Imagine a fireman rushing off to fight a fire without his suit and helmet. Imagine a policeman going on duty without a bulletproof vest or a fighter pilot taking off without any weapons. You would call them back. You would tell them, “You forgot something! You can’t leave without being ready to defend yourself!”
We can all understand the need for these people to defend themselves, but how often do Christians forget the need to defend themselves against our enemy? How often do believers start the day without reading God’s word? How often do followers of Christ forget to put on the spiritual armor of God?
There are many reasons Christians live without adequate spiritual protection. Some don’t realize how strong the enemy is. Others think they can get by without being burned. Many Christians are living life so fast, they forget to suit up each and every day. In reality, the believer who doesn’t put on the armor of God is asking for trouble. He or she is heading off to battle without realizing how much they have left behind.
The book of Ephesians has a powerful chapter on spiritual warfare. It starts by calling the Christian to find their strength in the Lord and not themselves, “Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the might of His strength.” (Ephesians 6:10, Legacy Standard Bible) The next command is to put on the full armor of God, “So that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil.” The next verse gives a sobering explanation of the enemy. He is not limited to the physical realm, “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood.” The Christian’s battle is a spiritual one. It is against, “The rulers, against the authorities, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.”
The spiritual reality of the Christian’s battle is one of the reasons it is so difficult to fight. As humans we are used to looking for cause and effect in the physical world. We are not used to looking out for spiritual cause and effect. We have to learn to look for how the world and the system of the world is being used by the enemy as a spiritual battlefield. The devil wants to tempt Christians to sin in any way possible. He wants them to question their faith (Gen. 3:1). He wants them to give into physical and spiritual temptation (Mt. 4:1-11). He wants them to forget that they are being tempted (2 Cor. 11:14).
Once a Christian realizes how dangerous the enemy is, he or she will be motivated to put on the armor of God. Ephesians 6:13 says, “Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm.” (LSB) The idea of standing firm is taken from the Roman military. Before I explain the pieces of armor, it is important to remember that the soldier was never supposed to go into battle alone. Imagine a regiment of soldiers standing next to each other in a rectangular pattern, with shields guarding them on all sides. The Christian is not to think of themselves as a lone soldier, taking on the enemy themselves. No, that would be foolish because the enemy is so large. The wise Christian recognizes their own weakness and stands firm with other believers.
The wise Christian knows their armor and they know how to use it. Ephesians 6:14 starts the list of defensive armor with the belt of truth. This is a core piece of armor that is based upon the truth of God. The believer does not look to the world for truth, he or she looks to God and His word. The next piece of armor is the breastplate of righteousness. This is a reference to the actions of the believer. He or she can defend themselves against temptation by living a holy life. They should not place themselves in compromising situations, that would be going into battle without the breastplate. There are many Christians who think they can handle more than others. In reality, they have already started losing the battle because they have let their guard down. It is only a matter of time until they will be spiritually wounded.
One reason we know this armor is supposed to be defensive is because of the next item in the list. Ephesians 6:15 says, “as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace.” (ESV) The idea here is of the boots used by Roman soldiers. These shoes often had nails at the bottom to help the solider stand their ground. The spiritual meaning refers to the saving message of the gospel. A believer can not hope to resist the enemy if he has not committed his life to Christ. Once he has done so, the Christian will find immense strength knowing that his sins have been paid for. If the devil tries to make him doubt God, the Christian can be strengthened by trusting in the saving work of Christ!
There are three other important parts of the armor of God, but they will have to wait until the next part of this series of articles. I trust that this short analysis of the armor of God will help believers be encouraged to get dressed for battle every day. Christians need to recognize that reading God’s word, prayer, and fellowship with other believers are all a necessary part of being prepared for each day. It would be foolish for a soldier to leave the barracks without armor. It would be even more foolish for a Christian to leave his home without being armed for spiritual battle.
The apostle Paul gave a prediction that has proved true over and over again. He said, “The time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.” (2 Timothy 4:3-4)
We are living in such a time. The world is full of false teachers who try to infiltrate churches. Many are successful and those who don’t disrupt churches internally, often start new churches that allow them to invent new ways to mislead people.
The need for discernment is great because now politicians are cutting in on the false teaching.
They are seeking to use God’s holy word to convince people to support their causes. It doesn’t matter if the causes are abhorrent and completely opposed to the teaching of Scripture. If they can find a verse and pull it out of context, then their hope is there will be some people who will be fooled by the veneer of spirituality and vote to support their “religious” cause.
One verse that has been ripped from it’s original context is Luke 12:48. This passage takes place at the Sermon on the Mount, when Jesus was talking to the crowds about the Kingdom of Heaven, not about the need to raise taxes. But that doesn’t stop some politicians from quoting the following words to justify the need for a tax increase, “Everyone to whom much was given, of him much will be required.” The original context is not referring to sacrificing for the local government. It is referring to sacrificing spiritually for God!
