Questions From a Used To Be Believer

I was forwarded these question and I answered them. I thought you might like to see it. Feel free to comment.

1. First up, the most obvious Q that come to mind is that if large parts of the Old Testament are only intended for now long dead tribes of Jews, why is it still included in the Bible today? When the Nicene council decided what to include and remove from (and some might say add to) their new holy book, why not remove the parts that were no longer relevant? If the Jesus story is all accurate, then the decision to leave in the Law, with its verbiage as it is, has resulted in thousands of years of confusion, suffering, and death (‘thou shalt not suffer a witch to live’ comes to mind). If the book is perfect, clearly these irrelevant passages should have been redacted to reduce human suffering and death.

The truth is, that the things recorded of these tribes were not recorded for them, but for the future. They are recorded for us that we are able to see and understand the purity and perfection of absolute Holiness. It is through these stories and this history that we see the absolute, and severe, nature of the holy requirements of God.

Look around you today. If we did not have the stories of Israel and their interaction with GOD, we would not be able to see what is happening in the world today and understand it. But, by seeing that this is how GOD relates to HIS children, we see a perfect loving Father who disciplines HIS children to keep them in line with what is best for them. If you do not understand the holiness of GOD, and if you do not understand how Christians relate to the Israel of that time, then you cannot see why the things that are chastising us and punishing us today fit in.

As JESUS stated, HE didn't come to abolish the law but that through HIM the law might be fulfilled. Salvation through the shed blood of JESUS the CHRIST has paid the eternal/spiritual price for sin. But, the relationship with GOD in the physical world is still based in the promises that require a 2 sided relationship. GOD has said, “IF you will do this......I will do this”

2. Also (this is somewhat of a side tangent) – what was the purpose of making a group of people live under such tormentous and dogmatic principles as the Law, just to undo it two thousand years later? Are we to believe that these rules were absolutely necessary in 500 BC, but were no longer needed in 35 AD? What changed that made 35 AD the proper time to offer a reprieve to humanity that couldn’t have been offered earlier? The only people abiding by the Law were the Jews, anyhow, but the sacrifice was purportedly good for everyone, including people on the other side of the planet. And, what did people do before the Law was written? What did the Greeks do, or the Sumerians? Are we to believe that human civilization had not only survived but flourished for thousands of years while under the impression that murder and adultery were morally permissible?

The law of GOD is not a torment or difficult. They reflect the holiness of GOD and what it would take to be as holy. They are a road map to achieving the perfection of GOD in order to live with HIM. What they actually did was show people that there was no way for them to be as holy as GOD. In fact, no person on Earth is able to be as holy as GOD.

GOD chose to raise a people to Himself. HE gave them the laws and the precepts and the revelation of Himself for the purpose of showing who HE is to the world. The other nations do not matter. GOD has a love and commitment to those who are HIS people. The promise of a Savior was to Israel alone. But, in the promise, GOD also included a salvation of the gentiles. JESUS is the Savior raised up to graft in the gentiles. HIS return will fulfill The promises of GOD to Israel.

The problems Israel faced as a result of a failure to live up to the commandments of GOD were not based in a failure to keep the laws, it was in having a complete disregard for the GOD who raised them up.

As far as when or why, GOD has His time table and He does things accordingly. The very real truth of GOD has well been stated by you. HE chose Israel and let the other nation flourish. GOD created a perfect world. Just as drug dealers and sinners flourish today. They exist outside of the law of both GOD and man. Law doesn't establish a nation, GOD does. With Israel, GOD chose to raise that nation up to reflect Him, that He might show His power and grace and fatherly chastisement. What the other nations did, they did. GOD chose Israel to be the object of His love. Of all the families on the Earth, GOD loved Israel and so, of all the families on the Earth, GOD punished Israel for their inequities. We do not see that with any other nation.

You might say that the other nations are better off for it. If all you have is carnal reasoning and you measure by worldly life, then that might be true. But, Israel was the recipient of the greatest gift and they rejected it.

However, this life and this creation is not what it is all about. It is about eternity. In the grand scheme of eternity, what GOD has done here on this blue ball is to establish a people that will be with Him for ever. With those that He created to be with Him forever, He also created the others. He created those who are the object of His love and those who are not. All for His purposes.

Yes, it was common for murder and adultery to flourish. The strong did what they wanted and women had no status. It was the norm for people to have a wife and still go whoring around. Solomon, the king of Israel, had 800 wives and 1,300 concubines. It was very common. The non-Jewish people in JESUS' time put their newborn, unwanted babies on the red hot arms of an alter to sacrifice them. We abort them today. But, it is the same basic concept, worship sex and kill the offspring.

