Nice People are … (Be Prepared to be Shocked!)
If you are into the culture of nice or, as I like to call it, nice-iosity (it sounds better than it looks in print), you are going to be shocked. Nice people are dangerous.
Nice people can be wrong. Some of the nicest people I ever met are wrong. And some of the people most accurately following Jesus are a little shy in the "nice" department.
You see, a nice person will never tell you that you are wrong. A nice person will let you walk right up to the edge of a cliff and rather than offend you by shouting, "Hey, you’re walking too close to the edge of that cliff!" they will let you plunge over the edge.
A nice person will never demand that you defend your opinions. A nice person will listen to you talk about your belief in reincarnation or the planet Koleb or whatever it is you’re into and will listen and not challenge you with annoying questions like, "Why do you believe that?" or "I don’t understand why you would believe that, what are you reasons for thinking that way?"
A nice person wants to be tolerant. Tolerant means that you go to hell while I smile. Tolerant means that you wade out waist-deep in sin, filth and slime, and I’ll just sit here quietly and drink my coffee.
Nice people like to be liked. They would rather you liked them and enjoyed their company than that you knew the truth about spiritual things.
Of course, a lot of nice people do not know the truth anyway. The truth is hard. Nice people are soft.
If you know the truth about Jesus Christ and that He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, I am asking you to give up being nice and start being loving. You might think those things are the same, but in our culture, they’re opposites. Think of a good parent. A good mother is loving, but she is not always nice to her child–there are times when she will scold her child, punish her child, and correct her child. There are times when she must put her foot down. A good mom will from time to time make her child cry and feel frustrated. But she is a good mother if these things are acts of love aimed at protecting, teaching, and helping her child.
Stop being nice. Start being loving. Here’s how:
- Talk about the things of God. Don’t shy away from Christian topics, even (and especially) if you think others around you are not Christians.
- Don’t be afraid to challenge people. So much "spiritual" knowledge in our culture is stupidity wrapped in an enigma. You don’t have to be a jerk, but ask people why they believe what they do.
- If a person is wrong about the plot of a movie or something trivial, you do not have to correct her. But if a person is wrong about who God is, tell her. It’s cruel not to.
- Don’t be afraid to say, "You’re wrong." The most loving words in the English language are, "You’re wrong!" if the person is wrong about something important.
- Jesus Christ isn’t "your opinion." He is the Truth. Represent Him clearly. If the only way you can be nice is to deny Christ, then don’t be nice.
- Don’t let aberrant stuff slip by you. If you’re talking to somebody who likes carrot juice or green eye shadow, let that aberrant behavior go. That’s opinion. It’s trivial. But if you’re talking to somebody who is into Wicca or thinks there is no God, speak up.
- Don’t worry if you get the stink eye. The world wants everybody to be nice because nice is a great weapon of Satan. Many saints have been killed and many more are in prison for speaking the Gospel and talking about Christ. For most of us, the consequences of being an ambassador to Christ are much more minor. Don’t worry about it. Better to lose a friend or even lose your job for talking about Christ than keep silent.
- Recognize that you may not be able to be friends to everyone. If you are light, the darkness should hate you. It’s natural, like cats and dogs. Sometimes the best way to love everybody is by letting some people hate you. Just make sure they hate you for the right reasons–not for any overt or egregious acts on your part.
- Speak up. People die every day. Would you rather that person sitting next to you at work died and went to hell thinking you were nice or had issues with you but ultimately found Christ and went to heaven?
Now this is not to say that we should be a bunch of wild-eyed baboons. We should be loving, soft-spoken, patient, and gentle. We should speak the truth in love. We should pray for those around us and pray that we can represent Christ rightly. We should not belittle people. But don’t be surprised if people accuse you of being "not nice" (which nowadays is worse than being a witch). That’s OK.
Nice people are dangerous.
The Therapeutic Gospel and Other Fairy Tales: 10 Reasons Why It Does Not Work
Lots of churches invite you in with the vague or sometimes specific assertion that they can "help you." Some churches actually have committees that go out into the community and try to assess the community’s "felt needs" and then create a church service around it. For instance, if you live in a community with a lot of unemployment, the church will try to deliver messages to help you find a job or manage your money in hard times. I even know a woman who went on a mission trip to Africa. The team went hut to hut in a little village. The idea was that they would evangelize. Instead, the message went something like this:
Church Lady: "What is it that you need? If you could wish for one thing, what would it be?"
Villager: "Rain so that we had a good crop this year. It’s very dry."
Church Lady: "OK, I will pray with you to my God Jesus. If He sends you rain, will you believe in Him?"
Villager: "OK."
This is "felt-needs" evangelism. Sin, hell, righteousness, truth, all goes out the window. This is very nearly voodoo–if you can somehow make it rain, I’ll agree that you know a powerful spirit.
All of this is the therapeutic gospel. It’s a global phenomenon, but it’s probably more American than anything else, because Americans are a very therapeutic people. We want to feel good, and if we can’t have that, we at least want to feel better.
The therapeutic gospel is not the gospel. It’s sort of like handing me the owner’s manual for a Harley Davidson and saying, "This is the Bible." Your saying it’s the Bible doesn’t make it the Bible.
The therapeutic gospel holds that Jesus died to make us more comfortable and happy (and prosperous) right now. That’s not in the Bible. Jesus promised us that in this world we would have trouble and that we should count the cost if we followed Him because we would have to lay down our lives and our own agenda to pursue His plan instead of our own. Yet somehow that got twisted into the idea that if you’re hurting now, Jesus can help you.
The problem with this is that it’s somewhat true. Jesus does help the broken-hearted, the troubled, the wounded, and the lost. But that is not the Gospel. The Gospel is that you are a sinner on the fast-track to hell and without an advocate, you are condemned already. Jesus stepped into history–born of a virgin, 100% God and 100% man, to live a perfect, righteous, sinless life and to suffer on a Roman cross where He laid down His life. He was buried in a borrowed tomb but was resurrected on the third day and seen by hundreds of people, who were taught by the resurrected Jesus. He ascended into heaven, which is where He is right now. Those who repent of their sins and turn to put their full faith and trust in Jesus and Jesus alone have everlasting life.
That’s the Gospel. And that’s the point. Everlasting life in heaven with Jesus is better than temporary comforts or wealth today. Jesus loves His followers and there are many extraordinary blessings that come from following Christ, but those blessings are not the point. And having your eyes opened up to the miracle of Scripture will help ease a twisted mind and calm frantic thoughts and ease your pain.
But the therapeutic Gospel short-circuits the real truth and just tells you that Jesus can make you feel better. And, let’s face it, who among us doesn’t want to feel better? We all have problems.
The therapeutic Gospel is dangerous because it is everywhere and it is wrong. It distracts people from the glorious Gospel with a shiny trinket. And here are 10 reasons why the therapeutic Gospel really won’t help you in the long run.
- The therapeutic Gospel distracts you from the truth of Scripture and encourages you to focus on this life now. That’s unbiblical in and of itself.
- The therapeutic Gospel is "me-centered" and it encourages you to focus on your boo-boos instead of on your sinful state and your eternity.
- The therapeutic Gospel sets things up so that Jesus is supposed to serve you, and that’s exactly backward.
- The therapeutic Gospel encourages you to view the world in terms of your own comfort and pleasures; Jesus said we were to pick up our crosses and follow Him. I’m pretty sure when you’re carrying a cross, you’re not going to a party.
- The therapeutic Gospel encourages all kinds of heresy–it gets you so focused on getting your own needs met (help! My marriage is on the rocks! Helps! I drink too much! Help! My kid has anorexia! Help! I have too much credit card debt!) that you really do not need Jesus at all except to clean up your messes.
- The therapeutic Gospel is very close to "self-help." And self-help teachings all rely on secular psychology and pop icons like Oprah and Dr. Phil. These guys do not teach Biblical truths. So the therapeutic Gospel will have you going outside the Bible–a lot–to fix yourself.