At the root of this problem, there seems to be the belief that governments can replace God’s influence in the world. While living in Albania I learned that one of the strategies of Enver Hoxha’s brutal regime was to replace the Ten Commandments of the Bible with the 10 Commandments of Communism. I talked to a pastor who remembered going to a room in a government building where he had to agree with the newly invented moral code. This type of false teaching is easy to discern for those who know Scripture, but for the generations that grew up in the atheistic society, they would have had nothing to compare it to.
Our society is becoming less moral and people are not only becoming less literate, but more importantly, they are becoming less Biblically literate. Once this happens their ability to discern between truth and error is considerably weakened. I believe this is one reason why we are seeing more politicians trying to use Scripture because they know less people understand it is being used out of context.
An example of this was when Nancy Pelosi tried to use Matthew 25:35 to support a massive $40 billion aid bill that included billions of dollars in weapons and security costs. She said, “So when you are home thinking, ‘What is what this is all about?’ – just think about ‘when I was hungry, you fed me’ in the Gospel of Matthew.” If people had actually stopped to find the quote and read what Jesus said, they would realize what a twisted use of Scripture that was.
More recently, the governor has decided to venture into the detestable practice of misusing Scripture for political gain. One of the political ads for his 2022 campaign for governor tries to use Mark 12:31 to support his view on abortion, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no greater commandment than these.”
The ad doesn’t even include the first commandment which states, “‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”
It is clear from the context that love is not defined by men or women in the passage. It is defined by God! How is someone supposed to love God? With all their heart and with all their soul and with all their mind and with all their strength. If someone is not doing the first part of the command, they will not be able to do the second, which is about loving others.
The context of the campaign ad is completely opposed to the message of Scripture because it implies that someone can love others by supporting abortion. Excuse me? How is it possible to
take a quote from a book that teaches that life begins at conception and use it to support abortion? Just read Psalm 139:13-16 the next time there is any confusion about the abortion debate, “For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.”
To the discerning Christian, using any Scripture to support abortion immediately signals the existence of false teaching. Not only that, it signals the need to pray for those who are misusing Scripture. In Matthew 18:5-6 Jesus gave a stern warning to those who would seek to mislead the children of God. It says, “Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea.” Jesus’ harshest words were saved for those who knew the teaching of Scripture and yet chose to use it for personal gain. My prayer is that all who read this will recognize that we have been warned and if we must be honest with ourselves. If we have sinned, may we seek repentance and forgiveness. God is able to forgive. 1 John 1:9-10 says, “If we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
We just got back from a trip to Kentucky, where we saw the Answers in Genesis (AiG) Ark Encounter and Creation Museum. Visiting both museums has been on our wish list ever since we heard about them back in 2016. At the time we had just returned to the states from living in Europe for several years. We knew things had changed since we had been gone, but we had no idea someone had built a 510 foot ark in the middle of a forest in northern Kentucky. We weren’t sure how or when we would be able to go, but we knew it was something we needed to put on our bucket list.
Last year we learned that our family would be having a wedding and a family reunion in Missouri. Some people might have just flown in to St. Louis and returned home, but we decided we needed to tack on several days to our trip so we could make the trek out to both museums. Now that we are back, I am still trying to process all we saw and heard and I hope that this article will help give you a sense of what it was like visiting both places.
Answers In Genesis
Answers in Genesis is a unique organization because they are young earth creationists who believe the world was created in six twenty-four days. Their literal interpretation of Scripture emphasizes the first eleven chapters of Genesis as being foundational to understanding the entire bible. This is one reason why the organization has invested so much time and resources into creating two state-of-the-art educational venues for people from all over the world to visit.
The leader of the organization is Ken Ham. He is a former high school teacher from Australia who moved to the U.S. in 1978. His charismatic leadership is driven by a desire to show that a literal interpretation of the Bible can counter the secular teaching found in so many schools throughout the world today. He has written numerous books on a wide variety of topics that support a Biblical worldview. His passion for God and Scripture is a driving force behind everything that AiG produces.
When Ham moved to America, he originally worked with an organization called Institute for Creation Research (ICR), which was based out of San Diego. He became well known for his lecture series called “Back to Genesis” that focused on three major themes: evolutionary theory leads to cultural decay, the first eleven chapters of Genesis are foundational for a Christian worldview, and that Christians need to confront atheism and humanism in society. In 1994, he left ICR and started Creation Ministries International, which later became AiG.
The organization moved its headquarters to Florence, Kentucky and in 2005 Ham explained the move by saying, “One of the main reasons [AiG] moved [to Florence] was because we are within one hour’s flight of 69 percent of America’s population.” Paul Sheehan, “Onward the new Christian soldier“, The Sydney Morning Herald, Sydney, Australia, 17 January 2005. In 2007, AiG opened the Creation Museum, a 75,000 square foot museum, which includes an exhibit on the Flood, which was the brainchild of what would become the Ark Encounter. The Creation Museum cost $27 million to build, which was raised by private donations. The museum includes an impressive planetarium, animal exhibits, and a beautiful garden all around the campus.
