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Alan Jackson sings a song called We’re All God’s Children

Here comes a Baptist, here comes a Jew
There goes a Mormon and a Muslim too
I see a Buddist and a Hindu
I see a Catholic and I see you

We’re all god’s children
We’re all god’s children
We’re all god’s children
Why can’t we be
One big happy family

I have no problem with being one big happy family, but on the face of it this sounds more like Universalism. I don’t know for sure what Alan Jackson meant by the lyrics, but certainly many would agree with the sentiment if he meant to say that All roads lead to heaven.

Universalism, the idea that All people will be accepted by God (in whatever way you wish to define that,) is a very appealing belief, and widely held today, except by those that the media has demonized as fundamentalists.
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Filed Under: Apologetics, Theology 1 Comment »

While reading through the book of Romans chapters 4 and 5, I was struck again by the importance of the story of Abraham and the implications on the Christian life. At the end of the reading I was questioning why it’s so hard to keep these key truths in the foreground of my daily thinking. Not all theology can be just written off as too heady.

This got me thinking about whether or not we as Christians are being so individualistic and so anti-legalism that we have forgotten the importance of being uniquely Christian, or defining ourselves in our Christianity. What do I mean by that? The greatest example I can think of is the Jews of Biblical days. Being a Jew wasn’t a side issue. It was the defining characteristic of who they were. Culturally they were unique. In the family they were unique. Individually before God they were unique.

Does my Christianity define me, or do I live like two different people? Does the Bible allow for me to be two different people?

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First in a series on Apologetics…

I have to admit that I DO question my beliefs. I DO question whether or not what I believe is true, or even reasonable. So Yes, I do question the New Testament. A lot of people these days think that Christians are just sheep that mindlessly follow some ancient Jewish God. On the contrary, many great thinkers in history have believed the Christian story on an intellectual level. (Isaac Newton, C.S Lewis, Augustine, Karl Barth, Francis Schaeffer, Søren Kierkegaard to name a few)

During my own questioning, one of my ponderings led me to the following picture of evidence. Stick with me or you’ll get lost. No way to make this a short little blip on why I believe. Even so, this is still a very high-level look at some of the unique evidence in the Bible that supports the Christian message. Of course one has to be open to a fair evaluation of the evidence. A fair response to something that can’t be explained or doesn’t fit one’s predispositions is NOT to say “What about this other point.” I won’t waste my time with trivial arguments. The information presented here is indisputable.

Part I: The Promise

In the book of Genesis, chapter 12, there is a very important key theological passage known as the Abrahamic Covenant. It describes a promise that God made to a man named Abraham (2000 BC,) that he would bless his family, and make of him a great nation. As it turns out, this Abraham is the father of both the Jews and the Arabs. The most interesting and unusual aspect of this covenant however is a promise to bless all of the families of the earth somehow through Abraham. Now that is interesting. It’s one thing to tell Abraham that he and his family will do well, or even he and his descendants, but it’s quite another thing to say that all people-groups on the earth will be blessed because of him. This gives me a chance to test the Bible. If it’s true, and there is any historical record of this man’s family tree (and there is,) we should be able to validate it. Here is the passage:

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Filed Under: Apologetics, Philosophy, Theology 2 Comments »

I’m going to do a series on Time, and this is my first contribution

How long has it been since Jesus walked the earth? It’s almost 2000 years. Of course when you say the words “Two Thousand Years” it sounds like an eternity. Here’s an interesting perspective on this.

Let’s say that…

Just prior to his ascension, Jesus handed off a baton to one individual with the following instructions:

1. At your 100th birthday, handoff the baton to the family of a newborn. At 20 years old the child (second generation) is to be given the baton with the same instructions.
2. This cycle is to continue until my return.

This is NOT a far fetched scenario. I’m sure that through history there has been such a chain of 100 year old people.

Conclusion

If Jesus returns today, how many people would have taken part in this chain of baton handoffs?

Twenty people! That’s it. Each one having come in contact with the previous generation and the future generation. At his return he could fit the whole group into a small room. Want to stretch this idea back to Moses? Just add another 15 or so people. All of human history could have a group less than 100 people in the chain.

2000 years isn’t that long after all, and to God it’s nothing (2 Peter 3:8)

Filed Under: Theology, Time Add Comment »

part II - sorry it took so long. I’ll try to make my blog articles smaller.

