Religion makes hell sound so scary, a lot of people worship God because of fear. Isn’t it convenient that hell is self-serving to the growth of religion? Doesn’t it seem stupid to follow God because of fear of punishment?

10.21.10

The following question was found online. It is from the viewpoint of someone who does not believe in God, and is looking for questions that cannot be answered in order to justify his/her belief that there is no God. You can hear the lack of trust in God in the question. The viewpoint of my answer is from total trust in God. Each answer is a quick overview – not a detailed explanation! God is a God of truth, and the Bible is full of answers…

“Religion makes hell sound so scary, a lot of people worship God because of fear.  Isn’t it convenient that hell is self-serving to the growth of religion?  Doesn’t it seem stupid to follow God because of fear of punishment?”

The skepticism of this question is very obvious, so I want to break the question down and address the following issues: hell, growth of religion, and fear of punishment.

First of all, is hell real? What does the Bible say? Here are some references (by no means an exhaustive list):

In Matthew 25:30, Jesus says “Cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness; there men will weep and gnash their teeth.”

A few verses later, Jesus talks about the judgement of the king declaring: “Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.” (Matthew 25:41) This statement is compared with the righteous in Matthew 25:46, who will go “into eternal life.”

In Mark, hell is referred to as “the unquenchable fire” (Mark 9:43) and a place “where their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched” (Mark 9:48) (A similar reference is found in Isaiah 66:44).

In Luke, there is a very graphic story about a rich man and Lazarus: the rich man had all the luxuries of this world, and Lazarus suffered throughout his time on the earth. “The rich man also died and was buried; and in Hades, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes, and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus in his bosom, and he called out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy upon me, and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am in anguish in this flame.’” (Luke 16:22-24)

In Revelation, we even see hell in reference to satan: “The devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulphur where the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be tormented day and night for ever and ever.” (Revelation 20:10)

These few verses give us quite a description about hell: it is real; we don’t want to be there. The purpose of hell and the combination of a just and loving God is a topic for another blog. I want to stick to the initial question, and address the topic of church growth through fear of punishment.

Fear is an interesting topic. The Bible makes it clear that there is only one thing we need to fear: God.

Psalm 111:10 says “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” This statement is repeated in a similar fashion in Job 28:28, Proverbs 1:7, 9:10, Isaiah 33:6, and Micah 6:9. These statements certainly have a lot to do with reverence, respect, and a knowledge of who has real power. In Luke 12:4-5, Jesus says “I tell you, my friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body and after that can do no more. But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear him who, after the killing of the body, has power to throw you into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him.” God is in control.

These passages do not paralyze us with the fear of God, so that we cannot act in this world. On the contrary, these passages motivate us to have a right relationship with God, because He matters more than anything in this world! Outside of the fear of the Lord, other fear observed in the Bible does not come from God. There are too many examples to list: like the Israelites afraid before Goliath, the disciples afraid on the boat in the storm, etc…

Is the fear of God and the fear of hell the same thing? Almost always no, but there has to be exceptions. As the fear of hell has been preyed upon so many people for so many years, it has produced a people afraid to mess up before God, because they are afraid of hell. This is the opposite of what the Bible teaches. In a relationship with God, we are sons and daughters of the King – not people who have to walk on eggshells around our Heavenly Father. John writes “How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!” (1 John 3:1). As children, we can also approach God in confidence. “Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.” (Hebrews 4:16) We can also be confident in the security of our salvation, which is marked by the Holy Spirit, “Who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession – to the praise of His glory.” (Ephesians 1:14)

If the church grows based on the fear of hell, then the church this growth produces will be weak and powerless. Look at the death and resurrection of Jesus! The church is built on the fact that Jesus conquers the power of hell! Jesus enables a relationship with the Lord which is not built on our works, which lead to hell, but on the work of Jesus Christ through His cross and resurrection (Ephesians 2:8-9). The more we can focus on the glory of Jesus Christ through the cross and resurrection the better!

Earlier, I said there are always exceptions. Hell is real. We cannot ignore it. Hell serves as a stark reminder that there are real consequences for sin – that God is a just God. When a lost person learns about hell, I hope the exception to what I’ve already stated is that they will find Jesus – that they will find real relationship with God. Not something built on the premise of fear, but something built upon the love of our Savior. In God’s kindness, He is giving us more time to come to repentance and salvation in Jesus Christ; it is God’s kindness leading people towards repentance (Romans 2:4), not the fear of hell.

Why does God want to be praised?

9.30.10

The following question was found online. It is from the viewpoint of someone who does not believe in God, and is looking for questions that cannot be answered in order to justify his/her belief that there is no God. You can hear the lack of trust in God in the question. The viewpoint of my answer is from total trust in God. Each answer is a quick overview – not a detailed explanation! God is a God of truth, and the Bible is full of answers…

Why does God want to be praised?

