"No one can serve two master...," Matthew 6:24a.
Hitler's Cross is a tidy little explanation of what happened in Nazi Germany in the 1930's with special attention given to the church. Erwin Lutzer, Pastor of Moody Bible Church in Chicago is a man who spends much time studying Germany's history and here he focused his attention on the bewitching influence and dominance of the Austrian madman.
Lutzer concisely explains how Germany lost its soul in the decades running up to Hitler's ascension. Germany was a defeated country that had an uncontrollable lust to return to greatness through any means possible. Into this void, predicted by Nietzsche, arose a superman, Hitler, to start a master race that would dominate the lesser peoples of the world. Perhaps Lutzer's most interesting observation is that he believed there was a supernatural element at work here. Lutzer stated, "Hitler was thoroughly demonized being whose body was but the shell for the spirit that inhabited him." There are a lot of bizarre stories surrounding Hitler's life that seem to corroborate what the author stated here but to go into too much depth would help ruin the read of a relatively short book that is well worth the time.
A majority of this book is written depicting the battle between two masters and two saviors: between the Church of God and Hitler's church. Obviously, we know he is victorious in the short run. Lutzer depicts well the weakness of the Church against the Nazi onslaught. Even the brave hero and pastor, Martin Niemoller had Swastika banners hanging in his church and his congregants gave the Nazi salute to its political leaders. Yet, the best chapters are about the bravery of men like Niemoller and theologian/pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer. These men suffered greatly against the evil regime and for the glory of Christ, as well as many others did and Lutzer offers their sacrificial faith as an example for all Christians to aspire.
Even though Lutzer spares no criticism of a weak, faithless and feckless German church, he does end the book by illustrating how the church was the only real bulwark against the evil of Hitler. I highly recommend this book, written in 1995, for its clear understanding of evil, God's sovereign rule and the importance of His church as a witness in a dark and evil world. Lutzer underscores how we must guard against this in the U.S. and it is easy to see how an evil like Hitler could dominate in this country as well. He insists that the church must be about the gospel and not nationalism, prosperity or any other idol that we allow to distract our worship of the Savior. I leave you with this quote from Einstein on the church in Germany, "Only the church(not the universities or newspapers) stood squarely across the path of Hitler's campaign for suppressing the truth. I never had any special interest in the Church before, but now I feel a great affection and admiration for it because the Church alone has had the courage and persistence to stand for intellectual and moral freedom. I am forced to confess that what I once despised I now praise unreservedly."
Learn, live and love the glorious gospel!
Sunday, July 17, 2011
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
More Fun with Depravity: How Depravity Should Inform Our Daily Life
"Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers, but his delight is in the law of LORD and on His law he meditates day and night," Psalm 1:1-2.
Have you ever been lied to by a good friend and then trusted them again only to be burned a second time? Has the old wisdom, "fool me once, shame on you, fool me again, shame on me," ever smacked you over the head? Why do we do these things? Well, it may well be that we do not have a proper understanding of depravity as it relates to our daily lives. While I have written a previous post about humanities utter depravity according to the Bible and we may intellectually agree with it, sometimes our brain and our heart are unequally yoked. What I'm saying is that we believe all people are depraved because of our sin nature, but not necessarily the people we hang out with! I mean, our friends, family and familiars are generally good and would not lie, cheat and steal against us.
Well friends, the Bible teaches that "all have sinned" and that the human "heart is desperately wicked" and that includes all of your friends, family and familiars who have not submitted to the rule of Jesus Christ in their lives. In fact, that includes all of those you know who have surrendered their lives to Christ but are currently walking in disobedience. So this makes things real tricky. But this idea of protecting against natural human depravity is a deeply American belief and is in fact foundational to our founding! Our founders understood this blemish in humanity and that is why they came up with a governing system founded on law, not man and why they set up a strict separation of powers in our government. They understood that "power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely" so they devised a federalist system that gave the states more power than the federal government and the federal government was evenly divided between three branches. You can read about this more deeply elsewhere but my point is that this idea of depravity informing our daily life is not new and our system of government is one obvious and awesome example.
