Believers Armed and Dangerous

Matt. 19:12-22 (ESV)  Jesus said to him, “If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” ²² When the young man heard this he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.

Somehow over the past few hundred years since the founding of the United States, we have taken Jesus’ words above and have given this responsibility over to government.  We have taken biblical instructions given to us as individual Christians and have applied those concepts to government.  This was a foolish and dangerous move on the part of the American church and the church as a whole.

When government takes money from one individual who has worked for that money and gives it freely to those who have not earned that money even if they are in need, expectations arise that those people in need are entitled to the money of those who work.  This builds resentment in the hearts of the workers whose money is taken (taxed) and given to those who are perhaps able bodied but unwilling to work.  Government is lazy and careless with other people’s money.  So, government taking the place of the individual Christian creates anger, resentment, and waste for both the worker and the recipient.

Biblically, however, an individual who watches his neighbor and helps provide for that neighbor’s needs is seen as a person of fine character who pursues a Christian way of life.  The person receiving the help doesn’t see the Christian as a source for a monthly check but as a person helping in a particular situation.  Often the gift of food or clothing is much more helpful than that of cash.  The recipient feels humble gratitude, a Christian emotion.  The giver feels humbled and blessed to have been able to help his fellow man, another Christian emotion and motivation.

There is no expectation the person receiving the help need not work to provide for themselves if they can.  They are simply being helped through a tough time.  With this method, the biblical method, we see people trying to get themselves out of their struggle and rise to provide for themselves and later even for others. 

With Government providing for those in need, we see family generations living on governmental assistance.  Much of the tax money going to help those in need is also spent to provide the governmental structure needed to provide to millions.  The one-on-one system God has provided in His Word has no waste.  All the money goes to those in need.  It also builds a very strong sense of community.

Why is this important?

The human condition is such that we are happy to have “someone else do it.”  We have given up our responsibility as Christians to lend a hand to those who need one and have let government take over that responsibility. 

One result of this mistake is that people look to government rather than God for help.  A nation becomes more godless, Government becomes the Provider and takes the place of God’s people in the lives of millions.  Churches become fortresses uninvolved in the community, a group of strangers unfamiliar to the local population because Christians are not working to make lives better for all.  That’s now government’s job we believe.

On a large scale, Christians have given up God’s instructions to help the poor – Gal. 2:10  Only, they asked us to remember the poor, the very thing I was eager to do.

Much of the nation’s opposition to “organized religion” is the fault of the Christian falling down on the job of helping others.

The United States last year spent $1.1 Trillion on welfare, nearly one fifth of the federal budget.  This money was spent to help 42 million people.  This amounts to a total cost of $23,809.52 for each man, woman, and child on welfare in the U.S.  Since there were 144 million taxpayers in the U.S. last year, this averages out at just shy of $7,000 per taxpayer.  Imagine what could be done had the Christian community continued to help those in need with that sort of available money.

Christians in America have fallen down on the job and allowed government to take over the job God has given to us.

James 1:13-15 (ESV)  Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. ¹⁴ But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. ¹⁵ Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.

Temptations are a common issue for us as Christians.  We’re tempted to eat what we shouldn’t, smoke, keep something we’ve found rather than look for the owner.  These are all temptations, but are they sins and what are some of the ways we can deal with these?

First let’s look at what James has said.  He is not calling temptation a sin but hanging onto that temptation and turning into a lust or desire that is sin.  Jesus was tempted in all ways as we are but without sin:

Heb. 4:15 (ESV)  For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.

So, if Jesus was tempted yet didn’t sin, we are capable to resist the temptations we face all the time and not sin, but how.

I’m no perfect example, only Jesus is, so I can just tell you the methods I try and which help but don’t always succeed:

Memorize Scripture:  I have memorized a couple of passages of Scripture I can recite – when I have the presence of mind to do so.  One is the passage from James posted above.  Another is 1 Corinthians 10:13 (ESV)  No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.

The nice thing about these passages is they are fairly long.  By the time I finish reciting one, the temptation has passed or at least softened, and it has moved my mind from that doughnut or cigarette to our Lord and His Word.  This usually helps.

