KindiakMath

In many ways, all that I have written on the Theology topic boils down to this question I now field to anyone who would read this post:

Who is Your King?

I set out to write a sequence of blog posts using logic, evidence, and reason to make the case that there is one God and His name is Jesus.

Come now, let us reason together, says the LORD… [Isaiah 1:18]

Here’s the executive summary of my findings.

Pre-History

Firstly, is it even plausible that God exists? Taking cues from the fine-tuning of our universe, the probability of the physical underpinnings that would allow life to exist is vanishingly small if there weren’t a divine intelligence behind it all. Therefore, it is at least plausible that this divine intelligence exists.

Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?
Tell me, if you have understanding.
Who determined its measurements—surely you know!
Or who stretched the line upon it? [Job 38:4–5]

If we expand this divine intelligence to the notion of a maximally great Being, called God, then this Being is perfectly true and certainly divinely intelligent, and whose existence is plausible.

Then Moses said to God, “If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?” God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” And he said, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’” [Exodus 3:13–14]

But being maximally great, the ontological argument strengthens the possibility of God’s existence into the necessity of God’s existence. Being maximally great, this God must be perfectly moral, paradoxically bolstered by the existence of evil and suffering.

‘Ah, Lord GOD! It is you who have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and by your outstretched arm! Nothing is too hard for you. You show steadfast love to thousands, but you repay the guilt of fathers to their children after them, O great and mighty God, whose name is the LORD of hosts, great in counsel and mighty in deed, whose eyes are open to all the ways of the children of man, rewarding each one according to his ways and according to the fruit of his deeds. [Jeremiah 32:17–19]

Furthermore, postulating the existence of real love, this Being must be perfectly loving, and therefore must exist in at least two co-eternal Persons, which rules out many worldviews except for the Trinitarian Christian one.

Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. [John 17:24]

These preliminary findings do not inherently prove the central claim of Jesus, but they lend credence to its plausibility. To strengthen the case for Jesus, we need to look at the historical data.

History

No historical figure has created more controversy than that of Jesus of Nazareth. We first use historical principles to establish that the modern New Testament does in fact correspond with early copies of the New Testament, which themselves must correspond with the earliest writings of the New Testament prior to copying and distribution across many locales surrounding the Mediterranean Sea.

For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. [2 Peter 2:16]

We have good reason to believe that these New Testament documents were written by eye-witnesses close to Jesus or His earliest followers, especially regarding the death of Jesus of Nazareth under Pontius Pilate.

Inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the things that have been accomplished among us, just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word have delivered them to us, it seemed good to me also, having followed all things closely for some time past, to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, that you may have certainty concerning the things you have been taught. [Luke 1:1–4]

Numerous non-Christian sources also attest to this event, lending credence to its historicity. The New Testament contains the teachings of Jesus and His numerous claims to divinity, which poses a serious challenge to the local Jews of the day:

• If Jesus isn’t God, then His claims are false and He is a liar.
• If Jesus is God, then His claims are true and obliges worship from them.

These challenges aren’t ideas ex-nihilo, but claims of answering the unanswered questions in the Old Testament.

For to us a child is born,
to us a son is given;
and the government shall be upon his shoulder,
and his name shall be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. [Isaiah 9:6–7]

Thanks to the Septuagint, we can be confident that the Old Testament in our hands corresponds to the Old Testament that Jesus and His followers referred to, albeit moderately inaccessible to us if we are not fluent in Hebrew, Aramaic, or Common Greek (i.e. the original languages of the Old Testament).

The grass withers, the flower fades
when the breath of the LORD blows on it;
surely the people are grass.
The grass withers, the flower fades,
but the word of our God will stand forever. [Isaiah 40:7–8]

Jesus wasn’t claiming to just be the chosen one as proclaimed in the Prophets, but the Savior promised to Eve and Abraham respectively, and even the God-King whose kingdom lasts forever as promised to David and proclaimed to Daniel.

And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven.” Now some of the scribes were sitting there, questioning in their hearts, “Why does this man speak like that? He is blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?” [Mark 2:5–7]

These claims to divinity are not vague “God told me” inner thoughts, but public and objective promises that God gives to the Jewish people and has, at least within the Old Testament, not yet delivered.

When your days are fulfilled to walk with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, one of your own sons, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for me, and I will establish his throne forever. I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son. I will not take my steadfast love from him, as I took it from him who was before you, but I will confirm him in my house and in my kingdom forever, and his throne shall be established forever. [1 Chronicles 17:11–14]

Jesus claims to be the singular answer to all of these unresolved promises. He even claims to be the God-Man, and the religious experts knew very clearly what He meant.

