Category: Apologetics

Why Did Jesus Say He’s Coming Back Soon, When It’s Been So Long?

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The last book of the Bible begins with the curious and inspiring sentence, “The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants the things that must soon take place” (Rev. 1:1, ESV, emphasis mine). The third sentence includes “for the time is near” (Rev. 1:3). Just as amazing are the last recorded words of Jesus at the end of the book, in Rev. 22:20 (ESV), “Surely I am coming soon.” Jesus instructed all of His followers to be perpetually ready for His return, as in Matt. 24:42 (ESV), “Therefore, stay awake, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming.” God clearly presents the Lord’s return as imminent.

Why then, has He not returned after more than 2,000 years since His visible departure from the Mount of Olives? Jesus said He was coming soon, so what does “soon” mean? (It certainly cannot now mean a total period of time less than two millennia!) I would like to outline two reasons that I believe Jesus told us His reappearance to earth would happen quickly. This, then, is not an exhaustive discussion, but one to help us with our biblical confidence.

The first reason you may find to be less riveting than the second, but it needs to be pointed out. God is timeless. He exists completely independent of time, because He is the Creator of time. To God, as the Bible says, “one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day” (2 Pet. 3:8, ESV). Mathematics enters into the picture. We need to grasp that infinity is not a number, but rather the concept that there is no last number. We can count and count and count, but there is always the possibility to add another number. Maybe we don’t have a name for the number because it is so distant, but the number still exists. This concept of infinity – or boundlessness – helps us understand God. Whether we look backward in time or forward in time, He exists. There is never a point that He didn’t exist, even before creation. Ps. 90:2 (ESV) declares, “Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God.”

If you tried to tell the number three to imagine what it feels like to be as far away on the number line as five million, “he” could hardly conceive of it. But try asking three to keep traveling forever until he reaches infinity, and he can’t. He will never reach infinity. And neither can we grasp timelessness – the infinite nature of God. For God to tell us that His return is soon may not mean what we take for granted on our timescale. Perhaps that’s exactly why the Bible proclaims, “The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness” (2 Pet. 3:9, ESV). We tend to perceive His timing from our limited perspective, but God “is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance” (2 Pet. 3:9, ESV). God has a divine and timeless perspective, with a heart toward salvation.

Nonetheless, Jesus did tell us finite humans that He is coming soon. With the backdrop of His timelessness, we still seek to understand His reason for using the term, knowing our limited nature. Let’s, then, discuss the second, fascinating reason God may have expressed Himself this way. If an exasperated mom wants her child to get out the door to an appointment for which they are already late because the child has been dilly-dallying for twenty minutes, the mom may exclaim, “Get over here; we must leave soon!” In this case, when the mother says “soon,” she means “right now.”

If a dad wants his teen to get serious about studying for his permit for a driver’s license, the father might firmly remind his son two months before his eligibility date, “You better be preparing for your permit test; you’ll be taking it very soon.” In this case, when the dad says “soon,” he means “in a couple of months.”

If a mother is trying to foster preparedness in her daughter, she might say to her while the teen is still a high school freshman – “Take your classes seriously, because you’ll be going to college soon.” In this case, when the mom says “soon,” she means “in four years.”

“Soon” must be applied in context. In the first scenario with the distracted child, it is interpreted as “in that very minute,” whereas in the second case it implies a more distant time down the road. However, the third college situation is the one in which the most planning is needed. Many years of serious study and responsibility are necessary to reach the goal. In the last case, “soon” calls us to recognize that much preparation must be made, because the coming event is elaborate and weighty.

Jesus tells us that He is coming quickly because His coming is the most important thing in the universe – the one event for which each Christian is aiming. Everything we do and say and are is invested in the eternal future to which He will usher us when He returns. The one event we cannot miss and must not be ill-prepared for is the coming of Jesus Christ to earth again to remake this broken, sinful world into His perfect kingdom.

His reappearance could be immediate – this very minute. It could happen this year. It could also happen in hundreds or thousands of years. In any case, our knowing that it is soon is utterly appropriate, because this is the event to end all events. This is the hope of every believer. This is the one thing for which you want to say, “I am ready!”

For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ… (Titus 2:11-13)

Who Said Israel Should Be Wiped Off the Earth?

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missile“Israel should be wiped off the Earth.” These were the stark words etched on two ballistic missiles launched by the country of Iran on March 9, 2016. In fact, Amir Ali Hajizadeh, the head of the Revolutionary Guard’s aerospace division, declared, “Israel is surrounded by Islamic countries and it will not last long in a war. It will collapse even before being hit by these missiles.” (1)

The hatred of Israel by many people and nations is evident. And though it is distressing to Christians, the very existence of such extreme animosity only serves to lend credence to the truth of God’s Word. In fact, when I read the headlines marked so boldly with this anti-Semitic message, my heart leaps to think of how the enemies behind this provocation are only proving the Bible’s veracity. Let me explain.

God gave the land of Israel (which is bigger than its current political borders) to His chosen people, the Israelites. The promise began with Abraham (then “Abram”), the father of our faith. Genesis 12:7 (ESV) declares, “Then the LORD appeared to Abram and said, ‘To your offspring I will give this land.'” God reiterated this promise over and over. We find it emphasized again when the Israelites were in the worst of circumstances – as slaves to the Egyptians. In the midst of seeming hopelessness, God firmly reminded them, “I will take you to be my people, and I will be your God, and you shall know that I am the LORD your God, who has brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. I will bring you into the land that I swore to give to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. I will give it to you for a possession. I am the LORD” (Exodus 6:7-8, ESV).

