The Young Man & His Reason

January 5, 2012 Leave a Comment

A Christian once asked a young man if he wanted to believe in Jesus Christ as his personal Savior. The young man answered, “No.” When the Christian asked him to give a reason for his refusal, he did so. The reason was this:

Several years ago, I was in a man’s kitchen. When he found me there he swore at me and kicked me out. That man was a professing Christian, and from that time I decided never to have anything to do with religion. And I never have to this day.

After hearing that, the Christian asked the young man to write the reason down, word for word, and sign it. The young man played along and did so. Then the Christian handed the signed document back to him and said, “Take this, and when you are asked for your excuse on the day of judgment, hand this up.”

We should learn two lessons from this illustration. First, we Christians should mind our behavior. We do untold damage to the cause of Christ when we our lives slip into sin and compromise. Second, there is no valid excuse for refusing to believe in Christ as Savior. If you think you have one, write it down, sign it, and carry it with you always. You can try using it in the afterlife. Don’t expect it to work, though.

Filed under Backsliding, Belief, Coming Judgment, death, Evangelism, God's Wrath, God's judgment, hell, Personal Holiness, salvation, Witnessing Tagged with , , ,

So Far, So Good

November 18, 2011 3 Comments

A man jumped off the Empire State building. As he went plunging down past the 50th floor, an onlooker spoke to him from an open window and said, “Well, how does it feel?” The jumper answered, “So far, so good.”

Just as that jumper didn’t grasp that the end of the story hadn’t been written yet, many people don’t understand that we shouldn’t judge God’s opinion of a situation based solely upon the current outlook. Take the great flood for instance. Genesis 6:3 tells us that God instituted nothing less than a 120-year countdown for that judgment:

And the Lord said, “My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, for he is indeed flesh; yet his days shall be one hundred and twenty years.”

(By the way, some have wrongly taught that this statement was God limiting the individual lifespan to 120 years. Long after the flood, however, Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Ishmael, and Jacob each lived more than 120 years. So, clearly, the 120 years refers to how long it would be before the flood struck.)

Now imagine that you were a citizen of earth during those 120 years. Couldn’t you have said, “So far, so good”? Jesus spoke of the footloose and carefree attitude that people had during those years. He said:

“For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark and did not know until the flood came and took them all away…” (Matthew 24:38-39)

Right here I could really run with the fact that Bible prophecy teaches that this world has some dark days slated for its future. It’s hard to read Revelation chapters 6 through 19 and miss that. But I feel led to present the application in a different way. Rather than focus upon the coming judgment laid out in Bible prophecy, I want to ask you to examine your own life. Have you been engaging in some sin for which you haven’t paid the price yet? If the answer is yes, consider this post to be your wake-up call. God is longsuffering, but He isn’t foreversuffering. Just because you have gotten by with your sin so far, you shouldn’t take that to mean that you are untouchable. The truth is, you’re already on God’s countdown and a flood is headed your way. So why not repent of your sin today, confess it to Jesus, and lay hold of the forgiveness that comes with believing in Him as your personal Savior? If you don’t, all I can say is enjoy the free-fall while it lasts because you won’t like how it ends.

Filed under Backsliding, Coming Judgment, Forgiveness, God's Wrath, God's judgment, Personal Holiness, Repentance, Sin, Sowing and Reaping Tagged with , , , , , , ,

God Is Not Mocked

September 15, 2011 Leave a Comment

Dr. R.G. Lee was one of the most famous Baptist preachers who ever lived. From 1927 to 1960 he served as the pastor of Bellevue Baptist Church in Memphis, Tennessee. During those years the church grew in membership from 1,400 members to 10,000. He also served three terms as the president of his denomination, the Southern Baptist Convention.

Dr. Lee once used the following illustration:

Newburg, New York had a society led by Bline Palmer called The Druidical Society. It had a high priest and met to ridicule and destroy religion. Infamous and blasphemous acts were performed. At a meeting they burned a Bible, baptized a cat, partook of a mock sacred meal and administered sacrament to a dog.

In the evening, he who administered the sacrament was attacked with a violent inflammatory disease and died before morning in great bodily and mental agony, his inflamed eyeballs protruding and his tongue swollen. Another was found dead the next morning. A third died in a fit a few days later.

