The Way of Purity

So as a man who's repented of sexual sin, I have wanted to be sure the door is shut on the ways of my past. The Apostle Paul calls our past sin our "Egypt" or that which were brought out of like Israel was brought out of their slavery in Egypt.

While prayer, fasting, accountability and true repentance are all great and needed in the walk of a Christian there is also the need for teaching and trust.

So I'm learning about the Glory God gets by saving us from our sin and enabling us to walk in godly ways. I'm also learning about the Living Water that only He can provide and how this water truly satisfies.

I'm two days into a 60 course on purity. Check it out www.settingcaptivesfree.com

The Thing About Worry

God tells us over and over and over again that Believers have nothing to fear. He encourages peace in our hearts at every meeting whether that be in prayer, in study or in simply waiting on Him.

I've found recently that it's our nature to be fearful. We almost go looking for something to be fearful about. As one problem is dealt with we quickly look to the next to see if it's about to destroy us. This week God has eased my mind about an important thing, God be Blessed, and what have I done? I've traded that worry for a financial worry. Surely if God can save a soul such as mine, and create the whole universe He can care for all of my needs.

When a Christian worries he is proclaiming that God is a liar. That's the hard fact of it. Will we fear? yes. Does that mean we're not Christians? No. But it does mean we have more to learn about Him. That shouldn't be a surprise for any of us though should it.

Some times it's good just to proclaim truth and agree with it. God is faithful. He is just. All good giving and all perfect gifts come from Him. He will not leave us nor forsake us. He is able to keep us from falling.

Thank God for His work in my life. For the godly fear, and reverence I have learned to have for him. For the love He has put in my heart, not only for brethren, but also for the lost.

As my wife would express. He is good. And that's good enough for me.

Unbiased Mainstream News?

This doesn't happen every day.

Reuters

No Promise Of Tomorrow

I met a young man who I'll call "C" on Friday night. He had had his share to drink and wasn't feeling a lot of pain. He took a tract from me and said he was looking for "something." He knew there must be "a god" out there.. He said he'd been looking to find out what was true for some time without really getting to the answer.

Yuri and I shared the answer with him but he was really too drunk to understand so we gave him some reading material and a website to go to. We prayed he'd get the chance to learn.

Tonight on my way to pick up my lovely wife I stopped at a fatal car crash. An apparently drunk driver had come up the Highway going the wrong way and struck C's car head on. I'm a First-Aider and stop at quite a few accidents. The driver who was going in the wrong direction died prior to my arrival, so I proceeded to help C who was in some trouble. Thankfully the fire dept and medical help were there faster than I could even finish checking C out and he left the scene alive and I expect he'll be ok with medical help.

The thing is C had no idea he was going to be involved in this accident. Had he known, he wouldn't have left Yuri and myself until he knew everything he could about God. The other driver surely didn't know he was about to die. I wonder if one of our team had given him a tract?

My point in posting this is simply that the Gospel is not a game. People die. Life happens and it gets bad in a hurry. We don't get a 24 hour notice about when we're going to finally take God seriously and check Him out.

Take the test and get it worked out while it's still Today.

Abortion

Last August I made a post about Abortion. I'm going to do a little follow up here today, as prompted by an article I'm reading at AiG today.

Here's the previous post.

Answers in Genesis got a feedback E-Mail about their content as it applies to the abortion of unborn children. The person was upset and brought out a number of the normal arguments and accusations. The reason why I think this is a good read is because it IS an emotional issue. And it's hard to think straight when things as painful as "rape" "incest" "deformities" and "mental disorders" are brought up. Are there real honest and reasonable answers to concerns such as these? Take a look at the feedback article to see for yourself. Here's a quote and a response from I found endearing.

Next time you meet up with someone disabled from birth, look them in the eyes and tell them that they should have been aborted. About nine out of ten British babies suffering from Down’s Syndrome are aborted.³ Such an attitude encourages society’s irrational fear of disability, as if the mother were giving birth to a “monster.” Such negative stereotypes of disability should have no place in today’s society, and certainly have no place in a biblical worldview, which sees all human life as being in the image of God. Anya Souza—a Down’s Syndrome sufferer—was allowed to address the 2003 International Down’s Syndrome Screening Conference in London. She said:

I can't get rid of my Down's syndrome, but you can't get rid of my happiness. You can't get rid of the happiness I give others either. It's doctors like you that want to test pregnant women and stop people like me being born. Together with my family and friends I have fought to prevent my separation from normal society. I have fought for my rights... I may have Down's syndrome but I am a person first.⁴

Heaven by Vernon K. Lockner

The current issue of my favorite online publication, Christian Chronicles, finishes with a beautiful poem.

