God is Love vs. God is Just: What is Just?

     On a crisp clear night in the bustling cityscape of New York, two friends bump into one another.  Gabe and Drake had grown up together; they lived in the same neighborhood and went to the same church most of their lives.  Both Gabe and Drake went away to college and didn't see each other or talk much during the school year.  Tonight they had randomly met while walking through their peacefully noisy city.  Two years had passed since they had last had an in-depth conversation and tonight would be the night to change that.

Jesus and the Cross - Theories of Atonement

Jesus is NOT the Cross

     Why did Jesus, the centerpiece of Christianity die?  It's interesting how many people believe that the cross was the way Jesus paid our debt to God (or the Devil). There is absolutely no doubt that Jesus died for our sin. But some people think He died because of our sins and some think He died to forgive our sins.  There is a distinct separation between the two and there is no shortage of people ready to speculate on them.  Some say Jesus paid our debt to God, others say He paid the Devil, and still others say He led by example.  These ideas have been debated throughout history, but one idea of Penal Substitution has dominated the playing field for almost 1,000 years.  However, it has recently been challenged by the very ideas that it had silenced so many years before.  Penal Substitution is a refinement of a slightly older idea known as Satisfaction.  For the thousand years before Penal Substitution was created, two ideas were formed about the death of Jesus.  One was Ransom, and the other was Moral Influence.  The more prevalent of the two was Moral Influence.

Biblical Creation vs. The Big Bang

Introduction

     “In the beginning there was…” can lead to complete concurrence or dissension depending on what completes that statement.  If the Evolutionary theory is added to complete the statement, then you will have the scientists’ concurrence and the Christians’ dissension.  If Biblical creation completes that statement, then you will have the Christians’ concurrence and the scientists’ dissension.  There are also various positions that find themselves in-between the two sides; some Christians believe in the Evolutionary theory, while some scientists are Christians and believe their Bible.  This paper focuses on the argument between Christians who believe that the Bible is clear about creation, the scientists who believe that science paints a different picture, and the ever-increasing middle ground that sees both sides coinciding rather than contradicting the other.  It also will be written under the assumption that God exists.  Many Christians tend to demonize science because it seems to revoke their traditional values; however, scientists see their work as not revoking traditional values, but progressing onto better values.  A good example of this in another realm would be that slavery was a traditional value and seemed to be Biblical, but it was morally wrong and we progressed onto a better set of ethics, which were better supported by the Bible than slavery was.

Genesis Chapter 1

     Genesis chapter one is a very controversial chapter and is commonly targeted by atheists in an attempt to disprove the rest of the Bible.  The thought process seems to be that if you can disprove that God created the world, then you can disprove that God exists entirely.  The issue with this is that they have helped the Biblical creation account more than they have hurt it.  I will follow with an in depth study of Genesis chapter one using the New American Standard Bible, which is agreed upon by most scholars as the most accurate word for word translation from Hebrew/Greek to English that we currently have available.

Jonah and the Whale

     In the book of Jonah we read a story about a man named Jonah who was supposed to go to Nineveh in order to warn them of God's wrath and to urge them to change their ways.  Jonah, however, decides that the people of Nineveh did not deserve God's grace and ought to be damned as a result of their disobedience.  Thinking theses things, Jonah ran from God and took a ship in the opposite direction.  A storm ends up raging over the ship that he was on and the crew starts asking why they are in this storm.  Jonah then admits that he has disobeyed God and he is thrown overboard.  When Jonah is thrown overboard, a whale catches him in its mouth, carries him to Nineveh, and spits him on the shore.  While Jonah was in the whale, he recognizes God's sovereignty and realizes that God showed him grace even when he refused to show the people of Nineveh the same grace.  Jonah, then goes to Nineveh and warns them of God's wrath and they change their ways.

What Christianity Is: Faith or Works?

     Many people try to separate faith and works thinking that you have to earn God's favor or that just faith in Christ is enough to be a Christian.  Those who believe that we have to earn God's favor tend to be harsh and judgmental towards others.  However, those who believe that we only have to have faith tend to be overly sympathetic and accepting of sinful acts.  What I believe to be the correct choice is the middle ground: faith and works are the only way to Christianity.

