of the witnesses, or do not believe that Jesus is the Son of God, then there is only one rational explanation: All of these appearances were hallucinations created by some psychological effects on the witnesses.

Modern psychology, however, shows that such a hypothesis has no validity. In order to experience a hallucination, one has to be sentimental, imaginative, and in a vulnerable state of mind. Among the crowd of more than five hundred people who witnessed one appearance of Jesus, there were not only sensitive women such as Mary Magdalene but also rugged and experienced disciples such as the fisherman Peter and the tax collector Matthew.

Hallucination differs from person to person. It originates from the subconsciousness and is heavily dependent on the individual’s past. It is very rare that even two individuals experience the same vision at the same time. But Jesus not only appeared before a few individuals, but also before a crowd of hundreds.

Hallucination occurs when both time and place are conducive. In this case, Jesus appeared at different times and at different places: at times to one person, other times to a crowd; at one time in a garden near the tomb, at another time in a locked room; on one occasion on the road from Jerusalem to Emmaus, on another at Galilee.

Lastly, hallucination is often the result of unfulfilled longings. If someone is longing terribly for something, he may see it in a hallucination. Jesus’ disciples did not have such a longing. That Sunday, when the women went to the tomb to anoint Jesus’ body, none of the disciples expected his body to be missing. When Jesus appeared before Mary Magdalene, she thought he was the gardener. Not until he spoke to her did she recognize him. Initially, the disciples did not believe her story, and when he appeared to them the first time, they thought he was a ghost! That time, Thomas was not there. When told of the incident, Thomas did not believe, saying, “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe it.”64 Later, Jesus appeared again before the disciples, including Thomas, and he told Thomas to examine his hands and his side. Thomas then said, “My Lord and my God!” Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”65

Since Thomas there have been billions of people who have believed that Jesus is the Son of God. In his own words, these people are the most blessed, because their faith is not “static” but “dynamic.” Their faith is not the end but the beginning of a spiritual journey promising a great deal of unexpected discoveries, and transforming their lives to a state of peace and to assured hope of finding themselves one day in heaven.

CHAPTER 4
SIN

We have examined evidence supporting that Jesus is the Son of God. If you accept this, you should not stop your spiritual journey. The next logical question would be why the Almighty God would become man and end his life on the cross.

Now if I had to answer this question succinctly, I would say that He did this for you and me to save us from eternal damnation and to bring us to Heaven. However, this answer is far too short. So let us develop our understanding of this concept together.

If God came into this world to save mankind, then let us first look at ourselves objectively. In order to understand God’s mysterious works, we first must understand ourselves clearly. First we must accept that we are all sinners deserving punishment before we are willing to try God’s medicine, which is His blood on the cross.

Nobody wants to talk about sin or admit one’s sins. In the nineteenth century there was a popular theory that all people are inherently good, but sinned just because of their circumstances. It was maintained that with widely available educational opportunities and effective social support, men would not tear each other apart, and the world would become heaven on earth. Communism is based on this belief.

However, reality tends to disprove this. In modern industrialized countries, education is no longer just a privilege of the rich but a right for all citizens. Yet, social problems are abundant in these countries, even more so than anywhere else. Furthermore, most of the devious crimes are committed by educated people.

All around is evidence proving humans’ sinful nature. Laws are made because people we cannot live together peacefully and resolve their disagreements satisfactorily. Even so, laws alone are not enough; as a society we need police and armies to enforce these laws. When these enforcers are not around, men reveal their true, sinful nature. No longer do we trust anyone. A verbal promise alone is insufficient; a written contract is needed before work commences. We must lock our doors and prefer to protect our homes with security systems.

We can probably agree that human beings are generally sinful. What we find hard to accept is that all of us are. We like to think of ourselves as the flowers bringing a nice fragrance to life whereas others are the troublemakers.

We have such a view because we tend to be tolerant towards ourselves. From a legal perspective, we are sinful only if we are convicted by a court that has examined the evidence and listened to defense arguments. The logical extension is that if I have never appeared in court, I cannot be sinful. This is clearly far too lenient, for there are many crimes that remain unsolved or unknown. These are also sins and their perpetrators are sinners.

To God, things are not that simple. His laws are not human laws, and his criteria are not human criteria.

First, His laws are absolute. While we try to distinguish between a severe and a lesser crime, to God, sins are sins. Furthermore, He sees all and understands all. Not only does He look at our external behavior but also at our innermost thoughts. Jesus said, “You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘Do not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’ But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment.”66 He also said: “You have heard that it was said, ‘Do not commit adultery.’ But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”67

According to the Bible, we sin not only because we do the wrong things, but also because we do not do the right things. The apostle James wrote, “Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn’t do it, sins.”68

Thus far we have only talked about the sins committed against each other. We also need to talk about the sins we commit against God.

While there are many types of sin against God, perhaps the most common is ignoring Him. The Vietnamese have high respect for their parents and disrespecting them is considered to be a sin. If we disrespect God, we commit a sin a million times worse than disrespecting our ancestors, because we disrespect someone who not only gave life to our ancestors but also created the whole universe.

When I was a young boy, my mother was hospitalized in a distant city. When my family went to visit her, her first question to me was whether I missed her. She didn’t worry about whether I behaved nicely toward my friends, but she kept asking me whether I missed her and wanted to hear that I did. So it is with God. He pays attention to us and wants us to pay attention to Him and put Him above everything else in our lives.

Unfortunately, when we honestly look at ourselves, we must admit that we have forgotten Him. Although we no longer worship mountain gods or fire gods as primitive people did, today we worship the gods of pleasure, money and fame. Some people put sports above all; some value love for another person, even to the extent of committing suicide when it is not reciprocated. However nobody, except Jesus, instinctively puts God as the top priority in his life.

Now money, houses, and families, by themselves, are not inherently bad. They only become a source of sin when we put them above God, and push Him away from our lives.

Someone asked Jesus, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?” He replied “The most important one is this: ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”69 These two commands define all that God wants from us, but as simple as they are, nobody can fully obey them.

The Bible does not sugarcoat this matter. It does not look at us through rose colored lenses. It does not lifting us up into the sky, just to laugh at us in the Day of Judgment when we are sent to Hell. Instead, it looks at us as God does, helping us to realize that we are seriously ill and in need of medicine. Psalm 14 in the Old Testament says:

The LORD looks down from heaven on the sons of men

to see if there are any who understand, any who seek God.

All have turned aside, they have together become corrupt;

there is no one who does good, not even one.70

Isaiah concurs: “We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way.”71 He describes his people, saying, “All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away.”72 In a letter to the Romans, the apostle Paul emphasizes: “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”73 Apostle John also writes: “If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.”74

Throughout human history, only Jesus was sinless. All the rest of us are sinful, towards other human begins and towards God. Jesus put God above all, then other human beings, and lastly himself. But for us, our priorities are reversed. We put ourselves first, then others, and lastly, perhaps, God.

Being tolerant of sin, we tend to underestimate the resulting consequence. We simply consider these consequences as a price we have to pay to live in this world.

Our selfishness and pride actually have a profound impact on our lives. We cannot live in harmony with each other. We must compare and compete. We look up to some people and look down at others. We do everything to keep up with our neighbors. We carry within ourselves so much inferiority or superiority that they become like lashes whipping our backs in self-enslavement.

There are so many broken families in this world. Most result from the pride of those who do not admit their mistakes. We like to talk about our own goodness and others’ bad attributes. We prefer to hear our own voice rather than listening to others.

From family feuds to international conflicts, there is one common factor: human selfishness and pride. We put ourselves above everything else and put God in a dark corner of our lives.

Not only does sin pollute our environment, it also penetrates the inside of each person. Inferiority and superiority complexes do not bring joy and competitions only give ulcers. Externally, sinners seem to enjoy what they worldly possessions; but deep down inside they silently cry knowing that they have sinned. Their innocent smiles disappear from their lips. Not being able to confess their sins to anyone, they quietly bear the torment of their own conscience. Sin may give some people money, but it takes away inner peace.

Outside we face wars, competition and conflicts; inside, we are in constant torment because of sin. But these are just the consequences of sin. We have yet to talk about the penalty of sin. When a child plays in mud, becoming dirty is the consequence, but being disciplined by his parent is the penalty. In the case of sin, the penalty comes from the righteous God.

Most Vietnamese believe in a God, a Creator. However, to many, their God is either too small or too remote, having nothing to do with them. Some people pay no attention to their God most of the year; when Tet, the Vietnamese New Year, comes, they try to bribe their kitchen god so that he only reports good things to the creator God. Some people are more practical, using God as a lifesaver, putting Him away and talking to him only in time of need.

When they are told that God is a loving Father or a true friend, they accept Him readily. But when they are told that He is a righteous Judge who does not tolerate and therefore must punish sin, they do not want to listen anymore.

But the Bible does not tell us what we want to hear, only the truth. It states that being righteous God must punish the sinners. The author of the book of Hebrews in the New Testament describes God as “the judge of all men,”75

The Bible talk not only about punishment, it also records historical punishing acts of God. He drove Adam and Eve out of the Garden after their disobedience.76 He sent the flood, killing all people except Noah’s family.77 He destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah because they tried to gratify their sinful desires.78 He inflicted disaster on the hardened Egyptians.79 He disciplined the Israelites for worshiping the golden calf80….

In addition to recounting God’s punishments as lessons for us, the Bible also explicitly gives us warnings. When we read the laws God gave to Moses, we cannot fail to see God as a judge, ready to pronounce sentences for the sinners. The prophecies in the Old Testament are not only attempts to forecast future events, but also calls on sinners to repent. The author of the book of Ecclesiastes concludes: “God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil.”81 Paul warns, “For he has set a day when he will judge the world.”82

God must punish sinners because He hates sin. “Your eyes are too pure to look on evil.”83 This is an important point we need to understand.

If God is worthy of our worship, He must be righteous. If He is blind or neutral to sin, He is no better than us. When a cheating father sees that his son lies, he laughs and commends the kid for being street smart. On the contrary, a father who puts honesty above all sees his son lie with profound sadness. God hates sin because He is absolutely righteous.