- The therapeutic Gospel misleads you into thinking that you can be fixed and the world is a great place. The world is fallen. You are sinful. Some problems cannot be fixed. Sometimes your best friend dies or your child is sick or your home is foreclosed.
- The therapeutic Gospel encourages you to work on yourself. Working on yourself is like arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. Without Christ, you are condemned already. And the whole point of the Gospel is that you cannot save yourself and you cannot fix yourself except in small ways, and then only briefly, imperfectly, and at great effort. Just think about the last time you tried to lose weight. We cannot fix our spiritual state and it’s a mess. The therapeutic Gospel encourages you not to worry about your immortal soul or your spiritual state and tells you to worry about your finances or your marriage or the shape of your eyebrows.
- The therapeutic Gospel makes a mess out of evangelism. You don’t tell people about hell, you tell them how to have a better marriage.
- The therapeutic Gospel confuses "nice" with "holy." Holy is better.
But all of that is just pragmatic. The real reason the therapeutic gospel is wrong is that it’s false.
Eleven Things That Show You Might Be a False Convert
The New Testament is full of warnings about false converts and false teachers. Jesus specifically warned that some people would arrive on Judgment Day and meet Jesus, expecting to be welcomed into heaven and be turned away. The Old Testament warns against idolators and false prophets. They are the same thing, just in different times and places.
A false convert is an idolator and an idolator is a false convert. In modern terms, these are people who outwardly align with a faith and even consider themselves to be of that faith … but they are actually not. They worship, pray, and have faith, but their faith is misplaced. When we worship what is not God–whether a golden calf or our own business savvy–we have created an idol. Anything that deposes God from His rightful position as Creator and Sustainer of the universe is an idol.
In Bible days, Israel was so full of idolators that God caused first Assyria and then Babylon to overtake the Northern and Southern Kingdoms of Israel, respectively. These idolators had created shrines to pagan gods and participated in the rites and practices of the pagan culture around them.
In our own day, the church is full of false converts. They do not necessarily go home to shrines to Buddha or other false gods. Instead, they outwardly act as Christians, but their hearts are worldly.
Ancient Israel was full of false prophets, men who claimed to hear from God but who, in fact, were delivering messages of their own making. Being a false prophet was a crime punishable by death in ancient Israel, and the evidence was a prophecy that failed to come to fruition. If a man claimed to be a prophet and then foretold that a battle would be won, and it turned out the battle was lost–the prophet was exposed as a phony and paid with his life.
Today, we have false teachers, men and women who claim to hear from God, sometimes in special revelation, and who deliver messages of their own making.
All of this is true. But what do we do about it? Are you a false convert? Are you a false teacher? Jesus Himself warned us that many false teachers would go to hell not realizing that they were not Christians. In other words, it is possible and even likely that false teachers and false converts do not know who they are. They are deceived. Here are 10 things to consider if you wonder about your own state.
- Genuine, sincere concern about being a false convert and a desire to search the Scriptures for truth in response to this question is good evidence you are a born-again believer. A flippant or dismissive attitude about this question points to false conversion.
- Born-again believers are connected to God, the center of their affections, through the Bible. If you hate to read the Bible or if you say you like the Bible but you read it only rarely, you could be a false convert.
- Being a member of a church is not evidence for being born again or being a false convert. But if your church life centers around activities like going to lunch, trips to the mall, movies, parties, and so on rather than evangelism, Bible study, worship, and fellowship, you could be a false convert.
- Most false converts have distorted ideas; if you do not think hell is real or do not think God sends people to hell or if you are pretty sure God had no cause to send you to hell, you are a false convert.
- If you can’t stand to be in a church that does not play music that is to your taste–in terms of musical style–then you could be a false convert.
- If you have never shared your faith with another person, in a direct and articulate way, then you could be a false convert. (Merely befriending non-Christians or inviting people to church does not count.)
- If you cannot explain the Gospel, you could be a false convert. In fact, it’s very likely you are.
- Born-again believers develop a genuine taste for theology, that is, the facts behind their faith. If you hate theology or think it is totally irrelevant you are either immature or a false convert.
- A born-again believer seeks to please God in all ways. If your prayer life is all about what God should do for you–what God has to do for you–you are a false convert sitting under a false teacher.
- If you never read books about Christianity or attend conferences, retreats, workshops, and other things to strengthen, build, or grow your belief, you are probably a false convert.
Notice this list does not say much about sin. You can be a born-again believer and sin. You can be a born-again believer and still be wrestling with your personal shortcomings, like a quick temper or a desire to drink too much. You can be a born-again believer and not be a good reader or much of a studying type person. But when your life is about movies, fun, parties, and you think people who read the Bible or worry about hell are stupid or inferior to you, you could be a false convert.
And here is the last one. It’s a big one, so I put it all by itself.
11. If you think that other people who worship to a different style of music or do not jump up and down during worship or do not have high-tech gadgets in their church are inferior to you ("they’re just not at the same place we are!"), then you have pride and you are very likely a false convert. Born-again believers understand that worship is about the Truth (Jesus) and not about be-bopping music or caloric burn. Born-again believers know that true worship and fellowship can occur in a cellar where six believers have to hide and share the few pages of the one Bible they share. If your faith is about performance, excellent showmanship, and a light show, you are a false convert.
This is not an indictment. If you are a false convert, the most important thing for you to do is recognize the fact, study the Scripture and seek real godly counsel (and be sure you are in a solid church–false converts and false teachers often go hand-in-hand). Repent of your sins and put your complete, total, absolute trust and faith in Jesus Christ, Lord of Lords and King of Kings.
False converts can be saved, but they must first overcome the deception and then humble themselves to repent and trust the Savior.
Dr. John MacArthur Comments on Joel Osteen
Don’t Call Charles Darwin a Scientist, Call Him a Racist
This picture of an iguana was taken on the Galapagos Islands. It is a recent picture by a tourist. Probably the most famous tourist to have ever stopped by the Galapagos Islands was a young intellectual man named Charles Darwin, eager to observe the natural world and possibly write his observations in a book that might make him famous. He succeeded at that, and Darwin is nearly beloved in certain circles. But when I witness to people and the subject of evolution or Charles Darwin comes up, it occurs to me that many people have a skewed idea about who Charles Darwin actually was.
Here is something Darwin wrote. "At some future period not very distant as measured by centuries, the civilised races of man will almost certainly exterminate and replace the savage races throughout the world. At the same time the anthropomorphous apes…will no doubt be exterminated. The break between man and his nearest Allies will then be wider, for it will intervene between man in a more civilised state, as we may hope, even than the Caucasian, and some ape as low as the baboon, instead of as now between the Negro or Australian and the gorilla."
It’s from his book, The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex. I firmly believe that one of the reasons that Mr. Darwin is so incredibly popular is that nobody actually reads him. Darwin’s theory of evolution (which was not entirely his) is very popular among atheists who offer it as an alternative version of the Creation account stated in Genesis, a way for everything to be created which was created without the hand of a sovereign God–or any divine being at all. For all that Darwin is lauded and praised–there are even statues of him in certain quarters–does anybody really know what this man was about?
In the same book, Darwin knocks women: "…the average of mental power in man must be above that of women." He is using literature, math, science, and the arts to show that men create more and must therefore be mentally superior. Never mind that in his day, most universities would not admit women and many families thought it wasteful to squander even elementary education on girls. Women weren’t solving the current riddles in math and science and were clearly mentally inferior.
Darwin lived a long life in the public spotlight (he was said to have kept scrap books full of clippings that mentioned him or his work), so it is possible that here and there maybe he misspoke. But one rarely misspeaks in a title. Book titles are very important, and Darwin’s legendary work–the one most evolutionists quote (but never read)–is entitled The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life. Favored race (he used the British spelling in his book title) means the Caucasian race. Darwin, like other early evolutionists and later Hitler, saw in the evolutionary theories a means of proving that the white race was superior to all others. After all, if evolution is a process by which the weak and unfit are gradually culled away, then what remains must be the best … right? Darwin wasn’t always talking about evolution in terms of animals versus humans. He also considered evolution would be in terms of superior versus inferior races of people.
