Witness to the Resurrection: Skeptical Tom

To my non-Christian friends,

The Resurrection is the cornerstone of Christianity—where the rubber meets the road for the Christian belief system. It centers around the person of Jesus. If He was not dead, and then come back to life, the whole of the Christian worldview is demolished—a house of cards unable to support itself. We Christians celebrate Easter for just this reason; a celebration of Jesus—God in human flesh—as risen from the dead.

You my friends, know Jesus as an historical figure. You don’t doubt that. You might even claim He was a good moral man, who taught His followers some pretty cool things about how to treat others and lived that life Himself without hypocrisy.

What you can’t believe is that a man certifiably dead for three days can come back to life. That’s a hurdle you can’t quite get over no matter how much you think about it. You’re a man or woman of science and reason, and science has shown that dead men stay dead. This claim that the historical Jesus rose from the dead—the hurdle you can’t believe—is quite possibly one of the main reasons you are not a Christian, am I right?

You’re a skeptic, then. You need hard proof. Something real and empirical. Something you can really sink your teeth into. You, like many of us, want something you can see, or touch, or hear or smell. Your mind won’t recognize something as true that your senses and reason can’t verify. You assume that the natural world is all there is, and claims about transcendent matters—the super-natural—are offensive and a reproach to your intellect.

Consider Tom. He was also known as Didymus, and most people called him Thomas. He was a common man, just like you. He worked for a living, paid his taxes, and kept to himself without bothering anybody. He lived in the early first century A.D. in Israel. He was Jewish and ordinary in every way; nothing special.

Until he met this other fellow countryman, a carpenter named Jesus, who was saying some pretty amazing things, and claimed to be the long-awaited Jewish Messiah.

Not only did this Jesus claim to be the promised Messiah, but He also made the outlandish claim that He was in fact God Himself; that as God He had come-down to earth, and He hadn’t just come to be the Jewish Messiah, but the Savior of all mankind.

How can God be a man? Why do I need a Savior? What is sin, and am I a sinner? Tom was skeptical, but he hung around, following this itinerant carpenter from place to place and listened to what He had to say. Ultimately he became a committed follower of Jesus and was chosen as one of twelve of Jesus’ disciples—His inner circle.

Fast forward three years. It’s AD 30. Jesus has been arrested, convicted, and executed on a Roman cross and his dead body placed in a rock tomb. Some of the other twelve disciples claim that the tomb was empty that Sunday morning after his crucifixion on Friday and that they have seen Him again in the flesh, not dead, but now alive. Tom wasn’t there so he doesn’t believe it.

Here’s how the Biblical narrative describes it in John 20:24-25:

“But Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus [the Twin], was not with them when Jesus came. The other disciples therefore were saying to him, ‘We have seen the Lord!’ But he said to them, ‘Unless I shall see in His hands the imprint of the nails, and put my finger into the place of the nails, and put my hand into His side [Jesus had been pierced in the side during His crucifixion, see John 19:34], I will not believe.'”

The words of a true skeptic, right? As a skeptic yourself, you can probably empathize with him. Hard proof is needed. He wants to see this for himself. He wants to touch the holes where they drove the spikes into Jesus’ hands and feet, and put his hand into the lacerated gash made by the Roman spear. Nothing less will convince him that a man dead, is now alive.

The Biblical account continues:

“And after eight days again His disciples were inside, and Thomas with them. Jesus came, the doors having been shut, and stood in their midst, and said, ‘Peace be with you.’ Then He said to Thomas, ‘Reach here your finger and see My hands; and reach here your hand, and put it into my side; and be not unbelieving, but believing'” (John 20:26-27).

“Thomas answered and said to Him, ‘My Lord and my God! (John 20:28).

“Jesus said to him, ‘Because you have seen Me, have you believed? Blessed are they who did not see, and yet believed'” (John 20:29).

That same challenge to skeptical Tom, my skeptical friends, goes out to you. “Be not unbelieving, but believing!”

Yes, it takes faith. But no more of a faith than what you already exercise every day of your waking life. It speaks to your metaphysic. You already exercise faith in believing that Chance brought both something from nothing into Being, and then directed it with purpose into everything that is (see my post The Matter of Irrationality – Part III). That’s a lot of faith, my friends. So faith is not the issue. It’s where that faith is placed that matters.

Remember, you are a culpable knower of God. As a culpable God-knower you are without excuse for not following the threads of that knowledge into further knowledge of God, His actions in the past, and His plan for the future. You start with one question and keep pulling the thread that leads to further questions, that then leads to definite conclusions.

Faith in the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, His claim to be God, and His claim on you and your life are no more difficult than believing that Chance fine-tuned the universe, brought life out of non-life, and then produced organisms conscious of their own existence who can reason about Reason, and that with meaning (see my post The god of Chance).

Be a skeptic, but take that skepticism to it’s rightful conclusion, where with Tom you can say about Jesus, “My Lord and my God!“

“And we know that the Son of God has come, and has given us understanding, in order that we might know Him who is true, and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life” (1 John 5:20).

[Update 4/2/24: A good article by former homicide detective J. Warner Wallace on the evidentiary process can be found here: https://harbingersdaily.com/former-cold-case-homicide-detective-christs-victory-over-death-is-indisputable/]

As always, with love,

Your friend

Vaya con Dios!

Witness to the Resurrection: Women of Faith-Mary Magdalene

Dearest hijas and hijo,

“Now on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came early to the tomb, while it was still dark, and saw the stone already taken away from the tomb” (John 20:1).

