Astronomy and the Bible, Part 1

 Hey yall. So last night, instead of a message from myself or another leader, we watched the first portion of a video by Dr. Jason Lisle - a Christian astronomer. You can watch the video on YouTube by clicking here, or by searching "Jason Lisle Astronomy". The video is an hour long, so we only watched the first 22 minutes, in which Dr. Lisle covered two things: the glory of God revealed in astronomy and the Bible's accuracy concerning the basics of astronomy.

The main point of the first section was to demonstrate the vastness and awesomeness of the universe, so far as we have been able to observe it. If you have the time to watch part of the video, he has some excellent illustrations that are just mind-blowing and magnificent. God's creation is truly wonderful.

The main point of the second section, on the "Basics", was to demonstrate how the Bible has been accurate when it comes to some of the basics of astronomy. Not only has it been accurate, but it was accurate way before the secular scientists caught up. Back when the secular world thought the world was flat, the Bible was already describing it as round (spherical). This means there were a lot of scientists back then that thought the Bible was wrong, only to be proven wrong later when science revealed "oh wait a minute, no, the Bible was right all along". This offers some encouragement to us Christians today as we deal with the scientific world making claims that go against what the Bible says is true and right. They've been wrong in the past, the Bible has not.

So, take some time to watch at least part of the video, and if you have extra time, go look into some of his other material. He has some great stuff to think about and look at as we find out more and more about our world and the universe.

If you have any questions or comments generated from the video, feel free to ask them below and we can discuss those together. God bless!

The Bible and "Race"

 Heyo! This is the second week of our look into a biblical perspective on some of the more pressing issues of our current culture. Last week we talked about our relationship with our parents (specifically focusing on what the Bible has to say about honoring and obeying our parents and how that plays into the relationship). This week we are looking at the topic of what our culture calls "race". We went through 11 different passages from the Bible, so bear with me as we read and unpack them together. This was a particularly interactive message time, and unfortunately I was not able to record all of the questions (or the corresponding answers) from the discussion last night.

Genesis 1:26-27 - “²⁶ Then God said, ‘Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.’ ²⁷ So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.”

When God created all things, and in this case, mankind, He made them all "according to their own kind". Mankind is particularly unique as we see here, in that God decided to make mankind in His image. Mankind was given special authority and dominion over God's creation, which springs from this image of God we bear. This is where we come from as a people; this is our beginning.

Romans 5:12 - “¹² Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned…”

This is part of a larger argument Paul (the author of Romans) is making to the church that is in Rome. The point he is making in this passage is that sin and death entered the world through one man (Adam) and thus affected all people. This point alludes to the fact that we are all (yes, all) descended from that one man. If we could somehow trace our lineages back to the very beginning, we would all reach the same common ancestors: Adam and Eve. If this were not so, then how could Adam's sin be passed down to us?

Acts 17:26-27 - “²⁶ From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands.”

This supports Paul's statement in Romans, that we are all descended from common ancestors. From Adam and Eve came all the nations that exist today. God established each nation throughout history, including the United States of America, and He spread them out throughout the world, as we will see in the next passage.

Genesis 11:1-9 - “Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. ² As people moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there. ³ They said to each other, ‘Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.’ They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar. ⁴ Then they said, ‘Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves; otherwise we will be scattered over the face of the whole earth.’ ⁵ But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower the people were building. ⁶ The Lord said, ‘If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. ⁷ Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.’ ⁸ So the Lord scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city. ⁹ That is why it was called Babel—because there the Lord confused the language of the whole world. From there the Lord scattered them over the face of the whole earth.”

This is where the major divisions of language and ethnicity started. Up until this point in the history of the world, people spoke the same common language (not English) and probably all shared a close skin tone. When God confused the languages (by the way, "Babel" means confusion) and scattered people "over the face of the whole earth", that is when ethnic diversity would have begun to develop - based on diet and climate.

Romans 2:9-11 - “⁹ There will be trouble and distress for every human being who does evil: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile; ¹⁰ but glory, honor and peace for everyone who does good: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. ¹¹ For God does not show favoritism.”

This is an important point to make note of, because some people want to claim that God favored the Israelites over other people. It is true that God chose the Israelites as His people, and He did that because He was going to use them to bring about His plan of redemption for mankind (His plan to save them from that sin and death Paul was talking about). When it comes to God's judgment, or His mercy, there is no partiality given. It doesn't matter where you were born, those who do good will reap the benefits of doing good and those who do evil will reap the consequences of doing evil.