Darwin was not a real scientist; he was an educated gentleman of 19th century Britain who used his resources to fund "expeditions" as he played at research. The 19th century in Europe was filled with amateur archaeologists digging up Egyptian mummies and amateur scientists exploring the theory of color and, in the case of Darwin, a wealthy British guy traveling the globe and observing plants and animals. In the course of his travels, he met many isolated peoples, including an indigenous tribe in Tierra del Fuego, practically at the end of the world. Here is how Mr. Darwin viewed these hardy souls. "I could not have believed how wide was the difference between savage and civilized man; it is greater than between a wild and domesticated animal . . . Viewing such a man, one can hardly make oneself believe that they are fellow creatures and inhabitants of the same world."
Now Darwin was not a total miscreant. His defenders point out, rightly, that he was an outspoken opponent of slavery, an evil of his age. Darwin no doubt had many fine qualities. But look at this, also penned by Darwin: "We civilised men, on the other hand, do our utmost to check the process of elimination … Thus, the weak members of civilised societies propagate their kind…But excepting in the case of man himself, hardly any one is so ignorant as to allow his worst animals to breed." Who do you think Darwin was talking about when he referred to "worst animals"? I’m pretty sure it was not white people.
The logical conclusion from survival of the fittest is eugenics, that is, the notion that we can help elevate the human race through appropriate breeding. As Darwin continued that one of his ideas was that "… The weaker and inferior members of society not marrying so freely as the sound." This would inhibit "bad stock" from reproducing.
Darwin’s cousin, Francis Galton, founded the first Eugenics Society, which advocated such breeding strategies for human beings. In 1911, one of Darwin’s ten children (apparently he was "good stock") took the reins of the Eugenics Society. In other words, the leap from Darwin to genetic engineering is very close indeed. Darwin may have written the Origin of Species, but his family ran the Eugenics Society.
It is no secret that rabid anti-Semite Adolf Hitler liked Darwin. So did Karl Marx (he called himself "a devoted admirer"). And Margaret Sanger, who founded the organization that would become Planned Parenthood, followed this line of thinking. "The most merciful thing that a large family does to one of its infant members is to kill it." Ms. Sanger was a devoted fan of eugenics.
As a Creationist, I oppose Darwin’s theory, but not on scientific grounds. First of all, Darwin’s theory isn’t science. Science must be observable and reproducible and Darwin’s theory is neither–it is what might be called a theory of natural history and it has to remain a theory because there are no eye witnesses. My faith in Scripture makes me a Creationist, but it takes a degree of blind faith to accept Darwin’s theory. It takes total blatant ignorance to call Darwin’s theory science. It’s no more science than it is math–nothing relating to the history of origins can be scientific. At best, it is natural history.
While my rejection of Darwin’s theory has to do with my belief in Scripture, I find it startling that so many cite him as some sort of genius or one of the most noble figures in human civilization. Darwin was an interesting man–he was reportedly a very genteel upper-class kind of fellow, a British gentleman of the old school, and he apparently had a warm family life, including a wife (who was his first cousin) and 10 children. He was a dabbler in an age that allowed uncredentialed rich men to pursue academic fields without allowing their lack of educational qualifications to inhibit their enthusiasm. And his ideas–which were largely restating existing ideas but perhaps in a more coherent way–took root and made him famous, even in his own age. Darwin lived the latter portion of his life as a celebrity of sorts.
But the man was flawed. I am not concerned with his personal shortcomings but rather the wrong thoughts that seeped in and encouraged his wrong writings:
- That some human beings are inherently better than other human beings
- That the "better" human beings should have more rights
- That steps should be taken to discourage or even prohibit the "worse" human beings from reproduction
- That while men and women are needed to reproduce, men are inherently more intelligent than women
- That eventually the "better" people would be so far superior to the "worse people" that there would be a vast and clear chasm
- That indigenous peoples were closer to animals than Europeans–and therefore "worse"
If Darwin had failed to believe in any of those tenets–if he thought people were all created in the image of God and therefore equal and that no person by virtue of race or ethnicity was inherently "worse" than another of a different race of ethnicity–he would have not been able to write about evolution in such a compelling way. He would not have entertained the idea of man "coming up" from the animals. He would not have seen a way of "fixing" or engineering humanity.
And it is easy to see in hindsight where evolution led–to the death camps at Auschwitz (Hitler’s "final solution to the Jewish problem") or the forced sterilizations of blacks in the United States or even Planned Parenthood, which Margaret Sanger stated in her writings existed to stop the birth of so many black babies.
If you quote Charles Darwin, at least know who he was.
Pastor Gao Spends Easter in Chinese Jail
If you have always wondered what you could do for the persecuted church–those brothers and sisters in Christ who risk their very lives by going to church or sharing the Gospel–I have an answer.
Write a letter. Please join me in writing an encouraging letter to Pastor Gao, a Chinese pastor who has spent over two years in prison for doing things that American pastors do every day–run a church. If you don’t know how, there is an easy step-by-step guide for this. You just pick out verses and the website writes a letter in Chinese for you! It even gives you the address to mail it.
If you print this out on your computer, please delete anything that might refer back to the website since this kind of thing can end up getting people in trouble. Just send the actual letter.
Why do this?
- Hebrews said we should remember our brothers and sisters in chains
- When the Chinese prison officials see lots of letters from international places, it tells them that Pastor Gao is not some forgotten person who can just "disappear." It tells them that the world is watching!
- It is easy to do, even if you aren’t a writer or do not know where to begin
- You can write and send your letter for a little over $1 in postage–that’s less than it costs you to buy a soft drink
Please, please remember that Jesus said whatever we do for even the least of His brothers, we do for Him. Jesus specifically said that He honored those who visited Christians in prison. We may not be able to visit Pastor Gao in China–I understand his prison is in a remote area of China–but we can write to him and give notice to those who are imprisoning him that he is a man dear to us. Pray for Pastor Gao and also pray that his captors may come to know Christ.
It’s Easter–please take the time to honor Jesus by serving this, one of His brothers.
One Weekend That Changed Everything
As we approach Easter this year–or Resurrection Sunday as some churches prefer to call it–it is important to understand what it is about. Good Friday commemorates the day that Jesus was crucified on a Roman cross. He was betrayed as He left a Passover celebration, tried, mocked, flogged, and then brought by Pontius Pilate before a crowd who cried, "Crucify Him!" Jesus was then brought to a tomb–it was not a grave in the modern sense of the word. It was a cave. His body was claimed by Joseph of Arimathea who put it in the tomb-cave before the sun set for Sabbath. (It would have been against Jewish law to "work" on burying a body during the Sabbath.) The body was put in the tomb and a giant stone rolled into place to block the entrance.
Saturday was a very long day for the disciples of Jesus. Jesus was in the tomb as the Jews marked that Sabbath. On Sunday morning, some of the disciples went to the tomb with the idea that they could now prepare the body for a proper burial. In those ancient days, bodies were usually wrapped in a shroud or a burial cloth with aromatic spices. The women followers of Jesus went to the tomb on Sunday morning with the goal of providing a more fitting burial for Jesus.
I think that the followers of Jesus at this point were very confused. Jesus, the Messiah, the one Peter had described emphatically as, "The Christ, the Son of the Living God" had been betrayed, tried, and executed … and was now in a grave. Despite the fact that Jesus had prophesied His death many times, no one had understood it and certainly none of His followers actually expected that they would one day be visiting the tomb of Jesus! Some were perplexed, some were distressed, some were probably depressed. No one knew what was going on.
Then, as the followers rushed to the tomb with their spices and cloth and other equipment for funerals, they saw the stone had been rolled away–and the tomb was empty. Jesus would soon appear in His resurrection to His disciples.
What happened? On a very earthly, physical level, Jesus Christ was betrayed, executed, and resurrected. But on a spiritual level, a legal transaction took place. It is what theologians call "forensic." Jesus is 100% God and 100% man; he was born of a virgin and led a sinless life. He was unfairly accused and convicted in a sham trial. He went to a brutal death. But Jesus was not murdered–He was always in control. He could have gotten down from the Cross at any point, yet He did not. He laid down His life. He gave His life, nobody "took" His life. God poured out His wrath on Jesus Christ.
