Category Archives: Gospel

September 23, 2012 · 22:10

What Is So Great About My Religion?

Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world. (James 1:27)

I would have to say that I do not have a “religion.”  Religion (as defined by Dictionary.com) has to do with “a specific fundamental set of beliefs and practices generally agreed upon by a number of persons or sects: the Christian religion; the Buddhist religion.”  Religion is “the practice of religious beliefs; ritual observance of faith.”  “Religion” seems to have a lot to do with what one does according to what one believes.  I can go to church religiously because I believe going to church is a good thing, or because that is what a “good” Christian does.  I can be a big believer in physical fitness and may visit the gym religiously, or I may be a strong believer in oral hygiene and brush and floss religiously.  I could be an environmentalist and champion the care and maintenance of the earth religiously.  I might even feel so strongly that I would risk my life in defense of the planet like the adherents of Greenpeace.  Taking all of this into consideration, I must reiterate that I do not have a religion.  Instead, what I have is a personal “relationship” with my Creator.

There are several reasons why my relationship with my Creator is greater than any religion.  First of all, He is Creator of the universe and everything that is in it.  Because of my relationship with Him, I am his child (John 1:12).  As His child, I share in the inheritance of all that He owns (Romans 8:17).

Secondly, there was nothing done on my part to earn this position.  From the fall of man, described in Genesis 3, we have been separated from God because of sin (Romans 3:10, 23) with no hope for reconciliation for eternity (Romans 6:23).  That separation is what the Bible calls “death.”  In that condition, there was nothing I could do close the gap of separation from my Creator.  Understanding this, God stepped from eternity into time in the form of Jesus Christ to pay the “wages of sin” that I owed (John 3:16).  What I could not do for myself, He did for me.  My part was simply to accept His free gift through faith (Ephesians 2:8-9).  What is even more remarkable is that I did not even have to generate my own faith.  The faith I needed to make this transaction, He gave to me, so that all I had to do was act on the faith that He provided.

Thirdly, there is nothing that I have to do to maintain my status.  When I accepted His offer of eternal life, He took up residence in me by way of His Spirit (Luke 11:14; John 14:17).  It is His Spirit in me that empowers me to live a life that pleases Him (Romans 8:5, 14; 1 Corinthians 3:16); there is no need for me to artificially generate a righteous life.  He even intercedes for me when I am unable to verbalize my own needs (Romans 8:26-27).  His Spirit in me strengthens me to overcome sin (1 John 4:4).

Finally, I have the promise of eternal life with my Creator.  There is no “religion” on earth that can guarantee eternal life to its adherents.  “Religions” offer the “possibility” of eternal life, if, when weighed in the cosmic balance, one has accrued more good deeds than bad, but the final determination is unknown until one passes from time into eternity.  How can one ever know one’s standing!  I do not have that dilemma.  The Bible tells me that my place is secure.  I am assured that whoever (that includes everyone and excludes no one) believes in Jesus has (present tense) eternal life (John 3:15-16, 36; 4:14; 5:24; 6:40, 47; 10:28; Romans 6:23; 1 John 2:25; 5:11, 13).

Because of all of this, I have a strong desire to gather “religiously” with the family of God with whom I will spend eternity.  This is not an obligation, but a privilege.  As a child of God, I have a strong desire to please my Savior, not requisitely out of necessity, but out of love.  As a child of the Creator, the King of the universe, I have the honor to work for the advancement of His Kingdom.  What makes this “burden light” is that I do not have to do it in my own strength (Matthew 11:29-30).  For all of these reasons and more, my “relationship” is far superior to any “religion.”

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August 26, 2012 · 16:32

Is Jesus Who the Bible Says He Is?

For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins … And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures (1 Corinthians 15:3-4)

Suppose someone suggests to you, in a conversation:

1. How do I know for sure that Jesus is Who the Bible says He is?  After all, most of what we know about the historical Jesus is what is written in the Bible about Him.

2.  Is there any kind of proof that I am obligated to recognize about Jesus, other than the Bible itself?  (In other words, is the Bible the only ‘witness’ that Jesus is Who the Christians claim He is?)

3. How do I know that the Bible itself is really true, i.e., that it is both authentic (as opposed to corrupted by many errors that occurred as part of the handwritten copying process) and accurate (as opposed to infected by mistaken impressions or memories or unreliable hearsay by those authors who composed it years after the events), as a record of Who Jesus is/was?”

How would you reply?

To address the first question, our very calendar is a testimony to the historicity of Jesus.  Flavius Josephus, a Jewish historian of the first century, documented the historicity of Jesus.  Aside from this, the fact that Christianity exists at all testifies to the fact that Jesus was a historical figure.  No one doubts the historicity of Buddha, Confucius, Mohamed, Plato, Socrates or Aristotle yet there is less documentation for these men than there is for Jesus and no one questions their historicity.  The fact that the Christian church spread across the globe in spite of severe persecution for the name of Jesus gives testimony to the authenticity of Jesus.  Furthermore, there are few, if any in modern scholarship, that question the historical Jesus.

