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Month: July 2020

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Overcoming the Thorns

Recently, a question came up during a Bible study I was participating in related to what we as Christians are to do with regard to all that is happening around us. Of particular concern was our response to our state, local and federal leaders concerning the Corona virus as well as our position concerning the ongoing protests throughout our land.

The first thing that comes to my mind concerning the question is the fact that most, if not all of us are easily overtaken by the cares of this world. You might remember the words of the Lord as He taught the parable of the sower and the seed, when he referred to the seed which had come up (or taken root) among thorns, He said:

“Now these are the ones sown among thorns; they are the ones who hear the word, and the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things entering in choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful.” (Mark 4:18–19)

Many things distract the follower of Christ from the course He has for them to follow. Our flesh craves and lusts for more, and more, and more of everything – of wealth, prestige, respect, notoriety, attention, the things other people have and our flesh fears many things as well. The cares of this world can drive us into a panic and in our struggle to make sense of a world that makes no sense: we worry, we lash out, we panic and we disregard the One who saved us. All our discontent, our desires to have more and all our fears end up accomplishing is a lack of productivity regarding the one thing every follower of Christ still walks on earth to accomplish – the making of disciples not of ourselves but of Jesus Christ.

A lot of people are so focused on the signs of the times these days, they see the fulfillment of prophecy in things happening today. They are focused on the first few lines of (Matthew 24) concerning “wars and rumors of wars,” “nations rising against nations,” “famines, pestilences and earthquakes in various (or diverse) places” failing to note that little remark in (v. 8) “All these are the BEGINNING of sorrows.” The fact is that the above has been the state of the world since the days that Christ walked among men; even the persecution of believers and abounding lawlessness of men has been with us since those days. Jesus continued, saying that because of lawlessness, “the love of many will grow cold” – how can that happen? How can Christian love grow cold? I suggest that the cold love Jesus mentions is evidence of people whose hearts of love and compassion have been choked by the cares of this world – people who are out of step with the Lord’s plan.

Christians are a people on mission and the mission is clear – preach the gospel!

“And He (Jesus) said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.” (Mark 16:15)

What? You’re not a pastor, minister or missionary – that is NOT a prerequisite for the mission before us! We all are to preach with our words AS WELL AS our lives and every Christ follower is tasked with the same mission: (Matthew 28:19) MAKE DISCIPLES! Note what is said in (Matthew 24:14):

“And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come.”

Did Jesus mean to say that every person in every place on the planet will have to hear the gospel before He returns? No, He was actually pointing to the 144,000 Jews appointed in (Revelation 7:1-8) to be witnesses, carrying the message of the coming kingdom over which Jesus Christ will be King just before that kingdom would be established. But the verse also serves as reminder to the believer of what he or she ought to be about today – pointing the way to Christ!

The days in which we live have provided opportunity for us to either lash out against or love others. To those on whatever side who believe that ______ (fill in the blank with your choice) lives matter, we have an opportunity to show that, by His death and resurrection Jesus Christ declares that all lives, every life matters.

“By that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.” (Hebrews 10:10)

“For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God.” (Romans 6:10)

“Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption.” (Hebrews 9:12)

Not only that but to those who are in fear of death concerning the virus (trust me, I understand that no one is in a hurry to die) we also have a message of hope. You see the fear of death is seated in a lack of faith:

“Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, He Himself likewise shared in the same, that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.” (Hebrews 2:14–15)

The bondage mentioned above is a bondage to fear and, in our day and time, the fear of death is couched in the notion that after death there is nothing.  But Jesus rose again after He was killed and He yet lives today as both the first-fruit of those who died (see 1 Corinthians 15:20) and proof to the fearful that there is in fact, life after death. Jesus said in (Luke 12:4-5):

“And I say to you, my friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear Him who, after He has killed, has power to cast into hell; yes, I say to you, fear Him!”

Every one who has ever lived, is living or ever will live until the end of the age is an eternal soul (see Mark 9:47-48 and John 11:25-26) – faith makes the difference. Those who believe in Christ will live on in eternity with Him, those who do not believe, will live to experience the penalty of their own sins for eternity in hell.  The message to those in fear of death is plain – there is hope in Jesus Christ for every soul who trusts in Him.

What should we be doing in these days? What we should have been doing all along – reaching out to others in the name of Christ and to lead them to faith in Him by our witness.

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Grappling with the Hard Questions (Part 2) A Biblical Answer

Finally, lets address the question of whether God either exists or is good in the light of the fact that evil exists from the standpoint of what God has done to deal with it. The supposition of the skeptic is that God was taken by surprise by the rebellion of the first man and woman in the garden of Eden and is either unwilling or unable to deal with the evil their sinful choice ushered into the world but what does the Bible say?

Was the Lord surprised by the rebellion of Adam and Eve in the garden? No; that in and of itself is an amazing and astounding truth – God knew and still God made man. God KNEW that Adam and Eve would go against His will and disobey the only command He had given them. He KNEW that the “intent of the thoughts” of the hearts of men would be, as Genesis 6:5 says “only evil continuously.” He KNEW that He would have to intervene at great cost to Himself to rescue mankind from the consequences of their rebellion. 

