The Shrine Of Almighty Chance

People who play the lotto or gamble compulsively don't realize that God micromanages the cosmos and superintends every creature and event under the sun as His divine sovereignty dictates; i.e., there is no such thing as chance, but a mathematical probability and it's blind, whereas God sees all--it is not an entity and it's corollary, luck, is dumb (whereas God is omniscient), and fortune is a way to avoid the word blessing!   I realize some people's retirement plan is to win the lottery, but this is vain and contrary to the Word, where we should be wise in stewardship and plan ahead while trusting in God, not our money to save and provide for us!

Is your security in your portfolio or in Providence?  God is in control, for what kind of God wouldn't be:  There is not one maverick molecule in the universe!  Fate, by the way, is impersonal and even blind, whereas God is personal and involved with care in our lives. There's no such entity as good fortune, but God is good to all and blesses them either directly or by association.  Do you ever say to yourself, "Let's not meet by accident [referring to a collision]!"  Or even, "Fancy meeting you here!" We make mistakes and have accidents as humans, but God overrules and puts meaning in them--there's even meaning in suffering, which is God's megaphone to speak to us.  God's cosmos is not random, but intricately designed and under control.  It has been said that the entire universe is like one vast mathematical equation form God's mind.

God even works through diabolical events (cf. Acts 2:23, 4:28) such as the crucifixion to bring about blessings out of curses, and Joseph met his brothers and told them that, though they meant it for evil, God meant it for good! There are no flukes of nature or accidents of history--we must realize God's wisdom in allowing or causing them to happen.  Wycliffe said, "All things come to pass of necessity." "The steps of a man are established by the LORD" (cf. Psa. 37:23).  God's answer to happenstance is Providence and this is meant to be comforting and assuring that God reigns and rules overall.  "In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will"  (Eph. 1:11, NIV).

Nothing happens by chance or coincidence: There is no fortuitous event, but everything under the sun has purpose and meaning in God's eyes, even if we don't fathom it (cf. Prov. 16:4; Prov. 16:33; Eph. 1:11).  Purpose is a naughty word for the modern man who believes in random chance and even denies there is purpose in life itself.  But it behooves us to realize the reasoning behind God's blessings and His providence in our lives--don't shrug off something as getting lucky or fate smiling on you, but give the glory to God who has blessed you and sees and knows all possibilities and can coordinate and orchestrate our lives with utmost care, having written them down before we were born (cf. Psalm 139:16).  

NB:  the providence of God.    "LORD, I know that people's lives are not their own; it is not for them to direct their steps"  (Jer. 10:23, NIV). "A man's steps are directed by the LORD.  How then can anyone understand their own way?"  (Prov. 20:24, NIV).

We really shouldn't accommodate the secularists by using these words in our vocabulary, but boldly witness and testify of the providence and blessings of God on our behalf, who watches over us to provide us all our needs.  Ben Franklin observed and gave the testimony:  "I have lived a long time, and the longer I live, the more I'm convinced that God governs in the affairs of men."

Note:  God is the sole primary cause of the cosmos, who either directs or permits all events:  Nothing just happens according to the law of causality (cause and effect); and if God caused it, it must have purpose, because He's a God of purpose and design, known as teleology.  We are secondary causes and agents of God being used for His ultimate will. 

The conclusion of the matter is this:  "The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the LORD" (Prov. 16:33, NIV).  This implies there are meaning and purpose in everything to God (cf. Prov. 16:4), but we are not capable of discerning or deciphering it all the time--just take it by faith that God is with you.   Soli Deo Gloria!

Humanism, An Idea From Antiquity

You may believe that Secular Humanism is something "new under the sun," but it was an idea in the Aegean Sea area of classical Greece. Protagoras said, "Man is the measure of all things" (homo mensura).  It goes earlier than that to the plain of Shinar in Gen. 11:4 where men sought to "make a name for themselves."

"For though they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God or show gratitude.  Instead, their thinking became nonsense, and their senseless minds were darkened claiming to be wise, they became fools..." (Romans 12:221-22, HCSB).  