In five years of the organization of the society, all thirty-six of the original members had met strange and premature deaths: one of horrible swelling, one found dead in bed, one died in convulsions, one froze to death, three died in accidents, five were suicides, two were stoned to death, seven died on the gallows and eight were shot.

What does the Bible say? “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked…” (Ephesians 6:7).

Filed under God's Holiness, God's Wrath, God's judgment, Rebellion, Sin, Sowing and Reaping, The Depravity of Man Tagged with , , , , , ,

The Power of One

May 10, 2011 Leave a Comment

…one sinner destroys much good. (Ecclesiastes 9:18)

Wow, you talk about a statement with truth to it! These words from Ecclesiastes punch us right in the face, don’t they? What a sad but very real fact it is that just one person, acting in an ungodly manner, can ruin a ton of “good.”

And I’ll openly admit that I hate this about life. I mean, if God is really trying to fix this world, then He shouldn’t let one sinner destroy much good, right? We’re certainly never going to get much accomplished with that setup.

Ah, but there, you see, is the foundational flaw in our thinking. Please pull up close while I let you in on a secret the vast majority of people don’t know: God isn’t trying to fix this world. The noted preacher and author Warren Wiersbe is the man who helped me understand this. He says that rather than trying to save this world, God is saving people out of this world. I have to say that once I got a hold of that idea, life on planet Earth made a lot more sense to me.

Listen, I’m glad that Osama bin Laden has now been brought to his final justice, at least for this life. I’m also happy to hear that gas prices are expected to fall over the next few weeks. And the news that the economy is recovering and employment figures are on the rise is music to my ears. But make no mistake, this world (and that includes America) is still in an irreversible death spiral. Consider the following verses:

But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come… (2 Timothy 3:1)

But evil men and imposters will grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. (2 Timothy 3:13)

Little children, it is the last hour; and as you have heard that the Antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come, by which we know that it is the last hour. (1 John 2:18)

I assure you that the Bible is crystal clear in its teaching that this world is headed for dark, dark times. The climax of these times will be a seven-year period commonly referred to as “the tribulation period.” Getting even more specific, the last three-and-a-half years of that period will be the worst of the worst. How bad will those days be? Jesus said that unless they are shortened no one will be left alive on earth (Matthew 24:22). In other words, if God didn’t put a cap (a time limit) on those days, mankind would completely wipe himself off the face of the earth. Think about that!

“When will these perilous times begin?”, you ask. Well, would you believe that passages such as Hebrews 1:1-2 teach that the “last days” actually began when Jesus came into this world? This means that the momemtum for them has been building for some two thousand years now. Some day, perhaps today, Jesus will miraculously rapture His people away from this world (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18; 1 Corinthians 15:50-58; John 14:1-3). Sometime shortly after that moment in time, God’s official clock for the seven-year tribulation period will begin ticking. That clock will see the prophesied events of Revelation chapters 6 through 18 come to pass upon the earth. And that clock won’t stop ticking until Christ’s Second Coming at the famous Battle of Armageddon (Revelation 19:1-21). It is that battle that will finally signal the end of this age as Christ then establishes His one-thousand-year kingdom upon this earth (Revelation 20:1-6).

Now, tell me, does all of that sound like God is really working hard right now to fix the mess we have made of life on earth? No, it doesn’t. And that’s why He doesn’t always stop it when “one sinner destroys much good.” Please don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that God always lets the troublemaking sinner get away with his deeds. Neither am I saying that God wants us to just throw up our hands and give up on making this world a better place. But what I am saying is that we must always remember that this world has major Biblical prophecies hanging over it, and God isn’t going to cancel those out simply because one sinner now has the power to destroy much good.

Filed under Christ's Second Coming, Coming Judgment, Current Events, God's Timing, God's Wrath, God's judgment, Human Life, Influence, Prophecy Tagged with , , , , , , ,

The Foolish Man & His Diamond

May 5, 2011 Leave a Comment

A wealthy man sold all his possessions for cash and bought an incredibly expensive diamond. He put the diamond in his pocket and took a voyage from England to America. On the deck of the ship, he pulled out the diamond and began flipping it in his hand. Some of his fellow passengers warned him not to be so careless with something so valuable, but he took great delight in how much they worried over his actions. To increase that worrying, he walked over to the ship’s rail and started flipping the diamond there. But as you’ve probably already guessed, during one flip the ship lurched forward unexpectedly and the diamond went down into the sea.

