This is something that I received via email… I’ve read part of this before in Lee Strobel’s The Case for Christ, which is an excellent book, by the way… I just had to repost it here - very thought-provoking stuff here. (more…)

I ran across this site today and I must say that it broke my heart… It physically pains me to see God’s word picked apart with little regard to the context and meaning of it as a whole. It is obvious that Marshall Brain is an intelligent, skillful, and thoughtful author (that is not even in debate here, actually); it is rather his selective and out-of-context attacks on God’s word that are in question, in my mind.

Take for instance, his first scripture-based “point” in Chapter 0 wherein he quotes Leviticus 20:13:

“Knowing whether God is real or not is incredibly important. For example, in Leviticus 20:13 the Bible says that we should kill all homosexuals. If God exists, and if God is the all-powerful creator of the universe, and if God wrote the Bible, then we should do that. God has commanded it and we should obey. On the other hand, if God is imaginary, we should throw the Bible away because it is absurd. The idea of human beings killing other innocent human beings is abhorrent, and a book that promotes murder and hate crimes has no place in our society. “

In this passage of text, Mr. Brain and I do agree on one thing: knowing whether God is real or not is incredibly important - in fact, I could not agree more! Further, I do not argue Mr. Brain’s summation of the scripture; Leviticus 20:13 tells us:

” ‘If a man lies with a man as one lies with a woman, both of them have done what is detestable. They must be put to death; their blood will be on their own heads.”

HOWEVER, what Mr. Brain fails to tell his internet readership is the following - like all texts, when we examine scripture, it must be done IN CONTEXT. Now, if you examine this passage of scripture in context (i.e. with its surrounding verses and chapters), you’ll find that homosexuals are not the only people that God is saying should be stoned! Those who lie with animals, those who lie with their father’s mothers, those who like threesomes, those who sleep with their daughter-in-laws, those that curse their mothers and fathers - the list goes on and on… Further, there’s not just stoning - there’s burning with fire, separations from families, dishonoring folks - there’s LOTS of bad things going on in this passage.

So one has to ask - what exactly is going on here?!? That’s where CONTEXT comes in…

If you look at this entire chapter, you find that God is speaking to Moses prior to entering the Promised Land. He is basically, saying, “Look, Moses - you tell those Israelites that I know they’ve seen, heard, and even done a fair amount of bad things in the past but once they get to Canaan, we ARE NOT going to have any of this nonsense anymore! Moses, you tell them that if they do these things, these are the “bad things” that are going to happen…”

(An Aside)…As a matter of fact, if you read through the book of Leviticus, there’s quite a lot of “bad things” going on; this is because this book is primarily a “list of DO’s and DO NOT’s for the Children of Israel after their departure from slavery and subsequent journey to the Promised Land).

So, basically, God sets out the ground rules, and THEN comes the long laundry list of the PUNISHMENTS for these SINFUL ACTS. These were essentially the conditions that would follow sinful behavior! Now, doesn’t that sound a bit more familiar? Sounds a bit like our death penalty today, ya? Now, I know that we do not send people to the gas chamber for having sexual relations with their mother, but most folks who consider themselves moral citizens do not condone such behavior. This is also where another nugget of Mr. Brain’s mindset gleams forth for us to see - in his own words, we find that he does, in truth, not consider homosexuality a sin. In his own words, he says:

“The idea of human beings killing other innocent human beings …”

I wonder if Mr. Brain would feel the same way about sin (and it’s subsequent punishment) if someone he loved dearly (himself included) was harmed in some manner…

I have no doubt that in the day and age of the Old Testament, there were people killed for these acts, and it was done in accordance with God’s word, HOWEVER, this where Mr. Brain again elects to leave out the CONTEXT of the entirety of God’s Holy Word. To prove this point, we will play a little game, ok? You can do this at home - just follow along with my instructions.

1. First, stand up and hop on one foot (go on, do it…)
2. Now, sit down (thank you).
3. Now, stand up and DO NOT HOP, but SAY that you hopped, and THINK about hopping

Ok - the game is over (you can sit down now…) - what does this prove? Well, first, I gave you some instructions to do something (which I’m assuming you did) and afterwards, we only admited that we did something and then concentrated on it.

In the same manner, this is how God has dealt with sin in our world. First, in the Old Testament (from which Leviticus comes), he told man TO DO SOMETHING. In this specific case, he told the Israelites to kill others that committed these sins. Then, after Christ came (we’re talking New Testament here), died on the cross for our sins and was resurrected, man no longer has to do anything but ADMIT that we sin and BELIEVE in Christ and that what He did has saved us from the penalty of those sins.

So, when you examine the Bible in CONTEXT, you find that in fact, God, in his infinite mercy, has made it so that we humans here on earth do not have to concern ourselves with the stoning of others as a punishment for their sin - we have a way to free our souls from the wages of sin, which is death (Romans 6:23).

