Author: believersarmedanddangerous

I’ve been talking with an atheist friend lately about God killing thousands of innocent people in the Old Testament.  My friend’s complaint isn’t just that God slaughtered these people but that He did it when they chose not to worship Him but other gods.  After all, He gave them free choice, why did He kill them just because they chose wrongly?

Actually, God didn’t kill them because of their choices, at least not physically.  Most of these gods and their ancestors were worshipped for centuries without such consequences before the Israelites entered the land.  He killed them because their choices effected His people and drew them away from the truth, from the worship of the true God, leading them to spiritual death.  As I’ve said in earlier blogs, I believe God is much more interested in the condition of our souls than that of our physical bodies.

Some of these pagan gods required worship through temple prostitution and live child sacrifice.  One of them, Ashtaroth was worshipped by heating his iron idol until cherry red then placing live children in its arms where they suffered a torturous death.  Some gods required the firstborn to be killed and buried under the doorstep of the family home in order to bring blessings.  These were not “innocent” people.

“But, He didn’t give them a chance to turn to Him”, you might say.   We know Sodom and Gomorrah and Nineveh were warned, of course. 

In 1968, an ancient town known as Ebla was discovered in Syria.  Ebla was founded around 3500 B.C. and was at its heyday around 2700 B.C. The king of Ebla at that time kept records of everything he bought,everything he did, and all the news in the city.  Some 17,000 of the king’s tablets have been found by archaeologists.  According to these tablets, a prophet entered the city and told the people of the great God “Yah” (a shortened version of “Yahweh” and the same Yah we praise in our term “alleluia” meaning “Praise be to Yah”). There are even recorded names of individuals dedicated to Yah: ish-ma-ya meaning “Yah Hears”and eb-du-ya meaning “servant of Yah.”   So, the pagan nations were told of the One Who was to be the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob centuries later.  These pagan cultures were warned.  They weren’t ignorant of Yahweh’s call to worship Him.

If we were to see someone killing a loved one of ours, we would be justified in killing the perpetrator. In the same way, God saw people of other cultures as spiritual threats to His loved one, Israel, so he killed them to protect His people.

My friend wanted to know how a benevolent God could allow children to suffer.  We’ll address that next week.  God bless.

At this time of year, we often think of others in need.  We help strangers carry their packages, feed the Salvation Army pots, help out in soup kitchens, or deliver meals.  These are all good things we should do. 

Good works are an important feature in the Christian life as well.  But, the question is do we help others to gain favor with God, or do we help others because we’ve already gained favor with Him?  Let’s look at what the Bible says:

James 2:14-17 (ESV)
¹⁴  What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him?  ¹⁵  If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food,  ¹⁶  and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that?  ¹⁷  So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.

 

James seems to say we need works, doesn’t he.  But, when we look a little closer, we see James says if you claim to have faith, but that faith doesn’t produce work, yours is a dead faith.  He’s saying those who have a faith which doesn’t cause them to want to reach out to a lost world and help others should reexamine what they believe.

He’s also saying that other people can’t see our changed hearts as God can.  It’s our good works that show others our faith in Christ.  Like Him, we want to help the poor, heal the hurting, and feed the hungry.  It’s Christ in us that causes this.  A few verses later, James repeats his theme of justification by works using Abraham as an example:

James 2:21 (ESV)
²¹  Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar?

In Romans, Paul says he was not justified before God by his works:

Romans 4:2-5 (ESV)
 For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God.  ³  For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.”  ⁴  Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due.  ⁵  And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness,

 

These two passages don’t contradict one another though it might appear so.  James says we are justified by men through our works just as Abraham was.  Men saw him climb the mountain with Isaac to sacrifice him to God.  They could see his devotion to God in no other way.  But, God saw Abraham’s heart before he even climbed the mountain, and he was justified before God by his faith.

 

So, we shouldn’t help others by carrying packages, feeding the homeless, or feeding the Salvation Army pot to gain favor.  As Christians, we’ve already received His favor.  God’s Spirit now resides in us.  It is He who prompts us to reach out to all people, people for whom Christ died.

“Incarnation”  is one of those big theological words Christians throw around that a lot of people, especially non-believers, just don’t understand.  We can impress our friends when we say it, but, do we know what it really means? 

