Reflections from the Planned Parenthood Rally

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Apologetics & Philosophy

Yesterday evening I had the opportunity to visit with a bunch of other supporters of life the site where Planned Parenthood has decided they want their new Gulf Coast initiative building to be erected. The general war cry of the rally was “New Orleans needs peace; not more abortion.” Planned Parenthood is currently the nation’s largest abortion provider evidenced by their record total number of abortions in 2011 (333, 964.).  I’ve always been prolife. It is something that I’ve come to believe from various sources of inquiry. But recently, I’ve felt I’ve been awakened from my dogmatic slumbers concerning the issue of abortion. My prayer life, writing, and future planning are different in view of these tragic realities. Because of that, I’ve decided to write and teach more about abortion and how it relates to the Gospel. As I’m sitting down and able to reflect on the evening, I have a couple of thoughts about the whole situation below.

1-There really is a lot of talking back and forth between the two groups without much understanding. The pro-abortion group’s signs largely trumpeted the following statements: no man has the right to tell a woman what to do with her body, my body= my choice, women need healthcare, we won’t go back to using clothes hangers, etc. The general position was one of freedom and choice. “No one has the right to _____________. After all, this is America.” This of course was yelled; not softly spoken. I saw a bunch of women afraid and upset over the prospect of losing free or cheap pregnancy and STD care. The pro-life advocates held signs saying the following: no one has the right to murder, killing children is wrong, children are a gift from God, Planned Parenthood= more dead babies, abortion is violent, etc. Their position was one of morality. “It is wrong to take the life of _________ because life is a precious gift of God.” One group focused on freedom and oppression while the other focused on morality and social goods.

2-The pro-choice crowd has a really hard time understanding that this, while influenced by religion, is not solely a religion debate. I’ll admit, this likely isn’t helped by people walking around with rugs that have a picture of the Virgin Mary on it or gigantic crucifixes with a creepy looking Jesus hanging half-dead from it (he’s not dead). The perception may be in some sense founded. But nevertheless, this isn’t merely a group of people forcing their religion on someone. I heard one young women yell about the separation of church and state and how the prolife crowd isn’t following it. “Keep your religion out of my $%^&*!” Comments and signs baring such rhetoric were common. The problem is that, while religion plays a large role concerning morality, one does not have to be religious to affirm the immorality of killing a baby. That’s simply a matter of ethics. Furthermore, it seems somewhat intolerant to tell people they must leave at the door a fundamental part of who they are. “You can have an opinion as long as it does not contain religious or moral implications for other people.” The moral have no less a right to say something is wrong anymore than the prochoice advocate has the right to say “it’s wrong for you to force your morality on another.” It needs also to be said that no one in the prolife crowd hates women or wants to see women suffer without healthcare. That’s an easily burned straw man. The issue is about the gradations of good and ethics of killing a part of the human race. It is good for a woman to have a right to her own body. It’s better for women to not murder a part of the human race. Our rights end where others’ begin. Such incorrigible facts are apparently taken for granted in our day and age.

3-Many of the ladies pointed out that the most prolife countries on the planet were also the most oppressive to women: Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Iraq. The problem I have with the linkage is those countries really aren’t prolife in any meaningful sense of the word. The prolife stance is one where one values the sanctity, dignity, and loveliness of life in such a way that we actively seek to extend the wholeness and happiness of all invited to such a feast. Everyone agrees women are oppressed in those countries. There are stories of women being stoned for wearing loose clothing, hands being cut off because someone stole bread to feed their family, and a host of other human rights violations. Our problem is that the abortionist is more in line with the Islamic fascists than the prolifer. Only one side believes it’s a right to pluck a child out of the womb. J. Budziszewski writes, “It is hard to see why people should object to a world in which babies are cut out of their mother’s wombs with daggers, but not one in which mothers invite daggers into their wombs so that their babies may be cut out.”

4-There really is no chance for thoughtful dialogue at these types of events. You cannot dialogue with someone screaming about the right to do whatever they please wherever they please however they please. The problem I have with it is a major one I’ve criticized elsewhere. We are not our own. No man is an island. We all are linked. No one is a law unto themselves and above the commandment and basic moral principle of “don’t murder another person.” Call murder whatever you want, in the end, the baby is still sliced to pieces and scrapped off a metal plate into a biohazard bag. The pro-abortion crowd is right. We do want to limit and restrict that so called “right.” R.C. Sproul notes, “Every law enacted limits or restricts someone’s choices. That is the very nature of law. If we do not wish to restrict other people’s choices through legislation, we must stop legislating and cease voting. I think that most people will grant that freedom of choice is not an absolute freedom. No human being is an absolute law unto himself. Unless we are prepared to buy into an ethical system of pure relativism by which law and society become impossible, we must flee as the wind from the proposition that the individual is autonomous.”

5-It bothered me to my core to see so many African American women supporting Planned Parenthood. African Americans make up 12.6% of U.S. Population, but account for 30% of all abortions. In Louisiana, 1 in 7 minority pregnancies end in abortion. Nationally, 1 in 2.7 black pregnancies end in abortion. 79% of PP Abortion Facilities are located near minority neighborhoods: The 2010 Census reveals that PP has located 79% of its 165 abortion facilities within walking distance of African American or Hispanic/Latino neighborhoods. I, like others, have noticed the numbers. One writer says, “Every day 1,300 black babies are killed in America. Seven hundred Hispanic babies die every day from abortion. Call this what you will – when the slaughter has an ethnic face and the percentages are double that of the white community and the killers are almost all white, something is going on here that ought to make the lovers of racial equality and racial harmony wake up… O that the murderous effect of abortion in the Black and Latino communities, destroying tens of thousands at the hands of white abortionists, would explode with the same reprehensible reputation as lynching.”

6-Many of the ladies pointed out much of the good Planned Parenthood is involved with. They sought to make the debate about the right to healthcare. I can admit with a pure heart, Planned Parenthood does some good. The problem though is the amount of abortions they do perform instead of advocating other avenues of services. They perform 145 abortions for every 1 adoption referral. In NOLA, all other women’s health services Planned Parenthood may offer are readily available elsewhere. In 2011 alone, they aborted 333, 964 babies. That’s over 900 a day. I don’t deny that they offer some services that are helpful to women. My fundamental issue with the nonprofit is the number of abortions they perform. Contraceptive services dropped by 8% and cancer prevention services dropped by 35% while abortion services increased by 26%. For someone who is convinced from revelation, reason, and rigorous scientific evidence that what is in the womb is a person, this is a cause for concern.

