Does God Want Everyone to Get Married?

Posted on August 21, 2009 by russellmckinney

“Marriage” series: (post #3)

(Note from the author: This blog post was originally written as part of a series on the subject of marriage. I wrote the post to answer the question, “What if I don’t want to get married?” However, in the years since I published the post, I’ve noticed that many of the comments have come from people asking the question, “What about the person who wants to get married but can’t?” The post really doesn’t speak to that question, but several of the comments, as well as my replies to those comments, do. So if that’s the help you are looking for, take the time to read through the comments and replies. And be sure to click on the “older comments” to access them as well. We’ve had a pretty spirited debate on the whole subject over the years, and my prayer is that God will use it all to help you find the answers you need. Thanks for reading, and God bless you.)  Pastor Russell Mckinney      

Is it God’s will for each person to get married? The Bible’s answer is, no. However, the reason the Bible names for remaining unmarried is an interesting one. It has to do with the single person being able to devote more time, energy, and resources to service to Christ.

The passage on this is 1 Corinthians 7:25-40. In those verses, the apostle Paul presents the advantages of remaining, as he puts it, “without care.” He says of the man:

But I want you to be without care. He who is unmarried cares for the things of the Lord — how he may please the Lord. But he who is married cares about the things of the world — how he may please his wife, (1 Corinthians 7:32-33, N.K.J.V.)

Then Paul applies this same thought to the woman, as he says:

There is a difference between a wife and a virgin (Paul’s term for an unmarried woman). The unmarried woman cares about the things of the Lord, that she may be holy both in body and in spirit. But she who is married cares about the things of the world — how she may please her husband. (1 Corinthians 7:34, N.K.J.V.)

Needless to say, we shouldn’t take these verses as an indictment against married people. After all, God’s ordained way of propagating the human race is through marriage, and a person can certainly be married and still serve the Lord. But Paul’s point is a good one. Anyone who has been married for one week knows that married life carries many responsibilities with it, and those responsibilities will eat away at time, energy, and resources that could be spent on matters that are more obviously spiritual.

I purposely use that word “obviously” because the fact is that every aspect of a Christian’s life is, in a very real sense, “spiritual.” This same Paul wrote in Colossians 3:17:

And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him. (N.K.J.V.)

He says basically the same thing in 1 Corinthians 10:31:

Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. (N.K.J.V.)

Those two verses remind me of that little story about the woman standing at the sink, washing the dishes. A sign above her sink reads, “Divine service rendered here three times daily.” You see, even a marriage responsibility such as washing the dishes can become “divine service” when it is done to the glory of God.

Nevertheless, what Paul is saying in the 1 Corinthians chapter 7 passage is that single people can do certain things for the Lord married people just can’t do. I was a pastor before I got married. Back in those days I could sit up all night working on sermons and not worry about bothering anybody else in the house. Do you know what made that possible? It was the fact that there wasn’t anybody else in the house.

Similarly, I could pray out loud while I laid in bed. I could plan my pastoral visitation schedule with no thought whatsoever to what was going on with my wife’s day. I didn’t have to concern myself with the cares of grocery shopping for anyone other than myself. I didn’t have two boys to get to their ball practices. I didn’t have a mother-in-law or a father-in-law to include in my plans for the holidays. I was, to use Paul’s words, “without care,” except the care I put into serving Christ.

In Matthew 19:12, Jesus gives this same teaching. He says:

“For there are eunuchs who were born thus from their mother’s womb, and there are eunuchs who were made eunuchs by men, and there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven’s sake.” (N.K.J.V.)

With these words, Jesus describes three different types of eunuch. First, the eunuchs who were born eunuchs would be those people who shouldn’t get married because of physical or mental problems from birth. Second, the eunuchs who were made eunuchs by men were men who were castrated in order to serve in royal service to a king. (In the East, it was common practice to castrate certain servants, particularly those who were placed in charge of kings’ harems.) Third, the eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven’s sake are those who have voluntarily committed themselves to celibacy and remaining unmarried in order that they might completely give themselves over to service to the Lord.

And so, we see that there is nothing wrong with remaining single. However, if you are going to go that route in life, you must ask yourself the question, “Why do I want to remain single?” Is it because you don’t want to be “tied down” to one person? Is it because you want to be free to “play the field”? Is it because you are far too self-absorbed and self-centered to ever think about sharing your life with someone else? Or is it because you want to keep yourself free so that you can devote 100% of your time, energy, and resources to Jesus?

If that last one is your motivation, then you are in the good company of Christians such as Paul, people whom God is able to use in ways that are different than the ways in which He uses married people. You see, remaining single is certainly nothing of which you should be ashamed. You just need to make sure that you take the time, energy, and resources that you would spend on a spouse (and potentially children) and spend them exclusively on Jesus.

Posted in Children, Family, Fatherhood, God's Will, Marriage, Motherhood, Series: "Marriage" | Tagged , , , , | 97 Comments

Who Should a Person Marry?

Posted on August 19, 2009 by russellmckinney

“Marriage” series: (post #2)

At the risk of sounding simplistic, a person should marry the one whom God wills. It’s crazy to think that if God’s plan for an individual’s life involves marriage, He wouldn’t have a spouse in mind for that individual. While it’s true that Adam didn’t have any other options but Eve, it’s also true that God “brought her” to him. As Genesis 2:22 says:

Then the rib which the Lord God had taken from man He made into a woman, and He brought her to the man. (N.K.J.V.)

