LEGO church
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Lego creations continue to amaze us. TN4046 has sent this gallery of a … church, created entirely with LEGO bricks. Many details can be seen by enlarging the pictures (with clicks). This is a copy of Abston Church of Christ, created by Amy Hughes. Thanks to Stewart and cary for the help. Author is unknown, help please.
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(352 votes, average: 4.89 out of 5).
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January 11th, 2007 11:52
http://www.amyhughes.org/lego/church/
January 11th, 2007 11:55
That is the Abston Church of Christ, created by Amy Hughes and described here http://www.amyhughes.org/lego/church/index.html
January 12th, 2007 03:11
this is sweet!
January 12th, 2007 03:42
How many lego figures are starving right now so this church could be built?
January 12th, 2007 04:54
amazing
[dugg]
January 12th, 2007 04:57
This is ridiculous, there are too many real ones out there – we do not need to add to the idiocy.
Try thinking for yourself and dismiss christianity.
January 12th, 2007 06:19
I think for myself and embrace Christianity.
As for the Lego, wow.
January 12th, 2007 06:31
“If you build it, they will come!”
January 12th, 2007 06:37
This model spells to the uniform nature of society and how the idea of God has been used as building blocks for man’s own purpose. I applaud this extraordinary effort and would like to see more social criticism of this nature. Bravo
January 12th, 2007 07:10
Hope you still do not think this when you are standing in front of GOD waiting for judgment. God Bless You.
January 12th, 2007 07:52
funny
January 12th, 2007 08:06
“This is ridiculous, there are too many real ones out there – we do not need to add to the idiocy.
Try thinking for yourself and dismiss christianity. ”
powerful statement…look at a hubble photo…with so many galaxies…how can there be a god…can’t you just accept that we are…and there is no reason…no meaning…we just are…
January 12th, 2007 08:15
Man, you Christians just don’t get it do ya? NOT EVERYONE IS CHRISTIAN! Personally I hate Christianity, it is the center of many problems I am not going to go into. But fortunately I will NOT be standing in front of “GOD” waiting for judgement, because it is all just a fairy tale, in my opinion. I can respect art however, and this lego church is totally kickass.
January 12th, 2007 08:46
It’s Lego art. You must be pretty insecure in your beliefs if you feel threatened by it.
January 12th, 2007 08:50
The first of 7 seals will be revealed this year, The holy trinity is the delusion that God has given to initialize the fall. This is the fuel for rebuilding Babylon and the open worship of the true antichrist.
Jesus Saves: 20 – 33% off. Act now!
Nice lego work but aren’t there better things you could be doing with your time? Are you a rich housewife or a useless art degree? Thanks for supporting the antichrist and beleiving the lie. The apocolypse will begin after a short messages from our sponsor; Jesus Christ Church Incorporated.
January 12th, 2007 08:51
Isn’t it odd that here in the US a Athiest can not be elected, yet in Europe they wonder about the fitness to govern of those who claim to believe in Supernatural powers? How much longer will it take us to achieve their level of understanding?
We are all Athiests about someone’s religion. When we question (and through thinking for ourselves, understand) why we are athiestic about Zeus and Shiva and Zoaster and Wotan, we may be able to release the childhood God we were indoctrinated with and grow into the people we are capable of becoming. There really is the potential of a heaven. It is here today. It will be what we through our choices make it. And when you die? You will be dust. Make your heaven here, today.
January 12th, 2007 08:54
if you feel you should voice your anti-semantic comments about legos, you probably can’t tie your shoes cause your stomach gets in the way. maybe you would appreciate it more if there was a lego tribute to dragonball z or WOW…
January 12th, 2007 08:55
To the person that said:
Try thinking for yourself and dismiss christianity.
How is listening to some jerk on the internet thinking for yourself? Teehee
January 12th, 2007 08:59
Hunh.. this is quite amazing, I’m not quite sure where it’ll add to Jesus’s plight on the world but I think its a positive symbol, its gotta add something good I think.
About the ‘think for yourself’ and ‘God as a building block’ well that stuff ‘I think’ is ironic seeing as thinking for yourself is exactly what Christianity is about, there are no 2 Christians that should be the same bcuz each should have a unique relationship with Jesus. Thats the nature of human relationships, they are never the same, thats acting your true self out when faced with choices and honest guidance, as far as I know.
God as a building block, and the rigidity of Christianity sounds to me like an excuse to simply deny the obvious and conform according to how we all are prone to think, without restraint or thought for consequence or fear of anything greater than we can understand. That to me sounds like constraining myself to small blocks, to pretend that I or anyone human today has the answer to all the questions, nah. Thats how I know God exists bcuz I dont know everything [and neither does anyone human]
Whats the difference between a candle infront of closed eyes and opened eyes? Not the fact that the candle ceases to be there, but the fact that whoever sees the candle believes its there. The candle doesn’t change in both situations but the person does, a leap of faith supercedes the senses. But if you don’t try to believe the candle will never be there.
That was long.. phew hope it helps someone
January 12th, 2007 09:03
Goddayum that’s a big church!
January 12th, 2007 09:15
Why can’t people just keep their beliefs to themselves and leave other people alone. Yes, this goes for all of you.
January 12th, 2007 09:23
man this rules.
January 12th, 2007 09:30
“Try thinking for yourself and dismiss christianity.”
Let’s deconstruct this, shall we?
First of all, if this person understood the Bible (and thus their self) in any way, they would know that the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. To “think for yourself” is a dangerous thing. It is infinitely preferable to think for yourself with the guidance of God, as opposed to being in rebellion against God.
That being said, “think for yourself” is deceitful, elitist, hypocritical, and a self-defeating statement (not surprising coming from a person who trusts their deceitful heart). For one person to command another to think for their self, inherently has the opposite affect. It ranks right up there with “not that I’m trying to insult you, but…”. What the person who says something like “think for yourself” really means is “think like me”. This is proven in the next part of the statement, “and dismiss christianity.” In other words, “Think for yourself, as long as that agrees with how I think.”
Dismiss it and embrace what? The liberal godless religion of evolution? Put my faith in scientists who make great claims based on rejection of God, manipulated data, conjecture, and assumption? I’d just as soon believe in the tooth fairy as believe half of what I read coming from fickle “science”. Or perhaps we should live on a fence, never working up the guts to decide what we believe?
“Set them apart by Your truth. Your word is truth.” (John 17: 17) God have mercy on our generation! I stand with v.dog.
January 12th, 2007 09:41
This is absolutley beautiful…You should try to get this on the news….Very amazing. Great idea
January 12th, 2007 09:48
Might impressive scene. However, I do think I’ve seen quite the many with the haircuts the little LEGO men sport.
January 12th, 2007 09:58
Dear Heaven Bound,
May the Invisible Pink Unicorn forgive you of your ignorance. It is not too late for you. You still have a chance to deny Yahweh and accept Her Holy Pinkness into your life! But if you don’t…well, don’t say I didn’t warn you when She grinds your soul to dust beneath Her Holy Hooves.
January 12th, 2007 10:11
What a beautiful work of love! Thank you for using your talents for the Glory of God. And don’t get discouraged with the negative comments. Pray for them that they may connect with the Truth of how much God Loves Them.
God Bless You.
January 12th, 2007 10:24
Bloodly Americans.
January 12th, 2007 10:32
that looks a little like Bender on the cross
January 12th, 2007 10:51
Religious Freaks!11!! you all are total n00bz@!!!!
January 12th, 2007 10:57
The church is obviously spectacular.
But It freaks me out when there are that many lego people in the same place….. I just KNOW they are planning something.
I don’t have a quarter of that many lego people, and I still don’t let them all stay together.
January 12th, 2007 11:03
Does the building of this really have to be a statement about life and faith? Maybe the person who built just thought it would be fun and cool. Which it is.
January 12th, 2007 11:35
I’m torn. This church is beautiful, but I hate mega-churches with a passion. They exalt only one person, the pastor. Leaders are supposed to be servants, not gods.
Legos rule, BTW.
January 12th, 2007 11:54
There is no god. None. Think about why you don’t belive in other’s religions, and you will understand why I don’t believe in yours.
Excellent lego craftsmanship though. Stunning.
January 12th, 2007 11:54
God? You seriously turned a lego blog into a religion debate? Stop and smell the roses, God is as real as santa clause.
January 12th, 2007 12:10
wow, how cool!
I appreciate the way in which the creator of this project has used lego as a powerful metaphor for the way in which a healthy society should be based upon the building blocks of faith and community .. rather than single, lonely, athiest IT-technician internet users.
The way in which both the bricks that built the church itself and the congregation are made from the same materials impresses me as a display of God’s presence in all things and the way in which humanity was built as one with the earth.
January 12th, 2007 12:18
I hate internet-loser-athiests.
ITS LEGO! why turn this into a faith debate?!
WHY DO YOU CARE?! you don’t believe in God? fine! But why feel the need to complain about and insult everyone else that does?!
January 12th, 2007 12:23
can’t you just appreciate the frickin’ LEGO ART that went into this, and not turn it into a religious battle??
Sometimes a hot dog REALLY IS just a hot dog.
January 12th, 2007 12:42
Good words ShadowofGod, RJS, & Kirasawa.
I must confess I am both impressed by the creativity, ingenuity of the model; & yet disgusted by the subject matter of the model.
January 12th, 2007 12:46
Has anyone visited her website? That church was built in memory of her cat. I adore cats but I think that is a little much.
January 12th, 2007 12:47
I think it’s funny that people get so bent out of shape over religion. It doesn’t matter what you think about it being a church. It’s LEGOS!!! The fact that it’s made to look like a church does not make it a church, it’s just LEGOS!! I think it’s fun and creative! I love legos. I used to build castles with them when I was a kid, but that doesn’t make me a knight or anything, just a kid expressing an artistic spirit. I think whomever wants to turn something as innocent and fun as legos into another debate over who said what, and who believes what. . . . just needs to get over themselves. Buy some legos, get creative. Chill out!!
January 12th, 2007 12:52
Wow, that is some great work.
January 12th, 2007 13:30
God may have created man, but man created LEGOS!
January 12th, 2007 13:32
Count- I agree. This is awesome but the only reason I would, as a Lego person, step into it would be to admire (and possibly PLAY) the PIPE ORGAN! It’s WICKED!
Legos 4EVR!
January 12th, 2007 13:53
This isn’t about if christianity is the answer. This is about some truely amazing work. Seriously impressive
January 12th, 2007 14:05
I can’t believe so many of you managed to turn a childrens toy (adults can be children at heart…) into a religious debate?!?!?! Why can’t you leave the one thing alone that you KNOW is going to stir the pot and cause some huge debate, and just appreciate the complexity of the structure…. Better yet, why don’t YOU try to do the same thing, see how easy it is for you to construct in such detail and keep your personal beliefs on such topics as religion, politics, abortion, etc, to yourself. I’m sure the person that built this didn’t intend for it to be anything more than a detailed replica of a building. It’s you debate-a-holics and religious or anti-religious zealots out there that have completely lost sight of the true meaning of art…. PERSONAL EXPRESSION!!!! Jeeze….