Being righteous implies being ready to punish sins. Please do not try to “bribe” Him. Please do not think that if you give God some of your material possessions, He will ignore our sins. This is absolutely ridiculous. God gave us our material possessions in the first place. How can I bribe my teacher by giving him back the points that he awarded to me? Furthermore, as the Bible says, “The sacrifice of the wicked is detestable--how much more so when brought with evil intent!”84

Being absolutely righteous and hating sins to the utmost, His sentence for us is clear: Death! We must die, both physically and spiritually, in an eternal death.

Our physical bodies die when our souls leave them. We all know this kind of death and we all wait until the day our bodies collapse. But how many of us realize that our bodies do not last because of God’s punishment of our sins? After Adam and Eve sinned, God said to Adam, “By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.”85

Our souls die when they are cut off from God, who is the source of life.

God created us in His image so that we can worship and glorify Him, and enjoy His fellowship. Not wanting to create machines, He gave us freedom. Unfortunately, we abused this freedom and sinned. Not being able to accept sin, He was forced to cut off His fellowship with us.

Without Him, people would have no meaning in their lives. They would live as if they had died, having absolutely no hope, no goal. Inside a corruptible body, the soul of a sinner becomes as dry as a desert and withers like an autumn leaf. All that is left inside the soul is an emptiness that nothing can fill up.

People look for exciting news, alcohol, drugs or money just to fill that emptiness, but all these are useless. Not only do they fail to bring satisfaction for our souls, they become cruel masters, turning us into slaves serving them until the day that our bodies return to dust.

But that is not the end of the story, because the Bible also talks about the Last Day, the Judgment Day, in which our souls die for the second time, in an eternal and ultimate death. “But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars--their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death.”86

If there are days that we live according to our own sinful nature, there will also be days that we will see God’s authority. If there are days that people can escape human laws, there will also be days that they will pay according to God’s law. Please do not look only at what happens today and say that God is blind. Actually, His net is wide and nobody can escape His judgments.

In the Last Day, all sins will be exposed and “God will judge men’s secrets.”87 In that day, “every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God.”88

No living person has experienced that day, and nobody can imagine how terrifying it will be. The Bible, using human language, describes it as “where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”89

Weeping and teeth gnashing are waiting for each of us, because we all have sinned; eternal damnation is what we will face because we all have trespassed. Do not ignore God and His warnings in the Bible, but take heed of what Jesus said, “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell.”90

CHAPTER 5
THE LOVE OF GOD

From the previous chapter’s observations, we can see that we are in a desperate situation. “I agree that these are objective observations,” you may say, “but why do we have to talk about them? Why do not we just pretend that they do not exist so that we can live on?” Yes, forgetting is what we should do if there is no solution; but fortunately, in this chapter, I want to share with you the “good news:” We do have a solution, a miraculous medicine capable of curing the disease of sin that is destroying us.

Sin inflates one’s ego until it explodes. Sin invites us to live as if today has no bearing on tomorrow. Sin whispers in our ears, suggesting that we should enjoy the present, regardless of the ensuing consequences. Sin elevates people to the clouds and then smashes them down to the pits.

The Bible, on the other hand, lets us know our true situation so that we can step higher. The Bible is a spiritual X-ray, allowing us to look through our outside appearance to show us the sickness within. According to the Bible, the source of the disease is sin; the symptoms are wars and conflicts. If it is not cured, we will all have to die and face eternal death in hell.

What then is the medicine? The Bible advises that this medicine is God’s love, available in concentrated form of the blood of Jesus Christ on the Cross. On the prescription, the Bible says very clearly that we only need to take this medicine once, because once is all that is needed.

Probably, the word that has been the most abused and distorted is “love.” A young man may learn the phrase “I love you” in many languages so that he can say it to girls from other countries, even if he has no feelings for them. Musicians may write love songs just to earn money.

People have become as weary of the term “love” as they are of a politician’s campaign promises. They want to see actions proving love before believing in the expressed love.

This is a practical attitude, and therefore to understand God’s love for us, let us try to understand what He has done for us. Only when the meaning of His sacrifice is understood will we understand the meaning of His love.

As we discussed previously, God is just, cannot accept sin, and therefore must punish us. However, God is also loving, and thus does not want to see us destroyed forever. Torn between His hatred of sin and love of people, God is in a very awkward situation: forgiveness or punishment. Or does He have any other satisfactory solutions?

Imagine that you are a very righteous judge, and that you have a law that convicted murderers should be either condemned to a life sentence or be fined one million dollars. One day, your son whom you love dearly is caught killing someone. What should you do? If you forgive him because he is your son, then you are not an impartial judge. On the other hand, if you throw your son into jail for the rest of his life, then although you may be just, it is hard to see your love for him.

There is one other thing that you can do, but it demands a sacrifice from you. You can fine your son one million dollars, and then you sell all your property in order to pay for it.

This is what God did for us. On the cross, the Father-God faced the Son-Human that he loved, but was full of sin. The sentence handed down pleased the law because if the “wages of sin is death”91, then death there should be. The sentence handed down also demonstrates love, because God did not let us die, but sent His son Jesus to the world to die for all of us.

The disciple John wrote, “This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.”92 In the letter sent to the church in Galatians, Paul wrote, “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us.”93

Jesus’ death, therefore, was not an accident, or an unfortunate incident, as many people believe. He died not to give us an example of someone who sacrificed for his ideals. He was not a reluctant victim of the circumstances, dying without yet achieving his mission. His death was not an obstacle preventing him from reaching his goal. Instead it was the goal of his life.

While he lived, Jesus often talked about his death, although nobody understood. After Peter called him “the anointed one,” “he then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again.”94 At other times, he talked about his death as something prophesized in the Old Testament,95 and that it was necessary to reconcile humanity with God. He referred to it as the result of God’s commitment to human. “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many.”96

There were people who, when dying, regretted that their lives were too short to achieve their goals. But Jesus, before his last breath, said, “It is finished.”97 Thirty years was sufficient for him, because, as he said, “the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”98

Because Jesus was the only absolutely sinless man, only he could die for all our sins. If he were sinful, he would have to die for his own sin. Ironically, because he was absolutely sinless, his death brought him extreme pain beyond human imagination.

Like God, Jesus, with his absolute lack of sin, despised sin. Just think of something that scares you the most, a stinky worm for example. Jesus’ hatred of sin must be a millions times greater than your feeling. Yet on the cross, not only did he have to face sin, but he died for us as a sinner, with all the sins of the world on his shoulders.

Imagine that you are confined with thousands of stinky worms in an small place and multiply your feelings millions upon millions of times. Then you may understand partially, only partially, the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross.

But that’s not all. Not only did Jesus have to carry all the sin he despised, God punished him by cutting off the relationship with him. In the previous chapter, we said that, because of our sin, God had to cut off his relationship with us, causing the lack of meaning in our lives and the death of our souls. In carrying our sin, Jesus had to suffer the same punishment. Not groaning because of the pain in his body, not complaining because of the sin he had to carry, but on the cross Jesus cried, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”99

Having lost our intimate fellowship with God long ago, it is hard for us to appreciate this cry. For the second generation Vietnamese who have grown up overseas, it is hard understand their parents’ saying that living outside of Vietnam is a sad experience. The more intimate our relationship with our country, the more we appreciate the sadness of having to live outside of it. The more we realize that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, having a ultimate relationship with Him even before the creation of the world and considering Him above everything else, the more we can have some hope of understanding partially, again only partially, the pain that Jesus had to suffer on the cross when his Father looked away from him.

If we only look at the physical pain, we can say that Jesus did not suffer the worst death possible. Some deaths can be more cruel and painful than his death on the cross. Only when we look beyond outward appearances, can we appreciate the painful death that Jesus suffered for us.

While the person who suffered was Jesus, we cannot overlook the suffering of the loving God. Is there any mother who punishes her son without a twinge of pain in her gut?

In the last days of the Vietnam War, I saw many painful scenes. One of these heart-breaking images showed a mother tearfully pushing her child to an airplane so that he could be taken away to freedom. I cried along with her and I felt her pain when I imagined this mother saying “Farewell” to her child, knowing that she would most likely never see her child again. What probably comforted her was her belief that her child’s future would be brighter than if he stayed back in Vietnam. If she did not have such hope, she would not have pushed her child onto that airplane.

Two thousand years ago, God said “Goodbye” to his Son. But unlike the unfortunate Vietnamese mother, He sent His son not for a brighter future, but to die painfully and in disgrace between two robbers, carrying the sins of the whole world. More than anyone else, He knew this, because that was His plan before He laid the foundations of the world. Yet He still sent His Son.

 If we cannot understand the extent of the pain that both God and Jesus had to suffer, at least we must understand this: that Jesus volunteered to die for us. It doesn’t matter how much pain he suffered; if he was forced and reluctant, then he would not truly have loved us.

God, the creator, the Almighty, cannot be forced to do anything by anyone. “But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons.”100

As for Jesus, his will and his Father’s will were one. He said, “I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me… and I lay down my life for the sheep.”101 “The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life--only to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again.”102

Both are of the same mind, the same determination to save the world. They came out of the love for humanity, an unbounded love, not only expressed by words.

Somebody once classified three types of love: if-love, because-love, and despite-love.

If-love is the kind of love we receive when we satisfy a certain condition. “If you graduate, then I will marry you.” “If you behave, then Daddy will love you.” This is the kind of love with conditions, the lowest kind of love, based entirely on the selfishness of the lover. When conditions are not satisfied, love disappears, and many times turns into hatred. When satisfied, this kind of love never stops demanding. If a girl says, “I won’t marry you until you graduate,” then in the future, she might demand a beautiful house before continuing in marriage.

The because-love is more practical, not based on future conditions, but on the present. “Because you are beautiful, I love you.” In this kind of love, the person being loved must satisfy a minimum requirement for love. Unfortunately, similarly to the if-love, the because-love is entirely selfish and fragile, like all materials in life. As Jesus taught, “If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even ‘sinners’ love those who love them.”103 We all have because-love because we all are selfish.