Adam’s lust didn’t bring Eve to him (i.e., “I was in the heat of passion for her.”). His loneliness didn’t bring her to him (i.e., “I was very lonely and she was there.”). His need didn’t bring her to him (i.e., “I needed someone and she was convenient.”). His circumstances didn’t bring her to him (i.e., “We were both living in the same area and just kind of came together.”). His parents didn’t bring her to him (i.e., “Mom and dad thought we’d make a nice couple.”). His friends didn’t bring her to him (i.e., “My friends hooked me up with her.”). No, it was God who brought Eve to him.   

It’s not that God can’t use loneliness, need, circumstances, parents, or friends to bring a man and woman together in His will. For that matter, He can even use lust in that way (1st Corinthians 7:8-9). The point is that regardless of the means God uses to bring the couple together, each spouse will be able to look at the other spouse and truthfully say, “I know that God brought you to me. I know you are the person He willed for me to marry.”

Now, with this in mind, let me point out that there are a couple of major Biblical guidelines as to who a person should marry. Guideline #1 is: No man should marry another man, and no woman should marry another woman. The relevant Old Testament passages on this topic (Genesis 2:21-25; Genesis 19:1-29; Leviticus 18:22; Leviticus 20:13) are crystal clear, and so are the New Testament passages (Matthew 19:1-6; Romans 1:18-32; 1 Corinthians 6:9-11; 1 Timothy 1:8-10). As I once heard a preacher say, “If the Bible doesn’t teach that homosexuality is a sin, it doesn’t teach that anything is a sin.”

Guideline #2 is: A Christian should never marry someone who isn’t a Christian. The passage on this one is 2 Corinthians 6:14-18. Those verses call such a union an “unequal yoke.” A yoke is wooden bar or frame that sits across the shoulders of two draft animals and binds them together side by side for the purpose of work. Oxen are most typically the ideal animals to yoke together for working, hence the term “a yoke of oxen.”

But what if a farmer put an ox in one harness of the yoke and a horse in the other? In such a case, the yoke wouldn’t work properly because an ox and a horse are different. Their shoulders aren’t the same height. Their walks are different. Their mannerisms aren’t the same. All this would make for an unequal yoke.

Likewise, a Christian and a non-Christian are two completely different types of people. They don’t think alike. Their priorities aren’t the same. They don’t approach life in the same way. That’s why God says they shouldn’t get married.

Needless to say, who a person marries will go a long, long way in determining the quality of that person’s marriage. This is why it’s so important to marry in God’s will. Adam and Eve lived together for centuries as husband and wife and produced descendants that, to a large extent, served the Lord (Genesis 5:1-32). But how did it all start for them? It started with God bringing them together. That’s always the place to start with marriage, and it’s just sad that so many marriages start in other ways. While God can help any marriage become a good one, everything just goes a lot easier if the husband and wife were in His will for each other’s life right from the start.

Posted in God's Will, Homosexuality, Husbands, Marriage, Series: "Marriage", Wives | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Where Did the Idea of Marriage Come From?

Posted on August 16, 2009 by russellmckinney

“Marriage” series: (post #1)

This post begins a series on the topic of marriage. With each of these posts I’ll answer a question that pertains to the topic. Question #1 is: Where did the idea of marriage come from?

The answer to the question is simple: God gave us the idea of marriage. Genesis 2:18 says:

And the Lord God said, “It is not good that man should be alone; I will make a helper comparable to him.” (N.K.J.V.)

That “helper” was Eve. The Bible first uses the word “wife” in Genesis 2:24, which says of Eve:

Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. (N.K.J.V.)

It is noteworthy that the only thing not “good” about God’s original creation was the fact that Adam was alone. Seven times in Genesis chapter 1 we find some variation of the phrase, “And God saw that it was good.” That all stops, however, when we get to Genesis 2:18, which says it was “not good that man should be alone (emphasis mine).”

Following that jolting change in the storyline, we would assume that the next verse, verse 19, would give us the account of God creating Eve. But that isn’t the way the story reads. Instead, verse 19 talks about Adam naming every beast of the field and bird of the air. What’s up with that? Why didn’t God immediately launch into creating Eve?

He didn’t do it because even though He knew that Adam needed Eve, Adam hadn’t realized it yet. And so, God started bringing land creatures and birds to Adam to let him name them. By reading between the lines just a bit, we can imagine Adam naming each creature and bird and then watching as each one joined back up with its mate to run off or fly off. We know that each of the creatures had a mate because God had previously said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply” (Genesis 1:28). Well, somewhere over the course of all that naming, Adam had to think, “I don’t have one of those mates.” That was the moment he realized his need for a wife, and that was the moment he became ready to get married.

Of course, the world’s first surgery had to be done before Adam could have a wife. God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and while he was sleeping God removed one of his ribs. From that rib God fashioned Eve.

As for the world’s first wedding, God was the presiding minister over the ceremony. The only vows spoken that day came from Adam when he said of Eve,

“This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called Woman because she was taken out of Man” (Genesis 2:23).

The Hebrew word translated in that verse as “Man” is Ish, while the Hebrew word translated as “Woman” is Ishshah. The close relationship between the two is obvious. Eve was the shah to Adam’s Ish.

Now, here’s what I want to leave with you about this whole story: Since God is the One who gave the human race the idea of marriage, He is the One who gets to set the ground rules for marriage. That means He decides who can get married and who can’t. He decides what constitutes a marriage and what doesn’t. He decides what role the husband should play and what role the wife should play.

Over the course of this series, we’ll be looking at all these issues as well as some others. In each instance, though, we will always come back to the foundation of God and His revealed word. He certainly hasn’t left us in the dark concerning an institution as important as marriage. We just need to let His revealed light shine and walk in it.

