Believers Armed and Dangerous

The subject came up this week whether those who never heard the specific gospel of Christ could be saved.  What happens to these folks?  Do they just die without ever knowing Christ?  Like in the “Christian world,” many do.  Is there a chance for them, though?

Christian theologians are all over the map on this one.  And, I’m no theologian. So, you can and should certainly take my view with a large measure of salt, but here goes. Please let me know if I’m wrong.

What do we know?  We know God is not willing that any should perish (1 Tim. 2:3-4).  But, we also know people who don’t believe Jesus is God will die in their sins (John 8:24).  So, some will perish.

We know that Christ is the only way to God (John 14:6), yet we know there were people saved in Old Testament times because of a promise without ever hearing of Jesus of Nazareth.    

Romans 1:19-20 says so much can be known of God by just looking at His creation that the sinner who has never heard of the risen Christ has no excuse.  How can that be?   We can know a lot about God from examining His creation, but is there enough information there?

The Bible tells us Jesus is God (John 1:1; Heb. 1:8; Titus 2:13) and that Jesus is the Creator of our universe (John 1:3; Col. 1:15-17).  So, what the seekers will learn from creation, they will learn of Christ our Creator.  They can see His love and kindness in the love of a mother for her child.  They can see His grandeur, His love of order, and His power simply by looking at the night sky.  They can see His love of beauty in a flower, and by the intricacy of the human body.  They can also see His justice in man’s desire to keep order and God’s mercy in the mercy man shows to his children.   They know there is more than just the physical when they see a person is “no longer there” when their body dies.

The primitive native living along the Amazon, has an innate moral standard.  He can see and judge men’s sins.  If we do wrong, we are answerable to other men.  “But,” they might ask, “what if we do wrong against the Creator of all things?  How do we make that right?  Has God made allowances?  Wouldn’t the same Creator Who made this love also love with greater power and greater fairness?”

The tribesman can see a God of love, a God of mercy, but also a God of justice.  This may be all that is needed for the him to ask for this God to reveal Himself more fully to him.

The tribesman’s prayer can be answered in a number of ways.  Risking their own lives, missionaries seek out these people to share the gospel with them.  Missionaries can be an answer to his prayer.

Supplying Bibles is also a method.  The Wycliff Bible Translators go into places like the jungles of Peru, live with the people learning their languages, creating a written language for them, and printing Bibles for them in their own languages.

God in Christ can also reveal Himself in dreams.  Today, there are records of Muslims coming to Christ because of dreams and visions they’ve had.  Such books as Seeking Allah but Finding Jesus and Dreams and Visions tell the stories of Muslims coming to Christ in a number of ways including dreams and visions in lands where Christian missionaries are either executed or simply not allowed entry.

Two questions still remain, though.  What happens to those who have not been reached by missionaries, Bibles, or dreams, and why evangelize these people if they can learn all they need to know from creation?

As I’ve shown, I believe we and the Peruvian native have sufficient evidence presented in creation to understand enough about the Creator to ask that Creator to lead us and guide us.  I believe Romans chapter 1 tells us we are held responsible for what we know and how we apply it.  I also believe, since we are told God is not willing that any should perish, that He will provide a way for the seeker to find Him. I think 1 Tim. 2:3-4 promises everyone will have a chance. They can reject God’s offer, but they’ll be given a chance.

Romans chapter 1 also tells us many will end up worshipping the creation rather than the Creator.  They used to make images of wood, stone, and metal and worship those rather than the Creator.  Today, people worship at the altar of materialism, secular humanism, evolution and other creation-centered beliefs thinking the universe is all there is or that the incredible intricacies of the cell, DNA in particular, are the result of randomness, matter in motion, and eons of time. 

The seeker can find God and share a relationship with Him if he wishes.  Evangelizing the lost with the gospel simply gives them the full story and raises the odds of someone coming to Christ after being fully informed.

Well, there it is.  My view of what happens to those who never hear of Christ.  They are given enough information and can act with a sincere heart.  They are without excuse as Paul tells us. Like the Old Testament saints, they have a promise to lean on.  

Yes, no one comes to God the Father except through Christ our Creator.  We find Christ through his special revelation, the Bible, but it seems those who don’t hear the gospel can also find Him through His creation: general revelation.

I must admit I used to believe animals had no souls.  After all, there is no outward evidence that they are self-aware or self-reflective, and that was my criteria for having a soul.  I equated personhood with having a soul and thought if animals were persons, how would it be moral to kill and eat them?

