I Am Not Ashamed!

Franklin Graham, the evangelist son of Billy Graham, declared on the website of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association that "I am not ashamed of the Gospel," quoting from Romans 1:16. He predicted in his statement that a time may come in America where public statements about the Christian view on abortion or homosexuality and clear preaching of the Gospel will be outlawed as hate crimes. You don't think it could happen here? It has already happened in some European countries. There will even be people who identify themselves as Christians who become angry about what I just wrote in the second sentence. They do not agree that abortion and the practice of homosexuality are proscribed by scripture and their understanding of the the gospel, το ευανγγελιον, the "good" or "true message." is murky at best. If someone can not explain clearly and plainly what the gospel is, then they are, to quote our friend Christopher Hitchens, "... really not in any meaningful sense a Christian."

Are you able to say along with Pastor Graham, "I am not ashamed of the Gospel."?

Book Comment: Was Jesus God?

     Was Jesus God? is a well intentioned and vastly intellectual book but it also is not an easy, friendly read.  In the introduction, the author asks, " ... why should we suppose that God (if there is a God) is the Christian God?"  After what seems like thousands of pages (but not literally, it is a short book) of dense logical arguments, the author decides that the claims of orthodox Christianity are "very probably true."

     All "proofs" of God ultimately fail as do all disproofs.  If God and Jesus and the Holy Spirit could be logically proven even Christopher Hitchens and Richard Dawkins would believe because they are not stupid people.  This book will not convince or convert anyone because they will be asleep with their faces pressed down on the pages.

Swinburne, Richard, Was Jesus God? (Oxford, England: Oxford University Press, 2008)