One of, if not the, greatest challenges against a person’s belief in God is the existence of evil. More than once in my life I have heard the following argument:
1. If God is all good, then he would get rid of evil.
2. If God is all powerful, then he could get rid of evil.
3. Evil does exist.
4. Therefore, God must not exist.
Initially it looks like a strong argument against the existence of God. However, it is actually an argument for the existence of God.
In order for someone to call something “evil” they must assume that there is a standard of “good” by which one can compare. God is the only fixed and unchanging standard by which evil is identified.
Anytime someone says there is a way things should not be, they are implying there is a way that things should be.
The question is: where does this sense of moral obligation come from? Why ought or should anyone do anything? You can say that there is a plan that is unchanging. This can only be explained through the existence of God.
Another problem with the existence of evil is trying to identify good in it. If you have evil apart from God’s existence then it would be pure evil and nothing can be gained from it.
Think about the good things that have come from pain and suffering. At the time of our suffering we only see the pain and evil but in hindsight we can see the good that came from it.
Through evil, pain and suffering we acquire an absolute appreciation for life and the good things that are given to us. We also see a person’s character develop through an experience of pain and suffering. Finally, pain and suffering will often lead people into a closer relationship with God.
These are only three examples but none of them are possible without the existence of God.
Thursday, October 19, 2006
Thursday, October 12, 2006
Deciding Your Worldview
The best description that I’ve heard of a world view is that it is like a pair of glasses. If you have red lenses then you will see everything red. If you are using orange lenses then you will see everything orange, etc…
It is the same way with our beliefs. If someone is an atheist, they will view life through “atheist glasses”; if they are Buddhist, then they will see life through “Buddhist glasses”; and if someone is a Christian, then they will see life through “Christian glasses.”
Once you understand a person’s worldview it helps you understand their perspective and stance on life and religion. This is important when engaging in a conversation especially when it comes to discussing different views on religion.
There are three major worldviews that are prevalent today. Monism, Naturalism, and Theism are the most influential worldviews. Most of today’s religions funnel from one of these three perspectives. However, for a worldview to have any value it must answer four fundamental questions:
1. Where did the world and man come from?
2. Where do morals come from?
3. Is there any absolute meaning in life?
4. Where does man go after he dies?
If a worldview can’t adequately answer these four questions, it is really not worth believing in because it cannot help guide me through life. So, let’s look at these three worldviews in light of these four questions.
Monism is the belief that everything is ultimately “one.” There are absolutely no distinctions that can be made in life. Distinctions are actually just illusions that we must learn to overcome.
Where did the world and man come from? Monistic religions (Buddhism and Hinduism) generally believe that the world and the universe are eternal (has always been and will always be there.) They reject the consensus of modern science and do not mind believing in contradictory statements since logic is primarily a Western ‘invention.’
Monism provides no answer to question one.
Where do morals come from? Karma is the moral law that drives the universe forward within Monism. Within this moral system, you have both good karma and bad karma. However the big problem here is that if there are no distinctions in Monism, how can there be both good karma and bad karma? For that reason Monism fails to answer the question of morality.
Is there any absolute meaning in life? Again Monism has the same problem when it comes to finding meaning in life. If everything is ultimately one, then that means there are no true distinctions between things. If this were true, then there would be absolutely no meaning in life for individuals since individuals are a contradiction to oneness. Again no answer found.
Where does man go after he dies? The soul at death becomes part of the cosmos. The cosmos is one, eternal, and impersonal existence and your soul will become a part of the whole.
Here we find a possible answer but it doesn’t satisfy because of the unreliability of the first three answers. If your beliefs can’t provide a valid answer to questions 1-3 then it makes the answer to number 4 unreliable.
Naturalism is the belief that all that exists is the natural world. The only way we can ever know anything is through our five senses. There is no God, there are no souls, and heaven/hell does not exist.
Where did the world and man come from? Naturalists have to believe one of two things about the origin of the universe: 1) it has always been here (eternal) 2) it popped into existence out of literally nothing.
The problem here is that the consensus of science tells us that the universe is not eternal and that it did not pop into existence from nothing. No answer is found in either of these two options.
Where do morals come from? According to the naturalist morality is the product of evolutionary development. Since the world is purely the product of physical and biological evolution, then morals must have evolved as well.
According to the theory of natural selection only those characteristics that perpetuate a species survive. Therein lays the problem for naturalism and the evolutionary ethic because it cannot explain why we should be good. Just because something may have originated one way does not mean there is any obligation that we should have to do it.
Another point here is that evolution cannot explain such acts as the sacrificing of one’s own life for the lives of others. Evolution tells us to do whatever it takes to preserve our own life not sacrifice it for others. There is no answer for morality found here.
Is there any absolute meaning in life and where does man go after he dies? Meaning and destiny do not exist within naturalism because the physical body is all that truly exists. Once the body dies, the brain and consciousness die with it; therefore there is no ultimate purpose or end for living.
Theism believes that although the world exists and our senses can detect the world, there exists another dimension where God exists.
Where did the world and man come from? There is a definite beginning to the universe and God was the cause of it. Since the universe must have a cause and since it could not cause itself the only reasonable explanation is that something caused it. That is where Theist point to an all powerful God as the cause giving us an answer to the first question.
Where do morals come from? Because God exists and His character is unchanging, He has established certain morals that are absolute and unchanging.
If God did not exist the only reason stealing would be wrong is because society tells us so. But so what? Why is anyone obligated to listen to their societal laws?
God is the source of morality.
Is there any absolute meaning in life? Since man is made in the image of God everything he does matters to Him. Every act and every thought reflects our relationship to God and therefore every single act has meaning.
Where does man go after he dies? Heaven is described as a place where there is no sin, sickness, or death. Heaven is a reward for all of God’s children who have put their faith in Him and accepted Jesus Christ as their savior.
There is also an eternal destination for those who have rejected God and His love. It is described as a place of utter darkness and eternal torment where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Not only does Theism answer the question of eternity but it is the only world view that adequately answers all four questions that guide a person through life. That makes Theism the only logical choice for a worldview.
Written with the aid of Walter Nusbaum’s “A Defense of the Faith.”
It is the same way with our beliefs. If someone is an atheist, they will view life through “atheist glasses”; if they are Buddhist, then they will see life through “Buddhist glasses”; and if someone is a Christian, then they will see life through “Christian glasses.”
Once you understand a person’s worldview it helps you understand their perspective and stance on life and religion. This is important when engaging in a conversation especially when it comes to discussing different views on religion.
There are three major worldviews that are prevalent today. Monism, Naturalism, and Theism are the most influential worldviews. Most of today’s religions funnel from one of these three perspectives. However, for a worldview to have any value it must answer four fundamental questions:
1. Where did the world and man come from?
2. Where do morals come from?
3. Is there any absolute meaning in life?
4. Where does man go after he dies?
If a worldview can’t adequately answer these four questions, it is really not worth believing in because it cannot help guide me through life. So, let’s look at these three worldviews in light of these four questions.
Monism is the belief that everything is ultimately “one.” There are absolutely no distinctions that can be made in life. Distinctions are actually just illusions that we must learn to overcome.
Where did the world and man come from? Monistic religions (Buddhism and Hinduism) generally believe that the world and the universe are eternal (has always been and will always be there.) They reject the consensus of modern science and do not mind believing in contradictory statements since logic is primarily a Western ‘invention.’
Monism provides no answer to question one.
Where do morals come from? Karma is the moral law that drives the universe forward within Monism. Within this moral system, you have both good karma and bad karma. However the big problem here is that if there are no distinctions in Monism, how can there be both good karma and bad karma? For that reason Monism fails to answer the question of morality.
Is there any absolute meaning in life? Again Monism has the same problem when it comes to finding meaning in life. If everything is ultimately one, then that means there are no true distinctions between things. If this were true, then there would be absolutely no meaning in life for individuals since individuals are a contradiction to oneness. Again no answer found.
Where does man go after he dies? The soul at death becomes part of the cosmos. The cosmos is one, eternal, and impersonal existence and your soul will become a part of the whole.
Here we find a possible answer but it doesn’t satisfy because of the unreliability of the first three answers. If your beliefs can’t provide a valid answer to questions 1-3 then it makes the answer to number 4 unreliable.
Naturalism is the belief that all that exists is the natural world. The only way we can ever know anything is through our five senses. There is no God, there are no souls, and heaven/hell does not exist.
Where did the world and man come from? Naturalists have to believe one of two things about the origin of the universe: 1) it has always been here (eternal) 2) it popped into existence out of literally nothing.
The problem here is that the consensus of science tells us that the universe is not eternal and that it did not pop into existence from nothing. No answer is found in either of these two options.
Where do morals come from? According to the naturalist morality is the product of evolutionary development. Since the world is purely the product of physical and biological evolution, then morals must have evolved as well.
According to the theory of natural selection only those characteristics that perpetuate a species survive. Therein lays the problem for naturalism and the evolutionary ethic because it cannot explain why we should be good. Just because something may have originated one way does not mean there is any obligation that we should have to do it.
Another point here is that evolution cannot explain such acts as the sacrificing of one’s own life for the lives of others. Evolution tells us to do whatever it takes to preserve our own life not sacrifice it for others. There is no answer for morality found here.
Is there any absolute meaning in life and where does man go after he dies? Meaning and destiny do not exist within naturalism because the physical body is all that truly exists. Once the body dies, the brain and consciousness die with it; therefore there is no ultimate purpose or end for living.
Theism believes that although the world exists and our senses can detect the world, there exists another dimension where God exists.
Where did the world and man come from? There is a definite beginning to the universe and God was the cause of it. Since the universe must have a cause and since it could not cause itself the only reasonable explanation is that something caused it. That is where Theist point to an all powerful God as the cause giving us an answer to the first question.
Where do morals come from? Because God exists and His character is unchanging, He has established certain morals that are absolute and unchanging.
If God did not exist the only reason stealing would be wrong is because society tells us so. But so what? Why is anyone obligated to listen to their societal laws?
God is the source of morality.
Is there any absolute meaning in life? Since man is made in the image of God everything he does matters to Him. Every act and every thought reflects our relationship to God and therefore every single act has meaning.
Where does man go after he dies? Heaven is described as a place where there is no sin, sickness, or death. Heaven is a reward for all of God’s children who have put their faith in Him and accepted Jesus Christ as their savior.