The essence of humanism:  glory to man in the highest:  the deification or exaltation of man, and dethroning of God.  Humanism 101:  "Up with man; down with God, because we can do good without Him!"  What they mean is to start with man as the measure or standard and judge everything accordingly:  Instead of starting the rationale with God--"In the beginning God..," they commence with man and his finite cerebral capacity, whereby God is infinite and the Greeks said that the finite cannot grasp the infinite--how ironic!

"In all his scheming, the wicked arrogantly thinks: 'There is no accountability since God does not exist" (Psalm 10:4, HCSB).  "...[All] is thoughts are, 'There is no God'" (Psalm 10:4, ESV).  (God is in none of his thoughts!)  When you take God out of the reckoning man becomes depraved without limit and God gives them up to go their own way--yes, even man's brain or intellect is depraved and is incapable of spiritual apprehension:  "No one understands" (cf. Rom. 3:10f).   "...My people do not understand" (Isaiah 1:3, NASB).   "...So the people without understanding are ruined"  (Hos. 4:14, NASB).  "...The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint"  (Isaiah 1:5, ESV).

Secular Humanism is defined as a religion without God in the equation.  It is completely incompatible with the Judeo-Christian worldview. Humanists do not believe that there is a supernatural and deny any deity or divinity of any notion in their reckoning.  When you take God out of the equation man loses focus and orientation, and has no moral compass to guide him and sees a distorted reality: such as Eastern religion seeing all reality as Maya or an illusion.  Humanism is a religion with high priests, meetings, and even has the Humanist Manifesto of doctrines to adhere to. And John Dewey was one of the early proponents who introduced the ideas into our educational system and is the so-called father of American public education.  They even have "Secular Humanist of the year" awards!  Their chief tenet is that there is no absolute moral code to live by and we are capable of concocting our own morality.

America is entering the New World Order (or era):  Trump vows to keep God out of it [politics]. Humanists want a world without God and any religious influence--even banning signage of the Ten Commandments in courtrooms and schools, taking the motto "In God We Trust" off our coins, and "One nation under God" off our pledge of allegiance (they have already banned Bible reading and classroom prayer in public schools in 1963, when infamous atheist Madalyn Murray O'Hair protested and litigated).  Will we have a National Day of Prayer and a prayer breakfast at the White House? They are opposed to Christianity because they cannot stomach the fact that some people are "lost" and need salvation, and they believe in their Humanist Manifesto II of 1973:  "No deity will save us, we must save ourselves."

Their faith is in science, or should I say "scientism," which is using science for non-scientific purposes such as finding ethical, philosophical, and religious truth (an example is saying that the cosmos is all there is and all there was and all there ever will be--Carl Sagan). They are people of faith too--in the scientific method to solve our problems and lead to all truth.  There are not people of faith and people of reason or rationale, because everyone has faith and starts with some presupposition they cannot prove.

The building block of the "religion" is evolution and they regard any encroachment upon this dogma as heretical and intolerable. For example, Carl Sagan said that evolution is a "fact", not a "theory." Note:  It's unproven and unprovable since history is nonrepeatable, there are no witnesses, they cannot account for the origin of life nor the arrival of the fittest,  and a new species has never been observed to evolve in either the fossil record or in real time.

Humanism is indeed a religion, though they say it is not because they don't believe in "God." But even John Dewey said in A Common Faith that you can be "religious" without having "religion." Atheism has been declared a religion by the Seventh Court of Appeals!   Humanism is more than disbelief in God; it's anti-God and, as a worldview, interprets everything without God in the picture, which is contrary to the rise of Western civilization.  We might call Secular Humanism a post-theological worldview and they are in the process or rewriting history--a red flag!

A fundamental repercussion of their worldview is that God never intervened in history (Jesus is seen as a legend, myth, lie, etc.), and worse yet, man is not created in the image of God with a soul and spirit, but is a materialistic, naturalistic hodgepodge of atoms colliding with no divine purpose--life has no meaning or purpose (words anathema to them), and, since we are animals in heat avoiding pain and seeking pleasure, we can feel free to live without moral restraint, hell to shun, nor judgment to fear, just like animals and feel no "guilt," which comes only from religion. Note:  We are not a freak biological accident or some fluke of nature!  In scientific parlance, they are monists, not believers in dualism like Christians, in that they don't believe we have a mind, separate from our brain, but it's only a projection of brain activity and there is no soul or spirit within us.

