Monday, December 13, 2010

May 21, 2011, Is This The End? Part Two

Please keep in mind that Mr. Camping believes that the rapture of the church is seconds before Judgment Day begins on the earth. Forget that Revelation says the Great Tribulation is the wrath of God being poured out on a disbelieving world. Forget that we are called to believe so that we can escape the wrath of God. No, Mr Camping has changed that biblical time table, too. By the way, if you go to the website that he has posted you will discover a few other interesting beliefs of his:
1. No Christians should be attending any church since May 21, 1988.
2. If you are still attending a church on May 21, 2011, you will go to hell.
3. The church is the Harlot of Babylon discussed in the book of Revelation (all churches are included).
4. God has predetemined before the foundation of the earth who He would choose to save, so the others were doomed to Hell before their birth.
5. No man knows the hour or the day of the Lord's return does not apply to believers (even though Jesus said He did not even know).
This is just a short summary. I have not included the chapters and verses because of the limitations of time. I will give a full explanation of his interpretive mistakes and the passages you will need to read to see the errors for yourself. Know this, however, Jesus warned us about false teachers in the end times. The only way to avoid being deceived is to get into the Word of God, and ask the Holy Spirit to teach you and help you avoid the false christs and false teachers of the day.

May 21, 2011, Is This The End? Part One

According to Harold Camping of Family Radio we are almost at the end of time as we know it. Harold Camping is the teacher on his own chain of radio stations Family Stations Inc. of California. Mr Camping was born July 19, 1921 in Boulder, Colorado. He is trained as a civil engineer. You can go to Wikipedia for this basic information. Our church family is exposed to his false teachings through a popular radio station for traditional church music out of Beaumont. The call numbers are 89.7 Let me summarize the basic teachings that are being presented through his radio teaching and website.

The Great Tribulation began on May 21, 1988. The problem with this is that the Great Tribulation is described by Jesus as beginning after the Temple is defiled by the abomination of desolation. The last time I checked there was no Temple to desecrate. The prophet Daniel identifies this period as being 42 months, or three and one half years. The book of Revelation identifies the same time period as being of the same duration. If you add three and one half years to May 21, 1988 you have a problem. Mr. Camping had another problem in his predicting abilities. He indicated that the rapture of the church was beginning by some sources in the fall of 1988 and by others in 1994 (which may have been his second guess). This time, he is basing his guess on it having been 7,000 years since Noah's flood. He calculates all of this by saying that a day is as a thousand years and a thousand years as a day and then says that God would bring the last judgment 7,000 years after the flood which he says was May 21, 7,000 years ago. But wait... there's more!

Monday, November 22, 2010

What Makes The Holidays Great? Part Two

If you read Part One, you really need to read this second verse and story to follow. Sometimes we get the feeling that God likes us to be miserable. That really can't be true if He is planning on bringing us to Heaven. There's nothing miserable about Heaven. So let's get a right picture of our Father:
 Matthew 7:7-11 “Keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives. Everyone who seeks, finds. And to everyone who knocks, the door will be opened. “You parents—if your children ask for a loaf of bread, do you give them a stone instead? 10 Or if they ask for a fish, do you give them a snake? Of course not! 11 So if you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good gifts to those who ask him. (New Living Translation)

Years ago when my kids were still in school, we were serving in a church that was not able to pay us very much. We were there because we knew God wanted us there and made the appropriate sacrifices. Vacations were pretty much out of the question. Christmas was coming and during our family devotions, we discussed our plans for that year. The kids wanted to go to Colorado to snow ski like we had back in the youth ministry I had left to come to that church. Liz and I knew that it was out of the question, but agreed that we would pray like our devotions had told us and allow God to answer our prayer as He pleased. Like most parents, Liz and I wanted to "figure something out to make it happen". God made sure that we did not mess it up. The closer we got to Christmas, the more we knew that only God could answer that prayer. One day their was a knock on the door. When I got to the door, no one was there. The mailbox was right at the door, and there was an envelope sticking up from the box. Inside the envelope was a stack of one hundred dollar bills and a note. The note said that we were forbidden to catch up on bills or anything like that with this gift. We were instructed to go away and spend Christmas in a memorable way. About that same time, a travel agent told me about a ministry to ministers that provided free condo rentals in the mountains of Colorado. We called and had a three bedroom condo assigned to us for just the right dates. It was a wonderful vacation and a wonderful lesson. What was the lesson?

