I preached this sermon at Ryker’s Ridge Baptist Church on the morning of November, 13 2011. In this message, I speak of Paul’s gracious calling as an apostle, his gracious welcome to the churches at Galatia, and his gracious warning to those who are believing and teaching a false gospel. Grace is something that characterizes Paul’s ministry, and it should ours as well.

I sincerely hope you benefit from this message!

SERMON: Grace to You and Peace – Galatians 1:1-10

Returning to the U.S. after two years as a missionary in South America, I’ve embraced opportunities to share the gospel wherever I’m at. It has been an eye-opener to the broad spectrum of eclectic and contradictory worldviews. Among those I’ve witnessed to, a surprising and recurring theme has been the belief in reincarnation. I know what you’re thinking: “Of course, he’s out in California, what else did you expect from the land of fruits and nuts?”

I’m not going to run to the defense of my state or the misguided beliefs of some the populace. I will however, accept that reincarnation is what many non-Christians profess to hold to. So in order that I competently defend the faith, it follows that I know a little about this widely-held religious belief.

Hinduism among other non-Western religions posits the concept of Karma. You’ve heard it before, “what goes around comes around”. Sounds pretty accurate right? You get what you deserve. It even loosely parallels the golden rule: do to others as you would have them to do you. Of course, the implications of Karma are far deeper.

The “going and coming around” part is a major component of reincarnation. Do good deeds and when you die, you will become some form greater than your current one. Do bad and the opposite will happen. There is a never ending cycle of rebirth. Everything that dies becomes something different. There is ceaseless continuum of second chances.

Now I like that. Don’t get it right this time? There’s another chance to start over again and work my way up the ladder.

When discussing Christianity and reincarnation with three men; all over 70 years old I addressed their syncretistic worldview. Whether they understood it at first, they were not living in accordance with Hindu teaching. They were doing what most people do, taking the parts of Christianity they like and omitting what they don’t. I proceeded to show them how.

I make no pretense of being an expert in eastern religion. I have studied them on a surface level, primarily for apologetic purposes. But what I do know was sufficient at the time.

If you hold to the view of reincarnation, then it follows that history is cyclical. Christianity, on the other hand, holds to a linear perspective. Everything that has happened in the past is final. Everything happening now matters. God has appointed a time when history will come to a close. This means your life, what you think, say and do is of eternal importance.

With reincarnation, history is not only meaningless, because it’s cyclical, but your life is as well. Think about it. So what if you decided to be a violent criminal for “this” particular life? Or maybe just a self-absorbed hedonist? When you come back as an ant, live the best life you can and you’ll advance to someone or something better. Interestingly enough, no one wants to live in a world with people who think like this.

When talking with the three men on why I disagree with the viability of reincarnation I pointed out the concept of justice. The caste system is predicated on the belief that an individual’s present life is a result of Karma. A lower-caste individual is where they are because of a punishment for sins in a past state. The rich are where they because of apparent good deeds done prior.

So when it comes to helping the poor, caring for the handicapped and afflicted, why would you interfere with Karma? They’re getting what they deserve! There exists no plausible reason to reach out and alleviate suffering.

Of course, when I pointed this out, the men animatedly agreed the downcast should be helped and it would be a gross error to say sickness of any sort is a punishment for past sins. But here we see a plagiarized Christian worldview. Jesus told his disciples who asked if a blind man was that way because of his or his parent’s sins that it was so the glory of God might be displayed in his life that he was born that way (John 9:3).

When I see the world, when I search my conscience and when I read scripture I find reincarnation unviable. I am thankful that I am under grace, not Karma. I deserve God’s wrath, not salvation. History has meaning and so do our lives. What you and I do has eternal implications.

There are no second chances. Every second matters. Now is the time to follow Christ.

“And inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment, so Christ also, having been offered once to bear the sins of many shall appear a second time for salvation without reference to sin, to those who eagerly await Him.” –Hebrews 9:27-28

The film writers and makers of Hollywood are remaking and reproducing some of the movies and figures from the past in new and exciting ways.  I have enjoyed their recreations of Batman, Transformers, X-men, and so forth.  One of those movies which will be released tomorrow will be called “The Rise of the Planet of the Apes” (2011).  This movie will perhaps be a rebirth of “The Planet of the Ape” series.  Before going to watch this movie, I decided to read the book which inspired all the movies: Planet of the Apes by Pierre Boulle.