Dr. Hugh Ross in his article on soulish animals points out that the word, “create” is only used three times in Genesis chapter 1: for the creation of the earth (vs.1), for the creation of animals (vs. 21), and for the creation of man (vs. 27). 

Ross poses that this indicates the word for “create” (bara Heb.) may mean something special about the creation of these creatures.  He thinks it means they/we all have souls. 

C.S. Lewis in his book The Problem of Pain says while we may think of dogs, for instance, as persons, it is only because we use pronouns indicating gender.  We say he and she to describe our pets.  Lewis says this is misleading.  He says while we may see an animal in pain, it would be a mistake to say, “He is feeling pain” since there is no one in there to feel the pain.  He says it would be more accurate to say, “There is pain going on in the animal but it is not being felt by a person.” 

I tend to agree with Lewis to a point.  I still don’t believe the vast majority of animals are self-aware or that any except humans are self-reflective.  Animals don’t think about what they think about or understand abstract thought as humans do.  But, is that what qualifies one as having a soul? 

Over the years since reading The Problem of Pain I’ve studied my dog, Gus, to see if he displayed soulish traits.  He was handy and easy to examine.  It seemed only natural to use him as the subject of my research.  What I noticed was quite striking, to me, at least.  Dogs learn, they love and hate.  They are sad and happy.  They dream indicating they can remember things without the need of repetitive conditioning.  I’ve even seen Gus make decisions and communicate his wishes.  He used to stand in the bedroom doorway and stare at us every night to tell us it was time for us all to go to bed. 

One of the pre-Socratic philosophers tells of sitting in the woods one day and seeing a rabbit run up a nearby path.  The rabbit turned down one of the forks in the path.  Shortly after, a dog appeared obviously chasing the rabbit.  The dog stopped and sniffed one fork in the path then took off up the other fork, the one the rabbit had taken.  Was the dog following the scent of the rabbit? No, he only sniffed the fork the rabbit did not go down.  “The dog made a logical deduction without testing the second fork”, observes the philosopher.

Aristotle believed souls exist in all living things including plants, though they were of various qualities and getting more complex as the organism becomes more complex.  The soul of a petunia, for instance, would be a very simple one compared to the complexity of Koko the gorilla who could sign more than 1000 words in a modified form of American Sign Language.  She could use those signs to share ideas with her trainer.  Koko even seemed self-aware.  That was a gorilla. The human soul is even more complex.

To get back to Doctor Ross and his interpretation of Genesis chapter 1, it does seem animals have souls of some sort.  Like Aristotle, I believe Man’s soul is special and unique.  We can think abstractly and self-reflect because we are made in God’s image.  I also believe “soulishness” may apply to animals like Gus. 

The human soul is a marvelous immaterial thing, a gift from God.  With it, we share much of our Creator’s attributes to a lesser degree.  We love, are saddened, are self-aware, and think abstractly.

Do animals go to heaven, then?  Well, there will be horses there (Rev. 6), so maybe they do.  Gus is gone now.  I miss him. If animals do have souls, maybe I’ll still get to see my buddy Gus again.

Slavery is a topic often thrown at Christians by skeptics to try and prove an inconsistency in either God’s nature or in Scripture.  “How could a righteous and good God endorse the evil of slavery,” the skeptic may ask.  “After all, the Old Testament doesn’t just allow for slavery.  It actually endorses it and gives laws directing how slaves should be treated.  Is this the loving God you keep telling me about?”

It’s  true.  The Bible does endorse slavery and tells how slaves are to be treated.  But, let me ask a question here at the start:  “Is slavery always evil?”

According to the log of Christopher Columbus’ physician, when Columbus arrived in the Caribbean archipelago he found the local natives, the Caribs, were cannibals invading other islands, capturing prisoners for meat.  With some tribes, they actually raised them like cattle and “harvested them.”

Columbus saw enslaving the Caribs as the most efficient way to end their cannibalism.  Once enslaved, they were evangelized ending their dietary preferences.  Was enslavement to save the barbaric slaughter of thousands of indigenous people evil?  My point, of course, is that slavery is not always evil or even the wrong thing to do.

Now let’s look at slavery in the Bible.  Most of the Old Testament laws concerning slavery are found in Exodus chapter 21.  Bear in mind that this was a different time and a different culture.  There were no government welfare programs, no prisons or jails.  The legal system was very simple and very direct.

Most slavery in the Old Testament is not like that of the pre-Civil War South.  Let’s look at the Israelites first. They could sell themselves as slaves in order to support their families, and as such, they were fed and clothed by their masters.  The slave was released after six years. He was to be treated well (Lev. 25:43).  If a poor master were to beat the slave to the point of losing an eye or even a tooth, the slave was to be freed.  So, masters needed to be humane.