Here's another example: have you ever heard people talk about a close knit community or family? Have you ever heard someone say that it is difficult to become accepted in a certain town or community or family unless you are born there or have lived their many years? Why is that? Well, our elders understood something about human nature: it is not good. The biblical injunction is to welcome the stranger and be hospitable but it also stipulates that we don't put them in positions of authority or allow them unlimited access to the people and resources of a community, 1Tim. 3:6-7. They needed to be watched for a period of time and evaluated. Now, this can be and has been done to excess before but I do not believe this is as much a problem today and this situation has been largely inverted. Now it is often to our shame in a community if we do not immediately embrace with open arms any stranger without any evaluation. Today, money, prestige and just being "cool" sometimes allows strangers access to people and resources unthought of in years past. One example you see all the time is the single mom who dates a man for a short period of time and then they move in together. This is one of the most catastrophic situations in our country and it results in so much more violence than a traditional marriage. So often the cases of horrific violence against women and children arise out of this predicament. Why does this happen? Because the woman wrongly believes that the man she has just met is a good man and she has not "been transformed by the renewing of her mind" that allows her to step back and look at things from God's perspective. Obviously, by agreeing to this very arrangement they are disregarding God's law and rejecting Christ's rule in their lives. The idea of depravity probably never enters her mind and it seems entirely rational to her. I almost lost a family member to this madness. Interestingly, most of the family thought this sinful arrangement was fine and the new boyfriend was "nice" and his family was rich. He may have been rich, but he was depraved and in the worst sense of the word. One hundred years ago, well, even 50 years ago this could not have even been considered because our culture was largely sanctified by its Christian influence but in a post Christian America, it is those of us who point out the need for time, testing and evaluation of new members of a community or a new boyfriend who bear the brunt of scorn and shame.
So friends, lets understand that we must be "as wise as serpents and as gentle as doves" as we seek to live our Christian lives. We must be dispensers of God's grace but, we must not allow the resources Christ gives us to be abused by those who do not know Him.
God bless you and let's learn, live and love the glorious gospel of our risen Savior!
Have you ever been lied to by a good friend and then trusted them again only to be burned a second time? Has the old wisdom, "fool me once, shame on you, fool me again, shame on me," ever smacked you over the head? Why do we do these things? Well, it may well be that we do not have a proper understanding of depravity as it relates to our daily lives. While I have written a previous post about humanities utter depravity according to the Bible and we may intellectually agree with it, sometimes our brain and our heart are unequally yoked. What I'm saying is that we believe all people are depraved because of our sin nature, but not necessarily the people we hang out with! I mean, our friends, family and familiars are generally good and would not lie, cheat and steal against us.
Well friends, the Bible teaches that "all have sinned" and that the human "heart is desperately wicked" and that includes all of your friends, family and familiars who have not submitted to the rule of Jesus Christ in their lives. In fact, that includes all of those you know who have surrendered their lives to Christ but are currently walking in disobedience. So this makes things real tricky. But this idea of protecting against natural human depravity is a deeply American belief and is in fact foundational to our founding! Our founders understood this blemish in humanity and that is why they came up with a governing system founded on law, not man and why they set up a strict separation of powers in our government. They understood that "power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely" so they devised a federalist system that gave the states more power than the federal government and the federal government was evenly divided between three branches. You can read about this more deeply elsewhere but my point is that this idea of depravity informing our daily life is not new and our system of government is one obvious and awesome example.
