Consider †his!

The Capped Idol of Copeland-Hagin, Part 7: More on the Image of God

2011-11-30T20:39:00.001-05:00

A thought occurred to me, as it has a tendency to do, that I hadn’t considered when I wrote my multi-part series on the Word of Faith — or, as I called it, the Word™ of Faith™ — movement. One of the foundational thoughts behind the idea that we “mere mortals” can harness the power that God allegedly harnessed when He “spoke the world into existence” is that Adam and Eve, and therefore every single one of their descendants (that includes you), resembles God.

In this article I want to examine a little better the first story of the first man & woman as told in Genesis 2:5-3:24.

Genesis 2:5-7 tells of the specific creation of Adam, the first man. While it does not say that Adam was created “in the image of God,” let’s assume that this is an extended version of the short story recorded in Genesis 1:26-28. That would indicate that Adam, and later Eve in Genesis 2:18-23, were created in God’s image.

The great struggle with that term “in the image of God” has always been the extent of that image. Does it mean that God is humanoid? Does it mean that God has 5 fingers on each of 2 hands, a single head, and so forth? More importantly, does it mean that Adam and Eve were replicas of God, with all the abilities He has? And what about their offspring?

Consider †his: no matter how much Adam, Eve, you, and I resemble God, we were never like God … not even before the first sin.

How can I say this? Let’s start with Genesis 2:16-17. God gave Adam his diet plan: every tree except one is available. That tells us two things: first, Adam ate, and second, Adam wasn’t allowed to eat from one specific tree.

So does that mean that God eats? Does that mean that God is not allowed to do certain things? That leads to an even more important question: is God subservient to someone or something else? Well, Charles Capps alleged that God used “the power of His [Faith™]” to create all this, as if God’s power wasn’t adequate. That, though, would result in circular reasoning, since Capps concluded that based on tons of misinterpretations of other Scriptures ripped from their context.

Genesis 2:18-24 brings forth a second trait of Adam: it wasn’t good that he be alone. But he wasn’t alone, for God walked with him. Still, God said that he needed a helper, and none of the animals filled that slot. Thus God created Woman, later named Eve, from one of Adam’s ribs. That leads us to know that Adam needed Eve.

So what about God? Many have speculated that He somehow “needs” mankind to love, since He is love (1 John 4:7-8). That’s stretching things a bit, though. After all, what did He do before He made us? He is I AM. He is eternal. He existed before anything was created. How did He fulfill this alleged “need” before He created Adam? Yes, the Bible refers to those who choose Him as their God as His “bride,” but the connection is still rather thin.

The biggest difference, though, comes in one of the saddest sections of the Bible: Genesis 3:1-7. The serpent tempts Eve by first trying to claim that God lied. Genesis 3:5, though, pegs it: he claims that Eve will be like God after she eats the fruit. How could this have been a temptation to someone “made in the image of God” if that truly meant that she was exactly like Him? Can God sin? (James 1:13 is just one of numerous answers to that question.)

In summary, Adam and Eve, before they sinned, if they were created “in the image of God,” were not identical to God in that:

they had a command to follow;
they needed someone other than God;
they didn’t know the difference between good and evil;
they could sin.

So, you tell me: does “made in the image of God” really mean that we are exactly like Him? Did it ever mean that?

You Are Not Alone!

2011-10-02T20:32:00.000-04:00

One way that our great enemy, the devil, loves to try to get to us is to make us feel alone and isolated. After all, he schemes, if man cannot connect with you, certainly a superhuman God cannot understand what you’re going through. Never mind what you’re going through is common (a bit of generalization of 1 Corinthians 10:13). Never mind that God With Us and in us knows what we’re going through.

No matter what you’re going through, you are not alone!

That’s the premise for a book being released this week from Civitas Press, called Not Alone: Stories of Living with Depression. You can get it on Amazon right now. The book is unique in that it brings together a variety of different stories from a variety of different people on the topic of depression. What is it like to go through depression? What’s it like to come out of depression? Why do some people feel depressed even when they try to “think positive?”

I’m part of a “blog festival” promoting the book. I don’t get any “kickback” from this other than a link from the editor’s blog. I’m also a contributor to the book.

Allow me to share with you some snippets from my contribution to the book:

For all we know about it today, depression remains stigmatized by society, especially the one place where safety should be found: the church. So many people don’t realize that depression may very well be “just in your head,” but that it’s a real medical condition, at least for some of us.

I’ve been diagnosed with, and treated for, a serotonin imbalance. This means, in essence, that much of my depression & anxiety is outside of my mental control. I can’t “think it away” with “positive thoughts” or excitement. In fact, “excitement” can often trigger panic & anxiety attacks, which are related. The beginning of my recovery might be disappointing for some hoping for a “miracle.” I went on an antidepressant and a tranquilizer, taken as needed, for those times when I get out of control. That may seem boring, even undesirable to some, but for me it was a miracle.

The medications remove one of the barriers to my healing: whatever glandular defects are involved that inhibit either the production or proper usage of serotonin. Yes, that’s how I treat the physiological part of my depression, as a physical defect. No, that doesn’t mean God made a mistake, any more than He did when someone is born without arms or legs, or with Type 1 diabetes. I look at the medications as a Type 1 diabetic looks at insulin: it’s “medically necessary” for my survival.

The psychological part of it has been a different story. No, you really can’t tell what aspects of your depression are purely from the serotonin issues and what aspects are psychological results of the physical. I’m no psychiatrist or psychologist, but I haven’t been able to distinguish between the two. Both feed on each other. Hurt compounds on hurt, anxiety upon anxiety, excuse for depression upon excuse.

You read that correctly. I called it an “excuse.” In Christ there really is no excuse for depression outside of the physical. That’s not saying recovery is easy, especially if you’ve dealt with the physical issues for years before getting treatment. It took over 30 years for me to be diagnosed officially with depression, but it was the same moment that I learned of the physical side of it. As the physical side is overcome, it’s time to start believing the promises found in God’s Word, such as there being no condemnation in Christ (Romans 8:1) or that nothing can separate us from His love (Romans 8:31-39 … I suggest The Living Bible, if you can find it, for this particular passage).

For the rest of my story, and for stories from several others, go get the book.

Still, Consider †his: God still extends grace and mercy no matter what “excuse” we have for what we do.

I have issues with depression, panic, and anxiety, stress and worry, and many other things that are essentially out of my control … I don’t know how to deal with them or make them stop. I can listen to the “God cannot stand sin” people and believe that I have no hope … or I can listen to the God of the Bible and know that He still loves me. That doesn’t always help the body chemistry going whacko, but it keeps me alive.

The Capped Idol of Copeland-Hagin, Part 6: The Word of Faith vs. The Word of God!

2011-09-07T21:39:00.004-04:00

As always, allow me to provide links to Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, and Part 5 of the series so far.

In this post, I want to deal once and for all with the Word™ of Faith™ heresy. I've described so far how this group believes that the spoken word, whether it be a Biblical quotation or something based on it, uttered in what they consider to be faith, activates a creative power in each of us, since we are all made in the image of God.

Previous articles in this series have dealt with these beliefs, and how they compare to what the Bible actually says in context. The final issue to address here is in the power of the spoken word. This idea that the words must be spoken to be effective is unusual, to say the least. It has always made me wonder about the mute, the person with a tracheotomy stoma before technology allowed him to speak again, or even the person with laryngitis. Then again, I suppose those people just didn't have enough Faith™ to speak against their illnesses and disabilities while they still could.

Yeah, that sounds like a merciful and grace-filled God.

Not.

The Bible does speak of the importance of communicating the gospel to everybody. It takes courage to say out loud that you believe that Jesus Christ is Lord (or LORD, to use the term some translations use to represent the actual name of God), especially in areas that are hostile to any belief system other than the "official" one … areas such as the United States, steeped as it is in the belief of naturalistic "science" and "tolerance" of anything except Christ. (Of course, we are hardly persecuted compared to other parts of the world … at least as of this writing.)

There's nothing significant that I can see, though, about the actual sounds emitted from our throats. If it were, I'd have to wonder if we were using the correct language, or if Faith™ is intelligent enough to speak whatever language we speak.

I have to agree with what some writers claim. Consider †his: the practice of speaking certain words out loud to summon powers outside of ourselves comes not from Scripture, but from the occult! To think that "confessing" Bible verses mandates that God or Faith™ must act upon them is significantly closer to the idea of the mystical incantation, the "open sesame" for the magic door or the "abra cadabra" that enables genie-like forces to work.

Naturally the practitioners of the spoken confession know better than to "confess" that their practices so closely resemble witchcraft. Even they know that they cannot admit to that without somebody seeing through their ruse. Instead, they insist that their way is the way, and threaten those who would come against them or their teaching.

The problem is that, one day, they will see another word, the Word of God made flesh (John 1:1-10) who promised no genie to come on command, but Who will one day judge these people for turning their backs on Him and His spoken words, choosing instead the lying angel that Kenneth Copeland claims to hear from. (I still say that could be true, as long as we recognize that a third of the angels chose to go with the devil in rebellion against God.)

Consider †his: our salvation is not in the spoken Word™ of Faith™ that makes promises it cannot keep, then blames our failure of Faith™ to cover up its own lie. Our salvation is in the Almighty Word of God, Jesus Christ! In Him we can do all things (Philippians 4:10-13). He is before all things, and in Him — not our Faith™ —all things hold together (Colossians 1:17)! The substance of worship belongs to Christ; let no one disqualify you, insisting on … worship of angels, going on in details … and not holding fast to the Head, which is Christ! (Colossians 2:8-23)

Let's be honest, though. Don't we all from time to time use a pre-written "prayer," rather than talk with God using our own words? Don't we all from time to time quote a verse out of context, or utter the phrase "in the name of Jesus," as if it brought about some sort of power? I still find myself stumbling down that path. Is that any less of an "incantation?" Perhaps if it reminds us of Whose we are … but, no, I have to be honest with myself here. I fall into that same trap.

As I researched for this specific post, I came across several links to other sites that have more to say on the subject. Rather than plagiarize from them, allow me to close with links to them. Then, in true faith in Christ, pray and repent of any connection to the occult you may inadvertently have caused by believing in "positive confession" or the Word™ of Faith™.

I know I will.

The links are:

The WORD on the Word of Faith (blog)
"Word Faith teaching - A spiritual copy of Mind Sciences" (via Let Us Reason)
"Word Of Faith Movement" page on Deception in the Church
"Positive Confession" on The Watchman Expositor (not affiliated with the Jehovah's Witnesses, as far as I know)

The Capped Idol of Copeland-Hagin, Part 5: The Truth About Faith

2011-09-06T21:51:00.003-04:00

For the record, here are the links to Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4 of this series.

So, finally, we get to the Christian “f-word” — faith! In earlier parts of this series, I have been disgusted with discussed what I’ve called “Faith™,” the trademark symbol representing the false faith that the Word™ of Faith™ movement pushes on folks. For those just coming in, three of the big talkers in the Word™ of Faith™ movement are Kenneth Hagin and his Rhema school, Kenneth Copeland, and Charles Capps; from their names come my punny title for the series. Oh, and the trademark symbol after Word™? It represents the all-important “spoken word” idea that I’ll be covering in the appropriately-numbered Part 6 of the series.

So what is faith? Do a word search on “faith” on Bible Gateway or any other Bible-related search page, and you’ll get tons of references, depending on the translation you search. Be careful, though! Satan knows how to take Scripture out of context, as he does when taking the verses on faith and using them to support the kind of Faith™ that dethrones God and tries to place us alongside of Him!

First, let’s look at how a modern dictionary, in this case an edition of the Oxford Dictionary, defines faith:

1 complete trust or confidence in someone or something : this restores one’s faith in politicians.

2 strong belief in God or in the doctrines of a religion, based on spiritual apprehension rather than proof.

a system of religious belief : the Christian faith.
a strongly held belief or theory : the faith that life will expand until it fills the universe.

I personally have some issues with definition #2, especially the “spiritual apprehension rather than proof” idea, but I’ll deal with that later. Instead, I’d define “faith” as something like this: faith is a deep-seated belief that fosters complete trust in the person or thing in which that faith is placed.

That brings up a few important qualities about faith. First, faith isn’t alone; one has to have faith in someone or something. Second, faith in the wrong person or thing does not guarantee that it becomes real. Finally, faith can change how we look at things.

Here’s where atheists and anti-theists can start getting flaky. We all have some sort of faith in some sort of idea. That’s how our minds work. Students of deductive reasoning should know that any set of deduction, or proof of a theory, must start with some set of “givens.” These are ideas that are accepted as true, or are the results of previous lines of reasoning. For example, I assume that what I’m typing right now will be published on my blog once I hit the “Publish” button. That comes, in part, from past experience, from reading the instructions (yes, I’m a guy and I read the instructions first … well, usually), and from assuming that the system is working “properly.” On the other hand, I’m a software engineer. I know that Blogger doesn’t always work “properly.” Since I can’t tell until I try, I assume that I’ll be able to recover this if I need to, thanks to Blogger claiming it is saving periodically. (Again, though, that’s having faith in the little “Save” button that changes to “Saving…” all on its own once in a while.)

Regarding God and/or things beyond the natural, I assume — I have faith — that all natural things do not necessarily compose the entirety of existence. To put it another way, I don’t have faith that the only things that exist are the natural. That’s where I differ from many atheists and anti-theists. They want “proof,” rather than faith. I say, though, that there is no “proof” that they can accept because it violates their faith in the lack of the supernatural, or their faith in the non-existence of anything that cannot be proven using their methods and their assumptions or “givens.”

Did you see something important in that last paragraph? My faith in God makes Him no more real than the atheist’s faith against God! God is either real, or He is not. My belief doesn’t affect that, nor does the atheist’s belief. There is no inherent power in the faith of either one of us to create or destroy God.

