Baggage

When we come to Christ, we get a lot of freedom. We are freed from the punishment of sin, eternal damnation. We are freed from the power of sin, have our hearts of stone replaced with hearts of flesh that desire to do what's right. When Christ comes back, we will be freed from the presence of sin when we dwell with God for the rest of eternity.

That sounds like a pretty good deal. So good in fact, that we don't quite believe it, especially since it's free.

Some folks in the Galatian church didn't buy into it. There were those who wanted to impose the old requirements on the new believers -- basically saying to become a Christian you had to first become a Jew and come under the law given through Moses. Paul clearly considered this a distorted, different, messages, and had this to say about it:

"but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed." (Gal 1:7-9)

In short, that pretty much means "if someone is going around saying you need anything other than the grace of God provided through the cross to be saved, that person can go to hell." Strong words. He said them twice. It's that important.

You can take the simple good news and distort it in two ways -- add to it or take away from it. When you add to it, you've got "the cross plus something" and when you take away from it you've got "the cross isn't needed". Both are a tragedy.

Let's talk about adding to it first. People who come to Christ from other religions and know the necessity of the cross sometimes find themselves struggling with this, because of the extra baggage they bring along with them, some of it attached to them since they were children. Think about what that means though -- it says that the death of GOD IN THE FLESH is NOT GOOD ENOUGH to pay the price for the sins of the world. I don't think so.

You don't need the cross plus the temple, the cross plus passover, the cross plus any other festival, the cross plus baptism, the cross plus confession to a priest and penance, the cross plus any other sacrament, the cross plus mass, the cross plus the rosary, the cross plus the laying on of hands, the cross plus Joseph Smith, the cross plus the Watchtower Society, the cross plus the five pillars, the cross plus ritual prayer 5 times a day, the cross plus a pilgrimage, the cross plus speaking in tongues, the cross plus shaking around on the floor, the cross plus anything. You just need the cross!

Before I move on -- I don't need a bunch of responses from people trapped in other religions telling me "we don't believe you need to be saved". I did my homework. I know some "official" doctrines don't say you need everything I listed. But guess what? Not everybody believes the same as you, and they put themselves in bondage. If you're in the "well that's not me" category, then I have a question for you -- what the heck are you doing tied to some system you don't really need anyway? Got the Jesus heart surgery and God's Spirit is now in you? Got God's Word? What more do you think you really need?

Now let's talk about subtracting from the good news. Where, like one of my friends has told me, "maybe there's another way." Sorry, Jesus said "I am the way, the truth, and the life, no one comes to the Father except through me." And Paul writes "I do not nullify the grace of God -- for if righteousness could be gained through the law, then Christ died for nothing!" It's a terrible slap in the face to God to think there is another way -- if there was another way, GOD'S SON DID NOT NEED TO DIE ON THE CROSS. He solved the problem, he paid the price. Accept it.

And that's all I have to say about that.

Grace and peace to you friends.

Burn, Baby, Burn?

So I got sucked into thinking about this Qur'an burning thing this dude in Florida wants to do on September 11th. When I first heard about it, I didn't think much of it one way or the other. "Yeah, that's interesting...I bet the media will blow it into a whole big deal."

My mind drifted back to Old Testament times for a bit. You know where the Israelites were supposed to cross the Jordan, go in, and take over the land, getting rid of whatever false idols were there. We just don't do that sort of thing in a physical way these days. Go figure. We don't live in the theocracy of ancient Israel. Its not really a justification for anything, that's just where my mind wandered to. And since this is my blog, you get the annoyance of following my mind down all kinds of rabbit holes.

Of course then one thinks of Paul whose mind didn't wander to where mine did. I remember where he saw a dedication in the temple -- to "the unknown God". He tried to use that. "Let me tell you about this God you don't know" he said. Of course, few were saved despite his eloquence and trying to adapt. I think that was the turning point where in his next round of efforts said "I knew nothing among you except for Christ and him crucified". I guess that shows when you don't know where to go, focus on the cross is always a smart thing.