3. Most importantly, whether or not Jesus paid the price for our sins is irrelevant to the question of determining moral boundaries. Jesus’ sacrifice didn’t remove the boundaries of ‘moral’ and ‘immoral’, it only purports to have removed the eternal death penalty for immoral actions. The lines that define ‘moral’ and ‘immoral’ still exist as defined throughout the Bible, whether or not we have to suffer the full consequences of those actions.

True. In fact, Christians, in many ways, have a greater requirement to the moral constructs of the scriptures. Christians have a moral obligation to a law of love that far exceeds the written law.

4. Therefore, the problem I proposed still exists. You may turn a blind eye to the rock theft, and rightly so, but you don’t have the authority to do so under Biblical principles. Whether or not this child and I would be held spiritually culpable for that action is irrelevant – the Bible provides strict, black and white right and wrongs and this theft is deemed a ‘wrong’. Without Jesus’ sacrifice in play, that action would’ve been worthy of eternal death under Old Testament Law (and elsewhere repeated), because the Bible does not grant you the freedom to update its definitions. This is only something man made moral boundaries can do; the rules in the Bible were set in stone 2,000 years ago and are not negotiable.

NO doubt about it. Theft is theft. Turning a blind eye to it is wrong as well. Now, did she know it was theft? If so, then it is also a sin. Sin is in place when intent is in place. As George Carlin would say, “You have to wanna”. So, you being complicit is sin, but her doing it in innocence is not. This is why there is a Bible. It teaches us right and wrong. Until she is taught right and wrong, there is no guilt. Where there is no law, there is no transgression. It is a shame you did not take this moment to teacher these things.

It is also the very reason for the law. The law shows us the requirements of absolute holiness. Most important, the law shows us that we have all sinned and fallen short of the holiness of GOD. So, the law shows us we need a savior. The prophesies of the Old Testament show us that JESUS was the promised Savior who fulfilled the law.

5. This is why the problem with homosexuality still exists. Jesus’ sacrifice may purport to remove the punishment for homosexuality, but it does not grant us the freedom to deem homosexuality as moral (or amoral). It is, and will forever be, immoral in the eyes of God, because God doesn’t offer Biblical writ updates or clarifications. Whatever is in the Bible is in the Bible, and any advancements we make in our thinking are either elections to ignore parts of the Bible or massive leaps to fit the Bible’s texts into our modern day understanding.

This is quite true. Sin is sin and it will always be sin. It is GOD who sets a person free from sin and GOD who may choose not to. IN the end, JESUS is a come as your are savior. There is no doubt that a person who is saved will have a great struggle with the sins they are captive to. However, it is no greater sin than failure to tythe to your church. In fact, failure to tythe is far more an act of the will than being a homosexual. There are too many people willing to overlook their own sin in order to look at someone else.

The idea that our current evolution of the social norms is an advancement is debatable. Moral decay is not advancement of improvement. It is moral decay. As we get closer and closer to the end times, moral decay will be more prevalent. In large part, this is do to spiritual sickness that has invaded the church. The one who holds back evil is all but gone and evil reigns in our churches and our society. Christians could change that by humbling themselves and prayer. But, I have read the book and I know this is a necessary part of the plan.

Let Go and Let GOD

         Such a common slogan. We hear it regularly. Yet, we never do it.

         There is something in the nature of man that makes him want to be in control. Every form of doctrine that comes along and tells people they have control is far more readily accepted than the doctrines that say they have no control. Human beings being on the throne of their own lives, their own hearts, is simply more comfortable than believing you have no control over anything.

         So we struggle in vain. Fighting against the air, boxing with our shadows, convinced that there is a victory to be had if we just work a little harder, argue a little more fervently, insist a little more strongly that we are the masters of our own destiny. Then it all falls apart and we become angry and disillusioned and shake a fist in the air as if being upset at GOD is really going to make it change.

         Still, when it all is said and done, we feel a need to be angry because things are not working out the way we planned and hoped and wanted.

          The world is going to hell in a hand basket. The downward spiral is continuing and accelerating at an alarming rate. Immorality and decadence has taken over our nation and our churches. The perverse and the morbid are common place. What are we to do? Things simply are not going as we think they should and we need to do something.

          For some, that means doubling and redoubling their efforts to contain the decay. They hope that the passing of laws and the restricting of people's activities will somehow change the course of things. For some reason, they haven't noticed that the more effort they put out, the worse things get.

          For me, when things go bad or are contrary to what I had hoped would transpire, I just give up. I stop striving and I stop fighting and I hand it all over to GOD with a firm belief that what HE has planned is what is going to happen, and what is happening. For me, that is a simple concept.

