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(Sorry about the irratic numbering below, but I'm in the
midst of revising this page.)
Help
(8/27/09)
1. I need help with my website.
2. First, I need help with getting my website found (by people who might
be interested in my topic and approach).
3. Next, I need help with navigating my website software in general –
so far, I know just enough to get by
4. But mostly, I need help with the CONTENT of my website.
5. This might take awhile, but I'll try to explain...
6. I SUSPECT that Jesus was, in fact, the prophesied Jewish
Messiah…
7. I SUSPECT that I should “take him as my Lord and Savior”
-- if I CAN. (If this sounds foolish, click here.)
8. In other words, I think that I should probably "surrender"
to Jesus if I can just "figure out" how to do it...
9. Unfortunately, it isn’t easy.
10. And, I haven't been able to "surrender" to Jesus ("die
in Christ") even though I personally “BELIEVE IN IT”
(believe that it is real and that it works -- at least, on this earth)
-- and think that I know what it’s all about and how it would feel
(it being a real neurological event that ushers in a sublime sense of
all being right with the world...).
11. (Sorry about that.)
11. But in truth, this seems more like something that HAPPENS TO us, than
something that we can actively DO.
12. Or at least, we have to be in the right "state of mind"
before we can actively do it -- before we can actively "surrender"
to Jesus, or "die in Christ."
13. And that state is not under our ready control... (It helps, for instance,
to be at our wits' end.)
14. But anyway, so far, I have not "surrendered" -- and it seems
like I CANNOT, in my current state...
15. (It is like I have a chasm -- longer than my longest step -- to cross,
and I simply don't know how to jump.)
16. But then, I suspect -- or, at least, want to believe -- that I COULD,
and WOULD, surrender if my “suspicion” of his Messiahship
were strong enough…
17. And, that’s why I’m here. I’m trying to gather and
add up the evidence, so that I can “receive” Jesus –
if he was the Messiah...
18. I'm sort of a modern day "Doubting Thomas."
18. But then, I do accept that to thusly "receive"
Jesus ultimately requires a "leap of faith"
– I do not believe that we can get there from here by EVIDENCE alone.
(It's like trying to solve a calculus problem using algebra.)
19. Just that some of us cannot ‘leap’ as far as can others,
and need a lot of help. (there is scientific evidence that this "leaping"
is something that occurs, mainly, in the right hemisphere of our brains,
and many of us are basically left hemisphere oriented -- especially, if
we've done well, and gone far, in school.)
20. But then, I'm hoping and suspecting that we
'weaker' members can still, eventually, make it to Jesus.
21. The evidence for Jesus seems to be very good, and I’m hoping
and suspecting that I can get close enough with the evidence so that even
*I* will be able to make the necessary leap.
22. We'll see.
21. “But wait,” you say. “There are
numerous erudite Christians who have already written books pretty much
proving the Messiahship of Jesus. All you (I) need to do is read a couple
of these books!”
22. Unfortunately, I’ve read Albert Edersheim, Francis Shaeffer,
C. S. Lewis, Lee Strobel, Josh McDowell, Michael Brown, Glen Miller, Arnold
Fruchtenbaum, Frank Morison, Ravi Zacharias, Norman Geisler, etc. –
and haven’t been convinced yet. I keep seeing -- or imagining --
holes in their arguments… (Though, I must admit that I have actually
FINISHED only 4 of their books...)
25. In addition, I was a regular on a couple of Jewish, “counter-missionary”
forums for about four years, and know that Jewish scholars have somewhat
reasonable objections to the Christian arguments.
26. Ultimately, I concluded that the MODERATORS of these forums –
who ended up being basically the only ones who would debate with me --
couldn’t really be candid. They WERE BEING PAID to dismiss Jesus
-- and could never retract a claim once made, on even the smallest, most
obscure, issue.
27. Whatever, I came away thinking that many of their arguments were clearly
“stretched,” but that they also had some reasonable reservations
to the Christian case…
23. In addition, I’ve been able to come up with
some interesting, perhaps even “game changing,” evidence myself…
24. I “feel like” I’ve discovered a new perspective
and some useful bits of info of my own. You might click
here (it's the same as in #7, above) to get a feel for some of this
stuff that I think is new and helpful.
25. So I'm trying to gather up the evidence already
out there, and also add to that "pile" the alleged evidence
I've developed myself.
28. Whatever, I don’t seem close enough yet
to take the necessary leap -- but being forever hopeful, I keep trying
to gather more evidence…
29. But then I realized that despite gathering what seemed like a lot
of supportive, if not compelling and convincing, evidence, I didn’t
seem to be getting any closer to “accepting” Jesus. The weight
on my scale was staying about the same as I kept adding supportive evidence.
30. What was going on there?
31. And what seems to happen is that my older evidence
sort of ‘wilts’ over time, and ends up adding little or nothing
to the overall weight on my scale…
32. As I add evidence, it just sort of replaces the old evidence that
is drying up…
33. Somehow, I need to keep the evidence "fresh" -- or, be able
to easily re-freshen it.
34. It's like I'm a juggler -- and in order that my "pins" "count,"
they need to be in the air...