A second method I use is to go cold turkey.  I smoked for 16 years and “quit” several times during that period.  Problem was, I would keep a pack of cigarettes in my glove box just in case I fell.  This is called provision for sin.  I set up myself to fail.  It wasn’t until I coughed all the way to work one morning that I was angry enough with myself to throw five packs of cigarettes and a lighter into a dumpster.  By the way, this man of steel went back the very next day to retrieve them, but the dumpster was empty.  Then I was really disgusted with myself and was able to quit.

About two years ago I decided my addiction to carbohydrates was not doing me any favors.  I’m six foot and weighed 276 lbs.  My doctor said if I ever reached 200 lbs, he’d kiss me full on the lips.  Not being of that ilk, I sought other medical advice but I did reach 200 lbs after 10 months of a very restrictive low carbohydrate diet.  I have frequented convenience stores regularly for years, and I love sugar and baked goods.  To me, convenience stores are nothing more than a framed building surrounding a full variety of temptations.  They were how I got that large, but they also are where I get the copious amounts of diet cola I consume even today.  If I was going to lose the weight and still collect my diet soda, I would have to face temptations head on.  What I did was convince myself I just don’t eat that stuff anymore.  Sure I see it, but before the temptation turned into consumption, I would “Just say no.”  For some of us and for some categories of temptation, that will work.

Ask a friend to hold you accountable.  Sometimes it is necessary to confess your sin to a friend and have him/her hold you accountable for your commitment.  I’ve had friends ask me to hold them accountable for lots of temptations they wouldn’t tell anyone else.  In the case of pornography, there are sites where men can pay a monthly fee to have their computer use monitored and reported to their wives, friends, pastors, etc.  Covenanteyes.com is one of these, but the man needs to be serious.  The friend or wife will get a full account of where they have been online.  These sites are very effective.  Every Man’s Battle, the book by Steven Arterburn, is helpful as well.

Why is this important?

It’s not our temptations that separate us from God but what we do with them.  We need to have tools that help keep us from taking the next step into sin.  The other day, I was in a, you guessed it – a convenience store – and got talking with the young man in front of me.  He was buying cigarettes.  I mentioned the high price compared to the sixty five cents a pack I paid for my last one.  He smiled and told me he had shaken his addiction to heroine and was working on his cigarette habit.  He was smoking to handle the stress he still felt from the addiction to drugs.  I would certainly not fault him for that. Sometimes we need to lean temporarily on a lesser fault to overcome a greater one.

Rev. 22:18-19  I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book, and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book.

Is anyone who adds to or subtracts from Scripture cursed?  It all depends.  We have lots of ways to interpret this passage:

1. Are those who add or subtract from the whole Bible cursed?
2. Are just those who add or subtract from the book of Revelation cursed?
3. Since translations are not exactly word-for-word the same as the original, are the translators cursed?
4. There are portions of Scripture which were added accidentally.  Are those who made those additions cursed?

Are those who add or subtract from the whole Bible cursed?  This relates to the second question since Revelation is included in the whole Bible, so I would say, yes.  Now who might this be?  I think it would include translators who have purposely altered a passage to match the beliefs of a person or organization.  The New World Translation would be among these.  The “translators” added words and subtracted words purposely to change the meaning of the original to match the beliefs of their organization.

Are just those who add or subtract from the book of Revelation cursed?  I don’t see how you can get out of this one.  I do believe intent must be present, however.  Can someone accidentally change the book of Revelation and be held accountable.  I would say no.  God looks at our hearts.  If we were not to accept accidental errors or misunderstandings as what they truly are, we would be in a sorry state.  Ours is a God of grace.

Early on, when copies of Scripture were being made, a Scriptorium might be set up with several copyists  present.  A leader would read the Scripture and copyists would write down what they heard.  Sometimes they might hear “warm” rather than “warn” and write “warm” down when “warn” was the word in the text of Rev. 22:18.  God is gracious about this I’m sure.  As a matter of fact, we have more than 5,000 handmade copies of the New Testament, and none of them is exactly like another.  The reasons include this sort of error, misspellings, missed words, duplicated words, and others. 

Since translations are not exactly word-for-word the same as the original, are the translators cursed?  Since many of the Old Testament quotes in the New Testament are from the Septuagint, the Greed translation of the Old Testament, I would say translations are permissible.  If it was good enough for Jesus, Paul, and others, we should see this as a precedent and follow their lead.  The earliest translation of the New Testament was by Jerome and is dated at the end of the fourth century.  This was a translation from Greek into Latin and was done for the Western Church, later known as the Catholic Church. 

