Thoughts From Luke - Day 6

                                                         Luke 2:1-15
 In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. ² (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) ³ And everyone went to their own town to register.
⁴ So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. ⁵ He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. ⁶ While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, ⁷ and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them.
⁸ And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. ⁹ An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. ¹⁰ But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. ¹¹ Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. ¹² This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”
¹³ Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,

¹⁴ “Glory to God in the highest heaven,
    and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”

¹⁵ When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.”

 

    Ahh, the Christmas story, what can be said that hasn't already been said? How about relating it to Hilary Clinton and Donald Trump? I bet that hasn't been done - so here goes.

    

In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. ² (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) ³ And everyone went to their own town to register.

⁴ So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem

     Let's start with "in those days". What days? Daniel Chapter 9 records the prophecy of 70 weeks which many Bible scholars have calculated the triumphal entry of Christ to occur 4/6/32. Because of the accuracy of Daniel's prophecies, skeptics concluded that the book of Daniel was written after Jesus and inserted into the prophets. This makes sense until you look at the dead sea scrolls which have been dated at 70BC that included Daniel. Or the Septuagint which is the Greek translation of the Old Testament which was circulating at that time. Therefore, we conclude that God was going to do what He said He would do, when He said He would do it. And then there is the prophecy in Micah 5:2 saying where Jesus would be born - in Bethlehem. How do you make this happen when Jesus' parents lived in Nazareth? Have the ruler declare a census where everyone went back to their hometown. Why didn't God just pick a couple living in Bethlehem? I don't know. I don't think there are any prophecies about Jesus' parents other than His mom would be a virgin and they would be of the lineage of David which in the city of David, Bethlehem, I'm sure God could have found others to fit that bill. Maybe Mary was just that special? Maybe God just wanted to show that He is in charge of worldly governments and He can make them do whatever He wants done and no one can thwart His plans.

     I have always liked the illustration by James Kennedy where He describes God's plan as an ocean liner headed from New York to London. On the deck, thousands of people play, party, eat, sin, and basically have free will to do whatever they want to do. At the same time, the ship will arrive in London as scheduled. What does this have to do with Hilary and Donald? A lot of people are up in arms about this year's election. On one hand you have a socialist crook and on the other hand you have, well....Donald. Many people, even my family, have decided not to vote. Many people fear for the fate of our country. What do I think? Well, I just read this morning that the Supreme Court declared Texas' strict abortion laws were unconstitutional. I have got to vote Republican because they will put in conservative judges. But beside that, am I nervous or anxious about the future because of our bad choices for leaders? No because God's plans cannot be thwarted. This world is not my home. Jesus is coming back how He said He will, where He said He will, and when He said He will http://thoughtsfromtherightbrain.blogspot.com/2014/04/whats-so-awesome-about-jesus-chapter-by.html . My future is secure. Is yours?

    Thank you Lord that I am going to live forever with You in Heaven and nothing on Earth can change that! Amen

Thoughts From Luke - Day 5

                                      Luke 1:57-80
                                          
⁵⁷ When it was time for Elizabeth to have her baby, she gave birth to a son. ⁵⁸ Her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had shown her great mercy, and they shared her joy.
⁵⁹ On the eighth day they came to circumcise the child, and they were going to name him after his father Zechariah, ⁶⁰ but his mother spoke up and said, “No! He is to be called John.”
⁶¹ They said to her, “There is no one among your relatives who has that name.”
⁶² Then they made signs to his father, to find out what he would like to name the child. ⁶³ He asked for a writing tablet, and to everyone’s astonishment he wrote, “His name is John.” ⁶⁴ Immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue set free, and he began to speak, praising God. ⁶⁵ All the neighbors were filled with awe, and throughout the hill country of Judea people were talking about all these things. ⁶⁶ Everyone who heard this wondered about it, asking, “What then is this child going to be?” For the Lord’s hand was with him.
⁶⁷ His father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied:

⁶⁸ “Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel,
    because he has come to his people and redeemed them.
⁶⁹ He has raised up a horn of salvation for us
    in the house of his servant David
⁷⁰ (as he said through his holy prophets of long ago),
⁷¹ salvation from our enemies
    and from the hand of all who hate us—
⁷² to show mercy to our ancestors
    and to remember his holy covenant,
⁷³     the oath he swore to our father Abraham:
⁷⁴ to rescue us from the hand of our enemies,
    and to enable us to serve him without fear
⁷⁵     in holiness and righteousness before him all our days.

⁷⁶ And you, my child, will be called a prophet of the Most High;
    for you will go on before the Lord to prepare the way for him,
⁷⁷ to give his people the knowledge of salvation
    through the forgiveness of their sins,
⁷⁸ because of the tender mercy of our God,
    by which the rising sun will come to us from heaven
⁷⁹ to shine on those living in darkness
    and in the shadow of death,
to guide our feet into the path of peace.”

⁸⁰ And the child grew and became strong in spirit; and he lived in the wilderness until he appeared publicly to Israel.    

 

             One thing that I think most parents are guilty of is wanting to raise a "mini-me". Dr. Evil in Austin Powers brought us this concept of mini-me. He had a son, Scott, that was nothing like him so he had to create a little version of himself to love while he rejected Scott. I see this in me with my four kids. Growing up I wanted them to play sports, especially baseball, go to my college, become Doctors, play the guitar, go to conservative churches, believe in a young earth, fish, listen exclusively to Christian music, etc. I didn't name any after me except one's middle name. My wife wanted them to have her attributes which I will just sum up as type A. We just returned from a weeks vacation at the beach where we took our niece Shelby and was amazed at how she is a mini-me of her mom. I'm not saying it is bad to want our kids to be just like us, but it is something we need to be aware of that we are doing because if we aren't, our kids can get very frustrated and rebel against their lack of freedom to be who God created them to be. I am so guilty of this that God had to give me a dream that my youngest son wasn't going to be a doctor to help me cope with the next day he told me that he was going into business.