But he remained silent and made no answer. Again the high priest asked him, “Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?” And Jesus said, “I am, and you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power, and coming with the clouds of heaven.” And the high priest tore his garments and said, “What further witnesses do we need? You have heard his blasphemy. What is your decision?” And they all condemned him as deserving death. [Mark 14:61–64]

Therefore, Jesus did not blaspheme if and only if He really is God. Christianity rises or falls on the resurrection. If Jesus resurrected, then we know that the perfectly true God has vindicated Jesus’ claims to divinity. Otherwise, no one knows, nor should they care.

And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied. [1 Corinthians 15:17–19]

However, the minimal facts argument asserts that Jesus really did resurrect from the dead. The tomb that contained Jesus’ body was certainly empty, yet given the Jewish rulings of the day, Jesus’ body couldn’t have been stolen.

While they were going, behold, some of the guard went into the city and told the chief priests all that had taken place. And when they had assembled with the elders and taken counsel, they gave a sufficient sum of money to the soldiers and said, “Tell people, His disciples came by night and stole him away while we were asleep.’ And if this comes to the governor’s ears, we will satisfy him and keep you out of trouble.” So they took the money and did as they were directed. And this story has been spread among the Jews to this day. [Matthew 28:11–15]

Mass-hallucination theories fail spectacularly—it is far more improbable than probable that more than 500 people hallucinated the risen Jesus at the same time, notwithstanding their discouragement in the face of Jesus’ death, as well as their terror and fear toward the religious elite.

For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. [1 Corinthians 15:3–6]

Coupled with the radically different worldview that Jesus’ Jewish followers adopted towards Him—even unlikely Jews like James the half-brother of Jesus or Saul of Tarsus (i.e. the Apostle Paul) the persecutor—the only conclusion that coheres with the prevailing evidence is that Jesus did, in fact, resurrect from the dead.

Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me (Apostle Paul). For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. [1 Corinthians 15:7–9]

Since Jesus resurrected from the dead, His claims to divinity are true, and He really is the One True God, co-eternal with whom He calls ‘the Father’. Since Jesus really is God, His words are really true.

The one who speaks on his own authority seeks his own glory; but the one (i.e. Jesus) who seeks the glory of him who sent him is true, and in him there is no falsehood. [John 7:18]

Since His words are really true, His affirmations of the Old Testament being the Word of God are really true as well.

All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. [2 Timothy 3:16–17]

Therein, we know that the (at least Protestant) Old Testament is part of the Word of God.

Then he said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.” Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures… [Luke 24:44–45]

Furthermore, Jesus endorses His apostles through signs and wonders, authenticating their words as His Words, and speaking through them. Therefore, their words as recorded for us in the New Testament are His Words, and since Jesus is God, we also have that the New Testament is part of the Word of God.

He (the Spirit) will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you. [John 16:14–15]

The author of the Gospel of John describes the totality of the Word of God as Jesus Himself, from which we obtain the Old and the New Testaments as encoded for us in Scripture.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God…And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. [John 1:1; 14]

From this Word of God, we can answer the deepest longings of the human heart, and ground various modern religious practices on God’s Word.

So Jesus said to the twelve, “Do you want to go away as well?” Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.” [John 6:67–69]

Life’s Big Questions

God’s Word reveals God as one divine Being existing in three co-eternal, co-substantial Persons, communicated to us as the Father, the Son, and the Spirit.

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit… [Matthew 28:19]

From this triune God springs forth creation as a gift of love by the Father to the Son in the power of the Spirit.

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. [Colossians 1:15–16]

From this creation He creates us to image Him in loving rule as well. To image God would simply be to live like God in His perfect, outgoing, others-oriented love that produces a flourishing life.

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” [Genesis 1:27–28]

Yet, we have rebelled against Him, plunging our world into an endless downward sin-death spiral. From our rebellion (i.e. sin) against God, we have cut ourselves off from the giver of life and breath, only leading to death and suffering.

Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned… [Romans 5:12]

Even the horrible atrocities that we ourselves condemn as evil: these atrocities are only truly evil when compared to the objectively good standards that come from the good God.

Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. [Galatians 5:19–21]

We wandered from God’s goodness, and He yearns to bring us back.

For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. [Romans 5:6–8]

God sets forth this rescue mission by giving unmerited kindness to various individuals, not due to their merit, but simply as a gift of grace.