This should be an easy question to answer, and for myself it is, but as usual the waters have become muddied by history and bad hermeneutics. (How the Bible is intepreted) I’m not just looking at the theology of the Endtimes, but at what people believe today and why. The muddying has come about by a certain mainstream church position that allegorizes everything the Bible says about the age(s) to come, leaving just the broad idea of heaven.

The problem with that belief is that there are a lot more specifics in the Bible then these three statements. To leave it at that is a disservice to everyone. A brief breakdown of the two major positions may shed some light on this. These positions are not new, but have been around since the Post Apostolic period. I’m open-minded, so usually I would allow for each side to be partially correct. In this case it doesn’t work since the two positions are mutually exclusive. (more on this later)
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Anyone know this song? It’s a favorite at political conventions these days. I wonder if they even faguely understand the words. I think not.

Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord:
He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored;
He hath loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword:
His truth is marching on.

Glory, glory, hallelujah!…

That’s the Battle Hymn of the Republic, words by Julia Ward Howe (1819-1910).

Of the two billion people on the planet that call themselves Christians, I wonder how many believe (or understand), as the popular song states, that Jesus is going to physically return to the earth. (and not just to give everyone a pat on the back.) Does it really matter? Did he really say he was coming back? After this much time isn’t it safe to assume he didn’t mean it literally?

It’s not my intent for my blog articles to all sound evangelistic. This one is for the Endtimes.org crowd and anyone else interested in hearing a different perspective than what they are used to hearing. You’re not going to hear me crying wolf or setting dates, but the Bible does have plenty to say on the subject of the endtimes and the return of Christ. In fact, maybe the Bible does cry wolf, and has been for years, knowing that the wolf is here, and the Lion of Judah is soon to appear.
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Filed Under: Endtimes, Theology 5 Comments »

Since tomorrow is Easter Sunday I was thinking about the significance of the Easter Story. First of all let me say that if there were no evidence for the resurrection of Jesus I doubt that I would be a Christian. This is why I hate the term Blind Faith. If it were blind I’m stating right here that I don’t know if I could believe it, especially in the world we live in.

Thankfully, the God of the Bible also cares about details. I guess any being that could create the universe and the laws of physics would need to care about details, or he wouldn’t have been able to get the job done. There is far too much detail and intelligence in the universe to think it came about by chance.

It is details that got us from a flat earth to a round earth. Details got us the Internal Combustion Engine, without which I guess we’d still be using horses to get around. (Not that horses are a bad way to get around) To ride a horse you only have to tame it and then climb on. No gasoline is needed. Details get us medicines, without which many of us would not be here today.

If the Easter story is true, then the God of the story would have left some fingerprints, and he did. In the Old Testament, in the book of Isaiah, chapter 53, the Bible describes an individual that will suffer for the sins of the people. It mentions him being pierced through, despised by the people, wrongly accused and saying nothing, and with a rich man in his death. These things were all true of Jesus. How did Jesus decide whom to be burried with?

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Filed Under: The Resurrection, Theology 3 Comments »

I understand sceptics when it comes to Religion and Politics. With so many supposedly well-meaning people holding completely opposite positions, it’s easy enough to conclude that there are no absolutes in Religion or Politics. I’ll save the discussion on relativism in Religion for another post.

And I’m not going to discuss Politics, so…

On the one hand you can’t blame people for getting frustrated in trying to bridge the gap between Religion and God. Isn’t that the real problem for most people? On the other hand, it has to be done. There is potentially a lot at stake. Most people want to believe in God, but have a hard time relating to, or understanding those that are the so-called representatives of Religion, and by extension, representatives of God. (At least according to them) This leads me to what is hopefully an interesting point for this week. Let’s narrow the scope once again, this time to Judaism and Christianity.

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Filed Under: The Bible, Theology 2 Comments »

I’ve been considering how to get this done for the last year. I finally got WordPress blogging software installed, so here we go.

The subject here is Philosophy and Theology, although not necessarily in that order. My objective is to have fun with this, as opposed to telling anyone else what to believe. Blogging helps me to exercise my mind, and learn how to think more clearly, and accurately.

I’m not a professional Theologian, but have spent more time at it than most non-professionals.

This is not a Political Blog, and this is the only time I will mention Political Correctness. I couldn’t really care less about being politically correct, especially in the realm of Theology. Proving anything to be true is hard enough without purposely skewing the rules, and thus the results.

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Filed Under: Uncategorized 2 Comments »