 

            We see this going on in this passage. After waiting all these years for a son, certainly Zechariah would name him after himself. Certainly he would want him to be a great temple priest just like himself. Certainly, because of the miraculous nature of his birth, he would expect him to be one that would lead the Israelites. Yet when we see the birth of his son we see that he gives him his own name. We see that he doesn't live at the temple but goes into the wilderness. He doesn't wear a white robe with tassels and phylacteries but dresses like a wild man. He doesn't eat the traditional food of a priest but scavenges off the land. He doesn't lead the Israelites but directs them to their leader. Was John great? Yes, Jesus refers to him as the greatest man who ever lived. Was John a spiritual leader? Yes, people came from all over to hear him speak. Did his son make him proud? You bet, but just not in the way that he could have imagined.

 

        What is the secret we see in child rearing here? One is Godly parents. As opposed to Eli in the Old testament who raised terrible sons, Zechariah loved his job as a priest. It was not a burden. It was not a job. Worshipping God was a "get to" not a "have to" and John would have seen that.

( "and to enable us to serve him without fear  in holiness and righteousness before him all our days") Secondly, he let John become who God wanted him to be, not who he wanted him to be. Third, his goal for John was not fame, wealth, long life, ease, comfort, but to be one who spreads the gospel and brings revival and loves and serves God. Unfortunately most Christian parents are into their child being popular, well adjusted, and live a comfortable self-sufficient life raising grandkids for them near their home. Lastly, Zechariah was glad his son was number 2. We want our kids to be number 1. We want our kids to win all the medals, trophies, scholarships, and be good winners as they give a sympathetic nod to the kids they beat out. Zechariah doesn't care that his nephew, Mary's son, is going to garner all the attention and his son is going to serve Mary's son. That's OK with him. As long as he was doing all God planned for him, Zechariah was content.

 

       What are your parental goals? It's not too late to reevaluate, redirect, refocus.

 

   Thank you Lord that my kids are like me in the fact that they love you. Help me point my grandkids to You and help that to be my number one priority as we get to be involved in their lives. Help me to continue to accept the differences in my kids lives, temperments, way they raise children, beliefs in non-essentials. Amen

Apologetics - Week 2 - I Can't Worship A God That Doesn't Stop Suffering and Evil

"Either God wants to abolish evil and cannot; or he can but does not want to; or he cannot and does not want to. If he wants to but cannot, he is impotent. If he can and doesn't want to, he is wicked. But if God can and wants to abolish evil, then how comes evil in the world?" Epicurus, philosopher

   Why is my pain unending
    and my wound grievous and incurable?
You are to me like a deceptive brook,
    like a spring that fails.  Jer. 15:18

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
    neither are your ways my ways,”
declares the Lord.
⁹ “As the heavens are higher than the earth,
    so are my ways higher than your ways
    and my thoughts than your thoughts.  Isa. 55:8,9

Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,” for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. ² I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. ³ And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. ⁴ ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”
⁵ He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”  Rev. 21:1-5


      A recent gallup poll asked the question, "If you could ask God one question, what would it be?" The number 1 answer was "Why is there so much suffering and evil in the world?"

 Since this is such a common rejection of Christianity we as Christians need to be ready to give a rational answer. Also, maybe you as a Christian wrestle with this and it is weakening your faith. You may need this answered for yourself. Let's look at this from a few different angles.

  1. God gave mankind free will when He created us.
          Since people are challenging our God and our faith we can use the Bible in our defense. In the Bible we are told that God created a perfect environment when He created mankind. There was no sickness, pain, or death. However, God gave man a free will to choose. He did this because He wanted mankind to be able to choose to love Him not be forced to love Him. Love is impossible without freedom. Did you ever see the movie Stepford Wives? Or imagine having a cupid's arrow or love potion to make someone love you. Would that be love? No, because love demands a choice. Love is the greatest good for all creatures according to Jesus;
Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”
³⁷ Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’
Evil, therefore cannot be destroyed without destroying freedom. Therefore to destroy evil would actually be evil. When God put the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the garden, He was giving mankind a choice to love Him. When He gave Lucifer a free will, He gave the possibility of evil coming into this world. So when Adam and Eve chose to rebel against God, God gave them the results of their choice which was death, pain, suffering and living on a cursed planet. They wanted to know what it would be like to know evil and they found out. God was providing them with everything good and when they chose to turn away from Him, He showed them what the absence of Him is like. I think of evil like this;
 Being a baseball fan I would often go watch the Milwaukee Brewers play night games at County Stadium. Before the game started, the lights were on, people were grilling bratwurst, corn, burgers, etc. in the parking lot. The sweet savor filled the air. Footballs and Frisbees were being passed from car to car and camraderie and good will was spread from person to person along with excited anticipation of the game. 4 hours later the parking lot was empty and in darkness. Rats roamed the lot scrounging for food. Homeless people sifted through garbage cans while unsavory characters looked for stragglers to mug. The sweet smell was replaced by smoldering coals giving off smoke. What changed in those four hours? The light went out!
  Evil, pain, suffering is what happens when the "light goes out". When human beings told God to "shove off" He partially honored our request. Since that time mankind has been born into a world of suffering, disease, genetic breakdown, and a planet that is slowly coming apart." C.S. Lewis says, "Goodness is, so to speak, itself; badness is only spoiled goodness. There must be something good first before it can be spoiled." This leads to the second point.