Have you ever considered the life of Mary Magdalene? Who was she, really? Her life story as told to us in the gospels is a picture of redemption from sin and utter devotion to the LORD who forgave her and redeemed her that should be the pattern of every Christian. She is a classic example of hope, trust, and supreme gratitude that should exemplify every Christian’s attitude and relationship to Christ as LORD.

Picture the scene. It’s 28 A.D. The Romans occupy Israel. You’re a woman in a small fishing village called Magdala, on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee. You don’t know it, but you are demon-possessed. You don’t just have one demon controlling and tormenting your thoughts and actions, but seven. However, your life is about to change in a dramatic and forever eternal and ultimate way.

The gospels don’t tell us how she came in contact with Jesus. It has been wrongly assumed Mary Magdalene was the woman who washed Jesus’ feet in Luke 7:36-39 and that she was a prostitute and barfly as depicted in the popular TV series The Chosen. The Scriptures never give that identification to Mary Magdalene. She was also not secretly married to Jesus who mothered His descendants and later emigrated to France as depicted in the 2003 book and subsequent 2006 movie The Da Vinci Code.

We do know Mary Magdalene was demon-possessed from Luke 8:

“And it came about soon afterwards, that He began going about from one city and village to another, proclaiming and preaching the kingdom of God; and the twelve were with Him, and also some women who had been healed of evil spirits and sicknesses: Mary who was called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out, and Joanna the wife of Chuza, Herod’s steward, and Susanna, and many others who were contributing to their support out of their private means” (Luke 8:1-3).

It was most likely during these visits by Jesus “from one city and village to another” in and around the Sea of Galilee that Jesus came in contact with her and healed her. We also know of her extraordinary devotion to Jesus after this healing which changed her life for eternity, especially those events surrounding His crucifixion and resurrection.

“Therefore the soldiers did these things. But there were standing by the cross of Jesus His mother, and His mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene” (John 19:25, see also Mark 15:40-41, Matt. 27:55-56).

The twelve disciples had vanished after Jesus’ arrest in the garden, except Peter and another disciple known to the high priest (John 18:12-15). We don’t know where Mary Magdalene was at this time, but we do know she must have heard about the arrest and trial and death sentence given to Jesus because we see her at His execution. She’s standing there and listening along with the other women as Jesus tells John to take care of His mother (John 18:26-27). She and the other women remained there to the bitter end.

We next see her after the crucifixion when Jesus is laid in the tomb:

“And when it was evening, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who himself had also become a disciple of Jesus. This man came to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Then Pilate ordered it to be given over to him. And Joseph took the body and wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, and laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn out in the rock; and he rolled a large stone against the entrance of the tomb and went away. And Mary Magdalene was there, and the other Mary, sitting opposite the grave” (Matt. 27:57-61).

Joseph of Arimathea asked for Jesus’ body from Pilate. Nicodemus (John 3:1) came also with a mixture of myrrh and aloes and it was then these two men who wrapped up Jesus’ body with the ointment as was the Jewish custom (John 19:38-42) and laid Him in the tomb.

They took great care in the process but it was hasty as the Sabbath was approaching and they had to finish up quickly before the Sabbath began as per Jewish law (Luke 23:53-56). Mary Magdalene and the other Mary (Luke says “the women who had come with Him out of Galilee,” Luke 23:55) evidently followed Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus and watched the men in the process of preparing Jesus’ body. She was there at the tomb so she now knows where He’s laid.

Fast forward three days. It’s early morning on the third day. You are still grieving at the loss of this man you have come to love who has touched your life in such a tender and miraculous way—like no other person you have ever met.

Yet you know He is more than just a man, but God-come-down, your personal Savior and the Savior of all mankind. You and some of the other women went out last night (Saturday night after the Sabbath had ended) and purchased more spices in which to finish the burial process of Jesus’ body (Mark 16:1-2). You and the other Mary (the mother of James and Joses), and Salome come back to the tomb. You’re wondering if the three of you can roll that heavy stone away so you can further anoint Jesus’ body with the spices you bought.

What? The heavy stone is already rolled away and the tomb entrance is wide open! What happened? You peek in, seeing a young man sitting there wearing a white robe and he says to you that Jesus the Nazarene is not here, He is risen (Mark 16:6). Fear and trembling and astonishment grip your heart and you run away, for the young man has told you to “…Go, tell His disciples, and Peter, He is going before you into Galilee, there you will see Him, just as He said to you” (Mark 16:7).

As you’re running your mind is racing as to what could have happened and you’re thinking that someone has stolen Jesus’ body. Not only did you witness his beatings and brutal death on a Roman cross, but now tragedy of tragedies and the body is gone.

Before you get too far you encounter Peter and John coming towards the tomb on the same trail (John 20:2). You tell them the body is gone. They sprint ahead of you and run towards the tomb while you follow them back more slowly. By the time you get back they’re already gone.

You’re now there by yourself and you begin to weep (John 20:11). Deep sobs rack your body in grief over the events of the last three days: Jesus’ crucifixion, His burial, and now today when you wanted only to lovingly anoint a dead body with spices and finish the process, you find Him gone.

As you stand there crying you walk over to the tomb entrance and stoop to look in again. You see two angels, one of whom asks you “Why are you weeping?” You answer him and then turn around and see another man standing there. You think he’s the gardener. He also asks you “Why are you weeping?”, and then asks “Whom are you seeking?” You assume that this gardener has taken Jesus’ body and moved it to another location.

