Divisive Issues- Part 2: Homosexuality

When tackling hot button issues like homosexuality, it is important to understand that as Christians, we love the people involved in this argument, yet it is the actions they partake in that we do not approve of based on what the Bible tells us. Often we hear people calling Christians intolerant because of this disapproval, yet these same people don't take the time to understand the reasoning behind their beliefs. An example of this is how Christians view alcoholics, we don't approve of their alcohol induced lifestyle, but we still love them and want to help them. Certainly there are extreme cases where certain churches go too far and spew hatred and intolerance, but most mainstream churches exist for the purpose of helping people to live their lives according to Christ's teachings without condoning their lifestyle choices.

We must also look at from the problem from the Creator/creature viewpoint. God created man in his own image and when Adam was lonely in the garden, he created Eve so that they could be together. This set the precedence for man and woman coming together and being "one flesh" for the purpose of posterity. For a person to resist the opposite sex in favor of their own is an abomination to God's plan for mankind, much like using a car as a boat or a boat as a car. Both are used for transportation purposes, yet using them in these situations would go against the intent of the creator. So what did the early church say about homosexuality, a practice common and accepted among pagans and other cultures at the time? Let's take a look at Paul's letter to the Romans:

"For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. For this reason, God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural, and in the same way also the men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their desire toward one another, men with men committing indecent acts and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error.

Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed, and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Although they know God's righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them." (Romans 1:25-32)

Paul is quick to follow this up with:

"You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgement on someone else, for at whatever point you judge the other, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgement do the same things. Now we know that God's judgement against those who do such things is based on truth. So when you, a mere man, pass judgement on them and yet do the same things, do you think you will escape God's judgement? Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, tolerance, and patience, not realizing that God's kindness leads you toward repentance?" (Romans 2:1-4)

It is important to realize that Paul says that we are not to pass judgment on others because none of us are completely without sin. But being truly repentant for our sins, we should share our Faith and explain why others should be truly repentant as well. The early church relied on the diversity of its' members to use their strengths to help others' weaknesses and encourage one another not to sin. As modern Christians, we do the same by changing the way we live for the better by reading more of the Bible and praying to God. These actions are food for the soul and encourage the growth of the Holy Spirit within us and provide for correction when we go astray.

If you study the early church history, the community tried to commit their lives to the highest moral standard that Christianity espoused because it pleased God and conformed to his will. Let me be clear that Grace is sufficient enough for salvation, yet as one accepts Christ, his or her life is transformed and Grace and Faith lead to good works and a desire to pursue the highest moral standard. Otherwise, for those who believe and continue to know go against God are still in rebellion against him even in the smallest of tasks.

The uniqueness of the homosexual lifestyle is just that; being a lifestyle. While most would agree that as Christians, we should put Christ first in all things in life, down to every decision we make, some put their own desires of the flesh before their desire to please the Lord. Again, Christians are not perfect and can stumble quite often, which is covered by Grace and Faith, yet we don't knowingly center our lives around a sin and try to make it something less. When we knowingly and soberly do things we know are against God's will, we will be subject to his judgement.

I will finish simply with this: we as Christians are not to be hate filled toward ANYONE!!! But we as Christians are commanded in the Lord's Prayer "Thy Kingdom come, Thy Will be done, on Earth as it is in Heaven." This means that whenever we can do the right thing, we are commanded to do so; whether it means voting against abortion, for the exclusivity of marriage between a man and woman, or against capital punishment.

Divisive Issues- Part 1: Abortion

First, I must fully disclose my position on abortion so that you know where I stand on the issue. I am one hundred percent completely against them for any reason and I believe that as Christians, we should hold the same to be true based on the evidence herein.

1. Alan Keyes once said "Those who disagree with me on abortion can be perfectly decent, moral human beings. I will respect their moral conclusions just as I respect the moral conclusions of the Founders; but I will fight the evil they tolerate, just as I would have fought the evil tolerated by our Founders [slavery]. If this ruffles some feathers, you'll have to excuse me, because the need to stand for American principles on Declaration issues is the lesson I draw from the most important events in American history, including the history of my own ancestors. I will stand or fall with that lesson, because nothing in our public life is more important than rejecting the principle that one human being--whether it be a mother or slave-owner-- has the right to treat another human life as property."