The whole point of Secular Humanism is to be good without God and to be religious without so-called religion! They deify and exalt man and dethrone and ignore God, making a name for man and blaspheming God's name! Idolatry is not giving God His rightful domain!

So what?  Secular Humanists want Christians in their camp, but they must be willing to privatize their faith, not flaunting it or making it public--keep it in church!  What we are beholding is the secularization of our society where "man has forgotten God" (Will Durant, humanist historian).  The Constitution guarantees the free expression of faith or religion with no State interference or regulation.  Playwright George Bernard Shaw said that "no nation has ever survived the loss of its gods."  Dostoevsky said that "without God, all things are permissible:"--this is our future?  Caveat: Secular Humanists pin the blame for our problem on man's preoccupation with the spiritual element and mostly fault Christianity!  Soli Deo Gloria!

Our Brother's Keeper

"Oh that you were like a brother to me..." (Song of Solomon 8:1, ESV).

Cain denied being his "brother's keeper," but he should have observed the law of love and not to be envious or have the evil or jaundiced eye.  Brothers are "born for adversity" according to Prov. 17:17 and we are blessed to know brotherly love as an affectionate and loyal one. There is a kind of love that is natural just because of being related, but brotherly love is seen as a model of the kind we should have for our Christian brothers (not called that for no reason).  "Let brotherly love continue" (cf. Heb. 13:1).  Note that friends can be more intimate than brothers:  "... [B]ut there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother" (Prov. 18:24, ESV).

Deut. 23:7 says not to "abhor an Edomite, for he is your brother"--this means we should never despise, look down, or resent our brother, who is own flesh and blood.  Brothers can disagree but they should find areas of commonality--they can agree to disagree and disagree without being disagreeable.  Proverbs 6 lists sowing discord among brothers as one of the things that are an abomination to God.

Most arguments aren't worth the adrenaline and they generate more heat than light!  According to Patton's Principles: A Guidebook for Managers Who Mean It, we should never engage in an argument we have nothing to gain from--some are just trivial; on the other hand, there are godly controversies and we are called to engage in them (but don't split hairs!).   Abraham didn't want any discord with his brethren and in Gen. 13:8 (ESV) he says, "Let there be no strife between you and me ... for we are kinsmen."  But there is always a challenge from an equal and "iron sharpens iron" as Proverbs 27:17 declares.  Caveat:  "A brother offended is more unyielding than a strong city..." (Prov. 18:19, ESV).

We are to see our brother in need and to volunteer our time, resources, talents, and finances:  "But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him?   (1 John 2:17, ESV).  Paul says in (1 Tim. 5:8, ESV):  "But if anyone does not provide for his own, and especially for those of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever."   Soli Deo Gloria!

Real Humility

"He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God"  (Micah 6:8, ESV, italics added). 

"For thus says the One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy; 'I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly, and to revive the heart of the contrite"  (Isaiah 57:15, ESV, lowly means humble!).

"Listen to me, you who pursue righteousness, you who seek the LORD:  look to the rock from which you were hewn, and to the quarry from which you were dug"  (Isaiah 51:1, ESV, remember your roots and from whence you came!). 

Christ is said to have "emptied Himself" when He became man, which really is another way of saying He laid aside His omniscience, omnipotence, and omnipresence to take the form of man and relate to us on our terms--such as finding out what tears felt like, or sweat on the brow.  He didn't cease being God the Son, though!  Jesus saw things through the eyes of man for the first time and now He can relate to us as a faithful high priest, tempted in every way as we.  Philippians 2 uses the word kenosis in Greek to mean emptying, but He didn't empty Himself of His deity, but merely restrained the independent use of it and served the purpose of the Father.

Jesus humbled Himself by leaving His throne, to being born in a manger because there was no room at the inn, suffering the humility of a crucifixion between two malefactors.  We must, therefore, keep on eyes on Jesus (cf. Heb. 12:1), as it is said:  look at the world and distressed; look at yourself and be depressed; look at Christ and be at rest ("Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose thoughts are stayed on Thee," says Isa. 26:3).

