Richard Dawkins Agrees With the Gideons

The Gideons, as you may or may not know, is the organization that puts a King James Bible in every motel and hotel.  They also hand out those pocket New Testaments to kids, and I got mine back when I was in 5th grade.  I remember I promised to read it, but failed.  The King James Bible, although regarded by some as the only true version of the Bible, was a bit much for me as a pre-teen.  Let the record show that the Bible wasn’t actually written in 1769 when the King James was revised for the last time, nor was the Bible written in English.  Any English Bible is a translation from the original words, which were penned in ancient times in Greek and Hebrew (plus a few portions in Aramaic).  So what the Gideons hand out is basically an old-English version of the Bible, probably the most popular version because of the rich tradition of it.

In what has to be one of the more ironic developments of the year, famed atheist Richard Dawkins evidently wants the King James Bible handed out as well.  In an op-ed piece, he recently endorsed a plan by England’s education secretary Michael Gove to put a copy of the King James Bible in every school.  An atheist, wanting the Bible put in schools?

No word yet on if the Gideons are issuing a “Somebody Pinch Me!” statement.

There are two theories at work here.  Dawkins, of course, believes that if anyone reads the Bible they will see that the Bible is an immoral travesty responsible for all the evil in the world.  The Gideons believe if anyone reads the Bible they could understand the truth of God, and put their faith in Christ. So who is right?

Talking About Baptism in a Room Full of Diverse Backgrounds

We had a great Sunday. Seven people were baptized. I know, I know, if you are at a mega-church then seven baptisms is just another day. Maybe a slow day. On the other hand, anytime someone accepts Christ it’s a great day, whether it be seven, or just one. The Bible does say that heaven rejoices when just one sinner repents, and at our church, it’s a big deal. We work at it and God has blessed the work. On average, we see 1 salvation for every 10 members each year, which is a little better than the 1 for every 100 that is the nationwide average. I think any Christian church could do this, honestly because it’s the same God… But I digress.

This week the baptisms were the after-effects from an evangelistic drama called “The Battle: The End is Coming.” The Battle presents scenes of life and death-heaven and hell. We use video, music, special effects, even pyrotechnics. (yeah, actual fire!) Did we scare people into being saved? Well, the idea of standing before God can be a little scary. Or a lot scary. So probably. There were a total of 25 decisions that we know of this year. Awesome stuff. You should have seen the smiles on faces when people came out of the water on Sunday. There’s really not a much better feeling anywhere in my opinion.

So here’s the thing, with so many baptisms, we geared the entire worship service around them. Plus, family members attended for the main purpose of witnessing the event and taking pictures. Do we allow pictures in a Worship Service? Why yes we do. That’s how we roll. And these families, plus many people in the congregation, have diverse backgrounds in what baptism is all about, and how a church “saves” people.

I did the scary thing and actually talked about the meaning and purpose of baptism. Yes I know that sounds mundane, but in reality it’s like poking a badger. Some of you who don’t attend church or don’t believe in God may not realize how divisive the subject of baptism or the method of salvation can be in churches. Trust me, it’s one of the worst. Baptist churches and Christian Churches primarily split over this very issue, and both oppose the practice of infant baptism in the Methodists, Presbyterians or Lutherans. The Catholics and some Baptist churches won’t even count your baptism if it happened in one of the other groups, and some Christian/Church of Christ’s won’t count your baptism if you didn’t have a “correct” belief about it when you were baptized. And that’s just the beginning,

Storm Action!

Coming home from doing some sports broadcasting at the State Basketball Championships in Columbia, Missouri today, we ran into a HUGE hailstorm. Just north of Rolla, this baby lasted for 30-plus minutes, over about 10 miles! Only marble to golf-ball size, but as you can see, lots of it.

Big Questions and Deep Answers

There are plenty of big questions.  Those are easy to find.  Questions that rattle the foundation of a spiritual worldview, especially one as specific as the  Bible.  We rarely pursue the answers ourselves mind you.  Instead we go searching on the web, or let our pastor or favorite writer or an actor or a politician tell us what to believe.  And if they scoff, so do we.  It’s settled.

Ironic, since we are certainly educated enough to know that some answers take time, that there are usually at least two sides to the story, and that occasionally even politicians are wrong.  Come to think of it, we even live in a world where the scientific questions take years of study to fully comprehend.  Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Astronomy and the many offshoots and applications of each, take years of study.  And those are just to get the degrees that allow us to search for new answers -or debunk the old ones.  We understand the need for time in science, and the need for effort, but we often don’t apply the same patience or effort toward other, more spiritual topics.

In other words, sometimes, the answers really aren’t easy.  Sometimes they take time to figure out or grasp.  Sometimes that’s how it is supposed to be.

Some Jews WERE expecting the Messiah to be Divine

Jesus As God

One of the common misconceptions about Jesus is that He never claimed to be God, and that the Jews never believed the Messiah would be “God”.  The reality is neither of those assumptions are true.

The part about Jesus claiming to be God is easy to demonstrate from the Scripture, since Jesus took the name of God for Himself, made Himself “equal with God” in the eyes of the Jews, accepted worship as only God was allowed, and forgave sins as only God could.  In the eyes of the people around Him, Jesus clearly made Himself out to be God, and they specifically tried to kill Him for it a few times.

However, I’ve always believed (because I heard a rabbi say this once) that the Jews never looked for the Messiah to be Divine.

Turns out that isn’t exactly accurate either. The Essenes were expecting it.  And here is a link I found describing it.  (Take note the reference to Melchizedek, corresponds to the teaching about Jesus in the New Testament book of Hebrews).

Here’s the link.  It’s a short read.  

Here’s a more detailed look with more evidence.

Coming to Grips with the Christmas God

There’s a lot of things we got wrong about the Christmas story, but do we care or are we content to invent our own beliefs based on what sounds good?  For instance, there weren’t necessarily 3 wise men.  There were probably more.  John MacArthur’s research says they traveled on Persian steeds and with a sizable cavalry.  There were 3 gifts, but it never said how many wise men there were, or what color their skin was.  Here’s a few more:

Sometimes I’m Glad Bad Things Happen to Good People

Can you buy God with money?  One guy tried.  And while we might scold him for it, truth is our modern day church often tries to buy God with good works, church attendance, giving in the offering plate, some sort of “commitment”, etc…  In both the case of the man in Acts 9, and in our more modern version, God really isn’t for sale.  In fact, sometimes instead of getting favors, prosperity, health, and an easy life in return for following God, we might get some “bad” things.  Thank goodness.

Sound crazy? Let me explain…