Introduction: What Difference Does it Make?scottmsullivan.com/pdfs/Christ101/Chapter1.pdf · Introduction: What Difference Does it Make? 9 1. “EARTHLY GOODS ARE NECESSARY BUT UNDEPENDABLE.”

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Introduction: What Difference Does it Make?

“Remember that thou art dust, and to dust thou shalt return.” (Genesis 3:19)

What You Will Learn in This Chapter:• What “The Problem of Happiness” is and why everyone is concerned with

their own happiness• Why searching for the true religion is very important for your life• The important difference between what religions believe and why they

believe it• Why all religions cannot be true

Putting the Conversation into Context: The Problem of HappinessI. Talk about Jesus and religion should not be seen as an abstract or irrelevant

discussion. We need to bring it down to a personal level.

Talk about Jesus and religion should not be seen as an abstract or irrelevant discussion. We need to bring it down to a personal level.

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II. We need to start off by showing WHY EVERY SANE PERSON ACTUALLY DOES CARE ABOUT THIS SUBJECT VERY MUCH—IF THEY ARE THOUGHTFUL ENOUGH TO STOP AND THINK ABOUT IT!

III. Two Questions:A. Do you want to be happy?B. Is happiness possible?

IV. The answer to the first is pretty easy. Sure, everybody wants to be happy. You have wanted it your whole life. Everything you do is geared towards acquiring this happiness.

V. But what about that second question? This one is much harder.VI. CAN YOU REALLY ACHIEVE REAL, LASTING HAPPINESS?

A. By “real, lasting happiness” I do not mean those momentary bouts of happiness we all have that come and go. Sure, we all have those moments. Rather, what I mean is a lasting happiness; that is, one that is not here one minute and gone the next.

VII. IS SUCH HAPPINESS EVEN POSSIBLE? MAYBE NOT! A. Our popular culture is full of the “look on the bright side/positive

thinking/life is good” and “don’t worry be happy everything is going to be all right” mentality.

B. But this very well may be COMPLETE NONSENSE. C. Here is the REALITY: Before we can know if this happiness is

even possible, before we know that “everything is going to be all right,” we have to first address some serious problems.

D. The fact is that on the face of it, we are all faced with a very grim forecast.

VIII. THE DEPRESSING REALITY: THREE PROBLEMS THAT SEEM TO COMPLETELY UNDERMINE OUR HAPPINESS

A. PROBLEM #1: TROUBLES DURING THIS LIFE

Before we can know if this happiness is even possible, before we know that “everything is going to be all right,”

we have to first address some serious problems.

Introduction: What Difference Does it Make? 9

1. “EARTHLY GOODS ARE NECESSARY BUT UNDEPENDABLE.”2. St. Augustine saw the problem of happiness very well in his work,

The City of God. Augustine wants to be a realist about what he called “the wretchedness of man’s condition.”1

3. His point is that for earthly happiness, we are FORCED to rely on other things for our contentment—but those other things are RADICALLY UNDEPENDABLE.

i. Food, shelter, clothing, water, health, etc., are needed for happiness in this life, yet these things are subject to the vicissitudes of chance. You cannot ensure that you will always have them.

ii. For example, in an instant, you could become blind, deaf, or paralyzed, etc. You could be the victim of rape or disease. Your children could be kidnapped and seriously harmed. St. Augustine even says you could become a victim of demonic possession!

iii. Like your beauty? Look up and see what facial cancer does to one’s face. Or who’s to say your face won’t be disfigured in an accident or fire?

iv. Who is certain that such evils cannot happen to you or your loved ones at any time? Can you really be content with the possibility of these evils popping up at any moment?

v. Also, there are financial struggles to consider: worries about making ends meet, paying the bills, debt, etc.

vi. There is also the fact that you are AGING. Whatever youthfulness and vitality you have is gradually withering away. For many of us, Alzheimer’s and life in a nursing home is what we have to look forward to (and this is if you don’t die young)!

4. All of these things disturb your peace while you live (if you are thoughtful enough to stop and think about it).

5. The point is that your happiness is always dependent upon chance circumstances beyond your control, MakInG youR happIness alWays vulneRaBle, even When you have It!

1 See St. Augustine, The City of God against the pagans, ed. and tr. R. W Dawson (Cambridge 1998), XIX, 1., ch. 6, 928.

His point is that for earthly happiness, we are forced to rely on other things for our contentment—but those other things are radically undependable.