Tell you what, go build a giant McDonalds. Maybe that’s more your speed….
January 12th, 2007 14:36
我想做这个的人一定很伟大的么
January 12th, 2007 14:44
Haha, i cant wait till a movie comes out like this!
January 12th, 2007 14:46
Wow! This is a very impressive piece of lego artwork.
But I’m a taoist atheist, so should I go on a tirade about my feelings about Christianity? I think not! Believe it or not, some non-religious people have respect for others and themselves and have a firm grasp on right and wrong.
January 12th, 2007 15:47
I believe in the Flying Spaghetti Monster and he will destroy this Church and its evil Jesus!
January 12th, 2007 17:47
wish i had so many lego’s when i was a kid.
January 12th, 2007 19:14
Cool. How do people have time for this?
January 12th, 2007 19:56
I’ll say it: I’m a long standing athietst. Totally deny god’s existance and all that jazz. But sometimes my fellow athiests disgust me.
This is a time to be going “Holy shit, that’s an amazing lego structure!”, not “OMG lego-christianity is for l0zerz haabhgulahbguhalbhau”
Everyone needs to grow up a little bit.
And that is perhaps one of the most impressive, detailed lego structures I’ve ever seen.
January 12th, 2007 21:46
Okay. I’m going to say, right now, that I am not a Christian or an Athiest. In fact, it doesn’t matter what I am. People… They’re Legos! What the hell does it matter that it’s a church?
And some of you Athiests get angry for some Christians telling you what to believe and then YOU turn around and tell ALL of them to denounce what they believe? Isn’t that a bit hypocritical? I mean, I’m being a little hypocritical for just telling you to shut your traps and open you minds. But you guys preach that open-minded-ness to EVERYONE! Take your own damn advice for a change. And, by the way, I don’t mind hate-mail. Go for it: the__lone__archer@hotmail.com
Sorry… Long rant. Anyways… AMAZING work. I applaude your patience and willpower. A lesser person would have gone insane trying to build something like that. Bravo!
January 12th, 2007 22:39
You’ve inspired my son in more ways than one. Awesome.
January 13th, 2007 07:18
Allejezus, wat een grote Kerk.
January 13th, 2007 10:00
Listening to some guy on the internet is not necessarily thinking for yourself, however the dismiss Christianity part is still valid. If one tries to logically consider Christianity the only logical conclusion is to dismiss it.
For those of you who have yet to hear it:
The basis of Christianity is that God is omnipotent (able to do anything), else how could he create the universe?
Given that consider this question: Can God create a rock so heavy that he cannot lift it?
The answer is obviously one or the other, either he makes the rock, and can’t lift it, or he can’t make the rock.
Unfortunately most Christians either say he can do it, but wouldn’t, or get incredibly flustered and just start shouting and in general being rational.
Of course, the devious church has come up with a block for this entire thing. Faith, if you’re not taking it on faith you’re not doing it right. However, catholic church and some others have started encouraging thinking about your religion, to further cement faith. Little do they know they’re plugging one hole with another.
January 13th, 2007 10:47
Hmmm….Think for myself….ok….thinking…and…..
I choose christianity. Thank you for allowing me to think for myself and make a choice. Sorry, I chose not to dismiss christianity; I hope this does not offend you but I didn’t agree with your suggestion to dismiss it.
Truth be shared, I once dismissed christianity. my life had a lack of joy and I seemed to have the worst luck in life. I gave christianity an honest full faith try and was amazed at how blessed my life became. I have never been happier and now my life seems to have the best luck. funny thing about luck, there is no such thing. Luck is how an unbeliever explains blessings or the lack thereof. Others may be occasionally lucky, but I am blessed. Praise God.
Don’t believe me…try it and see, what have you got to lose besides your pride?
January 13th, 2007 12:16
wow…how many legos did u used..amazing..i dont have that many lego people..i think of it as an art work..nice lighting on the 3rd 4th n 6th picture..try doing something else with lego..wish u luck on ur next lego set..
January 13th, 2007 15:02
Wow, I love it. It’s a great work of art and I can only imagine how much time it must’ve taken to build.
And to everyone who has commented before me, why the hell do you care what other people believe? I think atheism is just as harmful as any other form of apathy, and I despise Christianity as an instituion, even though there are good people who actually follow the sermon on the mount and whatnot.
What now, huh? I just attacked both of your sides.
Anyway, I love the artwork, and respect the massive amount of effort that must have been put into this project.
January 13th, 2007 16:34
Oh don’t worry, I’m not offended in the least.
Eh, I too once was Christian and dismissed it. What you call blessings and I call luck seem to have suffered no change. Still I manage to pull off amazing feats that I would have never though possible, but I believe that’s just part of being human. With the sheer number of experiences everyone goes through it’s very probable that from time to time something you thought unlikely or impossible will happen.
Don’t get me wrong, I think Christians are right about a lot of things, most of them along the lines of not being a jerk and helping other people is a good thing. The major point I disagree with them on is the existence of God.
January 13th, 2007 16:44
That was really pretty. You must have had a lot of time. Well… God Bless You!!!
January 13th, 2007 17:49
Cool.
January 13th, 2007 21:03
monumental
January 13th, 2007 21:45
It’s a Lego creation. Get over the subject matter. Stop talking about religion as if it were fact.
January 14th, 2007 00:31
the legos are cool. too many times, people use completely innocent items to spew their unsolicited beliefs to the rest of us. personally, i don’t care whether you believe in a deity or not–i don’t care if you know if i do or not. but, for Christ’s sake, lighten up, people. your way, no matter what way it is, is not the only way-that’s the whole concept of free will-whether or not you believe it was granted by God or not. religion, and lack of, only becomes a problem when people think that everyone, besides themselves, is delusional for what they believe. it’s a church built out of legos. thank goodness it wasn’t a zoo…
January 14th, 2007 02:48
It make me want to buy my first lego.
January 14th, 2007 05:14
How much take it takes to build something like that?
January 14th, 2007 10:50
Wow. Christians are really blinded by their own faith. So sad…
Believing in something just because…Yeah, that’s a good way to make CDs and X-ray machines and cancer treatments. Let’s just pray and hope the sick people get better instead of actually conducting scientific research to dispell bad treatments and to keep working ones. That’s the ticket!
Christianity should be against the law.
-Joey Jo Jo out.
January 14th, 2007 11:26
Wow thats amazing. good job to the maker of this Lego masterpiece.
May Flying Spaghetti Monster have mercy on your pathetic souls.
January 14th, 2007 13:11
Could be worse… could be a scene depicting people being stoned to death.
Its a beautiful piece of work! Am not christian or anything but I can appreciate good art!
January 14th, 2007 14:44
AMAZING. What time and talent,to put it all together. All the detail,is wonderful.
January 14th, 2007 18:40
I’m a fan…
I think that the skill involved in the creation of the thing can be appreciated without any worry about the theology behind it.
Let’s keep those issues on separate levels, yes? There are plenty of places to bait Christians and ignite the great agnostic debate.
I usually don’t don’t start discussions of faith every time I hear the St. Matthew Passion of Good ol’ Johann.
Hee hee.
January 15th, 2007 02:30
I look at it this way.
For those of you who do not believe in God or any religion for that matter. So what if this touches people who do believe, does it make you a better person to bash their beliefs? Everyone has their own beliefs and that is just fine. Personally, I am Catholic, I believe in God. If you don’t then im ok with that, thats why they are called beliefs.
Everyone has a right to voice their own beliefs in my opinion, but when it gets to the point of disrespecting one another it is BS. Everyone on this board who posted attacking comments should just get over themselves, and that is not just for the people who don’t believe.
As for this amazing Lego art, just wow.
January 15th, 2007 02:39
I don’t see one black LEGO person in this church.
Could this be a segregated LEGO church? I noticed that almost all minority LEGOs are extremely stereotypical. Anyone else notice that?
January 15th, 2007 08:26
Perfect this church
I like LOGO too ^^
but, is little
Congratulations
January 15th, 2007 09:45
What a cool building/piece of art. I hope someone puts it on public display so that you get the space in your home back and can then create something else. You’re obviously a very talented architect/designer/artist.
January 15th, 2007 12:18
Robberty, when Lego came up with the idea of figures, they used yellow to show that they are unbiased. The yellow figures are not a race of any kind (for all the idiots out there they are not asian either). There is no segregation in the pictures and thats a stupid claim.
January 15th, 2007 15:38
Awesome Lego architecture.
And stop the [anti-]religious cat fight, already.
January 15th, 2007 17:15
jesus saves… all others take 2 D20
January 16th, 2007 02:22
i dislike mainstream religions with a passion. it takes the responsibility of the world away too say that god is all powerful and we have to live by his word.
most of the things i have been told by pastors priest etc etc just don’t make any sense to me, Iv’e tried to read the bible a number of times but i find it boring, is the word of god supposed to be boring?
Basically i want people too hear this and to listen too other people as much as possible until we shake the bullshit, lies and superstitions are not good for the growth of humanity. i know all that organized religion is bullshit and thats why i feel like iu can say it too anyone i want because when you spout that crap i can feel a better future brewing inside me.
January 16th, 2007 13:04
WOOOOOOOOOOW!
good job!
That’s awsome!!!
January 16th, 2007 13:06
I agree with the previous poster. Personally, I have heard several several priests talk and they spout nonesense when you ask them a controversial question about religion (catholic in my case, not that much difference). Although I embrace several aspects of Catholisism, tolerance for example, I completely deny the existance of some kind of omnipotent divine being.
January 16th, 2007 13:09
Almost forgot to mention how cool the church looks, wish I had that much spare time and general level of leet lego skills.
January 16th, 2007 16:34
Did someone ask if only the Yellow Ones go to heaven?
January 16th, 2007 16:35
forgot the link:
http://one.revver.com/watch/126362
January 16th, 2007 18:10
The fact that you guys are arguing about religion here is hilarious. I think you are all dorks.
January 17th, 2007 09:21
You can tell this is not a baptist church…noone in the back rows!
(I am quilified to make this comment I am baptist)
Amazing Lego art!
In His Service,
Acts 4:29
January 17th, 2007 14:44
Good Lord! Pretty soon all those heathen Lego figures will be knocking on my door passing out pre-printed literature and warning me of the coming Apocolypse! Think of all those horrible children and their wicked little imaginations building cars and rocket ships with toys of the devil! Jeez! Who told you people that growing up meant you had to take EVERYTHING so damn seriously!!?? I remember adults like you when I was a kid back in the 70’s – everything was a cause, they couldn’t take anything at face value. It’s a cool Lego project – and one that NONE of you have the imagination or the patience to build! Kudos!