          I know that we are all raised to fight for what we want and to strive to achieve greatness. Some people do, in fact, achieve worldly greatness. But no one has ever achieved real eternal greatness by striving to do what it is clear GOD is not doing.

          I am a strong advocate that we need leaders in this nation. Really good leaders. The kind of leaders who don't think along the lines of forcing people to do what they feel is right. Real leaders show people a better way and hope they take it. Not all will. Not all people are going to accept everyone else. Some are going to be racists, some homophobes, some will hate old people and some will hate young people. Some will despise fat folk and some will disdain skinny ones. But, no law can actually change that, it just makes them fight all the harder for their brand of hate and intolerance.

          In the end, we human beings have no power. We have no position and no authority. All we have is a very weak effort to control our own flesh and no power at all to control others.

And I say it is time to give up!!

         It is time that my Christian brothers and sisters determined to return to the ways of GOD and just let the world go however it is going to go. Let it alone. Let society evolve (or devolve) as it will. Just leave it all in GOD's hands and just turn away. It is time we spent our efforts on being compassionate and loving and kind and meek and a real reflection of how JESUS treated the sinners of HIS day. Because the truth is, JESUS got invited to spend time with the sinners and the religious folk hated HIM. So it should be with you and me.

        This doesn't mean we are handing the world over to the ungodly. Quite the contrary, we are handing it over to GOD. Who HE gives it to is none of our concern. We have enough on our plate trying to overcome the reputation that hateful and intolerant men and women have given to our JESUS. We have enough on our plate to keep us busy doing the work of GOD, and letting HIM do the work of the world. This is my father's world. Though the wrong seems all so strong, GOD is the ruler yet.

So. Let Go And Let GOD.

Stealing (renew your mind)

 

I have recently been reminded of just how easy it is to be a thief and a liar. You see, there are many things that people do in the world that are accepted as normal, and even encouraged. Of course, not encouraged by those who are the victims, just by others who do the same things.

I was at a meal recently and one of the people there ordered the special, all-you-can-eat meal. I ordered a salad. This person said I could have some of their fish, because they could get more. WRONG!!! As it turned out, they didn't even finish the first order, and took the rest home. So, I could have eaten some.

 

Someone recently asked me to make them some copies of my Christian music, so they could share it with a friend. WRONG!!! Not only did I tell her that I wouldn't do that, but I explained that it was stealing. Not just stealing, though, it is stealing from a ministry. (every time you pull out a copied disc, you tell people you stole that material)

 

I was in a Christian music store a number of years ago. A couple was starting a new ministry and wanted some printed materials. The particular curriculum they were looking at was more than they could afford. After some time in conversation with the sales person, she said (in a low whisper), “you could just buy a couple books and then copy them”. WRONG!!!! I quietly walked up behind them and said, “Yes. You could start a ministry for JESUS with stolen materials.”

It seems almost ludicrous to me that someone would consider the LORD wants them to do something and they would start it in sin, instead of just waiting for the LORD to provide.

Then there are memberships into shopping clubs, and rentals and what not. Some allow a member to bring a guest. Some, on the other hand, require each user to be a member. Yet, one person has a membership and uses that membership to help someone else shop. Churches and ministries do this. It is what I like to call WRONG!!!!

The Bible has no gray areas. It is black and white, yes and no, right and wrong, good and evil. Anything that is gray is part evil. Anything that is part evil, is 100% EVIL.

We, who are in this world as ambassadors of CHRIST, who are not of this world, need to reflect the values and concerns of our holy and perfect LORD. Not for our sake, not even for HIS sake (although HIS reputation should be our concern) but, for the sake of those who see us and know what and WHOSE we are. For conscience sake. Not your conscience, but the conscience of one that might see.

The renewing of the mind is a process of learning to think from a GOD centered perspective.

For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.

Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.

1Corinthians 2:11-12

Religious Oppressors

The most important reason for the formation of America, the travels of the Pilgrims, and the strength of our nation, is the foundation of religious freedom and the ability to escape religious persecution. The Christian church flourished here because the government was established in such a way that the truth could overcome all other teachings.

Now, the Christian church leads the charge to limit the freedoms of people based on religious reasons. They lead the way to discriminate against people and force a particular religious view down the throats of those who do not agree.

It doesn't take much effort to see that this approach has become the foundation for the greatest resistance the cause of CHRIST has felt in this country. When you pick up the Bible to use it as a weapon against any group of people, or even an individual, the natural response is to recoil and defend.

If, on the other hand, the church were to put more trust in the power of the truth, and the power of GOD, and handed the Bible to people for them to use as a weapon against Satan, than all of the spiritual issues facing this nation would be overcome.

