Category: General Christian Teachings

Is The Bible Simple To Understand?

Hello everyone and welcome back to Deeper Waters where we are diving into the ocean of truth. There doesn’t seem to be much going on on the Inerrancy front at the moment, so I thought instead on a somewhat related note, I might look at the question of if the Bible is easy to understand. One objection often raised is that the man on the pew can easily understand the Bible so why do we need to add a lot of complicated stuff?

Fair enough. Why don’t we take a look at a fairly simple verse we all grew up with? I will quote it the way I remember it.

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes on him should not perish but have everlasting life.”

Of course, most of us recognize John 3:16. This verse has been called the gospel in miniature. It’s my understanding that even Martin Luther called it that. I have no problem with it. We can pick up the Bible, read this verse, and understand that God loves the world. He loves it so much, He sent His son to die for it that anyone who believes in Him will have everlasting life.

So keep in mind, nothing I say in this post is to detract from the beauty and simplicity of this verse, and there is a beauty and simplicity in much of the Bible. If you want to be saved and know who God is, you don’t need to have a degree in the Bible. You don’t need to be a high-ranking theologian. You can do that with Scripture alone.

However, while there’s a simple message that can be grasped here, let’s look and see if there are some hard questions we could ask as well.

To begin with, who’s saying this? Is this still Jesus speaking, or is it John narrating on the meaning of the conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus? I’ve seen arguments that go both ways.

“For God.” Who is God exactly? What does this mean? Does this mean the same being as in the Old Testament? What is He like? Is He triune? Does he switch roles? Some of these questions might seem strange, but they could all have an impact on Christian history. Marcion thought the OT god was an evil being. Arius would say the Son was not fully God and therefore there is no Trinity. Someone like Praxeus would say God is one person and therefore there is a switch of roles. Of course, the doctrine of the nature of God is rich with content and every theologian could spend their lifetime working on it and not get anywhere near fullness, as not even eternity will do that for us.

“So loved.” What is this love? Is this like the sexual love that I have for my wife? Is this like the family love I have for my parents? Is this like the phileo love I have for my friends? Does this mean that God has emotions? If He does, how does He love? If not, then what does it mean to say God loves? Can you have love without emotion?

“The world.” What does this mean? Are we not after all told to hate the things of this world and that love of the world is opposition to God? Are we not told about the corruption of the world? If the world is corrupt, why would God love it? Does this mean the material world? Does God love material objects? Does this refer to the Roman Empire? Why would God love the Roman Empire? Why would God love the world beyond Israel anyway? Is not Israel His special people?

“That He.” What does this mean? Are we going to say that God is a man? If God is a man, does He have a male body and if so, is He designed? Is this something that is perhaps sexist? Does this mean that God could be masculine, but if God is masculine, is He opposed to the feminine? Why do we say God is masculine, if that is the case, if male and female are both made in His image? If male and female are both His image, why does the text not say “That He/She”?

“Gave.” What does it mean for God to give something? Does it really cost anything for God to give something since He is the maker and Lord of all? If we are speaking about the sacrifice of Christ, can we really call it a sacrifice if Christ was to be raised three days later?

“His Only Begotten Son.” What does this mean? Does this mean that Jesus is the Son of God through sexual means? If not, how can Jesus be called the only begotten? Are there not others who are called sons of God? Isn’t Adam a son of God? Aren’t angels sons of God? Weren’t the kings of Israel and Judah considered to be sons of God?” Are we not as Christians considered to be sons of God? How is our sonship different from Jesus’s?

“That whosoever.” Are these whosoever free or not? Does whosoever apply to only the elect, or does it refer to anyone freely? If I am a Calvinist using this verse, should I be careful lest the person I am talking to is not one of the elect? If I am an Arminian, do I really believe that it’s possible that everyone could be saved? Would that mean Christ died in vain for some?

“Believes.” Does this refer to having intellectual assent? How can this be since we are told that the demons believe and tremble? But if belief does not refer to intellectual assent, then to what does it refer to? Is this an act of the will and if so, is it done freely or by irresistible grace?

“in Him.” What does it mean to believe in Jesus? Does it mean that I have to acknowledge that Jesus existed? Can I accept Jesus as a good man? Could I even accept Him as a resurrected man but not the God-Man? Does this verse then say anything about how I should act in response to this belief?

