North Carolina Marriage Amendment

Here's my letter to the editor, published on March 28, 2012 on the amendment:

On May 8, 2012, we will have the opportunity to vote for or against Amendment One regarding marriage.

In the article “Two Sides Harden on Marriage Amendment” (March 20), Jane Postlethwaite stated that the amendment, “takes away rights.” In a letter printed the same day, Chas Griffin posed the following: “North Carolina already has a law banning same-sex marriage, so why are some of you folks so determined to amend the constitution?”

If there already is a law, how would this amendment take away any rights? Would it not just solidify those laws?

Voting down the amendment will not overturn those laws banning same-sex marriage.

Also, a column by Bernard H. Cochran was printed on March 21. Although I disagree with some of what he wrote, he does make the valid point that there are things that the Bible forbids which we do not have laws against. However, this does not mean that we shouldn’t make laws forbidding what the Bible forbids.

Finally, let’s remember that before the amendment came to be on the ballot, it had to pass the General Assembly. It passed the House by a vote of 75 to 42 (64 percent) and the Senate by a vote of 30 to 16 (65 percent).

So, when you go to vote on May 8, you should consider if you want to vote for the amendment, which upholds what is already law, or vote against it, voicing your opposition to our current law.

What are your thoughts?

Jesus and Horus

I have found that we cannot argue someone away from their religion any more than someone can argue me away from Christianity. Also, one cannot argue for the validity of the Bible using internal proofs (i.e. Bible verses). Nor can other religions argue for the validity of their holy books using internal proofs. That would be like me writing a fictitious story but prefacing it with the statement, “Everything I have written in this book is true.” That statement alone doesn’t make it true.

So, how do we answer skeptics and those who don’t believe in the Bible and Jesus? We do so by using external sources and proper argumentation.

Recently, a man posed the following to me:

“what makes you think any of it [the Bible] is true? The similarities between Jesus and other mythological beings (ie Horus) is undeniable.”

Let’s look at that argument:

Statement:                         Jesus is similar to mythological beings                     P is similar to Q

Correct Presumption:        mythological beings are not real                               Q is not real

Conclusion:                       “What make you think it’s true?”                              Therefore P is not real

First, the similarities do not necessitate equality. A 3x5 card has similarities to a square (90 degree angles, parallel sides, etc), but does not mean it is equal to a square.

Second, the argument will unravel if the conclusion is proven false by some other authority. The authority in this case could be historians, non-christian historians at that. Are there any non-christian historians writing in and around the supposed time of Christ (or writing about His time) mentioning Him as existing? Yes. These include Josephus, Pliny the Younger, and more.

My reply:

“There are some Historians (Pliny the Younger, Josephus, etc) outside of the Bible who wrote about Jesus.”

His response:

“right. but what about the undeniable similarities between Jesus and other mythical beings, ie Horus or Mithra?”

So, he agrees that Jesus is a real person. However, he goes on to argue for the similarities between Jesus and mythological beings. So, let’s take an honest look at this:

He writes:

“Horus was born to a virgin, walked on water, performed miracles, crucified, rose from the dead. Familiar, hey? Explain?”

After a quick search on Google, I have found the following:

1. There is some debate, even among atheists, in regards to Horus’ virgin birth, his walking on water, crucifixion, and resurrection.

2.  Many, including atheists agree that Horus performed miracles, but they were different in scope and nature. Let me add that even in the Bible, Jesus is not the only one to perform miracles. The Egyptian Magicians did, the disciples did, etc.

Yet, my reply was simply this:

“I agree there are some similarities between Jesus and mythical beings.”

“You also agreed that non-Christian historians wrote about Jesus, showing he existed. #atheism”

In closing, let me offer an argument of my own:

Historians have proven that Jesus existed.

Historians even prove some of the claims of the Bible about Jesus.

So, do you therefore conclude that all the claims of the Bible about Jesus are true? And thus you must believe or not believe?

Or do you conclude that the entire Bible is not true, and therefore you don’t have to believe?

The choice is yours.

What's Wrong With Being Holier-Than-Thou?

The previously mentioned gentleman who I’ve had Twitter conversations with has inspired me once again to write a blog post. My intention is not to tear him down, but to make sure that others are not of the same faulty mindset.

He has written: “God's word is communicated by preaching and by writing. His preferred way is reading and writing. That's why he gave us His Word-the Bible. So if we have a different idea we can check it against what He says. Preaching and speaking is for those around us. Writing and reading is for anyone.”

In some aspects, he is correct. However, let’s also keep in mind the power and need of preaching. Romans 10:14-15 state, “How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher?

And how shall they preach unless they are sent? As it is written: "How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace, Who bring glad tidings of good things!" I see nothing here about giving someone a written word, but I do see the need for preaching.

Secondly, he said that the New Testament writers each claimed to be “full-on” followers of Jesus and that we cannot find much about their personal bios in their writings.

I agree that they didn’t shy away from claiming to be followers of Christ, but they also shared about themselves openly. Paul himself wrote at length in Philippians 3:4-6 that, “If anyone else thinks he may have confidence in the flesh, I more so: circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews; concerning the law, a Pharisee; concerning zeal, persecuting the church; concerning the righteousness which is in the law, blameless.” He states all of that before mentioning Christ in verse 7.

