Andrew Miyasato--Living for Jesus at Cal-Berkeley

Had the privilege of baptizing Andrew Miyasato a few years ago. I am so proud to call Andrew a friend. Young people like Andrew encourage me in a big way.

Andrew was valedictorian at Mililani High School in 2010. This week, he will graduate with degrees in computer science and engineering from the University of California at Berkeley. Andrew already has a very good job lined up in Seattle. Although Andrew's future is bright with potential to make lots of money, his focus is on what Jesus wants. Andrew is even willing to give up everything to serve Jesus on foreign soil. 

I ran into Andrew's parents a few weeks ago and they reminded me about Andrew going from not wanting to be in church as a teenager to being a passionate follower of Jesus who is willing to center his life on Jesus and give everything up for Him.  

Andrew Miyasato's life radically changed after he met Jesus. 

In this past Sunday's message, I talked about Andrew standing for Jesus in one of his classes at Cal-Berkeley, "Bible in Western Society." I quoted Andrew from part of a private message he sent me. Here is Andrew's full message:


Hi Pastor James, 

I’m really glad that my story could help in your sermon! I’d love to tell you about my experiences in the Bible in Western Culture class I took last semester to help with your next sermon. 

It was a great class that encouraged me to seek the answers to many questions I had about the Bible and has allowed me to personally reconcile my faith with history and science. Even though it was rough at times, I firmly believe that it was the class that God intended for me to take, especially since I had been fervently praying for God to increase my faith for months.

The class was taught by a Hebrew scholar (who described himself as a “heretic”) and was designed to approach the Bible as a piece of literature as opposed to the holy word of God. Fortunately, he wasn’t as intense as some of the religious studies professors who actually ask if there are Christians in the room and state that it will be his/her goal to change their stance by the end of the class. 

He was primarily an expert in Genesis and thus a lot of our studies were related to it. I remember in one of the first classes we had, Christians would answer his questions with well thought out answers they had heard from their pastors, only to be rebutted by the fact that their references couldn’t be used because those books of the Bible (usually New Testament) hadn’t been written yet. 

Over time, you could feel the balance of the class shifting as students began to question what the Bible is and how do we know it is true. 

Here are some examples of the difficult facts we were presented: There is no trinity explicitly mentioned in the Bible and that it was made in the early church to reconcile the relationship between God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. The book of Daniel one of several pieces of “pseudepigrapha” in the Bible, where books were written by believers hundreds or thousands of years after the events happened, and thus most of the predictions contained in the book were physically written down after they happened. The first four books of the Bible were written by four different authors, none of them Moses. The Bible has many contradictions to science, including claiming pi = 3, the earth being set on pillars, and the sun revolving around the Earth. 

In the midst of so many questions, God was able to speak to me through my pastor at my church here in Berkeley and through a staff in InterVarsity. They helped me to recognize that my belief wasn’t founded on scientific fact and evidence that was 100 percent refutable. My faith is based on trusting in Jesus and the things that I can see him doing in my life and the lives of those around me. I cannot deny the ways that He has revealed things about myself, nor can I find fault with the completeness of the redemption that is found through his love. 


Beliefs based on “fact” erode as new “facts” come to light, but beliefs based on personal experiences do not fade so easily. All the other minor inconsistencies can easily be reconciled through heuristics (like the belief that the Bible was never meant to explain physical phenomena because the people didn’t have the means or purpose to know it anyways) and are thus not an important factor in my walk anymore.


With regard for standing up for Jesus, I do not want to give you the impression that I was able to adamantly defend the Bible against the professor’s claims in class. I did find fault with some of the professor’s claims in areas he wasn’t well versed in (particularly the New Testament since he wasn’t a Greek scholar) and even brought up a few of those inaccuracies in class. But most of his points were hard to dispute without being an expert himself. 


I did, however, stay true to my beliefs in my essays, choosing to use the essay prompts to my advantage by researching people I was most interested in (like Saint Augustine and Martin Luther) and painting them in a more favorable light than how they were described in class. The essays were viewed favorably by him and his teaching staff and I did well in the class without compromising my beliefs. If there is anything more I can help you with or if you would like more details on a particular part of my experience, feel free to ask. 
In Christ's love,
Andrew



Comments

  1. I once had someone say to me, "What if you're wrong in what you believe?" My answer to him was, "I still "win". I have lived a life of caring and sharing, loving others. I have had life circumstances that I have never been alone in and I don't feel that I have "missed out" on anything, and I am not afraid of death and where my eternity will be spent." My question to him was the same that he asked me, "What if you're wrong? What will your eternity be?" It made him stop and think, his response, "Hmmm, I never thought about it that way."

    I don't always know the answer to theological debate but I do stand by what I have witnessed God working in my life and in the lives of others. I once heard a Pastor say, "If it isn't a heaven or hell issue is it worth fighting about?"

    Thankful to be loved by GOD who has provided grace and mercy for all of my days no matter what I do, no matter of the doubts that I may or may not have. I am a Christ follower...and am Grateful for His Shepherding!!!!

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