He says one word, your name, and your heart lurches in your chest. You know that voice. You rush forward, all inhibitions gone, and hug him like you have never hugged anyone ever before. A hug of supreme joy that this One you loved and who had delivered you from the soul-destroying demons of your former life is now standing right in front of you (John 20:11-18). He was dead, but now alive!

Mary Magdalene was the first witness to Jesus’ resurrection. She will always be remembered and the honor goes to her as the first person to see the risen LORD. Her devotion to Him is an example of what it means to follow Christ. She was there through it all. Never wavering, remaining steadfast and faithful. Always trusting, no doubts. May we love our LORD with that same devotion.

All my love,

Dad

Vaya con Dios!

Ancient History of Earth?

Dearest hijas and hijo,

For your reading discernment:

Scientists Have Been Making Amazing DNA and Soft Tissue Discoveries That Should Completely Alter How We View the Ancient History of Earth

There is no need to be embarrassed by the Biblical history of earth as found in the early chapters of Genesis. It is God who has told us what He has done and how long it took Him. New scientific discoveries are continuing to confirm this.

Read the article above in it’s entirety and draw the obvious conclusions.

What are those conclusions? Land animals (including dinosaurs) were created on Day 6 of Creation Week along with the first man and woman, Adam and Eve (Genesis 1:24-31). Ergo, dinosaurs lived alongside mankind and coexisted with mankind throughout the history of both and ever since the beginning of both, only thousands of years ago. They were fruitful and multiplied according to their kind, just as man was fruitful and multiplied and filled the earth (Gen. 1:28).

The universal and global Flood of Noah wiped out the dinosaurs and every kind of animal that lived on land, including all mankind alive at that time, except Noah and his family and those creatures that were taken aboard the Ark (Gen. 6-9).

This Flood buried and fossilized millions and millions of creatures in the dirt and rock all across this planet. We are still uncovering and learning about these fossils today, many of which still have soft tissue that has not had enough time to become permineralized.

The secular creation myth of millions and billions of years, aided by the god of Chance, is thus again shown to be false by reason of what is being discovered today.

All my Love,

Dad

Vaya con Dios!

A Fairy Tale of Origins: OOL

Dearest hijas and hijo,

Recently, a top Ph.D. chemist, Dr. James Tour of Rice University, issued a challenge to the scientific community in regards to OOL (Origin of Life). He challenged them to answer five questions about evolution’s claim that life arose on this planet from non-living chemicals.

The article and link below, written by David Lightsey of World News Daily, wnd.com, is well worth a read in explaining the implications of this challenge. The links provided in the article take you to the 5 questions and other information regarding Dr. Tour’s challenge.

Top evolutionists fail to rise to chemist’s challenge

[Update 12/5/23: See also the link here at ICR: https://www.icr.org/article/renowned-chemist-on-origin-of-life/. Dr. Jake Hebert lays out the five challenges of Tour to the evolutionary OOL community: 1) The origin of polypeptides; 2) the origin of polynucleotides; 3) the origin of polysaccharides; 4) the origin of the specified information contained in living things; and then 5) the challenge to construct a living cell, assuming the other four challenges had already been met.]

What we have to remember is that this is the starting point for those who claim evolution and the god of Chance as the basis for their existence here on planet Earth. It’s not the fossils. It’s not our purported similarity to apes. It’s not homologous features of living kinds. It’s not beneficial mutations. It’s not any of the supposed “proofs” that evolutionary science uses to indoctrinate and bombard us with on a daily basis.

It is this: how and in what way do non-living chemical elements combine to produce the complexity that is the first living cell: the linking of proteins, the RNA, the complex polysaccharides, etc.? The priests of evolutionary materialistic science have never been able to solve this dilemma. Their claim, “We’re close,” “We’re still working on it,” belies the fact and continues to perpetuate the mendacious nature of the impossibility of their effort.

Why? Because it takes an intelligent Mind to create life. It takes intentionality and purpose, of which non-living chemicals themselves are barren. It’s takes planning, engineering, coherence of the parts, irreducible complexity, and knowledge towards a teleological unity of the whole.

The god of Chance is utterly powerless and impotent to do this no matter how much time we want to give him. The idea of pure contingency being the “mother of life,” is the same as believing Jack planted a magic seed, climbed that beanstalk to the magic castle in the sky and slew the giant who wanted to eat him. Fairy-tale stuff. Fee-fi-fo-fum, right? I smell a lie of the evil One.

The natural man’s grand assumption is that he cannot accept anything that is not in accord with the results of a sound scientific methodology. Starting from himself he thinks he (through scientific endeavor) can reach out and gather all the facts in the universe, and turn them into a cohesive system of truth that not only explains himself and his existence, but everything else that surrounds him. He thinks he can do this as a product himself of pure Chance. Chance is the idol the natural man sets up in his mind, and he worships it with the fervor of any religious zealot.

This natural man, as a culpable knower of God, knows that God alone is the only One who gives Life, yet suppresses the truth of that knowledge in the unrighteousness of believing the lie that OOL can come about purely from non-living chemicals and that itself purely as the result of blind, purposeless, and mindless Chance. He has exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an ideology in the form of corruptible man’s opinion about the origin of life and worshipped and served this lie (idol) rather than the Creator who gave him life and being (Rom. 1:23,25). The disconnect, the mind-numbing dissonance, is that the natural man who cannot accept anything not in accord with sound scientific endeavor, is believing in no scientific evidence at all for OOL, for there is none. He’s believing in a no thing; a hope, a prayer, a fairy-tale perhaps, but a no thing in and of itself.