As a Christian, this question can quickly seem pretty ridiculous, because worshipping the Lord is one of the most joyous aspects of the Christian life! A Christian who is worshipping the Lord in spirit and in truth (John 4:24) finds life through worship, so a quick response would be: “What does it matter why God wants to be praised? I will praise God no matter what the answer, because I find life when I praise God!”

For someone who does not believe in God, however, this question is based on an assumption that God is selfish, and it would be meaningless to give Him praise. Let’s take a closer look…

The heart of this question doesn’t understand one of the most basic parts of being a Christian: it is a relationship. When we trust in the Lord Jesus Christ to save us from our sin and give us life, we are entering into a relationship with God. Throughout the Bible, we can see parallels between our relationship with God and the marriage relationship: the husband is compared to Jesus and the wife to the church in Ephesians 5:22-33. Continuing with this comparison, we might as well ask the question: why does a wife love her husband, and a husband want the love of his wife? The question seems silly, because in a relationship you love each other. You love each other because the spouse has attributes and traits which excite you. You love each other because of things the spouse has done for you. These are worldly, but real reasons. Hopefully, in a Christian marriage you love each other with the unconditional love God has placed within your hearts. When a husband and wife love each other, they express this love. They can express love through serving each other, having physical intimacy, giving gifts to each other, etc… When we love on the Lord, how do we express this love? We express the love through obedience and service, through giving gifts just like we can with our spouse. Our ultimate expression of love, however, is through praise.

The Psalmist expresses this idea in Psalm 100:4-5. “Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name. For the Lord is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations.”

Praise is a one-way communication with God. We are telling him we love Him; we are telling Him how great He is; we are thanking Him for the things He has done in our lives. When the Lord rescued Israel through the crossing of the Red Sea, Moses and Miriam praise God in Exodus 15:1-2. “I will sing to the Lord, for he is highly exalted. The horse and its rider he has hurled into the sea. The Lord is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation. He is my God, and I will praise him, my father’s God, and I will exalt him.”

Does praise stop here? Not at all. Psalm 22:3 says “Yet you are holy, enthroned on the praises of Israel.” When we praise God, His presence dwells in the midst of our praises. When God is with us, the communication suddenly becomes two-way. God is speaking to us: affirming us of the truth; convicting of sin; reminding us of scripture; etc… This is worship.

Is God’s presence good or bad? Certainly good! James 1:17 says “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.” Jesus says in Matthew 7:9-11, “Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!” Based on these scriptures, you could certainly conclude that God has our greatest good in mind when He is with us!

To sum it all up: we praise God in relationship, His presence resides with us in the praise, and He certainly has our best interest at His heart.

So then, to answer the question, “Why does God want to be praised?” The conclusion is the furthest thing from selfishness! God wants to be praised because He wants what is best for us, and this goodness can only be found in His presence.

Praise the Lord!

If so many Christians believe different things, then how can I believe anything?

9.23.10

The following question was found online. It is from the viewpoint of someone who does not believe in God, and is looking for questions that cannot be answered in order to justify his/her belief that there is no God. You can hear the lack of trust in God in the question. The viewpoint of my answer is from total trust in God. Each answer is a quick overview – not a detailed explanation! God is a God of truth, and the Bible is full of answers…

If so many Christians believe different things, then how can I believe anything?

In the forum where I found this question, there is a deeper meaning than what you just might read in the question alone. Hidden within the question is the idea that an absolute truth cannot exist – a concept very popular in our post-modern world. Basically, since there are so many ‘variations’ of Christianity, then it is obvious one belief cannot be correct. When a person has developed this mindset, and uses this question as an excuse to not investigate the truth, then they are taking a very lazy way out of knowing what to believe.

In John 14:6, Jesus emphatically states: “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” Later on, when Jesus is standing before Pilate, Pilate begins questioning the truth, and Jesus answers him “I came into this world to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.” – John 18:37.
Jesus makes it clear: there is absolute truth, and it is found in Him!