This quote vehemently reflects the belief that those who are pro-choice believe that a child, while inhabiting the mother's womb, is said "property" of that mother. This presumption of ownership is inconsistent with what we know about life in general, because we do not even own the bodies we inhabit. This may sound like a stretch, but let us look at some of the validations of this argument:

-we did not create ourselves, therefore we can not own ourselves

-the ones who created us (parents) did not create themselves, therefore they can not own us

-once a child is born, we can not truly own them because they can be taken away from us, signaling circumstantial ownership based on conditional treatment (e.g. abuse, neglect, etc.)

-children have the ability to legally divorce their parents under certain circumstances

-children become independent of their parents at age 18

So this takes away the property argument, now let's look at the "choice" and a woman's right to "privacy."

2. From the moment of conception, a human body is being designed and built based on the combined DNA of the mother and father. While this process relies on the body of the mother to fulfill this task by feeding and maintaining a suitable environment for growth, the new body is an independent body being designed with the purpose of being an independent creation. All too often we hear "you can't tell me what to do with my body" from the pro-choice crowd. This is true; we can't tell you what to do with your body, yet at the same time there should be equal protection for what you do to that child's body since there are not one, but two bodies affected by the choices made.

This presumption of "choice" then falls flat on its face since it is not a choice you are making just about your own body, but also an independent body. And if this presumption of "choice" were to be seriously upheld, then it would validate infanticide after delivery since a child can not survive on its own without someone feeding and providing for it. The mother could choose not to care for the child and let it die, which would be a crime under current law. For the same reason, choice holds no validation as an argument for the abortion of a child in the womb.

3. Knowingly allowing the baby's life to end by intent or neglect is murder. By ending the life of a child, a person is causing it death and as the person that takes this action, that makes them a murderer. This may sound harsh, yet it is true since the infant is alive and growing when a person, with intent, takes its life away.

Scott Rae, a Christian philosopher, outlined the following based on Biblical reasons for considering abortion murder:

1. God attributes the same characteristics to the unborn as to an adult person.
2. Therefore God considers the unborn a person.
3. Abortion is killing an innocent person.
4. Killing innocent persons violates the Fifth Commandment.

To take it a step further, the Bible as a whole discusses the importance of humanity and the amount of respect we should have for one another. A child in the womb is to be considered the epitome of loving a neighbor as thyself, an experience only given to women and a truly remarkable ability to be adored by men.

4. There are many who agree with these arguments so far as to be against abortion as a form of birth control, yet when it comes to issues concerning rape, incest, child deformity, and even the health of the mother, they quietly condone abortion. While I can attest to having grappled with and thoroughly thought through these conditional reasons for an abortion, I have come to the conclusion that while these acts and instances are troublesome to the heart, the infant itself is an innocent and deserves the opportunity of life that God has given it. Children are not a punishment in any conceivable circumstance, they are and always will be a blessing.

As you can see from these arguments, pro-lifers hold life as sacred are not going after the abortion issue because they don't care about women or their rights. They simply rely on God and Scripture as a way to live our lives and to protect those who can not protect themselves. For those who celebrate a woman's right to chose and the pro-choice agenda, they should realize that as a result, they are celebrating death. What they should be celebrating is the fact that their mothers didn't partake in the "choice" they vigorously protect and celebrate.

Defending Christmas???

It is about this time every year that e-mails and news reports start going around outraged that some business is putting up Happy Holiday signs or not saying "Merry Christmas" to their patrons. Lists upon lists are going around to boycott the stores who don't celebrate "the reason for the season," which seem to end the day after Christmas. This begs the question; why do the majority of these people fight so hard for a Christian holiday, yet they aren't out there defending Christ all year round?

I think people need to put things in perspective and realize that defending their faith should be an everyday activity and we should not waste time berating businesses for making business decisions. We should be trying our hardest to fulfill the Great Commission and make Disciples of Christ everywhere we go and in everything we do. It reeks of blatant hypocrisy that people defend Christ's birthday, yet when they have agnostic or atheist friends, they say that they are entitled to have their own beliefs and who are we to tell them that they are wrong. True believers know the fate of those who don't believe, that is why it is so important for us to be able to explain our Faith and why we know that God is REAL and so is His Son.

