Via: Pro Life
I pick this up, not because I find Rob Bell’s limp-wrist universalism or Bill Saporito’s analysis to be particularly thought provoking, but because Saporito demonstrates the blindness of the world. The key to his article is what he says in his thesis:
Bell’s I’m-O.K.-you’re-O.K., we’re-not-going-to-hell-today spin is not merely a refutation of a basic belief. If this piece of theological reordering takes hold, it’s the Evangelicals’ business plan that’s going to hell.
Fire and brimstone has been one of the Evangelicals’ main product lines. It’s based on a zero-sum outcome: heaven or hell. Believe or perish. And part of the deal, at least in practical application, is that you can’t get spiritually right without monetarily supporting the church. Pay to play, in other words. It’s the same with most religions.
While this is a pretty offensive statement that Saporito attempts to soften later, it demonstrates the most basic flaw in how human’s attempt to relate to God. Every man thinks of God as a really big, really powerful man who is kind of like us instead of a completely incomprehensible, infinite, and totally alien personal being. God does not exist according to any rules we would imagine since all the rules we can imagine, He originated. He exists without rules and without need.
Saporito goes on to cite some game theory and Pascal’s Wager to suggest ways in which a man might game the system and hedge his eternal risks. Yet, there’s a significant flaw in Saporito’s analysis of the options. In the words of Albert Einstein (quoted out of context), “God does not play dice.” There’s no game to win. If it were a game, then every man and woman is a loser who forfeited before it began. God, the ref, picked the winners for reasons having nothing to do with merit. In fact, we don’t even really understand why God picks any winners at all.
Jesus himself said, “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.” (John 3:17-18) Paying your church money will not save you, no matter what your church teaches. Trying to please God will gain you none of God’s favor because you are a sinner. You are helpless to overcome that status. You are already condemned. Hell is the default outcome for every person on earth.
Unless you believe, you will not be saved and belief is itself something that comes from God, not from within. After belief there’s nothing more you can do to be more or less saved. God rescues the godly and the righteous know his voice and follow him. Yet, any obedience a believer achieves is not done to curry favor with our Lord, but because God has taken the spirit within that man away and made him into a new creature that desires to serve his new Master, the Father in Heaven. Obedience is good, but it is a side effect of salvation rather than the means by which it happens.
If you are in church and trying to prove that you are a believer to God or to others by doing good and giving money, beware. Many who call on the Lord but did not trust Jesus will be cast into hell at the Final Judgment. It might be better for you to simply embrace sin and live for what you can now. You can at least enjoy your short, meaningless life. You will, however, endure unending torment in hell, a place not even made for humans, but for punishing the demons.
Of course, it would be infinitely better to give up your life now and seek salvation from Jesus Christ on his terms. His terms are simple: believe, pray for faith and salvation, and seek to know him. After that, everything else you need to follow will be given to you by His Grace. Any obedience you then render to him in giving, feeding the poor, glorifying his name in song, and anything else, is just a taste of eternity to come.
Amen.
]]>Afterwards I got to thinking about this and realized that Gabe also starts his prayers with “Dear Jesus.” This struck me a little odd since Terri and I always start our prayers with “Dear Father” or “Dear Heavenly Father” and I wondered who was teaching these kids to pray “Dear Jesus” and why? Is that something we should pray? Is that modeled for us in the New Testament?
I did a search through my New Testament and the answer is: I can’t find any case where someone prays or recommends praying to Jesus. I would be interested to hear thoughts from others regarding a Biblical basis for starting with “Dear Jesus” because I can’t find anything in my Bible that would suggest this as being orthodox.
On the one hand, I’m not sure there’s any harm in it, but Jesus did give us the model in Matthew 6:9-13:
Pray then like this:
Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread,
and forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
I guess I’m conservative enough that I don’t see a reason to go beyond what Jesus teaches here when there is almost nothing else so clear in the Bible telling us how to pray. Most of the text in the New Testament exhorts us to pray to God often, to do so passionately, and to seek to pray for the right things. Other than Jesus’ own words, I see nothing else suggesting more detail than this.
I think I will be suggesting to Gabe that he pray, “Dear Father” or “Our Father” or “Lord” from now on, though I don’t think I will criticize him or anyone else for saying Dear Jesus. They are, after all, all one God so praying to Jesus or the Father or even the Spirit is still a call to same substance.
Cheers.
]]>
Via: Pro Life
For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. For when he received honor and glory from God the Father, and the voice was borne to him by the Majestic Glory, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased,” we ourselves heard this very voice borne from heaven, for we were with him on the holy mountain. — 2 Peter 1:16-18
We just finished a passage where Peter reveals that he knows his end is coming soon. As far as we know, this is the very last letter he wrote, it is certainly the last record we have regarding the life of Peter. As Peter just noted in verse 14, Jesus prophesied that Peter would die on a cross. Tradition holds that he died in just such a way shortly after writing this letter. Actually, tradition states that Peter refused to be crucified in the same way as Christ because he didn’t feel worthy of the same form of death, so they crucified him upside-down. Whatever the case may be, we do know that he was martyred for his faith. (John 21:18-19) In fact, tradition holds that all the apostles, with the possible exception of John, were martyred.