2. The fact that there is evil in this world is proof there is a God. Adam Steiger handles this point well in the following video.

     Why does the presence of evil and suffering point to God?
  A. "If there isn't a God, why is there so much good in this world?" Augustine, theologian. In other words, if evolution is true and we are cosmic accidents in a world where the weak are prey and the strong survive, then we would expect tragedy as a norm and death and suffering as part of life. The human species advances on this. Yet we are surprised and shocked and indignant when the innocent suffer. The fact that we even have a word in our vocabulary as tragedy reveals that we expect good. Where does that good come from? The source of good - God. He gives common grace to the righteous and unrighteous in such amounts that we are taken aback when the norm is broken. We were just at the beach where builders build high rises just yards from the surf because we expect it to be held in place. Then we are indignant when a rogue wave leaves the border. We see it on the news in shock and horror. Why doesn't this happen daily? God's goodness. We take Him for granted.

B. You can't have it both ways
    "If you have a God great enough to be mad at because He hasn't stopped evil and suffering in the world, then you have a God great enough to have good reasons that we finite, limited creatures might not understand for allowing it to continue. You can't have it both ways." Tim Keller.
Imagine a 3 year old being taken to the pediatrician for shots. Maybe you don't have to imagine. They don't understand why their parent tearfully holds them down and why the evil nurse is inflicting pain. Or imagine you are a 6 year old and you are moving to a different city because your parents got better jobs. You are being uprooted, taken from all your friends, out of your comfort zone and you are scared, angry, anxious, fearful, and mad at your parents for doing this to you. However, in both these illustrations, 20 years from then you understand and may be even doing it to your kids. Could it be that a God so big that He can make this whole world by speaking it into existence is big enough to have reasons we don't understand?
        Alvin Plantinga uses the "no-see-ums" illustration. He states, "If you look into your pup tent for a St. Bernard, and you don't see one, it is reasonable to assume that there is no St. Bernard in your tent. But if you look into your pup tent for no-see-ums and you don't see them, it is not reasonable to assume they aren't there because after all no one can see them. Many assume that if there were good reasons for evil and suffering they would be accessible to our minds, more like St. Bernards than no-see-ums, but why should that be the case?" (this illustration would not work for Johnny Bravo)

 How conceited of us to say we are smarter or know better than God. Isn't that sort of what God told Job?

Then the Lord spoke to Job out of the storm. He said:

² “Who is this that obscures my plans
    with words without knowledge?

² Will the one who contends with the Almighty correct him?
    Let him who accuses God answer him!”

³ Then Job answered the Lord:

⁴ “I am unworthy—how can I reply to you?
    I put my hand over my mouth.
⁵ I spoke once, but I have no answer—
    twice, but I will say no more.”

⁶ Then the Lord spoke to Job out of the storm:

⁷ “Brace yourself like a man;
    I will question you,
    and you shall answer me" Job 38:1,2 40:2-7

C. The dilemma is really a quadrilemma
      What in the world does that mean? Ravi Zacharias recently co-wrote a book on suffering where he discusses this. Basically he is saying that the argument Epicurus came up with that I listed at the top of this blog was a dilemma. If God is 1. All-good He would defeat evil and 2. If God is all powerful He could defeat evil. Since evil is not defeated then that God can't exist because He hasn't done anything about the evil.
     First off, before we get to the quadrilemma, God has done something about evil.
      a. He gave us the law in Exodus 20 to reveal what is wrong and how to avoid many consequences of evil.
      b. He gave us a conscience to know what is wrong  Romans 2:12-15
      c. He gave us power to do what is right through the Holy Spirit Romans 8:12-15
      d. He sent His Son to defeat evil officially at the cross. Col. 2:14-16  Heb.2:14,15
      e. Eventually God will send His Son to defeat evil actually. Rev. 19-22
 
     This leads us back to the quadrilemma. Points one and two are that God is all good and God is all powerful. Ravi Zacharias adds two more points to the argument. We are forgetting that God is 3. All knowing and 4. Eternal. Therefore we must surmise that even though evil is not defeated God knows it will be and understands why it is here and has a purpose for it above our understanding, and He has all eternity to do it. Therefore the quadrilemma goes;
If God is
 1. All-good He would defeat evil 
 2. If God is all powerful He could defeat evil.

 3. If God is all knowing He could have a purpose for evil to temporarily exist

 4. If God is eternal there is no time frame on defeating evil

Since evil is not yet defeated then we can be assured it will be.

  Now this argument is totally changed by adding two more qualities of God to it. Mankind is like a reader of a novel who read half the book and is criticizing the novelist for all the problems of the characters.

D. If there is no God, you can't call anything good or evil?
   "If the universe is so bad, how on earth did humans ever come to attribute it to the activity of a wise and good creator? The very presence of these ideas in our minds - evil, goodness of God, standard of goodness need to be accounted for. My argument, as an atheist, was that God was cruel and unjust. How did I get my ideas of 'cruel' and 'unjust'?" C.S.Lewis
      We talked about this in the 1st blog on apologetics, but if there is no God, no absolute authority, then to come up with words such as "good" and "evil" are meaningless - "good" according to what standard? "Evil" according to what standard? Even though people claim there are no absolutes, they don't and can't live that way. The famous atheist Bertrand Russell said early in his life, "There is no God, therefore there is no good or evil." Near his death he amended that and said, "To love is good and to hate is evil." If there is no God or absolute truth, then you can't make that statement. The very fact that we call something evil points to God.