Here's another example: have you ever heard people talk about a close knit community or family? Have you ever heard someone say that it is difficult to become accepted in a certain town or community or family unless you are born there or have lived their many years? Why is that? Well, our elders understood something about human nature: it is not good. The biblical injunction is to welcome the stranger and be hospitable but it also stipulates that we don't put them in positions of authority or allow them unlimited access to the people and resources of a community, 1Tim. 3:6-7. They needed to be watched for a period of time and evaluated. Now, this can be and has been done to excess before but I do not believe this is as much a problem today and this situation has been largely inverted. Now it is often to our shame in a community if we do not immediately embrace with open arms any stranger without any evaluation. Today, money, prestige and just being "cool" sometimes allows strangers access to people and resources unthought of in years past. One example you see all the time is the single mom who dates a man for a short period of time and then they move in together. This is one of the most catastrophic situations in our country and it results in so much more violence than a traditional marriage. So often the cases of horrific violence against women and children arise out of this predicament. Why does this happen? Because the woman wrongly believes that the man she has just met is a good man and she has not "been transformed by the renewing of her mind" that allows her to step back and look at things from God's perspective. Obviously, by agreeing to this very arrangement they are disregarding God's law and rejecting Christ's rule in their lives. The idea of depravity probably never enters her mind and it seems entirely rational to her. I almost lost a family member to this madness. Interestingly, most of the family thought this sinful arrangement was fine and the new boyfriend was "nice" and his family was rich. He may have been rich, but he was depraved and in the worst sense of the word. One hundred years ago, well, even 50 years ago this could not have even been considered because our culture was largely sanctified by its Christian influence but in a post Christian America, it is those of us who point out the need for time, testing and evaluation of new members of a community or a new boyfriend who bear the brunt of scorn and shame.
So friends, lets understand that we must be "as wise as serpents and as gentle as doves" as we seek to live our Christian lives. We must be dispensers of God's grace but, we must not allow the resources Christ gives us to be abused by those who do not know Him.
God bless you and let's learn, live and love the glorious gospel of our risen Savior!
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
Why Waste Words When We Can Be as God to Others
"He shall speak for you to the people, and he shall be your mouth, and you shall be as God to him," Exodus 4:16.
Nothing is as irritating as listening to someone babble about something they obviously know little about. I should know, I've been a master of this. We've all done it and most certainly will do it again. Yet, when it comes to the important issues of life: salvation, ethical living, relationships etc., etc., why do we allow ourselves to be suckered into believing people who have no idea what they are talking about. Why do we listen to psychologists talk about important spiritual issues or politicians pontificate on principles or to Oprah about...anything.
We have an authority to turn to and it is remarkable how knowledgeable He is about anything to do with life that we need to know. He knows our hearts, He knows our sins, He knows our talents and He knows everything else there is to know about us. In fact, we are made in His image. We still bear His image even after we have marred our bodies and souls with disfiguring, Quasi Modoish sin and evil. He knows us better than we know ourselves because He created us and He wrote the owners manual, the Bible, for us to figure out life's questions.
I love the Pentateuch, the Books of Moses and I have been fascinated by the verse quoted above for a while now. In a nutshell, God is furious with Moses for doubting Him and coming up with all sorts of excuses to not obey Him. Finally, God tells Moses that He will send Aaron, his brother, with him to speak for him in the presence of Pharaoh. God will tell Moses what to say so Moses can tell Aaron who will repeat it to Egypt. The consequences Moses doubt and Aaron's help will plague the Hebrews for years to come but God in His grace gives Moses what he seemed to want. What is so intriguing though is that line: "...you shall be as God to Him." Really, wow, how does that work? Well, we can figure out easily what it doesn't mean. It in no way is saying that Moses is as God or a god. We know that from what the Bible plainly teaches about God. God's exclusivity had already been impressed upon Moses from earlier in his encounter with Him. So, what does this mean then? Oh brothers and sisters, this is so amazing and wonderful what this means. This is so life changing and encouraging, so humbling and awesome that we must take it to heart! It means that when Moses spoke the word of God to Aaron, Moses was as God to Aaron! How awesome and simple. When Moses spoke God's word to Aaron it was authoritative as if God Himself were speaking. Now stop, drop and roll! Meditate on that verse a minute or two. Chew it real slow and pray it back to God. Ask God to "Hide His word in your heart so you do not sin against Him." Let this soak in.
