The Bible on Trial!

Graduation~ Yesterday my son, Zach, defended his Ph.D. dissertaion, was passed by his committee, and has now been graduated into his Ph.D. in music composition at UCLA. He is now able to use the title Dr. Zachery Neufeld in his professional life. This is truly a watershed moment in his life, and will inform everything he does from here on in his career in both writing and performing music.  This accomplishment did not come easily, as you might well imagine. He finished his academics a little over 2 years ago, and has been in dissertation mode ever since. The striggle (in his own words) was to decide whether the effort to write his final dissertation was going to be worth the effort and heart ache that would be necessary to to accomplish the task. Many grad students at this level (in all disciplines) simply give up, because life gets in the way, and it is VERY difficult to justify the end result with the inconvenience and expense of doing the nearly impossilbe. Getting a Ph.D (or any doctoral level degree) is purposely made almost impossible to accomplish, in order separate out those that have the commitment and drive to succeed from those that simply 'wish' and 'hope' for success. This is also true for those that 'say' they want eternal life, but don't have the determination and drive to DO what is necessary to achieve it. Most 'Christians' want eternal life, but have come to believe that it is their RIGHT by the free gift of grace provided by Jesus death on the cross, and as long as they believe by faith they will be granted their graduate degree without the hard work of DOING the truth.  "For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it" Matt. 7:14.  "But he who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God." John 3:21.