The last kind of love is the despite-love. This is unselfish, most noble, absolutely unconditional, and independent of the person being loved. We hardly find this despite-love in this world. The previous two kinds of love that surround us leave us wishing for an opportunity to taste the despite-love just once. The tremendous message of the Bible is that we can find this kind of despite-love from God. The Bible doesn’t say, “God will love you if you live a moral life,” or “God loves you because you tithed to him.” In contrast, it says, “Despite the fact that we are sinful, rebelling against God, only deserving eternal death in hell, God loves us.” The Apostle Paul pens, “You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”104

This kind of love was not only expressed in words, but was proved in action that required the ultimate sacrifice. This is true love, and this is the Gospel, or the good news I want to bring to you. I can summarize it simply by quoting John. “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”105

CHAPTER 6
REPENTANCE AND BELIEF

We have studied the love of God for us through the death of his son. Hopefully, we have gained an understanding of the extent of God’s love. We cannot see its length and depth if we only observe things from outward appearances and measure things from the outside. So, I would like to ask you stop your spiritual journey here, to let your soul calm down and to think about your true position before God before you journey on.

On the way to search for freedom in the Promised Land, we use a little boat named Ego. Relying on our own ability, we put on the sail Good Work to start our journey. Now, we are in the dark, lonely inside the boat. The wave Materialism smashes the sides of the boat, causing us to lose our goals in life. Inside the boat, the food Philosophy has dried up, and the water Religious Rituals has become bitter. Moreover, underneath the boat, the crack Immorality is getting larger and larger, threatening to break the boat into two. On top of all this, according to the forecast station Bible, the storm Punishment is approaching, threatening to throw us all into the deep sea Hell that is waiting for us.

Suddenly we hear a voice. Looking up, we see a frigate Church. From its control center, the Cross, the captain Jesus throws the lifesaver Salvation to us. We hear the crewmembers Christians calling us. We rub our eyes, thinking that we are dreaming. Should we believe, we ask ourselves. Is it true, that we can be saved in such a miraculous way?

Do you agree that this is your current situation? Do you feel that life is empty, without meaning, cruising toward death? Do you hear the sweet calling of Jesus: “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.”106? If your answer is “No,” then I ask you to momentarily stop reading this book, to look into your heart one more time, and make sure that you haven’t hurried your response. On the other hand, if you feel that the word of God has truly spoken to your heart and mind, then thank God, we can continue our spiritual journey.

Recall the example of the judge having a son who committed murder. After the judge paid the fine for his son, a guard came to tell the son, now sitting in jail, “I have a good news for you. Your father has paid the fine for you. Now you are free. You may leave the jail.” The son can believe this news and walk out of jail, or disbelieve and continue to be there although the jail door is wide open. These are the two reactions that we can understand. However, imagine the following scenario. After hearing the guard, the son nods, saying, “I thank my father, he really loves me,” and then continues to sit inside the dark cell. Contradictory? Comedy? Unfortunately, that was also the reaction of many to the good news of salvation. They said that they believed, but their lives never changed.

That is the difference between those who are saved and those who will be punished. The saved ones believed and grasped the lifesaver of salvation; the unsaved ones may say that they believe, but they remain in the boat Ego.

You can think and study more about the good news of salvation, but please do not think that knowledge alone is sufficient. You could have a Ph.D. in Theology, memorize the entire Bible, be ordained as a pastor or bishop, but if your life has never been changed, then you should not look forward to the day that Jesus comes back to judge the world. He said, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.”107

So what does God want us to do to be saved? Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”108 Changing is a big event, a watershed in your life. It implies two types of action that always go together: repentance and belief. Repentance means giving up; belief means taking up. Repentance means turning your back away from sin; belief means turning towards God.

Repentance is more positive than regret. Repentance touches the mind, the heart, and the soul of a person. A person who repents recognizes that he was sinful, sincerely regrets, is prepared to compensate for the damage he caused, and more importantly, promises not to commit the same infraction again. Is there anything that you have done that you know has displeased God? This may be a jealousy, a way of entertainment, a means of obtaining money, a habit, or even a way of worship. Are you still in love with that wretched boat so much that you do not want to grasp the lifesaver? Jesus said, “What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?”109

Repentance is giving up that broken boat Ego, and belief is grasping that lifesaver Salvation. If we do not grasp this lifesaver, we cannot leave this boat. Without abandoning the boat, it is useless to grasp this lifesaver.

Of the two, belief is the more common word, yet its meaning is more vague. To many people, repentance is an action while belief is only a mental activity. But this is not the meaning used in the Bible. According to the Bible, believing in something is to accept that it is the truth. More importantly, believing means putting trust in this truth.

I hope that, through the Bible, by the witnesses of your Christian friends, and by this booklet, you have understood the good news of salvation. I also hope that you agree that this good news is reasonable. I now want to make clear that this is not enough. The apostle James said, “You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that--and shudder.”110 The demons agree that there is God, but do not trust in him, and surely will be punished appropriately.

Suppose that, after you die, you come to the gate of Heaven and the angels ask you, “Why should I let you enter you into Heaven?” How would you answer? Do you trust on the Word of Jesus? “For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.”111 Would you answer without hesitation, “Because Jesus has died for me!” or would you mumble, “Because I lived a moral life”?

If you consider the above definition of belief still somewhat vague, let me give you a few tests so that you know your standing before Jesus: Can you trust Him in this world? If you doubt that He will take care of you in this life, then you cannot trust that He will grant you eternal life later.

We all want to have financial security, and we all want to save money for rainy days. However, we may go too far, making us slaves to money. If you still work very hard to earn money, ignoring your family and God, then obviously you have not put your trust in God. Jesus said, “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?”112

Or if you allow a certain misfortune ruin your life, then probably, you have not really trusted in God. Do you have loved ones stuck in Vietnam? He will keep them safe and comfort them. Have you just lost your spouse? He will take care of you more than that person. And if that person has already believed in Christ, then your prolonged sadness shows that you do not believe that you will meet that person again in Heaven.

If you are still single and feel lonely, do you want to marry someone whom you know would displease God? This demonstrates that you do not trust that God will lead you to a suitable life partner.

Repentance and belief are the two things necessary for salvation. However, if you feel that this is hard to do, then do not be discouraged. Saying, “I apologize, for I did not treat you well,” may seem to be easy, but in reality it demands a lot of effort from the person who says it. To return to God, we need to give up all our self-love, pride, and accept that we are powerless. Pride and selfishness is the very source of our sin.

On the sinking boat Ego, I saw the lifesaver Salvation in front of me. I believed that this was the truth and wholeheartedly wanted to grasp it. Unfortunately, I could not do this. For too long, lacking spiritual food from God, I survived solely on human philosophy. On the outside, I seemed to be well fed, but on the inside, I was powerless to do anything, even to stretch my hands to take hold of the lifesaver Salvation.

What could I do? Suddenly I remembered the thing that most Vietnamese refugees do on the high seas when they see a ship from afar: YELL! Nobody paid attention to any rules of communication. Everyone just yelled, trying to overcome the noise of the ocean. Yes, I can call on Jesus, I can ask him to give me strength to come back to him.

You do not need to know the formula for prayer. You do not need to know how other people call upon God. All you need to do now is to put down this book, find a quiet place, let your soul calm down, and then softly, sincerely, speak to God saying something like this:

Dear Lord Jesus Christ, I agree that I have sinned against you and others for too long. I sincerely repent for those sins. Please help me to give them up.

I accept that you are the Son of God, coming to the world to die for me. I thank you. Now, I open my heart to invite you to come in. Please be my Lord, helping me to live the rest of my life so that I can serve and glorify your name. Amen.

If you have done this, I congratulate you and welcome you into the extended family of those who are saved. Jesus promised, “So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.”113

From the old boat, you called upon him. Being the source of life, the faithful, he kept his word and gave you the Holy Spirit to nourish your soul so that you can repent and believe. If I do not have the privilege of meeting you in this world, I am sure that we will meet some day in Heaven.

CHAPTER 7
BUT…

Frankly speaking, I am not optimistic enough to expect that everyone who finished the previous chapter prayed to receive Jesus Christ and was saved. Maybe you completely agree with all that we have discussed, but you still want to find out more before deciding. Maybe you have a few questions about salvation by the blood of Jesus Christ.

You may ask why salvation is so simple, “If our attempts to live morally do not get us anywhere, how can a simple prayer inviting Jesus Christ into our lives be sufficient?”

Yes, in this competitive world, we get what we pay for. If I am given something, I naturally suspect its value or the motivation of the giver. However, many times we are a bit too cynical. Some people look at a painting and see it as no better than a tablecloth. Yet, when they hear the amount of money that the owner paid for it, they suddenly find the painting quite exquisite and artistic.

Thankfully, God is not like us. Through the prophet Isaiah, He said, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”114 According to His plan, eternal life is a free gift. “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”115 This gift comes not from human considerations, but from His grace. “For it is by grace you have been saved.”116

If He requires from us anything but faith, then I would say that He is as worldly as we are, favoring people who meet the material criteria. If He requires us to donate money to build temples, then He favors the rich. If He requires us to memorize the Bible, then He favors those capable of great memorization feats. No, He wants to save everybody, no matter who that person may be. Belief in Him is the only criterion.

Furthermore, if God’s criterion for salvation is not based on faith, then He gives people reason to be proud. If He says, “Whoever goes to church every Sunday will be saved,” then on the last day someone will boast, “Because I have been to church…” Isn’t this a vicious circle, since we have seen that being proud is sinful? “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God -- not by works, so that no one can boast.” 117 After being rescued from drowning can anybody claim, “It was to my credit that I grabbed the lifesaver that saved me?”

Actually, although it looks simple, believing in Jesus Christ in faith has a profound effect on one’s life but it requires a lot from us. Jesus Christ never promised us wealth or even health but he warned, “I tell you the truth, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”118 In this book, I do not promise you a rose garden to lure you into some religious institution. Instead, I want to emphasize repentance and trust.

We can try to enter into heaven by two methods. The first is to use brute force to break into the Gate of Heaven. The second is to use the cross-shaped key. While the first is absolutely useless and only hurts us, the second, simple as it is, surely will lead to success.

“But what about those who have never heard of Jesus Christ?” you may ask. “Should their destiny simply be hell?”

First, we must remember that there are many things that are beyond human ability to understand or that we have no right to know. What we do need to know and what we can understand, God has made known in the Bible. In a battle, a soldier cannot demand to understand the entire battlefield strategy before performing his duty.