It is God Himself who tells us what He has done:

“It is I who made the earth and created man upon it. I—my hands—have stretched out the heavens and all their host I have commanded” (Isaiah 45:12).

“For thus says the LORD, who created the heavens. (He is the God who formed the earth and made it, He established it and did not create it a waste place, But formed it to be inhabited), I am the LORD, and there is none else” (Isaiah 45:18).

“And God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him, male and female He created them” (Genesis 1:27).

“Then the LORD God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living being” (Genesis 2:7).

The author and giver of Life—physical life—is also the author and giver of spiritual and eternal Life. Jesus calls Himself the bread of life that came down out of heaven, and that we must eat of His flesh (John 6:35-58). This is one of the claims He made about Himself (see other claims by Christ here: Don’t Be a Charles Templeton) and He’s not talking about cannibalism. Most people can’t see or understand this. It is a stumbling block to them.

So what is He referring to? He’s referring to taking Him into our being—just like we take food into our mouths and stomachs—and making Him the LORD of our whole being, both body and soul. We do that by confessing with our mouth Jesus as LORD, and believing with our heart that God raised Him from the dead (Romans 10:9-10). In this way the essence that is you (body and soul) is eating of the spiritual bread flesh that is Jesus.

It is no easy task; the gate is small and the road is narrow which leads to Life and only a few find it (Matthew 7:14), and yet it will require one to change their thinking about themselves and to change their thinking about Jesus.

Jesus claimed to be God. Was He? If so, bow down now and call Him LORD.

All my love,

Dad

Vaya con Dios!

The Canary in the Coal Mine

Dearest hijas and hijo,

I found this article by Dean Dwyer, the pastor of Eiser Street Baptist Church in Queensland, Australia, writing for Harbinger’s Daily, of interest concerning the Oct. 7th slaughter of Israeli’s by Hamas terrorists and the resultant anti-Jewish hatred raging around the world by Israel’s justified response to those attacks. The article is well worth a read in its entirety and can be found here:

God Is Taking Note Of Individuals And Nations Who Are Cursing His People

Dwyer draws the contrast between worldviews: one based on the Judeo-Christian Scriptures which promotes a Creator-creature distinction (God is the Creator and mankind is the creature, and it is God as Creator who gives the Law we are to obey), and the other which does not, but sees man as non-created, arising out of the chaos of Chance (see my post The god of Chance), and fully autonomous (a law unto himself). In this worldview, the natural man assumes as self-evident that he is himself the ultimate source of all predication, of all definition and interpretation. He has by the use of logic penetrated all reality and cleared every inch of territory in it, and has concluded that God is not now, never has been, and never will be there. What he so conveniently overlooks is how can he say anything about reality—what is and what is not—according to logic, when logic itself is the product of pure Chance?

Dwyer also draws attention to where the most vulgar displays of antisemitism are currently found in this country: college and university campuses, and why:  (1) students taught what to think and not how to think, and (2) students indoctrinated by progressive professors into the paradigm of “oppressor” and “oppressed.”

Of particular interest were the remarks of noted historian Deborah Lipstadt:

“In 2022, Deborah Lipstadt, a noted historian and the US Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism, said this: “Antisemitism is like the canary in the coal mine of democracy. It is a threat, a warning. If you’re an antisemite, then you think, well, the justice system isn’t fair because it’s controlled by Jews. The government isn’t fair because it’s controlled by Jews. The media isn’t fair because it’s controlled by Jews. You lose faith in the democratic institutions. As a historian, I can think of no democracy that tolerated antisemitism and remained a vibrant democracy.”

Dwyer’s conclusion:

“Deborah is correct. But the peril is even greater than that. Embracing Jew-hatred is not only an indicator of cultural decline but also of God’s impending judgement. The evidence of this is found not only in the Bible but also the history books. Egypt, Philistia, Assyria, Babylon, Persia, Greece, Rome, the Byzantines, the Crusaders, the Spanish Empire, Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. They all touched the apple of God’s eye and felt God’s hand of judgement. As Christians, we must not only pray for Israel but pray for our own nations. God is taking note of individuals and nations who are cursing His people.”

What we must remember is that hatred falls under the same classification as murder in the 6th Commandment: “You shall not murder” (Exodus 20:13, Deut. 5:17). To hate is to murder. Jesus confirmed and equated the two in His Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7):

“You have heard that the ancients were told, ‘YOU SHALL NOT MURDER,’ and ‘Whoever commits murder shall be liable to the court,’ But I say to you that every one who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court; and whoever shall say to his brother, ‘Raca,’ [egg-head, empty-head] shall be guilty before the supreme court; and whoever shall say, ‘You fool,’ shall be guilty enough to go into the hell of fire (Matt. 5:21-22).

In other words, calling someone an idiot, a fool, an empty-head, or any of the other more vulgar appellations by which we curse someone, or giving them the one-fingered salute, or any of the same similar gestures by people-groups around the world, is the same thing as murdering them.

Because God knows our thoughts and what we are thinking in our subconscious mind, to even think these things, is the same as murdering them in our heart. Because God holds murder of the heart the same as if we had physically taken a knife and slashed it across the carotid artery of someone else, we are guilty enough to go into the hell of fire.

