The Greatest Gift

“Then the angel said to them, Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.” (Luke 2: 10-11)

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16)

This is the season to celebrate the greatest gift ever given to mankind. The God who made all things left glory and came to be born to a poor Jewish girl. His stepfather was a carpenter who had to travel a great distance on foot with a pregnant wife because of a government decree. They came to their destination and found there was no vacancy. Out of kindness, a person allowed them to use a smelly stable. When God was born he was placed in a feeding trough.

The first people to come to the stable were shepherds. In that time, they were considered the lower element of society. They smelled and were considered no better than thieves. And yet, these were the men summoned by the angels.

To think, God Almighty came in such a way to save our lives from sin and death. What a great gift we have received.

Man's Wisdom vs. God's Wisdom

Over the years, I have been amazed at the things man has discovered. I was working in the computer field when they were huge and took up entire floors of buildings. We went from that to my iPad, which has much more capability than any of the computers I worked with. Unfortunately, man has allowed his acquisition of information to cloud his judgment on his place in the scheme of things.

God told us about this time in Daniel. “But you, Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book until the time of the end; many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall increase”. (Dan. 12:4)  God told us that we would travel quickly from place to place and knowledge would increase. God knew thousands of years ago what would occur today, because He is an infinite being. Man is finite. He has a beginning and an end, but God is forever.

Man can learn some finite facts. He can manipulate things that exist, and he has a free will to choose what he will do and whom he will worship. Unfortunately, man’s increase in knowledge has come at a terrible price.

“And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting.” (Rom. 1:28)

“Always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.” (2 Tim. 3:7).

Man has debased his knowledge. He thinks because he has learned a few finite facts he understands infinite knowledge. I liken man’s knowledge to a fine wood worker. He can take an expensive piece of wood and tell you all about its characteristics. He can then make it into something beautiful, but no matter how much a man learns about wood, he cannot make an acorn and have it grow into a tree.

I took a lot of chemistry in college. I was taught many things about atoms and atomic theories, but none of my professors could make a proton, a neutron, and an electron and put them together to make a hydrogen atom. Today we have much more knowledge than when I attended college, but no scientist could make a hydrogen atom from scratch. This is the difference between finite knowledge and infinite knowledge.

Man is a created being. He will never know as much as the maker of all things. The pot doesn’t know how the potter made it. Put your trust in the maker of all things.

Is Hell For Real (Part 2)

We have seen that the Bible makes it clear hell is a real place. This brings up a question. If God is a God of love, how could He make such a terrible place?

The answer is both simple and complex. Besides being a God of love, He is also a God who is holy and just. Because He is holy, no sinful thing can come into His presence.  We see how holy God is in Exodus 33:20 – "But He said, 'You cannot see My face; for no man shall see Me and live.'"

God warned Adam in the Garden of Eden that if he ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil he would die. He didn’t believe God’s word. He ate it and died spiritually and physically. Man still doesn’t believe what God says. This is the reason people do not believe hell exists.

 You might say, "But I am a good person. Surely, God would not send me to hell." The answer to that is, what do you mean by “good”? Most people use their measuring stick to determine if they are good. God’s word is God’s measuring stick.

“As it is written: There is none righteous, no, not one.” (Romans 3:10)

“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23)

By God’s measuring rod all deserve to go to hell, but God is a God of love. He has made a way for all men to escape their deserved fate.

“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 6:23)

Without Jesus, you go to your just punishment. When you accept Him as your Lord, He becomes your mediator with a holy God. Because of what He has done for us, we are united with a holy God, and we can enter into His rest.

 

 

Is Hell for Real?

Part 1

 

Today many believe that hell doesn’t exist. Many preachers do not talk about hell in their sermons. Some say it is a state of mind or that your life experiences can be like hell. So the question must be asked, is hell a real place or not? It is with a heavy heart that I must tell you it is as real a place as any you can think of. Unfortunately, the vast majority of mankind will spend their eternity there.

