Welcome to Lion of Judah,
unfortunately, I must begin with a sad reality.
It is no secret, nor can it be hidden, that over the course of millennia, countless innocent people have been tormented, abused, tortured, murdered, and literally “sacrificed” in thousands of wars — all in the name of the gods of every religion.
Throughout history, religious leaders have stood everywhere — though usually not quite so literally — on the “front lines” to declare these wars, on their respective sides, to be just, in “God’s will,” and under “God’s blessing” — and sadly, this continues even into our present “enlightened and civilized” world and time.
A look at history unfortunately shows us that it is precisely in this area that our various Christian churches — together with our “tribal relatives” through our shared faith in the God of Abraham, Muslims from the various branches of Islam — have distinguished themselves.
Objectively speaking, these two “systems of belief” have thus, in the most negative sense — and without ever being able to deny it — far surpassed all other religions by a wide margin — in absolute contrast to what Jesus Christ taught human beings and exemplified himself!
At the same time, both religions attest to the absolute peacefulness of Jesus, or Isa, as he is called in Islam, throughout his entire life.
Both the Bible and the Quran also refer to this “Jesus/Isa” in their descriptions as the “Word of God”; in the Quran, He is additionally called „the Spirit of God”; for Christians, this Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit, is another, the third person of the ”trinity” of God.
But precisely because of this contrast between what should be and what is, each and every one of these countless sacrifices represents a sad reason for us — a reason why, for us as Christians in “Lion of Judah” (another name for Jesus from the last book of the Bible, the Revelation of Jesus Christ) is not primarily about any religious worldview or philosophy, but first and foremost about the most important question for us humans — and consequently about the implications thereof:
Why do we exist here at all — and what comes after?
There are definitely only two possible answers:
1.
Either — there is no reason at all, and consequently no “afterlife” for us.
Our consciousness, our personality, our very sense of self has just as much significance as a rock, or that pile of dirt an elephant is currently dropping onto the savanna—because then everything that exists would have come about purely by chance, and any further development through evolution.
However, several of our physical laws directly contradict this. For example, the second law of thermodynamics states that disorder in a closed system, such as our universe, is constantly increasing.
But how, then, can countless groups of galaxy clusters—full of “Milky Ways” like ours, all consisting of billions of suns, many with stable planetary systems—let alone such complex organic life forms as ourselves, with a compass for “good and evil,” our conscience, and a sense of eternity—emerge from a chaotically swirling plasma???
2.
Or else — something did have a purpose in mind,
when “IT,” according to current scientific understanding, created the five dimensions of space “known” to us
(the height, width, and depth that our bodies occupy and within which we can move),
time (through which we can attain consciousness, but which, unfortunately, also represents a one-way street with a beginning and an end for us)
and, through energy or matter (of which we are physically composed and which we also constantly need to live), “spacetime curvature” (due to the mass of all matter in the universe and the resulting gravity, the three dimensions of space and also time are “bent” or even “folded” 🙂 )
in a so-called “Big Bang” out of “nothing.”
Even purely investigative sciences, such as archaeology, show that apparently not even the molecules of something as banal as a plastic bag have come together by chance over the past 4.5 billion years of our solar system’s existence.
And this is despite the fact that the elements required for this should have existed for several billion years already!
But — does modern science deny the existence of a Creator God altogether?
For a man like Nicolaus Copernicus, who was not only an astronomer but also held the office of canon, the exploration of the universe offered the opportunity to discover and understand perfect and rational orders within divine creation.
The founders or “fathers” of modern science — Galileo Galilei, Johannes Kepler, and Isaac Newton — did not do so either.
All three were deeply devoted believers — they believed in the God of Christianity and in the Bible as HIS revealed Word!
Even though Galileo Galilei had his “problems” with the Catholic Church and its Inquisition — he was firmly convinced that all scientific exploration of nature further underscores the beauty of God’s creation and makes us more clearly aware of it.
For Johannes Kepler, the entire universe was geometric proof of the existence of his divine Creator.
And Sir Isaac Newton, astronomer, mathematician, physicist, and incidentally the “discoverer” of gravity, spent far more time to searching for and deciphering a coded message in the Bible than to science.
Isaac Newton learned both Greek and Hebrew for this purpose and, among many other things, “calculated” a date for the “end of the world.”