Okay back on the train track here.

Then I heard people talk about this issue on a few Christian radio stations I listened to. Christian brothers I respect greatly seemed to think it was a pretty bonehead move simply because the act seems to be out of anger and is inciteful. Okay, I can buy that. It reminds me of that Crocodile Hunter guy. You know, the one that would go up to some really poisonous sleeping critter and poke it with a stick to see what would happen. I'm not sure that kind of thing was the brightest idea ever. So I can see one of their points. Purposefully going and ticking off a whole bunch of people doesn't really help efforts to get the gospel across to people.

The other point I don't really buy at all. The one some general made that these guys also agreed with -- that it puts American soldiers' lives in danger. Maybe, but, you know what? Our soldiers are in places where local people just don't want them to be. They're pretty much in danger no matter what.

Then, I was thinking about this before writing anything, a song came on that had in it the old school "What would Jesus do?" as part of its lyrics. I don't know what he'd do. Probably not waste his time with this one dude's public statement one way or the other? Probably say something about anger in the heart that needs to be let go? Probably say something about loving ones' enemies, forgiving them, and praying for them? I don't recall the "if someone asks you to carry their junk one mile, go two" ending with "and then throw it in the river to tick 'em off".

Then, I also I wondered if such an event where happening locally, would I bring my kids? No, no I wouldn't. What's that going to teach them? At worst it teaches some pretty unpleasant stuff. At best it teaches them to waste their time and play with fire. I don't care for either. My kids are a good measuring stick sometimes.

So, while I hold the Qur'an up to no special light and consider it full of falsehoods like so many other things, I have to concur that the public burning idea on September 11th especially is a pretty bonehead move. If you're going to destroy others' sacred things to make a statement, make a more worthwhile statement on a different date. And to do that you might have to throw in the Hindu Vedas, the Sikh Guru Granth Sahib, the Bahai Aqdas, the Book of Mormon, the Pope, business plans, car manuals, piles of dollar bills, stacks of pornography magazines, season tickets to , cable boxes, romance novels, gym membership cards, drugs, booze, designer clothes, and on and on and on.

Depending on who comes across this post, I probably offended a bunch of people just now with that last statement. That's okay. I don't plan to implement said wildfire-starting plan nor advocate it. I'm just making the simple statement that there are a million false gods in the world, whether under the name of "God", "a god" or something that doesn't "seem" like a god yet is number one in someone's life. Going after them for everyone else ain't gonna work. Just get help from the right source and eliminate them in your own life.

In short, there is one truth, revealed in one book, and through one person -- the Lord Jesus Christ.

That was rather chatty. Grace, and Peace!

Our Lord Jesus Christ

There's a phrase Paul used often in his letters, roughly "grace and peace to you from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ." I want to focus on that last part, OUR Lord Jesus Christ, because its kind of important. In fact it is of the utmost importance, as it goes along with the question of "who is this?" referring to Jesus Christ -- a key question to answer during our time here under the sun.

I heard someone preach on this some time ago and intended to write about it, but largely forgot until prompted further today by the Spirit after having encountered some Jehovah's Witnesses earlier in the day and having ample free time on my hands before I go to bed.

There are many people who claim some knowledge of Jesus Christ. There are many, not as much, who claim to follow Jesus Christ. But there is a difference between the Jesus some follow and the real Jesus. We need to be following the real Jesus, not some imaginary one, so let's review some facts about who Jesus Christ is NOT.

The Lord Jesus Christ is not a created being, Satan's brother, Michael the archangel, just a teacher, just a philosopher, just a spiritual being without a physical body, just a prophet, and so on. The Lord Jesus Christ is not some hippie type dude preaching only peace and love to all, and whatever that means to you is okay. The Lord Jesus Christ did not avoid death on the cross -- but he didn't stay dead either.