Now we fast-forward to 2010; what has happened to the church? The first part of the question is true: Christianity is very divided in beliefs, but this fact should not lead us to not believe anything. Let’s take a closer look at the church (this is an incredibly brief overview!)…

The church was ‘born’ in Acts 2 at the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. On the first day of the church, Acts 2:41 says three thousand were added to their number. These people, under the leadership of Peter and the apostles, took the message of Jesus Christ throughout the world, “and the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.” – Acts 2:47

At this point, the church is completely one. In fact, the word Catholic simply means ‘Universal.’ Maintaining unity becomes increasingly difficult when the church is spread out all over the world. There are main ‘hubs’ for the church, in cities like Rome, Jerusalem, and Alexandria, but these are all far away from each other. For this reason, the church becomes susceptible to many localized beliefs; gnosticism is the largest threat to challenge the very words of Jesus. Adding fuel to the fire is the Roman Emperor Constantine; he makes Christianity the official religion of Rome in 312AD, and people who were stuck in idol worship can easily pull some of their pagan practices into the church. So the church responds with gatherings of leadership to produce creeds, such as the Nicene Creed. During this time, the bishop of Rome rises in power to the point where he is looked to as the supreme leader of the church: the pope. The New Testament text now becomes canonized, but the voice of the church speaks louder than the voice of the scripture. So everything is in unison…

What happens when church leaders disagree on a creed? It happened in 1054AD, and the first church split occurs, forming the Roman Catholic church of the west and the Orthodox church of the east. The split ultimately came down to the power of the western church controlling the church in the east, and this power was not going to extend to the east any more.

The church continued as two parts until 1517, when Martin Luther posted his 95 theses on the door of the Wittenberg chapel. By the decision-making of the church, the church had become far removed from the text of the Bible. Luther desired to reform the church and get back to the Bible, but the reformation didn’t change the Roman Catholic church, instead the reformation was the birth of Protestant Christianity – apart from Roman Catholicism. Only a few years later, in 1534, the King Henry VIII of England would separate his nation from Roman Catholicism because of a divorce, and the Anglican church is born.

After this time, branches of Protestant Christianity are quickly formed based on varying interpretations of the Biblical text. The proper function and meaning of baptism is a huge topic; the function and meaning of the Eucharist (Lord’s Supper) is also enormous. The sovereignty of God versus the free will of man becomes a major topic. And the list can go on and on…

It is easy to get caught up and confused in the intricacies of Christian belief. It is easy to see the fighting that has occurred between Christians, and the fighting has been over things the outside world does not understand, so it can seem pretty ridiculous. It is easy to see when Christians do not act in love the way they are supposed to, because unfortunately sin can infiltrate the church just as it permeates the world around the church.

To look at all of this information, and miss the constant through it all would be sad. Here is the constant: Jesus Christ is still Lord. Jesus still died on the cross and rose from the dead so we could have a relationship with God. Jesus is still the way, the truth, and the life. Jesus still loves you.

What should be the standard for our belief? The people who follow Jesus, which is the church? Or Jesus himself?

I will continue to place my faith and trust in the one who willingly died for me – knowing that I was a sinner! I will place my faith and trust in Jesus Christ.

God said we cannot see His face and live, so how can Jesus be God?

September 2nd, 2010

The following question was found online. It is from the viewpoint of someone who does not believe in God, and is looking for questions that cannot be answered in order to justify his/her belief that there is no God. You can hear the lack of trust in God in the question. The viewpoint of my answer is from total trust in God. Each answer is a quick overview – not a detailed explanation! God is a God of truth, and the Bible is full of answers…

In the Old Testament, God said we cannot see His face and live, so how can Jesus be God?

In the book of Exodus, the Lord is very pleased with Moses. So Moses asks to see the glory of the Lord. It is obvious that Moses has already been in great lengths of communication with the Lord, but this request is something different. To Moses’ request, the Lord responds in Exodus 33:19-20, “I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the Lord, in your presence. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. But,” he said, “you cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live.”

At first glance, it would certainly seem like this is a contradiction to many other places in the Bible. First of all, Jesus is clearly God according to the scripture, and many saw His face. There are also experiences like Isaiah 6:1, where Isaiah sees the Lord.

Let’s take a closer look: the Bible makes it very clear that we are to seek His face!

2 Chronicles 7:14 is very clear: “If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”

1 Chronicles 16:11 says to “seek His face always.”

Job looks forward to the day when he will see God with his own eyes (Job 19:25-27)

David says in Psalm 27:8, “My heart says of you, ‘Seek his face!’ Your face, Lord, I will seek.”

So the Bible makes it clear we are to seek God’s face, and if we seek God’s face then we will die. How can these things go together? Is God asking us to die?

Yes.

Look at what happened to the people who sought God’s face in the scriptures listed above. Every time the Israelites sought the face of the Lord, they encountered their sin and had to deal with it, and God drew them closer to himself. Job sought God’s face, and his life is an example of dying to everything in this world and living for God alone. David sought the face of the Lord, and he couldn’t hide from his sin, but instead walked through one of the most public encounters with sin and repentance. What about with Jesus? When people encountered Jesus, they were different when they left.