There is also an eternal destination for those who have rejected God and His love. It is described as a place of utter darkness and eternal torment where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Not only does Theism answer the question of eternity but it is the only world view that adequately answers all four questions that guide a person through life. That makes Theism the only logical choice for a worldview.
Written with the aid of Walter Nusbaum’s “A Defense of the Faith.”
Thursday, October 05, 2006
Does God Exist?
“In a quiet revolution in thought and argument that hardly anybody could have foreseen only two decades ago, God is making a comeback. Most intriguingly, this is happening not among theologians or ordinary believers, but in the crisp intellectual circles of academic philosophers where the consensus had long banished the Almighty from fruitful discourse.”
-- Time, 1998
Cover of Newsweek: "Science Finds God”
“The achievements of modern science seem to contradict religion and undermine faith. But for a growing number of scientists, the same discoveries offer support for spirituality and hints of the very nature of God…Once, science and religion were viewed as two fundamentally different, even antagonistic ways of pursuing that quest, and science stood accused of smothering faith and killing God. Now, it may strengthen belief.”
-- Newsweek 1988
“For the scientist who has lived by faith in the power of reason, the story ends like a bad dream. He has scaled the mountains of ignorance; he is about to conquer the highest peak; as he pulls himself over the final rock, he is greeted by a band of theologians who have been sitting there for centuries.
-- Dr. Robert Jastrow
Founder and Director of NASA’s Goddard Space Institute
Have you ever wondered why there is something rather than absolutely nothing? Why does the universe even exist? Has it always been there or did it come into existence? These are all questions in which the answers lead you to God or to absolutely nothing.
Until recently many scientists still believed that the universe was eternal, that it had always existed. The reason scientists liked this view was because if the universe has always been here, there would be no need for a God to create it.
However, the view that the universe is eternal has fallen under severe attack. There is a virtual consensus among contemporary astronomers and physicists that the universe did in fact have a beginning.
There are four options that explain the presence of the universe.
1. The universe is eternal.
2. The universe is an illusion
3. The universe came into being by nothing
4. The universe came into being by something.
Of each of these four options only one really seems to be reasonable. The first option contradicts the findings of science. The second one doesn’t make any sense. The third one accepts the fact that the universe came into being but contradicts itself in saying that something can come from nothing. The fourth one has to be the best option. The universe came into being by the power of something, God. This is called the First Cause Argument.
Walter Nusbaum brings up the following analogy. Think anbout everything that surrounds your life. Is there anything that ever happens without any sort of cause? In fact, everything we think of has some prior cause. If this is true, then it makes sense that the universe had a cause too!
A term you might want to familiarize yourself with is the Kalam Argument. It is a three part argument that says that everything that begins to exist has a cause, the universe began to exist, and therefore the universe has a cause.
There is another popular argument that is called the argument from design. It says that anything with order and complexity required a designer because nature does not produce complexity and information.
Again Nusbaum gives us the following thought. You wake up one morning and your wife had poured your alphabet cereal in your bowl. If you saw the words “Good morning, Honey” spelled out, would you think it was just a fluke chance that the cereal letters came out of the box like that or would you think your wife did that?
When you look at the complexity of our world, universe and even your own body are you going to say that it just randomly happened or that it was a designer who created it that way? Christians believe in God for many different reasons but one of the largest is because His creation screams out about his existence.
Tuesday, September 12, 2006
Apologetics
Have you ever been is a situation when you were asked to defend what you believed but couldn’t. We often know what we believe but we don’t know why we believe it. Learning how to explain and defend your beliefs is known as apologetics.
The word apologetics comes from the Greek work ‘apologia’, which means ‘defense.’ Anytime you are defendng your beliefs you are using apologetics.
Anyone who believes anything has an apologetic. All religions, cults and even atheists have apologetics. As Christians we need to make sure we not only know what we believe but are able to make a sound defense of our faith.
In his study book, “A Defense of the Faith” Walter Nusbaum gives us three reasons why Christians should study apologetics:
1. We are commanded.
15But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect. 1 Peter 3:15
The bible is full of examples where people defended their beliefs in God. No one will believe in a God that you can’t explain how He relates to you.
2. Study increases your confidence in evangelism.
Most people don’t share their faith not because they are afraid but because they don’t know how. Paul said that he wasn’t ashamed of the Gospel. The reason why is that he fully understood it and knew how to effectively communicate it to other people.
When we study Apologetics we begin to understand not only more about God but our relationship with Him. It becomes easier to explain and we grow more confident in sharing it with others.
3. Apologetics will draw you closer to God.
There is a direct link between knowledge and love. The more you learn about God and His love for you the more your love and devotion will grow for Him.
Maybe it’s time to discover why you believe what you believe!
The word apologetics comes from the Greek work ‘apologia’, which means ‘defense.’ Anytime you are defendng your beliefs you are using apologetics.
Anyone who believes anything has an apologetic. All religions, cults and even atheists have apologetics. As Christians we need to make sure we not only know what we believe but are able to make a sound defense of our faith.
In his study book, “A Defense of the Faith” Walter Nusbaum gives us three reasons why Christians should study apologetics:
1. We are commanded.
15But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect. 1 Peter 3:15
The bible is full of examples where people defended their beliefs in God. No one will believe in a God that you can’t explain how He relates to you.
2. Study increases your confidence in evangelism.
Most people don’t share their faith not because they are afraid but because they don’t know how. Paul said that he wasn’t ashamed of the Gospel. The reason why is that he fully understood it and knew how to effectively communicate it to other people.
When we study Apologetics we begin to understand not only more about God but our relationship with Him. It becomes easier to explain and we grow more confident in sharing it with others.
3. Apologetics will draw you closer to God.
There is a direct link between knowledge and love. The more you learn about God and His love for you the more your love and devotion will grow for Him.
Maybe it’s time to discover why you believe what you believe!
Tuesday, August 22, 2006
Church Update
I know that it has been a long, long time since my last update and I apologize for that. Things have been extremely busy here at Mayfair but extremely good at the same time.
We are three weeks into our “Developing the Mind of Christ” series and to this point God has blessed us with seven new church members over those three weeks.
Last Sunday we had 103 in our worship attendance which marks our third Sunday in a row with over 100 in worship.
On Friday myself and a handful of our church members will head out to New Orleans for a mission trip. This will be the second mission trip this year for our church (We sent a group to Panama in March).
We have also launched a church website - www.mayfairbaptist.org – check it out and let me know what you think. It’s very interactive with message boards, opinion polls and a blog. If you would like to keep up with what’s going on in New Orleans I’ll be updating the blog each night.
We are three weeks into our “Developing the Mind of Christ” series and to this point God has blessed us with seven new church members over those three weeks.
Last Sunday we had 103 in our worship attendance which marks our third Sunday in a row with over 100 in worship.
On Friday myself and a handful of our church members will head out to New Orleans for a mission trip. This will be the second mission trip this year for our church (We sent a group to Panama in March).
We have also launched a church website - www.mayfairbaptist.org – check it out and let me know what you think. It’s very interactive with message boards, opinion polls and a blog. If you would like to keep up with what’s going on in New Orleans I’ll be updating the blog each night.
Thursday, August 10, 2006
Developing the Mind of Christ
Jimmy Moore was a dying man. There just wasn’t any future for him. Then he got his chance at life again in the form of a heart transplant at Vanderbilt University. Two years later, he completed the grueling Music City (Nashville, TN), Triathlon which consisted of a 1k swim, 40k bike ride (24.8 miles) and 10k (6.2 mile) run.
The man who had a heart transplant 18 months earlier crossed the finish line with tears in his eyes and these words across the front of his T-shirt, “I’VE HAD A CHANGE OF HEART.”
There are many Christians in the world today who need to have a change of heart. People come to know Christ and recognize him as Lord but they never realize what they are supposed to do next. Becoming a Christian means becoming a new person. That involves changing your heart, the things you desire, and mind, the things you think about.
The Bible tells us in Colossians 3:2 that we should, “Set our minds on things above, not on earthly things.” One of life’s biggest frustrations is when we know we are supposed to do something but we don’t know how we are supposed to do it.
According to T.W. Hunt and Claud King’s book “The Mind of Christ” developing the Mind of Christ Occurs in Three Stages
Beginning Stage
In this stage a Christian must learn to put his/her mind on things above. Philippians 4:8 - Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.
You have an amazing machine inside your head we call the brain. You may not have a high IQ, maybe only average or even below average intelligence. But your brain is still something amazing. Did you know that inside the skull of your head is more information stored than in all 17 million volumes in the library of congress? That is pretty amazing for a little machine that only weighs about 3 pounds.
Psychologists tell us that each person has about ten thousand thoughts per day. That means you have at least a one in ten thousand chance of having a good thought every day.
Much of the whole thought process remains a mystery to scientists and psychologists. But one thing is not a mystery about the mind. How you think is going to affect your Christian life. How you think will make a profound difference in how you represent Jesus Christ. A person must decide, choose, or determine the focus of their mind.
Growing Stage
The Christian lives in a constant state of renewal. Romans 12:2 - Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.
Why do you suppose that there are close to 100 million church members in America yet they are not making more of a moral and spiritual impact? Why is that on Sunday morning thousands of churches have more empty pews than full? Why is it that the average Sunday School in America has less than 66 in attendance and that the average worship service has 84? Why is it that only 50% of a church membership can be expected to attend on any given Sunday? It’s because people make a decision about Jesus but never a commitment to Him.
Without a commitment to Christ your relationship will suffer and so will your mind. It’s that commitment to Him that allows us to transform our minds to focus on Godly things rather than selfish things that hinder our relationship to Him.
Qualified Stage
A Christian’s mind must be prepared for action. 1 Peter 1:13
Therefore, prepare your minds for action; be self-controlled; set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed.
It was the late 1920’s when a woman and her new husband moved into the man’s old family home. It was a clapboard house with a hall down the middle. It wasn’t much of a home, but it was all they had. Ten years later, however, the two had managed to save just enough money to tear down the old house and build another next to it which was to be their home for the rest of their lives. To cut back on the expense of the new place the husband, without informing his wife, decided to reuse many of the materials from the old house in the construction. He used old facings and doors, and many other pieces of the finishing lumber. When it was completed, the woman was finally permitted to inspect her "new home." As her husband walked her through it tears streamed down her cheeks. Unfortunately they were not tears of joy, however, but sadness. For as she looked around she saw the same old doors that wouldn’t shut properly; the same crown molding that was split and riddled with nail holes, the same unfinished window trimming. There wasn’t much in fact that was really very "new" about it. So on what should have been one of the better days of her life; she eventually sat down and had herself a good cry. Her husband was confused at her response. "But I’ve built you a new home," he objected. "No, you didn’t," his wife responded. "You just rearranged the old one."