The Lord Jesus Christ is the Son of God, fully God and fully man -- the God-man if you will. He is the only one that can make the perfect justice of God and the perfect mercy of God make any sense -- God himself taking on the form of a man, suffering, and dying on the cross to take our place as a payment for sins, and rising again on the third day. He is the only one that bridges the gap between man and God the Father. No one other than God in the flesh could accomplish such a feat.

If this doesn't describe the Jesus you follow, then you are following a false Jesus. The Bible says that Satan disguises himself as an angel of light, and we are warned about false Christs and false gospels. For those in Christ, any attention to these Jesus imposters lead us away from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ.

Make sure that you follow the Jesus who loved us so much he gave up his glory in heaven to come to earth, dwell among us, and suffer and die for us. This is the Jesus we know when we say "OUR Lord Jesus Christ."

Grace and peace

Agree To Disagree

I finished up a church history paper this weekend. The last person I wrote about was John Wesley. There's a lot of good stuff from Wesley's life that encourages and inspires me, but the one I want to focus on at the moment is what prompted him to first put to print the phrase "agree to disagree."

During his life he traveled around with George Whitefield, but the two split over doctrinal differences that they could not reconcile. The primary differences they had came from the fact that Wesley was an Arminian and Whitefield was a Calvinist. The two had faith in Christ but seemed to let their disagreements divide them, as so many in the body of Christ do today.

When Whitefield died, Wesley said "There are many doctrinal differences of a less essential nature -- in these we may think and let think; we may 'agree to disagree'. But, meantime, let us hold fast the essentials..."

I respect that. I love that. I need to listen to that.

The only caution here is that we must be careful not to twist the gospel with false teaching. There are certain key things about the person and work of Jesus Christ that one cannot deny to hold true to the gospel. However, there are many ancillary things that really do not matter in the end, in which case we must agree to disagree, lest we further divide the church.

Its funny that as I was thinking this, some folks from some named denomination came to the door. After seeing I was a believer, they jumped into questions totally focused on passover. Do you know what it is? Do you know it was abolished in 325 A.D.? What?! What does your line of questioning have to do with my relationship with God and what Jesus did on the cross? Not wanting to get into an argument, I bid them farewell, saying that the folks who typically go door to door want to get into a discussion about some particular doctrine, that I think they're doing that, and to keep preaching Christ and focus on the essentials.

Later I looked up the denomination on the Internet, and sure enough, there are various secondary doctrines they try to prove with scripture and elevate so highly such that they can claim to be the "one true church" because they believe and practice ancillary things that others do not.

No. Not okay.

There is a point where Christians can legitimately agree to disagree and a point where the gospel is changed. Praise anyone who preaches the gospel and promotes the name and atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ! Shame on anyone who preaches a false gospel and elevates secondary doctrines above the name of Christ!

Grace and Peace

Gospel Swap

I've recently gotten more into a TV show that I've seen now and then in the past. Wife Swap. Wives (generally, maybe always, moms) change families for two weeks. The first week, the new wife is supposed to follow what the old wife did. The second week, the family is supposed to follow what the new wife does. Of course, to make interesting television with conflict, the families are at opposite ends of some spectrum.

What I have noticed quite often on the show is that the wife, or the whole family, often has their own gospel. Now I can't ever judge a person's heart and motivation, especially based on what I see on an hour show, but it seems quite clear that many have decided life is totally about saving money, or spending money, or overindulging children, or making slaves of children, or educating children, or avoiding children, or working, or being lazy, or about a million other things.

And in those particular lifestyles, it is easy to see evidence of our sinful fallen nature. You see it in the need for control, in the greed, in the vanity, in the pride, and so on.

Then you have the super moms now and then. The ones that don't get wrapped up the world and take excellent care of their children, loving them, nurturing them, teaching them at home, being silly with them, and so on. They are the heart of a functioning family that has nothing but love to share.

And in those particular lifestyles, it is also easy to see the evidence of putting to death our fallen nature for something greater. You see it in the family's balance, in giving, in humility, in listening, in apologizing, in forgiving, and so on.