January 17th, 2007 17:21
http://www.afterlife.tv/
for you “religion” boshers
January 17th, 2007 21:06
awesome work! look at all the detail!
being a huge fan of legos, a graphic artist, AND JEWISH, gotta send ‘hats off’ to these artist!
just call it what it is and applaud it for what it shows. creativity and effort. well done!
J
January 22nd, 2007 11:47
The Lego art is amazing. That said, I do have some input for the above discussion(s).
1) To the person who was stating that this was a complete waste of time, or that they should have found something better to do with their time.
1a) It is their hobby. There is nothing wrong woth that. There are a great deal of Lego artists out there. If you can’t appreciate the art because it is a church, you have deeper problems to deal with.
2)Creation vs. Evolution, this is a hotly debated topic probably not best debated here. The scientific defination of obserd is if something has a chance of less than 1×10 to 50th. Example, it is possible for all of the oxygen in a room to spontaneously migrate to one corner of the room. However, it is extremely unlikely. To randomly create one human DNA strand will take 1×10 to the 130 tries. Even if you are on the right planet, the right ditance from a star in a stable burning cycle that is not too large, or small, or close to the galactic core, etc. and you have more than a billion tries per second since the moment the universe came into existance approximately 5 billion years ago,(1×10 to the 18th seconds) you still only have something like 1×10 to the 35 tries completed.
This is to make one human organism. You sill have to come up with plants, animals, microbes, etc. and balance them on a single planet in the middle of an EXTREMELY hostile universe.
I do believe in God. In my opinion, it is utter folly to think this is not by design.
I pray that you do some honest research on this subject yourself. Study Apologetics, Cosmology, Microcellular biology. Look at geochronomiters, hability zones, and amino acid chains.
May Jesus soften your heart to take an honest look at world around you.
Just because I am holding your wallet, doesn’t mean it is mine…
January 24th, 2007 15:39
it’s funny how an amazing lego creation has spawned a debate between atheists and believers. atheists are just as blind and ignorant and stubborn as preachy religious fanatics, often more so. The fact of the matter (the god matter) is, atheism itself is based on belief, you atheists don’t know for fact whether or not a divine architect exists, therefore what you say isn’t necessarily the truth. same goes for the believers. no one on earth knows for a fact whether or not God exists. To say there isn’t a god is just as rediculous as saying there is a god. faith never hurt anyone, its the imposing of one’s beliefs that causes resentment and hatred, something you atheists excercise each day. so please, before you get in a believer’s face, practice what you preach. there are hypocrites on both sides of the spectrum. As for myself, i don’t follow any religion or atheism. i follow my own path to higher understanding, rather than hopelessly following the pack like a herd of sheep. science and faith should be synthesized. religion will never defeat atheism, and vice versa. both sides will always exist. why not co-exist in peace? why not accept the other? is it so hard? it doesnt matter what you say, the other party will maintain his or her thoughts. beliefs cannot be taught, they can only be learned through personal experience. therefore, preaching to the opposite party is really a waste of time. if you all think you’re such intellectuals, then why can’t you see this? please, don’t waste one another’s time. i came to marvel at this creation (which creation you may ask?), not to witness childish debate.
January 30th, 2007 16:28
I do believe that the church is a amazing work of art. On the flip side of things…..how often did your cats go to church? What inspired you to build a church out of legos vs. popcycle sticks. Don’t cats enjoy popcycle sticks more?
I do believe that if I had built a lego masterpiece such as this one I probably would have built the local human society or maybe even the MEOW MIX factory…….. if I were building in the memory of my cats…..wait I don’t like cats so I guess I would never build a masterpiece of this magnatude out of legos ….oh hell who am I kidding it took all I had to write this rediculous posting.
January 30th, 2007 16:46
o.k I am back…. after going through and reading all the feed back I relized something very disturbing…..our country has lost it’s mind!!! Someone builds a very cool lego building and it’s about god? what the heck? Are the people writing this actually believeing that? and if they do, has anyone around them suggested a shrink? It is like all the smoking bans in the U.S………people this once was a free country and now it has turned into a cotton picking( I am not racist) I am right you are all wrong world. So some believe in god….LET THEM!!! so some don’t WHO REALLY CARES!!! Just get over the fact that everyone can not be the same except it and move on! Life is way to short to worry about the jones’ worry about yourself and you might find that actually gives you more graditude then trying to demeanor someone else for what they do or what they believe.
rock on brothers and sisters
January 31st, 2007 09:42
the the person that said keep your anti semetic comments to your self.
look of the word anti semetic and then you can talk
and god damn that awsome
February 2nd, 2007 18:34
Why are people actually arguing about religion because someone made an amazing creation out of Legos?
A plastic church isn’t a testimony for Christ. The creator may have a Christian backround, but I don’t think this will net anything in terms of heavenly treasures. And shame on all of you for taking something you had nothing to do with and trying to incorporate religion into it. Just appreciate it for what it is; Lego creativity. (and to the “christian” who complained that she had to much time on her hands, I want to point out that your way of thinking is one of the main causes for so much hatred towards Christians today. We don’t burn witches anymore, so kindly remove your stick)
Nor is a plastic church an outlet for people to spout their antidisestablishmentarianistic views. If you don’t like church, that’s fine. Until you start bashing every single piece of art that corresponds with something you don’t agree with, I don’t think polluting these posts with “charch iz stoopid” is going to sway anyone to believe and/or care about what you say. There are plenty of websites out there that host intellectual debates about religion (and other world issues). Seek one of those out.
But this truly is an amazing piece of work. I can’t imagine the planning and frustration that went into it. I have always been amazed at the creations that people come up with in regards to Legos, but this is by far the most extensive and awesome one I’ve seen. Keep up the great work!
February 8th, 2007 14:14
I loooooove to play with LEGO! This church is great!
February 10th, 2007 07:03
Hehe, awesome. Must have taken aaaages to do. If you liked this, then check out http://www.thebricktestament.com for the entire Bible in Lego!!!
February 11th, 2007 23:49
I think that you have an amazing tallent, and you have done some beautiful work. Keep it up and KUDOS!!!!!
February 18th, 2007 06:40
jonny19
March 12th, 2007 15:04
Excellent lego art
Unfortunately some people need to find religous meaning in it. Pastafarianism is the one true religion and christians shall feel the flying spaghetti monster’s wrath
March 17th, 2007 20:55
A person will not come to faith by being persuaded by an argument. Arument only causes a person to become irrate, and someone in this state will be more likely to defend their views than to be willing to listen to someone else. They will either defend their position or attack someone else’s; no one can win anything through verbal conflict unless they their objective is to create as many enemies as possibly.
It’s almost funny how there would be alot less posts if this was a mosque or some other religious building. Apparently it’s not politically correct to mock someone’s religious beliefs, unless they’re Christians, who are, of course, fair game.
March 23rd, 2007 05:11
It must have taken some time and patience to build this. I don’t like it too much, personnally, especially the organ, which look like a poster against a wall rather than some impressive collection of pipes. But well, that’s a question of taste. Amazing work, though.
About faith: Religion has been the main cause of war and aggression throughout history. It has caused more deaths and pain than anything else. Every believer is convinced they’re right against all others. The best argument against religion is to simply notice that all religions claims they hold the truth, and most of them are in contradiction to the others. When something is supposed to be universal, it should be easy to demonstrate. 1+1 is 2, whether you are christian, jew, black, white, Indonesian or Bolivian…
Men believe in God like children believe in Santa Claus: because they are told to do so, because it’s a nice, comforting, reassuring idea. Yet, all children come to realize some day that Santa Claus is not real. When will believers grow up?
April 15th, 2007 04:27
I have believed in God since I was a child. Not because someone told me too. I have always sensed His presence. As I grew I dicovered little by little who was with me. The Holy Spirit was making Himself known and guiding me into the knowledge of Jesus. Now I know Him beyond what I could ever have imagined as a child. The scriptures are true and I know not one person can prove the Bible to be false. It stands the test of time.
The reason Christians want to share the gospel message is because of the commission Jesus left for his disciples and all Christians to carry on with. The message of salvation. Because if we don’t let people know, then their blood will be on our hands, when they go to hell. I don’t attend church but I am the church. Jesus calls me His bride, the church,I am only a part of the body of Christ. He didn’t die for us and come back to life for nothing. But if you treat him as such, you will face the conseqences of your choice for eternity. Why take that chance.
April 15th, 2007 04:43
Psalm 14:1; Only fools say in their hearts, “There is no God,” They are corrupt, and their actons are evil; no one does good!
Really good lego work I especially loved your cat,Precious, sleeping in the church. Sorry she died so young.
April 24th, 2007 04:46
this is awesome!!!!
June 2nd, 2007 01:00
I don’t think you need to be a Christian to appreciate the awesomeness that is the Lego Church. I think it is fantastic.
June 21st, 2007 06:54
can sum1 make a lego thing of that family that pickets funerals of soldiers and calls every1 fag enablers. i wud do but i only have a pirate ship and 3 horses and some lego grass stuff and that isn’t enuff.
June 25th, 2007 11:27
I really appreciate this Lego piece. But I think too many people are taking this far out of context.
Whether you are Christian, a Jew, a Muslim, a Hindu, a Buddhist, an atheist, an agnostic, or anything else, you can still look at this piece of art-yes, it is art-and appreciate it. It’s a church…so what? What’s amazing about it is it’s so damn big, and it’s so impressive that someone could make something like that. Leave it at that. It’s not an attempt to convert you to Christianity, or to “prove the superiority of Christians”. It’s a Lego model, and a very nicely-made one at that.
July 30th, 2007 20:20
.Don’t worry honey all these people writing negative things about your work are jealous because they probably have no talant to speak of.also what happened to those who bad mouthed God’s creations? I think your creation is beautiful. Keep up the good work and don’t let these idiots discourge you.
August 4th, 2007 07:37
LOL, Very interesting!
August 12th, 2007 13:39
It must have taken some time and patience to build this. I don’t like it too much, personnally, especially the organ, which look like a poster against a wall rather than some impressive collection of pipes. But well, that’s a question of taste. Amazing work, though.
Thanks!
September 2nd, 2007 19:47
I love it
September 28th, 2007 07:17
Great work and creativity. May we all see the glorious light of God in the face of His Son Jesus Christ!
October 2nd, 2007 12:58
its really good as good as my brothers football stadium its bigger aswell i love lego
October 2nd, 2007 13:01
its not as good as my sister says tolmeia WAS WRONG yours is better than mine
October 3rd, 2007 03:07
Great job!!!!
My son and the rest of the family like to build with legos. It’s a good family time activity.