True story? I’d be shocked if it was. No one would be so foolish, right? But the fact is that millions of people act even more foolishly every day as they take the ultimate gamble with the ultimate prize, their soul. What I mean is, they walk around literally one breath out of hell.

Oh, there I went and used an inconvenient word, didn’t I? In this modern era we aren’t supposed to use the word “hell” unless it is for the purposes of profanity or explaining where despicable people such as Osama bin Laden go in the afterlife. But the Bible is still God’s written word, and it still teaches that the souls of all those who die without Christ as Savior go to that awful place called hell.

The New Testament original Greek word for this place is Hades, and in Luke 16:19-31 no less an authority than Jesus Himself described it as a place of torment, flame, separation, remembrance, and regret. In Matthew 13:42, He called it “the furnace of fire” and said it produces “wailing” and “gnashing of teeth.” Obviously, Jesus didn’t shy away from letting people know just how gruesome hell is.

You say, “Okay Russell, I’ll go along with you that hell exists and that the souls of certain people go there in the afterlife. But God only sends murderers, terrorists, pedophiles, rapists, and all the other ‘worst of the worst’there.” Well, that certainly sounds logical and reasonable to our modern mindsets, but it simply isn’t correct theology. There are so many verses that I could cite here, but I’ll just use a few from the third chapter of the gospel of John:

Jesus answered and said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” (John 3:3)

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.” (John 3:16-18)

He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him. (John 3:36)

And so, you see, the only way for you to escape the horrors of hell is to place your belief in Jesus as your personal Savior. Anything less than that and you are still flipping up the priceless diamond of your soul as you stand next to the ship’s rail of the afterlife. Why act so foolishly? If you’ve never done so, why don’t you ask Jesus to be your Savior right now?

Filed under Belief, Choices, Coming Judgment, death, God's Wrath, God's judgment, hell, Priorities, salvation Tagged with , , , , ,

The Awesome Seriousness of Unbelief

March 23, 2011 Leave a Comment

Revelation 21:7-8 contrasts the two potential eternal destinations. First, in verse 7, Jesus says:

“He who overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be His God and he shall be My son.”

This brings up the all-important question, “How does one overcome?” We find that answer in 1 John 5:1,4-5, which says:

“Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves Him who begot also loves him who is begotten of Him…For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world – our faith. Who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?”

So, when a person places his or her belief (faith) in Jesus Christ as Savior, that person becomes an “overcomer.” And all “overcomers” will spend eternity with Christ.

But now let’s turn to the other potential destination. Revelation 21:8 says:

But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.”

You say, “I’m no coward. I’m not abominable. I’ve never murdered anyone. I’m not sexually immoral. I’m certainly not a sorcerer. I don’t have an idol that I worship. And I don’t lie.” Okay, I’ll give you credit for living a life of bravery and morality. But did you notice that the word “unbelieving” is also on that sordid list? And the “unbelief” in question relates to Jesus.

You see, even if you have the rest of the list covered, but you have not believed in Christ as Savior upon your death, you will experience what the verse calls “the second death.” And this “second death” is nothing less than spending eternity in “the lake which burns with fire and brimstone.”

This is how high the stakes are concerning your belief (or lack of it) in Jesus as Savior. Most people wouldn’t rate this unbelief as a heinous sin on par with the likes of murder, sexual immorality, or sorcery, but God does. As a matter of fact, while those other sins will all be forgiven the moment a person believes in Christ, there is no forgiveness to be found (in this life or eternity) for the sin of refusing to yield such belief.

Filed under Belief, Coming Judgment, death, Doing Good, faith, Forgiveness, God's Wrath, God's judgment, Heaven, hell, salvation Tagged with , , , , , , , , ,

Man’s Body

February 18, 2011 Leave a Comment

This will be the last post in a little three-part series on the subject of man’s spirit, soul, and body. This time we’ll deal with man’s body. I’ll grant you that the body is more easily understood than the spirit or the soul, but my guess is that there are still some important things that you need to learn about it.