“Should not perish.” What does it mean to perish? Don’t we believe in Hell usually? Is Hell a place where people perish? Isn’t it a place where people really live forever in pain and/or shame? Does this verse refer to total destruction then? Does this mean that people have the freedom to avoid perishing?

“But have everlasting life.” What kind of life? Do I really want to live forever? Don’t people who exist in Hell also live forever? What does this say about salvation? The verse nowhere says “salvation” or “justification.” What does this say about sins? Do we have anything in this verse about sins? Will this everlasting life be in Heaven or will it be on a New Earth? Is there a difference between those two?

These are all questions we could ask. My point has not been to raise these to answer them. I have no intentions of doing such. My point is that yes, the Bible can be simple to understand at times, but at the same time, those simple verses have a rich complexity and too often in debates, we can say “Well it looks plain and simple to me.” Maybe it does, but that does not mean that it is.

To get the diamonds out of Scripture, we have to do some digging.

What Good Are Our Churches?

Hello everyone and welcome back to Deeper Waters where we are diving into the ocean of truth. I’ve been following closely the debate concerning my father-in-law, Mike Licona, and Norman Geisler. As I checked Mike’s facebook today, he wrote about being in South Africa and how after he gave a talk at a church on “Who Did Jesus Think He Was?” 37 came forward wanting to start an apologetics group.

Average church in America?

“Apologetics? Do I need to apologize for being a Christian?”

A lot of time and money is spent building new churches for people to go to. Many new churches can sadly start over reasons such as not being able to decide what color the carpet should have been in the old church. Of course, there are some that reach a specific group which is highly understandable, such as Korean churches. Many of us don’t speak Korean and we should be thankful for those who do starting churches provided they’re in line with orthodoxy.

But as I thought about that church in South Africa, I think about what’s going on in America I thought “Do we really need more churches?”

I just went to Google maps and had no trouble finding a church within a mile of where I live. If I expand the search, I can find many more churches very easily. Does anyone really think the problem that we have in America is that we just lack churches for people to go to?

Seriously. How many churches do you pass by on your average commute to and from the workplace? How many times are you saying “I really wish there was a church here in our area.”? Of course, what you could be saying is “I wish there was a good church in my area.” It’s like looking in the fridge and saying “There’s nothing to eat.” There usually is, but usually what you see in the fridge is not providing the desire that you have.

Could it be that the real problem is that we do not use the churches that we have? Too often in churches, we have pastors who are simply ignorant of the Bible and then produce a group of people who are also ignorant of the Bible. These churches are prey for groups like the Mormons, Jehovah’s Witnesses, or the New Atheists.

Study is a dirty word to the average person today. I was tempted to say the average layman, but even pastors can often pride themselves on their ignorance. They may not know what they’re talking about, but by golly, they have passion and they can count on the Holy Spirit to take that passion and override their ignorance.

How many people really think the Holy Spirit honors having to do the work for someone because they didn’t want to take the time to do it for themselves?

Something that we need to learn in the church is this. No matter how passionate you feel about a belief, that does not make that belief right. Of course, you could be entirely right, but do not think you are right just because you have a lot of passion.

I just got done recently reading Tim LaHaye’s “Rapture Under Attack” where he says that the reason the pre-trib position is spreading and growing is because it is just the teaching of the Bible and the Holy Spirit is blessing it!

Okay. Sure. That’s a possibility.

However, I also suspect I could read a post-trib author who would say “While this view has not been as popular, we do see it on the rise today because the Holy Spirit is showing people that it is in the Scriptures and giving it His blessing.”

Anyone can claim the Holy Spirit for their belief system. Anyone can say the success of the teaching spreading is because of the Holy Spirit. They could in turn say the reason a true teaching is not spreading is because of the hardness of the hearts of men. Whichever way you go, you can come up with a reason why a teaching is spreading or not spreading.

What needs to be done by everyone on every side of every debate is to focus on the reasons for why your view is true whether it is spreading or not. Let us keep in mind Mormonism has been on the rise throughout the world now and the Mormons would point to their message being true as the reason for that spread. They would say the Holy Spirit is confirming it by the burning in the bosom.

I do not doubt Mormonism is spreading. I do not doubt that Mormons feel something very strongly. I do doubt that it is the Holy Spirit. I am not a believer in Mormonism simply because I do not think the facts support Mormonism.