E. Some suffering can be good
   Can you imagine a world without anything going wrong? It's difficult. Hollywood writers acknowledge that difficulty.

 I know it is a weak example but being a Brewer fan, the year they win the World Series will be much greater than when the Giants win every other year. The year the Badgers are national champions will be so much sweeter than the year Alabama wins it because it happens all the time.
    Think of your worst times of suffering in your life. Do you look back on them and see the growth that occurred during those times? Joseph said, "You meant it for evil but God meant it for good". Paul had a "thorn in the flesh" which caused him great suffering. He prayed repeatedly that God would take it away but it persisted. Paul realized that this "thorn" made him humble and made him rely on God's power not his own. Job is the famous sufferer of the Bible. He questioned God why and begged to be delivered. What happened? God showed up and that was enough. The writer of Hebrews says that Jesus prayed passionate prayers to God in the garden in the midst of His suffering. What happened? He was heard! Not delivered but God showed up. Suffering brings us close to God. Suffering also is a megaphone screaming out that this world is not our home. There is a Heaven coming where all that's wrong will be made right and it makes us long for the Kingdom of God even more. Suffering is going to make our future life and joy infinitely greater.
    On a practical sense, what appears to kill people with leprosy is that the nerve or pain fibers in the body are destroyed by the disease process. Thus people touch hot stoves and don't know it. They step on glass and are unaware it is embedded. They wear shoes that erode into the skin because they don't know the shoes are too tight. Eventually these injuries become infected leading to sepsis and so on.

 

F. Quit blaming God and do something about it

 

     "You give them something to eat" Matt.14:16

 

 

If a drunk driver kills someone, do you blame God? Do you blame Hitler or God for the murder of 7 million Jews? God gave me a mind to use. I can either use it to build a bomb or find a cure for cancer.
How can we blame God for starving babies in Etheopia when the best selling books in America are on dieting and how to take off extra fat. The Earth produces enough food to give every person on this planet 3000 calories a day. The problem is that some hoard and others go to bed starving." If Christians tithed, they would have another $143 billion available to empower the poor and spread the gospel. Studies by the United Nations suggest that an additional $70-$80 billion a year would be enough to provide access to essential services like basic health care and education for all the poor of the earth." Ronald Sider. Did you know that just $10 billion a year would bring clean water to the whole world. Lest we think that this is just a "God of the Christians" problem, during the month of Ramadan when Muslims fast during the day, their expenditure for food goes up 50% as they over consume in the evening. Hindus let people starve on the streets of India while food sources such as cows walk the streets in plain sight of the ones lower in the caste system due to bad Karma.

     The Christian gospel teaches us that evil and suffering are contrary to God's plan. They are the absence of God. We must and are commanded to put God into these areas through social justice. The Christian God does not tell us to stand by and be aloof to these problems but to reverse the curse. God does not stand aloof to the suffering in this world but entered it Himself and became a victim of evil. "When we look at the cross we still don't know why God allows evil and suffering to continue, but we do know that it can't be because He was indifferent or detached from our condition." Tim Keller

 

"For whatever reason God chose to make man as he is - limited and suffering and subject to sorrows and death - He had the honesty and courage to take His own medicine. Whatever game He was playing with His creation, He has kept His own rules and played fair. He can exact nothing from man that He has not exacted from Himself. He has Himself gone through the whole of human experience, from the trivial irritations of family life and the cramping restrictions of hard work and lack of money to the worst horrors of pain and humiliation, defeat, despair and death. When He was a man, He played the man. He was born in poverty and died in disgrace and thought it well worthwhile." Dorothy Sayers
 

Apologetics - Week 1 - How Can Christians Claim Jesus is the Only Way? Exclusivity

"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

 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. John 14:6

 Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.” Acts 4:12

For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus, 1Tim. 2:5

      What do you think of when you see this bumpersticker? Technically, as Christians we, after thinking about it, would agree. In a multi-cultural world, we have to get along, we must coexist. We as Christians should love everyone like God does. We as Christians should be tolerant. What does that mean? The traditional tolerance as Webster defined it is to recognize and respect people's beliefs and practices without sharing them and put up with someone not especially liked. This type of tolerance differentiates between what a person thinks or does and the person himself. Our pastor, just this morning used a verse from 1Corinthians in a different context but it could be used here.

"I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people— ¹⁰ not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this world.... ¹² What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church?"

      We as Christians are taught that we can't force our behavior and morals on people that don't believe like us, nor should we expect them to want to behave like us. We are taught to love the sinner but hate the sin. To us, and in the past, that was tolerance. Not any more. That quote about loving the sinner and hating the sin, or the above verse about sexually immoral people are inflammatory to the new tolerance. According to Josh McDowell, the new tolerance is defined as every individual's beliefs, values, lifestyles, perception of truth claims are equal. There is no hierarchy of truth. All truth is relative. In order to be truly tolerant, you must agree that the person's position is just as valid as yours. You must approve and endorse that person's beliefs, values and lifestyle, and if you don't you are bigoted, insensitive, and intolerant. Any system that believes in absolute truth is intolerant which is the only crime/sin in a post-modern culture.

