THOUGHTS

This page is intended as a repository of information that doesn't quite fit into the category of poetry, Bible studies, or sermons. A lot of what I have done as a teacher of the Bible is to delve into the fabric of the scripture narratives and pull out details that are missed at a casual reading. I begin by not merely reading the stories themselves but looking beyond the stories into what they reveal of the way life was lived in the situation particular to the stories. There are many occasions within the Bible where sufficient information exists to form interesting conclusions; some of which shed greater light on our understanding of events centuries ago, others which are merely interesting.

ABORTION ~ Against Abortion
ABORTION ~ The claim that the fetus is part of the woman's body flies in the face of logic. For the fetus to begin requires the addition of something from a man's body to a woman's body, the fetus cannot begin life spontaneously or by the involvement of a woman on her own. If the fetus were truly part of the woman's body it could be expected to do both but it does not. Control over whether the fetus begins is not the woman's alone but the woman's in partnership with a man. Further, if left to continue unmolested this "part of the woman's body" will develop into a human being separate from the woman, fully capable of independent thought and action. Were the fetus truly part of the woman's body it would be no more capable of independent action than would the woman's fingernail.
ABORTION ~ Much is made of the woman's right to choose. Little is made of the fact that her choice regarding abortion is the direct consequence of her earlier choice for intercourse (in the vast majority of cases). The woman's right to choose is no more than the desire to avoid the consequence of an act chosen earlier; one may as well choose to have an automobile accident and choose later not to damage the vehicle.
ABORTION ~ What seems to be ignored in all of this is that the fetus would develop into a human being capable of independent action if left alone. Whether a life is terminated at its beginning, at its middle or at its end a life is still terminated, regardless of the nature of the life being terminated. Were the child to be born and subsequently put to death a murder will have taken place in spite of the fact that the newborn child is scarcely in the form in which it would appear as an adult. Lack of complexity is merely an excuse for murder.
ADULTERY ~ Anything that distracts your heart from its true love.
BIBLE ~ The Ark as Noah Built It
BIBLE ~ The Land that Pharaoh Bought
BIBLE ~ Jesus' Body
CARE OF GOD ~ In a world where each breath is a gift from God how can we think He does not care?
CARE OF GOD ~ God is so abundantly good as to overwhelm all evil.
CHRISTMAS ~ Much is being said in these days on the attack against Christmas and how one form of this attack is taking the form of discouraging the term "Merry Christmas" in favour of "Happy Holidays." I would tend to see this attack as a distraction from the overwhelming success of the previous attack, that which stated that "Christmas is for families," or "Christmas is all about children" which have been almost universally adopted. For all its history, Christmas is the day on which Christians celebrate the advent of their Saviour. Calling it a day for families or children removes all that is holy about the day and makes it no more than a Winter holiday which has no more significance than any other holiday.
CHURCH ~ On Imitating the Early Church
CHURCH ~ Too many Christians today study churchianity more than they do Christianity. We spend hours in pews listening to learned men expound upon the teachings of God yet fail to realize that the primary call of God is to love Him and to love our neighbour. We know more of the theory of Christianity than maybe any other generation in history but know far less of the practice of Christianity.
CHURCH ~ Many Cell Churches are starting up in an effort to come closer to Christianity as it was practiced by New Testament Church; these churches overlook, however, that the New Testament Church succeeded because of its faith rather than its procedure. If we today wish to model our procedures upon those of the New Testament Church we must add miracles and persecution to the list as well.
CHURCH ~ We look so much within ourselves and are so introspective that we overlook that Christianity is not a religion that stops once we are saved but which we are commanded to share with those who have not yet been saved.
COMPLAINING ~ On average, if we feel we've got something to complain about, we generally have less to complain about than we think. At the very least we are alive.
CREATION ~ A Legal Argument for Creation
CREATION ~ My Problem with the Gap Theory
CREATION ~ Christians are all to eager to change the believer in evolution to a believer in creation but not quite as eager to convert this same person to a belief in Jesus Christ. All too often the argument for creation becomes nothing more than an intellectual exercise rather than an opportunity for evangelistic outreach.
