Why Jesus?

The question for the week is, “Why Christianity? Why not some other religion, or even atheism?”  That’s a good question, really, and I will try to give you a fair, honest, and even compelling answer.

It is not my purpose to criticize other religions, however, I do intend to give a cursory examination of the other main religions.  For starters, the Hindu religion has a pantheon of different gods.  Atheism has no god at all.  There are three basic monotheistic religions:  Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. 

Now, again, not to knock anybody else’s belief system, but most ancient peoples believed in multiple gods:  The Greeks had Zeus, Poseidon, Ares, etc.; the Romans had Jupiter, Neptune, Mars, etc.; the Norse had Odin, Thor, Loki, etc.  It basically came down to them feeling it necessary to divide up the duties of the divine.  Just as one man was good at hunting, another at fishing, and another at building things, so, too, they felt that there must be different gods with different abilities.  The idea that God is not like man did not occur to them.  Now the Hindus have a least gotten the idea that the gods are not like men (look at their statues and images), but they still have this idea of division of labor.  They just underestimate God.

I’m not going to spend much time on atheism.  Suffice to say that there have been a large number of very improbably coincidences in order for this world to exist and support intelligent life if God hadn’t at least directed the process.

Judaism had a good start, but many Jews are still looking for their Messiah.  If they are right, then he is to come, however, if Christianity is right, then He has already come, and, for the most part, they have rejected Him.

Islam teaches that Jesus was a prophet (sent by Allah), but that His teachings have been corrupted, so God had to appoint another prophet, Mohammed, with a fresh set of teachings to set things right.  Interestingly enough, the Koran talks about the virgin birth (Sura 3.45-50).  Doesn’t that at least suggest that Jesus (or Isa) was more than just a prophet?

Now Jesus claimed to be the way (John 14:6).  I’m not surprised that so many people don’t believe Him; there were a lot of people in those days that didn’t believe Him.  Still, the believers that actually knew Him, and spoke with Him, and heard His teachings never recanted.  Some of them were tortured and threatened with death if they didn’t recant, but they didn’t.  Now, granted, they may have had good reason to suspect that the promise of release if they said that Jesus wasn’t really what they had made Him out to be, but still.  It seems to me that if I and my friends made up a story about some fantastic man who did all of these wonderful things, and then we were tortured, and threatened with death if we didn’t admit that we just made the whole thing up, I suspect that I would come clean. 

So, we have this Bible, that at least appears to be an accurate account of the life of Jesus, and He certainly seems to have been a Savior, not just to the Jews, but to all mankind.  So, the question becomes, should we really believe the Bible.  I was just reading that a lot of Islamic scholars claim that the Koran reads the same in every part of the world, that there is only one Koran.  They point to the many different versions of the Bible as proof that it should not be believed.  I would like to point out that there are other Islamic scholars that admit that there are seven to ten different versions of the Koran, and there is at least one that claims that there are twenty.  Now, certainly there are a lot more different versions of the Bible than twenty; there are hundreds.  Part of the reason that the Koran has so many different versions is that Mohammed himself was illiterate—don’t misunderstand me, I don’t mean that as a criticism; literacy was not nearly as widespread then as it is now.  In today’s society, if a man is found to be illiterate, the first assumption is that he is probably mentally deficient; that’s frequently a bad assumption, illiterate people have to be pretty smart to get through life without being able to read—they have to memorize an awful lot.  My point is that Mohammed was almost undoubtedly of well over average intelligence, but he couldn’t write down the Koran (or anything else).  The Koran was passed on by oral tradition for many years; people would memorize and recite the Koran.  Eventually it was written down, but not until after Mohammed’s death.  So, changes were unwittingly made.  Also, the written language was less precise then, so when it did get written down, the written words could be interpreted differently by different people.  At the same time, the differences between the different versions are relatively minor.  So why do we have so many different versions of the Bible?  Mostly because there are a lot of people who recognize what an important work it is, and want to make sure that it is translated correctly.  Partially because we have an enemy who would like very much to eradicate any correct version(s) from the face of the earth.  If he can influence people to make minor changes to Scripture, he can gradually water down the message until it no longer means anything.  Of course, God protects His Word, so Satan cannot just make the Bible go away, but if he can publish “versions” that are more to his liking, he can lead many astray.  So why is it that the Bible has so many different versions while other religious writings (the Koran, the writings of Buddha, the Sruti and Smriti, etc.) have only a few?  Because of the relative importance.  Satan is not interested in ‘corrupting’ a book that wasn’t truth when it was written, any more than an artist wouldn’t forge a painting by an unknown artist, or a counterfeiter would create duplicates of confederate currency.