God’s chosen people have struggled throughout history with the promise of their inheritance. They battled with the Canaanites, the Assyrians, the Babylonians, and the Romans during Bible times. They have been assaulted throughout modern history in obvious ways, including that of the Nazis. The hellish attacks notwithstanding, God’s promise remains. The fiendish attacks serve only to demonstrate that there exists something most peculiar and supernatural about this people and this land. Such pointed hatred can only come from an established reality, for no such loathing is the result of fairy tales or light-hearted belief. Our archenemy, Satan, stands behind every plot to abolish God’s people and God’s Promised Land.

The Scripture that jumped out to me when I first heard of the missiles marked with the threat, “Israel should be wiped off the Earth,” is Zechariah 14:2-3 (ESV): “For I will gather all the nations against Jerusalem to battle, and the city shall be taken and the houses plundered and the women raped. Half of the city shall go out into exile, but the rest of the people shall not be cut off from the city. Then the LORD will go out and fight against those nations as when he fights on a day of battle.” Unbelievably, the Lord predicted 2,500 years ago that “all the nations” will eventually go to war against Jerusalem. The attack will culminate just before the visible second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus will return to the very same mountain from which He left (as recorded in Acts 1:9-12), the Mount of Olives. His toes will hit the mountain, and the mountain will split, and the Lord will conquer His enemies! Hear Zechariah 14:4-5b (ESV): “On that day his feet shall stand on the Mount of Olives that lies before Jerusalem on the east, and the Mount of Olives shall be split in two from east to west by a very wide valley, so that on half of the Mount shall move northward, and the other half southward … Then the LORD my God will come, and all the holy ones with him.”

The culmination of Christ’s victory over the enemies of Israel is explained in Zechariah 14:11b (ESV), “Jerusalem shall dwell in security.” No more will she be subject to war and degradation. Apparently, Amir Ali Hajizadeh is right in predicting a violent war with Israel, but he is certainly wrong about the ultimate result! God wins, and God keeps His vows.

After all end times events have taken place and the devil and all His worshippers have been deposited in the lake of fire (Revelation 20:7-15), we hear the amazing words of the Apostle John in Revelation 21:1-2a (ESV), “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, …” Not only a portion of land in the Middle East, but all lands and all the universe will be inhabited by God and His people, with the New Jerusalem as our capital. Amen!

As we are barraged with world news, we are encouraged to see than in trying to destroy God’s plan, His enemies are actually proving the Bible. Iran’s declaration to attempt to wipe Israel off the Earth only demonstrates that everything God has said is unequivocally accurate. Is not God incredible, that He uses even His adversaries to fulfill His plan and show His Word to be firm and timeless?

It reminds me of wicked King Herod the Great of the first century. In order to try to destroy Jesus, He used the words of the Old Testament prophet Micah to determine the location of Jesus’ birth (see Micah 5:2 and Matthew 2:1-6). Herod must have actually believed that the Old Testament prophecy had something to it. And when He killed all the male children in the Bethlehem region who were two years old and younger, He fulfilled yet another prophecy of God! (See Jeremiah 31:15 and Matthew 2:18)

Even unbelievers and enemies bring glory to God’s Word by demonstrating in real time and space its accuracy. So, go ahead leaders of Iran. Go ahead all enemies of God. You seek to annihilate His sovereignty, but only end up proving it!

“I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.” (Job 42:2, ESV)

(1) Gambrell, Jon. Iran Fires Two Missiles Marked with “Israel Must Be Wiped Out.” abcnews.go.com. 9 March 2016.

– Shelli S. Prindle

Lottery Odds Or Eternal Assets

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What kind of dreams are you pursuing? How sure are you of your chances of finding the joy for which you are looking?

Some people strive desperately to “get rich quick.” They will spend valuable income on a lottery that has incredible mathematical odds against a win. The miniscule chance of monetary gain is slim beyond understanding. But in an attempt to grasp at a fantasy, people do what is imprudent.

Perhaps lottery players feel that the small amount of money they put into the game of chance is negligible. They decide it is “no big deal” to pay small amounts for such a gamble. But isn’t every penny we have a blessing from God? And does not a whole bunch of little amounts spent regularly add up to a large amount? This principle of caring for each asset provided to us applies not only to gambling, but to all the ways we spend our money – and our time.

What if we moved from slim chances to eternal surety? What if we quit being obsessed with the temporal and truly sought to see the everlasting, as far-fetched as it might at first seem to a mind pulled from God? What if we actually believed what Jesus Christ stood and on a mountain one day and said to real human beings one day, “…Lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal” (Matthew 6:20, ESV)? Could it be true that we can accumulate (lay up) assets in another world (heaven)?

Many people focus on Matthew 6:19 to the neglect of the verse I just mentioned. We tend to focus on the “don’t” instead of the “do.” We somehow get turned off by the “Do not lay up for yourselves treasure on earth…” (Matthew 6:19, ESV) – forgetting that the next words out of our Savior’s mouth assure us that we can currently be building a mass of heavenly wealth that cannot be lost!

I like, too, how Jesus connects the building of heavenly possessions with scientific truth. My treasure in the next world cannot be destroyed by living creatures, corroded by chemical reactions, or stolen by evil intentions. The assets accumulating in Heaven are one hundred percent safe. There is no gamble, because Jesus is protecting that wealth. You talk about a secure bank and secure investment! My treasure does not need to be kept under lock and key or safeguarded by high level passwords; your true wealth is “kept in heaven for you” (1 Peter 1:4, ESV).