This was a substitutionary death, that is, God legally recognized Jesus as the "substitute" for us. The one who deserved the wrath of God was I … and you. The punishment that rightly belonged to me and you was borne by Jesus. He took it willingly. God punished Jesus willingly (the Bible says that it pleased the Father to bruise the son).
The Bible says that when we repent of our sins and have faith in Jesus as the Christ, the Son of the Living God, as Lord, God pours out His grace on us and then Jesus’s death on the cross is credited to us.
The Bible says that it is appointed unto man to die once. Your death is appointed. You have an appointment with death, and one day you will die. Nobody escapes this. Even atheists know this. We all die. The Bible says after death, there is judgment. We are judged by God’s Holy standard. We have sinned and fallen short. You are not judged based on your concept of right or wrong or your relative goodness compared to say, Hitler, but by God’s perfect standard. You cannot measure up. For those who die and face judgement, God should rightly send us to hell. But for those who have repented and put their faith and complete trust in the Lord, Jesus Christ, God accepts His payment for our sins as our substitute. We are free from the penalty.
But it gets better, sister. Jesus lived a perfect life. The righteousness of Christ–the fact that He did everything sinlessly–is credited to us as well. It is not just that we avoid hell, it is also that God is able to look at us and see the righteousness of Jesus Christ.
That all happened one weekend about 2000 years ago, and we celebrate it today. Actually, if you are a Christian, you celebrate it every day.
If Scientists Found a Single Living Cell on a Distant Planet …
They would call it "life"!
So how come it isn’t life if it is in the womb?
Hosanna in the Highest: Matthew 21:9
This week commemorates the last days of Jesus Christ on earth. He entered the city of Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover along with many other Jews. Jewish custom and tradition held that, if it was possible, families should observe this most significant feast in the city of Jerusalem, which was the site of the Temple. (Today, the Temple is gone and a mosque is one of Jerusalem’s most visible icons, but that is another story.)
Jesus arrived in Jerusalem with His Apostles and His disciples and a lot of people who seemed very interested in what He might have to say and do. As He came into the city, the crowds gathered and He heard cheers of "Hosanna in the Highest!" and "Hosanna to the Son of David!" You can read about this in full in chapter 21 of the Gospel according to Matthew.
A few days later, Jesus would be brought before more crowds in Jerusalem, and this time, the crowds would be shouting, "Crucify Him! Crucify Him!" When Roman governor Pontius Pilate proposed a way that might spare Jesus, the crowds demanded the release of another man, a known criminal, rather than Jesus. Who was this crowd? I cannot prove it, but I think that a good many of the people in the Hosanna crowd were also to be found in the "Crucify Him!" crowd. That is, some of the very same people who applauded Jesus as a hero, wanted to see Him destroyed a few days later.
It is easy to think that this is the sort of thing that only happened once, a long time ago, and in a certain cultural context. But the fact is the transition in this Holy Week, from applause to murderous rage, happens all of the time.
The people who cheered Jesus’s arrival in Jerusalem had an agenda. They wanted a Savior, all right, but they wanted the Savior they had envisioned in their own mind. This Savior would do certain things: kick the Romans out of the Holy Land, lower taxes, and lead the Jews back to the glory days of King David when they were a prosperous and sovereign state. They liked the idea of Jesus and they were willing to accept Him as their king, but they had their own specific ideas of what this king ought to be doing for them.
Jesus had no such agenda. Look back over all of the things that Jesus said and taught during His time on earth. He never talked politics; He never said He was going to kick the Romans out of the Holy Land. When asked point-blank about taxation, Jesus said that was not His concern ("Render unto Cesar the things Cesar’s.") Jesus never promised prosperity or said that He intended to restore the state of Israel back to its former glory.
So why did people expect Him to do things He never said or even hinted He would do? The same reason people today imagine that Jesus is the God of getting a good parking place or making your life easy or making you rich. It is very easy to project onto Jesus your own agenda.
The problem with projecting your own ideas onto Jesus is that you will be disappointed. After even a few days, the people in the "Hosanna" crowd could see that Jesus was not going to kick the Romans out of Jerusalem–He wasn’t even going to cause trouble for them. It was the other way around, the Romans had arrested Jesus! Jesus clearly was not seizing power, lowering taxes, or doing any of the super-hero things that the crowds expected. They were disappointed, and in their disappointment, they wanted this Jesus destroyed.
When false teachers tell us about a different Jesus than the one in the Bible, it causes the same results. People project their own aspirations onto Jesus, only to be disappointed … and then turn into God-haters. Some of the most vehement and vitriolic atheists on earth are people who were once in the church and many of them were taught a false Jesus.
My sisters, you must believe in the right Jesus. Believing in Santa Claus and calling Him Jesus not only will not save you, it blasphemes God and will eventually turn you into one of the voices screaming, "Crucify Him!" So in this Holy Week, let’s take a minute to reflect on the real Jesus.
Here is how you can be sure you know (or are coming to know) the real Jesus:
- Read the Bible. Contrary to popular belief, Jesus does not live in your heart. He does not live in your mind. He is seated at the right hand of the Father at this exact moment and our best source of information about Him and His work is Scripture.
- Please study the Bible seriously. Stay away from aberrant teachers. Stick with John MacArthur, Kay Arthur, and sound, sober studies. This does not include Beth Moore, Joyce Meyer, or Joel Osteen. These latter three may be charming people, but they are not accurately dividing the Word of God (that’s Biblical talk for presenting Scripture truly and fairly).
- Jesus said that in this life we will have troubles. He also said that one should count the cost of being a Christian. He warned His disciples that they would face hardships and be persecuted for His sake. If anybody teaches you that Jesus is your sure path to an easy life and that he wants to make sure that everything goes your way, you are being taught the wrong Jesus.
- Jesus and His Apostles taught that we should serve the poor. If you are being taught that Jesus wants you to be rich and that it is a good thing to have lots of "stuff" even while other Christian brothers and sisters are going without, you are being taught a false Jesus.
- Jude (the half-brother of Jesus and an early church father) warned about false teachers, as did Paul, John, and Peter. Actually every book in the New Testament except Philemon warns specifically about false teaching. We must be discerning and be critical (not "negative," but careful and analytical) about what our pastors and teachers are telling us. I would say that the majority of pastors and churches in the United States right now are teaching false doctrine. It is hard to be an American Christian and not be exposed to at least some heretical teachings.
- Jesus said that narrow is the path and few are those who find it. This means that the "majority" is not necessarily the safest place to be. Many people you think are Christians (or even ministers) may actually not be saved–and may be trying to tell you about a false Jesus who cannot save you.
- Dive into the Scriptures at least daily and pray over them. Pray that the Holy Spirit will help you to discern what you need to know about Jesus.
- Jesus is a very complex "character." He is kind and compassionate, but He is also outspoken. He said some very hard things to people in His day (He called some of the Pharisees "whitewashed tombs full of dead men’s bones"). The Jesus of the Bible is not a superhero or Mr. Nice Guy or any of the things that many churches will tell you. Read Scripture and find out. He was complex. He hated sin. He was bold. He expressed His love not by indulging us but by daring to tell us the truth!
- Jesus died on the cross for the glory of God. He bore the wrath of God and it says in Scripture that it pleased the Father to bruise the Son. The atonement glorifies God first and foremost, and it also saves us. This is what is meant by the love of God. The love of God is not the sort of love that puts the focus entirely on us. The love that took Jesus to the cross was to glorify the Father, and it is we who benefited from that act. But it wasn’t about us, it was about glorifying God. The love of Christ is not a squishy romantic love or a desire to indulge our whims.