The Race of Life

     The Bible uses an analogy of running a race to symbolize our walk with God, but most people don't realize that they aren't racing the rest of humanity, but are actually racing Satan to the end of their lives*.  There is only one winner in this race and the winner gets the prize.  If you win, you bring your soul to Christ, but if Satan wins, he takes your soul**.  Too many people believe that the race is with the rest of the world, but this cannot be true because that would mean that Christ is the only one going to heaven; the Bible is clear about there only being one winner in the race*.  This is the race we call life and now that you know the stakes, what are you willing to do to win?

     Our race is not with the world, but with ourselves.  We are not trying to beat out our friends and family, but we are trying to save ourselves and our family from losing the race to Satan.  We focus so much on seeing others who are better in areas of their lives than we are in ours, but how can we compare ourselves to them when we are not even in the same race.  God has made each and every one of us unique and if you don't believe me, just look at your finger tips.  They are one of the smallest parts of your external body and even they are drastically different from every other person in the world.  If we are unique, then we are meant to be different by God's design and why would His plans and callings for our lives be any less unique***?  How can we compare ourselves to others when our callings are different?  Joe may be the most proficient Biblical scholar that you have ever seen and Jamie may be the best singer you have ever heard, but you may be the best public speaker that they have ever seen.  There are things that you are supposed to do that no other person in the world can do and that is something to marvel at.  God separates you from others, so why should you compare yourself to them?  You are in a different race!

     Now that we see that we are not racing others and are actually facing Satan, the issue of knowing how to beat him comes up.  The weapons of our warfare in this race are not physical, but they are in God.  Our weapons are the knowledge of scripture and the guidance of the Holy Spirit<>.  These weapons are not for use against our fellow man, but are for use against Satan><.  Too many Christians are more concerned with what their brother is doing and not concerned enough with their own path in the race<*>.  I would propose that we stop focusing on others issues and start building up others in Christ so that we all may finish our race first!


*1 Corinthians 9:24-27 -- "24 Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. 25 Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. 26 Therefore I do not run like someone running aimlessly; I do not fight like a boxer beating the air. 27 No, I strike a blow to my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize."

**Revelation 20:14 -- "14 Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death."

***Jeremiah 29:11 -- "11 For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."

<> 2 Corinthians 10:2-5 -- "2 But I beseech you, that I may not be bold when I am present with that confidence, wherewith I think to be bold against some, which think of us as if we walked according to the flesh. 3 For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: 4 (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) 5 Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;"

><Ephesians 6:12 -- "12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places."

<*>Matthew 7:3-5 -- "3 “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? 4 How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? 5 You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye."

Willful Ignorance: The Plague of Christianity

     A major issue that is plaguing Christianity today is willful ignorance.  Willful ignorance is defined by the Urban Dictionary as, "The practice or act of intentional and blatant avoidance, disregard or disagreement with facts, empirical evidence and well-founded [arguments] because they oppose or contradict your own existing personal beliefs." (http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=willful%20ignorance)  Ignorance in itself is not wrong; it is actually impossible not to be ignorant because ignorance is just not knowing something.  Willful ignorance is knowing that you don't know something and refusing to learn about it.  Many Christians today believe that willful ignorance is something holy and that you must be ignorant in order to love God.  They will deny fact and say things such as, "If it's not in the Bible, then I don't believe it!" or "I will not read or listen to anything outside of God's word!".  It's just too bad that they believe that God and his words are limited to the Bible.  Do they not know that all knowledge is knowledge because God made it to be so?  Do they not understand that if they believe in the Bible, then the world around them is all God's words that came into being*?
     If you are truly reading the Bible, then you should know that knowledge is something that we are told to attain.  We are told to seek knowledge and to be wise**.  Many Christians would claim that Paul tells us to forsake knowledge and love***, but he tells us that Jesus is the embodiment of knowledge<>.  Are we to forsake Jesus?  What is happening in Christianity today is that many people are missing the point when Paul forsakes knowledge in the wake of love.  What he is saying is that we are not to use knowledge to make ourselves feel important, but we are to love others and build them up.  He further explains this when he claims that knowledge without love is nothing, however, he doesn't say that you cannot have knowledge along with love.  His point in saying all of this is that if you are standing on knowledge alone, you will fall because people will reject you.  What is knowledge if you cannot share it?  However, if you have love, then people will listen and you will have solid ground to stand on and share your knowledge.
     What Christians need to realize is that knowledge is a part of God because He created it and when they abandon knowledge; they are abandoning a part of God.  How could we know things if God had not first given us the ability to?  I will continue to do everything I can to learn because the more I learn, the closer I get to God!

