Author: believersarmedanddangerous

You might think Easter is an odd time to talk about apologetics, but it’s really not. 

“Apologetics,” of course, is taken from the Greek word “apologia” which means “a defense” or “answer”.  Jesus used evidence in defense of His statement He would raise Himself from the dead (John 2:18-22).  Actually apologetics, presenting evidence, was important to both Jesus’ ministry in general and specifically to His resurrection.

During His ministry, Jesus showed He could forgive sins by presenting evidence:

Matthew 9:4-7 (ESV)
⁴  But Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said, “Why do you think evil in your hearts?  ⁵  For which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Rise and walk’?  ⁶  But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—he then said to the paralytic—“Rise, pick up your bed and go home.”  ⁷  And he rose and went home.

It was the evidence that helped people believe Jesus was just Who He said He was.  Performing miracles demonstrated He had authority to forgive sins.  So, what about the resurrection of Jesus?  Well, there is actually quite a bit of evidence.

In Luke chapter 24, Jesus appeared to His disciples (except for Thomas).  When they were afraid and thought He was a ghost, but Jesus showed them evidence that He was risen:

In the story of the encounter of two disciples and the risen Christ on the road to Emmaus, Jesus actually had to supernaturally prevent the disciples from recognizing Him (Luke 24:16) so He could teach them about His resurrection.  After He was finished, their eyes were opened, they recognized that Jesus was alive again and sitting with them.  Then He vanished from their sight. (Luke 24:16)

Later in that same chapter, Jesus shows Himself to the disciples, but they didn’t think it was Jesus but a spirit:

Luke 24:38-43 (ESV)
³⁸  And he said to them, “Why are you troubled, and why do doubts arise in your hearts?   ³⁹  See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Touch me, and see. For a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.”   ⁴⁰  And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet.
⁴¹  And while they still disbelieved for joy and were marveling, he said to them, “Have you anything here to eat?”   ⁴²  They gave him a piece of broiled fish,  ⁴³  and he took it and ate before them.

Jesus offered His raised body for examination.  When the disciples still didn’t believe, He ate something as additional evidence.  I’d like to give Thomas a plug here.  We have branded Thomas as “Doubting Thomas” as though he were the only one who doubted. It’s clear from this passage that all the other disciples doubted Jesus’ resurrection at first just as Thomas did.

Later in John 20:27, Jesus showed Himself to Thomas and went even further to prove He had risen:

John 20:27 (ESV)
²⁷  Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe.”

Again, Jesus offered His physical body for examination.  He left no stone unturned to prove it was He and in the same body that died on the cross.

Jesus’ best known disciple, Peter, tells us these things weren’t made up but really took place, giving eyewitness testimony:

2 Peter 1:16 (ESV)
¹⁶  For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty.

As we celebrate Christ’s resurrection, let us remember we serve a risen Savior Who wanted to leave no doubt in our minds, Who displayed the evidence for His followers to see (1 Cor 15:3-9), and that His followers testified to what they saw.  Let me close with the words of Jesus’ beloved disciple, John, testifying to the truth of it all:

1 John 1:1-4 (ESV)
¹  That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life— ²  the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us— ³  that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. ⁴ And we are writing these things so that our joy may be complete.

I was asked by an atheist about the effectiveness of prayer for the good of our loved ones this week.  With that, he also asked what God does to ease the suffering of others.  Here is a slightly edited version of my response:

Prayer is fellowship with God to express our hearts and share in His love.  We ask God for His grace, mercy, and protection for our loved ones, but we understand it may be in His plan to allow them or us to suffer.  We’re just sharing our desire with God.

I suppose prayers like this are selfish prayers.  All prayers should end with the understanding that we want God’s will, not ours to be done.

For the Christian, suffering builds our faith, it causes us to turn to God for solace and healing. It turns our hearts and minds more toward Him.  It builds our dependence on God.  The times I’ve been closest to God and learned the most were times of trial.  These prayers to bless our loved ones can also be understood to be requests to ease their suffering.