It’s a little like chili con carne, “chili with meat.”  “God incarnate” means “God with meat”, “God with flesh”, “God in human form”.   As I said in a recent blog, Jesus draped His divine nature with flesh just as we drape our eyes in flesh when we blink or sleep.  The eye’s nature is still there.  It just doesn’t function as it would if it did not have flesh covering it.

We get this idea straight from the Bible:  Philippians 2:5-8 (ESV) “…Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, ⁷  but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. ⁸  And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”

So, Jesus always existed in the form of God, as God, but a little over 2000 years ago He came in the form of man.  Jesus is called God in Scripture (Titus 2:13), so while Jesus since conception in Mary’s womb until today has had two natures, divine and human.  The human nature of Jesus had a beginning.  His divine nature did not. 

Jesus is fully man and fully God.  The two are not mutually exclusive any more than being round and being blue are mutually exclusive for a ball.

This biblical teaching clarifies a lot of passages that would be problematic if we didn’t understand the incarnation.  Passages like John 14:28 where Jesus says His Father is greater than He, for instance.  Of course He is.  Jesus humbled Himself and took the form of a servant.  The Father is not better than Jesus as “better” is a word depicting quality.  The Father is greater because, positionally, Jesus is submissive/obedient to the Father by His own choice (Phil 2:8).

It is why Jesus prayed to the Father and yielded to the Father’s will (Luke 22:42).  It’s how Jesus could still be God but die on the cross.  It was His human body which died, not His divine nature, and it was His human body which was raised from the dead (1 Cor. 15:3-4).  It’s how Jesus could be called “a little lower (positionally) than the angels” (Heb. 2:9).  It’s why Jesus could say the Father was His God (John 20:17).  As a man, the Father was His God.

The fact that Jesus took on human form also has great benefits for believers.  If Jesus had not become human, He could not have died for us nor have been raised.  Jesus’ death and resurrection are the foundations of our faith.  If He did not shed His blood, our sins remain (Mat. 26:28).  If Christ is not risen, we are lost (1 Cor. 15:17). 

Even more, our continued growth in Christ  depends on his taking human form.  As a human being, He was tempted as we are (Heb. 4:15), yet He did not sin.  And, because He has a human nature and walked the earth as we do, He knows what it is to be one of us.  So, He is the perfect mediator, advocate, for us before the Father (1 Tim. 2:5).

The infinite God merely spoke, and all things came into existence.  That God humbled Himself to the point of washing the feet of the humans He created, then dying on the cross for them so that they/we might be with Him forever.  How truly great He is.

John 15:12-14 (ESV)
¹²  “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.  ¹³  Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.  ¹⁴  You are my friends if you do what I command you.

This being Veterans’ Day, I thought I’d share something related to that.

My time in the Navy was an uneventful one except for meeting my wife.  I went in at Alameda, spent three weeks at Treasure Island, then was assigned to Miramar Naval Air Station north of San Diego as a Photographer’s Mate (just a photographer in normal language).  I spent several months putting cameras in reconnaissance aircraft, then was transferred to the base photo lab.  Much of my time was spent in an air conditioned building.  Miramar also had the third best galley in the Navy, so the food was great!  Not only that, but I met my wife during that time and could drive up and visit her almost every weekend.

A high school friend retired as a three-star general.  A few years ago we were emailing, and I told him I felt almost ashamed to have served the way I did while many of our friends, including him, had risked or lost their lives in Viet Nam.  His response to me was straightforward and stunning.  He said, “Mike.  I have two things to tell you.  First, you signed the check.  You signed on the line telling the government they could cash that check up to including your life if needs be.  So, you are no less a veteran than those who served in combat.  It wasn’t your choice where they sent you.  Secondly, you had easy duty.  Don’t you think we prayed for your duty when we were in combat?  You shouldn’t be ashamed.  You should be grateful.”

Our lives with Christ are very much like that.  Sometimes we kick ourselves over how easy we have it.  We shouldn’t be ashamed of our work for God, that it seems so trivial or easy.  We’ve signed another check.  We’ve turned over everything we have and everything we are to Christ our Savior, our God.  He can cash it in any way He sees fit.  If He chooses to use us in our home town in a comfortable office with a loving family, we should be grateful.  We are no less a Christian than the single missionary who is called to a dangerous place like Saudi Arabia.  God doesn’t play favorites (James 2:1-13).  We are all expected to grow where God has planted us.

