I was watching a video the other day about the origins of karate. Tracing its roots, modern-day karate finds its origins in Japan; however, prior to that, karate’s journey led through Okinawa, with its ultimate beginnings in China. So as karate evolved, with its techniques and reason behind the techniques, it had to go from China to Japan. That would be simple, except that part of the way that it came was through written text, not just demonstration of technique.
There’s an issue with that. Chinese and Japanese are two different languages. It’s not like those two languages are English and German or French or something like that. See, the way that the Chinese and Japanese language is composed is not the same. Like English, French, German, and Japanese, words are created through characters or letters. So for example, to spell out the word ‘book’ in English, we spell ‘b-o-o-k’. Simple, right? Well for those people that have a language composed of letters, yes. Chinese is not one of those languages.
Chinese words are not composed of letters or characters. Chinese characters, known as Hanzi, represent a single syllable or a whole word and carries meaning on its own. The characters are made up of strokes, which are basic brushstrokes used in writing. There is no direct correspondence between Chinese characters and the letters of the English alphabet or the phonetic components of Japanese characters.
In contrast, Japanese uses a combination of three writing systems: Kanji (Chinese characters), Hiragana, and Katakana. Kanji characters are adopted from Chinese and carry meaning, while Hiragana and Katakana are syllabaries used for native Japanese words and foreign words respectively. English, on the other hand, uses an alphabet composed of individual letters, each representing a sound, which can be combined to form words.
So in Chinese, their words are inseparable. You can’t take part of it and apply it to a different word and figure out what it means, like you could in English. For example, in Chinese martial arts, moves are not a ‘head grab and then a punch and then I knee strike’. Instead, the Chinese word would paint a picture like “monkey grabs fruit.”
So how does this relate to Christianity?
Christianity is like the Chinese language. It paints this beautiful picture that is inseparable. You can’t pick and choose what you want to believe just because it goes against your opinion, your preconceived ideas, you don’t like it, or you just don’t believe it. You can choose to not believe it, but that just means you’re wrong. And when that happens – when you pick and choose what part of the Word of God to believe – the same thing happens as it does when trying to go from Chinese to another language.
Things get left out. Things go wrong. It doesn’t translate correctly and whatever it is, it doesn’t work like it should. You can say you’re a Christian, but the life you live does not come close to living how God intended because parts are being left out. For example, if you try to take part of a Chinese character out of its composed Hanzi, you’ll still have some brush strokes of a Chinese character, but ultimately it doesn’t mean anything. It doesn’t do anything. It doesn’t work like it should.
In Christianity, if you try and remove any part of the it, it will not work like it should. There’s been a push in recent years of a false doctrine that says once you’re born again, you no longer have to ask for forgiveness for your sins. 1 John 1:9 was not written to the believer, it says. “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness,” is written to the unbeliever it says. First off, that’s not true. The entire book of 1 John is written to the church. John did not stop halfway through and change audiences.
If you remove that scripture (that belief) from Christianity, it’s no longer Christianity. That is an integral belief of the faith. Without it, the faith means nothing. You can’t separate the various beliefs, picking and choosing what you want to believe, and still say you are a Christian.
It’s actually very simple: The Bible says it. I believe it. That settles it.
If you don’t believe it, your belief is wrong. Take the time and study the Word of God to see what it has to say, what God has to say, for yourself. Not what someone else says. Not what some person behind a screen, a camera, or a pulpit says – but what does God Almighty say in His Word and stay with that.
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