What do you think? Does the atheist person who created this graphic have a good point?
I guess that depends on what you think the point is; for me, this graphic (which criticizes Jesus of Nazareth, who many people believe is the Son of God) doesn’t really speak about truth. It speaks about popularity.
Consider this: Nazism must be true, because it was very popular with a very large segment of Europe. For about a decade, people all over Germany, France, Austria and other countries were knocking on doors to get into the club.
And what about this: smoking cigarettes must be a good thing, since hundreds of millions of people have done it. In fact, there are still young people who knock on the door to get into the smokers club.
What I’m saying here is the truth of Jesus has absolutely nothing to do with His popularity. Zero. Zilch. Squat.
So let’s go further and explain why people are, for the most part, NOT knocking on the doors to get into the club.
1. Jesus starts with absolute reality and that reality is so unpopular, I don’t think I’m exaggerating when I write that some people would rather cut off their ears than hear it: we do bad things and fail to do good things. All the time – so often, in fact, that we often don’t realize when it happens. (That’s certainly the case for me.)
It can be as small as failing to give to charity or getting unjustifiably angry with your spouse. And it can be as large as sabotaging a friend’s marriage, cheating on your taxes or defrauding your workplace. The size doesn’t matter. It’s still reality. It’s still bad. It’s still happening all the time.
2. Many people think truth is kinda relative. But there is an objective morality to Jesus – a morality that doesn’t change with time or culture or anything else.
Wrong is still wrong, even if everyone’s doing it. And right is still right, even if no one is doing it. And that definitely makes Jesus unpopular.
3. The solution is as simple as accepting Jesus – a gift from God to ANYONE willing to accept Him.
Jesus came to serve anyone who believes in Him and follows Him – His death is a sacrifice that makes up for all the bad things we’ve done and all the good things we’ve failed to do. And His resurrection provides a way for eternal life with Him, long after our lives on planet Earth are finished.
This is overwhelmingly unpopular because it forces us to examine our lives and admit we have blown it so often that we can never do enough to make up for it. Even someone as remarkable as Mother Teresa knew that.
4. One final reason for the unpopularity of Jesus? It takes a combination of facts, reason and faith to become a Jesus follower. It will never, ever be possible to prove or disprove the existence of God. There is certainly evidence, but that evidence MUST be combined with a leap of faith (and I write about that here: http://wp.me/p2wzRb-3i). That’s certainly enough to turn off many people.
And yet, in the end, following Jesus is so simple. And what you need to do to get in on God’s offer of a changed life NOW and for ETERNITY is remarkably straightforward.
Are you interested? Yes or no, post your thoughts below and let’s have a conversation.
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