I was reading Jeremiah and I had one of those times when a passage reaches out of the pages and smacks you in the head. The verse is Jeremiah 2:11.

Has a nation changed its gods, even though they are no gods? But my people have changed their glory for that which does not profit?

He is saying that other nations that worship their false gods do not change their dedication to their gods, but Israel had a problem with always forsaking the one true God for false gods. It stood out to me because I see the same thing today. When I think of religions whose people are known for being completely zealous in their beliefs, I don't think of Christians. We are as guilty as the Israelites for being fickle with the one, true God. The world sees it too.

I am as guilty of this as the next Christian. Why is it a struggle to be the representative of Christ to the world? We are always battling our own pride I suppose.

Another late night

I am up too late because I can't sleep again. This seems to be a recurring problem not just for me but also my wife and oldest daughter. Sometimes my mind can't shut off.

One thing that I have been thinking about is fatherhood. I was listening to a local radio show talk about the modern state of American families and the lack of fathers in the home today. As a father myself, I am constantly aware of my role in the family as God has intended a father to be. Our society has been putting down fathers for decades or has tried to just ignore them, to make them irrelevant. TV shows overwhelming portray fathers as bumbling idiots who can't contribute to their families. The media also glorifies single mother families for their bravery and perseverance in raising a family alone. I don't hold anything against single mothers, I have something against the men who run off and want nothing to do with their children. Fathers have an extremely important role in the framing of their children's identity, especially girls.

The way I see it, Satan has done his job in destroying the family unit. With no strong families, a society will fail and the influence of Christians is greatly weakened, which is exactly what he wants.

The best thing I can do as a father is pray for my family and that God would give me the boldness and direction to be a Godly father. I can't change society as a whole, but I can make a difference, one child at a time.

Why is it so hard for some people?

At the recent Republican debate of mainly 3rd string candidates, a couple of questions were posed that the media uses to discredit Christian candidates. Now, I didn't watch the whole debate, just snippets, but I did hear some of the questions.

First, do you believe every word in the Bible? No, problem. Of course I do! The media types will invariably pull some verse out of context from an Old Testament book like Deuteronomy. The big problem that I see is that there are very few men or women politicians who will stand up and say "yes!".

The next question is do you believe in Creationism? Unfortunately, many Christians don't necessarily believe the account of God's creation that He wrote for us in Genesis. I will always believe what God says about it before I believe what a human says happened. Who is the perfect, all-knowing, all-powerful being who can ALWAYS be trusted to tell the truth? Nope, it isn't Stephen Hawking!

To leave out any confusion, I believe the Bible is the inerrant and holy word of God. I believe in a literal 6-day creation and that it occurred approximately 6,000 years ago. I also believe that Dick Clark was probably there. :)

I'll admit that I don't understand all of the Bible, but that is the short-coming of my imperfect mind that is polluted by sin. We should ask God to give us understanding for that which we don't quite grasp.

Proverbs 2:1-9
 My son, if thou wilt receive my words, and hide my commandments with thee; So that thou incline thine ear unto wisdom, and apply thine heart to understanding; Yea, if thou criest after knowledge, and liftest up thy voice for understanding; If thou seekest her as silver, and searchest for her as for hid treasures; Then shalt thou understand the fear of the LORD, and find the knowledge of God. For the LORD giveth wisdom: out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding. He layeth up sound wisdom for the righteous: he is a buckler to them that walk uprightly. He keepeth the paths of judgment, and preserveth the way of his saints. Then shalt thou understand righteousness, and judgment, and equity; yea, every good path.

Two Ways to Think

There are fundamentally two ways to approach any concept, and only two. We can start with God and His Word, or we can start somewhere else; and the "somewhere else" usually boils down to ourselves. 

I recently read an article on the Pyromaniacs blog that contained the above line. It is exactly on point.

 Thinking like a Christian, and thinking like anything else, are two fundamentally distinct processes. They are as different as night and day, and as irreconcilable as left and right.

I have been thinking of writing on the subject of Christians who struggle with humanistic science and the Bible, and this article is an excellent thought on the subject. Topics that come to mind that cause confusion and even division in the Christian community are things like evolution, earth age and cultural issues.

In evolution, science tells us that the Earth is millions of years old and that man has been around for 140,000 years. It tells us that man evolved from simple life forms that evidently magically appeared themselves previously. However, as Christians, should we believe scientists who are just as fallible as the rest of us? Shouldn't we believe the One who created everything when He tells us directly in His word that everything was created in six 24-hour days? Why do we want to believe so-called experts over God's own words? It is in man's sinful nature to do everything possible to exclude God from our lives and the universe. That means ALL mankind seeks to do it, even the Christians. However, we are changed if we have God dwelling in us through His Spirit. We have access to the truth that is God's word. We are to set aside foolish thoughts and focus on God and His Word as the source of knowledge and understanding.

I Corinthians 1:18 For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

If you find yourself believing in such things that are in total contrast to God's Word, stop and consider the source. Did such expert opinion come from man or God? Who is always right?

More importantly, this needs to be applied to "christian" writers, theologians, pastors, teachers, etc. I think we as Christian put more emphasis on learning about God from writers than from the Bible. There are many, many good Godly writers and leaders and just as many or more of those who have "left the reservation". No matter who we read or watch, we need to compare their message to God's Word. It doesn't matter if it is John Piper or Rob Bell, they all need to have their work measured against the ruler of the Bible.