Posted in Bible Study, God's Word, Husbands, Marriage, Scripture, Series: "Marriage", The Bible, Wives | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Lunchroom Trays & Jesus

Posted on August 11, 2009 by russellmckinney

You remember those lunchroom trays from your childhood, don’t you? They were so compartmentalized. They were the epitome of “a place for everything and everything in its place.” The cream corn wasn’t supposed to spill over into the mashed potatoes. The apple sauce couldn’t get out of its banks and make the roll soggy. The peas and the Salisbury steak were strictly prohibited from mixing and mingling.

Such trays are nice things to have around when you are feeding kids. Give a seven-year- old a smooth playing surface with his food groups and you just might get some strange artistic endeavors. I think about Randy, Ralphy’s little brother in that classic movie A Christmas Story. Randy was the kid who wouldn’t eat, the one who worked his mashed potatoes into the shape of a volcano and threw his peas into the side of it, making an explosion noise each time he did it. That probably wouldn’t have happened if his mother had used a lunchroom tray.

But the problem with lunchroom trays is this: When we are kids, those things become so ingrained in our minds that we carry the mental imagery of them the rest of our lives. In turn, that causes us to imagine our lives as being sectioned off into the neat little compartments of work, home, family, leisure, and religion. Consequently, we assume that the contents of each compartment must remain completely isolated from the contents of all the other compartments.

For example, we shouldn’t take “work” home because that is a spilling over into “home” and is therefore wrong. Likewise, our “leisure” has no place at our “work” site because if the two run together we’ll get fired for goofing off. As for “home,” it is for making the beds, sweeping the floor, mowing the yard, and cleaning the basement. It can sometimes walk hand in hand with “family,” but when “family” requires a trip to ball practice, piano lessons, dance recital, or the orthodontist, “home” must be left to stand alone in its own compartment. Along the same lines, “leisure” can be neighborly to “home” by way of television, dvds, video games, and internet sites, but “leisure” and “home” can never fully join up because “leisure” must frequently abandon “home” to travel to the golf course, the lake, the campsite, the beach, or the amusement park.

And what about “religion”? Well, for the average Christian, “religion” primarily means going to church. Church, of course, is a wonderful thing until it becomes something we merely drive to and back from. If that’s the case, church isn’t much more than a confined building where we sit and check off the program that is printed in the bulletin:

  • Opening prayer? “Listened to that. Check.”
  • Hymn of Praise? “Sang that. Check.”
  • Announcements? “Sat through them. Check.”
  • Offering? “Paid my dues. Check.”
  • Special Music? “Heard that. Check.”
  • Sermon? “Got through that. Check.”
  • Invitation? “Not for me. Check.”
  • Benedictory Prayer? “Listened to that. Check. Now it’s time for me to leave church and go to another section of the tray.”

Let me assure you, however, that “tray living” is not what God has in mind for the Christian. Note carefully the following two quotes from the apostle Paul:

“And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.” (Colossians 3:17, N.K.J.V.)

“Whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” (1 Corinthians 10:31, N.K.J.V.)

Now, tell me, can you think of anything that isn’t a “whatever”? I mean, “whatever” doesn’t just cover a lot of territory; it covers ALL territory. It is a Ziploc bag big enough to seal in your entire tray! It means that the Christian must do his job, conduct himself at home, interact with his family, enjoy his leisure, and do his church attending all in the name of the Lord Jesus and to the glory of God. What a concept!

Can you imagine the implications of living in such a way? The Christian would be the best worker at his job site because he’d work as if Jesus was standing right there beside him. His home would be a well-kept place because it’s hard to have knee-high grass, filthy floors, and unmade beds to the glory of God. His treatment of his family would be exemplary: no spousal abuse, child abuse, or dysfunction on his part. Sin wouldn’t enter into his leisure time, either, because you just can’t engage in internet pornography, a gambling addiction, alcoholism, or drug use in the name of the Lord Jesus. And church attendance would be an awesome thing, too. It would be vibrant, exciting, and uplifting, the kind of experience from which a person can launch out victoriously into the world.

The point in all this is that Jesus refuses to be compartmentalized. He wants everything the Christian says or does to come under His Lordship. If it is a “whatever,” He demands jurisdiction over it. He refuses to stay behind in His pew at church and wait for you to rejoin Him there the next time you come. Instead, He stands up with you as the benedictory prayer is prayed, and then He has the gall to walk with you out the door, get into the car with you, and ask He climbs in, “Where are we off to?”

By the way, in case you think I’m pushing things too far in depicting Jesus as being beside the Christian all the time, let me remind you that the Bible takes the idea even further than I have. Passages such as Romans 8:10, Ephesians 3:17, and Revelation 3:20 teach that Jesus, by way of the indwelling Holy Spirit, literally lives inside the Christian’s body. You can’t get any closer than that! What better Christians we would be if we would just get hold of this idea. There you are, tempted to undermine your boss at work, play the slacker around the house, cut your spouse to shreds with cruel words, do something seedy and call it leisure, or daydream in church, but you don’t dare do it because Jesus is right there watching you.

This is why, Christian, you should purge the concept of “tray living” from your mind. Just get it settled that there are no sections, compartments, or categories of your life. There is only Jesus, and He’s with you everywhere, all the time, expecting you to do everything in His name and to His glory.

Yes, this is a radical way of living. No doubt about that. But it’s a Biblical one. Furthermore, I guarantee you that your entire existence will be changed if you live like this. Your work site won’t be the same place. Your home life will get an upgrade. Your family life will be taken to a higher level. Your leisure will become good, clean fun. And your religion will become something so much more than mere church attendance. Actually, it won’t even be religion anymore. Instead, it will be a second-by-second relationship with Christ. You see, Christian, that’s the way Jesus wants you to live. He wants you to turn in your tray and start thinking of your life in a completely different way. The only question left to be answered is, “Will you do it?”

