Category: Commentaries on life and faith

Official Contest – Enter Now

I am now running a contest in this blog post. Entries will be taken until, but not after, Saturday May 21. Use the comments section to predict what false prophet/cult leader Harold Camping will say to explain himself to his followers on Sunday May 22, after the world hasn’t ended. Whoever posts a prediction of his words that is closest to what he actually says will win the right to replace him on his radio program thereafter. The winner still won’t be able to accurately predict the timing of Christ’s return, but he will have shown himself able to at least predict SOMETHING with accuracy.

On May 21, carry on with your regular business

Harold Camping, the deceived deceiver who is saying Christ will rapture us next Saturday, has made false date-predictions of that before. I remember in September 1994 when one of his followers stopped me by a lake where I was walking in Scranton, PA, where I lived at the time. The man pretended to need help and to find out what time it was, just to get me to stop so he could give me the literature predicting the rapture was just days away. Then he went on and did the same routine to others nearby.

But the fact that Camping has been wrong before isn’t the biggest reason not to believe him. There are two rock-solid biblical reasons to reject his teaching and warn his followers. 1) Jesus assured us we would not know the day or hour of His return, and the entirety of the Bible presents the rapture as an event that will come as an unannounced surprise for which Christ’s followers may be ready, but cannot know when it will happen. 2) In addition to setting a false date for the rapture, Camping’s other teachings about Bible prophecy are down-right batty, and there is no way anyone could read the Scriptures and arrive at the conclusions he is teaching. For example, he says that five months after the rapture, next October, God is going to destroy the earth and the entire universe. That is nothing like what the Bible says will happen after the rapture, and no elementary-school level student of the Bible thinks it is.

The followers of Camping are a cult to be shunned. Don’t be afraid as a follower of Christ to reject what he says when someone brings up the possibility of the May 21 rapture.

What is taking God’s Name in vain?

Today’s Rightly Dividing the Word:
Most of the 10 commandments didn’t come from God with an explicit threat of punishment attached to them. But this one does: “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain.” (Exodus 20:7) If someone is wise, he will seek to be in obedience to the commandment. But to do that, we need to make sure we understand it. Just what is taking God’s name in vain? Well, one example is the obvious–shouting “Lordy, lordy” or “Oh my God!” in an irreverent manner when you are neither calling on Him nor praising Him would be taking His Name in vain. (And abbreviating it for texting as omg is the same, of course.) But taking His Name in vain isn’t limited to using the names of God the Father and Jesus Christ His Son as expletive curses when one is surprised or alarmed. It includes any abuse or misuse of the name of the Lord. A false profession of being a follower of Christ or a lover of God is taking His Name in vain. A false claim that “God told me to….” or “The Lord gave me peace with my decision to…” do something that His word forbids is taking His Name in vain. A TV preacher claiming “God will bless you for sending me money” is taking His Name in vain, abusing the name of the Creator for personal financial gain. Advising people of unbiblical claims like, “The Lord helps those who help themselves” or “God won’t give you any more than you can handle” is an abuse of His Name by attributing to Him traits that aren’t true of Him. Saying “I swear to God this is true…” as if His Name was your property to call upon to bolster your arguments is a misuse of His Name as well. It would also be taking His Name in vain to equate Him with false gods, by saying things like “The muslims’ Allah and God are the same one.”
The Name of the Lord is to be praised, honored, revered, and taken seriously at all times and in all circumstances. It is a Name never worthy of abuse, misuse, or misappropriation. So be careful how you use it.

Good Friday > Earth Day


Earth Day? God created the earth to be the place where He would make Good Friday happen, to His eternal glory, long after the earth He created is no more. Worship, honor, and serve the Creator, not His handiwork, impressive as it is.
Good Friday? This is the day that the Lord has made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.

Preaching the gospel, use words “when necessary”?