In other words, the treasure I am building by investing in God’s work is not stored in this world. It is somewhere else – where God abides. It is safe! And better yet, I am safe, too, until I get there! The Bible says we have been born again “to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed…” (1 Peter 1:4-5). No one can steal my true wealth, and no one can prevent me from getting go the place where God and it resides! Amen!

I have been traveling for a number of weeks, each Monday afternoon, to a Christian school in the area. I pack up my laptop, projector, my Bible, and head to the gymnasium/cafeteria to speak to nearly one hundred students in grades six through twelve about Christian apologetics (a reasonable, intelligent defense of biblical Christianity).

Each week, I speak my heart out, using every ounce of God-given passion to help these teens recognize the validity of the Bible and Jesus Christ. Counting on the Holy Spirit, I press forward, despite a few disgruntled and uninterested faces. Nonetheless, I watch many students suck in truth that they have never before heard. I sense God’s Spirit working, and I give it all I’ve got.

Yet there are times when I wonder what I am doing. The enemy tries to discourage me, saying, “What are you doing in a little gymnasium/cafeteria each week speaking to a group of teens in a small Western Pennsylvania school?” And I begin to ponder in my selfishness, “What prestige is there in this?” and “Who else would do this?”

Then God gets hold of me. He whispers that someone does this who is willing to be obedient in the smallest of things and invest in eternal treasure. Those who play the lottery gamble away little bits of money here and there, but I invest eternally little bits of time and effort every Monday afternoon. It may not seem like much. It is not glamorous. It does not bring me fame. But it is eternal investing, and I got to see a glimpse of that treasure just a few days ago.

A sixth grade girl in a pink hoodie approached me after one of my lessons about the reliability of the Old and New Testaments. I was packing up my projector when she stopped me with tears in her eyes and said, ‘Hi.” I responded, and she proceeded to say, “I gave my life to God on December 14 (a Monday afternoon!) because of your talks here, Mrs. Prindle.” My exclamation as my eyes lit up was, “That’s wonderful!” and “That makes everything I’ve done here worthwhile!” Then I gave this young girl a big hug.

The truly amazing part is that this sixth grade student had been a professed atheist. Her fellow students and teachers were aware of her lost condition. And yet, Jesus got hold of her one Monday afternoon! Now she is telling those same people about her new relationship with God.

There will be another person in the eternal New Heavens and New Earth because of a regular Monday afternoon investment. I refuse to gamble away my time and resources in this fading world. I will invest in eternal assets. I will hug precious people in Heaven who are somehow connected to me by the true investments Jesus has enabled me to make.

Let’s live like Moses did: “He thought is was better to suffer for the sake of Christ than to own the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking ahead to his great reward.” (Hebrews 11:26, NLT)

Animals in the Scheme of Things

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A student recently asked me if animal experimentation is wrong from a biblical perspective. This is an important question that actually gives opportunity to highlight the invaluable nature of humanity, the preciousness of animals, and the incomprehensible love of God.

I will say at the outset that my heart is particularly grateful for animals used in the field of medicine, as the insulin I had to inject for survival during my first years as an insulin-dependent diabetic was pork insulin. Pork insulin was made from pig pancreases. As Erika Gebel, Ph.D., notes, “We’ve come a long way since more than two tons of pig parts were required to produce eight ounces of purified insulin. Today, the insulin that comes in vials, pens, and pumps is not from pigs and cows but from designer microorganisms. These critters provide more of the hormones (and in forms more similar to the body’s own) to the millions of people across the globe who depend on a steady stream of high-quality insulin.” (1)

All of us are touched personally by disease and deformity. Everyone loves or knows someone who survives and/or benefits because of animal use in medicine. Each of us has also been touched by the lives of animals in other ways. God has made them good and beneficial for a number of reasons. We enjoy the companionship of domesticated animals as pets and the beauty and mystery of other creatures.

But as our culture continues to deemphasize the value of human life while simultaneously emphasizing the significance of the environment and animals, we begin to see questions surface. As Christians, we rightfully need to think through the issues using biblical principles; for the biblical perspective is the only perspective that is always correct and never changing. Despite our culture’s changing standards, God’s Word is timeless, and its principles stand true through all of history. As we will explore in the Scriptures in a moment, human value is above that of both the environment and animals (though the other parts of creation are vital and blessed!). William A. Dembski (mathematician, philosopher, and theologian) asserts, “Genesis clearly teaches that humans are the end of creation. For instance, Genesis describes the creation as merely ‘good’ before humans are created but describes it as ‘very good’ only after they are created. God’s activity in creation is therefore principally concerned with forming a universe that will provide a home for humans. Although this anthropocentrism sits uneasily in the current mental environment, it is not utterly foreign to it. Indeed, the intelligibility of the physical world through our intellects and, in particular, through such intellectual achievements as mathematics suggests that we live in a meaningful world whose meaning was placed there for our benefit.” (2)

I appeal to two passages of Scripture at the outset. First, Genesis 1:20-28 (ESV):

    And God said, “Let the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the heavens.” So God created the great sea creatures and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarm, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. And God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.” And there was evening and there was morning, the fifth day.
    And God said, “Let the earth bring for the living creatures according to their kinds – livestock and creeping things and beasts of the earth according to their kinds.” And it was so. And God made the beasts of the earth according to their kinds and the livestock according to their kinds, and everything that creeps on the ground according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.
    Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and 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 he created him; male and female he created them.
    And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

Notice that the living creatures were created and deemed “good” by their Creator. Notice also that when God created man and woman, He jumped into a new paradigm, making them “in his own image” – unlike anything else He had made. Humans were designed to have a unique relationship with God that no plant or animal or galaxy can ever have, no matter how beautiful or enjoyable. Additionally, humans were instructed to “have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” Part of the human task of filling and subduing the world God created was to dominate the other creatures. Certainly this dominion is not for evil purposes, as evil goes against the very nature of God. The subduing of creation is for the purpose of building society.