Posted in Church Attendance, Commitment, Discipleship, Dress and Appearance, Entertainment, Family, God's Will, Obedience, Personal Holiness, Sanctification, Separation, Work, Worship | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

A Walking Civil War

Posted on August 9, 2009 by russellmckinney

William Barclay wrote, “Every man is a walking civil war. Within him there is the tension, the division, the battle between right and wrong, between good and evil, between passion and reason, between the instincts and the will.” Truer words were never penned.

While this idea of an individual being “a walking civil war” can be applied to anyone, it is especially true in the case of the Christian. Whereas the war within the non-Christian comes from the inner struggle between the person’s sin nature and the person’s conscience (Romans 2:14-15), there is a third element at work within the Christian. Not only does the Christian have a sin nature and a conscience, he also has God the Holy Spirit living inside him (Romans 8:9-11).

Long before William Barclay ever wrote, the apostle Paul described the civil war that rages within the Christian, and he used himself to illustrate his point. In Romans 7:21-24, he says:

So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? (N.I.V.)

Paul had an inner desire to do good, live for Christ, be holy, and keep God’s commandments. But when he reviewed what was actually taking place with his eyes, ears, arms, legs, hands, and feet, he saw evidence of another desire: the desire to commit acts of sin. That’s why he said, “This other law that is manifesting itself in the members of my body is warring against God’s law in my mind and making me a captive of sin.” Just how bad was the situation? It was bad enough to make him exclaim in exasperation, “What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?”

That question was Paul’s admission that he would never be free from his inner civil war as long as he was living in his human body. For the inner war to cease, he would have to be delivered from his sin-defected body. Only then would the various parts of his body stop counteracting his desire to live a life pleasing to the Lord. But prior to that eternal deliverance, his mind would occasionally flash sinful thoughts, his heart would send out ungodly emotions every so often, his hands would do the work of the flesh in too many instances, and his legs would sometimes take him to places that God didn’t want him to go.

You say, “Oh, come on, Russell. We’re talking about Paul here. What sins could he have committed?” Well, I don’t know for sure, but I feel safe in saying that he was prone to at least one sin: covetousness. I say that because of Romans 7:7-8, where he writes:

…I would not have known what sin was except through the law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, “Do not covet.” But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, produced in me every kind of covetous desire… (N.I.V.)

I ask you, Christian: Do you have a “pet sin”? I’m talking about a sin that causes the civil war within you to rage even more violently? If you do have such a sin, that makes you normal. It doesn’t make you okay, but it does make you normal. It means that you can relate to Paul’s problem with covetousness, and it means that you can understand why William Barclay wrote what he wrote about you being a walking civil war. Unfortunately, however, it also means that you will probably struggle with that particular sin all of your life.

There is some good news, though: If you know Jesus Christ as your Savior, there is coming a day when He will at last deliver you from your body of death. Going back to Romans 7:21-24, right on the heels of asking, “Who will rescue me from this body of death?” Paul gives the answer in Romans 7:25. He says, “Thanks be to God — through Jesus Christ our Lord!”

Therefore, Christian, you should take heart in the promise that you won’t always have to deal with your inner civil war. Once you leave this world and go to be with Jesus, your war will be over as your sin nature will be permanently laid to rest. So keep your eyes fixed upon that day, and in the meantime do your best to let the indwelling Holy Spirit win every battle inside you.

Posted in Addiction, Backsliding, Choices, Comfort, Covetousness, Disobedience, Doing Good, Encouragement, Eternity, Heaven, Man's Freewill, Obedience, Personal Holiness, Rebellion, Salvation, Sin, Temptation, The Holy Spirit, War | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

A Word to Parents

Posted on August 5, 2009 by russellmckinney

One day a man happened upon the cocoon of a budding butterfly. Realizing what the cocoon was, he became excited at the prospect of getting to watch a beautiful butterfly ultimately emerge from it. And, sure enough, he only had to wait a couple of days before the butterfly began its struggle to free itself from the cocoon.

As the man watched the process of nature play itself out, he was shocked that the butterfly had to endure such a long, hard struggle to achieve its freedom. The creature worked for hours and hours but made such little progress that the man finally decided to help nature finish the job. To do so, he took a pair of scissors and carefully made the cocoon’s opening larger. That allowed the butterfly to crawl right out.

But that’s all the butterfly ever did: crawl. What the man didn’t know was that the intense pressure that is involved with a butterfly emerging from a cocoon is designed to push all-important juices into the butterfly’s wings. Without those juices the wings end up deformed and unusable. So, in the man’s attempt to help the butterfly, he had actually ruined it by condemning it to a pitiful existence of crawling around on the ground.

Parent, hear me when I say that you can do this same kind of thing to your child. One of the surest ways for you to produce a weak, morally challenged, emotional cripple is to always come riding in and save your child’s day. You see, if you are determined that your child will never know trials, troubles, sufferings, and hardships, you are virtually guaranteeing that your child will know such things.

Study the great men and women of the Bible, the people who were God’s choicest servants. Any study of their lives will show that their character was forged in excruciatingly difficult experiences, just the kind of experiences that many parents try to prevent their children from ever knowing. Abraham and Sarah had their decades of waiting on God to give them a son. Joseph went through a veritable hell on earth before becoming the second-in-command of all Egypt. Job knew what it was to lose everything. David had to face a giant all by himself, and then he had to spend years on the run from King Saul. The apostle Paul had arrests, whippings, a shipwreck, a “thorn in the flesh,” and a whole list of other problems on his resume. The apostle John was banished to the Roman penal colony on the island of Patmos. On and on the list goes.