Yet, one criticism of Christianity is that these men died for a myth, something that never happened. This last letter of Peter anticipates many common attacks on Christianity and responds to them: “For we did not follow cleverly devised myths.” He goes on to testify to the miracles of Jesus’ life to state: we saw this with our own eyes! This quote refers to two events in the life of Jesus. The first occurred at Jesus’ baptism by John the Baptist:
In Matthew 3:13-17 we read about this:
“Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John, to be baptized by him. John would have prevented him, saying, ‘I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?’ But Jesus answered him, ‘Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.’ Then he consented. And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him; and behold, a voice from heaven said, ‘This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.’” (cf. Mark 1:9-11; Luke 3:21-22)
The second event was when Jesus climbed a tall mountain with John, Peter, and James and was transfigured.
We can read of this in Matthew 17:1-13:
“And after six days Jesus took with him Peter and James, and John his brother, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became white as light. And behold, there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him. And Peter said to Jesus, ‘Lord, it is good that we are here. If you wish, I will make three tents here, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah.’ He was still speaking when, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said, ‘This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.’ When the disciples hear this, they fell on their faces and were terrified. But Jesus came and touched them, saying, ‘Rise and have no fear.’ And when they lifted up their eyes, they saw no one but Jesus only.” (cf. Mark 9:2-13; Luke 9:28-36)
So, Peter, just before he goes to martyrdom ties Christianity tightly to the miracles of Jesus. Anyone who wants to become a follower of Christ must also accept these miracles as fact. To reject these is to reject the essence of the truth. If Jesus Christ did not perform miracles, did not rise from the dead, then upon what basis do you accept his divinity? You can’t, you’ve just rejected it. Either Jesus was a great miracle worker and provides salvation to believers or he was a liar or a lunatic. His closest followers certainly believed him and died following him. I’m not saying that’s conclusive proof, but it is a point to consider.
We each accept Christ by faith or we don’t take Him as lord at all. There is no middle ground. I can understand when an Antichrist scoffs at miracles and mocks Christians for naively believing fairy tales and myths, as the Athenian philosophers rejected Paul when he mentioned Christ’s resurrection of the dead. (Acts 17:32) Scoffers scoff and skeptics are skeptical regardless of what they are told, as Paul states in another sermon in Antioch, “‘Look, you scoffers, / be astounded and perish; / for I am doing a work in your days, / a work that you will not believe, even if one tells it to you.’” (Acts 13:41) What I cannot understand is someone who calls himself Christian and claims to believe in a God that created the universe, but stops short of believing (“allowing” might be a better word here) the same God who continues to animate the universe (Colossians 1:17) the authority to do unexpected miracles and perform wonders and signs. This is deism, the work of an impotent or uncaring god, and is not the Father who is Love that Christ revealed to us.
Peter wants us to know that these wonders really happened “so that after [his] departure you may be able at any time to recall these thing.” Peter believed it and then died for it. I believe it and hope, should I ever be put to such a test, that I could die for it as well. And, should it happen, what a great and honorable way to go!
Cheers.
]]>And staying on this subject, please consider reading this story of a brave young woman who chose to keep her baby against the wishes of her parents and, in particular, her sister. Supposedly women make their own decision. The reality is that abortions are frequently gotten under pressure from others. The first reaction these days to unexpected pregnancy is no longer, “Congratulations” but “Are you going to keep ‘it’?” Babies have become just another consumer product to be had or tossed, not a precious little person.
Marriage. Wow, does this ever ring true. I almost hesitate to post a link to this admitting I know of marriages that work this way. I have heard wives say regarding her husband, on at least two different occasions, “I wish my husband would lead his family, but if he won’t I will.” And yet, in both cases, I can tell you that I didn’t believe for a moment she really wanted what she said. For some, the life of a martyr is the goal rather than solving the dysfunction. On the other hand, I think every marriage could benefit some from the advice given.
Bible Search. I came across a really interesting list of search results compiled by the Bible Gateway regarding the Top 10 Most Searched Bible Verses.
Decline-ism. Mark Steyn is brilliant. He has an essay suggesting a new holiday, Dependence Day. He outlines for us just how dependent we are on government, on foreign money, and the decline this will certainly lead to if we don’t do something about it. It is definitely worth taking the time to read.
Climate Change. This line pretty much sums up this great post, “the only thing we’re pretty sure of is that the people jumping up and down screaming that they have the answers are either deluded or charlatans.”
Science. Speaking of hoaxes. Apparently scientists are more subjective than we’ve all been led to believe. Who knew? For some, science has become the final arbiter of truth. The reality while science is really good at a few things, it is terrible at dealing with most kinds of truth, particularly the truths that matter.
