Thursday, December 24, 2009

Merry Christmas – Joy in the Good News

Merry Christmas to everyone. My family and I have already had an eventful Christmas Eve morning. We are blanketed by a new coat of snow here in Burnsville, Minnesota. And we are having our kitchen remodeled, and yesterday one of the workers was working on our gas line in the kitchen. I woke up this morning to our home having a temperature in the 50's. With no hot water. And even our gas fireplace wouldn't start. I had no idea of what to do. So I did what any youngest child would do – I called my big brother. He is a saint, and came right over. He found out all of the gas lines were turned off, and he was able to turn them on, and re-lit all of the pilot lights. Yikes! Where we would be today without heat, no hot water (we have four females in our family, mind you), and a bad snow storm around us. May God bless my brother for rescuing us today.

Which brings me to Christmas. What do you think is humanity's biggest problem facing us today? What do we need to be rescued from? Could it be Global Warming? The Financial Crisis that we are in? Vikings Coach Childress and Brett Favre fighting? Well, God saw mankind's foremost problem – and it is Sin. Sin separates us from God, other people, and gives us the mindset of a sinner. Having the mind of a sinner is to think about things that your body craves – lustful thoughts, desires of wanting more things, and of course, the desire for power and fame and to be recognized as the special person that you are. A friend recently mentioned to me that all sin is centered on the human error of pride. I don't know if I agree with this, but that idea will have to hold for now, and perhaps be the subject of another post. The bottom line though is that sin is fun. It is desirable. And it ensnares us all.

And how did God go about solving humanity's problem of sin? Immanuel – God with us. He came to Earth, the Son of God born in a humble manger, and wrapped in swaddling clothes (what does swaddling mean? – sorry for my ADD moment). But it is an Angel that proclaimed so clearly this Good News/Gospel about the baby that was born:

The angel said to them, "Don't be afraid! I have good news for you, a message that will fill everyone with joy. Today your Savior, Christ the Lord, was born in David's city." (Luke 2:10-11).

And so, what was God's response to humanity's Sin-problem? He reached down and sent a Savior – His Son. This Savior lived the perfect life that we cannot. And He died on the Cross paying the debt that is owed for our sins. And by doing this, if we repent of our sinfulness and make Jesus our Lord, He also frees us from having to sin – sin no longer rules over the Christian. And the hope is that we start living our lives more and more like Jesus. What great news this is!

Merry Christmas - /s/Tom.

Sunday, December 20, 2009

Apologetics – why we know Christianity is true.

My question for you this beautiful, lightly snowing day here in Burnsville is this – what are the reasons that you believe in God? God reveals Himself in many ways to us Earth dwellers, and some are easier to see than others. In this post, I thought I would touch on three (3) of the best reasons I believe in the 'truth' of Christianity. Now if you think there are better choices than the three (3) I list here, I say YES! I am providing this list based upon my observations and issues I have dwelt with through my life. Because each of us has different life experiences and viewpoints, the reasons we may believe in Christ will differ from person to person. And so I hope that by thinking about our reasons to believe, that we will be more willing to share with others these reasons. You know, we should always be prepared to share the hope that we have in Christ Jesus. So let's get started with a list of what I see as the most persuasive showing God's presence.

Why did I entitle this post as 'Apologetics'? Apologetics is the study of the defense of the Divine origin and authority of Christianity (Websters). And so, Apologetics is the proper way of discussing reasons to believe in the God of the Bible. I have three reasons for believing that Jesus is the only way for a person to receive a saving faith. Tomorrow, I might have three different reason, but for today, these are my top three (3):

1).    The Bible. Yes, it's the most widely read book in the world. Yes, it's the most widely published book in the world. And if you're an atheist or any other kind of unbeliever, if you have not read the Bible, any words you say about the Bible or anything about spiritual or philosophical topics can be dismissed summarily. And so, if you haven't read the Bible you are a culturally illiterate person. There is only one way to understand great authors like Shakespeare, the founding documents of our country, or not-infrequent comments by all of our nation's Presidents when invoking God, you must have read and understood the Bible. Why not start today?

But this isn't the reason why the Bible has made my Top 3 reasons for why we know Christianity is true. Instead, because there is common belief that there is an Intelligent God who is involved in this world, it is logical that God would reveal Himself in different ways. Yes, God reveals His character through nature. Yes, God reveals Himself to us in times of trouble, through providing peace, comfort, strength and answered prayers. But the way God most clearly reveals Himself is through Jesus the Messiah, and the Holy Bible. (See, Colossians 1:15-16; Hebrews 1:3). And ALL of the Bible testifies about our Lord Jesus. See, John 5:39. Am I saying that the Books of the Old Testament are about Jesus, even though they were written hundreds of years before He was born? Yes, I am as John 5:39 makes clear.

