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December 5, 2014

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Christian living, Salvation, The Bible

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What happens to a Christian who dies without having been baptized?

Imagine for a moment that someone is in the hospital, days from death when she turns to Jesus trusting Him to forgive her sin and give her peace with God. Her impending death makes baptism impossible, so what happens to her when she dies? What about in the case of a healthy young man who gets saved and refuses to be baptized. He goes his entire life showing all the signs of being a genuine Christian but is never baptized. What happens when he dies? In both cases the answer the same. They go to heaven. One of the key components of true, Biblical teaching is that salvation is in no way dependent on anything the person does. None are ever saved, or kept saved, by any ritual, good deed, regulation or lifelong habit. Salvation is fully given to one who trusts Jesus. No other things are necessary. In the book of Galatians Paul says that any attempt to add anything else as necessary to salvation is a denial of the gospel. One who is saved, is saved by Jesus regardless of whether or not the person has been baptized.

A portion of the account of Jesus’ death on the cross highlights this truth. When Jesus was crucified, two other men were executed alongside him. Luke 23 tells us about these men, and the response of one of them in particular. “ And he said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom. And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, To day shalt thou be with me in paradise.” The criminal beside Jesus was not going to come down from that cross alive. The Roman soldiers surrounding the crosses would have killed him themselves before letting him come down (in fact, the Bible tells us the soldiers broke the legs of the two criminals to speed up their death so they could be taken down that day). This man was never going to be baptized. However, what did Jesus promise him? Jesus assured the believing thief that he would enter into heaven with Jesus. The lack of baptism was not going to keep him from heaven, because baptism does not save. The thief was saved because he believed Jesus to be God and Savior.

Should a Christian be baptized? Absolutely. To refuse baptism is disobedience to the commands of the Bible. However, salvation is no more necessary to anyone’s salvation than attending Sunday School or giving in the offering. Salvation is completely accomplished by Jesus apart from any work an one does.

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December 3, 2014

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Christian living, Christianity, The Bible

Are Christians forbidden to eat pork?

image1The above graphic was emailed to me with a request for my thoughts. At first, I am a little amused by the image. For the sake of full disclosure, I am an avid carnivore. I delight in consuming a myriad of mammalian and avian life. I have no qualms about hunting, killing, gutting, butchering, cooking and then eating a critter. I have no desire to give up my meat eating ways, nor restrict them in any fashion. That being said, if the Bible commands me as a Christian to stop eating a particular animal, I will obey the Word.

The question implicitly answered in the above image is that modern day American Christians do not have license to eat porcine food products (and I assume that also includes other foods prohibited in the Old Testament). The statements made by the graphic designers are factually accurate. Peter’s vision in Acts 10:9-16 was not given to lead him down the path of bacon and pork chops. Peter’s vision prepared him for ministry to the Gentiles. God was giving Peter a poignant object lesson to break down the barriers of prejudice that were still in the hearts of many Jews- the disciples included.
However, to us the above truth as evidence we should not be eating pork would be to overlook or ignore a number of other very clear passages. We have to draw a clear line between the Jews of the Bible and the Gentiles of today. The question at stake is if believing Gentiles are under the dietary restrictions of the law of Moses. That question was answered clearly and definitively in three distinct places in the New Testament. Acts 15 is the first time the church addressed this specific issue.
As the gospel spread throughout Gentile regions a group of men began teaching that Gentiles must also keep the laws of Moses to be saved. In Acts 15, church leaders from Jerusalem and Antioch met together to address the matter. Peter was one of the leading voices at that council. After mentioning how God used him to first take the gospel to the Gentiles he said, “Why tempt ye God, to put a yoke on the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear?” Paul and Barnabas spoke after Peter and declared much the same thing. James, the pastor of the church in Jerusalem, stood and concluded the meeting by affirming that Gentile believers are under no obligation to keep the ceremonial and civil restrictions of the law of Moses. This conclusion was later affirmed by the entire church, and was a major part of Paul’s correction of the Galatian and Colossian errors. In fact, in his first letter to Timothy Paul declared that any one who forbade eating meats was teaching a demonic doctrine. The New Testameny explicitly teaches the Gentile Christian has no obligation to obey the laws given to the Israelites, including dietary restrictions.
American Christian’s today can enjoy or abstain from all varieties of meat. We are under no specific command to imbibe or forsake any kind of meat. Instead, we give thanks God who has made us clean through Jesus. We rejoice that because of Jesus, diet plays no part in our standing with God.
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December 1, 2014

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Church

Why are there so many different kinds of churches?