Humility gets down on its knees and nothing is beneath it, much the way Jesus did in the Upper Room in the servile act of washing His disciples' feet.  John the Baptist said that Jesus must increase, and he must decrease.  "...[He] crowns the humble with victory [salvation]"  (Psalm 149:4, ESV).  He understood that the way up is down in God's economy! "...[A]nd humility comes before honor"  (Prov. 15:33, ESV).   "Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he will exalt you"  (James 4:10, ESV, italics mine).   Jesus was asked who would be the greatest in His kingdom:  He who humbled himself as a child (cf. Matt. 18:3)!  We, too, can empty ourselves of all pretense and stoop to help those in need that God brings our way or into our sphere of influence.

If Jesus could humble Himself, it's not beneath our dignity to do any "foot-washing--in public or private." He said we ought to do likewise, instituting the "order of the towel." "In his humiliation justice was denied him..." (Acts 8:33, ESV). A good example of a humble mind is George Whitefield saying, "There but for the grace of God, go I," when seeing a criminal going to the gallows.  We are to prefer one another and honor one another in Christ (as Romans 12:10, NKJV says, "....in honor giving preference to one another"), not thinking more highly of ourselves than we ought (cf. Romans 12:3).

There is no caste system in the church, as each of us is one in Christ and all brethren in the family of God. Service is where it's at:  The more you serve, the greater you are, not the more who serve you! Albert Schweitzer said that the only really happy people are those who've learned to serve.  A non-serving Christian is a contradiction in terms, as we are called to serve one another in Christ.   We must be willing to follow Jesus in humility and serve Him in whatever capacity possible.

True humility is not having low self-esteem or thinking less of yourself, but not thinking of yourself at all. When you think you've arrived at true humility, you have lost it! "...' God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble"" (cf. James 4:6; 1 Pet. 5:5).   Therefore, we all have the tendency to have pride in ourselves and to think highly of ourselves (more highly than we ought!), wanting to be seen in the best possible light (with a good reputation), but with Christ in our heart, we see things through His eyes and lose all pretense of our own self-importance.

No one is ever truly humble a la Christ, (for example, only Jesus and Moses are called humble or meek in Scripture!).  When we think we're humble or that we've arrived, we have missed the boat!  Humility means that all we are is servants of God and the most we can hope for is to hear with joy the words:  "Well done, thou good and faithful servant enter thou into the joy of the Lord!" To reiterate:  Our greatness is not in how many people serve us, but how many we serve--just the opposite of human insight or viewpoint.  We should not desire to be number one as Diotrephes did in 3 John, but esteem others with all due respect.  One statement that humbles me is from Mother Teresa of Calcutta (now canonized):  God doesn't call us to success, but to faithfulness!   Never lose sight of the fact that it's not about you! 

The conclusion of the matter is: The best leaders are those who've learned to follow, the ones with servant's hearts know their Lord and aren't power-hungry or lustful, but see leadership opportunity as stewardship possibilities.  God's purpose is to keep us from getting a big head!   Soli Deo Gloria!  

Looking For A Loophole?

"[Since] they show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts now accusing, now even defending them"  (Romans 2:25, NIV).

By definition, conscience is an innate sense of right/wrong and the ability to apply it to conduct in situations. 

W. C. Fields was said to peruse the Scriptures on his death bed and when asked why he quipped: "Well, it occurred to me that I might be wrong, so I'm looking for a loophole?"  Everyone is in the same boat, susceptible to error (to err is human!).  Only God is infallible or incapable of error and His divine impeccability is one of His traits.  We can be inerrant, but not infallible:  For example, if you scored 100 percent on a spelling test, you were inerrant; but you're not infallible!

Some Christians similar to claiming infallibility (which is pontificating from the chair of St. Peter called speaking ex-cathedra in Latin).  We are to trust no human as infallible, but hold only the Holy Scriptures to that standard, as Augustine wrote Jerome on his convictions.

We all have a conscience or the ability to relate standards to conduct and situations and make judgments of right and wrong.  We are held to be responsible to our conscience, and it either accuses or excuses us  (cf. Rom. 2:25).  But we can indeed have a clear conscience and be in sin or be dead wrong at the same time because you can be sincerely wrong, but this is no excuse to go against conscience as our guide as Martin Luther said, "To go against conscience is neither right nor safe." Jiminy Cricket said to always let our conscience be our guide--but it should be enlightened by the Word of God.

