The Fundamental Blog

I have mentioned before that I tend to listen to a lot of radio and oftentimes its the liberal leanings of public radio. I know that I am going to disagree with the majority of the viewpoints expressed and even though I can count on this, I still find myself tuning in and catching certain shows. There are some programs that I really enjoy, “The Prairie Home Companion,” “Car Talk,” and some of the other regular features, but there are some that I should stay away from. I have problems with the liberal slant on the news and some of the Sunday features like, “As Far as We Know,” or “Speaking of Faith,” For the un-indoctrinated, (and I use that word intentionally), These SEEM to be the, “anything but the truth of Christianity goes,” shows. OK, in fairness, I have heard a couple of truthful comments made; why, just this past week I heard that the Christian fundamentalist position is that the Bible is the literal Word of God; no argument there!

Normally I hear the opinions of almost any author, sect, or individual that can catch the ear of NPR presented in a way that seems to indicate that they should be given as much consideration as every other view because, after all, all roads lead to the same destination, right? Besides, who am I, or anyone, to assert that any opinion is any better than any other? This disregards the prospect that many of the views stated are in opposition to, or are misrepresentations of, the truth as given in The Word of God. On May 23rd the topic I managed to get hooked into was Heaven, Hell and the afterlife. I should have turned the dial, but if I had, then I might not be writing this article.

Several people were interviewed who apparently had groundbreaking information on the afterlife and so I listened; I should have known better, but I listened. One statement I heard was that all 3 of the Abrahamic faiths, Judaism, Christianity and Islam, all base entry into Heaven on the worthiness of the actions done in this life here on earth. OK, maybe for the Jew or the Muslim, but this is absolutely NOT what the Christian believes. Yes, we are to do our good works, the ones spurred on because of the assurance of Heaven we already have, but not as a method of gaining entry into Heaven. The Christian knows that our assurance of Heaven is because of the finished work of Christ on the cross. Our salvation is because of the faith we have in Jesus Christ and what He has already done.

In one portion of the show, the interviewer was speaking with the author of a book, (David Eagleman), that posits 40 or so ideas of what Heaven and the afterlife might be like. I CAN NOT SAY that any of these tales represent the actual beliefs of the author but there were all clearly ridiculous. One account portrayed us reliving all of our earthly activities in a re-ordered format where we spend all the time we did, doing anything on earth, in one lump timeframe. We would eat for, “X” number of years, spend so many months on the toilet, spend a few days operating buttons and zippers, etc… Another had us regressing in time to relive everything we had experienced in life, only in reverse; this because at some point it has been theorized that the universe will cease to expand and begin to contract upon itself again.

One account posited the thought that we will discover God to be a small stupid being that created us as beings, smarter than himself, to go and discover the answers to all mysteries. When we return with the answers, we will be frustrated because our superior intelligence will prevent us from being able to relate the information to our substantially inferior God. I could not believe what I was hearing! Not that I have a problem with whimsical fantasy, (though fantasy is a waste of time in light of the seriousness of the issue at hand), but that this was being presented as though it had some value in the formation of eternal beliefs. I thought that if this was given any credence at all, then the satiric lines penned by The Firesign Theater should be included as well; “In the beginning there was a catfish and he was very large, and he was walking…”

The interviewer spoke of how well received this book by Eagleman was, noting that it had received acclaim from even spiritual and religious groups. Her comment, the one that caught me and prompted this article, was that anyone with the ability to delight both Atheists and the religious must be doing something right. That’s not an exact quote, (I was driving at the time and its hard to drive and take accurate notes), but the gist is there. Doing something right? Then I recalled 2 Timothy 4:3-4, “For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.”

The world wants it’s itching ears scratched! This is what the world loves. And so whenever someone or something comes along that does just that, we see it on the TV or hear it on the radio. When a preacher comes on the scene who teaches that we all get to go to heaven because a loving God would not put anyone out; we know where the next mega-church is coming from. People want to hear that it doesn’t matter what they believe and that we can consider ourselves as basically good people who occasionally do something bad, but that isn’t what God says.

