Some Help for Us Coveters.

John Piper recently wrote a great little blog about fighting covetousness.  I don’t want to say much, because I think that the more you read here, the less likely you will be to click on this link and read the blog.  But I just wanted to say that I really loved his “sign-off” at the end of the blog:

“Looking at you and Paul and Christ with joy,

Pastor John”

Reading that helped me come up with a sign-off of my own

Looking at you and John Piper and Paul and Christ with joy,

David

A Couple Thoughts From the Minor Prophets…

Something that I have noticed in reading through the minor prophets lately is that the prophets were very outspoken towards those who were secure in their standing with God on the basis of a label. The people believed that they would be justified before God simply because they were Israelites. I had a couple of thoughts on this that I would like to share: 1) Jews still do this. A Jewish guy that I worked with (that I mentioned here) said that all Jews are going to heaven because they don’t believe in hell and, “where else are they going to go?” He still makes the fatal error that Jews in the days of the minor prophets made.

2) Many Christians follow in the footsteps of our spiritual heirs. I think that, in some ways, the decision for Christ, the sinner’s prayer, and baptism could be compared to circumcision. Many Jews were mistakenly secure in their justification on the basis of their label, Israelite, and a work, circumcision. Similarly, many who call themselves Christians are mistakenly secure in their justification on the basis of their label, Christian, and their works, a decision, a prayer, and baptism.

The God who created you will one day judge you. We are all guilty of many sins, and one sin that we are all guilty of is the sin that Satan, Adam, and Eve all committed: trying to be God. Satan thought he could do a better job than God, and his pride got him cast out of heaven. The serpent tempted Eve, saying that if she ate the forbidden fruit, then she would be “like God.” The failure of Satan, Adam, and Eve to obey God, and their pride in seeking to be “like God” resulted in the unleashing of all of the sin and evil that has ever been and that currently is in the world.

What do you expect will be the result of your failure to obey God, your pride in trying to be “like God,” and your thinking that you could do a better job than God? No label or works can redeem you from your position of ultimate guilt before the living God, who is too holy to look upon sin. The day of the Lord is coming; the day when the Lord Jesus Christ will judge the living and the dead. Regardless of who you are or what good you’ve done, you will be weighed in the balance and found wanting- unless your sins are washed in the blood of Jesus and you stand before God with His righteousness.

Your only hope is in the promises of God and the person of Jesus Christ. There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because God chose to look on Him who knew no sin. He poured out the wrath that we deserve on the Messiah, the Christ, Jesus. He alone is our refuge because He alone can forgive us for our sins. Trust in Him, and turn from your sins, and by faith you will receive His righteousness, forgiveness for your sins, reconciliation with God, and more.

What more, you might ask? The more is that those other things are the means to an end. By His work on the Cross, Jesus paid the debt for our sins and accomplished the perfect righteousness that we need to be reconciled with God.  Forgiveness and righteousness are ours by faith alone in Christ Jesus, and by His forgiveness and His righteousness He redeems us for Himself.

“Therefore let us go to him outside the camp and bear the reproach he endured.” -Hebrews 13:13

How the Church Failed Me.

I think that the two churches that I grew up in failed me by being more loyal to Baptist traditions than to the Word of God. I do not believe that these two churches have a monopoly on the problems that led them to fail me, and therefore I think that a lot of churches are failing a lot of people in the same way. The one reservation that I have about writing this is the fear that it may portray a “house divided against itself.” However, I think the things I have to say need to be said, and the need outweighs my concern. Thanks be to God, that through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ He was pleased to save me in spite of these failures.

The Baptist traditions that I have in mind sprout from the belief that salvation is the product of a decision, a prayer, and a baptism. I believe that we live in a man-centered culture, and that our churches too often try to meet this man-centered culture with a man-centered “gospel.” The problem is that the only Gospel that saves is the Gospel of Jesus Christ found in the Bible, and that is by no means a man-centered gospel. No decision, prayer, or baptism has ever saved anybody or will ever save anybody. Salvation is an act of God, and the only hope that we have is to seek to know Him as He has revealed Himself to us in the Scriptures, and to trust Him at His Word.

