Christianity is a thinking person's "religion." (I use the word religion advisedly, but you know what I mean.) For example, when we read Stephen's defense before the high court, he doesn't start with "For God so loved the world . . ." [John 3:16 has a two and a half chapter context that precedes it.] Nor does he begin with "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved." [I know that Paul began that way with the jailer in Acts 16:31, but read the next verse.] What does he do? He goes back to 2,000 BC and begins his gospel presentation with the call of Abraham and from there traces the history of Israel down to his own day. (!)
PETER
Listen with fresh ears to Peter's sermon in Acts 2 to a huge audience of all kinds of people--religionists, state officials, and ordinary Joes assembled for an annual convocation of Jews from all over the world. What do we hear? We hear about the foreordained plan of God, going back to eternity past.
PAUL
When Paul had an opportunity to speak on Mars Hill to the Athenian court which put him under the microscope, he starts revealing the "Unknown God" to them and culminates with the resurrection of Jesus.
As we read through Acts, we see the Apostles "explaining," "reasoning," and "dialoguing" with people and groups. On the other side of the coin, we hear the listeners questioning and in the case of the noble Bereans "examining" what Paul said to see if "these things were true."
THE MASTER TEACHER
When Christ spoke to the crowds of average people He went back into history to correlate Moses and manna in the wilderness to Himself as "the Bread of Life." In the Upper Room Discourse most, if not all, of what He said, as He told them was way over their intellectual pay grade at the time, but later, "You will understand," He said. The Upper Room discourse aside, His parables challenged the listeners to think, to examine them with mental rigor.
Each of the above examples challenged the intellects of the listeners and were far and away from sermonettes to tickle the ears of unengaged, lazy listeners.
THEIR WRITING
When the apostles wrote to the churches, their writings engaged and challenged the mind. Romans isn't "Dick and Jane Go to the Farm." To understand Revelation, the first hearers had to have a rich background in the Old Testament and if they didn't, they were to get one. Peter remarked on how some of Paul's writings were "hard to understand." The writings of the Apostles are of such intellectual fodder that, 2,000 years later, we still gather to pore over them word by word by word, using all the tools at our disposal--the original language of the text, the cultural background of the text, the context of the text, and other Scriptures pertinent to the subject.
THE CHRISTIAN MIND IS A TERRIBLE THING TO WASTE
If you've traversed the shelves of Christian bookstores, it's like looking the Gerber's shelves at the grocery store. Pablum for the petulant. There are many tomes for the wading pool, but little for the deep end.
SOLUTION
Apologist Ravi Zacharias decries such a state of affairs and suggests a solution to this dearth of deep intellectual waters. He begins by suggesting "a balanced study" which takes discipline and hard work to understand as much as we can. He's despondent over the fact that if we were to ask the average young person in our churches to state the basic idea of the book of Romans, he can't do it.
He suggests, but with a warning, that believers take time to gather in small groups to study and discuss the Word. But he issues a caveat: the danger of a small study group is that the lowest common denominator in the group will hinder its progress.
So, what to do? Zacharias cites the absolute importance of private study, not abandoning the group study (the believers in the early church met in homes going from house to house every day). In one's private study he recommends getting into "pieces of fine writing--literature, devotionals, books that challenge and bless the believer's mind." In the process, of course, there's to be direct contact with the Bible.
He warns that the goal of all this group and private study is not to use it as a sledgehammer to clobber people, not to take pride in how much we know, but to study to allow the pursuit of God and His Word to change our lives, to grow in grace.
Of course, this is not to say that the believer is to lock himself into a book-lined study and not to say that he's to isolate himself to small group discussions. There must be along with the study and the Christian discussions, the getting off the bench and into the game of life, confronting unbelief.
The alternative to the above reading and study suggestions is that over time, we we'll grow stale, stunted, and stuck with a wasted mind. And let's face it, apart from rigorous study, broad reading, and getting "out there," and its accompanying spiritual growth in grace, you'll become boring.
And that's a terrible thing.
WITHOUT COST
Friday, February 22, 2019
Friday, February 15, 2019
HOW WE GOT HERE
We look at our society today, its ethics, its education, its entertainment (I use the word advisedly), its politics, its government, and its churches and wonder, "How did we get here?" "Here" is our present situation, the milieu in which we live. For example, how did we get to the point where a man can decide that he's a woman and a woman can decide that she's a man and we must accept their pronouncement and refer to him as "her," or her as "him." If we don't accept their irrational decision, there will be penalties, shaming, guilting, and sometimes legal repercussions. Then when we look at our language, we marvel, sadly, at how it's changed, even among very young children to become vulgar, uncouth, crass, language which would make the Philistines blush.
THE FRIENDLY SKIES
How about this news item: "A number of major airlines including Delta and American have announced that they are adding new gender options to accommodate passengers who identify as non-binary so they no longer have to choose between either male or female." So, how did we get "here?"
THOSE HIPPIES THEN
As we would expect, getting here started a while back, back in the turmoil of the 1960s and 70s. This was the time of the Viet Nam war protesters, the hippies, and the academic and violent revolt of college students and faculty against Western Civilization (i. e. Christianity). This was a revolt against God-ordained authority. There was an agenda behind the scenes, being played out in rejecting Western Civilization.
THOSE HIPPIES NOW
Today, the hippies and the college rebels have cut their hair, taken a shower and are inside the corridors of power. These barbarians are no longer at the gates; they've gotten the walls. And once inside, they brought their worldview with them, the worldview that there is no ultimate authority who/which is going to tell them what to do. This is why they have no inhibition to change the rules; there are no rules except what they decide. They've been engaged in an agenda to destroy education, to destroy marriage, to destroy the family, to destroy gender. To them, their are no fixed rules governing those the definition of those things.
FUNNY THING
Have you noticed something about them--there's one characteristic that's in the way they live and move and have their being: criticism. From their movement comes an ever-increasing and constant flow of criticism i. e. a criticism of marriage, of the family, of education. This is coming from the universities which allow students to major in "Studies."
Notice something else: they offer nothing in place of what they're denouncing. It's just a tear-it-all-down-mentality. What does that leave us with? What do we replace marriage, family, etc. with? They have no answer. But culture abhors a vacuum. Something rushes in: Chaos. And that's what we're living in today. And that's why it's here.
THE MISSING VIRTUE
In essence, it all goes back to the virtue they despise: humility, the foundational Christian virtue. Augustine said" The most important Christian virtue is humility. The second most important virtue is humility and the third is humility. It's the foundational virtue because without humility, a person cannot accept the Bible its statement of the gospel. That involves humility because part of the gospel is that man is a sinner, fallen, flawed and unable to do anything about it to deliver himself by his works from that situation, hence the need of the Savior.
But since the Fall (Gen. 3) man has been irrationally running from that authority and hiding himself in the trees. We see the immediate effects of the Fall--Adam and Eve became irrational and thought that they could hide from a God who's omnipresent. One can run, but one can't hide. Yet running itself doesn't get a person any distance from omnipresence. Their running demonstrates how the Fall of man changed man's intellect to the point where he believes the illogical.
The solution is that our culture, like the Prodigal Son, must come to itself and return to the influence of the Bible which one permeated our land. The problem isn't political; it's spiritual.
THE FRIENDLY SKIES
How about this news item: "A number of major airlines including Delta and American have announced that they are adding new gender options to accommodate passengers who identify as non-binary so they no longer have to choose between either male or female." So, how did we get "here?"
THOSE HIPPIES THEN
As we would expect, getting here started a while back, back in the turmoil of the 1960s and 70s. This was the time of the Viet Nam war protesters, the hippies, and the academic and violent revolt of college students and faculty against Western Civilization (i. e. Christianity). This was a revolt against God-ordained authority. There was an agenda behind the scenes, being played out in rejecting Western Civilization.
THOSE HIPPIES NOW
Today, the hippies and the college rebels have cut their hair, taken a shower and are inside the corridors of power. These barbarians are no longer at the gates; they've gotten the walls. And once inside, they brought their worldview with them, the worldview that there is no ultimate authority who/which is going to tell them what to do. This is why they have no inhibition to change the rules; there are no rules except what they decide. They've been engaged in an agenda to destroy education, to destroy marriage, to destroy the family, to destroy gender. To them, their are no fixed rules governing those the definition of those things.
FUNNY THING
Have you noticed something about them--there's one characteristic that's in the way they live and move and have their being: criticism. From their movement comes an ever-increasing and constant flow of criticism i. e. a criticism of marriage, of the family, of education. This is coming from the universities which allow students to major in "Studies."
Notice something else: they offer nothing in place of what they're denouncing. It's just a tear-it-all-down-mentality. What does that leave us with? What do we replace marriage, family, etc. with? They have no answer. But culture abhors a vacuum. Something rushes in: Chaos. And that's what we're living in today. And that's why it's here.
THE MISSING VIRTUE
In essence, it all goes back to the virtue they despise: humility, the foundational Christian virtue. Augustine said" The most important Christian virtue is humility. The second most important virtue is humility and the third is humility. It's the foundational virtue because without humility, a person cannot accept the Bible its statement of the gospel. That involves humility because part of the gospel is that man is a sinner, fallen, flawed and unable to do anything about it to deliver himself by his works from that situation, hence the need of the Savior.
But since the Fall (Gen. 3) man has been irrationally running from that authority and hiding himself in the trees. We see the immediate effects of the Fall--Adam and Eve became irrational and thought that they could hide from a God who's omnipresent. One can run, but one can't hide. Yet running itself doesn't get a person any distance from omnipresence. Their running demonstrates how the Fall of man changed man's intellect to the point where he believes the illogical.
The solution is that our culture, like the Prodigal Son, must come to itself and return to the influence of the Bible which one permeated our land. The problem isn't political; it's spiritual.
Wednesday, February 6, 2019
THE AMERICAN IDOL
They have enshrined into law our American idol. They did it by majority vote and with the stroke of a pen and there the idol was for all the world to see. The enshrinement has been a long time coming, but it's here, the American Baal and Moloch all rolled into one standing astride the land like a giant Colloseus.
Only the American Idol doesn't go by the name of Baal or Moloch, it goes by the name of "Comfort," in particular, "My Comfort." It has other names too, names such as, "Convenience" or "My Right." The worshippers bowed down then rose up and cheered when the Comfort stood in place. They laughed; their was joy in their land at last, at long last. It is evidence of the paganization of a culture.
The idol Comfort, like Moloch, will demand its sacrifices and the worshippers stand ready to provide them by the millions. The sacrifices aren't animal or vegetable, they're human, babies to be exact, babies demanded by the insatiable maw of Molech. The worshippers will make such sacrifices because those sacrifices are adjudged to have impinged upon their comfort or have violated their supposed right to choose. Their comfort has been codified into statute.
The sacrifices, by law, can be made even as the worshipper is in labor to deliver or in some cases, as some worshippers advocate, upon delivery. With the law, amid the cheering, and the joy at the sight of the American idol, a moral rot has entered the land.
Bob Barr said it well, "The moral abyss into which it is drawing us, however, is cold and dark."
Only the American Idol doesn't go by the name of Baal or Moloch, it goes by the name of "Comfort," in particular, "My Comfort." It has other names too, names such as, "Convenience" or "My Right." The worshippers bowed down then rose up and cheered when the Comfort stood in place. They laughed; their was joy in their land at last, at long last. It is evidence of the paganization of a culture.
The idol Comfort, like Moloch, will demand its sacrifices and the worshippers stand ready to provide them by the millions. The sacrifices aren't animal or vegetable, they're human, babies to be exact, babies demanded by the insatiable maw of Molech. The worshippers will make such sacrifices because those sacrifices are adjudged to have impinged upon their comfort or have violated their supposed right to choose. Their comfort has been codified into statute.
The sacrifices, by law, can be made even as the worshipper is in labor to deliver or in some cases, as some worshippers advocate, upon delivery. With the law, amid the cheering, and the joy at the sight of the American idol, a moral rot has entered the land.
Bob Barr said it well, "The moral abyss into which it is drawing us, however, is cold and dark."
Friday, February 1, 2019
PRETEND OR ELSE!
There was a popular song in 1955 called, "The Great Pretender. " It became a big hit in England and America. It was a ballad about a heartsick fellow who was cast aside by someone he loved and he spends his life pretending. The song says:
Oh oh, yes I'm the great pretender
Pretending that I'm doing well
My need is such I pretend too much
I'm lonely but no one can tell
Pretending that I'm doing well
My need is such I pretend too much
I'm lonely but no one can tell
Oh oh, yes I'm the great pretender
Adrift in a world of my own
I've played the game but to my real shame
You've left me to grieve all alone.
Adrift in a world of my own
I've played the game but to my real shame
You've left me to grieve all alone.
LET THE GAME BEGIN
We're living in a culture which is, like an immature child, playing the game of "Let's Pretend." Our society is made up of those who are aggressive and sometimes violent in their demand that everyone play "Let's Pretend." We see this aggressiveness in the fact that when you refuse to join in the game, they will come after you by telling lies which slander you, filing lawsuits to ruin you, and shaming or shunning you in any and every way they can.
THE RULE OF THE GAME
The one rule of "Let's Pretend" is: "Let's pretend the Bible does not exist." This rule has many applications. To play by the rules of the game (and you must play) you are to pretend that the Bible does not exist in education, in your business, in your conversations, in your written statements on the Internet or in any other cultural text. You must pretend that the Bible does not exist in any artwork, decorations, or in any celebration in which you might engage. If you write a script for a motion picture or television, the rule says that you must pretend that the Bible does not exist.
AND YET
They are demanding that everyone live in a make-believe world, a Never-Never Land of uneducated, immature Peter Pans, as children who never grow up, but live denying the reality of the real world facts which are: "The Bible is the most influential, the most translated, the most debated, the most loved, the most hated, the most important, and the most quoted composition that's ever been written." (Matt Walsh) Add to that "mostest list" that the Bible sells the most copies. And add to that that the Bible is the Book that has molded the world in which we live in the West.
KAREN PENCE
The Vice-President's wife, Karen Pence, endured the wrath of breaking the rule when she began to teach art at a Christian school. She knew the rule but broke it because of her commitment to Christ. A fit of ungodly, unrighteous anger descended upon her. The rule clearly states, "Stay silent to keep your job. Change your policies to keep your educational opportunities. Say nothing so that you’ll preserve your public reputation." She courageously refused to play.
Eliminate the Bible from one's education and reading list? Is there something sinister going on in the game? Listen to Jesus words in Luke 8: "Now the parable [of the Sower and Seed is this: the seed is the word of God. Those beside the road are those who have heard; then the devil comes and takes away the word from their heart so that they will not believe and be saved." There it is. There is something sinister, conspiratorial in the game, even though the originators of the game are unaware of it. They have become Satan's useful idiots.
KAREN PENCE
The Vice-President's wife, Karen Pence, endured the wrath of breaking the rule when she began to teach art at a Christian school. She knew the rule but broke it because of her commitment to Christ. A fit of ungodly, unrighteous anger descended upon her. The rule clearly states, "Stay silent to keep your job. Change your policies to keep your educational opportunities. Say nothing so that you’ll preserve your public reputation." She courageously refused to play.
Eliminate the Bible from one's education and reading list? Is there something sinister going on in the game? Listen to Jesus words in Luke 8: "Now the parable [of the Sower and Seed is this: the seed is the word of God. Those beside the road are those who have heard; then the devil comes and takes away the word from their heart so that they will not believe and be saved." There it is. There is something sinister, conspiratorial in the game, even though the originators of the game are unaware of it. They have become Satan's useful idiots.
Deuteronomy 6 gives us the principle on which we refuse to participate in the game: "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontals on your forehead. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates." (See also the book of Proverbs.)
Those who are truly disciples of Christ will not be the great pretenders. In Acts 5, the authorities commanded Peter and John to play "Let's Pretend:" "When they had brought them, they stood them before the Council. The high priest questioned them, saying, “We gave you strict orders not to continue teaching in this name, and yet, you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and intend to bring this man’s blood upon us.” But Peter and the apostles answered, “We must obey God rather than men."
Those who are truly disciples of Christ will not be the great pretenders. In Acts 5, the authorities commanded Peter and John to play "Let's Pretend:" "When they had brought them, they stood them before the Council. The high priest questioned them, saying, “We gave you strict orders not to continue teaching in this name, and yet, you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and intend to bring this man’s blood upon us.” But Peter and the apostles answered, “We must obey God rather than men."
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