CREATION ~ Man places a great deal of faith in the discovered laws of nature giving them credit for the continuing functioning of the universe never realizing that these laws do not, in and of themselves, maintain the universe but are God's gracious manifestation of His power to hold the universe secure.
CREATION ~ One of the rallying cries for the modern creationist movement is "Ex Nihilo" which is translated "Out of nothing." Not without cause but without source material. Modern science has a similar rallying cry that all that is spontaneously came into being out of nothing and must then go through great contortions to have anything at all. Eventually all their arguments fail save that we are here so something has happened. But they never know what that something was nor can obtain any explanation other than God.
DECEPTION ~ Much has been said of the impact upon the Christian faith of "The Gospel of Judas" (recently released by National Geographic) and Dan Brown's book "The Da Vinci Code" (with its attendant movie, released by Sony) and how these works could revitalize a stagnant and dogmatic faith. From my point of view, both as a life-long Christian and as a Christian scholar, the impact of these works is not one of revitalization but of deception. The Christian faith is not a stagnant faith, it is not a faith for which new doctrines are necessary. The Christian faith is a mature faith that stands today where it stood on the day of Pentecost - on the foundational Christian doctrine that man is a sinner and is reconciled to God only by His own work though Jesus. Lies such as those perpetrated by Dan Brown (that Jesus did not die but married Mary Magdalene) or those found in "The Gospel of Judas" (that Judas was a favourite of Jesus and worked with Jesus to achieve His crucifixion) do not advance the Christian faith but deceive those who are know little of the Christian faith. These lies do not advance the Christian faith so much as they destroy it. ("The Da Vinci Code" - If Jesus did not die then my sins are not forgiven and I am dead. "The Gospel of Judas" - If Judas and Jesus were in partnership then Jesus is not the Messiah but a trickster and my sins are not forgiven and I am dead.) These lies and lies like them only weaken those who believe them.
END TIMES ~ The New Jerusalem
END TIMES ~ Does the "Left Behind" series accurately portray events as they will be prior to Jesus return (within the scope of literary license)? No. I do not believe that the Bible teaches that there will be a period of time following the rapture of the saints in which unbelievers are given a second chance to place their faith in Jesus Christ. Will there be rebellion? Yes. Pain and anguish? Yes again. Persecution? Definitely. But not isolated to the Jews or those who become Christians after the rapture but to all believers prior to Jesus' return for them, which will be the end of all things. Nowhere in the Bible is any distinction made between Jewish believers and Gentile believers; or early and late believers in God. Once a person believes in God they become a full member of the community of believers regardless of the time or the ethnic group they were a member of when they became a believer. (See, for example, the efforts that the early Church went through to ensure that the Jewish Christian was not given more prominence than the Gentile Christian, or vice versa.) God does not give preferential treatment in general but promises that all believers will endure pain for what they believe. Prophetic literature is not always easy to understand, there are events that will occur at the end of time that we can have no inkling of (just as Jesus fulfilled the prophecies about Himself in a very unexpected way). We certainly cannot be dogmatic on specific issues but where the Bible speaks clearly we must accept its teaching in faith that God knows what He is doing. Let us not get caught up in the drama of planes falling from the sky but rather in the realization that when Jesus returns it will be too late and many of our friends will be lost forever. Let us work together now that they may be together with us then.
END TIMES ~ Many "Western" Christians support their belief that God will rapture the Church before the Tribulation on the concept that He would not allow His Church to suffer. How they fit the countless Christians who have suffered for their faith throughout history and the countless Christians who continue to suffer today into this framework is beyond my comprehension.
END TIMES ~ Every Christmas we see the same thing: Senseless Chrisitians bemoaning the use of "Happy Holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas" and claiming persecution. There is no doubt that the world is against the Church and will do all in its power to destroy the Church, including the aforementioned slight, but to consider this persecution, or a harbinger of The End is presumption of the highest order. Christians in the first century were being kicked out of synagogues, ridculed, beaten and even killed for their faith; yet the words of Jesus, Peter, John and Paul all indicate that persecution would get much worse! And then Jesus would return to take us to our final home. The growing antagonism toward Christianity that we are seeing today is nothing in comparison to what has occurred since the crucifixion and our response to it is way out of line with the response that the Bible teaches us to have. Rather than being miffed when our faith is slighted, we should concern ourselves with the salvation of those doing the slighting. It would be tragic if our hurt feelings kept us from preaching salvation to those who's need of grace is identical to ours.