Jew-hatred is thus Jew-murder, and as Dwyer rightly notes, the consequence of which will be God’s impending judgment. The solution: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matt. 4:17).

“O that thou wouldst rend the heavens and come down, O LORD. That the mountains might shake at Thy presence. As fire, which kindles the brush. As fire, which causes water to boil. To make Thy Name known among Thine adversaries. That the nations [peoples] may tremble at Thy presence” (Isaiah 64:1-2).

With love I remain,

Dad

Vaya con Dios!

Trick ‘r Treat

Dearest hijas and hijo,

As I walk around my neighborhood this month on my regularly scheduled walks (walks not only good for the body, but good for the soul of man who takes that time to think deep and contemplate his God), I notice something interesting; people love to celebrate. They love to spice up their yards with lawn displays, don’t they? This is nothing new. We see it especially at Christmas. I don’t know when the practice started, but people have been doing it for quite some time and for all variety of reasons. What struck me this month was the nature of those lawn displays at this particular time of year.

Well, it’s the Halloween season, of course—the trick or treating time of year.

To be sure, the first trick played on humanity was by Satan on Eve in the garden of Eden, wasn’t it? He offered her a treat, “Your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil” (Gen. 3:4), and pressed that lying bet of a treat by offering her a second one, “you surely will not die.” But first he played the trick, “Did God really say…?” (Gen. 3:1). She fell for the trick thinking she was going to get the treats (1 Tim. 2:14). And Satan has been trick ‘r treating us ever since.

According to history.com:

Halloween’s origins date back to the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain (pronounced sow-in). The Celts, who lived 2,000 years ago, mostly in the area that is now Ireland, the United Kingdom and northern France, celebrated their new year on November 1.

This day marked the end of summer and the harvest and the beginning of the dark, cold winter, a time of year that was often associated with human death. Celts believed that on the night before the new year, the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead became blurred. On the night of October 31 they celebrated Samhain, when it was believed that the ghosts of the dead returned to earth.

https://www.history.com/topics/halloween/history-of-halloween

So what do I see as I walk around my neighborhood? I see ghosts and specters hanging from trees; zombies of the dead rising up out of the ground; jack-o-lanterns with malevolent smiles and sharp-pointed teeth; covens of witches; graveyards with tombstones; Grim Reapers with their sickles of death; and lots and lots of skeletons and skulls.

Sure, I see an occasional Casper the Friendly Ghost, and a few smiling, snaggle-toothed jack-o-lanterns, but for the most part I see the celebration of death and the dark side of reality—the evil side.

“Oh, it’s just innocent fun,” you say. But is it? What is actually being celebrated here? Isn’t it a modern day form of idol worship and thus a violation of the 1st and 2nd Commandments (Deut. 5:7-10)? What is the natural man hoping to convey in his Halloween yard displays and is it really innocent? Does he even understand the realities behind the displays he so prominently puts on view for everyone to see, or is he celebrating in ignorance the real presence of darkness and evil in the invisible realm, and the real presence of “spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places” (Eph. 6:12)? As if celebrating the dark and evil side of reality is a bit too stark just by itself, we try and sanitize it by sending the kiddos out to collect candy from all the neighbors.

So, to my neighbors, what you celebrate in ignorance, what you hold up in your affections as worthy of displaying prominently in front of your houses, this I proclaim to you:

The God who made the universe and all things therein, because He is LORD of heaven and earth, does not need anything outside of Himself, since He Himself gives to all life and breath and all things. He has made from one man all the nations of mankind to live on the face of the earth and has determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation, that they should seek God, since He is there and not silent, and that they should search diligently and think deeply and find Him, being not far from any one of us.

For it is because of Him that we live and move and have our being. He is the cause for the effect that is our existence. We are not the product of mindless, purposeless Chance. Every man or woman who has ever lived has been made in the image of God, and thus we are all His offspring. Being His offspring, we ought not to think that we can abrogate His Divine Nature nor flaunt His Divine Character by celebrating the darkness and evil that is the opposite of who He is.

Having overlooked these times of ignorance, God is now declaring to all men and women that all everywhere should repent, because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed [Jesus], having furnished proof to all men and women by raising Him from the dead (ref. Acts 17: 22-31). [The proof of Christ’s resurrection is the ‘evidence’ that He will be mankind’s final Judge.]

My dear neighbor, God sees your brazen acts of celebration of that which is contrary to His nature, and abhors it. His declaration to all is to “repent”. This will require several actions on your part: (1) to change your thinking about yourself, and (2) to change your thinking about Jesus.

It won’t be easy, but I am praying for you.

(This neighbor gets it)

All my love,

Dad

Vaya con Dios!

Jerusalem, O, Jerusalem

Dearest hijas and hijo,

“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her brood under her wing, but you were not willing! See! Your house is left to you desolate; and assuredly, I say to you, you shall not see Me until the time comes when you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD‘” (Luke 13:34-35).

Perhaps you are saddened, as I, by the news coming out of the Middle East that Israel has been brutally attacked by Hamas terrorists. The attack was not against military targets, but against civilians—babies beheaded; women raped, murdered, and dragged into the streets; old people shot up and taken hostage; young people gunned down while attending a music festival. The death toll as I write stands at 1000+. The whole world is watching the news and they are mortified by the utter brutality of these senseless and inhumane atrocities.

