Pat Robertson Passes

Most of what I saw and heard from Pat Robertson was from news and outrage reports, meaning if his actual words were included, they were just snippets out of context. If I recall correctly, I read one book attributed to him and some fundraising pleas, watched one political convention speech, and maybe heard him talking to radio program hosts over the years.

I'm not going to even try to defend everything he said or did. Nobody is perfect, and anyone who appears in as much media as he did, especially if any of it is unscripted, is going to say things that are erroneous or sound strange. Whatever he did wrong is now between him and the Lord.

I will say that Robertson was not wrong advocating that Christians participate in politics. Christians have every right to run for office, vote, speak up, support candidates, causes, and actions, and oppose others, including doing so based on their religious beliefs. 

Also, I have noticed outrage reports about him have often taken what he's said out of context have "interpreted" what he said without quoting him. Assuming he actually said some of the more strange things attributed to him, such as about the rumored actions of some people on the Left or who identify themselves by certain behaviors, Robertson and conservative Christians hardly have a monopoly on that. I don't know if a day goes by that I don't see some bizarre claim from the Left, or antitheists, or abortisexuals about what Republicans/conservatives/Christian are planning to do or are already doing.

It isn't some wacky fringe idea that there is Divine judgment for nations, and that a nation turning against the Lord is going to suffer some judgment as a result. This has been something believed throughout history by many cultures. That doesn't automatically make it right, but it is a Biblically sound idea, and Robertson considered the Bible to be Scripture. Sexual morality and ideals of the sort proclaimed by Robertson also haven't been fringe and certainly aren't unique to a few prominent religious broadcasters. Like it or not, if more people lived by them, there would be a lot less disease, unwanted pregnancies, and broken hearts.

The haters, predictably, are celebrating the passing of Robertson. Every time they react this way to the death of a prominent Christian preacher, Republican, or conservative, those haters are reminding many of us why they should never have power over any of us. The hate, the vitriol, the bloodthirsty behavior should remind everyone why limiting government and being prepared to defend yourself and the innocent are necessary.

If Friday Was Good, Sunday Was Spectacular

A carpenter, with questionable parentage, from an unremarkable town, walked the countryside. He attracted followers, keeping twelve with him closely and three of those especially close as he spoke to groups large and small. He was part of an oppressed group - a Jew in a Roman-occupied part of the world. He said and did things that confounded the dominant religious authorities of the day. People flocked to him for a miracle. There was something he claimed that was outrageous to his fellow Jews: He was God. Arrogance? Insanity? Fraud? From a man who urged people to forgive each other and love each other?

For thousands of years, it had been pounded into the minds and hearts of the Jews that there was ONE God and that He was spirit, not an idol that could be kept in a room. He was a unique, personal being, not a "force" or something we all could be or have if we meditated enough.

And yet here was a Jew, this guy who was extremely familiar with the Scriptures – including the ones that said there was just one God - walking around claiming to be God. He wasn't part of the recognized system of priests and religious leaders, so he posed a threat to them and their comfortable, established way of doing things. This guy even had the nerve to disrupt their moneymaking schemes.

Enough was enough!

They handed this guy over to the Romans and demanded that he be executed. He was a threat to the religious leaders, and since he'd claimed to be a king, he must be a threat to the Romans, too. Furthermore, anyone claiming to God was being blasphemous, right? The Roman leader, while spooked a little, didn't find anything wrong with the man, especially after the man explained that his kingdom wasn't of this world. Yet the Romans needed to keep order, and people were demanding that this "king" die. The "king" was taken and scourged - whipped so brutally that his skin was shredded. That wasn't enough. The people wanted this "king" to die. And so this carpenter, who had worked with wood for years to make useful things for other people, was forced to carry the very wood he'd be nailed to so that he could hang on a cross bleeding and losing his ability to breathe.

This man who'd preached loved and forgiveness, who had urged people to turn from their sins, who had healed the sick, who had done some controversial things but never anything wrong, was beaten and executed, all in excruciating pain.

That was what we now call "Good" Friday.

If that was all that happened, most of us would never have heard of Good Friday. Someone may have mentioned this carpenter in an obscure list of Jews who claimed to be the Messiah, but most of us would never have heard of this Nazarene.

But it wasn't all that happened.

On Sunday morning, once the holy days and feasts were over, some people who loved this carpenter were returning to care for his body as a final sign of respect.

The body was gone, though. Nobody ever found the body. To their shock, this Jesus, who had been scourged and killed, was alive and well - very well - though he still had the holes in his hands from the nails and the hole in his side where a spear had shoved into him to make sure he was dead. He talked with them, they embraced him, they felt him, they ate with him. He'd come and go as he pleased over the next several weeks. Finally, having done what he'd set out to do, he was taken away in a "cloud"... probably a description of what appeared to be a blindingly bright light.

Because of that Sunday when Jesus was first seen alive after being killed, we now have Good Friday. Why is Friday "Good"?

It is no coincidence that Jesus was executed during the Passover season (the Last Supper was a Passover Seder). Many years before, when the Jews were enslaved in Egypt, there was a night when they slaughtered lambs "without defect" and placed the blood of a lamb on their doorways. Overnight, when the Lord passed through Egypt with righteous judgment, the firstborn of every household was struck down - but the Lord "passed over" the homes with the blood. The Jews were subsequently freed from their slavery.

John the Baptist referred to Jesus as "the Lamb who takes away the sins of the world." Jesus was the ultimate Passover Lamb "without defect" who shed his blood to free all of us from our enslavement to sin. That Friday was Good because it is the day that our sins against God were paid for... by someone other than us!

But that Sunday...

We've all dealt with death in our lives. We've all had loved ones that have died. Thousands of years of recorded history tell us that dead people stay dead.

Yet this miracle-working carpenter was seen alive after his death. People touched him, talked with him, ate with him. They stuck their fingers in his wounds.

Being modern people, we are understandably skeptical of this. We don't have video proof. But what we do have is history, and the testimony of those who were there. Good Friday had left the followers of Jesus afraid and feeling defeated. They had shown themselves to be cowardly, and their leader was dead.

If Easter (Resurrection) Sunday did not happen, how did such people go on to change the world? Unless they actually encountered a resurrected Jesus, these people would have no reason to face ostracism and martyrdom to proclaim that resurrection and spread the teachings of Jesus. It is easy to deny the truth to save your life. Would people be willing to give up everything they had and die for something they knew to be a lie? No way!