Some suffering is eased by God directly.  A friend’s lumps in her breasts disappear after prayer.  The doctor could not find them in the pre-op exam when they were there just a couple of weeks earlier.  Another friend had colon cancer diagnosed, but it was no longer there after prayer.  There was just a dent where the tumor had been.  Just last week another friend’s wife had a mass on her brain that had been there for six months disappear after six months of prayer.

Some of the pain in the world is to be eased by God’s children.  God has provided for their pain by commanding His people to help the suffering and the poor.  Many of us do that both as individuals and corporately through churches and parachurch groups.  My wife and I give at our church and support a child, Melvin, in Kenya through Christian Missionary Fellowship.  Part of our contribution goes to his education.  Some also goes to providing clean water to Melvin’s village and training for the local farmers to improve their crop yield.  This helps ease their suffering as well.  Another friend has visited Melvin’s village and seen the money is being used wisely.  We need to be good stewards.

Some of our current tithe goes to benevolence for those in the church as well as food for the homeless, the alone, and the frightened.  We locally provide and deliver more than 500 free Thanksgiving turkey dinners to abused women’s shelters, homeless veterans and other individuals in town, people just getting by and can’t afford a decent meal, shut-ins, anyone who asks.  The holidays are lonely times for many.  This helps a little to ease their suffering.

Our church also has a food pantry from which we distribute to people who come to us for help.  The pantry is stocked through the gifts of food by individuals in the congregation.

Operation Christmas Child is connected with Samaritan’s Purse uniting people in churches worldwide to pack gifts of new clothing, toys, and personal items for children in third world countries.  Last year, individuals in our church alone provided about 250 of these packages.

All of the above is done free of charge or obligation to the recipients, of course, and most of those involved get no recognition for their kindness.  These gifts and acts are done because of our love for Christ and desire to obey Him.  Remember, this is just a small sampling of the work being done by individuals and churches around the globe.  All this is done in the name of Christ all to help ease the suffering in the world.

Helping others creates gratitude and an elevation of the recipients’ situations and acts of sacrificial benevolence by the giver. Through these acts a broad cross section of people are drawn closer together. These are good things.

Of course, some people are in pain as a result of their own ungodly actions and are feeling the justice of God.  Sometimes He’s just trying to get their attention and turn their eyes to Him.

God’s people are called to ease the suffering of others. We are His instruments to do so. Unfortunately, many Christians don’t reach out, though, so there is suffering without relief for many.

Science: —  God governs the world invisibly, and He has commanded us to worship Him and no other god. – Sir Isaac Newton

It should be said before we start that for centuries the Church was heavily influenced by Aristotle.  The church accepted his view that knowledge could only be arrived at through deductive logic and that inductive logic was evil.  Aristotle also taught that the universe was intertwined with God and His spiritual realm, so the church saw demons and spirits in everything. 

Because the church believed these ideas, inductive science, for the most part, was rejected.  Science is based on experimentation and inductive logic, extrapolating conclusions from observations, in this case.  When the early proponents of what would become the scientific method presented their ideas, the church rejected them out of hand.  When Robert Gosseteste (1168-1253), a Franciscan bishop and first chancellor of Oxford University, first proposed the inductive experimental method, it was not well received.  Soon, though, Roger Bacon, William of Occam, and others like them joined the fray and stood by a new idea that the universe is separate from God and can be examined reasonably.

Since God is a rational Being and created other rational beings (man), these men thought, not only should the universe be rationally designed, but it should be open to rational examination.  The Catholic Church fought this idea for centuries due to its acceptance of Aristotelian views.  Acceptance would only come with the Reformation.  The Protestants embraced the idea though the Catholic Church continued to fight it.  It was, in fact, a group of Lutherans who were to fund and publish Copernicus’ work on the heliocentric universe.