I will put enmity between you (i.e. the serpent) and the woman,
and between your offspring and her offspring;
he shall bruise your head,
and you shall bruise his heel.” [Genesis 3:15]

Through these individuals whom God describes as ‘His people’, He promises to bring about the Savior King who would free humanity not just from slavery to tyrannical leaders, but even more so slavery to their own rebellious (i.e. sinful) hearts.

Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. [Exodus 19:5–6]

God promises to remove the sin in their hearts and in place of their sinful hearts, create in them new hearts that would love Him and love others.

And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. [Ezekiel 36:26–27]

God accomplishes this task by sending His Son—the truly God and truly man Jesus Christ—into the world to take our sinful hearts upon Himself and be punished on our behalf.

But he was pierced for our transgressions;
he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
and with his wounds we are healed. [Isaiah 53:5]

In place of a guilty standing before God, we now have a rightful standing before God, and in place of hearts of stone, God gives us through His Spirit new hearts of flesh that are actually able to love Him and love others.

But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet. For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified. [Hebrews 10:12–14]

In giving us this new heart, God frees us from the sin-death downward spiral and brings us into a righteousness-life upward spiral of sorts in His life and love.

He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. [Colossians 1:13–14]

From this gift of kindness in saving us, God’s Spirit brings us into Jesus, thereby giving us new hearts, and causing us to properly image God in love toward Him and toward others, even as He first loves us.

By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. We love because he first loved us. [1 John 4:17–19]

The life we have boils down to one of two spirals: either the sin-death downward spiral or the righteousness-life upward spiral. These spirals do not co-exist, and their ultimate ends are Hell and Heaven respectively. Heaven is the sum total of the goodness of God and His personal presence, while Hell is the sum total of the absence of God’s goodness (all that remains is God’s wrath against sin and evil).

And I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb. And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb. By its light will the nations walk, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it, and its gates will never be shut by day—and there will be no night there. They will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations. But nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life. [Revelation 21:22–27]

God promises to rid the world of evil once and for all. The real question is which spiral we would find ourselves in when that day comes. By default, as pertinently evident from the evil without and the evil within, we were trapped in the sin-death downward spiral.

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. [Ephesians 2:1–3]

To enter the righteousness-life spiral is to be saved by Jesus, which is, almost by definition, to regard Jesus as our Savior, King, and God.

But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim); because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. [Romans 10:8–10]

Whichever spiral we find ourselves in when Jesus returns is the corresponding destination we will find ourselves in at the end of said spiral.

Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the tree of life and that they may enter the city by the gates. Outside are the dogs and sorcerers and the sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood. [Revelation 22:14–15]

If we are in the life-righteousness spiral—that is, we are in Christ—then we have an amazingly new life when Jesus returns, and therefore, right now.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. [2 Corinthians 5:17]

When we regard Jesus as our Savior, King, and God, we know that it could only have been made possible by God’s Spirit, and we can be confident that His Spirit will keep us to the end.

And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. [Philippians 1:6]

Practice

Let me now preach to the people of God—precious family members of His kingdom-family.

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. [1 Peter 2:9–10]

Why, then, do we read the Bible? Far from an arbitrary Christian ritual, to read the Bible is to hear the very words of God through His chosen prophets and apostles.

All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. [2 Timothy 3:16–17]

We get to personally know the living God by getting to know Jesus His Son. We get to know Jesus His Son throughout all of the Bible, since He is the Word of God.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. [John 1:1]

Nonetheless, we get to know Him most clearly from the Gospel accounts about Him, and implicitly (yet excitingly) through other parts of the Bible.

And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he (Jesus) interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself. [Luke 24:27]

As we read the Gospel accounts, God’s Spirit causes us to personally connect with the character of Jesus, and since He died and rose again, the real character of the real Jesus.

Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual. [1 Corinthians 2:12–13]

That is, by reading and listening God’s words, we get to actually know the actual God through His actual Word—why should our mundane lives ever get in the way of that?

Blessed is the man
who walks not in the counsel of the wicked,
nor stands in the way of sinners,
nor sits in the seat of scoffers;
but his delight is in the law of the LORD,
and on his law he meditates day and night. [Psalm 1:1–2]

Why, then, do we pray? Far from vain liturgy, we pray simply as one way of conversing with God. We hear God speak through His Word, and we respond by speaking to Him. Part of our conversation with Him involves prayer—that is, requests.

Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. [Philippians 4:4–7]

Part of our conversation with Him simply involves regular conversation as with a friend, since Jesus considers His disciples as friends (and by extension as members of His kingdom-family, us). Therefore, in Jesus, we really are friends of God.

No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. [John 15:15]

We get to speak to the Father, in the name of the Son, by the power of the Spirit. We get to speak to the living God—why should our mundane lives ever get in the way of that?

Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. [1 Thessalonians 5:16–18]

With this new mutually life-giving friendship with the living triune God of love, do we get to sin however we want?

By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. [Romans 6:2–4]

And while we were in that dark and miserable state, was life really all that much better?

For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. [Romans 6:20–23]

This is why Christians ought to abound in good works—they lead to life, rather than death, and that is who we are—children of God’s life!

For if, because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ. [Romans 5:17]

Why, then, do we regularly attend church? To earn brownie points with God? If that were the case, then even our righteousness is like filthy rags. No—to be in church is to be in connection with God’s kingdom-family.

So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. [Ephesians 2:19–21]

God lives eternally as a community, and created us to live as human creatures in a human community, saturated in His life. Does God’s people sin? Of course! Jesus Himself teaches us that we ought to pray for forgiveness from God and for one another, and to insist on forgiving one another.

Give us this day our daily bread,
and forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil. [Matthew 6:11–13]

Would church be perfect? Not until Christ returns. Yet, until He returns, the church is God’s gift to us to enjoy His life through one another, even as Jesus Himself will cleanse her and present her as spotlessly beautiful at His return.

Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. [Ephesians 5:25–27]

We need to go to church. Otherwise, as some of us have already probably experienced, we are far more likely than not to hop out of the righteousness-life upward spiral and back into the sin-death downward spiral.

Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it. [Hebrews 2:1]

We need to be with God’s people, through whom God stirs up His life in and among us.

Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near. [Hebrews 10:23–25]

Why then, do we evangelise? To spread the good news! To spread the good news that in our brokenness and suffering and hell-bound rebellion, God has created a solution to save us from our sin.

How beautiful upon the mountains
are the feet of him who brings good news,
who publishes peace, who brings good news of happiness,
who publishes salvation,
who says to Zion, “Your God reigns.” [Isaiah 52:7]

God sent His Son to take our sin upon Himself. This is good news!

For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. [2 Corinthians 5:21]

How could we withhold such good news from anyone around us? In living in God’s upward spiral of life-giving love, we also experience new hearts that love Him and love others.

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. [1 John 4:7]

We even share His heart for the life and well-being of those around us—it is simply from loving what God loves that we love to spread this good news to those around us.

All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. [2 Corinthians 5:18–20]

Would everyone receive this message? Sadly, not. But nothing is impossible with God, for His can change even the hardest heart of stone into the softest heart of flesh.

And they were exceedingly astonished, and said to him, “Then who can be saved?” Jesus looked at them and said, “With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God.” [Mark 10:26–27]

Therefore…

I return to the central premise of these blog posts to begin with, and the question this post began with:

Who is Your King?

Accepting the logical conclusions of all of these blog posts doesn’t automatically make you a Christian. Even Satan knows that Jesus is God—yet he is eternally damned to hell.

And immediately there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit. And he cried out, “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God.” But Jesus rebuked him, saying, “Be silent, and come out of him!” [Mark 1:23–25]

My goal in these blog posts is to establish a logically rigorous foundation and a confident case for Christian theology, so that man may recognise Jesus as God:

• Jesus took all our bad karma and gave us all His good karma.
• We could never be righteous enough for Allah, so Jesus lived the righteousness we could not, then offered it to us as a gift.
• The Messiah has already come, and He became the final sacrifice so the covenant could be written on our hearts.
• The true Avatar entered our broken world, bore its suffering, and opened the way from endless rebirth into eternal life.
• The universe is broken because we are broken — and the divine entered our world to heal us from the inside.
• We all know we fail our own moral standards; Jesus offers forgiveness and a new heart that we could never create for ourselves.
• If moral law is real, then moral debt is real — and Jesus claims He paid it in full.
• The perfect servant of God lived the life of complete obedience and shared its reward with all who trust Him.
• The Creator has not abandoned us; He entered our world, defeated death, and calls every family home.
• Truth is not something we construct — it is someone who came looking for us.
• We cannot save ourselves by discipline; Christ gives us a new heart before He asks us to live a new life.
• We are more broken than we admit, yet more loved than we can imagine — and Jesus is the proof.

Having recognised Jesus as God, I appeal you to recognise Him as your Savior King as well.

Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. [John 20:30–31]

He loves you and delights to welcome you out of your sin-death spiral into His righteousness-life spiral.

And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. [John 17:3]

Peace be to the brothers, and love with faith, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace be with all who love our Lord Jesus Christ with love incorruptible.

Now there are also many other things that Jesus did. Were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written. [John 21:25]

—Joel Kindiak, 25 Dec 25, 1535H