So what does this all mean for me today? It means that I have a way to be right with God, because even though I have done things against Him, Good Friday was the day that those sins were paid for. I am forgiven. I also have someone who is my friend, my advocate, someone who knows what it is like to live life on Earth and knows what it is like to feel pain, suffer loss, and to die. And that Someone has promised me that if I follow Him, everything will be okay. Death is not the end. He has conquered death, and someday death, pain, and sorrow will be taken away from me. He has backed up His "blasphemous claims" with action, showing them not to be blasphemous at all.

He doesn't want me to cut the heads off of people just because they don't believe in Him. He doesn't want me to fly airliners into skyscrapers to kill people going about their lives. He wants me to do things like love others and take care of the needs of others. This is why so many have built hospitals, universities, and charities in His name.

It isn't about going to church regularly. It isn't about trying to convince people that my life is perfect. It isn't about making sure I can retire wealthy. It isn't about getting everyone else to see things the way I do. It isn't even about keeping a checklist of rules and sticking to that checklist. It isn't about "getting it right" on my own before I can approach God, because that will never happen.

It IS about having a peace with God, knowing that He forgives the horrible things I've done and may yet still do if I simply ask Him to, having sincerely repented. It is about having fellowship with that Nazarene who rose from the grave and still lives, because He deserves my allegiance and because He did life right.

There are people who believe that everything is an accident, a series of extremely unlikely coincidences. Sunsets. Surf. Waterfalls. Roses. Redwood trees. Chocolate. Wine. Galaxies. Eagles. Puppies. Kittens. Sex. Newborn babies. Mozart. DaVinci. Those are all accidents? I don't think so. All of the complexity in the cells of our own bodies, all of the symbiotic systems of the natural world, where organisms depend on each other for survival. Those all "just happened"? I don't think so. The world is beautiful and amazing, and it is not accidental or inconsequential that a Jew who was without sin and claimed to be God suffered and died at Passover and then rose from the dead.

Yes, there is something broken about the world, as evidenced by all of the suffering. But the fix is in. The victory was demonstrated almost 2000 years ago. I can't ignore that. That has to have an impact in my life, how I view life, and how I live life. My Lord humbled Himself, suffered and died for me. And then, He beat death, and someday, He's going to kick death - and its parent, sin - down the stairs, and shut the door on them. The world won't be broken anymore. I can't know everything about what the future will bring, but as long as I'm holding on to Him, I'll be in the best company there is. And since I love Him, as long as I'm around, I should seek to love others, meet their needs, and follow His lead.

May you have a Joyous Resurrection Sunday.

The Good Thing About Good Friday

Unless you are living under sharia law and are kept ignorant of such matters, you know that this coming weekend is the weekend during which Christians especially commemorate the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The books of the Bible claim that that both of these events were historical events - that they actually happened.

If both of these events did actually happen, then they are the most significant events in all of history.

The resurrection of Jesus is not a mere resuscitation of a man destined to later die and decompose, but rather a restoration of life to His dead body and a transformation into a glorified state in which He will never die again - eternal life. He is the first human being to resurrect to eternal life.

It was the resurrection of Jesus that confirmed the significance of His crucifixion. As C.S. Lewis put forth, Jesus was either "a liar, a lunatic, or Lord". Since then, "legend", as in never having existed, has been added to the "possible" choices by the scholars and philosophers who seriously discuss these matters. The assertion that Jesus never really existed requires ignoring or "explaining away" quite a bit beyond just the books of the Bible, it also requires a discounting of the non-Christian references to Jesus in Roman, Jewish, and Gnostic writings, and an alternate explanation for the emergence of a sect of Judaism into the Christian church.

Over the years, people have tried to explain away the resurrection, attacking it as impossible (as if they have ultimate knowledge that God can't ever have performed miracles), a hoax, or a legend.

Hoax theories have included such claims as "Jesus didn't really die on the cross, he merely passed out", "the disciples stole his body", and even "Jesus had an identical twin" to explain away the basic documented facts of the death of Jesus on the cross, the empty tomb in which He had been buried, the appearances of Jesus alive after the crucifixion, and the rise of early Christianity among a group of Jews.

But for it to be a hoax, it would have been a hoax perpetrated by a powerless group of ordinary people who then maintained the secret of the hoax in the face of hardship, persecution, and death. We've witnessed the willingness of people to die for what they believe to be true, but would a group of people be willing to die for what they knew to be lie, when they could save their skins by recanting? Plus, why didn't the non-Christian Jewish authorities ever record that Jesus had a twin? As for the "legend" theory of the resurrection, it requires an elaborate alternative explanation for how a group of ordinary Jewish people started Christianity in the first place and why they would do it in the face of opposition from the Jewish and Roman authorities.

I'm convinced that both events – the crucifixion and the resurrection - happened, and that changes everything. Jesus' resurrection proves Him to be Lord. It means that Jesus is Messiah, Christianity is true, Jesus is God, and Jesus is Savior, and all of us who follow Him have been forgiven of our sins and will fellowship with God, having eternal life.

Nothing could be more significant.

Have you accepted Him as your Lord and Savior? Have you cast your sins and burdens at His feet and bowed down before Him? It's the best decision you could ever make.

More on this can be found here:

http://www.christiananswers.net/dictionary/resurrectionofchrist.html

Christians Should Not Abandon Political Involvement

There are a lot of people out there who wish Christians would get out of politics entirely, and most of them will say (and, sadly, some politically active Christians would agree) that Christians should not vote for a seriously flawed candidate, but should instead simply not vote, or vote for the other major candidate, a write in, or a third party candidate.

What does the Bible say about political involvement?

The Bible tells us to live for the Lord wholeheartedly and that everything we have, including our money and our bodies, is His; we have been temporarily delegated control over these thing. It also recognizes that we live among people who aren't Christians, some who are pretenders, and people hostile to Christianity. We are to live moral and virtuous lives, including caring for the poor and protecting against evil.

When the Bible was written, there was no government structure like ours, with a Constitutionally-limited secular federal government of three equal branches representing a union of secular states, all being of laws rather than men, with democratically elected representatives from an electorate of men and women regardless of ethnicity, religion, creed, education, or class. In the Bible, a benevolent dictatorship, with Jesus Christ as Lord, is presented as our ultimate destination, inhabited by the redeemed and glorified. Until Jesus appears again and we have the New Heaven and New Earth, we have to deal with each other as fallen mortals.

Our Founding Fathers were heavily influenced by the Bible and history. They knew that people are fallen, that government power had to be limited, and that a system that involves separation of powers and checks and balances was needed. 

