Burning the Qur'an

Yesterday, I heard about a small Church in Florida that is planning on burning copies of the Muslim holy book, the Qur'an, on September 11th this year.  Personally, after all the evil that this book has caused in this world and in my own country, I can understand their desire to burn it, but I also don't think that it's a good idea.  Not only will it antagonize those who already hate us with such religious zeal, even worse, it will hurt the testimony of Christians who participate.  I have two reasons for saying that.

First of all, publicly burning the Qur'an will only serve to offend Muslims and make them less likely to be open to the message of the Gospel.  If one of our missionaries in a Muslim country did that, he would no longer be listened to, destroying any chance of seeing a Muslim convert to Christianity.  As Christians, we are often going to inadvertently offend people simply by telling them about the Gospel of Jesus Christ, but we are not supposed to purposely be offensive.  If people get offended, let it be over what God said rather than over what I did.

Secondly, publicly burning the Qur'an may seem like a Biblically supported action to take, but not when you study it more closely.  There is an event recorded in Acts 19:18-19, where many of the people living in Ephesus came to believe the Gospel of Jesus Christ and "came confessing and telling their deeds."  The Bible goes on to say that "...many of those who had practiced magic brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all."  These were not Christians burning the religious books of other people.  These were people who had converted to Christianity from other religions and chose to publicly burn their own books.  That's a big difference.

So all in all, I don't want to see any Christian participate in burning the Qur'an on September 11th, because it is simply not a right thing for us to do.  But what I would enjoy seeing is a great host of Muslims choosing to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and rejecting the lies of the Qur'an.  If they decided to burn their own books afterward, it would be all the better!  What a message that would be if a former Muslim set his Qur'an on fire and said, "Compared with the Bible, the Qur'an is of no better use than kindling!"  It would only mean as much coming from someone like that.  May God grant that many of those who believe the Qur'an today would reject it for His Word tomorrow!

Eternal Security vs. Apostasy

I was having a theological discussion today over what some see as a big problem in Biblical interpretation.  And that is understanding how the perseverance (or eternal security) of believers fits with the Scriptural warnings that appear to be directed toward believers, telling us to beware of falling away from the Lord and His salvation.  If the Bible teaches both in that way, then we have a major contradiction.  But such is not possible in God's perfect and holy Word.  So as usual, the problem must be that our interpretation is creating a contradiction that isn't really there.  There is plenty of Biblical reason to believe that once you are saved, you are always saved, and there is no real Biblical support for saying that a real Christian can fall away from the Lord and lose his or her salvation.  You will see why I believe that.

Personally, I believe in "the eternal security of the believer," and I prefer using that phrase to the term "perseverance."  In the simplest terms, the Bible says that before a person comes to believe in Jesus Christ, that person is "dead in trespasses and sins" (Ephesians 2:1), but when someone truly believes in Jesus Christ, committing their life to Him, they are given "eternal life" (John 3:16).  So, salvation is the receiving of eternal life, and by definition, this kind of life is supposed to last forever.  If it could end in any way, including through an individual's personal action or decision, it would not be "eternal life."  Therefore, once someone has come to have "eternal life," that life will never end, or in other words, their salvation will never be taken away.

"The eternal security of the believer" also involves the preservation of God.  This preservation is a part of God's side of the equation in salvation.  On His part, God did all that it takes to save us from our sins, while on our part, we must believe in what He did to receive that salvation.  After salvation, our part is to live in faithful obedience to God, while God's part is to preserve the eternal life that He has given us through salvation, as Jesus promised in John 10:27-28, saying "My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.  And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand."  The way I see it, we didn't deserve salvation to begin with and we sure don't deserve to keep our salvation afterwards, but we have it and keep it through the grace of God alone!

Now we must tackle the idea that the Bible warns believers about the dangers of falling away from salvation.  I personally do not believe that the Bible makes that case, and I have studied each of the passages that are typically used to teach that.  There are passages that speak of believers falling out of fellowship with the Lord and His Church through sin, and there are passages that speak of people falling away from the point of receiving Jesus Christ after hearing the Word of God and continuing in it for a time.  But nowhere does the Bible expressly say that true believers can or will depart from God and lose their salvation.

I think that one of the best passages to clear this up is the parable that Jesus gave concerning the Sower and the seed in Matthew 13:3-9.  Jesus described a sower dropping seed on four types of ground:  "the wayside," "stony places," "among thorns," and "good ground."  Only one, the "good ground" produced a crop to harvest.  The seed that fell on "the wayside" was immediately eaten, and the seed that fell on the "stony places" showed only a little life before dying from lack of a place to take root.  The seed that fell "among thorns" apparently took root, but before they could grow to maturity, "the thorns sprang up and choked them," obviously killing any potential for a crop.