ENTERTAINMENT ~ From a movie review I wrote at Christian Spotlight on the Movies: "It seems to me that many reviewers of [Austin Powers in Goldmember] (and of many other films on this site) believe that the spiritual part of our lives may be separated from the non-spiritual without harm. Comments along the lines of 'very funny but not a Christian movie' indicate that someone is placing their desire to be pleased above their desire to please God. God in the Bible clearly warns us to have nothing to do with that which is evil. As people who profess to be Christians we must be sure that our lifestyle supports our claim. Movies such as Goldmember which 'make sin funny' are truly dangerous and must be avoided at any cost! Being a Christian is not a part time occupation but a full time commitment, we cannot park our faith at the theatre door and expect to come out unharmed by the lies of the deceiver. In every aspect of our lives there is conflict between life and death, our support of one over the other has eternal consequences."
ENTERTAINMENT ~ With all the argument over whether or not the increasing immorality (sex, violence & etc.) in our entertainment has an impact on the audience, one cannot help but wonder at the countless dollars being "wasted" world-wide in advertising campaigns that ultimately have the same impact on the audience as the immoralities that they fund.
EVIL ~ If God Why Evil
EVIL ~ The question is often asked "If your God is so good and so powerful, why does He allow so much evil in the world?" But I think the question is backwards, here's why: Man is inherently evil, even the best of us struggle daily to "do the right thing" and can cause pain in others without even thinking about it. We see all around us the evidence of corruption and decay. The question should rather be "Given that man struggles daily against evil, why is there any good at all?"
EVIL ~ We have all been hurt. Some of us far more than others. But regardless of the magnitude of our pain, punishing the offender will never remove our pain. The best that we can hope for is some satisfaction that justice has been satisfied. But it is not really ever satisfied. No amount of earthly justice will ever bring back the child that a careless driver took from us. No amount of earthly justice will ever make the rape not have happened. No amount of earthly justice can possibly remove the pain of relentless insult. If the world is as fair as we demand it to be then earthly justice would be satisfactory. But it is not. This fact alone indicates that if fairness is to exist, if justice will eventually reslove our pain, regardless of its magnitude, the resolution of our pain must occur in a realm other than Earth and be dispensed by a power other than man.
EVOLUTION ~ Far too much faith is placed in the ability of modern science to reveal the ancient past. More money has perhaps been spent on weather analysis than on almost any other area of scientific inquiry and yet our weather forecasters, who directly experience weather every day of their lives, are unable to accurately predict events over the next few days. How then can science be trusted when it claims to be able to extrapolate from today events that it claims to have occurred countless ages ago?
EVOLUTION ~ Proponents of the theory of evolution must address the issue of why the world in which we live has the appearance of being a finished product rather than something that is under continual development.
EVOLUTION ~ Statistics that are used to show the implausibility of evolution acknowledge that evolution had at least a very remote chance of happening. If evolution is false it is false 100%. If evolution is given even the slightest statistical chance of happening then the argument for evolution is given infinitely more credence than it deserves.
EVOLUTION ~ Evolution is too preposterous to believe.
EVOLUTION ~ One argument that many evolutionist have against Christianity is that Christians have been responsible for many horrible acts throughout history. Ignored by the argument are the horrible acts for which the theory of evolution has been responsible from the removal of critical organs regarded as vestigial to the attempted obliteration of people groups deemed to be less than perfectly human.
EVOLUTION ~ Statistics are often used to support the plausibility of evolution (as in the example of a vast number of monkeys working over a vast span of time ultimately producing an artistic masterpiece). Yet even if such an event were possible (and it most certainly is not possible for statistics, in reporting what has happened, can never tell what will happen but only what may happen based on what has already happened - statistics are a predictor of the past rather than of the future) the result would have no meaning and therefore no significance. A work of art is not only significant for its beauty but also for its meaning, what its author put into it and what its audience takes out of it. The outcome of a purely mechanistic process can have no possible meaning save that which may be read into it by the observer, making the meaning nothing more than a groundless lie.