Facts. You know, maybe that’s what we need to get back to. Maybe we need to get to truth. It seems too often in our churches we are trying to get people to a feeling rather than to a mindset. We want people to feel Christianity is true. We don’t want them to think about why it is. We want people to feel the love of God. We don’t want them to think about what the love of God means. (That is no simple doctrine!) We want people to feel good about themselves. We don’t want them to think about what it means that they carry the image of God and what it means when they are told that they are sinners.

Of course, I am not against feelings, but feelings are to be in response to something. We have our beliefs based on our feelings when our feelings are based on our beliefs. If one is given good reasons for believing Jesus rose from the dead and one realizes they can understand and articulate those reasons and feel great as a result, praise God! If they have the reasons and can articulate it and are just not a feely type and don’t feel what the first person feels, praise God just as much!

And wouldn’t it be great to have churches doing that more than just being support groups? Now again, don’t misunderstand. Churches do need to be providing support. Members do need to be caring for one another. However, the church is not meant to be your local branch of Weight Watchers or Alcoholics Anonymous. I have no problem with churches letting such groups use their buildings. That’s fine. The church is meant to be more however. The church can help you diet. The church can help you maintain sobriety. The church is meant to do more. The church alone is the only organization that can teach forgiveness of sins through the God-man Jesus Christ.

When the church becomes just a social club, we have lost the point of it. It has become all about us instead of being all about God. What we need is the foundation of good theology rooted in Scripture and Christian thought throughout the ages and then from that foundation we can draw support for one another.

Let us also remember worship is not meant to be something just to make us feel good about ourselves. I really wish the church would return more to the classic hymns of the past. When I was growing up, I remember they sounded slow and boring, but now that I am older, I realize the rich depth that is within those songs that I have missed.

There are some songs sung in churches today that I will sit down during. I think some are outright wrong. Many are just shallow. A good worship service is seen as one where we leave feeling good, but we are not the ones who are to judge if a worship service is good. The service is not for us. It is for God. We often forget that we are worshiping Him. We are not putting on a concert.

The church has all that it needs today to be a powerful force. In America, we should be a country having a massive influence on the world scene with Christian witness. What do we have? We have a media that celebrates sex outside of marriage, abortion as the law of the land, homosexual advocates pushing for marriage, the idea that we need to be tolerant of Islam, Joyce Meyer and Joel O’Steen being seen as great Christian literature, political correctness being a reigning ideology, a church afraid to “offend” anyone, and the greatest threat to a church often seen as being when a new Harry Potter book comes out. (Which by the way, I thoroughly love the series for all concerned)

We have the most access. The internet can be found in the majority of homes today and while there’s a lot of junk on it, there’s also a lot of good stuff for those who will take the time to look. We have a huge number of ministries here with numerous educational resources. We have television and radio shows dedicated to the spread of the gospel. We have libraries and bookstores where people can find books to study. We also have enough wealth here to finance several ministries. We should be on the forefront in evangelism and Christian witness.

We are not.

And the solution is not to build more churches.

The solution is to use the churches we have built by filling them with Christians who know the Scriptures and can teach them accurately. We need songs that will edify and enrich our theological lives. We need to be aware with the media of our age and how to use it and how to interact with it. We need to be involved in government activities instead of running from them using our power as Christians to limit abortion, same-sex marriage, and other such practices. We need to be educating our youth and teaching them how to think. We need to be again establishing real Universities and Seminaries where Christian thinking can be spread.

Can we do it? Well we can. There is no doubt about that. We have the means to do so. It is not a question of can. It is a question of will. Will we do so?

I pray we will, for if we do not, it might not just be the case that in America, the next generation does not know of Christianity. It could be that there might not even be a next generation due to an America that fell away from its heritage in faith and lost its identity altogether. There might not be a nation to pass on to our descendants.

The choice is yours and mine where we go from here.

The Royal Wedding And Christian Witness

Hello everyone and welcome back to Deeper Waters where we are diving into the ocean of truth. I started blogging recently on natural theology and presuppositionalism, but before returning to that, my mind has been pondering lately what I heard about the recent royal wedding. No. I didn’t bother watching. I was out of town and sick anyway. I have heard from some people however that based on a reading of Romans 12, that this wedding was to be a witness of the impact of Christianity on our culture.

On the contrary, I think it’s a witness of the impact of secularism on our culture.