Headlines. Best headline of the week: Sharks Seen Swimming Down Australian Streets. Enough said.
Treats. Mmm… the S’mores Keyboard:
And finally, we all know this to be true: Bacon is the gateway food for vegetarians. Mmmm…. bacon…
Cheers.
]]>
The doctrine of the Trinity is truth for the heart. The spirit of man alone can enter through the veil and penetrate into that Holy of Holies. “Let me seek Thee in longing,” pleaded Anselm, “let me long for Thee in seeking; let me find Thee in love, and love Thee in finding.” Love and faith are at home in the mystery of the Godhead. Let reason kneel in reverence outside. — A. W. Tozer
I believe with chapter 4 Tozer has really gotten started with his book. Chapter 1 tells us why knowing who God is is important. Chapter 2 tells why this is hard. Chapter 3 tell us what it means to study the various attributes of God. That’s all introductory material leading to this chapter which reaches for the heart of who God is and how He has revealed Himself.
The subject of the Trinity is simultaneously the most important and most frequently misrepresented Christian truth. Nearly every Christian-esque cult on earth gets started by getting the Trinity wrong. To quote the Athanasian Creed, “And the catholic [universal] faith is this, that we worship one God in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity; Neither confounding the Persons, nor dividing the Substance.”I include a diagram showing this basic relationship between the parts of the Godhead. God is one divine substance and yet three persons.
The Persons of the Godhead, being one, have one will. They work always together, and never one smallest act is done by one without the instant acquiescence of the other two. Every act of God is accomplished by the Trinity in Unity. Here, of course, we are being driven by necessity to conceive of God in human terms. We are thinking of God by analogy with man, and the result must fall short of ultimate truth; yet if we are to think of God at all, we must do it by adapting creature-thoughts and creature-words to the Creator. It is a real if understandable error to conceive of the Persons of the Godhead as conferring with one another and reaching agreement by interchange of thought as humans do. — A. W. Tozer
Even in trying to understand this about God we will always fail. God has revealed much about who He is, but this aspect of God remains a mystery. If you want me to explain exactly how this works, I can only repeat what has already been said. This is what God is and if you can’t accept that an Infinite, Necessary Being is beyond yours and my own feeble minds to grasp or explain, then you are hopelessly unreachable. We know God is this because this is what He has revealed to us.
Without just copying and pasting all of the chapter here or writing out the Athanasian Creed in whole, I think I’m done. God is one substance and yet three persons. The Father is God. The Son is begotton of the Father and is God. The Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son and is God. Yet, there are not three gods, but one God. The Father is not created. The Son is not created. The Spirit is not created. The will of the Father always agrees with the will of the Son always agrees with the will of the Spirit.
Amen.
]]>“The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field, but while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away. So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared also. And the servants of the master of the house came and said to him, ‘Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have weeds?’ He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ So the servants said to him, ‘Then do you want us to go and gather them?’ But he said, ‘No, lest in gathering the weeds you root up the wheat along with them. Let both grow together until the harvest, and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, Gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.’” (Matthew 13:24-30)
God may permit evil to grow and allow good things to happen to all people for a time. But, someday soon, the harvest will come and evil of any kind will be tolerated no more. Let him who has an ear to hear, listen and repent! Amen.
]]>By providence, I came across a quote from a friend that I must strongly disagree with:
Jesus preached plenty about loving others, regardless of their beliefs. He didn’t ascribe other beliefs to the devil.
I do not know when he posted this quote or the full context, but I can say that this statement is categorically incorrect. From what context I do have, I know this is stated after insulting the integrity and infallibility of scripture. Now, this person would call himself a Christian, but I know he is not. I can, on the basis of this statement alone, say he is not a Christian. I am able to make that judgment only because Christ and his Apostles made the same judgment. I shall demonstrate.
Aside: I am about to make a scriptural defense of the doctrine I know to be true. I do this knowing that this person (and most others) do not trust scripture. However, I appeal to scripture because anyone called by God will trust it as an authority and will not casually cast it aside. Therefore, I speak to any seeker that may read this and, in the meantime, pray that my friend will be drawn to trust scripture one day and hope that with consistency and reliability I can demonstrate here might be able to help someone understand this issue. Amen.
Jesus, and his followers, are not OK with “other beliefs.” Other beliefs are, in fact, ascribed to the devil by Jesus. Let’s go through this and show how consistently and completely the BIble rejects other forms of belief. First, let’s start by saying that the English word for “other beliefs” is “idolatry.” In the words of my Oxford Dictionary, idolatry is “extreme admiration, love, or reverence for something or someone.” Idolatry is a very, very bad thing according to all of the Bible. In fact, it is number one on the list of the Ten Commandments:
You shall have no other gods before me. (Exodus 20:3)
I’d say that is pretty clear. However, just in case that’s not good enough, God elaborated and explained in detail what he meant:
You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments. (Exodus 20:4-6)
God is jealous. He wants us to worship Him and Him only on His terms and only on His terms. Anything less is idolatry by God’s own definition. So, let’s get it clear how bad idolatry is.