7-There needs to be more involvement from the Church. The church exists to be salt and light to those in power that continue to lead as if there’s not a God above. If Jesus is Lord, Caesar is not. The early church sought to win the hearts of individuals by sharing the gospel but they also worked to end what they considered to be immoral practices within the Roman Empire (the gladiatorial games, crucifixion, concubinage, infanticide, and slavery). Christ is calling His followers not to the mere theoretical opposition of injustice, but rather to the real and practical (and often painful) ministry of meeting physical needs in a dying world. You want to be where Christ is believer? You’ll find yourself not only in Church Sunday morning, but amongst the prostitutes, homeless, aborted, and the maligned. Christians everywhere should be heralds of peace and reconciliation seeking to bring the tranquility of the gospel to the nations during tumultuous times. We are called not to be mean angry, belligerent, intolerant, judgmental, red-faced, and hate-filled influence, but rather winsome, kind, thoughtful, loving, persuasive influence that is suitable to each circumstance and that always protects the other person’s right to disagree, but that is also uncompromising about the truthfulness and moral goodness of the teachings of God’s Word. We oppose that which is violent and oppressive to people. Abortion is both of those things. The silence of the Church thunders in the wake of 55 million dead babies. R.C. Sproul Jr. notes, “The great tragedy of the last thirty years is not ultimately that the heathen, those who the Bible tells us “love death,” are killing their children. Rather, the great tragedy is that those who have been bought by the blood of the Lamb just don’t care. Of course the heathen kill their children. They, after all, are the heathen. But we who were dead in our trespasses and sins, but who have been made alive, who have been set free by the death of the One Innocent, ought not to give up.”

8-The women protesting for Planned Parenthood, the prolifers, the abortionists, all the politicians, every individual present, and myself need the Gospel. One pro-abortion lady responded to a sign that said, “Women regret abortion” with “no we don’t.”  There will never be a change until we recognize our need for it. There’s something wrong with us and we need help. Michael Horton is right saying, “We are not sick, but spiritually dead. We are not good people with room for improvement, but the ungodly. We are not children who need a little direction, but lost. The gospel comes not to help us get our act together, fixing us up for a night on the town, making us more respectable to ourselves or to others. Rather, it comes to kill us and make us alive and completely new creatures. Not a new and improved self, but a self buried and raised with Christ, is the gospel’s message of genuine transformation.” May the Lord save to the uttermost.

I Gain Nothing

“If I think I have all of my theology right, but have not love, then I have none of my theology right.” Burk Parsons

Paul wrote “If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.”

If I write a systematic theology book that is used by every seminary and church on the planet, but have not love, I gain nothing.

If I dig enough wells to sate the thirst of every person on the planet, but have not love, I gain nothing.

If I put a cross on my back and walk across the United States, but have not love, I gain nothing.

If I discourse with angels concerning election and God’s glory, but have not love, I gain nothing.

If I teach the nations Hebrew, Greek, and Aramaic, but have not love, I gain nothing.

If I lead a church with millions of parishioners that plant thousands upon thousands of other churches, but have not love, I gain nothing.

If I provide every orphan with a pair of Tom’s shoes, but have not love, I gain nothing.

If I memorize the whole New Testament and can quote it from memory in my sleep, but have not love, I gain nothing.

If I preach like Wesley, Graham, Piper or any of the bests, but have not love, I gain nothing.

If I tithe all that I make and build up the kingdom in every way, but have not love, I gain nothing.

If I can refute every erroneous theological position with passion and truth, but have not love, I gain nothing.

If I do everything the right way, but have not love, I gain nothing.

If I have it all from a human perspective, but have not love, I am nothing.

Did God Ordain the Fall? by Paul Washer

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Apologetics & Philosophy

The word “ordain” means to put in order, arrange, or appoint. To ask if God ordained the fall is to ask if He put it in order, arranged it, or appointed that it occur. Other words that carry similar meaning are: “decree,” “predetermine,” and “predestine.” Did God determine beforehand or decree that the fall should occur? The answer to this question is “yes,” but we must be very careful that we understand what this does and does not mean.

God’s ordaining of the fall does not mean that He forced Satan to tempt our first parents, or that He coerced them to disregard His command. What God’s creatures did, they did willingly. God is holy, just, and good. He does not sin, cannot be tempted by sin, and He does not tempt anyone to sin.

God’s ordaining of the fall does mean that it was certain to happen. It was God’s will that Adam be tested, and it was God’s will to let Adam both stand and fall alone without the divine aid which could have kept him from falling. God could have hindered Satan from laying the temptation before Eve, or in the face of such temptation He could have given Adam special sustaining grace to enable him to triumph over it. From the testimony of the Scriptures, we understand that He did not.

God’s ordaining of the fall also means that it was a part of His eternal plan. Before the foundation of the world, before the creation of Adam and Eve and the serpent that tempted them, before the existence of any garden or tree, God ordained the fall for His glory and the greater good of His creation. He did not merely permit our first parents to be tempted and then wait to react to whatever choice they made. He did not merely look through the corridors of time and see the fall. Rather, the fall was a part of God’s eternal plan and He predetermined or predestined that it should and would happen.

At this point a very important question arises:

“Is God the author of sin?”

This question can and should be answered with a strong negative. God is not the author of sin, nor does He coerce men to sin against Him. Although He predetermined that the fall should and would happen, He also predetermined that it should happen through the willing actions of Satan, Adam, and Eve. Although our finite minds cannot fully comprehend how God can be absolutely sovereign over every event of history and over every individual act without destroying individual freedom, the Scriptures abound with examples that demonstrate this to be true. Joseph was sold into slavery as a result of the willful sin of his brothers, and yet when the final story was told, Joseph declared, “As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result, to preserve many people alive” (Genesis 50:20). The Son of God was crucified as a result of man’s willful sin and hostility toward God, and yet God had ordained or predetermined the death of Christ before the foundation of the world. In the Scriptures we read:

“… this Man, delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put Him to death.”-Acts 2:23

“For truly in this city there were gathered together against Your holy servant Jesus, whom You anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever Your hand and Your purpose predestined to occur.” -Acts 4:27-28

From the Scriptures, we see that God does ordain or predetermine an event to occur and yet brings it to pass through the willful sin of men. He does this without being the author of their sin or coercing them to do that which is against their will. Godless men willfully nailed Jesus Christ to the cross and were responsible for their actions, but the entire event was according to the predetermined plan of God. The fall of Satan, and the later fall of the human race through Adam and Eve, were the results of their own sin for which they alone were responsible, and yet the events came to pass according to the ordained, predetermined, predestined plan of God. God has decreed a great eternal purpose for His creation and has ordained every event of history by which that purpose is being fulfilled. Nothing, not even the fall of man or the death of God’s Son, occurs apart from the sovereign decree of God.

