Are Christians Mad?

(Acts 26:24-32)

As Paul stood and made a defence before King Agrippa, Bernice his wife and the Roman governor Festus, he spoke openly about the things to do with Jesus. Agrippa was the king over the Jewish realm at the time and had an excellent knowledge of all that had happened concerning Jesus and his disciples.

However Festus was the new governor and did not have this same background knowledge. It was clear that as he listened to Paul he became increasingly perplexed and dumbfounded over what Paul had to say. In the end Festus could contain himself no more and he cried out saying in verse 24,

And as he thus made his defense, Festus said with a loud voice, “Paul, you are mad; your great learning is turning you mad!”

And this is a typical opinion of most non-believers who consider Christians to be mad. So let us consider for a moment the question: Are Christians mad?

Madness

At the simplest level madness consists of doing things that are irrational, illogical and inconsistent with the facts or needs of the matters at hand. It is also described as foolishness, folly, insanity and craziness.

A mad person is prone to do unusual and strange things in reaction to any specific event. They are likely to do random and chaotic actions for no apparent reason, like coyotes howling at the moon.

Mad people are often senseless and without the ability to reason or explain the purpose of their actions if they are even aware of their actions as being strange.

Is this a description of Christians and Christianity? Is Christianity a senseless and unconnected series of beliefs that are random and chaotic causing the adherents to likewise do random and chaotic things? Is Christianity irrational and illogical and does it cause it's followers to take actions that are inconsistent with matters at hand?

Christianity

Christianity is none of the above. The underlying principles of Christianity are all of the things that all of mankind considers to be both good and desirable.

Christianity is founded on the basis of freedom, love, forgiveness, grace and the desire to always do what is good. The aim of Christianity among other things is to teach people right from wrong and to bring to a place of maturity where they are able to live lives guided by all that is good.

Is that consistent with what is madness?

Let us then consider the rewards of Christianity. We believe that there is a reward for those who follow the teachings of Jesus Christ and that reward is eternal life. We believe that when Jesus returns we will be resurrected with Him to live forever in the presence of God where there will no longer be any evil, death, sickness or opposition to all that is good.

Non-believers consider such a set of beliefs to be madness, but is it really?

Non-Believers

The beliefs of those who do not believe in God say that all life evolved through biochemical and electrical reactions when the conditions were just right billions of years ago. They believe that there was a Big Bang that was the beginning of the universe and over billions of year the stars, planets and all other things just evolved. Somehow there was a “primordial soup” which was energised in some way and the first single cell of what we call life began. And from that beginning all life as we know it evolved over thousands of millennia.

They cannot explain where the matter came from before the Big Bang in the first place. They cannot explain why all life is both male and female and how or when the evolutionary process divided life into two different sexes, and this is true of both animal and plant life. If life started as a sexless single cell, what was the trigger that eventually led to the division of sexes?

Then there is the issue of plant life versus animal life. There is no doubt that both life forms come from a cellular base, so does that mean that animals evolved from plants or vice versa? Or were there two types of cells created at different times from the primordial soup? And what is the probability of not one, but two such occurrences enabling two beginnings, one for plants and one for animals?

And if we all come from the same single cell why is it that different animals cannot be interbred? Why is it that the genetics of animals is so different that they cannot breed a dog with a crocodile, or a cat with a rhinoceros or even a man with an ape?

And if evolution is a reality, why is the archeological record not littered with all of the crossover species that we call the “missing links” that prove the transition from one species to another? To accept evolution as a reality the basic premise has to be that there is a transition between species and if this is true there must be literally thousands or millions of such transition species give the genetic diversity of species on earth and the fact that all the currently existing species cannot interbreed to create a new species.

And there are none. Man has not found a single transitional species to prove the theory of evolution, nor a proof for how the elements came into being before the Big Bang, nor how there could have occurred not one but two (at least) cells created from the primordial soup that led to plant life and animal life, unless of course they believe man is related to a plant?

Madness as I defined above is the acceptance of illogical and irrational beliefs that are inconsistent with the facts of a matter. The facts of existence in this world do not support the theories of evolution and yet these unproven theories are taught and accepted as fact in schools and accepted as such by much of the scientific community.

And it is the scientific community who often discredit Christians because they cannot prove the existence of God through scientific processes and yet they are prepared to accept evolution theory as fact despite countless hours, days and years of work that have never come up with a single shred of evidence to support this theory.

I submit here that to do what the world of non-believers is doing is madness. To accept a lie and call it truth is worse than madness because it is deliberately misleading. And to reject the alternative hypothesis that God does indeed exist and that all we see and perceive was created rather than evolved is equally mad. Science claims to be impartial and not prepared to reject a theory until it can be disproved through a process of empirical evaluation where all the evidence is examined and a fact based judgement can be made.

But that is not the way science treats Christianity. They have rejected it and accepted an unproven and unprovable theory of evolution as if it were fact. Surely this is more of a madness than following the teachings of Christ that are focused on love, joy, peace, patience, grace, freedom and much, much more?

The Logic Position

If we were to examine the positions of Christians and non-believers from the position of logic alone, which is how many non-believers wish to argue the point over such things, then again Christianity is vastly more logical than their alternative view.

Christians believe they will inherit eternal life and find a place of peace and joy where there is no sickness or death. They believe also that following Jesus in this life provides a better way for the desire and goal of Christians in the here and now is to do what is good by all people and to learn to love one another. We believe it is by our faith that we shall be saved from the evil of this world and find our salvation in Jesus Christ.

Non-Christians accept the desires to try to learn what is good but they reject the idea and concept of resurrection and reward to live into eternity with God.

So…what if Christians are wrong and there is no eternal reward? Then we shall die and that is the end of that. At least we will have lived a life in this time that we have seeking what is good and right and true and there is nothing wrong with aspiring to these things.

But what if the non-believers are wrong and there is an eternal life as the reward for those who choose to follow the teachings of Christ and to worship God? Then those who have rejected the teachings of Christ and chosen to ignore God will be rejected by Him and go into eternal destruction as described in the bible.

So from a purely logical position it is better to follow Christ and to seek God than not. For if at the end of this life a Christian finds they were mistaken, then there is nothing and ALL who die end up in the same place. But if the non-believer is mistaken then at the end of this life they will find out the truth and it will be too late. They will go to destruction while Christians go to eternal life.

Also is it more logical and rational to accept as fact an unproven and unprovable evolution theory that has been tried and failed for many years to be proven rather than at least accepting that faith in God is an alternative possibility? At least don't reject the possibility of God until it can be proven one way or the other.

Clearly then it is more logical and rational to follow Christ than to ignore Him.

So are Christians mad? No. It is pure madness and foolishness to ignore God and to ignore Jesus Christ than it is to seek Him out and to believe. And if a person seeks God they will find Him. God has promised this, that all who seek will find Him and He will make himself known to them.

So those who choose to ignore God and Jesus Christ have no excuse. God is willing to save all who come to Him and who seek Him, but he has given that choice to each individual. It is up to us to make the logical and rational choice to follow Jesus Christ that leads to life rather than the madness of non-belief that leads to death and destruction.

(Picture sourced from stock.xchng provided by sofamonkez (name not given))

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John

Hi! I’m John, the owner, author, and editor of this site. Over the past 50+ years as a Christian I have been teaching, preaching and writing about the Bible to help Christians gain a deeper insight into the scriptures that are easily understood. I also answer specific Bible related questions, so feel free to contact me.