Unfortunately, over the course of our Union's history, more and more power has shifted to the federal government, especially the federal judiciary, which has, in some cases, become activist. The bigger the government, the smaller the citizen. However, with certain limits and exceptions, each citizen still has the right to vote, the freedom to run for elected office and to support campaigns with our time, talent, and treasure.

Should Christians vote? And if so, should they only vote for people who are apparently Christians with a lifetime of outstanding, moral behavior and unassailable character?

Feeding the Hungry

Surely you've seen this quote attributed to Stephen Colbert. Where to start?

1) What do we mean when we say this is a Christian nation (which, of course, the Left denies)? I go over that here. The majority of people in the USA do, and always have, identified themselves in some sort of Christian terms. I mean really, how would someone describe the USA? An Atheist nation? A Buddhist nation? It is a secular government, but the people are majority Christian, at least in self-affiliation.

2) Our government does "help" the "poor". To the extent that any new programs supposedly intended to do so are opposed or expansion of existing programs is opposed, or actual cuts are proposed (extremely rare), it is because...

3) The are many private charitable efforts in this nation, most of which are far more effective and efficient in helping people than government programs.

4) Jesus told HIS FOLLOWERS to help the poor. He didn't tell them to encourage the Roman rulers to tax everyone, believer and unbeliever, to do it.

5) Many politically involved Christians who aren't Leftists recognize the importance of Constitutionally limited government; that it isn't the federal government's role to generally take over the lives of poor people or to throw money at them.

6) Generally, being poor in the USA is a far cry from being poor in much of the rest of the world, but again, private charities work to address that.

I have compassion for the poor. We have compassion for the poor. Allowing people to become permanently dependent on the federal or state government is not compassion. I've seen up close how that demoralizes someone and causes them to constantly worry that the "wrong" person is going to get elected and they're going to starve to death as a result. It's terribly sad.

Do not invoke a Christian's duty to the needy in order to promote government programs that tax everyone while at the same time telling Christians they can't appeal to their faith in avoiding things like paying for abortions or avoiding participation in a ceremony that violates their conscience.

The Most Amazing Event in History

“The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” – John 1:14 NIV

I am a Theist. I believe Theism is a more compelling explanation for the universe than Deism, Atheism, or Pantheism. Yeah, I know there's a brilliant physicist who thinks the universe created itself but he's out of his area of expertise (physics) when making that conclusion. If things can create themselves, then we can't rely on any scientific experiments, because we can't rule out that at least some of the data is a result of something creating itself without a cause.

I also think that a being powerful enough to create the universe is certainly powerful enough to interact with that creation.

The Incarnation of Jesus Christ involved God condescending to live a human life. Jesus Christ, eternally having a divine nature, took on a human nature.

His birth to a Jewish woman two thousand years ago is the most amazing event in history. His death on the cross is the focal point of human history, and without His death we would not have the resurrection to celebrate Easter Sunday, but without His birth we would not have His death, His resurrection, or the examples and teachings of His life.

We have a Lord who knows what it is to be human, to experience pain, and to die.

December 25th is located on the calendar conveniently near pagan celebrations, thus allowing for opportunities to reach out to pagans. We aren't sure of what the actual birth date of Jesus was. Like some other things about Christianity, including having many manuscript copies of the various New Testament writings but not the original writings themselves, I think that is part of God's plan. If we had those original writings they would be erroneously worshiped by some, and if we knew the actual birth date of Jesus astrology would be consulted in that regard.

We don't need Jesus' actual birth date. We know He was born, we know He was killed, and we have good reason to believe He was resurrected and still lives today. His teachings, His miracles, and many of His resurrection appearances were public, witnessed by many people, convinced and unconvinced. Contrast that with founding of various other beliefs systems, where the claim is one person had a private vision, dream, or other experience.

Jesus, our Lord, came into the world He created as a baby. That is the core of Christmas. Whether you believe it or not, I pray that you have a merry Christmas and a happy New Year.

Some Important Truths

In no particular order, here are some important truths...

• Not all problems are going to be solved in this lifetime.
• There are not only other - but better - ways to solve most problems, or at least improve the overall situation, than by a federal government program.
• The Constitution tells the federal government what it can do; otherwise, the federal government isn't to interfere. If you want the government to get involved in something not currently assigned to it by the Constitution, then amend the Constitution.
• Unconstitutional government involvement usually begets more unconstitutional government involvement.
• Capitalism is unavoidable. The more restrictions placed on it, the smaller the percentage of the population that will be able to use their resources to the fullest and enjoy the fruits of their work the way they see fit; only the elite, connected, wealthy, or criminal will be able to circumvent the restrictions.
• Some people are going to make more out of their resources than others, and they shouldn't be punished for doing so. People should be celebrated for making the most of the resources under their control.
• With free markets, the pie gets bigger for everyone.
• Someone else having more money than you is not automatically evidence of injustice.
• Disagreeing with a Democrat's proposals and decisions does not make someone a racist.
• People who judge other people on the natural color of their skin are being foolish.
• As long as they are minors, your kids are your responsibility. You chose to make them; they didn't choose it, and nobody else chose to make (or adopt) your kids. This means that some things you want will have to take a back seat to what your kids need.
• I don't blame women for the evils of men, but I don't blame men for the evils of women. I blame people for their own sins - including myself for my own.
• Having your genitals surgically altered, taking hormones, dressing differently, and calling yourself by a different name does not really change your sex.
• There are things more evil in this world than hypocrisy. Getting busted for doing an evil you have preached against means you should've not done that thing, not that you shouldn’t have preached against it. Someone who does that thing and fails to speak the truth by preaching against it is not more noble. This word is frequently misused, as it means saying one thing while believing something contrary. People do things they know are wrong all of the time. People also have done things in the past that they thought were OK but now they know better, and say so. In neither case are these people hypocrites, especially not in the second case.
• Not all cultures are equal. Some cultures are better than others. Migration can be one sign of this.
• The primary mission of American education should be to pass down American culture and values to the next generation.
• If you came to this country, then clearly you like something about our culture enough that you bothered to come here, and you should adopt our culture instead of subverting it; work to improve it rather than supplanting it.
• That you don't like the way the world seems to be is not proof that God doesn't exist.
• That God doesn't always do what you want, when you want, how you want is not proof that God doesn't exist.
• Whether or not Jesus Christ lives or is Lord is not determined by what any professor, politician, preacher, performer, or scientist thinks.
• Believing that some people will go to Hell is not the same as taking steps to hasten their arrival.
• Believing that some people will go to Hell doesn't mean knowing the eternal fate of any given person.
• I am not the final judge of any other person's heart.
• I will not try to force my religion down your throat, but I will represent myself with my vote and other political actions.