Why do so many people get spiritually frustrated? It’s because their minds are not prepared for action. We allow our minds to focus on a “me first” attitude and it removes God prom the equation. Without a “God first” focus we cannot experience a growing relationship with Him. That means we often feel as if He is not hearing our prayers and we don’t feel a sense of value or purpose.
There you have it. Three easy steps to having a change of heart, all you have to do now is set your mind to it.
Tuesday, August 01, 2006
Ask the Pastor
This week’s question is not only a great question but it’s something that all of us have asked at least once in our lives. Why do we pray if God already has a plan for us and everything will happen according to His will? My husband has been sick for years, and we constantly pray for him to no avail, so my daughter feels there is no point in praying.
We know that God does have a plan for our lives based on what we read in Jeremiah 29:11, but what happens when our plans and God’s plans are not the same?
In Genesis Chapter 18 God is ready to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah because of the wickedness of those two cities. Abraham steps before the Lord in verses 16-33 and ask God if he would change his mind if he finds 50 righteous people in the cities. God does say that he will withhold his judgment for the sake of 50 righteous. Then Abraham begins to bargain with God talking Him down from 50 righteous people to 10.
So we know from this example that we call on God and petition Him with our own desires and He will listen to us. This is reinforced in the New Testament when Jesus told us to ask and it will be given to us (Matthew 7:7).
So why do people get sick and things happen that we don’t like? I have always taught that God answers prayer in one of three ways; yes, no, and grow.
Yes is the answer that we all like to receive from God because it means that He has heard our request and out of His love for us grants that request just the way we asked.
The other two are a little tougher to swallow because it’s not really the answer we were hoping for. We have to remember that God is a just God and His purposes are greater than ours. That is why it requires faith to grow in a relationship with Him. He tells us no because it is not according to His purpose and plan that is designed to ultimately benefit us even though we may not see it at the time of our request and His response.
Sometimes God tells us no because we have put the object of our request ahead of Him in our lives. Remember God is just and he desires our true devotion. Basically we are asking Him to give us something that is more important than He is.
God will also delay His answer sometimes because we need to grow in our faith and relationship with Him. Perhaps we don’t see what circumstances the granting or our request would bring up in our life and He knows there is a spiritual danger ahead and we need to grow a little in order to overcome what comes next.
Send your question to Ask the Pastor
Monday, July 24, 2006
The Reality of Hell
In a national poll conducted several years ago by USA Today “67% of American adults said they believe in a hell. But less than 25% believed that they would go there.
Strangely enough a newer poll conducted by US News and World Report (2000) reveals that more Americans today believe in Hell than they did in the 1950’s or even 10 years ago. But most now think of hell as “an anguished state of existence” rather than a real place.
I assure you that the Devil believes in a real Hell. You may not believe in hell or you may think that it is just a state of mind, but as the old revival preacher said to the skeptic, “You not believing in Hell don’t lower the temperature there one degree.”
We don’t like think about the reality of Hell and we often hear the statement, “I don’t believe that a good god will send anyone to Hell.” This statement is based on error and inconsistency. We never make the statement, “How could a good judge sentence a mass murderer to death for his crimes?” We don’t say that because the judge is not responsible for the man being sentenced to death, his actions are.
In the parable that Jesus tells in verses Luke 16:19-31 we see two men from two very different walks of life and find themselves in two very different eternities.
Before death the rich man lived in complete luxury not wanting anything and Lazarus the beggar lay at the gate to his house wishing that he could just eat the crumbs that fell from the rich man’s table.
Not only is Lazarus described as a beggar but he is also described as a man covered in sores. So much so that the wild dogs of the city would come to him and lick the open sores that covered his body.
Death changed everything for both of these men. The bible tells us that when Lazarus died he was carried by angels to Abraham’s side and when the rich man died he found himself in the torments of hell.
You can argue the existence of God, heaven and hell all you want but one thing that you cannot deny is the fact that we all face death. It’s a morbid and sobering thought but you and I are going to die at some point and at the funeral it will be just your physical shell lying in the casket. The real person, the soul/spirit, has already departed to either a place of torment or a place of comfort, depending on the person’s spiritual condition.
Why is the rich man in hell? Reading this story by itself without an understanding of the rest of the Gospel a person might think that the rich man is in hell for being rich. The real reason for his being in hell was his disregard of the word of God and his rejection of the Lord.
Some people have an image of Hell that is not based on reality. For instance Mark Twain said, “I’ll take heaven for the climate and Hell for the society.” Ted Turner once said “I’m looking forward to dying and going to hell because I know that’s where I’m headed.” People would not be so flippant about Hell if they understood the reality of it. Through the experiences of two men Jesus gives us a glimpse into Hell. It is brief but powerful enough to blow apart many of man’s misconceptions about Hell.
Misconception # 1
Hell is nothingness we will just cease to exist, hearing, seeing and feeling nothing.
Hell is a real place of continuous anguish. This man was not dreaming. His hell was not on earth. He was conscious and aware of his surroundings – he could feel, he could speak, experience thirst – and was in anguish. In verse twenty-four he pleads, “Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.”
In fact, this is not the only place that the Bible uses vivid language to describe Hell. In Matthew 25:30, Jesus describes Hell as a place of “outer darkness where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth.” Hell is also described in the Bible as a place where the worm does not die and the fire is not quenched (Mark 9:48). In the book of Revelation the Final Judgment is described as a “lake of fire.”
Every description of Hell is one of suffering, torment and agony. In this parable we see the word “torment” used four times, and it speaks of definite pain.
Misconception # 2
Not realizing that the choices we make in this life fix our destiny in the next.
There are no second chances after death and eternity is a long time to be wrong. The bible says that ultimately every knee will bow down to Jesus Christ. For some it will be in adoration and worship and for others out of disbelief and astonishment that they were wrong. One of the most fearful horrors of hell is the undying memory of what could have been.
Misconception # 3
After I spend sometime in Hell I will be able to get out.
“And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us. Verse 26”
There is no purgatory, no reincarnation, no chance for relief, no way out, no end to the suffering in hell. In Hell it is too late to pray, it is too late to change your life and it is too late to repent. Hell is a place where hope is dead.
Life on earth is the opportunity to secure your eternity. Once a person passes beyond the boundaries of this world it will be too late to change anything.
Misconception # 4
Hell won’t be so bad, I’ll be there with my buddies.
"He answered, ’Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my father’s house, (28) for I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.’ (29) "Abraham replied, ’They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them.’ (30) ’No, father Abraham,’ he said, ’but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.’ (31) "He said to him, ’If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’ "
We don’t see the rich man reveling in fellowship with his friends, he is very much alone. He is not looking forward to his friends joining him there either. Rather he is desperate to find a way to warn them from coming there.
You can’t believe in God without believing in the devil. You can’t believe in heaven without hell. Why do you think they call it getting saved? You are being saved from the torment of a literal hell. The teachings of Jesus clearly tell us that there is an eternity. You have two choices as to where you are going to spend yours but the important thing to remember is that it is your choice.
Thursday, July 06, 2006
Freedom Celebrated
Atop the hill in Washington, D.C. stands the Capitol Building of the United States of America. The cornerstone was laid in 1793, but the crowning touch, is the statue on top known as the “Freedom Lady” that was placed there in 1863. The Freedom Lady, stands nearly 20 feet tall. A crest of stars frames her face. A shield of Stars and Stripes is in her left hand.
Sculpted in Rome, “the Lady” was brought to America aboard a sailing ship. During the trip across the Atlantic Ocean, a fierce storm developed. The Captain ordered cargo thrown overboard to lighten the load. The sailors wanted to throw the heavy statue overboard, but the captain refused, shouting over the wind, “No! Never! We’ll sink before we throw ‘Freedom’ away.” And so, “Freedom” was saved, and the statue stands above the dome today, because one man stood for “Freedom.”
One word sums up America, freedom. America prides itself on her freedom. Yet many Americans have taken for granted their freedom and have forgotten the religious principles that our country was built upon.
As Christians who worship the God who granted our freedom and the many fighting men and women who have defended it there are three things we should do in celebration of freedom.
Rest in what God has done for you.
You can rest in what God has done for you, because of what Jesus has done to make us free. John writes in Revelation 1:5b, 5and from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth.
God is in control over all worldly leaders, and Jesus has set us free. Why worry? There is a lot of talk about the growing super power of China, or the nuclear threat of North Korea or even the latest developments in Iran, but guess what? God offers rests! He is in control.
People are trying more and more to deny the existence of God but the reality is that we wouldn’t have the United States of America if it were not for a group of people who believed in God. One reason why we confess our sins as we gather in worship is to experience this rest that God offers. Freedom is for resting in what God has done for you.
Respond with a life empowered by the Holy Spirit. Understanding freedom is a bit like understanding kite flying. If the wind is strong, the kite goes higher, and grows smaller and smaller as it tugs against the string. The harder the wind blows, the higher the kite rises. Then let’s say the string breaks! The kite is free, but no longer soars higher. It tumbles, and crashes to the ground or becomes tangled in the trees. What kept the kite airborne was the restraint of the string. When that was lost, the kite was unable to fly. We are never freed until we are restrained by something that pulls us higher and higher. It is not the absence of restraints that makes us free.
There is no freedom in life until one belongs to God. Every other form of it is an illusion. We find the freedom to achieve the greatest desires of our lives only when we live in that relationship. The loving life of freedom is lived out wisely as we follow the Holy Spirit in how we live. Paul offers us a life empowered by the Holy Spirit when he writes in Galatians 5:22-23a,
22But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.
We have been freed for resting in what God has done for us and responding with a life empowered by the Holy Spirit.
Reach out by becoming a contagious Christian.
Leviticus 25:10b , proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants.
God has the same purpose for our lives today to proclaim liberty throughout the world that is ours through Jesus Christ. Paul reminds us we have a common need for the free gift God gives in Jesus Christ.
Romans 3:22-24,
22This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, 23for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.