35. So anyway, I decided that in order to keep the old
evidence fresh, ‘hydrated’ and appropriately ‘heavy,’
I needed to provide better sound-bites and better organization...
36. If I am to renounce my ego and surrender to G-d through Jesus, I need
to lay out the whole of my evidence in better understood and remembered
form. (That's the idea, anyway.)
37. So, the first purpose of my current opus was simply to gather and
record the evidence in the hopes that if I gathered and recorded enough
evidence, I'd be able to "take Jesus as my Lord and Savior.
38. I began "building" this opus as a
WEBSITE for five reasons.
- a. It was "cool."
- b. The "hyperspace" of the Internet seemed to offer special
potential for recording and organizing.
- c. I had HOPES that my efforts could be valuably shared with others.
- d. I might be able to recruit some help through a website.
- e. And finally, I could "publish" as I built -- and rebuilt.
39. And then, I began to suspect that my building did need to be REBUILT
-- pretty much, in its entirety...
40. So, here I am.
40. Re "sharing my efforts" with others
-- I've been secretly hoping to ultimately use this website to help skeptics
out of their ruts, and to reassure Christians that their faith is supported
by science and reasoning (is supported by the EVIDENCE).
41. Certainly, part of that hope is "VANITY," but then part
of it is actually loving my neighbor. I surely want to impress others
(I can't seem to help myself), but I also honestly care about them.
42. And then, further along the way, I began to
hope for very BROAD, game-changing, sharing -- for which I would need
a LOT of help…
43. I began to imagine my website as an "EARTH MOVER."
44. If Wikipedia can do it, so can I!
45. (Yeah, right…)
46. Hey! You never know!
47. (Whatever…)
49. Unfortunately, there is one more hurdle – alluded
to somewhere above – that still needs to be cleared.
50. In order to make that final leap, I need to fully hear BOTH sides
of this story...
51. In order that my supportive evidence “push me over the edge,”
I need to make sure that I’m aware of, and have dealt effectively
with, the significant DETRACTING evidence.
52. Otherwise, there is like a safety net keeping me from falling into
the arms of Jesus.
53. Or, more in tune with the previous metaphor -- if I don’t feel
sure that I’ve counted all the significant evidence on the other
end of the scale, I won’t know that the irresistible evidence on
my end isn’t just competing against immovable evidence on the other
end. And not being relatively sure of that, I simply will not be able
to take the necessary leap. That's what I'm thinking.
54. Whatever, I’ve learned that many conclusions are not nearly
as ironclad as they first appear.
55. http://bible.cc/proverbs/18-17.htm
The first to present his case seems right, till another comes
forward and questions him. (NIV)
56. Consequently, my ultimate format here will be a kind of written courtroom
-- a public, written, organized, serial debate between opposing experts,
and in front of a large audience (jury). Only in this case, I -- and whoever
joins me -- will simply decide for ourselves (if we can), individually,
as to whether or not Jesus was the prophesied Jewish Messiah -- we will
not be forced to agree with each other.
57. So ... I think that I really do need to hear BOTH sides of the Jesus
story in order to "surrender" to him.
58. And fortunately, I think that I know -- at least roughly -- how to
effectively hear both sides(click here).
59. Unfortunately, in reality, I'm not "quite" ready to put
this court into session -- as, even my own side is not yet prepared.
58. So, my name is Rick Savage and my email address is rsavage@nycap.rr.com.
59. Here’s what I’m proposing.
60. As mentioned in the beginning, I need help regarding Google and also
regarding my website software in general.
61. If you might be interested, just let me know
62. But then, I also need help with the research and the
writing.
63. I need help in developing and presenting the case FOR Jesus, and I
also need help in developing and presenting the case AGAINST Jesus.
64. For now, I’m just concerned with the case FOR Jesus.
65. In presenting that case, I will need to REFER to the case AGAINST
Jesus, but I'll leave it to someone else, who BELIEVES the case against
Jesus, to ARGUE it.
65. I wish to develop a kind of legal "brief" for the Appelant's
side, with all sorts of "exhibits" to back it up.
66. Below, I provide my current proposed outline for the brief.
67. If volunteers actually stand up, I’ll ask them if they can go
along with my outline -- or something similar -- and if so, what specific
exhibits they might like to develop.
68. If they dislike my outline, I’ll ask them to develop another.
74. Following are my broad claims
and organization so far:
- a. The obvious, seemingly “immovable,” objections to the
Jesus concept actually evaporate under close scrutiny (you'll see).
- b. There is significant “hard” (historic, scientific and
even mathematical) evidence that Jesus was, in fact, who he said he was...
- c. When judged in light of human nature, his prescriptions make enormous,
and largely unexpected, sense.
- d. And finally, they actually work.
75. What more could you want?
76. Recently, I've been working on the “hard”
evidence, and in particular, the correlation between celestial symbolism
and the Jesus story. There appears to be a strong correlation between
the symbolic story in the stars – created (by the ancients naming
the stars and ascribing meaning to them) thousands of years before Jesus
– and the story of Jesus. Click here.
77. If you're reading this sentence, you should be commended.
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