As Jesus approached Jerusalem in the last week of his earthly life (AD 30), knowing He was headed towards His crucifixion and the purpose for which He had come down from heaven to earth, He wept over the city and spoke prophetically about Jerusalem saying:

“If you had known in this day, even you, the things which make for peace! But now they have been hidden from your eyes. For the days will come upon you when your enemies will throw up a barricade against you, and surround you and hem you in on every side, and they will level you to the ground and your children within you, and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not recognize the time of your visitation” (Luke 19:42-44).

This prophecy was literally fulfilled when Rome sacked Jerusalem in AD 70 (cf. Mark 13:1-2) and destroyed the city and burned their magnificent temple. Stone upon stone was torn down leaving nothing but rubble except a retaining wall on the Temple Mount (the Western Wall or “Wailing Wall”).

The city of Jerusalem and the Jewish people carry significant and ultimate eschatological plans in God’s economy. (Read Jesus’ own description of His return and the signs of the end in His Olivet Discourse, Matt. 24 & 25, Mark 13, Luke 21: 5-38, see also Luke 17: 22-37). He is not done with His chosen people Israel (Deut. 7:6-8) (see my post A Perspective on Suffering). He loves them; “a special treasure above all the peoples on the face of the earth.” He is not finished with His promises to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and David. He is still calling out His elect from among the Jews.

That call is an invitation by Jesus to a complete surrender to His Lordship—a complete surrender of our will under His will, and a complete bowing of our mind in acknowledgment of Him as sovereign God. He is there. He exists. He is not silent. This invitation goes out to both Jews and Gentiles—to all peoples of the earth.

His will is only known through His self-attesting revelation to man in the Judeo-Christian scriptures—the Bible. It is a call to repent of our offenses against this Holy God and follow Him. We follow Him by being obedient to Him and His Word in Scripture. It’s that simple, but that necessary to avoid His wrath in judgment.

Remember, we are sinners against better knowledge. We know this God; know that we have an obligation to this God; know that our attitude of unbelief is a grave act of rebellion against this God; know that we fall miserably short in thought and deed throughout the entirety of our lives (see how many of the Ten Commandments you keep, Ex. 20: 1-17); yet sin against this God by not honoring Him as God, nor accepting the solution He has provided in Jesus.

So what is the significance of the current horror happening to Israel? It is this: Watch Jerusalem. Keep your eyes on Jerusalem. This city, above all cities on the face of the earth, is the focus of God’s final plans for the history of mankind. Read Zechariah 14 and Zechariah’s prophecy about the ‘day of the LORD’ and Jesus’ return to the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem (Zech. 14:3-4).

Pray for Jerusalem. Pray for God’s plan to redeem a people for Himself to quickly come to pass for the Jews. Pray that as a nation they collectively repent and recognize Jesus of Nazareth as their rightful Messiah. Pray that they acknowledge Jesus’ ministry to them in AD 27-30 was “the time of their visitation.” Pray that “God will pour out on the house of David, and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace and supplication so that they will mourn for Him, as one mourns for an only son, and weep bitterly over Him, like the bitter weeping over a first-born” (Zech. 12:10). Pray that they quickly then come to say, “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD.”

It is then, and only then, that Jesus will return: “Behold He is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him. And all the tribes of the earth will mourn because of Him. So it is to be. Amen” (Revelation 1:7).

“I am the Alpha and the Omega, says the Lord God, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty” (Rev. 1:8).

[Update 10/30/2023: As the Israeli ground invasion to root out the Hamas terrorists who slaughtered 1400 Israeli’s on Oct. 7th begins, and as world hate for Jews ramps up all over the globe, e.g., the anti-semitic mob who were hunting down Jews in a Russian airport; the anti-semitic protests all over this country on college campuses, etc., watch the northern front with Lebanon and Iran.

If Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon enters this fight in a more significant way than they already have, we could see a regional conflict swell into a major conflict with other world powers forced to take sides either ‘for’ Israel or ‘against’ Israel. Know that in everything we see and hear concerning this, God’s kingdom will come and His will be done (Matt. 6: 10)].

All my love,

Dad

Vaya con Dios!

Reveling in Sin

To my non-Christian friends,

(Filth is pouring out of the mouth and leads to the fire of damnation)

Pulling up to a stoplight the other day at one of my local intersections was one of our local homeless men holding a sign. A common occurrence, perhaps in your city as well as mine. Do you ignore them, give them a couple bucks, or offer them something else?

I looked at him plying his trade (for let’s be honest, panhandling was his trade) and noticed he was of sound mind and body; not seemingly under the influence of any particular narcotic or spirits. I looked at his sign. Here is what it said:

G–D—, Jesus is not a cuss word.

Okay, unique, right? Don’t usually see a sign like this. He had definitely put some thought into what he wanted to say to attract customers who would offer him a bit of cash. As I had a bit of time before the stoplight would turn green, I reached into my glove compartment, retrieved a gospel tract that I carry for just such purposes, and rolled down the window.

As I offered him the tract, I asked him in a pleasant tone of voice whether he takes pride in blaspheming the name of God. This question, albeit true by his use of G–D— on his sign, set him off. The tirade that followed was epic. Needless to say, he refused the tract, the light turned green, he moved on down the line, and I proceeded on my way.

It very well could be that I was mistaken by interpreting the sign the way I did. Perhaps his intent was to say “G–D— and Jesus are not cuss words.” But the sign had no and, nor even a little ampersand (&), and the verb tense was wrong.

