Christian Topics in a Secular World
Before creating this page originally, I gave it a lot of thought. I knew it would offend some people, and although I don't like to offend people, the truth often does. In today's contradictory "Politically Correct" world, it is okay to be different, unless you are a Christian. Then you are called "intolerant" or a "bigot" if you dare to question what is currently considered "acceptable" behavior and any Politically Correct notion. Well, like I said, I gave it a lot of thought, and decided to create this page anyway. First of all a caveat, I am a Bible Believing Christian. I don't speak for all Christians, but I do believe that my opinions are soundly based on Christian doctrines as found in the Bible. There are some issues that I address that aren't uniquely Christian, but of great interest to me anyway. This page is mainly a forum for me to present my views, and hopefully you will agree with me, if not, at least consider my point of view. Since I am far from perfect, I may not explain all of my points very well, but I'm giving it a try. If you disagree, or think I'm wrong, know that I still love you and will continue to do so. I do not hate anyone, though some might interpret (wrongly) some of what I say to be "hate-speak". If so, then please be assured that there is no hate, nor malice intended. (If you think it is hateful to want to see other people go to heaven instead of hell, then you need to carefully consider what "hate" really means.)
- What is a Christian
- Judge Not
- Protests, Activism, Politics
- Abortion
- Evolution or Creation
- Homosexuality
- Racism
- Television and Movies
- Music
- Gun Control
- The Death Penalty
What is a Christian
What is a Christian? Depends on who you ask. You will get a lot of different answers to this question. However, what is the correct answer? A Christian is a person who believes in Christ. Does that mean anyone who believes in Jesus is a Christian? No, most people believe in Jesus, or rather that someone named Jesus lived in the early part of the first century and was crucified in Jerusalem. That he existed is a fact, indisputable. However, who was he?. The scriptures say that Jesus was the Son of God, and that he (as the Son) was equal with God the Father, and that he came to earth as a man to die for our sins. He was 100% God and 100% man. He died for our sins on the Cross. He rose again on the third day. This is the Gospel of Salvation. If you believe this (by faith), you are a Christian (by grace). Visit my Gospel page (link above) to find out more about how to become a Christian.
Many call themselves Christians, yet deny that Christ was the Son of God. How can you even call yourself a Christian if you deny who Christ was? It is ludicrous. You might as well call yourself a follower of Gandhi, or Buddha if you only consider Jesus to be a man. Many today consider Jesus to be like them (Gandhi and Buddha), simply a man, preaching a philosophy of peace and love or something like that. However, that is not what the Bible says about Jesus.
Also, many today call themselves Christian, yet don't believe that Jesus was resurrected from the dead! If God can't (or didn't) raise his own Son from the dead, then what hope do we have!
There are five fundamentals that most Bible believing Christians accept as the most important truths. These are non negotiable as it were. If you deny any of these you need to study the word of God. We believe the scriptures offer overwhelming evidence that these are critical to our understanding of God's plan for us and that without these we can never correctly understand the scriptures.
1. The Trinity, or Triune nature of God. Simply put, God is one "what" and three "whos". God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit (or Holy Ghost). The Bible provides ample evidence that the Son and the Holy Spirit are also God, just like the Father. Does this mean that the one God appears to us in different forms, as it suits his purpose? One day he is the father, one day the son? No, that is not correct. God is ALWAYS the Father, always the Son and always the Holy Spirit. He is eternally existent in all three persons. Does this mean there are three gods? No, just one. Does this mean he is one God, but has three "offices", such as a woman who is (at the same time), a Mother, a Wife, a School Teacher, a sister, an Aunt, etc. No, that is not correct either. The three persons of the godhead are all equal and all coexist. The word "Trinity" does not appear in the Bible, but then again, neither does the word "Bible", so don't let that throw you for a loop. It is a complex concept, and quite difficult to grasp, but the scriptures do show it to be true. I don't want to quote a bunch of scriptures here to prove it, but I can do that upon request.
2. Jesus (Yeshua) is fully God and fully man. Jesus was referred as both the "Son of God" and the "Son of Man". Jesus (the man) was born of a woman (Mary) as flesh and blood. In this way he was fully a man. Yet he was and is the Son of God from eternity past. He became man also when he was born to Mary, and as a man he lived and walked the earth, and died, yet all the while he was also God.
3. Salvation is by faith, plus nothing. No man is saved by works. Believe the Gospel and you are saved. Simple as that. You are saved by God's Grace alone. We can't possibly earn salvation, no one can be that good as to earn it. Are works important? Sure they are, but they are not part of salvation.