First off, God was not surprised by the rebellion of men, the Bible makes it clear that “from the foundation of the world…names were written in the Book of Life” (Revelation 17:8) and that judgment would fall upon those whose names were not written in it (see Revelation 3:5, 20:12-15, 21:27). The Bible also makes clear that God’s answer to the problem of evil was not an after-thought. (John 3:16) declares that God “gave His only begotten Son” (to die for our sins Matthew 1:21, John 1:29) but (Revelation 13:8) indicates that “from the foundation of the world” literally from the dawn of creation, “the Lamb” (God’s only begotten Son) was also “slain.”

It was the sinful choice of Adam and Eve which ushered death and decay (Genesis 3:17, 21, 4:8) into our world. Evil, suffering, physical death (Genesis 3:19) and a spiritual relational separation from our Creator (Genesis 3:22-24, Ephesians 4:18) all have their beginning in the moment of mans first rebellion. Creation itself even now groans under the weighty consequences of the fall (Romans 8:20-22) but God has done great things to overcome the problem of evil.

For one thing, God condemned the instigator of man’s rebellion. Consider (Ezekiel 28:11-19), this passage, addressed to the king of Tyre is clearly speaking to someone besides the king. In fact, with references to the recipient being the “anointed” and “covering cherub” (vs’s 14,16) and to the fact that he was both “in Eden” (v.13) and “perfect in all his ways from the day he was created” (v.15) the recipient is clearly none other than Satan aka Lucifer himself. Consider that Satan was cast down the Bible says in (Ezekiel 28:16-17) and condemned for his evil (Isaiah 14:12-15), and that one day, the deceiver who corrupted Adam and Eve and countless others over all time will be cast first into a pit for a thousand years (Revelation 20:3). After that, Satan will be released for a short time only to lead a final rebellion which God crushes swiftly finally, eternally casting Satan into the lake of fire burning with fire and brimstone forever (Revelation 20:10). Satan was condemned for His prideful rebellion and the evil he helped usher into the world will be condemned with him on that day.

Even more important than the condemnation of Satan is the atonement God made available to every man, woman and child through the shed blood of Jesus Christ. The Bible says in (Romans 5:8,10) “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us….For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.” Jesus Christ has done more than He ought to have done, more than we deserved, to deal with the evil and sinfulness in our lives (1 Peter 3:18; 2 Corinthians 5:21). He dealt with the problem of evil (sin) from His cross, dying to free us from our bondage to evil (sin) and freeing us from guilt to live a life pleasing to God (Hebrews 9:14). He granted every believer an eternal future where evil will no longer exist. After His resurrection and ascension or return to His Father in Heaven, Jesus, through His Spirit continues to deal with the problem of sin and evil in our lives through His Holy Spirit – warning, convicting and giving us power to overcome sin and live a life which brings glory to God.

Honestly, the only answer I can offer – the only answer that the word of God gives to the problem of evil is this: the shed blood of the risen Savior (Revelation 12:11), faith in Jesus Christ (John 16:33) and the new life faith in Him produces (1 John 5:4-5) overcomes it . Not because faith in Jesus eradicated evil in the world around us but because faith in Jesus deals with the evil within us, and will continue to do so, as the Apostle Paul said in (Philippians 1:3-6) “I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine making request for you all with joy, for your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ…”

Apart from God there is no answer to the problem of evil, but by His grace one day every believer will be free of it forever!

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Grappling with the Hard Questions (Part 1) The Argument

How do we approach the question of the existence of God in light of all the evil in the world?

The question as asked by the atheist and the skeptic attacks three biblical attributes of God and stresses that if God is omniscient (that is all-knowing), omnipotent (that is all-powerful) and omnibenevolent (or all-good) and yet does nothing about the evil in the world – He does not exist. But the word of God makes it clear that He IS the all-knowing (omniscient) God. For example, (Psalm 147:5) says, “Great is our Lord, and mighty in power; His understanding is infinite;” also (1 John 3:20) “For if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and knows all things;” and also (Isa 46:9-10) “Remember the former things of old, For I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like Me, Declaring the end from the beginning, And from ancient times things that are not yet done, Saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, And I will do all My pleasure… .’” The word of God also declares Him to be all-powerful (omnipotent); consider the following examples: (Isa. 43:13) “Indeed before the day was, I am He; And there is no one who can deliver out of My hand; I work, and who will reverse it?”” The Bible makes it clear that “nothing will be impossible for God” (Luke 1:37) because “with God, all things are possible” (Matthew 19:26).

Finally, the word of God declares Him to be an all-good or loving (omnibenevolent) God. (John 3:16) is one of the most commonly known supports for this truth: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” Three times in (1 John 4 [vs’s 8, 16 and 17]) we hear John say – “God IS love.” Certainly, this is not an exhaustive list of proofs but the scriptures chosen all support the three qualities identified by atheists in their argument against God.

They argue however that because evil exists, a God with such qualities cannot exist. Their argument might best be summed up by the words of the ancient Greek philosopher Epicurus:

“Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil? Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?”