Let’s take a look at some basic facts that will show this. To begin with, the prince and the now princess lived together before they were married. This is not in line with the Christian tradition of sexuality. Not only that, the bride was pregnant before the wedding and the honeymoon is even being put on hold.

But they read Romans 12 at the wedding!

That doesn’t demonstrate the importance of Christianity. In fact, I see it as looking at Christianity as a relic of a bygone era. It’s like doing the tradition that you do simply because it is the tradition. Religion is what we do for marriages, but on the way that we live our lives as a whole, it does not make a difference. It is Stephen Jay Gould’s NOMA in some ways.

If we wanted a Christian witness, then we needed Christianity to be a part of not just the wedding, but also the dating, engagement, and the marriage itself. We in America and the West overall need to look at the way that our society is living and see if marriage is being treated as sacred. Are even Christians doing that?

Why have some looked at it so quickly as a witness. Could it be because we are lacking witness elsewhere? Now I am not against Christian films and TV shows and such, but are we often using the media to make a case for us? If we can take someone to see a movie like “The Passion of the Christ” well that will show them the importance of Christianity. No need for us to really study the Scriptures. We’ll just count on the media to do things for us. No need for us to form a witness to the world. We’ll just wait until Scripture is read in a major event televised around the world and claim that it was a witness.

I don’t doubt that some people were converted by movies like the Passion. Some of us however just weren’t impressed. I actually did not really care for it too much. For me, a movie like “Luther” was much more enjoyable. I own a copy of that film. My reason for not liking the Passion was because I did not see enough emphasis on the deity of Christ and too much stuff added in that was not Scriptural. If someone comes to Christ, great, but I hope they were discipled as well. If we count on someone to get an emotional response to a movie, TV show, song, etc., we could be setting ourselves up for failure as not all people will do that.

That Romans 12 was read is not going to have a major impact on non-Christians out there any more than hearing Christmas Carols that have religious themes will be impacting on them. I seriously doubt people the world over were talking to one another about the wedding and saying “I really loved that stuff from the Bible. I think it was Romans 12. Maybe I need to study Christianity more!”

Want a witness to the world? The best witness to the world is to BE the witness. Our jumping at any thing that we can shows not how seriously we take our faith, but rather that we fear our faith is being seen as antiquated in our modern world, and if it is, we ultimately have no one to blame but ourselves.

Don’t Touch God’s Anointed!

Welcome everyone to Deeper Waters where we are diving into the ocean of truth. I’d like to wrap up our look at Christian sound bites tonight. Right now, my plan is starting tomorrow that I’d like to look at a video put out by “The Amazing Atheist” on YouTube called “Thomas Aquinas sucks.” From my viewing, what’s amazing is that TAA actually thinks he’s refuted Aquinas. I hope this will be a good object lesson also in properly studying a worldview.

Speaking of YouTube, one of my favorite videos right now has been the one of Benny Hinn as the Dark Lord of the Sith. If you haven’t seen it, you need to go and watch it. It’s hysterical! However, as I was reading over the comments, I did read someone saying “Well you don’t want to touch God’s anointed.”

What does it mean to say that?

To begin with, God’s anointed in biblical times was a king. The first case we have of this is Saul. There are numerous cases in 1 Samuel where David has a chance to kill Saul. He not only has a chance, it would practically be a slam dunk. He could have done it and got away with it and he had the support of his men to do so.

Every single time, he refused. He would not touch God’s anointed. In fact, when people claimed to have killed Saul or even when they did kill his son who was on the throne for a short time, David had them killed. He knew that God had appointed Saul to be king of Israel and while David knew his time was coming, it would come on God’s time and not his own.

And yet in many of these cases, David also criticized Saul. He pointed out to Saul that Saul had been trying to kill him and that this was wrong. He wanted Saul to not waste his time out in this chase since David had done nothing wrong. Did he view Saul as God’s anointed? Yes. That did not stop him however from telling him, “You’re doing wrong.”

To say when someone speaks against a speaker like Benny Hinn, “Don’t touch God’s anointed,” is first off to assume that God has anointed Benny Hinn. However, let’s assume that for the sake of argument, and I know this will seem a huge leap to many readers, that Benny Hinn does have “anointing.” (Rest assured, I don’t think this for a second.)