What am I saying? I’m saying, parent, that just as a butterfly needs to complete its struggle to break free from its cocoon, your child needs those vitally important juices that only the pressures of life can produce. That’s why you must resist the urge to rescue that child from all of his or her problems. Just remember that even though it is always hard to watch a loved one struggle, God can use your child’s struggle in infinitely greater ways than He can use your attempted rescue. I realize this is not something that us parents want to hear, but what I hope you realize is that it’s something that oftentimes we really do need to hear.

Posted in Adversity, Character, Children, Disappointment, Fatherhood, God's Omniscience, God's Sovereignty, Motherhood, Parenting, Perseverance, Problems, Trials, Youth | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Is There Life on Other Planets?

Posted on August 3, 2009 by russellmckinney

Does the Bible say anything about intelligent life on other planets? The short answer is: No, it doesn’t. But let’s talk about it.

Some people try to make the case that the four living creatures of Ezekiel chapter 1 are aliens. Clearly, however, those creatures 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, they weren’t. 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 absolutely 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 open-and-shut case that there isn’t any such life. 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 that all those other planets were created on the same day (day 1 of the creation week) as the Earth. That directly contradicts the idea that hypothetical aliens would be more advanced than us due to the fact that their planets supposedly have been around so much longer than the Earth.

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. This means that 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 — if such life was out there somewhere on another planet — by cursing that planet simply because a guy named Adam sinned on a faraway planet called Earth.

Third, Jesus became a human and died in a human body. Likewise, He arose from the dead in a resurrected, glorified human body. Even after that resurrection, He bore the marks of His 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 align Himself eternally 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 consists of a group of intelligent beings from some other planet, that makes Him a bigamist and an adulterer (Matthew 19:1-6). In light of this fact, the question then becomes, “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, and it’s hard to give any real credence to that possibility.

Fifth, the Bible calls Adam “the first man” (1 Corinthians 15:47). While it can be argued that an alien from another planet wouldn’t necessarily have to be classified as a “man,” it is worth mentioning that Adam was without doubt the first human. The point is, if aliens are the “humanoids” that many people purport them to be, that is getting awfully close to contradicting the fact that Adam was creation’s original human.

Sixth, according to the Bible’s teaching about how life began, the theory of evolution is a lie. And how is this relevant to the possible existence of aliens? Well, you show me someone who believes that intelligent life originated on a planet besides Earth, and I’ll show you someone who believes that it happened by means of evolution. Obviously, then, if the whole notion of evolution is a crock, there’s no way that life began on another planet by means of what evolutionists call “spontaneous generation” (life springing forth from non-life substances) and then evolved over millions of years to a state of intelligence enough to produce a flying saucer by which to visit Earth.

Seventh, Genesis 1:14-19 says that God created the sun and the moon to serve the three-fold purpose of giving light to the Earth, dividing the day from the night, and functioning as the engines for the cyclical process that allows the inhabitants of the earth to experience different seasons. In other words, the sun and the moon were created to make life on Earth better. They were part of the “detail work” that God exclusively did for the Earth, a planet that was covered in darkness and deep water when originally created (Genesis 1:1-2). It was all this “detail work” (Genesis 1:3-31) that differentiated the Earth from all the other planets and made it and it alone suitable for life.

You say, “But Russell, you just don’t know about all the potential evidence for life on other planets.” Yes, I do! You aren’t talking to a sci-fi novice here. My interest in science fiction goes all the way back to the mid 1970s when I was watching Leonard Nimoy’s “In Search Of” and reruns of The Twilight Zone and The Outer Limits. Trust me, I know all about: Roswell, Area 51, alien abductions, men in black, USOs (unidentified submerged objects), time travel, the loss of time, the Bermuda triangle, crop circles, livestock mutilations, etc. I’ve seen Star Trek, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, The X Files, Stargate, and literally every single episode of the t.v. series Ancient Aliens. I myself even once witnessed a flying “something” in the nighttime sky, and to this day I can’t explain what it was that I saw.

Still, though, my problem in believing in intelligent life on other planets always comes back to the same thing: I can’t honestly make such life match up with the Bible. You see, I’ve read the Book, and aliens just aren’t in there. That omission disappoints a lot of people, but I can’t help that.

So, what I try to do is come up with reasonable explanations for all the stories of spaceships and aliens. For example, it’s absurd to think that all the thousands of people who claim to have seen unidentified flying objects are lying. No doubt, 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 flying around up there. In other words, secret military 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 wouldn’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 is to say what appearances fallen angels can take? What I do know is that Revelation 12:9 says that Satan “deceives the whole world.” As part of that worldwide deception, could demons (fallen angels) appear as aliens and deceive people into thinking those demons come from another planet? Yes, 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 and say, “Hi, we’re fallen angels who have been banished from 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 foster the belief that they were either gods who came down from the sky or aliens who came from far across the galaxy.

Of course, chronologically speaking, if that type of thing did happen in those days of Genesis 6:1-4, all evidence of it would have been wiped out in the great flood when God purged the Earth and started civilization all over again with Noah and his family. That doesn’t mean, though, that other fallen angels couldn’t have similarly deceived post-flood ancient cultures into misidentifying them as “gods” who had come down from the sky. As I said earlier, it’s perfectly plausible that demons could deceive humans into thinking the demons are aliens.