“Whoever sacrifices to any god, other than the LORD alone, shall be devoted to destruction.” (Exodus 22:20)
God commanded the death penalty for idolatry. While the death penalty is no longer commanded because Israel is no more and because of the fulfilling work of Christ on the cross, we have this knowledge still: God is jealous unto death that He be the only God worshipped in his chosen nation.
“You shall tear down their altars and break their pillars and cut down their Asherim (for you shall worship no other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God), …” (Exodus 34:13-14)
God is awesome and deserving of praise. Therefore, this kind of jealousy by him is a virtue where it would be idolatry for us to be jealous for the worship for ourselves or any other god. God is jealous for your worship.
“But the prophet who presumes to speak a word in my name that I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that same prophet shall die.” (Deuteronomy 18:20)
Anyone who claims to speak for God, but then speaks in the name of another was to suffer the death penalty in God’s chosen nation.
“‘Cursed be the man who makes a carved or cast metal image, an abomination to the LORD, a thing made by the hands of a craftsman, and sets it up in secret.’ And all the people shall answer and say, ‘Amen.’” (Deuteronomy 27:15)
This is a formal legal curse by God for anyone who even secret had idols in Israel. Even secret idolatry is condemned. If you worship an idol in your heart, you are under this curse.
“What accord has Christ with Belial? Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever? What agreement has the temple of God with idols?” (2 Corinthians 6:15-16)
The Church of Jesus Christ is completely incompatible with any other belief. Jesus may show compassion to sinners and unbelievers, but in the day of judgment, anyone who remains in unbelief will be judged and condemned.
“Let no one disqualify you, insisting on asceticism and worship of angels, going on in detail about visions, puffed up without reason by his sensuous mind, and not holding fast to the Head, from whom the whole body, nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments, grows with a growth that is from God.” (Colossians 2:18-19)
Even seemingly good practices like denying oneself physically can be idolatry if it usurps the primacy of God. Any practice or belief that stands in the place of worship of God is condemned and disqualifies one from achieving eternal glory.
“But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.” (Revelation 21:8)
Everyone lives forever. Some will spend eternity worshipping God in all his glory. The rest will suffer torment in a place described as a lake of fire.
But let’s hear it in Jesus’s own words. Let’s hear what our Lord and Savior has to say and see if he agrees with God the Father on this.
“No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.” (John 3:13-21)
Unbelievers stand condemned already before Jesus comes to them. Once this Jesus comes, you can either believe him on his terms and have eternal life, or you can die in your condemnation. Jesus will tolerate no other belief.
Then Jesus said to him, “Be gone, Satan! For it is written, “‘You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.’ ” (Matthew 4:10)
As for ascribing other beliefs (a.k.a. idolatry) to Satan, here is Jesus doing just that. Satan tried to get Jesus to worship something else, namely Satan. Jesus doesn’t condemn worshipping Satan, he condemns the worship of anything that is not God. Idolatry is exactly what Satan wants more of in any form because he hates God.
“Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. And you know the way to where I am going.” Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.” (John 14:1-7)
Jesus is preparing the way for those who believe in him. He offers no salvation for anyone else.
“So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets. Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.” (Matthew 7:12-14)
There is only one way Jesus accepts: His way. Every other way leads to destruction.
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’” (Matthew 7:21-23)
Therefore, it is not enough to believe in a Jesus. You must believe in the Jesus, this Jesus. The New Testament is full of references about false teachers and those who would try to add to or take away from the teaching Jesus came with. This too is condemned.
On this basis, I can say what I’ve said, “I can, on the basis of this statement [the quote at the top of this post] alone, say he is not a Christian.” It takes away from the clear and repeated teaching of every part of the Bible. There is one way and only one way to heaven. All other ways lead to death.
Jesus will certainly show mercy to anyone who comes to him. Jesus has even provided common grace for all to experience for a time. There are good things to be had by both believers and unbelievers in this life. Yet, the deciding time is now. All must die once and stand before judgment. Once dead, no man can change the course of his life. He will either be rewarded for his good works as a soul ransomed by Jesus or he will be condemned as a sinner. Jesus has left us with no third option. The decision stands before us all continually, even me, and demands an answer: Will you believe in Christ and call upon his name or will you worship the idol of your choice? Choose wisely.
Amen.
]]>
My quest to learn Greek continues. I am now working especially hard to memorize the various Greek prepositions and starting on learning about adjectives. I also have a few new tools in my hands this week than I had when I made my last post. For Christmas, my wife bought me the workbook to go with the Mounce text (see the Amazon referral link to the left of the page). I also bought an upgrade to Logos Bible Software 4.
I had almost convinced myself that I didn’t really need the workbook, but after I opened it up and started working through some of the exercises, I decided I was wrong. The practice in identifying nouns by case and performing some elementary translations has been really helpful already. Since I’m not taking a Greek course somewhere, I’m glad to find the answers for the workbook available from the author’s web site.