However, we know this: God is just. He would not punish anyone simply because that person has not heard of Jesus Christ, and hence cannot believe in him. If they must face eternal damnation, it is because they have sinned against Him and others. Paul writes, “All who sin apart from the law will also perish apart from the law, and all who sin under the law will be judged by the law… This will take place on the day when God will judge men’s secrets through Jesus Christ, as my gospel declares.”119

But it is important to note that you have heard the gospel of salvation. Instead of letting you be punished as others, God wants to save you by the blood of His Son. Suppose that you are in danger in a little boat in the high seas and there is a frigate that wants to save you. Should you tell them that, because there are so many other little boats that are perishing, you do not want to be saved? If you wonder about the people in Africa who lived two centuries ago and never heard of Jesus Christ, then I would ask you to leave it to God to judge them. However, if you wonder about your close friends or relatives, then this is even more the reason that you should come to Christ, because only when you have invited Jesus Christ into your heart can you bring the Gospel of salvation to them, so that they can be saved like you.

Let me tell you something about Vietnamese national tradition. Many people have told me that they do not want to believe in Christ because doing so would be contrary to national tradition.

Actually, like language or science, national culture is not static, but it must change to survive. A person who contributes the most to his culture is not the one who follows what other persons do, but the one who embraces and spreads good ideas. In Vietnamese history, the closed-door policy of the previous centuries taught us a very expensive but dear lesson.

Let us take an honest look at the major religions in Vietnam. Did they start overseas? If everyone wanted to preserve the national tradition, then how could these religions enter Vietnam and become part of the national heritage? Similarly, many consider that Christianity is a western religion, but as you know, Jesus Christ was a Jew who came from the Middle East. People have this conception because in the past, many westerners accepted Christ and spread this truth to their own societies. If you feel that Christianity is the truth but will not apply to your own life and then spread it to your neighbors, then how will people be saved? I hope that in the future, Christianity will become part of the Vietnamese national heritage, so that even though we may be scattered throughout the world as we are today, we will eventually be gathered together in heaven.

“Some people say that believing in Christ means not respecting your ancestors.” People may say so, but the Bible never teaches that. To the contrary, the Bible teaches us to respect of our parents. One of the Ten Commandments is “Honor your father and your mother.”120 The Apostle Paul taught, “Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord.”121 The Bible also says that disobeying your parents, just like gossiping, slandering, God-hating, insolence, arrogance and boastfulness, greatly displeases God.122

Even amid the excruciating pain on the cross, Jesus Christ saw his mother and then said to one of his disciples, “Here is your mother,” bestowing her into his care. This disciple then took care of her.123

The reason that Christians are reputed to disrespect their parents is that they do not worship their dead ancestors. But to Christians, filial piety is not expressed in the food offered during their parents’ death anniversary, but it is realized in care and concern while their parents are still alive. If I believed that Friday the 13th is unlucky, then I would not leave my house on that day. If I did not believe so, then I would go to work as usual. This would not mean that I have no concern for my safety. Similarly, if I did believe that after their death my ancestors needed fruit offered by me to eat or paper cars burned by me to drive, then I would not make these offerings. This does not mean that I do not respect my ancestors.

Actually, if I really wanted to pay respect to my ancestors, then I would have to do so for all of them, not just a few generations before me. Furthermore, earlier generations should be respected more than recent ancestors. If my parents worshipped my grandparents, then I should respect my grandparents more than my parents. Using induction, we ultimately arrive at God, and we must respect him more than all our ancestors. It is God that Christians worship, in a manner described in the Bible. “God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth.”124

Now you may say, “I know many Christians and I have discovered that they are not better than anyone else. I found them too hypocritical sometimes. How can I believe in God?”

I cannot deny this. As I confided with you in the foreword, I felt the same way. However, I want to say a few things here.

First, as I explained to you, many people go to church but have never invited Jesus Christ into their hearts so that their lives can be changed. They are Christians to other people, and they may even become pastors or bishops. However, to God, they still have to face eternal damnation. If these people commit unethical deeds, should you refuse to be saved just because of them?

Jesus Christ died for the sinners, but he rebuked the hypocrites in his time. “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the kingdom of heaven in men’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to.”125

But even genuine Christians still commit sin. Remember that believers are not perfect, but are forgiven by God. Immediately after you believe in God, he considers you sinless, because Jesus has paid for your sin. In Biblical language, you are justified.126 However, although you may now despise sin, your life will not change overnight. Instead, you must live as a boat aiming north, striving to become Christ-like in a righteous direction. Nobody expects that after you believe, you will instantaneously become a “saint” in this world. (And also please do not wait until you become a “saint” before you believe.)

Even though there are hypocritical Christians, this does not mean that Christianity is wrong. Many years ago, the elite Vietnamese had a saying: “The Vietnamese language survives, the Vietnamese people survive.” Yet many of them preferred to converse with each other in French or English. This does not mean that Vietnamese language has no value.

Believing in God means looking at Jesus Christ, not at other people. Paul advises us to look to Jesus Christ as the “author and perfecter of our faith.”127 He was not hypocritical, and his life was consistent with his teachings. On the last day, when we are asked whether we believed in him, we cannot ask back, “But how come Mr. So-and-So is so hypocritical?”

Maybe the obstacles preventing you from coming to God are deeper. May be you do not believe that the Bible is the word of God and hence you do not believe that its teachings contained therein about heaven and hell are true. This is an important issue that we will examine together in the next chapter.

CHAPTER 8
THE BIBLE

I can say without hesitation that the Bible is the most unique book ever written.

The Bible was written in three languages by more than forty authors over a period of over 1500 years. Its authors came from many walks of life, ranging from kings to fishermen, from doctors to prophets. It was written in many different genres, from prose to poetry, from legalese to letters. Part was written during war, part during peace. Sometimes its authors wrote with joy, other times with sadness.

Unlike many books written centuries before the invention of the printing press, the Bible miraculously survived. In 1948, a manuscript of the Old Testament written about 100 years before Christ was discovered by the Dead Sea. When this manuscript was compared to a version written 1000 years later, scholars admitted that with a few minor exceptions, the two versions were virtually identical.

Despite the many attempts of governments and dictators to forbid or destroy the Bible and the efforts of many scholars to discredit it, not only has the Bible continue to be published everywhere, but it also has been translated into more languages than any other book ever written. It is read by billions of people who consider it the ultimate guidance for their lives.

While the survival and the popularity of the Bible support the idea that it is the word of God, I want to present still more evidence. Hopefully, after you reviewing this evidence, you will be less suspicious about its value.

Let us look back at the development of this book to make sure that we didn’t use circular arguments. In the first chapter, when we discussed the behavior and teaching of Jesus Christ, we treated the Bible simply as a historical document. Actually, we could have used other documents, although they are not as complete. Later when we discussed about the disappearance of Jesus’ body, we used the explanations of the non-believers to conclude that they are not valid. When we have to choose among the three hypotheses that he either was a lunatic, a liar, or the Son of God, we arrived at the third conclusion.

Even without resorting to calling the Bible the Word of God, we saw Jesus Christ as his Son. Let us now examine what Jesus Christ had to say about the Bible.

As for the Old Testament, the part of the Bible written before long he was born, Jesus Christ definitely considered it as the Word of God. He quoted and obeyed the Old Testament in all of his actions. For example, when confronted by the religious leaders, he often began his responses with, “Haven’t you read this scripture…?”128 He criticized them, “You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to the traditions of men…. For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother,’ and ‘Anyone who curses his father or mother must be put to death.’ But you say…”129 And when people asked him, “Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” he replied, “What is written in the Law?”130

It is harder for us to see Jesus’ attitude towards the New Testament, the part of the Bible written after he died. However, the vast majority of the New Testament was written by his disciples or their disciples. Jesus did not pick his disciples haphazardly. Rather he “went out to a mountainside to pray, and spent the night praying to God. When morning came, he called his disciples to him and chose twelve of them.”131 He trained them and considered them as his official representatives. “He who receives you receives me, and he who receives me receives the one who sent me.”132 They lived with him and witnessed all that he did. After he was resurrected, he appeared before them and taught them more. Now if we believe that Jesus Christ was the Son of God, then we should trust his judgment and believe what was written by his handpicked and personally trained disciples.

We can use a Vietnamese story about a woman named Nam Xuong to illustrate the role of the Bible. Nam Xuong’s husband had to leave to fight in a distant war for a long time. Back at home, her young son asked her about his father. Trying to find an answer for the child, she waited until evening came and then pointed into her shadow on the wall, saying, “That is your father.” When his father returned from the war, the son did not recognize him but innocently said, “My father only comes home at night.” Seeing that her husband misconstrued this comment to mean that she was unfaithful, she killed herself.

In this story, the son somehow knew that he had a father. Even without education or special instruction, people know that there is a creator, just by looking at the universe. Paul writes, “For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities--his eternal power and divine nature--have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.”133

Although, this knowledge of existence is desirable, it is not sufficient. Without a relationship with his father and lacking proper education, this knowledge only led the son to believe that his father was a shadow on the wall. Similarly, lacking fellowship with God, many people were misled to powerless idols made of wood or clay.

While the Vietnamese generally accuse Nam Xuong’s husband of cruelty, I maintain that he was just a victim of his circumstances. In his time, even though he wanted to, he could not keep in touch with his family while fighting the war. If he lived in our times, surely he would send pictures home so that his son would recognize him when they reunited. Fortunately, God is not as powerless as Nam Xuong’s husband. Although sin forces Him to cut his fellowship with us, He had a plan to bring us back to Him. In order that we are not mistaken, before that, He sent to us a picture of himself so that we could recognize His son.

A savior would be born in Bethlehem, the descendant of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, in the tribe of Judah in the house of David. From Galilee, he would teach and perform miracles, using parables to illustrate his teachings. He would be betrayed and sold for thirty silver coins. His disciples would abandon him and people would give false witness against him. At his death, the sky would darken, his hands and his feet and his sides would be pierced, but his bones not to be broken. He would be thirsty, and they would give him vinegar to drink. He was to be buried in the tomb of a rich man.

Were the above written after Jesus died? No, they were the images scattered throughout the Old Testament, written at least 500 years before he his birth. Consider the following passage, written by Isaiah about 700 years before Jesus was born:

He was despised and rejected by men,

a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering.

Like one from whom men hide their faces

he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

Surely he took up our infirmities

and carried our sorrows,

yet we considered him stricken by God,

smitten by him, and afflicted.

But 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.

We all, like sheep, have gone astray,

each of us has turned to his own way;

and the LORD has laid on him

the iniquity of us all.

He was oppressed and afflicted,

yet he did not open his mouth;

he was led like a lamb to the slaughter,

and as a sheep before her shearers is silent,

so he did not open his mouth.