O buy the way just to be technical this is not a church the church is the people who meet in a building similar to this. this is a nice building and thats it.
October 11th, 2007 19:37
HAS OPRAH WOULD SAY, AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!
This morning my 6 yr old saids “Mom, I’m too grown for legos, they’re for babies!” I know better!! I told my son that when he finishes his chores I would go to the computer and show him creations made with lego blocks.
WHEN HE SHOW YOURS, HE RESPONDED,” I LOVE IT!!!
I feel sorry for the people that only see a church and are turned off, or see only white people. While I would have enjoyed a mixture of colored faces, I truly appreciate the Art and the Artist. Thank you!! P.S. our family trees are made up of Blacks,White and Hispanic. We look at the hearts, not colors!!
October 11th, 2007 19:52
Has Oprah would say AMAZING!!
This morning my 6 yr old tells me that he’s too old for legos. “Legos are for babies!!” When he show your creation, He loved it!!
For those of you that only see a church or white faces, you lost out on the beauty of the Art,because of your limitation! Yes, it would have been nice to have seen an array of different colored faces,(I’m Black) this work of Art still sang it’s song through the Artist!! Well Done!!
November 3rd, 2007 21:15
About the LEGOs – spectacular is an understatement.
About the religious debate – It’s genre.
All sports is SPORTS. If you’re a soccer fanatic, you can probably comment intellectually on Soccer. But to say you hate (and comment on) Hockey without understanding it might make you an idiot.
Hockey is sports too!
I’m seriously Christian. Unless you’ve walked miles in my shoes, shut up and practice yours, what ever that might be . . . unless, of course, you’re honestly interested.
I loved the bumper sticker that said, “I can predict the future . . GOD WINS!”
IT’S JUST LEGO ARTWORK
November 3rd, 2007 21:17
to moderate what?
January 4th, 2008 04:59
EXPLANITION TO ATHEISTSM
http://scientistcanotcalculateearth.blogspot.com/
We will look at the theories of evolution in their two main foundations: the universe, and the microorganism. To understand it with reason, thee first subject we are confronted with is God. Let us read a few verses from the Bible. Psalm 14:1 of the Old Testament says, “The fool has said in his heart, there is no God.” This sentence may also be translated as “The fool does not want God in his heart.” The result of saying this can be found in the second sentence of the same verse: “They are corrupt; they do abominable deeds.”Let us also take a passage from the New Testament. Hebrews 11:6 says, “For he who comes forward to God must believe that He is”.
“THREE KINDS OF PEOPLE “
Whether you claim too be a Christian, a non-believer, or a seeker after truth, we will start by examining the subject of God. In this respect the world is divided into three camps. The first is that of the atheists who do not believe in a God. The second consists of the agnostics. They have no sure knowledge about the deity. On the one hand, they dare not say there is no God, but on the other hand, they are not clear if God does exist. We belong to the third category of those who believe in God.
PROSECUTION
Is there a God? I will not try to say yes or no to this question. Rather, I will make this place a law court. I will ask you to be the judge, and I will be the prosecutor. The work of a judge is to make decisions, to approve or disapprove the truth of statements; the work of a prosecutor is to present all the evidence and arguments that he can possibly gather. Before we proceed, we have to be clear about one fact: all prosecutors are not eyewitnesses of crimes. They are not policemen. A policeman may personally witness an event, whereas a prosecutor obtains his information only indirectly. He places all the charges, evidence, and arguments collected before the judge. In the same way, I shall present before you everything that I can possibly find. If you ask whether I have seen God or not, I would say “no.” I am reading or demonstrating what I have gathered. My job is to search for facts and to call for witnesses. You are to arrive at a conclusion yourself.
QUALIFICATIONS
Many people assert that there is no God. As a prosecutor I ask you first to check the qualification of these people. Are they qualified to make such claims? Are those who assert that there is no God, have the evidence of God nonxesistance? They said that they don’t have the facts neither Christians do. In the last they are wrong because Christians we have. Some of Christians we are very soft and believe in God when in the innermost of our being the need of God is wake up. Others Christians we need to understand it, knowledge, rationality, events, then we will believe, God the Father waits for us to understand, that first we need the facts base in those facts the believing comes and after the experience, then when we are ready he runs to us and we just go to him. The Father and we have a relationship that even if the whole atheist world come to us with their endless methods of explain God nonexistence, we don’t take it, because our knowledge of Him is not blind, is base in facts and our own experience. Today we listen to their arguments in the papers while in the table while we are eating. The subject of their arguments may be very noble; they may talk about the state of the nations and the welfare of society, but their opinions cannot be seriously considered. They can’t pass to others what they don’t know. Such debates can’t be taking seriously. This is especially true when it relates to the question of deity.
It is interesting to see that regarding science. We must go to the Greeks. The root of the word science is dated in the 1500 was transliterated from French “knowledge acquired study, or different methods study that lead to a truth event, otherwise will blind others with big, new and complex words”.
I think for old man some of the atheist are, it is normal to question everything as well senile to think they know everything. They think of themselves as modern scientist question everything even if they don’t know the subject. Because they live in the twenty first century they know better than those who live thousands of years ago. And why they are confused using the word religion as if it means the same as believer. According to the lexicon Webster dictionary “religion is a way to trying to reach or seek God” “a believer in God have already found Him and knows Him”. Why atheists don’t know the dictionary? Do they know Greek or at the least Hebrew languages what about Aramaic or Latin. In the bible there are tree different words in Greek to designated the word “life”
1. Bios referring to the biological life our body
2. Psycho referring to the soul logical means study. The word Psychology means the study of the soul, emotions, mind and will.
3. There is another word for life that is Zoe the highest life. Whenever the bible speaks of eternal life speak of Zoe. In a Greek dictionary you will find the distinction. I wonder what an atheist that only knows the bible superficially how will they explain that in the bible there is a word Zoe that was transliterated from Hebrew to Greek as Zoe.
They should not speak about the bible, because their knowledge is superficial, have they read the bible fifty times? Have they read 4000 others books? What about the evolution of species how many times they read it.
For this reason, their whole argument is not worthy of consideration. The question is, “Are you qualified to claim that there is no God? After they attack Christ saying that we can believe in Apollo’s and so on, they called themselves, cultural apollonian rather cultural Christian.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/71366 82.stm
HOW VAST IS THE UNIVERSE?
I then said to the young man, “And here you are! You have not even walked through the whole earth, and yet you consider yourself greater than the whole universe. Let me ask you, do you know how vast the universe is? Take light for example. Light travels at 186,000 miles per second. Try to calculate how far light travels in one minute, or one hour, or a day, or a year. There are some stars whose light takes three thousand years to reach us. Go and work out how far they are from us! And you think you are so great! I would therefore advise all atheists and young men alike to admit the incompetency of man not only morally, but intellectually and academically as well.
“CAN MAN EXTEND BEYOND THE BOUNDS OF TIME AND SPACE?
Another time when I was in Kaifeng, I met another one of those young, stout atheists. I walked up to him and patted him on the shoulder, saying, “I saw God today!” He stared at me in curiosity and demanded a further word. I replied, “You are God! If you know that there is no God, then you have to be God.” He asked for an explanation. I said, “Since you are convinced that there is no God, you must have traveled over the whole earth. If God is not in Shanghai, He may still be in Nanking. You must have been to both places. That is not all. If God is not in Nanking, He may be in Tientsin. You must also have been to Tientsin. But you cannot draw this conclusion simply by being in China; God may be in another country. So you must have been to every country on this earth. If God is not in one place, He may be in another. Therefore, you must have traveled throughout the world. One never knows if God is hiding at the North Pole or the South Pole or in the woods or wilderness somewhere. So you must have combed through all those regions as well. If God is not found on earth, He may be found on the moon. You therefore must have been to the moon. God may also be on other planets or in outer space. This means that you have traveled through space and all the other galaxies as well. If you can say that there is no God, it must mean that you have traveled throughout the whole universe. If this is the case, you must be God yourself.”This is not all. Even though you know that God does not exist in Shanghai today, how about yesterday? Perhaps God will come tomorrow. You say that you know there is no God today, but what about last year? And how do you know that God will not come next year? You say that there is no God this year, but what about a thousand years ago? Very well, you must be an everlasting one who knows everything about the past and future. You have to be a being beyond time and space. You must be in Tientsin and in another country at the same time; you must be omnipresent from the east to the west, from the North Pole to the South Pole. Who else but you can be the very God? If you are not God, you can never be qualified to say that there is no God.
“THE EVIDENCE”
Some will immediately step back and say, “I have never said that I know there is no God. One can never tell whether there is a God or not.” Well, if you cannot give a conclusion, I will ask witnesses whom I consider trustworthy to present arguments to you and prove the existence of God. Again let me say this, you are the judge, and I am the prosecutor. I am presenting only the evidence before you. Decide for yourself if there is a God.
THE UNIVERSE
First, looks at nature, the world that is before our eyes and every phenomenon in it. We all know that scientific knowledge is the rational explanation of natural phenomena. For example, there is an observed drop in the temperature of a patient. The drop in temperature is a phenomenon, and the explanation for it is scientific knowledge. When an apple falls from the tree, it is a phenomenon. Why does an apple not fly into the air? The explanation for this phenomenon constitutes knowledge. A man with knowledge is a man who has the proper explanations.
ONLY TWO EXPLANATIONS
The universe displays countless phenomena of diverse forms, colors, shapes, and nature. We cannot fail to notice these phenomena before our eyes. The explanation for all these phenomena is known as knowledge. All thoughtful persons have only two explanations as far as the origin of the universe is concerned; there is no third explanation. You have to take one or the other of them. What are these two explanations? The first says that the universe came into being through natural evolution and self-interaction; the second attributes its origin to a personified being with intellect and purpose. These are the only two explanations presented by all philosophers of the world. There is not a third one. Where did the universe come from? Did it come into existence by itself or through chance? Or was it designed by the One from whom we derive the concept of God? You have to think and then make a decision about it. Everything that is by chance has certain characteristics. I would suggest you list all of these in a detailed way, the more the better, and then compare all the phenomena of the universe with your list. Alongside of this make another list of the characteristics which, in your opinion, would be prominent if the universe was created by an intelligent Being. Now by a simple comparison of nature with your two lists, it will be easy to draw a reasonable conclusion.
CHANCE EVENTS
What are the characteristics of things that come about by chance? First, we know that they are unorganized. At the most they can be partially integrated. They can never be totally organized. One can achieve a specified goal by chance once, but he can never achieve a specified goal by chance all the time. Anything that comes together by chance can only be integrated partially, never totally. For example, if I throw this chair to the other side of the room, by chance it may come to rest at a perfect angle. If I do the same with a second chair, it may also lie neatly beside the first one. But this will not keep on happening with the third and the fourth and so on. Chance can only provide partial organization. It does not guarantee total integration. Furthermore, all random interactions are aimless, disorganized, and purposeless. They are without order and structure; they are loose, formless, disorderly, and not directed toward any meaningful purpose. Briefly, we can say that the characteristics of chance events are disharmony, irregularity, inconsistency, purposelessness, and insignificance. We will write down these four characteristics on our list.