I don’t mean to badmouth the Catholic Church.  We Protestants share the same history with them during much of this time and up until the Reformation.  The Catholics were unwilling to change in the face of facts, though.  It was only later that the Protestants came along with new views of their own and the willingness to embrace other unconventional ideas.

The great names who built the foundations of today’s science were Christians who were seeking to better understand God and his creation.  Men like da Vinci, Newton, Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo, and Mendel were all believers.  It was the Catholic Church early on which helped to create the divide between faith and science.  But, it was the work of believers trying to understand the universe their God had created that brought about much of the science we recognize today.

Science has since changed to a naturalistic worldview, that all that exists can only be explained by natural forces and matter.  They have rejected the motives of their founding giants and have decided to remove God from their work.  As a result we hear the question, “Can you prove God scientifically?”  Since science has rejected all but the natural world, the question makes as much sense as asking someone to prove gravity through metaphysical means.  It’s a category error.

Science has lost a lot.  Through their rejection of God, they have rejected an entire area of research.  The Intelligent Design movement of the past few decades has tried to correct that, but, unlike the founders of modern science, most scientists today continue to reject even the possibility of a Grand Designer.

Labor:  — Luke 3:14 2 Thessalonians 3:12 (ESV) ¹²  Now such persons we command and encourage in the Lord Jesus Christ to do their work quietly and to earn their own living.

In the Greco Roman world, work was seen as demeaning and to be done only by slaves and people of low social standing.

With the arrival of Christ, this view changed.  Jesus Himself was an example of someone who worked hard through His youth until He began His ministry, taught that a worker was worthy of his wages (Luke 10:7) and that employees should be happy with their pay (Luke 3:14).  So, He addressed both the employer and employee’s position.  The Apostle Paul worked as a tentmaker during his missionary journey and taught if someone doesn’t work, they shouldn’t eat (2 Thess. 3:10).  So, work was beginning to be seen as honorable and necessary with the spread of Christianity.  No longer was it okay to have others do your work unless you paid them.  Jesus’ statement that workers deserved wages turned many slave masters into Christian employers, slaves to employees.

The Dark Ages were a large exception to all of this.  Once the Roman Empire was no more, the Catholic Church fell into an Aristotelian worldview that work was for the lower classes.  Western Europe stayed poor and ignorant.  Yet, even during the Dark Ages, laziness (sloth) was seen as one of the Seven Deadly Sins.

Certainly, slavery continued and even flourished at times, but it as we saw in an earlier blog, it was the Christians who were at the forefront of abolitionist movements.

Protestantism added money lending to the acceptance of labor as honorable and dignified.  Lending with fair interest helped finance businesses, it helped create a more prosperous culture now that more risk could be taken, more opportunities could be sought, additional employees could be hired.  The Industrial Revolution would never have taken place without banks that were willing to lend and invest.  Earning a fair wage also lifted great numbers out of poverty and created a thriving middle class.

So, without the Christian influence on science and labor, our world would be a very different place today.

Last week, we looked at a few ways the world was changed by the arrival of Christ, His teachings, and the lives of His followers.  We’ll look at a couple more today and see how the ministry of Jesus did not just change our lives spiritually but also the entire Western culture and worldview.

Respect for women

Galatians 3:28 (ESV)   There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

Before the time of Christ, women were treated as little more than slaves.  The man was the omnipotent ruler in charge of his wife.  In Greek culture, a man of means had two women in his life: a wife with whom to have and raise a family, and a mistress for other pleasures.  The wife was not allowed to speak to the husbands friends, attend social gatherings with him – including dinners in their own home – or even to be seen in public unattended by a male, usually a servant was assigned the task of watching her.  The wife could not divorce her husband, but he could do so at any time.

The mistress, on the other hand, was the man’s companion at social and public gatherings, she was his companion and sexual partner.

