Basis & Belief...

I've been holding this idea in my head for quite some time. Let me tell you a story. It’s set around 2000 years ago. There are only two characters, but you know both of them. First off, we have Patrick the Pharisee. Patrick (or Pat, his nickname) is an upstanding Pharisee. He is a well respected member of his community, regularly attends his local synagogue, and would consider himself a very good man. His life is perfect. For anyone who doesn't know, a Pharisee is a respected teacher of the Jewish law. He loved his life, and thought that he followed the Jewish laws down to an I. Everything was going grand, that is until our second character comes along…

His name is the "Liberator." That's his name. The son of a carpenter from Nazareth, born in the town of Bethlehem. The Liberator is travelling all of the land, proclaiming something...new. Something different to what people hear on a regular basis. Pat is intrigued by this, and so decides to investigate. And to his amazement, he hears this; “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” HUH!? What’s this? The Liberator is claiming that no one enters the presence of God without coming through…him. This is…blaspheme! He is basically saying that he is the Messiah, the Son of God. This isn’t good for our friend Pat…

Let me explain why. Pat had followed the Jewish laws all his life. He believed that he could go to heaven if he led a good life. But now, The Liberator is saying that you can’t get to heaven without following him. And to be honest, back in that day, it would sound pretty ridiculous to claim to be the Son of God without evidence, or basis…But don’t worry. There is still another three parts to the story. Onwards and upwards…

Pat now decides that he needs further investigating, before reporting it to his synagogue. So he follows this “Liberator” around, and sees if he can learn anything else from him. Soon enough, the Liberator starts talking; “What does the sixth commandment say? You won’t snuff out a life, stop someone’s clock, dole out the big cheese, erase, drop, hit, top, bump anyone off. And you know that anyone who flies in the face of this should be brought to trial. But I’m telling you, anyone who loses their cool with someone for no reason has already murder them in his/her heart.” What’s this? He’s…changing the laws of Moses! But there's more; “What does the seventh commandment say? You won’t commit adultery. But I’m telling you that if you lust after someone with their eyes, then they have already committed adultery against them in their heart.”

Now let’s take a look at this part. Pat is claiming that the Liberator has changed some of the Jewish laws. This can also be called blaspheme. However this is not the case. The Liberator is simply adding stipulations to the commandments. While he says you shall not murder anyone, he says that if you also hate someone, you have committed murder in your heart against them. The same goes for the commandment about adultery. Now back to the story…

Pat continues to follow the Liberator, seeing what else he does. While following him, he witnessed what can only be described as miracles. What do I mean? Blind that can see, mutes that can talk, crippled that can now walk, possessed that act like themselves, lepers without a single blemish on their skin. Pat now comes to another conclusion…this Liberator is an agent of the devil. It makes perfect sense to him. How else could he perform these miracles? But time and again, the Liberator continues to say that he is the Son of God. Pat was not convinced. But then something unexpected happened. One of the Liberators closest friends died. The Liberator was called for, and so he went. When he arrived at the tomb, his friend had been dead for nearly three days. Then the Liberator made an astounding request; “Open up the tomb.” One of his friends sisters ran up to him saying “I don’t what you’re thinking it will smell like, but he’s been lying there for three days.” However they opened up the tomb, and the Liberator began to pray; “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me." Then he said to his dead friend “Come out!” And just like that, he came out…alive! This was…amazing! The dead had come back to life. And with this, Pat had seen enough. He had began to feel something new, something which said that this Liberator could be the one. He tried to shake it off, as he made his way to an emergency meeting called by the Chief Priest. “What are we to do? This man keeps producing God-signs. If we let him continue, soon everyone will believe him.” Then the Chief Priest spoke. “It’s simple, all we do is kill him. Isn’t it better that one man dies then for a whole nation to be destroyed?” And from that day on, they plotted to kill him. But all the while, Pat knew that something big was going to happen…