CONSISTENCY AND ORGANIZATION
Now let us compare the things in the universe with these characteristics. Take, for example, the human being. He is carried in his mother’s womb for nine months and delivered; he grows up and eventually dies. This cycle is repeated for every single individual. Consistency can be observed. It is not a wild game of chance. Again, look at the sun above your head. It does not exist purposelessly. Rather, it has its purpose and significance. Look at the moon, the stars, and the myriads of galaxies through your telescope. Some stars have their own planets. They all follow definite tracks and patterns. They are all organized. Their manner of motion can be calculated and predicted. The calendar in your hand is derived from them. Even next year’s calendar can be printed before this year is past. All these show that the universe is organized, consistent, and purposeful.
MICROORGANISMS
Let us turn to the micro-world. Take a thin slice of wood. Put it under a microscope and observe its grain and structure, all meticulously regular and rhythmic. Even a blade of grass and the petal of a flower are finely fashioned. Nothing is unorganized or confused. Everything is disciplined and functional. All these things witness one fact to you: the universe, with its macro and micro aspects, is purposeful and meaningful. Can you say that all these came into existence by chance? Surely you cannot.
IS IT OCCUPIED?
Once I was preaching the gospel with a co-worker of mine in a village. On the way back we were extremely thirsty. There was neither a teahouse nor stream for us to get water. In fact the whole area was uninhabited. After walking for a while we came across a thatched hut. We went to the door quickly and knocked. For a long time there was no answer. We thought that no one lived there. When we opened the door and went in, we found that the floor was swept clean. In one of the rooms was a bed with nicely folded sheets. There was a teapot on the table, and the tea in it was still warm. I said, “Surely someone must be living here. All the arrangements indicate beyond doubt that this place is occupied by someone. We should not drink this tea. We must get out quickly or else people will think we are thieves.” We walked out and waited for the owner to return. By observing the arrangements of the house, we concluded that someone was living there, without having seen the occupant. In the same way, we know that God is there by the arrangement of everything in the universe, although we cannot see Him. Every single phenomenon of nature is so balanced, organized, meaningful, and functional. You may say that they come by chance, but it is impossible for me to believe that chance is its sole originator. The Bible says, “The fool has said in his heart, there is no God.” Only foolish people can say in their hearts that there is no God.
CHANCE OR DESIGN
The universe has to be created by someone with profound wisdom, vast knowledge, and intricate design. If you cannot accept the concept of random formation of the universe, you have to admit that it was created by such a God. There cannot be a third explanation. The choice is left to you. You have to decide if the universe came by chance or whether it was created by God.
A DEMAND AND ITS OBJECT
One witness may not be enough. I will call in another. This time we will consider man’s heart. Before doing so, we should also observe one fact: wherever there is a desire, there must first be an object for that desire. For example, an orphan who has never seen his father naturally has a desire for a kind of paternal love. I have asked many people who were orphans, and they all have felt this irrepressible yearning. By this we can see that every desire of the heart arises out of an object in the world. As human beings we have a need for social belonging. We need companionship and mutuality. If you put a boy on a deserted island and he grows up alone, he still has the yearning for companions, for beings like himself, even though he has never seen a human being. This yearning or desire is the very proof that somewhere in the world there is something known as “man.” At a certain age, man begins to think about posterity; he starts desiring children and grandchildren. This is not a mere fantasy. This desire stems out of the existence and possibility of offspring. Hence, where there is desire, there is an object for that desire.
THERE IS GOD IN THE HEART
Do we have any desires other than social identity and self-propagation? What other cravings do we have? Deep in everyone there is a craving for God. Whether they are highly civilized races, such as those among the Caucasians, or the ancient civilizations, such as the Chinese civilizations, or the African natives and uncultured aborigines, they all have a common craving –God. As long as they are men, they have a yearning for God, no matter what race or nationality. This is a fact. You cannot argue against it. Everyone is seeking after God. Everywhere man is craving for God. This is very clear. By applying the principle that we just mentioned, we can see that since our heart feels the need for a God, there must necessarily be a God in the universe. Since there is a need for God in the heart, there must be the existence of God in the universe. If no God exists, we would never have such a craving in our heart. We all have an appetite for food. In the same way, we all have an appetite for God. It would be impossible to live if there was only an appetite for food but no food. Likewise, it would be impossible to live if there was a capacity for God but no God.
NEVER THOUGHT ABOUT GOD?
Once an atheist rudely rebuked me in a loud voice: “You said that a man has the psychological need for a God. But there is no such thing, and I do not believe in it.” I said, “Well, do you mean to say that you never think about God? In fact, even while you were talking, you were thinking about Him. This indicates that you do have a capacity for God. There is no one who has never thought about God. He may try not to think much about Him. Since this thought is in you, there must be such an object outside of you.
“THE WORDS AND THE HEART”
A young man once came to me to argue about God. He was vehemently against the existence of God. He gave me one reason after another for saying that there is no God. As he was enumerating the various reasons why God should not exist, I listened to him quietly without saying a word. Then I said, “Although you insist that there is no God and support yourself with so many arguments, you have lost your case already.” He said, “What do you mean?” I went on to explain: “Your mouth can say as much as you want about there not being a God, but your heart is on my side.” He had to agree with me. Although one can give all sorts of reasons in the head, there is a belief in the heart that no argument can defeat. A stubborn person may give a thousand and one reasons, but you can have the boldness to tell him, “You know better in your heart that there is a God. Why bother to look for evidence outside?”Now what would you say? After looking at nature and the universe, after checking with your inner feeling, it is up to you to decide whether or not there is a God. But you should not be irresponsible; your attitude must be sober because everyone has to meet God soon. One day you will all stand before Him. Everything concerning you will be laid bare. On that day you will know God. But now is the time for you to be prepared. We should all be prepared to meet our God
CONSIDER THIS
I shall begin by assuming that the issue of God’s existence is settled. We all believe that there is a God. As those who desire to know the truth, we must go one step further to find out what kind of God He is. God is the greatest Unknown. We must spend some time to find out about this unknown One. The next step now is to know what kind of a God He is.
THE BIBLE
In the past few thousand years’ man has been inquiring about the nature of God. Is He kind or is He righteous? Is He indifferent towards us, or is He extremely interested in human affairs? These types of questions are the direct cause of all human religions. What is religion? Religion is man’s inquiry about God and his explanation of Him. Through these explanations, different men have arrived at different concepts about God. What kind of God is He? This is a big question. It is also a very serious question. We have all given our thought to this subject at one time or another. The question might even have occurred to our little mind when we were five years old. All men, educated or ignorant, have been intrigued by this question. It comes naturally after some contemplation and observation.
But a person trying to speculate about God is like an ant attempting to understand a human being. It is extremely difficult for the little creature to try to realize our life, nature, and mind. In the same way it is impossible for us to try to comprehend God. For this reason, in the past few thousand years, all kinds of people, theologians and philosophers alike, have done much thinking about Him. What has God been doing all this time? Has He been indifferent to us or has He tried to reveal Himself to us? What is God’s attitude? Do you think He would say, “I am God and have nothing to do with human beings. I do not care what you think about me. I shall stay in heaven as God. Let the mortals be ignorant!” Or do you think He has a desire to reveal Himself to man and visit him?
When I was in India, I saw some people lying naked on beds studded with nails. Some walked with bare feet on burning coals. These people devoted a great deal of energy to seeking after God. What has God done to them? Did He hide Himself and take no notice of them at all? Has He not kept Himself as a perpetual mystery? This is a great question. We have to consider it scientifically and objectively in order to find out what God is like.
A few years ago I spoke on a similar subject to some medical students in an auditorium in Cheloo University. I said that man is an organism with a life. God also is a life. Man’s life is higher than that of the lower animals, and God’s life is even higher than that of man. I asked the students, “Since we realize that all living organisms have some common laws and express some common traits, can you name them?” Different ones then started to bring up different points. At the end we summed up the discussion in this way: all living organisms contain two common characteristics. You can call these characteristics their common expressions or their common laws. First, every life wants to preserve itself. It tends to reproduce itself. There is the ability to produce posterity, to continue its own life. Second, every life wants to have fellowship with other lives. It cannot stand being by itself. When a man cannot find fellowship with another human being, he goes to dogs, cats, fish, or birds and makes friends with animals. All living creatures desire fellowship.
Based on these two characteristics of life, namely, the preservation of itself and fellowship with others, laws of human government are instituted. For example, the death penalty reflects a convict’s desire to preserve his own life; punishment comes in the form of taking away and terminating such a life. This is the way to inflict suffering on a life. Imprisonment, as a less serious punishment, cuts him off from having fellowship with others. This reversal of the life principle becomes then a suffering for him. From this we see that punishment is applied according to the principles of life.
With these two chief characteristics in mind, let us turn to the life of God. God is an organism of a higher order than human beings. He is naturally governed by this law of life. We can know God by the characteristics and distinctive features of His life. From this we can deduce whether or not God wants to have fellowship with man.
There are two kinds of religion: religion based on natural concepts and religion based on revelation. Natural religion starts with man as the center. He is the one that is seeking after God and studying about Him. What then is revelation religion? Revelation religion comes directly from God. He is the One who comes to reveal things to us. Man’s thoughts are often useless fancies. God’s revelation alone is trustworthy. Christianity is different from all other natural religions in that it is a religion that comes from revelation. Christianity begins from God. It is God who comes to seek out man, rather than man who seeks after God.
I will not try to persuade you to believe in Christianity or to read the Bible. I will only make a few suppositions. We will treat the subject in the same way as if we were solving a problem in geometry. We will start from the suppositions and then deduce our arguments step by step. We will examine our reasoning’s to see if they are sound and if our conclusions are logical. As in mathematics, with some problems we work forwards, while with others we work backwards. At any rate, in the end we should be able to tell whether or not a supposition is justified.
We have to make a few suppositions. The first one is that God exists. This in fact has been covered by us already. We have agreed that there is a God. He is a Being who has a purpose.
Second, we assume that God has a desire to reveal Himself to man. If God wants to reveal Himself to man and if He wants us to know Him, how does He do it? In what manner can He be made known to us? If He speaks to us through thunder or writes to us through lightning, we will not be able to comprehend His message. How then does God make Himself known to us?
