Illegitimate Praying

February 24, 2011 Leave a comment

The Bible tells of many different people praying to many different gods. The Jews from the Old Testament and the Christians from the New Testament prayed to the “LORD” (Yahweh, Jehovah). The false prophets of Elijah’s day prayed to Baal. The Philistines prayed to Dagon. The Moabites prayed to their false gods, as did the people of Ur. The Egyptians prayed to a pantheon of false gods. The book of Jonah says of Jonah’s fellow sailors “and every man cried out to his god.” You get the idea.

All this shows how naturally religious man is. Innately we understand that creation’s mere existence proves that there must be a Creator God (Romans 1:20; Psalm 14:1; Psalm 53:1). A creation, especially one as intricately designed and detailed as ours, can’t just burst forth from nothing. Nothing will continue to be nothing endlessly unless a Creator God goes to work and creates something. Therefore, the mere fact that we have a creation proves that there must be a God. As the old line goes, you can’t have a clock without a clock builder.

From time immemorial this commonsense truth has driven people to attempt to commune with the Creator God. They’ve tried to worship Him and offer up prayers to Him. But the problem has historically been that man’s nature of sin has corrupted these attempts at worship and prayer. This explains the origins of the various forms of idolatry that have dotted our world since the early pages of Genesis (Romans 1:20-23).

And so, in the midst of all the praying that is done to all the gods via all the religions, we are left to figure out who is praying legitimate prayers to the legitimate God. Someone says, “Well, I think that any prayer that is prayed in sincerity to any god must be classified as legitimate.” Certainly that idea sounds very sweet in an “I’m okay,
you’re okay” kind of way, but it simply isn’t Biblical. Did you know that the Bible says that sacrifices, and by implication prayers, that are offered to idols are, in actuality, offered to demons (fallen angels, the spirits associated with the idols)? You’ll find that teaching in 1 Corinthians 10:19-21, Deuteronomy 32:15-18, and Revelation 9:20. That’s a far cry from legitimate!

Filed under Demons, idolatry, prayer Tagged with , , , , , , ,

What The Bible Teaches About Abortion

January 25, 2011 Leave a comment

This past Saturday, January 22, marked the anniversary of the Supreme Court’s 1973 ruling in the infamous Roe vs. Wade case. That ruling legalized abortion in America. As it so happens, yesterday I dropped off some items our church had donated to our local Tri-County Pregnancy Center. These two occurrences have brought the issue of abortion front and center to my mind.

The number of babies reported as aborted in America now stands at over 53 million. Please stop right now and read that sentence again. The Nazis killed 6 million Jews in World War II, and history rightly labeled it a holocaust. It makes you wonder what we should call 53 million forced deaths. Tragedy? That’s too soft. Atrocity? That’s a little closer. Barbarity? Now you’re getting warmer. Savagery? That might be about as accurate as we can come.

And the plain fact is that the death toll actually stands at more than 53 million. I say that because it is common knowledge that abortion is oftentimes a “cash” business, and in such businesses the books aren’t always, shall we say, exact. Why pay the I.R.S. when you can cheat, right? Before she became a Christian, Carol Everett was the head of multiple abortion clinics, and she freely admits that she routinely kept two sets of books at her clinics, one for herself and one for the I.R.S. In light of such typical operating procedure, there’s simply no way of calculating a truly accurate number of abortions that have been performed in America. 

But it’s not my purpose here to try and figure out the exact number of babies that have been lost since Roe vs. Wade. It’s also not my purpose to bring politics into the discussion. No, what I really want to do with this post is take the Bible and explain just what it teaches about abortion. So, if you have a problem with what I say, your problem will be with God’s written word, not with me. Keep that in mind as we go along.

Now, I want to ask and answer three questions, and question #1 is:

  

“According to the Bible, when does life actually begin?”

 

The answer is: at the moment of conception in the womb. As proof of this, I’ll cite five passages and ask you to read them carefully, with an open mind.