Jesus later explained this parable in Matthew 13:18-23, saying that the "seed" represents "the Word of the Kingdom," or in other words, the message of God's salvation, and the types of ground are those who hear this message.  "The wayside" represents those who hear the Word, but don't understand it.  The birds that come and eat the seed from "the wayside" represent "the wicked one" (obviously Satan) who "comes and snatches away what was sown."  The "stony places" represent those who hear the Word and receive it immediately, but then abandon it when it brings them trouble; proving that one can hear the Word of God and accept it, but not be truly committed to it.  The ground "among thorns" represents those who hear and accept the Word, but do not let it produce fruit in their lives.  But the "good ground" represents true believers who hear and understand the Word, letting the Word produce ever increasing fruit in their lives.  It is on the "good ground" that we see obvious and lasting results.

I think the real problem that people have with believing in "the eternal security of the believer" is the bad example that they have seen among many who profess to be Christian.  I personally know of many examples of those who claim to believe in the Lord Jesus and claim to be one of His followers, and yet they live like the Devil.  I even know of some who claimed to be Christians in the past, but have since rejected Christianity altogether.  Many would say that these examples are proof that a Christian can loose his or her salvation and become an apostate, but I still disagree.  What these examples truly prove is that a person can hear the Word of God, accept it to some degree, and even become involved in the religion of Christianity without ever truly becoming a born-again believer in and follower of the Lord Jesus Christ!  There are too many who never truly reach the point of having a relationship with Jesus Christ, and that is the key to real salvation.  There are far too many people who call themselves "Christian" that are represented by the ground "among thorns," instead of by the "good ground" that a real Christian should be.

Can a real Christian go astray?  Yes, but not without being absolutely miserable.  Can a real Christian become an apostate?  No, because a real Christian has "eternal life" that is preserved by the One who gave it.  With the great weight of Biblical support behind it, eternal security beats the idea of apostasy every time!

Missing... but not out of action!

To anyone who reads my blog, you may have noticed that I haven't written a new post in the past few months. I do apologize, but inspiration hasn't hit me when I had sufficient time to write. I will be writing again very soon. So don't think that I am missing in action. I've just been missing, but not out of action.

My life and ministry offline has been quite busy the past few months. We had a great Vacation Bible School, with God saving 4 children! My family and I then took a much needed vacation in South Dakota and Wyoming. There's nothing like a 4,814 mile road trip to recharge the batteries! Since we've been back, God has continued to work in our Church and we have seen Him save 5 people in the past month!

Pray that God will continue to change and save lives through our family. That's what ministry is all about!

Avatar: A Compromised Movie

I finally got around to watching the movie, "Avatar," which is currently considered the best movie ever, or at least that's what the commercials say. I have heard a lot of people tell me how good it is, but I have also heard some bad reviews. Naturally, I wanted to see it for myself. So my wife and I watched it last night without the kids, as we do with any movie that we are unsure of. After seeing it, I now know why Christian movie reviewers issued serious warnings to families. I'm not going to say that Christian parents should think twice before letting their kids watch this movie; I'm going to say that Christian parents should have their heads examined if they know what's in this movie and then let their kids watch it anyway. Now before you get mad, let me tell you why I say that.

Do you remember the old spy movies, where a secret agent is sent in on a mission of national security or some such thing? Invariably in those movies something goes badly wrong and the spy contacts his superiors to report that the mission has been compromised. Well, Avatar has all the makings of a great movie for all ages, complete with a grand adventure, a moral lesson, spectacular special effects, and edge-of-your-seat action, but this movie has been compromised.

For example, curse words were sprinkled throughout the entire movie, including the repeated use of God's name in the worst possible way, not to mention the use of the name of Jesus as an expletive on more than one occasion. And if that were not enough, the very human-like, alien natives were barely clothed, especially the females whose breasts were almost completely exposed and visible in many scenes. There was also the scene that stopped just short of showing two aliens mating.

This may not seem like something that would compromise a movie to those who aren't Christians, but it should be considered compromise by a follower of Christ! Anything that serves to compromise our values and beliefs is a compromise to watch or hear. The old adage is very true that says, "Garbage in means garbage out!" The Bible says, "Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God" (Romans 12:2, NKJV). The Bible also says, "Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things" (Philippians 4:8, ESV). Not only are we supposed to act differently as Christians, we are supposed to think differently as well. After watching a movie like "Avatar," I felt like I needed to wash my ears out! I'll never watch it again because I don't want it to influence my thinking or my actions, and I'll never let my kids watch it for the same reason.

Now I'm not saying that we should shelter our kids from the world around them, but rather guard and mold our children so that they can have a Christian impact on the world around them. I want for my kids what God wants for all of His children: "...be wise in what is good, and simple concerning evil" (Romans 16:19, NKJV), or in other words, "know more about what is good and know hardly anything about what is wrong!" Christian parents need to be praying for their kids in the way that Jesus prayed for us, saying, "I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth. As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world" (John 17:15-18, NKJV).

