so there I was a groomsman at a wedding
reception with an open bar now different
people react to different ways when
they've had too much to drink and the
groomsman I was sitting by at the head
table was the introspective type he told
me his life story including abandonment
and abuse and how he became an atheist
and then he asked me how can anyone
believe that God exists I said I hate to
hear what you've been through and I
don't blame you for having doubts I
don't have an answer for you right now
but I do have a question and an
invitation my question is hypothetically
if all your questions had answers that
provided more reasons to believe in God
than not what would you do and he said
whoa I was not expecting that I'll think
about it
what's your invitation I said my
invitation is twofold
first I want to invite you to join me in
a future investigation of your questions
and second in the meantime I want to
invite you to pray the skeptics prayer
God if you're out there would you please
do whatever it takes to help me find you
to which he replied Wow
I was not expecting that either I'll
think about it
I learned something big that day and
that is to never give a 10-cent answer
to a million-dollar question especially
at a wedding reception with an open bar
and when it's time for the bride to toss
the garter belt it was conversations
like that they created in me a passion
for befriending and learning from people
with different beliefs and backgrounds
than my own so over the course of two
years I set out to conduct 50 interviews
treating each individual for coffee
asking them 20 questions and even
drawing their portrait using one
continue
line and what started as a series of
curious interviews soon turned into a
series of unexpected adventures and
unexpected discoveries I did not expect
the chance to introduce my atheist
friend from China and my Muslim friend
from Saudi Arabia to what we call
s'mores around a campfire or having them
in my home for Thanksgiving dinner I
didn't expect the chance to get to serve
pancakes to college students at midnight
during finals alongside a Jewish rabbi
and a Muslim professor or the chance to
serve and volunteer at a children's home
in Honduras alongside my agnostic friend
especially when his dad passed away the
night before our plane was scheduled to
depart and on an even more sobering now
I didn't expect to get a call at 3:00
a.m. from one of the students that I
interviewed who is now contemplating
suicide I don't know why she called me
first but with the help of some police
officers we were able to track her
location using her phone and save her
life and get her the help that she
needed those were just some of my
unexpected adventures and now I want to
share with you some of my unexpected
discoveries one of my interview
questions was hypothetically if if if
God in heaven are real on what basis do
you believe God will or will not accept
you into heaven you might expect that
people would have cringed at a question
like that and maybe you just did but
since they knew I was just asking
questions and not sharing opinions they
were quick to open up and many
articulated their beliefs for the very
first time here's what some of them said
my life has been characterized by
thinking I have to
God's acceptance by being a good person
you'll be judged for your deeds if your
bad deeds are more you go left and if
your good deeds are more you'll go right
if you try to abide by the Ten
Commandments that's gonna put a little
bit in your favor the key basis for me
is that I've tried I am seeking to live
as morally and ethically as I can
effort is the difference maker there's a
big difference between those who don't
care and those who try I like to think
it would be based on your actions rather
than your beliefs God will probably not
accept me into heaven because I've done
bad things and I don't know where the
line would be drawn despite such
diversity in the people that I
interviewed I discovered an overwhelming
consensus about the afterlife in fact
even many atheists believe that if God
does exist then acceptance in heaven
depends on performance on earth I always
got a kick out of the times people would
say to me that was one of the best
conversations I've ever had because I
didn't actually contribute to the
conversation I thought man I might be on
to something here with these one-sided
conversations so I went home I tried
that on my wife but it did not have the
same outcome another thing that I didn't
expect was that over fifty percent of
the people that I interviewed wanted to
meet up again and it wasn't just for the
free latte many of them actually wanted
to interview me two of the most common
questions that I heard were one do you
believe all paths lead to God and two
with reference to Jesus
how can one person's death enable
another person's forgiveness so I want
to share with you two illustration
that I share with them and how they led
to one of my greatest most unexpected
discoveries of all so the first
illustration I called a mountain theory
now I've adapted this from a book by Dan
Kimball which is called they like Jesus
but not the church the mountain theory
claims that all paths lead to God now
when you look at the major world faiths
at the base level you do see two
significant similarities number one they
all pretty much agree that living a
moral life leads to peace and number two
living an immoral life leads to chaos
