Christ and Common Sense

Thoughts from a Central Valley Pastor

Month: September 2021

Faithful Love, Sacrificial Love

September 24, 2021 /

The bible tells us that love should be defined by the agape love that God showed us when he sent Jesus Christ to earth to die on the cross for our sins (1 John 4:10). I often think of His supernatural love for us when I hear stories of people sacrificing for each other. That was the case when I read the story of Jean-Pierre and Bernadette Adams’ remarkable commitment to their marriage vows. 

When Jean-Pierre and Bernadette Adams were married in the late 1960s they had no idea how strongly their love for each other would be tested. The couple was living in southern France when Jean-Pierre suffered a knee injury at a soccer training event. He went to a hospital and was advised to get surgery to fix the injury to one of his tendons. During the surgery, a complication arose that put him in a coma that lasted thirty-nine years.

By the grace of God his body was able to survive for all those years, and it was also the grace of God that allowed his wife to care for him during that time. 

The first fifteen months of the coma were spent in the hospital. Bernadette made sure to watch over him there, even though she was also caring for their two young children. She was advised to place her husband in a nursing home, but she loved him so much that she said, “I don’t think they knew how to look after him, so I said to myself: ‘He will come home’ and I’ve looked after him ever since.”

They moved to their home and Bernadette began round-the-clock care for her husband. From the start of the day until Jean-Pierre fell asleep she would care for all his needs. Even after he was asleep, she would need to turn him in the middle of the night. In one interview she said, “Sometimes when the night goes badly, I’m up for the whole thing.” 

Jean-Pierre had played professional soccer for several teams in France, including the national team, with 22 appearances. When this tragic event occurred, many of those in the soccer community rallied to help him. They helped pay for his home to be customized with amenities that would make life easier for him. Through it all his wife was constantly there for him, ready to keep her marriage vows to him. 

There have been times when she has been asked about euthanasia. In one interview she responded this way, “It’s unthinkable! He cannot speak. And it’s not for me to decide for him. What do you want me to do—deprive him of food? Let him die little by little? No, no, no.” Her commitment to loving him continued until September 6 of this year, when Jean-Pierre passed away.

As I have reflected on this story I have been amazed by the picture of love that it represents. Bernadette’s love was sacrificial, selfless, faithful, kind, and compassionate. Her desire to care for him was grounded in the commitment she made when they were married fifty-two years ago. 

The picture of faithful love that is contained in marriage is so powerful because it comes from God. He is the one who gave the institution of marriage to humanity at the creation of the world. The idea that two people would sacrificially love each other for their entire married life is just a small glimpse of God’s love for us. Paul’s letter to the church in Ephesus gives us the ultimate definition of love in marriage. Paul wrote, “Husbands love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.” 1 John 4:10 says, “In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” 

The agape love that God has for the lost was perfectly illustrated when Jesus was willing to die on the cross for our sins. We are amazed at Bernadette’s sacrificial love for her husband, but that love is just a shadow of the love that Christ has for us. I am amazed by her story of faithful love because it reminds me of Christ’s love for us. May we never stop being amazed by how he proved his love for us on the cross. May we never take his love for granted, and may we be motivated to love others with the same love that he showed us. 

Interviews mentioned in the article were taken from the following sources: https://edition.cnn.com/2016/01/04/football/football-jean-pierre-adams-coma/index.html; https://gentlereformation.com/2021/09/18/for-better-for-worse/. 

The Bible and Global Warming

September 24, 2021 /

In 2006 Al Gore starred in a documentary called “An Inconvenient Truth.” In it he made the unsubstantiated claim that there is a strong scientific consensus that the earth is warming primarily because of human activity. His argument was that as more humans populate the earth, more carbon dioxide is created in the atmosphere, which results in higher temperatures around the world. The documentary used sensationalized images to create a sense of doom and gloom that gave people a justification for regulating human activity on the earth. Global warming activists have used this theory to curtail human innovation, placing the environment as a higher priority than the needs of people.

There are many scientific theories surrounding global warming, and scientists around the world are far from reaching a consensus on the issue. The Answers Research Journal published a paper in 2010 that proves this point. It is titled “A Proposed Bible-Science Perspective on Global Warming” and it reveals there are many scholars who disagree with Al Gore’s theory on global warming (https://answersresearchjournal.org/bible-science-global-warming/). The issues related to global warming are more complicated than is often presented in the media. Instead of reducing the issue to sensationalized images of polar bears floating on icebergs, the discerning reader needs to study the science behind many issues including glaciers, carbon dioxide, climate, and temperature. The Christian reader also needs to look to Scripture to make a determination about this issue. 

