The 2010 Olympics will begin in Vancouver BC. Several television networks from around the world will be broadcasting the Games. CTV provides coverage in Canda. Canadian Olympians want to quickly lose the stigma of seldom winning gold on home soil. Over the past year, CTV ran an ad campaign entitled, “Do You Believe,” focusing on Canada’s athletes, their training and their Olympic dreams. It has been an interesting campaign and has certainly captured my interest. I applaud CTV.
However, I’m not writing here to promote Canadian athletes or to encourage you to watch the Games. Games and gold medals are entertaining, but lack importance in the eternal picture. People have asked about CTV’s slogan for thousands of years; not about sporting events but about the existence of God, the life and sacrifice of Jesus Christ, the authenticity and authority of the Bible, and many other spiritual questions.
Do You Believe… That God Exists?
A person’s answer to that question determines their perspective on some other vital questions. Where did we come from? What is the purpose of life? What happens when we die? Belief in a Divine Being is almost universal, spanning cultures and generations. Man has a natural tend-ency to worship. Those who reject God’s existence generally do so for emo-tional reasons. Writer Aldous Huxley explained his aversion to theism by saying that
…the philosophy of meaninglessness was essentially an instrument of liberation …from certain systems of morality …because it interfered with our sexual freedom.11
Isaac Asimov stated,
…emotionally I am an atheist. I don’t have the evidence to prove that God doesn’t exist, but I so strongly suspect that he doesn’t that I don’t want to waste my time.22
The evolutionary theory, an atheistic origin model, has been taught in our schools as fact for years. Yet, all the imperical data available lends itself to creation, not evolution. Do you believe that there is a God?
Do You Believe… That Jesus Is The Son Of God?
That Jesus walked upon the earth is confirmed by extra-biblical writings of the Jews and Romans. Lying about His existence would be of no benefit to either culture, in fact, the Jews of Jesus’ day would have preferred that He had not existed.
Jesus emphatically said to a crowd of hearers,
Unless you believe that I am He, you shall die in your sins. (John 8:24)
It is noteworthy that the word “He” is not found in the Greek. He claimed to be “I AM,” the One who appeared to Moses in the burning bush (Exodus 3). He was God in the flesh (John 1:1, 14).
Believing that Jesus is God is not optional, if we want the hope of salvation. To reject His identity is to reject the forgiveness which He offers. Jesus gave Himself as a sacrifice for sin, the just for the unjust, that we might might be saved from the devil’s hell.
Do You Believe… The Bible?
The Bible is a good book, as some will view it, but it is much more. The apostle Peter plainly declared that the Scriptures
…never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. (2 Peter 1:21)
We have a perpetual record of God’s will in the Bible (2 Peter 3:15; 1 John 5:13). In the written word we have “…all things that pertain to life and god-liness” (2 Peter 1:3). Paul tells us the Scriptures are
…profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work. (2 Timothy 3:16-17)
Jesus once asked,
…why do you call Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do the things which I say? (Luke 6:46)
If we believe the Bible, we do what it says. It is not filled with suggestions for us, but “the commandments of God” (1 Corinthians 14:37). The Bible contains the law by which we will be judged when eternity comes (John 12:48). Do you believe that the Bible is the word of God, and seek to obey it?
- Huxley, Aldous, “Confessions of a Professed Atheist,” Report: Perspectives on the News, Vol. 3, June 1966, p. 19. ↩︎
- Asimov, Isaac, “Interview with Isaac Asimov on Science and the Bible,” Free Inquiry, 1982, p. 6-10. ↩︎
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