The second passage to which I appeal at the start is Psalm 8:3-8 (ESV):

    When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?
    Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor. You have given him dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the seas.

We see here reiterated the emphasis of Genesis. Added though, is the truth that people are made just a bit lower than heavenly beings and are crowned with glory and honor. All things are put under our feet in order that our true destiny of godly glory and honor is fulfilled. Again, I add that it is dishonorable to mistreat any part of God’s creation out of a malicious heart. Moving toward honor and glory in a broken and sinful world must happen as we seek to do so within the parameters of God’s plan, for honor and glory can only come from Him.

Our Lord clearly tells us that unneeded cruelty is wrong. Proverbs 12:10 (ESV) proclaims, “Whoever is righteous has regard for the life of his beast, but the mercy of the wicked is cruel.” Jesus Himself often uses the metaphor of being a Shepherd, and He even speaks of “laying down his life for the sheep” (John 10:15, ESV). When we look at righteous King David of the Old Testament, we see a man who valued the keeping of His sheep enough to risk his own life in protecting them from lions and bears (1 Samuel 17:34-35). In fact, when necessary, he would kill the beasts if both the life of the sheep and his life were threatened by them. So we see – that in a fallen world – the best option to protect what is valuable can involve death.

Research seems to demonstrate that domesticated animals can be a benefit to their owners in terms of emotional and physical health. This seems right, as God made animals to live on the same earth as humans, yet under our ultimate dominion and as part of the plan for us. In the same way, animals can benefit humans by providing health research for the treatment and cure of illness and disease.

Here is the ultimate biblical point that brings home the case for both the precious nature of animals and the allowance for their use in saving human health and life. Think about our redemption from sin. Our salvation from our own sinful nature is necessary to preserve our eternal life with God. Without salvation from sin, we die one day physically and we die spiritually for an eternity. Our Creator thought our redemption so vital that He provided His own Son as the sacrifice to stand in our place. His death on the Cross and His blood that was shed appease the wrath of a holy God against our sin (Ephesians 1:7).

God sacrificed Himself in real flesh – and in real space and time – to save us. (No other religion’s god claims to have done this utterly unique and historically evidential act.) Our value is inestimable. Not only do we read of our worth in His Word, but we know of our value because the infinite Son of God gave His own life for ours. Two thousand years ago, Jesus began the restoration project of giving back to us our intended glory under the sovereignty of God. Made in His image to reign under Him, we will see that reality in the future. The cost was the very life of the Son of God.

Now think about this. Before Jesus came to earth to die and do the most pivotal thing God could do to demonstrate our human value and His love for us, how did He instruct humans to look forward by faith to that coming promise? The answer is critical: He told humans to make animal sacrifices. Innumerable animals were continuously slain so that their precious blood could point to the perfect blood of Jesus. As Scott Langston and E. Ray Clendenen note, “Leviticus 1-7 gives the most detailed description of Israel’s sacrificial system, including five types of sacrifices.” (3) As a matter of fact, when Adam and Eve attempted to cover themselves with fig leaves after the shame of their sin, God quickly demonstrated the inadequacy of such an attempt, and made them garments of skin (Genesis 3:7, 21). Skin clothing requires the death of an animal. And from then on, humans were instructed to deal with their sins by shedding animal blood to look forward to the final answer in the blood of Jesus (Genesis 4:3-5).

Sacrificial animals were precious enough (having been made by God) to foreshadow the work of Jesus. But they were not as valuable as the people for whom their blood would temporarily point to redemption by Jesus. God Himself makes clear both animal value and the limits of that value when compared to humanity. To God, our spiritual hope is worth animal sacrifice. Most assuredly, then, our physical health is worth it, too.

God cares for the animals. “He gives to the beasts their food, and to the young ravens that cry” (Psalm 147:9, ESV). Jesus said, “Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them” (Matthew 6:26a, ESV). But then He directly adds, “Are you not of more value than they?” (Matthew 6:26b) This rhetorical question Jesus asks, which follows an affirmation of His care for little birds, drives home the point. Animals are important. God sees all that happens with them. But people are more important, and one of the ways God has certainly provided for humans is by animal life.

We rejoice in the New Heavens and New Earth God that God is creating, because the sin curse will be erased and all disease eradicated (Revelation 22:3). People and animals will live without the hindrance of sin’s nasty effects. For now, we thank God for His calling on us to take dominion of this world under His sovereignty. Above all, we thank Him for the unimaginable price He paid for our entrance to the new world – foreshadowed at great cost by precious animals – and fulfilled in His Son. As I Peter 1:18-21 (ESV) tells us:

    Knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.

All of us who value animals and what they provide by way of medical help and emotional help rejoice in this promise about the millennial reign of Christ in the beginning of that new world (Isaiah 11:6-9, ESV):

    The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together; and a little child shall lead them. The cow and the bear shall graze; their young shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. The nursing child shall play over the hole of the cobra, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder’s den. They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea.

References:

(1) Erika Gebel. “Making Insulin: A behind-the-scenes look at producing a lifesaving medication.” Diabetes Forecast. July 2013. Web. Jan. 27 2015.

(2) William A. Dembski, The End of Christianity (Nashville, TN: B&H Publishing Group, 2009), 143-44.