The issue in the Roman church was that the Gentile (this just means those that weren't Jewish) Christians were arguing with the Jewish Christians, and Paul was trying to help them settle their differences by focusing them on Christ. It didn't matter if they were Jewish or not, they were all "in Christ" and that is what was supposed to bring them together.

Matthew 28:18-20 - “¹⁸ Then Jesus came to them and said, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. ¹⁹ Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰ and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.’”

The fact that Jesus commands His disciples to go and make disciples of all nations tells us that His death paid the penalty for the sins of everyone, not just the Jews or any other particular ethnic group. People of every nation could find salvation through Him, which puts all people on an equal playing field.

John 13:34-35 - “³⁴ A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. ³⁵ By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

Within the body of Christ, within the church, we are called to love one another. It doesn't matter what differences there are between us, we must love one another just as Christ loved us.

Leviticus 19:34 - “³⁴ The foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native-born. Love them as yourself, for you were foreigners in Egypt. I am the Lord your God.”

Even though the Israelites (the Jews) were called to be holy nation (this means they were to be set apart from other nations, distinguished from them), they were still commanded by God to treat foreigners (non-Jews) with love. If it makes the point clearer, let me use the word "immigrant" instead of "foreigner". Though there may have been ethnic differences, that did not justify treating someone with anything less than love.

Romans 3:21-24 - “²¹ But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. ²² This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, ²³ for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, ²⁴ and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.”

When it comes to sin, there truly is no difference between anyone. As human beings, we are all equally lost in sin, and equally incapable of earning salvation or attaining the glory of God on our own. We all fall short. In the same way, we are all equally (and freely) justified by God's grace through Jesus Christ. Not one of us is more deserving than another.

Colossians 3:5-11 - “⁵ Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. ⁶ Because of these, the wrath of God is coming. ⁷ You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. ⁸ But now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. ⁹ Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices ¹⁰ and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. ¹¹ Here there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all.”

This is Paul again, in a letter written to the church in Colossae. Here he is commanding them to put to death (to remove) anything in their lives that belongs to their earthly nature. If it was connected to the sin nature they had before coming to Christ, it needed to go. It is quite a list, right? I remember last night we talked a little bit about the filthy language part. I wonder what that means for you? At the the end of the quoted passage, Paul lists some of the things that would have, before Christ, separated or divided the people from each other. Jews would not have associated with Gentiles (Jews were circumcised, Gentiles were generally not). Barbarians were those people from what we now call Europe, and they were seriously looked down upon. Scythians were from the slavic areas, and also considered to be outsiders. Slaves were not usually permitted to associate with free peoples. So then, these are the dividing lines, and likely major ones in Colossae. In this passage, Paul is saying that in Christ, these dividing lines are no more. They are gone. They are removed. Rather than division, the church is to be completely unified in Christ.

Revelation 7:9-10 - “⁹ After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. ¹⁰ And they cried out in a loud voice:

‘Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.’”

And this is a look at where we are going. Revelation is a glimpse at what the end times will hold. In the vision, John (the author) sees this great multitude "from every nation, tribe, people and language" worshipping God together. The church of God has spanned over two millennia now, and has covered pretty much every corner of the world at one point or another. There have been Christians from countless nations, tribes, peoples and languages already, and there will be more Christians yet.

God created mankind as one race - the human race - and we are all made in His image. What our culture defines as "race" - the different ethnic groups and nationalities - were originally created by God to divide us. And in Christ He has removed those dividing lines so that we can once again be unified. This means that in a Christian, biblical worldview, the color of our skin has no bearing on how we should treat each other. Jesus commanded that those who love Him must love one another, no matter how our culture might try to identify and divide us.

The racial discrimination that we see today can, unfortunately, be justified from an evolutionary perspective. If we really evolved from a single cell organism and are continuing to evolve, then its possible that the different "races" of humanity are at different stages of the evolutionary process, which would mean that some races really are better than others. HOWEVER, from a biblical perspective, the racial discrimination that we see today CANNOT be justified. According to the Bible we are all human beings, made in the image of God, equally lost in sin and equally in need of a Savior.