When you examine the Bible, much like any other book, and do not maintain the frame of reference that is context you can generally glean pretty much whatever you want from the text. You have to look at the text with a discerning, unbiased and thoughtful eye or else the results of your examination will be without any doubt slanted and unfair. This, I feel, is what Mr. Brain has done with his treatise.

I will endeavor over the next several weeks to ferret out and examine each one of these unfair characterizations within his writing and lay them bare before your feet. You may then judge, with an open mind, in which light you wish to view the text. My fervent hope and prayer is that each of you will come to the conclusion that the Bible is the source of authoritative truth for our world and our souls, and that if you have not done so before now, you would at least examine it personally, for yourselves.

-Brannon

Happy Halloween one and all! I just wanted to share with you all something that I heard (for the first time) in church this Sunday - it absolutely floored me and (truth be told) brought the “threat of a tear” to my eye… In our church, on Sunday mornings, with have a “Children’s Service” wherein all of the young children in the church get to come to the front at the beginning of the service and hear something that is applicable to them - usually, it is something that fits in with the message that the pastor brings, but not always.

This week, the children’s message was about Halloween… I, as I always do, went up to the front pew to make sure my two little ones act as they should while they are up in front of the church and believe it or not, I actually *listen* to the message brought to the children. The fellow talking to the kids was sitting on the top step next to a pumpkin, and what follows is a paraphrase of what he told them (and me) about Halloween.

“Many people think that pumpkins and Halloween are all about evil and dark things - and while some of that is true, there is also a way to think about things from a Christian point of view: take, for instance, carving pumpkins. When we carve a pumpkin, the first thing we do is clean it up: we get all the muck, dirt, and grime off the outside, cut off the top and pull all of the “pumpkin-goo” out and throw it away. In the same way, this is what happens to us when we are saved - Christ cleanes us from our sins, reaches down into out heart and pulls out all of the horrible, sinful, hurtful things that we have done (Hebrews 10:22) and seperates us from them as far as the east is from the west (Psalms 103:12).

Next, when we carve a pumpkin, we usually carve some eyes and a large smile on its face. In the same way, Christ puts a smile on our faces once we are born again - he gives us a reason, deep down inside to be joyous! We are now secured an eternal life with him in Heaven - we have quite a lot to grin about - and grin we should! (1 Peter 1:8-9) Further, there is joy as well in Heaven when one comes to Christ! JOY ABOUNDS! (Luke 15:10)

Once we are done carving, we put a light on the inside of our pumpkin and show it to the world. We are very proud of what we have done and want as many people as possible to see our handy-work. By the same token, Christ puts his divine light inside of us once we are saved (John 8:12 ) and he, too, wants the entire world to see His light in us - we should be proud and should never hide that light from anyone. We should always strive to show others Christ’s light in us. (Matthew 5:14-16)

Now that this is done, something else happens - something unexpected and marvelous. This thing that we have made is no longer a pumpkin, but a jack-o-lantern! Someting altogether new and different than what it once was! In the same way, once we are saved, we become a new creature in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17) - we are to put on the “new man”, as Paul says in Ephesians 4:24, and re-train our thoughts, minds, and hearts daily to follow Christ.”

Have a blessed, safe, and happy Halloween, true believers!

In the Word, we read:

“Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.”
-Ephesians 4:14-16 (New International Version), emphasis mine…

So, as Christians, we are to speak the truth in love. That is far easier than it sounds, especially when one blunders upon things that are meant to be demeaning to the faith. Still, if we want to be like Christ, it is the least we can do to bridle our tongues and speak kind words that resonate with the truth of his word. So, I’ll take a shot here in terms of the first comic. I’m not even going to touch that second comic with a 10 foot cattle-prod right now - talk about a whole ‘nother can of worms. (more…)

Growing up and living in the south, it is very hard to be me. I get very little to NO enjoyment out of organized sports of any kind, and a direct result of that is that I am often looked at as a kind of societal and mental pariah. I mean — com’on! What sort of red-blooded, American male (from the SOUTH, no less) does not love to watch football?!?!?!

Well, in a word: me.

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I try to stay in shape.

I’m not a fitness nut, or a muscle-bound weight lifter, or an ultra-ironman or anything, but I do like to be relatively healthy; in fairly decent shape - that sort of thing.

But I’m not as dedicated as I should be.

As a result, I often have periods, like the past couple of weeks - when, for whatever reason, I’ve missed several workouts, or runs, or both. Those periods, then, directly result in having days, like yesterday - when I have to face the often painful re-entrance into workouts, runs, or both. Yesterday was a “both” day and I’m still kinda sore… Nevertheless, this is not what this post is about - or at least directly about. You see, last night, as I was trying to relax a little bit and stretch out my sore tired muscles, I realized something:

Prayer is an awful lot like sit-ups.