(3) Scott Langston & E. Ray Clendenen, Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary (Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 2003), 1429.

What Does It Mean to Believe in Jesus?

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The Bible is full of the promise that if a person truly believes in Jesus Christ, he will be saved. But what does that actually mean as lived out in real life? How can a person be sure she believes to the point of salvation?

Let’s use a simple – yet profound – analogy. Assume for a few moments that you are drowning in the deep waters of the ocean. There is no one around you for as far as your desperate eyes can see. The undertow begins to pull you down, and you have never been able to swim. Your strength is waning, and your hope is dissipating. When all of the sudden, a large boat appears and a kind person aboard that craft throws to you a life preserver. You see that preserver and think about how beautiful that red and white round lifeline is to you at that moment.

Now you have a critical choice. You must decide whether or not you are going to place the weight of your body onto that life preserver. You must resolve to actually grasp the device. To simply look at the life preserver – and even adore it to some degree – will not save you. To mutter words through gasps in the ocean waves about how much you appreciate and trust that round lifeline will not deliver you. You can even shout to the people on the boat about the importance of the life preserver and how thankful you are for it. But neither will that save you. There is actually only one thing you can do in order to be rescued; you must put your body on that ring. Until the weight of yourself – not just your mind – but your whole self – rests on that device, you will still drown.

Can you see the parallel here? So many people want to talk about Jesus and say they love Him with their brains and their mouths, but do those same people place the weight of their whole lives upon Him? We can be near to Jesus and near to people who trust Him, we can adore many things about Him, and we can talk of His goodness; but one question remains … are we placing the actual stuff of our own lives onto Him?

When I place my life onto Jesus, it is a different life. I am no longer separated from Him and only talking about Him; I am now talking with Him. My life is now steered by His guidance, not my own. I go where He takes me, into whatever action He deems right. I cling to Him for my life, arms wrapped around Him. This is not “religion” anymore; this is love and life. The moments of my days and the substance of my life have a Lord, and His name is Jesus.

Will you get on the life preserver, or will you only admire it from a distance? The choice is one between life and death. And the actual difference represented here is the difference between mere mental assent and true, saving belief. Will you believe?

“For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16)

How Can I Believe In A God that Tortures People In Hell?

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An unbeliever asks, “How can you believe that God tortures people forever in Hell?” Now, wait a second; let’s think this through. First of all, the most startling thing is that God punished His very own Son (and Self) on the Cross two thousand years ago. In fact, the word excruciating comes from the Latin word for cross. Keep in mind also that the pain God inflicted on His Son was not only physical, but spiritual in nature. Jesus endured the guilt of our sin. He was tormented in body and spirit for our wickedness, though He is God and completely perfect. (II Corinthians 5:21)

Secondly, God “tortured” Himself, if you will, in order that we might be freed from the penalty and punishment we justly deserve. He deserved none of it, for Jesus is the perfect Son of God (I Peter 3:18). In effect, God does not send any person to eternal and tormented separation from Him without first offering the torment of His own Son (and Self) as the primary sacrifice … and the way out of anguish for all believing humans.

Thirdly, we are finite creatures sinning against an infinitely holy God. It is one thing for me to sin against another human being (and God holds us accountable for that), but in every sin we are ultimately offending God (Psalm 51:4). Sinning against an infinitely holy God obviously demands an infinite punishment. And, my friend, only an infinite God could absorb the world’s sin in a moment of time. That’s exactly what Jesus did! His infinitude allowed Him to absorb the totality of sin in one event of history. We finite creatures, however, would have to carry our own guilt on ourselves forever in order to pay it off. (John 3:36) Hence, Hell is an everlasting punishment.

So, before we get disturbed by the concept of Hell, we need to get amazed by the concept of Calvary. There, God inflicted immeasurable spiritual, emotional, and physical pain on His own Self as Jesus suffered and died. Jesus is our Way of escape from the misery of Hell, which is brought on by our own rebellion and refusal to believe in the measureless love and perfectly just plan of God.

First and foremost, we must understand that God placed our well-deserved penalty on Jesus, the Perfect One, who deserved no chastisement. Our punishment rightly follows if we sinners refuse to accept this great plan of unimaginable love. (Isaiah 53:10)

Torture or Trust

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Read this paragraph carefully:

    As she lay there suddenly unconscious, he hovered over her body with his glistening knife. His accomplices nervously awaited his every move as beads of sweat dripped from his forehead despite the well-thought-out plan. He lifted his arm slightly … and then … it happened. His gloved hand began its descent toward her chest. The intense breathing could be heard from behind his mask. Then, swiftly, the glistening knife pierced her skin and went deeper, deeper.

This scenario sounds pretty awful, doesn’t it? However, before you make a judgment call, read the end to the story:

    Within minutes the doctor had removed the deadly bullet which had been lodged perilously close to her heart. She would recover.

Do the last two sentences change your whole outlook of the account? What at first appeared to be a horrendous act of cold-blooded murder … was actually an act of life-saving mercy. The masked man is a surgeon, his accomplices comprise the medical team, and his goal is to save life – not end it.

When we lack proper knowledge, what is good can be mistaken for bad. For example, try telling a two-year-old boy whose own mother is holding him down as a doctor jabs an IV into his arm that the adults are actually trying to help him and not torture him. Explaining this to a child is a difficult – if not impossible – task. The qualitative and quantitative gap in understanding between a baby and an adult is a large one. But, in a few decades, the gap will disappear. A twenty-year-old young lady can comprehend the need for IV hydration. She would not accuse her parents or the doctor of some cruelty. She can accept that while the method for healing is painful, it is necessary.