Heaven

Vernon K. Lockner

Beyond the brilliant crystal sea,
Past streets of gold and emerald green,
I see a rainbow ‘round His throne,
Where Christ and heaven are my home.

Beyond the mighty cherubim,
Past countless angels praising Him,
There is a place of faithful rest,
A mercy-seat where all are blessed.

Beyond the elders, twenty-four,
The tree of life and golden shore,
Where gates are pearl and all is right,
And Jesus is the only Light;

Beyond the many woes of life,
Past all the sin and constant strife,
Beyond the pain this life will bring,
There is a song the saints still sing!

Beyond this earth and all the tears,
Past all our cares and anxious fears,
I long for heaven’s perfect peace,
And dancing at the wedding feast.

Beyond this life, beyond our death,
Just past our final mortal breath,
For those in Christ God has a plan:
Eternal joys at His right hand.

So, heed His call and come to Him;
Bring nothing but your guilt and sin.
In Christ alone place all your faith,
And come to heaven, saved by grace!

The Gospel Presentation By Paul

Someone asked recently how I Cor 15:1-8 could be the "full" presentation of the Gospel. To them it seemed it didn't contain all the requirements. So as a good exercise for myself I have gone through the verses to see if it does or not.

I Cor 15:1-8
1Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand;

2By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain.

3For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures;

4And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:

5And that he was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve:

6After that, he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once; of whom the greater part remain unto this present, but some are fallen asleep.

7After that, he was seen of James; then of all the apostles.

8And last of all he was seen of me also, as of one born out of due time.

In Verses 1 & 2 we see Paul declare that the Gospel he preached to them is the Gospel by which we are saved and they received it. It talks about how if this is not kept in mind and believed that they would have believed in vain (they would have been the Apostate, or false converts). This is a strong statement, Paul is saying - this is IT. If you don't believe this then you're not saved.

The beginning of Verse 3 is leading into explanation of what he had taught them.

Now we get the actual Gospel starting in Verse 3b "how that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures." How Christ IS the fulfillment of promises made in, and legal requirements of the OT. He died for our sins - our sins required death, and He did the dying.

Verse 4 That He was buried and rose again in accordance with Prophecy.

Verse 5 - 7 The witnesses who can confirm these events to be so.

Verse 8 Paul's apostleship confirmed, therefore he has authority to declare the above to be the Gospel.

So in these 8 verses we get the complete full council of the Gospel. It's authority and accuracy is confirmed by Scripture, Witness and Apostleship (Paul had already had the signs of an Apostle confirm him before them - and us by record). This is complete verification and complete council. The whole of the Good News.

That we need to explain elements of this such as what the OT did foretell, and what it did have as legal requirements to be fulfilled is clear. So there ya have it.

The Cross Current Goes LIVE!!

The Cross Current Radio London has published it's first episode! Entitled "What On Earth Is Going On?" Cory talks about Evolution vs Creationism in respects to morality and crime. Special guest Cal Smith of Creation Ministries International is a Worldview expert.

Mosaic Law and the Christian - Introduction

Men have written volumes and spent their lives studying this subject. My study has been for the duration of a year and a half, and my writings about Scripture include only this blog, my personal notes and an article as of yet unpublished. What I'm saying is my qualifications are next to nil. I will endeavor to rely on the given Teacher to be my guide.

Because this can be a huge topic I will limit my post to the following. Is a Christian required or even allowed to obey all or any part of Mosaic Law. If not, then what law(s) or rule is a Christian required to obey. And hopefully I can sum up with something along the lines of “what the big deal is anyway”.

This will NOT be an exhaustive work, it ought to be considered more of an introduction to an area of study we all need to spend time in. This slim work may even appear to be a bit of proof-texting because of it's briefness.

Right out of the gate let's see an undebatable statement in Scripture. Rom 6:14 “ For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.” What does this mean? Rom 6:18 “Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness.” The Christian is a servant of righteousness, he is “under” the rule of grace.

Col 2:13-17 says “13And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses;

14Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross;

15And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it.

16Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days:

17Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ."