What application does this have for us? Well, the next time you get into a discussion about the meaning of life, you can do no better than quote Genesis 1:26, John 3:16 or Psalm 1. Don't babble endlessly about some crank belching out philosophical flatulence, go to the source. Drop the word of God like napalm, pray over it and let it do God's work. When someone wants to know about depression or some "psychological problem", go to Job 38-41 and then to Hebrews 12:1-2 and let them know that the surest cure for depression is a lack of self-esteem and a ponderous dose of Christ esteem. Let the counsel of God drive your knowledge of every area of life and let it be your sword of the Spirit. Only the Word of God can divide soul and spirit so why do we try to impart wisdom from our feeble minds? What was God's response to Job and his friends pathetic attempt at wisdom? "Who is this who darkens counsel by words without knowledge? Now prepare yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer Me. Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?" Job 38:2-4. Pretty good question from God huh, well do you have an answer? Neither do I. Let's let His word do the talking! God Bless you and learn, live and love the glorious Gospel!
Nothing is as irritating as listening to someone babble about something they obviously know little about. I should know, I've been a master of this. We've all done it and most certainly will do it again. Yet, when it comes to the important issues of life: salvation, ethical living, relationships etc., etc., why do we allow ourselves to be suckered into believing people who have no idea what they are talking about. Why do we listen to psychologists talk about important spiritual issues or politicians pontificate on principles or to Oprah about...anything.
We have an authority to turn to and it is remarkable how knowledgeable He is about anything to do with life that we need to know. He knows our hearts, He knows our sins, He knows our talents and He knows everything else there is to know about us. In fact, we are made in His image. We still bear His image even after we have marred our bodies and souls with disfiguring, Quasi Modoish sin and evil. He knows us better than we know ourselves because He created us and He wrote the owners manual, the Bible, for us to figure out life's questions.
I love the Pentateuch, the Books of Moses and I have been fascinated by the verse quoted above for a while now. In a nutshell, God is furious with Moses for doubting Him and coming up with all sorts of excuses to not obey Him. Finally, God tells Moses that He will send Aaron, his brother, with him to speak for him in the presence of Pharaoh. God will tell Moses what to say so Moses can tell Aaron who will repeat it to Egypt. The consequences Moses doubt and Aaron's help will plague the Hebrews for years to come but God in His grace gives Moses what he seemed to want. What is so intriguing though is that line: "...you shall be as God to Him." Really, wow, how does that work? Well, we can figure out easily what it doesn't mean. It in no way is saying that Moses is as God or a god. We know that from what the Bible plainly teaches about God. God's exclusivity had already been impressed upon Moses from earlier in his encounter with Him. So, what does this mean then? Oh brothers and sisters, this is so amazing and wonderful what this means. This is so life changing and encouraging, so humbling and awesome that we must take it to heart! It means that when Moses spoke the word of God to Aaron, Moses was as God to Aaron! How awesome and simple. When Moses spoke God's word to Aaron it was authoritative as if God Himself were speaking. Now stop, drop and roll! Meditate on that verse a minute or two. Chew it real slow and pray it back to God. Ask God to "Hide His word in your heart so you do not sin against Him." Let this soak in.
What application does this have for us? Well, the next time you get into a discussion about the meaning of life, you can do no better than quote Genesis 1:26, John 3:16 or Psalm 1. Don't babble endlessly about some crank belching out philosophical flatulence, go to the source. Drop the word of God like napalm, pray over it and let it do God's work. When someone wants to know about depression or some "psychological problem", go to Job 38-41 and then to Hebrews 12:1-2 and let them know that the surest cure for depression is a lack of self-esteem and a ponderous dose of Christ esteem. Let the counsel of God drive your knowledge of every area of life and let it be your sword of the Spirit. Only the Word of God can divide soul and spirit so why do we try to impart wisdom from our feeble minds? What was God's response to Job and his friends pathetic attempt at wisdom? "Who is this who darkens counsel by words without knowledge? Now prepare yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer Me. Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?" Job 38:2-4. Pretty good question from God huh, well do you have an answer? Neither do I. Let's let His word do the talking! God Bless you and learn, live and love the glorious Gospel!
Saturday, June 18, 2011
Embracing the Biblical View of Depravity, Part Two. God's Awesome Holiness: A Contrast.
"And one called to another and said: 'Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts: the whole earth is full of His glory,'" Isaiah 6:3.
"And I said: Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!" Isaiah 6:5.