‘Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways! For “who has known the mind of the Lord, or who became His counselor?” Or “who has first given to Him that it might be paid back to Him again?” For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen.’ -Romans 11:33-36

“… In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will….” -Ephesians 1:10-11

The Truth about Man, pgs. 26-28

Legalism is Attractive because It’s Easy

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Christian Life

Legalism is attractive because it’s easy. It’s easier to put up a fence between you & your neighbor instead of loving your neighbor as yourself.

Legalism is attractive because it’s easy. It’s easier to follow parts of the law instead of the whole law.

Legalism is attractive because it’s easy. It’s easier to trust yourself and your innate “goodness” instead of trusting God and his real goodness.

Legalism is attractive because it’s easy. It’s easier to conclude you have it all together instead of realizing you’re truly spiritually bankrupt.

Legalism is attractive because it’s easy. It’s easier to think we can earn our salvation instead of reckoning with the reality that an innocent one was bruised for our transgressions.

Legalism is attractive because it’s easy. It’s easier to consider yourself better than another instead of realizing we are all not what we are supposed to be which bolsters humility.

Legalism is attractive because it’s easy. It’s easier to imagine that God is more like a doting grandfather instead of a righteous, holy Father who truly must honor all that is honorable.

Legalism is attractive because it’s easy. It’s easier to give yourself to a lie instead of giving yourself to the truthful one.

Legalism is attractive because it’s easy. It’s easier to believe that God’s love is conditioned by our obedience instead of believing that there’s an unending wellspring of tender mercies found in Jesus Christ.

John Piper writes “Whenever happy confidence in the sovereign power of God for our own lives and the lives of others grows weak, legalism creeps in. We inevitably try to compensate for loss of dynamic faith by increased moral resolve and the addition of man-made regulations. But wherever joyful confidence in the power of God is waning, the flesh is waxing. Which means that the morality we had hoped would save ourselves and the regulations we hoped would purify our church fall victim to the massive power of the flesh and become its instruments of self-reliance and self-sufficiency.” Beloved, the gospel is both good and stout medicine. It’s good because it truly mends our brokenness and lack of true righteousness. It’s stout because it is a painful remedy that aims to relieve the dying of their last self-righteous breath.

An Open Letter to a Homosexual Individual

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Christian Life

Dear homosexual friend,

I’m not writing this letter to you because I hate you, find you repulsive, or because I think you’re particularly more sinful than any other human being. I am writing you this letter as an opportunity for you to know and find depths of joy you might have only occasionally glimpsed in this life. I am writing so that you may know the quiet peace I posses in the midst of storms, that you may know the love that’s utterly unfathomable I experience almost daily, and that you might discover the fulfillment that comes with knowing one is doing exactly what the Lord desires for his precious people who are the very crown of his Creation. Jesus offers to you this day joy you cannot even comprehend.

There’s a story in the fourth Gospel that highlights this truth well. What is so odd within the account is the irony—Jesus, a first century rabbi, is talking to a woman. And she’s not just any woman. She’s a Samaritan woman with a past (John 4:16-18). Jesus asks the lady for a drink of water and she’s taken aback (vv. 7-9) because it was so uncommon for a man to talk to someone like her in the first century.  It was beyond taboo. It was downright dirty! Jesus uses the conversation to offer something more important though than physical water. Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” Jesus offers the lady something that will satisfy her deepest desire. He offers himself. He goes on within the gospel time and time again presenting the same voluptuous gift.

Many years ago I met this elusive figure that offers such a treasure and he gave to me what he promised to that lady by the well. I grew up as a fatherless child with a mother who tenaciously held her family together amidst a rocky life. Anger, bitterness, and disrespect defined my life in the realest sense. Yet, there was always this figure within the shadows haunting the South. He haunted even me. I had heard stories of this man who was once dead but lived who turned history toward its way and end. People told me about a man who spoke like no other person had ever spoken before. Then, I met him. I met him at a church filled with hateful people. I met him among a people that scared the hell out of me and the legalism right into me. It’s strange where you’ll find the Lord sometimes. Nevertheless, I met him. There I was into myself full of envy, full of broken and unfulfilled desires, full of everything wrong and he said one word. Just one. “Live!” And it was so. He said “live” and I was full. He spoke the word and I was new. Friend, Jesus offers that to you today.

You might be thinking “I know what your religion says about me.” And I don’t deny it friend. Christianity teaches that man, made in God’s image, is to reflect and magnify the righteousness of their Creator. It teaches that homosexuality is an aberration from what God truly desires for humanity. He created them for his glory and he wants them to flourish abundantly and homosexuality is included within a list of things that do not foster such a purpose. You need to understand that the One who gives those commands found in Scripture is the Resurrected One. Dying on a cross does not make you the king of the universe. Rising from the dead however totally strengthens your claim to the throne. Jesus of Nazareth went into the grave and came out victorious on the other side. No one else has ever accomplished such a feat and there’s authority vested in his words because of that.  There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which the Resurrected Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry, ‘Mine! That includes human sexuality. If He made it and is sovereign over it, we must let him define the good and bad uses of our sexuality.

“How dare you call who I am wrong.” There’s the problem. The Christian message to you is that you’re infinitely more than your sexuality. You’re short-changing all that you are and all that you could be by defining yourself by that label. Furthermore, sin is neither a homosexual thing nor a heterosexual thing. It is a human thing. We all have fallen in many areas. Paul in Romans 1 builds this elaborate case that God has given all men knowledge of himself within them and within nature. But we have not cherished that knowledge as the highest of goods. We have spurned it by turning inwards and outwards instead of reflecting it upwards. Man is guilty of rejecting God’s revelation of Himself through the created realm and sinking into the miry depths of self-love and worship of creatures. We glory what we value most and it isn’t God. We glorify self instead of the Savior. The creature’s original impulse towards self-glorification ends in self-destruction. The refusal to acknowledge God as Creator ends in blind distortion of the creation. One Christian writer aptly writes, “The human problem isn’t just ignorance; it’s also stubborn pride. It’s not just oppression; it’s also corruption. That’s why newly liberated victims of oppression often end up oppressing others. The human problem isn’t just that we timidly conform to prevailing modes of life; it’s also that nothing human can jolt us out of our slump. Even a move to a pristine backwoods in British Columbia won’t save us because we carry our trouble with us. The real human predicament, as Scripture reveals, is that inexplicably, irrationally, we all keep living our lives against what’s good for us.” Sin is not just a homosexual problem. It’s very much a “me” problem. All have fallen short of God’s glory and all have turned toward themselves instead of to Him. Brother or sister, you’re wrong and so am I. Do not be offended that the Resurrected One desires to fix every broken part of you and me. That’s love.