Clearly, this teaches against following the Ten Commandments which are often referred to as the “Moral Law” and therefore still in application. Col 2:16 clearly teaches against the keeping of the Sabbath by Christians. The Sabbath was given to Israel for the express purpose that they would remember the rest of being released from Egypt. It was given so that Israel may know that God is the Lord, who makes Israel holy. Ex 20:8-11, Ex 31:12-13, Deut 5:12-14, Ezek 20:12 and Ezek 20:20

Ok one last point on the separation of the Christian and Mosaic Law and then we'll move on. This could get very long!

In Romans 7 the Apostle Paul teaches about marriage to explain the relationship of the Christian to Mosaic Law. The marriage is valid as long as the spouse is alive. But if the spouse dies the person is released from the law of marriage. He applies it to Christians in Rom 7:4 “Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God.” and Rom:7:6. “But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter.”

The book of Galatians is a great resource for those struggling with law keeping. Now let's move on to the subject of what Law(s) or rule the Christian IS under. The Law of God, The Law of the Spirit, and the Law of Christ – together know as the rule of Grace.

Rom 7:25 “I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.”

Rom 8:1-10 “1There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

2For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.

3For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:

4That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

5For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit.

6For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.

7Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.

8So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.

9But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.

10And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.”

Rom 8:4 “That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.”

Gal 2:19-20 “19For I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live unto God.

20I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.”

We see from the numerous verses above that it's Christ's life not ours. That we are to live by Spirit. That we are to follow the Law of God, the Law of Christ.

But what IS the Law of Christ? That's a GREAT question. And one I'm only partially prepared to answer. Remember this is an introduction for you (and me really). Some argue that the Law of Christ is the teaching from the Mount in Matt 5-7. While Our Lord's teachings are statments of truth there is one glaring issue that leads me to believe this couldn't be what Paul is writing about when he uses the term “the Law of Christ”

Matt 6:14-15 reads “14For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you:

15But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.”

This is the complete opposite of what Paul teaches the Church. Paul always teaches the Church that our sins have been (in the past) forgiven, not to do something in order that they will be forgiven. Example Col 2:13 “13And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses;” What's more, Paul instructs us to “forgive as we have been forgiven” not “forgive so that we will be forgiven” Eph 4:32 “And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.”

So what IS the Law of Christ then? Well I believe Gal 6:2 holds the key. “Carry each other's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.”

Our Lord gave us two Commandments. Matt 22:37 “Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.” John 15:17 “These things I command you, that ye love one another.” Or with both Commandments in one statement Luke 10:27 “And he answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself.”

We see that in carrying each other's burdens, or loving each other, we fulfill the Law of Christ.

What's the Big Deal? If we try to keep rules we are denying the rule of Grace in our lives. In everything we do, think, hope and dream we ought to be following the promptings of the Holy Spirit, fulfilling the Law of Christ (or God) and letting Him live instead of us. Sure it's “messy” without a list of rules we have to keep. It makes it much harder to point our fingers at each other and talk about what wretch this person or that person is. It makes it very much harder for us to “look” righteous. But remember it's these things that God hates.

Of Gossip and Murder

Gossip. Recently when "comparing" sin with another man I was told that Gossip was no where near as severe as some other sins. So I thought about that and decided to see what the Word of God has to say about Gossip.

I will quote from the NIV because it uses the word "Gossip".

Proverbs indicates that Gossip reveals a lack of trustworthiness, and that the gossip it's self goes to the core of a man. Prov 11:13, 18:8, 26:22

Romans has the following to say;

Rom 1:28-32 "28Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done. 29They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, 30slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; 31they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless. 32Although they know God's righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them."

That seems pretty clear doesn't it? Then Paul puts Gossip in his list of rebukes against the church at Corinth in II Cor 12:19-21

"19Have you been thinking all along that we have been defending ourselves to you? We have been speaking in the sight of God as those in Christ; and everything we do, dear friends, is for your strengthening. 20For I am afraid that when I come I may not find you as I want you to be, and you may not find me as you want me to be. I fear that there may be quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, factions, slander, gossip, arrogance and disorder. 21I am afraid that when I come again my God will humble me before you, and I will be grieved over many who have sinned earlier and have not repented of the impurity, sexual sin and debauchery in which they have indulged."