So, wherever we are, we need to be sure that’s where God has placed us.  If we’re sure, then we should sink roots and start to grow spreading His gospel and sharing His love.  And we shouldn’t think we’ve been overlooked in His kingdom because we live in Hawaii, Palm Springs, or Prescott, Arizona.  God has a purpose for us.  Let’s get down to it, find out what that is, and get to work.  After all, we’ve signed that check.  Now let’s honor it.  We are simply to do as instructed, no more and no less.  We’re just looking to serve the Master well.

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’m told the way they train bank tellers to spot counterfeit bills is to have them handle real money for long periods of time.  As a result, they become so familiar with the genuine article that they don’t even have to look down when a counterfeit bill crosses their palm.  They know right away.

In the same way, we as Christians should know the genuine article so well, we should be able to identify false teachings without much effort.

2 Corinthians 11:3-4 (ESV)
³  But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ. ⁴  For if someone comes and proclaims another Jesus than the one we proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or if you accept a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it readily enough.

The Bible tells us to test all things (1 Thessalonians 5:20-21)

But, what sort of things are we to test?  We are to test everything.  We are to test our own beliefs (2 Corinthians 13:5)  We are to test what the pastors and others in leadership teach us (Acts 17:10-11).

How do we test it?  We test it by God’s Word.  It and it alone is the standard by which we are to test everything.  This is one important difference between Christianity and every other Major religion except perhaps Judaism, the instruction to test all things. 

But, where do these counterfeits come from.  Certainly, if they are different from what Scripture teaches and the folks are teaching you error, these people are sent from the counterfeiter himself.  Many, no doubt, are sincere.  Many live lives that make us blush with embarrassment as we look at our own.  No doubt we should be living exemplary lives, but it is not our lives and how we live them that saves us.  It is Who we know.

It is the counterfeit which tries to tell us works are needed for our salvation.  It is the counterfeit that tells us we’re not holy in God’s eyes through Christ’s sacrifice.  It is the counterfeit that tells us we cannot understand Scripture for ourselves.

Satan’s desire is to keep people from the truth.  If that person is a non-believer, Satan wants to keep them lost at all costs.  If the person is a believer, he wants to make her as ineffective as possible.  Walter Martin used to say, “The next best thing to a non-believer is a sterile Christian.”  There’s a lot of truth in that.

Let’s not be sterile Christians because we’ve accepted a counterfeit we haven’t examined, haven’t tested. 

2 Timothy 2:15 (ESV)
¹⁵  Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.

Acts 4:32 (ESV) ³²  Now the full number of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one said that any of the things that belonged to him was his own, but they had everything in common.

I’ve had a discussion lately with a lady about her belief Christians should embrace socialism because it’s what the Bible teaches.  Others have chimed in supporting her.

The Bible doesn’t speak to governments, it speaks to individuals.  Over the centuries, unfortunately, we the church have yielded to the government our responsibility for providing aid to the poor and needy.  We see it here in the US through various public assistance programs, even more so in western Europe. 

As I’ve said in another post, the US system takes our money through taxes and distributes it to those the government deems needy.  This creates some problems the biblical “system” does not.  The government system takes the taxpayer’s money raising anger in the taxpayer as his money is taken involuntarily and wasted to support the bureaucracies which collect, count, and distribute the tax money.  Much of the money is gone before the recipient sees it.

Then the recipient receives a check or direct deposit from a faceless nameless government which does not often hold that recipient accountable enough for looking to improve his lot.

The result is that recipient becomes “entitled” to the money, and human nature being as it is, will often not work to resolve his situation.  In fact, often entry level positions pay less than the government check does.  This encourages idleness.

The biblical system of the individual helping the individual causes the recipient to face his benefactor.  He sees a man or woman sharing food, clothing, or money with him.  As a result, a feeling of gratitude develops accompanied by a desire not to live off of someone’s charity.  In this system, the benefactor is much more likely to detect possible fraud.  This more often points the individual in need to seek ways to help himself rather than to face the charitable person asking for repeated assistance.

The biblical system also creates a kinder heart in the individual sacrificing voluntarily to help another human being.  It makes him more aware of the person’s needs and improves society by raising awareness of those needs and prompting more good works.  The biblical system also eliminates the wasted expense of the middlemen, the bureaucracies.  This provides a more efficient use of funds.

The passage quoted from Acts chapter 4 is a historic statement, not a biblical command.  With human nature being what it is, we know there will be those who will abuse the system.  Ananias and Sapphira show that in the very next chapter as does the instruction against idleness in 2 Thessalonians 3:10-11.

