Saturday, February 26, 2011

Odds n’ Ends (20)

Here are some recent news stories that caught my attention:

1).    Hawaii State Senate Becomes First to Stop Legislative Prayer. Story here.
I like the headline: A Sad, Tragic, Dumb Day in the Hawaii Senate. Fearing a possible court challenge, Hawaii's state Senate has voted to silence the daily prayer offered before each session began — making it the first state legislative body in the nation to halt the practice. Then on February 23rd, they became the 7th state in the nation to legalize civil unions.


 

2).    San Francisco Proposal May Ban Circumcision. Story here. Self-described "civil rights advocates" say that a ballot proposition to ban circumcision is on track for gathering signatures, meaning that San Franciscans may vote on the measure this November. Tom's thought: Circumcision is the covenant that Jews have with God, showing that they are God's chosen people. Newborn males are circumcised at 8 days old and are thus "brought into the Covenant of Abraham" (Gen. 17:10-14). According to Wikipedia, 30% of males globally are circumcised. Wikipedia further says that it is widely practiced by Muslims. So San Francisco is willing to protect an 8 day old from being circumcised, yet if the child was only 9 days younger, it could be aborted? Does this make sense to anyone?

3).    London Ice Cream Parlor Sells Out of Breast Milk Ice Cream. Story here. Ewwwww.

4).    A Couple Global Warming Stories. A glacier on Peru's Huaytapallana Moutain shed half its surface ice in just 23 years, officials said Wednesday, reinforcing concerns of climate change's growing threat to fresh water resources. "Recent scientific studies indicate that between June 1983 and August 2006, the glacier has lost 50 percent of its surface ice," Erasmo Meza, manager of natural resources and the environment in the central Andean region of Junin, told the official Andina news agency. Story here.

But for those of you who don't believe in Global Warming, check out the Wall Street Journal's article on a recent study showing that our weather is not getting more extreme: Story here. Some climate alarmists would have us believe that recent storms are yet another baleful consequence of man-made CO2 emissions. In addition to the latest weather events, they also point to recent cyclones in Burma, last winter's fatal chills in Nepal and Bangladesh, December's blizzards in Britain, and every other drought, typhoon and unseasonable heat wave around the world. But is it true? To answer that question, you need to understand whether recent weather trends are extreme by historical standards. The Twentieth Century Reanalysis Project is the latest attempt to find out, using super-computers to generate a dataset of global atmospheric circulation from 1871 to the present. As it happens, the project's initial findings, published last month, show no evidence of an intensifying weather trend…

5).    12 Year Olds Shown 'Brokeback Mountain' in School – No Emotional Distress Damages Awarded. Story here. Substitute teach Marnetta Buford showed the 'Brokeback Mountain' film in, of all things, a math class, allegedly after warning students that "what happens in Ms. Buford's class stays in Ms. Buford's class." She showed the first 44 minutes of the film, including the homosexual sex scene to her students. But the jury did not award the 12 year old 7th grader any emotional distress damages, finding that the teacher's conduct was not sufficiently outrageous.

Sunday, February 20, 2011

What Does Faith Look Like?

I wish everyone a happy President's Day weekend. Here in Minnesota we look forward to facing the latest 'snownami' expecting to see another foot of snow - yikes. Today, as I am reading through the Holy Word contained in Second Chronicles, I thought I would briefly talk about faith. More specifically, the faith of Judah's King Jehoshaphat described in this Book as he faced the battle of his life. I hope that the way he faced his challenge is helpful for us all.

So here's the scene described in Second Chronicles – Judah, which is the southern portion of the nation of Israel which includes Jerusalem, is going through a faith 'Revival'. After Solomon's ungodly son Rehoboam takes the throne, Judah is blessed with three Kings in a row who are faithful and God-fearing. These Kings are described in 2nd Chronicles chapters 13 through 20: Abijah, Asa and Jehoshaphat. All three were faithful and obedient to God. And they all have amazing stories of their own. But in today's post I want to focus on the major challenge faced by Jehoshaphat during his reign.

King Jehoshaphat is an interesting study. He allied himself with Israel's King Ahab (2 Chron. 18) and later King Ahaziah (2 Chron. 20:35-37), even though they were described as being wicked and ungodly. He also drove out the Asherah from Judah. And he set up judges throughout Judah to resolve disputed cases. His invocation of the judges shows his strong faith: "Consider what you do, for you judge not for man but for the Lord. He is with you in giving judgment." (2 Chron. 19:6) But I want to focus on his faith when he learns that a massive army has formed to take over Judah.

King Jehoshaphat learns in 2 Chronicles 20 that a great "horde" from the Ammonites, the Moabites, and Meunites were marching against him. Now in chapter 17, we see that Jehoshaphat had built forts and supplied cities in Judah, and that he had hundreds of thousands of men in his army. But when Jehoshaphat learned of this great army amassing against him, he was still "afraid" (2 Chron. 20:3). And here is where we can learn from the faith of this great King, his first response to this news is to declare a nationwide fast and then he led his nation in prayer to God.