Caring For the Poor in the USA

Not everyone is poor for the same reason, and I don't automatically dismiss someone as a "failure" or "loser" because they are poor, but nor do I automatically have sympathy for what we call the poor here in the USA.

Our somewhat-free markets have enabled most of the poor of yesterday to be the middle-class or even wealthy of today. Sure, there is some "luck" involved - I do not believe in some spiritual event in which people choose their parents and all that comes with it (genetics, parents' financial status, parenting ability, etc.) However, even being born to poor parents, one is not likely to be poor for very long into their adulthood if they:

God is Not a Cosmic Bellhop

Even cursory Bible study will reveal some simple, basic messages, including...

-God is all-powerful.

-We are not.

-God wants us to pray.

-When we pray, we should remember that God is God, and we are not, and should humbly worship Him, confess our sins, thank Him for what He has done, and then ask for help with our concerns.

-Prayer is about listening to God, and discerning His will, not trying to get Him to see things our way.

-Sometimes, God tells us "wait" or flat-out says "no!"

-Yes, God cares about us, but caring about us does not necessarily translate into giving us material wealth or perfect health in the here and now.

So many people, from certain "Christian" televangelists to some motivational professionals, try to repackage the same basic decidedly unmonotheistic notion that either we are God, or we are gods, or that God is our cosmic bellhop, or that we can use the same "force" that God uses to make "the universe" fulfill our desires.

Guess what? The real secret is that whomever can repackage this wishing-makes-it-so dung well enough and with the right timing can get suckers to make them rich by buying their media, attending their seminars, or just plain sending them money.

Realistic, balanced positive thinking can be great. But it isn't going to make gasoline magically appear in your tank. Wish all you want, but unless you put more gas there, you're going to run out.  Optimism, initiative, and taking responsibility can certainly help, especially if it removes self-defeating thinking and behaviors. But that isn't magic. It is simply realizing that you can because you actually can instead of refusing to try because you've erroneously told yourself you can't. And yeah, more people tend to want to be around happy, upbeat people instead of someone who is always brooding or talking about what they want but don't have. You're more attractive smiling and laughing than scowling and screaming. That's not magic. If you tell yourself that you're going to get out of bed, and you visualize it, and then you do it, that’s not magic (provided you weren't immobile).

Do you have a lot of potential? Yes. Do you have unlimited potential? No. Can you solve all of your problems with the right attitude? No. Will you die of last sickness or injury, should  the Lord not return before? Yes, no matter how much faith you have. But as long as you cling to God, you're ultimately going to be okay, because God is bigger than all of your problems, and those who are followers of Christ will be safe with Him, whether alive or "asleep", awaiting their resurrection.

Jesus Is Not a Wimp

Jesus is not a wimp and He doesn't want you to be one, either.

Anyone who studies what the Bible actually says about Jesus, especially when considering cultural/historical context, can see Jesus is anything but soft. Compassionate to those who humbled themselves? Yes. But "soft" does not apply to someone who confronted the corrupt powers of the day (not just the religious ones, either... He publicly called a secular leader a "fox" and that was NOT a good thing), overturned tables, and chased powerful people with whips.

He chose to be born into a family that did carpentry, knowing, of course, how He'd be killed, which meant He worked day in and day out with wood and nails, knowing that He was going to be nailed to a cross.

He knew He would endure lifelong taunts about being a mamzer.

A wimp would have invoked the powers at his disposal to dispense with the people who opposed him, but Jesus endured.

He does not call on us to be wimps.

"Let he who is without sin..." is not a call to abandon discernment.

"Judge not..." is a call to avoid judging hypocritically or self-righteously, not a command to to abandon sense.

"Turn the other cheek..." is not a call to pacifism or to accept abuse, but rather to let insults roll off your back, as He did. That is made clear with His instructions to the disciples to get swords for protection.

Aslan is not a tame lion.

Disunited Methodists

I'm not a member if a United Methodist Church, but my family does have multiple ties to the UMC denomination. UMCs vary widely from place to place. For example, my wife grew up in a UMC in California, and she doesn't recall ever hearing presentation or explanation of the core Gospel until she was attending a university and went to a Christian event with a classmate. She was a bit embarrassed that she'd grown up in a church and yet has missed the central point of Christianity: a proper relationship with Jesus Christ.

The LGBTQQAICDEFGHJKMNOPRSUVWXYZ activists within the denomination are trying to move the organization away from applying what has traditionally been understood as the Biblical teachings of there being men and women, marriage uniting a man and a woman, and reserving sex for marriage.

Remember when the activists said that marriage neutering wouldn't have any effect on churches?

There was a conference in February that address this. If you want the bottom line, skip down to my comments at the end.

Here's what Katherine Jackson reported for Reuters, as I found at Yahoo News (which really got crappy after the most recent corporate acquisition).

The United Methodist Church voted on Tuesday to uphold and strengthen its ban on same-sex marriage and LGBT clergy in a move likely to alienate large numbers of followers who had pushed for reform.

Ban. Ban is loaded language. We're not talking about secular law here. This is a supposedly Christian organization. There's no more a van on "same-sex marriage" than a ban on squared circles or kosher shrimp.

Also, as we'll see, there is no ban on LGBT clergy.

If Friday Was Good, Sunday Was Spectacular

A carpenter, with questionable parentage, from an unremarkable town, walked the countryside. He attracted followers, keeping twelve with him closely and three of those especially close as he spoke to groups large and small. He was part of an oppressed group - a Jew in a Roman-occupied part of the world. He said and did things that confounded the dominant religious authorities of the day. People flocked to him for a miracle. There was something he claimed that was outrageous to his fellow Jews: He was God. Arrogance? Insanity? Fraud? From a man who urged people to forgive each other and love each other?

For thousands of years, it had been pounded into the minds and hearts of the Jews that there was ONE God and that He was spirit, not an idol that could be kept in a room. He was a unique, personal being, not a "force" or something we all could be or have if we meditated enough.

And yet here was a Jew, this guy who was extremely familiar with the Scriptures – including the ones that said there was just one God - walking around claiming to be God. He wasn't part of the recognized system of priests and religious leaders, so he posed a threat to them and their comfortable, established way of doing things. This guy even had the nerve to disrupt their moneymaking schemes.