After the success of the Creation Museum, AiG put the wheels in motion to develop what would become their main attraction, the Ark Encounter. In 2010, the organization chose an 800 parcel of land just outside Williamstown, which is about forty-five minutes south of the Creation Museum. In November, 2010 the governor of Kentucky, Steve Beshear, announced the attraction by saying, “We are excited to join with the Ark Encounter group as it seeks to provide this unique, family-friendly tourist attraction to the Commonwealth.” https://web.archive.org/web/20160918075624/http://www.wistv.com/story/13589609/religious-themed-amusement?clienttype=printable
The park was originally estimated to cost $150 million to create with the goal of generating 1.6 million visitors each year. The 800 acre parcel of land was purchased in 2014 and construction began in 2015. It took eighteen months to finish. The ark is said to be the largest timber-framed structure in the world, with over 3.1 million board feet of wood used in its construction. The final cost to build it came to $120 million, which was raised by private donors and the sale of bonds.
As might be expected, the development of a creationist theme park did not happen without controversy. The city council of Williamstown originally agreed to give the Ark Encounter considerable financial incentives, including tax breaks and a reduced price on 100 acres of land. They did so with the understanding that the theme park would bring in over a million visitors a year starting when the park opened in 2016. The ticket sales have not generated that amount of traffic yet, but Ken Ham has maintained the ticket sales are lower than the actual amount because children under 10 are free and annual passes are not counted in the daily ticket calculation. When I was there, I was told the average amount of people this summer has been 4,000 visitors on a week day and 14,000 for the weekend. Only time will tell whether the projected numbers will come to fruition, but from my perspective there were clear examples of local businesses being impacted. Our family tried to go to a nearby Cracker Barrel for dinner and we decided it wasn’t worth an hour wait for all the other Ark Encounter visitors to finish eating.
The Ark Encounter
Answers in Genesis chose a fitting name for the Ark Encounter. As soon as we drove into the parking lot, I realized we were in for an epic experience where we would be introduced to a story of Biblical proportions.
The parking lot is about a mile drive from the entrance of the park, but you can already make out the ark from that distance. Once you buy your tickets, the hosts usher you into air-conditioned buses that drive you through a lush valley up to the welcome center. The first thing that struck me about the park was the large rainbow gate at the entrance. I knew our family would have to take a picture there because it was such a powerful reminder of God’s covenant with humanity that he would never flood the earth again. In Genesis 9:15-17 God told Noah, “I will remember my covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh. And the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. When the bow is in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.” God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant that I have established between me and all flesh that is on the earth.”
After taking a picture at the rainbow gate we made our way to what has become the most popular photo shoot at the ark. As I got ready for our picture in front of the reflecting pool I was impressed at the scale of the Ark Encounter. It is hard to describe the magnitude of what you see there. You can’t help imagining what Noah must have thought when he had finished his life’s work. Imagine all the time and effort, the resources and organization needed to construct such a behemoth? Imagine what it would be like to prepare a ship that would saved human and animal life on the earth? Similar thoughts and questions were racing through my mind as we finished taking our group photo and started walking towards the entrance of the ship.
The ship has three levels that function as a progressively immersive educational experience about the Flood. It starts with an introduction to the different kinds of animals that were brought into the ark. This is a fascinating exhibit because it explains that ark didn’t have to contain every type of animal, but only the animal kind, which would be either the Order or Family of animals on the animal classification chart. For example, Noah only needed to have two of the prototypical dog on the ark, because that pair of animals contained the genes from which every type of wolf and dog on the earth today most likely came from.
Halfway through the animal kind exhibit you come to the bow of the ship. It is impressive to see the massive wooden beams that would have kept the ship safe during the worldwide storm that raged on the earth for forty days and forty nights. The museum emphasizes the Biblical account of steaming hot water coming from under the ground during the flood. This wasn’t a gradual deluge of tropical rain. The Flood was a cataclysmic event that changed the entire face of the earth and the makeup of the oceans and the atmosphere. The ark would have had to be a remarkably durable vehicle to survive such terrifying elements.
At the end of the first floor exhibit is a section that gives an explanation to how Noah and his family could have cared for the animals on the ark. The exhibit features a disclaimer that explains the need for creative license in recreating how the animals might have looked and been organized. The Bible doesn’t give details about how the animals lived on the ark, but it makes it clear that God brought them to Noah. Genesis 7:7 says, “And Noah and his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives with him went into the ark to escape the waters of the flood. Of clean animals, and of animals that are not clean, and of birds, and of everything that creeps on the ground, two and two, male and female, went into the ark with Noah, as God had commanded Noah.”
The second deck is titled Technology on the Ark and features a helpful exhibit on what the world was like before the Flood. I found this helpful because it is shocking to consider the world became so wicked that God actually had to destroy it. The Ark Encounter gives some sobering depictions of a world where men and women were constantly motived by evil thoughts and actions. Genesis 6 says this, “And the LORD regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. So the LORD said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them.” But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD.”