This is not the way it’s supposed to be. We were meant for communion, joy, happiness, love and a life of all things good but that’s not what we have. That’s not what we daily pursue in feeling, word, and deed. I do not deny that you may have had these fallen, homosexual desires for all long as you can remember. You may have had the inner proclivity to the same sex your whole life. That’s not offensive to me in the slightest because, for as long as I can remember, I have been fallen too. I do not struggle with that specific sin but sin has been with me since the very beginning. The Christian message does not require you deny your desires exist or your daily experience; it says what you desire is not always right. It says your desires are fallen and have turned inward on themselves. It says let someone do what you cannot do for yourself, implant new desires that honor God.

You’re likely thinking “if I have to not be myself to receive this joy, I don’t want it!” Friend, that’s not what I am asking you to become. I am not calling you away from yourself; I am calling you away to your true self, who you were meant to be all along. Sin has marred us in the most vindictive of ways. It tricks us with the most abrasive falsities. The battle against sin is one of belief. The battle is to recognize who God is and trust that what he says is actually right and true. Sin is always bound up with lies, empty promises, and dissatisfaction. It begins with a lie, a rationalization that the One who sits on the throne is unworthy and cannot ultimately offer true joy. It continues by teaching the one who is lied to that his unnatural desires are in fact natural and no one else has the right to say otherwise. It ends with the deceived one ultimately dying in the midst of lies without true, eternal joy. You die gorging yourself with mudpies in the slum when Someone else is holding out a four-course meal with steak by the sea. God is not calling people away from who they truly are. Your desires are fallen and not the sum total of who you were meant to be! He is calling people to be who they should be-truly image-bearing humans reflecting God’s virtues and existence. God’s ultimate goal for us is that we be truly conformed to the likeness of His Son in our person. He is on a mission to make us new by returning us to our former glory. He is creating a new humanity made after the image of Christ. This is what we should do and be.

But you cannot do this by yourself. The Christian message has never been and will never be “God helps those who help themselves.” That’s bullshit in the highest of degrees. The Christian message is God helps those who cannot help themselves and those who turn away from themselves to Someone who is able.  In the fullness of time, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship. God came himself in the face of Jesus Christ to do what we could not do, to keep a law we could not keep, to die a death we deserved to die, to be raised to life for justification and world in dire need of help, and much more. The Christian message is another has done what you could not do. Friend, I am not asking you to be a heterosexual so you may get to heaven. The opposite of homosexuality is not heterosexuality. It’s purity! John Piper writes, “Homosexual sinning, like all other sinning, is an echo of exchanging the glory of God for other things. So restore the sun of God’s glory to its place at the center of your soul and all the planets of your desires will begin to return to their God-given orbit.” I am asking you to reconsider not only your lifestyle but your other desires and actions bent towards self instead of Christ. I am asking you to consider that someone else is in a better position to define what we should be. Someone who is the sum total of all that is precious and good desires for you and I to be reflective of what is most excellent—Himself.

This is not and will not be easy. I cannot and will not lie to you and tell you this process of conformity to God’s image and will is painless or without its struggles. God is after a new humanity and there are others who are against such a reality. As one writer said, “This other war is the war not to conquer but the war to become whole and at peace inside our skins. It is a war not of conquest now but of liberation because the object of this other war is to liberate that dimension of selfhood which has somehow become lost, that dimension of selfhood that involves the capacity to forgive and to will the good not only of the self but of all other selves. This other war is the war to become a human being. This is the goal that we are really after and that God is really after. This is the goal that power, success, and security are often forlorn substitutes for. This is the victory that not all our human armory of self-confidence and wisdom and personality can win for us, not simply to be treated as human but to become at last truly human.” This journey, if you so decide to travel on, will be one full of groaning. You’ll groan and all creation will groan with you. Paul says that “For we know that all creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. And we believers also groan, even though we have the Holy Spirit within us as a foretaste of future glory, for we long for our bodies to be released from sin and suffering. We, too, wait with eager hope for the day when God will give us our full rights as his adopted children, including the new bodies he has promised us. (Rom. 8:22-23)” We will groan because the process hurts but its necessary. But let me remind you that the one who begins this process is not a cosmic killjoy. He holds out eternal pleasures that are in his hands for those who would willingly go with him (Psa. 16:11; 73:25-26). Becoming human, truly human, is difficult but it is oh so joyful. I would not turn back the sands of time in my own life for a moment despite the difficulties of the process. Jesus has seemed to pour every part of me out time and time again only to mold it and fill it with a deeper capacity for new experiences of joy. That’s tough but it’s so good. Jesus said, “…everyone who has given up houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or property [or even "honored" views of sexuality], for my sake, will receive a hundred times as much in return and will inherit eternal life.” What we give up is not even worth comparing to what will get in return now and will receive in the future.

I am sorry if I have failed to communicate well what God is after. I am also sorry if my brothers and sisters in the Church have treated you as if you do not have worth or dignity. We love you because God loves you. We want what He wants and it is to turn away from yourself to Him. Jesus said once that “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross daily, and follow me.” But you must remember that the same person who said take up your cross also said “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.” He loves you abundantly and truly desires to see you satisfied and whole. He desires to see us rest from the heavy burdens of your and my fallen desires. I hope this letter finds you well and causes you to think deeply on such things.

With love,

Austin

Free Will and Eternal Security?

There’s a common doctrinal belief that all the Reformed, Baptist, and Presbyterian churches agree upon (and that is sometimes a feat!). It is the “P” of the acronym TULIP. Perseverance of the saints or preservation of the Savior means that all those who are truly regenerated will be kept by God’s power and will persevere as Christians until the end of their lives (Rom. 8:1, 8:29-30; John 3:36, 5:24, 6:4-7, 38-40, 10:27-29; 1 John 5:13; Eph. 1:13-14; Phil. 1:6; 1 Pet. 1:5; Jud. 1:24). Though the believer may be involved in sin for a time, those who persevere until the end have been truly regenerated and all who are truly regenerate will persevere to the end (John 8:31-32, 10:22; Col. 1:22-23; Heb. 3:14; 1 John 2:19; Matt. 24:12-13, 10:22; Gal. 6:9; Jas. 5:19-20). Those who finally fall away may have shown many signs of conversion (Matt. 26:22; Gal. 2:4; 2 Cor. 11:15,26; Matt. 7:21-23; Mark 4:5-6,16-17; John 15:1-7; Heb. 6:1-4, 10:26-31).

