“Why I Am a Christian”

Dr.Timothy Sng

Preface

A Fine Line

First - My Belief in God

Second - Reflecting on God’s Creation

Third, - God is a Being

Fourth, - God is Alive!

Fifth, - God is a Master & Provider

Sixth, - Men Can Call out to God

Seventh, - The Key is the Messiah

Eighth – Jesus is Savior of the World

Preface

Ever since Bertrand Russell wrote and published his book titled - “Why I am not a Christian”, I have always wanted to write this book.

Compared to Russell, who is a famous author, I am just an ordinary person. I am a `nobody’, who has become somebody, because of Jesus.

At the age of thirty, I began on a journey, asking questions and seeking answers until I found it. These were all questions related to life, creation and the existence of a Creator, followed by a search for the Creator.

It has been more than three decades now since I became a firm believer in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, and I have not had a single day of doubt about my faith and belief since then.

I share now on “Why I am a Christian”.

This title is different from the other testimony of mine, which is “How I became a Christian”.

May this booklet or essay trigger the reader to search for the Living God, and find Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.

Timothy Sng

A Fine Line

A fine line separates one who believes from another who does not. It is very subtle, probably unseen, but indeed a very fine line between the two groups of people.

You may then ask, “Why make it such a big fuss?”

The answer lies in the big difference between a `Yes’ and a `No’.

A `Yes’ is a `Yes’ and a `No’ is a `No’.

Man has to choose and make a decision. One needs to invite and welcome a person or a spirit into our life, as we have been made in the image of God.

We are indeed special. What we say is important. What we declare is crucial.

When we say `I do’ at the church matrimonial ceremony, it is accepted and recorded and binding.

We have to tick “I agree” with regards to terms above any document, before we can proceed.

It is a fine line, but it is still a line, that makes the separation.

Do we cross over or not? Can we sit back and watch and wait and pause for the right timing before we cross over?

We knock on a door, and it opens and the one who opens enquires and we ask for permission to enter.

The one at the door decides, - if he says a `Yes’, we enter, but if it is a `No’, then we may not enter.

First - My Belief in God

Belief in God is the central and vital principle before one can proceed.

If one does not really believe in an Almighty God, then it can be difficult to proceed.

We must begin with a firm belief in God. God is central to any faith of mankind.

So, “Why do I believe in God?”

When I look at nature and all of `creation’, i.e. all living things, the birds in the air, the fishes in the sea, the creatures and animals on land, and I look at the mountains and the skies, the stars and the planets, and I have only one conclusion:

“There is an Almighty God, who is the Maker of the Heavens and the Earth.”

When I look at the human body, the complexity and amazing systems and organs that make up man or woman, and I am stunned at the perfection and detailed organization of the human being. I arrive at the conclusion that God Almighty made man and woman.

Every complex thing that functions must have a maker. It may be as simple as a pen, a watch or a lap top.

The botanist, ornithologist, zoologist or doctor will all testify to the amazing coordinated and structured complexity of life.

A tall skyscraper with all its intricacies was conceived and created by man.

How then can man and life exist by chance?

The human DNA gene comprises 1 billion paired nucleotides. It involves the pairing of Cytosine-Guanidine and Adenosine-Thymidine, linked together.

Just calculating the probability of the pairs matching the human gene, even if the substrates of C-G and A-T are already available (though inexplicably so), and through a random process operating as fast as 1000 possible random switches a second, it would still take a trillion years to make a correct sequence of just 30 pairs of correct nucleotide sequence to form the human genome. To complete the one billion pairs in perfect sequence would be a complete improbability, like this last paragraph being strung together by a blind illiterate moron.

The above paragraph would take a probability of 52x52x52x52x52x52x52 (X-times, where X is the number of letters used), being the alphabet for capital and non-capitals to make a simple paragraph.  

Even the nine planets including earth, with its moons, circulating with such precision around the sun, just by the pulling centripetal force of the sun cannot be explained without an Almighty. And how does the whole solar system remain in suspension in its place in the Milky Way.