On the other hand, my faith in God allows me to accept the gifts He gives me (Romans 5:1-2), which includes faith in Him (1 Corinthians 12:4-11; Ephesians 2:1-10). That allows me to do so much more through Him. He who has faith in himself alone has nothing else to stand on. In that sense, then, my faith gives me different abilities. On the other hand, the atheist who has faith only in the natural will see a similar advantage from her point of view. Each one’s faith, then, gives us the courage — and perhaps even the power — to see, hear, and do a variety of different things that we wouldn’t do otherwise.

The Word™ of Faith™ movement claims that God used “His Faith™” to speak things into existence. True faith doesn’t do that. In fact, God needs no faith! How can an all-knowing being have faith? He already knows what we will do, and He knew it before Eve plucked the forbidden fruit from the tree and passed some on to Adam. He knew the stupid mistakes and evil desires of our hearts when Jesus was nailed to the cross for them! God is not human, needing faith. We are not gods, knowing all. God doesn’t need us, but we need the living Word of God (John 1:1-10)!

This is just the nutshell version of what true faith in God is all about. It makes no sense to the mind of the person who insists that there is no God. It didn’t make sense to me while I made that choice … while I had faith in the naturalistic ideas forming the foundation of current scientific “knowledge.” It didn’t make sense to me until He opened my eyes and challenged my assumptions … my faith without Him.

What will it take to allow you to Consider †his?

The Capped Idol of Copeland-Hagin, Part 4: The True Image of God

2011-09-05T21:58:00.004-04:00

Just as a reminder, this is part 4 in a series. Click on these links for Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3.

In this part, I want to deal with one of the two factors that the Word™ of Faith™ movement gets wrong: the image of God. As I mentioned earlier, part of the power behind the heresy is that, since we are create “in the image of God,” then we must be like God. At this point they carry it so far as to claim that we have the same power through Faith™ that God does. (The earlier parts will explain why I put the little “trademark” symbol after the word “faith” when referring to what they call “faith,” and a similar mark for “word.” A future installment will deal with faith vs. Faith™ in greater detail.)

First, I’d like to refer you to one of my favorite sites, GotQuestions.org, and their response to the question, “What does it mean that man is made in the image of God?” While this doesn’t cover everything I want to address, it provides a good starting point.

There are several issues to deal with when talking about man being made in the image of God:

What, exactly, does “the image of God” mean?
What does the “image of God” not include?
Are we still in the image of God?

The first point is: What, exactly, does “the image of God” mean? The Hebrew word translated “image” in Genesis 1:26-27 refers to a shade, a phantom, an illusion, a resemblance, or a representative figure, “especially an idol” according to Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance. This could, therefore, refer to God’s physical appearance, or something similar to it. In modern terms, a photograph, painting, statue, or digital image (note the word) could apply. In modern usage we can also refer to someone as the “image” of a relative. For example, if a son looks exactly like his father did at the son’s present age, we can say that the boy is an “image” of his dad.

Genesis 1:26-27 also refers to “likeness” in many translations. The Hebrew word is related to the word for “resemblance.” It can also refer to a model or shape. The same type of arguments mentioned above apply here as well. A likeness is even less concrete than an image. Again, though, something with the same shape as a dog, for example, isn’t a dog.

The point often made regarding the “image of God,” though, comes from John 4:24, where we are told that God is spirit. “Spirit” here can refer to the breath of life; the Greek word, in fact, is the root of our word “pneumatic,” as in something that is inflated with air. Genesis 2:7 says that man, unique among the other creatures, was given the “breath of life;” some translations complete the sentence saying that man became a “living spirit.” Again, this says nothing about power or abilities, only that we, like our Creator, are also spirit.

The second point to look at is: What does the “image of God” not include? As we saw earlier, an “image” or “likeness” is not necessarily a full replica of the original. Can a photograph of you do everything you can do? No, it cannot. It cannot move. It cannot speak. It cannot do your homework. It cannot fill in for you at work. It cannot love, hate, breathe, or die. An image does not necessarily have the same abilities as the original. The son that is the “spitting image” of his dad cannot necessarily do everything his parent can do, because the boy may not be old enough or not properly trained the same way that his dad was. The father’s abilities aren’t automatically passed on to the son.

The third point is: Are we still in the image of God? I believe this is the most important point in the whole discussion. Adam was made in the image and likeness of God. Since Eve came from Adam, she was also made in His image (which doesn’t mean that God is somehow both male and female, by the way). Like God, they were sinless. Unlike God, though, they had the ability to sin. And sin they did! Once Adam ate of the forbidden fruit, they both saw that they were naked, and they both became self-absorbed. Genesis 3:14-24 record the consequences of their sin. They had separated themselves from God. They hid from God; God didn’t hide from them! There would be pain, sweat, and death in their future and that of their offspring. What’s curious is that God said that they had become more like Him after eating from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil (Genesis 3:22). No matter what, the image had changed.

With all of that in mind, the final question arises: do we have the same creative power that God has? I have to conclude that no, we do not have the same power to create something from nothing. We do not have the power to “speak what is not as if it were.” Even if God had to depend on Faith™ to create, mankind does not necessarily have that same ability now, if we ever did.

I am not saying that we do not have God-given gifts! John 14:1-14 says that we will do greater deeds than even Jesus Himself did before His death, resurrection, and ascension. John 15:1-11 tells us, though, that we can do nothing apart from Him. It doesn’t say that we need Faith™! It doesn’t say that we are connected to Faith™ through speaking His words; the seven sons of Sceva can attest to that (Acts 19:11-20).

As I continue this series, I want to deal, of course, with the true meaning of faith, and how it actually connects to the power of God. I also want to show some of the history of the Word™ of Faith™ movement, and how it is little more than occult practices wrapped up in a Christian wrapper.

How would you answer the questions I pose? Are we still in the image of God? What does that mean to you?

The Capped Idol of Copeland-Hagin, Part 3: The Idol and The Image

2011-09-02T17:57:00.003-04:00

This is the third part in a series on a great heresy that has permeated the thought processes of too many Christians. Part 1 provides the basics in a chat I had with a friend, whom I’m calling “Bobbi Sue.” Part 2 starts dealing with some of the belief system involved. In there I refer to something I’ve chosen to call “Faith™” … the little “trademark” symbol is there to represent what they refer to as “faith,” as opposed to the more common definitions of the term, including the Bible.

So what is faith? References to faith occur throughout the Bible. We are saved by grace through faith that doesn’t even come from us, so that we cannot even brag about that (Ephesians 2:8). Faith allows us to persevere, assured that what we do not see right now or that we hope will happen will be there, if not something even better (Hebrews 10:32-12:2). Faith gave courage to those who were in dire straits in the world — those who were poor, literally beaten down, and without any earthly hope (Hebrews 11:32-40). Faith even gave people like Moses the courage to go against the “good life” of being a Prince of Egypt to do what God had called him to do (Hebrews 11:23-27)!

So what is Faith™? I almost wish I still had some of Charles Capps’ books handy, so I could cite passages to you that should make you fear for his very soul. Faith™ is the creative power “activated” by our rhema (see Part 2 for more details) — our actual spoken words, which I’m calling the Word™. Faith™ does what we command, if we believe without any doubt! Faith™ permits no questioning of its existence, its abilities, or its availability. Faith™ is within all of us, and it is our “responsibility” to bring it to life and effect those changes we are told are necessary to be made on this planet. Faith™ requires our spoken word to work, and it requires a complete absence of doubt! If what we speak does not come to pass, then our Faith™ was inadequate. (How that fits in with Deuteronomy 18:20-22 is, it seems, another story.) Faith™ doesn’t fail; we fail with our lack of Faith™.

Perhaps the most chilling part of the whole discussion, to me, was when Capps started discussing Genesis 1’s account of creation. As I mentioned in the previous part of this series, God used His spoken word to create the universe. Capps goes way out on a limb by saying that “God used His Faith™ to bring the universe into existence!” What does this say to you?

This says to me that God is not all-powerful! It says that God had to use a power limited in its powerfulness by the “spoken word” to do something He apparently could not do on his own!

The bigger connection, though, comes with a wild interpretation of Genesis 1:26-27. There it refers to God making “man” (“male and female” “man,” so don’t freak out, ladies) “in his [God’s] own image.” The exact meaning of this phrase has been a bone of contention for centuries. The bottom line, though, is that the Word™ of Faith™ teachers claim this means that mankind has exactly the same power as God! We were created “in His image,” therefore we must be so much like Him that we can do everything He can.

This means, according to these teachers, that each one of us can use our Faith™ to bring things into existence, to “speak [into existence] that which is not [in existence]!” It also means that, since we have sinned, we can also speak negative things, such as illness or decay or death, into existence!

In other words, we are effectively “little gods!”

In summary, then, these false teachers inform us that God is subservient to His portion of power known as Faith™, which He used to create everything in the universe. This brings God down from His topmost point. Since we are made in the “image of God,” we can do all this, too. This brings us up to the level of God.

Does anyone else see any problem here?

As we continue in this series, I intend to show just what true faith is, why we don’t have the power of God, and where our place is in God’s kingdom. That’s a tall order, but that’s what I sense God calling me to do in this series. I ask you to pray for me as I continue writing.

Let me end this with the same question I’ve posed before: if you don’t accept that Faith™ is what it’s claimed to be, how do you discuss this with those who believe otherwise? Have you had any successes in showing people the error? I’ve tried to include an additional question for those who subscribe to the Word of Faith or Positive Confession movement, but this time I honestly can’t think of one other than: how can you honestly think that usurping God’s rule comes from any place other than Hell?

The Capped Idol of Copeland-Hagin, Part 2: The Basics

2011-09-01T16:00:00.000-04:00

I hope you’ve already read Part 1 of this series. If not, go ahead and read it. If you can still stand my writing after that, we’ll carry on from here.

If you read through the entire chat, you’ll see that I get a bit “fired up” over the whole idea of the “Word of Faith” theology. That’s because too many people treat it as Biblical, when it really is not.

Before I go deeper, though, allow me to describe what this movement believes. Of course, some may not accept all of this, and there are those who do not subscribe to the major points that still believe in “positive confession” and/or avoiding “speaking negative.” With God’s help, I’ll deal with those as well.

The foundation of this belief system comes from the first 2 chapters of Genesis. Chapter 1, of course, deals with the general creation of the universe. Genesis 1:3, for example, informs us that “God said, ’Let there be light,’ and there was light.” Genesis 1:6-7 continues with “God said, ’Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters …’ 7 And God made the expanse…” Genesis 1:3-27 continues the pattern of “God said … and it was so.”

Here’s where things start to go haywire, though. They emphasize the notion that God spoke, and what He commanded happened. They conclude, or otherwise use the pattern to prove, that God’s spoken word was the critical part in the act of creation. God’s creative power, in other words, came from His spoken word. To back this up, John 1:1-10 is used out of context, as it refers to the powerful “Word” that was present at creation.

The “power of the spoken word” provides a word study (no pun intended) of the word “word,” at least in the Greek. They note that there are 2 Greek words for “word:”

λόγος (logos, word #3056 in Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance)
ῥῆμα (rhema, word #4487 in Strong’s)

Both of these Greek words can be translated into the English word “word.” Consider, though, that The New Thayer’s Greek-English Lexicon (© 1979, 1981), gives the equivalent of 2 whole pages for the former, and ½ page for the latter. Obviously the author considered the details to be of vital importance.

Logos is both the richer and harder to pin down of the two, as it is used extensively throughout the New Testament and the Septuagint, or the Greek translation of the Old Testament. Logos literally refers to “a collection,” but Thayer notes that it appears to have 3 distinct usages in the Bible. Generally speaking, it refers to an idea communicated by spoken language, such as a saying, or to a line of reasoning. Thayer also notes that John 1:1-10’s use of “Word” uses logos.

Rhema, often one of the key terms used in the movement, refers specifically to a series of spoken words, or the sound that is produced in speaking them. For some reason this is of vital importance to the Word of Faith. It’s so important that Kenneth Hagin named his university after it. One definition Thayer provides for one usage of this word is “utterance,” a word that just seems to sound holy to many people.

What we have so far, then, is that God used the sound of the spoken word (even before He created air, it seems) to cause creation to occur. Charles Capps, an author of many thin books on this ideology, claims there is direct power in the speaking, or that speaking the words “activates” a power that brings about what is spoken.

That power is given a name by Capps: Faith. A cursory glance at the word would make people think of a solid belief or a system of beliefs, but Capps and his cohorts take it well beyond that. Allow me, then, to refer to it as “Faith™”, with the little symbol by it, to distinguish it from the simpler, more common definition. (Curiously, Capps and the Kenneth’s do not refer to the single Greek word, πίστις or pistis (Strong’s #4102), that is usually, if not consistently, translated “faith” in the New Testament.) Since that power is activated by a specific kind of Word, namely the spoken rhema word, I'll also “trademark” their Word™.

In the next installment of this series, I’ll investigate how Faith™ differs from ordinary “faith,” and begin to expose just how Faith™ begins to supplant the sovereignty of God.

In closing, let me ask those of you who have dealt with the Word™ of Faith™ people: how do you explain to them why the spoken word is nothing special? For those of you who believe that the spoken word indeed holds or activates power, let me ask you this: what of the person who is temporarily or permanently mute? How does one who cannot speak, either at the moment (perhaps due to having the breath knocked out of them) or over a longer term, “activate” their Faith™?

(Let me remind everybody that comments need to remain civil. Explaining a different perspective is great. Saying someone is wrong just because you happen to disagree isn’t so great.)

The Capped Idol of Copeland-Hagin, Part 1: The Chat That Started The Series

2011-08-31T20:49:00.000-04:00

Recently I had an online chat with a friend of mine who is an EMT (Emergency Medical Technician) who is also a Christian. We’ve discussed numerous things over the years. This one, though got me thinking of the need to do my first “blog series.”

It seems she has encountered some folks who have some rather bad theology. What I want to do in this series is explore why the particular theology is bad, where it comes from, and (hopefully) how to respond to it. To be honest, though, I’m going to need your help when it comes to that last bit.

The theology goes by a number of names: “Word of faith,” “Name it and claim it,” “Hyper-faith,” “Spoken word power,” and others. I prefer the name my best friend calls it, which is a pun on the last names of two men, both named Kenneth, who push this theology: the Copeland-Hagin heresy.