This began to change at the coming of Christ.  Men were told to love their wives sacrificially (Eph. 5:23).  Women could be leaders in the church (2 John 1:1; 1 Tim. 3:11).  There were women who prophesied (Acts. 21:9), it was women who first saw Jesus had risen and women who testified to others in the church about it.  Men and women now were to hold equal standing (Gal. 3:28).  This was all very strange and very threatening to the culture of the time.  We can thank God, then, for the freedoms and dignity women in the West enjoy today.

Education

Acts 5:42 (ESV) And every day, in the temple and from house to house, they did not cease teaching and preaching that the Christ is Jesus.

In the first century world, education was only for the elite, the wealthy.  Only they had the money and time for teachers and mentors.  The church changed that.  Church meetings included teaching sessions.  Proselytes were taught the basics of the faith and were questioned about what they had learned before baptism.  Many of the early creeds of the church were used for this very purpose.

Christianity is not a blind faith but a faith founded on fact.  Those facts must be conveyed and explained to the followers of Christ so they can more effectively understand the faith and better share it with others.  Our salvation is based on faith – which leaves out no one – but study is expected of the believer as well (2 Tim. 2:15). 

The first public schools appear to have been created by Christians in Germany through the efforts of Martin Luther, Philipp Melanchthon, and Johannes Bugenhagen.  These men felt education should be for everyone and would be beneficial to society to such an extent that the government must be persuaded to fund it.  It was Christians who first began graded education, education for the blind and deaf, and it was Christians who established the first universities.  While the Greeks first treasured the idea of higher education, it was the Christians who first combined campuses, faculties of scholars, and libraries for the sole purpose of education.

In 1780 Scottish printer, Robert Raikes saw the need to help the poor who had little or no education.  He was especially concerned with the children.  Since poor children of that time often worked twelve-hour days six days a week, he struck on the idea of a school on Sundays when the children were available.  So, from 10:00 until noon each Sunday, Raikes began to teach these children the Bible.  He soon realized the children could not read, though, so his first objective became teaching them to read and write.

Many pious clergy and laymen sought to end Raikes’ efforts and restore the “sanctity of Sunday,” but leaders including John Newton, John and Charles Wesley, and others persuaded them differently.  Raikes’ Sunday school was a great success helping the people of his day out of poverty and ignorance in the name of Christ.  The Sunday Schools we see in churches today are not the same as what Raikes began, but they are still a powerful educational arm of Christ’s church.

Next week we’ll look at Christianity’s influence on science, labor, and more.

Philippians 2:3-4 (ESV)
³  Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. ⁴  Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.

Recently, I fell into a discussion about how much a particular cult was doing for God.  As a result, I began to review the things I knew about Christian history and returned to a book my wife and I had read 10 years ago, How Christianity Changed the World, by Alvin Schmidt. Here are some of the points Schmidt makes.

While many atrocities have been done throughout history in the name of Christ, they were not done according to the teachings of Christ.  Most of the major beneficial changes in the history of the Western World have come through the actions and philosophy of Christians.

The Sanctity of Life

  In the ancient Roman world, life held little value.  The slaughter in the Coliseum claimed many thousands of lives in the name of free entertainment for the citizens.  One consequence of devaluing life was the Roman practice of throwing unwanted infants into the Tiber River to drown.  Beginning in the first century, Christians would rescue these children from certain death and raise them as their own.

Of course, today, we see Christians at the head of pro-life causes in the United States.  As with slavery, this is an evil against which desent people must stand.  Christians are at the forefront.

Slavery

     While slavery was practiced in both Old and New Testament times, the New Testament taught slaves were equal to their masters, that they would need to be treated as brothers and sisters in Christ.  It was legal, accepted, and even expected to kill a runaway slave. In the little New Testament book of Philemon, the slave master is asked to forgive his runaway slave, Onesimus, and accept him as a Christian brother.