At the bow of the second deck is an exhibit simply called the Door. It is a massive double doorway that stretches to the top of the ceiling. At the top of the door is a lighted impression of a cross, which is a fitting illustration of Jesus Christ who said, “I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture.” (John 10:9 ESV) The Biblical account of the flood states that God shut the door to the ark. It was his idea to save humanity and it was his initiative that shut Noah and his family in safely from the flood.
The next exhibit is called the Fairy Tale Ark. This was surprisingly effective because it showed how often children are shown a version of the ark that is not tenable in the real world. The cute images of animals on the deck of a dingy-boat sized ark are not helpful because they encourage people to think of the Biblical account as child-like dream. The reality is much different. This was especially true when we arrived at the third deck and saw an exhibit that shows all the flood legends from around the world. Instead of dismissing the flood as an American fairytale it is important to realize that hundreds of cultures from around the world all have stories that collaborate many of the same facts about a global flood that destroyed the world, while saving humanity and a remnant of animals in a ship.
The rest of the second floor shows different ways that Noah’s family could have maintained the Ark and card for thousands of animals during the Flood. I especially liked the ingenious methods depicted to show how they could have fed and watered animals of all different shapes and sizes.
The third deck is called “After the Flood” and gives a beautiful depiction of what the living quarters could have looked like for Noah and his family. I appreciated how AiG spared no expense on the lifelike craftsmanship and realistic depictions of Noah and his family. The second and third deck also had two updated theaters that showed movies that explained different aspects of the flood and the ark’s construction. My favorite part of the last exhibit was the explanation on Flood Geology and the Ice Age. I have never bought into the evolutionary explanation of the world being shaped by billions of years of erosion. The Ark Encounter gives an impressive case for a young earth dating of the earth. Many people will find this to be the most paradigm shifting part of the museum and I would highly recommend planning to spend extra time in this section.
The last two exhibits are from the Museum of the Bible and Why the Bible is True. These were both helpful, but not as impactful as the other exhibits. There were so many people at the ark, we actually had to take a break and come back to finish the final exhibits. This proved to be a good choice because we didn’t realize how much we needed a break from all the walking. We went outside and had our lunches at one of the picnic tables that are all over the park. We could have gone to the all-you-can-eat buffet, but since we had already brought pack lunches we decided not to do that.
After finishing the ark’s three decks we went to the 1,000 person theater and listen to Ken Ham speak. He gave a powerful message about the need to teach about creation. Afterwards, we spent time visiting the Ararat zoo and the gift store. There is actually more than one place to buy merchandise and we couldn’t help purchasing a good selection of gifts and souvenirs while we were there. I didn’t realize the Creation Museum would have a completely different selection of gifts, which was a pleasant surprise when we went there the next day.
Some years ago, I was part of a team that visited Russian pastors in the Ural Mountains, near Kazakhstan. We stopped for lunch at one pastor’s home near Ufa, Bashkotorstan. The meal was flavorful, the conversation was stimulating, and the dessert was delicious. I cannot remember what was served for the main course, but oh, the delightful dessert was unforgettable. This pastor was also a beekeeper. So, he served honeycomb and bread. The bowl of dripping honeycomb was passed around the table. We placed that sticky goodness on our plates alongside pieces of bread. This was a first time experience for me. I was unsure how to extract the honey from this waxy substance. However, I observed our host eating the honey and figured out the process. Our table manners went out the window. The proper way to eat it was with your fingers. The discarded honeycomb was piled on your plate, and bread was used to mop up the honey.
That memorable experience floods my mind every time I read biblical metaphors about eating or tasting food. “How sweet are Your words to my taste! Yes, sweeter than honey to my mouth! From Your precepts I get understanding; Therefore, I hate every false way. Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.” (Psalm 119:103–105, All Scripture quotations are from NASB95) The Psalmist compared meditating on the Bible to eating honey. Biblical contemplation enlightens our soul’s understanding of personal sin like honey benefits our physical body through its nourishment.
King David described all aspects of God’s Word in this way, “The law of the Lord is perfect, restoring the soul; The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever; The judgments of the Lord are true; they are righteous altogether. They are more desirable than gold, yes, than much fine gold; Sweeter also than honey and the drippings of the honeycomb. Moreover, by them Your servant is warned; In keeping them there is great reward.” (Psalm 19:7–11) David compared the Scriptures to honey and the drippings of the honeycomb.
Moreover, his son Solomon expanded upon this theme. “My son, eat honey, for it is good, Yes, the honey from the comb is sweet to your taste; Know that wisdom is thus for your soul; If you find it, then there will be a future, and your hope will not be cut off.” (Proverbs 24:13–14) “The word ‘honey’ can also refer to a thick syrup made from grapes and dates. In Arabic, the word used for this kind of fruit syrup is the same as the Hebrew word for honey from bees. As a symbol, honey stands for abundance (Ex. 3:8; 13:5; 33:3), the believer’s delight in God’s Word (Ps. 19:10; 119:103), and the rightness of God’s Word to His people (Ezek. 3:3).” (Nelson’s New Illustrated Bible Dictionary)
Then the unnamed Psalmist described one result from spending time with the sweetness of God’s Word. “How can a young man keep his way pure? By keeping it according to Your word. . . Your word I have treasured in my heart, That I may not sin against You.” (Psalm 119:9, 11) Internalizing God’s Word gives us guidance, wisdom, and keeps us from sinning. Our interaction with the Scriptures strengthens our relationship with our Creator.