I do believe that our churches have the best of intentions. I believe that they want souls to be saved. However, I believe that in failing to understand salvation as it is found in the Bible, and instead preaching a man-centered “gospel,” their efforts result in people who are unsure of their salvation and who do not get the answers that they are looking for.

When I was a child, I overheard my mother tell a friend that my brother was “jumping up and down” in excitement to go down the aisle and get “saved” and baptized when he was my age. I don’t know whether or not my mother intended for me to hear her, but if so, then I believe she was acting on the common understanding that if I made a decision, said a prayer, and got baptized, then I would be saved. I had gone to church all my life, believed everything that I had been taught, and wanted to be saved. I believed that if I made a decision, said a prayer, and got baptized, then I would be saved.

After I made the decision, said the prayer, and got baptized, nothing was different. On at least two occasions after I was “saved,” according to these Baptist traditions, I was buying what a preacher was selling, knew that I didn’t have it, and walked the aisle again. However, I had already made the decision, said the prayer, and been baptized, so they really didn’t have anything to tell me. Their only suggestions were to “rededicate my life to Jesus” (remake the decision) or to get baptized again. I wanted the answer to the question that was often asked of Jesus, namely what must a man do to have eternal life? The answer that I received was to make (or remake) a decision, say a prayer, and get baptized (again).

As far as I understand the Scriptures, salvation is not the result of a decision, a prayer, and baptism. Therefore, I believe that the churches that I grew up in failed me. And they failed me in a matter with eternal ramifications.

I believe that salvation, according to the Scriptures, is an act of God that results from faithful preaching of the “word of Christ” (Romans 10:17) and the Gospel (Romans 1:16), by which God the Father (John 6:44), God the Son (John 5:21), and God the Spirit (John 3:8 ) act in unison to cause a person to be born again, by blessing their eyes, ears, and heart to see, hear, and understand the secrets of the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 13:10-17). (“Preaching,” as I intend it here, is not limited to the pulpit- although I use sermons as the example, I believe that our evangelism should be just as committed to the “word of Christ” and the Gospel)

As I understand it, salvation comes about when the “word of Christ” and Gospel are proclaimed. John 3:8 says that the Spirit blows where it will, like the wind. I do not take this to mean that the Spirit moves in a willy-nilly, unpredictable way. I take this to mean that we have no control over the Spirit, and that who the Spirit comes upon and causes to be born again is up to God, not us. I also believe that the Spirit will come upon those it will in the manner that most glorifies God and exalts Jesus Christ, which is why Paul tells us that the Gospel and the word of Christ are the means to salvation and faith. God-glorifying sermons are those that are most faithful to the word of Christ, and that are Gospel-centered. Paul tells us that salvation and faith are the fruit of such sermons, which, to tie everything together, means that these are the sermons that will be most conducive to resulting in the Spirit coming upon those present.

(I have received a lot of this thinking from John Piper’s resources, and you can read more about what he says  here)

However, I also believe that our best sermons, without God’s blessing, will fail. And that our worst sermons, with God’s blessing, will succeed. Many have been and are saved in spite of a man-centered “gospel,” because the living God is a gracious and merciful God. And even if we could preach perfect sermons, we would still be 100% dependent on our gracious and merciful God.

So what are the “word of Christ” and the “Gospel?” I think that in the “word of Christ” Paul meant the “word of God,” a.k.a. the Bible, since Jesus Christ was and is God (John 1:1, 14). Also, Jesus Himself gave us a warrant to read all of Scripture, both the Old and New Testaments, as the “word of Christ” in Luke 24:25-27:

“And he said to them, ‘O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?’ And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.”

(Also see Luke 24:44-45; John 1:45; John 5:46)

So what is the Gospel? The Gospel in its most basic form is this: God, man, Christ, response. This basically means that there is a holy God who created us and will one day judge us; we have sinned against Him greatly in preferring the filthy rags and broken cisterns of sin to His glory and the supremely satisfying pleasures of knowing, pursuing, and trusting Him; the only way to be reconciled with God is by faith alone in Jesus Christ alone (although the only faith that is saving faith is both obedient to His commandments and perseveres until the end); and that the only right response that will result in salvation is to believe in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior and repent of your sins, or as Paul said, “confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead” (Romans 10:9).