In this book Boulle reveals a time and world in which the apes rule over everything else.  A couple of humans and their pet ape arrive, are taken captive, caged, and treated like we might treat zoo animals.  The apes feed the humans, the dangle things in front of them, and they take the humans for walks occasionally.  Reading this book was similar to imagining a backwards zoo – where we as humans are on display and the apes are looking at us.  It was quite, well, shocking to picture such a role reversal.  Could you imagine what it would be like to be in a zoo while the apes run the planet, have their own theaters with ape actors, have their ape authors, and so forth?  This idea of a role-reversal still shocks me to think of it because it is so backwards.  What are we to think of this idea?

As Christians, we must reject this idea by revealing its inadequacies.  Though entertaining, this idea is erroneous.  Apes still lack the mental capacity to rule, to talk, and so forth.  Though they can learn to mimic actions of other people, they still cannot learn to read, speak, and write at a level of competency similar to humans.  In the upcoming movie, humans will supposedly release some sort of gas that will accelerate all animal intelligence.  This invention is simply imaginative; clearly, we don’t have anything like this invention.  Furthermore, for the sake of the argument, even if we did invent something similar, we would probably be more inclined to try it ourselves rather than give it to another species.  Now, I am all for cultivating our imaginations.  Nevertheless, when we use our imaginations to propagate erroneous ideas, then we have misused our imaginations.

As Christians, we must present our Christian worldview in response to this inadequate, evolutionary worldview.   In Genesis 1:27-28, Moses writes, “27 God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.  28 God blessed them; and God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.’”  In these verses we learn that God created man and gave him a responsibility over creation – man is to rule over all the creatures, including the apes.  Yet, man is unable and unwilling to complete this task as assigned because of The Fall in Genesis 3 (search our other articles for more information on The Fall).  Whereas before, man was supposed to rule over everything with a benevolent rulership, now, he rules sinfully, or has apathy for his task, or both.  To remedy this sad circumstance, God has sent his Son to redeem mankind.  If man will change his mind about his sin (repent) and trust that Jesus Christ has bore God’s wrath on the cross for and rose again for man, now he can be made right with God.  Then, and only then, man can learn to rule over the earth in a benevolent fashion again.  That is, man should rule with a sense of responsibility.  This command from God rules out all forms of animal abuse, reckless animal killing, and so forth.  Yet, God still commands us as humans to rule over creation, not be ruled by any part of creation.

I am personally excited about watching this new movie soon.  From watching the trailers online and in the theaters, it looks interesting!  Nevertheless, we must learn to think and interact with the ideas with which we are being presented.  The writers and film makers of the movies we watch are trying to communicate ideas in their movies, just as good authors of fiction do in their books.  Yet, we, as Christians, need to be prepared to interact with those ideas in an intelligent and biblical manner.  Hopefully this article will help our readers who watch this movie engage the ideas they receive from it and all other movies they watch henceforth.

Bad things happen when good people do nothing. And that’s exactly where the Christian community finds itself today on the issue of homosexuality.

Christians are having a harder and harder time speaking up about sexuality and gender roles as our culture migrates further and further into a muddy gray area on the issue. It’s easier to stay silent, to not rock the boat or risk being misunderstood, and to stand in tacit tolerance of sin.

But we’re leaving all the talking up to the wrong people. If reasonable, thoughtful and compassionate Christians aren’t talking about homosexuality, we’re leaving the world at the mercy two extremes: fire and brimstone preachers who blame every hurricane and natural disaster on homosexuality, or artist-activists like Katy Perry who tell teens “I Was Born That Way,” and insist the only way to happiness is shirking religion and launching yourself into hedonism.

Talking about homosexuality is important — our world needs to know there is a compassionate and just God who has a design for our lives and can forgive our sins. But we need to do it in a way that opens people up rather than turning them away.

Here are some guidelines for having these critical conversations.

[...]

Why do we celebrate Easter? Why did Jesus have to die? What was accomplished on the cross? What is important about Christ’s resurrection? Thabiti Anyabwile and Erwin Lutzer help us to think through these important matters.

As a political reporter, I found myself a few days ago in one of those smoky situations straight from a movie scene. To my left, an elected official danced close with a girl half his age, a girl not his wife. To my right, a lobbyist for a huge company stared drunkenly into the eyes of a female member of the press corps. She peeled his hand from her arm, which he was caressing; he put it right back.

Another highly paid lobbyist in an expensive, gray suit pulled the thick cigar from his lips, exhaled a ring of blue smoke, and turned to me.