If He is to reveal Himself and if He wants us to know Him, He necessarily must do it through human means. What then are the common ways that men communicate with one another? First, they do it through speaking and second through writing. All means of communication, whether telegraph, telephone, sign, or symbols, are all included in these two categories. If God is to manifest Himself, these are the only two means for Him to do so. For the present we set aside the aspect of speaking; we will see how God communicates with us through writing.
If God reveals Himself through writing, of all the volumes written by different people throughout the centuries, there must be one book which is divinely inspired. This is a very crucial test. If such a book exists, it proves not only the existence of God, but it contains His written revelation to us as well. Is there then such a divinely written book?
In the search for such a book, let us first mention a few basic principles. Suppose I want to order a book from a publisher. If I can tell him the name and author of the book, there will be no trouble getting it. If, however, I forget the name and author of the book, I can describe the characteristics of it to the publisher, such as the contents, size, color, binding, etc. The publisher will then search through all his books and locates the volume I want. God has one book in this universe. How do we find it? We have to know its characteristics first. If there is any book that has been written by God, it must meet certain conditions or have certain qualifications before one can say that it is from God.
Let me put forth a few propositions. If there is a book written by God, it must first of all mention God. It must tell you that it is from God and that its author is God. This is the first qualification. Second, it must carry a moral tone that is higher than what we commonly know. If it is a fabrication, it can at the most be on the same level as man. Third, if there is such a divine book, it must tell us about the past and the future of this world. Only God knows clearly what occurred in the past and what will happen in the future. Only by telling us these matters will we know Him as God. Fourth, this book must be simple and available so that all may be able to secure and understand it. If there were only one such book in the world, then only a very few people would be able to see it. It would not pass the test unless it is a book accessible to everyone. In the United States there is a group of people who claim to have a book from God. It is engraved in gold and contains only twelve pages. Such a book then would not be accessible to the Chinese. God would never write to us a book at which we could not look.
Now the matter is simplified. Let us repeat these four conditions once more. (1) If such a book exists, it must tell us explicitly that its author is God. (2) It must carry a high tone of morality. (3) It must give a detailed description of the past and the future of the universe. (4) It must be available. Let us pick out some of the more important writings throughout human civilization and check them against these qualifications to see if any meets our requirements.
We will start from books that are generally considered to be good. Let us take the Chinese classics of Confucius. They are immediately disqualified under the first requirement, for none of them claims to be written by God. They do have a high tone of morality, but they fail to give the origin and destiny of the world, the universe, and man. This does not mean that they are worthless books; it means that they do not contain the qualifications we want. They are not what we are looking for.
Let us go to the classics of other cultures. There are numerous volumes of famous writings, but none of them passes the first test. They are all clearly written by man. They may be masterpieces in philosophy or morality, but they are not written by God, nor are they divinely inspired. We have to set them aside.
There is a book in India called the Rig-Veda. It once dominated Hinduism. However, it does not claim to be written by God.
Another book called the Avesta, written by a Persian named Zoroaster, is also extremely influential in the Middle East. It does not claim to be from God either. Moreover, its moral tone is not especially commendable.
Let us come to the Koran of Mohammedanism. This is the closest one we can find. It tells us that it comes from God; it meets the first requirement. However, it does not fulfill the second requirement, for its moral tone is too low. The heaven it describes is full of lusts and flesh. God could never write a book with such licentiousness and immorality. Hence, this book does not pass the test of morality.
After searching through all the books, you have to come finally to the Bible. If God desires to communicate with man, and if He does so through writing, then this is the only book that can pass the four tests. Hence, this must be the book God has for man.
What does this book say? In the books of the law in the Old Testament, it says, “Thus said the Lord,” at least five hundred times. Other books in the Old Testament repeat the phrase about seven hundred times. In addition to the references in the New Testament to the speaking of God, the Bible has more than two thousand claims of divine origin. If God has no intention of communicating with man, we can forget about this book. But if He does communicate with man through writing, then this book has to be of immense value. Can you find another book where God is claimed as its author that many times?
We have to see if the Bible meets the second qualification. Let us take a look at its moral tone. Everyone who has studied this book confesses that it carries the highest moral standard. Even the sins of the noblest persons are recorded and condemned without mercy. Once a strong oppose of the Bible was asked by his son, “Why are you so strong against the Bible?” He answered, “If I do not condemn it, it will condemn me.” This book does not let us get by easily. The human concept is that all sexual acts outside marriage are considered as fornication. The Bible, however, says that even an evil thought is fornication. Human morality condemns an act of killing as murder, but the Bible condemns a slight hatred in the heart as murder.
We consider a man who lets his enemy get by without paying vengeance as forgiving. But the Bible charges man to love his enemy. How high is its moral tone and how low we are before its standards! You cannot help but admit that it presents the best ethical code for humanity.
Furthermore, this book describes in detail the past and future of the universe. Once a friend told me that he could believe in everything the Bible says except the parts in Genesis and Revelation where it talks about the origin and destiny of the heavens and earth. I told him that if this is indeed a book from God, it must, of necessity, contain these matters. If the Bible did not contain Genesis and Revelation, it would be the same as any other book, and we would have to look for another book; it would not be the one we want. But the past condition of the world and its future destiny are recorded here. Hence, the third qualification is also met.
What is the circulation of such a book? Last year (1935), more than two hundred million copies were sold. Can you name another book that has such a high circulation rate? This statistic, moreover, is not limited to just last year; every year the number has remained approximately the same. In one sense this book is very popular. In another sense it is like a thorn in your hand; it pierces you. This book gives you a headache. It creates an unspeakable uneasiness within man. It even causes man to oppose it. In spite of this, its annual sales are still over two hundred million.
Furthermore, this book is translated into more than seven hundred twenty languages. In every country and among every race, there is a translation of this unique book. It is extremely easy for anyone to obtain a Bible anywhere in the world. If the Rig-Veda were God’s book, then more than half of the world would perish due to a failure in obtaining it. Even if you put the Rig-Veda in my hand, I would still be unable to understand it. If only the educated ones can contact God, then I am destined to go to hell. If only the Indians have the opportunity, we Chinese, as well as other races, are out of hope. If God speaks through the Rig-Veda, then where can we find that book? Maybe we can only find the original copy in the London Museum. And even that may not contain the original meaning of God’s revelation to man.
This is not all. The Bible contains sixty-six books and it is divided into the Old and New Testaments. It was written by no less than thirty people. The span from the time the first book was written to the time when the last book was finished is more than sixteen hundred years. The places where they were written are also different. Some were written in Babylon, some in Italy, some at one end of Asia Minor, others at the other end of the Mediterranean. Furthermore, the writers themselves differed in their backgrounds. Some were lawyers; some were fishermen. There were princes, and there were shepherds. All these writings by men of different backgrounds, languages, environments, and periods are put together. The amazing thing is that it is still a complete book.
All those who have had some experience of editing know that in order to put together a few articles written by different authors, it is necessary for the authors to be of comparable level of academic achievements and viewpoints. Even when the academic standard and viewpoints are similar, there will still be conflicts and contradictions when you put five or six articles together. But the Bible, though complex in contents, contains history, poetry, laws, prophecies, biographies, and doctrines and was written by so many different ones at different times and under different circumstances, yet when you put them together, they surprisingly run as one continuous volume. There is no conflict or contradiction. They are written in one breath.
If you read this book carefully, you have to admit that God’s hand is behind all the writings. More than thirty people of varied backgrounds and ideas in different times and places wrote these sixty-six books. When you group them up, they link together as if they were written by one individual. Genesis was written about fifteen hundred years before Christ, and Revelation was written ninety-five years after Christ. There is a time span of sixteen hundred years. One talks about the beginning while the other projects the end of the world. Yet whatever begins in Genesis is concluded in Revelation. This amazing feature cannot be explained in human terms. Every word of it has to be written by God through man. God is the motivating One behind the whole composition.
There is another remarkable thing about this book. In itself it is a book that gives life. Yet countless numbers of people have lost their lives for its sake. There was a time when anyone who held this book in his hand would immediately be put to death. The most powerful empire in history was the Roman Empire. There was a time when this empire summoned all its forces to destroy this book. Everyone who possessed it would be inhumanly persecuted and later killed or burned. They wiped out thousands of people and burned countless copies of the Bible. They even set up a monument at a place where they killed Christians. On it was the inscription: “Christianity is buried here.” They thought that when they had burned all the Bibles and removed all the Christians, they would see Christianity lying there beneath their feet. But it was not long after that when the Bible came back again. Even in a country like England, which has already accepted Christianity as its state religion, you can still find tombs of martyrs for Christ if you visit different places there. Here and there you can find places where the Bible was once burned. Or you may come across a tombstone that tells you that such and such a person tried so hard and wrote so many books in his life to oppose the Bible. One place may tell you that the Bible was once burned there, and another place may tell you that Christians were once killed there. One signpost may point you to a statue of martyrdom, and another may point to a site of Bible burning.
Why is it that so many people have tried so hard to oppose this book? Why is it that men would pass by other books, but would either oppose this book with every fiber of their being or would put their whole life to the stake for it? There must be something extraordinary here. Even if you do not believe that this is God’s word, you have to admit that there is something unusual about this book.
This book seems to be very simple and easy. If you consider it from the historical point of view, it tells the origin of the universe, the earth, the plants, human beings, how they established their kingdoms, and how they will eventually end. This is all. There is nothing special about it. Yet it has been handed from generation to generation for centuries. Today it is still with us. Moreover, if you do not confess that it is truth, you have to conclude that it is false. You can disregard many books, but you cannot ignore this book. Nor will it ignore you. It will not let you go. It demands a verdict from you. It will not pass you by.
Another remarkable thing about this book is that almost half of it is prophecy. Among the prophecies, almost half of them are fulfilled. The other half is for the future and await fulfillment. For example, it predicted the fate of the nations of Moab and Ammon and of the cities of Tyre and Sidon. Today when people talk about big cities, they mention London and Shanghai. Then it was Tyre and Sidon. They were two chief cities of the ancient world. The prophecies concerning these two cities were all fulfilled. Once I was in the Middle East. For some reason I did not visit those two places. However, I bought two pictures of those cities. It amazed me when I looked at those pictures. I could not help but believe in the Bible. It was prophesied that if these two metropolitan cities did not repent, they would be destroyed and devastated. Their land would become hills of rocks and pebbles where fishermen would come to dry their nets. In the pictures that I bought, there was nothing but fishing boats and open nets on the shore. This is only one small fact that proves the reliability of biblical prophecy.
If you compare past events with the prophecies in the Bible, you will find that they all correspond one with another. For another example, take the birth of Christ. Isaiah prophesied concerning a virgin with child a few hundred years before Christ actually came. Later, He was born indeed of the Virgin Mary. The prophecy was accurately fulfilled. As the prophecies concerning the past have been fulfilled, so the prophecies concerning the future must also be fulfilled.