Vance Havner, that popular Southern preacher from the twentieth century, once told the following story. “A little boy who had been begging his father for favors all day came once more into his daddy’s office. ‘What do you want this time?’ asked the weary parent. ‘I don’t want anything,’ was the astonishing reply. ‘I just want to be with you.’ If our Heavenly Father could be surprised He certainly would be, I am sure, if for once we prayed for no specific needs in particular but only sought His Presence and fellowship.”
I am sure Dr. Havner believed in God’s omniscience. For our LORD knows all and is not shocked by anything. However, a human father might be astonished to hear his child desired to spend time with him. What a thrilling experience!
So, the Bible encourages believers to know the LORD better. “O taste and see that the Lord is good; How blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him!” (Psalm 34:8) God has asked us to discover how wonderful and desirable the LORD really is. Our Heavenly Father will bestow favor upon all who trust and take refuge in Him. The Scottish Reformer, John Knox (1513-72), has said, “Let no day slip over without some comfort received from the mouth of God.”
So, I challenge you to spend time with the LORD this week by meditating upon His Word like the drippings of the honeycomb. Make it your priority to spend quality time in His presence, and you will be blessed beyond measure.
Pastor Bud Haskell serves at Grace Bible Church of Hanford. You can hear more teaching at www.gbchanford.org.
Racism has no place in the Church or in society. The Bible tells us God hates it and so should we. If more people understood this I believe our society would be able to find a way to recover from our troubled past. The solution can only be found in the Good News of Jesus Christ because it humbles everyone equally. If the Church does not clearly communicate the solution to racism then society will create its own solutions, which will be defined by humans, instead of being defined by God.
The modern definition of racism addresses the issue differently than the Bible. The Oxford dictionary explains it as, “The belief that different races possess distinct characteristics, abilities, or qualities, especially so as to distinguish them as inferior or superior to one another.” Instead of viewing a person in relation to how God values them, a racist person views others according to his or her own value system. The Bible defines this as the sin of pride. Racism can arise out of pride because someone views themselves as superior to another group. Most would agree that this is wrong. Yet there is another aspect of racism that the Bible would also define as sin. Racism can also lead to a sinful response because people who experience racism against themselves are often unable to stop being vengefully angry at the other group. The Bible defines both pride and anger as sins that need to be dealt with.
God’s word does not mention racism, but it clearly leaves no room for any professing Christian to foster hatred towards another human being, whether from pride or anger. Jesus Christ cut to the heart of the issue in the Sermon on the Mount, “You have heard it said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.’ But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment, whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire.” (Matthew 5:21-22 ESV)
God’s solution for dealing with racism is the same as it is for every sin. Each person must confess their sin and see it the same way God does. They must repent of it and call out to God to forgive them. They must trust that the only way for their sin to be forgiven is by Jesus Christ dying on the cross and rising from the dead. They must commit to living a life of love by the power of the Holy Spirit for the glory of God the Father!
One of the most difficult aspects of dealing with racism in any society is that it arises from the human tendency to judge others by how they look. One of the reasons Adam and Eve were tempted to eat the forbidden fruit was because they judged it to be “pleasing to the eyes.” Racism does the opposite. It judges someone as “not pleasing to the eyes.” This is often done for something as superficial as the color of their skin.
In order for Christians to deal with racism we have to train ourselves to see others the way God does. God sees past someone’s physical form to the heart of the person. 1 Samuel 16:7 says, “For the LORD sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart.” We have to constantly remind ourselves that human life has value because every person is made in the image of God (Genesis 1:27). Each person has a body, mind, and soul, which makes it possible for them to reflect God’s sense of morality, justice, creativity, and beauty. This is true even though we live in a fallen world (Genesis 9:6). All human life has value regardless of how someone chooses to live.
The Bible gives a wonderful solution for overcoming the poison of racism. It is agape love. Agape love is the supernatural love of God that was shown to humanity in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. This kind of love is the antidote for racism because it replaces pride and anger with selfless, unconditional love. A Christian can not see himself as superior to others when he is humbled by the gospel. A Christian can not remain angry at others when he realizes that his anger is one reason why Christ died on the cross. A Christian can not be racist if he has 1 Corinthians 13 coursing through his veins, ““Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.”
The truth about racism is that God’s love and God’s love alone is powerful enough to overcome it. God’s love and God’s love alone can bring healing to those who have suffered from it. And it is God’s love and God’s love alone that can bring the proud person to a place of humility and repentance.
