Here are a series of stupid atheist assumptions I’ve heard as to how morality can be accounted for, along with my rebuttals: (There are more to come)
1. “Majorities determine what is right and wrong.”
Rebuttal:
a. This assumes that majority opinion, or popular consensus, determines morality, yet just begs the question because we then need to know by what standard majorities get to determine anything. And then we need to show that that standard is correct. Once we know that standard is correct, then we can say that majorities determine morality and thus be sure that all moral claims made by majorities are correct every time.
Here’s a question for you to ponder on your way to the grocery store today: “Is the Trinity more correctly 3 who’s and 1 what, or 3 who’s and 1 who?” In other words, the orthodox position of the Trinity is that God exists as 3 persons together making up one being.
The question I am raising is, what do we mean by “being” when we refer to the oneness of God? Is this being personal or impersonal? Is it a “what” or a “who”? If we can’t know for certain, then which should we at least lean towards?
Most Mormons that come to my door, that I see on tv, or that I hear on the radio seem to always assure everyone that they’re “good people”. They’re quick to say this without hesitation as though they’re the finest top-notch specimens of human beings. They put the wonder back into the phrase “wonderful people”. The context in which they say they’re “good” is that they keep their sin level to a minimum. It’s NOT because Christ made them good and is making them good.
It’s not because He lived the life they couldn’t, died the death they deserved (for not living the life they should have), and rose from the dead to prove it all satisfactory. Instead, it’s that they are good on their own and are making themselves good on their own.
Good luck finding a church today that loves truth and loves the real gospel. The church is plagued with anti-nomianism and legalism…
First, anti-nomianism is a fancy word meaning we either abuse grace by carelessly sinning, or over-emphasize grace by likening God to Barney. Many Christians today act like heretics because they gloss over the doctrine of repentance, which should prevent us from glossing over sins such as divorce, homosexuality, pride, etc. Rather we should be marveled at God’s great beauty in covenant marriage, opposite sex lovers, meekness, etc. Further, there are many churches which over-emphasize grace, such as Joel Olsteen’s and Rick Warren’s. They offer ego-stroking, therapeutic, negative 5% offensive sermons. Mantras like “smile… Jesus loves you” and “God loves the sinner but hates the sin” stem from these types of Disney Channel style Christians who seek to please people more then God. Gandhi said “God loves the sinner but hates the sin”, not Jesus.
On the flip side, the church is plagued with legalism. Legalism is another fancy word referring to those who equate their man-approved traditions with Scripture, or think they are better than you because they minimize their dirty laundry and maximize yours…
Legalism, in the form of man-centered tradition says “don’t get a tattoo”, “don’t drink alcohol (ever)”, or “don’t have a worship style different than ours”, etc. These people are guilty for making Christ seem bitter and as boring as watching paint dry for the sake of making Christ look like them. Others are legalistic because they are self-righteous. They think God daydreams about them and wishes everyone was like them. This is a very un-biblical notion which stems from rotten pride. It comes from people thinking God is less holy then He is and that they are more holy than they are. They think God grades sin on a curve and that they’re somewhere at the top of the list. They forget that God grades only one way – perfection. One sin is enough to separate us from God forever. It took that one person only one sin. I think his name was Adam.
In summary, the Church today remains either un-repentant, embracing therapeutic gospels, clenching pointless traditions, or reeking of self-righteous pride. In reality, every Christian has a bit of all these things in them. Yet, we must go through detoxification, and re-approach Christ for who He really is. Both Christians and non-Christians are not impressed with Jesus Christ because no one dares to see how wild He really is. He is not safe, manageable, or tamable. With all of our anti-nomian and legalistic rigmarole, we cover up Christ and are left with our boring selves.
If you claim to be a Christian does any of this concern you?
What do we do? We must stand up and shout “let Him in!” We must let Christ back into the Church (Revelation 3:20). Then we will begin to see Christ as He really is and see ourselves for who we really are. He is outside knocking. Please let Him in.
There’s much gospel restoring to do. The gospel message needs no restoration itself – it is forever perfect. We must see that it becomes restored as center focus in ourselves and the Church. Please join with me and others to fulfill this seemingly impossible task!
The answer is yes. The answer is both. It’s not that we talk about either/or, but both/and! In fact, the gospel could be stated this way: “Christ has loved us to death!” The gospel reveals God’s love for us because He died the death we deserved.
