Any Faith Is OK? Then I'll Take Faith Hill !

FAITH IN FAITH

I had an interesting encounter with a couple of people the other day that set me thinking.  You see, they both believed that any path you found to God was acceptable and you would be in heaven when you died.  Any religion that led you to your faith was OK.

What made the encounter so interesting was that these people were both prominent Christians. 

I upset them, I suspect, when I pointed out that that was in direct contradiction to what Jesus himself said when he pointed out that “no man comes to the Father but by me.”  Believing in the death and resurrection he experienced was why he was born.  No other faith was acceptable, otherwise, the Jewish belief would have been just fine and in keeping with the beliefs of these two people I chatted with.  There would have been no need for Jesus to be born.

You see, if you accept the kind of theology that says any religion is good enough, then you have to accept that Romans who believed in many Gods was an acceptable path.  You have to believe that ancient civilizations that sacrificed babies and young virgins to their Gods was acceptable.  You have to believe that those who worship crystals or radishes or whatever are acceptable.  If you don’t, then you are faced with the dilemma of determining which religion or belief system is acceptable.

You then have become God.  You then also start deciding what is good enough to get you to God in any particular religion.  That gets sticky and pretty soon you start throwing out certain ones you find objectionable.  So, the ones that kill babies and virgins go first.  Next maybe the radical Muslims who advocate killing anyone who doesn’t believe as they do get tossed.  Then you get stuck being picky, and you realize that if you get to choose what religion is good enough, you’ve violated your basic belief that any path is good enough to get you to God and salvation.

I know these people I was talking with were coming from a viewpoint that was tainted by the fact that they had loved ones who were not Christian believers.  To that I say, I am not God and that God can decide whatever he wants to.  I certainly think that those who have never heard of Christ may get different treatment from God.  If he wants to let non-Christians who have heard about Jesus into heaven but aren’t Christians, that’s up to him.  I figure it’s best if I let God speak for himself.  But for me, I figure it is best to go with God’s own choice that was foretold in the Old Testament and that was confirmed by Christ’s miracles, his own words and his death and resurrection.  If you knowingly step off that path, you sink in the mud and murk of salvation by “works” and “goodness,” and then you get into how good is good enough...and, well, you just don’t want to go there in that discussion.  

Faith in Faith is no faith.

His Name Is John

I am struck by the account in the Bible in the first chapter of both Luke and Matthew where Zacharias is made speechless by the Angel Gabriel for doubting that his aging and “barren” wife Elizabeth could be having his child.  Later on it mentions that when the child is born, everyone is arguing about Elizabeth telling them his name will be John.  Nobody in the family is named John and so they turn to Zacharias and ask him what the name should be by ‘making gestures and signs.’

Now the first thing that comes to mind is why are they making gestures and signs?  Why didn’t they just ask him?  He’s not deaf, he is without the ability to speak.  Now I suppose Gabriel maybe overdosed him a bit when he zapped him and took out his hearing ability as well, but I’m more inclined to think that it’s something else.  Some of these people at the circumcision were possibly not locals or even relatives who had been around him for the last few months.  They have a guy who can’t speak, and since most deaf people don’t learn to speak (or speak clearly) they talk and ‘hear’ with gestures.  I have a lot of experience with this since I have several deaf friends and my daughter is a deaf sign interpreter.  Most deaf people don’t speak out loud a lot.  So many people would be used to a person who couldn’t speak ‘talking with gestures’ and would fall into the trap of communicating with him that way.  It’s also possible that the signs and gestures were after he was asked out loud, and he was trying to communicate the name to them with gestures, and they wound up gesturing back until Zack finally gets frustrated and asks for a piece of paper to write on.

It’s just one of the more interesting ‘inconsistencies’ that non-believers like to point out when they are discounting the truth of the Bible.  One of the things I learned as a police officer is that testimony is often inconsistent in little ways when it’s perfectly true…it’s actually one of the things that immediately made me suspect it was truth.  When things are identical it is often because they are rehearsed fabrications by a group to sell a lie.  Now, I’m not saying that gross inconsistency is a sign of truth.  However, little inconsistencies can often be explained by circumstance, culture, point and time of viewing and hearing an interaction, and so forth.

So take those curious little things in the Bible for what they are…more proof that the account is accurate.

Will Rogers - Wise and Funny

Will Rogers was one of America's most venerated homespun humorists.  The modern generation of millenials and whatever the rest of the flood of young humanity is in this country is called by people who dream up these names, has never heard of Will Rogers.  I think that is sad.  So many of his throw-away lines were far deeper than the surface humor the offered up and had application to many of life's problems.  So today I offer a few of my favorite quotes from him:

"Never miss a good chance to shut up"

"Always drink upstream from the herd"

"Timing has a lot to do with the outcome of a rain dance"

"Why not go out on a limb?  That's where the fruit is!"

"When you find yourself in a hole, quit digging!"

                         And my all time personal favorite:

“There are three kinds of men. The ones that learn by readin’. The few who learn by observation.   The rest of them have to pee on the electric fence for themselves.” 

An Apple A Day Keeps The Doctor Away (signed Eve)

I think Adam and Eve kept eating the apples.  In so doing they kept the Great Physician out of their lives.  Literally and figuratively all the generations of humankind have eaten the apples and struggled and served the god of this world since the fall of Eve and Adam.  We now live in a time when people ask “are we on the brink of the end.”  Changes in technology, warfare, and increasing moral relativism are affecting the world in ways never before imagined.