I admire the super moms that caught my attention. I think they're great, because they remind me of my own wife. While I can't rightly say what all the super moms on the show believe, from their profession, a fair number are Christ followers. So praise God for all wives and mothers that know, love, and serve the Lord Jesus! Thank you for them!

And may all others come to know the Lord Jesus and discover the joy of the gospel of Christ and put away the false gospels of the world, and, thus, the devil.

Grace and Peace

Speaking...Or Arguing...The Truth In Love?

Recently I have angered someone because I told them, in short, that they followed a false prophet and followed a different Jesus than written about in the Bible. I supposed I can see how that would make someone angry, but we still went back and forth a bit. Through some discussion that ended up hitting a brick wall in the end, as far as I can tell, I have been accused of the following:

- Hatred. In that my comments during discussion were a personal attack against the members of the church started by this particular person.

- Rudeness. In that my words were sharp and unloving.

- Pride. In that I came across like the Pharisees who were prideful and thought they were right with God and everyone else was purposed for stoking the fires of hell.

And some other things. I didn't keep a paper trail; I just happen to remember those, along with this:

- I shouldn't let beliefs come between relationships with family.

Dead wrong.

I'm not saying believers should be jerks, but they certainly shouldn't suppress the truth just to "be nice". When someone is in a fraudulent and flawed system we should just keep quiet to keep the peace? I don't think so.

Christ said this: "Do you think I have come to give peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division. For from now on in one house there will be five divided, three against two and two against three." (Luke 12:51-52)

Should we not tell people following the world's religions about Jesus because we might offend? Should we not warn people about false teachings and false prophets because we might offend? Should we not approach brothers and sisters who are backsliding because we might offend?

That's what the world says to do. That's not what the Bible teaches. It's not what Christ said to do. It's not what Paul said to do. It's not what Peter said to do. It's not what John said to do. I'll take their instructions over those of the world's pluralistic, relative-truth, all-paths-lead-to-God opinion.

Despite what some may claim, truth is absolutely knowable through God's Word and the Holy Spirit. Therefore, false beliefs can be positively identified. Trying to show this to people in love is not rude, not prideful, and not hateful, whether or not someone put a "Jesus sticker" on their beliefs.

In short, having a "happy" relationship with someone is less important than that someone having a right relationship with God through Jesus Christ,

Having said that, I admit freely the following shortcomings of which I find myself guilty:

- I too often fail to speak up (or shut up depending on the situation) because I don't want to hurt relationships, because I fear possible ridicule, or because I'm worried about the repercussions and covering myself at work. For shame! God help me to be better in speaking the truth, preaching the gospel, and avoiding the appearance of agreeing with incorrect opinions and beliefs!

- I see that, with regarding to false teachers in particular, I have failed to heed the Word. Too often I get it into my head that I need to discuss, debate, or argue. What the Bible teaches is that we are to avoid false teachers. We are not to bless them or wish them well. We are not to give the impression that we think they have legitimate claims, doctrines, or opinions. John tells us that to do this is to share in their wicked work.

That last statement was a hard one for me, because I know that the rank and file member of some group is likely not intentionally trying to do anything "wicked". However, it follows that if they preach a false Jesus and/or a false gospel, they are spreading falsehoods and doing something wicked anyway, whether or not they mean to.

Too often already I have thought that this is where people are coming from and they need to see the light -- unfortunately, what I thought was an opportunity to speak the truth -- even if the person didn't want to hear it -- turned out to be nothing more than a distraction, keeping me from focusing on the things of God.

Thank you Lord, for using this latest altercation to open my eyes to my sin of getting sucked into that which is pointless and a clear failure to redeem the time!

Grace and Peace

Who Will Say What Now?