(Also see my friend’s great Gospel presentation at ReformedMissionary.org, or listen to great messages from men who understand the importance of the Gospel at Together 4 the Gospel)

Also, the assurance of our salvation is in the promises of the Scriptures that those who have faith will receive the righteousness of Christ, forgiveness of sins, reconciliation with God, and eternal life on the basis of the virgin birth, sinless and perfect life, substitutionary death, resurrection, ascension, and promised return of Jesus Christ. The assurance of our salvation is not found in our righteousness, but in the righteousness of Jesus Christ. The wages of sin is death, but we will not pay for our sins with our death if we are in Christ Jesus, because He paid for them with His death. By faith, He takes our sins, and we get His righteousness.

Thanks and praise be to the living God, who so loved the world that He sent His Son to die our death and raised Him from the dead, so that all who believe in Him will not perish but have eternal life!

When Family Values Go Out the Window.

What happens when family values go out the window? Well, let’s take a look at the state of Massachusetts, where family values have gone out the window. In Massachusetts, a 2nd grade teacher read a book about gay marriage to her students. I guess since Massachusetts was the first of the now six states in the union to allow gay marriage, this should have been expected. If gay marriage is legal, then what is the problem with a 2nd grade teacher reading a book about that issue to her students, right? Thus the slippery slope begins.

Family values out, anything goes is now in. This is what it looks like when family values are not protected. And when family values are not protected, it should not be unexpected when essential pieces of the family puzzle are no longer considered essential.

For instance, if a young girl wants to be a mother, should she not seek to prepare herself to be the best mother that she can be? Should she not seek to find a suitable husband and father of her children, with whom she can work to support and raise their children? However, once family values are out the window, sensible ideas like these go out the window with them. If a man is not an essential piece of the family puzzle, as he is clearly not when it is legal for two women to get married, then he is no longer essential in the minds of young heterosexual girls either.

So our young girl who wants to be a mother now no longer needs to find a suitable mate, one who will be committed to both her and their children until death do they part. All she needs is someone to help her procreate, so the characteristics of that helper become less important. Even a 24-year-old homeless man will do, apparently.

When family values go out the window, this happens.

A Vision.

As I shoulder my cross and pass through the city gate, my eyes and my mind are both racing.  My eyes dart back and forth looking for an escape route.  My mind for an idea or a thought, a defense or an excuse.  The crack of the whip is almost as painful to my ears as the whip itself is to my back, as I am reminded that my mental focus on my sight and thoughts has left my feet standing still.  I feel a drop drip down my back, and wonder whether it is sweat or blood.  The next drop finds an open wound; this one leaves no doubt that it is sweat, as it burns like acid.

I continue my march, dejected as neither my eyes nor my mind prevail in finding a way out.  I am guilty.  This cross, I deserve.  Freedom, I do not.  The splinters of the great wooden beam drive into my skin as I carry the beam, but I hardly notice them until I am on the ground and my back is upon it.  As I fight the four men who hold me down, every movement drives new splinters into my back, and drives old ones deeper.  Finally, as my physical strength is gone, one of the men holds out my right arm to be the first nailed to the cross.  I feel the point of the spike against my wrist, close my eyes, and cry out to God to save me.  With my eyes closed in anticipation of the pain, I notice that the man is delaying for some reason.  I open my eyes and look at him- his left hand holds the nail to my wrist, his right is above him with the mallet outstrecthed.  But his eyes are not on the work at hand.  He is looking directly in front of himself. 

As I follow his line of sight, I see a man approaching with outstretched hands.  The man has a glow about him, and his outstretched hands reveal scars just beyond his wrists.  He proclaims, “Stop! He is mine!”  His voice seems to be accompanied by either a lion’s roar or rumbling thunder.  My captors obey; they each loose their grip.  Both the mallet and spike fall harmlessly to the ground.  I lift my head in astonishment and watch the men flee.  The crowd, whose presence I only knew by the jeers and taunts until that point, follows them. 