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6. It does not even have to be the case that one has actually lost these goods; just the threat of loss is enough to disrupt one’s happiness.

7. Insecurity and fear of loss are incompatible with happiness.8. Objection – “Well, life has a lot of good too. It’s better than the

alternative!”9. Response – This is certainly true. For most of us, life has more

good than bad. But that makes matters WoRse, not better. Why? Even though it is true that for most of us, the goods of this world outweigh the bad, still the enjoyment of those goods is not only tainted by all the evils mentioned above but also the goods of life are under constant threat of being ripped away from us at any moment. This brings us to the second problem of happiness.

A. PROBLEM #2: THE REALITY OF DEATH 1. As we have seen, life is painful and often full of fear and worry, but

then your death will end the only life you will ever have.2. It is an undeniable fact. You and every single person you know are

DYING. This same fate awaits everybody in the world. 3. WITH DEATH, ALL ENDS—death puts an end to all earthly joys. 4. St. Alphonsus Liguori writes that nothing is more certain than

death, yet nothing is more uncertain than the hour of death.


5. One day you will wake up and you won’t know it, but it will be your last day alive. You will DIE this day.

6. Life is SHORT, death is CERTAIN, but the hour of death is UNCERTAIN.

7. The Shortness of Life i. The end of our lives is not only certain, but the span of

our lives is relatively short! It all passes so quickly. It gets closer and closer every day.

ii. YOU WILL BE SOON BE THROWN INTO A GRAVE AND DEPRIVED OF EVERYTHING.

iii. How many plans have been cut short because of death? iv. What good will all of your dreams, goals, money, and

beauty be then?8. “Remember your death.” (Memento Mori)– Death makes the goods

of this world not so good anymore—this is the unanimous teaching of the saints.

9. “THEN WHAT?”: THE LESSON OF ST. PHILLIP NERIi. It is reported that St. Phillip Neri used to like to listen to

the lofty ambitions of people and respond with “and then what?”

ii. He would say thinks like “Okay, so you want to become rich and famous, and then what?”

iii. However they would answer, Neri would again respond with “and then what?”

iv. Neri’s line of questioning was designed to force the person to acknowledge the reality that waited for them. Behind all of their hopes and dreams was death—death would end their short life.

10. This specter of death is constantly hanging over us.i. St. Cyprian used an analogy to make a similar point. We

are all born with a noose around our necks, and each step brings us closer to our death. (How long is your rope?)

We are all born with a noose around our necks, and each step brings us closer to our death.

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ii. St. Alphonsus Liguori once asked, “What would you think of a condemned man walking to the scaffolds who was goofing around laughing, joking, and carrying on? Then Liguori asks us, “Well, are you on your way to death? What are you thinking about?”

iii. The Bible reminds us – “Remember that thou art dust, and to dust thou shalt return. (Genesis 3:19)

11. DID YOUR LIFE EVER HAVE ANY MEANING OR PURPOSE? i. ALL THAT WORK YOU DID—WHAT WAS IT ALL

FOR? ii. Some may say their work is to benefit others. But those

beneficiaries are going to die too. At the end of the day, the results of your efforts are all gone.

iii. If death is what awaits everyone and that is all there is, then it is very difficult to see how there can be any lasting significance or purpose to our lives. Ultimately, it doesn’t seem to matter one way or another how you lived your life. Whether you decided to live as a Hitler or a Mother Teresa, the end result is the same. You are dead, and so is everyone else. So what is the difference? Ultimately, there is none.

“vanity of vanities, says the preacher, vanity of vanities! all is vanity. What does man gain by

all the toil at which he toils under the sun?...There is no remembrance of former things, nor will there be any remembrance of later things yet to happen among those who come after.” ecclesiastes 1:2–11.


12. Death is a BIG problem because death robs life of any happiness it might bring.

i. You may say you live to make others happy—but they are dying too!

ii. You may say death puts an end to life’s evils, so it’s not so bad. But the problem is that for most of us, who haven’t committed suicide, we tend to think life has, on balance, more good than evil and hence prefer to live. Death is rarely ever viewed as good.