Crimes were often punished by slavery (Ex. 22:1-4).  An Israelite who could not pay his debts was expected to work as a slave for his creditors.  After the debt was paid, he was to be released.  When a slave was released after his term, he was often given gifts by the master (Deut. 15:12-14).

On now to slavery as it pertains to those captured during war.  Those slaves were not granted release after six years as the Israelites were.  These slaves could be beaten severely, and sometimes they would be beaten to death.  Their death was not considered of the same value as the life of Hebrew slaves.  If a non-Hebrew slave was killed by someone other than their master, the price of the slave was to be paid to the master.

Now, that all sounds perfectly horrible.  How could God allow such things to happen even to foreign enemies?  But, what exactly was the alternative? 

Normally, most survivors of war were slaughtered.  The Israelites, however, would place captives into their society as slaves rather than killing them all.  Realistically, the Israelites couldn’t allow them to simply be set free in order to rejoin the enemy forces and attack once again.  They couldn’t let them run free in the lands controlled by Israel or they might regroup and start the battle from within.  No, the sensible thing was to enslave them so the masters could control their actions and keep an eye on these people. 

So far as beating the foreign-born slaves, captive enemies were not likely to work willingly to please their masters.  At time, no doubt, physical persuasion would be necessary rather than allowing freeloading.  It was still preferable to the death they would have faced on the battlefield.

Slavery in the New Testament was a Greco-Roman custom, not endorsed by the Bible.  However, the New Testament teaches equality between the Christian master and the Christian slave.  They are told, as well, to treat one another humanely and with respect.

It was the Christians who put and end to slavery in Europe and in the United States.  While it is true that many Christians believed slavery was approved of just as many Bible critics do today, in fact the New Testament taught human equality which eventually resulted in an end to the legal slave trade.

So, don’t fall for the A Loving God Could Never Allow Slavery argument from the skeptics.  It doesn’t take into account all the facts.

Throughout my Christian life, people have been trying to convince me that Saturday is the one and only sanctified holy day of worship.  Normally, these folks are from the Seventh Day Adventists, but others legalistically point to Saturday worship.

Some of the arguments are, of course, to cite the Fourth Commandment, the fact Jesus apparently worshipped in the synagogues on the Sabbath, and Paul entered the synagogues on the Sabbath.

To take these in the order I gave them, the Fourth Commandment (Ex. 20:8-11) commands us to rest on the seventh day.  It also says to keep that day holy.  It does not actually command us to keep that day for worship, but it was an obvious time for worship as all other days were work days.

The Sabbath legalists say this means we are to worship on the seventh day and the commandment was never rescinded.  Well, the issue here is the Mosaic Law.  Jesus fulfilled the Law (Matt. 5:17; Rom. 8:1-4).  So, we are no longer under the Law.  We are now under grace, so, unless it is repeated in the New Testament, we need not abide by it.  It has been fulfilled.

As to the second and third points, Jesus entered the synagogues on the Sabbath Day because Jesus was an observant Jew.  The Law was not fulfilled until His sacrifice was complete.  He was just observing the Jewish custom of worshipping on the Sabbath.  As for Paul, he entered the synagogues on the Sabbath because they were the fullest, he would have the largest audience on the Sabbath.  But does the New Testament tell us to worship on the Sabbath?

It would seem the early church met on Sunday as an observance of Christ’s resurrection occurring on a Sunday. 

Acts 20:7 (ESV)
⁷  On the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread, Paul talked with them, intending to depart on the next day, and he prolonged his speech until midnight.

1 Corinthians 16:1-2 (ESV)
¹  Now concerning the collection for the saints: as I directed the churches of Galatia, so you also are to do. ²  On the first day of every week, each of you is to put something aside and store it up, as he may prosper, so that there will be no collecting when I come.

Really, though, we’re not to consider one day over another.  Most of the church does meet on Sunday today as a remembrance of Jesus’ resurrection, but we could meet any day we like.  The Holy Spirit, through Paul, tells us no one day is special and we are not to judge those who hold one day as special or we will have to answer to God:

Romans 14:5-12 (ESV)
⁵  One person esteems one day as better than another, while another esteems all days alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind.
⁶  The one who observes the day, observes it in honor of the Lord. The one who eats, eats in honor of the Lord, since he gives thanks to God, while the one who abstains, abstains in honor of the Lord and gives thanks to God.
⁷  For none of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself.
⁸  For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s.
⁹  For to this end Christ died and lived again, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living.
¹⁰  Why do you pass judgment on your brother? Or you, why do you despise your brother? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God;
¹¹  for it is written, “As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God.”
¹²  So then each of us will give an account of himself to God.