The best way to describe yourself is like this: You are a soul; you possess a spirit; and you live in a body. Really, the only thing that others see of you is your body. Furthermore, whatever you get done in this world, you’ll do it via your body. As mysterious and wonderful as the spirit and soul are, they aren’t much for mowing the yard, cooking a meal, holding down a job, reading the Bible, going to church, witnessing, etc. You need body parts (eyes, ears, arms, legs, feet, a brain, a skeletal structure, etc.) to get those things done.

This is why, at the moment of a person’s salvation, God the Holy Spirit comes to indwell the person’s body, not the person’s spirit or soul (Romans 5:5; Romans 8:5-11; 1 Corinthians 6:19; 2 Corinthians 5:5). Just as a pilot flies an airplane, a captain steers a ship, or a driver drives a car, the indwelling Holy Spirit wants to be at the controls of the person’s body. Also, having God the Holy Spirit inside your body automatically turns your body into a temple. Please understand that everyone’s body is not a temple. That honor is reserved exclusively for the Spirit-indwelt believer (the genuine Christian). The body-builder, the yoga instructor, the fitness guru, and the health- food advocate may all have bodies that are in peak condition, but if these people don’t know Christ as Savior their bodies aren’t temples. Only Christians have “temple bodies.”

Still, though, just because a Christian’s body is a temple and the indwelling Holy Spirit is in there, that doesn’t mean that the Christian has handed over the controls to the Holy Spirit. The apostle Paul understood this and said to the Christians of the city of Rome:

“I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.” (Romans 12:1)

That term “living sacrifice” is an odd one, isn’t it? How can a sacrifice survive an altar of death? How can it live once it has become a sacrifice? The answer is: The Christian’s body remains alive, but the inner will, which is sin-tainted, corrupt, and prone to take destructive paths, dies on the altar. The body will now be used to carry out that which is “holy, acceptable to God.” The indwelling Holy Spirit will be given the controls unreservedly. He will now fly the plane, captain the ship, and drive the car.

But would you believe that even the indwelling Holy Spirit will not stop the aging process? Mark it down, the bodies of non-Christians and Christians alike wear down over time and eventually cease working. This goes back to the sin in the garden of Eden. Genesis 2:16-17 says:

And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, ‘Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”

Hebrew scholars tell us that the original Hebrew behind the words “you shall surely die” literally mean “dying you shall die.” You see, when Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit their bodies began the long, long process of dying, and eventually that process culminated in their physical deaths. Genesis 5:5 says that Adam actually lived 930 years, but that verse ends with the words “and he died.” And the members of his race have been dying ever since, haven’t they?

But did you know that when all of the various stages of God’s sweeping, eons-long, prophetic program have played themselves out, not one body will be left unresurrected? This isn’t the time or place for me to go into every last detail of that prophetic program, but concerning the resurrections John 5:28-29 is a good summation passage. There Jesus says:

“Do not marvel at this; for the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear His voice and come forth – those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation.”

Notice that Jesus spoke of two categories of resurrection. There will be the resurrection of life, and there will be the resurrection of condemnation. Scripture teaches that the saved believers from all of history will have their bodies resurrected and glorified, even though there won’t be one general “resurrection day” upon which it all happens. (As I said, there are multiple stages to God’s grand plan of prophecy.) But what about the bodies of the lost people from all history? Well, those bodies will all be resurrected too, but for them the resurrection will not involve glorification. Also, their bodies will all be resurrected on a single day. This day will occur at the end of Christ’s 1,000-year reign upon this earth, and it is described in Revelation 20:11-15.

You can read that passage for your homework, but I’ll go ahead and tell you that the bodies of the lost are called forth from wherever their final resting places are (graves, the sea, etc.). Each body is then reunited with the soul that once inhabited it, as each soul is called forth from that unimaginably horrific place we know as “hell.” And it is then that the lost person will be cast resurrected body and reunited soul into an even worse “hell” that is known as “the eternal lake of fire.” There the souls will not be annihilated and the bodies will not be burned up. Instead (and this is beyond tragic) each lost person will spend all eternity, body and soul, in that place of torment.