And yes, the Bible is filled with the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 6:17), which comes to us as we read the Scriptures. We hear God's Voice through the Bible verses we read or when we hear it preached. And we become transformed through this "living" Book. It is an amazing Book that can reveal God's Mind to us puny humans. Yet, even the Bible which sometimes describes God's anger and wrath to us, is more clearly a Book of God's love. We receive salvation through the Gospel of Christ provided in its pages (Romans 1:16). And so, this is easily the first reason to believe in God – the power of His Word, the Bible.


 

2).    Israel, God's Chosen People. I am not an expert on the history of the nation of Israel. But I can see that it is the world's most hated ethnic group. And we see in the Holy Scriptures descriptions of other people and nations that have tried to eliminate God's Chosen People – from the nation of Persia, as shown in the Book of Esther (the only Book in the Bible that does not mention God), to the destruction of Israel the generation following Jesus' death by the Roman Empire (See, Luke 21:20-24 describing the upcoming destruction of Israel, and that Jerusalem would be "trampled by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles is fulfilled."

The continued existence of a distinct group of people, who have remained religiously and culturally distinct for over 4,000 years, is a great proof of God's having spoken to the world through the Bible. The Bible gives a prophecy in Genesis 15:18 that Abraham's descendants would have their own country, and that it would be between the river of Egypt and the river Euphrates. This is commonly called the 'Promised Land'. Are they really all that different? Let me give you one example to show that they are – circumcision. Only the Jewish people keep a 'covenant' with God through the ritual of circumcision. And this made them physically and nationally a distinct group. Add in their observance of the Sabbath, dietary restrictions, distinct head coverings, etc. and it is easy to see that the people of Israel are a distinct group that God has a future purpose for (See, Romans 11). The continued existence of Israel as a distinct cultural and ethnic nation is a powerful reason for believing in the existence of the Christian God.


 

3).    Cell's Do Not Change. Science provides us with clear evidence that Darwinist/natural means of cell reproduction cannot create a new species. Through the published scientific studies involving E-coli, HIV/Aids, and malaria, the scientific evidence shows that through many generations of reproduction, there is a limit of changes that can take place in an organism of only up to three (3) amino acids from a parent. Three (3) lousy amino acids?! And Darwinism is based on this measly performance? So remember Darwinism's claim – all animals descend from a single parent. And this all had to have taken place 530 million years ago, when the Cambrian Explosion took place. Wow, 530 million years sounds like a lot of time doesn't it. But Darwinists have the completely nonsense belief that Natural Selection and Variation is the mechanism that can cause all of the variation we see in our world today including bacteria, viruses/germs, birds, frogs, fish, whales, squirrels, bears, cows, and ultimately mankind through changes made in only the past 530 million years.

Think about all of the systems that have to be created brand new and working during this timeframe – male and females sexual organs, a spinal cord / central nervous system, blood, circulatory system, lungs, respiratory system, and of course, the human brain. And through the scientific studies involving malaria, e-coli, HIV/Aids cells, at the end of thousands of generations of mutations, natural selection/variation was only able to build up to three (3) amino acid changes. These changes were helpful for the bacteria because it helped them in fending off / provide resistance to its anti-biotic medicine enemies. But c'mon, no new species were created through these many generations – no new proteins were created. And nothing distinct was ever made through the many generations – an e-coli cell made other e-coli cells. As any animal breeder will tell you – a cat makes more cats, and not dogs. And the claim that invisible changes are being made over time is now demonstrably false – at best, three (3) amino acids is the most that can be changed even over thousands of generations. And so, we now know enough about mutation rates, error corrections within a cell, and the greater likelihood of deterioration / harmful errors, rather than helpful errors within a cell, to confidently say that Darwinism cannot be the tool by which all of the world's species were made. Unless you believe in aliens, this leaves you with one other choice: the God of the Bible is responsible for the Earth's vast diversity. Because Darwinist evolution cannot provide an explanation for life's diversity, it leaves us with one rational explanation: In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. (Genesis 1:1). And that by Jesus, all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible (Colossians 1:16). The world of the cell, and because it does not change much even over many generations is the reason why I have included it in my top three (3) reasons to believe in Christianity.


 

I hope you have found this post helpful in thinking about the reasons why you believe. And if you have different reasons, then think about those reasons, and be prepared to share the reasons why you believe with someone else this week. The week before we celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus the Messiah. In Christ, /s/Tom Wolff.