1. Psalm 139:13-16: “For You formed my inward parts; You covered me in my mother’s womb…My frame was not hidden from You, when I was made in secret…Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed…”

2. Psalm 22:10: “…From My mother’s womb You have been My God.”

3. Isaiah 49:1: “…The Lord has called me from the womb. From the matrix (inward parts) of My mother He has made mention of my name.” 

4. Job 10:8-12: “Your hands have made me and fashioned me, an intricate unity; yet You would not destroy me. Remember, I pray, that You have made me like clay. And will You turn me into dust again? Did you not pour me out like milk, and curdle me like cheese, clothe me with skin and flesh, and knit me together with bones and sinews? You have granted me life and favor, and your care has preserved my spirit.”

5. Jeremiah 1:4-5: “Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying: ‘Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you…’”

 

Alright, now, question #2 is this:

 

“According to the Bible, is a mother’s life ever more important than her child’s life?”

 

The answer is, no. While the Bible holds seemingly countless verses that sing the praises of selflessness, love, sacrifice, motherhood, and concern for others, I think a good singular proof text here is Genesis 35:16-20. That passage tells the story of how Jacob’s beloved wife Rachel died giving birth to their son Benjamin. What’s interesting is that despite Rachel’s great importance in the life of Jacob, to say nothing of her importance in the unfolding of the history recorded in Genesis, God let her die and her baby live. That right there ought to tell us something about His mind on this question.

 

And then, question #3 is this:

 

“According to the Bible, does an unborn child have the same standing with God an adult has?”

 

The answer here is, yes, and the passage is Exodus 21:22-25. I understand that these verses are specifically a part of God’s Old Testament law for Israel, and we don’t live under that law, but that doesn’t mean that we can’t glean truth from it. As you read these verses, pay careful attention to how God rates the health of a baby in a womb on legal par with someone who injures it. The verses say:

“If men fight, and hurt a woman with child, so that she gives birth prematurely, yet no harm follows, he shall surely be punished accordingly as the woman’s husband imposes on him; and he shall pay as the judges determine. But if any harm follows, then you shall give life for life eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, stripe for stripe.”    

 

Well, with these three questions and answers, I’d like to think that I’ve said enough to convince you of what the Bible teaches about abortion. But, just for further proof, here are a few more ”quick hits.” Hopefully, you’ll find these instructive too:

1. A man and a woman can have sex, but only God can create “life.” Thus, He is the only one who should have any say over how that life is ended.

2. The argument that a deformed fetus can be aborted without repercussion is not a valid one because in Exodus 4:11 God says to Moses, “Who has made man’s mouth? Or who makes the mute, the deaf, the seeing, or the blind? Have not I, the Lord?”

3. In Job 3:11, Job asks, “Why did I not die at birth? Why did I not perish when I came from the womb?” Think about it, you have to be alive to begin with in order to die.

4. In Genesis 25:23, God refers to Jacob and Esau as two nations even as they were still fetuses in Rebekah’s womb.    

 5. A Christian woman has no right whatsoever to say, “My body is my own, and I’ll do what I want to with it.” She has no right to say that because 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 says to Christians: “Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.

6. Psalm 106:34-43; Deuteronomy 12:31; 2 Kings 17:17; and Ezekiel 16:20-21 describe how the people of Israel learned the idolatrous ways of the people of Canaan and ended up sacrificing their sons and daughters to idols, which in reality was sacrificing them to demons. God called these sacrifices the shedding of innocent blood, and His wrath was kindled against Israel as He began to abhor His own people. Should we Americans not expect Him to respond to us the same way in the wake of the millions of innocent babies we have aborted? Keep in mind that Proverbs 6:16-19 says that God hates “hands that shed innocent blood.” 

7. Christians simply do not have the option of remaining silent on the issue of abortion. Proverbs 31:8-9 says: “Open your mouth for the speechless, in the cause of all who are appointed to die. Open your mouth, judge righteously, and plead the cause of the poor and needy.”