In the workbook, I’m well behind where I’m reading in the book, but that’s kind of a good thing as it is both a good review of the information I haven’t read in a few weeks and tends to be the stuff I really feel ready to to practice.
As for Logos, it gives me a nicely tagged an annotated version of the Greek manuscripts to work with as well as interlinear tools for study. As I continue to practice and expand my vocabulary, it will become more helpful in that it provides dictionaries, search tools, and other bits for seeing how various translators have treated words in their context. This will become increasingly important as I move beyond what the Mounce text is able to teach me (which is several months away).
In the text book, I’ve now read the chapter on adjectives. In Biblical Greek, adjectives have the interesting property that they will take on the gender, case, and number of the word they are applied to. This can help greatly when trying to understand which word the adjective modifies. This is important because Greek syntax allows words to be ordered for emphasis rather than for structure (this is different from English the position of an adjective tells you practically everything about what noun it modifies).
Anyway, since a Greek noun can switch genders depending on what noun it modifies, it can have practically every inflection possible. Whereas a noun will only ever take on the endings that are dictated by its gender.
My progress continues. I am now up to 130 flash cards (117 are vocabulary) and I have completed the first 6 exercises in workbook. I need to start timing my speed at reading 1 John 1 so I can start measuring my speed at reading the text aloud. I am starting to understand tidbits of it as I read, but I still have a long ways to go.
Cheers.
]]>Therefore I intend always to remind you of these qualities, though you know them and are established in the truth that you have. I think it right, as long as I am in this body, to stir you up by way of reminder, since I know that the putting off of my body will be soon, as our Lord Jesus Christ made clear to me. And I will make every effort so that after my departure you may be able at any time to recall these things. — 2 Peter 1:12-15
If you have not read it yet, you need to read the post on 2 Peter 1:5-7. There, Peter declares what it looks like to pursue maturity in Christ. As a reminder, the qualities Peter recommends include:
It is interesting that Peter writes this letter and says in it about the letter itself, “You already know this, but I am reminding you.” In this life, we face a conflict within ourselves. Christians have a new spirit of righteousness, but the same old corrupted flesh. (Galatians 5:17; Romans 7:14) As such, we must constantly be reminded of the fundamentals. Every mature Christian needs the same regular dose of the plain gospel as the new believer who is still working out the basics. In our carnal nature we still to desire that which we should not do and every one of us can stand to be reminded again. (Romans 7:15)
It tells us something more. Peter intended his letter to be read by you and me. Not specifically by name, but the letter is intended to be passed on to the following generations of believers. He magnifies this remark later on in chapter 3, but we will get to that later. For now, I want to point out that Peter knew his end was coming soon and that all that would be left of him were his writings. So, he wrote down these important reminders that every believer needs, “so that after my departure you may be able at any time to recall these things.” (2 Peter 1:15)
The final item of interest is that Peter saw the prophesied day approaching. Jesus Christ predicted Peter’s death. Jesus made this prophecy after the resurrection at the end of a story I find to be one of the most personally meaningful in the Bible.
I would love to retell the whole story, but you can read about it at the end of the Gospel of John in chapter 21. Basically, Jesus restores Peter following Peter’s three-time rejection of Christ on the morning before Jesus was crucified. Then, he says, “Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were young, you used to dress yourself and walk wherever you wanted, but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go.” John adds the comment here, “(This he said to show by what kind of death he was to glorify God.)” (John 21:18-19)
Jesus confirmed for Peter the thing which Peter had once swore he would do: die for Jesus. Peter had just proven himself faithless by denying Christ to save his own life the morning of Christ’s own crucifixion. Jesus tells Peter, after restoring, him (my paraphrase), “You will, in fact, die for my name as you promise.” Peter had to first learn the hard lesson that to do the work of Christ requires leaning on the grace of Christ. He failed to do that the night of the crucifixion. Tradition states that Peter was indeed crucified as Christ was, shortly after writing this letter of 2 Peter.
I think it would be a worthy goal of every Christian for his testimony to Christ be as Peter’s. To serve Christ so whole-heartedly that we would be a reminder to others to hold fast the fundamentals when we are gone. It is a worthy goal to hold so fast to the faith that we would be willing to face persecution and martyrdom for the name Christ. I don’t wish to face such a trial myself, but any man who does is greatly blessed in the day of such a trial. (Luke 6:22; Mark 13:13)
Cheers.
]]>Abusive Priests. “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!” (Isaiah 5:20) While a terrible tragedy, I do not find this abuse in the Roman church to be surprising. “They commit adultery and walk in lies; they strengthen the hands of evildoers, so that no one turns from his evil.” (Jeremiah 23:14) If that’s offensive, I won’t apologize, but I will explain. They have embraced and engaged in teaching terrible apostacy. From teaching works-based salvation to elevating saints and Mary to priests and intercessors (a position now held only by Jesus) to elevating a single man as the sole and absolute arbiter of truth on earth who is also not Jesus, they hold to the definition of false teaching. Then, they further prove this by their moral failings. The Bible warns us that false teachers are sensual and godless sinners. (2 Peter 2) The Roman church must return to it’s roots and return to the Jesus in the Bible if it really wants to remove this stain. The Roman church must, itself, repent.