I am compelled by reason to believe that there is a much bigger force or person above it all and I call him – GOD ALMIGTHY.

If Mr. Chance or Mr. Evolution were to complete with Mr. GOD in creating the whole Universe or just the human genes, Mr. GOD wins hands down.

The human body is more than just a Rubik cube!

How can we fool ourselves to say that we evolved over a long, long time to become a human race!?

Second - Reflecting on God’s Creation

We know that the Universe is vast and beyond our imagination and scope of understanding even to the smartest astrophysicist, scientist or astronomer. There are trillions of galaxies and each has trillions of stars.

Thus, let us not think beyond the earth, as to what other life exists in other galaxies. Let us just reflect on the planet earth.

From the trillions of microbes, to the billions of insects, to the billions of birds, fishes, creatures and animals, we have seven billion human beings on earth roaming on planet earth. And that does not include the trillions of plant life, plankton, fungi and seeds on earth.

That is the magnitude of life and activity on planet earth.

All these, as I believe were made by God Almighty.

Why and for what purpose?

One thing is certain, man is the pinnacle of all creation and man is superior and way above all life. We are not as big as the elephant or the whale, but we are superior and rule over them. We may not run as fast as the cheetah or as strong as the lion or the bull, but we reign supreme. We may not be able to traverse the oceans like the fishes, the dolphins and the giant whale and squid, but we have dominion over them. We may not even be able to fly like the birds and the majestic eagles, but we are supreme over all the creatures that fly.

Man rules over land, the sea and the skies. We are the rightful rulers and `owners’ of earth, as earth was dedicated to us by the Creator to rule and have dominion over all the species of life on earth.

Man is amazing and man’s intelligence is way beyond and above all the other creatures. Man has discover so much from the forces of magnetism, radio waves, nuclear energy and man has invented all amazing machines from the airplane to the atomic bomb, from computers to the smart phone, and man’s building have reached out to the skies.

The advances of medical science is as amazing and stunning as the advances of technology, engineering and aerospace, satellite technology, nanotechnology, power resources and biotechnology.

All this is possible because man is made in the image of God Almighty.

From the very first principle and doctrine of belief in God, I am now amazed that man is so special, created by God with such amazing intelligence that I now turn around to seek my Maker.

That means that when we reflect on mankind and realize how awesome man is as a being, we need to go back to the Maker and seek Him.

Third - God is a Being

As we reflect back at our Maker, we realize that God is a being, a spirit being, a PERSON, and has attributes of feelings and love and concern.

God is not abstract or distant. God is not a spirit that we cannot reach out to, or a machine that responds automatically like an answering machine.

Yes, nature seems to run a natural course, supplying us with air, oxygen, atmosphere, running water and the ever present sunlight, heat and energy from the sun.

God is a person and God can be personal and God can be referred to as a `He’, even arguably `She’, though God as a Spirit Being is sexless, unlike living creatures.

The more I realize that God is a Person, the more I realize that I can get close to God, draw close to God and have a meaningful relationship with God.

I can begin to talk to God, hear from God, feel God’s Presence, `touch’ God and even see `God’.

The more I realize that God is a person, the more I realize that God is actually reaching out to us, His Creation, and He has indeed provided a way for us to reach out to Him.

Fourth - God is Alive!

So, we come to this crucial realization that God is a person and that God is alive!!!

God is alive and can be contactable and is longing too to contact us!

God is alive and He speaks. God is not dumb.

God is alive and He can hear and listen to us. God is not deaf.

God is alive and God cares. He is not distant, unapproachable and does not pick up his cell phone!!

God is alive and He will act.

This God, whom we know – this God who made mankind, is a God who loves, who is merciful, who is compassionate and who is forgiving and slow to anger.

This God, whom we know made us, is no small being.

God is awesome!!

God is powerful. He is Omnipotent.

God knows everything. He is Omniscient.

God is everywhere. He is Omnipresent.

He rules and reigns over everything.

But, where is God?

Where can we find God?

How can we find God?