As a Christian, we are called to be discerning about issues that are presented to us (1 John 4:1). We are called to look to God’s word to understand how to live a godly life here on the earth (2 Tim. 3:16-17). Many Christians are unaware that there are passages in Scripture that address the theories presented by global warming. I will just focus on two main passages. 

The first issue that the Bible addresses is that, contrary to global warming activism, humans take priority over the environment. In Genesis chapter 1 God creates man and woman in his image and gives them this command, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” Humans are thus commanded by God to rule over the world that he created. The environment is not more important than human life. Instead, human life takes highest priority, and the rest of God’s creation comes second. 

The second issue the Bible addresses is the destruction of the earth. Global warming activists predict massive flooding and a dramatic disruption of the atmosphere. However, the Bible makes it clear that God already brought a global flood that destroyed the earth with water, as described in Genesis chapters 6-7. God destroyed the earth because of the unprecedented level of wickedness that existed on the planet. 

After destroying the earth, God reestablished human life through Noah and his family and made a promise to Noah that He would never again destroy the earth by water (Genesis 9:11-17). God gave the rainbow as a sign that “never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.” (Gen. 9:11). God further promised in Genesis 8:21-22, “I will never again curse the ground because of man, for the intention of man’s heart is evil from his youth. Neither will I ever again strike down every living creature as I have done. While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease.”

The last sentence is especially relevant to the theory of global warming. God’s word states that the earth’s atmosphere will continue to function according to God’s design until “the earth remains.” 2 Peter 3:10 says, “But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed.” This means that God has already established a time when the earth will be destroyed, not by water but by fire at the time of Christ’s return, and then the earth will be remade (Revelation 21:1). We need not fear the doomsday predictions of global warming activists because the Bible already tells us that God will determine the end of the earth, not human activity. Instead, we must listen to God’s word and ask ourselves, “Are we ready for Christ’s return?”

Four Restraints Against Evil

September 24, 2021 /

One of the best messages I heard this last year was an explanation of how God has given humanity four restraints against evil. The reason I thought it was so memorable was because of its biblical clarity and timeliness. It was a timely message because this last year has been filled with the most disruption to our society that I have ever experienced. The message brought clarity because it showed how the Bible explains what happens to a society when God’s societal restraints have been removed. 

Pastor John MacArthur has preached on these four restraints on several occasions. I was able to find a manuscript of his sermon from February 22, 2015. This article is a summary of that message. 

The first point of the message is that the greatest evil in the world is sin, which resides in the heart of every human being. God’s work makes it clear that all humans are born into sin (Rom. 3:23). Jesus said, “That which proceeds out of the man, that is what defiles the man.  For from within, out of the heart of man, proceed evil thoughts, acts of sexual immorality, thefts, wickedness, murders, adulteries, deeds of coveting, and wickedness, as well as deceit, debauchery, envy, slander, pride, and foolishness.  All these evils proceed from within and defile the man.” (Matthew 15:18-19 ESV) 

In order to protect against the wickedness of the human heart God has given each human a personal restraint called the conscience. The conscience allows every person to know right from wrong because God has written the law on the hearts of all people (Romans 2:15). Romans 1:18-23 explains how God is just for judging people for their thoughts and actions because each of them has a conscience that tells them there is a God and that there is right and wrong. 

Humans are able to twist their God-given conscience in two ways. They can create a new morality and convince themselves it is right. We can clearly see this with the issue of abortion. People are trying to convince themselves that the mother can choose one life over another. The other way to twist the conscience is by rejecting God’s law that defines right and wrong. This can be done by teaching people to ignore their conscience. This is why we hear our society proclaim that “Guilt is bad” when guilt for sin is actually the result of a keen conscience. 

If someone has a twisted conscience, then they have removed the restraint of their God-given conscience, and they feel free to commit all kinds of evil against themselves and others. 

The second restraint against the human propensity towards evil is the family. One of the reasons God gave marriage to humanity was so people would be born into families where the father and mother would invest countless hours into training up the children so they would have a keen conscience that would guide them the rest of their lives (Deuteronomy 6). MacArthur put it like this, “The family is the divinely-given institution for formation of restrained sinners, who by multigenerational morality and wisdom with instruction and discipline in love develop into good citizens who benefit others, enjoy God’s creation, and are thankful to Him.”

If a society begins to see the degeneration and failure of families, then that society will see the rise of wickedness in society because the restraint against evil has been weakened.