“So now you see how a bill becomes a law?” he asked wryly. [...]

People have often asked me if meeting and/or interacting with another American, or even another white person for that matter, is a positive occurrence. One would think, in light of the fact that I live alone in a village in which there have been stretches as long a month-and-a-half with no interaction with someone besides the resident Aukaaners, that I would jump at the chance to converse in my native tongue. The reality, I have learned, is quite the contrary.

There are typically what could be eloquently categorized as three “white people” groups you meet in the interior of Suriname. The more common two: Peace Corps volunteers and European Tourists from France or Holland, who are generally somewhat risky because of their perception of missionaries–which is unfortunately often negative and with Europeans, the whole language guessing game: not knowing exactly where they’re from, both of us being unsure if we might be proficient in the other’s language and to what degree they understand and speak English (which is, more often than not, pretty well). With the Peace Corps, it’s a real grab-bag. You might find a guy like a friend we have who is born-again, evangelistic, and down-to-earth, or you might get a liberal, pluralistic, feminist who sees you as someone destroying the beautiful and harmonious indigenous culture. [...]

Rob Bell is dead wrong with his redefinition of “hell.”  He redefines hell in an unbiblical fashion.  Following his discussion of his universalism in Velvet Elvis, he writes,

Heaven is full of forgiven people.  Hell is full of forgiven people.  Heaven is full of people God loves, whom Jesus died for.  Hell is full of forgiven people God loves, whom Jesus died for.  The difference is how we choose to live, which story we choose to live in, which version of reality we trust.  Ours or God’s (146).

On the next page Bell defines hell as a “way of living out of sync with how God created us to live” (147).  He defines hell one more time by asking the question about what people mean why they use the word “hell”; he claims that people mean “a place, an event, a situation absent of how God desires things to be” (148).  In contrast, using Bell’s preferred translation – the TNIV, the word for hell is used thirteen times; in every occurrence, it refers to an eschatological place of judgment. “Hell” is nowhere defined in the Bible as Bell defines it.  He cites absolutely no Scripture in support of his position in Velvet Elvis.  In light of the ample scriptural evidence against his redefinition this present writer wonders why Bell has provided such a definition.

In Love Wins he offers some scriptural support for his position (for a full critique of his position please see Kevin DeYoung’s full critique of Bell’s new book).  Yet he fails to take seriously the claims of Jesus in the verses cited below and also Bell fails to cite any actual source to support his redefinition of hell.  Thus, he is making up his own “hell” in this new book.  To be certain, though he may want to suppose hell is different from an actual place as Jesus explains, Bell is only fooling himself.  The Bible is clear – a literal, eternal place of judgment awaits those who do not come to Jesus for salvation.  Our task is still to preach the gospel to sinners on their way to an actual hell.  To my remarks Bell would probably claim that he believes in literal hell (Love Wins, Kindle edition).  Yet, when he writes “literal” he wants his readers to keep in mind Bell’s redefinition of hell.  To that I would simply examine the Scriptures below and also what is recorded in Revelation in order to reveal his errors.  Perhaps our readers could comment on this post as to how they would refute him if given the chance.

(1)Matt 5:22, 5:29, 5:30, 10:28, 18:9, 23:15,  23:33; Mark 9:43, 9:45, 9:47; Luke 12:5; James 3:6; 2 Peter 2:4.  The TNIV was searched via biblegateway.com.

Why? Why did this happen? More than ten thousand people are confirmed dead, several nuclear reactors are spewing toxic radiation, and millions of homes and livelihoods destroyed. Amidst the massive destruction wrought by the recent earthquake in Japan, the troubling question arises. [...]

Creation, evolution, and everything in between have recently become major talking points in the Christian blogosphere. Sadly, though, many people spend far too much time arguing points instead of discussing issues. One of the primary ways we can stop the arguing and start the discussion is by clarifying our terms.

People care far too little about words. I once watched the movie “V is for Vendetta,” and it had one of the greatest quotes about the importance of words that I have ever heard. The main character, V, made this statement in one of his numerous, semantically beautiful, monologues: “words offer a means to meaning, and for those who will listen, the enunciation of truth.” It is through words that we primarily communicate. Therefore, let us engage in this debate paying strict attention to the words we employ to describe the concepts we discuss. Specifically, I want to clarify four terms which will play an important role in this discussion: science, scientism, evolution, and evolutionism. [...]