Why we suffer- (Part 2) Spiritual Implications

Suffering is not always related to the physical aspect of man. It can also manifest itself in loneliness, depression, anxiety, and a feeling of emptiness, which aren't necessarily related to a persons' physical being. For instance, all of these problems can stem from reactions from incidents that occur in the physical world (e.g. loss of loved one, the suffering of others, or any other given reason) yet they do not have a physical component which can be measured. So why is it that we suffer in this way? Let's look at it from the Biblical point of view and see if we can understand this tough question.

In Genesis, the Bible tells us of our dissent from God when his creations Adam and Eve disobeyed God by eating the fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. This is perhaps the most important event that can help us understand how our spiritual needs can never be fulfilled while here on this Earth. The bottom line is that we were created to be with God as Adam was in the Garden, so anything less would leave us unfulfilled. This makes every person broken in the sense that we are never complete until we are reunited with God in Heaven, and as a byproduct here on Earth, we feel deep feelings of loneliness, depression, anxiety, and many other symptoms. And it gets worse!

Adam and Eve weren't alone when they fell from Grace. Satan was banished as well and set up his rule here on Earth to try and capture human souls to call his own. So in addition to being absent from God, we are under constant attack from sin and temptation trying to thwart that relationship. It is the knowledge and understanding of the Bible that gives humanity hope and shows why Jesus came to save us.

Jesus taught us that he didn't come to save our bodies, but to save our souls from being destroyed in Hell. He gave us the blueprint to Salvation and a way that we could repair ourselves spiritually through Him. He offered to take our burdens of worry, depression, anxiety, and every other problem and give them to him and don't worry anymore about them. This is the Faith component which gives Christian total reliance of everything in their lives to God, knowing that he will take care of everything. It may not always be the answer we want, but God knows the big picture and will take care of us in the long run.

Why we suffer- (Part 1) Physical Implications

Many people all over the world have resentment and content towards God because they have suffered or know someone who has suffered with disease, pain, anxiety, depression, etc. They find that they can not come to terms with a Loving God allowing his people to suffer and die. In order to tackle this question of why we suffer, we must first break it down into two categories; why do we suffer physically and why do we suffer spiritually?

First, let’s tackle the physical suffering because people tend to look at it in a very negative light because the word evokes much fear in them. If we break down the underlying reason for feeling pain, it is actually a protective mechanism. Our bodies are designed to feel pain when our bodies are attacked, whether stepping on a nail, touching a hot plate, being affected by common viruses, etc. and this reaction of pain gives us the ability to know the problem exists and to treat it.

Hunger and thirst are a great example of this as well. If you go too long without eating and drinking you will start to suffer as your body is dying of thirst and starvation. It is in this pain and suffering that we begin to look for food and water to fix the problem. It isn’t evil or a plague that God has put on us, rather pain and suffering allow us to explain and recognize what it is that is wrong with us, therefore enabling us to solve the problem.

Now some people hold God accountable for such things as viruses and cancers as a form of punishment upon humans. I have heard people ask the question “if there is a God, why would he allow cancer to occur?” Believe me, there are many people who walk away from faith in anything over this issue, yet the question is as absurd as asking “why does God allow lions to live?” Think about it! Cancer, lions, people, viruses, and bacteria are all living things that feed off of other living things in order to survive. If you lost a friend to a lion attack, you’d blame it on bad luck and being in the wrong place at the wrong time, yet if the same friend were in a hospital bed being eaten to death by cancer, many would blame God and not understand that essentially the same thing is happening that happened with a lion attack, just much slower.

Humans tend to overcomplicate these issues and look for someone to blame when bad things are happening to them or their loved ones. We must realize our mortality and understand that while we are on this Earth, we will suffer. We may not like it, just as some didn’t like vegetables as kids, but our body uses pain and suffering to help us identify our problems. If God were to take this ability away, our lifespan would diminish considerably because we would never know when to seek treatment.

The Uniqueness of Humanity

Humans are distinctly different from every other living organism on Earth in so many uniques ways. How do we explain why humanity is so different and its subsequent implications? First, let us take a look and identify some of the things that make us inherently different:

1. Self Awareness
2. War
3. Vanity
4. Compassion
5. Greed
6. Materialism
7. Addiction
8. Revenge
9. Love
10. Justice

These are just 10 human qualities (there are many more) that we as humans posses. Yet where else do we see these qualities in nature? This is a valid question because it is largely ignored by Neo-Darwinists and others who follow the belief of our evolutionary existence. The problem is that there simply isn't a rational argument out there claiming that these exclusively human qualities came from evolution. Rather than looking at the old cliche "what came first, the chicken or the egg?", lets us say "what came first, intelligence or the brain?"