Something I’ve been musing over lately is the inconsistency of some of my fellow Baptists in affirming a belief in “free will” in regards to salvation while holding to eternal security. The “free will” I’m referring to is the type that’s viewed as incompatible with determinism (libertarianism). The problem is you cannot consistently say that man has a free will of that type but cannot lose his salvation. If it is a violation of your volitional faculties for God to save you apart from your willing, why is it not a violation of your “free will” for God to make sure you don’t fall away? There are some that are intellectually honest concerning this issue. I’ll contrast two Baptist groups on this issue: the Southern Baptist Convention and the National Association of Free Will Baptists.

Because it is so intricately tied to God’s purpose of grace, the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints is included under the same heading in the Southern Baptist’s Baptist Faith and Message. The confession notes “All true believers endure to the end. Those whom God has accepted in Christ, and sanctified by His Spirit, will never fall away from the state of grace, but shall persevere to the end. Believers may fall into sin through neglect and temptation, whereby they grieve the Spirit, impair their graces and comforts, and bring reproach on the cause of Christ and temporal judgments on themselves; yet they shall be kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation.” The message grounds the ultimate victory of the believer’s hope in the power of God and not in the free agency of man. Though they may fall into sin and suffer temporal judgment as a result, true believers persevere because they are kept by a strong covenant-keeping God. The believer’s final eschatological triumph is grounded in the universal and awe-inspiring dominion of Christ over all the cosmos. They remain in Christ because Christ remains in them despite their moral and spiritual failures.

The Treatise of Faith of the National Association of Free Will Baptists disagrees with the BF&M noting that “We believe that there are strong grounds to hope that the saved will persevere unto the end and be saved because of the power of divine grace pledged for their support…Since man, however, continues to have free choice, it is possible because of temptations and the weakness of human flesh for him to fall into the practice of sin and to make shipwreck of his faith and be lost.” Free Will Baptists believe that it is possible for a believer to cease to believe in Jesus Christ and hence to fall away from grace and forfeit his salvation. The NAFWB arrive at this belief from the warning passages in Hebrews, the conditional statements made within the NT, and the nature of libertarian freedom. Free Will Baptists go further than Arminius himself who was more agnostic on the issue of perseverance of the saints.

The National Association of Free Will Baptists understand the logic of affirming free choice in regards to salvation. If the grounds of your reception of the gospel and subsequent salvation are in your choosing to follow Christ with your own libertarian freedom (even if it is in response to grace), there are no grounds for you affirming that your salvation cannot be lost. You walked right in. Why not walk right out? If you say “well God sees to it that you do not ultimately fall away,” then how is that not causally constraining? I think the best course of action is to affirm a view of freedom that preserves both human agency and what Scripture says about the nature of God’s work in salvation.

A Grief Observed by C.S. Lewis

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Church History

In 1961, an unknown writer by the name N.W. Clerk published one of the most stirring accounts of grief and loss that has ever been penned. The only problem was N.W. Clerk did not exist. The book was written by the Christian apologist and scholar C.S. Lewis. If The Problem of Pain deals solely with the intellectual problem of evil, A Grief Observed is C.S. Lewis’ attempt to describe the existential or emotional aspects of the problem of evil. The book is a chronicle of the writer’s grief after the passing of his beloved wife of only a few years. After writing letters to each other for a time, the elder Oxford bachelor married Helen Joy Davidson because of the threat of deportation to the states. From the beginning of the relationship, Davidson was ill and dying of cancer. Yet, through an extraordinary example of love, courage and personal surrender, Lewis married the only love of his life anyway. Her departure created what anyone else would describe as a crisis of belief. The noted defender of mere Christianity began to experience the dark night of the soul that is so common to those affected by grief.

Lewis opens chapter one pointing out that “No one ever told me that grief felt so like fear” (3). The complexities of losing someone you love are deep for him. Grief, embarrassment, fear and drunkenness are all ways that Lewis describes the experience of his pain. The common sense belief that “I was happy before” and can return to such a state fades away as he realizes that her love was too weighty and transformative for such cold logic to mend his sorrow. All throughout this ordeal, the question of God’s nearness is raised. “Why is He so present a commander in our time of prosperity and so very absent a help in time of trouble?” (6). Quaint, well-intentioned statements about the suffering of Christ does not alleviate the hurt because, though he may understand the pain, the griever’s experience of God’s absence is unbearable. Lewis does not seem to deny God’s existence; it is his goodness that is questioned. He writes, “Not that I am (I think) in much danger of ceasing to believe in God. The real danger is of coming to believe such dreadful things about him” (6). For him, the fact that God is not near speaks against his benevolence. Amidst the grief, the writer struggles to find people to talk with about the pain. To some, to mention her death is an embarrassment. To others, Lewis’ very presence is “a death’s head” because he is not the same person. He is missing something. Lewis goes on to describe the nature of a loved one dying of cancer and how it sets the people who suffer on different paths. They both suffer, but the suffering is not the same. He writes, “I had my miseries, not hers she had hers, not mine. The end of hers would be the coming-of-age of mine. We were setting out of different roads” (13). Lewis closes the chapter rebuking those who view death as a friend or as inconsequential. As long as one loves another and that one is taken away so that the lover cannot experience their joyful presence anymore, death remains important. Her death holds the power to turn the apologist into a weeping child.

Chapter two contains similar themes and reflections evident within the earlier one. The author seeks to think about other things but finds he is “thinking about her nearly always.” Her absence is excruciatingly clear because the marriage bond gave the writer a “constant impact of something very close and intimate yet all the time unmistakably other” (18-19). Her nearness was too good to merely forget about like some cold, hollow fact. Lewis recounts a meeting of a man he had not seen in ten years. Obviously, the man’s actual existence was quite different than he had remembered. Will this happen to Joy? The author fears that his memories will fade and all that will be left is her grave. And to him, she is not there. He cannot even pray for her because there’s too much bewilderment and amazement involved. The apologist begins to question the nature of the afterlife. Though an interesting thought and reality, Lewis’ wife being in heaven does not alleviate his grief. It cannot. He will listen to someone talk about the truth of religion. He will listen to someone talk about the duty of religion. But, C.S. Lewis just cannot listen to someone talk about the consolation of religion because for him, there currently is none. The writer spends the good part of three pages discussing God’s desire to wound those he loves, his lack of goodness and the fact that he is nowhere to be found. He finally returns to the unreasonableness of an evil God but closes the chapter again amidst the stupor of an agonizing heartache.

