John 3:30

He Must Increase, I Must Decrease

Creation

When does a Fetus become a Human?

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What if you found out that a fetus has no heartbeat, doesn’t feel pain, nor even grows until 18 days after conception – would that change the way you believe about abortion?

Would it change the arguments you used against abortion, or how you would intend to persuade people concerning having an abortion?

Would it change which laws you would support?

Think about it.

Now – what if you found out that a fetus has no heartbeat, doesn’t feel pain, nor even grows until 8 months after conception – would that change the way you believe about abortion?

Here is an article I wrote a couple years ago which speaks to this issue.

Some Things Just Don’t Make Sense…

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Here’s something that doesn’t make sense to me.

There are Christians that do not believe in a literal six day creation, as specified in the book of Genesis and Exodus and testified to by Christ Himself in the New Testament. I’m speaking of born-again Christians who hold the Bible to be inerrant, not just anyone labeled Christian.

This wouldn’t be so surprising, except think about this for a second.

A Christian is someone who believes God is angry with them for sin because a book that is thousands of years old says so. In order to atone for these sins, God (who is 3 persons, but 1 God ?huh?) became a man and was subjected to his own creation to the point of crucifixion. Then, miraculously, because of the resurrection of this God-man 3 days later from the dead, all of which happened 2,000 years ago, the Christian of 2012 can have all of his or her sins transferred to this point in time on the cross with Christ, and have the righteousness of God imputed to them; thus, being justified before God forever by His grace.

Couple this with the death of all first-born Egyptian sons after 9 other remarkable plagues, men who perfectly penned Words from God Himself and preserved them as scripture, and a virgin woman giving birth to the King of kings in a manger in the middle east and you’ve got a recipe for some FAITH.

So what I don’t understand is this: How can someone readily believe all these other seriously exceptional events, events which we can only conceive of because of the scripture, yet these same folks deny the special creation of God which is actually evident to all men through general revelation?

Romans 1:19-21 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. <20> For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. <21> For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.

This baffles me!

Would you support Chic-Fil-A if…

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Twitter has been flooded with hundreds, probably thousands of tweets, including the #chicfila hashtag. It is all the rage right now for people to throw their opinion out there about Dan Cathy, Chic-Fil-A or those who oppose Chic-Fil-A.

“We are very much supportive of the family — the biblical definition of the family unit. We are a family-owned business, a family-led business, and we are married to our first wives. We give God thanks for that,” Cathy is quoted as saying.

It can be intriguing to read what people are writing on twitter, blogs and facebook. Often, it is humorous to see the arguments people use…literally attacking beliefs that Dan Cathy likely doesn’t espouse…or vice versa. Evangelicals everywhere are either promoting Chic-Fil-A and the August 1st Chic-Fil-A day or they are decrying the whole “support Chic-Fil-A” agenda as childish or at worst, useless. Some will say that supporting corporations for taking these stands is important; others would say “who cares.” Many make it a 1st amendment issue, some call it a religious right.

The fact remains that it is hard for me to believe that everyone who went to Chic- Fil-A on August 1st is a born again Christian supporting reliance on God’s Word for faith and practice. I tend to believe that the Chic-Fil-A day support was far more related to a mutual opposition to homosexual marriage AND political agreement about free speech than about the biblical Jesus for most of the attendees. I wonder if “Chic-Fil-A” day could have been a distraction, in a sense. Something which created a false sense of unity between people with opposing views of God, but who happen to agree about gay marriage and/or the first amendment.