The reason this question is so important is that if we are to believe that everything was created by nothing more than the accidental joining of amino acids, then how do we explain these human qualities? What organ regulates love or revenge? What biological function gives a persona passion for music or the arts? Can we even empirically prove that we love someone or something? These questions demand answers and evolutionists are speechless.

Consider this. Evolutionists believe in evolution based on the needs of the creature that is evolving (opposable thumbs for climbing, tails for stability at high speeds, wings for flight, etc.). So where do philosophy, love, compassion, vanity, and revenge come into play? Why did "nature" give these qualities to man alone through evolution? Wouldn't you be suprised if you went for a walk in the woods and stumbled upon a murder trial for a rabbit who killed another rabbit over a couple of carrots? Of course you would! Yet in a Darwinistic worldview, this is completely plausible because there is nothing unique about humanity, and all creatures have the potential to become as intelligent as man someday.

If we are to reason that humanity is unique because of these differences, then we need to understand we are different because we were made to be different. The fact that there is nothing in nature that parrallels humanity should give us pause to consider all logical reasons for our differences. If we are to weigh the evidence of evolution vs. the Biblical account for the creation and fall of man, the scales would be tipped in Bible's favor since evolution poses more questions than answers. Again, be encouraged to follow the evidence and philisophical implications of the human dilema and draw your own conclusions based on the information we know.

Understanding the Trinity

Encouraged by my wife to explain another difficulty people have with Christianity is understanding how one God can be three elements; the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. As a person who understands the Trinity that is God, I find that explaining it to people in terms that they can understand is difficult. The reason for this difficulty is that there is no clear passage that tells us that all three are God, rather it is revealed to those who study scripture and believe understand what it is saying. For example, in Matthew 3:16:

"As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting on him. And a voice from heaven said, "This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased." NIV

Clearly we see three different elements of God individually; God in heaven, Jesus on Earth, and the Holy Spirit leaving heaven and coming to Earth.

Being of this planet and having a limited understanding of the Father, we find it difficult to grasp this 3 in 1 God because it is not commonplace in our world to see such a creature. Therein lies the problem with our thinking; God is not a creature, he is something that we can not even comprehend or fathom. For what do we know that can create a whole universe in its enormity and complexity.

In looking at the Son, an example I came up with, being from the generation that I am, was a person playing a video game. When we have control of a character on the screen as they conform to our will (with certain limitations) and have all the knowledge and experience that we have working through them, i.e. when to go left, right, jump, throw, shoot, etc. Yes.... that is done in a false world, but then again so are we, since heaven is the TRUE reality. This represents the God and Jesus relationship in a way that we can understand.

Last we have the Holy Spirit who, as we know from Acts, descended on the Apostles at Pentecost. As the third person in the Trinity, he was referred to by Jesus as the Holy Counselor who would come and guide the Apostles after Jesus left to prepare a place for them in heaven. He is a spirit and therefore invisible, yet he was always with the Apostles, including Paul. He was the administrator of God's Holy Power when the Apostles spoke in tongues, healed the sick, and preached the Word of God. Often overlooked in importance by many lay Christians, the Holy Spirit is of equal power and as the Father and Son, fulfilling the Holy Trinity that is God.

Understanding how these three are God is a difficult concept to grasp if you are not immersed in scripture. Therefore, to gain a better understanding and to even have the Holy Spirit counsel you in your spiritual journey, start reading the Bible and pray for wisdom. God wants very much to reveal himself to all mankind, yet we are constantly distracted by things of this world. I encourage you to find 30 minutes a day to spend reading your Bible and if possible, read it with a partner and encourage one another.

Great Portrayal of God's Love!!!!

Is Jesus the only way to Heaven?

In John (3:16-18), Jesus made a bold claim “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.” This claim has left many people outraged and upset that God would have a provision for Salvation instead of just allowing anyone to come, no matter what, as long as they are “good.”

First, lets us break this down as far as we can go and logically look at the argument. In order for people to be outraged at this claim, they must believe and know Heaven to be a true place. Otherwise they would consider it akin to Never Never Land and it wouldn’t matter if people are going there or not. It would be considered a totally fictitious place to them therefore unworthy of outrage and more likely laughable. So if they believe in Heaven, they must have a belief in God as well, since the only way we learn about the existence of Heaven is from God through scripture. The problem arises when you ask them to use the same scripture that introduced them to God and Heaven, to find evidence to back their argument that “good” people who don't accept Christ get into Heaven. They simply can not do this and in many cases leads them away from God and religion altogether.