III. BESIDES, THERE MAY BE afteRlIfe evIls (which brings us to our next point).

B. PROBLEM #3: THE POSSIBILITY OF JUDGMENT 1. Have you ever thought about what will become of you after you

die? How do you know? 2. Jesus of Nazareth had an answer. He said that all of us will face

a judgment, the result of which will ultimately be either Heaven or Hell.

3. The Bad News:i. Christ’s message is called the “good news,” and it certainly

is—but it’s one we can’t really appreciate until we know

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THE BAD NEWS. Jesus also talked about sin and the threat of losing your eternal soul forever.

ii. Hellfire and brimstone didn’t begin with the Bible-thumping preacher; it began with the teachings of Jesus himself.

iii. Jesus taught that we all have to face the judgment of God, for we have lived our lives. Those who did not live rightly will be condemned to Hell.

iv. Was he wrong? How do you know?v. If Jesus was right, IT MAY NOT BE SAFE TO DIE! It

could be the case that if YOU were to die right now, you might be in a world of hurt!

4. Will death be the end of your problems? how do you know your problems won’t get worse?

5. Objection: “I’m a good person.”6. Response: Sure you’re a “good person.” In fact, everybody is a good

person if you ask them. But “good” according to what standard? Is that “good enough”? How do you know? Everybody thinks God grades on a curve—like as long as I’m not a murderer, then “I’m a good person,” or as long as “I’m no Hitler,” then God will send me to Heaven. The problem is that Jesus never said that only murderers and Hitlers go to Hell. On the contrary, Jesus listed NUMEROUS

“Then he will say to those at his left hand, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels; for I was

hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not

clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’ Then they also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see thee hungry or thirsty or a stranger

or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to thee?’ Then he will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it not to one of the

least of these, you did it not to me.’ And they will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

Matt. 25:41–46


WAYS ONE CAN LOSE THEIR SOUL THROUGH SIN. In fact, the Bible says:

i. “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” – Romans 3:23

ii. “If we claim we have not sinned, we are calling God a liar and showing that His word has no place in our hearts.”

– 1 John 1:107. Now I’m not claiming right now that the doctrine of Final

Judgment and Eternal damnation is true. At this point, all I’m saying is that it might be true and even the possible threat of divine judgment can undermine the happiness of those who are insightful enough to think about it.

Summarizing the Problem of HappinessI. The problem of happiness is a threefold problem. This is what we are dealing

with: unavoidable evils, worries, and suffering in this life; followed by an unstoppable crash course with death that takes away all goods of this world; ending with the looming possibility of an eternal judgment to follow.

A. NO SANE PERSON LIKES THE EVILS IN THIS LIFE, NO SANE PERSON LIKES THE LOOMING PROSPECT OF HAVING ALL THE GOODS OF THIS LIFE WIPED OUT AT ANY MOMENT BY

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DEATH, AND NO SANE PERSON LIKES THE IDEA OF COMING UP ON THE BAD SIDE OF AN ETERNAL JUDGMENT.

B. THE FACT IS WE HAVE SOME SERIOUS ISSUES TO RESOLVE HERE BEFORE WE CAN SAY THAT ANY REAL LASTING HAPPINESS IS EVEN POSSIBLE.

II. What Should You Do ABOUT THIS PROBLEM? A List Of Possible Solutions2

A. KILL YOURSELF? 1. Stop this nonsensical existence right now. Faced with the

absurdity of life, perhaps you should just get it over with and end it all right now.

2. Most people don’t like this option; most of us prefer living rather than dying.

3. This would do nothing to solve the possibility of a divine judgment problem.

B. DISTRACT YOURSELF? 1. This is what most people actually do! Ignore it, don’t think about

it, stick your head in the sand, and pretend everything is just fine.2. Do whatever you can to take your mind off of it.

i. Talk about the weather, go waste some time on Facebook, and go chase a little white ball in a big green field.

3. The problem: These distractions do not lead to happiness either. 4. Also, what if God does exist and you deliberately ignore Him?

Should you put off the question of God until it is too late?C. BE A TOUGH GUY?