It is easy to see why a baby being injected for an immunization might be very confused by his mother’s participation in such a painful and mysterious event. A baby needs a few decades to grow in order to have the understanding of an adult, which would give him proper perspective on this protective action.

So, picture if you would, that you are a little child on the lap of God. And He is allowing some mysterious “injection” of pain and struggle to come to you. He is holding you, but it hurts. You have no idea what good this trial could possibly be accomplishing. It makes no sense to you from your limited perspective. All you feel is the agony, and God is holding you there. Should you assume that He is just torturing you? Of course not.

If a finite gap in understanding between children and adults causes a child to confuse necessary healing procedures for seeming torture, how much more could the infinite gap in understanding between humans and God cause us to confuse His ways of healing for what appears to be only misery?

I never expect a baby to comprehend the need for an injection of medicine via a sharp needle. That expectation is unrealistic. I can only hold the baby and hope that he will continue to associate my regular pattern of love and comfort with my current actions, even though he can’t possibly figure them out. One day, after the child has grown, my actions will make sense. He will look back and know that I had his best interest in mind all along.

If we can’t expect a child to grasp the healing work of adults just because fifteen years of growth stands in the way, why do we demand to grasp the method of all of God’s work in our lives when an infinite gap of wisdom stands between us and Him? By doing so, we are placing an unfair demand on our supreme, supernatural, and loving God.

When I get to Heaven, I expect to begin growing in understanding in a way that I simply couldn’t while in this world and bound by sin. Eternity and a new likeness to Christ (I John 3:2) will help me to see all the ways God was making me better through the pain. Until then, I will sit on His lap, and I will trust Him even though it hurts.

“Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him.” (Job 13:15, NKJV)

The Merging of Human and Divine Suffering

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Human misery abounds. We endure pain that comes in many shapes, sizes and ways. The heart aches, the body hurts, the mind is torn; and all the while life goes on. The questions beneath the surface are, “Does God understand?” and “Does God care?”

In teaching an adult class in Christian apologetics (a reasoned defense and articulation of the biblical faith), I was moved deeply in one moment of time as we recognized the profound message of God through one of the Psalms. We were studying the miraculous fulfillment of prophecy (against mathematical odds) as evidence of the Bible’s credibility. In particular, Psalm 22 is a psalm of David, written c. 1000 B.C. And yet, we find much of its content fulfilled in the suffering and death of Jesus Christ c. A.D. 30. God stays true to His Word over the span of a millennium. The Spirit of God worked through David’s life and mind as the words of Psalm 22 were written, and the same Holy Spirit was at the Cross of Calvary as Jesus suffered.

Striking me in our class that one particular day, were the beauty and comfort of the merging of the affliction of both man and God. You see, David was a mere human. He was a brave shepherd who became a king, but he was also a person who committed adultery and murder. David was a man of flesh and bone. He knew success and he knew failure. He prospered at times, but he also endured great loss. Hated and pursued by King Saul, having watched his baby with Bathsheba die, betrayed by his own son, and regretting deeply His sin; David was a human who knew anguish. That anguish pours from his pen in Psalm 22.

Hear David’s first lament in verse one, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning?” (Psalm 22:1, ESV) Have you ever felt this way? Forsaken by God? As if God is distant and not hearing your groans? Perhaps we perceive a distance because our distress is so great, or because our sins against God are so palpable. In either case, we at times feel that the Lord has thoroughly forgotten us. We understand David’s grieving.

Ah, but do we understand God’s grieving? Do we recognize that for however intensely we sink into sorrow, God sinks even deeper? Though David asked and recorded these dark questions 1,000 years before Jesus came to earth, the Son of God Himself uttered the same words as He languished on the Cross. Yes, I at times feel like God has abandoned me. The sinfulness of me and the whole world has shattered the framework of peace and right as originally intended. That invasion of brokenness as the result of sin leads us to sense that we have somehow been deserted. Though the feeling is very real to us, the truth is that the Son of God, Jesus Christ, was actually isolated as His Father substituted Him as the offering for our sin in the grueling moments of the Cross. Jesus did, in fact, endure the unimaginable darkness of being abandoned by the Father. With incredible determination, Jesus willingly took the hit of “being forsaken.” We hear Him call out loudly from the Cross, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46, ESV)

Would you look to the dovetailing here of human and divine misery? What David feels, God fulfills. The hurt we humans face is met directly by our Creator. His love is so profound that He dives even lower into the hurt than we can go. Never believe that God does not understand. Place one finger in your Bible at Psalm 22 and another in Matthew 27, and then ask God to comfort your heart with His immeasurable and tangible understanding of your pain.

The entirety of Psalm 22 is filled with allusions to Christ’s suffering. Amazingly, God parallels the hurt of Jesus with the feelings of David. David cries, “My heart is like wax, it is melted within my breast” (Psalm 22:14b, ESV). We know that misery. We have experienced our heart “melting” in despair. Incredibly, this outpouring of David by God’s Spirit is surrounded by words we again can tie directly to God’s Son: “I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint; my heart is like wax; it is melted within my breast; my strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to my jaws; you lay me in the dust of death” (Psalm 22:14-15, ESV). Jesus’ body was hanging on a cross – bones out of joint – but not broken. He suffered unbelievable thirst. Ultimately, God laid His Son in the dust of death, as no human took His life. Following the death of Jesus, water and blood poured from His side at the strike of the Roman spear. All these details correspond to the feelings and prophecy of David’s Psalm. Do you see the merging of how we sometimes and temporarily feel with the actuality of God’s suffering?