By oppression and judgment he was taken away.

And who can speak of his descendants?

For he was cut off from the land of the living;

for the transgression of my people he was stricken.

He was assigned a grave with the wicked,

and with the rich in his death,

though he had done no violence,

nor was any deceit in his mouth.134

 We can consider the whole Bible as a diary written by the human-son, who was more fortunate than Nam Xuong’s son. In the Old Testament, the human-son recorded the images that his Father-God sent so that he could recognize Him. In the New Testament, the human-son wrote about his reunion with his Father-God.

You may say, “I agree that the images of Jesus Christ were unbelievably precise, but could the authors in the Old Testament simply be lucky?” No, this is very unlikely, because those images were very difficult to conceive. Although the Jews always longed for a savior, nobody would expect their savior to be beaten, cursed, and finally killed in a humiliating manner.

Let us look at similar evidence, that is the incredible accuracy of the prophecies in the Old Testament regarding the history of the Jews. We cannot say that these prophecies were written after the events. In fact, many of these events occurred thousands of years after the prophecies. These prophecies are very specific, and not vague and are easily distorted such as, “Your first child will be either a boy or a girl.” Also we cannot say that the Old Testament was lucky, because more than 2000 prophecies have become reality. And we cannot say that these prophecies were likely to occur, as some events were stranger than imagination.

Although I cannot list all the prophecies here, let me present just one of them that most of us know about, that is the dispersion of the Jews. Many years before it happens, Moses wrote, “The LORD will cause you to be defeated before your enemies. You will come at them from one direction but flee from them in seven, and you will become a thing of horror to all the kingdoms on earth.”135 The prophet Hosea prophesized, “My God will reject them because they have not obeyed him; they will be wanderers among the nations.”136 These prophecies were written while the Jewish people were still a strong nation. Who could imagine that they would be realized?

Furthermore, who could imagine that a people scattered for 2000 years, like the Jews, could survive and regroup into a nation? Yet, the Bible predicted this. If the prophet Jeremiah first said, “I will make them abhorrent and an offense to all the kingdoms of the earth, a reproach and a byword, an object of ridicule and cursing, wherever I banish them. I will send the sword, famine and plague against them until they are destroyed from the land I gave to them and their fathers,”137 then Jeremiah also prophesized, “I will build you up again…. I will bring them from the land of the north and gather them from the ends of the earth…. He who scattered Israel will gather them and will watch over his flock like a shepherd.”138

In 1948, one of the greatest miracles in human history occurred: the nation of Israel was reestablished.

The fact that the image of Jesus Christ is scattered throughout the Old Testament supports the Bible as the word of God. If you were to gather ten people together and ask them to write ten articles about human nature or God, would you expect them to all have the same philosophy? Now, if these ten people belonged to different generations, would you still expect that your collection be of the same worldview? But that is characteristic of the Bible. Although it was written by so many authors from many walks of life over a duration of many centuries, the Bible remains a unified book with a singular theme: human salvation by the blood of Jesus Christ.

Not only is the Bible comprised of many different and independent articles, it can be thought of as a mystery novel written by many authors. In the Old Testament, some authors presented leads that could be followed by more leads of other authors. In the New Testament, these leads, which previously seemed to be incomprehensible and unrelated, suddenly converge into a solution. In order to write such a mystery novel, we would need the solution before writing the leads. In the case of the Bible, only God could be the “author” of the whole Bible because before Jesus Christ, only He could understand the plan of salvation and only He could reveal appropriate information to the authors so that they could present appropriate leads.

If we had forty musicians sitting together but playing independently, we would have a noisy racket. However, if we add a conductor and a score, then we have music. The Bible is a love song entitled “Salvation,” written for human beings by the composer God, played by forty musician authors under the direction of the conductor Holy Spirit.

Will you quiet your soul so that you can hear this love song?

CHAPTER 9
SCIENCE

We have just examined evidence that supports the fact that that the Bible is the Word of God. Hopefully, you agree with this evidence. However, you may still have some reservations. In your mind, there may be a word that keeps yelling out as if it wants to argue with the word “Bible” – that word is “science.”

Because of its success in explaining the natural world and bringing many technological advances, science itself has virtually become a new religion. Some think that science has completely replaced God. “In this scientific age, how can anybody believe in God?” they say. Although nobody ever really cared to explain this to me further, this sentence seems to imply one of the following:

1) Science can provide everything

2) Science can explain everything, and religion is merely superstition

3) Evolution has proved that God does not exist and that the Bible is wrong

Let us analyze these statements.

I do not think that many people agree with the first statement. Even if we only consider material possessions, science cannot provide us with everything. On the contrary, more and more people are becoming disappointed with science and technology. They consider it a threat as much as a benefit. The dangers of nuclear war and pollution have become a reality for all of us. Computers, instead of serving humans, are slowly gaining control over us.

Coming from the perspective of an Asian culture, I can clearly see the emptiness of Western civilization. Underneath the flashy clothes of technology and in the midst of florescent urban lights, people are extremely lonely, silently fighting against each other for a living. Finding peace with oneself is difficult in itself, let alone finding true peace in God.

The second statement is also difficult to justify. Not only are there many unsolved problems in science, many problems lie beyond the scope of science.

The main purpose of science is to answer the question “How?” not “Why?” Science lets us know how the human body is formed, but it does not study the reason for our existence. Science has no authority to discuss the values behind poems, music, and paintings. Who can use science to analyze Shakespeare? Who can use science to define love?

Because the word “superstition” is very vague, let me define it as “religious activity that attempts to answer questions that science has not been able to.” How can I win somebody’s heart? One answer is to burn her picture, mix the ashes with water, and drink up. And then when television said, “Apply ‘Capricorn’ perfume, with added pheromones,” burning pictures became superstition. How does lightning occur? One answer is that the gods are fighting each other. When science came up with its explanation, the gods quietly disappeared.

Yes, using religion to fill in the gaps of science is superstition. But this is not the view of a Christian. To Christians, all phenomena, whether explainable by science or not, are controlled by God.

Science is built on the idea that our universe always follows certain laws. If you throw a rock upwards, it will fall down. If you put a kettle of water on a stove, its temperature will rise. The purpose of science is to discover these laws and to predict what will happen. Science does not try to understand the ultimate origin of the laws, but Christians know that they all came from God. He created the universe and gave the universe a natural order so that humans can live in.

Before Newton discovered the law of gravity, apples still fell down when they were ripe. Science does not make the apple fall, but it only helps us understand this phenomena. God makes apples fall, regardless of whether science can explain or not.

Therefore, Christians do not shun the benefits brought about by science. When I am sick, I go to see a doctor. When I need to travel a long distance, I use an airplane. Christians not only use science, but history records many brilliant scientific discoveries by Christians such as Copernicus, Galileo, Kepler, Descartes, and Newton.

I myself was trained in science and am still doing research for science. I have met many famous scientists who are Christian. Not only do they feel that science and religion are not in conflict with each other, they feel that science helps them in their belief. The more we know about anatomy, the more we admire our Creator who designed our bodies so intricately. The more we know about physics, the more we believe in the All-Powerful who gave the universe such a wonderful order.

Christians who are also scientists therefore do not try to find mistakes in science in order to bring back God. Like all other scientists, they try to bring science closer to the truth, so they can appreciate more and more the power of God though the understanding of His creation and providence.

Now let us talk about evolution. Evolution is the idea that plants and animals change from generation to generation. Those with more favorable genes will have an advantage in surviving and having children. Cockroaches that survive a bug spray will continue multiply while those who die will not. Pretty soon, the bug spray will be useless because all the cockroaches will be able survive it. Germs regularly evolve and bypass the body’s defenses. That is why there is a new flu vaccine every year, because flu viruses continuously evolve.

Nobody denies evolution in this sense. However, many scientists claim that, over millions of years, all life, including human beings, came about through this process and evolved from simpler animals such as monkeys.

First of all, this kind of macroevolution can be wrong. It is a hypothesis that has several technical difficulties. One of the biggest problems with evolution is scientists don’t know how large changes, which results in a new body part or a new organism, developed. There is no evidence to support that these large changes were the result of a gradual set of infinitesimal changes at the micro level. Simple logic would expect that somewhere within the millions of species alive today, at least a few should have been identified as being in the process of transition.  So far, none has been discovered.

But what if human beings in fact did evolve from simpler animals? Yes, suppose that we disregarded evolution’s technical difficulties. If – I want to emphasize the word if – in the future, someone can conclusively prove this, then what?

Surely, more people would use evolution to attack religion. Communism, for example, considers evolution as something that can liberate people from God. This is a big mistake, because even if evolution is correct, such a conclusion is still wrong.

As we have discussed before, the Christian God is not a “God of the gaps” of science. Evolution cannot push God away from our lives. Even if evolution is correct, then in his power, God used evolution to create human beings.

“But the Bible says that God created the universe in six days?” Yes, but we have to remember that the Bible is not a scientific document but is the Word of God, telling us about His plan of salvation. Therefore, the Bible uses common language and images of the people of the time, rather than the precise scientific language that would have been hard to understand. For example, the Bible talks about the “sunrise” and the “sunset.” When talking about the smallest seed, Jesus referred to “a mustard seed”139 rather than a scientific name of a yet discovered smallest seed. When he died Friday evening and resurrected Sunday morning, the Bible said it was three days, similar to the way Vietnamese calculate age, instead of calculating the exact number of hours. Similarly, in discussing creation, the Bible only uses 34 sentences140 and was written in the genre of poetry in a very primitive society. We therefore cannot conclude that these verses serve as a scientific document. We should not insist that the universe was created in six earth days according to our time measurement.

I need to emphasize that even if God used evolution to create human beings, it does not mean that human beings are merely animals. Clearly, we do not only live to satisfy our instincts, but we have thoughts, morality, arts, and most importantly, a concept of God. This shows that if evolution took place, it was only God’s means of creation rather than the author of creation itself. Furthermore, if evolution is right, then somewhere along its process, God interfered, “breathed the breath of life”141 giving human beings a soul so that they can have the image of God.

Actually, science disagrees with the Bible not in what it can explain, but in what it cannot. More precisely, science does not accept what the Christians refer to as “miracles.” Miracles are events contrary to the supposed universal laws of science. For example, if I let go of a rock and it flies up to the sky, then I have a miracle, because this goes against the law of gravity.

