Friday, March 29, 2013
Theologians Go Bankrupt
A
well known conservative TV personality recently made the statement that the
Bible is allegorical. He further
explained that it wasn't scientific to believe that Jonah was a real man that
was swallowed by a real fish. I do not
judge that man, but I must ask a couple of questions:
·
"Does
your theology begin with God or with science?"
·
"Is
your God of this world or did your God make this world?"
·
"If
you cannot believe God can keep a man
alive in the belly of a fish, then how can you believe in a virgin giving
birth, in a man being raised from the dead, or in a literal heaven?"
Although
it is obvious that some portions of the Bible where clearly meant to be
poetical or allegorical, Jonah was not
one of those portions. Jesus himself
said that He would be in the belly of the earth just as was Jonah. Jesus' faith was not bankrupt. He routinely demonstrated a faith that was
inexplicable. He healed the sick and
raised the dead. Eventually Jesus
literally died, was buried and rose again.
Easter stands an historical testament to a rich Faith; It was not an
allegorical resurrection. Jesus defied
science, his religious enemies and the most powerful government on the face of
the earth. The great Creator became our Savior and proved that He, as Creator, can
supersede the laws of nature. He is God -- the real God. Sadly, many theologians have invested in the
limited understanding and reasoning of mankind rather than the unlimited
resources of heaven. Hence they are
bankrupt. They got nothin'! All they can offer is another conglomeration
of philosophies, rituals and myths.
Mankind
has always invented religions and gods because He is instinctively conscious
that there is a God. Gods of man's own
making are easier to deal with because he can craft them according to his own
preferences. Unfortunately, those who relegate God to a manageable being that
they can define, understand and predict do not have a God at all. A God one can completely define and understand
is no bigger than their brain - what good is a God like that? I am thankful that I can't figure God
out. I'm glad He is so much wiser than I
am that I am often lost in mystery and wonder.
I am glad that you and I can't tell God what to do. I serve a God who has
proven His love and His faithfulness. We
can rest in Him as the sovereign ruler of the universe- we can be rich in
faith.
Real
faith is anything but bankrupt; real
believers are rich. Those who take the
Bible at face value have a God who can heal the sick, raise the dead and
prepare an eternal home for them.
Genuine faith allows a person to let go of their sin and guilt through
repentance, have those sins washed away in baptism. True faith leads a believer to a genuine empowerment
by a real God who fills them with His Spirit.
Real believers pray for the sick and see them healed. They do not
dictate what God should do but they pray to a God who is real and responds to
their rich faith. We serve a God who not
only saved a man who was thrown overboard years ago, but who has prepared a
place called Heaven -- a real place where there is no sorrow and no one ever dies! God is way too big to understand and true
believers like it that way. His riches will blow your mind -- you can bank on
it.
Friday, March 22, 2013
Motorless Automobile
For
Sale: 2012 Jaguar. Fully loaded. 0 miles.
Beautiful leather interior.
Engine not included. Electrical
system works well, but the battery must be replaced regularly. Only $50,000.
How
eager would you be to respond to such an ad?
Who is interested in a car that does not have the power to transport
them? What is the purpose of a car if it
cannot be driven?
Similar
questions may be asked concerning ones faith.
What is the purpose of faith if it has no power? The Bible predicted that a time would come
that people would call themselves Christians but would deny the power that was
demonstrated in the first century church. (2 Timothy 3:1-5) Has that time come? You decide.
There
are several components of Christianity that are regularly associated with power
in the Bible, namely:
·
The
name of Jesus - it is the "name above every name" and the name spoken
over those who were baptized in the book of Acts.
·
Divine
Healing - Jesus promised that believers would pray for the sick and they would
recover.
·
The
Holy Spirit - Jesus promised his disciples that they would receive power after
the Holy Ghost was come upon them; this happened first in Acts chapter two and
later in Acts 8, 9, 10 and 19.
Jesus
established a church of power. He
intended for people to have life-changing experiences as Christians impacted
their world. You can read about it in the book of Acts. Church services were
dynamic, miracles were prevalent, people were receiving the Holy Spirit, and
Jesus name was highly exalted. Early
Christians were so empowered that they became a world force in spite of severe
persecution.
If
I were the devil I would do my best to talk Christians out of their power. I would not be all that concerned if they
called themselves Christians or attended church, as long as they dumbed things
down as far as the power is concerned. I
would con them into believing that miracles no longer happen. I would encourage them to be baptized, but not to worry about doing it in Jesus
name. I would tell them that people no
long receive the Holy Spirit or speak with "other tongues". I would convince them that Christianity
should be simply a matter of saying they believe without expecting
life-altering encounters with God. In short I would get them to include
everything but the engine. That way they
could sit in their driveway listening to the radio or flipping their lights on
and off, but they could never really go anywhere.
I don't know about you, but I need that Apostolic book-of-Acts kind of power. I need an engine in my automobile.
Friday, March 01, 2013
Bigger Than Life
It
all started with Him. It was His
idea. He made a wonderful planet and two
extraordinary people. Until the day they
were convinced that they knew better than God, Adam and Eve had a great life
and a great relationship with their Creator.
Sadly, it only took a few generations for God's wayward creation to make
a mess of things. Several thousand years
later God implemented another idea: He
came to earth as a man and gave His own life so that mankind could once again
have communion with Him. He could do
this because he was bigger than life.
Easter
is a celebration of Jesus Christ's resurrection from the dead. Prophets had predicted it. Jesus himself said it would happen. Neither Rome nor the Jewish religious machine
were able to keep it from happening. Mortal
men could not withstand the resurrection because Jesus was bigger than life.
In
his book Who Is This Man, John
Ortberg reminds his readers that higher education began with these concepts
firmly in play:
The beginnings of today’s faculty
system were scholars who formed self-governing guilds, licensed by the pope to
have sole authority to grant degrees. The first university was established in
Paris around the twelfth century, and Oxford and Cambridge began in the
thirteenth. (The motto of Oxford University is from Psalm 27:1: “The LORD is my
light.”) Then came universities in Rome, Naples, Vienna, and Heidelberg. These
were all begun by followers of Jesus so people could love God with all their
minds. They came to be called universities because they reflected the idea that
in the beginning, God created all things... George Marsden noted that "one
of the remarkable facts about American history is that within six years of
landing in the Massachusetts wilderness, Puritans established what would soon
become a reputable college.” This is from its student handbook: “Let every
student be plainly instructed and earnestly pressed to consider well, the main
end of his life and studies is, to know God and Jesus Christ, which is eternal
life, (John 17:3), and therefore to lay Christ … as the only foundation of all
sound knowledge and learning. That was Harvard University.
Imagine
how many more wonderful things would have come about should our institutions of
higher learning have remained true to their foundational principles. Unfortunately mankind has a way of attempting
to reduce life to concepts and ideas that they can understand and control. Faith is too risky. The miraculous is too hard to explain. Besides, to acknowledge a God who is bigger
than life is to acknowledge a God who must be obeyed -- wayward children can't
think of anything more distasteful than things like bowing, worshipping, trusting
and praying.
Fortunately
there are many who still believe what the founders of Ivy League schools
believed. Come Easter these people will
be celebrating the most amazing event in history. They will express their love to God, who
demonstrated His love for us by robing Himself in flesh and dwelling among us,
and by dying on Calvary. They will retell the story of how love overcame
political corruption, religious injustice and human ignorance. They will rejoice in the irrefutable evidence
that God is so much bigger than life, that not even death could hold him down. Find
a Bible believing church this Easter; celebrate the one who is bigger than
life.
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