Secondly, there is proof that one is obligated to recognize about Jesus outside the Bible itself.  The empty tomb is proof.  All other leaders of religious movements have died and have been buried and people can visit their graves, but Jesus’ tomb is empty.  I have been told that there are at least seven possible sites around Jerusalem where Jesus may have been buried, but they all have one thing in common – they are all empty.  Jesus rose from the dead just as He said He would, and the empty tomb is proof that He did.  This fact could have been easily debunked early on.  All it would have taken was for the religious leaders of that time to drag Jesus’ body out of the tomb and parade it around for all to see; but they could not because the tomb was empty.  Skeptics have gone to great lengths to attempt to prove His resurrection as a hoax, but they are the ones that have come away looking foolish.  Just recently an ossuary was supposedly discovered in Jerusalem that was supposed to have contained the bones of Jesus.  Inscribed on the ossuary in Hebrew script were the words “Jesus Bar Joseph” – Jesus son of Joseph.  The ossuary was quickly exposed as a forgery making the claimants look foolish indeed.  The proof for Jesus is His empty tomb.

Finally, we can know that the Bible is true by the truth it reveals in matters of history and science.  Although the Bible is not intended to be a textbook on history or science, it is nonetheless historically and scientifically accurate.  For years, archaeologists have used the Bible to locate ancient sites mentioned in its text.  Ancient civilizations mentioned in the Bible, like the Hittites, thought at one time not to have ever existed have been discovered just as the Bible says.  Historical figures, like Belshazzar mentioned in Daniel 5, were once touted as biblical fallacies until recent archaeological discoveries, like the Nabonidus Cylinder, were found with those names inscribed on them. Likewise, science has been unable to refute the Bible on scientific grounds.  The Bible proclaimed that the earth was a sphere before anyone had circumnavigated the globe or witnesses an “earthrise” from the surface of the moon. (Isaiah 40:22).  The Bible claimed that the earth was “hung on nothing” before man ever escaped the bounds of the atmosphere and navigated the emptiness of space (Job 26:7).  The Bible said that there were “paths in the seas” long before the ocean currents were ever mapped (Psalm 8:8).

More incredible than the Bible’s historical and scientific accuracy, is the accuracy of its prophecies.  The Bible contains numerous prophecies in the Old Testament that were fulfilled in Old Testament times.  Some of these include God’s promise to Abraham to make of him many nations  (Genesis 17:4-5); the children of Israel would be slaves for 400 years (Genesis 15:13); much later they would be carried away captive to Babylon (Jeremiah 13:19) for 70 years (Jeremiah 25:11-12).  Arguably, these could be taken as fabrications after the fact – they are not—but even more impressive are the prophecies concerning Jesus.

There are over 300 prophecies in the Old Testament concerning Jesus.  Many of these prophecies deal with His first coming, and the remaining deal with His second coming.  The Bible says that Jesus would be born of a woman (Genesis 3:15; Isaiah 7:14); He would be a descendant of Abraham (Genesis 18:18; 22:18), Isaac (Genesis 26:4) and Jacob (Genesis 28:14); He would be of the tribe of Judah (Genesis 49:8-10); He would be a descendant of David (2 Samuel 7:16; Psalm 2); He would be born in Bethlehem (Micah 5:2); He would be brought out of Egypt (Hosea 11:1); minute details of His crucifixion were predicted long before crucifixion was known (Psalm 22; Isaiah 53); His resurrection (Psalm 16:10), and many others.  It has been estimated that the probability of one man fulfilling only 8 of the prophecies ascribed to Jesus would be 1 in 1017 (1 followed by 17 zeros), and yet, Jesus fulfilled all of the prophecies concerning His first coming.

There is left the question regarding the integrity of the transmission of the biblical texts.  The Dead Sea Scrolls have removed any doubt about the integrity of the Old Testament.  As for the New Testament, we have over 5000 manuscripts (whole and in fragments), some dating as early as the beginning of the second century.  These manuscripts have been examined and found to be consistent with our current Bible.  In the few instances where variances do occur, they are usually minor and never have there been any variances found that raise a question of doctrine.  Aside from that, there are many extra-biblical writings that quote directly from the New Testament so that if all copies of the New Testament were lost, most of it could be reconstructed from these alone.  There is nothing in existence today of ancient writings that is so well documented and so well preserved as the text of the Bible.  The Bible is trustworthy, and what it says about Jesus is true; the question is whether you are willing to trust what it says and submit to the Lord it proclaims.

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August 12, 2012 · 15:37

Holding All Things Together

And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.  (Colossians 1:17)

One of the irrefutable laws of physics is the First Law of Thermodynamics or the Law of Conservation, which states that matter and energy can neither be created nor destroyed — at least as it is observed today.  However, the Bible makes it clear that matter and energy did indeed have a starting point.  “In the beginning [time] God created the Heaven [space] and the earth [matter/energy]” (Genesis 1:1).  Scripture also makes it clear that the Creator was Jesus. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  The same [Word] was in the beginning with God.  All things [matter/energy] were made by him [the Word], and without him was not any thing made that was made” (John 1:1-3).

