An Open Letter to the Dali Lama:
Blessing to you on this night, I pray truly that all is well with you. I am writing you concerning your statements about God answering prayers following the ISIS attacks in Paris. You see, I understand that your faith acknowledged a supreme being, but that being is not inherently the God of scripture. I understand your faith is about ultimate tranquility in this life for the individual. While, both of those are good things of themselves, they can pose a problem for the Christian who believes in the all sovereign God of scripture. The God who sent forth His son to die for our sins, yes our, mine…yours…and the worlds, yup even the individuals who carried out the ruthless, senseless and tragic attacks in Paris. The only problem is many of these people know of Jesus, they just don’t KNOW JESUS. While I have a great deal of respect for you and have dove into your writings on many occasions I feel you are fundamentally wrong with your statements about God hearing our prayers in the critical time. In your statements you said:
“…humans have created this problem, and now we are asking God to solve it. It is illogical. God would say, solve it yourself because you created it in the first place.” [Read More: R/T RAW STORY]
The reality is human have always had a “sin problem” we are reminded of this in scripture, “Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned” (Romans 5:12). That one man described by Paul is none other than Adam in the garden of Eden. Having to leave paradise for the cause of transgression, so to are we no longer living in the paradise we would desire. Really and truly, I do wish we could live in a peaceful world but that just cannot be so long as there is free will, man will often choose to satisfy his own desire rather than to please God. Jesus himself teaches this principle when He talks about eternity. He says, “Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy[a] that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.” (Matthew 17:13-14). Given the choice man often takes the easy road, a road that Jesus labels destruction. It’s here actually that we find the hardship of Christianity vs. the easy way of Jihad. Christianity says, have faith, trust God, follow Jesus and teach others and keep trying, life won’t be easy, endure hardship and obey the gospel, stay faithful and you’ll receive your reward! Islam particularly through Jihadism teaches, tell others to convert if they don’t kill them and if you want to really be righteous and get to heaven kill yourself with them. Which way seems harder? The hard way deals with and forgives sin, the easy way amplifies sin and destroys you in it.
I know I said, this was about your statement on prayer and it is, but you have to understand first where I am coming from. You say it’s illogical that God would solve the problem, thus answering prayers. But you see when it comes to God, everything about His love is illogical when it come to us. You see our faith teaches, that, “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8). Nothing about me deserves that kind of love, that kind of sacrifice, that kind of forgiveness but God offers it. In fact, I wouldn’t only say that it seems illogical but it is defiantly unmerited, that’s called grace.
So while you say, stop praying, I am saying pray more. Because it will take an act of God to soften the hearts of humanity to bend towards unity. It will take God and seeking God to restore the nations. You see, it’s God himself who reminds us to pray for the healing of nations when he says:
“if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and PRAY AND SEEK MY FACE and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.” (II Chronicles 7:14).
So I will continue to encourage the world to pray, to seek God and allow Him to begin the healing process. Rest assured we will not be idle in the process, we will be His hands and His feet but we MUST pray for Him to heal.