The Bible records many miracles preformed by God, the prophets, Jesus Christ, and his disciplines. The parting of the Red Sea – allowing the Jews people to cross – was a miracle. Giving sight to a person blind from birth is another miracle.

We can consider this universe as a watch. Science observes this watch-universe and then discovers some laws causing the watch to operate and therefore can predict what happens to the watch. These discoveries only bolster the existence for its Creator. Now let us assume that this Creator, for some reason, decided to change the time of the watch. He can do this easily because he created the watch, but sadly, scientists inside this watch-universe refuse to believe it happened because they do not believe in miracles.

Actually, God did not just create the universe and occasionally perform miracles, as we occasionally adjust the time on our watches. The universe is like a mechanical watch that needs to be wound continuously. If He ignores it, it cannot survive. Unlike man-made “gods” built of rock or wood, God has power over human beings and always pays attention to us. He expresses His will through history, even through the weather. “He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.”142

Let’s suppose that one day, God decides to cause the sun to stay still for a few hours. Those who witnessed the event would surely agree that this was a miracle. But many others would not believe, and demand that they see the miracle for themselves before believing. Let’s suppose further that God agreed to repeat this miracle everyday so that everyone could see it. Ironically, because this phenomenon would now occur daily, and thus science would be able to predict its occurrence, people would no longer consider it a miracle.

Every day, we see God’s miraculous wonders in seemingly mundane events such as the existence of four seasons in a year or the gravity between two masses. Regardless of whether science can discover any law, regardless of whether events occur daily or only once, the hand of God controls everything.

“I might accept the providence of God,” you think, “but, being raised in a scientific environment, how can I blindly believe in the salvation of Jesus Christ?”

Actually, all civilized people engage in “belief” every day. When I am sick, I take medicine, believing that it will cure my illness, even if I do not know anything about the medicine. When I step into an airplane, I believe that I will arrive at my destination, even if I do not know anything about aerodynamics. These beliefs are not blind, because although we may not understand them thoroughly, they are reasonable from what we do know. Also, they have been showed to be credible in the past.

Believing in the salvation of Jesus Christ is similar. Although we cannot completely understand everything, we must agree that whatever we can understand is reasonable. The blood of Jesus Christ mixes wonderfully with God’s love and justice and satisfactorily answers many questions in the minds of people searching for a meaning in life. Christian education always encourages people to learn more about God and his salvation. The Bible is not a book of meaningless incantations, but rather contains very clear teachings. To those who believed in him, Jesus Christ said, “Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”143

Christianity also shows concrete results. Many Christians are be prepared to testify about how their faith in Jesus Christ has changed their lives completely. We only have to look around to see.

There are many blind faiths in this world, but believing in the blood of Jesus Christ is a faith based on a solid logical foundation.

While we have seen that science and religion are not in conflict with each other, I want to take this opportunity to tell you that science is comprised of many disciplines, each of which studies the universe from its own perspective. Life, on the other hand, is comprised of many aspects related to each other in an extremely complicated manner. As there are people who only appreciate the material world, there are also many people who judge everything only according to discoveries within certain specific disciplines. This can lead to a mechanical, one-tracked worldview that is dangerous.

An example relates to sex. Nowadays, many researchers study this subject and there are many books teaching us how to sexually satisfy our spouses. While I do not diminish these discoveries, I believe that many people have gone to the extreme, paying attention only to techniques and disregarding the most important aspect of marriage that science does not study and has no ability to measure, that is love. Without love, sex, even with the best techniques, degrades people to the level of animals.

A second example is Communism. Communists only know life through the lens of economy. Karl Marx therefore explained that, like opium, religion was created by the rich to suppress the masses.

Once, Mr. A confided to me that his life was now nothing. He said so because when he went to the doctor, the doctor said that he was too old. When he tried to learn English, his teacher said that he would never be able to speak the language fluently. Although these people may have been right, his conclusion that his life was now nothing was wrong because his life is not simply his body or his language.

He is a painting ignored by its owner because some time in the past, a expert in material science came along and commented that the canvas was old and the paint was cracked.

Then one day, he read the Bible and he discovered that his life is a painting, painted by God-the-Artist. With the purifying blood of Jesus Christ cleansing the layer of dust-sin covering him, he became a masterpiece that people could admire, compelling them to praise the power of the creator.

When the artistic aspect of a painting is ignored, scientific analysis can become useless if not dangerous. Yet, when its artistic value is appreciated, science is an effective means of helping us to appreciate the ability of the artist. Einstein wrote, “Science without religion is lame. Religion without science is blind.”144

CHAPTER 10
COME BACK FROM THERE

In the last few chapters, I have tried to answer a few questions that I have encountered when sharing the Gospel with the Vietnamese. Hopefully, they have satisfactorily answered your own questions about God, people, and His salvation plan. Many scholars devote their whole lives to study these theological questions. Although I welcome this scholarly attitude, I ask you to take a step of faith.

Because our limited minds cannot understand everything, we cannot wait until we know everything before believing. Neither do we need to know everything in order to believe. I do not need to know medicine before going to a doctor. Nor do I need to have an engineering degree before entering an airplane. Actually, that is what “faith” is about. A demand to know everything is a demand to become God. After you believe in Jesus, the Holy Spirit will enter into each of us and help us to understand more truth. (We will talk about the Holy Spirit in the next chapter.)

In this chapter, let us take another look at the meaning of the cross, so that we can maintain focus on the purpose of this book and have a starting point to discuss the Holy Spirit.

One perspective is that of God the Judge, who loves humanity but must punish sin. Now let’s us look at it’s meaning from another perspective – the death of Jesus Christ as our redemption. Peter wrote, “For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.”145

In Vietnamese history, General Le Loi was once surrounded by the enemy. Another man, Le Lai, volunteered to wear his commander’s coat and escape through enemy lines. Mistaking Le Lai for Le Loi, the enemy chased after Le Lai. Le Loi thus survived, continued the war, and finally was able to liberate the country. Likewise, we were surrounded by Satan, who tried to keep us in hell. Jesus Christ volunteered to become human, wearing our coat of sins to die for us on the cross. Because of this, we can live to eternity.

Yet, no example can completely describe the grace with which God died for us. Human redemption requires some loss, some sacrifice. For example, suppose that a son of a billionaire is kidnapped. If the father pays the ransom, he sacrifices but he also concedes to the criminal. But if he eventually gets his money back, then he did not really concede. In God’s plan of salvation, Jesus had to sacrifice because God had to punish sin, but he emerges victorious in resurrection.

Earlier, we analyzed the evidence of the resurrection. Now, let us look at its meaning.

The most important conclusion we can draw from the resurrection of Jesus Christ is that He has overcome death. “But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him.”146 Thus, Christians no longer should fear death. Of course, our bodies will die one day, but that is not the end of the matter. Jesus Christ was resurrected, and so will Christians. “For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. But each in his own turn: Christ, the firstfruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him.”147 “For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: ‘Death has been swallowed up in victory.’”148

According to Luke, within forty days after his resurrection, Jesus appeared before many people. Finally, “he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight.”149

But not only was Jesus Christ resurrected, but he also ascended into heaven. He had accomplished his mission on the cross, and hence he no longer needed to stay on earth. Forty days was enough to teach further truths that could not be understood before his death.

Returning to heaven in glory, Jesus Christ was rewarded by God. “Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.”150

Although he was now God’s “right hand man,” Jesus Christ did not forget his disciples. The Bible teaches that he now appears for us in God’s presence151 to pray and “is also interceding for us.”152 Therefore, Christians not only look forward to the last day to receive eternal life, but they can also pray to God in the name of Jesus so that they “may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”153

Prayer is beyond the scope of this book, but note that Jesus Christ completely understands our situation. Let’s say that you have a relative working in the White House. However, if your relative has been immersed in politics for too long, he might feel distant and may not understand your current problems anymore. Thankfully, knowing Christ is better than knowing all the presidents.

He once was a human being. He was tempted, just like us.154 When he was a baby, his parents had to take him to Egypt as a refugee. He was despised and flogged. He experienced loneliness and sadness. He was hung on the cross between two robbers. Therefore, he empathizes with you and is able to take care of those who trust in him.

Jesus Christ did not promise us prosperity in this world. On the contrary, he warned us, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.”155 One of the things he did promise, however, was peace. “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.”156 Peace comes to the believers because they know that he is ever-living, all-powerful, understanding, and is now sitting at the right hand of God. Peace comes to them because they know that, “all things God works for the good of those who love him.”157

Jesus Christ will return to this earth in the “Second Coming.” He confirmed, “I say to all of you: In the future you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven.”158 This will be on the Last Day, Judgment Day, the day on which sinners will face eternal damnation and believers will be resurrected, as Jesus was.

 If you asked me when Jesus Christ would return, I would say that nobody knows. Jesus said, “No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son.”159 Why? Why doesn’t the Bible let us know precisely the time when this important event will occur? Jesus Christ replied, “If the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into. So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.”160

This is a very important point. If you knew exactly the time he would come, you could remain in a life of sin and put off believing in Jesus until just prior to that time. But Jesus doesn’t want such a calculating faith. If he were to return tonight, would you be ready to face him?

Although the Bible does not specify a time for his return, it describes some “signs” or events that are to occur before he comes back.

It says that, in the last days, we will witness a declining morality – a last gasp of Satan, like a candle flickering before going out. The apostle Paul wrote, “Do not let anyone deceive you in any way, for that day will not come until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the man doomed to destruction. He will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshiped, so that he sets himself up in God’s temple, proclaiming himself to be God.”161 He warned, “The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons. Such teachings come through hypocritical liars, whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron.”162 Jesus Christ also taught, “At that time if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ or, ‘Look, there he is!’ do not believe it. For false Christs and false prophets will appear and perform signs and miracles to deceive the elect--if that were possible. So be on your guard; I have told you everything ahead of time.”163

If you look around today and see many false teachers and vain philosophies that deter people from the truth, then you need to be careful and stand firm in your faith. This is a sound heralding the return of Jesus. Nowadays, with many psychological discoveries and advanced propaganda techniques, those teachers have many effective means to denounce Christianity. Do not listen to them. They are just a last attempt of Satan before his complete silence in eternal hell.