The afore mentioned gentleman also insinuates that by me not mentioning that I am a follower of Jesus in my bio, that I am watering down and/or removing His name and therefore “our opportunity to spread that name is lost.” Later he asks me, “Why do you not like holier than thou Christians? You just said that we are to love everyone. What does it matter if you get a bad name? It's not about you. “

Well, let’s think about this. If a non-Christian encounters a “holier-than-thou” Christian, they may paint all Christians as that way. That can have a negative impact on my ability to share Christ with that non-Christian. Even though Jesus had the right to be “holier than thou”, He wasn’t. If we are Christians [like Christ] than we shouldn’t be either.

Remember two things, my friends:

First, we need to make sure that what we say and proclaim is what God has said in His Word.

Second, just as Jesus Christ lovingly led others to the Truth, we must lovingly lead others to Jesus.

What Your Twitter Says About You

I recently ran across a man on twitter who I decided to follow. In return, he wrote me some direct messages. Here’s our conversation, along with my thoughts.

He wrote: Hi Bill, Thanks for following. I only follow radical Jesus followers. If this is you mention it in your bio and I will follow you. GBU

This seems to say that he will only interact with those who are already saved. We cannot reach the lost by only interacting with others who are already saved. Jesus Himself ate with the tax collectors and other sinners when He was asked to eat with them (Luke 5:29-32).

I replied that though I don't have in my bio that I am a radical Jesus follower, I am one. In case you haven’t seen my bio, I do mention I am a pastor and that I love God.

He also stated that instead of stating in my bio that I love Androids, I should tell about Jesus. Well, the world needs to know that Christians are not one-dimensional. Christians can talk about things other than God and Jesus from time to time, and perhaps in so doing, we can win some to Christ. Isn’t that what Paul was talking about when he said “I have become all things to all men, that I might by all means save some” (1 Corinthians 9:22)?

I do agree with him that we should talk about Jesus on Twitter. If he read my tweets, he would see I do just that and more.

He said that “I also read people's tweets from the point of view from someone who knows nothing about Jesus.” This is a good thing. We cannot assume that everyone knows about Jesus and God and salvation etc. But then he gets absurd. He states that when he reads my bio [“Pastor of Calvary Baptist / Love God, the Bible…”] he asks “What's a pastor? Is that something you eat? Which Bible are you talking about?” The first part can be answered by a dictionary, the second part is just absurd, and the third part is understood as being the Holy Bible. Applying the same mindset of someone who doesn’t know who Jesus is, I read his bio [“Jesus gives sight to the blind…”] and one can similarly absurdly wonder “Jesus who?”

He did apologize for saying that my bio seemed to be all about me. He said he does think that about people on Twitter who say, "I have written this many books, I have preached this many sermons, I have 5000 people in my church. I, I, I, I.” Interestingly, too, he claims Rick Warren as his hero. I agree that Pastor Rick does a good job pointing others to Christ, but his twitter bio is exactly the kind of bio that this gentleman does not like.

I did find it interesting in all of this: He claims to follow only those with Jesus in their bio. Yet, after just a quick search of part of the list of those he follows, I found at least 5 without any mention of Jesus and 1 who mentioned they are a wizard. He also said he accepts bios with the cross symbol, as it is a worldwide symbol for Christianity. I guess he is unaware that other religions use the cross symbol as well, including some Egyptian and Pagan religions.

He also stated that he points atheists to the bios of the people he follows to show the atheists that Jesus can give them inner peace. I would rather engage in a decent conversation over twitter about Jesus. Just pointing folks to bios will not work. That’s like an Atheist trying to convert me by pointing me to bios of other Atheists. It’s simply not going to happen.

Here’s a fitting video clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=3YXINEYdnkY

If you have not watched the video, please do so. It’s not perfect, but it makes the point that we need to befriend people and love people even if they are not a Christian. By our love and honest answers, we may win more to Jesus than we would by bashing them over the head with the Bible or ignoring them if they don’t believe.

A friend of mine reminded me, “by saying, ‘I'm only going to engage with people who already agree with me,’ we are cutting ourselves off from the very people Jesus loves.”

If you are a Christian, let me encourage you to:

strive to meet others who are not,

engage in healthy debates/discussions about your beliefs,

learn where they are coming from without jumping to the normal conclusions,

and continue to love them.

Also, let me encourage you to :

share what a difference Christ made in your life,  

share that you still mess up,

share that the difference is that we are forgiven,

and share the difference they too can have in Christ.

Who Created God?

Here's an interesting article from the Huffington Post by Rabbi Alan Lurie on the topic of Who Created God: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rabbi-alan-lurie/who-created-god_b_1337834.html

The article seems to show that just as some scientists are concluding that matter always existed in some fashion without a beginning, perhaps God also existed without a beginning.

Just like one cannot disprove that matter always existed in some form, I don't believe one can disprove God always existed. Just as science has to take the their explanatory theories on faith (since many of them cannot be replicated), so too we need to take the existence of God on faith.

What's your thoughts?
How do you respond when asked who created God?

(please post your comments below)