In my small community one can readily find a wide selection of churches are fitting into the broad category of Christian. Within a 20 mile radius serving a population of less than 5,000 people there is a Bible Church, a Methodist Church, a Pentecostal Church, a Foursquare Gospel Church, an Episcopal Church, a Seventh Day Adventist Church, a Presbyterian church, two Baptist Churches, two Lutheran churches and a Congregational Church. I may have missed some, but you get the idea. There are a lot of different kinds of churches in our small community. In larger communities there are even more churches with an even greater variety of denominations.

Why do we have so many churches? The reason is simple, each church believes differently than the others. Even between those sharing the same denominational name (like Baptist or Lutheran), different churches have significant differences. The differences vary, some churches have more in common than others, but all have noticeable differences from all the rest. The differences between the churches are not just differences of outward forms and denominations. The differences between the churches are differences between what is being taught about the Bible, salvation, Jesus, God and other things. These differences are very, very important.

While I think most of the churches described as Christian would use similar descriptions of their beliefs, they really don’t believe the same things. Sometimes the differences are hidden under the same word. All may teach that you have to be saved, but they do not all teach that salvation is received in the same way. Some may teach salvation is acquired by asking Jesus for forgiveness, being baptized, attending church and participating in the sacraments. Some may teach salvation is acquired by asking Jesus for forgiveness and being baptized. Some may teach salvation is acquired just by being baptized. Some may teach salvation is acquired just by asking Jesus for forgiveness. Some may teach that you are not really saved if you don’t speak in tongues. Some may teach you are not really saved if you don’t observe the Sabbath. Some may teach that God loves everyone and that in the end everyone is going to get saved. Though all can say that you must be saved through Jesus, they are not all saying the same thing about how salvation is received. What the churches teach on salvation are obviously not the same. These differences cannot be glossed over under a fine gilt of “we all love Jesus”. If one church teaches that to be saved you must trust in Jesus and be baptized that teaching directly contradicts the church that teaches that to be saved you must trust in Jesus alone.

The reality is, there is already a genuine division between the churches that cannot be papered over by ignoring the differences. The differences are significant, not mere semantics, which is why there are so many different kinds of churches.

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November 24, 2014

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Jesus, The Bible

Why does it Matter if Jesus was Married

Another book has been recently published that claims to have discovered new evidence that Jesus was married and had children. Claims such as this one have popped up over and over again in recent years. They are certainly not new claims, dating back to within a few centuries of Jesus life. Those who propose this theory today declare it will have a huge impact on the church. According to them, once people realize Jesus was married and lived a normal family life everything we think about church will be changed. Some people look at this issue and wonder what the big deal is. Who cares if Jesus was married or not. Why is it such a big deal if Jesus was married?

The ones claiming to have discovered evidence of Jesus’ marriage actually have no sound historical evidence on which to base their conjectures. At best they are dealing with ancient documents written several hundred years after Jesus with an agenda to teach a new doctrine about Jesus. The claims of Jesus’ marriage always begin with a number of presuppositions about the Bible. Most importantly the originators of such claims have already concluded the Bible is not the Word of God and Jesus is not who the Bible says He is. Despite their errors about the Bible they are correct in recognizing that if it were proven to be true that Jesus was married then it would change everything we think about Christianity. This matter matters because if Jesus had a wife and kids, then He is not the person described in the Bible. If Jesus is not the person described in the Bible, He is a fraud and all Christianity is a tragic hoax.

I am not saying this important because it would have been sinful for Jesus to be married. Nor am I saying this is important because it helps support certain ideas about the role of women in the church. This issue is important because it affects the credibility of the gospel writers and the truthfulness of the New Testament. The gospels give no hint, no indication, not the slightest inkling of a notion, that Jesus was married. Despite some modern day fanciful imaginings about Mary Magdalene, the Bible gives no suggestion that He had a relationship with her that was different than his relationship with any of His other female followers. The Bible tells us of Jesus’ parents, siblings, aunts, uncles and cousins. Why would it say nothing of a wife or children? We know that Peter, the other apostles and Jesus’ brothers were married and that Paul was not. Why do we have declarations of the marital status of all these other individuals but not Jesus? The Bible is silent on the matter and in this case the silence of the Bible speaks volumes about Jesus’ marital status. He was not married.

Jesus could not have been married. Besides the problems inherent with the sinless Son of God fathering children who would have been born free from sin and not under Adam’s curse, for Jesus to have been married would have distracted from His purpose. Even as a twelve year old boy, Jesus knew He was to be about His Father’s business. Jesus was never distracted from His purpose. Throughout His life He was on a direct collision course with the cross and never let anything turn Him from that. The time He spent preaching, doing miracles and teaching His disciples was all in preparation for the cross. A wife and children would have not furthered His work of redemption.

