Cheating in a culture without God

There is an article out today on Yahoo about how rampant cheating hurts China's research ambitions. I am drawn to this because this problem will get worse in America as we drift further away from the God of Christianity. China has actively worked to suppress religion throughout its modern history. This has resulted in a culture that has no authority to answer to outside of the state. All men even men in China know that there is a God (Romans 1:19). The problem is that they have suppressed the truth of God and believed a lie in order to alleviate their consciences. What this has produced is a society that for the most part will cheat, plagiarize and resort to ghostwriting to get by. The article sites that in research papers bought and sold in 2007 fully 70 percent were plagiarized. This points to a moral decay in the society that can only be helped by one thing. Bringing the Lord Jesus to the people of China will reform their hearts. This happens in an effective manner when people really come to know Jesus. The Holy Spirit living within them convicts of sin and the need for righteousness (John 16:7-11). But the bigger issue I see is the increasing moral decay in the United States. As a society we are drifting away from God. This is happening for a variety of reasons but the single biggest issue lies at the feet of pastors and their churches. What has happened is we have taken the presentation of a message oriented around the unchanging and awesome God who has rescued us from eternal damnation, and replaced it with a message that is oriented around the people and their world. The God in this second message is the means to an end and the end is us. He serves us. This is a far cry from the message of Jesus to deny ourselves take up our cross and follow Jesus (Matthew 16:24). What has happened is most people who attend church are comfortable with allowing that and perhaps devotions in their home to be the biggest expression of public Christianity that they make. We have become a society of Christians consumers living in our Christian ghetto content to let the world go. The majority of people manning the oars in the boat of our society are pagan. They have no moral base outside of the tattered remains that have been passed down from our forefathers. The direction they are rowing us is away from the light of the gospel. How can this change. Politics will not do it. The only answer that can rescue a society adrift is for Christians to live like Christians. We must bear the glory of Jesus to the people that we meet. If we do not share the marvelous message of Jesus redemption with them they will not hear and if they do not hear they cannot believe (Romans 10:17). The only hope for a changed society begins with you and me being willing to live God focused lives to the glory of Jesus Christ.

Does what we do matter?

Perhaps a better question is, "Does Jesus matter to you?" In the early church Justin Martyr talked about how the lives of Christians were remarkably different than their neighbors and accusers lives. He pointed out that they were different because of Jesus Christ. Why is it that Christians that you see during the week very often do not look any different from the world. What have we lost as Jesus bride. Do we feel like Christianity is binding and restricting? I can't count the number of times I have heard some version of the following phrase, "We live under grace not under the law!" What is that supposed to mean? I really do not get it. Which of the laws in the moral law is such a bad and restricting thing? Don't kill seems like a good idea. Don't steal is one I like. Not lying makes for better relationships. No adultery is a good one too. Honoring your parents is a good idea and a good example. Not coveting would help us all to be more content so I'm not sure that ones a bad one either. I guess when we really look at it, the laws of God that everyone hates are the first ones. We all want to nurture our own little god's. We want to be able to bow down and worship them on our weekends and our vacations. You know what they are. You want to feel like you can have them and Jesus too. You don't want to set one whole day a week aside to honor God in your life. You see we don't have a problem with the law. We have a problem with God. We want the idols of money, sex, power, porn, drugs, position, etc. We sense innately that those things and Jesus are incompatible. We sense that God is going to ask us to give them up. Your right! Once you give them up you will find that you do not miss them. You will look back on what you thought was freedom and see that it was empty and unfulfilling. You will never regret pursuing Jesus with all that you are. When you start to pursue knowing God you will find real fulfillment and satisfaction. You will find your actions changing because you will see the law, not as a restriction or a performance ladder to climb, you will see it as a means by which you might embrace pleasing the one you have come to love (Psalm 19:7-11). You see it is never a burden to please the ones that we love. So you see what we do does matter. It tells everyone around us what and who we love. May God fill our hearts with a passion for Him so that we might be more faithful in pursuing a life focused on Him.

Is there a reason to agree with Sam Harris? Why?