In this initial post, with my friend’s permission, I’ll give you the chat. She has given me permission to publish the chat, even using her real name. For her sake, though, I’ll use the name “Bobbi Sue” instead.

8:42:56 PM Bobbi Sue: I have a question for you

8:43:08 PM Joe Sewell: Go for it.

8:47:33 PM Bobbi Sue: I have two friends that have been giving me a real had time about my health and dealing with doctors and medicine. They are trying to tell me that I am not trusting God by going to doctors and taking meds. One of them told me to put myself in a bubble and don't even bother trust God. Both of them have told me that carrying an EpiPen is wrong because its not trusting God and relying on drugs instead. They also laugh at me because I choose to take a proactive role regarding my health and that I choose to allow the doctors to run all the tests they are running to find out what is wrong with me. They told me that I should not be relying on these test and that I should not let the docs do them.

8:48:06 PM Bobbi Sue: I reminded them of the seriousness of the recent events.

8:49:30 PM Bobbi Sue: I also reminded them that they are insisting that I go against my better judgment as a trained EMT and I told them if I had patients with the same problems I have going on. I would be rushing them to the hospital. My friends had the nerve to tell me well that is them not you. You're not trusting God.

8:50:06 PM Bobbi Sue: What would you tell these two knuckleheads that might get them to stop bugging me about it.

8:50:08 PM Bobbi Sue: ?

8:51:15 PM Joe Sewell: First off, let me throw a few links at you. These are from a site that specializes in answering questions from a Biblical perspective. I've been impressed with their answers.

8:51:34 PM Joe Sewell: The first is http://www.gotquestions.org/Christians-go-doctors.html which sounds like it deals specifically with this topic.

8:51:49 PM Joe Sewell: The second is http://www.gotquestions.org/Christian-anti-depressants.html

8:53:01 PM Joe Sewell: I'd first ask them why they have so little faith in God that they believe He refuses to work through medicines He has provided.

8:53:40 PM Bobbi Sue: They think medicine came from man not God

8:53:56 PM Bobbi Sue: and its a ploy of the enemy to steer people away from leaning on God

8:54:00 PM Joe Sewell: God didn't create herbs?

8:54:38 PM Joe Sewell: God didn't create the first and most effective antibiotic known: penicillin?

8:55:03 PM Bobbi Sue: they don't see it that way

8:55:20 PM Bobbi Sue: but yet these two wear glasses and take medication. go figure

8:55:24 PM Joe Sewell: When Jesus healed one particular blind man, why did He make mud when He could've just snapped His fingers?

8:55:44 PM Joe Sewell: I understand, Bobbi, and it's quite likely that they will not listen to anything you say.

8:55:45 PM Bobbi Sue: but yet I am overreacting and going way overboard according to them

8:56:16 PM Joe Sewell: A simple response, then, would be, "take it up with God, then. He's the one I obey, not you."

8:56:49 PM Bobbi Sue: oh but I am not obeying Him because I am not learning to trust Him

8:57:01 PM Bobbi Sue: this is all the crap they have told me

8:58:07 PM Joe Sewell: Like I said, it sounds like they won't listen to anything you have to say, so just leave them with the simple truth: that you're trusting the wisdom of God, not the little idol they've put in a non-medical box.

8:58:10 PM Bobbi Sue: Then one of them called me at 11 p.m. last night to ask me a medical question of all things.

8:58:54 PM Bobbi Sue: I just laughed and told them they needed to find someone else to answer their question because I was not going to since anything medical is not trusting God

8:59:32 PM Joe Sewell: Good answer. Actually, "trust your god" would've worked, too.

8:59:55 PM Joe Sewell: I'd emphasize that they're trusting "their god," not the one true God.

9:00:53 PM Joe Sewell: Tell them your God isn't limited by the spoken word, or by a higher power called "Faith." Tell them your God can do whatever He wants, however He wants, whenever He wants, with or without your permission.

9:01:47 PM Joe Sewell: Then encourage them that, when their god-in-a-box fails them — and it will — you'll be glad to tell them about the real God.

9:02:57 PM Joe Sewell: They probably won't listen to this, but the whole "word of faith" movement, which it sounds like they're a part of, actually has at least two characteristics that betray the fact that it's a lie from Hell itself.

9:03:29 PM Joe Sewell: First, God "used His Faith" to "speak the universe into existence."

9:04:35 PM Bobbi Sue: Oh they are into the name it claim it stuff

9:05:00 PM Joe Sewell: Second, since we are "made in the image of God," we, too, have creative power in our spoken words … in other words, we are "little gods."

9:05:23 PM Joe Sewell: The first dethrones God, the second elevates man to the position of God. Sound familiar?

9:05:39 PM Bobbi Sue: yep

9:05:55 PM Joe Sewell: Oh, and if they try to pull anything about an angel speaking to Kenneth Copeland, who told him this garbage, remind them what happened to a third of the angels. :)

9:06:45 PM Joe Sewell: One thing you'll have to do, though, is stick to the simplicity of the gospel, make it clear that their god is not God, and tell them that you'll be ready with more only when they are willing to listen.

9:07:29 PM Bobbi Sue: The way I see all of this is that if God was so against medicine and doctors, I would think that I was have a guilty conscience about being and EMT and attempting to save lives.

9:08:08 PM Joe Sewell: True. On the other hand, they could say the same thing in reverse.

9:08:20 PM Bobbi Sue: ?

9:08:51 PM Joe Sewell: In other words, they could say that their "heart" or "spirit" confirms their own belief about medicine being "of the devil" and that you're just misled.

9:09:59 PM Bobbi Sue: If that is the case then why am I still alive? My life has been saved several times by doctors or EMTs

9:10:24 PM Joe Sewell: They would probably say it was God's "grace" or some such nonsense.

9:10:48 PM Bobbi Sue: I bet they would say because God is giving me a chance to wise up

9:10:53 PM Joe Sewell: Yep.

9:12:05 PM Bobbi Sue: Their crap just makes me mad and raises my blood pressure to dangerous levels.

9:12:28 PM Joe Sewell: Believe me, I understand. Been there, done that.

9:12:39 PM Joe Sewell: Shredded the T-shirt in anger. :)

9:13:01 PM Bobbi Sue: Oh get this by checking my blood pressure several times a day because my doctor told me to I am overreacting and not Giving God a chance to heal me.

9:13:09 PM Joe Sewell: They are so confident in their belief, though, that only God can redirect them.

9:13:47 PM Joe Sewell: Just tell them that you'll pray for God to show them the truth.

9:14:00 PM Joe Sewell: It sounds arrogant, but it's no more so than what they're throwing at you.

9:14:13 PM Joe Sewell: Then *do* pray for them.

9:14:24 PM Bobbi Sue: One of them did not used to be like this. It's only since she got in touch with a lady that was mentoring her that got her all screwed up and now the church she goes to.

9:14:41 PM Joe Sewell: Yep, the blind leading the blind.

9:15:17 PM Joe Sewell: They're so insecure in their faith, so afraid that God won't do what *they* want Him to do, that they'll grab hold of anything that promises them control.

9:15:28 PM Joe Sewell: That's not how they see it, of course.

9:16:26 PM Joe Sewell: That gotquestions.org article on doctors addresses this, and they've got more on the "Word of Faith" movement (or what I like to call "folks from Copeland-Hagin")

9:16:52 PM Bobbi Sue: Ok real dumb question here. Why do you think God allows us to get sick and even almost die?

9:17:21 PM Joe Sewell: Not a dumb question at all. Not an easy one, either.

9:17:55 PM Bobbi Sue: You would think I would have this figured out by now after all the year I have been a Christian

9:18:44 PM Joe Sewell: Not really. I've struggled with it myself over the years.

9:18:45 PM Bobbi Sue: I have been asked by people if I feel like I am going against God's will or trying to play God when I attempt to save people.

9:19:05 PM Joe Sewell: No, you're being Christ-like.

9:19:08 PM Bobbi Sue: I don't even know how to answer that question

9:19:18 PM Joe Sewell: Jesus healed.

9:19:42 PM Joe Sewell: Actually, that's part of the answer to your earlier question. There's the story of the man born blind.

9:20:37 PM Joe Sewell: The disciples asked Jesus who had sinned, the man or his parents, that he was born blind. In that day & age, as now, people thought that bad things only happened to bad people … but only to a certain set of "bad" people.

9:21:03 PM Joe Sewell: Jesus blew them out of the water by saying that the reason had nothing to do with sin, but so that God would be glorified!

9:22:38 PM Joe Sewell: Sounds cruel, doesn't it? Someone born blind, remained blind for years, so that God could be glorified?

9:23:04 PM Bobbi Sue: ya it does

9:23:11 PM Joe Sewell: Yet God *did* get the glory in it all, even though the Jewish priests weren't too thrilled with the whole idea.

9:24:11 PM Joe Sewell: In Acts there's an almost throw-away bit about Peter and another person coming across a beggar who wanted money. "Silver and gold have I none, but what I do have I give to you." The beggar was healed.

9:24:39 PM Joe Sewell: Consider This, though: it was quite likely that Jesus passed by that same beggar numerous times before He was crucified.

9:24:54 PM Joe Sewell: Was it cruel for him to not heal the beggar?

9:25:07 PM Joe Sewell: Or was it better to allow Peter to be the conduit?

9:25:44 PM Joe Sewell: We live in a broken world. We're the ones who broke it, and keep on breaking it every time we sin.

9:26:15 PM Joe Sewell: God may have prevented Adam and Eve from eating from the tree of life so that they'd have some release from an eternity of sin.

9:26:31 PM Joe Sewell: Imagine, before Christ, being immortal and a sinner.

9:27:11 PM Joe Sewell: There are numerous examples of people whose lives have touched so many others through their damages and injuries.

9:27:38 PM Joe Sewell: There are numerous examples of people who reach out in the name of Jesus, rescuing them from an eternity without Him by saving their lives.

9:28:01 PM Joe Sewell: Each life *you* save is one more chance they have to accept God's gift of grace.

9:28:31 PM Joe Sewell: Each injury *you* prevent or help to heal is one less distraction.

9:29:13 PM Joe Sewell: On the other hand, each injury you *don't* get to fix completely may be the very thing that leads them to Christ, because some EMT cared enough about them to do their best to save them.

9:29:40 PM Joe Sewell: We cannot see things from God's perspective. His thoughts aren't our thoughts, indwelling Spirit or not.

9:30:15 PM Joe Sewell: We don't know what our actions, our writings, or even our Facebook chats will do to someone's eternal destination.

9:30:28 PM Joe Sewell: All we can do is do what God calls us to do!

9:30:52 PM Joe Sewell: All we can do is do our best, and have *REAL* faith that God will make up the difference.

9:32:32 PM Bobbi Sue: I do pray for each person I come in contact with. They don't know that I do but each one of them gets prayed for along with everything else I do for them.

9:37:11 PM Joe Sewell: And *that's* God's calling for you, no matter what anyone else says.

9:38:21 PM Bobbi Sue: I told my friends that I pray for everyone that I deal with and they said that that is by hypocritical because praying for them and trying to cheat death go against each other.

9:38:53 PM Bobbi Sue: I wanted to slug the person that said that to me

9:39:13 PM Joe Sewell: Just tell them, "well, I'm glad I don't worship your powerless god, then."

9:40:11 PM Joe Sewell: Or try to keep yourself from laughing. Your choice.

9:41:48 PM Joe Sewell: Just tell them that you aren't "cheating any god of death," but obeying the God of Life. Make it clear that the god they're describing is *not* that same God.

9:42:52 PM Bobbi Sue: Over the years I have wanted to slug her so many times for the things she has put me through or said to me but then I thought it was not worth the effort because then I would have to save her because I would slug her hard enough to knock her teeth through her head and maybe even slam her head against something. I came so close to it once but I thought better of it. I know I sound like a horrible mean person to even be thinking like this considering what I do for a living.

9:44:03 PM Bobbi Sue: she makes me so mad and now she has her roommate, the second friend talking like her.

9:45:28 PM Joe Sewell: Trust me, I understand.

9:46:58 PM Bobbi Sue: Good I don't want you to think I am a violent person or anything.

9:47:46 PM Joe Sewell: You just get as frustrated as I do, that's all.

9:48:00 PM Bobbi Sue: If I did what I described, I would lose my license real quick if a police report were filed against me.

9:48:35 PM Joe Sewell: You'd probably lose your freedom from jail, too.

9:51:49 PM Joe Sewell: I had a friend in GA who sent me several books by Charles Capps, one of the big authors in the whole "word of faith/positive confession" heresy. What I described is just the tip of the iceberg, Bobbi. This stuff is pure Satanic mysticism. In fact, I recall coming across an article, maybe on Wikipedia, that traced its roots to mysticism.

9:52:37 PM Joe Sewell: Let's face it, the whole "spoken word has power" idea is nothing more than occult incantations!

9:53:42 PM Bobbi Sue: oh wow

9:53:47 PM Joe Sewell: Those caught up in the garbage, though, won't see it. It'll shake their faith, which is all the foundation they have.

9:54:03 PM Joe Sewell: That's how I make myself see it now.

9:54:12 PM Joe Sewell: It's not an attack on me, but on the throne of Heaven itself.

9:54:19 PM Bobbi Sue: I have some of his stuff that a friend gave me years ago. I don't even know where they are right now. I still have not unpacked everything yet.

9:54:39 PM Joe Sewell: These people aren't evil. They're misled. And they may not be Heaven-bound!

9:54:54 PM Bobbi Sue: That is scary

9:55:30 PM Joe Sewell: As soon as I saw it that way, I had to start praying for them, while letting them know with courage that they are *not* serving God.

9:55:45 PM Bobbi Sue: I have heard stories of people playing healing scriptures or reading aloud daily and around the clock and how people were healed just by hearing them.

9:56:43 PM Joe Sewell: The mind is still a powerful tool. We *can* believe certain things that will affect our body chemistry, and make us more healthy or overcome some illnesses.

9:57:27 PM Bobbi Sue: but where do you draw the line?