It is obvious that God is a God who cares a lot about right and wrong and He has gifted us with a moral compass as a guide to behavior in all situations (you instinctively know not to bud in line, for instance, unless you've hardened your conscience--if you ignore it, it'll go away!).  Where do we get a sense of fair play, good faith, altruism, courage, good faith, frankness, objectivity, integrity, and sportsmanship?  It's obvious that this is a reflection of God's character.  This is why we learn a lot about life playing sports and through the wisdom of the school of hard knocks in life's spiritual journey.

There is a natural or higher law that all people know, which is supreme over the law of the government.  Being legal doesn't mean it's right, ethical, or moral!   We are responsible for this moral code, whether we admit it or not.  We have a built-in sensitivity to evil and all of us have eaten of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, by virtue of being Adam's progeny.  None of us can claim innocence!  We are moral creatures responsible for our actions and that's where sin comes in; animals are not moral creatures.  We alone are designed to communicate with God with a heart to love Him, a mind to know Him, and a will to obey Him.

Mark Twain was said to say that it wasn't the Scriptures he didn't understand that bothered him, but the ones he did!   We all have some manner of inner moral compass and fabric to convict us.  "If there is no God," Fyodor Dostoevsky's dictum goes, "everything is permissible," and up for grabs, and we are without a moral compass as animals and can act like them, not being accountable and not awaiting judgment.   We all have a sense of "ought" however, and this is evidence for God's existence.

God alone is the moral center of the universe and everything's is relative to Him.  In sum, there is no loophole, all of mankind will be judged by Christ if they are not found in Him, and they will be condemned by their own words and conscience!  In the meantime, judge nothing before the time (cf. 1 Cor. 4:5).  We don't want to be like Israel in Judges:  "Everyone did what was right in his own eyes"  (cf. Judges 17:6; 21:25).  The cross is the only way out by faith in it as the propitiation of our sins, being God's satisfaction or propitiation of justice on our behalf.   Soli Deo Gloria!

The Heart Of Contrition

"And this is the condemnation [verdict], that light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil"  (John 3:19, NKJV). 

The sinner flatters himself too much to hate his own sin (cf. Psalm 36:2).

"... Repent!  Turn away from all your offenses; then sin will not be your downfall" (Ez. 18:30, NIV).  

"In the pride of his face, the wicked does not seek him; all his thoughts are, "There is no God"  (Psalm 10:4, ESV). [God is in none of his thoughts!]
"Return [repent] ... Your sins have been your downfall" (Hos. 14:1, NIV). 
"Then you will remember your evil ways and wicked deeds, and you will loathe yourselves for your sins and detestable practices"  (Ezek. 36:31, NIV).

"Let the wicked forsake his way and the evil man his thoughts, Let him turn to the LORDS, and he will have mercy on him, and to our God, for he will freely pardon"  (Isaiah 55:7, NIV).

We must come to the end of ourselves, a spiritual wake-up call is in order, even have a mental breakdown of sorts in which we realize in a rude awakening the vileness of our own sin, and evil and stop blaming God for our problems--we are only reaping what we've sown or got what we deserve, and even less at that.  When Peter realized his sin he said, "Depart from me O Lord, for I am a sinful man." And Ovid said, "I see the better things and approve them, but I follow the worst." Even Paul said, "What a wretched man that I am..." (cf. Romans 7:24).  "... [P]our out your heart like water in the presence of the LORD"  (Lam. 2:19, NIV).


Man naturally believes he can do something for his salvation, some work that is pleasing to God, but he must try to stop saving himself, as it were, and accept salvation as a free gift of grace.  He throws in the towel and upon the mercy of God:  the only qualification for salvation is to admit you're not worthy of it. We cannot clean up our act or get our house in order--only the grace of God can change us!  We are never good enough to be saved; we are bad enough to need salvation!  

We cannot work ourselves up into a spirit of repentance or do any pre-salvation work, but must just throw ourselves upon the mercy of God and realize our destiny is ultimately in His control.  We are literally "sinners in the hands of an angry God," according to Jonathan Edwards, and the Scripture says our foot shall slip in due time and our calamity is near if we don't repent (cf. Deut. 32:35).