God tells us that we are desperately wicked, people who have not the capacity to do good apart from Him. The world tells us that we can believe in the teachings of Oprah who proclaims faith and yet states that Jesus Christ is but one of the ways to heaven. I don’t know about you but I’m going to go with Gods truth, (though I admit that I would like to believe that Oprah has a point; she doesn’t). If someone famous says a thing, it suddenly becomes valid. We have to fight our worldly urges every day because that worldly part of ourselves would love to believe the lies, they’re easier! The world doesn’t care if they’re true, only that they’re easier. All we fools really want is to be able to believe that we can write a check once a month and have our seat in the afterlife of positive energy, in the bay of tranquil Karma, in the Valhalla of Norse goodness, in the Zen room of lotus blossoms, reserved for us.

The world will always applaud the teachings that take it where it already wants to go, but that’s not the Bible. The Bible doesn’t make sense to the world, that’s why it is so maligned and misused. I could tell you, “Money is the cause of All the evil in your life. The spiritually weak can not, nor will they ever be, able to withstand its evil. Take all the money you can find, mortgage your house, take out loans that you can not repay, check the cushions on your couch for loose change and send it to the address on my website so that you may purge the evil from your house! If you need a blessing, remember that it is written that the sower set out seed and reaped a crop that was 30, 60, even 100 times that which was sown. If you hope for blessing then you must sow every dollar you can lay hands on to the ministry of my writing by using the donation page on my website…” IT IS NOT THE TRUTH!

The important thing in this life, perhaps the only thing that matters at all, is being ready for that great and terrible day when we stand at the threshold of the next life. Did we trust God? Did we believe in the truth He gave us? Did we place our faith in the One who came to die in our place on the cross at Calvary? Did we do all we could to guide others down the narrow path of truth or let them wander the broad path to destruction? Did we read God’s book? If not, why not? Are we going to be found with that deer-in-the-headlights look saying, “Ummmmmmm…?” Christians, WE MUST READ GOD’S BOOK, we must believe what God tells us and we must begin to live our lives like they matter. “… friendship with the world is hatred toward God,” (James 4:4). The world is not our friend, don’t trust it for good directions in life, it doesn’t know the good way to go! The world will let you wander anywhere you want to go except to Christ. As soon as you try that, the world will put up roadblocks and give you a million reasons that you can’t go that way. The world doesn’t care where you go as long as it isn’t there. And that’s the one place we must go, it’s the only place where our King leads us and it’s the place we must arrive so that everything can be…


All for the Glory of Christ

I had a woman tell me that she was struggling to forgive her sister. She felt that the things that her sister had done over the years, (and more pointedly, failed to do), were unconscionable. This woman is a Christian, while her sister is not, and though she knows that un-forgiveness is a poison that only affects herself, that she should not judge those who are in the world and that we are commanded to forgive as Christ has forgiven us; the actions, and in-actions, of her sister occasionally creep up and overtake her. I do not pretend that I have this whole forgiveness thing worked out, in fact there are plenty of areas in my own walk where I stumble more than I care to publicize, but I was prompted to share this only because this woman told me that our discussion helped her. First, the back story.

Ann, the woman who came to me, used to live near her sister Marie, and Marie’s daughter Sarah. Marie was a bit of a, “free spirit,” who rejected her Catholic upbringing and went extreme New-Age. Actually, Marie was willing to accept almost any spiritual mode except Christianity. Ann had the same upbringing and though she parted from the errors she saw in the Catholic church, she always felt that she had Christ in her heart. Sarah was the spiritual waif that results when there is no moral guidance to help shape a child, when they are left to, “decide for themselves,” as they grow up. Ann and Sarah were probably closer than were Sarah and Marie, (her natural mother), but when Sarah became pregnant out of wedlock, they all seemed to bond together more closely.

Sarah had a boy, (Peter), and living in the same town as Ann, while Marie was an hour away, Ann became mother and grandmother; loving them both as if she were their actual, natural matron. The time came, when Ann and her husband were going to move away and so it was agreed that they should all move together; Ann, her husband, Sarah and Peter. There were plenty of tears and all the emotional outpouring one would expect when the good-byes came around but everyone thought that this would be a great adventure and ultimately benefit everyone. Marie went back to her clutch of friends that she considered her real family and the rest headed out into the great unknown. Peter was 4 years old.