- Realize that God knows what you need more than you know what you need. The crowds in Jerusalem in the original Holy Week thought they knew what they needed–a political figure to be the new king of Israel. Jesus knew better. He knew that more than political autonomy, the Jews (and humanity) needed to be reconciled to a Holy God. Humanity needed a way to escape God’s wrath. Many times, we think we know what we need and we miss the big picture. Realize that God knows more than you and likely what is most urgently needed by you now is not an easy life or a big payday.
Now think of Jesus on that first Palm Sunday. The crowds who greeted Jesus shouting "Hosanna!" could not have pleased Him! He knew their hearts, knew better than they that they were deceived. They would one day want Him killed, but more than that, they would turn their back on Him and be lost on Resurrection Day. Do not assume that if you have a big church or a rocking praise team or can make a lot of noise that you please Jesus or that you will be saved when you die.
Jesus is best glorified when we worship Him in truth, that is, knowing who He really is. My prayer for you, readers, is that you worship and serve the true Jesus, the only name on heaven and earth by which men and women can be saved!
Kirk Cameron Rocks: 9 Reasons His Accusers Are Being Illogical
Let's make up a scenario. A person is interviewed on a TV program. This person is known to have certain beliefs and has a close affiliation to PETA, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. The interviewer asks this person's opinion on eating meat. The person says she thinks that "meat-eating is unnatural" and that it is "destructive" and that it is "detrimental to the foundations of society."
Would the natural media reaction be to slam this woman by saying, "Why do you hate meat-eaters?" And "How dare you advocate hate?" and "How can you talk about being 'ethical' when you are such a bigot?"
I can't even imagine that happening. It is perfectly OK to go on TV or any media outlet in the United States and say that spanking is destructive or meat-eating is detrimental to society or that eating junk food is unnatural---and nobody would leap to the conclusion that this person hated people who spanked their kids or hated carnivores or hated the queue of people at McDonald's. But let Kirk Cameron say that he thinks homosexuality is unnatural, destructive, and detrimental to the foundation of society and people are accusing him of hating homosexuals.
I have never met Kirk Cameron, but I have met people who have met him and I am very familiar with his ministry at Way of the Master. I know he and his wife run a little-publicized Camp Firefly for sick children. Have you ever heard the expression, "he's the nicest man you would ever want to meet?" That is normally hyperbole, but in Kirk's case it is true. He is literally the nicest guy ever.
He happens to hold an opinion that differs from the opinion in most of the liberal media. OK. Last I checked, it is OK for us to have opinions. And Kirk's opinion on homosexuality is far from an isolated anomaly or some bizarre aberration. What he said is what a lot of people think. It is what I think. He articulated it clearly, thoroughly, and with as much kindness as he could. He does not hate gay people; I do not hate gay people.
So why the firestorm? Well, the Apostle John writing in one of his epistles offered some insight into why Cain killed Abel. In the Bible, Cain and Abel, two brothers, made sacrifices to God but God accepted Abel's sacrifice and rejected the sacrifice of Cain. Cain was so upset by this that he killed Abel. (Abel, the first natural-born person on earth was also its first murder victim.) John says that Cain killed Abel because Cain was unrighteous and the unrighteous hate the righteous.
I am not saying that Kirk Cameron is perfect or flawless, but he is a Christian and is therefore the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. God is using him in very visible, obvious ways to articulate the Biblical perspective, which happens to be God's perspective. Kirk is righteous. And it is clear that those who hate God and hate the Bible and hate any righteousness except their own self-righteousness are going to get mad at him.
It's so illogical.
- I would venture to say that all of the people railing at Kirk Cameron believe in evolution. Evolution does not actually teach survival of the fittest (although that is a tenet), it really teaches that the species most likely to survive are those best able to reproduce. With evolution, it is all about reproduction. If an animal or plant does not reproduce, it cannot pass on its genetic material. Homosexuality is a dead-end as far as evolution is concerned. Evolutionists cannot consider homosexuality "natural" in the sense that it does not advance evolution.
- But whether you are a Creationist or an evolutionist, we know that reproduction matters. The Bible says to be fruitful and multiply. Homosexuals do not reproduce and that makes their union "unnatural." I am not saying I hate homosexuals. Do not read anything into this statement except what is there.
- Kirk said that homosexuality is destructive. He did not say that he hates homosexuals. There is evidence that the homosexual lifestyle may not be ideal. Before you get mad at me, there has been an epidemiological study on the longevity of homosexual and bisexual men. The citation is Hogg RS, Strathdee, SA et al. Modeling the impact of HIV disease on mortality in gay and bisexual men. International J of Epidemiology. 1997; 26(3):647-661.This paper--which is admittedly about 15 years old--found that gay and bisexual men had a 20-year reduction in life expectancy. If I said, "Cigarette smoking is destructive" no one would say I was making stuff up or promulgating hatred against smokers. But smokers only lose about 13.5 years of their lifespan. It is also known that homosexuals have a higher rate of depression and certain other mental health conditions compared to straight people, which has generally been attributed to the fact that homosexuality is not an accepted lifestyle (really? then why is everybody mad at Kirk Cameron?) Let me counter this argument with a case in point: the Netherlands. The Netherlands has always been a very liberal society and very accepting of homosexuality. It was one of the first nations on earth to legalize same-sex unions. Yet even in the Netherlands, gays suffer significantly more depression than straight people. Maybe something else is involved?
- Kirk Cameron said that he believes that homosexuality is detrimental to society. Without putting words in his mouth, I suspect that he means that the nuclear family (dad, mom, kids) is the backbone of a healthy society and as soon as you start allowing alternative forms (dad, dad, kids or mom, mom, dad, kids or whatever) it creates confusion. I think most of us agree that when a little boy is growing up, he needs a positive male role model. He also needs a positive female role model. He also needs to see a positive male-female relationship. The same is true of little girls. But if you allow two lesbians to raise children, you are depriving them of a father figure. I think the same holds true of single moms. I think that so many women having babies without marrying or even having a male presence in their life is detrimental to society. This is not the same thing as saying he hates homosexuals. A person can believe a child needs positive role models of both genders without hating people.
- These views are not startling. They are what people have believed for centuries and they are what many people in this country--possibly the majority--believe today. It is illogical of Kirk Cameron's critics to act like these are some lunatic ideas and Kirk Cameron is the only person on earth to hold them.
- In a country that champions free speech and the right to articulate one's opinion, why are people so angry that Kirk expressed an opinion--and not even an aberrant opinion? If I can say that cigarette smoking is detrimental to society, why cannot he say that homosexuality is detrimental to society?
- Many homosexuals contend that "they are born that way," that is, their homosexuality is inborn and therefore acceptable. Some of us are born white, some black, some Asian, some of us have funny last names, some grow up speaking Spanish, some of us are born deaf. We understand the value of accepting people as they are. But all of those traits--ethnic background, language, physical characteristics--are morally neutral. I have heard murderers interviewed who claim that they were also "born that way." I know that many sex offenders who have a preference for children--even babies--report that they were "born that way." Just because a person has certain inborn tendencies or preferences does not mean they are morally acceptable. We, as a society, cannot allow pedophiles to abuse children just because their inborn nature makes them think it is sexually gratifying.
- I have no idea if homosexuals are "born that way," make a conscious lifestyle choice, or some combination, and that is a moot point. You see, the Bible says we are all born sinners. We are all born with sinful inclinations, hatred to God in our hearts, and selfish desires. Left to our own devices, we are wicked and destructive. We are all "born that way." Sinning might be "natural" to us, but it is wrong.
- Kirk Cameron is being accused of hating gay people. If I say, "Cigarette smoking is unnatural and destructive" that is not the same thing as saying, "I hate all cigarette smokers and want them dead." I doubt if somebody like Kirk Cameron hates anybody, including the people who are giving him a hard time.
Applause and kudos to Kirk Cameron who spoke the truth in love. As Christians, we must rally around him and support our brother as he deals with the hatred of the unrighteous.