Personally, I haven't read any of Rob Bell's writings, but have heard more than enough controversy about him. So I can't speak with confidence about him or others in the Emergent movement. I lean more towards writers like Spurgeon, Lewis and Tozer, but I am old-school.

So, how do you do your thinking?

Why Are Churches Ignoring Revelation?

I have wondered this question for some time. Why aren't churches preaching and teaching about the rapture, tribulation and His Second Coming? Doesn't the Bible state:

“BLESSED is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written in it; for the time is near.” (Revelation 1:3)  (By the way, this is the only Book of the Bible that promises a blessing for those who read and learn of the things that are written in it.)


Unless you live under a rock, worldwide events show that the time is coming very quickly with each passing day. Only God knows when He is coming back, but we are to study and watch for His coming, not ignore it.


Are pastors and church leaders afraid of broaching the subject today because it might cause fear among the people? Would it affect the amount of money the church can raise from the congregation? 


If we look at the Lord's prayer, does it not say "…Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done, as in Heaven, so on Earth."? Luke 11:2


Is it not God's will to set up His earthly Kingdom as He describes at the end of Revelation? Maybe we are too concerned with our cushy worldly lives to be concerned about some distant occurrence. The church should be teaching and preaching all of the Bible, not just what pleases modern sensibilities. 


Yes, the church was called to preach the gospel to all corners of the world. This is because God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. 2 Peter 3:9. However, there will be a date in the future when it will all come to an end. The church will leave Earth and Satan will be loosed on the Earth and its inhabitants as he battles God. It will be hell on Earth like has never been seen or experienced before. It is this urgency that should cause us to move with vigor to spread the Gospel to all the Earth. 


The church was not established to build large congregations, collect the most money, have the latest and greatest entertainment to appease the world. This is real life and death. How many in the church will be left here to endure the final act when they thought that they were saved all along and are now left behind? I think we need to be done with the namby-pamby, feel good, seeker-sensitive preaching, because people need to the cold hard truth of death and life in Jesus Christ. Fear is what motivated me to seek and accept the salvation offered in the death and resurrection of Jesus. Fear of being in Hell for eternity apart from God. Fear of death. Fear of denying and blaspheming the One who created me.


Love is important too. His love is what made Him sacrifice His son for us. He is a God of love, but we tend to ignore the God of justice part. Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. Galatians 6:7


I know I have a tendency to not bring up the end times prophecy because people tend to react negatively to the topic or they just want to gloss over the conversation. I pray that we will all begin to speak boldly about Jesus' second coming because people's lives depend on it. 

Is Mankind Always Progressing?

Yesterday's post was actually brought about by a discussion with family a couple of weeks ago. Mankind thinks that we are at the current peak of human development, but we are really at the peak of human degeneracy.

It is tough to think that we really aren't the smartest we have ever been, with all of our computing power, rapid transit to any spot on the globe, etc. You could sum up the difference between progressive thought and Christian thought in this: progressives think man is always improving, and Christians (should) think that man has been degenerating since Adam's fall in the Garden of Eden.

Think about this idea: God created man in perfection! Let it sink in for a while. Perfection! Man was originally created to be perfect, and with a free will. Man was never destined to die, get sick or weak, or work with exhausting labor. Adam's intelligence had to have been off the charts when compared to any modern man. Consider that God gave him the task of naming the animals, and it would have been a logical, orderly system of naming, not just a random thought process. Then take into account that after Adam sinned, he eventually died at the age of 930. Think about how much you learn from infant to senior citizen during our current lifespans. Now multiply that by a factor of 10+, which is being conservative since learning isn't a linear process, but more exponential.

It is quite possible that Adam's descendants had the strength, skill and intelligence to create things that would blow our minds. As the generations passed and life spans became shorter, especially after the Flood, we became "stupider". You can see a small example of this in just the past 1500-2000 years. The Roman and Greek empires were technologically advanced for their time, but when the "Dark Ages" appeared, people could barely figure out how to survive day to day. This was the time when the Black Death and other epidemics wiped out masses of people. Superstition and an apparent lack of intelligence was holding back much progress. Yes, I am making a simplified analogy, but you get my point.

I remember, from Art History classes in college, our discussion about Egyptian art and technology. The pyramids of Giza are built so precisely that no modern technology could reproduce it that accurately. How did they do it? We still don't know for sure, except that slaves were used for laborers. There may have been a continuing knowledge of mathematics and construction that has been forgotten since then. Maybe the knowledge was lost when the Library at Alexandria was destroyed. It was said to have contained the combined human knowledge of millenia and it was all destroyed. I have a feeling that God had a direct hand in its destruction to keep man from getting too prideful again. It happened at the Flood and Babel. It is a recurring theme of ups and downs in man's history, but it is still a steady progression downhill.

Simple Definition of a Cult

Cult: A group that masquerades as Christianity while denying the foundational doctrines of the Christian faith.

Foundational doctrines of Christianity:

1. There is Only One God
2. Deity of Christ
3. The Resurrection of Christ
4. Salvation by Grace, not Works
5. The Bible is the Inerrant Word of God