One of these days, my kids are going to be going out into this world on their own. That is a fact that I fear, but must face and prepare for. While there's still time, I want to equip my children for that moment so that when it comes, their mission will not be compromised. My prayer and my plea is that all Christian parents will do the same. Sometimes that decision can be as simple as what you let them watch on the television. Don't give your kids a compromised movie; give them a sanctified life for their good and the glory of God!

The One and Only Gospel

The word "Gospel" means "Good News" and it refers to the message of what God did to save us and how we can receive that salvation. It is supposed to be a simple message that has defined Christianity from the beginning, but it seems that there is some disagreement among Christians about the Gospel that was being preached at the beginning of the Church. Some say that the Apostles led by Peter were preaching that a person is saved through having faith and doing works together, while the Apostle Peter and those who agreed with him were preaching that salvation comes through having faith alone. This theory gives the idea that Paul alone was spreading the Gospel, with the other Apostles only serving as a hindrance to him and his message, leaving a great divide between Jewish and Gentile believers. While it is true that the early Christians, including the Apostles, didn't always agree, it is not true that they were hopelessly divided over God's plan of salvation. When you look into the New Testament, instead of seeing contradicting messages, you see a unified truth, proclaiming that salvation comes by God's grace through personal faith in who He is and what He did to save sinners, whether they be Jew or Gentile.

In clearing this up, we need to begin with the one who is most often accused of preaching salvation by works, the Apostle Peter. In Acts 10:43, Peter has just told a group of Gentiles about the ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, when he gives the following invitation, saying, "To Him all the prophets witness that, through His name, whoever believes in Him will receive remission of sins" (Acts 10:43, NKJV). Now when this first group of Gentiles believed, they received the Holy Spirit in what has been called a Gentile Pentecost, which was evidenced by the speaking of tongues as in Acts 2. This Gentile Pentecost was a unique event to commemorate the first of the Gentiles coming to believe. It was at this point that Peter said, "Can anyone forbid water, that these should not be baptized who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?" Don't miss the sequence of events: Peter gave the invitation to believe for salvation, they believed and received the Holy Spirit, and then they were baptized afterwards. Peter said that this was the same way that the Jewish believers had also received the Holy Spirit and came to be baptized. It was through faith alone, with no works mentioned.

I would also like to point out the events of the next chapter in Acts, when Peter got back to Jerusalem and was surrounded by controversy from the Jewish believers because he had been with Gentiles (Acts 11:1-3). Peter first explained to them how God had sent him to the Gentiles to tell them how to be saved (Acts 11:4-14). Peter told them how they received the Holy Spirit and then said, "If therefore God gave them the same gift as He gave us when we believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could withstand God?" (Acts 11:17, NKJV) Their response is in agreement with Peter: "When they heard these things they became silent; and they glorified God, saying, 'Then God has also granted to the Gentiles repentance to life'" (Acts 11:18, NKJV). Peter's emphasis was on belief for salvation and apparently that was the same message that the Jews had already received.

When Paul was preaching in the synagogue in Antioch of Pisidia, his message was essentially the same as Peter's. Paul told of the coming of the Messiah, the death of Jesus, and the resurrection of Jesus. Paul then said, "Therefore let it be known to you, brethren, that through this Man is preached to you the forgiveness of sins; and by Him everyone who believes is justified from all things from which you could not be justified by the law of Moses" (Acts 13:38-39, NKJV). When most of the Jews in the synagogue (though not all) rejected what Paul had to say, Paul turned to the Gentiles, but it does not say that his message to them was any different. It's interesting that you see this same pattern in every city that Paul went to. If the city had a synagogue, he started preaching there, then when he was inevitably rejected, he would turn to the Gentiles, but his message was always the same to both, namely that salvation comes by God's grace through personal faith.

Now it is clear that not all Jewish Christians believed in the message of salvation by grace through faith alone. In fact, Paul, Barnabas, and other like-minded Christians went to Jerusalem, "to the apostles and elders," over the disagreement, in order to try and resolve it (Acts 15:1-2). The majority of believers were overjoyed at the news of their success in reaching the Gentiles, but a minority of believers were critical (Acts 15:3-5). Not surprisingly, since he was the first to proclaim the Gospel to the Gentiles, Peter stood up to defend Paul and his Gospel. The Bible says, "And when there had been much dispute, Peter rose up and said to them: 'Men and brethren, you know that a good while ago God chose among us, that by my mouth the Gentiles should hear the word of the gospel and believe. So God, who knows the heart, acknowledged them by giving them the Holy Spirit, just as He did to us, and made no distinction between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith. Now therefore, why do you test God by putting a yoke on the neck of the disciples which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear? But we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved in the same manner as they'" (Acts 15:7-11, NKJV). I want to take special note of two things in what Peter said. First of all, Peter called the Law a "yoke" that none of the Jews had been able to bear, or in other words, none of them had been able to save themselves through the keeping of the Law. Secondly, Peter said that it is through "the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ" and nothing else that anyone is saved, whether Jew or Gentile.