Today I will conclude my dealing with Sam Harris's talk on why we should ditch religion at the TEDs conference. I have addressed some of the issues raised by Sam Harris and qouted by John D. Sutter in an article on CNN.com called, "Philosopher: Why we should ditch religion." These comments in the article are recaps from his 20+ minute video presentation on the TED web site. (There is a link to it in the link above if you want to see it.) Sam's case is an emotionally charged one. He makes the statement that, "Religion has convinced us that there's something else entirely other than concerns about suffering. There's concerns about what God wants, there's concerns about what's going to happen in the afterlife." This statement is a legitimate statement if there is no God. But as I have talked about in earlier blogs Sam has not made His case that there is no God. Rather Sam has made the case for suffering and the insufficiency of religion using appeals to human dignity and man's knowledge as ultimate determinate factors without explaining the basis for either. Sam depends on God's image in man without acknowledging that dependence. However I would agree that the Christian church is often too caught up in trying to force unsaved pagan people to live a life that is moral by God's standards. The pagan man hates God (Romans 1:30). We are not called by Jesus to change the actions of people. Changing peoples actions makes us Pharisees (Matthew 9:11, 12:2). God said to Samuel in 1 Samuel 16:7 But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.” Since we cannot change the heart of men our job is not to change pagan men and women but to introduce them to the one who can change their hearts. 
Sam also talked about how there is no reconciling Islam and Christianity and indeed he is correct. The problem is that Sam sees all religions as the same and here is the fatal error. Jesus made it clear in John 14:6 that He is the way the truth and the life and that no man comes to the Father except through Him. This then explains the problem with all religion outside of the Christian faith. It is the need of Jesus to be the central figure in the lives of those that would be reconciled to God that drives Christianity. We do not kill or force our belief on others because it is God that changes their hearts. What do we do? We kindly and compassionately share the gospel with those that God places in our lives. Our heart for them is to save them from God's wrath. If they reject that then they are rejecting God. At that point our focus should be to live God focused lives before them. The only way the society will be changed is if Jesus Christ first changes us.

What makes something morally important?

Continuing the Sam Harris response (See previous post for more details). Sam claims that the following are real problems: nuclear proliferation, genocide, poverty and the crisis in education. He claims that these are issues that tremendous swings in human well being depend on. Then he goes on to state that, "Religion causes people to fixate on issues of less moral importance."
First of all I would like to know how he arrives at any value for Human life at all. His concern here is, "human" well being. What could possibly be valuable about humans over any other animal on a planet that in his mind has simply evolved. Man becomes little more than a happy accident, or unhappy as the case may be. You see Sam makes the case that man has value and all the people listening to him comprehend the argument without elaboration. For that statement to make any sense without explanation Sam is appealing to an unstated dignity that is resident in man. Something that all men see and understand. That resident dignity is the image of God in man. However corrupted that image may be man still sees and values it. He nurtures it because it is an echo of the lie that man betrayed God for. The lie that man would be like god. Sam wants to play God but never explains on what basis he can play god. No Sam appeals to the image of God in man from creation. Sam depends on the very tenants of the Christian religion to make his case.
I would argue that the true foundation of the Christian faith in the God of the Bible does indeed deal with issues that, "tremendous swings in human well being depend on." The Bible tells us that God the Father sent His only begotten Son to die in our place and satisfy His holy wrath against our sin. This was done to reconcile us back to God. In the transaction Jesus also conquered death and has given us eternal life that we might spend it with Him. We must repent of our sin and turn to Jesus as our Lord. If we reject the Christ our choice will leave us to pay the penalty for our own sin as we face a Holy God. Jonathan Edwards once said in a sermon that when a man has been in hell suffering torment for 10,000 years he will not be one day closer to the end then the first day that he entered hell. I would like to know from Sam what is more important: nuclear proliferation or eternity in hell, genocide or standing to face God's wrath unrepentant, poverty or eternal damnation, the crisis in education or the crisis in education about our eternal state. As a Christian I would love to see these inequities rectified. But I also want to see the people who are suffering them have the chance to hear about Jesus. Sam would like to wipe out the ability to know the truth of God. The only truth that can really set a person free is found in Jesus. I hope that Jesus changes Sam's heart. In the meantime I will continue to pursue a God focused life.