In a land that is free millions of people are slaves under the burden of their own guilt. Freedom is celebrated because we live in the freest country in the world but everyone, world wide, needs to be able to celebrate their spiritual freedom as well. It’s something that we all need and is available so what are you waiting for?
Friday, June 30, 2006
Ask the Pastor
Why does it seem that in today's world, people have so much trouble telling their loved ones they love them? Or to take the time and tell a friend you care about them. Fear of rejection? Too busy? Life get in the way?
Thanks!
That’s a great question! All of us have someone that we wish we would have told them how much they mean to us or how valuable their friendship was to us. I don’t know the reason we don’t say the words but I know the sorrow that can be felt when they are left unsaid. I can tell you this; you can never say it too much.
The bible tells us in Hebrews 3:13 to, “Encourage one another daily, as long as it is called today.”
There are a ton of reasons why we don’t tell people how we feel about them but none of those excuses hold water once that person is gone from our lives. To me one of the worst feelings we could experience is wondering if a person knew how much they meant to you.
Imagine how Peter felt after he denied Christ three times in the courtyard only to see Jesus crucified the next day. The Gospel of John, chapter 21, tells the story of when Jesus appeared to the disciples, after his resurrection, while they were fishing.
Peter is the first to recognize Jesus and he jumped into the Sea of Tiberias so he could be the first to greet the Risen Lord. Later on that same morning Peter and Jesus had that conversation in which Jesus asked Peter three times if he truly loved him. He gave Peter the perfect opportunity at redemption. There is no doubt that after that morning Jesus knew exactly what Peter’s feelings were towards him.
Life is opportunity! Opportunity to live and love is what we like to say. We have an abundance of time to tell those we are close to how much they mean to us. We should all make sure that we don’t live in a way that disregards the one’s we love. Because you don’t want to carry the burden of wasted opportunity.
Send your question to Ask the Pastor
Monday, June 26, 2006
A Step of Faith
There was a Pastor, who after the usual Sunday Evening Hymns, stood up, walked over to the pulpit and, before he gave his sermon for the evening, briefly introduced a guest minister who was in service that evening. In the introduction, the Pastor told the congregation that the guest minister was one of his dearest childhood friends and that he wanted him to have a few moments to greet the church and share whatever he felt would be appropriate for the service. With that, an elderly man stepped up to the pulpit and began to speak.
"A father, His son, and a friend of his were sailing off of the Pacific Coast," He began, "When a fast approaching storm blocked any attempt to get back to shore. The waves were so high, that even though the father was an experienced sailor, he could not keep the boat upright and the three were swept into the ocean as the boat capsized.
The old man hesitated for a moment, making eye contact with two teenagers who were, for the first time since the service began, looking somewhat interested in his story. The aged minister continued with his story, "Grabbing a rescue line, the father had to make the most excruciating decision of his life: to which boy he would throw the other end of the lifeline. He only had seconds to make the decision. The father knew that his son was a Christian and he also knew that his son’s friend was not. The agony of his decision could not be matched by the torrent of waves. "As the father yelled out, ‘I love you son!’ He threw out the lifeline to his son’s friend.
By the time the father had pulled the friend back to the capsized boat, his son had disappeared beneath the raging swells into the black of the night. His body was never recovered." By this time, the two teenagers were sitting up straight in the pew, anxiously waiting for the next words to come out of the old minister’s mouth. "The father," he continued knew his son would step into eternity with Jesus and could not bear the thought of his son’s friend stepping into eternity without Jesus.
Therefore, he sacrificed his son to save his son’s friend… With that the old man turned and sat back down in his chair as silence filled the room. The Pastor again walked slowly to the pulpit and delivered a brief sermon… Within minutes after the service ended, the two teenagers were at the old man’s side.
"That was a nice story," Politely stated the boys, "But I don’t think it was realistic for a father to give up his son’s life in hopes that the other boy would become a Christian." "Well, you’ve got a point there," the old man replied glancing down at the worn Bible. A big smile broadened his narrow face, he once again looked up at the boys and said, "It sure isn’t realistic, is it? But I’m standing today to tell you that the story gives me a glimpse of what it must have been like for God to give up His only son for me. You see… I was the father and your Pastor was my son’s friend."...
I have to be honest I don’t think I am willing to sacrifice any of my children for the hope that someone would come to faith in Jesus Christ. I do share my faith and I defend it without backing down but I just don’t think I could have thrown that safety line to anyone other than my child. That’s just the selfish love of a father but you know God has a selfish love for us as well. He desires to know you and spend eternity with you.
I am amazed at how many people don’t know how to share their faith with other people. I believe that there are people out there who would if they only knew a simple way to do it.
Leave it to those creative evangelism gurus to create such a method. It’s a simple acronym for the word FAITH.
F is for forgiveness.
We cannot have eternal life and heaven without God’s forgiveness. It just can’t happen! Because of the sin that you and I have in our lives we aren’t able to make it. The good news is that God recognized that and offered us redemption.
Ephesians 1:7a7In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace
A is for available.
Forgiveness is available. What’s available? Forgiveness is! It’s available for all (John 3:16) but it’s not automatic. To me the most tragic, and scary, passage of scripture is Matthew 7:21.
21"Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.
There are going to be a lot of people who thought they could get by with just “playing religion” and find out that is not what God was looking for. A Christian isn’t something that you say or do it’s someone you become.
A relationship is what God desires and will settle for nothing less. Forgiveness is available for anyone who wants it, but you do have to accept it. Just knowing about it won’t work.
I is for impossible.
It is impossible for God to allow sin into heaven. That is why we need forgiveness and why God made it available. God is a loving God but he is also a just God. His judgment is against sin and the bible tells us that we all are guilty of sin (Romans 3:23).
How can a sinful person enter heaven when God allows no sin?
T is for turn.
Turn means repent. If we were driving down the road and you brought to my attention that I had missed the exit we would have to turn around. That is what happens to us spiritually. We turn from something—sin and self. (Luke 13:3b).
Then we turn to Someone by trusting Christ only. Romans 10:9.
9That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
So, what does a person get if they do that?
H is for heaven.
Heaven is eternal life. God wants you to experience it both here (John 10:10) and Hereafter (John 14:3).
How? How do I become a Christian? It’s a lot easier than you think. Just say a simple prayer like this.
“Lord, I know that I am a sinner and I have done things in my life that are not according to your plan for me. I am genuinely sorry for my sin and I ask you to forgive me and remove it from my life. I recognize Jesus Christ as your son and invite him into my life to be my Lord and Savior. I commit from this day forward to confess Jesus has my Savior and live my life according to his plan for me. Thank you Lord for my salvation and continue to teach me what it means to live as a Christian.”
The next step for you is to find a church in your area that teaches the bible and go get discipled.
Monday, June 19, 2006
Ask the Pastor
I am starting a new feature on Abundant Living called Ask the Pastor. It is based on the hunch that there are tons of people out there with tons of questions about life and religion that they would like to ask. Thanks to all of you who have submitted questions. This first one comes from somewhere in the Southwest.
1. The guy has been informed by his wife they are divorcing; she moves out, they separate.
2. The guy then meets someone new.
3. The two hit it off really well and start moving forward with their new relationship.
4. Neither of the spouses has pushed the divorce through.
5. Ages later, the wife finds out about the new girl and decides she no longer wants the divorce.
6. The guy hates being the “bad guy” so doesn’t push the divorce.
7. At the same time the guy is adamant about not loosing the new girl.
8. The new girl is left wondering “what the heck is going on?”
In accordance with “thou shalt not commit adultery” does the new person severe ties and move on? What are the ramifications if one stays in the new relationship?
Here’s the deal. A quick definition of adultery would be any type of sexual relationship outside of the confines of a marriage relationship or any type of romantic relationship with a person other than your spouse after you have been married.
Divorce does not carry a spiritual death penalty. Jesus talks about divorce in Matthew chapter 19 and even gives a biblical reason for it. That reason? Adultery, Matthew 19:9.
Adultery in any form is sin and divorce is the result a husband or wife or both allowing sin in their lives. God intended for all marriages to be permanent and divorce for any reason other than adultery is sin but we are all guilty of some kind of sin, Romans 3:23.
If this man’s wife left him then he should have tried everything in his power to make the marriage work. If there was no hope of reconciliation then the marriage should have ended officially before either of them pursued a new relationship. As long as he is still married his wife is his priority, for better or worse. Any other relationship would be adultery.
Send your question for Ask the Pastor to dolphinfan73132@yahoo.com
The Legacy of Dad
Did you know that Mother’s Day is the day of the year that the most phone calls are made as opposed to Father’s Day when the most collect phone calls are made. If you forget Father’s Day it really isn’t a big deal but if you forget Mother’s Day then you have better have an excuse along the lines of, “I’m really sorry mom but I was in the hospital on my death bed.”
Mothers and their day are held in higher regard than fathers and in my opinion rightfully so but fathers are important to the complete family unit as well. Every dad leaves behind a legacy on their family, good or bad.
American television and culture has dumbed down the father in our society. He comes across on sitcoms, movies and commercials as the person in the family who is out of touch with reality and incapable of doing anything productive in the family other than earn a paycheck and some struggle even with that.
Statistics are now proving that the removal of the value of the father in the home is contributing to the declining immorality of our nation. The reason why is that fathers are being pushed out the door and children are growing up without understanding the value and the role of a father in the home. In fact 39.6 % of the children in America are going to bed every night without their biological father in the home.
Fathers need to be reinstated to the level of importance that God intended for them! God set up the family unit with a father and a mother each doing their responsibilities in raising their kids in a way that provides the children with the most opportunity to be successful in life.
Colossians 3:18-20
18Wives, submit to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord.
19Husbands, love your wives and do not be harsh with them.
20Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord.
A father must be the head of his family. A wife submitting to her husband is not an act of self-degradation but of obedience to the will of God.
In Ephesians chapter five when Paul tells husbands to love their wives the same way that Christ loved the church and gave himself for her (5:25) we get the biblical picture of marriage.
If a husband loves his wife more than himself and made her the priority of his life then there would be no issue of submission.
This passage in Colossians goes on to fulfill the responsibilities in the family by urging children to obey their parents because it pleases the Lord.
Notice that all three of these hinge on the father. Without the father properly fulfilling his responsibilities in the home the family breaks down.
When a man becomes a father, he isn’t given some sort of rulebook on how to conduct himself. Don’t you wish you had known what you know now about your children when they were born? Fathers do their best to learn “fatherhood” on the job. They learn to express love in various ways but the key word here is learn.