Calvinism. Eddy Eddings is just plain funny.
No really, he’s funny!
Science and Religion. Scientists are very tolerant and open minded. Not. It might be found not true or it might be thrown out on a technicality, but this is real. It is becoming less and less acceptable in America and in scientific fields to express opinions that are considered deviant.
Climate Change. I saw a number of articles related to the Met Office’s abysmal record on predicting seasonal weather patterns lately. It seems they want things to be more doomy and gloomy than matching with reality. This article about Piers Corbyn is a good summary that shows where the climate change fear-mongering is just whacky and not based on reality.
Fact Checking. The Wall Street Journal has a great article this week on one of my recent peeves, the fact checking web site. It’s not that fact checking is not a good idea or that having a web site dedicated to the task is a bad idea. The problem is that to do so and claim to be objective is specious and misleading. Unless you are able to cover every angle of the issue in you fact checking, you will be promoting just spin and your own opinions. Very often, something is both true and false merely by defining your terms. The “Death Panels” are an excellent example. Sarah Palin was blasted by several fact checkers over that term, but they did so by avoiding the definition she uses for the term. I might be persuaded that it was unfair demagoguery, but so are many of the “facts” used to sell ObamaCare. How many fact checkers avoided those topics or chose to support the definitions selected by the bills supporters? I don’t know, but that’s the problem.
FOXNews Bashing. I wondered about it when I saw it posted to Slashdot, it seemed a little too convenient. A recent report that is being used to bash FOXNews is actually not a very good argument against FOXNews. Previous surveys have shown that viewers of the FOX tend to be very well informed. It turns out that the report itself uses questionable methodology and even states within itself that to blame FOX over this one report is uncalled for.
Christianity. I enjoy the work of J. C. Ryle. Someday, I hope to actually finish reading Old Paths. A recent quote of the day from Ryle makes a great point about Christianity. We must find our truth from facts. Either Jesus was a real person who said the things the Bible says he said, or Christianity is completely false. The good news is, the facts are on our side.
Fatherhood. This one goes pretty much without explanation. If a father attends church, his children probably will. If he does not, his children probably will not.
Net Neutrality. Net neutrality sounds like a good idea, but it does not mean what you think it means. And Internet access is definitely, definitely not a civil right..
Black Kettles. Any time an actor or rock star criticizes the earnings of someone else, it’s worth a laugh. Thanks, Ben Affleck.
Santa. He had a hard year.
Google Docs. And, in case you haven’t seen it yet, this was an diverting waste of time.
Cheers.
]]>The child, the philosopher, and the religionist have all one question: “What is God like?”
This book is an attempt to answer that question. Yet at the outset I must acknowledge that it cannot be answered except to say that God is not like anything; that is, He is not exactly like anything or anybody. — A. W. Tozer
As a father, this is something I can say I have experienced to a limited extent from the other end of the spectrum now. One of the interesting facts of childhood is that your parents are like gods, incomprehensible, and totally sovereign. As you grow older, you learn that this is not actually the case, but the knowledge of a three or four year old, this is true enough. Young children only know God in what they see in their earthly father and mother.
From the other side, I know that I have a hard time explaining some things to my son. He’s now four, but he sometimes asks the most extremely difficult questions. For example, he asked me what I do at work. How do I explain taxes, tax collection, payments, credit cards, checks, electronic checks, banking, fees, and all other tidbits? (That’s not even covering the software development aspects.) I didn’t. The conversation was something like this:
Dad: You like to play at the park?
Son: Yes. (delivered with a condescending glare)
Dad: Well, because we own a house near the park, we help pay for all the fun
things you play with at the park. That’s called taxes.
Son: That’s silly.
Dad: At work, I help people pay their taxes so that the parks near their
houses will be fun to play on.
Son: Can we go play cars now?
I find most of what I do at work nearly incomprehensible and I have a pretty good grasp on this stuff. He’s four and without hope of really understanding any of this for at least a dozen years and probably will never understand it to the depth I have unless he ends up in local government.
The intellect knoweth that it is ignorant of Thee because it knoweth Thou canst not be known, unless the unknowable could be known, and the invisible beheld, and the inaccessible attained. — Nicholas of Cusa
God is infinitely more incomprehensible. We have all of eternity to get acquainted and we’ll never finish the task of knowing God as He truly is.
I think Tozer strikes a blow to the heart of human knowledge when he says, “We want a God we can in some measure control.” This is true of virtually every scientific or pursuit of knowledge. We want to take the complex and difficult to understand things and make them simple. Historically, people often did this by using superstition. Now, we make educated guesses, but still make the mistake of thinking we understand complex issues better than we do.