The Biblical impossibility of Jesus being married puts the claims of Jesus’ marriage in a serious category. These are not just idle claims that have little impact on the gospel or the truth of the Bible. If Jesus was married, then the history of Jesus presented in the New Testament can not be accurate. If Jesus was married, the entire New Testament is worthless. If Jesus was married, the gospel is a fraud and the gospel writers charlatans. This issue matters because the silence of the Bible on Jesus’ marriage seriously undermines it’s believability in all other matters. This is not just a difference of opinion between Godly men about a secondary figure in Christianity. We are talking about the spreading of false teaching concerning the One who is central to all Scriptures and on Whom our faith rests.

Those who insist Jesus was married have already decided that the Bible was not written by the men the Bible says wrote it. They have already determined that the Bible is not the Word of God. They have rejected any possibility of the Bible being historically accurate or, more importantly, spiritually accurate. Their conclusions about the Bible lead them to seek means to discredit the Bible, no matter how ridiculous those means become. Despite their unbelief, a normal reading of the New Testament reveals that Jesus is the Son of God who became human to die for the sin of men. He was not just a good man. He was the God-man who bore the wrath of God for the sin of mankind. Jesus never married. He never fathered children. To teach otherwise is to deny the reliability and accuracy of the Bible.

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November 21, 2014

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The Bible

Why Four Gospels?

The New Testament begins with four books collectively called “the gospels”. Each gospel, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, tell the story of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection. The first three gospels are so similar in content that they are often lumped together in one bunch called “The Synoptic Gospels.” Since all four gospels tell of the same person, and since they cover similar events, why do we need four of them? Why couldn’t one gospel have told us everything we need to know about Jesus?

The question fails to take into consideration one very important fact. The gospels were first written to a specific audience of people. The gospel of John is the only one that may have been written with a more worldwide scope. The gospel of Matthew was written to the Jewish people. The gospel of Mark was written to Gentiles. The gospel of Luke was written to a single person, probably a Roman and possibly as part of a prepared defense of Paul’s ministry. Matthew, Mark and Luke were probably written within 5-10 years of each other. The gospel of John was written 20-30 years after the other three gospels and was probably written for distribution among a group of churches in modern day Turkey.

Though all four gospels share a similar purpose, to show Jesus as God and Savior, they each have different emphases because of the audience to which they were written. For example, Matthew was written to show the Jews that Jesus is the Messiah. This different purpose means Matthew, while giving very similar information as Mark and Luke, emphasized certain things and communicated some things in a different fashion. Mark’s gospel is a brief gospel presentation intended to confront the readers with Jesus and call them to faith in Him.

We also have four different gospels that the testimony of one man will be confirmed by the others. The Bible provides two or three witnesses as the standard for verification of a claim. The four gospels verify the testimony of the others, especially the synoptic gospels. Some have speculated that Matthew, Mark and Luke look so much alike because they all borrowed from one another or they borrowed from another gospel that has since been lost to us. Matthew, Mark and Luke look so much alike because they are factual accounts of the same events. Accurate eye witnesses are going to agree together. Collusion and conspiracy is not necessary, just honesty. The gospels confirm the truth of one another, assuring us anew that the facts recorded are historical and reliable.

We have four different gospels because God used four men to reach four specific groups of people with the truths of His Son. The entire church today benefits from having all four gospels. We cannot look back and speculate that one gospel to everyone would have been better than four gospels tailored to the education, religion and needs of four different audiences.
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November 17, 2014

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Death, Heaven, Hell, Resurrection

What is the resurrection?

Some time in the future there will be a restoration to life and judgment of every person who has ever lived. Hebrews 9:27 says, “And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:” All men will one day be resurrected to be judged by God.

First there will be a resurrection for the saved. That resurrection takes place during the rapture, an event made popular recently in the Left Behind series of books and movies. The Bible reveals to us in 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 that the dead bodies of the saved will be restored to life and taken up to meet Jesus. The saved who are still alive at the time of the rapture will then be taken up to meet Jesus.

Those who have been raptured will be taken into heaven and judged by Christ for how they have served Him. As His servants, they will answer to Him for how they have used what He has given them and how they have worked for His kingdom. This judgment is not a judgment of sin, for the believers sin has been taken away. This judgment is a judgment of stewardship, in which the believer is rewarded or rebuked depending on the faithfulness of his service for Christ.