King Jehoshaphat's prayer in verses 6 though 12 is amazing. He reminds God that this land was promised to Judah by God, and that these pagan armies were going to take it over (v. 11). He also reminds God that Israel wanted to destroy these nations before but God did not let them do this (v. 10). He concludes his prayer by assuming that there was no way to militarily defeat this great horde, but they still sought God's help, not knowing what that help would look like. I love how the prayer ends in verse 12:

We do not know what to do, but our eyes are upon you.


 

Sure it could have been easy for Jehoshaphat to put on a brave face, and say that his armies were going to win against impossible odds. But reality faced him. He knew this was a battle that he could not win. How many times have you faced a challenge where you can't even imagine what God's answer to prayer would look like? Where you don't even know what to ask for? If you are like me, I don't know how to pray in those situations. But nowI am going to start using Jehoshaphat's model, and in situations where the odds look impossible, I want to just pray that I don't know what to do, but our eyes are upon You, Lord God. Rather than trying to articulate exactly what I want or need in a situation, or what I should pray for someone else who was unsure of what to do when faced with this kind of trouble. I want to have the humility enough to be able to pray – I don't know what to do, but my eyes are upon You.

So how does the story end? The Prophet Jahaziel received a prophecy from God – don't worry Judah, you won't even have to fight and you'll win the battle (v. 15-17). You would think that this Prophecy might be something hard to believe, but look at what the hero of our story does – he fell with his face to the ground, and worshipped God (v. 18). When King Jehoshaphat sent out his army the next day – here is what I am talking about when I say that this is what faith looks like, he put a praise and worship team at the front of his army, singing "Give thanks to the Lord for his love endures forever"! (v. 21) Now that is what real faith looks like – facing an impossible battle, receiving a Prophecy, and believing it enough that instead of relying on the strength of your army, you rely on the prophecy and lead everyone around you to praise and worship God even before the battle has even begun. The joy shown from this kind of faith is inspiring. And what happened as the battle begun? Sure enough, the enemy mob started fighting against each other, killed each other off, and as the Word of the Lord had said – Judah and King Jehoshaphat won the day.

Praise God for the people of faith around us, and in God's Word that give us hope that one day we can have faith like them. May God bless you with increasing faith this week. /s/Tom

Sunday, February 13, 2011

Christian Heresy - Arminianism

Happy Valentine Day's Eve to everyone. I am blessed to have a wonderful woman as my wife, that is also my best friend, and who I continue to be attracted to, even after 18 years of marriage. I sometimes see at my work the pain of failed marriages, and the permanent scars that this causes in a person's life. So I count as one of my life's most important blessings the blessing of a happy marriage. Ok, so I have to share a quick story from this past week. This past week, my wife and I had a fight. It was so bad, that she told me to sleep on the couch, and when I did not, she slept on the couch herself. When I came home the next day, I tried to make amends by buying her chocolate, and making dinner for the family. But when I went upstairs to our bedroom, I was caught by a BIG surprise. Peggy was not home. But she pulled back the corner of the comforter on our bed, and there laying on the mattress was her wedding ring. I thought the message was clear, she had left me.

My initial reaction was one of anger – she would leave me over a simple fight? I was going to read her the riot act when she got home. How dare she! But as I thought about the pain of thinking she had left me, I thought that because I wanted her to forgive me for the previous night's fight, that I needed to unconditionally forgive her for removing her wedding ring. So when she finally came home I greeted her with a heart-felt hug and a kiss, and told her how glad I was to see her.

Now here's the kicker of the story – after the family ate dinner together, I sat down with her and I asked to see her hand. And the wedding ring was back where it belonged. When I asked her about why she removed her ring, she simply told me that she was retaining water, and removed it when she was sleeping. No message was intended, and she was not threatening to end our marriage. We laughed together when I explained what I thought when I saw the ring lying on our mattress. Anyway, just remember to not read too much into things, especially when it involves your spouse.

My topic today is to discuss a major Christian heresy – Arminianism. John MacArthur, perhaps the leading Protestant voice in America himself has ranked Arminianism as the third most important theological crisis that the North American Church is facing today. Article is here. So allow me to speak generally about this heresy, and perhaps we can learn together why it is so dangerous to today's Church.

Arminianism is a response to the hard to swallow John Calvin doctrine of pre-destination. Theopedia describes it as follows: Arminianism is a school of theology based on the teachings of Dutch theologian Jacob Arminius (1560-1609), for whom it is named. It is perhaps most prominent in the Methodist movement and found in various other evangelical circles today. It stands in contrast to Calvinism, with which it has a long history of debate…

The Arminian followers published something called a 'Remonstrance' which outlined these 5 Arminian beliefs of salvation:

  1. On their own, humans can do nothing good;
  2. Before the foundation of the world, God chose to save everyone who would freely choose to put their trust in Jesus;
  3. Jesus died for everyone, but His death only redeems believers;
  4. People can choose to reject God's attempts to save them;
  5. Scripture does not clearly state whether believers can lose their salvation. (this summary is from 'Christian History Made Easy', Jones, p. 123.