To understand hell we must go to the source of all truth – God’s word. Further, we will look at the ultimate spokesman – God’s son. In Matthew 18: 8-9 and Mark 9: 43-48 Jesus warns us that hell is such a terrible place that it is better to be maimed than to go to hell whole.

Some of you may be surprised that there are two hells. There is the current hell where the lost will go and there is a future hell where the lost will remain for all of eternity. We find this in Revelation 20: 11-15.  All the lost will stand before the great white throne of God. Death and hell will give up its dead and all the lost will be judged and thrown into the lake of fire.

The wonderful news is that God has given us a mediator who will stand for the righteous. They will escape this fate and spend eternity with God in everlasting joy. This is why this is called the good news.

Finite vs. Infinite Knowledge

“For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, “He catches the wise in their own craftiness.” 1 Corinthians 3:19 

“For it is written: “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.” 1 Corinthians 1:19

Man likes to bask in his intelligence. We have made a lot of progress since the 1800s, but compared to God and His wisdom, we know nothing. No matter how much knowledge man attains, it is still just finite knowledge. God has infinite knowledge.

To explain the difference, let’s look at an example. Suppose I brought an apple to scientists who understand apples. They could tell me what kind it was, how to grow it, and some of its chemical makeup. If I asked them to tell me how many seeds were in the apple without cutting it, they could use imaging to tell me the number.

However, if I cut it in two and took out a seed, no scientist could tell me how many apples I would get from that seed. This is the difference between finite and infinite knowledge. Man can manipulate what exists and can learn finite facts about what exists. It is like a fine woodworker. He can take a block of wood and make something beautiful. He can tell you many things about the block of wood he used, but he has no idea how to make a tree.

How do we know God has infinite knowledge? All we have to do is look at God’s word. He tells us that not a single small bird sickens and dies that he doesn’t know about it. He tells us that the number of hairs on each of our heads is numbered. His word tells us that he knows every star in the universe by name. His word tells us that before we were born He knew us and that our book already sits in His library. He knows how many flakes fall in any snowstorm and how many rain drops come down in any thundershower.

This is the difference between the knowledge man attains and the knowledge God has always had. You can put your thrust in Him, for He knows everything.

God’s Greatest Earthly Creation – Man

During creation, God simply spoke and things came to pass. But when He decided to make man, God changed His creation pattern.

Then God said, “Let us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

So God created man in His own image in the image of God created him; male and female He created them. Genesis 1: 26-27

“And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and he became a living being.” Genesis 2: 7

As you can see from God’s word, the creation of man was something special. First, there was a conference among the God Head and they agreed to make man. Second, they decided to make man in Their own image. This doesn’t mean that man looks like God. It means that man, like God, is a triune being. In the case of man, he has a body. Inside this body is a spirit. This spirit is the part of man that realizes there is a God. Our third part is our immortal soul. This is the real us. This is the part that must deal with God and God’s plan for us.

Third, God took time from the creation and formed man from the dust of the Earth. Think about it-God himself molded man. You can see why the Bible talks about man as a pot and God as the potter. In essence, this is exactly what happened.

Man is not like the rest of creation. Man and man alone has an immortal soul. It will live throughout the ages.

If there is a God, why is the world in such bad shape?

This is a question often asked by people who don’t believe in God. I have been asked this question many times in the past. The answer is quite simple. If you want to know who is responsible for the problems we have in this world just look in the mirror. 

God put man in a beautiful garden. He was to live in this garden forever. There would be no death, war, crime or privation. But man decided he wanted to be God. “For God knows that the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” Gen. 3:5

This has been man’s quest ever since. People say man is God or every man has God inside him. This is totally false.

The Earth was cursed because of man’s sin. Man, who was meant to live forever, died because of his sin. “Cursed is the ground for your sake; In toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life. Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, and you shall eat the herb of the field. In sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for dust you are, and to dust you shall return.” Gen. 3: 17-19

Man doesn’t want to blame the ones who are guilty of all the problems, so he tries to blame God. Look in the mirror and you will find why the Earth is not a perfect place to live. 