With these passages in mind, I simply cannot believe that they preached a different Gospel. You see both Peter and Paul preaching salvation by grace through faith to both Jews and Gentiles. There's no reason to believe that the other Apostles were any different. Their's was a unified message of salvation by the grace of One Lord over one people of faith, whether Jew or Gentile, as the Bible says, "For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation, having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace, and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity" (Ephesians 2:14-16, NKJV).

Today, there are many denominations and varieties of Churches, much more so than it was in the beginning when there was only a Jewish and a Gentile Church. In all our disagreements, whether worthy or unworthy of argument, it is imperative that we have one unified message, just like the early Church did. That message should be that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, our Savior, and our Lord, because He was born of a virgin, lived a sinless life, died in our place, and rose again from the dead to save and change the lives of all who will place their faith in Him. That's the message of salvation by grace through faith. The grace is His part, while the faith is ours, and when both come together, salvation happens! When it comes to life and death, that's the only Good News!

Salvation from Separation

Our Church just experienced a shock last week that we are still reeling from. One of our members committed suicide. This individual was a good, Christian man and well-liked by all, but he took his own life in a moment of despair. As his pastor, the task fell to me to try and comfort his family and to preach his funeral. It has been one of the most difficult things that I have ever had to deal with as a pastor. I sought the Lord's guidance to know both what to say and what to do. For a time, I had no clear direction, but then God gave me the words to say from His Word. What He had me say is instructive and encouraging to us all.

First of all, some misconceptions of suicide had to be confronted; the main one being the idea that if someone commits the sin of suicide, they automatically go to Hell. The Bible never says anything of the sort. What Scripture actually says is that people go to Hell because they are separated from God. The Bible explains, saying, "Behold, the LORD's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; nor His ear heavy, that it cannot hear. But your iniquities have separated you from your God; and your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He will not hear" (Isaiah 59:1-2, NKJV). Therefore, all sinners are separated from God, and we don't have to hear that "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23) to know that it is a problem that we all face.

Separation is the punishment for sin and is a condition that God calls "death." Physical death illustrates it in that when a person has physically died, they are separated from all those who love them. Well, spiritual death is the separation of a person's spirit from the One who loves them far more than anyone ever could. Without being forgiven of their sins, a person is forced to live apart from God, and when their body dies, their spirit has to remain apart from God. In other words, if you can't be with God in Heaven, there's no other place to be but separated from Him in Hell. If left to our own devices, this would be the position that we would all find ourselves in, but God didn't leave us without a solution!

God loved us enough to do whatever was necessary to end the separation between us and Him! The Bible speaks of both the punishment for sin and the salvation from sin's punishment, saying that "...the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Romans 6:23, NKJV). God freely traded our old life of separation from Him for a new life of salvation with Him through Jesus Christ! That gift cost Jesus dearly, as the Bible reminds us, saying, "...God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8, NKJV). Jesus was separated from God in death, so that we would not have to be separated from God in death. He took our place to end the separation once and for all, but there is a catch.

Because of the sacrifice that Jesus made, our separation from God can be ended, but only on one condition: we must believe to receive His gift. That's why the Bible says, "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life" (John 3:16, NKJV). Belief in Jesus is what provides salvation from that separation. Belief is the key to having a relationship with God that will never end! Thankfully, I know that the man who committed suicide had faith in Jesus Christ and is now in Heaven with Him because of it.

You see, once your separation from God has ended, no sin, not even the sin of taking your own life, can separate you from your Savior again! Think of the words that the Bible uses to describe what you receive when you believe, words like "everlasting life" and "eternal life." If you could suddenly do something to end this new life with God, it could not be called "everlasting" or "eternal." But there is an even stronger argument for believing that we cannot be separated from God again. Jesus said, "My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand" (John 10:27-28, NKJV). To say that you could take yourself away from the Lord is to say that you are stronger than Him, and that is just not possible. It was Jesus that ended the separation between you and God, and it is Jesus who will keep you from being separated from Him ever again. That's why the Apostle Paul wrote these words, saying, "...I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God's love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow-- not even the powers of hell can separate us from God's love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below-- indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Romans 8:38-39, NLT).

Even though this man committed suicide, he had faith in Jesus Christ, and that faith remained the key to his salvation. Knowing that made my task a little easier in comforting the family and in coming to grips with what happened. His eternal life was still secure, despite the wrong and tragic way that he died. Many of you will recognize that I'm talking about the eternal security of the believer; the concept that once you're saved, you are always saved; but I like to put it this way... In Jesus we have salvation from separation! Thank-you, Jesus!