What is evil? Is evil a thing or a person? No. Evil is a corruption or a perversion of something good. God declares in (Genesis 1:31) that everything He made was very good; that goodness however, was corrupted through the confusion Satan brought to the minds of the first human beings, Adam and Eve (see Genesis 3:1-6) concerning what God had said about their eating of the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Based on the account of original sin, what then is evil but a choice against the expressed will of God! Evil was not created by God because evil is not a thing, it is a choice to pervert something good.

Couldn’t God, being both all-knowing and all-powerful just have caused Adam and Eve to do right – to make a God honoring decision? Yes, He could have, but we also need to consider why the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was left in the garden to begin with. Adam was given authority over all that God had created (Genesis 1:28, 2:19) but the tree and the command remained to remind Adam, his wife and his children that they were NOT the ultimate authority. God left them a command and a consequence for rebelling. Satan, casted doubt about God’s goodness into the hearts of the pair and added the temptation to disobey God; and God in His role as Heavenly Father, allowed them the free-will or freedom to choose.

Did God give the command? Yes. Did He make the decision that they should sin? No. He tested them as He is prone to do with us all (see James 1:2-3); He is no more responsible for the choices men make than men are for the choices of their adult sons and daughters. So evil, exists not because God made it but because He allows people to make choices both good and bad. In His permissive will, God allows us to make choices that are even contrary to His Preceptive Will or what He desires for and from us. He wants us to live holy lives (1 Peter 1:16) , to be transformed by His word rather than conformed to this world (Romans 12:2) – He wants us to live lives led by the desires of His Spirit rather than by the desires of our own carnal hearts (Galatians 5:16). But sometimes we act in an unholy manner, sometimes we DO conform to the world around us and sometimes we do walk after the flesh – He allows these things as a part of His permissive will but He does NOT condone them, there are consequences for bad as well as good choices. Just as the parents of children who make bad choices nevertheless exist, neither God’s existence nor His goodness is nullified when those He created choose evil.

What has God done about evil? We will address that question briefly in the final segment of this short study next time….

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Grappling With the Hard Questions

God does not reject those who possess honest doubt about Himself and His Son. Need proof? If you are a Christian today, take a look in the mirror, once upon a time, before they believed, every current believer was doubtful about God. One needs to go no further than what the Bible says of the man some have called “doubting Thomas” to see that the Lord will entertain (or kindly address) the honest doubts of men:

“Now Thomas, called the Twin, one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. The other disciples therefore said to him, “We have seen the Lord.” So he said to them, “Unless I see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe.” And after eight days His disciples were again inside, and Thomas with them. Jesus came, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, “Peace to you!” Then He said to Thomas, “Reach your finger here, and look at My hands; and reach your hand here, and put it into My side. Do not be unbelieving, but believing.” And Thomas answered and said to Him, “My Lord and my God!” Jesus said to him, “Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”” (John 20:24–29)

Thomas wasn’t alone in his doubt; only a few days earlier, as Mary and the women who had been with her also declared that she had seen the Lord, the disciples doubted as well; (Luke 24:11) records that they considered the account of the women as “idle tales (literally nonsense) , and they did not believe them.” Only after they saw the empty tomb and later that day, the risen Lord, did the disciples believe the report; until then they too, doubted. No one, since the day of the Lord’s return (ascension) to His Father (Acts 1:9-11) has ever seen Jesus in the flesh, yet many have believed in Him and many more will, based on the testimony of the Bible, the work of the Holy Spirit and the evidence of change in the lives of those who have already believed.

Like Thomas, we all have doubts about various things concerning God sometimes. Some of our doubts take the form of innocent questions, like the one asked by many children – “Who made God?” Of course the short answer is that God has always existed and that He has, as the Bible says, no beginning and no end: (Psalm 90:2) states that “Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever You had formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God.” But then there are the more argumentative questions and dishonest doubts, questions which arise from certain beliefs and which call into question some attribute of God if not His very existence. Questions like, “If God exists (or if God is good), why is there so much evil in the world? Or “If God is a loving God, why is there so much pain and suffering in the world?” And “How could a loving God send anyone to hell?”

Addressing these questions comes in two forms: An apologetic, which is the term given to defending religious doctrine largely through debate; and the other form called a Theodicy, which is simply to vindicate God, or His divine goodness and providence (by what can be known of Him through His word) in view of the existence of evil. At first blush, I would say that because God is sovereign, He is not obliged, which is to say that He is neither morally or legally obligated to explain, vindicate or justify Himself to anyone. But, because God is good, He exists, and He wants us to know Him, He entertains even the doubts of the skeptic, agnostic and atheist, teaching anyone who really wants to know how to recognize His character, His attributes and tendencies through His word.

To begin with I’d like to address the argument put forth by the majority of atheists who insist that God does not exist; the question of “If God exists, why is there so much evil in the world?” What I intend to attempt will not be an exhaustive exposition on the subject, and while the best debater will focus on logic alone to win, I am not debating but rather presenting a defense from God’s word alone. My hope is that the reader will carefully read and consider this Biblical response…

Join me next time as together we unpack what the Bible says on this important question.

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