9:57:32 PM Joe Sewell: I read an article by Pat Boone that described something similar dealing with a man who had months to live from cancer. He died *years* later from something *not* cancer-related.

9:57:53 PM Joe Sewell: You draw the line where God tells you to.

9:58:13 PM Joe Sewell: You go with doctors and meds unless He says otherwise.

9:58:25 PM Joe Sewell: Or unless doctors & meds don't work.

9:59:25 PM Joe Sewell: Unless you believe beyond the shadow of any doubt, and get some sort of confirming incident or whatever that convinces you it's of God, that you avoid modern medicine, you don't.

10:00:22 PM Joe Sewell: Well, there's also the wisdom in studying for yourself about the various procedures, medications, and side-effects, which may be a show-stopper for you as well. In other words, be informed, just like anybody else.

10:01:23 PM Joe Sewell: For example, my mother-in-law had an angioplasty done to her leg this past week. The contrast dye they had to use could've caused her kidneys to fail, though they had medication that could counteract that issue.

10:01:46 PM Joe Sewell: If she refused that treatment, though, it was very likely that she would've lost her leg to gangrene.

10:02:16 PM Joe Sewell: Did she have faith? YES! She had the faith to trust God to keep her kidneys going in spite of the dye.

10:02:37 PM Joe Sewell: She had the faith to trust that she would be in Heaven if something serious did happen.

10:02:56 PM Joe Sewell: She had the faith to trust that God, not us, knows best!

10:03:54 PM Joe Sewell: That's the kind of faith the Copeland-Hagin Cappers don't have!!!

10:04:47 PM Joe Sewell: (This would make a good blog post. :) With your name removed, of course.)

10:05:51 PM Bobbi Sue: That would be a good post

10:07:41 PM Joe Sewell: With your permission, of course.

10:08:14 PM Bobbi Sue: Do you have a blog?

10:08:39 PM Joe Sewell: Yep. It's called Consider †his! http://conthis.blogspot.com

10:08:53 PM Bobbi Sue: Oh cool

10:09:11 PM Bobbi Sue: Publish away and I don't care if you use my name if you want.

10:09:13 PM Joe Sewell: I don't post every day, just when I have something worth posting.

10:09:22 PM Joe Sewell: Cool! Thank you.

As you can see, I really have little sympathy for people who fall into this line of thinking. I know the preachers who mislead their flocks with this garbage want to “fight” anyone who stands in their way. That just means to me that they’re fighting the living God!

This series will go through this whole conversation and defend what I said, as well as expand upon it. I will tell you right now that this line of thinking is severely flawed at best. In fact, I personally believe it comes from the pit of Hell itself! I’ll tell you right now that, if you disagree with me on this, you’d better have some solid proof other than single verses taken out of context! That’s the type of talk that allows these preachers to continue to deceive people, and I will have none of it here.

Cyber-Persecution

2011-08-20T17:52:00.000-04:00

One of my favorite blogs has just closed down. The only post available is this one:

My stalker and impersonator: Glen Baker (glenbaker7@bigstring.com) | –Project Mathetes–

Now, I'll admit, Donald Borsch did have a manner of expressing things that could be taken wrong in a Rush Limbaugh fashion. Still, what he wrote was the truth, or at least as best as he could see it. Then along comes this mysterious stranger who … well, he does some illegal things that causes Donald to fear for his safety (and that of his family).

How low can this country, founded on Godly principles (whether you choose to believe the words of the founding fathers or not), sink?

Consider †his: the more we reject God, the more frail his “hedge of protection” will become!

Even though it’s too often taken out of context (as it refers to Solomon’s temple, and it may refer to something a bit more specific than it appears on the surface), 2 Chronicles 7:14 provides a bit of hope. On the other hand, there are a surprising number of verses in the Old Testament that have God instructing His prophets not to pray for the people (Jeremiah 14:11; Jeremiah 7:16; Jeremiah 11:14). In the New Testament, Paul instructs the church at Corinth to “turn [a particularly rebellious member] over to Satan” (1 Corinthians 5:1-5).

Even though dispensationalists consider us to be in an age of grace, God will still leave us alone if that’s what we want. As a society draws away from Him, He will draw away from it.

I may be way off-base here, but I believe this is just one small sign that the days of “easy faith” in the United States of America are coming to an end.

We do have it way too easy here. We battle amongst ourselves without any compassion for each other or those who see us and make a decision about God based on our shameful manners. We preach on Sunday morning that God is love, and we should be friendly to each other … yet we gossip about the woman with the skirt that’s “too short” or the man who didn’t wear a tie. We claim grace to the public, yet attack each other in our board meetings in such a way that some are ashamed to be a part of it. We pride ourselves not on being followers of Christ, but being a part of some denomination, as if that makes any difference. We claim grace, but refuse to reconcile with someone who has apologized for a mistake made.

Meanwhile, real Christians in China, India, the Middle East, and many, many other countries are being killed simply because they read the Bible. (OK, many US “Christians” don’t have to worry about being discovered doing that.) The persecution in some of these countries rivals the days when Christians were thrown to the lions in ancient Rome.

Scary? In one sense it should be.

Consider †his: if somebody were targeting Christians, would they even bother considering you?

I’d like to think that I would stand firm professing Christ when the threat of torture and death, or even cyber-stalking, were present. Let’s face it, though: I’m a wimp! I have absolutely no idea if I would buckle under pressure. Honestly, I would assume that I would indeed buckle.

At least I’m courageous enough now to eliminate much doubt in the minds of others now.

As for my friend and his stalker, pray for this Glenn Baker. Pray that his eyes be opened to see the evil nesting in his heart. Pray that he repents of his deeds. Pray that, if he chooses to keep his heart, mind, and eyes closed, that he lays off Donald Borsch, or at least gets caught and punished by our legal system, for the safety of others.

Daredevil Evangelism

2011-07-01T06:00:00.003-04:00

I have to share with you (with permission) an email my wife sent to our pastor today. First, let me set the stage a bit. My wife, Joy, underwent surgery this past Tuesday, June 28. That day & this morning she has been running a mild fever, hasn’t had much energy, has felt the pain of the incisions made, and has been constipated. (My apologies to those who just yelled, “TMI!” That detail is important.)

Let me let her describe what happened today:

Praising God that I'm doing GREAT!!!!! No more high temps praise God! I'm so excited because I had an awesome, awesome God opportunity today. This afternoon around 3:00 there was a knock at my door. I opened the door and it was two Mormon young ladies. I invited them in from the rain and the Holy Spirit took over from there. When the introductions were out of the way I began sharing my testimony of how God has grown me in my faith through trials.

As I shared with these ladies they told me they were amazed by the faith I had and the joy I showed in talking about Christ. I shared with them miracles God had done in my life also, but this was just the icebreaker. We started getting into God's Word and talking about how God knew us before we were born and how He already knew what His plans would be for us.

I shared with them Jeremiah 29:11 of how God knew the plans He had for us, of how He would prosper us and not harm us but give us a hope and a future. I went further to say as we seek Christ we will find Him. I shared how the Holy Spirit showed me how to apply this verse in my life. As I shared with these ladies I could sense in my heart that God was doing something.

We talked about Salvation how each person has a choice to accept or reject Christ's love and forgiveness that He paid by dying on the Cross. As I shared with these ladies about Hell I said it was never meant for Christians but it was for Satan, his angels and demons. Talking about Heaven I shared with them what you've been teaching on Sundays.

Before they left they asked if they could come by again I said sure. I was bold and told them I wanted to know how they came to know Christ. I also shared another important thing that you share so often it's not religion it's a relationship with Christ. I shared this several times as we talked. There so much more I could share but I'm praying for wisdom and guidance from the Holy Spirit through God's Word.

In part I’m reminded of Luke 12:11-12, where Jesus promises to provide what to say when we are in front of those who would judge us. I think more, though, of Proverbs 3:5-6.

What’s interesting here is that, under normal circumstances, Joy probably would not have been home when these two women came by. Only because she was recovering from surgery, and still had some ill side effects, was she at home.

Consider †his: You never know what circumstances God will use.

Several months ago I listened to pastor James MacDonald. I'm honestly no big fan of his style, but it was on a radio station I trust, so I listened. Besides, it was near the end of his particular segment. He mentioned in passing that he wasn’t interested in seeing someone’s stamp collection, but what that person was doing for Christ. I found him on Twitter, and asked him why he thought God couldn’t use a person’s stamp collection for His glory. The pastor’s response was that “God can use a horse’s ass,” but it’s better to use the right tools.

Apparently Pastor MacDonald doesn’t want to leave God open to using what He wishes to use.

God chose to use something that I thought was bad and undesirable for good instead.

Oh, and the TMI earlier? All of her symptoms, other than the expected tenderness of the incisions, disappeared shortly after these two ladies left.

Coincidence? Or God-incidence?

"Lost" Christianities?

2011-06-05T18:54:00.000-04:00

In the first centuries after Christ, there was no "official" New Testament. Early Christians read and fervently followed many more scriptures than we have today. … What did these other scriptures say? Do they exist today? How could such ideas ever be considered Christian? If such beliefs were once common, why do they no longer exist?

That, in a nutshell, is the catalog description for the course, "Lost Christianities: Christian Scriptures and the Battles over Authentication," taught by Bart D. Ehrman, Professor of Religious Studies at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, offered by an arm of The Teaching Company. The full description also mentions the belief of some early Christian that there were up to 12 "gods," and that Christ's death had nothing to do with salvation.

To the professor's credit, the lecture titles do describe the various "lost books of the Bible," referring to the Gnostics, the Copts, the forgeries, and so forth. The Gnostics seemed to be the ones who caused the most trouble in those days. They believed they held a "special knowledge" that was "hidden" from the rest of the world. To give them credit, they claimed to have additional writings from the apostles that included some of these additional secrets.

Consider †his: if God wanted to bring salvation to the world, He wouldn't have kept any secrets from the world.

The Gnostics' teachings continue to infiltrate our society today. The most recently publicized "lost book" was the alleged Gospel of Judas. Thankfully the buzz has died down, but people still like to think they're so important that they have special revelations. For example, some ~~heretics~~ "teachers" ~~such as Kenneth Copeland~~ tell us of things "whispered into their ears" by alleged "angels" standing with them. One recent "teacher" continues, as of this writing, to try to deceive others with his belief that he has knowledge of the day & time of the end of the world … something even Jesus claimed not to know (according to the common interpretation of Matthew 24:36)!

Salvation is simple. "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved" (Acts 16:30-31). It's that simple! No extra knowledge or study is required!

It's also that difficult. In Christ's day and today people want to hold on to what they believe is "theirs." That includes "special knowledge" or "secrets" that make them somebody "important." We'd rather trust in our own understanding than God (Proverbs 3:5-6). We don't want to trust God alone. That's our pride, born into us as a part of the death Adam brought into the world, and into his descendants.

What do you hold on to that makes you feel "special" other than Christ?

Look for the Christian Label

2011-04-21T19:00:00.001-04:00

Recently a few different articles have come my way. One was from the blog of a person who had experienced physical or emotional abuse by her "evangelical" parents. Another was an article from a friend saying that "dispensational theology" may be a "wolf in sheep's clothing." I encountered a person with an opposing point of view, taking "dispensationalism" as a badge of pride, then expounding on how bits & pieces of the King James Version (the "only true version," of course) proved it.

In this article I'm not going to expand on my issues with all of the above. I just have one thing to say:

Stop the labeling, already!

In the interest, or lack thereof, of full disclosure, I am not a Dispensationalist. I am not a Calvinist. I am not an Arminian. I am not a Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian, Pentecostal, Lutheran (either type), Wesleyan, a Smith-follower (neither Chuck nor Joseph), an Evangelical, a Fundamentalist, or any other label you wish to try to stick on me.

"But how can that be?" you may ask. "Don't you believe in...?" I happen to believe in several dispensational beliefs. I happen to agree with some of what Calvin said. I also happen to agree with some of what Jacobus Arminius ("the other guy") taught. John Wesley had some agreeable things to say, and I do like what Chuck Smith, Charles Stanley, Jerry Falwell, and numerous others have taught.

But I don't follow them.

Paul knew that the church at Corinth was dealing with something similar. In 1 Corinthians 1:11-3:15 (yes, I know, a long passage, but it's all important) Paul hits them head-on with that fact. The Corinthians weren't a united group of Christians. There were followers of Paul. There were Apollosians. Some even downgraded Jesus to "good teacher" status and added Him to the mix.

Paul had enough of it. He treated them like little children, because that's how they were acting. He told them to break down the walls and remember that it was Christ who gave His life for them (1 Corinthians 2:2). It's a simple message, simpler than what these people who prided themselves as great philosophers and possessors of expansive wisdom wanted to hear.

Consider †his: the grace offered on the cross is that simple!

Christianity isn't complicated. There's no good reason to make it complicated. It only causes division, which makes a world literally dying in its sin wonder what we have that they need. They don't need division. They don't need high-sounding labels! THEY NEED GOD!

Plenty of people have plenty of good things to say. Many people need what God reveals through the Bible. Nobody needs to have a theology degree to come to Him. Theology can enrich one's life, and that can be used for God's glory, but not when it divides and allows the devil to conquer our delivery of the Good News.

I refuse to be labeled by theology, politics, or anything except my name. Even then, if my name doesn't make somebody think of Christ, then I need to change that label, too.

What labels do you need to throw away today?

Personal Responsibility

2011-04-20T20:17:00.000-04:00

Recently I talked a bit about the current trend towards having an "accountability partner." I took a rather negative view of the whole thing.

This time I want to deal with something else: responsibility.

For me, being "held accountable" and being "responsible" for an action or attitude has never been a positive thing. In my past either one was always used as a bludgeon to shame me into not being "good enough." (For somebody from New England, especially New York City, I've noticed that's considered "encouragement." To a depressed child who never really felt good about himself anyhow, though, "do better" always seemed to come out as "your best isn't good enough." But that's still another topic of another post.)