Before Jerome’s translation, the Christian world spoke Greek, so a translation wasn’t really needed.  As the Romans became more and more present, their common language, Latin, was widely understood.

There are portions of Scripture which were added accidentally.  Are those who made those additions cursed?  There are portions of the New Testament we are pretty sure were not in the original.  A good example would be Mark 16:9-20.  We believe someone may have added this to their personal copy of Mark very early on and generations of copies made from that manuscript. 

There are many who believe this passage was is included in the original, so don’t take my opinion as certain.  Many respected scholars have taken the conservative approach to include this passage until it is absolutely proven otherwise.

With that said, those who believe it was not in the original manuscript of Mark have a few strong arguments:

1.  Verse 12 states that Jesus appeared in another form when on the road to Emaus: After that he appeared in another form unto two of them, as they walked, and went into the country. It is central to Christian theology that Jesus rose in the same form as died on the cross.
2. Verse 16 links baptism with salvation.
3. Verse 18 says believers can drink poison and pick up deadly snakes and not be harmed.  This verse has caused the lives of many snake handlers in the Christian community.

The earliest and best New Testament manuscripts do not include this passage.

Why is this important?

We need to understand legalism, or more accurately letterism, can keep us from God’s teachings and expressing His mercy.  Yes there have been those in the past who have added to Scripture and taken away from it.  Those who did it for their own devices to profit personally or for their group will be held powerfully accountable, but those who have made innocent mistakes will, no doubt, not be accountable for those mistakes.

In many ways, our God does seem like a very literal God.  But, our God is also a God of grace and forgiveness.  Even those who have willingly perverted Scripture for their own benefit can still be forgiven if only they take the single step toward their Savior.

Covert Ops Faith

Acts 17:22-28 (ESV)  So Paul, standing in the midst of the Areopagus, said: “Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious. ²³ For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription: ‘To the unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. ²⁴ The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, ²⁵ nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. ²⁶ And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, ²⁷ that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, ²⁸ for “ ‘In him we live and move and have our being’; as even some of your own poets have said, “ ‘For we are indeed his offspring.’

Sometimes we’re faced with an audience with whom we’d like to share our faith who are unfamiliar with the Bible or reject it altogether as reliable.  Yet, they seem ready to learn about the faith we hold dear.  How can we present our faith.

A friend, Jacob, and I teach a witnessing class at our church, and in that class we tell the students they should not just learn the material but should know it well enough to explain it to others.  I think this is a good test of whether we really know what we believe overall: can we explain it to someone who has no understanding at all of what we believe?

In the passage above, Paul is just sort of waiting around for his fellow workers and decides to fearlessly “shoot the breeze” with some of the great Athenian rulers and philosophers of his time.  After all, when you have the truth, what is there to fear from those who do not?

Rather than quote Scripture to them, though, he gave the story of faith: who God is and what He has done for us all.  Among the converts by the way was Dionysius who we believe became the first bishop of Athens.

When we encounter people who have no idea of our faith or what it entails, can we explain our faith as well as Paul did?  Do we know more than just the Scriptures of the Romans Road or the Four Spiritual Laws?  Do we understand our faith so completely we can explain it freely in common language, in common circumstances, using common illustrations?  If not, I think we’ll be caught off guard more often than we would like.

Don’t get me wrong, Scripture is the foremost tool in witnessing.  Having John 3:16 and the Romans Road memorized will always lead to a good discussion and possible conversion.  But can we direct the conversation well enough with explanation alone if necessary as Paul did?

Maybe we have family members who have said they don’t want to hear any more Bible verses or the conversation will end.  I had that happen with my brother and had to wait forty years before I could talk with him seriously about the Lord again.  They know the gospel.  Usually we’ve explained it so often they are sick of hearing about Jesus.  So, what can we say?  Paraphrasing Scripture can be a good direction to take.  God’s Word does not return to Him empty.  “You know God just loves us so much,” or “Do you think people should be punished for their crimes?  God feels that way too and holds us responsible for our crimes against Him, but He offers a pardon.” Sometimes only your example of a Christian life well lived will be the gospel they see.

Why is this important?