Take comfort! The last verses of the psalm confirm the glorious end result of God’s work in the midst of greatest distress. God was in control even as Jesus died. God raised Him up! God accomplished His goal; the suffering had purpose! So does yours. “For he has not despised or abhorred the affliction of the afflicted, and he has not hidden his face from him, but has heard, when he cried to him” (Psalm 22:24, ESV).

God knows. Your greatest misery merges – just as David’s – with the suffering of God. He did not have to, but God chose to enter into pain more profoundly than we can imagine. When you pray, He understands.

Sin Brings Death: Does That Make God Mean and Selfish?

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

The consequences of sin are not the result of a mean God who delights in making miserable those who oppose Him. The consequences of sin are the result of human opposition to the definition and parameters of the only genuine life available. God created the universe out of nothing at the beginning of time. As much as we may or may not like the fact, God made it all and logically defines it all. Every bit of meaning and every operational standard for the world flows from its Creator. When we rebel against that rightful intention and those uniquely plausible standards, we shun the only life that can make sense and bring authentic joy.

For too long the church of Jesus Christ has allowed the world to think God is simply bossy and unreasonably selfish. It is time we proclaim that God is the Definer of Reality. If we go against His plan, there is simply no other plan to which we can turn except a corrupted version of the real system. God made all reality; there is no other existence outside of Him. Evil is a perversion of His good. Satan is a created being who rebelled. Therefore, when we reject God’s plan, the only option is to become miserable and purposeless. There exists no separate created order where we can define the ways of life and righteousness. We are in God’s cosmos.

Think of it in terms of the simplicity of an automobile. When I drive one, I must operate the vehicle according to the designer’s thoughts. For instance, I will be in big trouble if I say, “Instead of the brake pedal, I choose to use the left turn signal to stop the car.” A severe crash may ensue. Similarly, I won’t be going anywhere if I decide, “I don’t care what the manual says; I am using the radio volume control to accelerate the vehicle.” We find we must operate the automobile according to the designer’s plan if we want a chance of effective driving. When it comes to effective living, we must operate according to the plan of the Grand Designer, the God of the Bible.

Death is the result of sin because God is the Giver of Life. If I go against the Creator, there exists no other life to which I can turn. Death is the only other option. It reminds us of Peter’s response to Jesus’ question when many disciples were walking away from the Lord because of His hard teachings, “You do not want to leave, too, do you?” Peter replied, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life” (John 6:67-68, NIV). In other words, Peter was clearly stating that there exists no one else to turn to for true and everlasting life. If we walk away from Jesus, we walk to destruction.

The Good News is found in Romans 6:23 (NIV), “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” After we have turned away from God and die spiritually, that death can be overcome by God alone. Only He can make dead people live. Sick people may have a chance at helping themselves get better, but dead people can do nothing to bring back life. It takes God to restore spiritual life. That is precisely why God put on human flesh and came to our world. As a human, Jesus could pay the price for the sin of people; as God, He can give life back to us. The turning away from God is resolved by turning back to Him in the Person of Jesus Christ. Look to Jesus today. He can forgive your sin and give you a new chance to live according to the only plan that works.

Why Did God Make People?

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May the glory of the LORD endure forever; may the LORD rejoice in his works. – Psalm 104:31 (NIV)

A three-year-old recently asked his mom, “Why did God make people?” How should this loving mom answer her son? Why exactly did God make people? Let’s explore the answers and then put them into toddler terms.

Adult Discussion:

God is self-existent. He is the great “I Am.” God was not created by anyone, but rather He created all things out of nothing by His Word (Exodus 3:14; Psalm 33:6,9; Hebrews 11:3). He is eternal and self-sustaining, never growing tired or weary and of infinite understanding. (Isaiah 40:28) When we combine the thought of His eternality with the statement “God is love,” we realize He must have been love always – even in eternity past (1 John 4:8). He certainly was and is love! Because He is triune (1 Peter 1:2), we realize that Father, Son, and Spirit have been in perfect relationship – loving one another always.

When we combine the information above, we discern a few things we can rightfully say to a child about God. We want to be careful not to minimize God by giving children wrong answers. Let’s begin the children’s discussion with the first two points of four:

Children’s Discussion:

1) God did not create us because He was lonely. The Father and Jesus and the Holy Spirit have loved one another forever. God was never alone because He is three persons in One! The Father and Son and Spirit could always talk and be together.

2) God did not create us because He needed us. God does not need anything or anyone. We are the ones who need Him for everything! We would not even be able to breathe if God wasn’t causing our bodies to work (Acts 17:25). God does not need sleep or vitamins or food or anything. He made everything, but no one made Him! He is always strong enough to hold the whole world together and He never even gets tired.

Adult Discussion:

God’s creation brings Him glory. It is right that the holy, self-existent God of the universe be magnified and shown for who He truly is. Psalm 19:1 (NIV) tells us, “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of His hands.” The grandeur of creation gives us hints of God’s greatness. How much more, then, do human beings show God’s greatness? For, Psalm 8:5-6 (NIV) proclaims of man “You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor. You made him ruler over the works of your hands; you put everything under his feet.” We, as humans, are placed over creation. Therefore, we sound forth by our existence the glory of God even more than other created things. We are made in God’s own image. Colossians 1:16 affirms that absolutely everything was made by Jesus and for Jesus. Our purpose is wrapped up in Him. Very clearly, Psalm 104:1-30 (NIV) declares the greatness of many facets of God’s creation and then culminates with the statement in verse 31, “May the glory of the LORD endure forever; may the LORD rejoice in his works.” We see again here that God’s creation is for His glorification, and He rejoices in what He has made.