I suppose other people have taken that same outlook on the term, because today the word "responsibility" only applies to someone else, never to oneself. Each one of us is a "victim" of something that wasn't our choice. It could be childhood abuse. It could be chemical imbalances. It could be drugs, alcohol, or tobacco taken by mothers during pregnancy.

Even some Christians have an "out" in the theology of John Calvin, who supported the notion of the "elect." To simplify the whole package now referred to as Calvinism, God pre-chose certain people to come to Him, and others He did not. Those He chose were predestined to be conformed into the image of His Son. They were also called, justified, and glorified. Those who weren't chosen … well, I guess they don't get in on the offer.

The sticky part of that whole concept is that there is Biblical support for it. What I wrote up there is essentially a paraphrase of Romans 8:29-30, though I suggest you check out the surrounding text. (In fact, it dovetails into a tricky little bit of Romans 8:28, where it talks about all things working together for those who are called according to His purpose.)

So how can God be fair if He not only knows ahead of time who will and who won't turn to Him, but chooses them? Well, that's where the counterpoint to Calvinism, called Arminianism after Jacobus Arminius, comes in. Arminius stressed the aspect of free will. After all, God wouldn't be "fair" without it. Well, that didn't set well with some folks, so John Wesley took a stab at trying to unite the two concepts. Chuck Smith, founder of Calvary Chapel in Costa Mesa, CA, in his book Calvary Chapel Distinctives, admits that the Bible teaches both, and that he cannot unravel the paradox, so he teaches predestination when the text shows that, and he teaches free will when the text goes that way.

Consider †his: God holds us responsible for our choice to accept the free gift of His Son's sacrifice for our sins, even though He knows already whether we will or not.

I refuse to accept the sum total of Calvin's, Arminius', or Wesley's treatment of the whole thing. I won't accept any of those labels (which is yet another topic to come). I do know this, though: none of us will be able to use predestination as an excuse to bypass God's justice. John 3:18 says that we are all already condemned if we have not accepted the free gift of God's grace. That's predestined, if you like. Is it our choice? Let's be honest. Yes, we choose to sin. Yes, we're under a curse on a cursed planet in a cursed universe. Jesus showed that we're without excuse, because He, though not born under the curse, lived a sinless life. God promises us a way to escape any temptation (1 Corinthians 10:13), even when the temptation is caused by chemical imbalances, childhood abuse, genetics, or whatever.

We still choose to sin.

We are still responsible for that choice.

We are still responsible for the choice we make about Jesus' sacrifice in our place.

What choices are you going to make today?

Gone On The Account[ability]

2011-04-07T07:30:00.002-04:00

Something that seems to be popular in churches today is the idea of "accountability." As far as I can tell, the idea is that people "open up" to someone they can "trust," confessing their faults either voluntarily or when asked by one's "accountability partner." The word on the street is that this helps keep you on the right track.

10 years after being first exposed to this idea, I have to say one thing: huh?

I guess one example of this was when a friend who went to the same church we did (the same one that introduced to me the concept of "accountability" being a good thing) asked me, "where are you serving now?" The idea was that I needed to be "serving God" somewhere in that church.

Hold the phone!

Consider This: we are accountable to God, first and foremost! Anybody who doesn't realize that needs to discuss some things with their "accountability partner" and/or pastor. Yes, we are to encourage one another. Too many "accountability partners," though, take a heavy-handed "tough love" approach. That's just fine IF that's what you need.

For somebody like me, it doesn't work. Usually I'm already so wrapped up in guilt over the slightest thing, I don't need somebody to come down hard on me. It would be like trying to heal a man's crippled legs by beating them so hard with a stick that you cause further injury. (Never mind that at least one false teacher in the news a couple of years ago did just that.)

In his book, 52 Lies Heard in Church Every Sunday (And Why the Truth is So Much Better), Steve McVey puts it quite nicely. He says:

The common idea of an accountability partner is a cheap counterfeit of an authentic relationship based on trust and encouragement, and it actually gets in the way of our developing that kind of relationship. We do need each other. God has built us so that we are not meant to live out our lives alone. … [T]he accountability partner movement comes across more like the secret police. It's simply Pharisaism in modern dress.

Harsh? Yep. True? Too often so. In the example I gave above, my well-meaning friend didn't know that I was one of about 8 people writing a daily devotional that got posted on our church's web site. When the devotional team first met, we agreed that only our initials would appear below our devotionals. This would allow people to know who "transcribed" what the Spirit gave us without "risking" being prideful over what was written. (That in itself may have been heavy-handed for some, but it seemed right to the group at the time.) I also did several other things outside the church, including this blog (though not as frequently as I try to do now).

In my past being "accountable" for something meant little more than you took the blame when something went wrong, and got told how you should've done it better when nothing went wrong. There was nothing positive about "accountability" or its close cousin, "responsibility." (How "responsibility" led me to a power-dive away from any hope in Christ needs to be another blog post that, honestly, I'm still discovering.) There was no trust or hope in being "held accountable" for something, only guilt and shame.

Those of us with that negative background probably aren't helped by an "accountability partner."

McVey points out something that I need to echo here. Some people, even those with a negative view of accountability, do need accountability partners! People who have a hard time overcoming an addiction, say to online pornography or offline alcohol, may need somebody to help distract them & steer them away from such things. People who don't realize that "God is watching" may think they can get away with stuff. For them, an accountability relationship might be a good thing until they are set free from that addiction. That accountability relationship, though, needs to help them overcome that addcition, though, not merely keep them out of trouble!

The "proof" text of accountability relationships tends to be Ecclesiastes 4:12 and its reference to a "cord of three strands." Context, however, shows that Solomon merely notes that a man left alone, perhaps by following vanity to the point that he has driven off his family & friends, is significantly weaker than one with family and/or friends. We do need each other.

That doesn't mean, though, we need a personal "police officer" around 24/7 to make sure we do the right thing.

This touches on an issue of personal responsibility and "getting out of punishment," but I'll leave that for another post.

Has "accountability" truly worked out for you? Has lack of "accountability" caused a failure? Do you find "accountability" to be a blessing or a curse?

Come, Let Us Experience The Spirit of Emotional High Together

2011-03-23T06:00:00.002-04:00

Over the past few days an interesting discussion — poured across several different places — has arisen. And it's not even about Rob Bell!

It started, most likely, with a Facebook note by Anthony Weber regarding the book, God is Not One, by Stephen Protero. The note's title is "Protestantism's Scarecrow Faith?!?!?" I learned of it via a comment made by a blog brother, Scott Smith, who further addressed it in his blog, Sarcastic Xtian, in a post titled "A Mindless Faith." Both provide excellent insights and stuff to consider.

I'm going to take a slightly different approach.

Consider †his: the Holy Spirit is not an emotional high experienced in "church."

I was surprised to discover in Google's results for "gifts of the holy spirit" a mention of Isaiah 11:1-5. I was more familiar with the ones found in 1 Corinthians 12:4-11 and Romans 12:1-10. (Thanks to Robert Longham, Jr., for his page, Gifts of the Holy Spirit, which provided a quick reference as well as a balanced view of the whole thing.) Galatians 5:22-23, on the other hand, provides the fruit of the Spirit.

While I could go off on the abuses made involving the gifts & fruit, I'll leave that for another post.

This time I want to tackle the modern notion of shutting down our minds in favor of getting "pumped up" with emotions. Yes, I'm talking about preachers and other leaders who choose to lead in chaos during a worship service rather than teach the word of God!

God has much for us to learn from His Word. We are called to learn sound doctrine so we may encourage those who trust it, and rebuke or refute those teachings that go against it (Titus 1:9). That passage refers to the "trustworthy word," meaning what is now considered Scripture, as we don't have the apostles among us (apostolic succession notwithstanding). Titus was later instructed by Paul to teach that same sound doctrine (Titus 2:1).

Paul's successor in teaching, Timothy, was also instructed to hold fast to sound doctrine (1 Timothy 6:3-16, 1 Timothy 1:3-7). Later Paul warned Tim that people would give up on sound doctrine, choosing a wide variety of teachers that will affirm whatever they want to hear (2 Timothy 4:3).

Welcome to the 21st century!

We have so many "feel-good" teachers that you have no reason to feel bad. Yet so many of us do! That's because emotions aren't permanent. They run & hide at the drop of a circumstance. Emotions aren't trustworthy. Many people feel "up" when the sun is shining, and "down" when it's cloudy & "gloomy." Emotions are often merely the result of chemical changes in our body. I suffer from clinical depression, caused by the inability to create and/or use the neurotransmitter serotonin properly.

Emotions make up the majority of our remembered experiences. This is especially true of women, who are able to use both sides of their brains at once, allowing them to think and feel at the same time. Sorry, men, it makes no sense to us, because we're "brain damaged" and can't do that. Still, how much pain do we guys remember compared to learned knowledge?

God can, of course, heal our hurts, repair our remembrances, and effect emotional changes for His glory. Sometimes, though, we have to be smart … Book smart … WORD smart! We need to know what God says to us so that we can bring Him glory even when we don't feel like it, or when our past experiences "prove" that what we "feel" is "true."

Life in Christ can be a "thrill ride" at times, but that's not all it is. We need solid truth — sound doctrine — to get us through those times when we know that roller coaster of life is surely going to throw us out of our car, hurtling head-first to our destruction … precisely what our enemy, the devil, wants us to think so we won't bring God glory!

When have you "felt" God protecting you in spite of your emotions? Has the emotional high ever failed you? When has the truth you've learned from God's Word rescued you from a bad emotional experience?

Creation is Groaning … But No Worse Than Usual

2011-03-15T07:50:00.000-04:00

Okay, time to dive in to the Japan earthquake whirlpool of commentary swirling about the Internet.

I've read several blog posts, and probably passed by several more, that note the recent earthquakes in Haiti and Japan are a sign of the end-times. While I really cannot disagree with them, I do need to provide a fact-check on events.

According to the US Geological Survey's web site, the number of severe quakes has remained constant over the past several decades. A related article by AccuWeather provides further explanation. The number of reports has increased dramatically. What do you expect when the network of seismic detection stations has grown from around 350 in the 1970's to over 8,000 today, each station using equipment that will detect tremors that people won't even feel? What do you expect when we can see, hear, and experience an earthquake immediately via a cell-phone video transmitted over the Internet?

What we're seeing is the technology to go into the whole world and preach the Gospel (Matthew 28:19) in action!

Consider This: each day brings us closer to Christ's return, no matter when that will be. And, remember, not even Jesus knew the day or hour of that event (Matthew 24:36, Mark 13:32)! It could be very soon, as many people believe, or it could be beyond our lifetimes.

Consider This: each day brings us closer to our final destination. No matter what your end-times ideas are, today could be your last day on Earth. The day of the earthquake was the last day for many in Japan. The day of another earthquake was the last day for many in Haiti. The day when a dear 25-year-old friend died of cancer was his last day … his "end-time."

I won't argue at all the need to be ready, and to get people ready to meet our Lord on His terms, not our own. But let's keep the facts true, shall we?

How would you have responded, before Christ, to someone telling you the "end of the world" is near?

Faith: Practical, powerful, rooted in sonship, and NOT in emotionalism « Project: Mathetes

2011-03-07T20:37:00.000-05:00

For those who follow this blog (thanks to both of you :) ), you may have noticed I've changed the "tag line" or description of this blog. I've been inspired by other blogs to copy their style expand my horizons a bit in this blog. While I started out thinking this would be something more of a "Bible study" blog, I've come to realize that pulling together concepts from personal experience, supported by the Bible, might make my writing more relatable to others. I'm not saying that personal experience trumps the Bible … God forbid, as the King James says! On the other hand, describing how God whacks me on the head touches me through the Scripture is probably less dry and more easily understood by others.

Besides, I feel it's where God's leading me, so there. :)

Having said all that, I've started encountering tons of other Christ-centered blogs, as well as a few "flakes" out there. I don't like following the "flakes," so I'll probably leave them alone. There's one blog post, though, that expresses an idea perfectly! This article's title is a link to it, or you can use the one below:

Faith: Practical, powerful, rooted in sonship, and NOT in emotionalism « Project: Mathetes (Note: as of August, 2011, the blog has been shut down over concerns for the safety of the author & his family. See my post on Cyber-Persecution for details. I'll have to see if I saved a copy of the article and summarize it here or get permission to make it available.)

I first encountered the "Word of Faith" movement through someone I met online, on a pre-Internet system known as American People/Link. Okay, the Internet was sort-of kind-of in existence, but not to the home. These were the days of online services such as CompuServe and America Online. (For more about this period, see the Wikipedia Internet article's History section.) PLink (as it was commonly called) was one of the early "chat room" systems that added forums and other content later. One fellow from Georgia found me on there and on CompuServe. He read quite a bit by authors such as Kenneth Copeland, Kenneth Hagin, and Charles Capps. He "graciously" sent me a sampling of their books, including Capps' The Tongue: A Creative Force.

The bottom line of the whole "speaking = creating" heresy is that God "used His Faith" when He "spoke the universe into existence." Since we are "made in the image of God," we, too, can use the Force Faith to speak things, events, and situations into existence. Don't "speak negative," though, or that will come into existence as well!

This allows us puny humans to be like God, or like "little gods."

Sound familiar? I seem to recall an angel in Heaven who was cast down, along with a third of the angelic host, for wanting to supplant God. This ex-angel, now known as "the devil," Satan, the serpent in the garden, and a wide array of other names & terms, still wants to throw God off His throne and seat himself in it.

Is that what he wants to do with us? No way! He is a liar, and the father of lies (John 8:43-44). His purpose is to steal, kill, and destroy (John 10:7-13). He wants to obliterate everything that is special to God — especially you & me! You can't sell your soul to him, because he hates it. His purpose is like that of the man who searches for the finest example of art made by his enemy, only to burn it out of existence forever. He doesn't want you to prosper by the world's standards or by God's standard. He will, however, "fake it" until you're deceived to the point where it's too late to see the truth.

This is precisely what the heretics from "Copeland-Hagin" are doing to hundreds of thousands of people worldwide! They and so many other false teachers are deceiving people into the devil's hands, and away from God's truth. Some of them may very well be deceived themselves, perhaps by the "angel" that Copeland claims he hears. (Remember that third of the angels that fell with Satan? Yeah, we tend to call them "demons" now, but that doesn't make them any less angelic.)