Perhaps the most important thing is that Jesus came to be our sacrifice.  No other religion teaches that their god or gods made a way for their adherents to be cleansed from their sins.  Mohammed did not die for you, in fact, Islam teaches that Mohammed was received up into heaven without dying first.   Buddha did not give his life for you.  Hinduism does not have a savior.  If you think about all the mistakes that you have made in your life, then understand that there is only one redeemer; His name is Jesus.  Why go to anyone else?

Marriage

The topic for this week is marriage.  The first point that I would like to cover is what we, in this country, call bigamy.  There are some, even in this country, who insist that there is nothing wrong, in God’s eyes, with a man having multiple wives.  They point to numerous examples in the Old Testament of men who were considered to be men of God who had more than one wife, and also point out that nowhere in the New Testament is this practice even criticized.  They are right that it was common practice in the Old Testament, and never specifically forbidden in the New Testament.  At the same time, historically, well before Jesus’ birth, the rabbinical council decreed that marriage should be between one man and one woman.  The fact that is that a lot of time passed between the Old Testament and the New; just because the events were not immortalized in Scripture, doesn’t mean that they didn’t affect what happened in the Gospels.  Think about it:  Nowhere in the Old Testament is there any mention of Pharisees, Sadducees, or Samaritans, and yet, in the Gospels they are written about as though they had been around for years; that only make sense when you understand that they had been around for years.  My point is that Jesus (and the Apostles) never felt the need to teach that bigamy was wrong, it was already commonly accepted as being wrong.

Jesus did talk about divorce.  He said that Moses made allowance for divorce, but that was only because of the hard-heartedness of the people, and that divorce was really not in keeping with God’s laws.  Jesus made it very clear that if two people get divorced, they should either be reconciled to each other, or live their lives singly.  Jesus actually used Adam and Eve as an example of what marriage should be.  Of course, Adam and Eve had the perfect marriage—he was never able to tell her how much better his mother’s cooking was, and she was never able to tell him about the other men she could have married.  They had another advantage, too:  They had no other people interfering with their marriage; they only had to deal with their own family.  If they had a fight, and Eve decided to leave Adam, where would she go?

I have been asked who performed the marriage ceremony for Adam and Eve.  I don’t think that a ceremony is a necessary part of becoming husband and wife.  In modern-day society, that’s the way it is generally done, but it doesn’t necessarily follow that it was always done that way, or that it should have been done that way.  Modern law requires a marriage certificate, issued by the state, and some form of ceremony, even if it is just a justice of the peace making sure that both parties are amenable to the marriage.  The Bible tells us to obey every ordinance of man, so, of course, we get married and perform marriages in a manner consistent with the law; but obviously Adam and Eve were not subject to that law (the legal term is ‘ex post facto’).  So who married Adam and Eve? Well, God pronounced them man and wife; I don’t think you’re going to find a higher authority or a more able minister than that.

One of the problems that we run into in modern society is that a lot of young people become, well, seduced into a romantic notion that love conquers all, and if they truly love each other (and, of course, they do, just ask them) then their love will overcome all obstacles, and they will grow old together and they will always be happy.  The truth of the matter is that marriage is a lot of work.  No two people are ever going to agree one-hundred percent on everything all the time, and even if they did, they will eventually get tired of being around someone that never really adds anything to the conversation—sometimes arguing is preferable to lock-step thinking.  The bottom line is, there is no perfect marriage.  There will be misunderstandings, quibbles, arguments, and even fights (hopefully just verbal fights), but if two people are really willing to make their marriage work, they will find solutions to their disagreements. 