At the end of the day, I guess I would sum up my feelings on the topic of aliens 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 specifically mentioned in the Bible.” And if that ever happens, I promise that I’ll write a follow-up post to this one. With that said, though, I doubt that I’ll be writing such a post anytime soon. To describe that possibility in terms relevant to this post, I think that’s a little too sci-fi for even me to believe.

Posted in Angels, Demons, Life On Other Planets, Personal, Scripture, Spiritual Warfare, The Bible, The Devil | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Got Your Baptismal Certificate with You?

Posted on July 28, 2009 by russellmckinney

The two ordinances that God has given the church are the Lord’s Supper and Believer’s Baptism. The Lord’s Supper points us to Christ’s death, and Believer’s Baptism points us to His resurrection. Each ordinance hinges upon a right understanding of its symbolism. If we don’t get the symbolism right, the reason for the ordinance will be lost upon us.

The symbolism of the Lord’s Supper isn’t hard to understand. The bread symbolizes the human body of Christ, that physical body that hung dead on the cross as a sacrifice for the sins of the world (Matthew 26:26; Mark 14:22; Luke 22:19). The wine — some Christians prefer the term “the fruit of the vine” as a reference to grape juice (Matthew 26:29; Mark 14:25; Luke 22:18) — symbolizes the blood of Christ, the blood that coursed through His human body. That blood has the power to cleanse sin (Matthew 26:27-28; Mark 14:23-24; Luke 22:20). As Christians eat the bread and drink the wine (the fruit of the vine), we proclaim Christ’s death until He returns (1st Corinthians 11:23-26).

The symbolism of Believer’s Baptism isn’t complicated, either. Baptism is a two-fold object lesson. First, it shows what has happened in the Christian’s earthly existence. Second, it shows what has happened in the Christian’s eternal existence.

Concerning the earthly existence, when the Christian goes under the water, he is publicly saying, “I am now symbolically dying to my old, sinful way of living” (Romans 6:1-3). Then, when he comes up from under the water, he is publicly saying, “I am now symbolically resurrected to walk in the newness of the Christian life” (Romans 6:4, 6-7, 11-23).

Concerning the eternal existence, when the Christian goes under the water, he is publicly identifying himself with Christ’s death and burial (Romans 6:4). Then, when he comes up from under the water, he is publicly identifying himself with Christ’s resurrection (Romans 6:5, 8-10). By submitting to baptism, the believer is saying, “Because Jesus died and arose from the dead, my body will one day be resurrected as well, and I will enjoy my resurrected body throughout eternity.”

But it is that symbolism involving the Christian’s earthly existence that I want to deal with a little more. Christian, what if the minister who baptized you caught you committing a sin and said, “You are certainly not living up to your baptism”? You would probably ask him, “What do you mean?” He would reply, “When you went under the water that day, you were publicly saying, ‘I am now symbolically dying to my old, sinful way of life.’ Then, when you came up from under the water, you were publicly saying, ‘I am now symbolically alive to walk in the newness of the Christian life.’ However, what I just saw you do looks like your old way of living rather than your new way of living.”

Tell me, if your minister caught you like that and said something like that, how would you feel? Would his stinging words of rebuke and theological logic drive home the point to you that getting baptized is a BIG deal? Would it remind you that the Christian who has submitted to Believer’s Baptism is supposed to shun sin and live differently than the rest of the world? I trust that it would.

Perhaps it would be good if every Christian who has submitted to Believer’s Baptism was required to wear his baptismal certificate around his neck. That way he could constantly be reminded of exactly what it was he committed to when we got baptized. Maybe us pastors need to carry copies of those certificates around — we could keep the saved pictures of them on our cell phones — so that we can pull them out whenever we see a Christian sinning. That would make for an interesting experiment, wouldn’t it? My guess is that it would cut down on the rate of sin quite a bit. And I can tell you that us pastors would hate to see the ministers who baptized us coming, too!

Posted in Addiction, Adultery, Backsliding, Baptism, Character, Christ's Death, Christ's Resurrection, Commitment, Conviction, Crucifixion, Discipleship, Disobedience, Doing Good, Dress and Appearance, Dying To Self, Eternity, Faithfulness, Holiness, Hypocrisy, Idolatry, Lust, Lying, Obedience, Personal Holiness, Racism, Rebellion, Repentance, Sin, Temptation, The Lord's Supper | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

What Love for Jesus Looks Like

Posted on July 25, 2009 by russellmckinney

Harry Winston, the famous New York diamond dealer, once heard about a wealthy Dutch merchant who was looking for a certain kind of diamond to add to his collection. Winston called the merchant, told him he thought he had just the stone, and invited the man to come to New York to examine it.

The collector flew to New York, where Winston assigned a salesman to show him the diamond. As the salesman presented the diamond, he pointed out all of its exquisite features. The merchant listened attentively but finally turned away and said, “It’s a wonderful stone but not exactly what I wanted.”

Winston, who had been watching the presentation from a distance, stopped the merchant and asked, “Do you mind if I show you the diamond again?” The merchant agreed, and Winston presented the same stone. However, instead of talking about the stone’s fine technical features, Winston spoke of his genuine admiration of the diamond and what a rare thing of beauty it was. When he was finished, the merchant changed his mind and bought the stone.

While he was waiting for the diamond to be packaged and brought to him, the merchant asked Winston, “Why did I buy it from you when I had no difficulty turning down your salesman?” Winston answered, “That salesman is one of the best in the business. He knows more about diamonds than I do, and I pay him a good salary for what he knows. But I would gladly pay him twice as much if I could put something into him, something I have and he lacks. You see, he knows diamonds, but I love them.”

