Truth Series - Pride vs Truth

Just a quick pause in our series.

I have a question for you. Is it prideful to speak the truth?

In this age of tolerance, truth is:

1. completely subjective (what's good for you is fine with me, just don't judge me and I won't judge you)

2. expected to be kept silent

Because we have to accept everyone where they are, whether they are in sin through their actions or their beliefs, it is not acceptable to speak truth into the lives of those around us. Truth becomes divisive and the truth-talker is labeled as prideful or arrogant.

Is this true? Is it a matter of pride when we take a stand for truth?

Well, here's my answer. Speaking truth can be about pride or it can be about love. If you have to be right about everything and you are simply picking fights to show how smart and spiritual you are, then, yes, that is a pride issue.

But if you speak out for truth from a love of God as well as a love for others, then, no, it isn't a matter of pride.

Think about the topics we have discussed - creation, the flood and hell. What circumstance would you find yourself in defending these biblical truths? Why is it important to speak up at all?

First of all, I am working through this series as an exercise in how to find truth. Each of us needs to be confident in the teachings of God's Word. But that confidence does not come from one verse here and there. That confidence comes from a thorough study of any given topic, an understanding of the whole counsel of God and a daily walk which puts the Word into practice.

Second, once you know truth, it does change the way you look at life. It increases your faith and shows you that the gap between God and man is a lot bigger than you had originally understood. Truth becomes practical understanding of who God is and what He expects of us. It underscores our purpose for living. It is our strength in times of struggle and persecution. It increases our view of God and makes Him so much bigger than ourselves - a real comfort in life. Thus it produces in you a gratitude, a dependency and a longing for more truth.

Third, out of a love for our neighbor, we should desire that all know the truth. You've all watched a movie where a certain character doesn't have all the information that you as the viewer has. If only they knew what you knew, the movie may have a better outcome. That's the same thing with truth. You want people to have confidence in the life-changing truth of God's Word, and as you have see the difference truth makes in your life, you want others to have that same advantage.

And finally, we have been given truth by God and it is a privilege and a responsibility to defend it. Over the past two thousand years lives have been sacrificed for this truth and they have passed the torch on to us. Do you realize that today Satan has changed his course of action against the Word? Instead of trying to destroy it by wiping it off the face of the earth, he has decided to water it down and then multiply with so many variations so that no two Bibles are the same. What "christian" publishers are doing in the name of modernism is heresy! Gender neutral bibles (click here) and bibles for the homosexuals (click here) are just two examples. Another problem is man's feeble intention to put the Bible into the vernacular and modernize the language without regard to the original text. This misses the mark and becomes a tool of Satan. Very clever, indeed. Why wouldn't we defend, protect and stand for this precious gift that has been entrusted to us?

The good news is that God's Word endures, despite Satan and man.

So, is it prideful to speak the truth?

And is it possible to speak truth without pride?

What do you think?

Truth Series - Hell

Another topic for the intolerant.

Hell.

The concept of punishment and torment that never ends, that is eternal, does not fit into the fairness mindset of natural man. I am not speaking just of the world. I am including the elect as well. The world laughs off the concept of hell as a figment of the self-righteous imagination of the right-wing religious fanatic. I have heard comedians imply that they long for hell, that hell will be a place where those who know how to have fun will hang out. Gary Larson, author of cartoon series "The Far Side", made a lot of money depicting the funny side of hell:





But is there really a funny side to hell?

Once again, Satan has been working overtime. If he can discredit creation as an incredible feat of chance and then make man's eternal destination seem ridiculous rather than reality, what's he got left to do? His battle is nearly won.

Obviously the world doesn't want to believe in the biblical description of hell. Why would they? To believe in it would mean that not only were they choosing to go there, but that the God of the Bible is real and what is written in His book is truth. But if they reject the gospel message, as well as the Creator of the universe, then they would also reject the truth of their eternal destiny.

But what bothers me is the church's shying away from the truth that hell is an ETERNAL destination. I think today many in the church are leaning towards annihilationism - that when unbelievers die, they are judged and then done away with. The fact that they have no life after death is their punishment. Perhaps they suffer a bit in hell, but it ends with the erasing of that soul.

The other popular notion that is showing up in Christian discussions is the fact that after a period of suffering, the unrepentant repents and is eventually brought into eternal life. So hell is temporary and rather successful at convincing the lost to bow the knee.

Are either of these accurate? Are they truthful? Or are they a way to balance a loving, caring, sacrificial God with a just and angry God?

Well...what does the Bible say?

Christ makes several references to hell during His ministry on earth: (I'm paraphrasing)

Matthew 5:22 - if you call someone a fool, you are in danger of the fire of hell

Matthew 5:29 - get rid of anything that causes you to sin, because it's better to lose a body part than for your whole body to be thrown in hell

Matthew 23:33 - to the Pharisees, how will you escape being condemned to hell?