What is really happening through these encounters with God? The sinful nature in people is dying. We are dying to ourselves. As the Son of God, Jesus was such an incredible model of how to live for the Lord and not for this world. While he was in the garden of Gethsemane, awaiting his betrayer to come and crucify him, Jesus prayed “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.” (Luke 22:42) Even in a time of extreme agony, Jesus chose to do the will of the Father instead of his own will – this is dying to yourself. Earlier in the book of Luke, Jesus tells his followers how to follow in his footsteps: “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.” (Luke 9:23) We are to die to ourselves… only an encounter with God – face to face – can bring us to such a decision.

Why would someone choose to die? The glory of the Lord is that we not only die to ourselves, but we live for God, and His love is better than life (Psalm 63:3). Jesus died on the cross, but he rose from the grave – conquering sin and conquering death. When we encounter Jesus face to face, we can choose to crucify our sinful nature on the cross with Jesus, and rise again to live in His abundant life (John 10:10; Romans 6:4).

May the Lord draw us to His face, that we might die to ourselves and live in Him!

All to the glory of God.

If Jesus was supposed to be dead for three days and three nights, then why did He die on Friday, when it is clearly not three days and three nights until Sunday?

August 26th, 2010

The following question was found online. It is from the viewpoint of someone who does not believe in God, and is looking for questions that cannot be answered in order to justify his/her belief that there is no God. You can hear the lack of trust in God in the question. The viewpoint of my answer is from total trust in God. Each answer is a quick overview – not a detailed explanation! God is a God of truth, and the Bible is full of answers…

If Jesus was supposed to be dead for three days and three nights, then why did He die on Friday, when it is clearly not three days and three nights until Sunday?

This is a very fun question to answer, because it involves really investigating the scripture to find the timeline of the death and resurrection of Jesus according to the Bible. Through history, there have been many examples of tradition replacing truth. In the case of the Christian religion, many traditions were began without careful examination of the scripture, but simply began for the sake of tradition. For instance, the traditional day of Jesus’ birth is celebrated on December 25th. This celebration began as the church’s response to pagan celebrations happening at the same time. The Bible never states the day of Jesus’ birth, and even never tells us to celebrate his birth. (This debate is not the purpose of the blog, but evidence of tradition replacing fact.)

When it comes to the death and resurrection of Jesus, tradition has also replaced fact.

While I typically will answer every question directly on this blog, another man in our church, Dr. Steve Howard, has researched this topic for years and developed a website which is devoted to the very question at hand.

So, click on his website below, and investigate the scriptures he presents to see if his words are true… This is good scholarship.

www.signofjonah.info

Why is Faith Good?

August 12th, 2010

The following question was found online. It is from the viewpoint of someone who does not believe in God, and is looking for questions that cannot be answered in order to justify his/her belief that there is no God. You can hear the lack of trust in God in the question. The viewpoint of my answer is from total trust in God. Each answer is a quick overview – not a detailed explanation! God is a God of truth, and the Bible is full of answers…

Why is faith good?

Over the past week, this question has been popping up everywhere I turn. Recently, it has been made popular by a documentary from an atheist viewpoint, and the documentary interviews many religious people with this question.

Let’s define faith. According to Hebrews 11:1, “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.” So to a Christian, faith looks forward to being sure of eternity in heaven with Jesus, and certain of the return of Jesus to this earth in the near future. Also, since we live almost 2,000 years after the life of Jesus, faith looks back at Jesus in certainty that He was God in the flesh, and that He died and rose from the dead to enable a relationship between man and God.

Generically, faith is used by every person every single day. There are so many things we place our faith in. I wake up every morning and have faith that the electricity in my house works. I have no idea how electricity works, but I use it in my everyday life. Recently, we had a major power failure in our town and thousands of people were without electricity for over four hours in the Texas heat. Everyone faith in the certainty of electricity was quickly shaken. Before 9/11/01, the government had faith in the goodness of people, we couldn’t see the intentions of people, but trusted them to be good. In one quick morning, that faith was taken away by terrorists, and everyone has seen the results in the airports since that fateful day. I love to rock-climb. Every time I attach a rope to my harness, I have faith that the rope and harness are going to hold me. I have to have faith in the people who tested them, and faith in my knot-tying ability.

So, in a generic sense, faith is used everyday. Why is faith good? Without this generic faith, we would not be able to function in life. We would be scared about everything, and the natural routines of life would be so laborious, we would be unable to live.

Faith in God simply takes faith to a whole new level. We can trust God. God has a plan. God holds the beginning of my life and the end of my life in His hands. My life is not about me, but about trusting in God who holds all things together. Why is faith good? It allows us to be confident, when the circumstances of this world would strip us of earthly confidence. It allows our lives to have meaning and hope. It allows us to see beyond the vision of our narrow little self-universe, and glimpse matters that are much more important: like striving after the holiness of God; like loving my neighbor as myself; etc…

Furthermore, faith in God taps us into God’s power, and allows us to live in His strength and not our own. Hebrews 11 is a list of biblical figures who lived by faith. Through God’s power, they conquered enemies, hatred, obstacles, self-doubt, diseases, death, and changed the face of the world in the process.