Enough was enough!

They handed this guy over to the Romans and demanded that he be executed. He was a threat to the religious leaders, and since he'd claimed to be a king, he must be a threat to the Romans, too. Furthermore, anyone claiming to God was being blasphemous, right? The Roman leader, while spooked a little, didn't find anything wrong with the man, especially after the man explained that his kingdom wasn't of this world. Yet the Romans needed to keep order, and people were demanding that this "king" die. The "king" was taken and scourged - whipped so brutally that his skin was shredded. That wasn't enough. The people wanted this "king" to die. And so this carpenter, who had worked with wood for years to make useful things for other people, was forced to carry the very wood he'd be nailed to so that he could hang on a cross bleeding and losing his ability to breathe.

This man who'd preached loved and forgiveness, who had urged people to turn from their sins, who had healed the sick, who had done some controversial things but never anything wrong, was beaten and executed, all in excruciating pain.

That was what we now call "Good" Friday.

If that was all that happened, most of us would never have heard of Good Friday. Someone may have mentioned this carpenter in an obscure list of Jews who claimed to be the Messiah, but most of us would never have heard of this Nazarene.

But it wasn't all that happened.

On Sunday morning, once the holy days and feasts were over, some people who loved this carpenter were returning to care for his body as a final sign of respect.

The body was gone, though. Nobody ever found the body. To their shock, this Jesus, who had been scourged and killed, was alive and well - very well - though he still had the holes in his hands from the nails and the hole in his side where a spear had shoved into him to make sure he was dead. He talked with them, they embraced him, they felt him, they ate with him. He'd come and go as he pleased over the next several weeks. Finally, having done what he'd set out to do, he was taken away in a "cloud"... probably a description of what appeared to be a blindingly bright light.

Because of that Sunday when Jesus was first seen alive after being killed, we now have Good Friday. Why is Friday "Good"?

It is no coincidence that Jesus was executed during the Passover season (the Last Supper was a Passover Seder). Many years before, when the Jews were enslaved in Egypt, there was a night when they slaughtered lambs "without defect" and placed the blood of a lamb on their doorways. Overnight, when the Lord passed through Egypt with righteous judgment, the firstborn of every household was struck down - but the Lord "passed over" the homes with the blood. The Jews were subsequently freed from their slavery.

John the Baptist referred to Jesus as "the Lamb who takes away the sins of the world." Jesus was the ultimate Passover Lamb "without defect" who shed his blood to free all of us from our enslavement to sin. That Friday was Good because it is the day that our sins against God were paid for... by someone other than us!

But that Sunday...

We've all dealt with death in our lives. We've all had loved ones that have died. Thousands of years of recorded history tell us that dead people stay dead.

Yet this miracle-working carpenter was seen alive after his death. People touched him, talked with him, ate with him. They stuck their fingers in his wounds.

Being modern people, we are understandably skeptical of this. We don't have video proof. But what we do have is history, and the testimony of those who were there. Good Friday had left the followers of Jesus afraid and feeling defeated. They had shown themselves to be cowardly, and their leader was dead.

If Easter (Resurrection) Sunday did not happen, how did such people go on to change the world? Unless they actually encountered a resurrected Jesus, these people would have no reason to face ostracism and martyrdom to proclaim that resurrection and spread the teachings of Jesus. It is easy to deny the truth to save your life. Would people be willing to give up everything they had and die for something they knew to be a lie? No way!

So what does this all mean for me today? It means that I have a way to be right with God, because even though I have done things against Him, Good Friday was the day that those sins were paid for. I am forgiven. I also have someone who is my friend, my advocate, someone who knows what it is like to live life on Earth and knows what it is like to feel pain, suffer loss, and to die. And that Someone has promised me that if I follow Him, everything will be okay. Death is not the end. He has conquered death, and someday death, pain, and sorrow will be taken away from me. He has backed up His "blasphemous claims" with action, showing them not to be blasphemous at all.

He doesn't want me to cut the heads off of people just because they don't believe in Him. He doesn't want me to fly airliners into skyscrapers to kill people going about their lives. He wants me to do things like love others and take care of the needs of others. This is why so many have built hospitals, universities, and charities in His name.

It isn't about going to church regularly. It isn't about trying to convince people that my life is perfect. It isn't about making sure I can retire wealthy. It isn't about getting everyone else to see things the way I do. It isn't even about keeping a checklist of rules and sticking to that checklist. It isn't about "getting it right" on my own before I can approach God, because that will never happen.

It IS about having a peace with God, knowing that He forgives the horrible things I've done and may yet still do if I simply ask Him to, having sincerely repented. It is about having fellowship with that Nazarene who rose from the grave and still lives, because He deserves my allegiance and because He did life right.

There are people who believe that everything is an accident, a series of extremely unlikely coincidences. Sunsets. Surf. Waterfalls. Roses. Redwood trees. Chocolate. Wine. Galaxies. Eagles. Puppies. Kittens. Sex. Newborn babies. Mozart. DaVinci. Those are all accidents? I don't think so. All of the complexity in the cells of our own bodies, all of the symbiotic systems of the natural world, where organisms depend on each other for survival. Those all "just happened"? I don't think so. The world is beautiful and amazing, and it is not accidental or inconsequential that a Jew who was without sin and claimed to be God suffered and died at Passover and then rose from the dead.

Yes, there is something broken about the world, as evidenced by all of the suffering. But the fix is in. The victory was demonstrated almost 2000 years ago. I can't ignore that. That has to have an impact in my life, how I view life, and how I live life. My Lord humbled Himself, suffered and died for me. And then, He beat death, and someday, He's going to kick death - and its parent, sin - down the stairs, and shut the door on them. The world won't be broken anymore. I can't know everything about what the future will bring, but as long as I'm holding on to Him, I'll be in the best company there is. And since I love Him, as long as I'm around, I should seek to love others, meet their needs, and follow His lead.

May you have a Joyous Resurrection Sunday.

The Good Thing About Good Friday

Unless you are living under sharia law and are kept ignorant of such matters, you know that this coming weekend is the weekend during which Christians especially commemorate the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The books of the Bible claim that that both of these events were historical events - that they actually happened.

If both of these events did actually happen, then they are the most significant events in all of history.

The resurrection of Jesus is not a mere resuscitation of a man destined to later die and decompose, but rather a restoration of life to His dead body and a transformation into a glorified state in which He will never die again - eternal life. He is the first human being to resurrect to eternal life.