Second, let us ask the question, "what is the measure of goodness and how do we define what is good?" Surely, man can not decide his own measure of goodness because it may be different from his neighbor and would, therefore, be inconsistent rather than absolute. Imagine all 5 billion people on Earth with their own definition of what is good. Therefore, we look to the Bible and the Ten Commandments for answers to questions of morality and ethics because they have been used for thousands of years and give testimony to what is truly good. The only problem with that is every living and dead person on Earth falls short of living a "good" life according to biblical standards. So if we all fall short of the Ten Commandments, then none of us deserve the gift of Heaven. It is for this very reason that almost every book of the Old Testament predicts a Messiah; a Savior to live a perfect and sinless life to be sacrificed for the sins of the world. Heaven is impossible for us to earn. But God is merciful and only requires that we believe and have Faith in his Son Jesus in order to obtain everlasting life in Heaven.

The Bible does not allow Christians to pick and choose pieces of the Bible to believe and others to discard because we “deem” them to be wrong. The very source that introduced us to God and Heaven gave us a map to Heaven through his Son; there is nothing saying “good” non-believers go too. It is for this reason that Christians are responsible for the Great Commission; bringing people to Christ to save them, just as you would try to save a dying person who stands before you! I encourage you to come to terms with this and focus on friends and family who do not believe and encourage them to find Jesus. The best way to do this is through love and compassion and living the Word of God!

The Kalam Cosmological Argument

More than a mouthful, the Kalam Cosmological Argument is not likely a theory you heard in when you were in school even though its basis was formulated by Christian philosopher John Philoponus in the 4th century and later adopted and made mainstream by Muslim philosopher al-Ghazali. His argument was that the universe had a beginning rather than being eternal. It gained wide popularity in Islamic religious circles and has made a resurgence among Christian Apologists who support the Big Bang Theory (yes, Christians do believe in the Big Bang Theory). The Kalam Cosmological Argument has has three statements that make up the argument:

1. Whatever begins to exist has a cause.
2. The universe began to exist.
3. Therefore the universe has a cause.

Now to totally grasp this first concept, think of everything that you see in nature and how they interact with one another to form complex ecosystems that scientist in biospheres can't even replicate. Now if you look at an ecosystem as a whole, you can see it operates from many different components (plants and animals) operating individually with no apparent purpose. But if we look more closely, we see that nature is essentially an organic factory that produces micro-civilizations of subspecies whom contribute to a symbiotic relationship with one another, thus creating the ecosystem. More importantly we understand that each species of plant and animal has a purpose. For that matter, every element in the Periodic Table of Elements has a purpose because they form compounds that are essential for life. I challenge you to rack your brain and come up with one observable object on this planet that doesn't serve a purpose (or cause if you will) and defend that argument. Now let's take a look at the second statement and see if there is scientific evidence to support the claim that the universe began to exist rather than being eternal.

In the early 20th century, Edwin Hubble discovered that our universe was vastly larger than had previously been predicted. Not only that, modern technology discovered that the universe is expanding and is currently expanding at a slower pace than it was billions of years ago. Scientists today have determined that there must've been a large explosion (Big Bang) that set the universe on its present course. This evidence has lead even the most ardent atheists to use the word "miracle" when describing the Big Bang.

Even with these developments, the argument was made that the universe has always existed and will always exist, i.e. infinitely. The problem with this argument is that there is mathematical evidence to suggest that actual infinity is impossible in the physical world (what have you ever observed or know to be infinite in the physical world?). The study of mathematics has also weighed in exposing the possibility of actual infinity to be impossible. For more information on this see http://www.leaderu.com/truth/3truth11.html. This leads us to our third argument.

The universe has a cause. If you are still with me after outlining the first two posits of the the argument, lets take a look at the last one and draw the only conclusion that seems viable. Hebrew texts dating thousands of years explain the creation of the universe and our Earth. With what we now know about our universe, these texts seem all the more likely to be correct and some agnostic scientists are seceding that point based on the evidence. So if Christianity is the cause for the universe and the eventual abolition of our souls, shouldn't you be getting more acquainted with your Bible?