📖 Don't be a foolish Christian

I. Be a wise Christian, not a foolish one.

There is no such thing as a private faith in the Bible.

In Proverbs 18:1 it says, “The one who isolates himself pursues selfish desires; he rebels against all sound wisdom.”

The book of Proverbs repeatedly contrasts what it looks like to live with wisdom versus foolishness.

In Scripture, we see that wisdom and maturity are never formed in isolation. While following Jesus is a personal decision, it is never meant to be a private faith lived apart from community.

It is true that you are not saved by going to church, but you cannot grow into a mature follower of Jesus by yourself.

An isolated or private believer is completely foreign to the New Testament.

So, if you want to walk in wisdom and experience the kind of faith we see in the New Testament, don’t be a foolish Christian. Walk closely with other believers in a local church and let God shape you through community.

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II. Just because you don’t know or can’t think of an answer, it doesn’t mean there isn’t one.

And people will claim God doesn’t exist because of an issue they personally can’t think of a good explanation for.

For example, the problem of evil. If God is all-powerful and all-loving, why does so much evil exist?

And because this is a debated question and seems to be quite paradoxical, the conclusion is that an all-powerful and all-loving God does not exist.

But I just want to point out, just because a finite human brain from someone who has only lived a couple of decades can’t personally think of a good reason, that does not at all mean there cannot be one.

There are a lot of things that don’t make sense to a 3-year-old that have perfectly satisfactory answers, but a 3-year-old simply is not in a place to comprehend them.

So, just because someone has a question they can’t think of an answer for, that does not mean there is not or can’t be one.

I’m not saying we can’t have questions, but I am saying we cannot claim there are no possible good answers to a hard question just because we can’t think of the answer.

Why does an all-powerful and all-loving God allow pain and suffering? I have thoughts, but I also have questions myself. But that does not mean God, who knows all, doesn’t have a perfectly good explanation for why he currently allows the things he allows.

Will there be water in the new creation?

Revelation 21:1 says, “And I saw a new heaven and a new earth… and there was no more sea.”

John, the writer of Revelation, is not commenting on literal H₂O in this passage.

In the Bible, especially in Jewish imagery, the sea often represents chaos, danger, evil, and forces opposed to God.

Throughout Scripture, the sea is where storms rage, monsters appear, and human control breaks down.

So when John says the sea will be no more, he is saying that everything chaotic, threatening, and hostile to God’s good purposes will finally be removed.

God’s future is not a dry world. It is a fully restored world where evil, fear, and disorder no longer exist.

Will there be water as we know it in the new creation? Maybe, but this verse gives us no teachings about that reality.

Scholars are over 99% certain we know exactly what the original New Testament documents said.

We have more than 5,000 Greek manuscripts, along with thousands more early translations and quotations from church leaders.

By comparing all these copies, scholars can identify copying differences and confidently reconstruct the original wording.

Most variations are minor, like spelling or word order, and none affect any core Christian doctrine.

For perspective, the New Testament has far more manuscript evidence than other ancient works like Homer or Plato that historians confidently trust. The New Testament is one of the best-preserved ancient documents in human history.

Josephus & Jesus by T.C. Schmidt

A book about The Testimonium Flavianum, which is a short passage in the writings of Flavius Josephus, a first-century Jewish historian.

His book Antiquities of the Jews (written around AD 93–94) includes a paragraph that references Jesus. It is a section about 150 words long, and it confirms much of what the New Testament says about Jesus.

Because of that, many historians have rejected various portions of the passage as inauthentic to Josephus, and this gives no credibility to what the passage says about Jesus.

This book is an academic book, and is essentially an extensive research project clearly arguing that the TF is accurate and was all written by Josephus himself. Beyond that, it fascinatingly argues how Josephus personally knew many of the people involved with Jesus' trials that led to his crucifixion and would have seen and interacted with Jesus personally.

Overall, I learned a lot. At the same time, there were moments when I was confused (to be expected, as I am not involved in this field of study), and even a little bored. The book is hard to rate as it isn't a book you just pick up to read unless you are already interested in this subject, so it wasn't the most enjoyable read.

Still, it is well researched and convincingly argues that this section is a credible source pointing to the historical existence of Jesus (written by a non-Christian, no less).

6.5/10

P.S. McDonald’s could clean the wintry roads better than the government most likely…