It was the resurrection of Jesus that confirmed the significance of His crucifixion. As C.S. Lewis put forth, Jesus was either "a liar, a lunatic, or Lord".  Since then, "legend", as in never having existed, has been added to the "possible" choices by the scholars and philosophers who seriously discuss these matters. The assertion that Jesus never really existed requires ignoring or "explaining away" quite a bit beyond just the books of the Bible, it also requires a discounting of the non-Christian references to Jesus in Roman, Jewish, and Gnostic writings, and an alternate explanation for the emergence of a sect of Judaism into the Christian church.

Over the years, people have tried to explain away the resurrection, attacking it as impossible (as if they have ultimate knowledge that God can't ever have performed miracles), a hoax, or a legend.

Hoax theories have included such claims as "Jesus didn't really die on the cross, he merely passed out", "the disciples stole his body", and even "Jesus had an identical twin" to explain away the basic documented facts of the death of Jesus on the cross, the empty tomb in which He had been buried, the appearances of Jesus alive after the crucifixion, and the rise of early Christianity among a group of Jews.

But for it to be a hoax, it would have been a hoax perpetrated by a powerless group of ordinary people who then maintained the secret of the hoax in the face of hardship, persecution, and death. We've witnessed the willingness of people to die for what they believe to be true, but would a group of people be willing to die for what they knew to be lie, when they could save their skins by recanting?  Plus, why didn't the non-Christian Jewish authorities ever record that Jesus had a twin? As for the "legend" theory of the resurrection, it requires an elaborate alternative explanation for how a group of ordinary Jewish people started Christianity in the first place and why they would do it in the face of opposition from the Jewish and Roman authorities.

I'm convinced that both events – the crucifixion and the resurrection - happened, and that changes everything.  Jesus' resurrection proves Him to be Lord. It means that Jesus is Messiah, Christianity is true, Jesus is God, and Jesus is Savior, and all of us who follow Him have been forgiven of our sins and will fellowship with God, having eternal life.

Nothing could be more significant.

Have you asked Him to be your Lord and Savior? Have you cast your sins and burdens at His feet and bowed down before Him? It's the best decision you could ever make.

More on this can be found here:

http://www.christiananswers.net/dictionary/resurrectionofchrist.html

The Most Amazing Event in History

“The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” – John 1:14 NIV


I am a Theist. I believe Theism is a more compelling explanation for the universe than Deism, Atheism, or Pantheism. Yeah, I know there's a brilliant physicist who thinks the universe created itself but he's out of his area of expertise (physics) when making that conclusion. If things can create themselves, then we can't rely on any scientific experiments, because we can't rule out that at least some of the data is a result of something creating itself without a cause.

I also think that a being powerful enough to create the universe is certainly powerful enough to interact with that creation.

The Incarnation of Jesus Christ involved God condescending to live a human life. Jesus Christ, eternally having a divine nature, took on a human nature.

His birth to a Jewish woman two thousand years ago is the most amazing event in history. His death on the cross is the focal point of human history, and without His death we would not have the resurrection to celebrate Easter Sunday, but without His birth we would not have His death, His resurrection, or the examples and teachings of His life.

We have a Lord who knows what it is to be human, to experience pain, and to die.

December 25th is located on the calendar conveniently near pagan celebrations, thus allowing for opportunities to reach out to pagans. We aren't sure of what the actual birth date of Jesus was. Like some other things about Christianity, including having many manuscript copies of the various New Testament writings but not the original writings themselves, I think that is part of God's plan. If we had those original writings they would be erroneously worshiped by some, and if we knew the actual birth date of Jesus astrology would be consulted in that regard.

We don't need Jesus' actual birth date. We know He was born, we know He was killed, and we have good reason to believe He was resurrected and still lives today. His teachings, His miracles, and many of His resurrection appearances were public, witnessed by many people, convinced and unconvinced. Contrast that with founding of various other beliefs systems, where the claim is one person had a private vision, dream, or other experience.

Jesus, our Lord, came into the world He created as a baby. That is the core of Christmas. Whether you believe it or not, I pray that you have a merry Christmas and a happy New Year.

Will He Be Forced to Participate in a Homosexuality Ceremony That Mocks His Faith?

Today, the Supreme Court of the United States heard a case that's exactly what we knew would come about if  marriage neutering advocates were able to get the Imperial Judiciary to do their bidding in fundamentally transforming marriage law, which they did.

"We just want to be left alone."
"Stay out of our bedroom."
"We support tolerance!"
"Nobody will be hurt."

Those were lies.

Politically expedient lies, and now the activists seek exactly the opposite of those lies.

One problem with establishing imaginary "rights" is that error begets error.

An obnoxious pair of maladjusted guys, perhaps motivated by hate, deliberately avoided going to many other cake makers and sought out a well-known devout Christian, who holds longstanding, sincere, mainstream religious convictions clearly protected under the First Amendment, and as a result, will not put his artistic expression to use in support of certain events, some of which have nothing at all to do with LGBTQQUIAPPCDEFGHJKMNORSTVWXYZ people at all.

This man was willing to serve these guys.

He simply wasn't agreeable to provide artistic services for and event they said they wanted, an event that he sees as mocking and violating his religious convictions.

This hasn't stopped they homofascist activist groups from saying that gay people were denied service based on their identity, which is a lie. The guys in question didn't suffer a bit.


Yet, this businessman has had to go through a long, expensive, time-consumer battle to defend his basic rights.

If SCOTUS rules the right way, the activists will liken the ruling to mass murder, and they will try to mess with someone else's livelihood, and they will keep going until they get a favorable ruling, because that's how they operate. If SCOTUS rules the wrong way, the activists will hunt and destroy the livelihoods of any similarly devout Christians that they can.

We knew things would get this way.

5. Parents and employees will lose any "opt-out" leverage they have when it comes to promotions of homosexual behavior or neutered marriage.

6. Religious organizations, congregations, and clergy will be pressured or outright forced to perform, host, and affirm same-sex "weddings", and will be prevented from presenting Scriptural teachings about homosexual behavior or marriage uniting the sexes.

Are we about there?

How about standing up to the activists and telling them they've done more than enough to degrade our lives and destroy good institutiona and programs?

Playing Dumb About the Traditional Family

Note: I am reposting entries I made over at The Opine Editorials. This one is from mid-2011...

Under the headline of "How traditional a family?", Michael McGough blogged at LATimes.com...