Is faith good? It certainly is! May the Lord increase our faith in the days to come. The following the the remainder of Hebrews 11 from the New International Version of the Bible:

3By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible. 4By faith Abel offered God a better sacrifice than Cain did. By faith he was commended as a righteous man, when God spoke well of his offerings. And by faith he still speaks, even though he is dead.
 5By faith Enoch was taken from this life, so that he did not experience death; he could not be found, because God had taken him away. For before he was taken, he was commended as one who pleased God. 6And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.
 7By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family. By his faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.
 8By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. 9By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. 10For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God.
 11By faith Abraham, even though he was past age—and Sarah herself was barren—was enabled to become a father because he considered him faithful who had made the promise. 12And so from this one man, and he as good as dead, came descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sand on the seashore.
 13All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth. 14People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. 15If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. 16Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.
 17By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had received the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son, 18even though God had said to him, “It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.” 19Abraham reasoned that God could raise the dead, and figuratively speaking, he did receive Isaac back from death.
 20By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau in regard to their future.
 21By faith Jacob, when he was dying, blessed each of Joseph’s sons, and worshiped as he leaned on the top of his staff.
 22By faith Joseph, when his end was near, spoke about the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt and gave instructions about his bones.
 23By faith Moses’ parents hid him for three months after he was born, because they saw he was no ordinary child, and they were not afraid of the king’s edict.
 24By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. 25He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a short time. 26He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt, because he was looking ahead to his reward. 27By faith he left Egypt, not fearing the king’s anger; he persevered because he saw him who is invisible. 28By faith he kept the Passover and the sprinkling of blood, so that the destroyer of the firstborn would not touch the firstborn of Israel.
 29By faith the people passed through the Red Sea as on dry land; but when the Egyptians tried to do so, they were drowned.
 30By faith the walls of Jericho fell, after the people had marched around them for seven days.
 31By faith the prostitute Rahab, because she welcomed the spies, was not killed with those who were disobedient.
 32And what more shall I say? I do not have time to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel and the prophets, 33who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised; who shut the mouths of lions, 34quenched the fury of the flames, and escaped the edge of the sword; whose weakness was turned to strength; and who became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies. 35Women received back their dead, raised to life again. Others were tortured and refused to be released, so that they might gain a better resurrection. 36Some faced jeers and flogging, while still others were chained and put in prison. 37They were stoned; they were sawed in two; they were put to death by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated— 38the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, and in caves and holes in the ground.
 39These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised. 40God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect.

Christians always state that God is eternal, what if matter is eternal instead of God?

August 4th

The following question was found online. It is from the viewpoint of someone who does not believe in God, and is looking for questions that cannot be answered in order to justify his/her belief that there is no God. You can hear the lack of trust in God in the question. The viewpoint of my answer is from total trust in God. Each answer is a quick overview – not a detailed explanation! God is a God of truth, and the Bible is full of answers…

Christians always state that God is eternal, what if matter is eternal instead of God?

In the larger context of this question, the author is not stating that he/she believes in God, but rather that matter should be considered an eternal substance instead of God.

I think this is a fantastic question, because it addresses a major flaw in the theory of evolution. No matter how much you simplify or reduce the universe to the beginning of evolution, a nagging question will always remain: “Where did that come from?” For instance, if the beginning of our world was a big bang, then where did the material for the big bang come from? If the beginning of our world was primordial soup, then where did the soup come from? The questions can go on and on. Of course, this line of reasoning leads one to believe that there is still a creator at some point in the process. But if the Bible can say God is eternal, then why can’t an evolutionist say matter is eternal? Let’s break down the question.

What is eternity? By definition, eternity is infinite. It has no beginning and it has no end. The Bible states in Genesis 1:1, “In the beginning, God…” In John 1:1, the Bible says “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” This statement is directly about Jesus as God, and the eternity of God as well. What was God in the beginning of? Well, He was before creation; he was before the timeline of man. He simply exists. When Moses asks God to tell him his name, God replies in Exodus 3:14 and says “I Am who I Am.” God’s very name is an ever-present reality. God has no beginning and He has no end. He is present; he is eternal. Another way to think of God’s existence as an eternal God is to understand that God exists outside of time. Our human finite brains are so consumed with time that we cannot think outside of it, but in reality time is no constraint on God. God talks of the future as if it is the past, and He refers to the past in the present tense. He is seeing everything all at once. How can something have no beginning and end? We can’t imagine it in a timeline, but the one who exists outside of time is an eternal being. God is the only being or thing that fits this description.