Fifth - God is a Master & Provider

Over the ages, from the beginning of time, God is a Master Provider. His little experiment called Earth is all contained within itself. On this blue planet, there is life, and with it, all the necessary resources to sustain life.

There is always sufficient water to sustain all life, even in the deep deserts of Sahara and Gobi.

There is always enough food for everyone, from the deserts to the cold and freezing north and south poles. The seas and oceans are teeming with life, all fed and sufficient.

There is always even oxygen in every corner of the earth, even within the houses and chambers are sometimes nearly air tight. No nation or city has ever perished from lack of oxygen on planet earth.

There are always the forces of gravity and wind that sustains the earth and the people and life on it.

There is always sunshine, light and the atmosphere for mankind and life. We would perish if there are pockets of vacuum or if the sun fails to rise up for a day or two. Even in a brief moment of total eclipse, we feel the coolness of air, within seconds.

God is a Master Provider. He is not Mother Nature. He is Father God.

Sixth - Men Can Call out to God

Men who know that there is a God begin to call out to God. Men begin to call upon the Name of God. In whatever language, there is a Name which refers to God.

It may be Jehovah or Yahweh in Jewish language, Kadavule in Tamil, Siong Tai in Hokkien, Shangti in Mandarin, Jenang in Orang Asli Semai language, Bhagwan in Hindi, or Allah in Arabic, it means God in English, and God knows that He is being called, that His Name is being mentioned, that His people is looking for Him.

This is very powerful, like the cries of children or babies for their father.

God hears and God has a plan for mankind. His plan is to gather all His people back to Him.

God had heard the cries of men and women from the beginning of time and God from the beginning of time has been speaking to men, communicating with His people through His servants, His mouthpieces, people we call Prophets and Seers, people who spend time with God, waiting upon God and hearing God’s voice.

Yes, there are true and false prophets. True prophets hear from God, and false prophets `intercepts’ messages and receives `false messages’ which are not from God.

Over time, over the ages, these men of God begin to speak of a very special time, a very special messenger from God, a Messiah, who will save the people from perishing, from their wrongdoings, from their state of despair and being lost, and bring them back to God.

This is a special Messiah, a special prophet, a very special messenger, much awaited over the ages by men and women, a light that was to shine over the whole earth.

The people of Israel, from their forefather Abraham begin to look forward to this Messiah.

Abraham was perhaps the first true prophet after the time of Noah, who was the first of the surviving generations of mankind.

Being a prophet, as God referred to him as saying, “This man is a prophet”, he was special.

He was anointed or has special powers. For example, if he prayed for the King, the household would be healed and safe. He could go to war with a small platoon and win. He appeared to be fearless. Above all, he heard the voice of God and recognized God, and saw God and entertained God to a meal.

He was the first among men who could and dared to negotiate with God for the people.

God considered him as `righteous’ and hence, he was the father of Faith, and blessings flow through Abraham, even until this day.

After Abraham, there has been many or numerous prophet including his children, his grand children and his great grandchild by the name of Joseph, who became the powerful governor of Egypt.

Thus, prophet after prophet pointed to the promise of God, to Messiah’s coming to set the people of God free.

The Jewish people continue to wait for their Messiah.

But has he arrived? Has he not brought to the earth the `Good News’ in his own bodily form?

Is he not the son of David, the son of a carpenter Joseph and his wife, Mary? Is not his name Jesus?

Seventh - The Key is the Messiah

Therefore, the key is the coming of the Messiah, the special prophet of God.

Firstly, one has to believe in God. Unless one believes in God and totally accepts that God Almighty exists, one cannot proceed to know God.

Secondly, one looks at the evidence around us, i.e. the facts and the science before us; the complexity of man, of life around us, of the Universe must surely establish in our hearts that it is Creation rather than randomness leading to floating objects in the skies, all sustained without intelligence or purpose, and with its precision in orbit and movement.

Likewise the human body with its amazing systems operating within us, the series of organs working in perfect coordination, the chemistry, the dynamic DNA, the perfect control of temperature, acidity, oxygenation, and metabolism, and of course the awesome power and potential of reproduction all point to a scientifically engineered life that has reached a level of perfection.