Now, in closing, let me be sure to say a word to any man or woman who has been the cause of an abortion. God still loves you. Abortion is not the unpardonable sin, and there is a full and blessed life that can be lived even after an abortion. You need to understand that the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses and forgives all sin. Heaven isn’t divided into the camps of mothers and fathers who aborted their children and mothers and fathers who didn’t. For that matter, neither is hell. And while we’ve seen that the Bible has a lot to say about abortion, it has even more to say about the forgiveness that is offered to all in Jesus Christ. That forgiveness certainly extends to the sin of abortion, and Jesus is more than willing to shower it upon you if you will place your belief in Him as Savior. So, I assure you that the purpose of this post has not been to demoralize you by clubbing you over the head with the Bible. What it’s been is an attempt to provide a faithful and fairly thorough analysis of what God’s written word teaches on a highly controversial subject.  

Filed under abortion, Bible Study, Children, Demons, Forgiveness, God's Wrath, God's judgment, Parenting, Seeking Forgiveness Tagged with , , , , ,

Is There Life On Other Planets?

August 3, 2009 Leave a comment

Each Sunday morning at Disciples Road Church I take about five minutes and answer any Bible question someone has. My folks really enjoy this part of our service, and they ask some good questions. Yesterday the question was, “Does the Bible say anything about life on other planets?” (By the way, the person who asked it was very careful to say, “We’re talking about E.T. phone home here, not just a living organism.”)  

The short answer to the question is, no, the Bible doesn’t say anything about life on other planets. Some people have tried to make the case that the four living creatures of Ezekiel chapter 1 are aliens. Clearly, however, they are angels. Other people read the stories of how Enoch (Genesis 5:21-24) and Elijah (2 Kings 2:1-11) were taken up to heaven and say, “Maybe they were carried away by spaceships.” No way. Each story makes a point of saying that it was God who did the taking. A handful of others run wild with the fact that Jesus said, “And other sheep I have which are not of this fold” (John 10:16). But there’s absoutely no doubt that the “other sheep” were the Gentiles, not aliens on other planets.

Rather than hinting that there is life on other planets, the Bible lays out a pretty clear case that there isn’t. Let me give you a few thoughts to consider on this issue. Mull these over in your mind and just let the Bible say what it says.

First, Genesis 1:1 says: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” That word “heavens” covers all the other planets out there in space. This means, then, that all those other planets were created on the same day (day 1 of the creation week) as the earth. So much for aliens being more advanced than us because their planets have been around so much longer than our’s.

Second, Romans 8:22 says: “For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now.” This verse tells us that all of creation, not just the earth but also the other planets, was affected by Adam’s sin. Sin now had to be accounted for in God’s perfect creation. When God said to Adam, “Cursed is the ground for your sake” (Genesis 3:17), evidently that curse extended to all creation. Therefore, it seems unlikely that there are any pristine planets out there that are even more life-sustaining than the earth. Along these same lines, a friend of mine once pointed out to me that in view of all creation being fallen, it wouldn’t have been fair for God to punish other intelligent life simply because Adam sinned.      

Third, Jesus became a human and died in a human body. He arose from the dead in a resurrected, glorified human body. Even after that resurrection, He bore the marks of the death upon that body (John 20:24-29). Thus, Jesus is the eternal “God-man.” He is not the eternal “God-martian” or whatever. He has chosen to eternally align Himself with mankind by eternally existing in a glorified human body.

Fourth, the church, which consists of humans, is Christ’s eternal bride (Ephesians 5:22-32). If He has another bride, one that comes from some other planet, that makes Him a bigamist and an adulterer (Matthew 19:1-6). In light of this, if there are alien civilizations, are they without sin and without need of Christ’s redemption? To believe they are sinless is to believe that God gave them a better shot at remaining sinless than He gave Adam and Eve. Come on, do we really think that God played it that way?