As I remember my many crimes, I fear that this man has only freed me to kill me himself.  But as I study him to see if he is one of the people that I have stolen from or lied to, I realize two things.  First, I have never seen this man before- or anything like him for that matter.  Secondly, as I gaze upon him my fears disintegrate.  There is something about him.  The radiant smile.  The tender eyes.  As I rise to my knees, I realize who this is.  This is Jesus Christ!  I fall to my face and start confessing my sins and begging for forgiveness, but he interupts me to tell me a story.  He tells of the eruptions of praise from his Father and the angels in heaven on the day that his pursuit of the stray lamb proved victorious.  He takes me by the arm and lifts me back to my knees.  I take a look around me, but I cannot see anything.  Everything is blurry except for the man holding me by the arm. 

As my eyes return to the greatest sight I have ever seen, the sight that has blinded me to all others, my fear returns.  Only this time my fear is fierce.  His radiant glory is saturated with holiness and righteousness, and visions of my innumerable sins flood my mind.  As my eyes water, my shoulders shrug, and my eyes drop to the ground, he reaches out and places his other hand on my shoulder.  With one hand on my arm supporting me and the other on my shoulder, he tells me that I was that lamb.  That his Father and the angels rejoiced over me!  He takes his hand from my shoulder and holds it in front of me, so that I can see the scar on his wrist.  He says, “I died for your sins.  They are as far from you as the east is from the west.  I came that you may have life, and have it abundantly.  Repent of your sins and believe in me, and you will be saved.”

Then he said to me, “Pasture the flock doomed to slaughter.  Those who buy them slay them and go unpunished, and each of those who sells them says, ‘Blessed be the Lord, for I have become rich!’  And their own shepherds have no pity on them.”

Wow.

“The Triumph of the Gospel in the New Heavens and the New Earth” -John Piper

Ligon Duncan on the ways God changes us through Prayer

Although I’ve only heard Ligon Duncan speak once, he did hold true to the trait he mentions in this blog on that occasion!  It is not an altogether unwelcome trait, however, as his great wisdom and speaking ability had me just as eager to hear all of his topics as he was to address them all!  I am sure that his congregation feels the same way!

Although he didn’t get to his seven points in his sermon, he did make them available on his blog.  We would all do well to contemplate the seven ways that he says God changes us through prayer!  Enjoy!

A Personal Breakthrough on Job.

For those of you who have not read my testimony (here, here, here, and here), I grew up in a Christian home, started doubting and questioning my faith towards the end of high school, and was an unbeliever from college (Aug ‘02-May ‘06) until March ‘07. From a theological perspective, I would say that I went away from them (believers) because I wasn’t really of them- meaning that I wasn’t converted when I was young, although I said “the prayer” and got baptized. My conversion did not happen until March ‘07. But, from a worldly perspective, I was a believer, then an unbeliever, and am now a believer. Something that I struggled with when I was first a believer, was one factor in my “de-conversion,” and until recently was still a problem was the book of Job.

As a competitive person and an amateur philosopher, I always had a problem with Job. In any kind of competition or any arena where one person has authority over another, you always want to reward good and punish bad. In any kind of competition, this is the only way to get the best people to try their best. And with authority, it is also the only way to get the most out of those under your authority. If you punish good and reward bad, then bad is a valued commodity. This makes sense logically, but seems to contradict the book of Job.

First, let’s take a brief look at the book of Job and why I had a problem with it. I’ll then pass along a couple of things that I have learned from John Piper. And I’ll end with a prayer in light of my newfound understanding of Job.

Job 1:1 introduces us to Job the man: “There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job, and that man was blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil.” In verse 8 the Lord uses the exact same words to describe Job. In the third verse of chapter two, the Lord adds that “there is none like (Job) on all the earth.” So not only does the author of the book of Job call Job “blameless,” but the Lord also bestows that description upon him. The Lord describes Job this way to Satan, and Satan says that Job is only righteous because the Lord has a hedge around him and blesses him. So the Lord tells Satan that he can do anything that he wants to Job’s possessions. The only limit is that Satan cannot stretch out his hand to Job himself. So in one day, the book of Job tells us that Satan took from Job all of his 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen, 500 female donkeys, and all of his servants except for the ones that were left to deliver the message of Satan’s destruction. More importantly, on the same day Job’s seven sons and three daughters were celebrating the birthday of one of the siblings, and a wind destroyed the house they were in and killed all 10 of them.