I use this illustration, my friends, to make a point. Some of you don’t realize by using God’s name as a cuss word, or using Jesus’ name in such a flippant manner and as a cuss word as well, that you are blaspheming God’s holy name. You are violating the 3rd commandment, which states:

“You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not leave him unpunished who takes His name in vain” (Exodus 20:7, Deuteronomy 5:11).

Do you understand what God is saying here? There’s punishment involved for those who take His holy and pure and righteous name in a derogatory fashion. Does that concern you? If not, it should.

The corollary, and the commandment given by which God expects and requires of you to perform is this:

“And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might” (Deut. 6:5).

Cussing and swearing using God’s name or Jesus’ name, is not loving the LORD your God with all your heart, soul, and might, is it? It’s taking the name of God, and/or the name of Jesus, and dragging it through the mud, treating it as if there was no value to it.

Yet, when you think about it, you wouldn’t take your mother’s name and treat it in the same way. Why is that? Is it because you respect your mother too much to use her name in such a crude and demeaning fashion? How much more is the Creator of the universe owed that same respect.

The sad part of it is, some of you don’t care. Some of you could care less if you use God’s name in vain and in your cussing. Modifying a line from Spurgeon, “Not content to foul your boots by splashing through the pig mire, you lift the lid on the outhouse toilet and dive right in.” You revel in your sin. You enjoy it. You take great pleasure in mocking the name of God, as if in vocalizing your displeasure of God in swearing you have a bulwark against Him when you stand before Him as Judge.

Granted, some others of you, don’t realize what you’re doing. It’s the way you grew up. Your father cussed, your grandfather cussed, perhaps even your mother or grandmother would slip out a few choice words now and then. You don’t even think about it. But I’m asking that you think about it. This is a serious matter before God and is indicative of your spiritual state of affairs.

You see, my friends, there are two ways in which you can go. You can follow the broad path which your friends are following, which looks like fun and brings you all kinds of enjoyment (one thinks) in this life (family, friends, hobbies, money, vacations, self-fulfillment, etc.) but of which leads to spiritual and bodily death, or you can choose the narrow path that leads to spiritual and bodily life (now and for all eternity). It’s up to you. You have the choice. God is not going to force you. He waits patiently for you to differentiate yourself. Will you choose Him or the lie that leads you away from Him?

King Solomon, the writer of Proverbs, says with the utmost sagacity:

“There is a way which seems right to a man, But it’s end is the way of death” (Prov. 14:12).

It is the broad path that seems right to a man. It is the way of most of the world. All your friends are on it, at least those friends like yourself, and everyone is having fun. “The narrow path is for the losers,” you say.

Solomon, however, gives a warning:

“Everyone who is proud in heart is an abomination to the LORD. Assuredly, he will not be unpunished” (Proverbs 16:5).

By following the broad path you are saying with a proud heart, “I don’t need God. He’s nothing to me. I choose to differentiate myself, for myself, and no one else.”

But your house is on fire, my friend. The flames have started to kindle your garments. Get out of that broad path house now, I implore you. Run! Find the narrow path!

Flee to the safety of God’s revelation to you in His Word, the Bible. It is this Word which speaks to you of Jesus as the only answer to your sin problem. Stop procrastinating. Investigate the claims of Christ and believe! Ask God for the faith to believe if you have to. It is not a blind faith you are asking for, but a faith based on evidence. So ask Him to lead you to the evidence. He will not disappoint.

It is Jesus who says:

“All that the Father gives Me shall come to Me; and the one who comes to Me I will in no wise cast out” (John 6:37).

All my love,

Your friend

Vaya con Dios!

Everything You Need to Know

Dearest hijas and hijo,

Does this sign say anything to you?

In recent travels the past four weeks throughout our great American West, I couldn’t help but stand in disbelief when I saw this sign displayed proudly in the lobby of a popular American hotel chain.

Is this really what this great country is reduced to, to applaud those who simply show up?

What ever happened to the American work ethic? Is that now gone and we have to be kind to those who merely show up for work, as if they should receive a prize and honorific accolades for merely the effort of being there at work in the first place, having nothing to say of the quality of the work they perform?

[Update 9/18: Posted while on the road, and on my phone, so now let me finish some of my thoughts.]

Yes, we are to be kind to everyone. This is part of the two great commandments that Jesus gave in reply to a Jewish lawyer who asked him what was the greatest commandment in the Law: “Love the LORD your God, and love your neighbor as yourself” (Matt. 22:35-40). “On these two commandments depend the whole Law and Prophets,” Jesus said (vs. 40).

Kindness is also one of the fruits of the Spirit mentioned in Galations 5:22-23 and should be exhibited in profusion by all regenerated followers of the Christ.

But, I am also reminded of Paul’s exhortation in 2 Thessalonians 3:10, “if anyone will not work, neither let him eat.”

And further, “some among you are leading an undisciplined life, doing no work at all…(2 Thess. 3:11).

Work is central and crucial to any economy. If people won’t work, goods and services suffer for all of us.

The sentiment the sign above displays is off on so many orders of magnitude. It was an excuse proffered by the management and owner of this particular hotel for poor service. In other words, “Hey, we know we’re subpar, but don’t blame us, and oh, be sure to be kind to those who are here.”

Count it joy, Christian, that you do work. It is a blessing from God that you are working and receiving the benefits thereof—both for yourself and for the society you live in.

All my love,

Dad

Vaya con Dios!