Children’s Discussion:

3) Even though we think a lot about ourselves because we are sinners, the world and people are supposed to make us think about God. He is the only One powerful enough to make everything, and He deserves to be thought about. A cute little ladybug should make us think about Jesus and all the neat things He makes! The stars at night should make us think about God and how He is so big and how He is everywhere! Just like ladybugs and stars should make people think about Jesus, our life should make people think about God, too! We were made to point people to how awesome God is!

Adult Discussion:

Revelation 21:1-7 (NIV) shows us what is God’s final plan for both the cosmos and human beings. Having come the first time to earth to stand in our place and pay the price for our sin, Jesus will return to earth a second time to finally and completely remake the world as He intended it before we willfully rebelled against His plan. These verses amazingly reveal to us the heart of God. We are able to see what God desires once our sin and its effects are totally removed from the picture. What God always wanted is spelled out clearly in verses 3-5: “Now the dwelling of God is with men, and He will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away. He who was seated on the throne said, ‘I am making everything new!'” We realize here what we lost after the fall of man in the Garden of Eden. We lost our true, unbroken walk with God Almighty. Though we can currently have relationship with Him through Jesus, and His Spirit comes to live in us; there is a day coming when God the Father will “set up shop” right with us! With no fear, regret, or sorrow, we shall walk unhindered with God – always in His incomparable presence!

Children’s Discussion:

4) God made us so that we could have Him as our very best friend! He knows we are the most happy when we are very, very close to Him. On this old Earth, people do not love Jesus like they should. We forget about God too much. We are selfish. But in the New Heavens and New Earth, God will take away sin and all the sad things. No one will want to be apart from Jesus. He will be closer to us than ever, and that is why everyone will be happy forever! No one will get hurt or fight or be sad. Since this is what God wants to happen – and since He will make it happen one day – we should try to make Him our best friend now. He made us to feel right and happy when we walk very close with Him.

What Fallen Bridges Tell Us About God

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On August 1, 2007, the I-35W Bridge in Minnesota collapsed into the Mississippi River, killing thirteen people and injuring 145 others. This human tragedy is devastating, with consequences of death. Research points to miscalculation of gusset plate width as the reason the bridge collapsed.

Gusset plates are thick sheets of steel that provide strength at the intersection of beams. Apparently, the gusset plates used on the I-35W Bridge were not thick enough to support the added weight of construction vehicles and concrete that would come with time and use. It is essential for engineers to use exact calculations and mathematical formulas when building bridges. The physical universe only accepts true and accurate work; otherwise, disaster ensues. In medicine as well as construction, precision is necessary. Diabetics suffer physically and may die with a miscalculation of insulin dose, for example. The Creator of the universe has chosen to have the physical world operate according to mathematical and physical laws; this situation reflects His unchanging, reliable disposition.

Supernatural God runs the natural world with serious precision. Proper functioning requires uncompromised accuracy. If God has made this true of the natural realm, how much more is it true of the supernatural realm; for, the supernatural is more real than the physical! God Himself is supernatural, and the One from Whom all reality flows. His spiritual working requires exactitude to the same or greater degree than His tangible working. Certainly, the consequences of spiritual errors are infinitely graver than even the catastrophe of inaccuracy in the physical world. Injury and death are horrors, for sure; but the calamity of a lost soul in eternity trumps all earthly afflictions.

And so, with an urgent heart, the Apostle Paul calls to us in Philippians 1:9 (NASB), “And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in real knowledge and all discernment.” Do you see the connection here between love and knowledge? To Paul – and to God – love is not a feeling. Love grows in real knowledge. The building of a spiritual life requires unequivocal accuracy. If we think bridge building requires right engineering processes, how much more does soul building require right spiritual processes?

Our relationship to God must be built on truth! We need to study His Word as an engineer studies math and science to ensure design and construction according to reality. Our spiritual lives must be built on right knowledge. This will require sacrifice of time and effort. The risk is not physical injury or death, but spiritual injury and eternal death. The stakes are high, and it is time for Christians to take seriously the call for our love to abound in real knowledge and all discernment.

The church of Jesus Christ seems to be missing the call to methodical, intentional, and precise training in spiritual knowledge. Dean (2010) comments on the problems presented in the National Study of Youth and Religion,

    We “teach” young people baseball, but we “expose” them to faith. We provide coaching and opportunities for youth to develop and improve their pitches and SAT scores, but we blithely assume that religious identity will happen by osmosis, emerging “when youth are ready” (a confidence we generally lack when it comes to, say, algebra). (15)

We would not allow our loved ones to drive over bridges that we knew were designed without proper knowledge of or regard for mathematical principles. We trust that bridges are designed by professionals who have invested much time and effort into a solid education in the field of engineering. Here are some pivotal questions: Are we allowing our loved ones to drive over spiritual bridges designed and built on patchwork theology? Are we truly investing in a serious understanding of God as revealed in His Word? How much time do we spend intentionally growing in real knowledge? Do our children know sports better than the revelation of God Almighty? Do we require they know algebra well, but settle for a haphazard understanding of the things of God?

Jesus once said to an earnest inquirer named Nicodemus, “If I told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things?” (John 3:12, NASB) In other words, the earthly points to the heavenly, which is far deeper and greater. Think bridges – fallen bridges. What is God saying to us through the physical, mathematical knowledge required for safety? He is telling us to get serious about biblical knowledge. Fallen souls are far more costly than fallen bridges.

Reference: Dean, K. C. (2010) Almost Christian: What the Faith of our Teenagers Is Telling the American Church. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.