Change your world by changing your community: Write a Letter to the Editor. I did, here is the response.

In preparation for Christmas, I wrote a letter to the editor to a local newspaper. I was desiring local discussion. I got it. While Christmas celebration has ceased for most of us, today (Saturday January 7th) is Christmas for Russian orthodox churches in 2017. Whichever the date you celebrate, the arguments are relevant and timeless.

Below I included the letter, some comments and my responses. I hope these can be helpful to you as you too make a case for Christ:

My Letter To The Editor

I had a great online conversation with Lilia, a Muslim. She said she loves Jesus and honors the Bible. However, she challenged me thus: “A God who is bigger than this universe (was) born through a womb,” she asked, speaking of Jesus. Christmas is the time of year we celebrate Christ’s birth, but Lilia is skeptical that Jesus is God.

However, I was a little confounded, just because one can’t imagine that God is a certain way does not mean he is not that way. In other words, one’s beliefs do not make things true, rather if it is true we should believe it. In addition, I understand that Islam teaches that Allah’s actual nature remains ultimately unknowable. This means she really has no knowledge of God’s full nature.

However, Jesus claimed divinity, claimed to be God’s son, accepted worship reserved for God alone and demanded honor. He evidenced this by his perfection, his miracles and his fulfillment of prophecy written hundreds of years prior, besides other reasons.

My question is this, if Jesus really is God, is he not powerful enough to come in the form he would like? Why would I claim to know more than Jesus? Plus, God is not subject to space, he is spirit and in the spirit he is physically dimensionless. Thanks Lilia for the good conversation and a challenge for me to think about!

Conversation That Followed
The following are some of the comments and my responses. I want to say up front that I did edit some of the text, especially mine for accuracy and clarification. Check out the original text here.

Here is the first comment by one named ignorants:

Hate to burst your bubble, but if you study early Christianity, Jesus never claimed divinity. That notion came well after his death.

So I responded thus:

Actually he did, claiming to be the “I Am”, the name for God in the Old Testament. This is just one of the reasons. Ultimately, however, Jesus’ claim to deity cost him his life, he was crucified by the hands of the Jews through Roman authority. A claim to Godhood was blasphemy per Jews. I can give many more reasons if you would like.

And ignorants never responded back. However, soidon commented on my letter to the editor too:

Jesus of Nazareth never wrote one sentence or phrase. Studying what Batman or Superman said is just as credible. Can you spell fairytale or myth?

So I responded to soidon’s comment as follows:

If you claim fairy-tale or myth, you will have to provide evidence. You will have to provide evidence why Batman and Superman fiction are similar to the account of Jesus. Jesus is one of the most attested to figures in ancient history. You will be hard pressed to find a reputable historian who thinks Jesus did not exist. Even agnostic Bart Ehrman would think it would be silly to say Jesus never existed. In addition, just because one does not write anything physically himself or herself, does not mean that person does not or did not exist.

That too was the end of the discussion between soidon and myself. In the future, I may include some of the other conversations there. In the mean time, why don’t you write a letter to the editor too ?

New resource coming to iApologia at the end of this month — stay tuned!