While volumes of books could be written about my depravity and ignorance, God has actually had volumes of books written about His holiness and wisdom. He is all powerful, all knowing, all good and sovereign over all things. Even more, He is perfect in all his affections as I've heard it put. The constant thread running through all His perfections is His holiness. God is completely separate from all His creation. Sin has marred all of creation yet God is holy, He is separate and cannot tolerate sin in His presence or have any relationship to it at all as the Moody Handbook of Theology puts it. This is why Isaiah was so terrified in the presence of God and why he had to be temporarily purified by burning coals to be in the presence of the Lord.
God's holiness is terrifying and illuminating. Isaiah was terrified, Moses had to watch his step in approaching the burning bush and Peter knew that he was unworthy to be in Jesus' presence after the relatively minor miracle of a great haul of fish. God is so different than we are. We find it hard to understand God at all. That is why God gave us His holy word, the Bible. The Bible's description of God is awe inspiring. He created all of everything out of nothing, with just a word of His mouth. That is just the first line of the first book of the Bible. The rest of the Bible fleshes out God's greatness, love and perfection against the backdrop of our weakness, evil and depravity. We are told relentlessly, in this day and age, that we must see things through other peoples eyes. We must try and understand things according to their culture, race, gender and background. Yet, do we try and see things from God's perspective? Do we want to see things as God sees them may be a more important question. This is what we should strive to do every day of our lives as we seek God in prayer, ministry and His word. This will be terrifying coming to understand God, who is holy. Even more, the closer we come to God, the more His complete uniqueness and purity will illuminate even the tiniest sin we have. Isaiah was likely the holiest man in Israel yet he could not withstand the purity of God. This illumination will drive us to our knees and humble us. There is no doubt that wherever you see a man, professing faith or not, who thinks that he is the stuff, he has not been in the presence of God recently. Humility flows generously from a heart that is close to God. Proverbs teaches that "Pride comes before a fall". It stands to reason than that humility comes before a glorious resurrection. Moses was called the most humble man in all the earth and God allowed him to see a portion of Him passing by. Jesus humbled Himself and became obedient to death, even the death of the cross as His word so eloquently tells us. God's holiness will humble us. If we are not humble, we have not seen Him.
While this seems unbridgeable, our depravity and God's holiness, we are instructed in Leviticus and in Peter's epistle to "Be holy for I am holy." This is impossible! On my best day, I am stuck in the world, apart from God more times than I can count! I can hardly say that I have separated myself from sin. Yet, the command is there and we must be obedient. We are told to, "Walk in the Spirit and you will not fulfill the desires of the flesh," in Galatians. Holiness is commanded and we must be obedient and God has graciously, unbelievably and fortuitously given us the indwelling of the Holy Spirit to lead us into holiness. Oh grace be to God, He is awesome! We can be holy, not in our power, but in His and He gives us His word, His Spirit, His church and an awesome Gospel to preach. Truly we must understand that while we are weak, He is strong and stronger is Him who is in us than he who is in the world. God just wants us to surrender to His power and walk in His strength. We have no strength in our depraved condition.
God's holiness truly illuminates our depravity and draws us closer to Him. We need to abide in Him and He will give us the desires of our hearts and our hearts will be holy.
God Bless you and learn, live and love the Gospel of our glorious Savior!
"And I said: Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!" Isaiah 6:5.
While volumes of books could be written about my depravity and ignorance, God has actually had volumes of books written about His holiness and wisdom. He is all powerful, all knowing, all good and sovereign over all things. Even more, He is perfect in all his affections as I've heard it put. The constant thread running through all His perfections is His holiness. God is completely separate from all His creation. Sin has marred all of creation yet God is holy, He is separate and cannot tolerate sin in His presence or have any relationship to it at all as the Moody Handbook of Theology puts it. This is why Isaiah was so terrified in the presence of God and why he had to be temporarily purified by burning coals to be in the presence of the Lord.