The Greek word for this eternal lake of fire is Gehenna, and Jesus says in Matthew 10:28:

“And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell (Gehenna).”

You see, the “Him” who is able to cast both soul and resurrected body into the eternal lake of fire called Gehenna is Jesus. But listen, He doesn’t want to do that to you! What He wants is for you to experience salvation by placing your belief in Him as your personal Savior. Once you do that, you won’t have to ever worry about the eternal fate of either your soul or your body, and you’ll be able to present your body as a living sacrifice to Him in this life and enjoy the awesome rewards of the afterlife. So, if you haven’t made this decision for Christ, won’t you do so right now? And, one last thing, get used to that body of yours because you’re going to be spending all eternity in it.

Filed under Belief, Church attendance, Coming Judgment, death, dieting, fear, God's Wrath, God's judgment, God's Will, Heaven, hell, Human Life, Personal Holiness, Prophecy, Reward, salvation, submission, The Holy Spirit Tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Man’s Soul

February 17, 2011 Leave a Comment

In my last post, I talked about man’s spirit. With this post I want to say some things about his soul. I suppose I should begin by pointing out that some people teach that the “spirit” and the “soul” are simply interchangeable terms. For you theological experts out there, this view of man is known as the dichotomist view. But, as I study the Bible, I find that it really does differentiate between the two. For example, in 1 Thessalonians 5:23 and Hebrews 4:12, the apostle Paul makes a point of listing each one separately. So I find myself in agreement with those who hold to the trichotomist view of man.

Actually, the fact of the matter is that each person doesn’t have a soul; each person is a soul. Consider the following passages:

1. Genesis 2:7 says: “And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living nephesh (the Hebrew word for “soul”).”

2. Genesis 12:5 describes the servants that Abram had acquired in Haran as “the souls (nephesh) whom they had acquired.” This is just one of numerous places in the Old Testament where groups of people are referred to as groups of “souls.”

3. 1 Peter 3:20 says that eight “souls” were saved by way of Noah’s ark.

4. James 5:20 talks about saving a “soul” from death.

5. Romans 13:1 commands that every “soul” be subject to the governing authorities. Obviously, this means that every “person” should be subject to the governing authorities.

6. In Revelation 6:9, John sees heaven’s altar and under it the “souls” of many martyrs. Then, in 6:10, he hears those souls actually speak.

7. In Revelation 20:4, John sees the “souls” of those who had been martyred for Jesus during the Tribulation period.

When you understand that each person is a soul, you’ll understand how the Hebrew behind Amos 6:8, which says “The Lord God has sworn by Himself,” can rightly employ the word nephesh. The point is that God Himself is a soul. Furthermore, you’ll also understand why the Bible talks about the need for the human soul to get saved. You see, the term “soul saving” is just another way of saying “person saving.” Passages that speak of “the saving of the soul” are: Hebrews 10:39; James 1:21; and 1 Peter 1:9.

For the record, I should also mention that creatures and animals are also “souls” in the strictest technical sense. Verses such as Genesis 1:21,24; 2:19; and 9:10,12,15,16 all use the Hebrew word nephesh and translate it as “creatures.” Unlike the case of man, however, this doesn’t mean that creatures go to any kind of afterlife. Believe me, I like to think of my favorite dog, Tramp, as being out there in eternity waiting for me, but the Bible really doesn’t teach that he is. It does mention animals as being a part of Christ’s future 1,000-year reign upon this earth (Isaiah 11:6-9), and if you take Revelation 19:11-14 literally (and I do) there will be horses in heaven. But all that is not the same as saying that the souls of animals depart to an afterlife at death. I know there is a movie called “All Dogs Go To Heaven,” but I can’t find that verse in the Book.

But where does the soul of the individual go in the afterlife? Since the soul is eternal it must go somewhere, right? Well, first let me say that, like the spirit, the soul immediately departs from the body at death. Genesis 35:18 describes Rachel’s death in this way:

“And so it was, as her soul was departing (for she died), that she called his name Ben-Oni; but his father called him Benjamin.”