4. Jesus is returning to earth to rule as Lord of Lords and King of Kings. He will physically come back to earth, just as he promised. He told us to watch for him, unless he come as a thief in the night. The time is growing closer every day.
5. The Bible is the Inspired (and complete) Word of God. We can believe that every word in the scripture is there because God wanted it there (in the original Hebrew and Greek). Our modern translations may have minor translation problems, but nothing serious (though some modern translations are nothing short of blasphemous). I use the King James Version mainly, but use more modern translations also.
If you deny any of the five teachings above, you are in serious conflict with the scripture. If you deny the fifth one (about the Bible), then you might as well throw it all out, and stop calling yourself a Christian (if you do consider yourself a Christian). For if we can't trust the Word of God, then how can we know anything? Also, if you believe that the Bible is not the complete revelation of God, then you are saying that men still receive new revelations from God. Okay, then which men do we believe? Any man can say (and many do) that "God told me this" or "God told me that", and then start their own new religion or cult or denomination based on their "new" revelation. The Bible is complete, we don't need any new revelation. What is God going to tell us that isn't already in the scriptures? Don't get me wrong, I do believe in personal revelation, as in the Holy Spirit convicting you to do something, but it will never be anything "new" that no one else has ever heard.
Judge Not
Judge not, lest ye be judged. (Matthew 7:1). How many times have you heard this? Well, unfortunately, most don't read the rest of the chapter to see what Jesus was talking about. You can take any one verse and build an entire religion or philosophy around it, but that is not the proper way to interpret scripture. Everything must be taken in context. Verses 2 through 5 make it clear that Jesus was talking about hypocrisy. Judging someone when you yourself have the same or worse problems is one of the worst forms of hypocrisy.
However, the scriptures tell us to be diligent in that we judge righteously. We are to judge all teachings to see if they are scripturally correct. We are not to tolerate false teachers, or false teachings. How can we know if they are false, if we don't judge them? How do you judge them? Check them against the scriptures, if false, then it is our duty to point them out. If the teachers don't repent of their false teachings, then we are not to associate with them.
When Christians witness to someone, we are not supposed to point out the persons sins, whatever they might be, only that they (like we were) are sinners, and that they can not save themselves. The wages of sin are death, and there is only one escape, and that is to "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved".
It is not written that we should judge non believers. We are not supposed to go around condemning people for being gay or whatever. A sinner is lost, we need to tell them how to be saved.
Protests, Activism, Politics
This is not such a touchy subject, but it is one that concerns me. I can sum it up fairly simply, I think. Do you recall Jesus, or any of the Apostles running for public office in an attempt to "christianize" the government? Do you recall Peter, Paul or any of them going into towns and shutting down the brothels, or forming human barriers to keep others from going in to sin? My point is that the scriptures do not command us to try to physically stop people from sinning or to force the gospel on the public (via law or through the government).
We are not commanded to put as many Christians in office as possible. We are not commanded to march outside of abortion clinics, nor or we commanded to force Christianity on people. Our commandment is to preach the gospel to the world. If we (and the message) are not received, then we can kick the dirt off of our feet and move on.
Certainly you should be concerned about abortion and the declining morality in the world but you should look to your own family first, then to your fellow believers. Non believers are of the world, and they will do whatever they will, no matter how abhorrent to us. Tell them the gospel, one to one, and some will be saved, some won't.
Abortion
This is a big subject, so I've created a separate page for it. Click here for more on this topic.
Evolution or Creation
"In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth." (Genesis 1:1) Or did he?
"And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good." (Genesis 1:25) Or did he?
The evolutionists believe that the all life on the earth is some kind of cosmic accident, a result of random occurrences, over millions of years, until some form of life was formed. That life somehow evolved into other forms, until eventually, after millions of years, man came along, a result of years of evolution. Well, first off, this is totally ludicrous. Not one proof of evolution can be shown. There is not one shred of evidence (fossil or otherwise) that shows any form of life evolving into another. Yes, some things change slightly over time to adapt to new environments, but one species never becomes another.
Did man evolve from some lower form of life, an ape-like creature? That is what they would have you believe, but where is the proof? Sure, they have skeletons of various ape-like creatures that are now extinct, but how does that prove they are human ancestors? If this were true, then why are scientists STILL looking for the missing link? If evolution were true, then there should be fossils of every intermediate evolutionary step in every animal. You should be able to lay out a thousand skeletons showing the gradual (barely noticeable) change from the earliest form to the latest. This evidence does not exist. Sure they have a few skeletons that look similar enough but are vastly different. They claim this is proof of evolution. This is no different from displaying the skeleton of a house cat next to a tiger's skeleton and saying it proves evolution. The little one evolved into the big one (or the other way around).