We do not have a problem with drugs, alcohol, divorce, homosexuals, or abortion. These are symptoms. Symptoms of a spiritual sickness. It is not just a sickness in the nation. It is a sickness in the people who say they trust in GOD.

If we, as a people of GOD, trusted in HIM and HIS power and spent our time doing what HE has asked us to do, living by HIS precepts, and being the people HE has called us to be, then the spiritual aspects of the decline in America would be reduced and the issues we face would be reduced. There is no place in the Bible that we have been told to use the government to battle evil. We have a lot of instruction on how to battle evil. The government is not in there.

The Bible, the founding fathers of America, history, even common sense should tell us that the approach we have been lead to use does not work and is not a good idea.

There was a time when the nations of Europe were run by the Christian church. Now, it is likely you would get arrested for preaching JESUS in the streets.

We, as Christian Americans, need to protect all Americans from religious persecution, particularly from Christians. Undermining these principals will result in these freedoms being lost to Christians as other groups rise up to defend themselves from the persecution by Christians.

Church Buildings

I recently had a chance to speak with a person, who is a relative of a person, who is a member of the congregation of JESUS CHRIST that I am currently the pastor of. She was visiting from a ways away and she spoke of how their church was at a point of getting ready to build a building. Being as this is one of the places GOD has impressed upon me HIS displeasure, I shared with her a simple thought.

Instead of building another big building to have church in (which no community needs) why not put their money and effort into building something the community does need and then have church there.

What does it say to a community when a church spends millions of dollars to build a building to have church in, that is seldom used for anything other than having church, while the people who live around it go without basic needs and are loosing their homes and jobs? Do you think it reflects the love and concern of JESUS? Is GOD impressed?

The LORD used me to build 2 youth centers with indoor skateboard parks and concert stages and games. I held church services in the second one. If I had started a church in the first one, it would have thrived. I learned.

Recently I read an article about a church that build a fitness center. The fitness center is for the community. The gospel is shared there. This is a good thing. Sinners do not seek out a church, but many different kinds of people seek out a fitness center.

A group of Christians in a town in MI. have built a youth center in one place, an after school learning center in another building and a clothing store in another. In another town, I have seen a thrift store with a food bank and they run a restaurant where you choose what to pay. The homeless and poor are encouraged to come and eat for free.

All I am saying is this;

If you are involved in a new church or are in some way considering building a new facility, build a movie theater or youth center or any of a number of facilities that can serve the community, and not just your church.

I realize that there are churches that have clothes closets and food banks and do events for the community. In the end, they really are a church building doing stuff that is seen as being for the church. A facility that is seen as being for the community, however, has a different impact altogether.

Peace Makers

           I want to be known as a peace maker. I want to be known as a child of GOD. I want my tombstone to reflect that GOD was what is important to me.

           I do not want to be known as an activist, or an author, or and preacher or pastor. I want to be known as a peace maker.

           I have failed at this in times past. Having been wronged by some folk I found I wanted it to be known that they wronged me. That is not what being a peace maker is.

          More than anything, I want to reflect the truth of JESUS in this world. I have no desire to be a part of this world. I want to be in this world as a representative of the kingdom I belong to. I do not want to be caught up in the affairs of men, and the concerns of this world. I only want to be focused on GOD and to focus others on GOD..

          So, I write this blog to reach the Christians I can reach. I write a book to reach the Christians I can reach. I comment on news stories and Christian Face book pages to try to get my Christian brethren to see the difference between what JESUS has told us to do and what we are doing.

          Can't we all just get along? Why does every person feel they need to force other people to live as they think is right? Why is it that we all have our way of looking at morality and determine to fight to make people live the way we think they should?

          I like Star Trek. I like the ideology of a society that simply chooses to coexist. I like that each person is free to think and believe as they choose. I think this is good for every one.

          Why don't we strive to let business owners choose how to run their business, instead of forcing our moral superiority on them? Why don't we let whomever do whatever and not try to bully them into submission?

          Why, for GOD's sake, are Christians leading the fight to disrupt peace in the world? OK, maybe just in my world. In America. Why can't we just strive for peace and love and absolute freedom without interference from the government?

          I am always going to fight against the flow of human precepts being taught as the precepts of GOD. I am always going to strive to reach my Christian brothers and unite them to embrace the sinners and spurn the pharisees. I want to follow in the footsteps of JESUS and be the man of peace that puts an end to the judgmental intolerance that has pervaded the Christian message for these past 50 years.

         Why?:

“Blessed are the peace makers, for they shall be called the children of GOD”