     Many preachers in the American South before the Civil War taught slavery was God’s way, that the black man was born to serve the white man, and that the black man was inferior and good only for manual labor.  We often forget it was the Christians who created the Underground Railroad.  It was Christian activists who were the abolitionists.  It was the Christian abolitionists who helped form the Republican Party in order to fight slavery on a grander scale, to change the heart of a nation.

Later in American history, Reverend Martin Luther King fought segregation and bigotry in our land as a Christian principle.  King was a Christian and a lifelong Republican. Two things seldom mentioned today.

Healthcare

     Dionysius of Alexandria tells of a plague in that great city in 250 A.D., how the pagan Romans would turn from the sick, even from their close friends.  They would leave them in the road to die and treat their bodies with contempt letting them rot where they lay.  He describes how the Christians treated the sick: Very many of our brethren, while in their exceeding love and brotherly kindness, did not spare themselves, but kept by each other, and visited the sick without thought of their own peril, and ministered to them assiduously and treated them for their healing in Christ, died from time to time most joyfully…

     Once Christianity was legalized by Constantine in the early fourth century, Christians began to establish public health care facilities.  The Council of Nicea (325 A.D.) issued an edict that a hospice was to be established in every city that had a cathedral.  While the main purpose of these hospices was to nurse the sick, they also provided shelter for the poor and lodging for Christian pilgrims.  All this was based on the examples Jesus gave us of healing the sick and helping the poor and coming to the aid of strangers.

     Still more can be said of the changes to world history created by the ideas that we are to love our neighbors.  We’ll look at those in the next blog. 

There have been times when we’ve shared the gospel with someone who became insulting and antagonistic quickly and seemingly without cause.  We only found out later that there was a lot more going on in their life than my witnessing. 

The problem may be them, but sometimes it lies with us.  Maybe we’re occasionally less than kind in our approach even though 1 Peter 3:15 says we’re supposed to be gentle and respectful.  At times, though, there’s an unseen wall we’re facing.                                                                                                        

Many years ago I spoke with a Jehovah’s Witness named Mel who had been a Witness for most of his life. As we talked, he confided in me that his daughter had died a painful death.  Blood transfusions should have been part of her treatment, but as a good Jehovah’s Witness, she refused the transfusions and eventually died.  She “suffered for Jehovah,” Mel told me.

As he and I continued to meet, he began to understand what I was telling him about the love of Christ and the errors of the Watchtower were true.  He told me at our last meeting, though, that he could never accept the Christian God because he would also have to accept that he had persuaded his little girl to die for a lie and she would be have been cast into outer darkness for the beliefs he had taught her.  On top of that, Mel would have lost all of his social life and most family contact since his entire family was Jehovah’s Witnesses.  They would be required to shun him if he left the Watchtower organization.  There was a huge wall standing between Mel and accepting the truth.

Some people are like Mel who may even know what they believe is wrong but will hang in there for other reasons. 

A person might be fighting against your witness because they were hurt by a church experience.  Maybe they’re so angry with God, they want nothing to do with Him.  Any offer of salvation falls on deaf ears.  Maybe it’s a personal tragedy or an abused childhood and they blame God.  We often just don’t know what walls we’re facing.

So, how do we scale these walls?  How do we help hurting people, scared people, scarred people?  We love them.  We don’t speak louder.  We don’t exclude them from our circle of friends.  We love them.

We can’t convince them with words because they won’t listen.  We have to show them.  It may take some time for them to see, but we need to be patient and persistent.  The Spirit of God lives in us.  Let’s allow Him to love others through us.

The parable of the Good Samaritan shows us that there should be no limit to who we love either.  Everyone is our neighbor.  The Samaritan and the Jewish victim had very little in common.  They were separated by religion, by geography, by ethnicity, and by prejudice.  Yet, Jesus uses the Samaritan to show who our neighbor is, who we’re supposed to love.  We’re to love everyone.

So, we need to be sensitive and understand that those who need the gospel may not be willing or even looking to receive it due to circumstances beyond our control.  But, God is faithful and not willing that any should perish.  We must be Christians to them and for them.