If we reject the idea of a God who is eternal, then we have to accept the idea of eternal matter. Logically, this seems to be a much greater problem than simply trusting in God. The following excerpt was taken from the March 1992 edition of Answers Magazine; the full article was written by Dr. Henry M. Morris.

“Although it is impossible for us to comprehend fully this concept of an eternal transcendent God, the only alternative is the concept of an eternal self-existing universe, and this concept is also incomprehensible. Eternal God or eternal matter—that is the choice. The latter is an impossibility if the present scientific law of cause-and-effect is valid, since random particles of matter could not, by themselves, generate a complex, orderly, intelligible universe, not to mention living persons capable of applying intelligence to the understanding of the complex order of the universe. A personal God is the only adequate Cause to produce such effects.” (Morris, pp.20-21)

So even if matter were eternal, it would not adequately explain the complexities of our universe without the existence of God.

Colossians 1:16 says: “For by him (Jesus) all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities – all things were created through him and for him.”

Isaiah 46:9-10 says: “For I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose.’”

God is certainly at the helm of creation. God will certainly be around when creation itself is no more. And God can certainly be trusted for today. Eternal matter or eternal God? I choose God.

Now that we know about evolution, isn’t the Bible’s story of creation obsolete?

July 29th

The following question was found online. It is from the viewpoint of someone who does not believe in God, and is looking for questions that cannot be answered in order to justify his/her belief that there is no God. You can hear the lack of trust in God in the question. The viewpoint of my answer is from total trust in God. Each answer is a quick overview – not a detailed explanation! God is a God of truth, and the Bible is full of answers…

Now that we know about evolution, isn’t the Bible’s story of creation obsolete?

The simple answer: Absolutely not!

This question makes some assumptions about evolution. For some reason, in 2010, evolution is taught as something that is fact. Evolution is not fact; it is called a theory. There are many things in the theory of evolution which cannot be stated as fact in any realm of science. First of all, when you are talking about a time-span of billions of years, you naturally set yourself up for a lot of guess-work. In the 150+ years of the theory of evolution, there is no possible way science could come close to accounting for billions of years – it is still theory, not fact. Consider the missing link. More than 150 years of searching, and still no viable missing link – evolution is still theory, not fact. Consider the dinosaur. Why do we have pictures of them on cave walls? Sculptures of them in ancient towns? Stories of them in cultures all over the world? And even record of them in scientific journals predating 1800? This evidence does not make sense with the theory of evolution. Evolution is still theory, not fact.

This list about evolution could go on and on, but this blog is not about evolution: it is about the story of creation.

The story of creation is certainly not obsolete! Let’s look at it from a scientific standpoint. Archaeology has only verified the truth of the stories in the Bible time and time again (there are too many specific examples to list); we have no reason to believe otherwise for story of creation. The Bible paints a picture of a young earth, which is opposite of evolution’s theory. The idea of an old earth did not become popular until about 200 years ago. As the old-earth theory came about, the methods of stating the age of the earth were not based on science, but on anti-biblical philosophy to re-interpret geology. Radiometric dating was not developed until the early twentieth century. For many years creation scientists have shown through specific examples that radiometric dating is flawed (it has produced a long list of erroneous dates). In recent study, it has even been shown that decay rates, which are being used to measure the age of the earth, occurred faster in the past (Radioisitopes and the Age of the Earth, Vol. 2 by Larry Vardiman, Andrew Snelling, and Eugene Chaffin). All of this to say… the earth could be very young, in terms of thousands of years, instead of the billions of years taught by evolution. Another simple thought about creation: the Bible says life (not just human life) is decaying; evolution says it is improving. Taking a look around the world, the Bible certainly seems to be correct.

I have not laid out these two paragraphs to offer overwhelming evidence in favor of creation, but I have written them to show that evolution is still a theory, and creation is not obsolete even by the measures of science.

What does this conclude? It takes faith to believe in creation, and it takes faith to believe in evolution.

Let’s look at the spiritual reasons that the creation account of the Bible is not obsolete. Without question, the creation account shows that God is in control. If Almighty God created the heavens and the earth, then He is still in control today. The creation account shows us how precious the creation is in God’s eyes, and likewise how precious it should be in our eyes. The creation account shows us that there is purpose and order in creation – we are not random beings who happen to be here. The creation account shows us that mankind is the pinnacle of God’s creation, and that He loves us very much.

Is the creation account obsolete? It will never be obsolete. Even when the heavens and earth pass away, the word of God will still remain (Matthew 24:35). Praise the Lord!

If God is love, then how could he possibly be responsible for killing women and children in the Old Testament through the flood and conquest of the Promised Land?