They learn from the examples of own father. Every boy grows up and remembers things their father did and said to them when it comes to their own children. They will apply those things in their relationships with their children good or bad. That is a father’s legacy!
A father has an awesome responsibility to his family and it’s not an easy task. That’s why Father’s Day should be a day of encouragement and appreciation to dads everywhere. A legacy is something that is passed on from generation to generation and is often difficult to get away from. That is why it’s so important that dads take their responsibilities seriously and daily work to become men of integrity and faith.
Think about this for a second dad. If you want your daughter to have a high sense of morality then you had better not be immoral because she will learn her morals from you. If you don’t want your son to be dishonest then you had better be a man of integrity because his perception of truth comes from you.
As you celebrated Father’s Day on Sunday what kind of legacy were you celebrating?
Thursday, June 15, 2006
What Wives Wish Their Husbands Knew About Women
If you have been keeping up with the last few post then you know that we have already established that men and women are very different.
Understanding your wife’s differences is one of the keys to a happy and successful marriage. Your differences should be celebrated because that is what brings you together in marriage. You wife wants you to know that she is different and that she is not just, “one of the guys.”
There are some other key things that we as men need to know about women and their differences? I’ve got 3 things I want to briefly touch on.
Men, here is what your wife wishes you knew.
1) Women have a deep need for effective communication. They need to feel listened to.
John Gray says that “As a marriage counselor, the number one complaint he hears from women who come to see him is “My husband does not listen to me.”
Women primarily communicate to build relationships. They talk about feelings and emotions openly and find that talking about problems helps them feel better and helps them work things through. When they share problems, they want a sympathetic ear. They don’t want a solution.
A common mistake that men make is to try to provide a solution to our wife’s problems when she is sharing because for men, communication is very different. For Men, communication is a tool for solving problems. If you have a problem, you solve it yourself if you can, and if you can’t you talk about it to get a solution. If we do talk about other things, it is usually about things and activities. We usually hate talking about feelings and so our relationships are not based on talk, but activities.
Women need to feel as though they have been listened to. That also means giving them our full attention. Listen to what the bible says in the book of James.
James 1:19 “Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak.”
If we could take this verse and apply it to all of our relationships then we would experience the joy of blessed relationships. When it comes to our wives one of the most precious gifts we can give them is to listen to them because through this, we show them worth and value.
2) Women need to feel special, valued and LOVED.
One of the key differences between men and women is that men get their self esteem from achievements - getting a promotion, finishing a project, driving a nice car.
Women get their self esteem through relationships. Women feel good about themselves if others feel good about them.
Paul taught the early church that husbands are to “love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her” Eph 5:25.
Husbands it is your responsibility to make sure that your wife never feels the absence of love. You married her for a reason. You fell in love with her because she was special to you. You purposed to her because there was no other woman in the world that you would rather be with. Do you still feel that way? Do you let her know that?
3) Women need to be seen as equal partners not as slaves
The last key thing that we as men need to know about women is that they are equal partners, not our slaves. For most of human history, women have been oppressed and restricted. Until recently, a woman could be executed in Afghanistan for no more than learning how to read. Unfortunately, the Christian Church has also been guilty of treating women unfairly. In many ways the Christian community simply reflected the prevailing attitude of the entire ancient world.
All of Greco-Roman society looked at women as inferior to men. The philosopher Socrates argued that being born a woman was a punishment because a woman is halfway between a man and an animal. Women weren’t allowed to vote in ancient Greece, they had little choice over who they married, and in Roman society they aren’t allowed to be seen outside the home. Women in Jewish society didn’t fare much better. The Jewish rabbis prayed, "Thank you God for not making a woman." Jewish women were forbidden from learning the Jewish Bible. In fact, one rabbi said, "It would be better to see the...scriptures burnt than to hear its words upon the lips of women".
The attitude that women are inferior to men is a deception of Satan and it prevailed until Jesus Christ came to our world. Jesus both taught and demonstrated an entirely new attitude toward women. Jesus and the apostles taught that men and women were equal but different. Gal 3:28 says that, "There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise."
In God’s eyes, there is no distinction in value between a man and women. It has been said that Eve was made from one of Adam’s ribs - from His side, not from his head to surpass him or his feet to be trampled upon, but from his side. She was taken from the side of man to be his equal, to go beside him, to walk with him, to help him. No where does the Bible uphold that males are in any way superior to females.
God created women to complement men. You see, guys, when we were created, we were good, but we were not complete. We needed a helper, so God created women. –
Gen 2:18 - “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him”
In our English Language, the term “helper” often is used of a junior employee or one who is less experienced or capable. But the Hebrew word used here is of a person who works beside, complements, supports and aids. They are not inferior, they are equal. The fact that man needed a helper actually says more about the fact that man is incomplete than it does about women being a helper.
Friday, June 09, 2006
Teaching Your Children to Honor
In Exodus chapter 20 God gives the Israelites the 10 Commandments. Each one of the commandments was to be honored as holy and from the Living God. These are more than just words in a book or decorations in a court of law. The 10 Commandments are guidelines for a successful, happy and satisfied life.
I want to focus today on the 5th command because it is the first of the ten that comes with a promise.
"Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the LORD your God is giving you.” Exodus 20:12
To honor your mother and father is the command. A long life in the land that God has provided is the promise. That is how important this command is to God. That He would actually be willing to attach a promise to it allowing us to enjoy an even better life if we keep it.
You may look at this and say to yourself that the burden of responsibility for this command is on the children and not the parents but I would encourage you to open your mind and look a little deeper at the Word of God.
Children are taught honor and respect by their parents. You cannot expect your child to honor the position that you have over them as a parent if you first don’t model to them what it is like to honor authority.
Your children’s lives are at stake here by what you teach them. This command is reinforced in the New Testament book of Ephesians but notice the verse that follows the command.
1Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. 2"Honor your father and mother"—which is the first commandment with a promise— 3"that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth." 4Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord. Ephesians 6:1-3
It is your responsibility as parents to “bring up” your children with proper life instruction. You have to instill in them honor and respect by teaching them as fundamentals of lfe.
Why? Let me give you three powerful arguments for why you should obey this commandment.
The First Reason to Obey the 5th Commandment
More than anything else, your adolescent craves your total trust. It doesn’t come natural for your teen to obey you but if you look at Ephesians 6:1-3 again you will see that the command for children to obey their parents and the command for parents to teach their children are linked.
How can your child ever respect and honor you if you never teach them what it means to respect and honor. Many parents punish their children by removing their trust but they fail to teach them how to do what is expected of them.
Author Fritz Ridenour says, "You might as well trust your teenager; you don’t have any other reasonable choice. Distrust simply breeds more distrust, but if you keep trusting your teenager, sooner or later the message will get through."
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The Second Reason to Obey the 5th commandment
The 5th Commandment has a Reciprocal Consequence
This is going to be a hard pill to swallow for some of you. God didn’t say honor your parents if they’re honorable. Nowhere does he say that respect must be earned before you have to give it. God simply calls us to give honor where honor is due and that is too our parents, for better or worse, because they are the ones who gave us life.
This means that, at the very least, you refuse to speak disrespectfully of your parents, no matter what they’ve done.
One of Grimm’s fairy tales tells of an old man who lived with his son, the son’s wife, and the young couple’s four-year-old boy. The old man’s eyes blinked, and his hands shook. When he ate, the silverware rattled against the plate, and he often missed his mouth. Then the food would dribble onto the tablecloth. This upset the young mother, because she didn’t want to have to deal with the extra mess and hassle of taking care of the old man. But he had nowhere else to live. So the young parents decided to move him away from the table, into a corner, where he could sit on a stool and eat from a bowl. And so he did, always looking at the table and wanting to be with his family but having to sit alone in the corner. One day his hands trembled more than usual; he dropped his bowl and, and broke it. “If you are a pig,” they said, “then you must eat out of a trough.” So they made the old man a wooden trough and put his meals in it.
Not long after, the couple came upon their four-year-old son playing with some scraps of wood. His father asked him what he was doing. The little boy looked up, smiled, and said, “I’m making a trough, to feed you and Mamma out of when I get big.” The next day the old man was back at the table eating with the family, from a plate, and no one ever scolded him or mistreated him again.
So you see the enormous implications of honoring your parents. We’re so disconnected from this commandment today that we have to re-learn how to honor our parents.
The Third Reason to Obey the 5th Commandment
Living with honor for others equips you for all of life.
When God first gave this commandment to his people, he told them one of its purposes. “If you want to live a long and good life in the land I’m giving you, honor your parents.” The negative implication is that if they fail to honor their parents, they’ll be expelled from the land.
By learning to respect parental authority, one learns to respect the authority or other superiors, such as teachers, ministers, policemen, and state and federal officials.
Dr. Laura Schlessinger writes writes in her book The 10 Commandments: The Significance of God’s Laws in Everyday Life; “Parents are teachers of faith and morality. What God is to the world, parents are to their children. Unfortunately, some parents become so focused on the element of friendship or their own convenience, comfort, self-fulfillment, happiness, or love life that they forget their job is to help mold moral character so their children will have the strength to do what is right in a world that sometimes encourages them to do otherwise.”
Tuesday, May 30, 2006
Surviving As a Single Parent
The American Family Unit has changed drastically over the years. Where the typical family unit used to be a mother, father and children the majority of families today are single parent with the majority of single parents being mothers.
Surviving as a parent is difficult enough but making it as a single parent can be brutal. Here are a few things that all parents can do to survive parenthood and raise Godly children.
Be Fed
In I Kings 17:9-12 Elijah had fled from the wrath of King Ahab to Zarephath under the Lord’s direction. There he meets a woman who recognizes him as the prophet of God.
He asks her for a drink of water and a cake of bread. Her reply was interesting to say the least.
"As surely as the LORD your God lives," she replied, "I don't have any bread—only a handful of flour in a jar and a little oil in a jug. I am gathering a few sticks to take home and make a meal for myself and my son, that we may eat it—and die."
Her intent was for her and her son to eat to die. Even though she recognized that she was in the presence of a man of God she didn’t recognize what God could do in the life of her and her son.
She made the same mistake that many parents are making today. She tried to rely on her own means for the survival of her son.
There are so many resources and helps for parents out there. The church is leading the way in this by providing ministries for children and their parents that are targeted at enhancing spiritual as well as physical growth.
