Truth with a Capital "T"

"For the law was given through Moses, grace and truth came through Jesus Christ" (John 1:17, ESV).

As Pilate posed to Jesus, "What is truth?"  He denied any universal truth that could apply--thus denying a God that would necessitate this.  Allan Bloom's book The Closing of the American Mind says that today they teach that truth is relative--(e.g., what's true for you may not be right for me) logic dictates that even this statement has no truth value!  A famous philosophy professor told his class, "You can know nothing for certain!"  A student replied, "Are you sure?"  He retorted, "I'm certain."  Contrariwise, there is truth and it is knowable.  Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the  life."  He didn't just tell us the truth--he claimed to be the embodiment or personification of it.

We all have presuppositions that prejudice our take on reality and delineate our worldview--you have to start somewhere  (e.g., is there a God?).  Absolute truth depends on Jesus who came to bear witness of the truth and doesn't ever change--that's why the Bible is apropos to all times and eras.  It never goes out of date or wears out.  It is always relative to all cultures and situations.  Truth is timeless!   Soli Deo Gloria!

What Is "Karma?"

I'm getting disgruntled thinking of Christians who believe in "karma."  The law of karma states that there is an accumulation of good and bad karma and that the total net differential is one's karma. This is the belief that bad deeds (there is a causal relationship between deeds and events) catch up to you and you can offset them by good deeds or "good karma."   It is analogous to the business executive with a private jet that plants trees to offset his carbon footprint (his guilt).

Ultimately, it leads to the belief that you are judged by whether your good deeds outweigh your bad deeds to get into heaven. That is to say, some deserve heaven and some don't.

Buddhists and Hindus believe in "karma" and that everyone is an island suffering his own "just dessert."   The Hindus of India have trouble with the lower castes because they think they are getting what they deserve. "If someone is suffering, that's his karma."  Buddha taught that we are all an "island to ourselves."  Remember the disciples asking Jesus "Who sinned, the baby or the parents, that he should be born blind?"   They say, "What goes around, comes around."  During the "killing fields" of Cambodia in the '70s, the Pol Pot and the  Khmer Rouge was torturing 300,000 refugees and it was the Christians that showed mercy, not the Buddhist monks.  You might say they thought they were getting their comeuppance.

I believe in the "Law of the Harvest", and that we reap what we sow, according to Gal. 6:7.   Remember what Hosea said:  "They sow the wind, they shall reap the whirlwind"  (Hos. 8:7).   If we sow to the flesh we will reap destruction, and if we sow to the Spirit we will reap eternal life (our destiny respectively).  There is a way out with the Lord, and that is mercy and grace.  Psalm 103:10 proclaims, "He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities."  That is the essence of Christianity:  We get what we don't deserve (grace) and we don't get what we do deserve (mercy).   I heard one guy say that all he wanted from God was what he deserved!  Well, do I need to point out that we all deserve hell?   Thank God that there is a God of a second (or third, etc.)  chance!  God doesn't keep a record of all our sins to hold against us, but has thrown them to the bottom of the sea and sent them as far away as the east is from the west. (Cf. Mic.7:19; Psalm 103:12.)

The big dilemma is how do you explain the sufferings of Christ and of Job? I have heard it said by a wise man that if we suffer it is so that others won't have to, and if we don't suffer it is because others have.  Thank God for forgiveness and a fresh start;  we can be born again to a new life in Christ no matter we may have botched up our life.   We are all a "work in progress."    "Sow for yourselves righteousness, reap the fruit of unfailing love, and break up your unplowed ground..."  (Hos. 10:12).   karma is a word that should not be in the believer's conversation, except in disapproval.   In summation:  karma is balderdash and hogwash.  (We have a personal loving God that cares for us individually who knows each of us and has a plan for our lives.)  "He has not dealt with us according to our sins...."  By and large, karma is simply a mechanical, iron-clad law of cause and effect for good and bad deeds and their effects.    Soli Deo Gloria!