What grounds does the author have for questioning the goodness of God? Lewis knows that suffering is promised to all those who believe. Yet, his faith has not helped him. Because of the pain, Lewis finds that his faith “…was not faith but imagination” (37). His faith was untested faith that was exposed to the horrors of death and it changed. The author admits that all his talk about a possible sadist God is really nothing more than an expression of hatred. He writes, “I was getting from it the only pleasure a man in anguish can get; the pleasure of hitting back” (40). During the tribulation, Lewis wakes up one morning to find that his affliction has slightly changed. The man is able to see the beauty in the world while remembering the beauty of his beloved wife. This leads him to extol the goodness of her love while also questioning the nature of what it means for God to speak during our woes. Maybe our grief causes us to deafen our ears to his voice? Maybe our cries drown out the still small voice? Lewis’ consolation was only momentary because the “hells of a young grief have opened again” (56). The section closes with yet another anguished night for the learned man.

In the last portion of the book, the apologist discovers that grief is a process with many phases, feelings and new experiences. He fears that one day their love will merely be a charming episode reflected upon within a rather normal, unchanged life. Such hindsight is feared by Lewis as a second death. The chapter gives evidence that Lewis found strength to faithfully trust in God who seemed to finally return to the bereaved disciple. He finds that he “needs Christ, not something that resembles Him…[He needs] H., not something like her” (65). His relationship with Joy is now much like his relationship with God. He says, “…loving her has become, in its measure, like loving Him. In both cases I must stretch out the arms and hands of love” (66). He has to think about Joy the way he thinks about God. They must be true thoughts; not those based upon what he wants to remember one for. The chapter moves near the end with Lewis describing the nature of what it means to trust God, the reunion with loved ones and what God wants from those who suffer. He does not find a locked door anymore as he asks his timely questions. “It is more like a silent…gaze. As though He shook His head not in refusal but waiving the question. Like, ‘Peace, child; you don’t understand’” (69). The book ends with Joy’s last words of “I am at peace with God’” (76).

As I read the book, I tended to wince at the parts where Lewis tended to shake his hands at heaven. I then realized that the pain Lewis felt was a result of love. It was its servant. A Grief Observed provides a very stunning portrayal of love between a married couple. The fact that such intense grief appears throughout the pages of the book is testimony to the immensity and profundity of their love. The greater the relationship, the more devastating the agony that results from a rift in it. He asks “Why was H. not to me? She was my daughter and my mother, my pupil and my teacher, my subject and my sovereign; and always, holding all these in solution, my trusty comrade, friend, shipmate, fellow-soldier. My mistress; but at the same time all that any man friend (and I have good ones) has ever been to me. Perhaps more” (48). While noting all the good things about his beloved, he also notes that her mere companionship was the most precious gift. In a world where vain pursuits, money and looks define a relationship, A Grief Observed offers a younger generation a representation of what it means to give yourself to another.

The book is also heart-wrenchingly honest in its descriptions about what death robs from lovers. Trite statements of “it will all work out in time” and “you’ll see them again” belittle the suffering being experienced by the bereaved. It was refreshing to see the very academically astute writer depict the very common, viscerally life-changing effects of what death does to the human soul. He is right to reject death as a “friend” though it brings us to see the Lord’s face. For the Christian, death still remains an enemy though the sting of death (the Law) has been removed. While I do not know how I would respond to God in the same situation, I can at least appreciate C.S. Lewis’ straightforward recounting of what he actually experienced. Christians still grieve albeit they grieve with hope. One thing I noticed that was lacking from the text was any statements made concerning how his church or friends were there for the man. He admitted he had great friends but that statement left me asking “where are they?” Though their words would not change the situation, their mere quiet presence (unlike the friends of Job) could have prevented Lewis many of the outlandish flights from true statements about God’s nearness. I get the sense that Lewis isolated himself during his misery. Something else to be praised concerning the book is its brevity. If the book was any longer, my interest would have waned because one can only look into such mourning for so long. It would’ve begun to take an emotional toll on my own life.

I’m hesitant to offer critiques of the book because of its nature. The work feels less like a book and more like a personal journal that Lewis utilized during a dark period in his life. Who am I to critique someone’s sufferings? I have experienced loss within my immediate family because of cancer and have thought and felt similar emotions as the apologist. When someone is in the midst of terrible feelings of distress, they tend to affirm things they, when thinking lucidly, reject latter. At times the book did not seem to possess an extended argument advanced throughout its pages but that’s the nature of grief. It comes and goes in waves. I would say that A Grief Observed should be read alongside or included with The Problem of Pain. In a lot of ways, the book functioned as the opposite side of the same coin. If he appeared emotionally detached in one, he most certainly made up for the lack in another. The book is valuable to learn the varied dimensions of what it means to have faith during times of loss. In reading about his pain, one can learn about his or her own maladies. He or she can be taught what it means to be human with the imminent knowledge of mortality. Because of that, I would recommend this book to anyone going through the loss of someone dear.

The Barabbas Narrative Proves the Gospels Cannot Be Trusted?

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Apologetics & Philosophy

I recently watched a debate between Dr. William Lane Craig and Dr. Richard Carrier on the resurrection. Richard Carrier’s main issue with the resurrection is that there’s no evidence for its historicity. You may be thinking “but wait…what about the gospels?” Dr. Carrier repeatedly makes the claim that the gospels cannot be taken as historical because that’s not their genre. They are not concerned with history; they’re concerned with theology. They have no historical value. An interesting example is the release of Barabbas at the trial of Jesus (28:34 in the video). The account is attested in all four gospels (Matt. 27:15-26; Mark 15:6-15; Luke 23:13-25; John 18:39-40). Dr. Carrier’s position is the gospels are clearly not written to record history but myth the early church believed. This is evidenced by a few things in regards to the Barabbas incident. Dr. Carrier’s issues with that account are twofold: 1) Barabbas’ name means “son of the father” which is just too ironic, and 2) the idea of releasing a prisoner is not found outside the New Testament.  Dr. Carrier finds the story of one “son of the father” (Aramaic for Barabbas) being released while the true Son of the Father condemned to be a recapitulation of an Old Testament ritual where one sacrificial goat is released and another bears the weight of sin as an atoning substitute (Lev. 16:8-10, 23:27-32). A false son is released while the true son carries the weight of Israel’s sin. The irony is just too rich to be true. Second, for Dr. Carrier, it is just too obtuse and implausible for the Roman leadership to release a Jewish prisoner.