It is the parent’s responsibility to equip themselves in a way that allows both themselves and their children to succeed in life.
Follow Godly leadership
In verses 13-16 the prophet Elijah instructs this single mother to go ahead and fix the bread for her and her son but to make him a small portion first. By doing that the jar of flour and bowl of oil would never be empty.
This was a simple test of faith. Did she really trust in the guidance and leadership of this man of God? Verse 15 says that there was enough food every day to feed her, her son and Elijah.
There is a reason why the divorce rate among couples that attend church is less than half of that of couples that do not. There is a reason that the graduation rate is higher and pregnancy rate is lower among teenagers who have grown up in church.
There is a right and wrong way to do everything including raising your children. Everyone follows a certain type of leadership but not all of it is Godly. Whose leadership are you following?
Place your children in God’s hands
17 Some time later the son of the woman who owned the house became ill. He grew worse and worse, and finally stopped breathing. 18 She said to Elijah, "What do you have against me, man of God? Did you come to remind me of my sin and kill my son?"
Why did this happen? After all this widow had done for Elijah why would her son die?
It’s amazing how many things we fail to give over to God. We give our lives to Him and call Him Lord but we never let Him in our marriages or in our homes. We don’t trust him with our children or anything else important to us. Those things we want to manage ourselves so we can always keep a firm hold onto them. What we are really doing is not trusting God enough to place those things in His hands.
19 "Give me your son," Elijah replied. He took him from her arms, carried him to the upper room where he was staying, and laid him on his bed. 20 Then he cried out to the LORD, "O LORD my God, have you brought tragedy also upon this widow I am staying with, by causing her son to die?" 21 Then he stretched himself out on the boy three times and cried to the LORD, "O LORD my God, let this boy's life return to him!" 22 The LORD heard Elijah's cry, and the boy's life returned to him, and he lived. 23 Elijah picked up the child and carried him down from the room into the house. He gave him to his mother and said, "Look, your son is alive!"
This mother had to experience total loss before she placed her child in the arms of God. What are you waiting for?
On February 19, 1979, a small plane crashed into Ontario Peak in the San Gabriel Mountains, and a ten-hour story of death, courage, and survival began. The passengers of that Cessna 172 included the pilot, a young woman, an attorney, and his eleven-year-old son. The pilot and the attorney were killed in the crash. The boy said he knew his father was dead when he tried to rouse him and “he wouldn’t wake up.” The boy and the young woman huddled in the snow near the plane for seven hours, hoping to be rescued. Finally they decided they must attempt the treacherous descent of the mountain or freeze to death. Shortly after they began, the woman fell 350 feet to her death. The boy, all 75 pounds of him, was lost and all alone on a mountain in the freezing cold. Bloody and bruised, broken bones in both hands, his father lying dead a few feet away—what was he to do? He never gave up. He slid most of the way down the mountain on the seat of his pants, clutching a stick in his fractured hands. Whenever he began to slide too fast, he wedged the stick in the snow as a brake. About 5 p.m. he was found near a village at the foot of the mountain and rushed to a hospital. Wet, bloody, and exhausted, he was still very much alive.
Before his release from the hospital there was a news conference. The boy encountered a barrage of questions about his ordeal. How did he find the courage to go on? Didn’t he feel like quitting? He answered simply, “I’m alive today because my dad taught me never to give up.”
Your children are learning from you. They are learning to be people. They are learning to be husbands and wives and they are learning to be mothers and fathers. How are you teaching them?
Friday, May 26, 2006
Three Things Every Husband Wants to Hear His Wife Say
I’ve started a series on the family that will cover all the family unit
relationships. The purpose is to encourage families and marriages to be even better than what they currently are. Not saying that they are bad but understanding that every successful marriage takes work and for every “happy ever after” there was a husband and wife who were willing to continue to make their marriage better.
There are three things that every husband wants to hear his say. It’s not an issue of respect, or lack there of, nor is it an issue of one gender being better than another. It’s simply an issue of loving your husband enough to say one of these three things to improve your marriage. I promise it will change your marriage for the better. So, here we go…
1 "You’re the man."
Genesis 3:16 To the woman he said,"I will greatly increase your pains in childbearing; with pain you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you."
This is your curse ladies! You may not like it but you can’t leave it. Adam and Eve messed up and it changed the world. It was Eve who took the fruit and passed it on to her husband and it was Adam, who was equally at fault, who did not protect his family.
Both were at fault and both had to suffer the consequences of their actions. For the man it would be working to earn and provide for his family. That is his charge. That is his responsibility. The worst thing a father can be to his family his lazy. Not only is he not fulfilling his obligations to his family but he is also modeling to his children what not to be as a husband and father.
A husband should be hard working and dedicated to the support of his family. I’m not saying that women shouldn’t and couldn’t work. I believe if a woman wants to work outside the home then they should be commended for their additional support to the family but it should also be their choice.
If it’s the man’s responsibility to be the family workforce then it’s the women’s responsibility to be the encouraging and supporting force. If your husband is working to support your family then I promise he wants your encouragement. He wants to know that you support him and are proud of him for what he does.
When the bible says to wives that their husbands will rule over them it is a challenge to the husbands rather a knock against the wives. It’s interpreted as highly disrespectful to women and women often look at a husband trying to be the family leader as the man withholding his love and not appreciating her advice.
God created men and women as equal partners but he also created your family with the man as the intended leader of the home. We believe in and trust the promises found in John 3:16, Eph. 2:8,9, Romans 10: 9-10, John 10:10....why do bug out when we read Eph. 5:22-23?
Ephesians 5:22
Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. [23] For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. [24] Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.
We read the word "Submission" and we go "Ugh!" We don’t like to hear it, especially when a man says it to a woman. Husbands and wives are equals and they are partners but the man is intended to be a leader among equals.
I can see why women who don’t believe in God, Jesus, resurrection and forgiveness of sin would have trouble with Eph. 5.
But for the woman who believes....Ephesians 5:22 is simply God’s instruction to the woman just like Eph. 5:25 is God’s instruction to the man.
Ephesians 5:25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.
I’ve always said that a wife who is loved and cherished by her husband will have no problem submitting to his leadership as the leader of the home. It’s alright ladies. Tell your husband he’s the man.
2 "Yes we can."
Here’s a surprise. Men and women are different. A woman’s need is to be appreciated and listened to. Experts say that a woman needs 8-10 nonsexual touches a day. Things like having her hand help, a hug or just simply having her husband’s arm around her.
Men on the other hand need sexual touch. Ladies, it’s not just your husband. All men were created that way.
It takes two to tango but only one not to tango. According to the bible husbands and wives have the duty to fulfill each other.
I Corinthians 7:3-4
[3] The husband should fulfill his marital duty to his wife, and likewise the wife to her husband. [4] The wife’s body does not belong to her alone but also to her husband. In the same way, the husband’s body does not belong to him alone but also to his wife.
Wives if you withhold your body because of revenge, punishment or manipulations you’re messing up biblically. The same thing goes for husbands.
3 Honey, I was wrong, will you forgive me?
Proverbs 27:15 A quarrelsome wife is like a constant dripping on a rainy day; 16 restraining her is like restraining the wind or grasping oil with the hand.
Proverbs 21:9 Better to live on a corner of the roof than share a house with a quarrelsome wife.
This post is not meant as a knock against wives but rather as an encouragement. Trust me a post for husbands is coming soon. Ladies, it’s important that you don’t criticize your husband to other people and when you do point out his faults, do it privately and out of love.
Be willing to acknowledge when you have done wrong yourself and don’t be afraid to say you are sorry. Apologizing puts the ball in his court so to speak and puts the responsibility of resolution on his shoulders.
"Let the wife make her husband glad to come home, and let him make her sorry to see him leave." - Martin Luther
Sunday, May 21, 2006
The Big Easy
I had the opportunity to go to New Orleans last week as a part of a damage assessment team. My job was to lay the ground work for a team from our church that will be going in August to help with rebuilding.
I was amazed at how much devastation was still there. I was able to tour through some of the most devastated areas and was shocked at what I saw. There is no doubt in my mind that it will be years before the city is restored to a pre-Katrina state. Right now the city is still missing half of its population.
I encourage you to look at the photos below and find a way to get involved in the rebuilding of the city. Volunteer to go on a work trip or find a good reputable charity or ministry to make a donation to. After being there first hand I can honestly say that every little bit helps.
The bible speaks, in Ezekiel, of looking for someone to stand in the gap to rebuild the wall but no one was found. My fear is that many will have the attitude that New Orleans got what they deserved for building a coastal city under sea level. I pray that many will step up into the gap on behalf of the hundreds of thousands of people who are still displaced and have lost everything.
Photos from New Orleans
Here are some of the photos I took of the flood area in New Orleans. These were taken in the Lower 9th Ward and in Saint Bernard Perish. Photos don't do it justice but it allows you to see how devastating this storm really was.
Sights like this are still very common. This is a church in Algiers. This area sustained mostly wind damage.
This pile of rubble is what is left of the home that were at "Ground Zero" when the levee broke in the Lower 9th. Every home within about six blocks of the levee was totally washed away.
This is the foundation slab that is left from a home washed away when the levee broke. This actually was a neighborhood in the Lower 9th this time a year ago. There were some homes where not even the foundation was left.
Smashed vehicles like this one, along with boats, are found littered throughout the Lower 9th Ward.
This is a home in the St. Bernard Perish. The water entered one side of the house and then blew out the wall on the other side. There are several homes just like this one.
All of the homes in the flood zone are marked like this. The upper numbers (9-30) are the date the home was searched. The letters and numbers to the left (SA-2) is the unit that searched the home and the number on the bottom (0) is the number of bodies recovered in the home. Unfortunately there were several homes where this bottom number was not 0.
These next two photos are what the inside of the flooded homes look like. Imagine a 30 foot wave of water hitting and flooding your home floating everything around for three weeks and then setting everything as it drains. This is what it looks like.
When our team goes in August our job will be to totally clean out homes like this. Everything has to come out to get rid of the black mold.
This was the way of escape for many people in St. Bernard. The water rose so quickly that people were forced to their attic and had to escape my making a hole in the roof before the attic flooded.
This shrimp boat was located in the middle of a neighborhood in St. Bernard. It gives you an idea of how deep and how much force the water had. This boat was 3/4 to one full mile away from any body of water.