Where does the title of this article come into this story? Well actually, it has been in play since the very beginning. The title is inspired from my own quote, which was inspired from a quote from Albert Einstein. My quote is as follows; “Basis without Belief is lame, Belief without Basis is blind.” To put it simply, if you have the evidence to prove that something is true, shouldn’t be obvious that you should believe in that something? If you don’t, you are simply rejecting that belief. Likewise, if you don’t have any basis to prove your belief, how can you be sure that it is true? If you believe something without having evidence, then you are blind to the actual belief. Why? Because I believe that basis and belief must walk in hand. To put it another way, the two can’t exist without each other. And this is what the modern world is doing. Some people believe in something without basis, while others have all the evidence to prove something (most notably Christianity), yet they reject it. Why? Because the world continues to ask “how.” But that is not the question we need to be asking. We need to be asking “why?” Why do we exist? Scientist can tell you how you can exist, in an article that would be much longer than this. But why do we exist? Why do we eat, sleep, breathe? While scientists can tell you this as well, continue to ask them why, and eventually they say “I don’t know.” We aren’t designed to know everything, but two things we were designed with are faith and imagination…

Imagination is not what it says in the dictionary. The dictionary describes imagination as being creative. However, I believe that, while this has some truth, it is not the complete meaning. Imagination is asking “what if?” What if I didn't eat breakfast? That’s easy, I’d be hungry. Now a harder one. What if God exists? Even I struggle to find an answer that question, but it is easier for me because I believe. I believe in the invisible world. Something that we can’t see, no matter how technological we get, we won’t be able to see it conventionally. That is where faith comes in. Faith is believing in what we can not see, or predict. A good example is the chair you are sitting on. You put your faith in the manufacturer that the chair is built so that it won’t just fall. Did it? Probably not (although I could be wrong). That is what faith is. But put into a bigger sense. You can’t see the invisible, yet do believe that exists? I do. And this comes from belief. And where is the basis? Well to honest, the Bible is a great piece of evidence, not in the sense that it contains a lot of information (which it does) but in the fact that it may open up a personal belief inside yourself, that the invisible world exists. If you begin to believe in the invisible world, you’ll begin to see it with your heart. But the bible is not the only piece of evidence. Ask anyone, and I guarantee that when they look at a Christian, they’ll see something different about them. This was the case for Pat. He saw something different in the Liberator. For a time, people actually had a glimpse of the invisible world with their eyes. The Liberator had provided all the evidence for people to believe in. Yet some rejected it. However, the greatest piece of evidence was still to come…

The Liberator. What had started out so promising, now looked like it was all in vain. There he hung, on a wooden cross, waiting for his time to come. Pat stood in awe wondering what was to come. The third hour came closer, and the Liberator began to slip from this world. Finally, he began to utter his final words, “Father, into your hands, I commit my spirit.” Time passed, and as he took his final breath, he uttered “It is finished.”

Dead.


The man who claimed that he could save the world from sin was dead...

But no one realised that he was fighting the battle for humankind in the invisible world right then. Against the very fortress of hell, he stood, waiting for the very essence of evil to approach. He was about to fight for his children’s souls...

And guess what?




He won.



Three days passed. And to the amazement everyone, he was alive. He had risen. This was the final piece of evidence that they were looking for. Now, Pat truly believed that the Liberator was the Son of God. And now the Liberator sits besides his Father, at his right hand, looking over the world.

The End...




Not quite. See that was back then. What about now? Why do people reject the promise of eternal life from the Liberator? Why do they not believe? It is because of modernisation. Modernisation has taken away two of the greatest things God has given us; imagination to think outside this world, and faith to believe in what we can not see, the invisible world. The world is telling us that we do not need them, that we are quite happy with the way we are. But still…more and more people enter what is known as the borderlands. This is where Pat was after the Liberator’s friend resurrection. Not sure of what to believe in, but knowing that there is something else. Something else outside this life. Something far more powerful then we can ever comprehend. Do you believe? If not, I hope this article has maybe made you realise that there is something else. If you do believe, then I urge you to fight. Fight to save the world, make a stand. For those of you who believe, you are the New Rebellion. The ones who will stand and fight for the heart of the Liberator. Do you want to be part of the most amazing experience? All you have to is believe. And hopefully, this will be just a small part of the evidence that you find...


“The promise of being transformed and ignited to holy passion by understanding and beholding God’s glorious personality is for all believers. No matter how weak or strong we feel, regardless of our previous failures, irrespective of our natural temperaments or personalities, each of us can be set ablaze with passion for Jesus.”-Mike Bickle

“In light of all this, here's what I want you to do. While I'm locked up here, a prisoner for the Master, I want you to get out there and walk—better yet, run!—on the road God called you to travel.”-Ephesians 4 v 1

"This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life.”-John 3 v 16