In combative situations or situations where the person we are speaking with has no concept of God’s love for them, we can still make a dent, “put a pebble in their shoe,” as Greg Koukl likes to say.  The Holy Spirit can use these efforts to remind them of how much He loves them.

We should seek to explain what we believe clearly and plainly.  We can share Scripture without telling others where it came from.  These are effective ways to begin to plant and water the Gospel in the lives of others.

When the person is ready to hear the direct path to God the Father through Jesus Christ, they will be more receptive to direct Scripture.

This is situational, of course.  When we speak with cultists who turn to the Bible for guidance, we can guide them to the passages of Scripture which directly apply.  They will accept those.  When we speak with atheists, though, we often need to be a little more covert.

Col 2:8 (ESV)  See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.

The word philosophy appears just once in the English Bible, in the verse above, and the verse is a warning against worldly philosophy.  The concept of philosophy appears often in Scripture, though.  When I was in school, I was often asked who my favorite philosopher was.  My answer was always “Jesus of Nazareth.”  Who can read the Beatitudes and not see the philosophical beauty in them?  Philosophy, pure philosophy, is the search for wisdom.  Where are we more likely to find it than in Scripture?

 Most people misunderstand exactly what philosophy is.  The Complete Word Study Dictionary of the New Testament gives a pretty good definition:

“a philosopher, friend of wisdom. Love of wisdom, philosophy, which came to mean the doctrine or tenets of the heathen or Gentile philosophers (Col. 2:8 [cf. 2:16]; 1 Tim. 6:20). The modern definition of the word must not be read into its use in the Bible. Philosophy, as the study of reality, knowledge, and values, is a profitable and biblically supported endeavor.”

A lot of Christians and even non-believers consider philosophy our enemy.  They picture a bunch of wide-eyed radial thinkers coming up with a lot of really foolish ideas being taken seriously by academia, and this is a correct interpretation to some degree.  Some of the most foolish ideas I’ve ever heard were in philosophy class but also some of the greatest.  To lump us all together with these extremists, though, would be an error, the fallacy of generalization to be specific.

The early church depended much on the Christian philosophers of its day: Justin (100 – 165 a.d.), Irenaeus (130 – 202 a.d.), Clement of Alexandria (150-215 a.d.), and Tertulian (150 – 200 a.d.) among others because many of the arguments posed against the church were best handled philosophically.  The 21^st century has brought us full circle.

In the 1970s philosophy was indeed the enemy of theists, believers in a personal living God currently active in His creation.  Philosophy departments strove to expunge theology from university curriculum in the Ivy League.  But then something wonderful happened: many academic Christians embraced philosophy and began to use philosophical argumentation to support the Christian worldview.

A good example of this is Alvin Plantinga and his little book God, Freedom, and Evil published in 1974 gave a good Christian answer to the problem of evil, how a good God could allow evil in the world.  This is a problem which had haunted Christians since the first century and those who believed in benevolent god since before that.  Plantinga answered it so fully it is no longer presented by honest professors as problematic to Christians.

Does God exist?  Why does evil exist if God is good?  How do we know the Bible is reliable, accurate, or true?  Which religion is true?  Was the universe created?  What can we learn about that Creator by looking at His creation?  If it was created, has the Creator attempted to communicate with His creation?  All these questions and more are philosophical questions and must be addressed philosophically.

For the most part, the major apologists of the 1960s and 70s were theologians.  Today the big names in Christian Apologetics, defenses for the Christian faith, are philosophers: William Lane Craig, Frank Turek, Greg Koukl, Francis Beckwith, Sean McDowell, Bret Kunkle, Norm Geisler, even C. S. Lewis took a first in philosophy and mathematician Dr. John Lennox has an earned PhD in philosophy.

Why is this important?

When we are told philosophy is an empty discipline or simply a useless exercise, we need to remember the largest portion of the American Philosophical Association is now theists and the largest portion of theists are Christians.  Christian philosophers are having an impact on academics and have earned a prominent place in the marketplace of ideas.

While theologians and pastors were at the forefront of Christian apologetics, it is once again the Christian philosophers who are the torchbearers for defending the faith in this modern world.

The philosophers aren’t just looking into strictly religious questions but things like abortion (Beckwith), science and mathematics (Lennox), moral and social relativism (Koukl). We’ve come a long way in just a few decades. God has used his philosopher soldiers to equip His church in many ways as they teach the answers to the world’s questions to us.