Sights like this are still very common. This is a church in Algiers. This area sustained mostly wind damage.
This pile of rubble is what is left of the home that were at "Ground Zero" when the levee broke in the Lower 9th. Every home within about six blocks of the levee was totally washed away.
This is the foundation slab that is left from a home washed away when the levee broke. This actually was a neighborhood in the Lower 9th this time a year ago. There were some homes where not even the foundation was left.
Smashed vehicles like this one, along with boats, are found littered throughout the Lower 9th Ward.
This is a home in the St. Bernard Perish. The water entered one side of the house and then blew out the wall on the other side. There are several homes just like this one.
All of the homes in the flood zone are marked like this. The upper numbers (9-30) are the date the home was searched. The letters and numbers to the left (SA-2) is the unit that searched the home and the number on the bottom (0) is the number of bodies recovered in the home. Unfortunately there were several homes where this bottom number was not 0.
These next two photos are what the inside of the flooded homes look like. Imagine a 30 foot wave of water hitting and flooding your home floating everything around for three weeks and then setting everything as it drains. This is what it looks like.
When our team goes in August our job will be to totally clean out homes like this. Everything has to come out to get rid of the black mold.
This was the way of escape for many people in St. Bernard. The water rose so quickly that people were forced to their attic and had to escape my making a hole in the roof before the attic flooded.
This shrimp boat was located in the middle of a neighborhood in St. Bernard. It gives you an idea of how deep and how much force the water had. This boat was 3/4 to one full mile away from any body of water.
Wednesday, May 17, 2006
Is the Old Testament Credible?
All people, believers and non-believers alike, need to know whether or not the Old Testament is what it claims to be. Where the books in the Old Testament really written by Moses and the prophets whose names are attached to the works are is it all just a hoax?
There are two types of evidence that can be used to establish the credibility of the Old Testament. Internal evidence is looking within the text itself and external evidence looks at things outside of the text.
Internal Evidence of Authorship
The Old Testament book of Numbers (33:2) tells us that Moses recorded the journeys of the Israelites and he did so by the commandment of God. We read in the book of Exodus, after the battle against Amalek (17:14) that God told Moses to write for a memorial in a book.
In one of his last acts Moses finished writing the book of the law and then commanded the people to put it inside the ark of the covenant so that it would be a continued reminder to the people (Deuteronomy 31:24-26).
The Law is referred to throughout the remainder of the Old Testament. Judges 3:4, II Kings 21:8 and Malachi 4:4 are just a few places in the Old Testament that mention Moses’ writings.
In addition several New Testament writers and Jesus himself support the authorship of Moses on the first five books of the bible – known as the Pentateuch. Matthew 19:7-8, Mark 12:19, Luke 20:28, Acts 3:22 and Romans 10:5 all support the authorship of Moses.
There is also internal evidence for the authenticity of the remainder of the Old Testament. In Matthew 24:15 Jesus validates the authorship of Daniel. He also gives validity of Jonah (Matthew 12:39-40) and Isaiah (Matthew 12:17-21).
External Evidence of Accuracy
Once the Old Testament had been complied it was translated into several various languages. As the years passed the original manuscripts of Moses, the various historians and prophets were used and copied so many times that they eventually disappeared.
Scribes would use ingenious means to guarantee the accuracy of the scroll they were copying. Each scroll contained a count of the number of letters, the number of words, the number of lines, even such significant facts as the middle word or letter. When a copy was made the letters, words, and lines would be counted and double checked against the original. If a difference existed, the entire copy would be checked until the error was located and immediately corrected. If a scroll contained more than the allowed minimum errors it would be destroyed.
In 1947, a revolutionary discovery was made. The Dead Sea scrolls, in the caves at Qumran, were discovered by a shepherd boy. This discovery would yield over 40,000 fragments representing hundreds of scrolls and included every book of the Old Testament except Esther. Some of the fragments represented scrolls that had been written 150 years before Christ, more than a thousand years older than any previously known manuscripts.
Careful examination and comparison of the Qumran scrolls with existing medieval manuscripts revealed a consistency in textual integrity which was unbelievable. There was little noticeable difference between the texts written in 150 B.C. and those written in A.D. 800-900. This evidence supports the accurate preservation of the text.
There are two types of evidence that can be used to establish the credibility of the Old Testament. Internal evidence is looking within the text itself and external evidence looks at things outside of the text.
Internal Evidence of Authorship
The Old Testament book of Numbers (33:2) tells us that Moses recorded the journeys of the Israelites and he did so by the commandment of God. We read in the book of Exodus, after the battle against Amalek (17:14) that God told Moses to write for a memorial in a book.
In one of his last acts Moses finished writing the book of the law and then commanded the people to put it inside the ark of the covenant so that it would be a continued reminder to the people (Deuteronomy 31:24-26).
The Law is referred to throughout the remainder of the Old Testament. Judges 3:4, II Kings 21:8 and Malachi 4:4 are just a few places in the Old Testament that mention Moses’ writings.
In addition several New Testament writers and Jesus himself support the authorship of Moses on the first five books of the bible – known as the Pentateuch. Matthew 19:7-8, Mark 12:19, Luke 20:28, Acts 3:22 and Romans 10:5 all support the authorship of Moses.
There is also internal evidence for the authenticity of the remainder of the Old Testament. In Matthew 24:15 Jesus validates the authorship of Daniel. He also gives validity of Jonah (Matthew 12:39-40) and Isaiah (Matthew 12:17-21).
External Evidence of Accuracy
Once the Old Testament had been complied it was translated into several various languages. As the years passed the original manuscripts of Moses, the various historians and prophets were used and copied so many times that they eventually disappeared.
Scribes would use ingenious means to guarantee the accuracy of the scroll they were copying. Each scroll contained a count of the number of letters, the number of words, the number of lines, even such significant facts as the middle word or letter. When a copy was made the letters, words, and lines would be counted and double checked against the original. If a difference existed, the entire copy would be checked until the error was located and immediately corrected. If a scroll contained more than the allowed minimum errors it would be destroyed.
In 1947, a revolutionary discovery was made. The Dead Sea scrolls, in the caves at Qumran, were discovered by a shepherd boy. This discovery would yield over 40,000 fragments representing hundreds of scrolls and included every book of the Old Testament except Esther. Some of the fragments represented scrolls that had been written 150 years before Christ, more than a thousand years older than any previously known manuscripts.
Careful examination and comparison of the Qumran scrolls with existing medieval manuscripts revealed a consistency in textual integrity which was unbelievable. There was little noticeable difference between the texts written in 150 B.C. and those written in A.D. 800-900. This evidence supports the accurate preservation of the text.
Tuesday, May 09, 2006
Amazing Grace
It could be the most popular song in all of Christianity. It has been sung by artist world wide, been in movies and recorded over and over. But do you know the story of the man who wrote the song?
In a corner of the churchyard of Olney Parish Church there is a large tombstone on which the inscription reads: “John Newton, clerk, once an infidel and libertine, a servant of slaves in Africa, was by the rich mercy of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ preserved, restored and appointed to preach the faith he had long labored to destroy.”
John Newton was the son of a sea captain engaged in Mediterranean trade. His mother died when he was 6, and after several years at school, he joined his father’s ship at the age of 11. Immorality, debauchery and failure followed. Rejected by his father and finally jailed and degraded, he later served on slave ships where he incurred the hatred of his employer’s black wife.
He was eventually brought to his senses by reading “The Imitation of Christ” by Thomas a Kempis, the great German preacher of the 13 and 1400’s. He gave is life to Christ and at the age of 39 he became a minister of the Gospel and was the pastor of the Olney Church for 15 years. He wrote many hymns but the most familiar is:
Amazing grace! How sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me.
I once was lost but now am found,
Was blind but now I see.
What we need more than anything in life is the grace of God. There are three aspects of God’s grace – saving grace, sustaining grace and sanctifying grace.
God’s greatest demonstration of grace is seen in Jesus Christ! Without Jesus there is no grace. He is the very personification of grace.
It is only through a personal relationship with Jesus that a person can find forgiveness and healing. That is saving grace!
God’s grace sustains us as well. Do you realize that people outside of Christ have no assurance of Salvation? People as searching for security, peace and some sort of assurance of eternity but are not finding it.
I am amazed that God sustains my salvation despite my faults and short comings. Even through my failures He sustains me.
“Blessed are they whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will never count against him.” Romans 4:4-7
That is sustaining grace!
The grace of God should sanctify us. Sanctification is the act of becoming holy and godly. This process should start when we come in contact with God’s grace and surrender our lives to Jesus Christ. That’s sanctifying grace!
Thursday, May 04, 2006
God Has a Plan
I couldn’t believe the words I was hearing. I was asked to come to the pastor’s office for a “brief” conversation and upon arriving I was told that I was no longer needed at the church and my job had been terminated. I was being fired!
Twelve months earlier I had moved my family from the south side of Oklahoma City to the northwest side to take a position as student pastor at a local church there. It had been an amazing year of student ministry full of trials and triumphs. We had seen the ministry grow to over 100 students and were making preparations for a great summer.
Then I was called to the pastor’s office. Thoughts raced through my mind trying to rationalize the situation, trying to discover what I could have done to deserve this and I was drawing an absolute blank. I even asked what I had done to cost me my job. The pastor’s reply was that I had done nothing wrong. He said that they were proud of me and my ministry but it was time to move in a different direction.
I stumbled out of the office trying to search for the words I would use to explain to my wife and children that I had lost my job. I was in a complete daze when I remembered the words that God had spoken to the prophet Jeremiah, “For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” – Jeremiah 29:11
What could possibly be God’s plan in all this? Fast forward five years from this “event” and I am now pastoring a church on the northwest side of Oklahoma City and God is blessing and growing it at an amazing pace. I became the pastor here in July of 2005 and since that time we have had 65 new members join the fellowship of our church.
Over the past five years God has shown me that not only did He have a plan for my life that it is perfect. After leaving the church in Northwest OKC I realized quickly how much I need God to be involved in my ministry. We like to put matters in our own hands because we can’t stand the feeling of not being in control.
The key to successful Christian living is not us being in control but God being in control and the same is true with ministry. After coming to that conclusion I was called to join the staff at a great church in Miami, OK located in the far northeastern corner of the state. I’m a city guy! I grew up in OKC and had always lived around the OKC metro area. Had I not been in the situation that I was in I never would have been open to moving that far (3 hours) away from “home”.