EVOLUTION ~ One of the great inconsistencies of human thought with respect to the theory of evolution that really amazes me is weather prediction. There is perhaps no aspect of life to which more study and money has been devoted (with the possible exceptions of the military and health) and yet in which perfect accuracy is so lacking. Although weather is immediate and surrounds us intimately, other than our own person it is the one area of creation we should know better than any other, yet we cannot with reliability say in the morning if there will be cloud in the evening. If we are so unreliable in predicting the immediate future, in spite of all our accumulated years of experience, how can it be possible to definitively state "this universe of billions of years in age and here is specifically what happened along the way" with no more than scraps dug up out of the earth as evidence?
EVOLUTION ~ I have studied the war between creation and evolution for many years. In that time I have learned that the foundation of evolutionary thought is the desire to have God removed from the universe. In that time I have also learned that the glory of the Christian hope is a God of love who is overwhelmingly revealed through the creation of which each of us is a part. Do not be misled by the lie that evolutionary teaching is an attempt to explain the origins of the universe for it is nothing less than a Satanic attempt to destroy mankind's hope. If creation can be explained away as the result of time and chance rather than the loving creation of a wonderful God then mankind would have no reason to seek God or to have hope in God. Throughout Psalm 8, Psalm 19, Psalm 104 and the many other passages in the Bible that speak of God's power over creation there is an underlying wellspring of joy. It is this writer's comfort that God is as the Bible describes, and he can have hope in Him because He is intimately involved in the tiniest details of creation.
EVOLUTION ~ Some have said that it is possible for Christians to believe evolution is true and not jeopardize their salvation. While this should be true, in that "all who call on the name of the Lord will be saved," it does raise the question of allegiance. The Bible emphatically teaches that God created all that exists a very short time ago (comparatively speaking) and in its current form. Man teaches that time and chance resulted in what we see around us over a vast period of time. For someone to hold the teaching of man in higher authority than the teaching of God begs the question of who they truly believe.
FAITHFULNESS ~ We must remember, when we are ridiculed that our faith in God (and all that that entails) is foolish, that the world cannot appreciate what is does not know; some things only seem to be foolish. As Paul writes: "But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world - and the things that are not - to nullify the things that are." (1 Cor. 1:27-28)
FALSE FAITHS ~ Why do we stand surprised at the evil acts of non-Christian religions? Given that they are the product of the most evil of beings we should rather stand amazed that they are capable of any good at all except that we would not be amazed since God is supreme over all creation and His good character infuses all that He has made; regardless of its relationship to Him.
HOMOSEXUALTIY ~ Cultural considerations aside, homosexuality is a dry relationship that flies in the face of God's command for a man to be joined to his wife and to produce offspring. It flies in the face of logic.
HOMOSEXUALITY ~ There is no possibility for homosexuals to fulfill God's purpose for the sexes, the greatest of which is the symbolism of human marriage for the relationship between Christ and His Church. Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her, that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish. (Ephesians 5:25-27)
HOMOSEXUALITY ~ For the Church to even consider discussion on the validity of the homosexual lifestyle is an abomination that exchanges the redemptive love shown in Jesus (a love that re-called its recipient into a life-changing relationship with his Creator) for a perversion of love such as is seen in a typical romance of today (a love that weakened by a permissiveness that allows what God has denied and which, in accepting all standards, can affirm none). The Bible is very clear in its condemnation of homosexuality as a lifestyle, not of homosexuals as people, and for any to re-interpret Biblical passages discussing homosexuality in a positive manner does a gross injustice to the Scripture.
HOMOSEXUALITY ~ It is not an inherent right to "marry" one's same-sex lover nor is it a basic freedom. Same-sex marriage (or any other perversion of the marriage relationship) is no more and no less than an evil attack upon the Earthly symbol of Jesus' union with His bride the Church. It does not diminish my marriage, it is an attempt to sully the symbol that my marriage is of a vastly higher love.