All the text means then in saying “Don’t touch him” is “Don’t kill him.” Thus, as long as you’re not making death threats against Benny Hinn, you’re okay. By the case of Saul and David, you are entirely allowed to criticize Benny Hinn. If you think he is in the wrong, by all means speak up.

In fact, this is good for anyone in a leadership position. You should always feel free to come and be able to say how you think they’re wrong. In fact, God Himself allows this for Him in the Bible. He invites us to make our case before Him. If we think He is not doing right, in what way? This kind of questioning goes on regularly in the Psalms.

No leader in the church today should be immune to questioning. None of us are going to get it all right. We’re all going to have mistakes in our thinking. Questioning allows us to keep things right. When we say a leader is above reproach, we are well on the way to surrendering our thinking and forming a cult leader. We all know how God views idolatry and we can make an idol of a living human being.

Let’s not do so.

You Can’t Put God In A Box

Welcome everyone to Deeper Waters where we are diving into the ocean of truth! We’ve lately been looking at Christian sound bites, a series we’re almost done with and while I had another target in mind for a next mini-series, I have elsewhere where I plan to go, but it should prove to be entertaining.

With my viewpoints on God not speaking today being normative, one common argument I often hear is “You can’t put God in a box!” Someone who says this believes that when I make my claim, I am saying that God cannot speak to someone today and therefore, I throw out any attempt to show that He has done so a priori.

Such an objection however shows a lack of thinking again. Why would someone like myself hold to the position that God speaking today would not be normative. Is it because I believe God was capable in the Old Testament and the New Testament of speaking to people but somehow over time He has lost this ability? Surely not! If He has done so before, He can do so again.

It’s not something in God’s nature that is an inability on His part but by looking at the way God acted in the Old Testament and the New Testament. When did He speak? Why? What was the purpose of the revelation? I take the same approach to miracles. They can happen today, but I do not think we should expect them to be normative. In fact, I think we can expect God more often to work through non-miraculous ways.

The given objection rules out debate. It centers on God’s abilities vs. God’s methods. Now there are some things I do not believe God can do and some would say this is putting him in a box. For instance, I do not believe that God can make a contradiction true. He cannot violate the laws of logic. If someone disagrees with this, the best approach is to discuss the objection rather than say “You can’t put God in a box.”

Greg Koukl of Stand To Reason has also pointed out that saying this in reply to being concerned if some “new movement” is of God would ultimately be a way to justify anything no matter how crazy. “Who are you to say that God cannot act in this way? If God wants his children on all fours barking like dogs, who’s to say he’s not going to do that?”

Well if God can take King Nebuchadnezzar and give him the mind of a beast, I have no problem saying that this can be done. The question to ask is not can it be done, but rather, is God doing this? What some Christians need to realize is that to say “God can do X” is not the same as saying “God is doing X.” If you are claiming that God is doing something, you need to have a reason why. If I think He is not, I will give a reason why I think He is not.

And you know what? It could be that we’ll end up having what the sound bite is meant to avoid, a real discussion on the nature of God, and surely some fruit will come of that.

Let God Defend Your Faith

Hello everyone and welcome back to Deeper Waters where we are diving into the ocean of truth. First off, a lot of you have been wanting me to get things more organized here and thankfully, someone from my church is willing to work on my computer and to help with that. Thus, you and I both get our wish. To continue with where we’re going, we’re looking at Christian sound bites now and as an apologist, this next one I find quite annoying.

There have been a number of times when people have heard me speaking about the need for Christian apologetics and have said “Don’t defend your faith. Let God do that.” I always ask the same question in response when I hear someone say that. “Do you take the same approach to evangelism?”

To begin with, we are to defend our faith because God told us to. When we do evangelism, we are going to confront people of different viewpoints and we need to show why our viewpoint is correct and theirs is wrong. We are told to contend for the faith in Jude 3. In Philippians 1, Paul says he is in chains for the defense of the gospel.

However, let’s look at this from another perspective. One question often asked is “What about those who’ve never heard?” One reason I don’t believe this is answered is because God has given us the Great Commission. There is no plan B. God doesn’t say “I want you to do the Great Commission, but if you don’t, I’m going to handle things this way.” Now I do believe he will handle things in a just and right way, but we are not given any excuse to not perform the Great Commission.

God has given us a task. We are to do it. Thus, my biggest objection to this is that it justifies laziness again. We could use it in all manner of ways.