True faith is vibrant and connects us with God. The false power of the "Word of Faith" disconnects us from the One Who loves us.

"The Big Game" — or "Seeing Isn't Always Reality"

2011-02-06T18:37:00.001-05:00

Okay, both crummy titles for this article, but they both apply.

Today is "big game" day: the ~~Stupid~~ Super Bowl. I'm one of those rare insane breeds of men (and, no, I am not gay!) who DESPISE American football!!! I cannot describe how much I hate football. I also can't stand baseball, hockey, bowling, fishing … I've been known to tolerate watching golf, but that was only when I was working in a pawn shop and all the TVs were tuned to the Golf Channel because my co-worker liked it.

In other words, I am the Anti-Jock!

Why, you may ask? There are several reasons. Yeah, I was one of the guys who were bullied & put down by the "jocks" because I wasn't one. Various physical issues, including obesity, "cold-weather asthma" (that's what my mother said once), and being a permanent klutz kept me from being a physical kind of guy.

The reason I hate football the most was that nobody explained the rules to me!

I got the idea about grabbing the ball, running with the ball, and getting it past the big "H" or equivalent. The one thing this budding engineer could not get, though, was how you could have a "first down" when there had been at least a dozen of them already!

In my birth town — or in the school kids in my birth town were assigned to — there was no help or encouragement, though. Only ridicule and judgment. I was "expected" to know all about football, and not even the Physical Education teacher explained it to me. (I should also note that my father had no time for such silliness as sports. Too much work to do. Long story.)

All that in itself could be a blog post, and may be one of these days. Instead, let me focus (pun intended, as you'll see — another intended bit of foreshadowing, as is that word — as you read on) on what I found out years later that made me incompatible with sports.

I couldn't catch.

Well, that's not quite right, either. My hands worked right, and I could catch something that was rolled to me. But I had no idea how far away a ball in flight was from me. I couldn't catch because I didn't know if it was coming at my head, my hands, or would land yards in front of me. Likewise swinging a bat was out of the question, because I didn't know where it would make contact.

Can't imagine this? Try this little experiment. Take an eye-patch or something similar and place it over one of your eyes. Then have somebody throw something at you.

Hard to catch, isn't it?

The problem was, that's what I saw, and had seen my entire life!

I didn't have depth perception. Even when I rode my bicycle or drove my first car, I looked down at the road to judge distance ahead. To this day I still do that. I thought that's how everybody did it.

Then, in 1982, after 9 years of wearing glasses to correct astigmatism, after moving almost a thousand miles away from what was never really my "home town," an optometrist got my eyes balanced. My brain suddenly decided it was time to pay more attention to both eyes … and I gained depth perception for the first time in my life.

My first thought? "So that's the big deal behind those 3-D baseball cards!" (OK, I've always been a bit weird.)

The important point to note here is that I could not see the 3-D effect in those pictures, nor in real life. I thought the world was supposed to look "flat," with only the knowledge that one thing was in front of another. I had no idea that I was designed to see clouds above other clouds, and lower clouds actually below higher clouds.

To this day the sight still can make me stop and gaze in awe.

Consider †his: what you perceive with your eyes, ears, and other senses isn't all that's out there. Even those senses may be crippled, disabled, or deprived in some fashion. Music that's "the right volume" for you may be unbearably loud to someone else (like me, as I've always had excellent hearing). The sound of a child's yell of joy may give someone else a migraine. How you see life — and God — may not be anything like how someone else sees either of them.

That's not their fault or yours.

Neither of you are sinning. You just need healing, just like the rest of the universe.

The atheists I've mentioned in earlier posts cannot see God because their focus is on naturalistic science. Naturalism says our universe runs on its own, without any influence from any god-like being or force. Naturalism says the only thing that's real is what we can perceive with our 5 senses. Science says that everything must follow a cause-and-effect relationship that can be reproduced.

Human pride says that man is at the top of the world.

We cannot see because our spiritual eyesight needs corrective lenses (1 Corinthians 13:11-12). We cannot understand because our spiritual thoughts are asleep. Only with the resurrection power of the Holy Spirit, entering in you when you ask Him to do so, can we see things a little more clearly, and understand things better (1 Corinthians 2:4-16).

Where do you need clearer sight or better understanding?

"Prove That God Exists!" — God In A Box

2011-01-28T07:30:00.008-05:00

One of the comments I got in my recent saga with atheists was a "dare" to prove that God exists. After some discussion, I realize what is probably obvious to most people. There was no proof of the existence of God that this guy would accept.

As I thought about it last night, a "vision" of sorts came to me.

Imagine, if you can, a God Who can hold the entire universe in His hand. OK, we don't really know if God has hands, or that He can hold the universe in one. We don't know what shape the universe is in, or what it would look like from His perspective. Stay with me, though.

Now imagine a man or woman demanding that God "show Himself" to prove that He exists.

The only way that such an infinite God could do that would be to leave His infiniteness and cram all He is into a container, say a box. You could only see God in that little box. The problem is, it wouldn't be God. It would be some subset of God, an aspect of Him that wouldn't be all He is.

Then I saw a place that I'll call "The God Store." This was a place where you could obtain your very own god.

"We have a wide variety of pre-made gods for you. There are the classic Greco-Roman gods, like Zeus, Hercules, Aphrodite — she's for adults only …"

"I don't want any of those fairy tales," interrupts the skeptic.

"Well, we have the one true God."

"Show me."

"Well, sir, I can't. The one true God is so big, you can't see Him."

"Then how can you prove He's here? No, I want that God, but I don't like all of the things I've heard about Him."

"Well, we can customize for you."

"Great! Okay, I want a loving God, one that doesn't send anybody to Hell. He has to accept whatever I like and whatever I do."

"Get rid of justice. That's a common request." The shopkeeper enters that into a computer at the counter.

"I want a God that I can see and touch, one that I know is there."

The shopkeeper removed "infinite" from the list, and added "100% physical" under the "Limitations" category.

"I want a God who will bless me, but punish those who do me dirty." More keyboarding from the shopkeeper.

This went on for a few more rounds, then the shopkeeper said, "just give us a few minutes to produce your god for you."

After a few minutes, a hunk of white plaster appears in a curtained window behind the shopkeeper. It resembled a poorly chiseled statue of what could've been humanoid at one point.

"It doesn't look as nice as the rest of your gods," the customer remarked.

"No, custom orders rarely do. This was made to your specifications, though."

With that the transaction was completed, the statue was placed in a box, and the customer departed.

Some time later the customer returned with the ugly plastic statue. "I want to return this."

"What's wrong, sir? Doesn't it meet your requirements?"

"No, it does not. I asked it for enough money to pay off my debts, and to give me a new Porsche. It never showed up!"

"Quite right, sir. You chose to remove 'omnipotence' rather early on in the process."

"When was that?"

"Well, sir, no physical statue can have omnipotence. That was removed as soon as you placed your order."

"It also doesn't provide me any sense of love."

"No, sir, you removed that option as well."

"Don't you have any guarantee for these things?"

"We guarantee that all the items you wished didn't apply to God be removed. For many of the benefits to work, though, several unpopular options must be retained."

"So why didn't my god zap that guy who cut me off the other day?"

The shopkeeper tapped a few keys on his computer. "Oh, yes, that driver. It seems he purchased a god very similar to yours. It allowed nothing to go bad for him. That blocked your god from doing anything to him."

"That's not what I wanted!"

"Sorry, sir, but that requires the Justice option, which neither of you chose to keep."

"Okay, okay. What god do you have that has any sort of real guarantee?"

"Just the one, true God, without modifications."

"Can I read the feature set and guarantee first?"

"Of course, sir. In fact, you may keep a copy."

With that the shopkeeper hands him the Bible.

Consider †his: God is God, and we are not. God is not subject to our demands. He is not under our authority. We are under His authority. We can accept Him or reject Him. We cannot make Him into our own image and expect Him to still be God.

God chooses to reveal Himself in ways that are incompatible with our own logic and demands. He has that right. He loves us enough to reveal Himself through the Bible, but even that refuses to meet our rigorous 21st century demands of accountability. Does that make the Bible wrong, or does that make our demands wrong?

God is under no obligation whatsoever to meet our demands. We can take Him or leave Him just as He is. Why not take Him as He is? He'll take you as you are.

Unicorns and Atheists

2011-01-27T10:00:00.004-05:00

According to some individuals, I must be doing something right, because I'm being "attacked" for my belief in God.

Well, maybe not attacked as much as pestered by some atheists. (Oh, and somebody who appeared to be aligned with Westboro Baptist, but that's another story.)

In one of my recent but rare posts, somebody started to debate, as he has done on Twitter since he found out about me, the truth of the Bible, or the lack thereof. Considering he consistently refers to the Bible as a "storybook" or "fairytales" (the lack of space is his), I think I can discern that he's not going to consider anything I say that might weaken his position.

I'm okay with that.

That in itself is a miracle, since I tend to have very little tolerance for the arrogant, especially when they claim the proverbial "moral high ground" and call me "arrogant." But that's not the point.

The point is that he compared the Bible to a book about unicorns.

I deleted his comment, because it was drifting too far off of the topic of the host post, and I want this blog to be a safe haven to discuss the Bible and God. I will not accept otherwise. However, I sense that maybe it's time to address a major question that it brings up to me:

What is it with atheists and unicorns?!?

This isn't my first time dealing with an atheist. When I was a supervisor over at WikiAnswers, I chose not to block one irritating "contributor" who always was trolling for a fight. Like this new guy, he threw some stuff from his apparently Catholic upbringing at me and virtually "dared" me to defend it or not. His take on the Bible was that it "couldn't" be right, because it refers to unicorns.

Did you know that unicorns are Biblical? Atheists do, it seems.

Of course, the word "unicorn" probably won't appear in modern translations, but it appears 6 times in the King James Version, specifically in Numbers 23:22, Numbers 24:8, Job 39:9-10, Psalm 29:6, and Psalm 92:10. What these people choose to avoid, of course, is noting that the Hebrew word used there is now better known to refer to a wild bull or ox. They apparently didn't know that in the 17th century, though, so they chose instead to use the word "unicorn."

And that, apparently, is enough to throw the whole thing out. Of course, nobody studies the Bible to update it … never mind that the ESV and NIV both use "wild ox" in place of "unicorn."

The problem is that the atheist sees only what he wants to see, even if it's unicorns in a universe of unchanging ignorance.

The more recent reference to unicorns dealt not with this passage (thank you, sir), but rather with the credibility of the "storybook" known as the Bible. He claims it's no different than saying a book about unicorns is reliable.

So how would you handle this type of situation? Would you study unicorns, or God's Word? How do you support what you believe?

(Oh, and a quick note to the fellow who went off about unicorns: go ahead & post it here. This time it's fair game, even with a closed mind.)

Update: I just found an awesome article from Creation Science Evangelism that explains, even better, why the Bible mentions unicorns. It most certainly educated me; I'm sure it will you, too!

Quick News Note

2011-01-02T16:44:00.000-05:00

Since this just came up, it's probably time to note and remind the readers of a few important rules of the blog.

The biggest thing to note here is that, regardless of what others may think, this blog assumes the validity of the Bible. Comments about things outside of the Bible are OK. Intimidation and mocking this belief is not OK and will result in deletion of the comment(s) and potential user blocking. The decision is mine, and is effectively final. I do try to "play fair," but I will not permit intimidation and mockery, as it stifles true discussion about the points under consideration here.

Anyone with an honest question need not fear action being taken against them or their comments. Anyone who has already decided that anything relating to any sort of "god" is ridiculous can find other blogs or areas to harass people.

Okay, I guess that was only one rule. Sorry I can't count.

Good, Evil, and God

2010-11-23T22:41:00.000-05:00

I just finished reading a rather interesting article presented in the Christian Research Journal. The article deals with the perennial challenge of a “good God” and the existence of evil.

I must warn you now that, if you find philosophical articles that are heavy on cerebral discussion, your eyes will probably glaze over just trying to follow the arguments on both sides.

The issue has been debated for centuries. How could I think that I could add anything else to the discussion?

I don’t, to be honest.

I would, though, like to offer a simpler, saner view of the whole argument.

Consider †his: God is God, and we are not!

Nobody sane should even begin to think that we can see things from God’s perspective. Isaiah 55:8 says that God’s thoughts are higher than our own. God is omniscient, as the article states and the Bible supports. How can measly man ever hope to see things from an omniscient perspective?

God is considered to be “outside of time.” He also never changes. That implies that He sees me as I am typing this at the “same time” as He sees Christ being nailed to a cross for my sins. How can He do that? I don’t have a clue, and don’t think I ever will as long as my perspective is stuck on Earth, stuck in time. How can my writing this be “predestined” and foreknown, and still be the result of my free will? I don’t have a clue.

Let me get even more gutsy: nobody has a clue. Calvin didn’t. Arminius didn’t. Neither did Luther, Wesley, or anybody else. They probably do “now,” but only because they are in Heaven, and can see things as God does. (At least I assume that’s the case.)

So why did God create evil, or create Satan who became evil? Why does God allow evil? I would be interested in the opinions of others, because I have no idea.

God's Timing, His Grace, and What Comes In-Between

2010-09-01T21:27:00.001-04:00

When I first started this blog, I didn't want it to be about me. I wanted it to be about God. I wanted it to be about what I would discover in His Word.

Something got in the way, though, and only recently have I discovered what it has been.

Shortly after that I started reading a book by Anne Jackson, Permission to Speak Freely. The book's official release was yesterday, August 31, 2010, but I've had a copy, courtesy of Amazon.com, since around the 18th of August. This book has hit me square at the core of my being in so many ways and for so many reasons. I have said on Facebook and Twitter that it's required reading for every Christian.

But that's not why I'm writing this.