Two things are striking about Job’s reaction to all of this. First, he worships! And secondly he names the Lord as the one who has taken all of his possessions and all of his children in a single day.

“Then Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head and fell on the ground and worshiped. And he said, ‘Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return. The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD.’” -Job 1:20-21

Then verse 22 tells us that Job did not sin or charge God with wrong. So saying that the Lord took his possessions and children was neither a sin nor charging God with wrong. Apparently taking all of Job’s possessions and killing his 10 children wasn’t enough to prove the sincerity of Job’s faith to Satan, for in Chapter 2 he says that the only reason that Job remained faithful was that he still had his health. So the Lord then tells Satan that Job’s flesh and bones are now fair play, and the only limit is that he cannot take his life. So Satan inflicts Job with “loathsome sores.” As Job sits in ashes, mourning his pitiful state and all of his losses, his wife and three friends prove to be sorry comforters. His wife, rather than following in her husband’s faithfulness to God, tells Job to “curse God and die.” And his friends encourage him to repent of whatever sin has led God to act this way toward him. Since the book of Job is pretty much the first place I go when people speak as though there is a direct relationship between faith and blessing, I’m not sure what exactly I would have said to these guys. But, I would like to think that if I had a friend in Job’s situation, or in a situation anywhere near that kind of suffering, I would try to provide comfort and support without accusing him or her of some secret sin or telling him or her to curse God and die.

Anyways, most of the rest of the book of Job is occupied by discussions between Job and his three friends. In 19:25 Job gives us another example of his great faith, as in the midst of this unimaginably awful situation he says, “For I know that my redeemer lives.” Whatever else you can say about Job, you cannot say that his faith was tied to his circumstances. If that had been the case, then his faith would have gone kaput as soon as his circumstances did.

At the end of the book of Job, the Lord appears to Job and his friends in a whirlwind and makes known His might. He speaks of the “Behemoth” and the “Leviathon” and His power over them both, and contrasts that with the comparative weakness of Job. Job then confesses that he had uttered what he had not understood and repents in dust and ashes. The Lord then tells Job’s three friends that his anger burns at them for not speaking right, as Job has. Job is then restored, and is blessed with twice as many of each kind of animal as he had before, as well as seven sons and three daughters. And his daughters are more beautiful than any of the daughters of the land.

The problem that I had with the book of Job was that Job was called “blameless” by the Lord, and He said that there were none like Job in all the land. So Job was the best of the best of God’s people. And what is his reward for being the best and for being blameless? Suffering. Although Job was restored at the end of the book and had more possessions, I must assume that there was a sense in which the 10 children at the end of the book never could replace the 10 children at the beginning.

The train of thought that I was tempted with was something along the lines of this: if that’s what you get for being blameless, then I don’t want to be blameless. But, in what I thought was faith at the time, I tried to wrap my mind around it as best I could and keep pushing forward in “faith.” So I thought the message was that we’re not supposed to love anybody more than we love God, or He’ll take them from us. Part of my “de-conversion” was that I came to a place where I knew that I was not living as good as I thought I was supposed to. As I understood more about the Bible, read the amazing words in the hymns that for the most part weren’t being lived out by anybody around me, I knew that I had to go one of two directions. I was at a Jean Valjean-esque crossroads. One path was the path of holiness and righteousness. If I went that way, then I was going to have to strive for the perfection that I thought Christians were supposed to enjoy. The other path was to live like the world around me. Part of my decision- though I can’t say exactly how sizable the influence was- was based on the book of Job. One deterrent from choosing the path of righteousness was that I didn’t want God to do to me what He did to Job.