Jesus Christ gave us other signs. “When you hear of wars and revolutions, do not be frightened. These things must happen first, but the end will not come right away…. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be great earthquakes, famines and pestilences in various places, and fearful events and great signs from heaven.”164

War and earthquakes and famines are not new; they are the result of our sinful nature and hence were in existence since Adam committed the first sin. What is new is their incredible ability to destroy. Nobody is optimistic enough to believe that humans are becoming more civilized and more loving towards each other. The Bible has no such optimism and clearly states that until the Last Day, people will fight with each other and wars will not only continue, but will do so with ever more destructive capabilities.

I dare not rely on these events to assure you that Jesus Christ will come back within our lifetime. What I want to tell you is that our world is coming closer and closer to this time. We always have to be on guard for this day. If you believe in Him, please stand firm in your faith and do not let heresy lead you astray. If you still hesitate in believing, please hurry to him because he might come back in the next minute.

How can we stand firm in our faith before Jesus’ return? Surely, he is sitting in heaven, praying for us, but that is still a long distance away. If we face temptations and misguiding philosophies promoted with the latest propaganda techniques, and if we have to live in a constant threat of war, enticing us to “enjoy life,” how can we remain steadfast in our faith?

Once again, when we see the answer, we can appreciate God even more. When Jesus ascended into heaven, he did not abandon us. The Holy Spirit came down to live inside those who believe in him to give them a new life, to give them more gifts, to comfort them, and to encourage them to stand firm in faith while waiting for the day that they come face to face with their Savior.

CHAPTER 11
THE HOLY SPIRIT

Suppose that you did not know anything about the Bible and that you have not read the previous chapters. What would you have thought that Jesus Christ would do after achieving his mission of saving all of us by dying on the cross? Of course, he would not remain dead forever, but would be resurrected. Afterwards, he would either continue to live in this world or ascend to heaven. Perhaps we would prefer him to choose the former, but he taught his disciples, “But I tell you the truth: It is for your good that I am going away.”165

Why? If he continued to live in this world, Jesus Christ would have to bear a human body, with all of its limitations. Imagine that he still lived in this world today and Christians from everywhere tried to surround him to ask him for advice, to touch him, or just to get a piece of his clothes for a souvenir! Clearly, this would be impractical. If he continued to live in this world, Jesus Christ would have to abandon his human body, transcend the limitations of space, as he tried to be with many people around the world at the same time. In fact, Jesus did just that: he is living with us in the form of the Holy Spirit. He and the Holy Spirit are one. We will talk about that more in the next chapter.

For now, let us simply understand that Jesus Christ returned to heaven sitting at the right hand of God, and then sent the Holy Spirit down to us. “Unless I go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you.”166

Jesus Christ did not leave his disciples confused in this matter. He talked a lot about the Holy Spirit. Before his ascension, he told them clearly, “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”167

The disciples obeyed his command. Despite persecution there, they stayed back in Jerusalem, waited and prayed. Jerusalem was then in preparation for the Jewish Pentecost and was full of people returning from afar.

On that historic Pentecost, the Holy Spirit came down. Luke describes:

When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.

Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard them speaking in his own language. Utterly amazed, they asked: “Are not all these men who are speaking Galileans? Then how is it that each of us hears them in his own native language? ... We hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!168

Actually, this is not the first time that the Holy Spirit came down. The Bible says that Jesus Christ was conceived by the Holy Spirit.169 After he was baptized, the Holy Spirit descended on him.170 The Old Testament recorded the work of the Holy Spirit before Jesus was born. For example, he gave Joseph wisdom171 and Samson strength.172 Also, as we have discussed before, “prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.”173

The important difference is that before the Pentecost, the Holy Spirit only came to some people for a short period of time to help them achieve a specific task. After that day, the Holy Spirit has descended not only to live inside each believer, but also to help those who sincerely want to come to Jesus in faith.

Yes, coming to faith in Jesus is not an easy thing to do. It requires that a person be humble and accept that he or she is sinful. Nobody can make another person believe in Christ except for the Holy Spirit, and likewise nobody can believe in Christ without the help of the Holy Spirit.

As the boat Ego is about to capsize, we are truly desperate. We see the lifesaver, but we cannot grasp it. There is only one thing that we can do: pray. And that’s all we need to do because if we sincerely pray, the Holy Spirit will help us to repent and believe.

Living inside a person, the Holy Spirit not only gives us the ability to do certain things, but also gives us a new life. “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!”174 In this new life, the believer lives with a “new dimension” that he never understood before. Some people think that believing in Christ is a loss and Christian life is boring. However, many believers are prepared to testify to the contrary. Before accepting Christ, they felt that their lives passed by meaninglessly. Now, with the Holy Spirit in their hearts, they have a new life, a new source of strength, a new direction, a new sentiment, and a new hope. As the Bible says, they have been “born-again.”

Once, Jesus Christ spoke to a person named Nicodemus, “I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again…. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’”175 Let me ask you this question: have you been born-again? Maybe you do not know when this happened, but you should know whether or not your life has changed. Before, when I followed my friends to the church, I felt very lonely and could not understand why people were doing what they were. Many times, I had to pinch myself to stay awake. As I looked at people praying, I wondered how they could be that sincere. As I listened to them sing with all their hearts, I told myself that I could not do such a childish thing. Yet, now I constantly look forward to the following Sunday, to come to church and receive the spiritual food that my soul desires. I know that I have been born-again.

But this is only one of many signs of being born-again. The clearest sign is belief in the blood of Jesus Christ. Nobody can be born halfway. Other people may not know whether you were born-again or not, but you should know. Please do not think that going to the church regularly or belonging to a Christian family is enough. These thoughts only lead you to eternal damnation. The Bible says, “If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ.”176

I like to compare the Holy Spirit with a loving mother. Both bring me a sense of closeness and gentleness. Believing in Christ is being born-again, becoming a baby, but believing in Christ is not becoming an orphan. Believing in Christ is to join an extended family in which God is our father, other Christians are our brothers and sisters, and the Holy Spirit is our mother.

Mother Holy Spirit teaches believers all things necessary for his or her faith. Jesus Christ spoke to his disciples, “I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you.”177

The Holy Spirit inspired the authors of the Bible and teaches believers to understand it. This is not just pure theory. I know people who have tried to use their own ability to understand the Bible before believing, but to little avail. But after believing, they suddenly felt that the Bible was so clear and that they could appreciate things that they previously could not understand. The Bible is like a Vietnamese folksong. While the artistry of these folksongs will never die in the hearts of the Vietnamese, foreigners cannot fully appreciate their spirit, even though they may understand the meaning of the lyrics. Mother Holy Spirit not only gives birth to the believers, but also nurses her children with the folksong Bible, so that their hearts are constantly connected with their country in heaven.

Mother Holy Spirit teaches the believers to call God “Father.” “For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.”178

It was Mother Holy Spirit who guaranteed believers a large inheritance. Perhaps you have believed, but you still doubt the things you will receive, such as eternal life. You are you doubtful because you refuse to listen to the word of Mother Holy Spirit and to look at the statement from the Bank of the Bible. The paperwork is there and the guarantee is there, so why should you doubt and lose peace?

Mother Holy Spirit also comforts believers when they are punished by God. She reminds them that God disciplines us because he loves us. “My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you, because the Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son.”179 Whatever happens to believers, they are reminded by the Holy Spirit that their troubles are only short-term. They are reminded of the Bible’s promise: “In all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”180 They know that God loves them when they go through their tribulations in life.

Please picture a beautiful image, that of a mother stretching her hands, encouraging her son to learn to walk. The Holy Spirit acts in this way, teaching believers to be “sanctified”; that is, to become more pure, holy, and spiritually mature.

Actually, a believer’s soul is not always calm. From the day they believe, their soul is a battlefield where the temptations of sin and the desire to please God are in constant conflict. Believers have peace and joy because they know that they will win in the end, thanks to the power of God. However, as long their souls are confined in corruptible bodies, they bear conflict.

Do not think that Christianity is wrong because there are believers who commit sin. And if you are a believer, do not give up because you feel that you repeat the same old mistakes. Please remember that Paul said, “So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other.”181

Once I saw a documentary about orphanages in Vietnam. The thing that saddened me most was that these orphans were so passive. Without people to encourage them, they just sat there. There were children who were old enough to speak, but could not. They completely lacked the curiosity necessary for growing up. Similarly, without the encouragement of the Holy Spirit, human beings are inactive and lack the desire to fight against sin.

Conflict within our souls is thus desirable. Fortunately, with belief in Christ comes the teaching and encouragement of the Holy Spirit. The main thing is that we “keep in step with the Spirit”182 so that we will not give up. The mother stretches her hand to encourage her son to walk towards her; the son awkwardly does so step-by-step. Thanks to his mother, he keeps on trying. His mother is his goal. Her arms are the reward. Reaching her, he feels safe. Looking at her, he won’t walk into ensnaring traps.

Sometimes, he falls and is hurt. Sometimes, a believer sins and is disappointed. However, Mother Holy Spirit remains patient, and the son, keeping his eyes on her, will see that her waiting arms are still there, protecting, encouraging, and supporting him on his walk in life. Later when he looks back, he appreciates that she let him fall occasionally just for him to grow.

Without God, we can still live an exemplary life. Although I agree that doing so is admirable, I would want to not try it. It won’t bring salvation. It also demands an extraordinary effort with a lot of sacrifice. On the other hand, believers can live a life pleasing to God if they simply follow the guidance of the Holy Spirit. They do not do this for salvation – they already have been saved – but because of their love for God, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit. Love is the motivation, and love can compel people to do extraordinary things.

Similarly in the garden of faith, believers can bear fruit. “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.”183 All this comes not from their own effort, but is a gift of the loving Holy Spirit.

A famous Vietnamese author, Nhat Hanh, wrote a book encouraging children whose mothers were still alive to express their appreciation by pinning roses on their lapels on the Vietnamese Mother Day. In the same way, if you have the Holy Spirit within you, pin a cross-shaped rose on your heart. Tonight, in solitude, come to talk with the Holy Spirit, saying “Dear God, I want to thank you for coming into my heart. Please teach me not to displease you anymore. Please teach me to love you so that my life can bear fruit.”

CHAPTER 12
THINGS THAT ARE HARD TO UNDERSTAND

As emphasized before, we are limited beings and many things about God are beyond our ability to understand. Most of these are things that we either have no need to know or no right to understand. However, there are a few things that God wants us to know, even if we cannot comprehend them completely. We will look at some of them in this chapter.