Our churches are home to all kinds of people who know Jesus. They know about His deity, His virgin birth, His sinless life, His miracles, His teachings, His death on the cross, His resurrection, and His ascension. But so many of these people don’t really love Jesus, at least not in the way He wants them to love Him. What I mean is, He isn’t the all-consuming passion of their lives. He isn’t the singular, driving force that serves as their engine. They don’t seek His will above their own in every decision and circumstance.

The story of how Jesus restored Peter after Peter had denied Him three times is recorded in John 21:15-19. I won’t go into the details of the story, but the fundamental question Jesus asks Peter three times is a simple one: “Do you love Me?” Isn’t it amazing how the answer to that question can change everything about a situation?

A professing Christian is addicted to pornography. Jesus comes and asks, “Do you love Me?” Another is addicted to drugs or alcohol. The question is the same: “Do you love Me?” Another is having an affair. Jesus’ question to that professing Christian is not, “Do you love your spouse?” It is, “Do you love Me?” You see, if the answer to Jesus’ question is an honest “Yes,” the sinful conduct must stop. If it doesn’t, that proves that the person’s love of the addiction, sin, etc. is more than their love for Jesus.

A father asked his wayward daughter, “Do you love Jesus?” The daughter answered, “Yes, I do.” The father said, “Well, suppose you come to me and say, ‘Dad, I love you,’ but then you go out and directly disobey me. Could I honestly believe that you love me?” The daughter, already sensing where the father was headed with his logic, sheepishly answered, “No.” “How then,” asked the father, “can I believe that you love Jesus when I see you do things every day that He forbids?” Then the father put an exclamation point on his line of reasoning by quoting Christ’s words from John 14:15: “If you love Me, keep My commandments.”

I dare say that no text in all the Bible needs to be preached to today’s professing Christians any more than those simple words: “If you love Me, keep My commandments.” You can be a lover of Jesus or a murderer, but you can’t be both. You can be a lover of Jesus or an adulterer, but you can’t be both. You can be a lover of Jesus or a thief, but you can’t be both. You can be a lover of Jesus or a liar, but you can’t be both. You can be a lover of Jesus or a coveter, but you can’t be both.  Let us never forget that Jesus isn’t impressed with lip-service. When He looks for your love, He looks for conduct. To Him, they are pretty much one and the same.

Posted in Addiction, Alcohol, Backsliding, Choices, Commitment, Confession, Discipleship, Disobedience, Doing Good, Dress and Appearance, Drugs, Dying To Self, Faithfulness, Gambling, Gluttony, God's Holiness, God's Will, Holiness, Love, Obedience, Personal Holiness, Priorities, Rebellion, Repentance, Sanctification, Separation, Sin, Temptation | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Beer and Boycotts

Posted on July 21, 2009 by russellmckinney

Our little town of Spruce Pine recently voted to turn “wet” by allowing the sale of beer and wine inside the city limits. Needless to say, this was major news. Many of the churches of the area banded together and put up a real fight. In the end, though, the vote passed by a slim margin.

One of the primary reasons why it passed was the fact that the entire county hadn’t been truly “dry” for a long time. For decades, bootleggers prospered in these parts. Then came a couple of restaurants that were located close enough to the Blue Ridge Parkway to get special exemptions to sell spirits. Finally, our local golf course erected a pitiful looking little tennis court that allowed it to claim the coveted title “sports club,” a title that carries with it the legal permission to sell beer and wine on the premises. Consequently, it didn’t take long for a package store to be built in the course’s parking lot and become one of the region’s top money-makers. Of course, we’re still waiting for someone to actually play a tennis match on that court.

And so, Spruce Pine now has beer and wine running out its nose. The Walmart Supercenter stocks the stuff, as does the Ingles grocery store. A vacant building has been chosen as the site for an ABC store, and some of our restaurants have begun offering beer and wine on their menus. This is where our local pastors’ conference comes into the story.

I attend the conference most every Monday morning. We meet at 10:00 a.m., shoot the bull for a few minutes, take some praise reports and prayer requests, have a time of prayer, and then listen as one of us preaches a sermon. We dismiss after the sermon, choose a place to eat, and meet at that restaurant. We vary where we eat because no one wants to eat the same food over and over again.

A few Mondays back, I couldn’t attend the conference, but I found out later that the guys had eaten at the Mexican restaurant in downtown Spruce Pine. We’d gone there plenty of times before, but this time was different. This time the restaurant offered beer and wine on the menu. The fellows didn’t think too much about it, but somehow the word got out that the local pastors didn’t mind patronizing joints that served booze. This is where our local paper comes into the story.

Our paper features a controversial section called “Rants and Raves.” The idea is that any anonymous person can use that section to register a complaint or a compliment. Of course, the complaints seem to outnumber the compliments about four to one. I guess if you want to compliment someone you don’t mind leaving your name.

Well, one specific “Rants and Raves” piece was a rant about the local pastors frequenting a restaurant that offered beer and wine. I don’t know how the person spotted the guys. Did he or she see them going in or out of the restaurant? Did someone else pass along the information? I certainly hope the person wasn’t in the restaurant himself or herself when the pastors were in there. That would be hypocrisy.

Anyway, this is where one of the pastors comes into the story. An elderly gentleman, one we all genuinely like and respect, was scheduled to preach the following Monday morning. Before he began his sermon, he commented on the rant and, from everything we could tell, agreed with it. I figured he could do so because he hadn’t eaten at the restaurant. (All the pastors don’t always come along for the after-conference meal).

The man quoted from 2nd Corinthians 6:14-18, parts of which say: “Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness?…’Come out from among them and be separate’, says the Lord. ‘Do not touch what is unclean, and I will receive you.'” He also quoted from 1st John 2:15: “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.”

