Hell, plain and simple

[WARNING: Robust doses of biblical information to follow]

I just finished teaching through a couple of weeks on Hell in my Adult Bible Class (the adjective "adult" takes on far different meanings when placed in front of different nouns, doesn't it?). Some things we broached in our discussions, I thought you might find interesting because Americans' ideas about Hell are as far apart as Bangor is from San Diego.

Consider, if you will:

• Your opinion doesn't affect reality. I might argue that Paris exists only in mythology. You see, I have never seen Paris. I have seen pictures, but how do I know that you didn't Photoshop the shots to make it look like everyone else's pictures of Paris. In all likelihood, folks only began speaking of Paris after Vic Hugo penned his Quasimodo epic. Despite my absolute denial about the existence of Paris, the city remains in north-central France. Many find Hell disagreeable and therefore, they deny its existence even though many others have the same argument about Paris.


• Most people are wrong. Jesus Christ made the audacious claim that "...wide is the gate and broad the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it," and at the same time "...narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it" (Matthew 7:13-14). He is speaking of Hell and Heaven, respectively. You'll be hard pressed to find anyone in the Bible who says more about Hell than Jesus. Said a lot more about it than he did Heaven. I suspect it is because he didn't want folks to end up there but understood that most were deluding themselves about their final destination. Matthew records that Jesus seems to be convinced that many are enroute to Hell and few are heading toward Heaven. Staggering, really.


• Most people are wrong, Part II. Start asking your church-going friends to describe Hell and like Bangor and San Diego, you'll find them all over the map. Some have followed the illusion of a pop-theology that God will eventually work it all out that none will be in Hell (personally, I'd be a bit bummed to find myself living next to Mssrs. Hitler, Stalin, or Manson on that street of gold). Others think that the death of the doomed brings annihilation. Again, one is left to wonder about justice if Hitler offs his six-million and Stalin offs his fifty-million and the only punishment is death in this life? We all die! How is that justice? No, the Bible's descriptors of a place of on-going torment and of justice meted out seem nonnegotiable.


• It's not going to be a party. You'll hear folks mention, usually at their DUI limit, "I'd rather go to Hell where I'll be with my friends so we can party!" Do these descriptions sound like a party?


• Likened to a fiery furnace where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth (Matthew 13:42, 50)
• Darkness (Matthew 8:12)
• Anguish in the flame (Luke 16:24)
• Repayment, vengeance (2 Thessalonians 1:6, 8)
• The punishment of eternal destruction away from the presence of the Lord (2 Thessalonians 1:9)
• Where the worm does not die and the fire is not quenched (Mark 9:48)
  
  Those are just a few of the passages where Hell is described in the Bible. Most of the verses cited here and throughout this post also refer to this as an eternal (never-ending) condition.


• God and the Cross. Many have no idea that the literal place we call Hell, the Lake of Fire, was created by God for Satan and his angels (Matthew 25:41, Revelation 20:10). It becomes the final and eternal location of those angelic hosts that sought to supplant their Creator. Rather than savor their Creator and the position he gave them in his creation, they went their own way and God let them. The final consequence is eternal separation from him and eternal torment for the rebellion they unleashed in the cosmos.
  
  

  

  When man followed in rebellion, he consigned himself to that final destination as well (see again, Matthew 25:41, Romans 3:10-18, Revelation 20:15). God would have been just in the absolute to leave man with that sentence, but he "so loved the world that he sent his only Son" to pay the penalty and to absorb the full wrath and condemnation of God. In so doing, God is just and the justifier of mankind (Romans 3:26).
  
  When folks think Hell is overkill on the part of a vindictive God, they grossly misjudge two things. First, they do not comprehend the absolute purity and holiness, righteousness and goodness of Almighty God. Because we miss the boat on that point, we err on the second point and that is the serious nature of our sin and rebellion before the pure and holy God. To begin to fathom these two things, consider what took place when God was nailed to a cross. Perfect purity became supreme sin. Why would God the Son subject himself to so brutal a death as a human being and to the condemnation and wrath of God the Father if not to provide redemption from eternal condemnation and wrath for man?  Which takes us to my final rumination.


• Hell is optional. This is perhaps the most startling concept within the cosmos. Nobody has to go to Hell. People will be condemned to Hell because they chose to be condemned to Hell. God's not playing "I've got a secret." Psalm 8:1-4 and Romans 1:18-20 point out that the creation itself declares the Creator so much so that the Romans passage declares that men are "without excuse." Psalm 19 shouts the same thing about the creation in the first half of its lyric and spends the second half declaring the glory of God's special revelation, the Bible. Especially in America, if any do not know about Jesus Christ and what he did, it is because they have no interest in knowing. We do not comprehend the gravity of our willful ignorance.

You may well call me judgmental, but I will argue that all I am saying is what God's word says itself, what God says himself. Hell is real. It is a place of torment and punishment. It is for man's deserved rebellion. And man does not need to go there.

You do not need to go there. Consider where you stand before a holy God. He stands holding the free gift of eternal life because of the finished work of Jesus Christ (Romans 6:23). All you need to do is repent of your sin and rebellion and accept Jesus' finished work on your behalf. You would be relenting to his rightful lordship in your life. You as the creature would be submitting to your rightful place before your holy and good Creator.

Now is the day of salvation. It's your call.

The atheist's brother

I find it interesting when two brothers growing up in the same house end up on different forks in the road. When did that happen? What brought it to pass?

My brother and I find ourselves on different roads politically. On the one hand, when it comes to employment, he believes "The Man" (business leadership) is out to get you, but when it comes to politics, he is absolutely convinced "The Man" (government leadership this time) will save us.

Me? If you've read a few posts, you know that I'm big on personal responsibility in the workplace and in government. You also know that I come to those positions not from my own thinking but from what I read in the Bible. If God went to the effort to reveal himself to us through the written word, wouldn't we do well to live our lives in a manner pleasing to our Creator?

My brother and I are not the only two on opposite paths. Take the Hitchens brothers. Christopher is an unashamed, unabashed atheist and thinks you should be, too. Really, that latter position is a great position. If you know your way to jive with reality, why don't you try and convince others of that position? Hitchens has tried to convince the masses by penning "god is not Great" (the actual title capitalization) and "The Portable Atheist: Essential Readings for the Non-believer."

Did you know Hitchens has a brother named Peter? Do you know that Peter is a Christian? Did you know that he, like his brother, grew up in a religious home but rejected the Bible in favor of rabid atheism?  For Peter, the very thing he embraced turned bitter in his stomach and led him to assert, "That in the end, what I rejected (the God of the Bible) was right." In the following 8-minute video, Peter describes his upbringing, his God rejecting and his God embracing.



About half way through the video, he describes realizing that he would face judgment and that the floor upon which he stood, a floor which was no floor at all in reality, had begun to collapse.

Why does Peter see with such crystal clarity but his brother Christopher, a man whose death is fast approaching due to cancer, has his eyes shut tight? I cannot answer that question, but this I do know, if Peter could do anything to open Christopher's eyes to the truth of man's standing before God and God's provision for man, he would. He understands the implications as illustrated by his own horror at seeing the painting "The Last Judgment" by Rogier van der Weyden, man will die and face the judgment (Hebrews 9:27).

Consider the atheist's passion for the believer. Why does he desire that he not believe? To what end? That he might eat, drink, and be merry for tomorrow we die? Really, Paul said the same thing to the Christian--IF the resurrection had been a farce (1 Corinthians 15:32). But the resurrection is an historical event.

Christopher and Peter

So we face the passion of the believer for the atheist. It's a passion for his very existence, for his life. All mankind will know eternal life for we are not merely corporeal beings. But all of us by our very nature stand in open rebellion against God. Paul makes that eminently plain in Romans 3:10-18 and caps it off with "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" in Romans 3:23. The Christian as exemplified by Peter Hitchens here wants to do everything in his power to illuminate the judgment ahead, call the lost to turn around and ultimately point them to the one who has made the way for restoration and eternal life (John 14:6, 17:3).

It bums me out that my brother and I stand on different political roads, but it bums Peter Hitchens out far worse that he and his brother, Christopher, stand on different roads as they hurtle toward eternity.

Two-dozen words

From the rainbow-wigged guy in the endzone to Tim Tebow's eye black (now banned by the NCAA), football has given John 3:16 more hype than most churches north of the Mason-Dixon.  While most Americans have heard of John 3:16, most couldn't tell you what it says nor its significance.

If you want the Bible in a nutshell, if you want all of life in a nutshell, you can find it in John 3:16.

So what is "John 3:16?"  The statement is excerpted from a conversation that Jesus is having with Nicodemus, an esteemed Jewish teacher who, unlike his peers, became intrigued with Jesus' teaching and his ministry.  It's the conversation of a man wondering and a God revealing.

Here's what Jesus said to Nicodemus as reported by his friend, John:

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

Why is this "life in a nutshell?" Let's break it down.

GOD LOVES HIS CREATION 

Let's focus it tighter.  God loves mankind because only man did he imbue with his image.  The rest of his creation serves as the wondrous backdrop for God's relationship with man.  Earth.  The breath-taking home that he provided for the pinnacle of his palette.  God had no need to create man.  What a blessing to us that he did that we might know him.

So what purpose man?  To glorify God and enjoy him forever, says the Westminster Catechism.  The wonder of it all, to borrow from George Beverly Shea, is to think that God loves me.  God loves mankind.  Humanity should glorify and enjoy the God who so deeply loves it.  It's the power behind the point.

MAN IS A REBEL 

Hollywood glorifies the rebel.  In real life, the four-year old pitching a tantrum in Wal-Mart better exemplifies the rebel than James Dean.  Because of the Fall (Genesis 3), man broke his perfect relationship with God and now enters a broken world in a broken state himself.  He remains created in the image of God (hence the sanctity of human life), but the infection of sin within his soul impels him away from God and toward deeper rebellion against his Creator.

The rebellion has earned a sentence, a righteous sentence, a just sentence.  It is death.  That is what the verse means when it highlights why God sent Christ (that man should not perish).  Apart from God's intervention, man's natural state and man's natural conduct have earned him the wages of death, eternal separation, and eternal punishment.

GOD INTERVENED

God, without need, moves to show his glory in an extraordinary act of creation.  He creates a being with volition and dignity, he creates a being "in his image" upon which he might lavish his oceanic love.  In short order, man gums up the works, despite the warning from God, and receives due sentence for his rebellion.  "There is none righteous.  No, not one"  (Romans 3:10b).

It could have ended there, a horrifying cosmic tragedy.  No, it does not end there.  A Hero intervenes.  The One who has been slapped in the face decides to take upon himself the punishment for such an afront so that the justly condemned party might live.  God the Son condescended to become man, a real man, fully God and yet fully man, that he might suffer the righteous penalty of death so that mankind might live.

MAN HAS HOPE

With natural man being in rebellion against the God who created him, it is no wonder the world teems with such horrors.  And yet there is hope. 

Because Jesus Christ, God the Son, bore the full fury of God's wrath toward sin and rebellion, because he bore the just punishment due to all mankind, God will then transfer the righteousness of Christ, the perfect and sinless life he lived, upon all who believe upon his name.  Jesus took my sin and gave me his righteousness (2 Corinthians 5:21).

That gift, a free gift to man but oh, so costly to Christ, guarantees man eternal life.  What is that really?  It is a restored relationship with Almighty God.  While we are still under the physical effects of the curse (pain, suffering, death), that broken relationship, that intimate relationship which Adam enjoyed with God in the Garden, is now healed.  We have fellowship with him once again through the finished work of Jesus Christ.  One day, either when Christ returns or when we die our physical death, we will see him face to face and abide with him forever, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and with those who have called upon his name.  Eternal life.

Though the bannerman no longer haunts NFL endzones and though collegiate athletes can no longer highlight it on their eyeblack, Jesus' plain statement to Nicodemus nearly 2000 years ago remains the single most important message for man today. 

John 3:16 is the message of the Bible.  It remains the reality of 21st century man .

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

Just another day: Fun at the Arab Fest

Thomas Sowell wrote a piercing piece earlier this week on the erosion of the rule of law in our land and the increased frequency with which our government operates outside its constitutional border.  Sadlly, most folks won't take the time to read it.  No pictures.  And it's about government.  Yawn.  We'd rather watch the World Cup.

The ideas Mr. Sowell discusses do not exist within the realm of theory alone.  What he argues has begun tapping on the shoulders of folks like you and me and hauling them off to jail.

For those with a cursory understanding of American geography, Dearborn, Michigan evokes blue collar imagery.  Hard-working factory folks on the skirts of Detroit.  Does it make you think of mosques?  It should.  Did you know Dearborn has one of the largest Islamic populations in the country?  Indeed.

It should come as no surprise that Christians compelled to preach the Gospel of salvation in Christ alone would seek to share that good news at Dearborn's annual "Arab Festival."  As Christ himself said, the healthy do not need a physician, and so a few bold Christians sought out the masses of sick.

Oops, bad choice.  I guess discussing what Muslims believe in the hope of having an open door to present the hope of the Gospel at an Arab festival is not protected by the Constitution.  These folks were not part of the Westboro Baptists, that foul group of individuals that picket funerals and carry heinious placards and that has little understanding for what the Bible plainly states.  The arrested individuals went with cameras (for their protection) to seek out those willing to talk.

It earned them abuse from the "security team" and arrest from the local police.  Neat.  Read it and watch the videos here.  Maybe one day on American streets the voices of Christians proclaiming a free and restored relationship with God through Christ will be silenced.  Then where will we be?

Ironic note. Drudge reports this afternoon that an earthquake felt from "Detroit to Buffalo" rumbled across the northern tier.  5.0 on Lord Richter's scale.

Ironic note II (here).  "Lord," as in "the year of our LORD," is being removed from a Connecticut high school's diplomas.  Neat.  That's surely offended three or four people over the past century.

Ironic note III (here and here).  There's a liberal bias to college's summer reading lists.  A whopping 2% of recommended books were considered conservative.  Well, it's something.  At least gay lit is taking off (here).

Sorry for the digressions, let's get back to Dearborn.  You might not like to hear the Gospel and you might not want to receive a pamphlet discussing what the Bible says, but you have the freedom to pass the person by or to trash the pamplet.  You do not have the freedom to prevent the person from discussing that idea with others.  It's not Constitutional.  This is not Russia amidst the height of Communism.  It's not China under Mao.

It's America 2010.  Do you know where your freedoms are?

Some good news for a change

I came across this nugget at the end of my morning reading.

Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life...

That sounds great, but that's only the first part of the verse.  It's an idea that 99% of Christians can abide.  I will go so far as to assert that most folks with a theistic worldview could agree with the premise.  For many within Christendom, though, believing in the Son is akin to believing in Santa Claus.  They have shifted the mythology of their childhood to a more mature mythology in their adulthood.  He's like a supernatural rabbit's foot, certainly not something real that needs to be feared or reverenced.