My wife and I could have gone into debt to "make" a wonderful holiday memory. We would have thwarted the teaching to our children (and to us) that God is sufficient and often goes far beyond just meeting our needs. Instead of the lust of the flesh being the source of our celebration of God, it became a gift from our Father in Heaven. Make it a point to allow God to be the source of your celebration. Tell Him your hearts desire that is in keeping with His character and revealed will in the Word. Allow Him to do what only He can do and accept that whatever He chooses to do is because He loves you. He is not trying to make us miserable, but He does want to make us like Jesus.

What Makes The Holidays Great? Part One

Whether it is Thanksgiving or Christmas, the truth is the same. We would be missing the point as children of God to sin while celebrating. Think about it. Gluttony while we express our Thanksgiving to God? Crass materialism that puts us in debt to celebrate the birth of Jesus? It really doesn't make sense does it? But it is not the sense of it that seems to control us, it is the feeling of it. We do not want to have the feeling that we are not able to give or do for our families what they want us to do. That is human nature. We can want everything our eyes can see. We can live for everything that our flesh desires instead of what God desires.

 I suppose the problem is that we feed our flesh to the point of disobedience to God while we celebrate what He has done for us. If you say it outloud, it is a striking reality to have come from your mouth. "I will celebrate what God has done for me by being materialistic and gluttenous." "I will create a financial crisis for our family that will make us all miserable for months so we can be happy for one day". No, it just doesn't sound right. So what to do?

Oh no, here it comes, we are supposed to do something frugal or noble instead of doing something really great. Yes, I know that is how it "feels". It is interesting to hear some of the testimonies of people who have made biblical plans for the holidays. It seems that their service for others and their personal sacrifices are remembered much longer than the presents they could not remember months later. It is kind of like sharing your faith. People dread the potential conflict until they see someone else respond to the Lord and be saved. You have to push through the anticipation of the negative to receive what the Father has in mind for us. Well, lets look at a couple of verses that apply. To see the second you will have to read Part Two!

 1 John 2:15-17 "Do not love this world nor the things it offers you, for when you love the world, you do not have the love of the Father in you. 16 For the world offers only a craving for physical pleasure, a craving for everything we see, and pride in our achievements and possessions. These are not from the Father, but are from this world. 17 And  this world is fading away, along with everything that people crave. But anyone who does what pleases God will live forever. (New Living Translation)

Thursday, September 2, 2010

Suffering and the Free Will Of Man

Many people want to hold God responsible for all of the suffering in the world, and especially their own suffering and the suffering of those they love. That might be possible if the entire world was not in rebellion toward God with the exception of those who have given their lives to Jesus. These people are also struggling with sin, and often do not act in a way that demonstrates their love for the God who is saving them. As you know, the book of Genesis recounts the perfect creation in which God placed Adam and Eve. God gave them only one rule to go by. There is only "one" thing that they should not do. Can you imagine a world that is so perfect that there is only one rule to follow? That was not to eat of the fruit of one particular tree- the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. (See Genesis chapters 2 and 3.)


So why did they have to have that one rule? The fruit of that tree was not really the test. The test was whether or not they would choose in their FREE WILL, to do what God had said was best. They could either ignore and disobey Him or obey Him as a demonstration of trusting Him to know what is best thereby showing Him that they loved Him. Well, we know what happened next. Satan comes along looking like a serpent and tempts Eve to eat the fruit anyway. Satan denies the truth of the consequences that God has warned them of, and lies to them. The moment of truth is whether or not they will trust God. Adam is standing right there, because she offers it to him and he takes it too, knowing what God has said. Instead of being a spiritual leader for his wife, he sins against God as well. Now, they have used their own free will to disobey God and bring about the warned consequence-"you shall surely die". In a real sense, mankind had joined Satan's rebellion against God. Though they did not physically die at that very moment, they died spiritually according to the book of Romans which declares that all people without Christ are dead in trespasses against God and sin. Sin is rebellion. Now the result of that rebellion spread to every person. The bible says that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). Adam and Eve lived in the glory of God until they fell. God made man in His image to be with Him in fellowship. But now, because of their own free will choice, the world would be filled with the suffering that Satan wanted to bring into it as an enemy of God. It would never have happened without that free will choice.


