About Me

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I am a born-again Christian, who is Reformed, but also charismatic, spiritually speaking. (I do not speak in tongues, but I believe glossalalia is a bona fide gift not given to all, and not as great as prophecy, for example.) I have several years of college education but only completed a two-year degree. I was raised Lutheran and confirmed, but I didn't "find Christ" until I was in the Army and responded to a Billy Graham crusade in 1973. I was mentored or discipled by the Navigators in the army and upon discharge joined several evangelical, Bible-teaching churches. I was baptized as an infant, but believe in believer baptism, of which I was a partaker after my conversion experience. I believe in the "5 Onlys" of the reformation: sola fide (faith alone); sola Scriptura (Scripture alone); soli Christo (Christ alone), sola gratia (grace alone), and soli Deo gloria (to God alone be the glory). I affirm TULIP as defended in the Reformation.. I affirm most of The Westminster Confession of Faith, especially pertaining to Providence.

Friday, July 8, 2011

Friends Of Jesus

Abraham was the "friend of God" so we are grandiose to think we are exclusively the "buddy" of Jesus by the same token. I don't believe in any exclusive thinking for the believer or building of barriers or dichotomies between fellow brethren. Some Christians imagine that they are "buddies" with the Lord. We are servants. Paul calls us doulos or slave. John MacArthur says we are not His "sidekicks." ("Well done good and faithful servant.") Jesus called us all "friends" in the sense that we know His will and what He is doing. We cannot be egotistical in thinking we are above other Christians or a cut above others, because Christianity is egalitarian and we are all one in Christ. There is neither male nor female, et cetera.

If we are not His friends we are His enemies; there is no middle ground. Let's not let it go to our heads that we are all as believers the "friends" of Christ. He said that "Whoever is not with Me is against Me..." (Matt. 12:30). There is no dichotomy of believers whereas some are carnal and non-spiritual and others are mature. We are all works in progress but nevertheless "friends" and "brethren" of the Lord himself.   Soli Deo Gloria!

Science & The Bible Part 2

St. Augustine said that "deep within man there dwells the truth." However, the big lie of the West is that there is no absolute truth--truth with a capital T! If there is no truth, as Pilate thought, then there is no God by inference. The Bible is not a science textbook, but it has no scientific absurdities and where it does say something scientific, like the water cycle, it is accurate. The French Academy of Science in 1861 said that there were 51 "facts" in the Bible that were controverted by the scientific fact--today not one of those scientific facts is believed and so you see that science is a moving train, but the Bible stays the same. It is never outdated. Truth is always relevant.

Theologians like to say that "All truth is God's truth." All religions have an element of truth mixed in with the error. They have just enough truth to be dangerous and religion has just enough reality to vaccinate you from the real thing. Psychology has some truth and Psychiatry has part of the answer and a piece of the puzzle, but the Scripture is sufficient to solve our problems and Jesus not only has the answer but is the Answerer! Christianity is not true because it works, as Lee Strobel says, it works because it is true. TM works for some, but that doesn't mean mantras are good, we should meditate on the Word only.

We all have preconceived ideas that prevent us from being objective--in fact, total objectivity is impossible, except for God. Dr. S. Lewis Johnson, Jr.,l (professor of systematic theology at Dallas Theological Seminary) says that the scientific method cannot arrive at absolute truth. (Inference is flawed.) We are all prejudiced and that means "being down on what we're not up on." God gives enough light to see the truth if we can accept it and are looking for it, but he leaves it an open question and doesn't force truth on anyone, leaving enough darkness for people to reject the truth.

If truth could be proved beyond a shadow of a doubt, then we would be forced to accept it. If God were proved, then He would be no greater than the mind that proved Him! One needs faith because the "supreme function of reason is to show man that some things are beyond reason." (Blaise Pascal) The proof of the pudding is in the eating, as they say. "Taste and see that the Lord is good..." (Ps. 34:8).   Soli Deo Gloria!

Science & The Bible...

You know that in the early twentieth-century modernism was the rule and society thought that science had all the answers. Evolution, a scientific tenet of FAITH has infiltrated philosophy and ethics, even justified itself by it. The so-called "survival of the fittest." Today we are in danger of lapsing into "scientism" where we see science as a faith or religion and the ultimate authority.

Some things are out of the REALM of science--like ethics and morality. Specifically, you cannot put God or religion in a test tube and say, "How interesting!" God is neither tangible, visible, nor audible to most of us and there are no laboratory conditions for God--"For without faith it is impossible to please Him" (Heb. 11:6).

The main reason people believe in evolution is that they don't want the consequences of believing in God and that would affect their sexual mores. There is absolutely no proof of it and it can't be proved, but they believe it nevertheless because the only alternative is unpalatable-- theism.

Science can tell us the "know-how" but not the "know-why." To existential and metaphysical questions we must turn to philosophy or religion. Jesus is the answer to the equation and he is also the "Answerer!" To know Christ is to know the truth. He did not just tell us the truth but became the embodiment of truth itself.

We must be careful not to personify science and make it an idol in our search for the truth; anything that comes between us and God is idolatry. We have nothing to fear from the truth. Truth does not go against reason but beyond it. 

St. Augustine said that "deep within man there dwells the truth." However, the big lie of the West is that there is no absolute truth--truth with a capital T! If there is no truth, as Pilate thought, then there is no God by inference. The Bible is not a science textbook, but it has no scientific absurdities and where it does say something scientific, like the water cycle, it is accurate. The French Academy of Science in 1861 said that there were 51 "facts" in the Bible that were controverted by the scientific fact--today not one of those scientific facts is believed and so you see that science is a moving train, but the Bible stays the same. It is never outdated. Truth is always relevant.

Theologians like to say that "All truth is God's truth." All religions have an element of truth mixed in with the error. They have just enough truth to be dangerous and religion has just enough reality to vaccinate you from the real thing. Psychology has some truth and Psychiatry has part of the answer and a piece of the puzzle, but the Scripture is sufficient to solve our problems and Jesus not only has the answer but is the Answerer! Christianity is not true because it works, as Lee Strobel says, it works because it is true. TM works for some, but that doesn't mean mantras are good, we should meditate on the Word only.

We all have preconceived ideas that prevent us from being objective--in fact, total objectivity is impossible, except for God. Dr. S. Lewis Johnson, Jr.,l (professor of systematic theology at Dallas Theological Seminary) says that the scientific method cannot arrive at absolute truth. (Inference is flawed.) We are all prejudiced and that means "being down on what we're not up on." God gives enough light to see the truth if we can accept it and are looking for it, but he leaves it an open question and doesn't force truth on anyone, leaving enough darkness for people to reject the truth.

If truth could be proved beyond a shadow of a doubt, then we would be forced to accept it. If God were proved, then He would be no greater than the mind that proved Him! One needs faith because the "supreme function of reason is to show man that some things are beyond reason." (Blaise Pascal) The proof of the pudding is in the eating, as they say. "Taste and see that the Lord is good..." (Ps. 34:8). Soli Deo Gloria!










   Soli Deo Gloria!