Repentance, then, like faith, is the gift of God (cf. Acts 5:31, 11:18; 2 Tim. 2:25)--for we can do nothing apart from Christ's work in us (cf. John 15:5 ).   Caveat:   "[Not] knowing that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?" (Romans 2:4, ESV).   God transforms the hardened heart, turning it from a heart of stone to flesh (cf. Ezek. 36:26).  God will then cause us to walk in His ways (cf. Ezek. 36:27).  A changed life is the only evidence of salvation:  "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.  The old has passed away; behold, the new has come."  (2 Cor. 5:10, ESV).

"For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death"  (2 Cor. 7:10, ESV).  There is being sorry you got found out with your hand in the cookie jar and feeling sorrow and remorse enough to change your ways.  David said, "The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise" (Ps 51:17, ESV).

We must declare spiritual bankruptcy because the good news only comes after the bad news is accepted.  C. S. Lewis said this catch-22:  "We must see how bad we are to be good, and we don't know how bad we are till we've tried to be good."  Thankfully, we are bad, but not as bad as we can be by virtue of the restraining ministry of the Holy Spirit; we are as bad off as we can be, though, in our total depravity.  Total depravity doesn't mean utter depravity; we are not as bad as possible.  We are as completely depraved as possible, our whole being (intellect, emotions, and will) and we cannot be a little depraved no more than a woman can be a little pregnant!

We all have an inner conscience or moral compass that either accuses or excuses us (cf. Romans 2:15).  It is good to feel bad about our sin (guilt is therapeutic) and we must realize we are bad--but not too bad to be saved.   If sin were yellow, we'd be all yellow; there is no island of righteousness in our being--our wills, minds, and emotions are all evil, corrupt and depraved.  Our righteousness is God's gift to us, not our gift to God!  (cf. Isaiah 45:24).   We are born sinners and in sin:  "We are not sinners because we sin, but sin because we are sinners" (theological axiom).  The Anglicans express sin in their Anglican Book of Common Prayer as follows:  "We have done those things we ought not to have done, and we have left undone those things we ought to have done."  That means they are sins of omission as well as of commission.

In true contrition, we own up to our wrongdoing, do an about-face, a 180-degree turn, or a U-turn from our sin.  It's imperative to come clean, hiding nothing and openly admitting and confess all sin and remember that confession, or homologeo in Greek means to say the same thing as. It is progressive, in that it continues throughout the Christian experience and fellowship.  We are not just afraid of hell, or regretting the results we have reaped, but want to change our life to please God and hate sin for what it is:  an offense to God's nature.  We feel we haven't just broken God's laws, but His heart.  When we sin we don't break God's laws, they break us; and sin is only "pleasure for a season" (cf. Heb. 11:25). Contrition says goodbye to our former life without looking back, burning all the bridges to make it impossible to return.

We don't need to turn over a new leaf or make a New Year's resolution, but to repent of our sins and put Jesus in charge to change us from the inside out--i.e., make us new persons in Christ.  We will then find forgiveness from what we've done and deliverance from what we are (justification and sanctification). In sum, we must renounce sin and not just feel sorry for its consequences and ask God to change us.  Soli Deo Gloria!

Judge No Man

It's not our prerogative to judge someone's soul status because we don't have all the facts, and only God sees the invisible heart and motives.  Scripture says to judge nothing before the time (cf. 1 Cor. 4:5), and that means that we are not to condemn each other's ministries because they don't suit our fancy or understanding of doctrine.  Jesus, himself, is the sole authority on the quality of each man's work and will test it whether it stands the test of fire (cf. 1 Cor. 3:12-15), and should be rewarded at the Judgment Seat of Christ. We are to minister as God calls us and let no man judge us but Christ himself.

Someone may say that Christians shouldn't be involved in politics or express worldview, but they are making presumptions that they hold the standard in their hands.  Every Christian is designed to reach out to a different group or category of people, and we are not to look down on someone's ministry because it doesn't have the outreach we think it should have.  For example, take the Christian Motorcyclists Association, an evangelical organization that seeks unity through reaching out to a certain ilk of individuals often looked down upon or misunderstood as rebels.  We are not to say, "Jesus wouldn't drive a Harley!" because we are biased against them.  On the other hand, we should not say, "Jesus wouldn't write an editorial to the paper on politics!"