Others believe in the teachings of Jesus.  That Son of God stuff is a little hard to get your arms around, but they love those love your neighbor and judge not ideas. 

Others who have different thoughts about getting right with the cosmos or with their god-idea won't besmirch the Christian their belief in the Son.  What works for one might not work for the other, as though the aeronautics that lift my airplane is somehow different than their aeronautics.  Spiritual equivalence.  Unfortunately, it doesn't get close to passing the reality test.

The problem with these three groups comes with a proper understanding of belief.  R.C. Sproul aced the hole this week when, on his radio program, he argued that many who believe in Jesus, do not believe in the biblical Jesus.  This has two prongs.  You have the content of belief and you have the impact of that belief upon your life.  You might like some of the teachings of Jesus, but to believe in the Son, means to believe in the true testimony about him as contained in the Bible.*  And if I really believe in something, like gravity, I will live my life in accord with that which I believe to be true, and in accord with how much that thing matters to me.  If I step off the top of a building, I know I will plummet to the concrete.  As such, I honor gravity though I cannot see it because I know the consequences of ignoring it are mighty steep.  I see the evidence of gravity in the world around me though I cannot see, taste, touch, smell or hear gravity.  And so with God.  Those who have believed him to be true in his word and who have lived their lives in devoted submission to him have experienced him to be reliable (trustworthy, faithful) in their lives as well.  He is true to his word.

That takes me to the second half of the verse, and therein we find good news and bad news.

...whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.

Wow.  That looks mighty bleak.  So what's the good news?  Look back to the top.  Accepting the free gift of restoration to God through the sacrificial work of Jesus Christ moves one from being under God's wrath to being an adopted child and the recipient of eternal life into fellowship with him.  The wrath of God is not upon the one who has eternal life.  That is really good news.

Now for the bad news, and the bad news shatters all the delusional and nonsensical ideas about Jesus.  A mythological Jesus is not one whose lordship you are likely to accept.  And to assert him to be a good teacher and not to follow his teachings to the letter still leaves one guilty before a holy God.  Paul made the point in his letter to the brand new church in Rome that even the most meticulous law-keeper could not attain to perfection through the law.  James, Jesus' brother, said the same thing. 

It rips a hole in the "that's okay for you" mentality, too.  The Bible draws a stark line in the cosmic sand.  In a nutshell, you're either in with the eternal-life crowd or you're in with the wrath-of-God crowd.  What's the delineator?  A biblical belief in the Son.

Let's pretend that the Bible is utterly false and Christianity is a nonsensical belief system.  The line in the sand would not dissolve.  It still asserts that the only acceptable doorway through which to pass for eternal life is the Son.  Folks who believed in the Son would be a camp full of sorry loons.  An aside, If Christianity was a false religion, why would the non-Christian say that it's okay for you to believe it when the "it" is utter nonsense?  That's worse than giving the alcoholic keys to the liquor store.

But God has spoken to man plainly, clearly, and accurately in his word.  The good news?  He still holds out the free gift (Romans 6:23) to any who would turn to him believing on and in his Son.  The bad news?  It's no joke.  The consequences, not seeing life and dwelling with the wrath of God upon you, are most severe.

Forgiveness, fellowship and adoption into God's family or eternal separation and ever crushed by a wrath for which I am most deserving?  For many this is great news.  For others...

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*I did not intend in this post to get into the issue of the Bible's veracity (truthfulness and accuracy), but it is relevant to the discussion.  Most denominations do not hold the Bible to be inspired and inerrant or if they do, they have so neutered down the definitions of inspired and inerrant to mean anything but.  I offer here some aspects of the unique nature of God's word.

• Authorship:  Penned by God through the hands and minds of some 35+ different men (2 Peter 1:21, 2 Timothy 3:15-17) 
• Claim:  It claims to be true (Psalm 119:160, Proverbs 30:5).  That doesn't necessarily make it true.  If I assert to you that I am a truth-telling man, the proof is in the pudding.  Do I bear that out in your experience?  So it is with God's word.  Is it accurate in its history?  Crazier still, the Bible is a prophetic book.  Did those prophecies bear out?  In vivid and literal detail.
• The historical accuracy of God's word:  One brief example.  Sir William Ramsay, a prominent British chemist, set out to prove Luke's accounts in the book of Acts to be inaccurate from an archaeological point of view.  This would render the rest of the Bible nothing more than a book of fairy tales.  What he found turned the skeptic into a believer.  The artifacts of Greece and Turkey bore out the veracity of Luke's accounts in Acts in breath-taking detail.  He wrote, "Luke is a historian of the first rank; not merely are his statements of fact trustworthy...this author should be placed along with the very greatest historians."

Many look at the "numerous" contradictions within the Bible.  A modicum of willingness to examine the passages within their contexts and with reasonable amount of textual criticism melts away those apparent contradictions.

The intolerance of God

Tom Krattenmaker of USA Today has a cross-shaped burr under his saddle about Christians in prominent athletics. Oh, like most folks, he doesn't mind thanking God here or a little prayer there. No, what has chafed his posterior is that their convictions have gone public. These men and women have the audacity to encourage their teammates, their fans, their coaches to have a relationship with--is anyone looking?--shhh--Jesus Christ.

Krattenmaker sees a conspiracy (ital - mine):

"Far less visible, but worth knowing about, are the infrastructure and strategy of the sports-world evangelicalism that powers these pious displays. Athletes' expressions of Christian faith reflect decades of hard work by evangelical ministries to convert players and "coach" them to use their stature to promote a particular version of conservative Christianity."

Ptooey on that particular version. I guess he prefers a Burger King, have-it-your-way, Christianity. But then, so do many Americans. Not a week goes by when I don't hear someone suggest that the Christian walk depends upon your interpretation as though the Bible were some kind of tabula rasa that you color to your liking.

So distasteful does Mr. Krattenmaker find this, note the language he uses:

"They are also leveraging sports' popularity to promote a message and doctrine that are out of sync with the diverse communities that support franchises, and with the unifying civic role that we expect of our teams."

He's obviously not writing about Nobel Prize winners. So what's he driving at?

"...should we be pleased that the civic resource known as "our team" — a resource supported by the diverse whole through our ticket-buying, game-watching and tax-paying — is being leveraged by a one-truth evangelical campaign that has little appreciation for the beliefs of the rest of us?"

Mr. Krattenmaker's underlying assertion: Christianity that declares damnation for those who reject God's provision has no place within the public sphere. He takes aim at a prominent Heisman Trophy winner and national championship quarterback.

"Certainly, Tim Tebow must be applauded for the good he does working on his father's missions, but he should be seen, too, as one who promotes a form of belief that makes unwelcome judgments about everyone else's religion."

The weighty theological research done by Mr Krattenmaker? Public opinion polls. Seems most folks don't favor the flavor of Jesus-only salvation. When last I looked, God wasn't running for election. He doesn't genuflect to Gallup Polls, Pew Research, or Nobel Selection Committees.

Krattenmaker's problem, and the problem of thousands of liberal theologues who declare many avenues to God, is not with Tebow. They have a fundamental issue with God Himself. You see, it's not Tebow pushing a "Jesus-or-else" message. Jesus is pushing the Jesus-or-else message because that's the way it is. Here's a sampling Christ's "intolerance:"

• I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father except through me. (John 14:6)
• Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. (Matthew 7:13)
• The one who hears you hears me, and the one who rejects you rejects me, and the one who rejects me rejects him who sent me. (Luke 10:16)
• Everyone who acknowledges me before men, the Son of Man also will acknowledge before the angels of God, but the oen who denies me before men will be denied before the angels of God. (Luke 12:8-9)

You get the idea.

Now here's the deal. This is not something Tim Tebow or Colt McCoy or Sam Bradford concocted. Man rebelled against God. Only the Creator could fix the broken creation, and He did so by becoming the recipient Himself of the deserved condemnation. Paul tells the Roman church that God did this that He might be both just and the justifier to bring about the reconciliation of man to God (Romans 3:26). He offers us the free gift of restored life with Him...if we are willing to receive it.

This is not some whacked out sect of Christianity. This isn't the NCAA's crazed, Kool-Aid drinking quarterback club. This is just what the Bible says. As God's primary communication to us, His letter tells of the disaster that looms ahead for all mankind, but it also tells of the Life Preserver that God has provided in the bloody sacrifice of His Son, Jesus Christ.

The travesty is not that athletes are trying to get folks to wake up to that reality, but that so many like Mr. Krattenmaker and milquetoast ministers have diluted the plain message of redemption and so deluded the masses into believing that God's merely the voice in the drive-thru at Burger King.

We can't have it our way.
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You can read the entire USA TODAY article here.

To hell in the handbasket of your choice

Parade Magazine, the Sunday newspaper insert, will never be accused of heady journalism. A few recipes (all with Mr. Healthy Heart), a few puzzles, a few comic strips, and a few articles with a depth comparable to People Magazine fill its dozen-and-a-half pages. Cotton candy.

Yeah, I read it, and it usually leaves me with a gut-ache as it did today. The cover story? Spiritual America (here).

How representative is a Parade Magazine poll (from which its article was birthed) that samples 1051 folks who responded to on-line questions during five days last May? It didn't sample Wall Street Journal readers. Or New York Times readers. Come to your own conclusions.

That aside, it highlights some disturbing trends within our national fabric. Consider,

• 45% of the folks consider themselves religious


• 50% of those rarely or never attend worship services.


• Over one-quarter of respondents say they don't practice any kind of religion.


• 24% consider themselves spiritual but not religious.

These next few, all similar, are doozies:

• Only 12% believe that their religion was the only true faith.


• 59% believe that all religions are valid.


• 62% believe in an afterlife where you'll rub elbows with family and friends but only 42% believe in heaven or hell.

Things that make you say, "Hmmm..." Since the Parade writer, Christine Wicker, didn't see fit to some up the data, let me give it a whack. America's lost as a goose.

Because parents no longer feel it necessary to train up there children in the way they should go, because academicians have misapplied the scientific theory of relativity to all of life (and we bought it), because most homes in America own Bibles but few crack them, because we don't understand our Founder's original intent in establishing our nation with its form of government, and because we miscontextualize what they have said and what they have written, we have set ourselves adrift on a sea without water and without shorelines.

If it doesn't matter, why bother?!? Paul, one of the chief spokesman for the significance of Jesus Christ's death, burial, and resurrection (here), rolled his eyes and declared, "If Christ is not raised (from the dead), your faith is futile, and you are still in your sins." Paul wasn't asking folks to hope in fables. He appealed to what had taken place only a few years before.

Many declare, as the Parade poll/article suggests, that the history really doesn't matter. What matters, they puhl, is that it's good for you. Paul would have hammerd such drivilites. He had nothing for fuzzy sentimentality. He emphasized to one group, "If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied."

While we profess to understand Christianity, we are biblically illiterate. We reject historical truth and substitute the platitudes of Chopra, Albom, and Tolle. We think we know what the Bible says and findinig that unpalatable, we opt for Turkish Delight that will sour in the stomach faster than a Parade Magazine article.

Problem is, that of which we are ignorant, what the Bible declares to be true (backed by historical accuracy and correspondence to reality), declares that our eternal destiny hangs in the balance in reference to one man in history, Jesus of Nazareth, the Jewish Messiah. The Son of God. No man comes to God the Father except through Him.

And no number of on-line polls will change that.

A troubling aspect to Christ's return

When the Nazareth radical left the earth, all those he left behind seemed pretty certain he would return one day, return bodily to the very spot from which he departed. Living again after a most grisly execution, showing himself to many for a period of 40 days in a supernatural yet corporeal form, Jesus, the man, the Christ, God the Son, provided support for his declarations that he would in fact return.

You can't read the New Testament and not get the picture that he's coming back.

Likewise, you can't read the Old Testament and not get the picture that the prophecies of the conquering king were not fulfilled upon Jesus' first advent (purposefully) though the prophecies of the suffering servant were fulfilled in startling detail (Isaiah 53, Psalm 22). Thus the prophecies of the conquering king must be yet to come.

Like no other book, the Bible contains predictions documented hundreds of years before their occurrence that affirm the veracity of the book and affirm a future fulfillment of that which has not yet taken place (i.e. Jesus' return to Israel).

A half dozen years ago, a friend pointed out a section about what will take place that I had not seen before. It haunts me still.

Then that lawless one will be revealed ... that is, the one whose coming is in accord with the activity of Satan, with all power and signs and false wonders, and with all the deception of wickedness for those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth so as to be saved. For this reason God will send upon them a deluding influence so that they will believe what is false, in order that they all may be judged who did not believe the truth, but took pleasure in wickedness.

It catches my breath. What's it saying? There will come a time, perhaps in our day if Jesus' second advent is nigh, when folks who have heard and rejected his sacrifice as the means to their reconciliation with God will no longer be able to turn to him as their Savior. Despite the overwhelming signs that will precede Jesus' return, those who reject him prior to the unfolding of those events will not turn to him but will spurn him all the more.

Because of what they do now. Today.

Imagine if the dweeb in the office that we ignored for years through crazy circumstances becomes company president. How will he take to our sudden overtures of good will? Why should we be surprised that he fires us for how we treated him? So, also, will God do to those who do not accept his means of forgiveness prior to the coming travails.

Perhaps the biggest question of all is why would those who recognize they fall short of God's holy standard attempt to satisfy his justice by trying to be good, carrying out x-number of penitential acts, or any other man-crafted device when he himself has provided so precious an escape?

Rejecting that priceless gift becomes the most costly decision many will ever make. No wonder one of the writers pleads, "Today, if you will hear his voice, do not harden your hearts..."

What must I do to be saved?

Current #1 New York Times best seller in fiction? "Swimsuit." Never heard of it. In non-fiction? "Catastrophe." Well, it's sort of the best seller. The runaway best seller year after year, blowing away all comers in fiction and non-fiction, has been dropped from the list because it's always #1 on the list.

It's the Bible.

I bet you have one in your house. Or two. Maybe eight. Or more. And yet, we Americans are dumb as posts about what the Bible says. We rationalize that we can't really know or that it depends upon interpretation. We don't do that with other works.

For example:

1. Is there any argument about for whom does the bell tolls?
2. Is it open for debate what predator lurks beneath the waves in "Jaws?"
3. Is Lady MacBeth just a misunderstood, desperate housewife?

Ridiculous questions, I know, but not any more silly than what you read regarding the Bible.

Take for instance a recent USA Today piece on the schism (how does one pronounce that word?) in the Episcopal church (here). It's not just the laity who don't know their Bible. The Episcopal church's presiding bishop, Katharine Jefferts Schori, opined about salvation and made clear to everyone why the denomination is imploding. Regarding how man can stand aright before God, she upchucked that

"...the great Western heresy (is) that we can be saved as individuals, that any of us alone can be in a right relationship with God."