Boldness

Boldness in our Christian walk is something we all desire.  We read in Scripture of Daniel’s friends standing before Nebuchadnezzar and telling him to stick it in his ear, they would not worship his idol but only our Lord.

Then there’s Paul who stood before the philosophers at the Areopagus in Acts 17 witnessing to the greatest Greek thinkers of his day.  He stood before Felix, the Roman Governor and eventually before Nero and shared Christ with them as well.

What is it that gives our Christian heroes such boldness and how can we gain that same courage?

Scripture says we can gain boldness by hearing the stories of others who stand strongly or watching the actions of bold Christians:

Philippians 1:14 (ESV) And most of the brothers, having become confident in the Lord by my imprisonment, are much more bold to speak the word without fear.

And how about Acts chapter 4 where Peter and John boldly spoke to the people in Jerusalem in Solomon’s Portico at the temple?  That seems pretty bold.  Then they were arrested and taken before the High Priest, the most powerful man in all their culture and warned not to continue to share Christ with others.  They boldly told him and his minions they cannot keep quiet about the Lord they know.  After their release, they gather with other Christians and pray for boldness.  Pray for boldness??  What was it they were just exhibiting?  Just what level of courage must we reach before we can stand as they stood?

I think these examples show us boldness is not necessarily a constant state of mind but a courage that overcomes us as we need it.  Corrie Ten Boom, a modern day Christian hero in her own right, said, “God doesn’t give you the ticket until you’re on the train.”  So, her experience was that God will strengthen us as we need it.

It is our faith, our hope in Christ, that leads us to boldness.

Ephesians 3:11-12 (ESV)   This was according to the eternal purpose that he has realized in Christ Jesus our Lord, ¹²  in whom we have boldness and access with confidence through our faith in him.

And I think Paul sums it up wonderfully at the end of that chapter:

Ephesians 3:20-21 (ESV)
²⁰  Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

It is Christ in us using our faith.  It is us understanding our hope and weighing the importance of our opportunity to share against the “light affliction” (2 Cor. 4:17) we might suffer as a consequence.

Let us emulate Athanasius who, in the end of the third and beginning of the fourth centuries stood for the truth against Arias, the bishop of Alexandria and even the Emperor Constantine.  He was told by Arias, “It’s the world against Athanasius.”  In reply, Athanasius stood and said, “No, it’s Athanasius against the world.”

God has done so much for us.  It’s immeasurable.  And, often we wonder just what we can do for Him.  Actually, Jesus was once asked the very thing:

John 6:28 (ESV) ²⁸  Then they said to him, “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?”

Jesus answer was simple:

John 6:29 (ESV) ²⁹  Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.”

Well, that’s easy enough, isn’t it?  We just need to believe in Jesus.  Romans 10:9 tells us just what that means:

Romans 10:9 (ESV) ⁹  because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

So, a belief in Jesus includes believing He is the Lord God and that He was raised from the dead.  But, then what? 

A belief of this sort in Jesus causes a change in those who follow Him.  God’s Spirit comes to dwell in us.  Our minds and hearts are changed in so many areas.  The faith we gain encourages “sanctification”, the process of God moving in our lives to make us more like Him.  James talks about it in James chapter 2:

James 2:14 (ESV) ¹⁴  What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him?

If we read the entire passage in James, we see James isn’t saying works are required for salvation.  He’s saying that a faith that saves us, a belief in Jesus as we saw above, making Jesus Lord of our lives, naturally produces works that please God.

It all comes full circle, then.  The work that pleases God is a belief in Jesus, but a belief in Jesus produces works that please God.  So, is God super excited when we climb that mountain of faith for Him?  Do we get a star on our report card if we help that lady across the street, work in a homeless shelter, or go on the mission field?  Jesus addressed that, too.