We lived in Miami for three years and it was there that I felt God calling me away from student ministry to become a pastor. I was fortunate enough to be working with a pastor who understood what I was going through and was willing to mentor me.
Now that I have been back in Oklahoma City for nine months I can look back on that time and see where God did have a plan for that day in June of 2001 and He continues to have a plan for my life now.
Jesus never promised us an easy life. He never said that there wouldn’t be hard times and difficulties in life. In fact, in Matthew 10:16 Jesus says that Christians in the world are like sheep among wolves. All of us will face trouble in life but the difference is whether you have embraced God’s plan for your life and have the faith to live it.
And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. Romans 8:28
Sunday, April 30, 2006
Cracking the Code
A Look at the Da Vinci Code from a Christian persperctive.
On May 19 the world will be exposed to a new look at the formation of the church and the person of Jesus Christ. Many will be deceived into thinking that Jesus Christ was much less than a God figure and that the church is just one big conspiracy and cover-up.
Of course I’m talking about the release of the movie “The Da Vinci Code” based on the best selling novel by Dan Brown. His book has already sold over four million copies and has been translated into several languages and now the movie will bring his message to a whole new audience.
The Code
The Da Vinci Code is described as a complex tale of intrigue and conspiracy. I follows a Harvard professor of religious symbology and a cryptologist for the French version of the FBI as they investigate a mysterious murder and find themselves in the middle of the ancient quest for the Holy Grail. The story is fiction but Brown contends the book is historically accurate and therein lies the problem.
While being interviewed on NBC’s Today Show, Brown was asked, “How much of this is based on reality?” He replied, “Absolutely all of it. Obviously, Robert Langdon (the book’s main character) is fictional, but all the art, architecture, secret rituals, secret societies – all of that is historical fact.”
Keep in mind that Dan Brown is not a theologian or a church historian. He mixes more fiction than fact in his novel. His theories draw heavily on alternative views of the historic Jesus such as the Gnostic Gospels and the work of the Jesus Seminar. The bible warns against this in II Timothy.
For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. II Timothy 4:3-4
The Deception
Millions will be deceived when this movie releases because they will think they are watching something on historical fact and the reality is that the movie and the book are nothing but fiction.
The premise of The Da Vinci Code is simple: Jesus was not divine and the church is lying. As people walk away from the movie or when they put down the book they would have been told that Jesus was not divine, that he married Mary Magdalene and had a child with her. You will also discover that it was Jesus’ desire that Mary be the head of the church and that the church has been covering these secrets up, at all cost, for centuries.
This is again addressed in the bible in I Timothy.
Have nothing to do with godless myths and old wives’ tales; rather, train yourself to be godly. I Timothy 4:7
You cannot learn theology from a novel and unfortunately that is what many people are doing with this book. The danger is for those people who are “seeking” the truth about God and Jesus Christ. They are under the assumption that what they are reading and watching are historically accurate and it helps them form their view of Jesus and the church.
For anyone who has knowledge of Christian history The Da Vinci Code will leave you scratching your head.
The Answers
There are too many errors in the Da Vinci Code for it to be accepted as historical fact. Here are a few of the errors that I came across.
* The pagan religion Wicca was invented during World War II and has no relics.
* Constantine never commissioned a new Bible.
* Brown claims that Paris was founded by the Merovignan royal family; the city was actually founded by Celtic Gauls called the Parisii in the third century BC.
* He claims that Constantine made Christianity the official religion of the Roman empire but that didn’t happen until Theodosius in the late fourth century.
* Brown says that the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered in the 1950’s (page 234. They were actually found in 1947. He also refers to these scrolls as among “the earliest Christian records” (page 245). These scrolls are Jewish, with nothing Christian in them.
*He says that “Jewish decorum” would have forbidden “a Jewish man to be unmarried” (page 245). This just isn’t true. The Essene community that stored the Dead Sea scrolls was made up of unmarried male celibates.
* Brown states that Jesus was not considered divine until the Council of Nicea (page 233). This is not true either. The Old Testament makes it abundantly clear that He was divine and the early church fathers attested to this fact as well, years before this council even met.
* He also states that the divinity of Jesus was established by a “relatively close vote” at Nicea (page 233). But only two of more than 300 church leaders voted against the creed, that is a long way away from a close vote.
* It also says on page 341 that, “Every faith in the world is based on fabrication. That is the definition of faith – acceptance of that which we imagine to be true, that which we cannot prove.” It should be noted that Christianity is a religion in and of history. Archeology has verified the bible’s accuracy and reliability over and over. To date, over 25,000 sites have been discovered which establish the accuracy of innumerable details in the bible.
* Brown actually gets the most important name in the book wrong. Leonardo Da Vinci was not, is not, called Da Vinci. Da Vinci means “from Vinci.” Art history books, dissertations, librarians, scholars – none of them refer to the artist as Da Vinci, but Leonardo. As Welborn notes, calling him Da Vinci is really like referring to Jesus as “Of Nazareth.” Getting the name of the central character wrong is enough to douse anyone’s inner spark.
If you are a person who is seeking the truth about Jesus Christ, God and the church then you need to know that the answers are found in the bible and Christian literature not in fiction.
The Reaction
Should Christians read The Da Vinci Code and see the movie? Yes, because this movie is an amazing opportunity for the church to step up and respond. As believers and defenders of our faith in Jesus Christ we should look for non-confraternal ways to reach out to people and show them the difference that a relationship with Jesus Christ can make in their lives. This book and movie will give Christians everywhere the opportunity to talk with people about the real Jesus. I just pray that they make the most of that opportunity.
15But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect. I Peter 3:15
On May 19 the world will be exposed to a new look at the formation of the church and the person of Jesus Christ. Many will be deceived into thinking that Jesus Christ was much less than a God figure and that the church is just one big conspiracy and cover-up.
Of course I’m talking about the release of the movie “The Da Vinci Code” based on the best selling novel by Dan Brown. His book has already sold over four million copies and has been translated into several languages and now the movie will bring his message to a whole new audience.
The Code
The Da Vinci Code is described as a complex tale of intrigue and conspiracy. I follows a Harvard professor of religious symbology and a cryptologist for the French version of the FBI as they investigate a mysterious murder and find themselves in the middle of the ancient quest for the Holy Grail. The story is fiction but Brown contends the book is historically accurate and therein lies the problem.
While being interviewed on NBC’s Today Show, Brown was asked, “How much of this is based on reality?” He replied, “Absolutely all of it. Obviously, Robert Langdon (the book’s main character) is fictional, but all the art, architecture, secret rituals, secret societies – all of that is historical fact.”
Keep in mind that Dan Brown is not a theologian or a church historian. He mixes more fiction than fact in his novel. His theories draw heavily on alternative views of the historic Jesus such as the Gnostic Gospels and the work of the Jesus Seminar. The bible warns against this in II Timothy.
For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. II Timothy 4:3-4
The Deception
Millions will be deceived when this movie releases because they will think they are watching something on historical fact and the reality is that the movie and the book are nothing but fiction.
The premise of The Da Vinci Code is simple: Jesus was not divine and the church is lying. As people walk away from the movie or when they put down the book they would have been told that Jesus was not divine, that he married Mary Magdalene and had a child with her. You will also discover that it was Jesus’ desire that Mary be the head of the church and that the church has been covering these secrets up, at all cost, for centuries.
This is again addressed in the bible in I Timothy.
Have nothing to do with godless myths and old wives’ tales; rather, train yourself to be godly. I Timothy 4:7
You cannot learn theology from a novel and unfortunately that is what many people are doing with this book. The danger is for those people who are “seeking” the truth about God and Jesus Christ. They are under the assumption that what they are reading and watching are historically accurate and it helps them form their view of Jesus and the church.
For anyone who has knowledge of Christian history The Da Vinci Code will leave you scratching your head.
The Answers
There are too many errors in the Da Vinci Code for it to be accepted as historical fact. Here are a few of the errors that I came across.
* The pagan religion Wicca was invented during World War II and has no relics.
* Constantine never commissioned a new Bible.
* Brown claims that Paris was founded by the Merovignan royal family; the city was actually founded by Celtic Gauls called the Parisii in the third century BC.
* He claims that Constantine made Christianity the official religion of the Roman empire but that didn’t happen until Theodosius in the late fourth century.
* Brown says that the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered in the 1950’s (page 234. They were actually found in 1947. He also refers to these scrolls as among “the earliest Christian records” (page 245). These scrolls are Jewish, with nothing Christian in them.
*He says that “Jewish decorum” would have forbidden “a Jewish man to be unmarried” (page 245). This just isn’t true. The Essene community that stored the Dead Sea scrolls was made up of unmarried male celibates.
* Brown states that Jesus was not considered divine until the Council of Nicea (page 233). This is not true either. The Old Testament makes it abundantly clear that He was divine and the early church fathers attested to this fact as well, years before this council even met.
* He also states that the divinity of Jesus was established by a “relatively close vote” at Nicea (page 233). But only two of more than 300 church leaders voted against the creed, that is a long way away from a close vote.
* It also says on page 341 that, “Every faith in the world is based on fabrication. That is the definition of faith – acceptance of that which we imagine to be true, that which we cannot prove.” It should be noted that Christianity is a religion in and of history. Archeology has verified the bible’s accuracy and reliability over and over. To date, over 25,000 sites have been discovered which establish the accuracy of innumerable details in the bible.
* Brown actually gets the most important name in the book wrong. Leonardo Da Vinci was not, is not, called Da Vinci. Da Vinci means “from Vinci.” Art history books, dissertations, librarians, scholars – none of them refer to the artist as Da Vinci, but Leonardo. As Welborn notes, calling him Da Vinci is really like referring to Jesus as “Of Nazareth.” Getting the name of the central character wrong is enough to douse anyone’s inner spark.
If you are a person who is seeking the truth about Jesus Christ, God and the church then you need to know that the answers are found in the bible and Christian literature not in fiction.
The Reaction
Should Christians read The Da Vinci Code and see the movie? Yes, because this movie is an amazing opportunity for the church to step up and respond. As believers and defenders of our faith in Jesus Christ we should look for non-confraternal ways to reach out to people and show them the difference that a relationship with Jesus Christ can make in their lives. This book and movie will give Christians everywhere the opportunity to talk with people about the real Jesus. I just pray that they make the most of that opportunity.
15But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect. I Peter 3:15
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