The first major fight that I had with my wife, she announced that she was going home to mother.  She called her mother to say what had happened.  After she said her piece, my mother-in-law said hers.  To make a long story short, my wife ended up hanging up the phone and apologizing to me.  Her mother realized that what we were so upset about wasn’t that big of a deal.  It sure seemed like it was to us, at the time.  In retrospect, I don’t even remember what it was we were arguing about.  We were indeed fortunate, and blessed, to have an objective third party to put things into perspective for us.  Too many young couples today don’t confide their problems to a third party, and a great number of pastors are grateful that they don’t.  I understand that pastors don’t really want to hear about conflicts in their congregations, but without a little perspective, many marriages end up in divorce unnecessarily.  If you are having problems with your marriage, talk to your pastor (or mother-in-law, or some other third party), and if your pastor doesn’t want to provide counseling, then find a new pastor.  Oh, and don’t get counseling from a friend—the wife’s girlfriends almost always side with the wife, the husband’s guy friends almost always side with the husband, and other people may have their own reasons for wanting to split the marriage up (for example, a guy that finds the wife attractive (or a woman attracted to the husband) may contrive to get the couple divorced just so that they can get what they want).

So, you may be asking the question, “So, should I get married?”  Well, to be perfectly honest, maybe you shouldn’t.  Apostle Paul wrote at some length in 1 Corinthians 7 about how someone whose main goal is to spread the Gospel is going to be much more effective at it if all of his (or her) attention is concentrated on spreading the Gospel.  Someone who has a family to support or look after has, at best, divided attention.  He also, though, says that, “to avoid fornication, let every man have his own wife, and every woman have her own husband.”  (Did you notice that the terms were singular there, by the way—suggesting that he proposes that a marriage be one man and one woman?)  The thing is, and recent events should make clear, some people can handle celibacy, as long as they have a clear purpose and are dedicated to doing the work that God has for them.  Some people cannot.  Frequently, people who, at one point in their lives, felt strongly that they should live out their lives as a single person, and take a vow to that effect, but later find out that they aren’t as strong as they thought they were.  If they continue to try to live that vow, they suffer for it, and, perhaps more importantly, people around them suffer for it.  The Bible tells us that it is better not to vow than to vow and not pay, but, sometimes it’s better just to accept the fact that the vow was too ambitious, and take the hit for breaking the vow, but only as a last resort.  The bottom line is, you need to prayerfully make a decision, can you serve God as a single person, or do you need an helpmeet?  God can help you find the answer to that question.  If you legitimately need someone to help you fulfill your calling, then God will give you one; if you don’t, then you will be more effective without one.  If you try to be something that you’re not, though, you are only frustrating the grace of God.

Don't Ask, Don't Tell

The topic of the week is homosexuality.  I imagine that we are all aware that there are people from a “church” in Kansas that have been picketing funerals, spewing hate and discontent, claiming that the death of U.S. soldiers and Marines is the direct result of God’s wrath at the U.S. for its leniency towards homosexuality.  They, of course, refer to Scriptures that describe homosexuality as an abomination.  There are other Scriptures that refer to eating shellfish as abomination.  Somehow, neither of these abominations made it into the top ten list of sins, however.  Now, a case could be made that the dietary restrictions of the Old Testament were done away with in Acts 10, when God told Peter, “What I have cleansed, call not thou unclean.”  To be honest, though, in context, it seems pretty clear that, although Peter’s vision involved food, it really wasn’t food that God was talking about.  I certainly hope that we are not mistaken in thinking that we are no longer subject to the dietary restrictions of Old Testament Law, since we are not under the Law, but under Grace, because I really enjoy a good lobster tail. 

I have never actually heard anyone say this, but some of these people act as though they believe that homosexuality is the worst sin of all.  Jesus said that the first commandment of all was to love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, soul, mind and strength.  He said that the second is like unto it, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.  If I were the type of person to relegate sins to different levels, that passage would lead me to believe that the worst sin of all is to be an atheist.  For whatever reason, though, we as a society tend to be considerably more tolerant of atheists than of homosexuals.  I am sure that there are atheists that would disagree with me on that, but when was the last time you saw someone picketing a funeral with a sign that said, “God Hates Atheists?”

            John 3:16 says that God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.  I don’t see anything there that discriminates based on sexual orientation.  Unless I am reading that incorrectly, God loves everybody, and made a way for anybody to be saved, no matter what their sin.  In point of fact, James makes a point of mentioning that, in God’s eyes, sin is sin.  It doesn’t really matter what sin you have committed, you need it to be forgiven, and God has made a way for it to be forgiven.