Luke 17:7-10 (ESV) ⁷  “Will any one of you who has a servant plowing or keeping sheep say to him when he has come in from the field, ‘Come at once and recline at table’? ⁸  Will he not rather say to him, ‘Prepare supper for me, and dress properly, and serve me while I eat and drink, and afterward you will eat and drink’? ⁹  Does he thank the servant because he did what was commanded?
¹⁰  So you also, when you have done all that you were commanded, say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty.’”

I think we see where the rewards come in, though, when Jesus speaks of His kingdom in the parable of the talents:

Matthew 25:23 (ESV)  ²³  His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’

Our reward is not here on earth.  Through God’s grace, we have joys, pleasures, provision, and love here.  Those are ours because of God’s love for His children.  But, our real reward will be to look into His eyes and to hear, “Well done!”

“Given gravity and enough helium, I can explain the universe.”  You may have heard this quote before.  I’ve been unable to find the source, but it’s fairly common on the internet today.  This view is called Materialism. 

We’re not talking about the type of materialism we see at the mall or at the tool section of the hardware store.  Materialism is also the name for the belief that all that exists came from the forces of nature and mass.  Webster defines it this way:  “the doctrine that nothing exists except matter and its movements and modifications.  The doctrine that consciousness and will are wholly due to material agency.”

Put another way, given enough time, the laws of physics, and enough hydrogen and the hydrogen will eventually contemplate itself.  There is nothing outside the physical universe.

We should take exception to that.  As we’ve seen in this blog before, non-physical things exist: the laws of physics, the laws of logic, statements, ideas and consciousness, for instance.

Let’s look at ideas and consciousness.  What is an idea.  Well, some materialists would say an idea is something that exists in the brain.  The cells through electrical charges can hold onto ideas and even contemplate them.  The materialist might say, “In that way, ideas are physical, material.”  But how about when we exchange ideas.  The idea I just stated is now your idea.  I didn’t transfer any gray matter your way.  I didn’t even have to meet you.  You’ve looked at a series of scribbles on a screen and understood something that was not present in those scribbles themselves.  How does that happen?

For ideas to be conveyed, we need not only conscious beings but beings that can understand those ideas and act on them if necessary.  Really low functioning animals can do this.  My dogs come when I convey to them there are dog treats available.  So, the idea has been transferred from my mind to theirs.  Pretty nifty, eh?

Consciousness is a fairly important problem right now in scientific circles.  Just how does cold inert matter later become self-reflective?  How can gravity, matter, and time eventually become something which contemplates gravity, matter, and time?

 Then there is the “Binding Problem” neuroscience is facing.  The Binding Problem works this way:  When you look at a computer screen, a part of your brain recognizes the shape of the screen, another part of your brain sees the colors, a third portion of your brain sees the scribbling on the screen, a fourth part of your brain understands the scribbling to convey information, and a fifth part processes that information.  When we look at the screen, though, we don’t worry about all those factors.  In our mind, they all bind together as one event.  Neuroscience doesn’t understand how that can happen in the brain.  And, the brain is where it has to happen because that’s the physical place that these events reside.  There can’t be a non-physical ingredient, a soul.  That wouldn’t be scientific.  So, scientists continue to look for their answer where it likely doesn’t exist.  The problem here, then, is no longer the facts but scientism standing in the way.

Scientism is the belief that science has solved so many problems that it can solve all problems, answer all questions.  Science presupposes a physical universe where nothing non-physical exists.  So, science is materialistic and must exclude the possibility of the supernatural as “unscientific”.  So, any supernatural answer to a question is rejected and only a physical reason can be sought.  This is why Intelligent Design (ID) is rejected by so many in mainstream science.  It appears to give a supernatural answer to the question of how matter became self-aware. 

Now ID isn’t claiming a god exists, only that a higher intellect designed and created what we see in the universe.  There is just too much order, too much complexity to suggest it all came from natural causes.  ID says there appears to be a greater consciousness than ours that did all this. 