Our Sunday morning Equipping Class just finished watching a fascinating documentary called Is Genesis History? I believe it is the best documentary on the subject because of its high production quality and its unique content. Everyone who watched it was encouraged to see scientific evidence that supports the Bible’s account of a literal six-day creation and a global flood. It made me think, “If this got out it could have a dramatic impact on how Christians think about the age of the earth.”
Many of us were surprised at the evidence in the documentary. We weren’t surprised because we thought it was difficult to believe. We were surprised because it is so rare to see professional scientists support the idea that the world is thousands of years old instead of millions or billions of years old.
I did a little bit of research on why we don’t see more young earth evidence from the scientific community. I came across the story of Mary Schweitzer. In 2005, she discovered living tissue inside of dinosaur bones that were supposed to be at least 150 million years old. She told Live Science magazine, ”The problem is, for 300 years, we thought, ‘Well, the organics are all gone, so why should we look for something that’s not going to be there?’ and nobody looks.” https://www.livescience.com/41537-t-rex-soft-tissue.html One reason professional paleontologists may not have been reporting on evidence for a young earth is because their presuppositions limited their research. After Mary Schweitzer discovered living tissue in dinosaur bones people began looking at them differently.
I also came across the story of a biologist who was recently fired because he allegedly shared research with his students. Mark Armitage claims he was fired from California State University Northridge because he shared information about dinosaur tissue samples with his students. In 2016 he was awarded $399,500 in a settlement with the university after suing them for wrongful termination. “Terminating an employee because of their religious views is completely inappropriate and illegal,” said Attorney Brad Dacus of Pacific Justice Institute. “But doing so in an attempt to silence scientific speech at a public university is even more alarming. This should be a wakeup call and warning to the entire world of academia.” https://www.ancient-origins.net/news-evolution-human-origins/scientist-dismissed-after-soft-tissue-found-dinosaur-fossil-001906 Even after winning the settlement Armitage reported the discrimination didn’t stop. He discovered additional tissue in fossils on two digs, but was not able to find a journal to publish his findings. He said, “I’m clearly being blackballed.” https://world.wng.org/content/after_settlement_academia_still_opposes_creationist/
Unfortunately, it is also becoming rare for Christians to hear biblical teaching that supports a six-day creation perspective in churches and Christian schools. We need to see this trend change. We need Christians to realize this is not just an issue of what theory someone holds for Genesis 1. We need to realize all of Scripture supports a young earth view.
We usually think of only the Old Testament referring to creation, but Jesus Christ taught about creation as well. In Mark 10:6 he said, “But from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female.” He was referring to the human race being present on the fifth day of creation. There was no room for millions of years to slip into the timeline. He did not need scientific discoveries to explain the age of the earth because he had a clear understanding of Holy Scripture.
He also wrote about believing in the Old Testament. He said, “For if you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote of me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words?” Moses wrote about the creation account outside of Genesis as well. He said, “For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.” I believe the most natural way to understand “day” in Exodus 20 and Genesis 1 and 2 is as a 24-hour day. This fits the genre of historical narrative in the most natural way.
Let me end with this dramatic quote from pastor G. I. Williamson. He said, “I do not believe that there is, or ever will be, any scientific discovery that will be able to discredit what God has spoken. Yes, scientific theories do appear to discredit that creation account. But be patient. In time it will be seen that those humble Bible believers were right all along: it was a six-day creation.”
I have heard many people say they are praying for the president. Usually this refers to a general prayer for his health and wisdom in leading the country. Those are good things to pray for. As Christians we are commanded to pray for our leaders. We are told to pray for them so that we “can live quiet and peaceful lives, godly and dignified in every way.” (1 Tim. 2:1-3) If our leaders are ruling well, there will be peace and prosperity in the land that goes beyond the physical well-being of a country to the spiritual health of its citizens as well. Unfortunately, most of our country’s leaders have rejected the guidance of Scripture and so it should be no surprise that our land is far from the peace and quiet that is possible to those who submit their lives to God.
As Christians we need to pray for our leaders in the specific ways that Scripture encourages us to. We are not just praying for the physical health and general wisdom of the president, we are praying for him on a spiritual level as well because we know that is where prayer is most needed. In keeping with that theme I have put together a list of ways to pray for political leaders from a Biblical perspective.
Repentance: This may come as a shock to some, but we need to pray for the president to repent of his sin. Father Robert Morey of Saint Anthony Catholic Church in Florence South Carolina would agree with me on this particular point because he is the one who withheld communion from the president last year. He said, “any public figure who advocates for abortion places himself or herself outside of Church teaching.”
Salvation: Repentance and conversion go hand in hand so we should also pray that the president would confess his sin and submit his life to Jesus Christ. This is appropriate to pray for all our leaders because we know that God does not want any to perish, “but that all should reach repentance.” (2 Peter 3:9)
Justice: Our country is confused about justice today because people are allowing it to be defined by humans instead of by God. We need to join King Solomon’s powerful refrain in Psalm 7, “Give the king your justice, O God, and your righteousness to the royal son! May he judge your people with righteousness, and your poor with justice.”