Eventually, the believer will enter into a perfect eternity in the New Heaven and New Earth. This perfect eternity has nothing to do with floating around on clouds and playing harps. The Bible tells us almost nothing about this eternity. What we do know comes from Revelation 21 and 22. For the believer, eternity will be completely free from all sin, sorrow and suffering. All who are saved will live on this earth in faithful service to God, glorifying and enjoying Him forever.

Long after the believer’s resurrection will be the resurrection of the unsaved. Just before God wipes out this universe He will bring before His throne for judgment all who have died without trusting Jesus. Revelation 20:11-15 gives a terrifying picture of this event. “And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works. And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.”

All the unsaved will stand before God and be judged for their disobedience to His Word. Because they have not believed in Jesus, God finalizes their condemnation. This judgment is not a second chance at salvation, but is the final official declaration of their guilt before God. All those who have not believed Jesus for salvation, Satan and all the demons will be condemned and sent into the Lake of Fire forever. In the lake of fire they will suffer for eternity, paying the penalty of their rebellion against God.

The resurrection of the saved is a resurrection to life and eternal joy. The resurrection of the unsaved is a resurrection to death and eternal suffering. None have to endure the eternal suffering of the Lake of Fire. When He died on the cross, Jesus paid the consequences and suffering of sin. He extends salvation to all who will turn to Him and trust only Him for forgiveness of guilt and cleansing from sin. God promises eternal life to all who believe Jesus to salvation.

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November 12, 2014

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Death, Heaven, Resurrection

What Happens After Death?

The question of what happens to a person after death is a matter of great importance. If there is some sort of existence after death, we do very well to understand as much about it as possible. We are wise to learn what it is like, if there is a place of reward or  punishment, joy or sorrow.

Opinions about the afterlife cover a broad spectrum of ideas. Some believe nothing happens after death. The body is placed in the ground and the person no longer exists anywhere in the physical or spiritual universe. Some believe the spirit of the person is reborn in the body of another creature to atone for wrongs done in previous lives. After many such reincarnations the spirit is finally able to be peacefully united with the universe. Some believe the spirits of good people go to heaven and the spirits of bad people go to hell. The list could go on and on. Truly many questions exist about the afterlife.

The first and most important thing to consider is that no one has died and returned to life to tell us what things are like on the other side. Yes, people have had visions or dreams in which they claim to have seen heaven, hell or the spirit world. Whatever your opinion of their claims, one thing is certain, they did not die and return to life again. Beyond that, even if someone did claim to die and return from the dead to tell us what it is like, there would be no way to prove his claims.

Capturing evidence of the afterlife is impossible. The issue of understanding what happens after death begins with recognizing you are going to have to believe someone’s view of the afterlife. Will you believe the Vikings and their visions of Valhalla? Will you believe Buddhist or Hindu concepts of Nirvana? Will you believe the Muslim ideas of Paradise? Will you believe the Atheist’s idea of death as final? Will you believe the Christian teachings of Heaven? One’s understanding of what happens after death is a matter of faith. You must decide who you are going to believe. I invite you to believe the information that comes directly from the One who created man, who has died and returned to life, who created Heaven and Hell and who has told us what happens to those who die. The Bible is the only reliable source of information about what happens after death.

The Bible teaches that man is a living soul. When God created man He breathed into man the “breath of life and man became a living soul.”(Genesis 2:7)  God formed man out of the dirt, but He gave to man something else, something that was not from dirt but directly from God. He gave to man a spirit, a soul, which does not crumble away or cease to exist but lasts forever. Ecclesiastes 12:7 says, “Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.” So the first thing we need to know is that death does not end our existence. Our body returns to dust, but our soul returns to the God who created it.

At death, God deals with the soul of man according to his relationship with Christ. John 3:18 says “He that believeth on (Jesus) is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he believeth not in the name of the only begotten Son of God.” Before we die our fate is already decided based upon whether or not we have believed in Christ for forgiveness and salvation.

At death the soul goes immediately into heaven or hell. In Luke 16 Jesus tells about two men, one rich the other a beggar. These two men died and one went immediately into heaven and the other directly into hell. We know this was immediate because the man in hell prayed that someone would go tell his brothers lest they also come to hell. The entered immediately into a place of punishment or blessing, without long delay, a time of sleep, limbo or purgatory.

The deciding factor in where the soul goes is if you have turned to Christ for salvation. This issue is not decided based upon whether you have been good, gone to church faithfully, been baptized, confirmed or prayed over. The decision is made by you. If you believe Jesus is God the Son who became a man, died on the cross to forgive your sin, rose from the dead three days later and if you have confessed Jesus as God trusting in only Him to remove your guilt God declares you will have eternal life in His presence. If you trust Jesus for salvation you will enter into heaven and live forever in joy. If you do not, you will enter into hell and be forever separated from God in sorrow and suffering.