The third restraint is civil authority or government authority. God has ordained governments to have authority on the earth so that they will punish bad behavior and encourage good behavior (1 Peter 2:14). The main purpose of human institutions is to enforce moral behavior. The government as an entity is used by God to protect citizens from uncontrolled chaos and anarchy. 

There are many examples of countries descending into chaos when the government is removed. I worked in Albania several years after the country descended into anarchy in 1997. Many of the police and military in the country left their posts, and for a short time the country was governed by “self-rule.” The Bible records a similar time in the book of Judges when it says, “Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.” (Judges 21:25) 

The fourth restraint is a spiritual restraint. It is the restraint that true, biblical churches bring to the evil in society. These churches are a restraint against evil in society because they are filled with people who teach the truth. Pastors of these churches proclaim how people can be saved from their sin. These are the churches that the gates of hell can not overcome because through the gathering of believers and the preaching of God’s word, people are changed from sinners into saints (Romans 10:9-10). 

Pastor MacArthur’s message was a sobering one. Over the last century our country has been on a trajectory to remove these four restraints from society. If families are broken, then people will not be taught the natural restraints found in a nurturing home. If the government becomes corrupt, then morality will not be enforced. If the country is filled with false churches, then people will not be restrained spiritually from their sin, and the country will descend into chaos. 

Thankfully, God has made his promise to believers in Matthew 16:18 when Jesus said, “I will build my church.” We can have hope knowing that he is in control. As Romans 8:28 says, “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.” 

Standing Firm

September 3, 2021 /

Earlier this year I wrote an article arguing that the local church is essential. No matter what the government says, God’s word makes it clear that believers are called to continue gathering together for fellowship (Hebrews 10:24-25). The government can tell Christians to stop stepping over the entrance of the church, but if the government decides to draw that line in the sand then they are the ones who have over-stepped their God-given jurisdiction. Romans 13 makes it clear that God ordains governments to reward good behavior and to punish bad behavior. But we must not forget that God is the one who ultimately defines what is right or wrong, not the government. As Christians, we must never forget that gathering together to worship God is always good. 

The County of Los Angeles did not agree with that last statement and so in August of last year they sued Grace Community Church for refusing to enforce Covid-19 guidelines such as in-person meetings, wearing face coverings and physical-distancing requirements. The church immediately sued the state and county for restricting their constitutional rights for religious freedom. 

Many Christians were confused about who was in the right, the state or the local church? Now the issue has been clarified considerably. Just this week, the LA County Board of Supervisors recognized they could not force churches to follow the health departments guidelines. The

board voted to pay the church $800,000 for legal fees (half will be paid by the county and half by the state). In total, the county will end up paying $1,350,000 in legal fees for suing the church. The board released the following statement, “After the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that some public health safety measures could not apply to houses of worship, resolving this litigation is the responsible and appropriate thing to do.”

I would completely agree with that statement. The county learned an expensive lesson about over-stepping their jurisdiction. The first amendment clearly states, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” As Christians we are to respect and uphold our country’s laws, but if they ever go against the law of Christ, as revealed in Scripture, then the outcome is simple. We must always obey God’s law over human law or run the risk of sinning against our conscience. 

That issue of conscience also came into play with pastor James Coates and the Alberta Health Services (AHS) in Alberta, Canada. You may remember that he was put in jail because he could not agree with the stipulations of bail, which required him to stop leading his congregation. He knew, before God, that he had to stay in jail because he could not willingly agree to stop preaching the gospel. 

On April 7, 2021 the AHS requested local law enforcement to seize the property of GraceLife Church. When church members continued to occupy the building the AHS ordered triple fencing to be placed around the entire campus. This did not stop the church from meeting. Instead, they found secluded locations where they could meet without being disturbed by the government. 

On July 1, 2021 the church was able to move back onto their property because the AHS rescinded the restrictions that had previously been placed upon them. Pastor Coates sued the health department, but in June a judge dismissed the case stating that James Coates’ religious freedom rights had not been violated. Pastor Coates plans to appeal the decision. 

Covid-19 has forced Christians around the world to confront their fears. Do we fear God and his command to continue gathering together? Do we fear a virus? Do we fear the government? 

The leaders of Grace Community Church and GraceLife are to be applauded for standing firm in the face of opposition. Their conviction to gather as the local church will always be a cherished belief of true believers. Throughout history Christians have continued to meet in times or war and plague and states of emergency. The apostle Paul gave us the right perspective when he wrote, “For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.” (2 Corinthians 4:16-18) 

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