So why did God have to put that choice there? You cannot truly love someone unless you can choose to love them or to reject them. They only way for Adam and Eve to have a love relationship with the God who made them was for them to have the choice. That is why salvation still involves a choice on the part of the person that is being led by God to salvation through His only Son- Jesus. By one free will choice all mankind came under the power of sin. By one free will choice (repenting of the rebellion of sin in my own life and turning to God through Jesus) I can be restored to God and have the promise of His help in this life and the promise of life eternally with Him in restored to His image.


So why do innocent people suffer? It all comes back to the free will choices of others. God could force everyone to do the right things. That would also mean that you, as an individual, would not have had the ability to do anything you wanted that might have caused another person to be unhappy. God does intervene in some situations. We want Him to intervene in certain situations so that we would get our own way. But, since everyone has either own desire for getting their way, God allows us to suffer the consequences of being in rebellion (just like Satan) against Him. But it will not always be that way.


Every person will be held accountable for how they lived their life. Every person will suffer the penalty for their own sin, with one exception. When Jesus died on the cross, bearing the sin and rebellion of the whole world, He did not do anything to deserve it. Jesus took the wrath of God for sin for everyone in the world. He took the penalty on Himself, as God in the flesh, so that those who would believe in Him for salvation, and forgiveness of sin could be set free from the penalty of sin and death. Jesus died so that we could be restored to the image of God for all of eternity. He lived a perfect life, always choosing to do with His free will, exactly what God the Father wanted Him to do. He was the substitute for us when it came to punishment. When a person receives Christ into their life, to be changed by Him, and to live with Him as their master or Lord, that person is saved from the penalty of sin and death. Their spirit is made alive again with an eternal life that never ends. If they do not choose Him, but choose to live their own way, they suffer the penalty for their own sin for all eternity. What Jesus did is a gift that must be received to benefit the person who surrenders their life to Him


Some might ask whether or not it is fair for people to get away with hurting innocent people, especially children. God has said that it is wrong and that people who do things like that will be punished. But many of those people were also children once that had been abused in some way, too. It doesn't make it okay, but it does show the effect of sin in the world. When Jesus comes to end time as we know it, those who have been saved by choosing to receive Him will no longer suffer from the things that happened to them during their life. They will be set free from that suffering. For those who have rejected Christ as God's payment for their sin will suffer the consequences of their sin for all eternity in a place the book of Revelation calls the Lake of Fire.


It would be a grand mistake to avoid the salvation of God because things in life do not seem to be fair. God is the great equalizer and eternity will see all of our questions answered and our hurts resolved. The best way to get a chance at fairness in your life is to die for your own sin. We deserve to pay the penalty for our rebellion against God and what our sin has done to the world. Do not go for what is fair. Allow the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross to be the wonderful gift you receive so that you do not have to take what is fair.


To accept Christ one must be willing to acknowledge to God that they also have chosen to sin against Him. One needs to direct their thoughts toward God (don't worry, He knows when you are talking to Him) and ask for His forgiveness for being in rebellion and sinning against Him. Ask Jesus to come into your heart (inner being) and take away the penalty for your sin. Ask Him to be the one that saves you and gives you eternal life. Thank Him for doing what He has been waiting to do for you for a long time (remember that this was His idea before you were even born). Now make your decision to follow Jesus a public decision. Tell others about what you have done. Jesus calls us to follow Him publically by being baptized. Jesus established the church so we would have a place to go and worship Him and grow in our faith with other believers. Make sure that the place you go to church really believes and teaches the Bible instead of coming up with excuses why we do not have to live like the Bible says anymore. We are in the last days before Christ's return, and there are a lot of false churches out there. Pray, read your Bible, and meet with other believers who live and believe the Bible. God will be with you because you now belong to Him.

"Christ suffered for our sins once for all time. He never sinned, but he died for sinners to bring you safely home to God. He suffered physical death, but he was raised to life in the Spirit."           1 Peter 3:18 (New Living Translation)