7.21.10

The following question was found online. It is from the viewpoint of someone who does not believe in God, and is looking for questions that cannot be answered in order to justify his/her belief that there is no God. You can hear the lack of trust in God in the question. The viewpoint of my answer is from total trust in God. Each answer is a quick overview – not a detailed explanation! God is a God of truth, and the Bible is full of answers…

If God is love, then how could he possibly be responsible for killing women and children in the Old Testament through the flood and conquest of the Promised Land?

In the June 3rd blog, we already established that God is certainly love. The Bible makes this point very clear in 1 John 4:16, which says “God is love.” Also established on the June 3rd blog is the fact that love demands an element of choice, and it can’t go unnoticed that the people destroyed in the Old Testament were practicing every abomination in God’s sight known to man.

But this is really beside the point. Can a God of love really destroy these people?

The Bible is a record of God’s revelation to mankind. In the Bible, we have a story of a people created to have a relationship with God: God love us. This relationship is estranged because of man’s choice to rebel against God, but God still loves us. And the rest of the Bible is the story of God’s redemption of mankind.

If God has a plan to redeem mankind, then Satan has a plan to thwart God’s plan. When you read through the Bible, it is easy to see the reaction of Satan to frustrate the plan of God. One can also easily tell that Satan is not on the same level as God. He doesn’t know the future aside from what God has revealed through prophecy. (Many people think of Satan as the enemy of God who is his equal, but this is not the case. God is all-powerful; Satan clearly does not have the same attributes as God.) Since Satan only knows what has been revealed by God, then his attacks of God’s plan are always based on the information he has received.

Follow in the Bible with me. Adam and Eve have sinned and fallen out of fellowship with the Lord. God is placing a curse on the earth, upon man and woman, and upon the serpent because of the fall. In Genesis 3:15, God speaks to the serpent and says: “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.” There is a major problem with this verse. A woman doesn’t have the seed – she has the egg and a man has the seed. Did this verse make a mistake? No! It is the first prophecy of the Messiah: one will come from the seed of a woman and crush Satan – this is directly fulfilled in Jesus Christ!

After Genesis 3:15, Satan knows that God’s plan to redeem mankind is going to come from mankind. So what does he do? He contaminates the blood line. Genesis 6:1-2 says “When men began to increase in number on the earth and daughters were born to them, the sons of god saw that the daughters of men were beautiful, and they married any of them they chose.” Who were the sons of God? Based on the Hebrew word, they were fallen angels (Job 1:6; Jude 6; Revelation 12:4). Another way to understand there is something different about these sons of god is their offspring. Genesis 6:4 says their offspring were Nephilim (fallen ones): “The Nephilim were on the earth in those days – and also afterward – when the sons of God went to the daughters of man and had children by them. They were the heroes of old, men of renown.” Based on other scripture, we know these Nephilim were giants (Deuteronomy 3:11; Numbers 13:33; 1 Samuel 17; 2 Samuel 21:15-22).

The men before Noah were evil, but there was something distinctly different about them: they were not the pure human race which God created! How could the Messiah come from the seed of a woman when that seed is evil? So God destroys the earth in a flood in Genesis 6, and even though He is completely justified in this action, the Bible still says the Lord’s heart was filled with pain (Genesis 6:6). This is the testimony of a God of love!

Soon after the flood, a man by the name of Abram (later known as Abraham) is born. God promises Abram that all peoples on earth will be blessed through him (Genesis 12:2-4) What does this information mean? God is going to send the Messiah through the line of Abraham. Then God leads Abraham to the land of Canaan to give it to him. There is now some very specific prophecy for Satan to concentrate on and plan his attack. Through God’s hand, Abraham’s descendants end up in Egypt, but longing for their destiny to be fulfilled and God to lead them to their promised land. Through Moses, God’s power is displayed in Egypt and the people led to the promised land, but what do they find when they get there? Nephilim! “We saw the Nephilim there (the descendants of Anak come from the Nephilim). We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them.” – Number 13:33. So for 400 years, while Abraham’s descendant’s had been in Egypt, Satan was building up his plan to stop God’s plan.

Joshua ends up leading the conquest of the promised land, and through miracle after miracle, God fights for His people and the battles are won. There are only a few people groups that the Israelite tribes do not completely destroy in obedience to the Lord. We see these groups fighting against the Israelites throughout the rest of the Old Testament (1 Samuel 17; 2 Samuel 21:15-22).

Is God still love? Yes. He loves us so much he was willing to endure the pain of great loss – even the loss of His Son – to redeem us and make a relationship with Him possible. Praise the Lord!

Why Should I Trust the Bible?

6.17.10

The following question was found online. It is from the viewpoint of someone who does not believe in God, and is looking for questions that cannot be answered in order to justify his/her belief that there is no God. You can hear the lack of trust in God in the question. The viewpoint of my answer is from total trust in God. Each answer is a quick overview – not a detailed explanation! God is a God of truth, and the Bible is full of answers…

Why should I trust the Bible?