A friend of mine passed away recently, and his funeral was yesterday.  The attendees were a mixture of Christians, Mormons (LDS), and non-believers.  During the family-led graveside service, another friend spoke and presented a good explanation of the gospel, where believers go after they pass away, and of the fact Jesus’ blood paid for our sins.

I don’t think this set well with the LDS gentleman leading the service, so he felt the need to kindly and respectfully present the LDS view of the atonement.  I thought to myself at the time how cults will sound so much like the genuine faith but have a commonality in where they change things.  I’d like to look at three areas where they do this. These are the Cross, the Son, and the Word of God.

For the LDS, the cross is much less significant than for the Christian.  For them, it wasn’t the blood that Jesus shed on the cross that paid for our sins but the blood He sweated in the garden.  That was where the greatest suffering happened (Doctrines and Covenants 19:16-19).  The cross is simply where Jesus died and does not appear on or in any LDS churches. This isn’t biblical.

The LDS view of the Son, Jesus Christ, is that He is one of many sons of God the Father, and the Father had asked for plans to be presented to Him that would provide for the salvation of mankind.  Jesus’ plan for salvation through His death was chosen and Lucifer’s (Another son and brother of Jesus) was rejected.  Jesus came to die for us, but He is just one of many gods and goddesses in the LDS heaven.  This is not the Jesus of the Bible.

The third facet of the triad of cults is the Word of God, the Bible.  It is necessary for a cult leader or cultic organization to either replace or supersede the Bible as the ultimate authority, the ultimate source of spiritual truth.  In the case of the Latter Day Saints, they have four holy books: The Book of Mormon, Doctrines and Covenants, Pearl of Great Price, and the Bible in so far as it is correctly translated.  The first three books supersede the Bible as they were written in English and given by an English speaking prophets – Joseph Smith and others.  So, if ever the Bible seems to disagree or contradict any of the other three books, it is the Bible which is ignored in favor of the others.

This same sort of discounting the central tenants of the Christian faith comes from the Watchtower Organization of Jehovah’s Witnesses.  Let’s look at how they do it:

The Cross is an affront to Jehovah’s Witnesses.  Since 1888, the Watchtower carried a cross on the cover of their Watchtower Magazine, but the October 15, 1931 edition did not include it nor any thereafter.  In their 1936 book Riches, Jehovah’s Witnesses were told Jesus did not die on a “T” shaped cross but was nailed to a tree.  Later they represented Jesus as dying on an upright stake with His hands above His head and a single nail through His wrists and another through His feet.  It is contrary to Scripture, of course.  In John 20:15, Thomas says it was not a single nail: “Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails. . .”

The Son to the Jehovah’s Witness was once the archangel Michael.  Jehovah God took what was Michael’s essence and placed it in Mary’s womb and Michael became Jesus.  Upon Jesus’ death, He ceased to exist for three days but was recreated (“resurrected” to Jehovah’s Witnesses) as the archangel once again.  This is not the Jesus of the Bible.

Jehovah’s Witnesses claim strongly they follow the Word of God to the letter, but do they also have an authority higher than the Bible as do the LDS?  Yes they do.  Jehovah’s Witnesses depend solely on the Watchtower publications to tell them what the Bible says.  They believe the organization is God’s representative on earth and must be followed.  The Bible plainly disproves much of what the Watchtower now teaches, so you would think such Bible-studying people would be leaving in droves.  But, the Watchtower has considered this danger and in 1950, began to publish a Bible of their own: the New World Translation.  This Bible has been altered to fit what the organization teaches and goes through “updates” as their doctrines change.

Why is this important?

While some in the church are called to spend their lives dealing with cults like the LDS and the Jehovah’s Witnesses, most aren’t.  Knowing three things to watch out for when something sounds a little off even in our own churches will act as a preventative against slipping slowly into a cultic situation.  When someone claims authority over the Bible, or says Jesus isn’t what the church has taught for 2,000 years, or the cross just isn’t that important, it’s time to watch out. 

Question the person about what they believe and why they believe it.  It may be embarrassing for you, but you might regain a straying brother or sister.  You might even save others from a life of darkness.

James 5:19-20 (ESV)  My brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back, ²⁰ let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.