God's holiness is terrifying and illuminating. Isaiah was terrified, Moses had to watch his step in approaching the burning bush and Peter knew that he was unworthy to be in Jesus' presence after the relatively minor miracle of a great haul of fish. God is so different than we are. We find it hard to understand God at all. That is why God gave us His holy word, the Bible. The Bible's description of God is awe inspiring. He created all of everything out of nothing, with just a word of His mouth. That is just the first line of the first book of the Bible. The rest of the Bible fleshes out God's greatness, love and perfection against the backdrop of our weakness, evil and depravity. We are told relentlessly, in this day and age, that we must see things through other peoples eyes. We must try and understand things according to their culture, race, gender and background. Yet, do we try and see things from God's perspective? Do we want to see things as God sees them may be a more important question. This is what we should strive to do every day of our lives as we seek God in prayer, ministry and His word. This will be terrifying coming to understand God, who is holy. Even more, the closer we come to God, the more His complete uniqueness and purity will illuminate even the tiniest sin we have. Isaiah was likely the holiest man in Israel yet he could not withstand the purity of God. This illumination will drive us to our knees and humble us. There is no doubt that wherever you see a man, professing faith or not, who thinks that he is the stuff, he has not been in the presence of God recently. Humility flows generously from a heart that is close to God. Proverbs teaches that "Pride comes before a fall". It stands to reason than that humility comes before a glorious resurrection. Moses was called the most humble man in all the earth and God allowed him to see a portion of Him passing by. Jesus humbled Himself and became obedient to death, even the death of the cross as His word so eloquently tells us. God's holiness will humble us. If we are not humble, we have not seen Him.
While this seems unbridgeable, our depravity and God's holiness, we are instructed in Leviticus and in Peter's epistle to "Be holy for I am holy." This is impossible! On my best day, I am stuck in the world, apart from God more times than I can count! I can hardly say that I have separated myself from sin. Yet, the command is there and we must be obedient. We are told to, "Walk in the Spirit and you will not fulfill the desires of the flesh," in Galatians. Holiness is commanded and we must be obedient and God has graciously, unbelievably and fortuitously given us the indwelling of the Holy Spirit to lead us into holiness. Oh grace be to God, He is awesome! We can be holy, not in our power, but in His and He gives us His word, His Spirit, His church and an awesome Gospel to preach. Truly we must understand that while we are weak, He is strong and stronger is Him who is in us than he who is in the world. God just wants us to surrender to His power and walk in His strength. We have no strength in our depraved condition.
God's holiness truly illuminates our depravity and draws us closer to Him. We need to abide in Him and He will give us the desires of our hearts and our hearts will be holy.
God Bless you and learn, live and love the Gospel of our glorious Savior!
Sunday, June 12, 2011
These Words Ministry: Have you hugged a depraved maniac today? Embracin...
These Words Ministry: Have you hugged a depraved maniac today? Embracin...: " 'Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil ..."
Saturday, June 11, 2011
Have you hugged a depraved maniac today? Embracing the biblical view of depravity.
"Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually," Genesis 6:5.
There are countless stories of people playing with fire, figuratively, and then getting burned, often, to death. Stories of people with crazy wild animals as pets. They love these animals and often raise them from birth, as the only parents that the wild beasts know and yet, one day, the beast turns on them in a tragic and sometimes horrific way.
The Bible teaches from its earliest chapters that man is like a wild animal even to the point of "every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually." The Bible clearly teaches man's utter depravity yet we always seem to be caught by surprise at how wicked our fellow man can be. We forget that "the heart is deceitful above all things and wicked, who can know it," Jeremiah 17:9. We can get so caught up in a person or people in general and forget that in our heart, we are wicked. How often do we see the neighbor of a horrific murderer interviewed and their standard response about their neighbor is, "He/she was a good neighbor and helped...." Humans can be just like a wild beast who seems tame for even years on end but they turn into a vicious killer in a moments notice.