Our verse further emphasizes this truth: “He is before all things.”  Before there was matter/energy, before there was time, before there was space, there was Christ.  Space and matter/energy can only be experienced in time, so it only makes sense that the Creator created time “in the beginning” for us to experience the rest of the universe.  It also makes sense that the Creator must exist outside of time in order to create time; hence, “He is before all things” including time.  The Greek word translated “all things” is pántoon, which simply means “all.”  This phrase could more accurately and simply be translated “He is before all” – not just things, but everything: time, space and matter/energy.

Not only did He exist before all, but He also created all.  “For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him” (v. 16).  Very simply, there is nothing that exists that Christ did not create!

The second part of the Law of Conservation is confirmed by the second part of our verse: “by him all things consist.”  The verb “consists” is the Greek verb sunésteeken, which means to “set together” or “to constitute.”  He holds all things together.  “Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.  And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made” (Genesis 2:1-2).  So, matter and energy are no longer being created.  He made it all, and he maintains it all; so we sing “Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created” (Revelation 4:11).  By the way, we too were created for His pleasure.  Would that He might find pleasure in us!

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August 5, 2012 · 18:50

All You Need Is Love

 

He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love. (1 John 4:8)

In June of 1967, The Beatles recorded a hit single entitled “All You Need Is Love.”  The main theme of the song is that there is nothing you can do that cannot be done by someone else, so why bother – “all you need is love.”  In May 2003, Dr. Pepper Schwartz published an article in Psychology Today entitled “Love Is Not All You Need.”[1]  In the article she says, “Unlike some societies that think of passionate love as a nuisance that can undermine sound reasoning about whom and when to marry, we think passion is our truest guide.”  Of course she is talking about human relations, and the kind of “love” she addresses is physical and emotional and has little or nothing to do with God’s kind of love.

To say that all we need is love because God is love, we must understand God’s kind of love and then love in the same way that He loves.  John tells us that “God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God and God in him” (1 John 4:16).  The Greek word translated “love” here (and in almost every other passage in the New Testament) is agape, and it refers to an unmerited love that is offered without expectation of reciprocation.  Human nature precludes this kind of love.  Human nature is basically selfish, and it is unwilling to give something without the expectation of getting something in return.  In our human nature it is impossible to obey Christ when He says: “This is my commandment, that ye love one another, as I have loved you” (John 15:12).  Jesus’ love is sacrificial.  “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his live for his friends” (John 15:13).  When asked what the greatest commandment was, Jesus replied, “thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment.  And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.  There is none other greater than these” (Mark 12:30-31).   The love rendered to God must be equally as selfless as the love God gives.  The same caliber of love must then be rendered to our fellow man.

Were it possible for man to love as God loves, it might then be true that all you need is love.  However, outside of God’s indwelling presence in a person’s life, it is impossible for man to love as God loves.  Furthermore, God has other attributes besides love.  He is also holy, which means that he is transcendent, set apart.  He is so far removed from any other god that there is no comparison.  In keeping with His holiness, He is also jealous of His position and unwilling to share His place with any other god.  Above Jesus quoted the Shema, which begins, “Hear O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord” (Mark 12:29 quoting Deuteronomy 6:4).  It is no wonder that God’s first commandment is: “Thou shalt have no other God’s before me. … for the LORD thy God am a jealous God” (Exodus 20:3, 5).  In addition to His holiness, God is just.  “Doth God pervert judgment? or doth the Almighty pervert justice?” (Job 8:3).  “Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth” (Jeremiah 23:5).  Because of His justice, God cannot overlook sin.  He must deal with it.  “Touching the Almighty, we cannot find him out: he is excellent in power, and in judgment, and in plenty of justice” (Job 37:23).

Humanly speaking, Dr. Schwartz is nearer the truth: “[human] love is not all you need.”   As demonstrated above, humans are incapable of loving God or loving one another in the same way that God loves.  Furthermore, God is set apart (holy) from humanity and from any god or any religious system the human mind can conceive.  God is exclusive and will not share His place with any other.  By the same token, He does not accept any religion that acknowledges a different god or gods, so more is needed than just love.  The truth of the matter is that “all you need is Jesus.”  Jesus Himself said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life:  no man cometh unto the Father but by me” (John 14:6).  After His resurrection and ascension, His apostles continued the same message:  “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).  Indeed, there is nothing, humanly speaking, that can be done to earn God’s favor other than accept His gift of grace (unmerited favor).  “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is a gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9).

Anyone insisting that “all you need is love” might want to heed this warning from Jesus:  “Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in there at:  Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it” (Matthew 7:13-14).  The “wide gate,” and “the broad way” is the one that says that “all you need is love,” and that it really does not matter what one believes.  God does not share the same view.  You may want to consider changing your tune from “All You Need Is Love” to “Jesus Is All the World to Me!”

 

 

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