We have to realize that we are not Jesus, we are only working for Him in the capacity for which the door has been opened.  Jesus wouldn't do this (like smoke, drink, dance, party, watch TV, go to movies, go on vacation--you name it, some people insist they alone know what Jesus is like and they fit the mold!    Everyone is at a different stage and we are not to judge them, for they are the servant of another man as Paul says in Romans 2.  Soli Deo Gloria!

A Dangerous Knowledge

We all need to know the scoop, the lowdown, or the skinny in the world of theology to navigate faithfully through the Word, i.e., to know our way around the block in the Word with correct interpretation and application.  In the last days, according to 2 Tim. 4:3, many will bail out theologically and in 1 Tim. 4:1 it says even believers will give heed to seducing spirits, or doctrines of demons.

Today's Eastern philosophy predominates with New Age (the Age of Aquarius) and it's many Buddhist and Hindu applications are stealing people away from the truth of Scripture by an experience with the occult or Eastern religion.  We need to be informed of a balance of doctrine, and know what we believe (the problem with today's youth is that they largely don't know what or why they believe).  A little knowledge can be a dangerous thing and when we think we've cornered the market or have an exclusive mindset (no one has a monopoly or has all the truth!) or if we seek knowledge for its own sake, we've misused it. Knowledge must not remain theoretical but must have an application and become real to the person's experience.

Not many are mighty in the Scriptures, but we all need to train to show ourselves approved unto God (cf. 1 Pet. 3:15).   The Bible warns that "knowledge puffs up!"  (Cf. 1 Cor. 8:1).   One of God's peeves is that man perishes through lack of knowledge or ignorance (cf. Hos. 4:6). Ignorance is not bliss, but it binds you and opens you up to being led astray.  Don't you sometimes just thirst for the unadulterated truth of God: sometimes there's no knowledge of God in the land as Hos 4:1 says.

The biggest error Christians have in acquiring knowledge is to be over-influenced by one teacher and drink of only one fountain, as it were--this is a good way to lose perspective and to be led into error.   Indeed, there are Christians who are like bulls in china shops, or more accurately, like Dennis the Menace!  Their middle name is trouble and their head knowledge is way above their application of it.
Soli Deo Gloria!  

Popular Perceptions/Experiences Of God

"Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons"  (1 Tim. 4:1, ESV).


Virtually every spiritual experience of Christianity is duplicated and counterfeited by false religions.--don't be fooled by mystics of any faith!  The Buddhists claim visions and to "see the light of God;" the Hindus and other faiths claim to "speak in unknown tongues;" the Muslims claim to experience the "spirit of Muhammad" and that he lives in their heart! Transmigration, as anything, or reincarnation, or as a person ("better luck next time!") replaces evolution or sanctification, whichever the case may be.  Pantheism, or that the universe is God and all is God or that we are all One replaces theism.

The concept of yin/yang replaces the biblical concept of evil being the corruption/perversion/deviation/negation of good. It's a parasite on goodness.  There isn't much daylight between believing all is God and there is no God.  The incarnation of Christ becomes the latest of many avatars or personifications of the gods.  The experiences of Eastern religion have begun to replace illicit drugs such as LSD.  Prophecy is replaced with tarot cards, palmistry, and mediums. Hearing voices is most likely a sign of an experiment or an opened door with the occult, drug world, or mental illness, then a sign of a spiritual encounter with God on a personal level--it's too subjective to trust.   Faith in karma, which replaces Judgment Day, is then the Eastern answer to Providence.  The goal is to be freed from the law of karma (i.e., reunion with Brahma or extinction of desire or being in some kind of Nirvana).  In Buddhism enlightenment replaces salvation.

People generally perceive God in one of five ways:  a critic who is detached and impersonal and even judgmental and harsh; a life coach that is a positive influence and encouraging; a projection of some person we see a need for such as a father figure or friend; a force that is impersonal and we cannot know or have a relationship with and cannot love us; or a principle to live by and code of conduct to make us feel good about ourselves. 