There are a few things about God that, although they may seem contrary to logic, are not wrong. Logic is a manmade product and people are the product of God. Therefore, God is above logic. We cannot force Him into the limited framework of our logic.

For example, consider a child who only knows how to count from one to three. If we ask her what two minus one is, she can give the answer. However, if we ask her what one minus two is, she would say that it is impossible, because she has no concept of negative numbers. Likewise, heavenly mathematics is different to human mathematics. For example, in heaven, three is one and one is three.

Responding to these difficulties, we, as believers, should not consider them illogical, but neither should we try to understand them entirely. There will always be something wrong with any purported explanation. This it could lead to heresy or have negative effects on our faith.

According to the Bible, there are three Persons in the Godhead: the Father, the Son Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. The Father created the world, Jesus Christ sacrificed to save humanity, and the Holy Spirit guides us in our new life. In theory, we know that Jesus Christ has already ascended into heaven, is sitting at the right hand of God, and has sent the Holy Spirit to the world.

Yet in our daily devotional experience, we have a different feeling. We feel the Holy Spirit, but we do not feel distant from God the Father or the Son. These two Persons are as close to us as the Holy Spirit is. Furthermore, we feel that the three are equal. When we think about Jesus Christ, we feel that he is no different from God the Father. We also feel that the Holy Spirit in us is no less than God the Father.

Through our experiences, the believer feels that three is one and yet one is three.

The Bible says the same thing, confirming what we feel. It affirms that there is only one God. In the Old Testament, Moses wrote, “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one.”184 In the New Testament, Jesus Christ said, “I and the Father are one.”185 Similarly, the Apostle Paul said, “one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.”186 By definition, God must be above all, therefore there should not be any other Person that is also above all like him. “I am the LORD, and there is no other; apart from me there is no God.”187

Clearly, the formula “three is one and one is three” is beyond our logical comprehension. Some persons try to explain this mystery away instead of accepting it with humility. But all human explanations ignore a few facts in the Bible. If they conveniently ignore some details in the Bible they can explain everything. For example, some say that there is only one God, but he wears many different “masks” in different times of his plan of salvation. This view does not mesh with many other details in the Bible such as the fact that Jesus Christ prayed to God the Father. Be wary of those who only use part of the Bible and conveniently ignore parts that contradict their theories. This is a sign of heresy that will appear more and more in the last days.

We should be glad that God is above our understanding. If we could completely understand Him, He would no longer be our God. The mystery of the Trinity is a lesson teaching us that we cannot form God in our own image. While we live in this world, we have to accept many things that we simply cannot understand. Only when Jesus returns can we understand more. “Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face.”188 We will have to wait until the Last Day to understand more. But for now, let us live with faith and humility before God and other people.

The mystery of the Trinity leads to a similar mystery concerning Jesus: He is both human and God.

In the first few chapters of this book, we looked at historical evidence showing that Jesus Christ is the Son of God (or God because they are one). I hope that I have not emphasized his divinity to the point that we forget that he was also a human being like us.

He was born in a normal manner by a woman. He did not know how to speak or walk instantly, but spent time to grow in body and in wisdom. Before his ministry, he labored in his father’s business as a carpenter. During his ministry, he was hungry189, tired190; he slept191 and ate192; he was also angry193, sad194, and happy195. He experienced pain and temptation and death, just like anyone else.

Besides the fact that he was completely sinless, he was completely human, like you and I. That is the mystery: How can a person be both God and human? The most satisfactory answer should be “We do not know.” The most acceptable reaction should be humility and acceptance.

Only when we accept that Jesus Christ was both God and human can we see the effectiveness of his blood on the cross. Human beings are sinful and therefore must die. If God wants to die for us, he must become human; otherwise people would have to die for their own sins. But to die for other people, the sacrificing person has to be completely sinless. Otherwise he could only die for himself. For this reason, Jesus must be God.

In other words, God had to cut his relationship with people because they sinned. Therefore, a “mediator” was required to reconcile the two sides. The mediator had to be God, to show humans that He loves them and He wants them to come back to Him. This mediator also had to be human and represent humanity before God, offering the sacrifice to God. This sacrifice came from humanity, but it was perfect because it was the blood of God.

From the perspective of God, Jesus Christ was human. From the perspective of humanity, he was God. This way, salvation is both meaningful and effective.

I need to make it clear that Jesus was God first and then became a man, not a human being enlightened by God. We human beings can never become God. Desires to become God only reduce the glory of God and make us proud.

Since he was God first, Jesus Christ can easily be both God and a human being. Just imagine that you are living in a two-dimensional space and each of us is a circle in a plane. Imagine if Jesus Christ lived in a three-dimensional space as a sphere. If the Sphere Jesus comes to the plane Earth, then the Sphere would intersect with the plane as a circle like us. But the sphere is still a sphere. In reality, while we live in a three-dimensional space, God’s space has infinite dimensions. He can become man yet remains God.

The Bible said, “For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form”196 and

Who, being in very nature God,

did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,

but made himself nothing,

taking the very nature of a servant,

being made in human likeness.

And being found in appearance as a man,

he humbled himself

and became obedient to death--

even death on a cross!197

Believers wholeheartedly accept this revelation, remembering what is taught in the Bible: “For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God…. For the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength.”198

Are we looking for worldly wisdom, or a God that became man to save you and me?

AFTERWORD

Before I knew Jesus Christ, I only looked for the worldly wisdom.

I was born in a family that knew nothing about Christianity. During high school, sometimes I said that I was a Buddhist. But this only meant that I visited the pagoda on Buddha’s birthday. Sometimes I said that I worshipped my ancestors, but this simply meant that I paid respect to my ancestors during their death anniversaries to please my parents.

After high school, I was awarded a scholarship to study in Australia in 1968. In Australia, far away from the religious activities of my family, I lived a life of an atheist. Actually, I had faith but that faith was only in my own abilities. I had a goal for my life, but it was for a high social status in Vietnam after my graduation.

I was rather involved in community activities. When I was elected the president of the Union of the Vietnamese Students in Australia, I felt very proud of myself.

In 1975, Vietnam fell to the Communist. This event forced me to become an official representative of all the Vietnamese in Australia, who were comprised mainly of students. We were unable to sit still after what happened in Vietnam. In the beginning, we tried to raise funds to help refugees who had moved southward in Vietnam. But then when we were sure that Saigon would also fall, we tried to lobby the Australian government to help bring people out of Vietnam.

During this period, I had many opportunities to meet with many Australians. There were two types of people that made a strong impression on me. The first were the politicians. I do not want to generalize and say that all politicians are the same, but I will say that most politicians that I met during that period were not entirely sincere. When I wanted to see them alone, they coldly refused. But when I came with a TV reporter, they greeted me warmly so that they could have their faces on TV. They said that they loved the Vietnamese, but what they meant were some millions of people living vaguely somewhere on the face of the earth.

The second type of people that made a strong impression on me were the Christians. They sincerely tried to help us. They knew each of us personally. They cried along with the young students who suddenly had become stateless. They didn’t hesitate to try to provide a home away from home for those whose families were suddenly unaccounted for. In the midst of the hustle and the confusion of that time, I found myself asking how these believers could love others with such an unselfish love.

At the end of April 1975, we organized a hunger strike in Hyde Park, Sydney, to pressure the Australian government to help bring the Vietnamese to Australia. After about one day, Saigon fell. At that point we had to discontinue our strike. But not wanting to stop quietly, someone suggested to me that we have a prayer meeting before ending our strike. This was the first time that the word “prayer” came to me, and I agreed.

On the evening of April 30, about 50 students and a number of their friends sat in a park with candles in their hands, praying under the leadership of a university chaplain. This was the first time that I truly recognized my inability. Seeing my younger fellow students crying under the light of the candles, I felt as if my two hands were tied. For too long, I thought that I could be a great man and do great things and bring revolution to the world. That night, I realized that I was only a grain of sand, tossed around by the waves of life. I suddenly found myself saying within, “Dear God, help me because I cannot do anything.”

I returned to studying, finished the majority of my Ph.D. program at the end of 1975, and decided to leave Sydney to write my dissertation. Three months later, on the road back to Sydney, it was raining lightly outside. I was feeling proud of myself because inside my car, I had my dissertation ready for final submission. When I pressed down the gas pedal, the car made a turn. I was unable to control the car, and it it skided off the road. After spinning around a few times, the car stopped. When I stepped out of the car, I found that the wheels were badly damaged. I realized that I could have been killed.

This accident forced me to think about the meaning of life. I was reaching the zenith of a student career when I realize that I could have easily lost all degree, status and money. But more than that, I could have lost my very life. I shuddered to think that I could have been wasting so much of my life chasing fragile things. I told myself that I had to search for things higher than materialism and more lasting than this life on earth.

Now, I believe that God lets us find him if we genuinely search for him. The main condition is that we have to discard our preconceptions. When I look back, I recall that I did not search for the Christian God alone, but also for the god of other religions. That night, after reading a small book explaining the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, I prayed to Him, asking him to be the Lord of my life.

In the foreword, I said that believing is like renewing a love affair that was once broken. Now you understand that this love is the love between God and people and that Jesus Christ is the bridge that reconciles the two sides.

Ever since I first believed, I have had a peace that I could not understand before. My life is full of the “despite-love” that comes from God and will never fade. A feeling of powerlessness led me to the all-powerful; a near-death experience led me to a hope in an everlasting life in the nail-pierced hands of Jesus Christ.

My limited ability does not allow me to fully express all the blessings that I, and all other believers of Jesus Christ, have received, even in this world. Yet, unable to keep silent, I wrote this book, asking you to “let me share what I believe.”

Hopefully, after reading this book, at least you can tell yourself Jesus Christ is living and his plan of salvation makes sense. So will you come to him and taste the medicine that has changed the lives of billions of people in this world? Will you believe in Christ and step out of this human bondage? Why not?

Thanks Pastor Roger!

I had some time this evening and wanted to read this. I really appreciate you sharing it with us. It's refreshing and shows an excitement in CHRIST. The writing style is also different and interesting. Again, thanks!

Love In Christ,
Tom

Psalms 139:9-10 NASB  If I take the wings of the dawn, If I dwell in the remotest part of the sea, Even there Your hand will lead me, And Your right hand will lay hold of me.