*Genesis 1

**Nearly all of Proverbs

***1 Corinthians 13:7 & 8:1

<>Colossians 2:2-3

A Good Christian Must Be A Conservative/Liberal Christian?

     We constantly see conservative "fundamentalist" Christians in the media for speaking out against the LGBTQ community, trying to force Christianity on others, speaking poorly about Muslims, ranting about the liberals, and speaking about the anti-Christ and the "end times".  However, we also see liberals feeling that sin is ok because it will always happen and they believe all roads lead to heaven.  I personally find my comfort in the middle ground between them.  I think both sides have gone off their rails and are halfway down the slippery slope to self-destruction.  Before I go on into my real motive for this status, I would like to dive deeper into the issues of the far-left and far-right mentioned above.  The right would love to keep the LGBTQ community oppressed because they are "sinning", but you would know that is untrue if you read my last post, (http://somewhereinthemiddleground.blogspot.com/2014/03/homosexuality-yesno.html).  Then we have forcing Christianity on everyone; how can you force your beliefs on others in the name of Christ when Christ explicitly gave people the choice and left if they rejected Him.  The next issue on the right is about Muslims.  Muslims and Christians have a bad history, but we are cousins who just follow different sons of Abraham and we worship the same God (Elohim, Elah, Allah) and there is no reason to spew hate between us.  The right wing and the left wing are guilty of this one; attacking the opposite end of the spectrum which needs no explanation to why it's wrong.  The last thing that the right wing does that really aggravates me is it is always speaking of the "end times" coming and Obama or some other figure being the anti-Christ.  I will delve further into this later.  Let's move onto the left wing.  I don't know much about the left wing because I was raised in a right wing home, but what I do know is that they are really passionate about the idea of all roads leading to heaven.  This is something that is severely scriptural and I cannot support it completely because God speaks of only one way to Him and that is through the son.  However, this is cleared up by the scripture that says all tongues shall confess that you are God and therefore, it can be assumed that all will be saved.  They also seem to believe that we can just continue to live in sin with no intent to change and lead holy lives, which is scriptural.  I will admit that I identify more with the left-wing Christianity than the right, but both have issues and I find it better to be somewhere in the middle ground between them.
     Right now, I would like to focus on the conservative side of Christianity that loves to preach about us living in the "end times" due to the oppression of the church and 9/11.  These Christians believe that right is becoming wrong and vice versa just like the Bible says the end times will be.  Some will even stretch to say that 9/11 was caused by the U.S.'s tolerance of the LGBTQ movement.  I would like to suggest that today's Christianity is the cause for the oppression of Christianity.  We see everyone attacking Christianity and even the U.S. and most Christians are so blind to their own failings that they assume that it is the end times, but I think that they are abandoning the teachings that Christ gave to us and therefore rejecting God and His protection just as Israel did when it was continuously conquered in the late Tanakh (Hebrew Bible/Old Testament).  I would also propose that this is the same reason that the 9/11 attacks happened; not because of the U.S. tolerance of the LGBTQs, but the Christians intolerance.  If it weren't the Christians, then why would the church still be oppressed and not blessed by God and made favorable in the eyes of men?  I propose that Christianity is what is wrong with Christianity because we have forgotten the love of Christ and adopted the condemnation of Hell.
     You may have seen what I have said as extreme, but this is a big and controversial question that demands a radically different answer than what we have seen.  I am merely providing my readers with food for thought and knowledge that Christians today, much like the Ancient Israel, have strayed from God and rejected Him and therefore, are dealing with the consequences.