1. Just accept the fact that this is the way life is and go on and live bravely anyway.

2. Problem 1: This doesn’t make the problem go away. i. The facts are that the short life you have is full of miseries

and threats and any good you get out of it can instantly be ripped away in any given instant.

ii. Can you honestly say this doesn’t matter?iii. Augustine says that if, in fact, a man doesn’t feel misery at

certain things, then he is more the miserable still since his “happiness” comes at the cost of losing all human feeling.3

2 Portions of this section are taken from or inspired by William Lane Craig’s The son Rises: The historical evidence for the Resurrection of Jesus (Eugene: Wipf and Stock, 1981) 16-22.3 “Let everyone, therefore, who reflects with pain upon such great evils, upon such horror and cruelty, ac-knowledge that this is misery. And if anyone either endures them or thinks of them without anguish of soul,

The fact is we have some serious issues

to resolve here before we can say that any

real lasting happiness is even possible.


3. Problem 2: What if God exists and you choose to willfully ignore him? Is this wise?

4. Surely the “tough guy” option is foolish. D. TRY TO FIND A BETTER SOLUTION?

1. Given the inadequacy of the other solutions, the practical thing to do is look for something better.

Can Religion Help? Well, Maybe…I. How about trying to find out if religion is the answer? Does pursuing religion

give us a better alternative?II. Not necessarily! Only if there is a TRUE religion. After all, we don’t need

placebos or more distractions. We need a REAL FIX to this problem, not a wish, not something that “feels good” or is “true for me,” and not a Santa Claus for grownups either.

III. A real fix calls for something that is really true.

his condition is still more miserable: for he thinks himself happy only because he has lost all human feeling.” St. Augustine, The City of God, Ibid, p. 929

“How does it happen that this man, so distressed at the death of his wife and his only son, or who has some great lawsuit which annoys him, is not at this moment sad, and that he seems so free from all painful and disquieting thoughts? We need not wonder; for a ball has been served him, and he must return it to his companion. He is occupied in catching it in its fall from the roof, to win a game. How can he think of his own affairs, pray, when he has this other matter in hand? Here is a care worthy of occupying this great soul and taking away from him every other thought of the mind. This man, born to know the universe, to judge all causes, to govern a whole state, is altogether occupied and taken up with the business of catching a hare.”

Blaise Pascal

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Why Searching for the True Religion Is Very Important For Your Life I. The above considerations should show us that the question of the true

religion is very important to us for three reasons:A. True religion is a partial solution to the problems of this life.

1. It’s not that those who follow the true religion don’t suffer. Rather, if we knew the right religion, it might help us come to grips with the problem of suffering in this life and give us a real hope for the future (not just death!).

2. In other words, knowing the right religion might show us that there is purpose to our lives and that our suffering, although we have to endure it, is at least not pointless. We would still grieve, for example, but we would not grieve as those without hope. (1 Thess. 4:13)

3. Knowing the true religion could help us discover the purpose to our lives.

i. To achieve any purpose we have to know what that purpose is. We can’t succeed at anything without knowing the goal!

ii. If human life is an accident of nature, then it has no


objective purpose. Only if someone intended it can it then be for some purpose.

iii. We cannot live our lives intelligently unless we know the purpose of life! We cannot judge a good life from a bad one without knowing what the point of life is.

iv. So it’s important to find out if we have a purpose and, if so, whether or not the author has told us what that purpose is.

B. Knowing the true religion can be a solution to the problems posed by death.

1. If we knew the right religion, that can give us insight on the possibility of life after death and whether or not there is such a thing.

C. Knowing the true religion can better prepare us for judgment.1. If we knew the right religion, we would be in a better position to

know a) if there is a judgment and b) if there is, we could better know what God requires of us and thus be better prepared to meet that judgment.

2. Again, IT IS A FACT THAT ALL WILL DIE. sensible people should try to find out what happens next! But the “what happens next” is again a RELIGIOUS QUESTION.

D. This is why religion should be everyone’s concern. Finding the true religion is very important for your life because within it lays the potential to solve the problem of happiness.

E. BUT THERE IS A PROBLEM – SO MANY DIFFERENT RELIGIONS!

This is why religion should be everyone’s concern. finding the true religion is very important for your life because within it lays the potential to solve the problem of happiness.

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Solving the Problem: Two Questions We Can Ask About Any ReligionI. WHAT they believe - that is, what are the doctrines that they teach? This is

what you typically get in survey or comparative religions course. II. WHY they believe – that is, what good reasons are there for thinking their

religion is true?III. Every religion has some answers to that first question. Very few attempt to

even give any answers to the second. Christianity is unique in this regard. Historically, Christianity has always offered answers to both of those questions. Christianity then claims to provide evidence as to why someone should think Christianity is true. That is the topic of this course.