When the Lord pealed off the scales over my eyes, unstopped my ears, and pierced my heart so that they would see, hear, and understand His irresistible grace, I was suddenly once again staring my problem with the book of Job in the face. This time the concept of the “closed” canon added to my attempts to grasp understanding of Job. My thought was that God used Job as an example, for the purpose of revealing Himself to us in His word, to show that He gives and takes away as He will. I also realized that Job gives us a great example of the faith that we should have regardless of our circumstances. But, I comforted myself with the thought that He wouldn’t really act that way (would He….?) now that the Bible is complete. And in light of the Truths He had revealed to me, I had no choice but to strive as best I could for righteousness.

Over the last year-plus I have benefited greatly from pastor John Piper. Two things that I have learned from him are that God is most glorified in us when we are satisfied in Him, and that He is more glorified in us when we are satisfied with Him in the midst of suffering rather than in the midst of comfort.

I was actually thinking about those two ideas, rather than the book of Job, when the breakthrough on Job was given to me. As I contemplated that God is most glorified in us when we are satisfied in Him in the midst of suffering, as well as Paul’s words that, “all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted” (2 Timothy 3:12), everything started coming together. If God is in control and brings everything together for good, then persecution must be good, in order for God’s sovereignty and goodness to mesh with 2 Timothy 3:12. I think that it is indeed good, for two reasons. First and foremost it glorifies God, as Piper points out very well in the links above. Secondly, I think that we foolish, complacent, proud sinners are most apt to draw near to God in the midst of suffering.

Therefore if God’s glory is supremely valuable and drawing near to God is the only path to both happiness and satisfaction of our greatest wants, needs, and desires, then suffering is desirable. Let us strive for Job-like faith in our Lord and Redeemer, and may He grant us repentance from our sins! And if it glorifies Him, let Him bring on the suffering!

Heavenly Father, the book of James tells us that the effective prayer of the righteous man can accomplish much. I am daunted by that, and only find the confidence to come to you in prayer by the same righteousness by which I, a sinner, stand justified before you- the righteousness of Jesus Christ. I pray that You will look on me and hear my prayer through the filter of His precious blood. Father I ask that you will bless me with a long and fruitful life. But if it brings more glory to You to take my life, then take it! To live is Christ and to die is gain anyways! I pray also that You will bless me with the wife of my dreams, that we would be faithful to You and to each other, and that our relationship and our family would glorify You for many years. But if it brings more glory to You for me to never marry like Jeremiah, so be it. If it brings more glory to You for me to marry an adulterous wife like Hosea did, so be it. If it brings more glory to You for You to give me a wife, and then take her away, as You did with Ezekiel, so be it. I know that You are faithful to draw near to those who draw near to You. If it brings glory to You and will bring me closer to You, then suffering is a great blessing! May I worship when I suffer like Job did. May you grant me the understanding to rejoice that I can suffer for the Name the way the apostles did! Grant me the desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus, that I may suffer! Father, draw me to Jesus, who gives life to whom He will by the power of the Spirit! I ask all these things for Your glory, in the name of Jesus, and by the power of the Spirit! Amen!

Abraham: The Father of 3 Religions?

Was Abraham the father of the three major religions in the world- Judaism, Christianity, and Islam? I would say that he was the father of only one modern religion, on the basis of two reasons. First, the Jewish Tanakh, which is the Christian Old Testament and mentioned in the Qur’an as the “Holy Scriptures,” is an incomplete work. Even with the addition of the Talmud, the other collection of writings that are central to Judaism, Judaism is an incomplete religion because it both awaits its promised Messiah and does not explain how God can be quick to forgive without leaving the guilty unpunished. Christianity piggy-backs off of Judaism by acknowledging the writings of the Tanakh, the Old Testament, as holy writings. Islam attempts to similarly piggy-back off of Christianity by acknowledging both the Old Testament and the New Testament as holy writings- calling them the “Holy Scriptures” and the “Gospels”- and by relegating Jesus Christ, who the New Testament claims is the Tanakh/Old Testament’s promised Messiah, to the status of a prophet.

Secondly, according to the apostle Paul only one of the three religions is based on the faith of Abraham. So, although he may be the physical ancestor of all three religions, on the basis of faith he can and should only be seen as the father of one.