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November 12, 2014

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God

What gender is God?

John 4:24 says, “God is Spirit”. God does not have gender as we thing of it. God is not a man or woman. Neither is God androgynous, that is, He is not a blending the two genders together. God is Spirit and completely outside the male and female frame of reference He has given to mankind.

What we know about God we know from His Word. In the Bible God tells us what He wants us to know about Himself. Anything we know about God comes from God’s Word. In the Bible God only refers to Himself using masculine terms. God the Son, Jesus, taught us to pray, “Our Father, which art heaven.” He repeatedly refer to God as His Father. Throughout the Old and New Testament God is always referred in masculine terms. While it is not proper to say God is a man or that God is male, it is equally improper to say God is a woman or female. God is God and God always describes Himself to humanity using masculine terminology. That is why we refer to God as He. That is also one reason why it is incorrect to refer to God as she or it.

We don’t get to define or describe God for Him. God defines and describes Himself and demands that we submit to His explanation of Himself. Some have said the masculine pronouns are used only because the writers of the Bible were men writing in time of male dominance and seeking to support their patriarchal ways. That supposition denies the Divine inspiration of the Bible. According to 2 Peter 1 the men who wrote the Bible wrote as “they were moved by the Holy Ghost.” The books of the Bible are not “cunningly devised fables.” The words of the Bible are those words which were spoken by God. The men who wrote these words wrote only what God wanted them to write. Their writings are not distorted by culture or prejudice. Their writings are directed by God’s own Holy Spirit. God has revealed Himself using masculine pronouns, and we need to refer to Him according to the revelation of Himself that He has given in His Bible.

We cannot know anything about God other than what He has told us about Himself. God is far greater than anything we can ever imagine about Him. While God is far greater than our ability to understand, He is never anything other than or contrary to what He has told us about Himself in His Word. We must turn to the Bible and allow God to teach us who He is and what He is like.

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November 10, 2014

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Are there different levels in heaven?

The Bible doesn’t give any indication that Christians will be placed in different levels of blessing or importancs in heaven. The Bible does teach that God’s servants are rewarded for their faithfulness and obedience in serving Him (1 Corinthians 3:8). However, the Bible seems to indicate that these rewards are not kept but are given back to Jesus as an act of worship and recognition that He alone is worthy to be praised (Revelation 4:11). We also know that during the time when Jesus reigns over the whole earth as King in Jerusalem certain faithful disciples will be given positions of leadership and responsibility in that kingdom. However, those positions of authority will be as part of Jesus’ earthly government during His thousand year reign. This period of time, known as the millenium, will end with a final great rebellion led by Satan and then the ultimate destruction of the universe as we know it. After that God will create a new earth and new heaven. In the newly created eternally perfect universe, which is what most people refer to as Heaven, the Bible doesn’t tell us anything about certain people having positions of special privilege or rank. What the Bible does tell us about this state is found in Revelation 22, “And his servants will serve Him, and they shall see His face.” It seems that in heaven, those who are saved will have equal status as God’s servants and equal access into His presence. There will not be any low level Christians or VIP saints.

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November 8, 2014

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Who was Cain’s wife?

In Genesis 2 the Bible tells about God’s creation of man and woman. Genesis 3 tells about humanity’s sin and the awful consequences of that sin. Genesis 4 tells us about the first two children born into the world. Those two children were Cain and Abel. Cain killed Abel in his rage at being refused by God for his disobedient sacrifice to God. Cain is driven out of the land where his parents lived and condemned to be a fugitive for the rest of his life. Genesis 4:17 says, “And Cain knew his wife; and she conceived, and bare Enoch.” If you have followed along up to this point, there seems to only be three people on the planet. Adam, Eve and Cain. So, some ask, where did Cain find a wife? With a little bit of thought, the answer is not that difficult to figure out. Obviously, there is a jump in the story line. The tale jumps from Cain being cast out to the increase of Cain’s family. In the gap between Cain’s banishment and Cain’s marriage Adam and Eve had more children, probably many more children. We don’t know how much time passed before Cain took a wife, but it’s possible that Adam and Eve’s children married and had children. We know from later in the book of Genesis that people married closer family members than we do today. In fact, it is not until the book of Leviticus that we find it forbidden to marry siblings, half sibling and in laws. In Genesis 4 the most obvious answer is the right answer. Cain probably married a sister, or maybe a niece. His wife came from the only available population of humans, the descendants of his parents Adam and Eve.