Luke 12:5 - fear Him who has the power to throw you into hell

Luke 16:23 - this is the story of the rich man and Lazarus - the rich man is in torment, in hell

So, Jesus referred to hell as a realistic destination.

In Revelation we are given the best description of hell and the length of its endurance:

Rev. 19:20 and 20:10 tells us that the beast, the false prophet and the devil are going to be thrown in the lake of fire, where they will be tormented day and night "forever and ever." (Doesn't sound temporary to me...)

Revelation 20:14 and 15 then tell us that death and Hades (waiting place unbelievers for the judgment seat of God) are thrown in the lake of fire and anyone whose name was "not found written in the book of life" was thrown in there as well.

Hebrews 6:2 mentions eternal judgment, also. Eternal. Long time. No end.

Now, I am not doing a great job of preaching the reality of hell here, but I am trying to show you that hell is a real place that Jesus warned of and that we are shown exists eternally. James MacDonald has given the best sermon I have ever heard on hell, called "What's Down with Hell?" and I would recommend everyone buying it and buying extra copies to give those whom you love. It is a straight forward sermon on the reality of hell and his soberness with the topic is chilling. Here is a clip of that sermon to whet your appetite - click here

So why is the concept of an eternal hell so distasteful to believers? I think it's because we place God's mercy and love on a higher platform than His righteousness and justness. "How could a loving God punish man eternally? Where is the love? That would be cruel and unjust. And God is love, therefore He loves all men. After all, Philippians 2 tells us that one day every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord. Therefore, all men will repent one day and all will spend eternity with the Lord. Right?"

Wrong. Hell is not a place of repentance. Hell is a place of weeping and gnashing of teeth (Matthew 13:42, 50; 24:51; 25:30; Luke 13:28). This term "gnashing of teeth" is not a picture of repentance. It is a picture of hatred and rebellion. It is an act of anger. There is no repentance in hell because the Spirit of God is not convicting in hell. As James says in his clip above, life is the time for repentance, death is the time for judgment.

When we waffle on the eternal existence of hell, we are not loving our neighbors enough to warn them of the truth. Now, salvation is so much more than just rescue from physical pain - the salvation message is founded in the fact that you can have a personal relationship with God and be restored to your intended purpose in life. But don't be deceived - without salvation, you will still glorify God because even in hell, because God is glorified whenever His attributes are on display, including His wrath.

Bottom line, we need to be honest about hell. We need to be bold. When someone looks at you and says, "So, if I don't believe in Jesus, am I going to hell?", don't waffle.

Don't say, "I don't know."

Don't say, "I hope not, but maybe."

Tell them the truth.

Say, "Yes."

So, to answer my original question, no, there is not a funny side to hell.

Truth Series - Creation, part two

I have to go back to Creation for a moment.

My daughters are taking an Old Testament 111 course at a local Christian college this spring. Last night they came home and told me that the professor does not believe in a young earth and doesn't take Genesis literally. He says that it is poetry and not meant to be a literal account.

This does not surprise me but it does tick me off.

There is one more passage that you need in your arsenal to defend literal creation. Hebrews eleven is the called the faith chapter because it starts by defining faith and then listing out the various characters from scripture who displayed saving faith as an example and encouragement to all believers. Despite the fact that the first twenty-two verses use people from the book of Genesis, implying that they were actual real people, it is paramount to note that before even one name is mentioned, the faith chapter extols those who by faith believe that God created the world in the manner He recorded in Genesis.

"By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things which are visible." Hebrews 11:3

This is the first charge of faith. What we see today came from the mouth of God. It didn't come from a big bang and it didn't mutate into intelligent life. By the word of God, just as Genesis records, this world was created. What we see today did not form out of something previously existing, like a tadpole to a monkey to a human. No, what we see today came from the words of God as He created. He created finished products.

And it takes faith to believe it.

Why? Because this very foundational belief is the starting place for Satan to weaken the structure of the Christian faith. If he can convince man (and he has) that everything we see is independent from God, then he has removed the greatest evidence of God's existence. Romans 1:20 says that all men are accountable for the fact that God exists because creation displays His invisible attributes, His eternal power and His divine nature. Creation proves God's existence. This is why Satan has worked overtime to discredit what we see, to lesson the testimony of nature itself.

But it is interesting to me that the faith chapter begins with faith in God's creative activity. And that's the first thing that professors of OT Survey classes at Christian colleges discount on day one of class.

If you believe that God created through the use of evolution, that He was the source of the big bang and Genesis 1 and 2 are not literal accounts of His creative activity, then you have to discount the story of Adam and Eve as being literal as well. Evolution would demand that humans evolved as a species, not as simply two individual people. At what point did God choose to put a soul into the creatures who were mutating into humans? When Adam and Eve were chosen, were there hundreds of thousands of other humans on earth who were just not as advanced as they were? And why did the evolutionary process stop in those other human-like creatures - did God wipe them all out so that He could just start with two humans? What about their offspring? Do we get our sin natures from Adam and Eve or could we have come from one of those other human-like creatures? Or were Adam and Eve the only two humans in a sea of evolving creatures?