Our questions are these: Is the Christian claim to being the fulfillment of Judaism valid? Is Christianity complete, unlike Judaism? Is the Islamic claim to being the fulfillment of Christianity valid? Which of the three major religions has the faith of Abraham, and therefore is truly the heir of “father Abraham?” Last and most importantly, was Jesus the Christ, the Messiah that was promised in the Tanakh/Old Testament?

As I said before, Judaism is incomplete because at the close of their holy writings there is no Messiah. And because, without the Messiah, there is no explanation as to how God can forgive without letting the guilty go unpunished. That forgiveness is necessary assumes the guilt of those needing forgiveness. This mystery, which I am stealing from Mark Dever’s book “The Message of the Old Testament: Promises Made,” is very clear in Exodus 34:6-7:

“The LORD passed before him (Moses) and proclaimed, ‘The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.’”

As we see there, the LORD promises to forgive iniquity, transgression, and sin. However, He then says that He will “by no means clear the guilty.” I agree with Dever’s assessment that this can only be understood in connection with a Messiah who would take the guilt of God’s chosen people upon Himself. Just as the sacrificial system of the Old Testament allowed reconciliation between God’s chosen people who had faith in God, and by faith that God would forgive their sins on the basis of the animal without blemish that was sacrificed. The death and blood of the animal paid the debt that was brought on by the sin. Since animals and their blood can accomplish nothing without the willingness of the living God, who is loving, merciful, and gracious beyond measure, the sacrificial system was really about the faith of God’s people and His willingness to forgive. However, modern Jews no longer participate in the sacrificial system. And they believe that their Messiah has not yet come. This begs the question, whereby does reconciliation with God and forgiveness of their sins come, with no sacrifice and no Messiah? Just as the religious writings leave off incomplete, with no reconciliation or forgiveness the Jewish religion is similarly incomplete.

The Christian New Testament claims that Jesus of Nazareth was the fulfillment of the Tanakh/Old Testament’s promised Messiah, and that through Jesus alone can the mysterious mercy without excluding justice be possible. He took upon Himself the sins of God’s chosen people on the Cross. Therefore, they are no longer guilty before God and He is able to forgive without letting the guilty go unpunished.

Christianity does leave off with a few mysteries, but they are mysteries that are promised to be understood when Jesus the Messiah returns. Therefore Christianity is not incomplete and does not need fulfillment the way that Judaism is incomplete and wanting fulfillment. We do not know when the Messiah will return, but we know who He is and that He will come. However, Islam attempts to piggy-back off of Christianity anyways. Islam does not deny the holy writings that are known as the Old Testament and the New Testament within Christianity. Neither do they deny that there was a man named Jesus who had supernatural abilities and was an extraordinary teacher. They accredit the Christian holy writings as the “Holy Scriptures and the Gospels” and Jesus as a prophet, who the Qur’an says lived flawlessly. However, there are two main ways in which Islam and Christianity cannot be reconciled. First there are things in the Qur’an that are irreconcilable with the Christian writings. For example, the Qur’an instructs its followers to kill “infidels” (unbelievers) if they will not convert to Islam. Secondly, they relegate Jesus from Messiah to prophet. Jesus taught that He was the way, the truth, and the life, and that no man comes to the Father except by Him. Islam and this statement from the lips of Jesus cannot both be true. In order for Islam to be true, Jesus must be relegated, as they attempt to relegate Him, to merely a prophet. And the Cross, where Christians find the essence of meaning, must be relegated to a meaningless event. If Jesus is not the exclusive way to God, then the Cross was unnecessary.

Paul says that by his faith righteousness was credited to Abraham, and Christians are to similarly trust the God of Abraham, who raised our Lord Jesus Christ from the dead. Judaism and Islam are both works-based religions, whereby righteousness is a reward for living righteously. However, neither religion accounts for unrighteousness. Christianity is the only religion that calls for faith, like that of Abraham, by which Christians will both receive the necessary righteousness to stand justified before God and their unrighteousness will be accounted for, as by their faith their sins were paid for by Jesus on the Cross. Therefore, only Christianity can claim to be an heir of Abraham because it is the only religion that is based on the faith of “father Abraham.”