In 1 Timothy 5:13-14 Paul is instructing Timothy how to deal with younger widows. Part of this is a warning of their "giving the enemy an opportunity for slander" in respect to their gossip.

"13Besides, they get into the habit of being idle and going about from house to house. And not only do they become idlers, but also gossips and busybodies, saying things they ought not to. 14So I counsel younger widows to marry, to have children, to manage their homes and to give the enemy no opportunity for slander."

The Apostle John uses the gossip of a man to reveal the evil in him in 1 John 1:9-11.

"9I wrote to the church, but Diotrephes, who loves to be first, will have nothing to do with us. 10So if I come, I will call attention to what he is doing, gossiping maliciously about us. Not satisfied with that, he refuses to welcome the brothers. He also stops those who want to do so and puts them out of the church.

11Dear friend, do not imitate what is evil but what is good. Anyone who does what is good is from God. Anyone who does what is evil has not seen God."

This is all well and good, it's clear to anyone that Gossip is very hurtful, and it's clear from the above texts that it's evil. But how does Gossip compare to "other sins"?

Well I submit for your consideration that a Christian knowing that Gossip "goes down to a mans innermost parts" is not committing an act of love, but is in fact committing an act of hate. When a Brother gossips about a Brother he surely is not loving that man. Jesus gave us a clear command to "love each other". So, if you look at the truly hurtful and evil act of Gossip as not an act of love but in fact an act of hate the following is the nail in the coffin for the idea that Gossip isn't as bad as "other sins".

Matt 5:21-22
" 21"You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, 'Do not murder,^[a] and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.' 22But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother^[b]will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to his brother, 'Raca,^[c]' is answerable to the Sanhedrin. But anyone who says, 'You fool!' will be in danger of the fire of hell."

Raca is a term of contempt and the Sandedrin is the Jewish council.

Here we see Our Lord Jesus Christ tell us that being angry with our Brother (in Christ) is the same as Murder.

Now is Gossip not as bad as those "other sins"? I ask you to consider it yourself.

After a moment I suggest we all view and submit to the teaching in Matt 18:15-35.

Benificial Mutations?

Evolutionists say that genetic mutations are what drive the supposed Macro-Evolution that Evolutionary Theory is designed to promote.

Creationists and Evolutionists all agree that mutations happen. We've all watched, cataloged and studied them. We've each even theorized on what might happen if this or that mutation did occur . What's really interesting though is this. Studying what actually has happened!

The True Origin Archive has an interesting article on Mutations. It's semi technical.

Here's a quote;

In order to locate all alleged examples of beneficial mutations, I carried out a computer search of the literature. My review covered all published scientific studies that dealt with beneficial mutations. The definition of beneficial mutation used was a mutation that was regarded as beneficial by the authors surveyed. Key words used in the computer search included synonyms of beneficial, such as “favorable, helpful, usable, valuable, adaptive, good, advantageous, supportive, positive,” etc. The search of two data bases totaling 18.8 million records found that, of all articles discussing mutations, only 0.04 percent, or 4 in 10,000 articles on mutations, were located that discussed beneficial or favorable mutations. Some overlap exists in the data bases searched, consequently the actual total number of records searched was less than 18.8 million. The overlap in the search was estimated by extrapolating from the records found. Assuming that the same level of overlap exists in the entire database, a total of approximately 16 million records was searched. These searches may have missed some relevant articles but are useful to indicate trends.

All of the 126 examples located were then reviewed, focusing on evidence for information-gaining beneficial mutations. It was found that none of them contained clear, empirically supported examples of information-gaining, beneficial mutations. Most “examples” of actual, beneficial mutations were loss mutations in which a gene was disabled or damaged, all of which were beneficial only in a limited situation.

A review of both textbooks and journal articles on evolution demonstrated that the most common examples of beneficial mutations were sickle cell anemia, bacterial resistance to antibiotics, Ancon short legged sheep, viral/bacterial immunity, and a “putative beneficial mutation for lipid transport” (Galton, et. al., 1996; Strickburger, 2000).

An example of a mutation that was beneficial in specific situations was damage to the Chemokine receptor 5, (CCR5), the principle co-receptor in T-cells that causes cells with CD4 receptors (primarily T-cells) to be unable to take the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) into the cell. As a result, a person with this mutation has an abnormally high immunity to HIV infection (Huang, 1996; Wilkinson, 1998).

Ignorance

"Ignorance is generally confident, because it is ignorant;" - JN Darby.