Expose Corruption: The 2020 election had more allegations of voter fraud than any other election in recent history. As Christians we need to pray against all forms of political corruption. Ephesians 5:11 says, “Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them.” We need to pray that the president will call for an end to election fraud and all other forms of political corruption.
Expose Hypocrisy: The president used his inaugural address to call the nation to unity. He then went to the White House and signed a divisive executive order on sexual orientation. We need to pray that he would recognize the hypocrisy of these actions and make decisions that reflect his call for unity. The Bible gives a vivid description of hypocrisy as “whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people’s bones and uncleanness.” (Mt. 23:27)
Family: We need to pray for him as he leads his wife and influences his grown children and grandchildren. Ephesians 5:25 says, “Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.” That is a high calling for Christians husbands and one that helps us know how to pray for all husbands. We also need to pray for the first lady because she is under an immense amount of pressure with the responsibilities that come with serving as a leader of the nation.
Humans are naturally drawn to technology because it fights against our natural limitations. We are finite creatures who can only be in one place at one time primarily doing one thing. We invent things to try to change that. Our desire to change things is not inherently wrong, but it can lead to a negative outcome if it goes against the way God designed us to live.
This is important to consider in our modern world because it has become so marked by technology. We need to make sure to ask the right questions. Does the benefit of adopting a given technology outweigh the disadvantages? As Christians, we will answer this question very differently than the world because we are living for eternity with God, while the world is not.
A worldly definition of technology is “the application of scientific knowledge for practical purposes.” A materialistic worldview struggles to say no to technological advancement because it believes there are no supernatural consequences for saying yes. Christians see the world very differently. We believe people are made in the image of God. We believe they are made up of body, mind, and soul. We should not consider technology with a pragmatic approach. We need to think about it biblically, with a supernatural worldview in place.
In Matthew 16:26 Jesus Christ wrote, “What will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his soul?” This is a helpful question to ask in relation to modern technology because it forces us think of the natural world in relation to the supernatural. Technology often tries to let humans break out of their limitations. Go faster, communicate with more people, have influence in more places at the same time. As Christians we need to remember we are just one soul. Our purpose is to glorify God and make disciples of God one soul at a time. This is difficult to keep in mind because the materialistic goals of technology often seep into our minds and into the church. We have to be careful. We have to ask questions about modern technology that can be difficult to ask.
How is your smart phone impacting your soul? How does watching Netflix impact your relationship with God? How does your 8K resolution TV help you serve in the local church? How does using Amazon Prime impact your ability to share the gospel with people at the store? Jesus’ question in Matthew 16 is difficult to ask because it makes us think about our soul. It makes us think about eternity, which is something technology so often distracts us from.
The soul will never find true contentment until it finds peace with God. He is the creator of every soul. He knows that humans do not need technology to find lasting peace. In fact his word says, “You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you.” (Isaiah 26:3). How can someone trust in God? They must recognize that they have sin in their life, which separates them from God. They must believe that God sent his son Jesus Christ to die on the cross and rise from the dead to pay for their sin. They must submit their life to the Lordship of Christ. Then they will have peace because they will know that after death comes eternal life with their Savior.
One of the wonderful aspects of eternity is that there will be no need for modern technology. We won’t need to put sermons on Youtube because the bride of Christ will be with the groom. We won’t need to use Zoom to protect ourselves from a virus because there will be no sickness, no pain, and no tears. We won’t need to use FaceTime with loved ones because we will be in the presence of Love himself! Let’s keep eternity in mind so we will know how to find peace for our souls during these turbulent times.
If I had to choose one silver lining to the Coronavirus cloud it would be this, God is using the crisis to raise up men in the local church. In the last three months we have seen an unusual surge of men who want to get their lives right with God. They have come to our church and they have found out they need to repent of their sin, trust in Christ as their Lord, and dive in to life in the local church. We have also seen men who were already in the church step up to lead and become more involved in the church family. This has been a great encouragement to us and I hope it will be an encouragement to those reading as well. God is on the move!
This desire for men to rise up during the crisis is not just limited to our church. I was able to see it first hand when I went to a meeting this week for the Central Valley extension of The Master’s Seminary. What a joy to see dozens of men come from all over the valley to learn about how to be trained to preach God’s word! For two glorious hours my mind was turned from political turmoil and pandemic fear-mongering to the spiritual reality that God is at work in the hearts of men.
The more I heard from the students and pastors the more excited I became. These men understand what the apostle Paul wrote to Timothy, “Preach the word, be ready in season and out of season” (2 Tim. 4:2). They recognize the need for men to preach and to entrust God’s word to faithful men “who will be able to teach others also.” (2 Tim. 2:2) Paul did not include a qualifying statement that said, “Take a break during a pandemic.” No! The Great Commission’s command to make disciples should not be hindered by what is being reported in the news. If anything, Christians should be even more motivated to share the gospel because people are desperate to know where they can find peace during this time of crisis.