There's a couple of chapters in the book on the Prodigal Son. It relates to Anne's overall story, of course, but one paragraph just burst through every sense I have. I need to share it here:

Sometimes we've been churches that preach a grace up front for those who aren't Christians and grace at the end for those who follow the rules and are "good Christians," but we've tragically neglected the people in between. The truth is that none of us, even on our best, "holiest" days—the days we don't cuss or look at porn or yell at our spouse or at the idiot who cut us off in traffic—even our best days aren't holy enough to be looked at by God.

That's why there's the Cross. And that's why we all need it for both our brokenness and our righteousness.

I cannot express how close to home this is to me. For the past 4 years I've lived in fear that, even though I'd be in Heaven, that I had failed in so many "responsibilities" and "obligations" in life that I'd be the one who was saved "as if through fire" (1 Corinthians 3:11-15). I imagined myself as being the "bum in Heaven." I'd be clean, but where others had great mansions or rooms, I'd have a little shack at the bottom of the hill.

You see, I've blown many of the "responsibilities" I'd been told God imposes on us. I'm not a father, and according to a former pastor and Dennis Rainey, that's not God's will. My wife and I are under heavy debt, which is a bad thing. I could go on, but you get the idea. "Responsibilities" to me were negative things, not positive.

Well, I'm through that now, thanks to a wonderful friend who is closer than a brother to me. As Anne also points out in her book, sometimes the transfer from head to heart doesn't happen right away, and there's nothing we can do to force it. It took my friend to finish that transfer.

But why did it take almost 4 years to get this?

Consider †his: God is never late (2 Peter 3:9), but He can be "slow" by our standards. (See this link to a humerous but heavy article by James Watkins for some further insight.) His timing is perfect. That means that the 4 years it took me to comprehend the truth about His grace in my failures was for a reason! His grace is always sufficient for our failures and our transgressions ... even our open acts of rebellion at times (2 Corinthians 12:7-10). I was covered by His grace all the time! And now, after 4 years of numerous changes, trials, difficulties, discoveries, and finally healing, I can start to share some of this with my Facebook friends and here.

An immediate healing wouldn't have served His purpose, just like the man born blind in the Gospels had to remain blind for an untold number of years before he would be healed by Jesus (John 9:1-41). Even after his healing it was rough, but his faith was secure.

Why does God take His time? Because He knows better! No, that won't be enough for us at times, but that's OK; His grace is sufficient for that, too.

How many choices do we need?

2010-06-11T19:22:00.004-04:00

I just read an interesting blog post from my e-friend, Scott Smith, on his Sarcastic Xtian blog, entitled "The Bondage of Choice." (Click the title of this post to link to it.)

My response was something I had learned from being a Mac fan and a Palm fan. People used to poo-poo Apple's Macintosh computer system (and that's really how it was designed, as a system combining hardware and software) because you had "fewer choices of applications" than with Microsoft Windows. Last Friday I chose to lay my trustworthy Palm Trēo 680 to rest, replacing it with a new Palm Prē Plus; again, the AT&T guy, chatting with my wife (who was also drooling over it and the iPhone), mentioned that the Pre had "fewer apps."

My question was: how many choices do I need?

Choice is important. God gives us the ability to choose. He also gives us the responsibility to choose wisely.

Consider †his: how many choices of gods do we have?

Those in the world would say we have dozens, maybe hundreds. Some religions, such as Buddhism, say that we will become gods as part of our travel through the wheel of enlightenment. New Age thinking echoes that, saying that each of us are little gods in our own right. Even the claiming-to-be-Christian Word of Faith movement steps into that realm with the idea that, since we are all created in the "image of God," obviously we can do anything God can do as long as we depend on our faith, just as He did when He spoke the universe into existence.

But how many choices do we really have?

Two. God and Satan.

There is only one road to God (John 14:6). All others lead away from God. That's Satan. We can call him by various different names, we can mask him in various different forms of "light" by using terms such as "enlightenment," or we can clothe him in our own image. It still doesn't work.

We only need two choices of gods, and only one is the right choice.

Quick News Update

2010-05-22T19:03:00.003-04:00

One of the issues I've had with Blogger (or, to be more precise, blogspot.com) is its inability to use what are known as "trackbacks." To oversimplify, trackbacks are a mechanism by which one blog can comment on or blog about another blog, and the latter gets notified about it. For example, I intend to comment on something written on another Blogger blog, but I would like for his blog to know about it.

That other blog, the Sarcastic Xtian, uses a different comment system than the standard Blogger one. He uses DISQUS, which does allow trackbacks and reactions.

I've decided to use that here, effective immediately. I mean, it's not like this blog is so busy that it has gotten a lot of comments anyhow, but I'd like that to change. (I know, if I'd post something more often than once every other odd leap year, it would help.)

Some other features of DISQUS are:

the ability to reply to a comment, and have it come out "threaded." That means that you see replies as replies, near to the original comment.
the ability to post using a variety of different user IDs, including Facebook, Twitter, Open ID, and more. Each login method also allows echoing back to the service through which you logged in. For example, if you log in through your Twitter account, you can tweet your comment.
automatic anti-spam and anti-profanity filters.
the ability to "like" a comment or to "flag" a comment.

There are probably more cool things here that I missed, or am not thinking about at this moment.

Oh, I should add that using DISQUS will require opening up some permissions in your browser. Sadly, I forget right now which ones are required (mainly because I had to fight them for another comment service, Intense Debate, which required me to open up Quantcast, of all places), but I believe they should be obvious to regular users of utilities like NoScript, AdBlock (which shouldn't require any extra handling), and Ghostery (which might need some unblocking).

Taking the Bible Literally

2010-03-13T17:37:00.005-05:00

This actually began as a comment for a post, Taking Jesus Literally, on the Spiritual Reflections blog. (The title of this message should be a link to the post, but in case it doesn't come through FeedBurner properly, it's http://revmdavis.blogspot.com/2010/03/taking-jesus-literally.html)

Unlike previous posts here, this is purely my own opinion. Part of me doesn't like that, because my opinion is worth as much, or as less, as anybody else's. On the other hand, what's the title of my blog? Consider This! I'm not going to say this is "right" or that you're going to Hell if you disagree with me. (I do insist that, if you choose to disagree in a comment, to do so agreeably. No personal attacks, no foul language, etc. And, sorry, I have the final say on how that gets defined. Cope.)

I've found that taking the Bible "literally" is the only way to go. The problem is in how you implement that. Obviously, from the term "implement," I'm an engineer by trade and by Godly design (it comes naturally to me, in other words), so that affects my perception of things.

So let's look at taking the Bible "literally." First, there are obvious places in the Bible that are symbolic or poetic. The Song of Solomon, also called the Song of Songs in some translations, is essentially a love poem. The Psalms are songs, not commandments. When you start to get into prophecy, though, the distinction becomes dull, especially when you get into end-times prophecies.

Related to the symbolic and poetic are allegory and idiomatic phrases. For example, when Psalm 50:10 says that the "cattle on a thousand hills" belong to the Lord, you're not going to find hill #1,001 and say that the cattle on that hill doesn't belong to Him. (Actually, you might want to pop the link to that verse open in a separate tab, because he's going to get a lot of mileage in this missive.) Idioms in the Bible are harder to find because the idioms don't translate literally well at all. The often-despised Living Bible translation (which served as the basis for the slightly less paraphrase-like New Living Translation) actually translates one idiomatic phrase as "don't count your chickens before they hatch" (specifically 1 Kings 20:11 ... I'll let you read it in other translations, via the link to Bible Gateway, to see the "better" translation).

The second enemy of literal Bible consideration is precision. We 21^st century "civilized" "educated" fellows want finely detailed numbers. If someone counts 77,000 in one place, then they'd better not claim 77,500 somewhere else, or even 77,005. The problem is, when counting that many soldiers, for example, that are milling about, ready for the battle (and probably vulnerable to attack while standing there), performing a precise to-the-person head count is simply not reasonable. Even then there were methods for estimating a rough count of people; estimation is still used today. For other metrics, there's the law of "significant digits" (which should send some students that were forced to take physics in high school into a shudder). Significant digits basically says that you have to take the precision of measurements into account, and the result can only be that precise, no matter what a calculator says.

A third issue when dealing with literal interpretation of the Bible is audience. Now, I'm not a dispensationalist, even though I happen to agree with many views that are often labeled "dispensationalist." Dealing with the parts I cannot agree with will take this post too far off-base. I will say, though, that there are commands that were given to the Israelites that don't apply to the Gentiles (Acts dealt with an early form of this), there are commands given to certain individuals that aren't necessarily for everybody, and there are issues that aren't an issue for one group that are for another (such as the "eating meat offered to idols" discussed in 1 Corinthians).

In order to know the audience, usually you need another important factor for interpretation: context. Again this can take a post of its own, but there are very few verses of the Bible that we can take by themselves and get a clear picture. Psalm 50:10 provides a good example of this as well. Reading even the rest of the verse makes it clear that you don't have to count hills to determine where cattle that aren't God's exist; it starts out with saying that all critters are His. The remainder of Psalm 50 should give you an even greater idea of what's going on. Many, many false teachings have been generated by taking a verse or two out of context and using it to "prove" some flake-generated idea.

There's one vital component, though, of literal Bible interpretation that too many people miss: the Holy Spirit! Although some people will take this as heresy, it's true: the Bible is merely words on paper without the indwelling Spirit of God as a part of your life. No, I'm not saying you need to speak in tongues or fall backwards when touched on the head. I'm simply talking about the Holy Author of the Holy Bible dwelling within you! If you have not turned over your life to Jesus Christ, don't even bother with Biblical interpretation at all. It won't make sense!

Scared for Nothing!

2010-01-03T17:07:00.002-05:00

The Yahweh's Yarn in a Year for January 2 was from Joshua 1-5. This section begins the time when the next generation of Israelites prepared to enter & conquer the Promised Land. Reading Genesis through Deuteronomy, you'll discover that God had promised Abraham and his descendants that land, but when the whole mob left Egypt, they were afraid of the people in the land they were about to enter. Of the 12 spies they sent in, only two — Joshua (the guy the book's named after, and now the leader of the Israelites) and Caleb — had the faith to believe God was going to give them the land. As a result, the people were told to go back into the wilderness and wander around there for 40 years, in the wilderness that took them a year to get through.

There's quite a bit of stuff to look at here, but here's what hit me in the face this time. This comes from the story of the scouting party investigating Jericho. You can find this in Joshua 2:1-11. Rahab, a prostitute and flax handler of some sort, had hidden the spies from the guards that were looking for them. She explained that the city was scared of the Israelites. Why? Because of all the stuff that happened 40 years ago!

Consider †his: 40 years ago the Israelites wimped out, even after being miraculously rescued from the Egyptians by tons of … well, miracles! Through it all, they got scared of the people in the land beyond the Jordan river. But those people heard about it, too … and were even more scared of the Israelites and their God Who fought for them! They didn't just get scared now. They were scared 40 years ago, when Israel was just as scared. For forty years the people of Jericho lived under the threat of the Israelites coming in and taking them out. For forty years, though, the feared Israelites were themselves fearful, so much that they had to spend a time-out in the desert until that generation was gone.

Now Consider †his: isn't God just as much for the child of God today as He was for the children of Israel then? The world is scared of God today. Why do you think there's so much of a push to get rid of Christmas, but not the false Kwanzaa, or the real Hanukkah, Ramadan, or other holidays? As one person put it, "it's because it's got Christ in it, and after 2,000 years He's still intimidating people." You, Christian, are intimidating, too. If you have Christ in you, you're just as intimidating. Obviously the point isn't to make people fear you, but don't be afraid of what happens around you when Christ is in you.

More Than Who Can Handle?

2008-12-23T16:45:00.003-05:00

One verse that Christians like to use to comfort themselves and each other is 1 Corinthians 10:13. We find comfort in the thought that God “won’t give us more than we can bear.”

Recently I’ve been reading a couple of Charles Stanley’s books. One in particular is How to Handle Adversity. I found it curious that it wasn’t titled “How to Overcome Adversity.” Indeed, the book isn’t about how to battle adversity and come out the victor; rather, it’s about how to understand what God may be saying, or not saying, during difficult times.

The book led me to think back to the 1 Corinthians verse. I like to take things in context, so here it is with some of the surrounding material:

¹For I do not want you to be ignorant of the fact, brothers and sisters, that our ancestors were all under the cloud and that they all passed through the sea. ²They were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. ³They all ate the same spiritual food ⁴and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the same spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ. ⁵Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them; their bodies were scattered in the wilderness.

⁶Now these things occurred as examples to keep us from setting our hearts on evil things as they did. ⁷Do not be idolaters, as some of them were; as it is written, “The people sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in revelry.” ⁸We should not commit sexual immorality, as some of them did – and in one day twenty-three thousand of them died. ⁹We should not test Christ, as some of them did – and were killed by snakes. ¹⁰And do not grumble, as some of them did – and were killed by the destroying angel.

¹¹These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the culmination of the ages has come. ¹²So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall! ¹³No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to us all. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.

¹⁴Therefore, my dear friends, flee from idolatry. [1 Corinthians 1:1-14, Today’s NIV]

There are tons of things that could be brought forth from just that little smidgen of Paul’s letter to the church at Corinth, but let’s stay focused here. The famous “beyond what you can bear” verse deals with temptation, not adversity. Surprised? Granted, much adversity can come from the consequences of our sin, as Paul wrote earlier. Adversity, though, can come for other reasons; consider Job as the most famous example of one who suffered extreme adversity that wasn’t caused by sin. The blind man mentioned in John 9 was born blind, but not due to sin, but so that God’s glory could shine forth (John 9:3).

So where is our hope in adversity? Consider This: God’s still there, and God still cares. When Joshua was ready to take Jericho in the name of the Lord, God told him numerous times to “be strong and courageous,” because God was with them. We might not be able to bear the suffering, but God can, if we cast all our cares on Him (1 Peter 5:6-11).

One pastor, in his “Faith Engineer” blog at http://www.faithengineer.com/2008/01/god-wont-give-you-more-than-you-can.html, cited another pastor dealing with this. Quoting that other pastor: “It does not imply that God won’t let you be stressed beyond what you can bear. Or challenged beyond your ability. Or pushed beyond your threshold. In reality, God gives you more than you can bear all the time. On purpose. It’s only when you can’t bear the load that the strength of Christ kicks in… and He becomes everything you need and more.”