“Don’t donate to the church or give to charity. If God wants them to have money, he’ll get it.”

“Don’t pray. If God wants you to have something, he’ll give it.” (Mind you I don’t think such is the only purpose of prayer anyway)

“Don’t study the Bible. If God wants you to know something, he’ll tell you.”

“Don’t go to the grocery store. If God wants you to eat, he’ll feed you.”

“Don’t go to work. If God wants you to have money, he’ll give it to you.”

The idea is that God is supposed to do everything for us. Now there’s no denial that God can do what has been said above. If God wanted to, he could have food brought to any of us every day so we would never have to go to the grocery store. That has not been his plan however and considering the way the Jews and ancients as a whole viewed deities, that shouldn’t surprise us.

We have this view that God is to do our work for us. This even gets to where we want God to make our decisions for us today. It gets us from the holy view of God where He is not meant to serve us but we are meant to serve Him. (Consider this when The Shack has at the end the main character saying “God, my servant.”)

What is most often the case I would say is people wanting to justify laziness. Yes. Being an apologist requires work and there are many times I do not desire to be reading and it takes discipline, but the results are worth it. Even if you do not do apologetics to the degree a lot of us do, you should be studying to show yourself approved in knowing what you believe.

There is no valid excuse for laziness at the throne of God after all.

Super Spirituality

Welcome everyone to Deeper Waters where we are diving into the ocean of truth! Lately, we’ve been examining the Christian church and considering sound bites that are used in the culture of the American church. While we have often dealt with slogans, tonight, I’d kind of like to deal with an attitude prevalent in the church. That is what I think of as super spirituality.

My current church is an exception, but I know a lot of churches can refer to me as “brother” and yet, they are so often not there. I am thinking right now in contrast of a kind lady whose helped my wife and I out and yet has never met us and as I thanked her she said “We’re all brothers and sisters in Christ. It’s good to help out.”

Now that is the real attitude I think we should have. However, we can often say “Well brother, I’ll be praying for you.” I’d really like us to consider something like this. How many of us when we say something like that actually do pray about that person that we said we would?

Spirituality too often is not about lifting God up, but lifting ourselves up. How many times can we want to flaunt our spirituality before others. Greg Koukl has talked about the Christian who says “I was thinking about you during my third prayer time today” or “You were in my mind while I was memorizing Jeremiah.”

Of course, when this comes to a personal weakness, we often don’t want to show that. Why? Well that wouldn’t be spiritual. A true Christian cannot be depressed. (And if you are one who has said this, shame on you for causing further pain to one who is already suffering) True Christians should have constant happiness.

We say this while our Lord was described as a man of sorrows familiar with suffering.

Christian. It’s okay to suffer. It’s also okay to be upset with God. You want proof? Go to that book of the Bible called Psalms and look at how the Psalmist talks to God. Go read the book of Jeremiah and note the complaints that Jeremiah gives to God. These people were bluntly honest with what they were going through before God.

Something else to consider. How many times do you see someone share something in them that they are struggling with and you look at them afterwards and think “I really have a lot more respect for them now.”? Hence, I have a blog on here about Obama, Socialism, and my story. This was to let my readers know that I too bleed. I say that not to lift myself up, but I think some people reading this blog could view me in a leadership capacity and I want them to know that while they admire me perhaps, that I have many struggles as well and my wife can tell you I have a lot to work on.

Don’t put up a facade please, and I say this to myself as well. Be real. The kingdom is not about building you up. The kingdom is about bringing Christ glory.

Claiming Revelation

Welcome everyone to Deeper Waters where we dive into the ocean of truth. We’ve been looking lately at Christian Sound Bites. The sad reality is that instead of studying like they should, Christians more often just tossing out little platitudes, sadly many of which they got from their pastor probably. (We do need better informed pastors leading the flock) Tonight, we’re not looking at a sound bite per se, but a kind of attitude Christians can have.

One term that should always put you on red alert when a fellow Christian says it to you is “God told me.” To claim insight into the mind of the Most High and that He has revealed information to you is a serious claim. How seriously you take it is an indication of how seriously you take God. If you toss it out casually, you have a low view of God.