What’s the Difference Between a One Direction Concert & A Praise and Worship Service? 10 Observations on Worship
A couple of days ago, I was watching the Today show and caught the first U.S. appearance of a new band called One Direction. At the time I sat down to watch them perform, I thought it might remind me of another band's first American appearance, namely when the Beatles came to America and appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show. I was just a little kid, but I remember watching them on a big old TV set in the living room--the kind where the TV set was as big as a washing machine but had a teeny little screen. I was not reminded of the Beatles, and this is no reflection on this band. Instead, I was reminding of praise and worship services in church.
One Direction is a secular band, but the whole experience was just like any big-church worship experience. A bunch of clean-cut guys sing and dance on stage while crowds of people sing along, jump up and down, and occasionally break out in a little dance. I saw lots of outstretched arms, reaching for the band. And the crowd was very emotional. Some people smiled and laughed, others beamed with transcendent joy, and a few cried.
Except for the song lyrics, it was like what most Charismatic and mega-churches call "worship service." So were these people in the audience, singing and cheering and jumping--worshiping this boy band? Were they experiencing something holy? No, of course not. But how come what they were doing in New York that morning on Monday, March 12, is "secular" and what we do is "worship"? Don't tell me it is just the song lyrics.
Praise and worship is very distorted in many churches. Nowhere can you see how much the modern church loves the world than in how we "do" worship. I've heard a lot of lies told about worship in my experiences through a variety of big and small American churches, and I want to debunk them now.
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Worship is not for human benefit. I have heard church leaders talk about worship being impactful, that is, having an impact. They mean that worship has an impact on us, that it helps us or matures us as Christians. While the Bible does say that praising God is a good remedy for "the spirit of heaviness," worship is not for us. Worship is a way to honor God. Worship is to be carried out because God requires it and whether or not we have fun or not is irrelevant.
- Worship is not the primary objective of the Christian life. I have heard worship leaders say that worship is the single most important thing a Christian can do. When Jesus ascended into heaven, He gave us the great commission, that is, He told us to go out and make disciples of all nations. While Jesus did talk about worship, it was not included in the great commission. Worship is part of the Christian life, it is not all there is to it.
- Worship music should offer songs that exalt God, not man. I have heard plenty of worship songs that exalt man and lots that are what theologians call "amatory." That means they are written as if Jesus was your boyfriend and not your Savior. A good test of worship songs is this: can you sing the song to your boyfriend without having to tamper with the words? This problem is so critical that I have sat in churches that performed secular music--because the difference between a worship song and secular man-uplifting songs is so slim.
- Worship music should contain sound theology, not pop culture aphorisms. Most modern worship songs are redundant and boring. (Yes Lord, yes, Lord, yes, yes, Lord. Repeat 100 times.) Songs that explain theological concepts are helpful because it aids in our understanding. Blind worship is not really worship. The mind has to be engaged. The Bible says we are to love God with our heart, our soul, our strength, and our MIND. You don't just turn off your gray matter when you bop around the church. You should be thinking about what Jesus did for us on the Cross or other important theological ideas. And before you think I am one of those old ladies who only likes old-fashioned church hymns written before I was born and played on a big pipe organ--let me give a shout out to Christian rappers. Rap music has seized on this deficiency and many Christian rappers offer theologically rich (and sound) songs. The trouble is, most churches do not use that stuff.
- God is very specific in the Old Testament about how He wants to be worshiped; worship is not whatever just pops into your head at that moment. Never in the Bible are people told to do what they want to do and call it worship. Yet in New Testament times, we shy away from those specifics and figure that whatever we like (jumping, hopping, swaying, screaming) is acceptable to God. Worse, some Charismastics will attribute this random, haphazard worship style to the Holy Spirit. That is blasphemy. When you say somebody said something and they didn't say it, that's a lie. When the person to which you attribute something they didn't say happens to be God, that's blasphemy. In case you go to a church that trivializes theology, those are bad things.
- Jesus said to the woman at the well (John 4) that one day, people would worship in Spirit and in Truth; that is not a license for you to be disruptive. Again, Charismatics have taken this to mean that anything that pops in your head is the Holy Spirit and is therefore not only acceptable, but honors God. I once sat in a Charismatic church service that commenced with about an hour of praise and worship. Two women arrived late and were a little disruptive as they got seated. They sat in front of me. They came with two of those super-large cups of fancy coffee and a box of donuts and each had her cell phone out. They sat down in three seats, the box of donuts taking up the middle seat. They sat down while the rest of us stood. They talked and giggled and had a big old time as they picked out pastries and washed it down with coffee. They talked about their kids, their busy schedules, how good the donuts were, and on and on. Once in a while a phone vibrated, and the woman took the call. To their credit, the ladies were brief on the phone, but they did not lower their voices. About half an hour went by as they ate their donuts, chatted, and had a few calls (one of them made a call, too). At last the donuts were gone and one of the ladies tidied up by tossing the cups into the donut box and walking the stuff over to the trash. This was a Charismatic service, so worship is still going on. These ladies had interrupted it and been a distraction to just about everyone in the room (this was a small start-up church and it was meeting in a high school gym--so these ladies were very much audible and visible to all). Now that the coffee and donuts were gone, the ladies tossed their phones into their purses and stood to their feet. Only they did not stand with contrition and humility. They jumped up like cheerleaders or like a jack-in-the-box and threw their hands high over their heads. They started to shout Hallelujah and other things and they jumped and twirled as best they could in front of their seats. They cheered. One whistled. They danced. And they sand very, very loudly. Now if you were to ask them why they were so exuberant in their worship, they would assure you they were "spirit-filled." But if that was the Holy Spirit, why did He fail to convict them for interrupting and disrupting 30 minutes of the worship service? The Holy Spirit convicts us of sin, not asks us to act like we're having a seizure. To worship in Spirit is to do so with the conviction of the Holy Spirit, with humility, and in ways that honors God. We can be exuberant in worship as long as that exuberance is not sinful. In this case, these women sinned through the worship service and then made a mockery of worship.
- Jesus told us to worship in Truth. What is truth? Jesus said He is the Truth (the actual quote is that Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life"). The real question is Who is truth? And the answer is Jesus. We need to have Christ-centered worship, that is, worship that exalts Christ. Look at your praise and worship music. Are the lyrics all about I, me, and mine? Is the name of Jesus even mentioned? And if it is, in what context is it mentioned, as my butler and servant or as the Son of the Living God? I once heard a pastor preach a whole funeral and never once mention the name of Jesus Christ or allude to Him. At the end, perhaps realizing this problem, he said that it was awesome that we had all come together because of "this guy, Jesus." He said those exact words. I thought he was talking about the guy who did the church landscaping. You see, he really is a guy named Jesus. The Savior deserves to be not only addressed properly (and not trivialized as if He were just a man) but should be the centerpiece of any church service, including a funeral of a believer.
- Worship should be modest not flamboyant. Modesty is a virtue and Paul told his congregants to worship decently and in order. I once heard a pastor say that if people can jump up and down at a football game, they should do that and more for Jesus. Really? Where did Jesus ever say that we should pattern our worship after worldly behaviors? In New Orleans at the Mardi Gras, girls lift up their tops and shout and writhe to attract attention and get colorful plastic beads. Should we model worship after that? What is the difference between how the lost act at football games and how the lost act at Mardi Gras that makes one a model for Christian worship and the other not so much? Women should not dress provocatively for church. Yet when I observe Charismatic services, it is generally the most provocatively dressed women who put on the biggest "worship show" as they jump, dance, run, and sometimes even kneel and throw themselves flat out on the floor. Ladies, when you do that--particularly in your belly shirts and short skirts and low-cut outfits, you are distracting. Check it out: do you ever see a modestly dressed woman turn cartwheels during worship? The worship time becomes about you and not about God. Taking the glory and honor due to God from Him is stealing. Stealing from God is a very bad sin ... yet it is how most of us spend our worship time, that is, distracted by people who want their worship to be eye-popping.