You say, “But Russell, you just don’t know all the evidence for life on other planets.” Oh, yes, I do. You aren’t talking to a sci-fi novice here! I go all the way back to Leonard Nimoy’s “In Search Of” back in the 1970s. I know all about: Roswell, area 51, flying saucers, alien abductions, men in black, USOs (unidentified submerged objects), time travel, the loss of time, the Bermuda triangle, crop circles, and livestock mutilations. I’ve seen Star Trek, The Outer Limits, The Twilight Zone, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, The X Files, Stargate, etc. Yes, preachers are allowed to watch that kind of stuff.

But my problem is simple: I can’t honestly make all the talk about aliens match up with the Bible. I’ve read the Book, and aliens just aren’t in there. It disappoints a lot of people that they aren’t, but I can’t help that.

What I try to do is come up with reasonable explanations for all the sci-fi stories. For example, it’s absurd to think that every last one of the thousands of people who claim to have seen alien spaceships is lying. Many of them really did see something. But what did they see? While I don’t claim to have all the answers, I feel extremely confident in saying that we don’t know half of what our government’s military complex has in the works. I’m sure that secret, government aircraft can explain some of the “spaceships.”

As for the sightings of actual aliens, again I don’t claim to have all the answers. But I don’t discount the activity of demons (fallen angels). Ephesians 6:12 says: “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.” Likewise, Ephesians 2:2 calls Satan “the prince of the power of the air.” Who knows what appearances fallen angels can take? Revelation 12:9 says that Satan “deceives the whole world.” Could demons appear as aliens and deceive people into thinking those demons come from another planet? I’m not saying they have, but I’m sure saying they could.

But what about all the stories from ancient cultures of how the gods came down from the sky and advanced their cultures? Every time I hear one of those stories my mind immediately races to Genesis 6:1-4. There we find the record of how a group of fallen angels (called “the sons of God”, see Job 1:6 and Job 2:1) once interacted with mankind, even to the point of taking wives for themselves and producing human offspring through them.

I’ll guarantee you those fallen angels didn’t show up on earth one day and say, “Hi, we are demons who have been banished from our place in heaven. We’re here to perpetrate all kinds of wickedness and evil upon you. Let’s get started.” No, those demons would have been more than happy to let those people believe the demons were either gods who came down from the sky or aliens who came from far across the galaxy.

At the end of the day, I guess I would sum up my feelings by saying that if irrefutable evidence of life on other planets was ever presented (an alien spaceship landing on the White House lawn, etc.) I would revise my thinking and say, “Okay, aliens do exist and God, for whatever reason, just didn’t want them mentioned in the Bible.” But I don’t think that’s going to happen. If it does, I promise that I’ll write a follow-up blog. If I were you, though, I wouldn’t be racing to the computer every morning to look for it. That’s a little too sci-fi for even me.

Filed under Demons, Life On Other Planets, Scripture, The Bible, The Devil Tagged with , , ,

That Old Serpent

June 1, 2009 Leave a comment

My brother, Richie, and his family have been renting an older house for about a year or so. Last summer he killed a huge blacksnake on the wooden deck of the place. A few days ago he looked out and saw what he said must have been that snake’s mate lying on the deck. He would have killed it too, but he is in the process of moving into a new home and didn’t have a hoe or shovel handy. He had to settle for scaring the thing off the deck. And, no, the blacksnakes aren’t the reason he is moving. If it was me in that house, though, it would be!    

When I saw Richie this past Thursday he showed me a cell-phone picture he had taken of the one that got away. We estimated the snake to be over six feet long. For some reason, the creature made me think of Satan, the one the Bible calls “the serpent of old” (Revelation 20:2). It was Satan who entered into the body of the garden of Eden’s serpent and tempted Eve (Genesis 3:1-5). If you don’t believe that a fallen angel (a demon) can enter into the body of a serpent, you had best read the story of how Jesus allowed a group of demons to enter into a herd of swine (Matthew 8:28-32; Mark 5:1-14; Luke 8:26-33). Certainly if those demons could have entered into those swine, Satan could have entered into that serpent.  