Chance in trillions of trillions of years cannot do it.

Thirdly, I come to realize and understand over my three decades of belief that God is a Person, a Being with feelings, emotions which include Love, Compassion, and Mercy – even though God is a Spirit Being, while men exists in a body of flesh, with a powerful mind, mixed with emotions too.

Fourthly, God is alive. God has to be alive. More than just being alive, God is Omnipotent, Omnipresent and Omniscience.

So God knows us, hears us, listens to us, and God will act and intervene even on a minute, personal level for me and for you.

God also speaks and talks to man, which includes everyone. God has been speaking to mankind from the beginning of time, through his angels and prophets and seers.

God shows signs and the times. Even the stars and the moon and the sun define his signs and the times, used by astronomers, and astrologers and soothsayers.

Finally, God has a purpose, a plan, a program which God predestined from the beginning to the end and everything to date has moved according to God’s Master plan.

God is not blur, not stupid, not foolish, not haphazard, not confused, not deluded, not uncaring, not deaf, not dumb, and not unaware of what is going around us.

He knows and He acts, as He has done so in the history of the world.

He provides everything from sunlight, oxygen, water, food and everything else necessary for the sustenance of life.

Hence, the key or the final missing link is the coming of the Messiah – the One that puts in all together.

The Jewish people, who are believers of Judaism, are still waiting for the Messiah, as are some other faiths too.

Where is the Messiah? Is he not the one who will save the sinners of the world?

Has he come or do we wait for another?

Eighth – Jesus Christ, Savior of the World

Every major faith in the world has a founder, someone who was enlightened and inspired to begin a set of teachings.

One of them was an earthly prince, who lived in the palace of Egypt and who was called out to lead a whole race out of Egypt. He went up to the mountain and saw God face to face. The basis of the faith was the Law and the Ten Commandments.

His name is Moses, and Judaism was born.

Next in terms of earliest was another prince, who left his palace and saw the suffering of the people and he went and meditated under a tree for forty days and nights, and revelation came to him and in his enlightenment, he found the teachings which is basis of Buddhism today.

Likewise, the other faiths were founded by individual men inspired spiritually to write out the scriptures, which became the basis of the religions founded by them, including Taoism, Confucianism, Bahai faith, Sikhism and one other prominent major faith in the world today.

Christianity too has a man, a founder and teacher in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth.

As a Christian, I believe that I have found the Messiah in the Person of Jesus Christ, Son of God, - Jesus of Nazareth.

Jesus of Nazareth was born of Joseph and Mary.

Unlike all the other founders of their respective faiths, Jesus is the only One who claims to be divine. All are human beings with a divine or spiritual experience.

Jesus is the only One who claims to be Divine.

He claims and acknowledges that He is the Son of God.

He asserts that the `Father and He’ are One, provoking the teachers of the laws to charge Him for blasphemy, to state that He is equal to God.

He states that He is the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End i.e. He is ageless, and was even before Father Abraham, the first forefather of the Jewish Faith or Judaism.

He doesn’t stop there. He says that anyone who has seen Him has seen the Father in Heaven or Almighty God, and He further states that no one can see the Father!

He ends by saying that all authority on Heaven and on the Earth has been passed down to Him by the Father.

The Scriptures further declare that all things are made through Him and without Him was not anything made that was made. In other words, everything that is made on earth was made through Jesus Christ.

The Scriptures also declare that Jesus Christ is the same, today, yesterday and tomorrow.

The list of claims continues from His own very lips, as Jesus declares:

“I am the Way, the Truth and the Life, and No one comes to the Father but through Me.”

“I am the Resurrection and the Life”

“I am the Bread of Life”

“I am the Living Water”

(And whoever eats and drink from me will never thirst)

“I am the Door”, describing the sheep entering by the gate.

Many more claims and assertions are made about Jesus Christ, including the statement that His Name is above all Names, and is the sweetest Name of all.