Which leads me to wonder. Would you support Chic-Fil-A if:

  • Dan Cathy publicly explained that he believes in traditional marriage and that salvation is only through Christ by grace through faith and that there is nothing you can do to earn God’s favor?
  • Dan Cathy supports traditional marriage and clearly believes that heterosexuals who are unmarried and living together or sleeping together are as damned in God’s eyes as homosexuals?
  • Cathy pointed out that idolatry and greed are sins as well as the fact that he supports traditional marriage?
  • Cathy said he supported traditional marriage and said drunkards and liars have no place in the kingdom of God?
  • Cathy said that you are no different from the most hateful, deviant homosexual, and that you are utterly deserving of God’s wrath for your sin and that no amount of good behavior, praying or sacraments would get you to heaven? That no matter how many chicken tenders you buy to show your opposition to homosexuals, and no matter how many babies you help prevent being aborted and no matter how many prayers you say, tithes you offer or good deeds you do – that you are a wicked sinner in your own right undeserving of anything better than eternal hell?
  • Would you still be waiting in line over an hour for fried chicken?

I am not sure everyone would still support Chic-Fil-A if any of these scenarios were true. We could go deeper and within Christianity find out that Cathy believes in baby baptisms, tongues and signs or any number of secondary-but-oft-disputed doctrines. How much would you sacrifice to show support of his company that day?

Do you see my point? Sure, I agree with the quotes I’ve heard about Dan Cathy’s personal support of the traditional marriage. I agree that he is correct that God has specified one man and one woman as the design for marriage according to the bible. And I think it is great for Christians to rally around other Christians, especially during persecution to show support.

But in the end, I hope that we remember that being Christian doesn’t mean being republican, or pro-life or anti-gay. Being on the same side on any number of issues may impact culture in a positive way, but we need to be careful that we don’t just call everyone in the line at Chic-Fil-A brother or sister, just as we wouldn’t assume everyone in a church building on a Sunday is born-again.

Now here’s a tweet worth retweeting!

https://twitter.com/jrLaurinaitis/status/231388038075392000

Movie Theater Witnessing

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I planned to go out witnessing the first Saturday of 2012. My initial plan was to go to my normal fishing spot, downtown Columbus. There is plenty of foot traffic in the “bar district” to provide a lot of opportunity to distribute tracts and get into witnessing encounters.

But last night, as I was on my way out, (without my usual partner), I decided I’d try to stay closer to home. A large part of the Saturday night downtown witnessing is the fellowship in the car. And the Marcus Cinema Pickerington is only a couple miles from my local church, so I am always hopeful that if a convert was made there, they would be able to come to Berean Baptist Church as well!

As I pulled into the parking lot, I saw the theater building emptying quickly! I figured a movie must have just finished. I hurriedly parked my car and jumped out, excited to share the gospel. Popped opened the trunk and, voila!, no tract bag. I ALWAYS keep a tract and bible bag in the car! Alas, not tonight. So I walked toward the theater entrance with only the tracts that are “customarily” kept in my coat, about 40 of them.

I was walking toward the large entrance when I saw a couple of young men coming out the “side” exit. I strolled over and offered them tracts. Their names were Markell and Anthony. They are juniors at the local high school. I asked them standard questions about what they think happens after death; Anthony has a church background. They were both happy to talk. Anthony had a “mildly” strange belief that you go to 1 of 3 heavens. He said there was a heaven for people who accept Jesus and remain sinless, a lesser heaven for people who accept Jesus and still sin, and a third heaven for everyone else: which he said was basically hell. I had never heard anything like this before. I asked them what happens to a good Hindu boy who is raised Hindu and never hears of Jesus, and they were quite sure that boy would go to Heaven. When I explained the contradiction in their own “theology,” they understood and seemed interested in resolving the conflict. They each admitted to several sins and understood all the courtroom analogies about the good judge and the Judge of the earth doing what is Right. I explained to them about the glorious grace of Christ and challenged them to read the book of John: just 1 chapter a day. They agreed. Hopefully, the Lord will save them by his gospel.

One of the interesting notes of this conversation was their belief that people are born “basically good.” I explained to them about Adam and Eve and original sin and why we are all born sinners. This gave me opportunity as well to talk about the virgin birth. Praise God for the only consistent worldview, a biblical one. I honest can’t imagine how many cultists keep track of the lies they believe. But getting to talk about Adam and Eve was a blessing, because it allowed me to bring up the fact that there is only one race, the human race. These two young men, as well as most everyone I met last night would be commonly considered “black” and I would certainly be called “white.” I hope that being able to communicate to them that I believe we are essentially cousins through Adam and Eve greases any friction they may sense due to “racial” problems we’ve brought upon ourselves in our culture.