The Bible is a collection of books… written over more than 1500 years; spanning through more than 40 generations; utilizing more than 40 different authors ranging from kings to lowly shepherds; coming from different perspectives like palaces and deserts; throughout differing political eras; written through every human emotion; concerning events on three different continents, and utilizing three different languages (although Aramaic is only briefly used).

And it all has one message: God wants to have a relationship with us, and this relationship was made possible through Jesus Christ.

Considering the Old Testament first, I will be very brief. The Old Testament was written almost entirely in Hebrew (there are a few portions of books written in Aramaic). As the world began to speak the Greek language, 70 Hebrew scholars got together and translated the Old Testament into Greek; this translation is called the Septuagint. The Septuagint translation took place 300 years before the birth of Jesus Christ! The prophecies concerning Jesus in the Old Testament are too numerous to mention in this blog, but they detail accounts of his birth, life, death, and resurrection. Here are a few examples: the virgin birth in Isaiah 7:14; the location of Jesus’ birth in Micah 5:2; a description of Jesus’ ministry in Isaiah 61:1-3; a numeric prophecy about Jesus’ death in Daniel 9:26; a detailed description of the account of Jesus on the cross in Psalm 22 and Isaiah 53; a description of what is accomplished through the cross and resurrection in Jeremiah 31:31-34. Can we trust the Old Testament? Yes!

Before we get into the specifics about the New Testament, let’s look at some of the claims the Bible makes about itself.

In 2 Timothy 3:16-17, Paul writes “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” God-breathed is an incredible way to refer to scripture. Since the scripture is God-breathed, it is logically useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training. This verse endows scripture with God’s blessing and His wisdom. Paul writes in Hebrews 4:12, “For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.” Indeed, scripture is the power of God in written form. As Peter is writing 2 Peter 1:16, he writes: “We did not follow cleverly invented stories when we told you about the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty.” He continues in verses 20-21 of the same chapter: “Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation. For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.” So the words of Scripture are the words of God: made possible by the power of the Holy Spirit.

As we consider the New Testament, Peter’s statement about being an eyewitness becomes very important. Have you read through Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John? The books are not well thought out books in the standard of human writing. They were not crafted together like some epic story – they are eyewitness accounts. They are full of statements like: “and then we went,” “the following day,” “after these things happened,” etc… Here’s another way to say it: mostly uneducated men (Luke is an exception) simply wrote down what they had observed. And the power of what they observed has changed the world. The power of the statements of Jesus, which they recorded, changed their hearts and the hearts of countless others who have read the words.

Is the New Testament scripture on the same level as the Old Testament? Yes! Look at a few statements from New Testament writers as they refer to other New Testament books. In 1 Timothy 5:18, Paul quotes Luke 10:7 and says these words: “For the scripture says.” Paul is referring to Luke as scripture. In 2 Peter 3:16, Peter is referring to Paul’s letters, and says “ignorant and unstable people distort (Paul’s letters), as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction.” So Peter states that Paul is writing scripture through his letters.

Aside from scripture, there are many reasons to trust the canon of the Bible. Consider a few of these facts as church leaders put together the books of the New Testament. The books needed to have apostolic authorship. The apostles were eyewitnesses of Christ’s ministry, and It is clear from scripture that the apostles spoke the words of God (1 Corinthians 14:37, 2 Corinthians 13:3, Romans 2:16, Galatians 1:8-9, 1 Thessalonians 2:13). As the debate about which books belonged in the Bible became important in the 300’s AD, the geographical spread of the books helped determine their authenticity and authorship. The apostles were the first in the church, which began in Jerusalem. The church then spread to Judea, Samaria, and to the uttermost parts of the earth (Acts 1:8). The books written by the apostles spread with the church as the church spread across the face of the earth. One further item for consideration was the doctrinal teaching of the books. With a wealth of many books written by the apostles, it is easy to compare the teaching in one book to another and make sure they are consistent. The Gospel of Thomas is a good example of how these factors work together. The Gospel of Thomas has the name of an apostle as a potential author, but closer inspection reveals the gospel was not as widespread geographically as the church, so it was written later than the apostolic era. Also, it contains a few verses at the end of the book which concerning doctrine are completely absurd when compared to the other books of the Old and New Testaments.

A few more thoughts to consider… Looking at all the Christian books we know about today, whether they were written 1,000 years ago or written ten years ago, there are no strong candidates for inclusion into the canon. Also, there are no strong objections to any of the books included in the canon. What does this information mean? The hand of God worked throughout the process of selecting the books which are currently in the Bible. The story is written from beginning to end. The Revelation is complete.

I love Jesus’ prayer in John 17:17. “Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth.” May the Lord sanctify us by His word of truth. We can trust God; we can trust the Bible.