So, for those who are in Christ, it doesn't matter what color your skin is, what language you speak, or what country you're from - we are all one in Christ. We are unified by our faith in Jesus. So stop focusing on the things that make use different and start focusing on the One who brings us together in unity. Let us love one another as Jesus has loved us. And as we look out into the world, let us demonstrate God's love to others, regardless of how they might look or act different from us.

If you have questions or comments, I would be happy to discuss them with you in the comment section below. God bless you all.

Gotta Face Reality

 I don't know why exactly, but I guess I've had games on my mind recently. As a kid I absolutely LOVED fighting games. I'd be playing "House" with my little sister and then 5 minutes in BOOM, a burglar breaks in and kidnaps her, and I have to go fight through hordes of minions to rescue her. I'd make up all kinds of stories where I was the hero, fighting against the forces of evil with my trusty sword. There was just one problem... I didn't have a sword. You want to know what I did have? A STICK! Booyah! I'd go out and find a decently-sized, straight-ish stick and that would become my sword, gun, axe, spear, staff - you name a weapon, that stick could be it - and I would use to to vanquish my enemies!

But what would happen if a real bad guy showed up? That stick wouldn't do me too much good - maybe I'd get a good whack in, if I was lucky, but then the bad guy would beat me to a pulp. As cool as it was to pretend that stick was a powerful sword, when faced with real danger I would have to face the reality that it was just a stick.

I think a lot of times we like to pretend that things are not what they are because it makes them cooler, or easier to deal with. We pretend sticks are swords because that is way cooler, or that a toothache will just go away on its own because that costs a LOT less money than getting it fixed by a dentist. We pretend that speed limits are more like guidelines than actual rules because it lets us get places faster. We pretend cheating on a test isn't really that bad because it saves us time on studying (or if we let someone cheat off of us, it makes us look better in their eyes). We even pretend that not reading the Bible regularly won't affect our faith.

Whatever the case may be, eventually we have to face reality. The stick breaks, the tooth decays, the cops pull us over for going 65 in a 25, we get caught cheating and get suspended from school, and we end up pulling away from God because we aren't paying attention to His Word. Two weeks ago we started answering the question "How do we live the Christian life in a non-Christian world?" Steps one and two were pretty straightforward: 1) be sure you are of the faith (otherwise why even try to live the Christian life?) and 2) acknowledge the authority of God's Word in your life. Last night we looked at step three, which is facing the reality of human nature.

There are a lot of ideas gaining traction in the world today: the idea of relative truth (that what is true for you may not be true for me, but they're both equally true), that the gender you're born with may not be your real gender (or that you get to choose your gender), the idea that who you are is tied to who you are attracted to, and possibly the most problematic idea, that mankind is basically good. The problem with this last one is that it takes away the idea that we are in trouble and in need of a savior. If mankind is basically good, then we don't really need God, or faith, or anything. We're good to go on our own. Unfortunately, this is not reality. Let's look back at the very beginning, when God first made mankind:

Genesis 1:26 - "Then God said, 'Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.' So God created mankind in His own image, in the image of God He created them; male and female He created them."

This was at the very beginning, before sin or death had entered the world. Everything was perfect and good, which means at our very beginning, we were perfect and good, made in God's image. This image, which meant that we were created with reflections of God's nature and character in us, set us apart from the rest of creation. God even said that as mankind is made in His image, it would allow them to rule over the rest of the creation. He gave us some of His authority and a responsibility over the earth. In making us in His image, God gave us the ability to make our own decisions (we call this free will) and He gave us souls - a spiritual aspect to our being that lives on after physical death. After finishing His work in creation, God looked at everything He had made and decided that it was all very good. So, at the beginning, the idea that mankind was basically good was correct. We were. Unfortunately, that's not the end of the story.

Romans 5:14, 17-21 - "Nevertheless, death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even over those who did not sin by breaking a command, as did Adam, who is a pattern of the one to come. … For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ! Consequently, just as one trespass resulted in condemnation for all people, so also one righteous act resulted in justification and life for all people. For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous. The law was brought in so that the trespass might increase. But where sin increased, grace increased all the more, so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

Human nature started out good, but when Adam and Eve sinned against God human nature became corrupted. That act of rebellion (which you can read about in Genesis 3) brought sin and death and decay into God's good creation, and it brought corruption into all of it. Every person is now born with a corrupted nature, so that we are not basically good anymore. At our core, apart from God, we are sinful and hopeless beings. We still have the image of God implanted in us, but it has become corrupted and twisted, so while we can still sometimes do some good in the world, sin is the prevailing part of our nature. This is why we see so much evil and suffering in the world today, because people give in to their sinful natures and choose to do what is wrong. The ultimate consequence for sin, the consequence that we each deserve and are destined for, is separation from God and death. That is the nature and the fate of humanity.