When conservative politicians talk about the "traditional family," it's usually by way of denouncing same-sex marriage. But former Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania (though no supporter of marriage equality) uses the concept for another purpose: to critique contemporary child-rearing practices.

In 2005, Santorum was criticized for suggesting in his book "It Takes a Family" that working women should give up their jobs and stay at home with the kids.

Actually, the offending passage was gender-neutral: "In too many families with young children both parents are working when, if they took an honest look at the budget, they might confess that both of them don't need to, or at least may not need to work as much as they do."

Yes, that silly Santorum thinks that raising children actually means being present to parent, rather than letting hired help be the primary caretakers. Silly him! What's next? Expecting employees to actually work for their paychecks?

The idea that mothers are superior caregivers for young children is politically incorrect these days, but it's widely held by the social conservatives to whom Santorum appeals.

I don't know, I agree with the idea that is generally preferable that mothers do the early primary caretaking, but maybe it is because my breasts did not inflate with milk. Maybe it is different for other men? Seriously, there are many ways women are, literally, naturally more suited -  everything from bone structure to hearing to smell to hormones and so many more. You don't have to be a social conservative to hold such an idea, though when you realize that the social Left's insistence that there's no difference between mothers and fathers is a lie that denies such an obvious reality, it may lead you to social conservatism.

Those who fight against idealizing the traditional family play dumb or act like we can't define a "traditional family" or that only a minority of families were what we call traditional at any given time in history.

Religion, Atheism, and Morality

If Friday Was Good, Sunday Was Spectacular

A carpenter, with questionable parentage, from an unremarkable town, walked the countryside. He attracted followers, keeping twelve with him and three of those especially close as he spoke to groups large and small. He was part of an oppressed group - a Jew in a Roman-occupied part of the world. He said and did things that confounded the dominant religious authorities of the day. People flocked to him for a miracle. There was something he claimed that was outrageous to his fellow Jews: He was God. Arrogance? Insanity? Fraud? From a man who urged people to forgive each other and love each other?

For thousands of years, it had been pounded into the minds and hearts of the Jews that there was ONE God and that He was spirit, not an idol that could be kept in a room. He was a unique, personal being, not a "force" or something we all could be or have if we meditated enough.

And yet here was a Jew, this guy who was extremely familiar with the Scriptures – including the ones that said there was just one God - walking around claiming to be God. He wasn't part of the recognized system of priests and religious leaders, so he posed a threat to them and their comfortable, established way of doing things. This guy even had the nerve to disrupt their moneymaking schemes.

Enough was enough!

They handed this guy over to the Romans and demanded that he be executed. He was a threat to the religious leaders, and since he'd claimed to be a king, he must be a threat to the Romans, too. Furthermore, anyone claiming to God was being blasphemous, right? The Roman leader, while spooked a little, didn't find anything wrong with the man, especially after the man explained that his kingdom wasn't of this world. Yet the Romans needed to keep order, and people were demanding that this "king" die. The "king" was taken and scourged - whipped so brutally that his skin was shredded. That wasn't enough. The people wanted this "king" to die. And so this carpenter, who had worked with wood for years to make useful things for other people, was forced to carry the very wood he'd be nailed to so that he could hang on a cross bleeding and losing his ability to breathe.

This man who'd preached loved and forgiveness, who had urged people to turn from their sins, who had healed the sick, who had done some controversial things but never anything wrong, was beaten and executed, all in excruciating pain.

That was what we now call "Good" Friday.

If that was all that happened, most of us would never have heard of Good Friday. Someone may have mentioned this carpenter in an obscure list of Jews who claimed to be the Messiah, but most of us would never have heard of this Nazarene.

But it wasn't all that happened.

On Sunday morning, once the holy days and feasts were over, some people who loved this carpenter were returning to care for his body as a final sign of respect.

The body was gone, though. Nobody ever found the body. To their shock, this Jesus, who had been scourged and killed, was alive and well - very well - though he still had the holes in his hands from the nails and the hole in his side where a spear had shoved into him to make sure he was dead. He talked with them, they embraced him, they felt him, they ate with him. He'd come and go as he pleased over the next several weeks. Finally, having done what he'd set out to do, he was taken away in a "cloud"... probably a description of what appeared to be a blindingly bright light.

Because of that Sunday when Jesus was first seen alive after being killed, we now have Good Friday. Why is Friday "Good"?

It is no coincidence that Jesus was executed during the Passover season (the Last Supper was a Passover Seder). Many years before, when the Jews were enslaved in Egypt, there was a night when they slaughtered lambs "without defect" and placed the blood of a lamb on their doorways. Overnight, when the Lord passed through Egypt with righteous judgment, the firstborn of every household was struck down - but the Lord "passed over" the homes with the blood. The Jews were subsequently freed from their slavery.

John the Baptist referred to Jesus as "the Lamb who takes away the sins of the world." Jesus was the ultimate Passover Lamb "without defect" who shed his blood to free all of us from our enslavement to sin. That Friday was Good because it is the day that our sins against God were paid for... by someone other than us!

But that Sunday...

We've all dealt with death in our lives. We've all had loved ones that have died. Thousands of years of recorded history tell us that dead people stay dead.

Yet this miracle-working carpenter was seen alive after his death. People touched him, talked with him, ate with him. They stuck their fingers in his wounds.

Being modern people, we are understandably skeptical of this. We don't have video proof. But what we do have is history, and the testimony of those who were there. Good Friday had left the followers of Jesus afraid and feeling defeated. They had shown themselves to be cowardly, and their leader was dead.

If Easter (Resurrection) Sunday did not happen, how did such people go on to change the world? Unless they actually encountered a resurrected Jesus, these people would have no reason to face ostracism and martyrdom to proclaim that resurrection and spread the teachings of Jesus. It is easy to deny the truth to save your life. Would people be willing to give up everything they had and die for something they knew to be a lie? No way!

So what does this all mean for me today? It means that I have a way to be right with God, because even though I have done things against Him, Good Friday was the day that those sins were paid for. I am forgiven. I also have someone who is my friend, my advocate, someone who knows what it is like to live life on Earth and knows what it is like to feel pain, suffer loss, and to die. And that Someone has promised me that if I follow Him, everything will be okay. Death is not the end. He has conquered death, and someday death, pain, and sorrow will be taken away from me. He has backed up His "blasphemous claims" with action, showing them not to be blasphemous at all.

He doesn't want me to cut the heads off of people just because they don't believe in Him. He doesn't want me to fly airliners into skyscrapers to kill people going about their lives. He wants me to do things like love others and take care of the needs of others. This is why so many have built hospitals, universities, and charities in His name.