Colossians 2:16 (ESV)
¹⁶  Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath.

We are brothers and sisters in Christ.  We are not to bicker over little things.  The job of the “Accuser of the Brethren” has been taken (Rev. 12:10).  We are to love one another.  Let’s not get legalistic in our examination of others.  Our job is not to act as the Holy Ghost Police.  Let us worship freely and joyfully together no matter the day.

Mothers’ Day

Whether we celebrate our mothers, the mothers we’re married to, or our mother’s mother, Mothers’ Day is a special day for us all,.   There was another very special day for one mother depicted in Luke 7:11-17.

Luke 7:11-17 (ESV)
¹¹  Soon afterward he went to a town called Nain, and his disciples and a great crowd went with him. ¹²  As he drew near to the gate of the town, behold, a man who had died was being carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow, and a considerable crowd from the town was with her. ¹³  And when the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her and said to her, “Do not weep.” ¹⁴  Then he came up and touched the bier, and the bearers stood still. And he said, “Young man, I say to you, arise.” ¹⁵  And the dead man sat up and began to speak, and Jesus gave him to his mother. ¹⁶  Fear seized them all, and they glorified God, saying, “A great prophet has arisen among us!” and “God has visited his people!” ¹⁷  And this report about him spread through the whole of Judea and all the surrounding country.

In examining this passage, let me start with the widow’s situation.  In the Jewish world at the time of Christ, no longer having a husband and then losing your only son meant losing your family income.  It meant certain poverty and desperation. 

A widow was provided for in Jewish culture in a very few ways.  She would be invited to the Feast of Weeks and the Feast of Booths (Deut. 16:9-17).  She could glean in the fields after the harvest though that was difficult for older and infirm women (Deut. 24:19-22; Ruth 2).  They would also be given a portion of the three-year tithe of produce mentioned in Deut. 26:12-15.  All these benefits were shared with dozens of other people in need.  Many widows had to resort to begging. Best case scenario, a widow might find a household in need of a servant and sell herself as an indentured servant, also not a good life but a way to keep her family from starving.

Widows were at the low end of the economic scale in Jewish culture, yet Jesus used a widow as an example of giving (Mark 12:42-43), a widow is compared to the elect in Luke 18:1-8.  1 Timothy chapter 5 tells us of how widows are to behave in the church and how the church is to behave toward them.  Young widows were to rely on their family or their own work for support.  Older Christian widows were to be cared for by the church.

James 1:26,27 tells us to visit the orphan and widow in their affliction.  So widows were not exactly to be envied in Jesus’ time.  So, Jesus saved this widow of Nain from all of that.

First, Jesus had compassion on her and her situation.  She had not just lost her beloved son, but she had lost hope.

Jesus touched the litter which carried the dead widow’s son and commanded him to rise even though He wasn’t supposed to touch the dead (Num. 19:11).  But, Jesus had a habit of touching people he wasn’t supposed to touch.  He touched a leper in Mark 1:40-42.  Except for other lepers, that was the first human touch the leper had felt in years.  That’s the way Jesus is.  His love overcomes the Law or His personal safety.

Back in Luke 7, Jesus reached into paradise where this dead man’s soul now resided and called him back to reenter his body.  What incredible power.  The man sat up and began to speak praises to God the Father and to Jesus.  That’s the reaction we should all have to our Lord.  Jesus then gave him to his mother and went on His way.

Can you imagine the scene?  What a glorious mother’s day!

In this morning’s Christian Fundamentals Class, two women asked if they could lose their salvation.  In the last blog, we looked at what it takes to be saved.  The question now is if we can keep that salvation or lose it through sinful acts.

My answer to the question in class was, “Can you be saved by works?”  She answered “no,” of course.  I asked, “Then how can you lose your salvation through [bad] works?”  That was a simplistic answer but true.  Let’s look a little closer.

First, let’s consider the most problematic passage about the topic,

Hebrews 6:4-6 (ESV)
⁴  For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, ⁵  and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, ⁶  and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt.

There are a couple of points to be made from this passage.  First, this might well be describing Judas Iscariot or Simon Magus.  They both tasted of the heavenly gift and shared in the Holy Spirit.  They tasted the goodness of the Word of God and the powers of the age to come.  So, it doesn’t seem this is at all talking about Christians but about seekers who have only reached step two in the three steps to salvation.  They saw the miracles of God and were actually involved in the works of God.  But, they didn’t turn control of their lives over to Jesus.  They didn’t make Him Lord of their lives.  So, this passage is almost certainly not speaking of the saved.