The Purpose of Suffering - Part 4 Future Praise

Lets look at one final reason of how pain is a tool that God introduced into a fallen world for the sake of man. We have looked at three parts of suffering in the previous posts. I am looking at this to seek to address some of the issues raised by Sam Harris. See the previous post for more details. The fourth main reason that God introduced pain into a fallen world has to do with the glory of Jesus. God had determined in eternity past to send His only begotten Son Jesus, the second person of the trinity, to take the penalty for our sins and become the mediator between God and man. This is how God demonstrated His love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us (Romans 5:8). Now think about eternity. What has Jesus promised? Revelation 21:4 tells us, “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”” Jesus promises us that there will be no more pain anymore. The depths of God's love for us is demonstrated by the great pain and sacrifice that Jesus endured on our behalf. The pain that we experience now will be the only reference point we will have for understanding the pain of Jesus suffering in order to remember the depths of His love for us. When we see the nail prints in His hands we will praise Him because of the pain we have as a reference point for understanding His pain. While our understanding is stunted in comparison to the infinite pain He endured for us it is never the less an important reference point we take with us into eternity. When Christians endure pain and suffering here we are storing up future praise for our Lord Jesus. The pain we experience will be a vast reservoir we will draw from to praise Him for His glorious work on the cross for us. Living a God focused life will help me to look past the pain to the great God and Savior that I serve. It will help me to embrace the pain He sets before me. The pain becomes a grace by which Jesus will be valued more fully by me in all of eternity.

The Purpose of Suffering - Part 3 Divine Retribution

Again lets look at how pain is a tool that God introduced into a fallen world for the sake of man. We have looked at two parts of suffering in the previous posts. I am looking at this to seek to address some of the issues raised by Sam Harris. See the previous post for more details. The third reason that God introduced pain into a fallen world has to do with providing meaningful recompense for our rebellion against Him. If there were no pain there would be no way for God to provide corrective discipline (Hebrews 12:3-11). We would unruly sons with no means for our loving Father to correct us. Divine retribution extends to those who reject God entirely and never become sons as well. Their judgement will be portioned out according to the evil deeds that they have done (Psalm 28:3-5, Romans 2:5-9). God is a just judge and pain is a means of rendering justice for those who have lived in rebellion against Him. They have been given a clear revelation that there is a God in the heavens and yet they have suppressed that truth and pursued their own futile thinking (Romans 1:18-25). Pain and suffering in a fallen world that is in rebellion against God makes sense. It is a necessary component to communicate God's eternal wrath against sin and rebellion. Without it we could never know how much God hates sin (Deuteronomy 12:31). Knowing how much God hates sin the heart of a Christian that is focused on God should be bent toward running from sin like Joseph ran from Potiphar's wife (Genesis 39:11-12). Understanding the great mercy of God exhibited in giving us pain for correction and retribution should drive us more than ever to living a God focused life.

The Purpose of Suffering - Part 2 The Restrainer

Yesterday I started to explain how pain is a tool that God introduced into a fallen world for the sake of man. We looked at one part of suffering. I am seeking to address some of the issues raised by Sam Harris and qouted by John D. Sutter in an article on CNN.com called, "Philosopher: Why we should ditch religion." In the article Sam makes some comments related to suffering. These are recaps from his 20+ minute video presentation on the TED web site. (There is a link to it in the link above if you want to see it.) Sam's case is an emotionally charged one. He is passionate about the need to combat repression and pain wherever it exist. I pointed out how in many ways Sam seems to see repression and pain as the highest moral tragedy. Since this appears to be key to his discussion on science determining what is morally right and wrong without the need for religion I thought I should address it. Today we will look briefly at how pain is a tool of God to restrain mankind. Pain was introduced as a result of the fall of man (See yesterday's post). In the new heaven and earth it will not exist. So God introduced it into a fallen world for a good purpose. Imagine a fallen world in which there is no pain. On a purely physical level I could steal from you because I wanted to and be sent to prison for the crime. Would prison without pain have a reforming effect on me? No! Would there be any real reason for you to want me to go to prison since you do not feel pain either. We would be constantly cutting ourselves and burning ourselves because there would be no pain to restrain us. Pain in this regard is a grace because it makes reform possible and it provides protection. Certainly there are areas of our world where pain and suffering proliferate because the world is fallen. One of the reasons for this is so that we as followers of Jesus will reach out and help the sufferers. Mark 14:5-9 almost cast it as a forgone conclusion that we would be helping the less fortunate. Jesus calls us to help those in need. To comfort them with the comfort we have received from Christ. In 2 Corinthians 1:3-6 Paul makes it clear that suffering is a means by which we might bring comfort to the sufferer. In verse six Paul sees it functioning for the sake of not just comfort but for salvation. In the light of the gospel it becomes clear that pain and suffering is ultimately for the glory of God. He uses it to restrain what would be rampant sin and He uses us to bring comfort and salvation to those who are suffering. The truth of God's work through pain can only be realized as we live a God focused life.