Category: What do you think?

Do you lean on your own understanding or ask God to reveal His word?

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FLOYD ROGERS, TEXAS GOSPEL CANADA VOLUNTEER

I’ve been told there are things in the Bible that are contradictory; therefore, they say the Bible is in error. Oddly enough, most of the folks who have said this to me also maintain that the Bible means whatever a reader wants it to mean, and this is where the real problem lies. If one believes Bible verses have no intrinsic meaning, of course readers can see “contradictions” if that’s what they want to see.  To be clear, this does not mean the Bible contradicts itself. It does demonstrate that if one falsely believes the Bible’s meaning changes depending on desire, then people who desire to find contradictions will do so. But does the Bible’s meaning change?

The Book of John tells us when the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth. Mark tells us, to you has been given the secret of the kingdom of God, but for those outside everything is in parables, so that “they may indeed see but not perceive…” I believe these scriptures, and others like them, tell us that knowing God’s word is a gift.  I believe it’s the same as grace and faith. Ephesians says, For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God.

By the way, the Bible isn’t unique when it comes to people quarreling over meaning.  Legal contracts, charters, constitutions, ALL have been misinterpreted to match people’s wants and desires. Isn’t this alone a good reason to ask God to open my eyes that I may see wonderful things in His law?

What are your thoughts?

Saying Christianity is one of many paths to God is self-contradictory

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FLOYD ROGERS, TEXAS GOSPEL CANADA VOLUNTEER

Have you ever heard someone claim that Christianity is just one of many paths to God? It’s a self-contradictory argument and one of which I was surprised to find a resurgence. Why is it self-contradictory?  Why is it repeated so often?

It contradicts itself because if Christianity is one of many paths, then it cannot be exclusive. Yet the Bible, the book that defines Christianity, tells us in Acts that salvation is found in no one else but Jesus. The book of Acts goes on to say there is no other name under Heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved. The book of John tells us Jesus said, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”  There are many other scriptures that make it clear that Jesus is an exclusive path to God. If someone were to say they don’t believe in the Bible, then they profess that they believe Christianity is not a path to God. The Bible and Christianity are not separable.  Christianity cannot be one of many ways to God. Jesus is either Lord OF all or He’s not Lord AT all.

The claim that Jesus is just one path to God may be sprouting up now because it sounds inclusive. It also puts man in charge. It says we can pick and choose our God as if reality is some sort of cosmic buffet where we select our desires. That would be great if we created God.  But God created us. There’s only one creator of the universe. There’s only one God. And he offers you a way to know Him despite sins that you and all humanity commit. The path to God is through the blood of His son Jesus.

Will you accept his precious gift?

 

What happens after death and before the second coming

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FLOYD ROGERS, TEXAS GOSPEL CANADA VOLUNTEER

What happens to our loved ones after death? Are they “sleeping” until the second coming? For starters I think sleep is an obvious metaphor. The body is no longer functioning. But I would also suggest these questions have an assumption woven into them. They assume we are limited to time and space after we die.

Here are a few things to consider. Scientists say we perceive time, but we only have a vague understanding of it.  They say time and space are relative. It’s hard to imagine two different places where time is not the same, but it’s fact.  It’s also something for which if we couldn’t compensate our GPS system wouldn’t work.

2 Timothy 1:9 says, “… This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time,” There are other scriptures that talk about a beginning to time. Given this alone we see that time is not eternal, it was created by God along with the universe. Luke tells us the rich man, after his death, asked God to send Lazarus to warn his family. That was AFTER his death, yet the second coming has not yet happened.  I think this is at least circumstantial evidence that we will not be limited to time after we die.

The science behind of all this is too much for me to understand, and I admit some of this is only an extrapolation from scripture, not scripture itself. So why is any of this important? Because it shows the limitations of our understanding, and how God and His creation are not limited to our understanding. Though we only have an idea of what heaven will be like, and only a glimpse of life after death, the bigger question here is, are you ready?

Do Christians lose their individuality?

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FLOYD ROGERS, TEXAS GOSPEL CANADA VOLUNTEER

It’s not uncommon for those opposed to our faith to present stories of individual Christians doing bad things as evidence that there is something malicious about a belief in God. It’s interesting that while they cite wars and other wrongdoings that history tells us were carried out by individuals who claim to be Christians, it’s also not uncommon for anti-theists to reject the idea that atheism must be equally bad given that some atheist leaders have started wars and done malicious things. They excuse such actions by saying atheists are individuals who make their own decisions. Well, is religion the only reason a Christian could have for choosing to do evil? Is it true that only atheists are capable of individual decisions?

Nowhere in the Bible does it say that Christians lose their ability to disobey God and do wrong. In fact, there are plenty of scriptures about repenting when we do something that goes against God’s will. It’s also true that church office in ancient times was a requirement for political office creating a temptation for evil people to falsely claim to have faith. The political power also presents a temptation for those with true faith to take their eyes off God.

Given that atheist and believers have done evil, and that there is no evidence that anything, but an individual’s bad choice is to blame when he or she does bad things, why do so many resort to this argument to “prove” some malice among believers?

What are your thoughts?

Why do we face trials?

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Floyd Rogers, Texas Gospel Canada Volunteer

Why do we face trials throughout life? Why would God create a world full of problems? Those questions assume that God created a flawed universe.  But God didn’t create a universe rife with maladies. Genesis 1 tells us God’s creation wasn’t just good, it was very good. But Genesis 3 describes various pains men and women face because of sin.

The Bible doesn’t give us the details a scientist would like to have so he or she could reproduce the same change in a laboratory.  That’s not it’s purpose. But it seems Genesis clearly tell us that corruption is the result of sin. The trials we face are the result of a creation that has become corrupted through rebellion against God.  We suffer from our own sin and the sins of others.

Consider this: God will set things right one day. If that day is today, then grace ends today and along with it so dies a chance for anyone to repent. Because of this, we suffer while all people are given grace and time to accept Christ. It’s not fair, but not because of something God did.  The world is unfair because people have made it that way through sin that corrupts God’s creation.

What are your thoughts?