 

Should we take Dr. Carrier’s position as fact and subsequently abandon the idea that Jesus rose from the dead (which would be the end of Christianity)? Hardly! There seems to be some issues that need to be discussed. Dr. Craig brought up a few with the apparent mythical account of Barabbas. First, the name is actually a common name in the first century. Dr. Craig responds saying:

“Barabbas” is not, in fact, an unusual name at all but is a frequently attested surname. It is attested in Aramaic as “Bar-Abba” from as early as the fifth century B.C. right on through the rabbis of the Amoraic period of the second to fifth centuries after Christ. We even have an inscription from the time of Christ in a burial cave at Giv’at ja-Mivtar near Jerusalem of the name “Abba,” the name of a man whose son would be called Barabbas in Greek. The fact that Barabbas was a common surname evacuates any argument based on its allegedly unusual nature of significance. Semitic names frequently expressed deeper meanings, and so it is here.

Because the name is such a common one amongst early Jews, there seems to be no reason to assume that it was made up on the spot by the gospel writers. Another further problem is the misplaced symbolism associated with Carrier’s position. The problem is the theological symbolism is skewed if Carrier’s position is true. He is right to affirm that there was an Old Testament ritual where two goats are brought to the tent of meeting (Lev. 16). The priest would cast lots to determine which beast is for the LORD and which is for Azazel. The one for the LORD is sacrificed to cleanse the tent of meeting and the goat that finds itself fortunate enough to be in the Azazelian position is set free into the wilderness. The goat that is set free represents the picture of Israel’s sin being sent out of the camp. The “scapegoat” is to remove the impurity and iniquity from the community in order to avoid offending the Lord and the repercussions of such dangerous malady. If the Barabbas narrative has this story as its backdrop, it is then Barabbas who is bearing the weight of Israel’s sin, not Jesus! The writers would be getting their Old Testament symbol wrong. Dr. Carrier’s reading is actually what’s ironic. The backdrop of the passion narrative is not the Yom Kippur sacrificial scapegoat but the Passover lamb’s sacrifice. The Passover feast is directly connected with the narrative portions concerning the Lord ’s Table (Matt. 26:26-29; Mark 14:22-25; Luke 22:14-23). Furthermore, John’s gospel explicitly links the Passover lamb with the sacrifice of Jesus when it says “But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water. He who saw it has borne witness— his testimony is true, and he knows that he is telling the truth— that you also may believe. For these things took place that the Scripture might be fulfilled: “Not one of his bones will be broken.” (John 19:34-36). The Old Testament Scripture that is grammatically closest to this phrase is the Septuagint’s (Greek translation of the OT) quotation of Exo. 12:10 (See also Exo. 12:46; Num. 9:12; Psa. 34:20). The Messiah is being linked with the Passover lamb of Israel (John 1:29). Deliverance through the blood of a lamb prefigured the coming of Jesus as the Lamb of God to obtain final salvation for God’s people through his death, which in turn redeemed them from death, sin, and Satan.

Dr. Carrier’s position is likely also clouded by his anti-supernaturalist worldview. If there is no God who has been working through Israel and her sacrificial system and who embodied the person of Jesus who the sacrificial system prefigures, it would seem that the gospel writers are in fact just making up things that are demonstrably false. But if God has in fact worked within history by unfolding his plan of redemption since our original parent’s disobedience, then it seems reasonable that things happened according to his preconceived order. If the Christian narrative is true and things do in fact happen according to his will, there’s no real problem with Old Testament shadows being fulfilled in New Testament realities.

What about the idea of a Roman leader letting a Jewish criminal go? Other liberal scholars have also pointed to this portion as evidence that the account is ahistorical for no Jewish custom exists. Are they right? Dr. B. Corley refutes Dr. Carrier’s second rejoinder in his article in the Dictionary of Jesus and the Gospels saying:

The Barabbas incident and the paschal amnesty in particular are often dismissed as nonhistorical, “nothing but a figment of the imagination” (Winter, 134). The objections to the episode, based on the lack of evidence for such a custom in antiquity, do not carry sufficient weight. In the provincial cities, acclamation of the people {acclamatio populi) played a significant role in Roman legal administration (Strobel, 126-27); there are numerous examples of Roman magistrates who heeded a crowd’s wishes at the tribunal (e.g., Tacitus Ann. 1.44.4; Justinian Digest 49.1.12; 48.8.16; see Bickerman, 103, 133-34). This custom is well illustrated by an incident in Egypt (A.D. 85) where the Roman governor released the accused, saying, “You deserve to be scourged [mastigōthēnai] . . . , but I will deal more humanely with you and will release you to the crowds” [ochlois] (Papyrus Florentinus 61.59-65; cf. Blinzler, 207]). The political situation for Pilate was acutely unstable because of a series of clashes with the Jews (cf. Philo Leg. Gai. 38 §301-302), so he would have been inclined to placate them on this occasion. He did not want a bad report in Rome, and the Jews traded on his insecurity as a “friend of Caesar” (Jn 19:12), a title weighted with political intrigue during the last stages of Tiberius’ reign (cf. Tacitus Ann. 6.8; Philo Flacc. 6 §40; NewDocs 1978. 75). No clear evidence has yet come to light for a regular amnesty at a feast, but a provision stated in the Mishnah may be relevant: “They may slaughter the Passover . . . for one whom they have promised to bring out of prison” (m. Pesaḩ. 8:6). This much-discussed text may refer to an evening release from a Jewish prison (Jeremias, 73), but it must have occurred with regularity to become a topic of rabbinic legislation, and a Roman detention cannot be ruled out (Blinzler, 218-21; Robinson, 261). These analogies favor the historical plausibility of the Gospel account much more than the explanations which try to derive the story in purely theological terms.

From the mentioned issues found above, it seems best to continue trusting the gospels’ account of the resurrection and carrying on with our Christian faith.

Sin, Rationalization, and Lies About Lust

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Christian Life

The battle against sin is one of belief. The battle is to recognize who God is and trust that what he says is actually right and true. Sin is always bound up with lies, empty promises, and dissatisfaction. It begins with a lie, a rationalization that the One who sits on the throne is unworthy and cannot ultimately offer true joy. Pastor-scholar Sam Storms remarks, “What are [most] rationalizations based on? One lie. The most pernicious, heinous, Satanic lie of all. They are based on the lie that God really isn’t good after all; that God is neither able nor willing to do for our souls or bodies what they so desperately need done; that therefore God can’t be trusted with our fears and doubts and hopes and hurts. Since God doesn’t care and can’t be trusted, we’ll find satisfaction somewhere else. And so often, we do.” Therefore, the fight against sin is a fight to see God as true and trustworthy in his offers. We must yield the sword not just against behaviors and actions but thought patterns and beliefs which lead to those actions. As John Piper says, “When something drops into your life that seems to threaten your future, remember this: the first shockwaves of the bomb are not sin. The real danger is yielding to them. Giving in. Putting up no spiritual fight. And the root of that surrender is unbelief — a failure to fight for faith in future grace. A failure to cherish all that God promises to be for us in Jesus.” When I was younger, someone sent me the following list to encourage me in my efforts to ward off the gangrenous effects of lust on the soul of a saint. I hope they encourage you to battle sin and see it for what it is, true and carnal irrationality. War against the lies of sin with the truth of God’s Word.