- The worship leader is the lead worshiper, but he does not control your access to God in worship. How many churches look like the worship leader and his band are putting on a concert? Many worship leaders are concerned about controlling the "experience" of the congregants.I have even heard of worship teams who say they must "lead people into worship" and "prepare people for worship," as if they were the gatekeepers to the Holy of Holies. But when is my worship ever contingent on your worship? We are to worship God the same way that we pray and serve Him ... we may do it corporately or individually, but other people are not responsible for me. Instead, the worship leader should worship genuinely. I think it would be wonderful if praise bands could perform in orchestra pits (like in the theater) so the congregants could benefit from hearing them but not be distracted by seeing them. I have heard of worship leaders who lead worship facing away from the congregants to avoid the "showmanship" aspects of modern worship. It is not the duty or obligation of the worship leader to make sure that congregants have a good experience or have fun or like the show. He and his praise team are there to worship God and lead in the music selection and offer the songs. Whether or not we worship and how well is up to us.And if you are a worship team member and you think the congregation depends on you to "enter into" worship, send me some Scriptural support. I don't know where you would get such an idea, other than your own inflated sense of pride.
- Worship teams should not be critical of the worship style of sincere congregants, even when it differs from their own preferences. Worship is offered to God and it is up to God to determine what He approves and accepts. I have heard praise singers and worship leaders decide that some churches or some people do not worship as well as others and usually this determination is based on what type of music is played, how musically gifted the worship team is, or how much an individual jumps around. I once had a pastor who encouraged his congregation to dance during worship, claiming that not-dancing was offering less-than-acceptable worship. I am absolutely certain that there are people who stand still can worship in spirit and in truth and there are people who could dance on the ceiling and who are sinning. You cannot make the worship experience be about how much aerobic exercise a person got. Furthermore, if a worship team does what it ought to do, namely worship God respectfully, then it's job is done. As believers, we are not responsible for results. For instance, if I witness and share the Good News with a lady, my job is to share the Good News as clearly and accurately as I am able. If she believes and is converted or if she walks away muttering insults at me ... it does not matter. My job is to share the Good News. I am not responsible for results, since God alone converts the soul. The same thing with worship. The worship team's job is to lead worship as respectfully and accurately as possible and whether or not people "enter into worship" (as it's sometimes called in Charismatic circles) is not their responsibility.
1 John 1:9-10, What Doesn’t Stay in Vegas, and 10 Reasons to Wonder if You are Actually Saved
Here is the text, it’s from the first letter of John 1:9-10
If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.
Born-again believers have a very confusing relationship with sin. When we first come under the conviction that leads to regeneration, we start to understand what sin is and how very bad it is. In order to be born again, we have to repent of our sins and put our full trust and faith in Jesus Christ. And the Bible says that a fruit of a life of faith is that we no longer practice sin. We come to hate our sins and flee from them.
And now John tells us that when we do sin, we should confess our sins to God–and we better not say we haven’t sinned. In other words, what happens in Vegas doesn’t stay in Vegas, it is known in heaven. Furthermore, any Christian who claims that she no longer sins is calling God a liar and "His word is not in us." In other words, it is a heresy and blasphemy and many other crimes to go around pretending you’re not sinning.
But from the moment we are saved, we pass from death into life and go from being sinners to saints.
Like I said, the relationship of a believer to sin is complicated. But that doesn’t mean we can’t dig through it a bit. The first thing to know is that repentance and faith go together. The entire Old Testament is a call to repentance and faith to God’s chosen people, Israel, and the entire New Testament is a call to repentance and faith in Christ Jesus to the entire world. So we repent of our sins when we are first born again. This means we forsake our sins, stop doing them, and hate them instead of love them.
When I mean born-again believers, they can usually tell me stories of the sins that they put down at salvation and never picked up again. I know stories of women who stopped living with their boyfriend or quit a job that required them to act provocatively or, in my case, stop doing astrology and other occult practices.
As one walks out one’s faith, more sins are revealed. I don’t think anyone fully comprehends the full portfolio of sins she has until she has lived for several years as a Bible-studying Christian. Repentance becomes a lifestyle. As more and more sins are exposed, we forsake them, too.
The Bible says that if you do not obey Christ, you do not love Him. People who live sinful lifestyles are not believers. In other words, your relationship to sin is what helps determine if you are truly born again and will inherit eternal life or if you are a false convert. The Bible says that many people who think they are saved and going to heaven are not saved and will wind up in hell. Scripture tells us to examine ourselves to see if we are in the faith. One way to examine your heart is to look at your relationship to sin. Here are some things that could suggest you may not be truly saved:
- You practice a sinful lifestyle, that is, sin is deeply ingrained in how you do things. Examples: working as a prostitute, getting drunk a lot as a pastime, or living with your boyfriend.
- You engage in sin that requires a lot of preplanning and organizational skills. Examples: having an adulterous affair or embezzling from your boss.
- You know you’re sinning but you just don’t care. Examples: lying, gossiping, looking at porn.
- You know you’re sinning but you figure if no one finds out, it doesn’t count.
- You make excuses for your sin. Examples: getting angry and being harsh with your family because you’re stressed out.
- You argue that your sin is somehow permitted. Examples: having an affair with a married man (it’s all right, God told me it was OK).
- You figure that God sees your heart more than your actions. Examples: living with a boyfriend you love madly but who refuses to marry you.
- You don’t want to be too fanatical about sin. After all, you only live once! Examples: drunkenness, promiscuity.
- You figure Christians are free, and that means being free to sin. Examples: failing to do things you know you ought to do.
- You aren’t sad about your sin.
But John says that Christians still sin! And he’s right. The fact is, we all sin all of the time because at our core we are wicked, wretched people. We aren’t sinners because we sin, we sin because we’re sinners! But a born-again believer is far more likely to "stumble" or "trip" into sin. This occurs when a momentary flash of temptation occurs and the saint suddenly responds in her old sinful way. For example,
- You might be walking around the mall minding your own business and suddenly catch a glimpse of an attractive man who is not your husband … and stumble into lust. (Jesus said that whoever looks at another person to lust after them has committed adultery with him in her heart!)
- Maybe you stub your toe and say some foul words.
- You’re in a heated conversation and you say something … and then realize that it was not entirely true, or even somewhat true. You just lied! You didn’t intend to do it and it wasn’t preplanned, but a big fat lie just slipped out of your mouth!
We can also sin unwittingly or without knowing it. You may have downloaded something from the Internet and not known it was stealing (it sometimes is). You may have said something about somebody and not realized it was gossip. You may still be texting the initials OMG and not realize that it is blasphemy (taking the name of the Lord in vain). When we realize we have sinned, we just repent and stop doing those things.
But if you know you’re prone to stealing or gossiping or blasphemy and do not feel any shame or conviction over the sin and do not try to stop it, then you are "practicing sin." That should cause you to wonder about your salvation.
The Bible says that we should all examine ourselves. It would be a terrible thing to think you’re saved and find out when it’s too late that you’re not and that you have a one-way ticket to hell. The Bible says specifically that this will happen to "many." So examine yourself now, sisters, while there is still time!
Does Hell Exist?
The biggest theological problem facing most people today is a simple one. It’s not about soteriology or the doctrine of election or imputed versus infused righteousness. It’s something very simple. The biggest theological question you have to answer for yourself is this: does hell exist?
If hell does not exist, then it really does not matter what religion you are or what faith you practice or how well (or badly) you adhere to that faith. If there is no hell, it won’t much matter if you go through life as a Buddhist or a Jew or an atheist or a Jehovah’s Witness. If there is no hell, it does not matter what you believe, because all paths lead to death and if death is the end without any chance of eternal punishment in hell, then it doesn’t matter what road you take.
But what if hell is real? If hell is real, then it is possible that you might wind up in eternal torment. Nobody described hell better than Puritan professor and writer Jonathan Edward in his sermon Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God. If hell is real and there is a chance you might wind up there–forever with no parole, no way out, no way to make it stop, then isn’t this a topic worthy of at least some consideration? Most people spend more time wondering if UFOs or Big Foot is real than if hell is real–and hell is vastly more important.