Because materialism has limited itself to only looking at physical causes for events, they are missing out on much more logical answers.  It reminds me of the man who was crawling around under a street light on a city sidewalk at night.  A cop stopped to ask what he was doing, and the man said he had dropped the engagement ring he was going to give his girlfriend that evening.  The cop helped him look for a while then asked the man if he was sure this is where he dropped it.  The man’s reply was, “No.  I dropped it over there, but the light is much better here.”

Materialism will not bring us to all truth.  There is more to this universe and outside this universe than just matter in motion.

We hear about both false teachers and false prophets in the Bible.  But, what are each of these, and how do they differ?  Let me use my favorite cult, Jehovah’s Witnesses, as an example of both false teachers and false prophets.

False teachers are people within the body of Christ, the church, who teach non-biblical doctrine and try to draw people into their error.  C. T. Russell, the founder of the Watchtower Society is a good example.  He was part of the Adventist Movement in the late 19th century, the movement that brought us today’s Seventh Day Adventist.  But, because of his doctrinal errors and he continually pushed these as biblical, he left the movement in 1881 and started the Zion’s Watchtower and Tract Society, later to be known as the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society.  Russell was a false teacher.  He continually taught false doctrines.

False prophets are a little different.  While false teachers teach false doctrine, a false prophet takes it a little further.  He falsely claims to speak in God’s name and to predict things that are to come.

Deuteronomy 18:21-22 (ESV)
²¹  And if you say in your heart, ‘How may we know the word that the LORD has not spoken?’—
²²  when a prophet speaks in the name of the LORD, if the word does not come to pass or come true, that is a word that the LORD has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously. You need not be afraid of him.

The two tests of a prophet are the same today as they were when Deuteronomy was written.  If someone (1) speaks in the Name of the Lord and (2) what he predicts doesn’t come to pass, he is a false prophet , and you shouldn’t listen to him.  Giving an opinion something will happen or even making a personal prediction do not make you a false prophet.   Claiming it’s God’s prediction is the key.

So, false teachers pervert God’s Word, and false prophets make predictions in God’s name that do not come to pass.  Have we ever seen someone speak in God’s name predict something that didn’t come to pass?

In the April 1, 1972 Watchtower Magazine, in an article entitled, “They Shall Know That A Prophet Was Among Them,” the magazine asked this question: “So, does Jehovah have a prophet to help them, to warn them of dangers and to declare things to come?  These questions can be answered in the affirmative.  Who is this prophet?”  In the next paragraph, the magazine identifies that prophet:  “This ‘prophet’ was not one man, but was a body of men and women.  It was a small group of footstep followers of Jesus Christ, known at that time as International Bible Students.  Today they are known as Jehovah’s Christian witnesses.”  The entire article points to the claim  that Jehovah’s Witnesses in general and, the Watchtower Society in particular, are God’s prophet.  They speak in God’s name.

So, did “God’s Prophet” ever predict anything which did not come to pass?

“In this chapter we present the Bible evidence proving that the full end of the times of the Gentiles, i. e., the full end of their lease of dominion, will be reached in A. D. 1914; and that that date will be the farthest limit of the rule of imperfect men.”  (The Time is at Hand, Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society, 1909 edition p. 76)

That’s a false prophet. (See also https://answersaz.com/1914-2/ for more on Watchtower Predictions)

Be careful, though.  The temptation to identify everyone as a false teacher is great.  Don’t let it get a hold on you.  Just because someone teaches something you disagree with is not evidence of false teaching.  In Matthew 18:15-17, Jesus lays out just how you should address any differences whether doctrinal or personal:

Matthew 18:15-17 (ESV)
¹⁵  “If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother.
¹⁶  But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses.
¹⁷  If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.

You may be wrong and falsely accusing someone when all they did was misspeak or make a mistake.  You may also be wrong yourself.  Jesus set up a great system here.  Use it.