To really drive home his point, he told us he no longer shopped at the local Ingles because of the beer and wine on the shelves. He didn’t mention the Walmart Supercenter, but some of us were dying to ask if he still shopped there. No one dared broach that subject, though.

After the conference, we got together to decide where to eat. Even though the elderly pastor didn’t plan to go with us, you can imagine that it didn’t take long for someone to say, “I guess the Mexican place is out!” We ended up eating at a little “mom and pop” spot where the burgers are great and there is no beer and wine. Over the course of the meal, the conversation naturally turned to the question of whether or not a Christian should frequent a business that sells alcohol.

None of us at the table that day took the position that a Christian should totally boycott such establishments. To us, that was being too extreme. Consider these facts:

#1: While it’s true that we Christians are not to be “of the world,” we are still very much “in the world” (John 17:14-18). Paul said the only way to get totally away from sinful people would be to go “out of the world” (1st Corinthians 5:9-10).

#2: Since Jesus frequently ate with and associated with those whom the legalists considered “sinners,” Biblical separation obviously doesn’t mean monk-like isolationism.

#3: The truth is that many good students of the Bible (including this writer) do not believe it totally forbids all alcoholic consumption. Drunkenness? Certainly. All partaking of alcohol? No. I could cite several examples here, but I’ll limit myself to one. In 1st Timothy 5:23, Paul says to Timothy, “Stop drinking only water, and use a little wine for your stomach’s sake because of your frequent illnesses.” You see, if the wine was just grape juice, Paul wouldn’t have advised drinking just a “little.” (By the way, please don’t read into this that I’m glad our town now has legal beer and wine. I’m simply trying to interpret the Bible as accurately as I can.)

Here’s something else to consider: the incredibly complex and interwoven nature of America’s companies and corporations. Many years ago, when I was the pastor of a Southern Baptist Convention church, the denomination formally called upon its churches to boycott the Walt Disney company because of Disney’s homosexual CEO and its increasingly troubling products. However, since Disney also owned ABC, ESPN, and movie production companies such as Touchstone, Hollywood, and Miramax, boycotting it meant boycotting a fairly large slice of life.

For example, our local news is broadcast on channel 13, which is an ABC station. The biggest basketball game in our state is Duke-North Carolina, and ESPN always carries that game. Touchstone Pictures produced the wildly popular kids’ movies “Pirates of the Caribbean” and “The Santa Claus.” Hollywood Pictures produced one of my all-time favorite movies, “Mr. Holland’s Opus.” Miramax, under its Dimension Films subdivision, produced the “Spy Kids” movies. Obviously, if you are truly going to boycott Disney, you’re going to have to work at it.

The same applies to a thorough boycotting of alcohol. My two boys love to watch Albert Pujols hit, but I guess they would have to stop watching. Why? It’s because Pujols plays for the St. Louis Cardinals, who for years were owned by Anheuser Busch. As a matter of fact, the home stadium Pujols plays in still bears the name Busch Stadium. (Along the same lines, the Colorado Rockies play on Coors Field.) Likewise, do you enjoy watching NFL games, NBA games, college football games, and NASCAR races? Well, they are all built around money from beer companies. Any ideal boycott must take all of this into consideration.

And what about that “mom and pop” burger place where we ate? Do they buy their hamburger buns, soft drinks, napkins, or ketchup from Ingles or Walmart? Even if they buy their buns directly from a bread company such as Sunbeam, Sunbeam sells its bread at Ingles and Walmart. Doesn’t that require what some preachers call “secondary separation”?

My point is that we get into a real quagmire when we start boycotting every business we categorize as “bad.” If I want to go to a movie theater and see a Christian movie such as “Flywheel,” “Facing The Giants,” or “Fireproof,” I can’t. Remember, that same theater shows some movies of which I disapprove. If I want to take my son’s baseball team to a minor league game as a reward for a good season, I can’t because that minor league park sells beer at the concession stand. Do you understand what I’m getting at? To use an Ernest T. Bass word from the Andy Griffith show, you just can’t hermatize yourself.

Now let me tell you how this story ends. After the pastors’ conference yesterday, we decided to go to the local Japanese restaurant and enjoy their lunch buffet. I thought, “That’s a good choice. I’ve never seen any beer or wine in there.” As soon as we got in the door, though, I read a sign that offered an inexpensive glass of wine as a part of the lunch special. Then, when the waitress took us to our seats, I noticed a hallway where several empty beer boxes were stacked up next to a wall. Clearly, beer and wine had come to the Japanese restaurant. I guess we’ll just have to wait for the next edition of the paper to find out if we got busted.

Maybe, from now on, my fellow pastors and I just need to eat at McDonalds. I do love Big Macs. Oh, wait, Busch Stadium has a special section of seats called “Big Mac Land.” If a homerun lands there, everyone in the section gets a free Big Mac. To make matters worse, that section got its name from Mark McGwire, the former Cardinals slugger who hit so many balls up there. McGwire, as you may have heard, is highly suspected of using dangerous steroids to increase his homerun power.

So, if McDonalds associates itself with an alleged cheater and a stadium named for a beer company, I suppose we shouldn’t let them have one dime of our money. Besides, some of those toys they put in their happy-meal boxes are promotional products for kids movies, and many of those movies are made by Disney. Boy, it all sure does get confusing, doesn’t it? It makes me want to say, “Hey, Ernest, how exactly does one go about hermatizing one’s self?

Posted in Alcohol, Balance, Christian Liberty, Holiness, Personal, Personal Holiness, Separation | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment