Jesus Said: “Do Not Judge;” When We Understand the Text

It seems to be the most quoted Bible verse: Do Not Judge.

Yet it is probably one of most misinterpreted verse in our life and time.

Here’s a good short video:

Read Full Post »

Hindus’ Accusation: You Christian “#SoulVultures” think you are better than Hindus

 

Note: This is part 1 of 2 posts that will address the issue of Hindus that have been on Twitter attacking evangelistic minded Christian as being self-centered.

Christians who are praying and helping with evangelistic Relief effort with the Earthquake in Nepal have been accused of being arrogant for wanting to share the Gospel.  For example one of the Hindus who have been constantly harassing us and many prayerful Christians just tweeted this an hour or so ago against the Bible League in Australia:

#SoulVultures should shed their ego that their self certified poisonous&venomous abhrahamik religions are the best ones

On our blog an interlocutor has also charged that we

have arrogance to think that “pagans” are backward and need redeeming.”

What do we say to that charge?

First off, followers of Christ can be arrogant. That’s because Christians still have a sinful nature.  Just like everybody else.  This confirms the Bible in Romans 3:23 that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.  To deny that Christians cannot possibly be arrogant at all is arrogance–better to acknowledge it.  This observation however does not excuse the sin.  Instead a Christian who is arrogant needs to repent from their sins.  Lower yourself and be humbled before God.

Secondly, the need for redemption isn’t only for what our interlocutor called “pagans” (using his own words).  Non-“pagans” need redemption too.

Thirdly, I myself a sinner am also in need of God’s saving grace because of my sins.   I hope that every Hindu who have been harassing Christians would know that I don’t think of myself as any better in my own merit than what someone (in this case the interlocutor) might call “backwards.”

Fourthly, I don’t think believing people need to be redeemed by Christ on the cross is arrogant.  Instead the message of the Cross kills arrogance and instead makes us foster humility.  The Gospel says that we ALL are sinners (Romans 3:10, 3:23) who are ALL spiritually dead if it’s up to ourselves (Ephesians 2:1-3). “For ALL of us have become like one who is unclean, And ALL our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment” (Isaiah 64:6a).  Even when we do outwardly what others might identify as our good deeds, still we can do it with ulterior motive, or it is fueled or done to promote our self-righteousness.  “The heart is more deceitful than all else And is desperately sick; Who can understand it?” (Jeremiah 17:9).  The believer of the Gospel knows he’s a begger in need of grace.  He knows that because of his lack of righteousness, God has to provide His Son to die on the Cross for his legal righteousness before God.  And any practical righteousness afterwards in a Christian life, if it is true righteousness is the work of God in his life and an outworking of the truth of God’s saving love is the motivation for his obedience.

Fifthly, a Christian that truly understands the Gospel will share this to others as another dying sinner to another dying sinner.  Ironically, if a Christian who understands and believes in the Gospel will not share this to others, he would be committing a high-handed sin of selfishness to genuinely believe the truth that there is a way of salvation and yet not share that to others.  Such a fool is arrogant, only caring for his own life and not think of others but only himself.  #HindusandcitizensofNepalslivesmatter.

Sixtly, if you have been misrepresenting praying Christians and Christian missionaries and relief workers as being arrogant and have read this explanation and still want to accuse Christians of being arrogant in their internal motivation even though you now know better, then God help you.  Continual misrepresentation even when one knows better is arrogance: You want to still keep on saying this, and you have made your desire to slander Christians as being more important than the truth.  Whenever an agenda is advanced with half-truths and lying sound bites, it is wickedness.  Repent to God for mercy for your sins.

Lastly, from some of our interaction this past week some of you have said you are without sin.  That’s ironic that you can still keep a straight face and charge Christians for arrogance don’t you think?  The most arrogant thing you can ever say or think is to think you are without sin.  It means you are perfect.  It means you can do no wrong; it means you have become a functional god.  Oh the arrogance of presuming you are a perfect god!  But your deeds reveal otherwise.  Now if you confess your sins to God, repent of it and turn to the grace of God through faith in Jesus Christ, He is faithful to forgive you, to change you, to cleanse you.

Read Full Post »

Self KnockOut: A Twitter Dialogue with a Hindu against Christian Evangelism

Background: In my post on Sunday “Twitter attack on #SoulVultures and the Nepalese Earthquake,” I noted that there are Hindus and others on Twitter harassing those Christians who expressed evangelistic prayers for Nepal in light of the recent earthquake and Christian evangelistic relief efforts.  In Sunday’s post I gave a compact summary of the Gospel since people kept on misrepresenting it and I also dealt with the objection to Christian evangelistic relief effort and evangelistic prayers.  Specifically I dealt with the objection by noting how the objection faces a self-defeater that is provided from within these guys’ own respective worldview.  As of this moment that I am writing this, those who have commented on the post against us have yet to interact with the arguments that was presented.  But overall at least the comments were civil.  But this is not true on Twitter.  We’ve been called many things and have many nasty things said about Christianity the last 48 hours.  I want to share one of the better exchange that was not filled with profanity.  I want to share this dialogue as a window for others to see the folly of opposing Christians sharing the Gospel when one’s own faulty worldview and religious outlook undermine the rational basis for making that objection.  I want to note that since EvangelZ and I (SlimJim) both used the blog’s Twitter account, it is hard to distinguished my tweet and those by EvangelZ.  Here I limiting the record of this dialogue to the tweets that were my own words.  I also left out other Hindus ganging up against us during the dialogue as these tweets were largely distracting, harassing and not fruitful.  I also focused only on the tweets of our dialogue partner directed towards my own words; and the tweets from our Hindu friend that I am responding to.

Apologetics Illustration:

I want to explain what I see the direction of the dialgue with the following illustration.  Wouldn’t it be strange if a boxer ended up knocking himself out?  Kind of like this guy did to himself:

I think this describes what our Hindu friend did to himself here.  I think it was not so much I was “beating down” on him as it was more that his own beliefs were delivering his own knockout punches.  The point of my dialogue was merely to point out that his own beliefs were refuting his objection against Christians engaging in evangelism to Hindus.

The Dialogue:

Our Hindu friend’s main thesis was, to put it in his words, “The ppl u seek to cnvrt have their own religion,y not accept that his religion is as precious/true for him as urs for u.”

We pick up where he started to describe his beliefs that religious claims are no more than mere preferences:

Hindu: u have the right to say my dad is the best dad in the world,as long as u add two words; “for me”.Sadly ppl dont realize this

The Domain for Truth: so religious claims are just subjective?

Hindu: certainly.  Not all people think alike,hence there are different ways to approach the divine.Depending on ur culture/country.

The Domain for Truth: Ok so if you believe this why are you railing against another cultural way of giving aid? #contradiction

Hindu: u may like baked potatoes,i may like french fries.The potate does not change,how we consume it does.

The Domain for Truth: You say we should not condemn as wrong yet you do so? #Contradiction

The Domain for Truth: If you believe everything is mere preference; then you can’t condemn someone else’s preference including those of Christians

Hindu: because u are demeaning someone else’s religion/faith in the process.Also the whole idea that my god is superior to ur god.

The Domain for Truth: But your belief in religious relativism is an undercutting defeater to your complaint of Christianity; you can’t say its wrong

Hindu: Think of god as an all loving parent.IsHe GoingToSend 1 to hell and another toHeaven JustCos 1 called him DadAndAnother pop?

The Domain for Truth: But that’s just your relative view remember? You assert all religious propositions are mere preferences; r u evangelizing?

Hindu: i am just saying u dont have the right to say that baked potatoes are the only way,other ways of consuming it is wrong.

The Domain for Truth: Who made you one who gives right when its all up to individual preference? Do you see the irony?

Hindu: We dont because we respect all faiths.We accept that any effort made to reach god in any form is acceptable to god.

The Domain for Truth: Will you accept the Christian faith? Hm…

Hindu: How is it evangelizing,didnt ask anyone to leave their faith.

The Domain for Truth: Evangelism is sharing one’s faith

Hindu: no.

The Domain for Truth: Let me explain: If you say religious claims are preferences its just their choice. But then you say “u dont have the right”

Hindu: nope.Accept that the religion in which u are born is the best for u.Its called swadharma(ones own dharma) in hinduism.

Hindu: ur mom might be best for u,not for me.for me my mother is the best.Always remember that and there will be no quarrels.

The Domain for Truth: Thank you for that term Swadharma

The Domain for Truth: But then you quarrel with someone’s else view? Do you see the irony of your claims and what you are doing?

Hindu: did not ask u to leave ur faith.U asked me a question and I responded.

The Domain for Truth: But you attacked our faith and our God

Hindu: Saying Whites are better than blacks is blatant racism.Same holds true for religions,shoudlnt it.religious racism.

The Domain for Truth: But is this objectively true? Remember you assert claims that are religious in nature is just subjective preferences

Hindu: nope.Discussing is different from abusing/calling names.didnt ask u the convert or speak ill abt Christianity,now did I??

The Domain for Truth: You didn’t ask us to convert; true; but you did argue against it how is that accepting?

Hindu: haha when did i attack,using the victim card now are we??

The Domain for Truth: Look at the thread and see what you have to say about Christianity

Hindu: Saying my version is the only version certainly is silly.

The Domain for Truth: No it’s a logical observation that two contarry claims can’t be right

The Domain for Truth: But is the Christian version silly in light of your mockery against it in this thread? #Contradiction

Hindu: my atman was already created divine.Only I have not realized it yet.no concept of sin with atman.

The Domain for Truth: “my atman was already created divine.Only I have not realized it”<–You know this but you didn’t realize it? #Contradiction

Hindu: no saying my way/religion is the “only” religion certainly is.

The Domain for Truth: If you really are tolerant can you tolerate a religion that says it’s the only way?

 

Be sure to check out Gospel is Desperately Needed for the Lost in Nepal.

Read Full Post »

A Thought Seeing a Mom Beat Rioting Son In Baltimore Riot

My prayers tonight is with the people in Baltimore with the riots going on.

I saw a clip of a mom trying to stop her son from participating in the protest/riot.  Have you seen it?

This display of tough love moved me.  This verse came to mind:

Better is open rebuke
Than love that is concealed. (Proverbs 27:5)

I’m just thinking out loud right now: What if every mom and dad, guardian, grandpa and grand ma, brothers and sisters, mentors, local pastors, and community leaders in these kids lives went all out to the streets tonight and lovingly and passionately appealed to these kids to stop will it make any effect?  I’m not taking away personal responsibility nor am I naive to deny that in some instance there will still be the need for law enforcement to step in.  But what if love–not just cheesy cardboard one dimensional vanilla feelings we often call love–what if genuine, raw and uncut tough love were to be applied at a macroscale by nonstate actors–would it make a difference?  A dangerous question to ask because all kinds of questions follow about families, the church and the community’s role and their faithfulness to each of the sphere’s respective role.

The Church must live out its role of making disciples.  The consequences of that impact is huge.

Read Full Post »

Gospel is Desperately Needed for the Lost in Nepal

Gospel for Nepal

As of late, we have been receiving many twitter hates towards Christ and His Gospel.  That’s right, if you hate Christians, the Gospel, then you hate Jesus Christ.  And if you are a professing Christian that is willing to rebuild the temples or hostile towards Gospel preachers, you should be ashamed of yourself.  You need to repent and ask God for forgiveness for assailing His servants.  Many of our attackers come from Hindus who are not only from India, but Hindus who live in America.  Yes, the land that grants freedom of religion and the freedom to preach the Gospel have its very anti-Gospel dwellers.  Some of these critics rail against Christians sharing the Gospel in times of tragedy.  How can we just limit ourselves to humanitarian needs (which is important), and not share the Gospel of Jesus Christ that feeds the soul for eternity?

Many of our critics have slandered and blasphemed God the Creator of their soul.  There has been a huge misrepresentation of the Gospel.  Here are some of the tweets.  There is an insurmountable tweets that it is difficult to count them so we will only give a sample of them.  And some can not be shared due to its obscenity.

To our critics, whom we love and care, we would like to take this time to share with you the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  We hope that you are reading this.  We pray that your heart is not severely hardened to the Gospel which is your only hope.  We also share this so you do not misrepresent Christ and His Words.

Let’s start off with these points:

• God is Creator:
  • He is the Creator of the world and the Creator of your soul.  As the Creator, there is but one living and true God (Deuteronomy 6:4; Isaiah 45:5 7; 1 Corinthians 8:4) who is the Maker, Ruler, Redeemer, and Preserver of life. The living and true God is a Spirit (Deuteronomy 4:15-19; Luke 24:39; John 1:18; John 4:24; Acts 17:29), infinite (1 Kings 8:27; Psalm 139:7-10; Psalm 145:3; Psalm 147:5; Jeremiah 23:24; Romans 11:33-36), eternal (Deuteronomy 33:27; Psalm 90:2; Psalm 102:12, 24-27, Revelation 1:4, 8), unchangeable in His being (Psalm 33:11; Malachi 3:6; Hebrews 1:12; Hebrews 6:17-18; James 1:17), wise (Psalm 104:24; Romans 11:33-34; Hebrews 4:13; 1 John 3:20), omnipotent (Genesis 17:1, holy (Hebrews 1:13; 1 Peter 1:15-16; 1 John 3:3, 5; Revelation 15:4), just (Genesis 18:25; Exodus 34:6-7; Deuteronomy 32:4; Psalm 96:13; Romans 3:5, 26), good (Psalm 103:5; Psalm 107:8; Matthew 19:7; Romans 2:4), and perfect in all His attributes (Exodus 34:6; Deuteronomy 32:4; Psalm 86:15; Psalm 117:2; Hebrews 6:18).
  • He is unlike us.  We are minuscule beings compared to Him.  To misrepresent Him as many Hindus have done on Twitter is to blaspheme Him.  Our God cannot be created by human hands or intellect.  He is beyond our league.  He can’t be contained by us.  In His grace, He made Himself to be personally known through His Son. His Son voluntarily left royalty and stooped down into this world.  Why did He come into this world?  He came because man sinned against God and man needed redemption.  Since God is holy and just, He demands perfection.  Mankind are far from that.  Everyone has broken His law and are under the curse of the law.

• God the Son:
  • Jesus Christ, the second Person of the Trinity, possesses all the divine excellencies, and in these He is coequal, consubstantial, and coeternal with the Father (John 10:30; 14:9).  God the Father created the entire universe according to His own will, through His Son, Jesus Christ, by whom all things continue in existence and in operation (John 1:3; Colossians 1:15 17; Hebrews 1:2).  That is right, your lungs operate because of Him.  It pleased the Father in His eternal purpose to choose and ordain His only begotten Son to be the Mediator between God and man, the Prophet, Priest, King, Head and Savior of His Church, the Heir of all things, and the rightful Judge of the world.  So if you want to know God, come to His Son.  The Father from all eternity gave His Son a people to be His seed, and through His Son, sinners who were chosen by God before the foundation of the earth, in time, are predestined, called, justified, sanctified, and glorified (Romans 8:30).
  • In the incarnation (God becoming man) Christ chose not to exercise some of the prerogatives of deity; but He did not give up His divine essence, either in degree or kind.  This is humility.  He could of marched down in royalty as a military-like figure, but He did not choose that option.  And don’t think for a moment that the incarnation is short of a miracle.  God took on a form of a man.  Idols or man-made entities cannot do what God did.  God became very personable with man.  He spoke to us and He touched the scars of humanity.  In the incarnation, which comprises of taking on all the essential properties of man (Philippians 2:5 8; Colossians 2:9), yet without sin, the second person of the Trinity chose to lay aside His right to the full prerogatives of coexistence with God, assumed the place of a Son, and took on an existence appropriate to a servant while never divesting Himself of His divine attributes (Philippians 2:5 8).
  • As the God-Man, two whole and perfect, and distinct natures of Christ, the divine and human nature, are indivisible (Micah 5:2; John 5:23; 14:9 10; Colossians 2:9).  Jesus Christ is very God, and very man.  In other words, He is fully God and fully man.  Our Lord Jesus Christ was conceived by the Holy Spirit through the womb of virgin Mary (Isaiah 7:14; Matthew 1:23, 25; Luke 1:26 35); and that the purpose of the incarnation was to reveal God (John 1:18), redeem men, and rule over God’s kingdom (Psalm 2:7 9; Isaiah 9:6; John 1:29; Philippians 2:9 11; Hebrews 7:25 26; 1 Peter 1:18 19).  Our Lord Jesus Christ accomplished our redemption through the sinless work by the shedding of His blood and sacrificial death on the cross and that His death was voluntary, vicarious, substitutionary, propitiatory, and redemptive (John 10:15; Romans 3:24 25; 5:8; 1 Peter 2:24).  That is why we call Him the Lamb of God; the perfect sacrifice.
  • Our justification (declared righteous) is made sure by His literal, physical resurrection from the dead and that He is now ascended to the right hand of the Father, where He now mediates as our Advocate and High Priest (Matthew 28:6; Luke 24:38 39; Acts 2:30 31; Romans 4:25; 8:34; Hebrews 7:25; 9:24; 1 John 2:1).  There is no longer a need to make sacrifices.  By resurrecting from the dead, God confirmed the deity of His Son and gave proof that God has accepted the atoning work of Christ on the cross. Moreover, Jesus’ bodily resurrection is also the guarantee of a future resurrection life for all believers (John 5:26 29; 14:19; Romans 1:4; 4:25; 6:5 10; 1 Corinthians 15:20, 23).  One day, Jesus Christ will return to receive the church, which is His Body, unto Himself at the rapture, and returning with His church in glory, will establish His millennial kingdom on earth (Acts 1:9 11; 1 Thessalonians 4:13 18; Revelation 20).  He will rule physically on earth one day and no one can stop Him.
  • The Lord Jesus Christ is the One through whom God will judge all mankind (John 5:22 23): believers (1 Corinthians 3:10 15; 2 Corinthians 5:10), living inhabitants of the earth at His glorious return (Matthew 25:31 46), and the unbelieving dead at the Great White Throne (Revelation 20:11).
  • The Lord Jesus Christ shares the same qualities due to God, which consists of His attributes (preexistent, eternal, uncreated, immutable, loving, omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient, holy), His names (God, LORD, Bridegroom, King of kings and Lord of lords, Savior, I AM, Alpha and Omega, Beginning and End), His deeds (creating and sustaining all things, sovereignly ruling over the forces of nature, illumination and revelation, speaking with divine authority, Word of God, salvation, showing mercy, forgiveness of sins, giving and being life, raising the dead, source of all spiritual blessings judging all people), and His seat of rule (God’s highest possible throne, ruler over everything, ruling forever).
  • As the Mediator between God and man (1 Timothy 2:5), He is also the Head of His Body, the church (Ephesians 1:22; 5:23; Colossians 1:18), the coming universal King, who will reign on the throne of David (Isaiah 9:6; Luke 1:31 33).   He is also the final Judge of all who fail to place their trust in Him as Lord and Savior (Matthew 25:14 46; Acts 17:30 31). We believe that on the basis of the efficacy of the death of our Lord Jesus Christ, the believing sinner is freed from the punishment, the penalty, the power, and one day from the the very presence of sin; and that He is declared righteous, given eternal life, and adopted into the family of God (Romans 3:25; 5:8 9; 2 Corinthians 5:14 15; 1 Peter 2:24; 3:18).
• Clarion Call of God to Sinners:
  • God is just and will judge sinners because they have sinned and fall short of His glory (Romans 3:23).  Because of sin, God demands justice.  There is a penalty for sin (Romans 5:12; Romans 6:23).  Penalty is judgment in Hell.  Since the one true God cannot lie, Hell is a real place.  The penalty must be paid (Hebrews 9:27; 2:2-3,9; Romans 2:12) and cannot be paid by your righteousness, a righteousness that cannot satisfy God the Father. He looks at all your righteousness as filthy rags (Isaiah 64:6).  Please do not confuse us with religions of works-righteousness (i.e. Roman Catholicism).  He will not give once inch of room for it.  You need an alien righteousness that can only come from the God-Man.  Oh, Hindu and humanists, all your good works will not impress God.  You need His forgiveness.  You need His Son.  While maintaining His holiness and justice, the Bible speaks about God’s love for sinners.  He responded to the disease of sin.  He paid for the debt of sinners who will come to Him in humility (Romans 5:8; 1 Peter 2:24; 1 Peter 3:18; Isaiah 53:5-6).  He became a sacrifice on the cross in order to satisfy God’s justice and anger in your place (1 John 4:8-10).  No one else could satisfy God, but His Son alone.  Only the God-Man, who is perfect, supreme, holy, met the criteria of justice.  Because He bore our sin, God who is holy poured down His wrath from Heaven upon His Son that day at Calvary.  Everyone else woke up the next day and went about their business.  What grace!  But Christ laid in the grave.  However,  the story does not end.  He was not defeated.  The Bible says that Christ resurrected from the dead (Romans 4:25).  Even death can’t contain Him.  He owns death by a leash.  So please do not say we serve a dead Jesus.  Nietzsche died and idols created by man that are temporal are prone to decay.  But for Jesus, He is alive and will come back at judgement day.  If He did not resurrect from the death, then there is no reason for me to share the Gospel to you.  He resurrection is what gives the Gospel power.  Because of His resurrection, millions of people experience the new birth in Christ.
  • What is your response?  Will you gaze upon it as a free gift (Ephesians 2:8-9; Romans 3:24; Titus 3:5; John 3:16)?  You can not pay for it or work for it.  He commands you to repent.  He will not share His glory with idols created by men.  Your idols were destroyed by the earthquake.  Where was it when people needed it?  The Gospel can.  It provides hope.  It is eternal and can never be destroyed.  It moves like an avalanche.  His Word is pure and is not contradictory.  It can account for morality and absolute truth.  It has hope and does not discriminate against any race or class of people.  He offers His message of love to all people.  All who come to him will not be placed in a caste system.  Everyone who is God’s child is equal before Him.
  • Truth!  God is truth and He never lies.  My friend, you must recognize your sin and confess to the Lord about what is true concerning you (Psalm 51:3-4).  A genuine repentance will reveal that you have genuine sorrow, shame, and even hatred for your sins against God.  You must not only recognize and accept your deplorable condition before God, but you must also turn from your sins and turn to God in faith.  Believe in His promises concerning His Son.  If you do, your soul and your eternal future will be secured in His Son.  Believe in His Son as your Lord and Savior (Acts 16:31).  If you do, He will not look at you as His enemy, but His friend because He sees Christ in you.

• ---

  Aknowledgements: Parts of this doctrinal confession is adapted in part from the The Master’s Seminary Statement of Faith, Desiring God, HeartCry Missionary Society, and the Westminster Cathechism.

Read Full Post »

Twitter attack on #SoulVultures and the Nepalese Earthquake

Note: We’re interrupting our regular Sunday series for this post.  Please pray for Nepal and the people in light of the Earthquake.

So I posted this on our Twitter:

And I saw someone on Twitter posted a screenshot of that Tweet with the following comment:

one more.. the scavengers of tragedy.. inspired by #NepalEarthquake

I saw someone else shared our post with the hashtag “Soulvultures” and when I looked it up I was surprised at the amount of Tweets that have been spewing against Christians who are praying for Nepal and that also prayed for the people in Nepal to see the love of God in Christ Jesus through Christian organization providing relief.  I guess Christians who want to help in Nepal or are praying evangelistically for Nepal are now labeled as “Soul Vultures.”

There is a sense of irrationality with some of these tweets.  One Tweet says:

#SoulVultures are dangerous than #earthquake

And then there’s this tweet:

People who convert using sword are far more honest about their motives than #SoulVultures,who prey on people when they are most vulnerable.

With someone’s reply:

I always maintained ‘Jejus loves u’ Types are more Dangerous than ‘Kill all Kaafirs’ 😉

Really?  People who are evangelistic relief workers are more dangerous than an earthquake that has killed 1500 people thus far?  Or even more dangerous than Muslim extremists who want to kill all non-Muslims?  Those who come with aid to help improve or save life is the equivalent or worst than guys who want to take life?  You don’t have to believe in Christianity to see that these claims are outrageous.

Then there were the tweets that called for “Soul Vultures” to be damned, the Army to shoot them and also for a “Hindu Inquisition” to be implemented against them.  Irrational hate for Christianity knows no bound.

I want to deal with two things in this post.  First I want to clarify what is the Christian Gospel that Christians want to share with others as I see so many strawman fallacies being committed on Twitter.  Secondly, I want to consider some of the objections to Christian evangelistic relief efforts in light of the different worldviews/religion and note that their own worldview provide the undercutting defeater against their objection to Christian evangelistic earthquake relief aid.  I want to look at the Gospel first as it will shape how one deal with the objections in part two.

First what is the Christian Message that Christians want to be shared in Nepal?

Again, I’m abhorred at the massive amount of misunderstanding as to what the Gospel of Jesus Christ means among those who tweet against “Soul Vultures.”  For the purpose of avoiding misrepresentation this is a paragraph summary of the Gospel:

The gospel or good news of Jesus Christ is that God the Father, who is holy and righteous in all his ways, is angry with sinners and will punish sin.  Man, who disobeys the rule of God, is alienated from the love of God and is in danger of an eternal and agonizing condemnatin at the hands of God.  But God, who is also rich in mercy, because of his great love, sent his eternal Son born by the Virgin Mary, to die as a ransom and a substitue for the sins of rebellious people.  And through the perfect obedience of the Son of God and his willing death on the cross as payment for our sins, all who repent and believe in Jesus Christ, following him as Savior and Lord, will be saved from the wrath of God to come, be declared just in his sight, have eternal life, and recieve the Spirit of God as a foetaste of the glories of heaven with God himself.”

(Mark Dever, What is a Healthy Church Member?, 40-41)

Now this message will shape the way Christians share the Gospel.  Christians who do share the Gospel are to do so in a loving manner motivated by the Love of God as Paul testified in 2 Corinthians 5:14-15=

 For the love of Christ controls us, having concluded this, that one died for all, therefore all died; ¹⁵ and He died for all, so that they who live might no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf.

Note here that their is no room for force, manipulation or strong arm tactics.  Yet part of being loving is persuading people to be reconciled with God through Jesus Christ as verses 20-21 goes on to say=

²⁰ Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. ²¹ He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

The sharing of the Good News to people must go around the World in light of Jesus’ command in Matthew 28:19-20.  A Christian must put into practice lovingly and wisely presenting the Christian faith.  Whether or not the person comes to Christ is up to them and the Lord.

Objections to sharing the Christian Message in Nepal After the Earth Quake

As noted already there is a strong resistance on Twitter against Christians helping people in need in Nepal who also have the goal of sharing the Gospel.  No doubt some reading this will object that of course the above is important to the Christian; but Christians must also consider the faith of other people.  And they are right.  Here I am going to consider the objection to Christian sharing the Gospel in Nepal in light of other people’s faith and worldview.  From my observation on Twitter I see objections coming from Hindus, Buddhists, atheists, “Christians” and various assortment that I’ll group together as “humanitarians.”  I think the objection to Christians helping people in Nepal with both physical aid and the Gospel does not even make sense in light of the consideration of other propositions within their own belief systems.  I will first look at the “humanitarian” objection as it overlaps with the objection of some of the other worldviews.

Humanitarians objection: “Christians who want to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ after the Earthquake are not compassionate.”

The heart of the humanitarian objection is much pragmatic: They see the need to address the practical need of the here-and-now of desperate people and not some pie-in-sky matter.  I think an example of this objection can be seen from the following Tweet:

#SoulVultures pryng fr lost souls in #NepalEarthquake, no cncrn for humans pain. They fed on asian flesh nw wnt soul

Note the complaint that the Christian evangelistic relief worker has “no concern for human pain.”  But does this even make sense?

First off, it doesn’t make sense to say Christian evangelistic aid workers are not compassionate and not concern for human pain.  It’s the opposite.  Christians are concerned for people’s pain.  Not just only with the temporal pain after an earthquake but with human pain for all of eternity.  The Christian relief worker is like the humanitarian: He or she sees the reality of human suffering and is moved unto action.  Not just for the phenomenon of the earthquake.  But also in light of the eternal reality of hell.  You might assert that Christianity is not true–but please don’t make the Global statement that all Christians are not concerned and compassionate for people’s pain.

Secondly, let’s say hypothetically Christians are not concerned for human pain.  From a pragmatic “here-and-now ” perspective if Christians are on the ground in Nepal with physical aid for those who are hurting wouldn’t that be a good thing? Even if the intention might not be noble among some Christian relief workers the “here-and-now” result is that Western non-government Christian charities are coming with help for Nepal.  The “humanitarians” have nothing to complain about in light of their own criteria.  Ironically the humanitarians who object to Christian Gospel driven relief effort is more concern about the “pie-in-sky” innner motivation of the helper rather than the “here-and-now ” result.  The objection makes no sense within their own worldview.

Thirdly, if the goal really is to get physical relief for people in Nepal then opposing Christian evangelistic-minded relief goes against this very goal.

Does an Atheist Objection make sense?

Atheists don’t believe in the existence of God.  As I noted earlier some atheists on Twitter have also participated in the hash tag against #SoulVulture.  But does an atheist objection against evangelistic aid workers in Nepal even make sense in their own worldview?

First off, some atheist put significance in helping people suffering from the Earthquake as the basis to condemn Christian who cannot put aside the promotion of the Gospel in their relief work.  They presuppose that there is such things that are more meaningful and significant than other things but ironically the atheist worldview reduces everything as meaningless and insignificant since there is no significance and meaning for anything in a world of “pitiless indifference.”  Note Richard Dawkins saying that things just “is:”

In a universe of electrons and selfish genes, blind physical forces and genetic replication, some people are going to get hurt, other people are going to get lucky, and you won’t find any rhyme or reason in it, nor any justice.

Why help people in such a universe?  Helping people in this historic occassion means nothing when all of history means nothing since it “a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing,” to quote Shakespeare’s MacBeth.  Ultimately the atheist worldview has its own self-defeater against the significance of Earthquake relief over the propagation of the Gospel, but at the expense of reducing everything meaningless and insignificant.

Secondly, an atheist cannot assert that evangelistic relief effort is evil because within an atheist worldview there is no such thing as evil or good.  Note Richard Dawkins’ famous quote:

The universe that we observe has precisely the properties we should expect if there is, at bottom, no design, no purpose, no evil, no good, nothing but pitiless indifference.”

If there is no such thing as good or evil it makes no sense for them according to their own beliefs to condemn Christian relief missionary work as evil.  For the atheist there is no standard of good and evil to “measure” the Christian and say they are wrong, evil, bad, etc.

Does an Hindu/Buddhist Objection make sense?

First off, for followers of Hinduism and Buddhism that believe in the doctrine of Maya, we must ask: Is it real that Christian relief workers desire to convert people in Nepal to Christ?  That is, if everything is ultimately an illusion (Maya) then it is not real that Christian relief workers desire to convert people in Nepal.  Or that an earthquake happened in the first place for that matter.  And it is hard to make a Hindu objection to Christian doing evangelistic relief work if an Hindu or a Buddhist believes everything is an illusion since that claim itself is an illusion.

Secondly, there is a lot of objection on Twitter that Christianity is exclusive.  It makes exclusivistic truth claims.   An undercurrent behind this objection is that Hinduism/Buddhism is not exclusive like Christianity.  And yet ironically they exclude Christianity.

Thirdly, in light of the point made above, if Hinduism/Buddhism really is not exclusive as it claims to be, then it would have to embrace Christianity as true.  Thus Christians who are doing evangelistic relief work are providing spiritual truths to those who are hurting.  But most Hindus/Buddhists on Twitter object to Christian presentation of the Gospel.  Instead they want Christians to provide physical aid without involving the Gospel.  But if Hinduism/Buddhism really is not exclusive and embrace Christianity as true, why would they reject the spiritual truths but only want physical aid?  Do they want physical aide more than spiritual truths?  If that is the case, isn’t this being attached to the material things with their physical desires being greater than their desire for spiritual realities?  And isn’t that contrary to the ways of Buddhism and Hinduism?

Fourtly, perhaps Hindus/Buddhists object to the above and say Christianity is not true and they object to Christianity because it is not tolerant while their religions is tolerant.  This does not make the problem go away.  If they are truly tolerant will they tolerate Christians who come with earthquake aid who also lovingly present the Gospel and leave the decision up to the individuals?

 

Read Full Post »

Review: The Daring Mission of William Tyndale by Dr. Steven J. Lawson

I believe we have much to be grateful concerning the English Bible that we have in our hands.  When it comes to church history, many times our thankfulness are centered upon preachers, theologians, and reformers, but often Bible translators are forgotten.  Men such as Calvin, Luther, Edwards, and Whitefield are men we recognize and men that many have read about and men whose portrait is hung on the wall in many homes.  But what about Bible translators?  One person that we must have ingrained in our mind is William Tyndale.  If you like to hang pictures of theologians in your home, I encourage you to get a frame for Tyndale.

It is hard to know how Tyndale looks because he did not sit down to pose for a picture.  Since he was a fugitive, he was on the run for doing Bible translation.  This book seeks to expose Tyndale.  He was the first man to translate the Bible into the English from the original languages.  He knew eight languages and it has been said that when he spoke those languages, natives would not perceive him as a foreigner, but one who spoke like the people.  One of the big challenges concerning languages was to learn biblical Hebrew.  Barely anyone in Europe knew Hebrew; let alone taught Hebrew.  Besides all these languages, he was considered the father of the Modern English language.  He coined words that were never used in the English Bible such as scapegoat, atonement, sin offering, etc.  He was not only the father of the English Bible, but he was considered the father of the English reformation.  He was also considered the father of the Modern English Language.  The author states, “Even Shakespeare must concede that he is an heir to this grand translator of the Scriptures.  Repeatedly, Shakespeare uses words and phases that he has obviously adopted from Tyndale’s New Testament” (161).  Also what Luther was to Germany in terms of reformation, Tyndale, was to England in its reformation.

This book was an encouraging read and was written concisely in order to obtain the major details of his life.  The book covers his dangerous passion,his view on the doctrines of grace, his perilous work, his translation in the New Testament for common people, the translation of the Torah, his desire to always excel, and his further work in the Old Testament concerning the Historical Books. I highly recommend this book for those who have not read on the life of Tyndale.  Anyone who appreciates the English language and the English Bible will benefit much from this short read.

NOTE: I received this book for free from the publisher Reformation Trust through One Passion Ministries.  I was under no obligation to provide a favorable review.

Purchase book: Amazon or Ligonier Ministries

Read Full Post »

Obama Needs to Keep up with the Kardshians

Obama promised during his Presidential campaign to publicly acknowledge the Armenian Genocide; seven years later its nope to the hope for change.  I’m surprised the Kardshians has some substance in them to publicly call the World’s attention to this atrocity.  Somebody at the White House needs to turn on the TV see the news and keep up with the Kardshian.

Read Full Post »

Remembering the Armenian Genocide 100 Years Later

Today mark the 100th year of the Armenian Genocide. It was the first Genocide of the 20th Century and certainly not the last. Turkey still have not acknowledge their national sin.  In fact the headlines read “German President Enrages Turkey by Referring to 1915 Armenian ‘Genocide’” over at Times Magazine website.  I wished the American President would have the moral courage as German President Joachim Gauck.  For all the activism Google has for all kinds of Leftist causes, they can’t even have a Doodle to commemorate this sobering occasion.

I can’t help but to think how sad it is that a hundred years later the region seems to be repeating itself with the rise of Neo-Ottomanism in Turkey, an ongoing genocide against religious/ethnic minorities and persecution of Christians in Iraq and Syria by Islamic forces.

Read Full Post »

Apologetics Dood’s Animated Dialogues on Presuppositional Apologetics

Here are some animated Youtube video by “Apologetics Dood” that is pretty much a skit of what Presuppositional apologetics (Van Tillian) dialogues look like in action.  They have been loaded up recently.

I like the back and forth exchange that raises objections one commonly see when one engage an unbeliever with Presuppositional apologetics.

As more is being loaded online I hope to add more to them here.

Read Full Post »

Presuppositional Apologetics’ Round up: Third week of April 2015

Here are Presuppositional apologetics’ links gathered from the Internet between April 16th-21st, 2015.

Lots of links this time!

1.) Why Environmentalism and Animal Rights Are Dependent on a Christian Worldview – While not a Presuppositionalist, there is a Presuppositionalist flavor to the article.