Life Is Beautiful

     In our modern culture we too often are too busy to step back and appreciate the beauty of life.  Have you ever just stopped and looked at the trees, flowers, animals, or even the ocean and just thought about how perfect all of those things are?  Have you ever thought about everything it takes for something to live and how beautifully perfect it is?  Look at the stars and take in the amazing sight that they are for they are the light in the darkness!  Look at the plants that live and grow into such beautiful things that give life to everything around them!  Look at the animals who live and do only what is necessary for survival!  There is such an awe striking quality in the complex simplicity of life!  Life gives life so that it can continue to live and grow!  Life never stops, it just moves on from one being to the next!  When one thing dies it provides life for the next, so is it truly dying?  When a living thing dies it can either decompose into the ground and become fertilizer for plants, or it can be eaten by animals and give them energy; both of these things are used to keep living things alive.  Life is the most complexly simple beauty that we have available to us!

 "Nothing.  Nothing cannot exist, because it is the opposite of existing.  To believe in nothingness is just that nothing.  Like death, death is not a state, its the absence of state.  Death to me is very unreal.  All I see is life.  In a dead body, I see simply life, the bacteria have already begun to decompose it.  Where then is death?" -- Chris Featherstone

     Biblically speaking God created all life.  Let that soak in for a moment.  God created all life!  Remember this next time you go outside soak in the life around you and recognize that God did all of it.  The next thing I want you to recognize is that God is life.  God breathed life into Adam and he became alive*.  Breath is commonly associated with spirit in ancient texts, therefore God gave Adam part of His spirit to bring him to life.  We all have God's spirit dwelling in us no matter who we are or what we believe!  God is in the plants and the animals.  God is life!  Therefore life cannot begin or end because God does not begin or end.  God is in all things and thus all things are Holy; this is why it is a sin to kill.  The Bible states that man is not to live by bread alone, but also by the words of God**.  God's words are what created all things and life itself, therefore we are to live by scripture and the world around us!  We are to love the world as God does because it His creation!

     *Genesis 2

     **Matthew 4:4

The Creation Account and The Big Bang

     If you look into what science and Christianity have to say about the origins of the world, then you may be surprised and you may realize that there must be a God. In the big bang theory everything began as a small dense fourth dimensional mass which can be seen as in the beginning God created the Heavens and the Earth. God is timeless and so is the fourth dimension according to most science fiction writers; coincidence? I think not. Science doesn't know what cause this immensely dense fourth dimensional mass to expand(not explode), but they do know that the reason it did is because somehow light began to separate from the mass causing many chemical reactions. The Bible states that God said, "Let there be light". How would early Christians know that light came first without access to the amazing science that we have today unless God clued them in on it? Then the Bible says that God separated the waters of the Heavens from the waters of the Earth, thus the Heavens and the Earth separated and grew apart as the universe expanded. But wait, there is even more to these theories. Science states next that there was so much heat from the expansion of all of the molecules that the light was muffled by a dense fog-like state of the molecules and light would not return again until the sun and stars were formed. This explains why the Bible recreates the separation of light from dark and God creates the sun, stars and moon. As the stars appeared in Science everything began to cool and thus planets were formed. I don't think that it is a coincidence that everything lines up almost perfectly with the Bible. How could early Hebrews know the order that science has determined the world came to be in without divine enlightenment from God? I don't think they could have.  These are my thoughts on the topic and I know the two theories don't fit together perfectly, but they are close enough that you have to wonder how the Hebrews could have gotten so close without our modern advances.

     Genesis 1

God in the Universe

     I have encountered many Christians who follow the Sola Scriptura idea.  This idea pretty much means that they refuse to consider any truth outside of scripture.  You will commonly hear comments like, "If it's not in the Bible, then I don't believe it!" from them.  You will also hear them say, "You can't shove God into a box." or something along those lines, yet they want to shove Him into a book?  I don't see the logic in that.  If God created the universe, then anything that is found to be true in the universe is His truth whether it is in scripture or not.  If we pursue truth, then are we not pursuing God because He created truth and Jesus said that He is truth*, therefore pursuing truth is honoring God's creation and pursuing Jesus.  Why would God give us the capacity to think, reason, and comprehend things if He did not want us to use those abilities?  I believe He gave us these abilities so that we could honor and worship Him by using them.  When we take the time to appreciate His creation and study it to better understand it we are honoring Him.  Artists of every kind want people to study and admire there work because that is why they made it, so what makes the potter any different**?