Fast forward about 14 years. Ann and her husband have come to/recommitted themselves to Christ, Sarah is working 2 jobs and Peter has come to the Lord as a result of seeing the example of Ann and her husband. Marie has called on birthdays and sent the regular gifts at the appointed times, and though Sarah is willing to accept the scraps of her mother’s affection as enough; Marie has never once visited. Sarah had invited her to come and see the new place that they were all sharing together but there was always something that got in the way. Marie’s other young child was too small to travel, if the end came she didn’t want to be far from her, “other,” family, not enough money, whatever…

Ann could not reconcile how a mother and grandmother could elect to not visit one single time during the 14 years to see her daughter and grandson. Marie clung to her New-Age philosophy and though Ann and her husband tried unsuccessfully to minister to her, there was never even a hint that anything other than what Marie already held as truth was going to make a dent. Peter never said much about grandma not wanting to visit and he even began to dread the phone calls because he had nothing to say to her. Once, after getting off the phone with Marie, Peter said to Ann, “That’s Satan!” Still, you had to wonder if somewhere inside Peter mourned a bit for the relationship with a grandmother that was never going to be.

How can she be so, so, so… oh I don’t know!” Ann would stew inside wanting to read Marie the riot act and knowing that it would only fall on deaf ears and strain an already estranged relationship. “How do you have a child and a grandchild and not care enough about them to set your self interests aside for a few days and make the effort to see them?” The anger was only occasionally on the surface, Ann accepted that this was just how things were, that God had it under control, but it didn’t make sense to her. Ann knew in her heart though that since God has His hand in everything, it does not necessarily have to make sense in order to be right; right in God’s eyes, that is.

As we read our Bibles we see that God wastes nothing and that even a seemingly wicked act can, and often is, turned to the good. But how could the breaking of a heart be a good thing? “I think that sometimes God allows situations to come into existence to serve as bad examples,” I told Ann. “Think of it, God gave Peter to you and your husband to help raise and be examples of grace in his life while He allowed his grandmother to remain lost in her mistaken theology, pontificating a contradictory philosophy, (“Don’t forget self! Don’t let someone steal your power.”), and Peter came away with, “That’s Satan!” “From the lips of children and infants you have ordained praise.” Psalm 8:2.

Even though Joseph was sold into slavery by the evil hearts of his brothers, God turned it to the good. Peter, having Marie as a grandmother who is stubborn and unrepentant may not be an example to follow, but she has surely proved to be a confirmation that her choice of spiritual walk is not to be admired or sought after. If following a creed of universal supremacy and casting everything to the whim of the cosmos produces people who care not for their own children and grandchildren, then God has done a mighty work in the illumination of the negative consequences of forsaking Him, the One true God. Ann stopped and said, “I never thought of it in quite that way before. I can see that God really does work all things to the good to those who love Him and are called to His purpose.”

“Ann, both you and your husband have tried to minister to Marie, you have both been the watchmen and it has become, ‘pearls to pigs.’ We know that we are not to judge outside of the church so there is no call to carry discontent around over this matter any more. God has seen what’s going on and used it for His good purposes so all that’s left is to pray for Marie, maybe He’s not through with her yet.”

Christians, I think we can all find things in our lives that we feel should be different than they are, but that’s only our pride talking. Every time we think, “that’s not fair,” or, “it shouldn’t have to be that way,” we need to remember that the end of the sentence is, “because my judgment demands that it should be some other way.” We don’t always get to see the big picture, God has been working out His plan for a long time and He really doesn’t need our say-so to reach His ultimate ends.

Sure, maybe we would like to think that we could have utopia on earth in this lifetime but the truth is that it can’t happen. This is a fallen world and until Christ returns to defeat evil once for all, righteousness and evil will always war against one another. We need to stay in the Word and remember that this is the Lord’s battle. We know how it ends, let’s work on our obedience to the Word and leave the judgment of the wicked to the only One who is worthy to judge. The world does the things that the world does, (and rather well if we were to see it accurately), we need to share the Gospel as the doors are opened for us to do so, and work on our walks. We must use our efforts effectively and let go of the things over which we have no control. Our ministries are primarily those of example and they need to be tended as treasures which shine…


All for the Glory of Christ