Interviewed by the Ignorant, Part 2

This is the Part 2 of this article. Part 1 was posted quite some time ago. You will probably need to go back and read it to get the full benefit. Thanks!

2. God is the Creator and Owner of everything, including humans, and therefore has the right to do with it as He pleases.

Genesis 1:1, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”

Psalm 24:1, “The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein.”

Who are you to tell God what He can or cannot, should or should not do with His creation? Romans 9:20-21, But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, “Why have you made me like this?” 21 Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use?” God has the right to do as He pleases with this world and those who dwell in it. For God to allow the tragedy in Japan to occur does not make Him uncaring. It makes Him God. That leads to the third part of my response.

Interviewed by the Ignorant, Part 1

“Which is it? Either God is all-powerful, but He doesn’t care about the people of Japan, and therefore they are suffering. Or, Does He care, but He is not all- powerful?”

This is a question asked of Rob Bell by Martin Bashir on MSNBC. All Rob Bell had to say was this is a paradox that is better left alone. My next six posts will be my response to this question.   

To begin with, just asking that question betrays any true knowledge of God. Anyone who truly knows God would never ask such a question. This question is nothing but an attempt to have God painted in a bad light. Nevertheless, biblically there are several things that can be said in response.

1. God’s purposes and plans are beyond human comprehension.

Isaiah 55:8-9, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. 9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

For those who are finite in understanding, and finite in wisdom, and finite in knowledge to question the One who is infinite in understanding, and infinite in wisdom, and infinite in knowledge is foolish. You are saying that God must either be limited in power or uncaring. That is making an assumption based on very limited information. Imagine all you could possibly know is a letter in a book. You may know the letter, but only God knows the word that letter is a part of, the sentence that word is a part of, the paragraph that sentence is a part of, the page that paragraph is the part of, and the book that page is a part of. You cannot be critical of the Author of the book when all your knowledge is limited to one letter. You don’t know enough about God, His ways, or His purposes to accuse Him. Romans 11:33-34, "Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgmets and how inscrutable His ways! 34 For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been His counselor?" Who are you to scrutinize the actions of Him who is inscrutable? You cannot even begin to fathom why God does all that He does. And that leaves you in no place to make foolish assumptions about God or His character.  

A Prayer

Lord Jesus, may Your beauty increase in my sight until You are all I see. May the fragrance of Your knowledge so captivate me that all other aromas fade out of recognition. May Your goodness grow ever sweeter to my taste until I hunger for nothing but You. May Your voice ring ever louder and ever clearer in my ears until all other sounds are drowned out by the roar of Your truth. May Your divine hand upon my life be more real to me than the touch of even my dearest loved ones.

May every step I take bring me closer to You. May every word I say exalt Your magnificence. May every task my hands undertake be by Your design, through Your strength, and for Your fame. May every conscious thought reflect Your unparalleled greatness.

May Your Holy Word be my most prized possession. May Your Holy name be the only banner under which I march. May Your Holy presence be that which I most long for.

 May every breath I take be in service of the Crucified King. May every beat of my heart be out of love for the God who robed Himself in flesh and died in my place.

 May You always have the best of me, and not what's left of me.           

We Better Go Home

How could we have let this happen? Is it really that bad? What can I do to begin to turn things around? These are all questions I asked myself as I listened to a sermon by Voddie Baucham yesterday. The sermon was titled, "The Centrality of the Home in the Evangelization and Discipleship of the Next Generation." He preached from Ephesians 6:1-4. Just a few facts: 1) The church is losing 75-88% of teenagers by the end of their freshman year of college. 2) In the last 30 years: there have been more youth ministry degrees issued than in all of history prior; there are more professional youth ministers than ever; a multitude of parachurch ministries have been created solely to reach teenagers. Yet, we are baptizing less teenagers than ever in history and we are losing more teenagers than ever in history. There is only one conclusion at which we can honestly arrive. Our method of evangelizing and discipling children and youth is not working.

As I listened to Dr. Baucham expound the Scripture I could not help but wonder how we could have missed what seems so obvious in God's Word. The responsibility of evangelizing and discipling children belongs to the parents, particularly the fathers. So the question we have to ask is, Why have we created ministries to try and do it for them? When what we should be doing is equipping and asisting them to do it themselves. I know this presents lots of questions. And I'll be honest enogh to say I don't have all the answers yet. But this much I do know, we are losing the culture war and if parents don't start raising up godly, Christian children in the home, Christianity in America is going to continue to disappear one generation at a time.