I then ran into Chris and Tiara. Obviously a ‘teen date-night.’ Chris was wearing an ornate rosary. I stopped him and asked him what it meant to him. I was, admittedly, shocked when he had no idea what a rosary is really for or what it represents. His girl was proud to point at it and say it “has Jesus on it.” So I asked them who they thought Jesus was and eventually got them to go through a good person test. Chris had a lot of trouble admitting sin or even keeping eye contact with me. Tiara is a professed Christian. Neither of them had any idea how they would obtain forgiveness, but Tiara seemed to know it had something to do with repentance and Jesus. I left them with tracts and a challenge to believe the gospel.

I continued to hand out tracts and finally made it near the large theater entrance. TEENS EVERYWHERE. I approached a couple young boys named Dayquan and DeBron. Another Dayquan and a boy named Christian eavesdropped as well. These kids were extremely interested in the entire conversation. Even when distracted, they kept coming back to the conversation. Dayquan (1), after the gospel presentation, indicated that he had been baptized. It always amazes me when right after a gospel conversation, people seem to have no idea what I just told them. I reminded him that salvation was offered by grace through faith alone and I trust the Spirit of God can and will use His gospel to regenerate the hearts of these young men if they are of His elect. I wasn’t trying to boast, but at one point in the conversation I was trying to communicate how important this message is. I told them that the message itself, and their souls, was so important to me that I was missing time with my wife, “and the Lions game,” I said. At that point, I realized how really low I God had to reach to pull me out of the gutter…I am sortof a Lions fan. 😉

I was pleased that these guys were apparently friends with Chris and Tiara, who came back. They chuckled when they saw their friends talking to me. Praise God that they all allowed me to pray for them (as did Anthony and Markell) as we stood in a circle in public. I can tell you I would have NEVER let some freak pray for me in public when I was in high school!

Finally, I found another group of teens “milling about.” As I approached them I reaching into my pocket and pulled out my tracts. Upon seeing this, these guys (who must be from a rough neighborhood?), sorta “freaked out.” I realized what they thought and I made a joke about a guy “pulling out a piece in public.” One of the guys laughed and said, “M0t4er f***er just said ‘pull out a piece!'”

This isn’t exactly mind-blowing. Of course, I personally try to avoid profane language (eph 5:29), but what is most interesting to know at this point is that during the course of the conversation with these 4 guys (Montrel, Doug and two unnamed individuals), I found out they all go to the same church. Salvation is by grace, but I don’t imagine God’s people using that type of language, at least not for long. When I asked them about what happens when they die, they said that they either go to hell, or if they get the “holy ghost” they can go to Heaven. I asked them how to get the holyghost. They weren’t sure, but Montrel had recently gotten baptized, which he indicated was a step in the right direction. This was a tough bunch, distracted through the conversation, proud of the fact they were ‘presently lusting’ and disruptive to the point that I sternly chastised the one young man to simply be quiet. I told him that if he did’t care about his own soul, that was ok, but I cared about it and maybe his friends cared about their own. I thanked him afterward for controlling himself.

I finished off all my tracts and took my frozen fingers to my car and returned to my wife. It was really a wonderful experience, and I hope the Lord will save one or many of these young people. I was really impressed overall and had a fun time talking to young people. Thanks be to God for the opportunity and for His wonderful faithfulness.

How Does Our Language Affect Abortion Rights?

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I was having a conversation with a person when they said something that made me really think about how we view the unborn. I suspect that there are those who are pro-choice, pro-life, and “undecideds” who are all guilty of this act I am about to describe.

The language we choose is extremely important. Jesus said “But I say unto you, that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment” (Matthew 12:36). I think it is important that we understand the way we communicate, and there must be a level of objectivity by which we determine what is being communicated to us and what is being communicated by us.