This is the difficult thing about the doctrine of depravity. 99.9% of people seem to be nice most of the time. Unless we are watching a horrific show like The Housewives of Insanity County or Bridezilla's we don't run into vicious, conniving people on a regular basis let alone a serial killer. Maybe it is best to understand depravity for what it doesn't mean. It does not mean that people are always seeking to rape, pillage and murder everyone they see. We have a view of depravity that is reserved for the worst of the worst. No, we are all depraved from head to toe unless... well, we'll get to that later. Depravity, in its most concise understanding, means that in our fallen nature, we are completely sinful. The Moody Handbook of Theology puts it this way, "A term(depravity) used to refer to the corruption of sin extending to all people and affecting the entire person-his intellect, emotions and will-so that nothing in the person can commend him to God." That hits the nail on the head! What does this mean? Well Rob Bell, it does mean that Gandhi is in Hell. Gandhi was maybe the greatest example of a wonderful do gooder ever. He was nonviolent and loving and fairy dust and flowers showered him wherever he went(so the legend goes). Yet he lacked any goodness in his soul. Nothing he did pleased God. Yes Mr. Bell, Gandhi's good deeds were as filthy rags before the Lord. Gandhi did these things under his own power, his own righteousness, er, his own depravity. Let me ask you a question at this point. Who did Jesus reserve the harshest judgment for? The Pharisees. Why? Did they love the word of God and let it have authority in their lives? No, they did not. They loved the traditions of the elders and often used those to nullify the word of God. Paul, in a similar vein, warned us not to follow the vain philosophies of man. Gandhi had no fear of God and never offered any sign of repentance. Unless he repented of his sins and confessed Christ at his deathbed he went where all those who trust in their own righteousness go: Hell.
From Moses to David to Jeremiah to Jesus to Paul we are taught that we are depraved, unable to please God. Our most righteous deeds done in our flesh are the most repugnant of all things to God because they do nothing to advance His kingdom and everything to advance our kingdom. We become the most miserable, self important and inflated boobs that can be imagined when we do works in our own power. We become like King Nebuchadnezzar and believe ourselves all powerful and wise. God must take us down a notch. No, He must takes us down, turn us upside down and turn us completely around. We are useless to God in our depraved state and He must send His Holy Spirit to convict us of our sin and pride and bring us down to the dirt. We must acknowledge our depravity, repent of our evil and confess our sins to Christ. We must believe upon His death on the cross for our sins and trust in His resurrection from the dead and ask Him to Lord over our lives in every detail. Only then can we turn our filthy rags into gold and precious gems that do not decay or rust.
Not only this, but we must understand our the biblical view of depravity informs our lives in every way and relationship. Especially in our own skin where we still continue to sin. But more of this later. We just need to make sure that we are, "as wise as serpents and as gentle as doves" when we are walking about in this world so that we are not devoured by the beasts all around us. God Bless you all and learn, live and love the gospel.
There are countless stories of people playing with fire, figuratively, and then getting burned, often, to death. Stories of people with crazy wild animals as pets. They love these animals and often raise them from birth, as the only parents that the wild beasts know and yet, one day, the beast turns on them in a tragic and sometimes horrific way.
The Bible teaches from its earliest chapters that man is like a wild animal even to the point of "every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually." The Bible clearly teaches man's utter depravity yet we always seem to be caught by surprise at how wicked our fellow man can be. We forget that "the heart is deceitful above all things and wicked, who can know it," Jeremiah 17:9. We can get so caught up in a person or people in general and forget that in our heart, we are wicked. How often do we see the neighbor of a horrific murderer interviewed and their standard response about their neighbor is, "He/she was a good neighbor and helped...." Humans can be just like a wild beast who seems tame for even years on end but they turn into a vicious killer in a moments notice.