I have a great interest in science but I can't possibly do justice to this subject, so I'll refer you to the Answers in Genesis website and to Christians Answers Network Creation Library. These websites (and others) give scientific evidence for creation, and for the refutation of the Theory of Evolution. To put it bluntly, Evolution is a religion for atheists, one they adhere to quite devotedly.
Homosexuality
This subject prompted me to create a separate page. Click here for more details on this topic.
Racism
There is no such thing as different races. There is only one race: the Human race. Everyone looks different, yet everyone looks the same. Some people have dark skin, others light, some have dark hair, others light, some are short, some tall, some skinny, some fat. Some have blue eyes, others brown, black or green. Some have distinctive noses or eyes or facial structures. This should make absolutely no difference in how a person is treated.
Cultural differences do exist however, and they do often follow "racial" lines, and it is really these cultural differences that are the source of most prejudice, hatred and so forth.
There is no place for racism among Christians. Anyone calling himself a Christian, yet hates another because of his "race", is not acting very Christian. If you think you are better than someone else because of your race, then think about Jesus. What race was he? All we know for sure is that he was a Jew. The bible does not give a physical description, so we don't know if he was light skinned or dark skinned. If his skin tone was important, then don't you think it would have been mentioned in the Bible somewhere?
Television and Movies
If you don't like what is on TV, turn it off, but don't waste your time trying to get offensive programs removed. Exercise your common sense, and don't watch, and don't let your children watch anything that you find offensive.
Most of today's TV programming is offensive, and regularly promotes anti-Christian values. Many of the sitcoms today regularly show immoral behavior and make it out to be acceptable, such as fornication, homosexuality, etc. The drama programs are the same, but add violence to the mix. The soaps have not changed, they have always been extremely anti-Christian.
It is probably better for a Christian to not watch TV at all, but like most, I can't quite give it up. I watch a few shows, mainly Science-Fiction, Fantasy type shows. Those that I watch are not Christian by any means, but generally they do not regularly promote anti-Christian values, or if they did, I would quit watching them.
It would be very hypocritical of me to denounce all of TV, yet keep watching it myself. That is why I confess to watching more than I should. As a believer it is not part of my job to remove sin from the world, only from my own life. My only job requirement (as a Christian) for the world is to preach the good news.
Music
I grew up on Country music and Rock and Roll. I still like Country and Rock and Roll, but not much of what I hear on the radio today, in either genre.
Many sincere Christians proclaim Rock and Roll to be the Devils music. In some cases, that is obviously true, but not always. Any song that promotes and / or glorifies sinful behavior is certainly not of God, but that transcends genre. Any song that specifically glorifies Satan or blasphemes or disparages God is also the Devils music. There is no doubt about it.
However, consider songs that don't fall in the above sinful categories. A love song, a song about heartache, or heart break, those are not sinful. Worldly yes, but anti-Christian, hardly. Many songs have morals (of a sort), talking about the downfalls of sinful behavior and so forth. While these are not specifically Christian, they are not bad to listen to.
The bottom line is, judge each song on its own merit. Don't lump entire styles of music into a single condemnation. If it is the style you don't like, then certainly don't listen to it, but don't tell me I'm wrong for listening.
While the above was concerning secular music, I should address the topic of "Christian Rock" or "Christian Pop". I've read, and heard, many sincere Christians condemning any style of Christian music that differs from what is in their Hymnals. That bothers me very much. Hymnals are not inspired works like the Bible. The music contained therein is probably mostly good, but not every hymn is scripturally sound, even though it may sound good to the ear. However, any "Christian" song that does not glorify God, or include sound doctrine, should be avoided, but like I said previously, not based on style. Only on content.
I personally don't want to hear any Heavy Metal Christian Music, or Rap Christian Music, but there are many today who would never be reached without it. I would never recommend it for Church, but let each believer listen at home or in the car to what they feel is right for them.
Gun Control
This isn't exactly a Christian Topic, but it is one that concerns me. I had a great deal to say on this subject, so I've created a separate page for it. Click here for more information on this topic.
The Death Penalty
This is a Christian Topic, though a controversial one. I had a great deal to say on this subject, so I've created a separate page for it. Click here for more information on this topic.