Remember this-man was placed in a perfect environment. He was brilliant and had everything he needed or wanted, but because he thought he wanted to be god, everything changed. Man, and man alone, is responsible for the Earth we live on today.

Yes, there is a devil

Many people believe in God but not in the Devil. This begs the question – where does evil come from?

The Devil was once an Arch Angel. His name was Lucifer and he was the Covering Angel. The Bible tells us he was beautiful. Unfortunately, he decided he should be God. He rose in revolt against God and a third of the angels of Heaven joined him. Of course, the created being cannot defeat the Creator. He was overcome and made it his purpose to destroy anything God loves.

He started his work in the Garden of Eden. God made man special. He formed him from the dust of the Earth and blew into his nostrils and man became a living soul. The Devil saw his chance to hurt God. He seduced man and sin entered the world.

The Devil is the father of all lies according to the Bible. He started his lies to man in the Garden. He has been lying to man ever since.

The Devils’ goal is to corrupt mankind and see to it man is destroyed. The Devil knows God loves man and he wants to destroy anything God loves. This is the reason we see a world that is in such turmoil. The Earth is in a spiritual battle.

A time will come when Satan will be let loose on the Earth. Mankind will experience a time so terrible that the Bible says if God didn’t shorten the time no one would survive. We will discuss this in the future.

God is Eternal – He Can Not Die

Back in the 1960’s some pompous writer wrote an article that God was dead. Over the years, this has become the theme of a number of people. It is amazing that a created being, like man, could possibly say that the One who made them is dead. It would be like a pot telling everyone the potter is dead.

I am often asked, "How do you know there is a God? You can’t see Him. You can’t prove He exists scientifically."

This blog is not meant to give a deep theological or scientific answer to this question. However, I think there are some simple answers to this question.

Think of all the things we can’t see or prove scientifically that we accept as being real. We can’t see electrons, protons or neutrons. We can’t prove they exist scientifically but we believe they are there. I always tell them the answer given in the Bible - look at nature. Here we find many things that can’t be seen or proven. 

 

We believe that when we put a seed into the ground we will get something to grow. Where in that apparently dead seed does the instruction rest that allows that seed to reproduce? We can’t see it. It can’t be scientifically proven but we know from experience that the seed will grow.

The same is true with God. Millions know from experience that God exists. He has proven His existence to them. If you doubt His existence then obviously you haven’t experienced Him.

God doesn’t try to prove His existence in the Bible because it is obvious from the Earth itself that He does exist. More and more scientists are moving away from evolution and going to Intelligent Design. They realize that the planet on which we live is far too complex to have been made by anything other than a being of  unbelievable intelligence

Absolute Truth

I am amazed at Americans who say they don’t believe in absolute truth. They must not realize their nation and freedom were proclaimed because of absolute truth.

From our Declaration of Independence – "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."

 

Our Founding Fathers knew that there are absolute truths so obvious they didn’t even think they had to be written down. In these writings, we are going to look at truth.

What is absolute truth? It is something that is true regardless of circumstances, what the majority thinks, people of influence say, or media dictates. It will be true throughout time.

Think of what would happen in your life if there was no such thing as absolute truth. Your GPS would not work. Your bank statement could change because of some whim of the bank or a majority of customers. You could not trust your doctor’s diagnosis. Your life would be thrown into turmoil.

We are going to look to see where you find absolute truth and how you can know it is absolute truth.

If you are looking for absolute truth you should go to the book that is absolute truth from the first page to the last. God’s revelation to man – “The Holy Bible.” This book has existed for thousands of years. Kings, governments, scientists and skeptics have attacked it and yet it is still the number one selling nonfiction book. The reason is simple – it is God’s word to mankind.

The Bible tells us  - “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God.” John 1:1

You can count on the Bible to tell you absolute truth. It has done so for thousands of years.

The Holy Bible is God’s instruction for man to live a joyful life. IF we follow it’s instructions we will find our place in God’s plan for our life.