            I also feel that I need to talk a little bit, at least, about the difference between thoughts and actions.  Jesus said that if a man looketh upon a woman to lust after her, he hath committed adultery with her already in his heart. Of course, we can extrapolate that if a man looks after another man to lust after him, he has committed just as grievous a sin (particularly considering that, in God’s eyes, sin is sin).  At the same time, there is a difference between having a thought, or even an urge, and having lust.  There is a difference between finding someone attractive, and fantasizing about that person.  By the same token, if you feel an urge to do something that you know is wrong, whether it involves a person of the same gender as yourself, or someone who is married to someone else, that urge is not sin.  If you let it become more, then it can become sin, but the urge itself is not sin.

            So, in conclusion, although there are some people that say that God hates gay people, that view is simply not supported by Scripture.  It is true that homosexual acts are sin, but all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.  Those of us who are sinners saved by Grace have no business looking down our noses at people who are really just other sinners.

What About Church?

The topic for this week is church attendance.  Is it important?  Should I go?  If so, when should I go?  How often should I go?  What’s in it for me?

Well, let’s start with the obvious question, “Is it important?”  After all, if it isn’t important, then the rest of those questions don’t really matter, anyway.  Romans 10:14 asks the question, “How shall they hear without a preacher.  So, evidently, having a preacher (or a pastor) is an important part of the Christian life.  Jeremiah 3:15 tells us that God will give us pastors according to His heart.  There are a number of references in the book of the Acts of the Apostles to the body of believers gathering together:  Acts 2:46, Acts 5:42, Acts 6:1, and Acts 20:7.  Also, Apostle Paul admonished us to not forsake “the assembling of ourselves together…”  So, God gives us pastors, from whom we should hear the Word expounded, the early church gathered together often, and we are not supposed to forsake the assembly of ourselves together.  That sounds like a pretty clear “yes” to the question of whether church is important, and whether you should go.

When should you go?  Now, there are some that insist that Saturday is the Sabbath day (not Sunday), so you should attend service on Saturday.  Now, the Bible says, “One man esteemeth one day above another: another esteemeth every day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind.” (Romans 14:5)  If you want to attend service on Saturday, there’s nothing wrong with that.  If you want to attend service on Sunday morning, there’s nothing wrong with that, either.  There are some that make a lot of noise about it being wrong to worship God on Sunday—I personally have a hard time with the idea that there’s a ‘wrong’ time to worship God—but the only time that I’m aware of in Scripture that it specifies a particular day of the week that the early church worshipped was in Acts 20:7 where it says that they worshipped on the first day of the week (Sunday).  Remember that the Sabbath day is an homage to the seventh day when God rested after creation; so, the Sabbath Day would be Saturday, and the first day of the week would be Sunday.  Now, don’t misunderstand me; I feel certain that the early church held services on other days, also, I just wanted to point out that we know from Scripture that at least once they held service on a Sunday.

How often should you go?  To some extent, that’s up to your pastor.  To a lesser extent, it’s up to you.  Health permitting, you should attend every service you can, unless you are a member of one of those churches that has outgrown its building, and the pastor is officiating multiple services a week in order to be able to minister to everyone in his flock.  In those churches, if every church member tried to attend every service, they would have to turn people away, and it might end up being a lot of the same people each time.  Imagine for a moment that Sister Mary shows up for service an hour early every service to make sure she gets in, but Brother Bob comes at the last possible minute each time and is consistently turned away.  Well, you may say, Brother Bob should get up sooner, and not wait until the last possible minute, and there is some truth to that, but let’s not forget that Bob is evidently one of the weaker Christians and he needs all the help he can get (are we not commanded to bear one another’s burdens?)

What do you get out of it?  That question seems a little mercenary, but, to be honest, it is a fair question.  A lot of people seem to think that church service is your service to God, that it is a requirement that you must fulfill in order to get on with your life (some even think that going to church on Sunday gives them carte blanche to live the rest of the week however they please).  Not so.  In actuality, church service is for you.  It strengthens you, spiritually, it encourages you, and sometimes it even equips you when the pastor teaches you something you didn’t know.  It should be an opportunity for you to celebrate your faith.  And, by the way, your service to God is how you live the rest of the week.