Let me state upfront that I am not saying God cannot speak to someone and tell them something today. God can do what he wants. I’m saying it’s not normative. None of us doubt that God can raise the dead. However, that doesn’t mean we’re going to leave the casket open and keep praying. It’s not a lack of faith when we bury someone. It’s not putting a limitation on God. It’s saying that He has promised when He will do that and we’re waiting on Him to do so then.

In Old Testament times, the claim to speak for God was definitely taken seriously. People died when they said “God said” and God had not said. If you got one prophecy wrong, you were a false prophet and you were to pay the price with your life for attempting to lead Israel astray.

God is the God of all truth. Do you know what you are saying when you claim that He told you something? You are claiming that what you are saying is absolutely true and true on divine authority and not just that, but personally revealed to you. Now there’s nothing wrong with quoting Scripture as the Word of God, but there’s something wrong with going beyond Scripture and giving it divine authority. Are you so sure that God has spoken something personally to you that you’d be ready to die for the claim? You’d better be!

Consider also the damage this does. First off, new Christians can expect that they ought to hear from God when this is normative. If they don’t, they think there’s something wrong. Don’t tell me that this has no effect. I’ve read on the blogosphere of people apostasizing for reasons like this.

Second, you are being an embarrassment in the eyes of those who oppose us. Consider what happened when Pat Robertson spoke on TV after the Haiti earthquake and while what he said was supposed to have divine authority, it was all wrong. Now I do realize that a lot of these are the faith teachers that we Christians don’t take seriously, but many an opponent of the church is ready to lump us all together.

Personally, we have enough that we need to explain in the eyes of a watchful world. Now I do realize we’re not perfect, but we don’t want to add to our bad actions. If we don’t take God seriously, then pray tell why should anyone else? If we make conversation with Him to be something commonplace, we’d better be acting accordingly!

Of course, I think we should all be leading holy lives based on our being in covenant with YHWH, but if you claim to hear from God and half of what you say is wrong, what will people think about God?

Third, you are denigrating Scripture. In fact, this is what happens with many of these people where The Bible becomes a collection of dusty old books. These are the ones we know to be the Word of God that were handed down to us, often at the expense of the lives of several Christians.

If you’re your average American, do something right now. Go to your room and get your Bible and then come back here.

Got it?

Okay. Now consider this.

Most anyone in China would give anything to get what you have right there. If they had just one page from it, they would pore over it constantly. People in China still place great value on what God said. Our concept is really American and one confusing the rest of the world. My former roommate and I were both quite upset once at a church service with some teachers talking about going to the Middle East and having students there in their classes ask “How do you hear the voice of God?”

Makes you wonder why God would even bother giving us a book if He was just supposed to verbally tell us everything.

The result is that our Christianity becomes more centered on us and our experiences rather than on God and how He has revealed Himself to us in Scripture. This doesn’t mean our experiences are meaningless. However, we are to interpret our experiences by Scripture and not use our experiences TO interpret Scripture. Scripture is the authority. We are not.

The sooner Christians drop the idea that God is speaking to them on a regular basis and return to a view of the majesty and awesomeness of God, the better. Perhaps maybe we’ll actually study Scripture again then.

You Can’t Argue Someone Into The Kingdom

Welcome everyone to Deeper Waters where we are diving into the ocean of truth. We’re looking lately at Christian Sound Bites. Last night, we saw that you do in fact need theology if you’re going to be a Christian. Tonight, we are going to look at the saying that you can’t argue someone into the kingdom.

Now in a sense, this one is true. As an apologist, I know that there is no magic bullet argument that will cause someone to convert. I sure wish there were, but there isn’t. Different people have different objections and some are volitional doubters and because of this, they will not bend a knee to any argument.

I also give a warning to young people starting out in apologetics. Don’t go out there thinking that you’re going to convert the world with your new knowledge. In fact, you’re going to get your tail kicked for awhile. All of us have before. It’s normal. Just keep studying.

What concerns me is the implication that I’m supposed to draw from this statement. If it is simply that there is no magic bullet, all is good and well. However, too often, it’s given in a way that says that you should avoid argumentation because you cannot argue someone into the kingdom. Better to just love them.

For the first part, argumentation is not something to be avoided. The apostles and the early church fathers regularly engaged in it. Once again, when training young apologists, I often encourage them to find a place where they can argue. That’s where you can put to test the ideas you have and the more you argue, the better you will be at understanding your ideas and how they need to be improved.