Secondly, those who claim this shows you can lose your salvation must also read that it is impossible to get that salvation back.  The passage says so.  So, if this were the correct interpretation of the passage, we could not sin once after we’re saved or we would lose our salvation forever.

The belief we can never lose out salvation is called Eternal Security.  One major source for this doctrine is Romans 8:

Romans 8:37-39 (ESV)
³⁷  No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. ³⁸  For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, ³⁹  nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Nothing can separate us from God’s love. Think about it.  Jesus said in John 3:16 that those who believe in Him will live with Him forever.  When does that eternal life begin?  It begins at the moment we accept Christ as our Savior, doesn’t it?  If that could be taken away from you, then it isn’t eternal life.

Let me illustrate the problem.  You go to a Billy Graham Crusade.  You wholeheartedly accept Jesus Christ as Lord of your life.  You’re saved. An hour later, on the drive home, you hit another car head on and you die.  Just before impact, a curse word crosses your lips.  You sinned.  If those who believe you can lose your salvation are correct, you are condemned to an eternity of punishment.  Your Christian life only lasted an hour.  Your eternal life only lasted an hour, too.  Eternal life that only lasts an hour is not eternal.  It only lasted an hour. Eternal life is just that, life that lasts forever.

So, we cannot lose our salvation.  Life for the Christian will be eternal and spent rejoicing with the God of the universe.

Romans 10:14 (ESV)
¹⁴  How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?

I bought a new printer yesterday.  The purchase process ran in three stages: I gathered information about the printer.  I was convinced the information was correct.  I then made the purchase.

Faith is not to be directly compared with a product purchase, but the steps are the same.  We can see this laid out clearly in Romans 10:14.  The order is reversed, but we can see it there.  First we hear the gospel.  Then we believe it’s true.  Thirdly, we call on Jesus to save us.

So, what’s the point here?  Well, many people in the church have stopped short of the third step.  They think simple belief is enough, and I’m here to tell you it’s not.

There was a time when I thought Christianity was just a set of beliefs I needed to accept but didn’t really have to commit to.  I wasn’t persuaded enough, though, to make Jesus the Lord over my life.  I went to church every Sunday, I prayed sometimes, I read my Bible, I did work for the church, I was even baptized and confirmed but all to no avail.  Works are not a part of the salvation God offers.  Fortunately for me, after several years of blindness to my own misunderstanding, I came to realize there was more, and I opened the door to let Jesus take over.

In Acts chapter 8, We see a guy named Simon the Magician (Simon Magus).  He was called the Great Power of God, but he wasn’t saved either.  The Bible does says he not only believed but was even baptized.  Imagine that!  Then he asked if he could purchase the power of the Holy Spirit with money.  He got an earful from Peter pointing out Simon wasn’t saved.  His faith wasn’t genuine.  He hadn’t taken that necessary third step.

The point of this blog is to warn you in case you have stopped at the second step of faith as Simon did, that you might not have made the commitment to Christ.  I believe there are many people sitting in most, if not all, churches who think their future is certain, who think they’ve done their Christian “thing” and are certain they’ll enter heaven, but who don’t know there is both more expected and more involved. 

Commitment is required.  Without that, our faith would be empty.  We would be kidding ourselves.  We are lost.

The good news is that there is much more joy, happiness, and excitement in a committed life, a life committed to Christ, not committed to works.  Please consider your relationship with Christ.  It’s the difference between being a member of your local church and being born again.

Just a note for the church historians among us:

Ignatius (A.D. 35-108), a friend of the Apostle John, equated Simon with the devil himself.  When condemning someone who denied God the Father, Ignatius said, “…he has not continued in the truth any more than his father the devil, and is a disciple of Simon Magus,….” 

Early church father, Irenaeus (A.D. 120-202), said this about Simon:  “This man, then, was glorified by many as if he were a god; and he taught that it was himself who appeared among the Jews as the Son, but descended in Samaria as the Father while he came to other nations in the character of the Holy Spirit.” 

The early church did not have a warm place in their heart for Simon Magnus.

This blog is a special one. It is the 101st blog post we’ve made, the start of our second 100 posts. We began in June of 2017 and have had readers from all over the world look in. We’ve had folks from France, Australia, South Korea, Communist China, the Netherlands, the Philippines, and many more. We’ve had readers from Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, atheist, pagan, and Christian countries; all this in less than two years. God can make a few pennies into an international blessing. Praise His Name, and thanks to you all!

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.