       In other words coexist means all religions are equally true and valid and to say one religion is superior to others is intolerance even if we treat them like family. Thus, the cross (which is a very religious icon shape in coexist) is next to all the others because it is equal. Why has it come to this? Possibly because if you polled people and asked them 30 years ago what the biggest threat to society is, they would have said, political ideology, i.e. communism, etc. Today you ask that question and the answer is religion. In fact, as I write this, 100 people are wounded or dead in Orlando from what appears to be a religious motivated shooting spree. Thus, society has decided that rather than trust people to love despite differences, we must eliminate religious differences. We must say, you have your truth and I have my truth and we are both headed the same direction just by different paths so we really are the same. I saw a great video by Andy Steiger that touches on a lot of these factors and this would be a good time to watch this nine minute video.

    This question of exclusivity is very complex. In fact, like an onion, the more layers you peel off, the more you come to. Let's address some of these layers.

1. No religion is superior to another.
     Lets think about that one for a second. What about a religion that believes in child sacrifice? What about the Haley's comet, Branch Davidian, or James Jones cult? We have a white supremist church near us. Are you saying those are all equal to all religions? Of course not. It's foolish to say that. However if we say that those aforementioned religions are inferior is to judge them by an absolute standard that you say doesn't exist.(more on that later)
      Why do Christians think Christianity is superior? Christianity is the only "religion" that claims to forgive sins.Britt Hume committed the unforgiveable sin when he encouraged Tiger Woods to convert to Christianity in this interview.

 Also, Christianity's founder, Jesus, is not a prophet showing people the way to God. He claimed to be God and He Himself claimed to be the way to God. Any nut job can do that, except Jesus predicted His death and resurrection and pulled it off. All other religious founders are in the grave. Jesus defeated the grave. All other religions leave you wondering if you have been good enough to get to Heaven; Jesus says that trusting in Him gives certainty of your future. All other religions tell you that you are decent people who need to get better. Christianity tells us that we are dead people who need to come alive. All other religions heap tough burdens on you that you can't achieve. Christianity puts God inside you to accomplish righteousness.
       Because Christianity is so different from all religions we don't like to be considered a religion. We don't like to be included in the coexist lineup. Religion, to us is seen as man's efforts to reach God. Christianity is God's effort to reach man. We aren't climbing up the same mountain by a different path to reach God, God is climbing down the mountain to get us. If you carry the analogy further, Christianity says we aren't even climbing up the mountain, we are running away from it.

  2. There is no absolute truth .
        Let's think about that one for a second. If truth is relative and there is no absolute truth then I reject statement number 2 because it claims to be true. Relativism relativises itself. As we saw in point #1, how can we say that a religion of oppression is worse than a religion that preaches humanitarianism. On what absolute standard can we say that if there is no absolute standard. C.S.Lewis gives this example in his book The Abolition of Man:

“The kind of explanation which explains things away may give us something, though at a heavy cost. But you cannot go on ‘explaining away’ for ever: you will find that you have explained explanation itself away. You cannot go on ‘seeing through’ things for ever.
The whole point of seeing through something is to see something through it. It is good that the window should be transparent, because the street or garden beyond it is opaque. How if you saw through the garden too? It is no use trying to ‘see through’ first principles.
If you see through everything, then everything is transparent. But a wholly transparent world is an invisible world. To ‘see through’ all things is the same as not to see.”

What he is saying is that if there is no absolute, then you keep seeing through everything and you can't see anything. This culture we live in claims there are no absolutes yet lives hypocritically like there are because it is impossible to live any other way. Even to say that Christians are intolerant is to judge them by a truth standard which they say doesn't exist.

3. All religions are alike at the core. They are all seeking God and Heaven just by different means.
        I thought the above video handled this one well. Andy Steiger said that Buddhism isn't seeking God or Heaven but rather seeking non-existence. Hinduism doesn't believe in God or Heaven and Islaam believes in a Heaven that God doesn't inhabit. Just taking those three major "paths" we see that there are tremendous differences at the core and aren't alike.

4. Christians are narrow minded and bigoted to say their way is the right way.
    Ravi Zacharias addresses this well when he says that Christianity is not the only religion to claim to be the right one. Buddhism, Hinduism, Islaam, Judaism all claim to be correct and the only way. But let's say we are the only ones to say this and we say that Jesus is the only way. Is that narrow minded? Is it narrow minded to say that water freezes at 0 degrees C? Is it narrow minded to say 2+2=4, not 5? Is it narrow minded to say that since I live on a dead end, there is only one road that leads to my house? Is it narrow minded to say that you must see a surgeon if you have appendicitis? There are a number of narrow assertions that we accept as a matter of fact in daily life. Why do we think that the most important question in life, our eternal destiny, wouldn't have a narrow answer? Jesus, when facing death on the cross prayed to the Father," if there is another way, please let that happen. Nevertheless, not my will but Thine be done." As we see from the outcome, this is the only way.
      R.C. Sproul comes at this from a different angle. Assuming you accept the Biblical account of history of mankind, which of course is a big assumption, he traces the rejection of God from Adam and Eve to the golden calf, to the choosing of a king, to the killing of prophets, and ultimately to the killing of His own Son. R.C. then states, how dare we stand before God and say "You haven't done enough." The real question that we should be asking is not "Why is Jesus the only way?", but rather, "Why is there a way at all?"

                                            Witnessing

     In light of the fact that people have this relativistic view of truth along with the basic goodness of man, how do you witness to this culture? Here are some suggestions.