I recently read an article by a “futurist” of some credibility that said within 20 years we will be having robots that do virtually everything and people will find it hard to even get a job.  While I find the argument has holes in it that you could drive a battleship through, it does have limited validity in that we will have ever greater technology to rely on (and yes, inevitably robots will be a part of that in some way as they already are.)  How that will change mankind remains to be seen, but what I am sure of is that it won’t make us closer to the God who created us.

Many think we are on the brink of World War III now that Russia is committed to retaking Ukraine.  There are many arguments in favor of that, considering that Eastern Ukraine is and always has been predominantly Russian speaking inhabitants.  Russia has changed enormously since the fall of Communism in that country.  The Russian Orthodox Church has been resurrected and 90% of Russians identify themselves as Christians…though like the U.S. only about 10% actually attend services.  Plus, other surveys show that 30% of Russians identify themselves as atheists.  Conflicting statistics, but still indicating a change from the days of Lenin and Stalin.  But I’m begging the question…will we fall into chaos in the middle-east and nearby Ukraine as the civil wars in that area bloom as they appear to be doing?   I don’t think it’s inevitable.

So what is God’s will in all of this.  So many Christians look at God’s will in such strange ways.  They almost seems to sit and wonder “should I eat breakfast or go for a walk?” “which one is God’s will for me.”  Or more commonly we see “which job should I take, I wonder what God wants” and this kind of silliness abounds in Christian thinking more than most would like to admit.  God gave us free will and desires and dreams.  He wanted to see us follow those desires, but to do it in keeping with his “Will” meaning living a life of commitment to the principles of living outlined by Christ.   You are called to do that in whatever life role you find yourself or that you choose for yourself.  People keep trying to make faith more complicated than it is…from the Pharisees on down to the everyday person of our time.

So why ramble on about God’s will?  Because what we are to do in this rapidly changing world is exercise those principles outlined by Christ in our interactions in the world as a whole.  Who is carrying out the Christian Biblical principles in the world today?   Certainly not the radical Muslims or the government in China.  They revel in killing Christians.  So it would seem that God’s will would be that we seek to somehow change their influence in the world.  Does that mean through warfare?  I suppose it could come to that, but I’d prefer to use prayer and actions that win over believers from among them.  With more Muslims and Chinese becoming Christians today than ever before in world history, we may succeed without war.  Did you know that Red China actually has more Christians than any other country in the world already?  Did you know that more Muslims are converting to Christianity than ever before in the history of the world?  Of course with a billion residents in China and probably an equal number in Muslim countries, it is still a drop in the bucket for them.  Still, it engenders hope in me that loving your neighbor and loving God will become a reality in the world as a whole someday.

The same thinking applies to my initial comments about allowing robots to take over the world.  We need to exercise moral and ethical principles in the development of such technology that it doesn’t somehow engender a moral relativism that erodes our values as Christians or destroy the economics of our civilization.

Futurist Joel Barker once said “vision without action is merely a dream.  Action without vision just passes the time.  Vision with action can change the world.” 

What are you doing to change the world for better today?

What's Important?

OK, someone please explain to me how the U.S. Government can ask to spend 3.7 billion dollars to keep 80,000 new illegal immigrants fed and housed and kept in this country with the already 12 million other illegal immigrants from south of the border, and yet only ask for 8 million dollars to study why the bee population has died off to half of what it was a couple years ago.  Albert Einstein felt that if all the bees died off, all of mankind would be dead in less than four years, since the bees pollinate the plants we depend on to eat, and the plants the meat we eat depends on to live.

Do you get it?  I don't.

Doubt It?

Ever have doubts?  I have doubts about a lot of things.  Did I remember to pay that important bill?  Does a certain person really care about me?  Did I lock the door when I left?  

Doubts.  One day it hits you, how could Christianity be true.  Virgin birth, a wandering preacher talking about loving your neighbor and loving God, raising dead people back to life and himself rising from the dead.  Lots of people think it’s preposterous!  I doubt there is a Christian in the land that hasn’t had those thoughts.

John the Baptist was Jesus’ cousin and even once baptized him remarking that he was unworthy to do so.  Yet John even questioned Jesus when he was in Herod’s prison asking “are you the one? ”  What was he thinking?  Was he afraid and defeated in prison?  Was he looking for a political and military leader in Jesus like the rest of the Jews were?  Or was he just experiencing those pesky doubts?

Thomas traveled with Jesus and saw him heal people and even raise the dead.  Yet he said, I don’t believe Jesus is alive after the crucifixion, and “I won’t believe it until I put my fingers in the nail holes in his hands.” How could he of all people doubt that?  Yet he did until Jesus himself showed himself to him.  Jesus said you have seen these things and believed…blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe.  

We have an amazingly detailed account of Jesus’ life and actions.  We actually have far more and older original material on him than Julius Caesar or any other character in history from that time.  When was the last time you heard someone doubt Julius Caesar or Cleopatra?  Twelve men who were eye witnesses died for their beliefs and their refusal to renounce this man Jesus after his resurrection.  People don’t die for a lie that they know is a lie. 

Put your doubts aside when they come...but double check that the door is locked. 

Mexican Due Process

I find it interesting that the U.S. Marine who has been held so long in a Mexican jail for reportedly on accident getting in the wrong lane with his truck and thus entering Mexico with weapons in his possession, and still he has not had any intervention by the U.S. government on his behalf.  His mother garnered 100,000 signatures and petitioned our President, and still no response.  I wonder what would have happened, considering our President's past interventions on individuals' behalf,  had this U.S. Marine been black instead of white?

Now I do recognize rule of law and due process in the Mexican government, but this really seems a little overdrawn.  The guy had a seven hour hearing after weeks of waiting, and he's still in jail.