What I’m going to ask next is what most “churches” and “Christians” are too pansy to talk about these days. What was Christ not saved from? If you call yourself a Christian, you should know! The answer is God’s wrath. He was NOT saved from God’s wrath. The answer to that question is the same answer to another question. What is the believer saved from? We are ultimately saved from the wrath and anger of God for having sinned as we have not loved God with all our heart, soul, and strength, nor others as ourselves. Christ loved us to death by dying the death we deserved. So He loved us to death… quite literally. And that’s the ultimate death that believers get to escape by grace.
What is the gospel? How should we refer to it? Is it the entire Biblical story or a specific part of it? What does it begin with? Where does it end? Should we explain the gospel message primarily to be God making all which is broken fixed, that God’s purpose for you is to better the world, or a proclamation that the Messiah is the risen Lord, like many today are advocating to be the “good” of the “good news”?
The Chinese translation of “gospel”, which is “fuyin”, doesn’t mean “good news” but rather “all the good news about God”. While I at times refer to the gospel as everything accomplished or purposed by God in Christ, I am increasingly becoming hesitant with this language. The more I look at how the Apostles use the term “gospel” the more I see it as a specific message, NOT an all encompassing story. I see this message being a narrative (specific truths) to a meta-narrative (all of God’s truths). In other words, it is a message by which all other parts of the story get to be carried out and equally cherished.
This is just your splash of water wake up call, and friendly reminder, that you’re going to die. It could be soon or it could be after a while. Either way, it will happen. Make sure you’re right with Christ. And may Michael Jackson’s death remind us all, not only how good his music was, but that everyone, everyone, yes EVERYONE, whether a king or a street sweeper, must dance with the Grimm reaper.
As a Christian, are you scared of popular opinion? Especially when you believe something the Bible says that isn’t popular according to popular opnion? Why? Do you have it on your to-do list to “make sure the world approves of me”? Are you afraid that people will be intolerant of your intolerance of silly and evil beliefs? If so, why? Either way, someone is being intolerant, and the truth is always more liberating and freeing. Have you spent any time learning about why only the Christian worldview makes sense so you can be more confident about what you believe and sleep like a baby? If not, why? Let Jesus be the hero of every sermon, the point of every text of Scripture, the answer to all the questions, and the focus of all the lives.
Consider Mat 7:13-14 “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.”
Over the last year this best selling book by William P. Young has created quite a stir among believers. Many praise it and many reject it. Here are my quick thoughts on the book ‘The Shack’:
Pros:
The main character Mack dialogues a lot with God. You can tell that Young would have had to crack his doctrine 101 books about the nature of God, the nature of man, and other important doctrines in order to present this type of dialogue as being Biblically sound (Orthodox). In many parts, Young does a good job of remaining Orthodox and some of the explanations that God gives Mack are very practical and insightful.
I think he does a good job of upholding a Biblical view of free will (page 95), God’s self-sufficiency (pages 98-99), the Trinity (page 101), and even does a beautiful job of explaining why the Trinity is a precondition to something such as “love”, hence page 102 which says “Or maybe worse, you would have a god who, when he chose, could only love as a limitation of his nature”.
Just as John 1:1 says that “and God was the Logos”, thus what God is the Logos is (speaking of the Logos’ nature), so I believe that the laws of logic are neither divine axioms (just as the Logos is not the Father), nor are the laws of logic created by God (just as the Logos is not “a god”).
This is extremely profound!!! This philosophical issue which has perplexed countless people for centuries is answered in John 1:1. The very arguments which atheists, Clarkians, and others use to try and say that it must be either/or when accounting for the laws of logic, have left out the only actual possibility: they are part of God’s very own nature. This is not just something the Christian apologist says but can point to from Scripture itself!
Here are my thoughts on ‘Deborah 13′, a BBC documentary about a young girl named Deborah Drapper who has lived secluded from the outside world and pop-culture her entire life. Deborah is a devout Christian, along with her parents. She temporarily leaves her country side home and gets to experience what life is like on the outside with her older brother Matthew who is in college. Here are my thoughts, for what they’re worth. Keep in mind, I don’t know the big picture with Deborah or this documentary. Please take my assumptions about the documentary with a grain of salt as I lay out my thoughts.
(part 1)
(summary) Deborah and her siblings have no knowledge whatsoever of pop-culture or the “outside” world.
(my thoughts) Many Christians raise their children with no knowledge of pop-culture and wear this fact like a badge on their shoulder. There are some wonderful things which can come about from withdrawing from sinful scenes and situations. However, many of these types of people who are raised culturally unaware become socially awkward. They have little or nothing to add to people’s everyday conversations and are only most comfortable around their families – those who know their quarks and personalities best.
Jesus and the apostles shared the gospel in ways which found common ground with unbelievers. Many times Christians equate holiness to withdrawal from the “world”. Just like the movie ‘The Village’ demonstrates, sin is inside of us, not “out there”. Being able to find commonalities and interests with unbelievers is an extremely biblical and effective way to share one’s faith. For example, if she knew who David Beckham was, she would already have something to talk about with virtually every girl in Britain! Then she could tie it into a spiritual discussion and ask, “do you think famous people are really happy? What do you think makes us most happy? I think it is Christ for this reason…”
Sometimes Christians have the tendency to be people who have all the answers, yet have no questions. We can only converse about what we think is best for people and not offer much else. This is what I call “in-and-out” Christianity where there is little relationship building, that is until an “icky” unbeliever crosses over to looking like us.
You may often think about your problems, your needs, and your desires. You’re a human being. Of course you and I will spend much time thinking about all this. But what about Christ and His needs and desires? What about His love for Himself, His justice, and His glory? All this ties into the real story that God is the author of, namely, the gospel. The gospel is an eternal story. Here is where it begins:
1. Have you loved God and others perfectly every day of your life? (Mat 22)
2. If not, then you deserve to be eternally separated from a holy and righteous God. (James 2:10, Gal 3:10)
3. You are not a good person in trouble with a bad God, but a very bad person in trouble with a very good God. (Isaiah 6:5)
4. The wages of sin is death (Rom 6:23)
5. Cling to Jesus Christ and receive Him as Savior and Lord (Boss).
6. He lived the life you couldn’t live, died the death you deserved, and rose to prove it all satisfactory.
7. He is returning to judge everyone that has ever lived and sinned, including you.
8. Are you ready to meet Him in the next world?
9. Know you are ready.
10. Change your life and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.
11. We were created to know, see, and experience Jesus Christ… forever! He is the eternal solution to our hearts eternal longing.
I had not known what the difference was between hypnotherapy, hypnosis, and meditation. I realize now that hypnotherapy is somewhat shorthand for being in an altered state of consciousness. Apart from the dangers that alcohol and drugs may have on one’s conscious state, we can experience alternative states of consciousness which are normal and healthy. This can be in the form of daydreaming, laughing hysterically, adrenalin rushes, listening to a motivational speaker, etc.
Hypnotherapy is often mistaken for hypnosis – commonly referred as hypnotism. In other words where you have no conscious “veto” power over your mind and actions where someone or something is in total control of you. However, hypnotherapy is different. You have full control of your mind and actions but your sub-conscious self is being catered to more then your conscious faculties. You’re in more of an emotional or experiential state then in a mentally focused state.
This proper knowledge of hypnotherapy helped me all the more understand what I now believe to be some truths about the Christian Charismatic movement, which I came out of about 5 years ago.
Sensationalism – subject matter, language, or style producing or designed to produce startling or thrilling impressions.
An epiphany hit me today while I was driving and listening to the Christian radio station-which I hate listening to. I decided to listen for a moment just to see if its cliche lyrical content was still in tact, which it was of course. So there I was, listening to those sexy, overtly inspirational, making out with “God”, Disney Channel style songs when all of a sudden it dawned on me… the North American evangelical Christian sub-culture suffers greatly from worshiping the idol of sensationalism.
In other words, the climax of the gospel for us is that we no longer have any emotional or life problems. If we do admit to having emotional or life problems, however, then we wright them off with our convenient “Jesus” anesthesia. He numbs our pain so that we can be walking have-it-togethers. Somehow the best news of the good news is that we become PHP’s (perpetually happy people). We don’t hurt inside anymore. No, we are happy-go-lucky because we chose Jesus!
John 10 is commonly used against Christians to try and prove that Jesus denies being God. I have heard many arguments by many different Christians when defending this passage. Here is what I believe to be the best argument, and the most Scriptural:
John 10:30-36 says “I and the Father are one.”
31Again the Jews picked up stones to stone him, 32but Jesus said to them, “I have shown you many great miracles from the Father. For which of these do you stone me?”
33“We are not stoning you for any of these,” replied the Jews, “but for blasphemy, because you, a mere man, claim to be God.“
34Jesus answered them, “Is it not written in your Law, ‘I have said you are gods’? 35If he called them ‘gods,’ to whom the word of God came—and the Scripture cannot be broken what about the one whom the Father set apart as his very own and sent into the world?
The argument commonly goes like this: The Jews assume that Jesus is claiming to be God. Then Jesus backs down and says “hey… fellas… let’s not jump to conclusions. Some dudes in the Old Testament were called gods so why can’t I? I’m not saying I’m God, but kinda god-like ya know?!”