I chose to address this question last, although this changes the order in which I introduced them, because I wanted to save it for last. The true test of which of the three religions contains Truth is the identity of one Man. If Jesus was the Jewish Messiah, then Christianity and not Judaism contains Truth. If Jesus was the Jewish Messiah, and not merely a prophet as Islam contends, then Christianity and not Islam contains Truth. If Jesus was the Jewish Messiah, then the Truth of the Tanakh/Old Testament continues to the Christian New Testament. If Jesus was the Jewish Messiah, then the Truth of the Old and New Testaments stops there, and does not continue to the Qur’an.

Although the Cross is arguably the most significant event for Christians- for by the Cross alone can we be forgiven of sins and reconciled with God- the Resurrection of Jesus is the most significant here. Many men died by Roman crucifixion. The Resurrection proves that only one of those men was the Son of God. I argue for the resurrection here.

I believe with every fiber of my being that God raised Jesus Christ from the dead and that Jesus was the Tanakh’s promised Messiah. I believe that there is a God, and that He is holy and just. I believe that our sins against God have both angered Him and caused separation between mankind and God. I believe that Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and that no man comes to the Father but by Jesus. Jesus’ substitutionary death satisfied the righteous anger of God and paid the death penalty warranted by our sins, and by that death alone can we have eternal life.

Trust in Jesus, He is the Lord of the universe He created. Confess with your mouth that He is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead and you will be saved!

Adolf Hitler Was Democratically Elected…

I do not necessarily say that to compare Barack Obama with Hitler, only to point out that we should be wary of unidentified “change.” Would change from democracy to socialism, communism, or a dictatorship be positive change? Not all change heads you in the right direction. If I am swimming in the ocean and being pulled away from shore by a current, any change in direction that does not take me back toward the shore is not beneficial change. A change that increases the speed of the current or takes me more directly away from the shore is most assuredly a negative one.

On the basis of “change,” including “change” away from the war in Iraq- a war that President Bush and the Republican leaders of our government were convinced that we needed to enter into, along with most Americans, on the basis of intelligence errors out of Republican control; a war that was a necessary step due to the state of Iraq and numerous threats posed by Saddam Hussein before we intervened; and a war that we cannot simply abandon without dire consequences- Obama and his promises of “change” have landed him the Democrat spot in the race for Pres.

The early Christian martyr Polycarp, when Roman authorities exhorted him to “repent” from his “atheism” (meaning that they wanted him to recant his faith in Jesus Christ and repent from the “atheism” of not attributing deity to Caesar), said, “Repentance from better to worse is a change we cannot make.” So it is that change from better to worse is not a change that we should seek to make either. The grass is not always greener on the other side of the fence.

Denny Burk recently posted a blog titled “Why This Man Should Never Be President,” where you can see Obama’s speech to Planned Parenthood. In that speech Obama defends a woman’s right to choose to have an abortion on the basis of equal rights. Any logical path-tracing of this argument leads to this: his argument is that women should have the same right to sex without pregnancy that men have.

“93% of all abortions occur for social reasons (i.e. the child is unwanted or inconvenient).”

If 93% of abortions have absolutely nothing to do with conception as a result of rape, incest, or the mother’s health, then let us leave those arguments aside. If we want abortion to be legal only on such occasions, then would it not be logical to word legislation in such a manner to allow it only in those instances?

Such wording is never included in the debate. This, along with 93% of abortions taking place because the child is unwanted and/or would be inconvenient, means that it is a fact that anybody who makes any argument in favor of legalized abortion is defending abortion on the basis of the mother’s convenience. In our society, in a nation where there are approximately 3,700 abortions per day, a mother’s convenience supercedes an unborn baby’s right to live

Obama believes that a woman’s right to sex without consequential pregnancy, on no other basis than that the baby is unwanted and/or would be inconvenient, justifies taking the right to live away from unborn children.

Do we really want this man as President and Commander-in-Chief of our United States of America? Do we want this kind of change?