IV. Now, most people erroneously think that religion is only a matter of blind “faith.” This is false, as we will see in the next section.

Possible Objections to There Being a“True Religion”

I. Now, some people are uncomfortable with the notion of a “true religion” and will object in various ways. We will address a few of those objections here.


A. The Pluralist Objection: “All religions are true.”1. Response to pluralism: It is impossible that all religions are true

because they make contradictory claims.2. For example: Islam vs. Hinduism

i. Islam says there is only one God, Allah, and that all other religions are false.

ii. Hinduism (at least in some forms) teaches that there are many gods—and that other religions are true!

iii. So which is it? There is only one God and all other religions are false (Islam), or there are many gods and other religions can be true (Hinduism). These are contradictory claims and cannot possibly both be true.

3. Or take Judaism vs. Christianityi. Jesus is God (Christianity) vs. Jesus is not God (Judaism)

ii. Which is it? Is Jesus God or not? He can’t be both! Somebody has got to be wrong!

4. PLURALISM IS FALSE BECAUSE IT IS IMPOSSIBLE FOR ALL RELIGIONS TO BE TRUE.

B. The Indifferentist Objection: “It doesn’t really matter which one is true.” 1. Response to Indifferentism: Religion doesn’t really matter IF

AND ONLY IF they are all false. But what if one of them is true? If one of them is really true, then it matters a great deal, for clearly it is better to believe the truth over error.

C. The agnostic objection: “We can’t really know which religion is true.”1. Response to the agnostic objection: Who says we can’t know

anything about truth in religion? Why not?2. People who say this have usually never lifted a finger to study the

issues and make an informed decision on the matter.3. We cannot know unless we first look! We can’t decide without

investigation.

Religion doesn’t really matter if and only if they are all false. But what if one of them is true? If one of them is really true, then it matters a great deal, for clearly it is better to believe the truth over error.

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The Christian Position: I. A lot of people think religious belief is all about “blind faith.” But the

traditional Christian position DOES NOT HOLD THAT.II. Rather, the classic Christian position is that GOD HAS ACTED IN HUMAN

HISTORY and in so doing has left traces of His activity—traces that are open to rational investigation and argument.

III. As we will see, this Christian view is that God has stamped his revelation with certain identifying MARKS so that the true REVELATION FROM GOD can be distinguished from the false CLAIMS.

IV. In other words, THE TRUE RELIGION IS RECOGNIZABLE BY REASON—NOT BY “BLIND FAITH.”

A. “Blind faith” is for Santa Claus and tooth fairies—it is not an appropriate ground for a rational, intelligent belief.

V. The Christian position is that there are good reasons and evidence to think Christianity is a rationally acceptable worldview and really true.

VI. Christianity, if true, brings hope. If Jesus was who he said he was, THEN THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING!

A. Christianity offers a solution—ETERNAL LIFE AND HAPPINESS.B. Thus the Jesus question might be the ALL IMPORTANT QUESTION

OF YOUR LIFE.

The Goal Of This CourseI. Course Objective: The purpose of this course is to survey and defend the

reasons for thinking that Jesus was the divine being he claimed to be and thus provide warrant for thinking that Christianity is true.

II. The aim here is difficult. We are trying to address a wide audience with little to no formal education in this area while at the same time giving a good academic response to technical issues in an intelligent way.

III. If you do not find this evidence persuasive, at least you will be better informed and now able to truly disagree with the Christian position, since one cannot really disagree with a position they do not understand.

The Christian position is that there are good reasons and evidence to think Christianity is a rationally acceptable worldview and really true.


Chapter Questions:1. Many people don’t think religion is very important or relevant. Why should we

think otherwise?

2. “I’m a good person, so I don’t need to worry about any divine judgment.” Re-spond to this objection.

3. Summarize the problem of happiness and how finding the true religion might help solve it.

4. “All religions are true.” Respond to this objection.

5. “It doesn’t really matter which religion you believe.” Respond to this objection.

6. “We can’t know which religion is true.” Respond to this objection.

Documents

Introduction: What Difference Does it Make?scottmsullivan.com/pdfs/Christ101/Chapter1.pdf · Introduction: What Difference Does it Make? 9 1. “EARTHLY GOODS ARE NECESSARY BUT UNDEPENDABLE.”