There is, however, a serious difference concerning the spirit’s departure and the soul’s departure. As I said in my previous post, each person’s spirit returns to God at death (Ecclesiastes 12:7). But the soul passes on to one of two locations. It either goes to a place of eternal salvation with God or a place of eternal damnation apart from him. The proof texts here are: Luke 16:19-31; Acts 2:27,31; 1 Corinthians 15:50; Matthew 5:11-12; Romans 8:16-18; 1 Peter 1:3-5; Matthew 7:21-23; Matthew 25:41; and Romans 2:5-9.

And so, when everything is said and done, the main thing that you need to pull from all this is that you are a soul and you are going to spend eternity either with God in perfect bliss or separated from Him in indescribable torment. And the deciding factor on where you end up is your belief in or lack of belief in Jesus Christ as your personal Savior. 1 Peter 2:24-25 says this to Christians:

“who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness – by whose stripes you were healed. For you were like sheep going astray, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.”

Jesus really is the Shepherd and Overseer of my soul. I wonder, can the same be said of your soul?

Filed under Belief, Bible Study, Christ's Second Coming, Coming Judgment, death, Evangelism, God's Wrath, God's judgment, Government, Heaven, hell, Human Life, Prophecy, Reward, salvation, Scripture, The Bible, Witnessing 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 God Judging America?

January 18, 2011 Leave a Comment

The question is often asked, “Is God judging America?” Well, the answer is an emphatic YES. Haven’t seen any fire and brimstone raining down from the sky, you say? Haven’t seen the plagues that once brought mighty Egypt to its knees? Me neither. But that’s not how God is judging America.

Romans 1:18-32 is one of the most terrifying passages in all the Bible, if people would only realize it for what it is. The passage explains what God will eventually do to those who persistently, consistently, and steadfastly refuse to come under His lordship. He will “give them up” (or “give them over”) to uncleaness, immorality, and wickedness so that they can fully indulge in the lusts of their hearts. This “giving up” allows them to dishonor their bodies by letting their debased minds and vile passions run free and unencumbered.

I used to drive a school bus, and that bus had a governor on its motor. A governor is a little device that kicks in when a bus reaches a certain speed. Its purpose is to slow the motor down to keep the bus from going any faster. The governor kicked in at 50 m.p.h. in the case of my bus. Okay, just as that governor served as a restraint, the Romans passage teaches that God reaches a point with hardened sinners where He takes His governor off their lives and says, “Go as fast and live as dangerously as you want. I’ve tried to help you, but your heart is so set against Me that you won’t heed Me. So have it.”

I once heard a baseball coach say to his players, “Boys, if I yell at you, it’s because I care about you. The day I stop yelling at you, that’s when you need to worry because it means that I’ve given up on you.” The Romans passage explains that God works the same way in the lives of individuals. It’s when He stops yelling that the situation gets scary.

You see, God is right now pouring out His wrath (1:18) upon America by allowing stubborn, sinful men and women who are dead set in their own ways and rebellion against Him to do whatever they want. Do they want to engage in homosexuality and lesbiansim (1:26-27)? No governor here. Do they want to live lives marked by “sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, malciousness, envy, murder, strife, deceit, and evil-mindedness” (1:28-29)? God’s not yelling. Do they want to be “whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, and unmerciful?” God is sitting up in heaven and watching it happen without lifting a finger to stop it.

But how can God’s lack of action be classified as Him pouring out His wrath? It’s because He understands something that hardened, calloused rebels don’t: He understands that the rebel lifestyle, when carried out to its desired extreme, is a fire that ultimately gets so big and so hot that it consumes the rebel himself. The rebel truly believes that he is living the high life, but in reality he is only destroying himself. In this way, he virtually judges himself and pours out God’s wrath upon himself. And, make no mistake, this is exactly what is happening with millions of Americans.

Furthermore, dare I say that God has even taken this “hands off” approach with our nation as a whole. He’s letting us have the corrupt, greedy politicians so many Americans favor. He’s letting us have the perverse, immoral national laws so many Americans will take to the streets over. To sum up, He’s letting a bunch of ungodly, undiscerning, and unbroken sinners have their way. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is why our nation stands on the brink of ruination.

Filed under abortion, adultery, Choices, Coming Judgment, Desires, Disobedience, God's Wrath, God's judgment, Government, Homosexuality, Lesbianism, obedience, Rebellion, Sin, submission Tagged with , , , , , , , , ,

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