INCONSISTENT THOUGHTS ~ An Ancient Double Standard
INCONSISTENT THOUGHTS ~ Replacing BC (Before Christ) with BCE (Before Common Era) seems to me to make no sense other than as a direct expression of the desire to do away with even this casual reference to Jesus. How can anything between the birth of Christ and the Reformation be considered part of the "common era?"
LIVING ~ The one indisputable fact of life is that it ends. You and I are in the process of dying. Are you ready? Are you certain that what you believe is worth your life?
LIVING ~ Enjoy your life today and thank God for it.
LOVE ~ There is a popular idea that to love a person as Jesus does is to welcome them with open arms (which Jesus does) and turn a blind eye to their sin (which Jesus does not).
What has been forgotten is that the same voice that cried out "Come to me all who are weary and I will give you rest" also called the religious leaders of the day "whitewashed tombs." That the Man who ate with 'sinners' is the same Man who made a whip and chased the money-changers from the temple. That the Teacher who taught the woman of Samaria also said to the woman in the temple "Go and sin no more."
And it is the same voice, from the same Man that cried "Forgive them, Father!" Calling out and forgiving sin in the same breath. From the cross. As He was being murdered. By those He was asking God to forgive.
Jesus loves despite His awareness of our sins. Which is a good thing, since none of us are good enough for His company. What is even better is that even though He acknowledges our sin, He is willing to forgive it all and remove from us the only thing that removes us from Him. But it must be removed!
Loving as Jesus loves is not saying "Yes, of course, why not" to everything done by those we love but saying "You've messed up and you're in big trouble; let me help."
Love is not afraid to call out sin and love is not afraid to take the hand of the sinner and guide them to holiness.
As has been and is being done for us.
POLITICS ~ Democracy is effective so long as the majority is not a tyrant. Every majority is eventually a tyrant.
POLITICS ~ Right is not determined by a majority opinion but is affirmed by an individual adherence to the will of God.
POLITICS ~ I Hope that You're Listening - A letter to our elected officials, from a citizen
POLITICS ~ We speak a great deal about 'Human Rights,' as though these were a fundamental law of nature that should be recognized by all rather than a construct of majority opinion that will not survive the system under which they were created. Man has not rights but he has one obligation: He must love God; and he has two promises: He will die and Jesus saves. Beyond these, 'Human Rights' have no value and are of no consequence.
PRAYER ~ The Lord's Prayer
SPIRITUAL GIFTS ~ It concerns me that the typical North American (or Western) Christian so casually dismisses the power of the Holy Spirit in the lives of God's children in the form of Spiritual Gifts as something that occurred only during the Apostolic Age. My principal concern is that there appears to be no indication in the Bible that dispensation of Spiritual Gifts was ever to end until Jesus returned to take His followers to Heaven (see Paul's excellent discussion of Spiritual Gifts in 1 Corinthians 12 through 14). Consequently I worry that the belief that Spiritual Gifts are no longer given to God's people is accepted as an excuse the for the fact that Spiritual Gifts do not visibly occur in such quantity as in they did the Bible. It may well be that the real reason that we do not experience the abundance of Spiritual Gifts is because our faith is so weakened and distracted by the world around us. From what I have heard from Christians in other parts of the world I am led to believe that the current North American (or Western) debate on Spiritual Gifts would be un-understandable to many of our brothers and sisters elsewhere because they are experiencing them (on of my professors in Bible College is a prime example from my own experience). Regardless of whether Spiritual Gifts are given today or not we must be very careful of what we believe, making sure that we are not merely excusing with this argument a far more serious problem (if we say that Spiritual Gifts do not exist today) or that we are not fabricating an argument to say that Christians today are not what they were in the Apostolic Age (if we say that Spiritual Gifts do exist today).
SPIRITUAL GIFTS ~ HEALING ~ Perhaps God is not so much glorified in the miraculous healing of our illness but in our miraculous faith in Him in spite of our illness.
WITCHCRAFT ~ The Christian, the Witch and the Bible