So where do we get our ideas about hell? It was mainly Jesus Christ who taught about hell. In Matthew 5:22, Jesus warned His disciples about judgment and hell and described hell as a place of fire. In Matthew 5:29, Jesus warned these same disciples that it is not just one’s spirit or consciousness that goes to hell, it’s the whole body:
If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell.
Similar verses appear in Matthe2 5:30, Matthew 18:19, and Mark 9:43 and 45. Jesus also advised His followers not to worry about people who tormented and persecuted them. Here is Matthew 10:28
And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, fear Him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.
Jesus teaches that no matter what another person can do to us–steal from us, beat us up, rape us, imprison us, even kill us–it is of little consequence when seen in light of hell. The only real fear a right-thinking person should have is whether or not she is going to hell.
In Mark 9:43, Jesus describes hell as an "unquenchable fire," that is a fire that will never end and can never be put out.
This isn’t me talking. It isn’t a church or a wild-eyed pastor with crazy eyes. This is Jesus Christ in the Holy Scripture. If you believe the Bible, you are going to be hard-pressed to push these texts away. Jesus describes hell and talks about it as a real place and the ultimate destination for some people.
Now some feel-good pastors teach that God does not want to put people in hell so the only people who wind up in hell are those who choose to go there. Let’s look at Scripture. In Matthew 23:33, Jesus talks to the unbelievers following Him around:
You serpents, you brood of vipers, how are you to escape being sentenced to hell?
Jesus didn’t say, how are you to escape choosing hell for yourself? The choice theory assumes that God has to honor our choices. And if God has to honor our choices, then God isn’t really God, is He? He’s just a concierge. We’re the boss. That’s pretty much what led to Lucifer’s fall: the sin of pride, the desire to equate yourself with God! No, Jesus said that some people are "sentenced" to hell. That’s a legal term. When a worldly judge sentences a car thief to jail time, the sentence is not the car thief’s choice. A sentence is handed to you–you have to submit.
In Mark 9:47, Jesus explains that God throws people into hell–other translations use the word "cast" which means to throw. Luke 12:5 repeates this:
But I will warn you whom to fear: fear Him who, after He has killed, has the authority to cast into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear Him!
Here again, Jesus explains that the eternal judge (it is actually Jesus Himself) has the authority over life and death and after physical death, He has authority, that is the right, to throw some people into hell. There is no choice. There is no second chance. There is no arguing on a technicality or getting off on a loop hole.
God has already sent some of the fallen angels to hell, which Peter describes to "chains of gloomy darkness" (2 Peter 2:4). So Jesus Himself told us hell is real, God determines who goes there, it is a sentence that causes you to get cast into hell, and it is a fiery and dark place.
But is hell real? These verses seem terribly clear to me but many churches and religions have made a hash out of the doctrine of hell. For instance, Catholics teach that there is a Purgatory, a sort of intermediate state, which is not quite hell but nowhere near as good as heaven. A person who dies in some (but not all) sin goes to Purgatory for cleansing and then ultimately pops into heaven. Prayers by the living for the dead in Purgatory can help them get out sooner; so can donations to the church made in the dead person’s name. The problem with Purgatory is that it is nowhere in the Bible. It is not just that the world Purgatory isn’t in the Bible, the very concept is nowhere there. The idea of Purgatory is that you can go to one temporary place and then wind up in heaven in the end. The Bible says that it is appointed unto man once to die and after that the judgment. The judgement results in heaven or hell.
Another popular notion about hell–although rarely espoused from a pulpit–is that hell is a great big party and people who go to hell will be with their friends. It is true that your friends may be bound for hell. But Jesus and the Bible never describe what goes on in hell as a party. It’s kind of like a drug dealer jumping up and down for joy at a prison sentence, thinking he’ll be with some of his drug-dealing friends and having a non-stop party in the slammer.
But if hell is real and Jesus judges the dead, how does He decide who goes to heaven and who goes to hell? Some people think it’s based on who Jesus likes, that is, if you rock out to Jesus music from time to time and have enjoyed some fun times at your local feel-good church, Jesus is your personal friend and He ships all of His BFFs off to heaven. That is not Scriptural. And the Bible says that God is mad at the wicked every day, so if you have sinned–even by telling a lie or coveting something that did not belong to you–you are what the Bible calls wicked. So don’t think that bopping around to church means God thinks you’re the bomb-diggety. Jesus sees you as righteous or wicked, a saint or a sinner.
Some people assume that Jesus weighs the good a person has done against the bad a person has done and sees how it balances out. If you’ve done more good than bad, you go to heaven. If you’ve done more bad than good, bad news for you, it’s off to hell. This concept–of good versus bad deeds–is taught in some religions. And many Christians believe it, but it is not Christian, what I mean to say is: it is not true!. It is nowhere in the Bible and it is a dangerous doctrine because it will result in your going to hell and being surprised, which in my opinion is slightly worse than going to hell and expecting it. First of all, if Jesus weighed the bad things you did, He would have a lot to weigh. And when it came to the good deeds, the Bible says that on your best day, your finest and most noble deed was a "filthy rag." The actual Hebrew language in Isaiah says that your best deeds are menstrual rags. You may think that you’ve done a lot of good in your time, but the Bible says, check again. The way Jesus sees you, you have never done anything good.
You might be inclined to disagree, thinking that you did this or that. Maybe you saved somebody’s life, rescued a child from a burning building. Maybe you gave all your money to the poor or adopted an orphaned child with AIDS born in an impoverished country. Filthy rags! You know why? You did them out of self-interest or self-preservation or a desire to feel good about yourself. The Hollywood celebrity who donates money to a good cause is really seeking a photo opportunity. In our way, our good deeds are the same thing. We want to feel good about ourselves. We want to give ourselves reasons to believe we’re great. So if it was a good-outweighing-the-bad system, we would all lose.
(Besides, what earthly court would ever allow the "good deeds" defense? "Your Honor, you can’t find me guilty of murder, because I am taking care of my grandmother and gave lots of money to charity!" No earthly judge would buy that–but we think God will fall for it?)
The Bible never says that Jesus judges us by evaluating our deeds. The Bible says that when you die–and the date and time of your death are already appointed, that is, determined–you stand before Jesus Christ, who is God, and who will judge you. If you have ever sinned, even once, you are a sinner and you are condemned to hell. (You don’t have to sin a lot to be a sinner–it’s like murder. One murder and you’re a murderer. No murderer ever got off in an earthly court with a defense of exercising restraint by not murdering as many people as he could have.) However, God made a way where there was no way and this is the Good News of the Gospel. A Bible-understanding Christian cannot talk about hell for long without talking about the Good News. Jesus took our punishment and supernaturally applied His righteousness to us, and He can bring us from death and condemnation (that’s where you are now, if you’re not a soundly saved Christian) to eternal life through a supernatural miracle called being "born again." To be born again, we have to recognize who we are (wicked, fallen humans), recognize who God is (the perfect judge and creator), and repent or forsake our sins. We have to own up to our sins, hate them, and turn away from them. Not just one or two sins, but all sins. We repent of our sins and put our full faith and trust in Jesus Christ as Lord of Lords and King of Kings. The Bible says that we then emerge from the darkness of our sinful nature into the light of life. We are no longer condemned.
So coming back to your death–and judgment. If you are born again, God does not see the old you, the fallen wicked sinner. He sees Jesus Christ and His perfect, righteous life. You may enter heaven.
And here’s one last misconception about hell. Hell is not just full of rotten terrible criminals. Hell is also full of nice people. Nice people go to hell every single day. Nice is not righteousness. If you are counting on your own intelligence or niceness or kindness or good deeds to save you, you will stand before God and wind up in hell. The only hope we have is in Jesus Christ.
The American novelist Flannery O’Connor once said that Christianity without hell is like capitalism without bankruptcy. Or maybe she said it the other way around. At any rate, the point is that the system does not work without hell. If everybody goes to heaven or if you get to choose heaven or hell the same way you would pick out your seat on an airline, then Jesus died for nothing.
Bible Studies with Dr. John MacArthur- V8290-440 - The Substituted Servant, Part 2 (Isaiah 53:4-6) John MacArthur
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