BUT, you may have noticed in the Romans passage, God did not see fit to leave us like this. Just as through that first sin Adam doomed us to death, so through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross we have access to God and to eternal life! When Jesus died, He took the penalty of death that we deserve, so that we wouldn't have to. He took our punishment so that we could be forgiven and have a restored relationship with God. Without faith in Jesus, we have no hope of redemption. We would be stuck in our sin nature and doomed to eternal death and separation from God. Through Jesus, we can have life, and have it abundantly.

Our society is pushing a lot of new ideas right now, most (all) of which go against what the Bible tells us about human nature. If we take steps one and two, believing in Jesus and accepting the authority of God's Word in our lives, then we should be prepared to take step three, which is to face the reality of human nature which is described in the Bible. This is a hard step to take in our culture right now, because doing so pits us against the ideas that the world is pushing. The world will yell at us, scream at us, maybe even attack us to get us to accept their ideas. But we must stand up and stand strong for what the Bible says to be true, no matter what kind of push back we get for it.

The world wants to pretend that mankind is not doomed to death. The world wants to pretend that people can be whatever they want to be, and do whatever they want to do. The world pretends all this because it is easier than facing the reality that there is judgment coming for those who rebel against God. Whether you believe and trust in God's Word or not, eventually you gotta face reality.

Do You Know God?

 HEYO! Last night was a good night. We had a good crew and shared a few laughs together. I learned that some of yall are VERY EASILY distracted, which I suppose wasn't really "new" information. Sister Spatz brought out her favorite game, Dutch Blitz, which is apparently a fast-paced and fun game (I just don't get it). We attempted to play "keep up" with a volleyball, but this was the part where I learned about yalls distractedness.

We played some Nuke 'Em as our main game and not to boast or anything but I did this amazing diving catch which turned into a roll upon landing. Obviously, I didn't get to see it happen (as I was the one doing it), but in my mind's eye it was EPIC. Definitely one of the coolest things I have done in a while.

Our message last night was a continuation of our study of the devotions of the early church. This is all based out of Acts 2:42-47 - "They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the LORD added to their number daily those who were being saved."

So far, we have talked about being devoted to teaching, fellowship, breaking bread, prayer, and true community, and last night we talked about the second-to-last thing, praising God.

When I was a kid, I did a LOT of reading on my own time. I had this awesome series of books called "Dinotopia" which was about a secret utopian society on an island where intelligent dinosaurs and humans lived together in peace. I highly recommend these books. Anyway, I used to hate the beginning of a book. It was so boring as they introduced characters and setting and plot. I wanted to get to the action. So, I got in the habit of skipping the first 3 chapters of a book, reading it to the end, and then after finishing I would go back and read the beginning. What would happen is I would start reading in chapter 4 and have to ask "Who is that? What is he doing? Who's that guy? Where are they going? Why are they doing that?" Since I had skipped the intro, I had no clue what was happening in the story or how the characters related to each other. And then, when I would go back and read the beginning, suddenly all the pieces would fit together and those questions I asked in chapter 4 were answered.

Many Christians today (and perhaps you, too) prefer to read the New Testament over the Old Testament of the Bible. Sometimes this is because the OT is hard to read or understand, while the NT is pretty straightforward. Other times this is just because that's all the church covers on Sunday morning. The problem is, only reading the NT is like skipping the first 3 chapters of a book, you miss a lot of the setup and background information. You have no idea who anybody is or why they are doing what they are doing. The early church described in Acts 2 didn't have the NT to read and study like we do. They had the apostles' teaching (which would have covered a lot of what is in the NT) and the OT Scriptures. Their knowledge of God, who He is, what He has done, and how He relates to us came directly from the OT Scriptures. And their praises were based on what they knew of God through those Scriptures.

So as we talk about what it means to be devoted to praising God, we're taking a trip back to the beginning - the very beginning. Click here to open up Genesis 1 on Biblegateway.com. Or, if you would prefer, pull out your Bible and open to page 1. Let's see what we can learn about God from the first 3 chapters of the Bible. (For the sake of space in this post, I will not be including most of the verses so you will need to follow along using your Bible or Biblegateway.com)

Genesis 1:1 - "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." This is the first sentence in the entire Bible, and it sets the stage for everything else that follows. "In the beginning God..." This verse tells us that God exists already at the beginning of everything, which tells us that He is eternal (has no beginning).