  1. Love
      Get involved in people's lives that are philosophically different from yours. Let them see that you still love them despite your differences. Show them that tolerance and coexisting doesn't mean that you have to give up your faith. Christians should demonstrate love not hate. Peter gives us some advice that 2000 years later speaks to our generation.

 " Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.
¹³ Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every human authority: whether to the emperor, as the supreme authority, ¹⁴ or to governors, who are sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to commend those who do right. ¹⁵ For it is God’s will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish people. ¹⁶ Live as free people, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as God’s slaves. ¹⁷ Show proper respect to everyone... " 1Peter 2:12-17

    The illustration goes, let's say your car broke down one night in the inner city and as you are working on it, you say the shadow of three hulking figures approaching you. Would you be more relieved or more fearful to know that these are three men coming home from a Bible study? Obviously, the answer is relief. We should live such lives of love that even though the world views us as intolerant, those around us see that nothing could be further from the truth.

2. Tracts
    Jeff, in my Sunday School class, recently was in Thailand where they used a tract entitled "Can You Swim?" It shows someone drowning and two rescue attempts. One is someone on the shore reading instructions on how to swim and the second is someone jumping in the water to save that person. The illustration points out the difference between Christianity and all other religions. The person is then asked, which is better? I like this because it is not condemning what they believe yet pointing out the fallacy of the current world view that no religion is superior to the others.
     I have used the following clip from the movie The Poseiden Adventure to illustrate this point. In it Gene Hackman is trying to convince the people that there is only one way out - one way to life, and only those who believe are saved.

     The problem arises that in a culture that believes that we are all basically good people, convincing people that they are drowning or facing a perilous future may make these illustrations tough to accept. Christianity, as opposed to all other religions, gives mankind a bad diagnosis. I have written several blogs about this if you are interested.
http://thoughtsfromtherightbrain.blogspot.com/2016/05/parable-of-bag-of-dirty-clothes.html
http://thoughtsfromtherightbrain.blogspot.com/2013/06/jesus-is-remedy.html
Therefore, I wonder if when witnessing to people in our culture, we need to not only point to the solution to their problem but also convince them that they have a problem. Certainly, prison ministry or substance abuse ministries are more conducive to accepting the need for a savior, but how do you convince your co-workers?

3. The Way of the Master
     Kirk Cameron and Ray Comfort promote a ministry called "The Way of the Master" . Their method is, by using the 10 Commandments, help people understand that they aren't good people but sinners separated from God and justly deserving the penalty of their sin. Here is an example.

4. Get in discussions with people about evils they see in the world. Tim Keller says that every act of evil done by people is also in our heart. It's just that the seeds haven't been watered in our life. Many times a perpetrator's neighbors are interviewed and they describe the person as a normal person. Use current events to discuss do you think this world is getting better or worse? Is there hope for this world, etc.?

5. Or the easy way - when asked, "How can you say that Jesus is the only way to Heaven?", just say, "I didn't say it, He said it- and anyone that can predict their death and then that they will rise from the dead - I believe what they say!"

     We will cover more of these tough questions soon and see how many are tied together in both their reasoning and unraveling or peeling off the layers.

 

 

 

 

 

   
 

Thoughts From Luke - Day 4

                               Luke 1:46-56

And Mary said:

“My soul glorifies the Lord
⁴⁷     and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
⁴⁸ for he has been mindful
    of the humble state of his servant.
From now on all generations will call me blessed,
⁴⁹     for the Mighty One has done great things for me—
    holy is his name.
⁵⁰ His mercy extends to those who fear him,
    from generation to generation.
⁵¹ He has performed mighty deeds with his arm;
    he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts.
⁵² He has brought down rulers from their thrones
    but has lifted up the humble.
⁵³ He has filled the hungry with good things
    but has sent the rich away empty.
⁵⁴ He has helped his servant Israel,
    remembering to be merciful
⁵⁵ to Abraham and his descendants forever,
    just as he promised our ancestors.”

⁵⁶ Mary stayed with Elizabeth for about three months and then returned home.

 

         Critics of Christianity say, "What an arrogant, unlovable God you guys worship. He says worship me or I will send you to hell. No thanks." There is a lot in that statement to unpack but let me focus on the "worship" part.

 

        Mary, has just been visited by Gabriel. God has conceived in her, Jesus. She is going to bring into this Earth the Messiah, the savior of the world. What an honor! Also, on another level, it has been 400 years of waiting since Malachia, the last prophet of Israel. People were wondering if God really was going to send the deliverer and if so, why is He taking so long. Mary is excited that God has spoken again and is going to fulfill His promises in her lifetime. What does this result in? Praise. Worship. Adoration. We don't worship God , or else... We don't tell God how great He is because we have to. We praise Him because of all the good things that He has done for us. We praise Him because we stand in awe of His greatness.

    First of all, Mary praises Him that He would take note of a no one like her. The Psalmist says the same thing - "What is man that You are mindful of him?" Us to God is like an ant to us. He is so much greater than man that it is astounding that He would notice us, value us, want us, die for us... amazing. Job tries to defend his case before God and God starts giving him a glimpse of His greatness and Job says, "I shut my mouth". Isaiah gets a glimpse of God's greatness and pronounces a curse upon himself. How is it that the God of the universe would consider us? We worship and adore Him for that.