When Evil Befalls You

Dearest hijas and hijo,

When evil breaks into the normalcy of your life do you cry, “Unfair!” When tragedy strikes your home, your life, your family, your friends, or your health, do you shake your fists at the heavens and get angry? Or perhaps you weep and cry and wallow in self-pity? “Why do bad things happen to good people,” you might say. “This is just too much and I can’t take it anymore!” you might shout.

Consider Job. A man of wealth: 7 sons, 3 daughters, 7000 sheep, 3000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen, 500 jennies, and very many servants (Job 1:2-3). He was considered the greatest of all the men in the East.

He lived in the land of Uz (Job 1:1), so named most likely after the man Uz, the son of Aram, the son of Shem, the son of Noah (Gen. 10:22-23), who settled in what is now northern Arabia. From cultural and historical features found in this book named after him, it places these events in Job’s life most likely sometime after the dispersion at Babel (Gen. 11:1-9), but before or at around the same time as Abraham (c. 2100-2000 BC).

The epithet that describes Job: “blameless, upright, fearing God, and shunning evil” (Job 1:1). What follower and student of the Christ would not be honored to have that same epithet ascribed to them?

Was Job without sin? No, none of us are (Rom. 3:10-18, 23). Yet he made it a priority; his life mission, to worship the one and only true God so that it could be said of him he was upright and blameless, fearing God and turning away from evil. May we strive to live lives where that can be truly said of us.

In one day Job’s whole life was turned upside down. You’ve read the account. First, in an act of moral evil by the Sabeans, his oxen and donkeys were stolen and his servants killed (Job 1:14-15). Then his sheep were wiped out along with the servants tending them in what was described as “the fire of God” (Job 1:16), most likely an act of natural evil akin to a severe and devastating lightning storm. Next was another act of moral evil—coveting, theft, and murder—when some Chaldeans attacked, stole his camels, and killed his men (Job 1:17).

This was then followed by another act of natural evil in a tornado or sirocco that killed all seven of his sons and all three of his daughters who were together in the older brother’s house celebrating a birthday (Job 1:4, 13, 18-19). All dead. All gone. What a devastating blow to happen to the same person on the same day. The count so far: 2 counts of moral evil and 2 counts of natural evil (for reference on moral and natural evil see my post Don’t Be a Sir David Attenborough, Either.)

Here was Job’s response:

“Then Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head, and he fell to the ground and worshipped” (Job 1:20).

Here is what he said in that act of worship:

“Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I shall return there. The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away, Blessed be the name of the LORD” (Job 1:21).

And what then does the text say of Job?

“Through all this, Job did not sin nor did he blame God” (Job 1:22).

Some time passes, we don’t know how long (Job 2:1), but then comes the coup de grace. As if the wiping out of his children and his possessions wasn’t enough, Job is inflicted in his body with boils that cover his whole frame. Blistering, pus oozing, stinking and festering boils that drive him to his knees. He sits in the fire pit and ashes and can only try lancing them with potshards to alleviate the pain (Job 2:7-8).

Can you see the picture? Unmitigated disaster for Job. First, his children and possessions are wiped out, then he breaks out from head to toe in festering and painful boils, and all he’s got left is a wife who tells him to “Curse God and die” (Job 2:9).

Was this all coincidence? Just accidental accidents that happened to come together in Job’s life in a tragic way? No, the Biblical text says that God allowed it (Job 1:12, 2:6). It was God who permitted it. So that brings up an interesting question for us, doesn’t it? When evil befalls you, do you see the hand of God behind it? Does it make you doubt the goodness of God to allow these evils to touch your life? Do you find yourself questioning whether there is any purpose behind it?

Follow the rest of the story (Job chapter 2 verse 11, thru chapter 37). Job’s three friends hear about what happened, come to visit and comfort him, sit in silence with him for seven days, and then Job finally speaks. He rues the day he was born. The dialog goes back and forth between Job and his three friends for quite some time. They offer reasons and explanations for why all these tragedies must have happened to him. It was bad advice and the wrong reasons (see Job 42:7-9).

In chapters 38-41 the dialog switches between God and Job. These chapters are a marvelous testimony to God’s power and control—His absolute omnipotence and sovereignty over all of His creation including your and my life. He begins by asking Job this question:

“Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge? Now gird up your loins like a man and I will ask you, and you instruct Me!” (Job 38:2-3).

Question follows question in rapid-fire sequence from God to Job throughout these chapters. These four chapters should be read over and over and over again. There are so many nuggets of great truth found in these chapters. Notice there is no answer from God as to “why.” No explanation from God as to the purpose behind permitting it all to happen—only a demonstration of His total sovereignty, total power, and absolute will to do and act as He pleases. God exerts total control of whatsoever comes to pass in the totality and realm of His creation and in Job’s life. At the end, Job is humbled and repents (Job 42:1-6). He has nothing more to say. How could he against the awesome power and wisdom of God? God then blesses him by restoring his former fortunes twofold and giving him seven more sons and three more daughters (Job 42:10-13).

What is the lesson for us? When tragedy strikes, and it will, God doesn’t have to give us a reason as to why. Just know that He has permitted it for a reason. We may not know what that reason is, but God does, and because He is in total control of everything that comes to pass, we can rest assured that the reason is ultimately for our good and to His ultimate glory.

We say like Job says to his wife after she told him to curse God and die: “…shall we indeed accept good from God and not accept adversity?” (Job 2:10).

We rest in the comfort of Paul’s words in Romans 8:28:

“And we know that God causes all things [even tragedy] to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.“

All my love,

Dad

Vaya con Dios!