Whether it’s biology or meteorology or anthropology or psychology or paleontology or physics or mathematics or anything else, in most areas of most fields we have just enough knowledge to ask a few interesting questions. Assuming we continue to push our knowledge forward for the next hundred years, or great-grandchildren will be laughing at some of our ridiculous notions just as we can laugh at the fact that 100 years ago people worried that if you drove in a car too fast your face might tear off.
“The God of contemporary Christianity is only slightly superior to the gods of Greece and Rome, if indeed He is not actually inferior to them in that He is weak and helpless while they at least had power.”
In the case of God, most of humanity wants a safe god. He’s like a bigger than life person. He’s cool, he’s nice, he really wants to do whatever we want him to do. He’s not very demanding and he really wants us to have fun. Or whatever idol that is constructed. Most of the gods out there are created in man’s image and not the incomprehensible and terrifying and yet merciful God of the Bible.
In Christ and by Christ, God effects complete self-disclosure, although He shows Himself not to reason but to faith and love. Faith is an organ of knowledge, and love an organ of experience.
This is really a restatement of Matthew 11:27, “All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.”
If the Son chooses to reveal himself to you, you will know something about the Father. You will know enough. If the Son does not choose to reveal himself to you, you will know nothing of the Father and nothing of God. This is not a cosed invitation. All are welcome to seek the Son and the revelation He can provide of the Father.
“What is God like?” If by that question we mean “What is God like in Himself?” there is no answer. If we mean “What has God disclosed about Himself that the reverent reason can comprehend?” there is, I believe, an answer both full and satisfying.
Through the Word, that is Jesus and his scripture, you can learn enough of the Father to know God. But this knowledge is never complete. We all must start with the holy terror that is God and move from there to full understanding of his holiness and his mercy. (Provers 1:7)
Cheers.
]]>Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. — Philippians 2:5-11
This time of year, a lot is said about Christmas in the world and most of it is either wrong or missing the point. Some will say Christmas is about giving or Christmas is about mercy or Christmas is about charity or Christmas is about peace on earth and goodwill toward men. All of these may be excellent, but all of them miss the point. Christmas is about Christ (it is the Christ Mass after all) and not just any Christ, but the Christ. He is God become flesh, born of virgin birth, raised as a carpenters son, engaged in a three year long ministry, willingly chose to die on the cross, and is raised to life on the third day. He is a real historical person. All of human history centers on this one man and Christmas is when we celebrate his arrival on earth.
For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.” And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying,
“Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!” — Luke 2:11-14
Christ’s whole ministry, even including his birth, was humble. He was born to peasants. His mother was probably still a teenager when Jesus was born. We do not know anything about the circumstances of the birth itself, but we know that his very first bed was a feeding trough for horses or cattle, probably in a stable or cave. His birth was announced by angels, but the announcement is not sent to any religious or political authorities, but to some local sheep herders. We know that his father was a laborer, most likely a carpenter, but possibly a mason. He was taught in the synagogue as was the custom among Jews of that day, but this was not a prestigious training such as the apostle Paul received, but the more common variety. Humility more than anything else characterized the life of Christ even though He was God. (John 1:1)
There are those who would distract from Jesus at this time to examine Mary, even to the point of engaging in heretical idol worship of her. Mary was no goddess. She had no special power. She has no power now. She was not especially virtuous or holy or conceived without sin or whatever. All of that is just made up by overzealous blasphemers. Mary was chosen to be the most blessed mother of the Messiah. That is quite enough honor to be had all by itself. “all generations will call me blessed.” (Luke 1:48) I’m certain she would be horrified by how some have chosen to magnify her. In her own words, “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant.” (Luke 1:46-48) Magnify Christ and through him the Father, anything less is idolatry.
There are yet others who want to make Christ less than He is. The unitarians, the Mormons, the Jehovah’s Witnesses, and all the other Socinians, to them Jesus is just a god or like a god or created by God as another god. These too are blasphemers who will, if they fail to repent, be forced to admit that Christ is Lord one day, but it will not be a pleasant admission. (Philippians 2:11; Revelation 20:15) Christ may have humbled himself to take on the nature of man (Philippians 2:8) and may have submitted to the Father (John 5:19), but is fully God and was never anything less. (John 1:1-2; John 10:30; 1 Corinthians 8:6; Titus 2:13; 1 John 5:20)
Christmas is about Jesus Christ. It is a time to reflect upon Him and the work of redemption He provides. Christmas is a time to reflect upon his birth, his life, and his ministry. Jesus was a man of humble origins seeking to bring humbles sinners to repentance. He healed a few, but did not heal everyone. He blessed a few, but not everyone. He invited a few to follow Him, but not everyone. He even admonished, yelled at, and whipped a few who deserved it. (John 2:15)
Above, all he came to bring a message, which I think is summed up perfectly in John 3:1-21, when he spoke to Nicodemus, the rabbi about being born again. He concludes with this:
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their deeds were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his deeds have been carried out in God.” — John 3:16-21
Left to ourselves, we all stand condemned. The invitation to come into the light is still at hand. May each of us seek the light anew or seek it now for the first time.