What a great quote.

With most Christian Blogs likely posting today about the unimaginable virgin birth of Our Lord Jesus Christ I thought I'd take a different approach.

The subject of Almighty God actually coming to Earth and taking on human flesh is amazing. Almighty, limitless God put on the limits of being a human being. The Word says He came to Earth to learn obedience. He came here to be tempted in every way. It wasn't that He was ever disobedient, He wasn't. He always did the will of the Father. But He learned by the experience of it about how we live. This is how He prepared to be our Great Mediator in Heaven. There is nothing that we go through in our lives that His life didn't prepare Him to speak to the Father on our behalf about.

Think of it this way. Look down at a group of worms moving about in the mud. They have a great deal of limitations compared to us as humans. Imagine loving them enough that you would become one of them. To surrender all the abilities you have as a human and become like them. Then imagine the experience of it. You would know what it was like to be human, but now you would also know what it's like to be a worm. Imagine Almighty, limitless God becoming like us. To "live among us". Which is what the title Immanuel means.

Yes Christ came to earth to be the ultimate and final sacrifice for sin. And He was born in the shadow of the Cross. His full purpose was to save us. Hence God the Father chose the name Jesus or "Jehovah Saves" for Him. But the first sacrifice Christ made was to give up the Glory of Heaven to become limited flesh. A babe. Hungry, cold, dependent on parents to protect and provide for Him.

That we don't think of this part of His life here with us in this way really agrees with the rest of John Darby's quote which comes from the Preface to his multi-volume work "Synopsis of the Books of the Bible". Here is the quote in full;

"Ignorance is generally confident, because it is ignorant; and such is the mind of man in dealing with the things of God. The writer must be forgiven for speaking plainly in these days on this point. The pretensions of infidel reason infect even Christians." - JN Darby.

We've Taken Too Much

Thursday evening I had the privilege of meeting Dan. He basically just walked up to my wife and I as we were loading groceries into our truck. So I gave him a tract. :) Dan had severe leg pain, but was very interested in the tract I had just given him. He had been struggling with God and religion for a long time. He was very wary of discussing it with me at first but I knew the Spirit was in control so I just pressed on.

Dan asked me about what church I was with. He said it this way. "What church is this?"

Those four words reveal the state of Christdom (all people who say they are Christian) in North America. Church members go to and fro talking to people about "church" and asking for donations and pressing them about getting up Sunday morning to come to a building full of people doing something completely foreign to this world.

Is it any surprise people are wary? I mean really.

When Dan found out I wasn't representing any church building, I didn't want anything from him, but that I was deeply interested in where he was at then and only then did he relax and decide to work this issue through with me. Right there in the parking lot of a grocery store.

You can't tell me people aren't interested. That they avoid the topic. People are DEEPLY interested in where they are going after they die. Everyone wants to go to Heaven, it's just most of them don't want God to be there when they get to it.

Christians stop asking people for money for your buildings and your programs and your whatever you do. Stop it. It's a shame! We are told to GIVE the Good News of Reconciliation to every person on this planet. There is a biblical way to do it for sure. But we are not to be asking non-believers for money or their time.

People who are blind and headed for Hell do not want to come to "church". They know nothing of God. God Himself says that if a man is not Born Again he can not even SEE the Kingdom of God. Why then ask someone who knows nothing of God to come to a building to worship Him? It won't make sense to the poor person. Make them understand their state before a Holy and Just God. Do so lovingly but firmly. You do not have the right to judge them, but it is your responsibility to ask them the questions which the Holy Spirit will use to reach their conscience. THEN when they understand, for maybe the first time in their life, the exceeding sinfulness of their sin. Then give them the Grace of the Gospel of Christ Jesus risen from death and seated on High. Only then will it make sense to them.

Then you leave it in God's hands. You respond as the Holy Spirit prompts you and NOT in your prideful flesh that will demand you be "right" and the other person "wrong".

Dan was desperate to know the things of God. But he would never have listened to the truth from someone who wanted to take him to their church. Please, please Church, (the global assembly of true Christians) please, reach for souls to save them from the Fire. Once they are saved, they will actually want to fellowship. You won't have to beg them to come to church, they will want to.

Does This Scare You?

I had the chance to read a few posts over at the blog Debunking Christianity this evening. If you call yourself a Christian but you're afraid to mingle with those who vehemently appose Christianity then you've got some growth to do.