The men at the pastor’s meeting represented over a dozen churches. I was struck by the impact they could have if God used them to stir up the saints in their own church communities. So much of our society is entrapped in a spirit of fear. Imagine if these men beat back the fear by standing for the truth? We need men who will understand what Paul meant when he told Timothy, “Fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands, for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.” The men in our churches are all gifted differently, but all of them need to be reminded that God wants them to stand up and lead. We are not to live in fear. We are not to think of this year as a time of spiritual retreat and isolation. This is a time to spread God’s word. This is a time to make disciples. This is a time to pray for revival, and I know this is a time to pray for our men because God brings true revival through the leadership of men.
E. M. Bounds understood the importance of men in the local church. He wrote, “What the Church needs today is not more machinery or better, not new organizations or more and novel methods, but men whom the Holy Ghost can use, men of prayer, men mighty in prayer. The Holy Ghost does not flow through methods, but through men. He does not come on machinery, but on men. He does not anoint plans, but men, men of prayer.” I hope you will join me in praying for God to raise up men in our churches who will stand firm in the gospel.
Every Christmas I have to work extra hard to remind our kids of the reason for the season. The more gifts they receive the more I have to slow down and make sure they understand the reason our family celebrates the holiday. I have to remind them that we are celebrating for a very different reason than the one you see in the stores and on TV. The Christmas we celebrate is tied to Easter. We celebrate the birth of Christ because he went on to die on the cross and rise from the dead!
This is why Christians celebrate differently than the world. Our celebration is not a stand alone event. It is tied to the life of Christ. It is connected to the work that he accomplished on the cross. Christmas has to be celebrated in light of the resurrection because if Jesus never rose from the dead we would have no reason to celebrate his birth. If he didn’t rise from the dead then the main goal of his life would have failed. We would not celebrate Christmas. Instead we would have never heard about him because there would not have been a message worth passing on to the next generation.
I was thinking about this because our church just put on a Christmas musical called “The Mystery of the Manger.” It follows the story of an investigative journalist who is writing a story about what actually happened at Christmas. At the beginning, he is skeptical and considers it to be a bunch of fairy tales, but by the end he has become convinced by historical evidence and he joins the rest of the cast in celebrating his very first Christmas.
It’s a fictional story, but I discovered that it is actually based on events that happened in a former atheist’s life. His name is Lee Strobel. He was working as the legal editor for the Chicago Tribune in the 1980’s. His wife became a Christian and he decided he would research the Bible’s claims so that he could prove that they were false. After two years of interviewing experts in the fields of archeology, history, and theology he realized he had to make a decision. He went into his room and began writing down all the evidence he had compiled. He kept writing and writing until he realized the evidence pointed towards the life of Christ, not as an easily dismissed fairy-tale, but an undeniable historical fact. He read John 1:12, “But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.” He repented of his sin and gave his life to Christ.
Lee Strobel’s main questions were not about the birth of Christ. He spent most of his time researching the death and resurrection. He discovered four lives of evidence that even skeptics agreed with. The first was the integrity of Christ’s execution. There would be no point to talk about his resurrection if there was doubt that he really died. The second was how early the evidence was recorded for the resurrection. Alexander the Great’s biographies are considered historically accurate, but they weren’t written until four hundred years after his death. The accounts of Jesus life and death were written within decades by people who were eye witnesses! Strobel was also impressed with the historical evidence for an empty tomb. Strobel studied law and he knew that one of the strongest arguments is found in something called “Enemy Attestation.” This corroborates the empty tomb because Jesus’ enemies implicitly admitted that the tomb was empty when they said, “The disciples stole the body.” They were not denying the empty tomb. They were actually admitting it was empty by giving a different story for why it happened. The last line of evidence that led Strobel to believe in the Bible as history is when he discovered how strong the eye witness accounts of the resurrection were. The bible records that there were 515 eye witnesses of Jesus after the resurrection (1 Corinthians 15).
Strobel took his findings to skeptics and asked them to explain how an ancient book could make such a claim if it were not true. One expert named Gary Ludemann wrote, “It may be taken as historically certain that Peter and the disciples had experiences after Jesus’ death in which Jesus appeared to them as the risen Christ.” Ludemann is confident to say they experienced the risen Jesus, but he maintains that they experienced them as hallucinations. So Strobel went to a psychologist who specialized in hallucinations and he asked what he thought. He said it is impossible for over five hundred people to have the same hallucination because hallucinations are “individual events that happen in individual minds.” This psychologist stated “Five hundred people having the same hallucination is more of a miracle than the resurrection.”
Lee Strobel had started his research as an atheist who wanted to disprove the biblical account. His conclusion, after two years of careful research, was that “it would take more faith to maintain atheism than to be a Christian. Jesus not only claimed to be the Son of God. He backed it up by rising from the dead.” The same could be said about backing up the claim that Christmas was a historical event. The virgin birth in Bethlehem can be backed up with the evidence of his death and resurrection. There is a mystery surrounding the manger, but praise God the evidence confirms the biblical account. We know what happened on that amazing night. May we take the time to celebrate it, not simply as a wonderful story, but as a supernatural historical event.