A good Christian wanting to evangelize should know how to converse with people and with people who disagree. That means interaction. That means dealing with people who are absolute jerks and with people who have real questions and really want answers and it will take experience to know which one is which.

But what about love? After all, you can’t argue someone into the kingdom. Well you can’t just love someone into the kingdom. How many people left Christ without coming into the kingdom despite the love that he showed them? In fact, we are told specifically for the rich young man that Jesus loved him, and yet that rich young man did not choose to follow Jesus.

If the idea is that we shouldn’t use argumentation because you can’t just argue someone into the kingdom, therefore use love, then the same reality applies. “But the Holy Spirit can use your love!” Yes. Of course he can. The Holy Spirit can also use a good argument. It’s not an either/or. It’s a both/and.

In fact, that’s the way it should be. We have to be people of truth and we have to be people of love. That’s biblical love however and not sentimentality. We are out to win the whole person. You don’t get their heart and you don’t just get their mind. We have to claim all of them for Christ. He does not want anything less.

I Don’t Need Theology

Welcome everyone to Deeper Waters where we are diving into the ocean of truth! We’ve lately been looking at Christian sound bites. Why do this? Because Christians are supposed to be people of truth and it does not serve us to unthinkingly pass on cliches that are devoid of substance.

Somehow, many of the church have got the idea that it’s holy to believe something blindly. When Richard Dawkins and Sam Harris condemn believing something without evidence, I agree with them. Unfortunately for them, they also believe in a definition of faith without evidence.

This is common in the idea that we don’t need theology. We’ll just have Jesus and that will be enough!

Oh? Which Jesus? Do you want the Mormon Jesus who is the spirit brother of Lucifer?

Do you want the Jehovah’s Witness Jesus who is Michael the archangel and who became Jesus?

Do you want the oneness Jesus who is the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit?

Do you want the new age Jesus who is an avatar?

Do you want the Muslim Jesus who is a great prophet and virgin born and the sinless Messiah but who is not God nor ever claimed to be?

Do you want a humanist Jesus who just went around doing good?

Do you want the Jesus of orthodox Christianity who is the second person of the Trinity?

All of that will depend on your theology. What role of Christ will you have? Will you have Christ as He is or will you find a Christ who suits your desires and longings?

And you know what? You might actually have to study a little bit about that. It’s amazing that when you send your kid to college, you’ll want them to study the colleges and choose wisely. When they have someone they want to marry, you’ll want them to really look at the person they’ve chosen and you’ll want to meet them and make sure they’re a good match.

When it comes to their faith, the substance doesn’t really matter however. Are you going to say that your child’s belief about God is less important than where he attends college or who he marries?

If you’re not teaching your child theology, you already have said that.

Of course, it helps if you’re living out that same lifestyle. Do you make it a point to study your religion, or did you put more effort into studying to buy a TV or automobile in Consumer Reports? You don’t want to spend that time thinking about religion, but you sure won’t stop thinking about what the season is going to look like for your favorite football team.

Of course, I fall too in some ways here as well. We all do. None of us think about God as we should.

However, the sound bite dealt with today is one plaguing our church. A people that are ignorant of what they believe are sitting ducks for the new atheists. In fact, the reason the new atheists are making any leeway at all is because Christians are too ignorant by and large to realize that straw men are being attacked.

I do believe that the world has lost its intellectual bearings and has moved into a position where metaphysical questions and such are too difficult to think about so we’ll just go with science and let it answer all our questions. We can rightfully condemn that. However, the reason I think the world lost its bearings in the intellectual world is because the church lost them first. We can talk about the mess the world is in today and what we can do about it, but let’s not act like we’re innocent.

Our laxity on such issues has led to the rise of atheism and secular morality. There is blood on our hands when we realize if maybe we’d never stopped fighting the battle that 4,000 babies would not die every day in abortion. Why did we get to the point where it was believed life was not valuable and good from conception? It is because we were not there. We were too busy feeling good about ourselves to make sure the world was good. But hey, we were safe. We didn’t have to enter that heavy intellectual stuff.

Theology is not just a nice little addendum to the faith. It is a necessity. It is not just a pastime. It is a lifetime work. I have often told my wife that theology and philosophy are not an option. We all do them. The question is if we will do them well or not. I pray that you Christian will start doing good theology because as Lewis would say with new atheists on the rise, bad theology needs to be answered.