Life Christian Fellowship @ USC

Roman coin showing Emperor Trajan

Whenever I tell people the New Testament is the best record we have of Jesus’ life, his teachings and his character, almost without fail someone asks for evidence for Jesus outside the Bible because they don’t feel(?) the Bible is reliable.  To me such request is akin to saying, “Teach me what Abraham Lincoln was like, but I don’t want to read anything written by his close friends.”

Nevertheless, there are well-known (in the academia, anyway) references to Jesus in the ancient writings.  In the preserved works of Roman history, documenting day-to-day events of the empire, all written by Roman officials (who, at the time were hostile to Christians and Christianity) we see examples that support the Bible accounts of Jesus and of early Christians.

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So our group of 18 brave souls (most of us new to town) headed out on a tour of L.A. & Hollywood. The first stop was the Hollywood Walk of Fame & Grauman’s Chinese Theatre, gazing at hand/foot print of our favorite stars (Director John Woo seemed popular); then onto the Farmer’s Market at the Grove for lunch, where some folks from overseas tasted their first burrito in their lives! We drove through the Miracle Mile & Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills to round out the tour at the sunny Santa Monica Pier/Beach — two guys could not resist the water and plunged in… Welcome to L.A.!

A repeat tour coming to a LCF near you (8/30/08)

Another form of this question might be “Aren’t you a Christian because you live in America?” — the questions express the view that my beliefs are the result of sociocultural influences.

Let me start out by saying just because you’re influenced to believe something, it doesn’t mean that “something” is necessarily fake. I try my hardest to influence my boys to believe eating vegetables and brushing their teeth every night are good for them.

On the other hand, my parents‘ belief or disbelief about God doesn’t make me a Christian. Sure, they can be positive influences (in my case, however, my father did not like it when I started going to church at the age of 18), but ultimately we all need to make our own informed choices after doing some serious thinking.

I often ask two questions to people who tell me I’m a Christian because my parents made me: “are you a non-believer because you’ve thought it through seriously, or because of your sociocultural background?” And, “how many books have you read on (non-)existence of God before you concluded God does not exist?”

Recommended reading to get you thinking on your own: The Evidence That Demands a Verdict (McDowell) and The Case for Christ (Strobel) — both are books by two individuals (one a historian and the other a journalist) who set out to disprove Christianity, but in the process came to a conclusion that Jesus was who he said he was.

Ah, the summer concert under the stars (yes, we saw at least five of them) at Hollywood Bowl — an L.A. must-do… The cast of “Les Miserables in Concert” performed practically the entire Broadway hit musical (minus the full stage props) with a live orchestra before a sold-out crowd of 17,000+! And of course, we had to have the pre-concert potluck picnic (fried chicken, sushi, sandwiches…), and some of us ate until we had food coming out of our ears…

The finale song has the lyrics, “… and remember the truth that once was spoken: to love another person is to see the face of God…” Bravo.