These are just people, and no matter what they say or do you ought to know you yourself have said and done just as bad or worse.

So many Christians have this idea that we're better than other people. Well guess what we are not better. And if we actually READ the Bible that we are so quick to tell everyone else to read we'd know this truth.

Blogs like Debunking Christianity are great places to meet people and engage them in real conversations. If you don't know what you're talking about then stay away until you're prepared. And if you know you're not prepared then get prepared.

Globally the world is moving into a "post Christian" era. For those of us who actually read more than a couple of verses in the Bible this is not at all a surprise. And you know what it's GOING to get worse. We are not going to save this world. We are not going to have some mass revival where everyone loves Jesus. That's not the job of the Church. We are here to preach the Good News. Those whom He has chosen will respond.

Now for those who are scared of the kind of objections you'll find from non-believers - please get over yourselves. God truly IS God Almighty, Creator, and Judge. If you really think He might be wrong about something then you need to address your own faith before you preach to anyone else.

But IS faith in the Bible and the God it reveals unreasonable? No it's not. In fact, when looked at through the eyes of science (ALL disciplines) and logic it is the most reasonable thing you'll find in this life. I say this with complete confidence. As a former skeptic myself.

Hopefully some of the people from Debunking Christianity will visit here. They may very well have nasty things to post in the comments. It's ok. Really it is. And none of my normal readers should be offended by their posts. Here's why -

If a blind man was in your living room and bumped into your coffee table, knocked over a drink and it stained your rug would you be upset with him? THAT would be unreasonable. Those who do not have faith are blind. They must battle their pride and fears in their own strength. We often forget what that was like, and we ought to spend more time with these people so we can remember it.

Check the links on the left here to get prepared to speak to people. Remember, most have been taught what to think not how to think. And what they've been taught to think is wrong. In fact it's normally so wrong that a child can see it once shown.

Compromise Is Not Unity

Compromise can be the single most helpful tool when two entities (people, organizations...) can't come to an agreement on something. It's sometimes referred to as "give and take".

I'm going to simplify all the "big issues" into something few of us would actually argue about in order to make my point. Imagine this if you will. We (you the readers and myself) are a group of math professors who seek to keep the study of math honorable. There are two math professors. They come from different schools but they both claim to love math. They both have invested much study to come to their own position about the problem of what does 2+2 equal.

See one says the following, 2+2=4. He has evidence, and logic that I tend to agree with. When I look at his work it has the ring of truth to it.

The other says 2+2=3. He has evidence and logic as well. Some of it even makes sense to most people. Some of it seems a bit confusing but he has put a lot of work into his position AND he is a professor of math.

As time progresses the conversation between the two gets heated. They have not come to an agreement yet and someone cries "Compromise!!!!!!!!!! We must get along if we are to be honorable. What will the world think if they see us fighting among ourselves like this?" Soon many are crying the same thing. A quick poll is held and it reveals that most of us have not studied the issue of 2+2 and even fewer of us think it's immediately important what the real answer is.

It's decided to compromise on the issue, in order to keep the integrity of our organization in tact. It's decided that the issue can not be known and so we ought not discuss it because it causes division. People from all over our organization rejoice. It's said this wisdom will herald an age of unity and help us to build a solid front of one accord to present to the world!

Did we do what was right? Do we now have unity? Or have we simply buried our heads in the sand and decided to have everyone be a little bit wrong instead of everyone being completely right? The Truth is 2+2=4, and it's not hard to know. We simply have to be willing to stop false teachers and seek after that which is true. False teachers no matter how smart and loving they might be must be addressed or there can never be true unity.

In the global body of people who profess faith in Christ Jesus there is little unity. But if we look at Matt 13 this shouldn't be a surprise. Jesus said there would be false converts everywhere and that we wouldn't be able to root them out. There IS a core, a REAL Body of Christ - the Church of the Living God buried in this field that is the world. It is hidden right now but there IS unity in her.

If you find yourself studying something that is hard to understand and you can't find unity on it. Please do not give up. God wants unity in the Church. He requires that we be unified in accord with the Truth and that we proclaim it so. The Apostle Paul exhorted Timothy in I & II Timothy to keep doctrine pure and taught. Please lets all do the same. It surely can be painful, but why shouldn't it be? Men through the ages have been willing to die for the truth of this doctrine. Ought we not at least be willing to seek after it???