2.) Inerrancy from the Peanut Gallery

3.) Refuting Atheism: The Sure Existence of Moral Absolutes

4.) FRANCIS SCHAEFFER ANALYZES ART AND CULTURE Part 32 Steven Weinberg and Woody Allen and “The Meaningless of All Things” (Feature on photographer Martin Karplus )

5.) My Sheep Hear My Voice: Canon as Self-Authenticating

6.) Atheism at Its Core

7.) “We are all born atheists”

9.) 7 Reasons Psalm 110 Deserves Attention

9.) Veritas Domain’s latest Presuppositional apologetics’ meme

10.) Michael Kruger Faith to Life Lecture on the Self-Authenticating Scripture

 

Missed the last round up?  Check out the re-blogged post from a friend

Read Full Post »

Prayer Request for Evangelism 4/21/15

 

I will be evangelizing in a few hours from now at 4:30 PM Pacific Standard Time.  Please pray that the time will be used by the Lord to share people the Gospel with clarity, conviction and compassion.

In terms of evangelism I have been trying to be more intentional to point people to our local church.  Pray that we will be faithful and if the Lord wills it, we see our weekly evangelism effort will see people come to salvation and be discipled in the context of the Local Church.

Read Full Post »

Michael Kruger Faith to Life Lecture on the Self-Authenticating Scripture

Michael Kruger has given a lecture at Clearwater Christian College on February 13th, 2015 on the Self-Authenticating Scripture.  This is an important lecture.  I appreciate his nuance and distinction between Self-Authentication versus Self-Attestation of Scripture.  Self-Authentication is not just merely self-attestation which refers to what Scripture has to say about itself although it does not conflict with it.  Self-Authentication refers to the quality, attribute and character of Scripture that bear out it’s own Divine Origin.  It is synonymous with “self-evidencing.”

Watch it:

Hope you learn from it!

Read Full Post »

A Biblical Theology of Hands Part 1: What does the Hands of men in the Bible reveal?

Introduction

Police officers are always observing people’s hands.  Are they reaching for a weapon?  The suspects’ hands are clenching-is the suspect ready to strike?  Are they hiding something?  Why are their knuckles bloodied?  There is a reason why when an officer pulls someone over they tell them to make sure our hands are clearly visible holding the steering wheel.  Our hands reveal a lot about who we are.  With what you do in your life what does your hands tell us about you?

The Bible has a lot to say about hands, the word appears in almost every book in the Bible from Genesis to Revelation and I believe it all anticipates Jesus Christ.  How?  That is the subject of this series.  I think it does but we must do so taking the Bible in its context and then showing the need of a Savior and how the Savior  accomplished things that are only meant for the Hands of God. Again to state the purpose of this series for the next few weeks on Sundays: We will be looking at what the Bible has to say about hands from Genesis to Revelation so that we would be awe at how the books in the Bible anticipates Jesus Christ as Savior of our sins and we truly trust in Jesus as Savior.

But for today, the purpose of this post is to answer the following question:  What does the Bible has to say about the hands of men?  And from there what does that say about human nature and about us?

1. The hands of man reveal man’s sinful nature
   1. Point: When we look at what the Bible has to say about the hands of men, we see sin and our need for a Savior.
   2. Proof
      1. For the sake of time we will survey only some of the passages in Genesis.  We see that the creativity of what man’s sinfulness is capable of doing is not something new to our times but have occurred for a long time.
      2. First sin of Adam and Eve
         1. Adam and Eve sinned by eating the forbidden fruit in the Tree. It presupposes the use of their hands in sinning.
         2. Note Genesis 3:22 is first reference of hands and what God says about his hand: “Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of Us, knowing good and evil; and now, he might stretch out his hand, and take also from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever”
      3. The hands of men are capable of murder: Cain murders Abel
         1. First murder is recorded in Genesis 4.
         2. Note Genesis 3:22 is our second reference of hands and what God says about Cain’s hand: “Now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand.”
      4. The hands of men are capable of being used to oppose others: Prediction of Ishmael’s hands against his brothers (Genesis 6:12)
      5. The hands of men are capable of being used to deceive others: Jacob deceives his father with false hairy hands to get his brother’s blessings (Genesis 27:22-23)
      6. The hands of men are capable of being used for violence: Story of Joseph and his brothers’ harm (Genesis 37:21-22, 27)
      7. The hands of a woman is capable of trickery: Story of Tamar’s prostitution and set up against Tamar (Genesis 38:18,20,28-30)
      8. The hands of a woman is capable of seduction and deception: Story of Joseph and Master’s wife (Genesis 39:12-13)

1. Practice
   1. Early in human history Genesis record how sinful man can be; nothing is new today in terms of sinfulness. Do you recognize man’s sinfulness?
   2. Do you recognize your own sinfulness?  What does the actions of your own hands reveal?
   3. If you feel sick reading the book of Genesis with what man’s hands are capable of, then you should have a better appreciate the place for God’s law, Holiness and Wrath.
   4. Yet we must also realize God’s Wrath will be set against us because of what our hands and hearts have done.  We need a Savior who will save us from our sins and the punishment due us for our sins.  That Savior is Jesus Christ.

 

Beginning next week we will see the Hands of the Lord more closely….

Read Full Post »

John Frame Dictionary Illustration and the problem of evil

I am in the middle of John Frame’s latest book Selected Shorter Writings Volume Two.  I have benefited immensly from Dr. Frame’s insight especially in the area of apologetics and theology.  I think he’s able to apply Cornelius Van Til’s insight more broader than Van Til was able during his lifetime.  Lord willing I would be able to finish the book sometime next week and have a review up on here.  In the chapter on the problem of evil Frame said something that I found helpful.  Speaking of God, John Frame said

Read Full Post »