If God desires to communicate with man, He must do so through common human channels of communication. He must use the human language or human writings. In other words, there must be a book in the world that is a direct revelation from God. If such a book does exist, it must contain the four criteria we mentioned. Now we can say that such a book is found. This book tells us that God desires to have fellowship with us. He speaks to us through this book. Through it God is no longer an unknown Being. We can now know Him. This book is the Bible. I hope all of you will read it .
THIS IS A SERIOUS MATER, IS HE CRAZY? A LUNATIC? A LIAR ? PLEASE YOU’RE VERIDICT
God desires to reveal Himself to us. He does so through means that are comprehensible to man. These are namely written and spoken language. We have seen how God reveals Himself through writing. Now we want to take a look at His revelation through speaking.
Suppose that you have had correspondence with a person for many years; however, you have never seen him. Naturally, you would want to know him more by having some direct acquaintance with him. Full understanding of someone cannot be achieved merely through writing. Direct contact gives a better chance. It seems as if communication through speech is of a more intimate and thorough nature than writing. When spoken language is added to written language, communication becomes enhanced. If you take away either of the two, you have a gap. Of course, if you take away both, communication is completely voided. Effective communication is always carried out by these two means.
If God’s intention is to reveal Him to us, He must of necessity do so through speaking. But how does God speak? Does He trumpet from the heavens? If so, we would all be frightened to death. We would all run away. No one would dare to listen. There is a chasm between Him and us. He, being so high and great, would drive us away from His holiness. How then does He speak?
THE WINTER ON THE MOUNTAIN
let me relate to you a story. One winter I was staying on the mountain Lu-shan, recovering from an illness. It was immediately after the war, and there was practically no one living on the mountain. In the vicinity of my dwelling, one could hardly see anyone all day long. I am a quiet person by nature. This kind of environment was very appealing to me. Not only was it quiet there, but the weather was cold as well. From morning till dusk, all I saw was a boy who came three times to deliver my meals. At the beginning I was quite at ease. But after a while, even a person like me began to feel lonely.
One day after lunch I went to take a nap. There was a balcony outside my bedroom window. When I woke up I saw some little creatures gathering around the balcony. Bits of my meal had been dropped there, and the birds were busily chirping around them. As they hopped around, they chirped and made many cheerful noises. I said to myself, “All right. Since I cannot find any human beings, I will try to make friends with these little birds.”
I rose up and went out to greet them. But in an instant they all flew away. An idea came to me. I took some of the leftover rice and began to arrange it in rows, with only a few grains in the first row and gradually increased them towards the entrance of the doorway. I hid behind the door and watched them coming. Soon they gathered around again. I said to me, “This is my chance.” I walked out and began to make friends with them. But the minute they saw me, they all scattered. Some perched on the branches of the tree across the balcony and stared at me, as if trying to determine what my intention was. Every time I approached them, they flew away, and every time I walked away, they came back. This went on a number of times.
I wanted to preach to the birds. I wanted to tell them, “Little birds, I have no special intention in doing this. This is winter on the mountain, and food is scarce. I have enough food with me, and I just want to share it with you. Please be at peace and come down. I only ask that as you eat, I can sit among you. I want to listen to your songs and watch you playing. Come. Let us be friends…” But the birds would not come. They did not understand me. I had to give up.
Later I had a certain realization within. I began to preach to myself. I said, “This body of mine is too big. If I could shrink from five feet eleven inches to the size of a bird, and even change myself into a bird, they would not be alarmed by my presence. I could then tell them my heart’s intention, and we could spend the winter on the mountain Lu-Shan together.”
We have a similar problem today. If God remained God, we could never understand Him. If He talked to us in His language, we would be altogether lost. If God wants to reveal Himself through speaking and have fellowship with man, He must shrink Himself to such a degree that He and we are the same. Only then would He be able to speak to us and tell us of Himself and of the mysteries of the universe. Only then would we be able to understand Him.
Has God become a man to reveal Himself through His speaking? Let us again use the method of supposition. What if God revealed Himself through the human language? What if He became a man and fellowshipped with man? The implication is tremendous here! It would mean that in this world, among all the human beings throughout history, one person was not merely a man, but God as well! If it is granted that God became a man, there must be a mortal who was also divine. We need to find out about this One.
This is a thorny task. But we will employ the effective method we have adopted—namely, setting down a few principles. Then we will search according to these qualifications and directions. We want to base our evaluation on what manner of life a person should possess and what qualifications he must have if he is God.
The first condition that this person must fulfill is that he must claim to be God while he is on earth. He cannot be apologetic about it. He must declare boldly that he is God. Only then can we know who he is. Without this declaration, we have no way to guess his identity. Hence, a declaration is our first qualification.
Second, the way this person came into the world must be different from ours. If I said that I am God and yet was born in the same manner as every other mortal, my words would carry no force. If on the other hand, I dropped down from heaven; my assertion would be taken seriously. The way this person comes into being must be extraordinary. He must come in an absolutely different fashion; otherwise, his words will not carry the necessary weight.
Third, this man must bear a moral standard that is far above that of all other human beings. He must have God’s holiness, and his life must bear the mark of God’s righteousness. For example, if I became a bird and lived in exactly the same way as other birds, without showing them anything extraordinary, I could not convince them that I was actually a man. If God is to become a man, His moral behavior must be of the highest quality. This is the only way that we could identify Him as God.
Furthermore, if a person is God, he must necessarily be able to perform things which no mortal can do. If he can achieve what we cannot achieve and know what we do not know, we can say that he is truly God.
Lastly, this person must be able to tell us the divine purpose concerning man. What was God’s purpose in creating the universe and man? How does He take care of human pains and sorrows? What is the origin and ultimate solution of everything in the universe? What should our attitude towards God be? All these he must reveal to us. Unless this one shows us what we do not see, we cannot say that he has shown us any revelation.
We will set down these five conditions and put the whole of humanity to the test. Let us find out if someone meets the five requirements. Such a person would surely be qualified to be God.
The first person to put to the test should be you. Of course, you are not God, because you have never claimed to be God. Nor have I ever claimed to be. So that rules out you and me. Very well, now we will introduce Confucius. If you read his books, you will find that he did conduct a very moral and proper life. But he never claimed to be God either. Hence, he fails in the first step.
What about Sakya Muni, the founder of Buddhism? Not only was there an absence of the claim of divinity, but his philosophy itself is void of deity. He did not believe in the existence of God. Since he had no God, he cannot be God either.
Next, go to Mohammed. He believed in God. But he never claimed to be God. He called God Allah and himself the prophet of Allah. If you go through every person in history, you will discover that no one ever claimed to be God except One. That One was Jesus of Nazareth. He claimed to be the living God. No other person put forward such a claim.
How can Jesus of Nazareth claim to be God? Before going on, we have to pause for a moment to seriously consider the matter. It is not a light thing to claim to be God. A person who makes such a claim falls into one of three categories. He must belong to one of these three categories; he cannot belong to all three. First, if he claims to be God and yet in fact is not, he has to be a madman or a lunatic. Second, if he is neither God nor a lunatic, he has to be a liar, deceiving others by his lie. Third, if he is neither of these, he must be God. You can only choose one of the three possibilities. If you do not believe that he is God, you have to consider him a madman. If you cannot take him for either of the two, you have to take him for a liar. There is no need for us to prove if Jesus of Nazareth is God or not. All we have to do is find out if He is a lunatic or a liar. If He is neither, He must be the Son of God. These are our three choices. There is no fourth.
What did Jesus of Nazareth say about Himself? In John 10:30 He said, “I and the Father are one.” We need some explanation here. In the Bible the invisible God is called the Father. The Son manifests and expresses the Father. What is hidden is the Father, and what is expressed is the Son. The Son is the One who can be seen and touched. Behind, you have the Father. In front, you have the Son. The two are actually one. They are the two sides of the same reality. When we talk about two, we refer to the fact that one is hidden while the other is revealed. When we talk about one, we say that the revealed One is just the hidden One in manifestation. This is the biblical interpretation of the Father and the Son.
Therefore, when Jesus of Nazareth one day said, “I and the Father are one,” it was a statement that no one else could make. This man was saying in reality that He and the invisible God are one entity. He is God and God is He. God is the invisible Father, and He is the manifested Son. The Father and the Son are one! Who can this One be that made such a claim? Is He a madman? Is He out to deceive us?
After Jesus spoke such a word, what reaction do we see? “The Jews again took up stones that they might stone Him. Jesus answered them, I have shown you many good works from the Father; for which of these works are you stoning me? The Jews answered Him, We are not stoning You for a good work, but for blasphemy, and because you, being a man, are making Yourself God” (vv. 31-33). The Jews understood very well that Jesus’ words meant that He claimed to be God. After hearing these words they wanted to stone Him to death. A claim was made by Jesus, and an accusation was charged by the Jews, both of which concerned His divinity. Was Jesus insane? Did He speak pure nonsense just to cause people to kill Him? Or was He a swindler setting up some kind of a scheme? If so, what was He trying to gain? Was He trying to gain death?
Perhaps we will go back a little bit to the earlier parts in the Gospel of John and see what it says there. John 1:18 says, “No one has ever seen God; the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him.” Why has no one seen God? It is because God is invisible. Jesus said that He was the only Begotten of the Father; He expressed the invisible Father. When you see the only Begotten, you see the Father.
Again He spoke concerning Himself, “And no one has ascended into heaven, but He who descended out of heaven, the Son of Man, who is in heaven” (3:13). Have you ever heard anyone say such words? I cannot say, “No one has been to Shanghai, but he who comes from Shanghai to Tientsin, even I, Watchman Nee, who is in Shanghai.” If I say so, I would be gibbering nonsense. But Jesus was speaking a heavenly language. He said that He came out of heaven and is still in heaven. What can a person be if he can be in two places simultaneously? Either he is God or he is a lunatic or he is a liar. If you have not yet believed in Christ, please give a verdict to this issue. Who is this man?
Let us read John 3:31-32: “He who comes from above is above all; he who is from the earth is of the earth and speaks out of the earth. He who comes from heaven is above all. What He has seen and heard, of this He testifies, and no one receives His testimony.” He said that He came out of heaven and was above all. After a while He said the same thing again. Let us see what the purpose behind these words is. He came to preach the things of heaven, but no one received His words. He mentioned words like “heaven,” “above all,” “out of heaven,” etc. What kind of man was He? Confucius never said this. Neither did Sakya Muni or Mohammed. Was Jesus of Nazareth a madman, a liar, or the Son of God?
John 5:17 says, “But Jesus answered them, My Father is working until now, and I also am working.” He always put Himself in the same place as the Father. Verse 18 says, “Because of this therefore the Jews sought all the more to kill Him, because He not only broke the Sabbath but also called God His own Father, making Himself equal with God.” When we read His words now, we may consider them to be ordinary remarks. But the Jews knew what He was saying. They knew that He was making Himself equal with God. The words in fact meant that God is His Father and He came to express God. The invisible One is God, and the visible One is He. Therefore, the Jews sought to kill Him. What should we do about such an unusual person?