To Christ be all the glory and honor and to the Father and to the Holy Spirit. Amen.
]]>Expository Preaching. Matthew Harmon has posted a repost of 10 Reasons for Expository Preaching. Expository preaching is not the only kind of sermon that can be done, but preaching slowly and steadily through a book is, quite simply, the best and most reliable way to understand Scripture. I don’t think the value of expository preaching cannot be overstated
Calvinism. Eddie Eddings has a lovely little card featuring a great quote from R.C. Sproul:
Christmas. This is an instant classic. Too bad they have to go and ruin it with amillienialism. :-p
Atheism. This is by no means the best argument against atheism, but it does make a point. Atheists seem to be selecting themselves out of the gene pool by failing to reproduce. Apparently, believing in Darwinism is not a good survival trait because, for humans, bringing children into the world is more an act of faith than of survival.
Sins. In case you need a reminder of the deadly sins going into the holiday season.
Mormonism. Mormon Coffee had an interesting post this week that illuminates just how exactly Mormonism can claim to find support in the Bible, but gets it so wrong. When the historic founders of your doctrine don’t have the time to study what he’s talking about from the Bible you can expect to fall into deep heresy. I know many find people who are Mormons but, as the saying goes, there will be many nice people in Hell. It’s not enough to acknowledge Jesus Christ as Lord, you have to acknowledge the correct one and worship Him according to the truth. Romans 10:1-4 is speaking about Paul’s kin, the Israelite, but I think it applies quite well to LDS, ” Brothers, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved. I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. For, being ignorant of the righteousness that comes from God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.”
Iraq War. Apparently Katie Couric recently interview Condoleezza Rice with regard to our original reasons for going to war in Iraq. Rice does a nice job of explaining why the reasoning that led to the war was sound, even if in hindsight it turned out to be based upon faulty intelligence. I admit to having mixed feelings about the war in Iraq and whether we really should have gone there, but the whole “Bush Lied” thing is a crock. Saying that we shouldn’t have gone there on the justification we used is one thing, but saying that Bush and Rice exaggerated the intelligence from the get go is about as useful as questioning where President Obama was born.
Mexico. There’s an interesting piece over at RedState discussing the rather difficult nature of our southern neighbors in Mexico. We haven’t invaded Mexico in a century, but perhaps that may have to change soon if Mexico cannot get a hole of itself.
Weapons. This is cool. I want a rail gun too.
Education. From the I-can’t-believe-she-still-has-a-job department, a teacher who asked fellow kindergartners to vote on whether a certain student standing in front of the class should be allowed to continue going to school has been able to settle the lawsuit brought against the school district by the family of the child and keep her job. It’s good to know there are high quality public teaching professionals available. cough
Healthcare. A judge has found Obamacare unconstitutional. Well. Duh.
Climate Change. In an interesting case study of why subsidies are stupid, we now see that subsidizing good chemicals over bad has resulted in Europe helping fund the manufacture of bad chemical in China that are making it into the American black market. Mucking in free markets is always a dicey business. I’m not a fan.
Phones. This is hilarious, but scarily I could actually see something like it happening in a few years:
Software Development. Lastly, I’d like to share some excellent programming quotes. If you are a software monkey, married to a software monkey, or work with software monkeys, you’ll probably laugh at least a few of these.
Merry Christmas!
]]>
For if these qualities are yours and increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins. Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to make your calling sure, for if you practice these qualities you will never fail. For in this way there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. — 2 Peter 1:8-11
Peter is now reinforcing for us the purpose of having the virtues he enumerated previously in verses 5-7. “For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brother affection with love.”
Verses 8, 10, and 11 give us the good news while verse 9 gives us the bad. Let’s start there. If you, as a Christian believer, fail to practice and work on these virtues you are as good as blind and you will lack the assurance of salvation. As James 1:23-24 puts it, “For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he look at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like.” It isn’t good enough to know belief, but you must do it. If you don’t do it, it’s almost as good as being an unbeliever. How can you be assured of salvation if you don’t behave as if you believed it?
On the other hand, if you do these things. If you take hold of your faith and supplement it with virtue, then move on to knowledge, then on to self-control, then to steadfastness, then on to godliness, and then on to brotherly affection, and finally take hold of love, you will avoid being ineffective and unfruitful in your pursuit of God. (v. 8) This pursuit will bring you assurance of your salvation. (v. 10) Finally, this assurance will prove fruitful when you finally pass from life into death and into life again through the resurrection, so long as you pursue these virtues until the end. (v. 11)
This passage is, overall, about our role in working out our own faith. Faith is not some magical gift delivered by God that somehow works itself out. We can’t just sit on our laurels and do nothing once God has chosen us. “Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.” (Philippians 2:12) God, in turn, rewards this diligence with assurance.
Cheers.
]]>