REAL Love

2008-02-14T19:23:00.002-05:00

Happy Valentine's Day, everybody.

Earlier this evening I confessed to a friend that I had forgotten that today was the day where too many guys will get tons of grief from their "significant other" because they, too, forgot the day. My friend, a young lady who recently got engaged, asked if if my wife and I even celebrate the day. I told her we did, after a fashion. I told her that I recently heard someone on the radio mention that today was when many girls and women receive stuff out of obligation. I asked, "what's the romance in that?"

Love should never be restricted to a single day of the year (or two, if you also include the mysterious "Sweetest Day" in the fall). True love is even more than a lifestyle. True love is something that's so much a part of you that it just won't let go.

What is this true love? 1 Corinthians 13 in the Bible describes it. The NIV renders it thusly:

¹If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. ²If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. ³If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.

⁴Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. ⁵It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered. It keeps no record of wrongs. ⁶Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. ⁷It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

⁸Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. ⁹For we know in part and we prophesy in part, ¹⁰but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. ¹¹When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. ¹²Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

¹³And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

I know of nobody on this planet who lives up to that definition. I certainly don't. this past week showed me that I'm a far way off from that kind of love. That kind of unconditional perfect love comes from only one source: God!

This Valentine's Day, and every day, Consider This: God sets the example and empowers us to love. Instead of obligating or being obligated just because it's a particular calendar day, simply show and live love!

I have a question about "tongues"

2007-09-22T15:44:00.000-04:00

This time I've got a question for folks reading this. So far I haven't found any good source of information, although I haven't exhausted all possibilities.

The question is: What Biblical support is there for the "prayer language" form of "tongues?"

First, let me tell you what I've heard and don't find adequate.

The biggest support I've heard is found in 1 Corinthians 13:1: "If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gone or a clanging cymbal." (emphasis mine) The phrase bridges a discourse Paul gives about spiritual gifts, specifically speaking in tongues or unknown languages, and the famous definition of love. The Corinthian church had focused all too heavily on the spiritual gifts (not to mention following the teachings of men), and not enough on Christ.

The problem I have with using this as "proof" of the gift of tongues including a private "prayer language" that does not correspond to any existing language (and, therefore, does not require an interpreter, as seen in 1 Corinthians 12) is that the notion of "tongues of angels" just pops up out of the clear blue, and really isn't supported elsewhere in context. I see this as more of a form of exaggeration, as though Paul is saying, "hey, look. I don't care what you think about speaking in languages you haven't learned. That's not important. Even if somebody were to claim to speak some language direct from Heaven, if that person doesn't have love, it's no good!"

I've also heard all the supposition about the "unknown prayer language" being a sort of "code" between your spirit and the Holy Spirit that allows communication that Satan cannot intercept or interpret. Sorry, but if Satan was one of the highest angels who still has free contact with God (as seen in the book of Job), I cannot see how this is supported by Scripture. Even if Satan does hear our prayers, God is greater and still in charge ... who cares if he hears or not?

Sometimes peole will refer to this "prayer language" as being the "groanings that cannot be uttered" mentioned in Romans 8:26. Sorry, but what I hear referred to as "prayer language" has more sounds than mere groans. Besides, prayer language is uttered, or spoken.

For the record, I do accept the notion of speaking in tongues, and the interpretation thereof. I witnessed one lady doing this, and while I could not interpret, I did recognize a grammatical structure. I also accept the story, published in Guideposts several years ago, about the woman who ministered to a German widow, all the time speaking and hearing German, even though she did not know German, nor realized she was doing it at the time. Although I've studied French, it came to me fairly quickly, and I can still hold my own, even when out of practice (although my vocabulary fails at times ... as I tell people, "je me souviens un peu des mots Français"). I do not accept the notion that one is not saved or has the Holy Spirit dwelling within them unless they "speak in tongues" of either type.

I would appreciate any references folks can supply.

Why did God make homosexuals?

2007-09-05T20:03:00.000-04:00

One question I've seen in numerous places is "why did God make homosexuals?" The question often presumes that (a) homosexuals are "made" that way, so (b) God must have made them that way, so (c) why does He hold that against them?

It's a legitimate question from that point of view. Let's start with the last one first, or at least some form of it. Does God consider homosexuality a sin? Yes. Nave's Topical Bible lists numerous verses for "Sodomy," which is what "Homosexuality" links to. Obviously one of those verses is Genesis 19:5-8, which deals with Lot in Sodom. The men of the town wanted to come in and "know" (in the proverbial "Biblical sense") Lot's visitors, who were angels sent to get Lot and his family to safety before God destroyed the whole place. Other verses include Leviticus 18:22-23; 20:13, 15-16; Romans 1:24-27; 1 Corinthians 6:9, and many, many more.

So, if God made them that way, then He's not fair, right? Isn't that the whole point of the question?

Consider this: God made each and every one of us the way we are. We are all sinners in one way or another (Romans 3:23). God didn't so much "make us that way" as He made us with the right and responsibility to choose. Like it or not, we are given the ability to choose whether to follow His commands or not; we are also given the responsibility to choose correctly.

Is God being cruel? Give me a break! If God sent His only Son to die for you (John 3:16-18), why do you think he'd be cruel? Because He doesn't let you do what you want? Actually, He does let you do what you want, even if it's the worst, most stupid thing you could do to yourself. He tells us what to do and what not to do to warn us not to do the stuff that would harm us.

That includes homosexual behavior. In one sense it's not that much different from being "straight." It's not best for me or my wife for me to get the hots for another woman, or to follow through with that desire. Why would it be any different if I had the hots for another man, or she for another woman?

We still keep thinking that there are "heavy" sins and "light" sins, sins that aren't quite as bad as another. Consider this: the whole world was cursed with death simply because Adam ate a fruit from a tree he wasn't allowed to. That's it! How much "lighter" is that than murder? Then again, he murdered himself, his family, and every single person ever to live on this accursed planet! His decision was indirectly responsible for the death of Jesus, the Christ! (Don't give old Adam much grief, though; you and I are just as responsible.)

God "made" homosexuals, perverts, murderers, smugglers, lyers, cheats, theives, politicians ... and you and me. All of us have a choice.

So what choice are you going to make? Are you going to choose the wrong way, and keep damaging yourself and people you may never meet? Or are you going to choose God's way, and surrender your life to Christ? Yeah, you may have to give up some stuff, but it's like giving up poison ... it really is a good idea.

Middle-East Success!

2007-02-28T20:15:00.000-05:00

I've gotten so sick and tired of the media trying to tell those of us here in the USA that the war in Iraq is a "quagmire," a loss, so let's abandon these people just like we did in Vietnam.

What bugs me is that nobody talks about the successes in Iraq!

Yes, that's right, successes!!!!!

WorldNetDaily's article, "The Middle East's forgotten democracy" provides an enlightening look at a real-live democracy buried within Iraq, a democracy that actually appreciates the presence of US soldiers.

Read it! Believe it!

Then consider this: why don't we hear this kind of good news on a regular basis???

Answers for Atheists

2007-02-21T21:31:00.000-05:00

One site I frequent is WikiAnswers, formerly known as FAQ Farm. This is a question & answer site, but managed via a wiki, much like Wikipedia. Using the original farm analogy, questions & answers are "grown" into hopefully professional, or at least reliable, answers. Some questions, of course, can only be "answered" by giving a list of opinions. That happens often with the section I supervise, Religion & Spirituality.

Recently one user arrived and has been contributing rabidly. The person professes atheism, claiming that he was "brainwashed" in Catholic school. He, like many, feel that the only "smart" response to religion is to examine it from a logical point of view.

The problem is, God doesn't work like that. His ways are not our ways; our wisdom, compared to His, is utter foolishness. God doesn't promise to work within our own prejudices and preconceptions; rather, He wants us to learn His ways. Why? Because they're better. Because He's right.

Too many people, though, won't accept it. They choose to reject any formula other than their own. Then they expect God to meet their standards. How foolish!

This evening at our church, a fellow who leads the 18-35(ish) crowd taught about God's calling. One of the things God made me realize is that my calling isn't to convince the atheist that he's wrong. Only the Spirit of God can do that. All I'm told to do is to write the truth in love, and present the Good News to them.

I hope to be writing much more here as part of that calling.

What You Wear To Church

2006-11-11T19:41:00.000-05:00

There are some great truths that many children of God miss. There are many sites on the Internet that provide splendid insights into these truths. There are also many others that provide lies and deceptions. Sadly, the latter is more often the case than the former. When I see an author go down the wrong path, I'll try to talk it out with them, if they're open. Sometimes they admit they didn't address the issue correctly. Sometimes they're open to the opinions of others. Too often, though, I find the attitude of "I'm right, therefore you must be wrong."

I will admit to you right here and now, that's an attitude I cannot stomach. Yes, I come off like that too often myself, but I do try to make amends when I mess up as soon as I see it. (That's why I got bummed about the lack of response to the previous iteration of this blog, I think.)

There's one fellow, Bill Keller, who lives in Florida and has been part of a live call-in show in the Tampa area, and now on the "i" network. For the past few months, he's been right on the mark with his teachings, even though he tends to over-generalize sometimes and say that "all churches" or "all Christians" are doing something that, sorry, not all of them are actually doing.

A recent "devotional" of his, which can be found here, really helped show me his true colors. Read it if you want, but know that I believe he's got some serious errors in his thinking.

I've seen too many people be put off by churches that demand you wear your "Sunday best" to church, or you're out of God's will or worse. Keller's opinion is that it shows "respect" to Jesus.

My question to him was this: how can wearing "your best" (or, rather, what our society has determined is "your best") show respect to God, when God doesn't look at outward appearances (1 Samuel 16:7)? Showing respect to someone has to involve the person to whom you're showing respect. You're not showing me any respect if you hurt someone else just because you think I think they should be hurt. For example, you're not showing me respect by crashing Keller's website. Vandalism of any type, including "virtual vandalism," is not something I condone, let alone respect.

God wants our hearts, our souls, and our lives. If the Spirit of the Lord tells you that means, for you, to wear a suit and tie, then go for it! For me, He hasn't said that. In fact, when I was part of a church that tended to respect clothes more than the person, I intentionally wore black denim pants (a.k.a. "jeans"), sneakers, and a collared "golf shirt," all of which Keller condemns in his missive. Why did I do that? I knew there were people who could've come in who may not have a suit and tie, or who may have come in off the street out of curiosity. God called me to dress down to encourage them more, to let them know that they weren't going to be condemned because of their clothing. (A secondary reason is that, being chronically overweight, button-down shirts do not work on me, nor do dress pants and shoes.)

God does want our best. He wants excellence in worship and service. As I said, He wants your heart, your soul, and your life, 24/7/365 (366 on leap years :-) ), 100%. He isn't interested in what our society considers "dress up" clothes. I feel it's safe to say that He abhors those who look down on others if their clothing isn't up to their personal standard. Sorry, there's no excuse for that.

By the way, what was Keller's response? Essentially he claimed that the Holy Spirit must've been "convicting" me (not him, of course — he's above all that), and reiterated some of what he had written earlier. Oh, well. Closed mind, hard heart, I suppose.

What's In A Name?

2006-07-05T18:00:00.000-04:00

Churches have some interesting names. Non-denominational churches, especially, tend to get a little "creative" in their names, while some traditional churches go with "First So-and-So Church of This Area" or whatever. Some churches even include slogans with their signage and "advertising," speaking of "Full-gospel" and "Spirit-filled."

I don't know about you, but I find that these churches usually need some form of advertising, because nothing else draws people to them. No, I'm not saying that every church with a funky name or certain catch-phrases do this, but it seems that, more often than not, the more convincing a church's name or slogans tries to be, the less that church is what it claims to be.

There's nothing inherently wrong with denominational or non-denominational churches, nothing at all. What's wrong in too many churches, though, is that they rely on the name or the reputation of their leadership, denomination, or whatever rather than focusing on what's truly important.

Christ is the head of His Body, which is referred to as "the Church." I'm not talking about "the universal Church of Such-and-Such" or "the Holy Something Church." I'm talking about the family of believers who have chosen to follow Jesus Christ. Many of these do belong to a smaller fellowship of like-minded believers, and that's OK. But when that fellowship, or church or whatever other term you want to use, loses sight of God's Word -- both Jesus the Word made flesh and the Bible -- and looks instead on its denomination, leadership, building, etc., that fellowship gets into trouble.

Churches in England are poorly attended. Over 20 Catholic churches alone have closed down within a year's time, if I recall the figure correctly. Many churches have an attendance in the teens -- no, not in age, but in quantity. A "megachurch" in the UK may have as many as 250 in attendance regularly. The USA isn't far behind, folks. As Christians abandon the uppermost authority of their lives, their so-called "Christianity" becomes worthless. That's when other cults and godless religions step in. Many of the shut-down cathedrals and churches in England have been turned into Islamic mosques. How long before we see the same thing happening in the US?

If you, reading this, are in any form of church leadership, the first step is for you to make a personal stand in your own life. Be willing to let go of denominational rules and statements of "faith" and anything else that may get in the way of hearing what God has to say to you. You may discover that the denominational rules and statements of faith are OK. You may discover some differences between those and what the Bible, taken as a whole, really says. By being willing to let go of anything other than the Word of God, though, you're taking your first step towards a whole new growth area. Then, as a leader, you can help lead your family and your church in a life-changing direction.

Let's face it, people don't need more fraternal organizations. People need a life-changing relationship with God. Set the example.

It's BACK!

2006-03-29T21:13:00.000-05:00

Okay, I couldn't keep away. :) I've realized how frustrating it can be to be posting something into the blogosphere, but nobody bothers to comment. On the other hand, I don't get any negative comments or personal attacks, so I guess that's a good thing. :)

Anyhow, I'm bringing this back online. I'm going to try to bring back the old posts, although I foolishly didn't save them all (thankfully those were just the jokes ... sadly, I remember them :) ).