Lie

Lust is no big deal

• Truth: “For lust is a shameful sin, a crime that should be punished. It is a devastating fire that destroys to hell. It would wipe out everything I own” (Job 31:11-12)

Lie

A little sinful fantasizing won’t hurt

• Truth: “To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the spirit is life and peace” (Romans 8:6)
• “Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.” (Galatians 6:7-8)
• “But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires” (Romans 13:14)

Lie

Taking radical action against sin isn’t necessary

• Truth: “If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your entire body to go into hell” (Matthew 5: 29-30)
• “Flee the evil desires of youth, and pursue righteousness, faith, love, peace, along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart” (2 Timothy 2:22)

Lie

God won’t mind a little compromise…

• Truth: “Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. Because of these, the wrath of God is coming” (Colossians 3:5-6)
• “But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God’s holy people” (Ephesians 5:3)

Lie

It’s my body. I can do what I want with it

• Truth: “Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a man commits are outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body. Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body” (1 Corinthians 6:18-20)

Lie

I can’t control my sex drive

• Truth: “It is God’s will that you should be sanctified that you should avoid sexual immorality that each of you should learn to control his own body in a way that is holy and honorable, not in passionate lust like the heathen, who do not know God; and that in this matter no one should wrong his brother or take advantage of him. The Lord will punish men for all such sins, as we have already told you and warned you” (1 Thessalonians 4:3-6)

Lie

Looking at a few pornographic pictures won’t affect me

• Truth: “Do not lust in your heart after her beauty or let her captivate you with her eyes, for the prostitute reduces you to a loaf of bread, and the adulteress preys upon your very life. Can a man scoop fire into his lap without his clothes being burned? (Proverbs 6:25-27)
• “I will set before my eyes no vile thing” (Psalm 101:3)

Lie

I won’t experience any consequences for indulging in my lust

• Truth: “So then, each of us will give an account of himself to God.” (Romans 14:12)
• “The Lord disciplines those He loves, and He punishes everyone He accepts as a son” (Hebrews 12:6)
• “After desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin, and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death” (James 1:15)

Lie

People get away with adultery

• Truth: “For the lips of an adulteress drip honey, and her speech is smoother than oil; but in the end she is bitter as gall, sharp as a double-edged sword. Her feet go down to death her steps lead straight to the grave” (Proverbs 5:3-5)
• “Keep to a path far from her, do not go near the door of her house, lest you give your best strength to others and your years to one who is cruel, lest strangers feast on your wealth and your toil enrich another man’s house. At the end of your life you will groan, when your flesh and body are spent” (Proverbs 5:8-11)

Lie

God is keeping something good from me

• Truth: “Better is one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere; I would rather be a door-keeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of the wicked. For the Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord bestows favour and honor; no good thing does He withhold from those whose walk is blameless. O Lord Almighty, blessed is the man who trusts in you (Psalm 84:10-12)

Lie

The pleasure lust promises is better and more real than God’s pleasure.

• Truth: “You have made known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand (Psalm 16:11)

Lie

Fulfilling my lust will satisfy me

• Truth: “I say to myself, ‘The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for Him.’ The Lord is good to those whose hope is in Him, to the one who seeks Him; it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord” (lamentations 3:24-26)
• “The fear of the Lord leads to life, and whoever has it rests satisfied” (Proverbs 19:23)

Lie

Too much purity will keep me from seeing and enjoying beauty

• Truth: “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God” (Matthew 5:8)
• “For the Lord is righteous; He loves righteous deeds; the upright shall behold His face” (Psalm 11:&)
• “Your eyes will behold the King in His beauty; they will see a land that stretches afar” (Isaiah 33:17)

Do You Want the Church to Grow?

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Christian Life

Do you want the Church to grow? Then we must change how we view the Church. “Church” is not where we go twice a week or what we “do” on Sunday mornings. Sunday morning worship, Sunday evening Bible study, and Wednesday fellowship are times of encouragement for pilgrims of the way. We are participants; not spectators. We do not come to the church to download moral platitudes from our “spiritual head” and then go home to do the things we really enjoy doing. We come together to gaze and revere the beauty and majesty of God corporately so that we might be better equipped to share Christ within our various vocations. Evangelism is the overflow of worship; worship that is corporate on Sundays and Wednesdays and individual every moment we place our trust and affections on the person of Jesus Christ. As John Piper noted, “Missions is not the ultimate goal of the Church. Worship is. Missions exists because worship doesn’t. Worship is ultimate, not missions, because God is ultimate, not man. When this age is over, and the countless millions of the redeemed fall on their faces before the throne of God, missions will be no more. It is a temporary necessity. But worship abides forever…” We meet to worship by hearing the preached Word, partaking in the sacrament, and responding in the liturgy so that we might be furnished and energized to tell our desperate world about this One who has found us.

Church, we must see ourselves involved with Jesus’ mission. We are not seat-fillers but satisfied heralds of a great Savior. Our salvation is cosmic in scope (Rom. 8:18-25; Col. 1:15-23) and, when we share the gospel with people in our various areas of influence, we are extending the kingdom of our Sovereign God. It is not merely about going to heaven when we die. It is about worship. We find ourselves between the ages implementing and spreading the message of God’s triumph, the victory of God over the forces of sin, death, and evil. God’s new creation has been launched upon a surprised world, pointing ahead to the renewal, the redemption, and the rebirth of the entire world. We go as a community of redeemed people with the gospel message that God has won a decisive battle, has inaugurated a new time and has created a new humanity. The temple is not stationary on a field of sod in Jerusalem. Beloved, we are the temples of God and the Spirit of a missionary God has been placed within our hearts (1 Cor. 3:16, 6:19-20). We are not spectators; we are sent ones. Do you want the Church to grow? Do you want to see the pews filled on Sunday morning full of worshippers adoring and exulting in the majesty of our great God? Do you want to see God receive what He is worthy of, the worship of every creature? Then view yourself as part of the mission of God. See yourself as intricately connected  and involved with God’s embolden pursuit of magnifying Jesus Christ’s supremacy in all things.