In genuflecting to Mizz Jefferts Schori, USA Today tosses the question to the masses like that will provide an authoritative solution. Columnist Cathy Lynn Grossman asks you, yes, you,

"All in all this is a revival of an ancient argument -- whether one is saved by works or saved by grace. Theologians have been duking it out forever. What do you say?" (Boldface in the original)

Ancient argument?!? Not much to argue about. Paul, that apostle guy, drove a stake in the heart of the argument almost before it began.

"For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them."

Paul, through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, makes plain the order.

1. By grace you have been saved through faith.
2. In case you might want to get cocky, he emphasizes that the faith and the grace are "not of yourselves." They are "the gift of God."
3. Almost anticipating the argument, Paul caps it off, "Not of works." Why does he say that? He knows that man wants to have some manner of leverage against God. Man's propensity to deify himself, "lest anyone should boast."
4. Then--only then--does Paul mention works. God created us for good works in eternity past that we, those who have received the free gift of salvation, should walk in those works.

Perhaps I'm not as savvy the pugilistic theologians, but when the apostle who fleshed out Christian doctrine says it's by faith and NOT by works that man is saved, the argument seems settled. Unless to you (and the leader of the Episcopal church) the Bible holds no more authority than the Sunday sports page.

When the Philippian jailer asked Paul, "What must I do to be saved?," Paul's answer rings as true for us today. "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved."

Better than a 9mm

What happens when an armed thug climbs into a little old lady's car as she's getting ready to leave Wal-Mart and she's maceless, taserless, and not packing any heat? My bet would have gone to the dirt bag since grandma didn't know jujitsu nor the difference between nunchucks and woodchucks.

But that was not to be the case. I'll not spoil the ending. Read what happened here.

(NOTE: This falls under the rubric of "No-duh!" but I do not use this article as an excuse to "put God to the test." I'm as big a fan of personal security as I am of wearing seat belts. It does, however, show the power of God unto salvation. You never know who might be ripe to hear the word of truth.)

The Nicene Creed

Growing up in the Lutheran Church, I learned to recite the Apostle's Creed at a young age, before it was even required. You know how kids pick up rote memorization. Have 'em quote some Napolean Dynamite for you; you'll get the idea.

After a time, to spice things up I guess, they switched to the Nicene Creed. To a kid, it's like learning Scripture memorization in a different version. No problem.

The Nicene Creed contains a statement about Jesus' return to the earth. Specifically:

He shall come again, with glory, to judge the quick and the dead; whose kingdom shall have no end...

Honestly, I don't remember any teaching on that point. After teaching my Sunday school class last week on "End-Times" doctrine, I asked my mom, who happened to be in town, if she'd ever heard such things. "Never," she responded.

Maybe it's that 2000 years (almost) have passed since He rose into heaven, and we figured we must have gotten that one wrong. Maybe it's the fact that major denominations have so diluted their biblical teaching you'll find more substance from Jay Leno.

But if we read the prophecy in Scripture that has yet to be fulfilled the same way we read the prophecy in Scripture that has been fulfilled, we understand that within context, we can read that prophecy plainly.

Jesus will return. He said He would (Matthew 24:29-31). The angel's who spoke to the disciples following Jesus ascension said He would (Acts 1:10-11), that He would return just as He went, bodily, on the clouds and to the Mount of Olives east of Jerusalem.

The time preceding His return will be a time of horrors like no time the world has ever known (Matthew 24:9-28), a time of God's wrath (yes, wrath) being poured out on those who have not accepted what God provided as a mean's of salvation (Revelation 6:15-17).

And that's the kicker. God has provided a solution to man's problem with rebellion. We are rebellious by nature. Romans 3:10-18 delivers that picture in Hi-Def detail.

“ There is none righteous, no, not one;
There is none who understands;
There is none who seeks after God.
They have all turned aside;
They have together become unprofitable;
There is none who does good, no, not one.”
“ Their throat is an open tomb;
With their tongues they have practiced deceit”;
“ The poison of asps is under their lips”;
“ Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.”
“ Their feet are swift to shed blood;
Destruction and misery are in their ways;
And the way of peace they have not known.”
“ There is no fear of God before their eyes.”

We have a sin problem. No, we're not basically good. We are rebellious, and a holy God rightfully and righteously cannot tolerate sin. And because we cannot fix ourselves, He provided the solution.

"For He made Him who knew no sin (Jesus Christ) to become sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in Him." 2 Corinthians 5:21

While He walked the earth, Jesus told His disciples that He was the way, and the only way, to mend the chasm between God and man when He said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me."

Christians get accused of being narrow-minded. If we were arguing the Best Picture of 1963, our adamance can be dismissed. But Jesus is coming back. And next time, He won't be cooing in the manger. And so we proclaim the solution, not our solution, not some Ponzi scheme, but the fix for the broken relationship between God and man.

"If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. For the Scripture says, "Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame."" Romans 10:9-11 (v. 12 is good, too)

I don't know when Christ will return. But as the land He trod once again erupts in flames, I know for certain that it is far closer today than it was yesterday. What a blessing to know that I have been adopted into His family (Galatians 4:4-5).

Larry King

I distinctly remember sitting in the theater with my sons when, near the climax of the film, I saw with lucid eyes where "Signs" was going. I almost stood in my seat and cheered.