I was telling a person I worked with about the baby that God gave my wife and me a couple of years ago. At the end of 2009, the Lord gave us a child who died before ever seeing the light of day. I told my coworker that we had named our child “Lily.” She seemed to find it incredible that we had named the child (Lily died in the first trimester) and said, “you already named it?”

At that point I realized how our attitude toward the unborn is manifested in our speech. No one reading this blog (in the realm of reason) would ever refer to an adult or child of unknown gender as “it.” We use terms like “he” or “she,” (apart from exceptional pervertedness).

Yet we call unborn babies “it” as easily as we refer to inanimate objects in the same manner. Maybe if those of us who DO KNOW that unborn babies possess personhood would eliminate this word from our vocabulary when referring to babies, we might show our due respect for others who are made in God’s image. Maybe this will have an impact on someone who hasn’t worked this out yet in their own mind?

So the next time you refer to a person of any age of unknown gender, say “he” or “she” instead of “it.” 

Colossians 1:16

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Colossians 1:16 For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities or powers, all things were created by him and for him.

Wow! You can see immediately from reading this verse, (and all of Colossians chapter 1), that God had seen the advent of all the cults that would come along in our day. Belief systems such as Jehovah’s Witness, Islam and Mormon all lower Jesus Christ from His rightful throne and make him to be ‘just a man.’ How does this verse combat these false theologies and bring us to an understanding of Christ as Creator God?

As always, we must read the verse into context:

Colossians 1:13-1613 Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son:14 In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins:15 Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature:16 For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him:

As you can see from verse 13 (his dear Son), verses 14-16 are referring to the “dear Son” of the Father. So we know that we are talking about Christ. In 15, Paul calls Jesus the image of the invisible God. Then he calls him the firstborn of every creature! Shallow reading would make it appear that Jesus is a created being, but we are trying to dig deep. Jesus as a created being would seemingly contradict other scriptures, so we must look deeper to see what this sentence could possible mean, especially when verse 16 is clear that Jesus created “all things!”

What does firstborn mean in verse 15? Was Jesus born? That is to say, is Jesus a created being; was He produced? Before we can understand verse 16, we must understand the verse which precede it. Your defense of the faith relies on it. False religions and cults will invariably do one of the following: elevate man to a status above that which he deserves, or lower God from His rightful place. If Jesus is truly God, he must not be a created being, he must be eternal. We must be ready to defend His God-ness, just as we are ready to defend his lordship, kingship and his role as savior and redeemer.

What does the “image of the invisible God” mean? Or, maybe an easier question to tackle is “what must it NOT mean?” Allowing scripture to speak for itself, we can trust that God’s Word is always true. One thing we know we can always trust is that God cannot sin. He is unable to sin; he is of purer eyes than to look upon evil, in fact. Before considering what “image of the invisible God” may mean, review Exodus 20:4-5 –

Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth:5 Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;

Can God create an idol? Can God commit the sin of idolatry? Think about this logically for a moment. God has commanded that men shall not bow to any image or likeness of anything that is in heaven above. That is to say that we do not worship things that aren’t the “real thing.” We are to bow down to Him alone. Even if our intention is “good,” he sees this as idolatry and an abomination. It is a rejection of Him as Holy and perfect. It could be similar to your spouse loving a picture of you. It’s absurd. The image or likeness of you, even if somewhat accurately portrayed is NOT the same thing. If someone said they loved a picture of YOU, would you equate that with “they love you?” You would never do that. You would hope that people would love you, not an image or likeness of you.

But what does God command us to do with Christ? Is He nothing more than a likeness of God? Are we to see Him as a reflection of God? Reflections are things that do not absorb light and simply show you back the light that is hitting it. If Christ is a reflection, He is not a source of light. Christ doesn’t “reflect” God’s glory – He IS God’s glory. He is the brightness of His glory! (Hebrews 1:3) God’s command to worship Christ is idolatry if Christ is nothing but a portrait. If Christ isn’t the real thing but just a likeness: a physical representation of the spiritual, then your bible is worthless and so is your faith. We would be, a Paul puts it, to be most pitied. (1 Corinthians 15:19.