This is the difficult thing about the doctrine of depravity. 99.9% of people seem to be nice most of the time. Unless we are watching a horrific show like The Housewives of Insanity County or Bridezilla's we don't run into vicious, conniving people on a regular basis let alone a serial killer. Maybe it is best to understand depravity for what it doesn't mean. It does not mean that people are always seeking to rape, pillage and murder everyone they see. We have a view of depravity that is reserved for the worst of the worst. No, we are all depraved from head to toe unless... well, we'll get to that later. Depravity, in its most concise understanding, means that in our fallen nature, we are completely sinful. The Moody Handbook of Theology puts it this way, "A term(depravity) used to refer to the corruption of sin extending to all people and affecting the entire person-his intellect, emotions and will-so that nothing in the person can commend him to God." That hits the nail on the head! What does this mean? Well Rob Bell, it does mean that Gandhi is in Hell. Gandhi was maybe the greatest example of a wonderful do gooder ever. He was nonviolent and loving and fairy dust and flowers showered him wherever he went(so the legend goes). Yet he lacked any goodness in his soul. Nothing he did pleased God. Yes Mr. Bell, Gandhi's good deeds were as filthy rags before the Lord. Gandhi did these things under his own power, his own righteousness, er, his own depravity. Let me ask you a question at this point. Who did Jesus reserve the harshest judgment for? The Pharisees. Why? Did they love the word of God and let it have authority in their lives? No, they did not. They loved the traditions of the elders and often used those to nullify the word of God. Paul, in a similar vein, warned us not to follow the vain philosophies of man. Gandhi had no fear of God and never offered any sign of repentance. Unless he repented of his sins and confessed Christ at his deathbed he went where all those who trust in their own righteousness go: Hell.
From Moses to David to Jeremiah to Jesus to Paul we are taught that we are depraved, unable to please God. Our most righteous deeds done in our flesh are the most repugnant of all things to God because they do nothing to advance His kingdom and everything to advance our kingdom. We become the most miserable, self important and inflated boobs that can be imagined when we do works in our own power. We become like King Nebuchadnezzar and believe ourselves all powerful and wise. God must take us down a notch. No, He must takes us down, turn us upside down and turn us completely around. We are useless to God in our depraved state and He must send His Holy Spirit to convict us of our sin and pride and bring us down to the dirt. We must acknowledge our depravity, repent of our evil and confess our sins to Christ. We must believe upon His death on the cross for our sins and trust in His resurrection from the dead and ask Him to Lord over our lives in every detail. Only then can we turn our filthy rags into gold and precious gems that do not decay or rust.
Not only this, but we must understand our the biblical view of depravity informs our lives in every way and relationship. Especially in our own skin where we still continue to sin. But more of this later. We just need to make sure that we are, "as wise as serpents and as gentle as doves" when we are walking about in this world so that we are not devoured by the beasts all around us. God Bless you all and learn, live and love the gospel.
Thursday, June 9, 2011
Bible Quiz
1) Which one of these common phrases is in the Bible?
A. Cleanliness is next to Godliness
B. The Lord helps those who help themselves
C. Lord willing
2) Which one of these common phrases is in the Bible?
A. Idleness is the devils play ground
B. By the skin of your teeth
C. The devil made me do it
3) Who were Isaac's son's?
A. Shadrach and Meshach
B. Judah and Benjamin
C. Jacob and Esau
4) Which two brothers(half) of Jesus wrote books of the Bible?
A. Judas and James
B. Peter and John
C. Moses and Jonah
5) Who didn't get to see the Promised Land because of his impetuous anger?
A. Joshua
B. David
C. Moses
6) Which one of these celebrations was not authorized in Leviticus 23?
A. Purim
B. The Passover
C. Pentecost
7) Who was Jesus' cousin?
A. Peter
B. John the Baptist
C. Mary Magdalene
Answers: c,b,c,a,c,a,b
God Bless you and learn, live and love the glorious Gospel of Jesus Christ!
A. Cleanliness is next to Godliness
B. The Lord helps those who help themselves
C. Lord willing
2) Which one of these common phrases is in the Bible?
A. Idleness is the devils play ground
B. By the skin of your teeth
C. The devil made me do it
3) Who were Isaac's son's?
A. Shadrach and Meshach
B. Judah and Benjamin
C. Jacob and Esau
4) Which two brothers(half) of Jesus wrote books of the Bible?
A. Judas and James
B. Peter and John
C. Moses and Jonah
5) Who didn't get to see the Promised Land because of his impetuous anger?
A. Joshua
B. David
C. Moses
6) Which one of these celebrations was not authorized in Leviticus 23?
A. Purim
B. The Passover
C. Pentecost
7) Who was Jesus' cousin?
A. Peter
B. John the Baptist
C. Mary Magdalene
Answers: c,b,c,a,c,a,b
God Bless you and learn, live and love the glorious Gospel of Jesus Christ!
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