Recently my pastor used as an analogy in one of his sermons the artform of a decade ago titled "Magic-Eye." You remember? The colors looked like something out of the 60's and if you did something goofy with your eyes--*poof*--an image would miraculously appear. I remember staring at a couple of those things at a kiosk in the mall. When you don't get it, you just don't get it. I walked away thinking surely those things were a product of the 60's and some manner of 60's paraphernalia was required to "see" it. Then some sadist put the things in the comics section of the Sunday paper. In mockery I followed the directions when--*poof*--I saw the image! I almost stood in my seat and cheered.

Not getting it is frustrating especially when those around you see it so clearly and understand so plainly. There are those who will walk away from the kiosk never to return thinking the folks are utterly daft. Then there are those, frustrated as they may be who will stand there for hours trying to "see." And when they walk away at the end of the night, they don't curse those who can see or think that they are loons, but they ache to be able to catch the mystery, too.

Larry King aches to understand the mystery.

This last week, King had Steven Curtis Chapman and his family on his show to discuss the tragedy of death of their daughter and sister, Maria. Chapman's son, Will, through no fault of his own, ran over his sister as she bolted in front of his SUV. The Chapman's chose three outlets through which to share how God's grace and the hope of Jesus Christ have sustained them through this horror. Larry King's show was one of those outlets.

Throughout the telecast, you could see King was utterly befuddled. "Aren't you angry?" "Are you angry at Will?" "Are you angry at God?" "Did you lose your faith?" "Did you question your faith?" And with each answer that revealed the deep peace they had in God, the deep grief they had over the loss of their child, and the deep knowledge they all had that one day, they would see Maria again, King grew more perplexed.

He wasn't frustrated. It wasn't like he was going to pounce upon them for lost faith or stewing anger. Such emotion would have brought him peace because such emotion would be normal. It would have somehow justified the interview to him. But peace, joy and hope amidst overwhelming grief can only be a God thing, and King recognizing that seemed to deflate, "I just don't get it."

This is nothing new for Larry King. He has all manner and all flavor of religious individual on his show from Deepak Chopra to Joel Osteen to John MacArthur to Franklin Graham. The man keeps staring at the Magic-Eye and wants desperately to see the picture. Every angle, every distance, every lighting. I just don't get it.

The day after, Larry King recorded an "About Last Night" segment (watch it here. It's only a minute long), where he discusses the impact of the previous evening. He confesses, "I wish I had that," when discussing their faith, but he miscategorizes it as "blind faith."

God never called anyone to have blind faith. The faith God calls man to have is substantial and that substance is in the God who has proven Himself, has proven His love over and over to His beloved creatures. The Bible teems with testimony about the God who is there, who has spoken, and longs for the restoration of His lost creatures.

Simply, we have rebelled. "We all... have gone astray. Each of us has turned to his own way" (Isaiah 53:6a). "There is none righteous; no not one" (Psalm 14:1). Unable to repair the holiness that God demands those who approach Him (Exodus 3:5, Habakkuk 1:13), God provided the fix. He Himself, bore the punishment to satisfy His justice (Isaiah 53:6b). "While we were still sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8). We couldn't get good enough to get to God; the chasm was too vast. God spanned the chasm with the execution of His Son, with the cross of Christ.

Jesus Christ. The mystery. Paul makes plain that this is foolishness to the sophisticate and a stumbling block to the Jew (1 Corinthians 1:23). "I just don't get it."

Please pray for Mr. King and those you know who don't know, those who are utterly stumped by this puzzle, but truly ache to know the truth. Pray that the seed of what was sown by the Chapman's, by MacArthur, by Graham, would take root in his life. Pray that the picture would one day come clear, and that he, too, might stand in his seat and cheer.

Know your audience

Know your audience. It is rule number one in public speaking. The astrophysicist can lay completely different lingo on his brothers down at the astrolab than he can on the parents of his son's Little League team.

Knowing your audience is one thing. Altering your message to satisfy your audience is something completely different. Such would be something we would expect of a comedian, not a doctor. This is wholly unacceptable to pastors and Christians responsible for handling the word of God rightly.

A friend dropped this Time Magazine article in my lap. The gist: many Christians have come to believe that avenues exist to heaven apart from Christ. The Pew Foundation which does a great deal of polling to determine our nation's religious temperature came to that conclusion. 57% of Evangelical Christian respondents were willing to concede that their might be other paths to heaven.

Time's closing paragraph dumps the load right in the lap of pastors:

The (Pew Foundation) survey's biggest challenge is to the theologians and pastors who will have to reconcile their flocks' acceptance of a new, polyglot heaven with the strict admission criteria to the gated community that preceded it.

If pastors are reconciling the survey, they care too much about audience opinion. They become no better than clowns or motivational speakers when the Audience they need to impress will be neither motivated or amused.

(This, too, is why I believe it is imperative for Christians to reason through the issues with other Christians from the perspective of God's word. In a world that rejects any moral authority, it is the only authority to which we can appeal, especially with others who identify themselves as Christians. If they will not hear the appeal of God's word, that is a grievous thing, but we have done what God has asked of us.)