2 Thessalonians 3:10-11 (ESV)
¹⁰  For even when we were with you, we would give you this command: If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat. ¹¹  For we hear that some among you walk in idleness, not busy at work, but busybodies.

The biblical system has nothing in common with socialism.  To equate the two is like equating the military with free health care.  Members of the military receive free healthcare, but healthcare is not the central purpose of the military.  In the same way, benevolent socialism (such as Norway’s) does not equate with compassion and charity.  Just as you can have the military without healthcare, you can have socialism with no compassion or charity (Venezuela for example), proving one does not require or equate with the other.

At the beginning of Genesis chapter 22, the words “After these things” appear.  After what things?  I think Scripture means everything in Abraham’s life from chapter 12 where Abram is called by God until chapter 22 when God tells Abraham to sacrifice his son.  But, what would make a man willing to kill his son? 

For some reason, I always see this scene in chapter 22 as God opening the skies and showing Himself to Abraham, speaking audibly and Abraham being a little frightened at the situation.  But, as James says (James 5:17) these Old Testament saints were just like us.  Abraham most likely just heard God in the same still small voice that you and I do.  He just learned to recognize it and obey.

Abraham went through a lot over the 10 chapters from 12 through 21.  He was tested again and again, and Abraham learned to trust God and the promises He made.  I believe Abraham knew God so well by chapter 22 that there was no doubt left in him.  Much of what he believed by faith in chapter 12, he now knew to be true by chapter 22.

Genesis 22:1-3 (ESV)
¹  After these things God tested Abraham and said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.”
²  He said, “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.”
³  So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and his son Isaac. And he cut the wood for the burnt offering and arose and went to the place of which God had told him.

 

As we grow as Christians, we should see our trust, our faith, in God becoming more and more sure.  What we learn in the trials of our lives should produce something.  It should produce endurance (James 1:3) and certainty.  So the more we’re tested, the better prepared we are for the next trial.  And, God is like the proverbial piano teacher.  If we fail the test, we’ll need to take it over and over again until we get it right.

When I was in school, I took a lot of test.  It wasn’t until I was in college that I realized the full purposes of these tests.  Testing has a number of purposes:  It tells the teacher how we’re doing with the material presented.  It shows us how well we know the material.  It keeps us on task or we’ll fail the tests.  It also prepares us for the final test, the big one, that’s coming.

In the same way, God tests us.  While an omniscient God doesn’t need to know how we’re doing, He knows it already, He does want us to know how we’re doing and keep on our toes for future tests as well as the big final test at the end.

Tests also force us to know the material well.  I believe we can know God so well by the series of tests He presents in our lives that much of our faith eventually will become knowledge.  We don’t just believe in God, we know He exists and we know Him.

So, welcome those trials as friends.  God is producing in you a believer who will stand strong in his faith and be able to deal with the fiery darts of the evil one.

James 1:2-4 (ESV)
²  Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds,
³  for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.
⁴  And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

Matthew 12:31-32 (ESV)
³¹  Therefore I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven people, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven.
³²  And whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come.

Mark 3:22, 28-30 (ESV)
²²  And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem were saying, “He is possessed by Beelzebul,” and “by the prince of demons he casts out the demons.” ²⁸  “[Jesus Said] Truly, I say to you, all sins will be forgiven the children of man, and whatever blasphemies they utter, ²⁹  but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin”—
³⁰  for they were saying, “He has an unclean spirit.”

Today’s blog is on a question we’ve heard in Christian circles for decades, “What is the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit, and can I know if I have committed it?”

According to the passages cited in Matthew and Mark, claiming Jesus was and is demon possessed and that the works the Holy Spirit did and does through Him are of the devil.  So, unless you have committed that sin, assigning God’s work in Jesus to Satan himself, you have not committed the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit.

The word, “blasphemeo” in Greek means Reviling against the Holy Spirit, to resist the convicting power of the Holy Spirit unto repentance.
Complete Word Study Dictionary, The – The Complete Word Study Dictionary – New Testament.

This blasphemy of the Holy Spirit, then, should render you spiritually dead, unable to repent.  If this is true, and you’re concerned you may have committed this grave sin, you haven’t.

The series of answers to supposed biblical contradictions listed on the American Atheists’ site has had a less than enthusiastic response on this blog, so I’ve put them all into one document that can be seen on my web site, AnswersAZ.com.  We will not continue the series on the blog.

Genesis 1:1 (ESV)
¹  In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

Both physicists and philosophers call this “The Question.”  The fact is that something exists rather than nothing, but why.  If there is no god, then it is highly probable, actually a 1 probability, that nothing at all should exist, not matter, not space, not ideas, numbers, concepts, nothing.  After all, where would something come from? 

However,  something does exist.  So, that something, the universe, is either eternal or it came into being.  Physicists tell us that it came into existence.   The universe is expanding pointing to an initial explosion a finite time ago, the fact energy is decaying pointing to a time when it was at a higher level, and so on.

So, if the universe had a beginning, it must have either had a set of conditions which came together spontaneously to begin the universe, or some Agent must have caused the universe to come about.

Now we really start to run into problems.  For instance, if time came to exist at the same moment as the universe, then there was no time prior to the initiation of the universe in which the set of conditions could obtain.  So, the universe would never have come into existence. 

If there was time prior to the initiation of the universe, then we would be looking at an infinite regress or an infinite timeline.  Neither of these can be true since nothing could pass through an infinite number of moments to reach today.  Infinity past is just the same as infinity future.  If the future is infinite, when will we reach the end?  Never, of course.  So, if the past is infinite, it would not have a beginning, and we never would have reached today.

If the conditions were appropriate for the universe to start, and we’re looking at an eternal past, the universe would have begun an infinite time ago and burned out long before now.

Let’s say the conditions for the universe to come into existence were like a frame from striking a match.  You have the match and the striking surface.  Both can sit there for an eternity and never strike the match.  What is needed is an agent to make a decision, pick up the match, and strike it.

In the same way, an Agent would be needed to “strike the match” to begin the universe and time.  That Agent is what is called in philosophy, a “necessary being.”  In order for all things to exist, we necessarily need Him to start it all.  Everything else is contingent upon that necessary being’s existence.

And, let’s look at what type of Agent that Being would have to be.  He would need to be timeless since He created time,  more powerful than the universe He brought into existence, smart enough to design and set in place the rules by which the universe operates, and a personal Agent in order to make the decision to “strike the match.”   Sounds like a personal God to me.

Jesus Our Advocate

I love lawyer shows, don’t you?  The bad guys get caught.  The innocent go free.  Justice is done!

There is a courtroom in heaven, you know, where there’s a prosecutor, a Judge, a defense Attorney, and a defendant.

Revelation 12:10 says there is an “accuser of the brothers,” the prosecutor:

Revelation 12:10 (ESV)
¹⁰  And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God.

According to this verse, the accuser never stops bringing our names and our sins before God for judgment.  Job 1:6-11 tells us this accuser of the brothers is Satan himself.

Fortunately, you and I have a Defense Attorney.  The Bible calls Him our Advocate, Jesus Himself:

1 John 2:1-2 (ESV)
¹  My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.
²  He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.

So, Jesus speaks on our behalf before the Father.  But, what can He say?  Satan’s charges are true.  We are sinners.  According to 1 John 2:2, Jesus pleads innocent on our behalf because His sacrifice is the propitiation (payment in full) for any and all sins we have or will commit.

In Luke, we get a glimpse of just where Jesus’ heart is in defending us.  The scene is that John the Baptist is in prison and about to be killed.  He sends his disciples to Jesus to ask if He is truly the Messiah.  In short, John was beginning to doubt.  Jesus healed the sick, raised the dead, cured the blind.  Then He told John’s disciples to tell John what they had seen.

Many of those following Jesus at the time used to be John’s disciples.  Most likely, they were shocked that John, a true warrior of the faith, might doubt.  Look at how Jesus addressed this:

Luke 7:24-27 (ESV)
²⁴  When John’s messengers had gone, Jesus began to speak to the crowds concerning John: “What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind?
²⁵  What then did you go out to see? A man dressed in soft clothing? Behold, those who are dressed in splendid clothing and live in luxury are in kings’ courts.
²⁶  What then did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet.
²⁷  This is he of whom it is written, “‘Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way before you.’

In fewer words, Jesus told them they were looking at a man of God.  Don’t judge him by his doubt but by who he is and what he’s done.

Today, Jesus stands in that courtroom in heaven defending you and me.  He’s saying, “Father forgive them.  Yes, they have sinned, but look at their love for you.  Your judgment of death is just, but that penalty has been paid.  They are now innocent in the eyes of God.”

Christ’s infinite love for us has paid it all.  Aren’t you thrilled to have Jesus as your Advocate?