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By Billy Holland

Columnist

God’s offer for everyone to accept His salvation is the greatest gesture of compassion and grace the world has ever known. However, for those who reject His invitation, as the rich young ruler did, embracing the default and ignoring the divine will be the most devastating decision a person will ever make. The image of a red devil with a pitchfork is neither cute nor a joke nor the holiness of God, who has always demanded honor, reverence, and respect. “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding” Proverbs 9:10. Having factual information and accepting it are two profoundly different things, and whether we want to admit it or not, we choose whom we will serve every moment.

It’s no secret that seekers of truth have lots of difficult questions. I guess the most important at the end of life is, “How much truth did the seeker find?” and, more importantly, “How much of it did they comprehend and demonstrate?” It’s been said that knowledge is merely the accumulation of information, but wisdom is the understanding of knowledge. We use the concept of levels to describe just how far and how deep we will venture in our quest to know the mysteries and secrets about God and the meaning and purpose of our lives. Sadly, the passion for discovering these revelations seems to only matter to a fraction of the population, which is peculiar.

With the help of technology, we receive a constant flow of communication at the push of a button and most consider this a blessing. Nonetheless, what the masses fail to realize is that information is commonly mixed with biased and opinionated commentary that contaminates the message, which in turn can distort our perspectives. In this light, things are not always the way they seem, thus the critical need for spiritual discernment. Deception is like an infection of the mind and soul. The modern views about philosophy and spirituality declare that truth is relative to what the individual believes, and there is not a divine standard of truth for everyone to trust and obey. Yet, the Bible is very clear about there only being one God and one truth which means that what we believe has everything to do with whether we are right or wrong. When it comes to our state of being in the next dimension, we do not want to be on the side of error and face judgment for conforming to the culture.

I’m sure with the hundreds of newspapers that publish this column each week, there are skeptics, agnostics, and maybe even a few atheists that read it and I’m honored. A growing audience is interested to know if anyone can prove that God exists, and this is the most important question anyone could ask. I can give examples of what I believe confirms He is real, but at the end of the day, I cannot knock on God’s door and literally introduce Him to you. There is just as much faith in rejecting God as there is in embracing Him, and we are accountable for our choices. In the spirit realm, divine truth is absolute, but there is virtually no absolute proof outside of pure logic and mathematics in the natural world. Therefore, courtrooms do not require absolute proof to reach a verdict; rather, they seek to present reasonable doubt and consider what’s most probable.

Some have heard of Pascal’s wager, which is a pragmatic argument presented by the seventeenth-century French philosopher, and theologian Blaise Pascal (1623-1662). He considered that all human beings wager with their eternal future concerning whether God exists or not. By the way, these decisions are not optional. Merely by existing we are forced to decide even if we are convinced we are not participating at all. Pascal’s presentation basically declares that if we wager that God is just a fairy tale and we are correct, we have lost nothing. However, if we believe that He is real and we love and serve Him, we have gained everything. Yet, many gamble against the odds and risk losing their souls, knowing there is overwhelming evidence for the reality of God. Read Mark 8:36-37. You see, believing in God does not require blind faith, but neither can it overcome determined resistance. Airtight, sound arguments will remain unconvincing to those who are resolved to doubt.

Learn more about the Christian life at billyhollandministries.com.