Let’s see the scripture.

John 1:1-9 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 The same was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. 4 In him was life; and the life was the light of men. 5 And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not. 6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7 The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all men through him might believe. 8 He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light. 9 That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.

This passage is talking about Jesus Christ. Notice the terminology. Jesus is the light. He is not a mere reflection of light. Jesus created all things. Not a single thing was made that He did not make. He is explicitly declared ‘Creator’.

Look at how God’s people react to Him. Philippians 2:10 That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth. 11 And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Throughout the New Testament there are records of worship of Jesus Christ. Thomas calls Him, “My Lord and my God.”

Now tell me, how can it be that confessing Jesus Christ as Lord is to the glory of God the Father if Jesus were a created being? That would contradict Romans 1:25 where God expresses immense disdain for them that have gloried in creatures rather than the Creator. God cannot simultaneously command men NOT to worship idols and that which is NOT God and also command men to worship Christ unless He is, in fact, God Himself. So Colossians 1:15 “the image of the invisible God” is a declaration of Christ’s deity. He is as much fully God as the spirit of God.

Is His incarnation mysterious? Yes? Unfathomable? Certainly. Believable? Without a doubt. Trust the scripture that proclaims the glory of Christ.

So what does it mean to be the ‘firstborn’ over all creation? Keeping in mind what we’ve just proved (not exhaustively by the way, the bulk of scripture is evidence for Christ’s Godship), we must begin by understanding that the word ‘born’ as we understand it to mean, that is, to be produced, cannot be the implication here. God cannot and will not contradict Himself. The firstborn, as it is frequently used in scripture implies pre-eminence. To assume that this term literally means “the first to be born: or produced” is a mistake. If we are to keep in accord with scripture, we must understand that Christ has already been declared deity. He is the firstborn over all creation in the sense that He is pre-eminent. He is in charge. He’s the boss. He is the rightful inheritor of all. Just as in ancient times, the firstborn had special rights, God uses this imagery to give us an anthropomorphized understanding of Christ as “one with the Father.” John 10:30. For Christ to be the firstborn implies not that he is produced, but rather that he is of the same nature as God. It’s a hard passage, but using scripture to interpret scripture, we can conclude that Colossians 1:14-15 explicitly and implicitly proclaims Christ as God.

Hebrews 13:8 – Here’s a verse we’ve already seen. Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today and forever. He cannot be “created” if He is immutable. This is more evidence from scripture of Jesus as God. Do not let the mystery and shame of the incarnation sway you. Oh too many people I meet tell me Jesus cannot be God because “he was just a man,” or “God cannot die, Jesus died.” This is the great mystery and humility he possesses. He wants us to believe His Word and the preaching of the cross, even if it is foolish according to the wisdom of the world.

So finally, here we are: verse 16 of Colossians chapter 1. What’s the point of Jesus being the Creator? Think of it this way: by now, it’s clear that He’s God and Creator of all. Read the verse – for by him were all things created…then a list of “everything.” All thrones and dominions are still created by him. Why do we need to know this, what does this tell us?

Read Colossians 1:9-10 For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding;1:10 That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God;

Colossians 1:17-18 And he is before all things, and by him all things consist. 18 And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence.

Wrapped around Colossians 1:16 which defines and describes Christ as God, redeemer and Creator of all is a command. A command to be Holy, to walk worthy of the Lord: increasing in the knowledge of God: fruitful in good works. Not only does Paul tell us to “be this way,” he tells us why. Because God is Creator, because Christ is Creator, He is sovereign. We are ‘owned’ by him like we own property, like an author owns a story or an artist a piece of artwork. We are like the clay and he is the potter, and he has the right to tell the clay what to do!

Christ, the Creator of all, the rightful heir of all, the pre-eminent being over all has created all things. All things were created for him. Even you. You are his property and He will do with you what He wishes. Thank God He will choose perfectly wisely in that regard.