I came across this tonight, which apparently is one of the things the Qur'an says about Jesus:

"And behold! God will say [i.e. on the Day of Judgment]: 'Oh Jesus, the son of Mary! Did you say unto men, worship me and my mother as gods in derogation of God?' He will say: 'Glory to Thee! Never could I say what I had no right (to say). Had I said such a thing, You would indeed have known it. You know what is in my heart, though I know not what is in Yours. For You know in full all that is hidden. Never did I say to them anything except what You commanded me to say: 'Worship God, my Lord and your Lord.' And I was a witness over them while I lived among them. When You took me up, You were the Watcher over them, and You are a witness to all things'" (5:116-117).

I assume this goes along with the line of thinking that Jesus was a prophet and never claimed to be God. While a read through the New Testament should clearly refute that claim, that's not the point of this post.

Look at what it says. It talks about worshiping Jesus AND Mary. Worshiping Mary is not found anywhere in the pages of the Bible. We are to worship God, and God alone, and Mary is not God. Worshiping Mary is something associated with the Catholic church, which has many practices and teachings that are not found in the pages of scripture.

Whoever wrote that bit in the Qur'an was off target, because it sounds like whoever wrote that bit was looking at the practices of the Catholic church in that area, at that time, and condemning those practices -- rather than looking at what Jesus' own followers from the 1st century wrote down about him and his teachings and what Jesus' own followers practiced!

So now I ask the question, why would God ask Jesus "Did you say unto men, worship me and my mother..."? I ask this, because the question in itself reveals a lack of understanding about what Jesus actually taught while he was on earth, and what disciples of Jesus actually believed and practiced. The only logical conclusion is that God would not ask such a question, which in turn means that text quoting it cannot be from God, but rather from man.

By the grace of God I already knew this, but I pray that God pour out his Spirit on those who do not so that they come to realize who Jesus is and what he did for us on the cross.

Grace and Peace

Restoration Or Alteration?

I have heard the Mormon phrase "restoration of the gospel" in the past, and again just recently, but I never looked up exactly what that meant. If what I read was true, I am saddened by it. From the LDS website, it is this:

"When Jesus Christ was on the earth, He established His Church among His followers. After His Crucifixion and the deaths of His Apostles, the fulness of the gospel was taken from the earth because of widespread apostasy. Through the Prophet Joseph Smith, our Father in Heaven and His Son Jesus Christ restored the fulness of the gospel. The true Church of Jesus Christ is on the earth again. Because of the Restoration, the teachings and ordinances necessary for salvation are available to all people."

The phrase "teachings and ordinances necessary for salvation" is very scary already.

Ordinances is further define as:

"In the Church, an ordinance is a sacred, formal act performed by the authority of the priesthood. Some ordinances are essential to our exaltation. These ordinances are called saving ordinances. They include baptism, confirmation, ordination to the Melchizedek Priesthood (for men), the temple endowment, and the marriage sealing. With each of these ordinances, we enter into solemn covenants with the Lord."

So "saving ordinances" include all these other things mentioned nowhere as necessary for salvation in the pages of the Bible. Paul makes it quite clear in Romans that salvation is by grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone, and does not come from ANY kind works we do on our own, including rituals like water baptism.

I had some discussions with one of my Mormon friends in the past, and it seemed clear to me that he believed in salvation by grace through faith, but yet here we have on the LDS website an indication that salvation comes through these other things as well. So I don't know what to think on the subject, but what I have to say is this:

If there is ANYONE out there in ANY organization trusting that their salvation comes something other than faith in Christ, they are dead wrong. It doesn't come from a family line. It doesn't come from affiliation with any certain group. It doesn't come from saying a certain prayer. It doesn't come from some ritual. It doesn't come from doing good works. None of these things will save anyone. All they will do is give people a false sense of security like many Jewish leaders had 2000 years ago. Salvation comes from genuine repentance and faith in Jesus Christ. Period.

Grace and Peace

God's Word

A friend of mine said something to the effect of "Isn't God big enough to give us a book we can understand with a straightforward reading?" Absolutely. We don't need to be Biblical scholars to understand the word of God. We don't need to be experts in history or archeology to understand the word of God. We don't need to learn Hebrew or Greek to understand the word of God. We don't need to understand ancient Jewish culture to understand the word of God. These things are all helpful and give us a deeper, richer, understanding, but you know what? We've been given revelation about God's creation, man's sin inclination and way to salvation, and God's final restoration -- that anyone literate can pick up and read.