It isn't about going to church regularly. It isn't about trying to convince people that my life is perfect. It isn't about making sure I can retire wealthy. It isn't about getting everyone else to see things the way I do. It isn't even about keeping a checklist of rules and sticking to that checklist. It isn't about "getting it right" on my own before I can approach God, because that will never happen.

It IS about having a peace with God, knowing that He forgives the horrible things I've done and may yet still do if I simply ask Him to, having sincerely repented. It is about having fellowship with that Nazarene who rose from the grave and still lives, because He deserves my allegiance and because He did life right.

There are people who believe that everything is an accident, a series of extremely unlikely coincidences. Sunsets. Surf. Waterfalls. Roses. Redwood trees. Chocolate. Wine. Galaxies. Eagles. Puppies. Kittens. Sex. Newborn babies. Mozart. DaVinci. Those are all accidents? I don't think so. All of the complexity in the cells of our own bodies, all of the symbiotic systems of the natural world, where organisms depend on each other for survival. Those all "just happened"? I don't think so. The world is beautiful and amazing, and it is not accidental or inconsequential that a Jew who was without sin and claimed to be God suffered and died at Passover and then rose from the dead.

Yes, there is something broken about the world, as evidenced by all of the suffering. But the fix is in. The victory was demonstrated almost 2000 years ago. I can't ignore that. That has to have an impact in my life, how I view life, and how I live life. My Lord humbled Himself, suffered and died for me. And then, He beat death, and someday, He's going to kick death - and its parent, sin - down the stairs, and shut the door on them. The world won't be broken anymore. I can't know everything about what the future will bring, but as long as I'm holding on to Him, I'll be in the best company there is. And since I love Him, as long as I'm around, I should seek to love others, meet their needs, and follow His lead.

May you have a Joyous Resurrection Sunday.

The Good Thing About Good Friday

Unless you are living under sharia law and are kept ignorant of such matters, you know that this coming weekend is the weekend during which Christians especially commemorate the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The books of the Bible claim that that both of these events were historical events - that they actually happened.

If both of these events did actually happen, then they are the most significant events in all of history.

The resurrection of Jesus is not a mere resuscitation of a man destined to later die and decompose, but rather a restoration of life to His dead body and a transformation into a glorified state in which He will never die again - eternal life. He is the first and so far only human being to resurrect to eternal life.

It was the resurrection of Jesus that confirmed the significance of His crucifixion. As C.S. Lewis put forth, Jesus was either "a liar, a lunatic, or Lord".  Since then, "legend", as in never having existed, has been added to the "possible" choices by the scholars and philosophers who seriously discuss these matters. The assertion that Jesus never really existed requires ignoring or "explaining away" quite a bit beyond just the books of the Bible, it also requires a discounting of the non-Christian references to Jesus in Roman, Jewish, and Gnostic writings, and an alternate explanation for the emergence of a sect of Judaism into the Christian church.

Over the years, people have tried to explain away the resurrection, attacking it as impossible (as if they have ultimate knowledge that God can't ever have performed miracles), a hoax, or a legend.

Hoax theories have included such claims as "Jesus didn't really die on the cross, he merely passed out", "the disciples stole his body", and even "Jesus had an identical twin" to explain away the basic documented facts of the death of Jesus on the cross, the empty tomb in which He had been buried, the appearances of Jesus alive after the crucifixion, and the rise of early Christianity among a group of Jews.

But for it to be a hoax, it would have been a hoax perpetrated by a powerless group of ordinary people who then maintained the secret of the hoax in the face of hardship, persecution, and death. We've witnessed the willingness of people to die for what they believe to be true, but would a group of people be willing to die for what they knew to be lie, when they could save their skins by recanting?  Plus, why didn't the non-Christian Jewish authorities ever record that Jesus had a twin? As for the "legend" theory of the resurrection, it requires an elaborate alternative explanation for how a group of ordinary Jewish people started Christianity in the first place and why they would do it in the face of opposition from the Jewish and Roman authorities.

I'm convinced that both events – the crucifixion and the resurrection - happened, and that changes everything.  Jesus' resurrection proves Him to be Lord. It means that Jesus is Messiah, Christianity is true, Jesus is God, and Jesus is Savior, and all of us who follow Him have been forgiven of our sins and will fellowship with God, having eternal life.

Nothing could be more significant.

Have you asked Him to be your Lord and Savior? Have you cast your sins and burdens at His feet and bowed down before Him? It's the best decision you could ever make.

More on this can be found here:

http://www.christiananswers.net/dictionary/resurrectionofchrist.html

The Most Amazing Event in History

“The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” – John 1:14 NIV


I am a Theist. I believe Theism is a more compelling explanation for the universe than Deism, Atheism, or Pantheism. Yeah, I know there's a brilliant physicist who thinks the universe created itself but he's out of his area of expertise (physics) when making that conclusion. If things can create themselves, then we can't rely on any scientific experiments, because we can't rule out that at least some of the data is a result of something creating itself without a cause.

I also think that a being powerful enough to create the universe is certainly powerful enough to interact with that creation.

The Incarnation of Jesus Christ involved God condescending to live a human life. Jesus Christ, eternally having a divine nature, took on a human nature.

His birth to a Jewish woman two thousand years ago is the most amazing event in history. His death on the cross is the focal point of human history, and without His death we would not have the resurrection to celebrate Easter Sunday, but without His birth we would not have His death, His resurrection, or the examples and teachings of His life.

We have a Lord who knows what it is to be human, to experience pain, and to die.

December 25th is located on the calendar conveniently near pagan celebrations, thus allowing for opportunities to reach out to pagans. We aren't sure of what the actual birth date of Jesus was. Like some other things about Christianity, including having many manuscript copies of the various New Testament writings but not the original writings themselves, I think that is part of God's plan. If we had those original writings they would be erroneously worshiped by some, and if we knew the actual birth date of Jesus astrology would be consulted in that regard.

We don't need Jesus' actual birth date. We know He was born, we know He was killed, and we have good reason to believe He was resurrected and still lives today. His teachings, His miracles, and many of His resurrection appearances were public, witnessed by many people, convinced and unconvinced. Contrast that with founding of various other beliefs systems, where the claim is one person had a private vision, dream, or other experience.

Jesus, our Lord, came into the world He created as a baby. That is the core of Christmas. Whether you believe it or not, I pray that you have a merry Christmas and a happy New Year.