John 6:46 says, “Not that anyone has seen the Father, except Him who is from God, He has seen the Father.” Here the word is clearer. He said that no one other than Himself has ever seen God. Only He knew what the Father is like. I can only say with soberness and reverence that Jesus of Nazareth is the Son of God. Read John 8:18. What did He say? “I am one who testifies concerning me, and the Father who sent me testifies concerning me.” The question in verse 19 is most interesting: “They said then to Him, Where is Your Father? Jesus answered, you know neither me nor My Father; if you knew me, and you would know My Father also.” Have you seen what He was saying? They had seen Him, yet did not know Him. Of course they would not know the Father either, whom they had not seen. If men knew Him, they knew God. Who is He then? If knowing Him equals knowing God, is that not the same as saying that He is God and God is He?
Read John 8:23: “And He said to them, You are from below, I am from above; you are of this world, I am not of this world.” The preposition “from” in this verse is ek in Greek. It means “out of.” That is how it should be translated. He said, “You are out of this world, but I am not out of this world.” This man claimed to be from above; He did not come out of this world. Who can He be?
The Jews were confused. They were totally bewildered. Who was this man? The ancestor of the Jews is Abraham. They boasted of being the descendants of Abraham in the same way the Chinese boast of being the offspring of Hwang-it. The name Abraham was highly venerated among the Jews. Now they brought out Abraham. Please read John 8:53: “Are you greater than our father Abraham, who died? The prophets died too. Who are you making yourself?” How did Jesus answer them? Was He greater or smaller than Abraham? In verse 56 Jesus said, “Your father Abraham exulted that he would see my day, and he saw it and rejoiced.” What is this? Even Abraham had to look forward to Jesus! Hence, verse 57: “The Jews then said to Him, You are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham?” Now please pay your attention to Jesus’ answer in verse 58: “Truly, truly, I say to you, Before Abraham came into being, I am.” Tell me who this man is. If I told you that before Hwang-it was, I, Watchman Nee am there, you would immediately write me off as a lunatic. Some of you would say that I am a liar. The words Jesus spoke made Him a madman, a liar, or God. There can be no fourth alternative.
We have to read on. In John 10:37-38 Jesus said, “If I do not do the works of My Father, do not believe Me; but if I do them, even if you do not believe Me, believe the works so that you may come to know and continue to know…” Know what? The clause following is very crucial. It is a big statement: “…that the Father is in me and I am in the Father.” Who then is this man? He said that He was in God and God was in Him.
Passages like the above are numerous in the Bible. I shall mention one more. Read carefully John 14:6-7: “Jesus said to him, I am the way and the reality and the life; no one comes to the Father except through me. If you had known me, you would have known My Father also; and henceforth you know Him and have seen Him.” It says clearly that if you know Jesus of Nazareth, you have known the invisible God. Why is this so? It is because He is God.
One of the disciples was confused. John 14:8 says, “Philip said to Him, Lord, show us the Father and it is sufficient for us.” Philip was asking to be shown the Father who had been mentioned again and again by Jesus. Verse 9 says, “Jesus said to him, have I been so long a time with you, and you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen me has seen the Father; how is it that you say, Show us the Father?” Here Jesus made it very plain that to see Him is to see God. He made no apology about it. He is God. There is no need to see the Father anymore. If you see Him, you see God!
Who is Jesus of Nazareth? What would you say? Is He merely the founder of the Christian religion? Is He merely an example of self-sacrifice and humanitarianism? Is He a social reformer? Is He an advocate for universal love, peace, and freedom? Listen to what He said about Himself. He said that He is God. What is your conclusion? Is He a lunatic or a liar? Is He a hoax, or is He God? This is a vital question.
Can He be a madman? If you read His biographies in the Gospels and observe His life and manner, you will realize that not only was He sane and sound, He was very sober and firm. If there is a perfectly sound person in this world, He has to be the One. His mind was clear, and His mentality was alert. If you study His deeds and words carefully, you have to confess that His thoughts are very logical and consistent, and His manners are most comely and appropriate. To opposing ones He only needed to reply a few sentences, and their arguments against Him were defeated. He did not have a trace of madness in Him. A madman could never have done what He did.
Then is He a liar? A liar always lies for a profit. If there is no profit to be gained, what is the purpose of lying? Why was Jesus crucified? For no other reason than that He claimed to be God. At the last judgment, the hour when His release or crucifixion was to be deliberated, He was examined as to who He was. What was His answer? He said that the Son of Man would be seen sitting on the right hand of the Majesty on high, descending on the clouds in glory (Matt. 26:64). Even then He claimed to be God. As a result, He was crucified on the cross. Is there a liar who would sacrifice his life for his lie?
Once I met a person who wanted to talk with me about our faith. He read some books about Jesus and admitted that Jesus had a high standard of morality. He could consider Jesus as a perfect man, a model for humanity. But he could not believe that Jesus is God. I said, “If you admit that He has a high standard of morality, then He at least is not a liar. If you agree that He is not a liar, then you have to accept His claim of divinity as truth. He repeatedly asserted that He is God. If you admire His morality, you have to recognize His divinity as well. Jesus of Nazareth is God!”
Please read John 1:1: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” Verse 14 says, “And the Word became flesh and tabernacle among us (and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only Begotten from the Father), full of grace and reality.” What is the “Word” mentioned in verses 1 and 14? Verse 1 speaks of the relationship the Word has with God. In reference to when, the Word was there from the beginning. In reference to where, the Word was with God. In reference to what, the Word was God. Today the Word has become flesh; He has taken on a human body and dwelt among men. As to how He dwells, it says that He is “full of grace and reality,” and “we beheld His glory, glory as of the only Begotten from the Father.” Who is this One? He is Jesus of Nazareth.
Here we have only seen one of the five qualifications mentioned earlier. Only Jesus of Nazareth meets this first condition. This proves that He is God. We shall go on to see the four other conditions or qualifications. Jesus of Nazareth must meet all the other four qualifications before we can conclude that He is God.
GOD COME INTO THE WORLD
If God is to be a man, He must come into the world in a way that is very different from all other mortals. We come into the world through our parents and are conceived by our mothers. To ascertain whether Jesus of Nazareth is an ordinary person or the incarnated God, we need to examine His birth. If His birth was no different from ours, we have to conclude that He is nothing but a man. Not only does He have to pass the first qualification, but He needs to pass the second one. Do not hastily believe in a person simply because he claims to be God; we have to test him by our second criterion. If he is indeed God, he must be born in an extraordinary manner.
If we study the birth of Jesus, we will find that it was very different from ours. He was born of a virgin. Both the Gospel of Matthew and the Gospel of Luke in the New Testament tell us this fact. Jesus was born of a virgin, Mary.
Before we go on, we have to realize that there are two ways to know God: by natural speculation or by revelation. According to natural speculation, one meditates and conjectures about God. In revelation, God speaks to man. We want to look at the revelation of God. We want to know what God says.
The Gospels of Matthew and Luke show us that Jesus was born of a virgin, Mary. This important fact enables us to conclude that He is no ordinary person, and it justifies our being a Christian.
The natural mentality cannot readily accept this fact. Some years ago, a big debate was conducted in England. On one side were prominent leaders of modernistic schools of theology. On the other side was a famous Presbyterian pastor-theologian. Four major topics were raised. Twice a day, for four consecutive days, each side took turns delivering a long speech for a total of eight messages. One of the topics was related to our subject—the virgin birth. The modernistic theologians asserted that one reason alone was enough to disprove the virgin birth—the event was biologically impossible. According to the law of biology, it is impossible to have the virgin birth.
On the same day, their opponent gave the rebuttal. Let me briefly mention a few of his
January 8th, 2008 18:35
If you find something better then Jesus Christ and His message
let me know.
God Bless You All.
January 17th, 2008 00:28
Great work!
I’ll chime in though, Atheism is much more than just not believing in a god. It’s dealing with the plight of existence and anxiety by ultimately affirming oneself over and against the other (everything the one is not). Christianity deals with the plight by trusting that their existence is accepted by Being, which Christianity calls faith.
In both cases, the answer to existential anxiety is courage. Atheists find courage in themselves, while Christians find courage in the acceptance of an absolute Other, the Ground of Being.
Ultimately, I don’t see how a person can ultimately trust him or herself, there’s always doubt, inconsistency, dissapointment, which circles back to existential anxiety. Any certainty in ones own essense and power is vanity.
So trust in the Ground of Being, God, the essense of existence, the God above all conceptions of God, seems to be leap required.
regardless of existentialism, everyone still must deal with the historic figure of Jesus Christ and the legacy. A hoax did not spawn the largest religion in the world.
January 23rd, 2008 04:42
I thought we were to see Ms. Amy’s great work… where did all the rest of discussions come from? Too many people in need of a real hobby! Who cares whether it’s a church or a disco… main point is this lady’s great effort to create such an amazing piece… go figure!
January 27th, 2008 06:50
wow i luv this thing!!! so what if ur cristian or not this thing fing rocks
February 11th, 2008 08:05
It is an amazing work of art. If you want to know more about it go to:
http://www.amyhughes.org/lego/church/
It took the artist a year and a half to build and it was not built for her cat, it just happened that she started building it shortly after she adopted her third cat and the cat, Precious I believe was its name, die shortly before she finished it. So the artist wrapped it up and dedicated it in memory of her cat.
One thing we can all agree, Christians, non-Christians and atheist is that a tremendous amount of work and dedication went into building this piece, and it is beautiful.
We, the people who live in the USA, take a lot of pride of living in one of the most tolerant countries in the world. Where people of all races and religions can come and live together, and learn to respect or tolerate one another. Let’s keep it that way, despite of everything that is going on, this is still a beautiful country.
Now, how about turning a magnificent piece of Lego artwork into a political debate? LOL!
April 15th, 2008 04:52
Wow! That is B-E-A-U-T-I-F-U-L! Who CARES if she had nothing better to do? That church ROCKS! I wonder where she keeps that monstrosity? Is it a show piece in her house? It’s gorgeous! Except it’s the opposite in my church… Everyone sits towards the back….
God Bless
January 27th, 2009 00:51
I would like to buy this lego for my grandchildren It’sery nice project for them to play
December 17th, 2009 02:33
I know where there is a real Lego Church, it is built on a river in Manchester and heavily promotes Anarchist Femminization…. it is the deils work and needs to be taken down…. even a little village has developed around it who some do and some don’t know they worship this church.
I CALL THIS MY GOLIATH… this courthouse and prison where they send men to lie with other men.
David