Here is my Scriptural commentary on this awesome song. This is not a Christian band or a Christian song. If it were it might run the risk have having a boring 4 for 4 timing, use all major chords, have an overtly uppity beat, have lyrics with no depth, have lyrics for Christians only, have lyrics that are painfully cliche, have lyrics which sing about 1% of God’s character and 0% about everyday life.
So for our purposes we’re going to look at what non-Christians have written through a Christian lens because they actually aren’t afraid to talk about real life struggles. They don’t have a sub-culture telling them that it’s “unspiritual” to sing about everyday life or live in fear that “God” may get out his wooden spoon if they do.
Seems like only yesterday
Life belonged to runaways
Nothing here to see, no looking back
Every sound monotone
Every color monochrome
Life began to fade into the black
Ecc 1:2-3 “Meaningless! Meaningless!” says the Teacher. “Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless.” What does man gain from all his labor at which he toils under the sun?”
Such a simple animal
Sterilized with alcohol
I could hardly feel me anymore
Gen 9:21 “When he drank some of its wine, he became drunk and lay uncovered inside his tent.”
It seems as though if Obama were to even move his left foot that many people would praise it. It kind of makes me think about his very first signing of a law as President.
Photographers take pictures of Obama’s very first Presidential signing:
Photographers take pictures of toilet after Obama’s very first #2 in White House:
This song definitely has lyrics that are worth pondering for a bit. Consider the chorus “I dream of Californication”. When I first heard this song, I thought this phrase somehow meant “I dream of a united California” or something similar. However, what I found is that “Californication” is a play on words which is basically saying that California is perverted in its great influence, hence the term “fornication”. The lyrical content greatly backs up this notion.
Preface: Wanting to be in a relationship, or wanting the relationship others have, may quite possibly be the greatest reasons we break the 1st, 2nd, 7th, and 10th commandments. Everyone would like the opportunity to announce to the world that they have arrived because they “are loved” by someone. But relationships are the beginning, not the end. They are the beginning to life long selflessness and change. It’s not about YOU, getting what YOU want, because YOU have needs.
And there is no quintessential relationship other than that of Christ and His bride. This relationship is perfect from Christ’s side, and imperfect from ours, which still makes it truly perfect! All earthly marital relationships are extremely temporal compared to eternity. No imperfect earthly relationship should be jealous of another imperfect earthly relationship. All earthly relationships should be jealous of The One Perfect and Eternal Relationship… that of Christ and His bride (which all Christians will eternally participate in anyways).
The words “personal Savior” are never mentioned in Scripture. In the greatest evangelistic book ever, Acts, how is it that the Apostles call sinners to Christ? That’s a good question because it should tell us how we might need to call sinners to Christ. The answer is they call sinners to receive Christ, not into their hearts as a Depeche Mode style “personal Jesus”, but as ‘Kurios’, or Lord. Lord means ‘master’ or ‘boss-man’.
As Ernest Reisinger said in his book ‘Today’s Evangelism: It’s Message and Methods’ pg. 49-50, “what sinners need is for Christ to do something for them, instead of them needing to do something with Christ!” See the vast difference?
Secondly, we are called to repent. The future of our lives should look different then our past. We must have sorrow for sin, but also sorrow unto enthusiastic change only because of grace.
Those who do these two things can rest assure that Christ lived the perfect life they couldn’t, and was crushed for their sin instead of them. Those who do these two things, and do so continually until they die are those who can call themselves Christians because they know they are right with Christ (our Judge), get to become like Him, get to commune with Him and His people, and will get to know and experience Him forever! Amen!
These are James R. White’s closing comments in a Calvinist/Arminian debate. These words speak well on the current state of the gospel (a self-help gospel) and modern evangelism.
First, anti-nomianism is a fancy word meaning we either abuse grace by carelessly sinning, or over-emphasize grace by likening God to Barney. Many Christians today act like heretics because they gloss over the doctrine of repentance, which should prevent us from glossing over sins such as divorce, homosexuality, pride, etc. Rather we should be marveled at God’s great beauty in covenant marriage, opposite sex lovers, meekness, etc. Further, there are many churches which over-emphasize grace, such as Joel Olsteen’s and Rick Warren’s. They offer ego-stroking, therapeutic, negative 5% offensive sermons. Mantras like “smile… Jesus loves you” and “God loves the sinner but hates the sin” stem from these types of Disney Channel style Christians who seek to please people more then God. Gandhi said “God loves the sinner but hates the sin”, not Jesus.