But do you know what so many individual people and groups do with the simple teaching found in God's word?

They take away from it. It's just history. It's mythology. It's corrupted. It's not inspired. It's not authoritative. It's just a book. When you go there, it reduces Christianity to just another religion of the world and reduces Jesus to just other great teacher and example like Buddha or Ghandi. And so on.

They add extra cruft to it not found in its pages. We have tradition that is equally as important. We have new special written revelation that was written down. We have special messages from God that only our leader understands. And what's the common line among many groups that purport these things? We are the one true church. You must join our organization and abide by our rules to be truly saved or to reap the biggest rewards. And so on.

They twist it. Everyone else translated it wrong, we have a special translation. You don't understand the language of the day, here's a 40 page argument on why my false doctrine is really what this one verse means. Jesus was really just a created being and not fully God. Abortion is really okay. Homosexuality is not really a sin. There's no such thing as the devil. There's no such place as hell. And so on.

You know what? We can have a simple faith as presented in the pages of the Bible without resorting to diminishing or twisting the word of God or making up new teachings that are nowhere to be found in its pages.

If left to my own analysis, I would certainly be baffled that so many mishandle God's word and so many more buy into it; however, all these were issues the first believers had to deal with, and its only gotten worse in the last 2000 years. I am somewhat calmed by the facts that we were told this would happen by our Lord, and that my eyes were opened to the truth of God's word by his grace, rather than being left to my own reasoning or interpretation.

I pray earnestly that all would come away from false beliefs to have salvation through Christ as laid out in the Bible, but, sadly, I know that such a thing is not going to happen.

Grace and Peace

Luther's 95 Theses

I have known of some of the teachings of the Catholic Church for some time and that many of them were bogus and based on tradition rather than Scripture. I learned about Luther's 95 Theses back in grade school and later since coming to Christ heard various pastors talk about them and websites refer to them.

But until tonight I never read them. I found them here:

http://www.spurgeon.org/~phil/history/95theses.htm

An interesting read if you take the time.

Until I read them I thought there were actually 95 different points he made, but its reall a few major points in 95 sentences.

Observations About Various Teachings

I'm reading through Mark right now and made a few observations tonight in the course of five minutes that I thought related to what I have heard professed by other religions that don't square with the word of God.

First I read the parable of the tenants. The owner of the vineyard (God) sent various servants (prophets) to the tenants (Israel) to get some fruit, but those servants were beaten and/or killed. The owner finally sent one last person, his son (Jesus) who was also killed. The owner had little choice but to destroy the vineyard and give it to others (the Gentiles). From this I see that Jesus was the last one sent directly by God the Father. None are sent after him.

Second I read the question asked of Jesus about marriage after the resurrection. I have heard some teach that we can be married for all eternity, but it seems fairly clear that there will be no marriage after the resurrection, nor does it make sense that there would be a need for it -- marriage is for here on earth. Heaven isn't going to get populated by reproduction and we aren't going to experience loneliness or the need for helpers there.

Those are the two things that popped into my head tonight, but over time I have encountered various others.

For example it seems quite clear in the Bible that we shouldn't put undue emphasis on Mary or the dead as some erroneously teach.

It also seems quite clear in the Bible that Jesus is in fact God in the flesh. While there are numerous examples of this through his speech and actions (such as being worshiped without rebuking the worshipers). My favorite for a long time though comes from the apostle Thomas when he says, after seeing Jesus after the resurrection, "My Lord and My God". I always thought more evidence of this idea from Jesus' followers would be great, and I read the other day where Paul writes in Titus "...waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ."

Now that's fully awesome.

Brothers and sisters keep diligently reading the word of God, its the best measuring stick we have to hold up to teachings we're not sure about!

Grace and Peace