however while most religions have these
two similarities they also have two
significant differences the first
difference is that religions lead to
different mountaintops Buddhism leads to
no God
new-age path leads to everything is God
the Hindu path leads to many gods the
Jewish path leads to one God through the
Torah the Muslim path leads to one got
through Mohammed and the Christian path
leads to one God through Jesus now the
second difference is that religions
claim different ways of restoring peace
from chaos all the major world religions
with the exception of Christianity
believe that eternal peace is obtained
on the basis of our merits Christianity
believes that eternal peace is obtained
on the basis of Jesus merits now in
response to that second question how can
one person's death enable another
person's forgiveness I share what I call
the cockroach illustration now most of
the people don't want cockroaches in
their home but however you decide to get
rid of them there's no penalty in a
court of law for doing so there's no
to pay however if you were to kill or
violate a person the penalty would be
vastly greater in a court of law
a person is more valuable than a
cockroach so if the penalty increases
according to the value of the one
offended then what would be the penalty
for offending an infinite God it would
be an infinite penalty a debt so great
that none of us could ever pay that now
this illustration is not meant to say
that God views us as little bugs to the
contrary Christianity claims that is
because God values us so much that he
sent his son to rescue us but if it's
true if it's true that we can't pay that
debt and make ourselves compatible with
God then we would need someone who had
no debt of his own who was already
compatible with God and equal to the
value of God to pay that debt for us and
that is exactly what Christianity claims
Jesus accomplished through his death and
resurrection now I didn't expect that a
couple illustrations would cause so many
people to say I just understood Jesus
for the first time especially because so
many of the people who said that were or
had been Christian at this point I was
very interested to know whether or not
my limited observations could be
confirmed by a nationwide study and
that's when I found the Barna Group in
2019 asked us Christians what they
thought of this statement if a person is
generally good or does enough good
things for others during their life they
will earn a place in heaven now I was
surprised to learn that 21 percent
Christians agree with that statement
somewhat and another 23 percent agree
strongly this was so perplexing to me
because when I asked people in my
interviews what
comes to mind when you think about Jesus
everyone who had been raised Christian
could tell me all about him born of a
virgin performer of miracles FULFILLER
prophecies they knew all about Christmas
and Easter but when I asked those same
people on what basis do you believe God
will accept you into heaven the majority
of them didn't even mention Jesus at all
and since that time I probably asked a
thousand Christians that same question
and almost without fail 80% of them
appealed to their good works as the
basis for God's acceptance it instead of
Jesus and I wonder where is the
disconnect here so I went back through
and I reread all 50 manuscripts from my
interviews in search of a clue and here
are some of the statements that jumped
out at me I was taught Jesus came to be
the standard we're supposed to live up
to you by which we'll be judged his
mission was to be the perfect model of a
human being he wanted to teach if we're
all like him how the world would be
heaven would be based on the moral
principles Jesus taught if you violate
those principles and don't repent I
suppose you won't be allowed into heaven
if you're gonna put somebody on a
pedestal to idolize who try to live up
to you it would be Jesus he came for
people who were blind to let them see
their faults and try to correct
themselves to come back in favor with
God I think of Jesus as a role model and
there was my greatest most unexpected
discovery of all a misconception about
Jesus as a role model now don't get me
wrong if we're talking about how our
lives can be changed by following his
example and following his teachings then
yes in that context Jesus is a role
model but if we're talking about how we
can obtain forgiveness from God and
eternal life then in that context know
Jesus is
a role-model christianity claims that
Jesus came not to show the way to heaven
based on our merits but to be the way to
heaven based on his merits Christianity
claims that Jesus is not just the model
but the Messiah so the person who does
rely on him instead of themselves is
meant to become a good person but it's
not to be forgiven it's because they're
forgiven it's not motivated by guilt and
fear but by love and gratitude
so I share these discoveries today not
to offer a case for Christianity but to
offer a case study for the unexpected
adventures and unexpected discoveries
that can be experienced when we open
ourselves up to understand others and
understand ourselves and maybe discover
some truth so whether you're at a
wedding reception or a coffee shop it's
okay to say I don't have an answer for
you right now but I do have a question
and an invitation to which your friend
just might say wow I was not expecting
that I'll think about it thank you
you