This verse (and the rest of the chapter) also tells us that God is both powerful and creative. We also learn from this first chapter that God's Words are powerful (He creates by speaking things into existence) and that He is orderly - He creates in a specific order, with complexity and purpose.

Genesis 1:27-29 - "So God created mankind in His own image, in the image of God He created them; male and female He created them. God blessed them and said to them, 'Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.' Then God said, 'I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food.'" We learn here that God delegates authority and provides generously for His creation. He put mankind in charge of the earth and made sure they had an abundance of food to eat. Here and also in chapters 2 and 3 we see that God is personal - He interacts with His creation on a personal level. He walks and talks with Adam in the Garden of Eden. He is not some distant god with little or no concern for us - He knows us and is concerned about us.

In Genesis 2 God establishes one rule for Adam and Eve in the Garden - they must not eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. They have free reign over everything else, just not that tree. This tells us that God is moral - He knows the difference between right and wrong and establishes rules for living rightly.

In Genesis 3 Adam and Eve are persuaded by the serpent (imagery for Satan) to break God's rule and rebel against Him. It is in this chapter that we learn that God is just - when rules are broken there must be consequences, or justice. He sets consequences on all the involved parties: the serpent, the woman, and the man (and through this consequence the earth also becomes cursed).

But we also see at the end of chapter 3 that God is loving and merciful, because even though Adam and Eve rebelled against Him, He still provides clothing for them.

And finally, we learn that part of the consequences of rebellion is separation from God. He banishes mankind from His presence (and the Garden). This is because He is holy and mankind's sin was unholy - those two things cannot go together.

So just in the first 3 chapters we have the establishment that God is eternal, powerful, creative, orderly, generous, personal, moral, just, loving, merciful, and holy. We learned how the world was created, how mankind was made special (in God's image), how mankind rebelled against God and received the due consequences, and how God worked through it all. All of these things we learned about God remain consistent throughout the entire Bible and these chapters set the stage for all of history.

Go back and read Genesis 3:14-15 - "So the LORD God said to the serpent, 'Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and all wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life. And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.'" This is God's judgment on the serpent for deceiving Adam and Eve into rebellion. And that last part, "he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel", is an important foreshadowing of something we just celebrated a few days ago at Easter - the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The Devil's plan was to kill Jesus (the offspring of Eve) and he succeeded. Unfortunately for him, though, Jesus didn't stay dead. He arose from death, which was the point at which the Devil's demise (his defeat) was realized. Jesus' resurrection was a deathblow to Satan's plans. So, even in the first 3 chapters of the Bible we already have a foreshadowing of God's plan of redemption for mankind in Jesus Christ on the cross. Although we are the ones who broke God's rules and deserve our punishment (death), God entered our world as Jesus and paid the price for us - because He is just (someone needed to be punished), AND because He is loving. John 3:16 - "For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life."

Getting back to the point for today, being devoted to praising God, in order to praise God we have to know God. We have to relate to Him somehow. And how can we come to know Him unless we read His Word? How can we praise Him if we don't even know Him?

The early church's praise was born from their knowledge and experience of God. Our praise must be driven by the same thing. We must know and experience God personally before we can be devoted to praising Him.

Remember how God banished mankind from His presence? That was a consequence of their sin. Because of our sin, we also are separated from God and cannot know Him personally. But, because of what Jesus did for us on the cross, we can now have our sin removed from us and be reunited with God! We CAN have a relationship with Him and know Him. To try and know God without believing in Jesus as your Lord and Savior is like trying to look up facts about someone on the internet. You may learn something about them, but you won't know them, not really. To get to know them, you have to be in a relationship with them. It is the same with God. We can know about God by reading the Bible. We get to know God when we believe in Jesus, enter that relationship, read His Word, pray, and experience His love and mercy and forgiveness for ourselves. Then, it is out of this knowledge and experience that we sing praises to Him.

So, ultimately, it is as we are devoted to these other things (teaching, fellowship, breaking bread, prayer, and true community) that we then can be devoted to praising God like the early church was. Praise and worship come out of knowledge and experience.  The question for you is:

Do you know God?