      Next she praises Him for all the blessings He has given her. I do the same. So many people focus on the negatives and it ruins their lives. God has given me health, a great wife and four wonderful kids, four awesome grandchildren, a nice home, a nice place to live, an enjoyable job, money to meet my needs and then some, vision, hearing, hope, a future, I could go on and on. Do I deserve anything? No. I praise Him for all the many blessings He gives to me.

       Which leads to the next reason to praise Him, His mercy. He doesn't give me what I deserve. I like all humans ,including Mary, are sinful. We have all chosen to be our own God and chosen our own way over God's way. Yet in His mercy, He did not wipe us out but bore with us in hopes that we would repent and come back to Him. Why? I am not that lenient with my own kind. Why would the God of the universe choose to take my sin, my cosmic treason upon Himself? Why would He grant me mercy? I can't explain it. All I can do is praise Him for it.

       Then I praise Him for the mighty things He has done with His arm. The wonders of creation. The beauty of His handiwork. The miracle of birth. The vastness of the universe and its order. Paul says in Romans that all mankind knows there is a God through the testimony of His creation. I can either praise Him and bow before Him in awe or I can deny Him and suppress the truth and say, "I am not going to worship a being that insists on me worshipping Him". How silly. I don't tell my wife how awesome she is because I have to. I do it because... well, she just is!

        Then she praises Him for His justice. Even if it looks like the evil are getting ahead in this world, there will be a day of justice. It may be on this Earth or it may be after death. Isn't it nice to know that we don't have to take things into our own hands? God will vindicate us. I worship Him because He takes up for me. He cares when I am mistreated. And I worship Him because He is above everyone. All the powerful people on the Earth, all the people that think they are above the law... they all will have to bow before Him someday. I am in awe of His greatness.

        Lastly, Mary praises Him because He is faithful. He is trustworthy. He doesn't lie. What He says He will accomplish and do He will do. I praise Him because He saved me. When I stand before Him at judgement and He says, "Why should I let you into my kingdom?", all I need say is, "Because You promised." I would call on His word. People today aren't like that. In fact, I really don't expect anyone to keep their word nowadays. I praise God because He is truth. I can count on everything He says.

     Lord, I am filled in awe and wonder by You and of You. I worship You today because of who You are , what You have done, and specifically how good You are to me. Thank You, forever. Amen

Thoughts From Luke - Day 3

                                                      Luke 1:26-45

Now in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, ²⁷ to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. ²⁸ And having come in, the angel said to her, “Rejoice, highly favored one, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women!”
²⁹ But when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and considered what manner of greeting this was. ³⁰ Then the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. ³¹ And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name Jesus. ³² He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David. ³³ And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end.”
³⁴ Then Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I do not know a man?”
³⁵ And the angel answered and said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God. ³⁶ Now indeed, Elizabeth your relative has also conceived a son in her old age; and this is now the sixth month for her who was called barren. ³⁷ For with God nothing will be impossible.”
³⁸ Then Mary said, “Behold the maidservant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her.
³⁹ Now Mary arose in those days and went into the hill country with haste, to a city of Judah, ⁴⁰ and entered the house of Zacharias and greeted Elizabeth. ⁴¹ And it happened, when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, that the babe leaped in her womb; and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. ⁴² Then she spoke out with a loud voice and said, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! ⁴³ But why is this granted to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? ⁴⁴ For indeed, as soon as the voice of your greeting sounded in my ears, the babe leaped in my womb for joy. ⁴⁵ Blessed is she who believed, for there will be a fulfillment of those things which were told her from the Lord.”

        Being an OB/Gyn I get to see the miracle of life on a daily basis and it never gets old. I bet you didn't know that if Jesus was born on 12/25 (which He probably wasn't they say but then again how does anyone mess up a birthday?) he was conceived on 4/2. What did it take for that conception, that beginning of life to occur? Certainly she didn't have to understand it all. I don't understand it all. What she did have to do is say yes, and believe, or have faith, that it was going to happen.

       What day did life begin in you? Was it your birthday? Actually, growing up, I remember Wausau Bible Church having a second verse to "Happy Birthday Song". It went, Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you, it takes two for salvation, how many have you? Pretty corny huh? Yet, I don't regret those corny things because they were all instrumental in my spiritual journey. We are all born once, John 3 says, but there is a second birth which very few experience. It is spiritual birth. When God said to Adam and Eve, "The day you eat of it you will surely die", they didn't physically die but that inner spirit died. They became spiritually dead and since that time, all mankind has been born spiritually dead. We need to be born again. We need a new life put inside of us. We need the life of God in the Holy Spirit to regenerate us. How does that happen? At some point in our life we have to say "yes" to Him and by faith believe that He can accomplish what He said He will do.

      To continue to press this illustration too far, notice Mary was highly favored. She was probably a very devout, good girl and very religious. Yet she did not have this life inside her. Cornelius, in Acts 10 was a very good person yet Peter had to tell him about Jesus so he could receive life. We can be the best person in the world compared to others, yet we are all spiritually dead and need to be born again. Once we by faith believe and receive this new life (the name of my practice), it begins to change us from the inside out. We start glowing. We start showing. Pretty soon everyone notices. We feed this life inside of us with prayer, reading God's word,witnessing, fellowship, (visiting Elizabeth and the mutual excitement, encouragement, and filling of the Holy Spirit with resulting praise and worship), and we continue to grow until we reach the culmination which is the deliverance of us into the presence of Christ at death. The Holy Spirit is said to be our down payment of eternal life. It's like we die and stand before the angels who are harvesting the righteous from the unrighteous and they walk down the line of souls standing before them and pick out all the ones who are nine months pregnant. I mean, it's pretty obvious.