     To take this further, the Bible says that we are not to live by bread alone, but by God's words***.  If we think critically about this scripture we can make connections to other scripture.  If we are not to live by bread alone and Jesus is the bread of life<> and Jesus is the word made flesh><, then we can conclude that we are not to live by scripture alone.  You may see that as a stretch, but there is still more in this.  The scripture goes on to say that we are to live by God's words as well as bread(scripture).  In the beginning, God created the entire universe with just His words.  If God created the universe with His words, then would we not be studying His words by studying the universe?  God does not wish for us to be ignorant, otherwise He would not have created us in His own image.  To believe in Sola Scriptura is to deny all of the marvelous things that God has created.  One of the things that many people forget is that to the first Christian churches the Bible was only the Old Testament and they were living out the New Testament.  This means that the Bible can't contain all knowledge and all truth because it was still being formed while the church was already established.  All that is in the Bible is truth, but not all truth is in the Bible.  I think that it is important to remember that scripture without the church's tradition has no foundation and the church without scripture has no message.

     *John 14:6 - "Jesus told him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life.  No one can come to the Father except through me."  New Living Translation

     **Romans 9:20-21 - "20 But who are you, O man, to answer back to God?  Will the molded say to it's molder, 'Why have you made me like this?' 21 Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use?"  New Living Translation

     ***Matthew 4:4 - "Jesus answered, 'It is written, 'Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.''"  New Living Translation

     <>John 6:35 - "Jesus replied, 'I am the bread of life.  Whoever comes to me will never be hungry again.  Whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.'"  New Living Translation

     ><John 1:14 - "The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.  We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth."

The Christian Gospel

     No matter where you go in the United States, it seems that there is always a group of Christians talking about spreading the gospel as it is our duty as Christians.  I have no quarrel with this and I believe in spreading it too, however, I think many Christians have twisted what the gospel is supposed to be.  The gospel or good news of Christ is not that we are sinners and damned to Hell without Him, but it is that Jesus died for our salvation and He loves us no matter who we are or what we believe.  If we really think about the way most Christians present the gospels, they focus on being damned unless you follow what they interpret out of the Bible and that does NOT sound like good news to me.  I would rather suggest that the message be that we are redeemed by the blood of Christ and that we are loved by YHWH who defines Himself as love*!  If God is love, then doesn't that mean that love isn't so much a feeling or an action, but a being?  To love is not to do something, but to be something.  When we offer our hearts to the Father, we are allowing Him to consume us and fill us with His presence.  Therefore, we are to be filled with love and are to allow that love to overflow into others.  You may think of the scriptures that explain that we are to be filled with God's presence and others that explain that God emptied Himself and we are to be the same**.  I believe that this means that we are filled with God's presence (love) in order to empty Him out onto other people and then He will fill us again.
     Does that not sound more like good news than being damned unless you follow a specific code of conduct?  Why are we being told that the gospel of Christ is about damnation instead of redemption?  The answer is that people are more concerned about others lives than their own and not in the selfless way.  The Bible states that we are to deal with ourselves before we deal with others***, yet most Christians believe that what they believe is correct so they tell others that they are wrong because they believe differently.  This is not the gospel, nor is it Christ-like.  Part of dealing with your flaws before you deal with others is putting aside your convictions and assumptions about scripture because there is no guarantee that the way you interpret it is correct.  If you were truly walking in love, then would you not share the love of Christ rather than the condemnation of Hell?  Ask yourself these questions and make changes if needed.

*1 John 4:8 - "But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love." New Living Translation

**2 Corinthians 4:7 - "But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us." New King James Version
  Philippians 2:5-7 - "5 In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: 6 Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; 7 rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant being made in human likeness."

***Matthew 7:5 - "Hypocrite! First get rid of the log in your own eye; then you will see well enough to deal with the speck in your friend's eye."