Count me among those who believe that the incident in Eden explains why snakes crawl on their bellies. God did say to the serpent, “Because you have done this, you are cursed more than all livestock and every beast of the field. On your belly you shall go” (Genesis 3:14). That wouldn’t have been much of a punishment if the serpent had always slithered along on the ground. Evidently, the creature originally stood erect somehow.

But why did God punish that poor serpent? Wasn’t it just a pawn in the hands of a mighty fallen angel? What purpose is served by having a world full of snakes going around on their bellies rather than walking upright? Dare I say that God meant for every snake to be a constant reminder of what happened back in Eden. He doesn’t want us to ever forget that Satan deceived Eve, a deception which led to the fall of the human race.

Isaiah 14:3-23 and Ezekiel 28:1-19 are two of the more fascinating passages concerning Satan. In them we find him indelibly intertwined with the earthly kings of Babylon and Tyre. In each passage, much of the language fits Satan better than the earthly ruler. For example, Ezekiel 28:15 says, “You were perfect in your ways from the day you were created, till iniquity was found in you.” Also, Ezekiel 28:13 says, “You were in Eden, the garden of God.”

Some translations of Isaiah 14:12 even use the word “Lucifer,” which means “shining one” or “morning star.” Obviously, the point that Isaiah and Ezekiel are making is that Satan was the real power behind the thrones of Babylon and Tyre. Some parts of the passages apply to the earthly kings while other parts apply to Satan. It is as if God keeps crossing back and forth between the story of the two kings and the story of Satan.

This means that we can use these passages to glean several truths about Satan. When we do this, we come up with seven of them:

#1: God created Satan as perfect (Ezekiel 28:12,15).

#2: Satan was bright, shining, and indescribably beautiful (Ezekiel 28:12-13,17).

#3: Satan was a cherub angel (Ezekiel 28:14).

#4: Satan had a high rank in the angelic order, possibly even the highest (Ezekiel 28:14). 

#5: Satan became sinfully vain and proud of his beauty and rank (Isaiah 14:13-14, Ezekiel 28:16-18).

#6: Satan fell from heaven (Isaiah 14:12, Ezekiel 28:16).

#7: Satan has even more judgment in his future (Isaiah 14:16-17, Ezekiel 28:19).

Whereas the Isaiah and Ezekiel prophecies only hint at Satan’s future judgment, other passages paint in the full picture. The judgment’s order is as follows: 

-At the midway point of the coming seven-year Tribulation period, Satan and the other fallen angels (Revelation 12:3-4 indicates that one-third of all the angels fell with him) will make a second attempt at overthrowing God in heaven (Revelation 12:7). Again, though, they will lose and be cast out of God’s presence (Revelation 12:8-12).  

-At Christ’s Second Coming, Satan and the other fallen angels will be chained up and cast into that place described as “the bottomless pit” (Revelation 20:1-2; Matthew 8:28-29; Luke 8:26-31; Isaiah 24:21-22). They will remain incarcerated there for the one thousand years of Christ’s Millennial reign upon the earth (Revelation 20:2-3).

-Following that reign, Satan and the other fallen angels will be released to mount one last rebellion against the Lord (Revelation 20:7-9). God the Father will personally cast fire down from heaven to put an end to that rebellion (Revelation 20:9).

-Satan and the other fallen angels will then be banished to the lake of fire where they will spend eternity suffering in torment (Revelation 20:10, Matthew 25:41).     

And so, you see, unlike Richie’s blacksnake, Satan isn’t going to get away. His days are numbered. Surely he knows this, and this is why he works so diligently to get his desires done. But take heart, Christian. God is still on the throne and Satan must answer to Him. We want God to hurry up and deal with him, but God is always working from a predetermined plan. What we must do is trust Him and patiently await Satan’s demise. Oh, and in the meantime, let’s keep on the lookout for what Satan and his angels are up to in our lives. Let’s put on “the whole armor of God” so that we can “stand against the wiles of the devil” (Ephesians 6:10-20). And, as for me, I’m watching out for blacksnakes too!

Filed under Coming Judgment, Demons, Satan, The Devil Tagged with , , , , , , , , , , ,

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