     I know I'm pushing this analogy but I think in a lot of ways, this is valid. Peter says,"For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God." The Word of God has come to us, it has germinated, and we are growing. Have you received Him by faith. Are you feeding this life. Is He changing you? Are people seeing a difference?

Thoughts From Luke - Day 2

                                           Luke 1:5-25

There was in the days of Herod, the king of Judea, a certain priest named Zacharias, of the division of Abijah. His wife was of the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth. ⁶ And they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless. ⁷ But they had no child, because Elizabeth was barren, and they were both well advanced in years.
⁸ So it was, that while he was serving as priest before God in the order of his division, ⁹ according to the custom of the priesthood, his lot fell to burn incense when he went into the temple of the Lord. ¹⁰ And the whole multitude of the people was praying outside at the hour of incense. ¹¹ Then an angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing on the right side of the altar of incense. ¹² And when Zacharias saw him, he was troubled, and fear fell upon him.
¹³ But the angel said to him, “Do not be afraid, Zacharias, for your prayer is heard; and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John. ¹⁴ And you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth. ¹⁵ For he will be great in the sight of the Lord, and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink. He will also be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother’s womb. ¹⁶ And he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God. ¹⁷ He will also go before Him in the spirit and power of Elijah, ‘to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children,’ and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.”
¹⁸ And Zacharias said to the angel, “How shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife is well advanced in years.”
¹⁹ And the angel answered and said to him, “I am Gabriel, who stands in the presence of God, and was sent to speak to you and bring you these glad tidings. ²⁰ But behold, you will be mute and not able to speak until the day these things take place, because you did not believe my words which will be fulfilled in their own time.”
²¹ And the people waited for Zacharias, and marveled that he lingered so long in the temple. ²² But when he came out, he could not speak to them; and they perceived that he had seen a vision in the temple, for he beckoned to them and remained speechless.
²³ So it was, as soon as the days of his service were completed, that he departed to his own house. ²⁴ Now after those days his wife Elizabeth conceived; and she hid herself five months, saying, ²⁵ “Thus the Lord has dealt with me, in the days when He looked on me, to take away my reproach among people.”


        "... they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless". Wouldn't you like that said of you? Wouldn't I like that said of me? Yes! This is how Luke, inspired by the Holy Spirit, describes Zacharias and Elizabeth, so it has to be true. This is how God saw them. Since, as Christians, this is our goal, there are a few revelations in this passage about living this kind of life.

       First, we will still sin and have weak faith at times. I am intrigued by the fact that this Godly woman's first response to mothering the greatest human being ever according to Jesus was, "finally, my disgrace of being barren is taken away." This is a completely self centered response. And then, Zacharias, in the Holy of Holies, being visited by an angel doubts the power of God. Such a lack of faith. I take a somewhat sick comfort in this. I consider most of my initial responses to be like Elizabeth and focused on how something is effecting me. This is our sin nature making us to be gods of our own life. This woman, righteous before God, "walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless", reacts to circumstances just like me. And then there is Zacharias, in the midst of God's and angelic presence doubting God's power. It's like me, praying for someone to get saved, healed, rescued, delivered, and not believing it is going to happen or that problem is too big for God. Yet Zacharias is described as " righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless." If you are familiar at all with my blogs, these are the two issues that I flagellate myself over the most - my self centeredness and my lack of faith. In one sense I need to beat myself up and not be satisfied with these areas in my life. Like Paul I need to say, "Oh wretched man that I am..." But in another sense I need to see God, my heavenly Father, filled with grace and mercy and seeing the righteousness of Christ in me, saying to me,"You are righteous and blameless before me. You are walking in all My commandments and Ordinances." I guess what I am trying to say is that maybe I need not project my disgust for myself onto my Heavenly Father.

      Secondly, maybe I need to give Christians more of a break if their Heavenly Father sees them better than I do. I had recently watched a movie on the life of Rich Mullins and was disgusted by how they portrayed his moodiness, judgmentalism, alcoholism, anger, etc. Actually, I hadn't listened to any of his music since that time. After reading this passage I went home and made a Rich Mullins playlist on Rhapsody. I guess whenever I lapse into being non-gracious, I will put on this playlist to remind me how much higher of an opinion God had of him than I did. Maybe I need to get in line with God.

       Lastly, what can you expect when walking rightly before the Lord? Well, certainly blessing. Zacharias was honored to be chosen as the one priest of all the priests to go into the Holy of Holies, only done once a year, to offer up sacrifices for the sins of the nation. What an honor. What a blessing. And then, Elizabeth, to bear the forerunner of Christ. What a blessing, and the Bible says we can expect a blessed life. The Psalmist says, "forget not all His benefits"; Moses says, "You will be blessed when you go in and blessed when you go out." Like Zacharias and Elizabeth you may even be blessed with Godly children. On the other hand, Elizabeth struggled with infertility her whole life. People talked about her and probably whispered that she must have some lurking sin keeping her barren. She went through life with this one prayer not being answered. And later in life she will see her son arrested and beheaded. Just because you are walking blamelessly and righteously, don't expect everything to be smooth in your life. Don't expect people not to be judging you. God may have different and better plans for you than you can ever imagine for yourself.

    God, thank you for Your grace and mercy. Thank you that you adopted me into Your family and have nothing but love for me. Help me to show that same kind of non-jugmental love to your children. Amen