The Calvinist response was to hold the Synod of Dort in 1618, which is where the Calvinist's articulated their 5 TULIP points of Calvinism. Arminianism was also condemned by the Synod.

I have previously been accused of being an Arminian, and so it is a topic I would like to spend more time learning about and discussing. So if anyone has any comments or explanations of Arminianism, I hope you will feel free to share them Thanks, and may God bless you abundantly this week. /s/Tom

Sunday, February 6, 2011

Does God Punish People or Nations Today?

Happy Super Bowl Sunday to everyone. This is a day I have feared for a month now. The Packers are in the Super Bowl, and are actually favored to win. Nooooo! Besides the dread I am experiencing because of the Super Bowl, I am also recovering from a bout of strep throat, as is Elijah. Olivia is at a Holy Spirit retreat this weekend, and I cannot wait to see what she takes away from this experience.

For today's topic, I thought I would write about the topic of whether God punishes people or nations in today's world. Clearly in the Old Testament, we see that God is described as being 'Sovereign', meaning He is the responsible agent for all blessings and all adversity as well. As one example among many we have Ecclesiastes 7:14 which says: "In the day of prosperity be joyful, and in the day of adversity consider: God has made the one as well as the other." In dealing with Israel, God's chosen people we also see in the Old Testament that God is the author of blessings upon both Israel and Individuals when they are faithful, while also punishing wickedness for their lack of faith. Again there are many examples, but I will provide two: first, as an example in the Old Testament of God punishing an individual, we have the example of King Saul, the King of Israel before the famous King David. In 1 Chronicles 10:13-14, we see that Saul "died because he was unfaithful to the Lord" (NLT). So God was the agent of Saul's death because of his unfaithfulness to the Lord.

And as an example in the Old Testament of God punishing a nation, we again see many examples of God's sovereign punishment. The example I have chosen is God's punishment of Israel in 2 Kings 17, where God "removed Israel from His sight" (v. 18). They feared other gods (v. 7), they served idols (v. 12). They did secretly what was not right (v. 9). They did wicked things (v. 10-11). But here is the real clincher of the reason for God punishing Israel: they did not believe in the Lord their God (v. 13-14). This was shown by their ignoring the prophets sent by God. They despised His statutes and His covenant (v. 15). And they abandoned all of the 10 Commandments (v. 15). But the key for God's punishment is found in verses 13-14, where Israel did not believe anymore in their God.

Thus, in the Old Testament God was responsible for punishing both individuals and nations for their lack of faith. But can we draw the conclusion that God still does this in the age after Jesus Christ's death and resurrection, in the age of the New Testament? Let me give a quick reason why this is not necessarily so. First, the Old Testament has the focus of God's relationship with Israel. God made a Covenant with Moses and Israel and this is found in Exodus 19:5 - Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be wmy treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine". As you can see from the wording this is a conditional agreement. If Israel obeys and keeps the Commandments, then it will be God's treasured possession. But if it was not faithful…

But today, we do not have this sort of Covenant with God. And so, God's reason for punishing his people or nations is not the same as it is in the Old Testament.

The example of an event that some preachers have attributed as an action of God is the recent Haiti earthquake. But does this make sense to say God punished Haiti, and not other nations of the world? For example, the claim is that Haiti made some sort of pact with the devil, involving voodoo practices. Why are we so quick to judge others as being worthy of judgment? I know little about this, or even the claim, but don't you think that if there is another nation that unjustifiably slaughtered millions of unborn, innocent children, that this might be a better reason for God's punishment? I'm just saying that America likewise deserves God's punishment. As does Russia. And China. And England, and every other nation on the planet. And so, should we really say the Haitian earthquake is from God, when there was no direct fingerprints of God having acted. It looks like a "natural" tragedy, right? This lack of clarity is a good reason for believing that this was not God using His Sovereign judgment. If we cannot see that God judged Haiti, than this earthquake judgment does not glorify God. We all deserve punishment from God, and we should not so quickly attribute an isolated tragedy as being God's wrath or judgment.

The New Testament story that helps me to draw this conclusion is found in Luke 13. In this chapter, there is a recent tragedy of a tower falling resulting in 18 deaths which was discussed by people asking Jesus the simple question – did they deserve this tragedy because they were terrible sinners? Here is Jesus' response:

"Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered in this way? 3 No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. 4 Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them: do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem? 5 No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish." (Luke 13:2-5)


 

So Jesus reminds us that we are all miserable sinners in God's eyes, deserving punishment. And when we see tragedies likes earthquakes or tidal waves, etc. we should not be so quick to judge these people as making a "pact with the devil". Or judging them for not being the right religion. Instead, we need to see our own need for a Savior, and repent. Isn't it that a simple application for today? May God bless you this week.