For him, the entire Holy Scripture was “encoded” science — God’s plan for the universe, which, incidentally, contains not only the history of humanity but also our entire future.
But they are not alone — countless scientists such as Louis Pasteur, Blaise Pascal, Robert Boyle, Gregor Mendel, the “father” of genetics, Georges Lemaître, the “father” of the Big Bang theory, Joseph von Fraunhofer, Max Planck, and many other physicists and researchers who received the Nobel Prize were faithful and confessing Christians.
And even for Albert Einstein, who laid the foundation for our modern physical worldview with his theory of relativity, the existence of this God was never in question. 🙂
So we can confidently say: Science as such does not contradict the existence of God!
Although some of its representatives do — the “proportion” of atheists among them is significantly lower than in most other professions — and none of them has ever succeeded in providing proof of God’s “non-existence.”
On the other hand, many scientists have only through their search for knowledge in creation come to understand what God tells us in many places in His Word, and have only through this come to know Him. 🙂
For example, King David begins Psalm 19, verse 2, with:
The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament proclaims the work of His hands.
Or Paul writes in his letter to the Romans, in the first chapter, verses 19 and 20:
19 For what can be known about God is plain to them (all of us), because God has made it plain to them (us).
20 For since the creation of the world, his invisible attributes—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that they (we) are without excuse;
So if we are not merely a coincidence, but part of a grand plan, then there must inevitably be a Creator of both the plan and the creation — but who is He, and what is He like? — And what does this Creator of the entire universe actually want from us humans?
The very simple answer from the God who reveals Himself to us in the Bible can be found in what He also calls “His Word,” both in the Old and New Testaments — including in the Good News of Luke, the Gospel of Luke, chapter 10, verse 27
To love HIM, the Creator, with all your heart —
and to love all other people in the world just as much as you love yourself.
Point — no more — but also no less! — Sure, there is still much for us to learn about this, but according to this God, everything essential is already contained in this single sentence!
It seems that this God knows us personally and knows how important this question is for each and every one of us humans.
We find this, His answer, in many places in the Bible, “His Word,” from its first book (Genesis) to the end (Revelation).
Answered over a period of more than fifteen hundred years, through a wide variety of people inspired by His Spirit, for all nations and all generations.
For me personally, His answer is most striking here — in the parable of the Good Samaritan, when Jesus was asked, of all people, by a scribe under what condition a person could attain eternal life — (that is, an existence of one’s own self in a dimension “above” the transitory planes of space and time).
As simple as God’s answer to this most important question of humanity may sound for us — even the second part is difficult enough: to love our neighbor just as we love ourselves (in reality, we can only first make that decision and then act accordingly) — but how could we ever love something we don’t even know? — That simply can’t work!
Love presupposes a certain relationship, meaning a willingness on both sides and, of course, the time required to build and nurture any relationship — including the one with God.
As far as God is concerned — HE promises EVERYONE who seeks HIM that they will find HIM, which means: This almighty Creator of the entire universe is already waiting with open arms for each and every one of us!
As for us and all of humanity, however — the conscious decision to enter into a personal relationship with our Creator, to seek this God, and to join His family — or not — is one that every person must make for themselves and can only do so for themselves.
What particularly impresses me about this God of the Bible is that He does not demand blind obedience, but challenges us to examine Him — and everything else (including these pages) — and to keep only what is good!
This God wants to reveal Himself to us personally—and you won’t find that in any other religion in the world!
If you are willing to walk this path with the Creator, all of us at Lion of Judah want to help you get to know HIM — and then continue to know HIM better and better.
Simply because we ourselves have decided to follow HIS call, and we realize that no one can walk this path of life with God alone.
Everyone on this path is a brother or sister — or they are not part of it.
We need one another simply to learn and practice love for one another.
It is a path that requires constant seeking, learning, and forgiving one another and ourselves — but above all, recognizing that none of us is perfect on our own or will ever be in this life.
Despite all the effort this “narrow path” demands — we are convinced that the Creator’s reward, spending eternity with HIM, and sharing time with our brothers and sisters from all ages — far exceeds, beyond imagination, the cost for all who are willing to pay the price in the here and now!
Shalom! (Not just peace, but also the wish for health, well-being, and all that is good for you—or simply: nothing broken, nothing missing)
Bernd Hagel „Schäfla“ for Lion of Judah