Here's the next problem - the first person named in the faith chapter is Abel. So if the creation week is simply poetry and not literal, making Adam and Eve representative of fallen man, then is their son suddenly a true character? Or is he representative of what faith should look like? What about Enoch? Real or make-believe? Then we get to Noah. Was that story real as well, or is it just poetry? When does Genesis shift from fictional poetry to truth? Abraham is next in Hebrews 11 and I think most would agree he was real.

Do you see the danger in allegorizing Genesis? And this fictional label has been placed on Genesis simply because people don't have enough faith to believe what it actually claims. Why is it so hard to believe God created in six days?

Sorry for the rant. But Hebrews 11:3 is a good reminder that the Christian's call is one that is grounded in faith.

Truth Series - One Way

As ridiculous as this interview was, unfortunately the squirming and uncomfortableness of claiming this truth is real.

Is Jesus the only way to heaven? Is there only one way to having an eternal relationship with God?

It was explained to me once that our understanding of God is like a colony of blind men hearing an elephant approaching their village. Some think that what they hear is thunder, others feel the ground shake, so they think it is an earthquake. But they are quickly told that an elephant is being led into their midst. The blind men cautiously approach the elephant and touch it. Some feel the large, leathery ear and they think an elephant is like a flat, rough piece of material or curtain. Others feel the hard toenails and think an elephant is like a rock. Still others feel the trunk and think an elephant is snakelike. The point is that because they are blind, they cannot see the big picture.

Then I was told that this is what man's view of God is like. What we see and feel is only a small part of what He truly is. So people all over the world are given different glimpses of God through their own religious system and one day we'll see the big picture, which basically is that all religions and experiences are a part of God.

Hmmm...

Well, to that I have to ask, What does the Bible say?

We all know that Jesus said He is the way, the truth and the life, and that no man comes to the Father except through Him. (John 14:6) And II Timothy 2:5 tells us that there is "one God and one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself as a ransom for all men."

Basically, this is the story of the scriptures - God is righteous and holy, and sin earns eternal punishment. In the Pentateuch, God gave sinful man His law, so that if man wanted to earn eternal life, he could clearly see what was expected of him. But Romans 3:23 tells us that all have sinned and fallen short of God's glory. Galatians 3:10 tells us that whoever relies on the righteousness of the Law to save them is under a curse, for it is written that anyone who doesn't abide by the Law is cursed. Thus all men are cursed. Period. Unavoidable. Our righteousness is as filthy rags. No one is righteous, no one understands or even seeks after God. So that's the starting place.

Enter Christ. He became sin who knew no sin, so that we might become the righteousness of God (2 Cor. 5:21). He lived just as we live and died the death that we deserved - not just physical death, but He bore the wrath of God on His Person - an eternity's worth - so that our penatly would be paid. (Hebrews 2:17, I John 2:2, I John 4:10, Romans 3:25) He took our identity and gave us His own. He gave His life as a ransom for ours (Mark 10:45).

So the story looks like this: Man sins and has eternal death. Only a perfect sacrifice can offered in our place, or else we are condemned to eternal hell. Jesus offered Himself to pay our debt and gave us His identity. Now we can have an eternal relationship with the Father because we bear the righteousness of Christ.

Okay, so if other religious systems work, then Jesus' work on the cross was simply theatrics. If there are other ways to God or if there is no penalty for sin, then why in the world would the Father sacrifice His Son? If the works of man, which every other religious system relies on, are sufficient to save, then there is no need for the cross and the Bible is just a lie. But if God's Word is truth and there is a penalty for sin and only Jesus, being God Himself and sinless, could pay that price, then there really is only one way to God and it's through His Son. This means that all other religious systems are lies created by Satan to lull people into a sense of security as they head to a very hot eternity.

We need to stand on this truth. Yes, we are intolerant of other religions and other systems. Yes, we know that we are right and all others are wrong. The Jews, the Muslims, the Jehovah's Witnesses, the Mormons, the Buddhists, the Hindus - they're all going to hell. Only the man who has put his faith in Jesus Christ, who has surrendered his life to God through Christ alone will have eternal life. Jesus is the only way, and folks, waffling on this point for the sake of tolerance is actually a very hateful thing to do, because this truth has eternal consequences.

But believers today are shying away from taking a strong stance on this one. As you saw in the video, it is hard to look at someone and tell them you are right and they are wrong. But that's what truth is all about. It is not an acceptable answer to say that you believe your way, but you leave the judging up to God. Obviously, God is the righteous judge and will judge the hearts of men, but we are given the criteria of judgment and we must stand on it as truth. Again, it is a hateful thing to have the truth and not share it. This world tries to make intolerance the enemy, but intolerance of lies is at the heart of the Christian's claim. We cannot listen to lies and keep quiet.

So, to answer our question, the Bible confirms that there is only one way to God and that is through Jesus Christ. Believe it and speak up.