With all that, there can be only one conclusion in that either, He is a fraudster, crook or cheat or He is the Truth.

History acknowledges Jesus Christ as a Teacher and a good man.

Many faiths have His Name as a Prophet and Teacher, with even one other major religion even acknowledging Him as One born by virgin birth, and the One who will return on earth on the last day of Armageddon to battle against the evil one.

I made the decision over three decades ago, in my inner soul to believe and accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior of my soul.

I believe He is a divine Messenger or Messiah, sent by God as His Only Son to come down on earth to declare the Good News that He is the Savior of the World. When Jesus was here, through His Powerful Hand and Prayer, the blind could see, the lame could walk, the demonized were delivered and even the dead were resurrected.

He then went to the Cross of Calvary to bear the sins of the world, and through His Sacrificial Death on the Cross, all the sins of mankind has been paid and settled by His Blood and the Life He laid down on Calvary.

Now, forever more until His return again in this period of Grace and  Amnesty, men and women can call upon His Name, the Name of Jesus, accept and acknowledge Him as Savior and ensure our place in the Book of Life and gain entry into the gate of Heavens.

By declaring that I believe in Jesus Christ as Savior and welcoming Him into my life, repenting and asking for forgiveness of sins, I and billions of others can now call God our Father, or Abba Father, and can enter His Presence and seek God face to face.

What took the priests a year of waiting and only one could enter the Holy of Holies, is now freely available for you and me to enter.

We have been washed by the Blood of the Lamb, the Blood of Jesus.

Jesus is the PASSWORD to Heaven, amazingly the Passover Lamb and the Word of God. Jesus is our Passport to Heaven.

Jesus has paid the price for the sins of mankind and made our entry possible and free.

Jesus Christ, will be on the Judgment Seat as our Judge on the final day, or on our demise and we have to be justified before we can enter.

He is the Chief Immigration Officer in the gates to Heaven. He is the DOOR, not the door keeper.

Either we enter with a Passport, chopped “Saved by Jesus”, with a mark on our foreheads, stamped, “Spirit of Christ”, or we need to go through the whole immigration process, to be checked thoroughly.

Why take the chances or the risks to have your life on earth examined thoroughly, your deeds, your words, your thoughts from birth to death?

Who can qualify?

I can’t be sure, if on my works, my deeds, or on my own merit, for the Word of God says, that “the wages of sin is death”. The penalty is death, and that we cannot reach the righteousness of God to qualify.

Even one great teacher with hundreds of millions of followers, one whose teachings include rebirths, state that part of judgment is being reborn to suffer a difficult life. This particular teacher himself claim that the process of enlightenment took several hundred thousand rebirths to arrive at that state, and it further claims that for every one era or millennium, there can be only one such soul with that sort of enlightenment.

In other words, it is extremely difficult to make it to Heaven, even impossible, by those standards, and the soul needs to be resent back through rebirth until that person reaches enlightenment.

The teachings of Christianity do not talk about rebirth, except that when we believe in Jesus we are reborn again spirituality, born by the spirit of God, not by the womb of woman.

I am today born again by the Blood of Jesus, stamped on my forehead “Spirit of Christ”, and saved by the Grace of God, through the finished work of Jesus Christ on the Cross, where all my sins and the sins of mankind has been forgiven.

I know that if my life ends today, at this very moment, I will be with Jesus in Heaven, for He is my Creator, my Master, my Teacher, my Savior and my God.

At the Gates of Heaven, where He is seated on the Throne, I can enter by the fast `GREEN LANE’ through the DOOR marked “Through Jesus Christ” and there is only ONE DOOR – JESUS.

This is my assurance, my knowledge, my belief, my inner conviction.

If you were to ask I or any born again Christian this question:

“Are you sure that you will enter Heaven when you die?”

Our answer is a very clear and definite “Yes, I am sure!”

That’s why I am a Christian, and have been so for over three decades, and I know my Savior is true, because I have walked with Him for three decades over.

If you search God with all your heart and all your mind and all your soul, you will find Him, or you will be found by Him.

Timothy SNG