Today’s “Rightly dividing the Word” – A popular (for some reason) yet entirely misguided quote that circulates in Christian circles tells us to “preach the gospel everywhere you go” and “when necessary, use words.”
Just when it could be unnecessary to use words to proclaim the good news the quote fails to tell us, though. The gospel is the message that Christ died for our sins and rose again, so that all who put their trust in Him alone can be saved. As Christians who proclaim this truth, we should seek to live in such a way that our actions dress that message in an attractive outfit whenever possible, but we could never be so holy in our actions that it would excuse us of our responsibility to proclaim the gospel with words. We can give to the poor, but they cannot be saved by our generosity, so our giving cannot be called preaching the gospel. We can be kind, patient, loving, smiling, forgiving people; but no one under any circumstances could be saved by watching our actions. An answer explaining the reason for our hope will always have to accompany our actions if we will preach the gospel. With the gospel, it is show AND tell. So, as one pastor rightly put it, one could no more preach the gospel without words than he could give you his phone number without digits.
The Bible does not tell us that faith can come by seeing our good behavior, but only by hearing the word of God. God’s word asks how can anyone believe without hearing the word? The answer—they can’t. “How shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher?”
While righteous acts are necessary, please don’t comfort yourself if you remain silent about Christ and the need of others around you to be saved by telling yourself, “I’m preaching the gospel by my actions, and if they want what I’ve got, they will approach me.” It is show AND tell, not one or the other.
So let’s start passing around a new quote: “To preach the gospel everywhere, remember that it is always, every time, without exception, necessary that you open your mouth and use words.” And then, more importantly, a quote from the Bible: “Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel.”

Will the devil leave you alone if you stop serving Christ?

Today’s “Rightly dividing the Word” — Sometimes I have heard teachings like this– “If you are serving the Lord, it is like putting a target on your back, calling you to Satan’s attention, and making you someone he wants to attack; so watch out!” Or, I’ve heard some say, “The devil doesn’t waste his energy bothering someone who isn’t a threat to him.”
Might sound logical to us at first, like so much of what passes for theological talk in a bumper-sticker-slogans-on-the-church-sign age. But it leads people facing struggles in serving the Lord to believe that if they stop serving Christ in a public way, then maybe the devil will leave them alone, and their lives will get easier and more peaceful, if not more fruitful.
But does the word of God say, “Resist God’s calling. Submit to the devil’s desire that you waste your life, and he will leave you alone?” Of course not. In fact, the true biblical formula for getting Satan off your back is exactly the opposite: “Submit yourselves therefore to God,” James says. “Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you.” –James 4:7-8a
Keep serving the Lord and obeying Him, even when times are tough, and even when the devil is opposing you. When Satan opposes you, oppose him back by obeying the Lord. Then yours, not Satan’s, will be the victory in the end.

You can’t be a “luke warm” individual

Today’s “rightly dividing the Word” — “Luke warm” is NOT a biblical term to describe a Christian individual who isn’t on fire for God. It’s a term for describing a Christless apostate church with Jesus stuck on the outside–knocking, hoping an individual within will hear Him, open the door, and have one-on-one fellowship with Him, despite the church as a whole being lost.

The term comes from Christ’s words in Revelation 3:
14 “And to the angel of the church in Laodicea write: ‘The words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of God’s creation.
15 “‘I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot! 16 So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth. 17 For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked. 18 I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, so that you may be rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen, and salve to anoint your eyes, so that you may see. 19 Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent. 20 Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.

Why Satan Wants You To Think Hell’s Not Real

A little over a year ago, we visited the US, and to show people in my hometown church in KY the importance of preaching hell like Jesus did, I asked for a show of hands. “How many of you would say a fear of hell was at least a very significant part of the reason you initially trusted Christ as your Savior?” I don’t remember seeing any believers not raising their hands across the room. And I could count on the fingers of my left foot how many effective evangelists I’ve met in my life who were in the “don’t talk about hell” camp of Christianity. It is by God’s design, not man’s, that those who come to Him come to Him because they are convicted of their sin and the wrath they will receive at His hand if they are not saved from it by His grace. This is just as true of 21st century converts as it was of those a thousand years ago.
But the practicality of the gospel being preached more effectively when it is complete with the message of God’s wrath isn’t the main reason we should accept it and preach it. The main and simple reason we must believe in hell and preach it is because it is the truth of God’s word, and could not be wished away even if humanity were unanimous in our disbelief.