Christian Science downgrades Jesus to just a divine principle and no more divine than we can be. While the Unity School of Christianity believers say that Jesus is a force.   New Age adherents such as Shirley MacLaine--as the life-giving cosmic energy of the cosmos.  George Lucus, the originator of the Star Wars sagas, believes all religions are right, and that God is just some impersonal force to be tapped into, either the good or dark side (there's no yin/yang-like struggle of equals).  If all religions are right, that is saying none are right:  all can be wrong, but logically, with the contradictions (Islam denies that Jesus was crucified and rose from the dead), they all cannot be right!  The Baha'i faith believes that all religions basically teach the same thing concerning God--another cop-out from facing the real issue of sin and salvation, which is the crux of the problem. They can have things in common and be contradictory at the same time. 


The Holy Spirit, the animating principle agent in creation and salvation, is not some blase, passive force, but a living personage equal with the Father and the Son in the deity.  Some Christians do believe that the Holy Spirit is just the Spirit of God or a manifestation of Him, but the Bible clearly teaches that the Paraclete, Counselor, and Comforter is a person who has a will, thoughts, and emotions. When you say tongue-in-cheek or not, that you wish the "Force" to be with someone, you are relegating God (which is idolatry) to a blind force like the blind kismet or impersonal fate of Islam and this force cannot love you, and it's an impersonal fate, or the fatalism of Stoicism.  The unbeliever cannot share in the power of God and the nature of the Divinity--for he is dead spiritually!

Where am I headed here?  We are not to witness based upon subjective feeling or experience, nor to base our assurance upon it--there is too much false assurance out there!  The thing that makes Christianity unique is not our experience in Christ, but that it is based upon objective, the historical fact--the resurrection!  Christianity is the only faith-based upon history and evidence that can stand up in a court of law when before unbiased jurors.  Christianity is history or it is nothing!  We are not mystics who claim some surreal experience, but a transformed life in Christ that cannot be matched by counterfeit experiences.

When you say, "The Force be with you!" we are welcoming and approving the devil's work and inviting danger by the flirtation with it.   The whole point in Christianity is that you can know God on a personal level, which is denied by all other faiths except Judaism--an impersonal force or God cannot love anyone.  Our faith is not measured by our experience but by our obedience.   The issue is not what kind of experience you had, but do you KNOW God?   Soli Deo Gloria!

Flirting With Satan

"But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil"  (Heb. 5:14, ESV).
"Woe to those who call evil good and good evil..." (Isaiah 5:20, ESV).

Some Christians think it's cool to dabble in the occult and experiment with its luring temptations. The most popular and largest segment of the occult is astrology, which has been around for at least 4,000 years, as an adventure into supernaturalism.  It seems "innocent" enough, but it opens the door to satanic activity in your life, such as using Ouija boards, palmistry, Yoga, TM, crystals, seances, tarot cards, or channeling.

Paul encountered sorcerers in Ephesus in Acts 19 and, when they repented, they brought all their sorcery texts and burned them publicly. Remember, Simon the Great had been a sorcerer and, after believing, sought to buy the gift of God with money, and today this heresy is known as simony.   King Saul sought advice from the witch of Endor, a medium, and was punished with death with his sons as a result. 

Of course, they don't see the harm, but a mature believer realizes that this domain belongs to the devil and will steer clear of it--it's no joke!  You cannot partake of the Lord's Table and the table of demons!  The Bible clearly condemns astrology and any type of star worship in Isaiah 47:13 as follows:  "You are wearied with your many counsels; let them stand forth and save you, those who divide the heavens, who gaze at the stars, who at the new moons make known what shall come upon you."

Contrary to popular thought, the magi were not astrologers but noticed a sign in heaven and knew the Scriptures were being fulfilled from a prophecy of Jacob.  Nowhere does God condone astrology and a believer in Christ is disobedient to lend it any credence.

Why is this so serious?  Even if you don't take it seriously and are just playing around, your testimony is jeopardized and it speaks of your lack of faith in God.  Also, you have a responsibility to obey Scripture and not to do anything that makes your brother stumble (cf. 1 Cor. 8:12).  We don't play around with Satan but take him seriously as our adversary.  Anyone who is into occult practice, such as consulting the stars for advice, is doing the work of the devil and in league with him, and will be judged--i.e., we are not to call evil good (cf. Isa. 5:20).  If you don't worship God, you'll still find something or someone to worship--it's our God-given nature!  Soli Deo Gloria!