“For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.” 1 Corinthians 1:18 (KJV)
“But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.” 1 Corinthians 2:14 (KJV)
I have a reader named Bill, who I call my favorite, little agnostic. Whenever he sees my articles, he invariably writes to pooh-pooh what I have to say and make it clear that he does NOT believe in YWHW. I rather enjoy hearing from him and never fail to remind him that he’s lost, and in need of the Savior.
In his last message, he stated the following:
“I am a non-observant, secular agnostic Jew, but not an atheist. I do not believe in your imaginary, bronze-age, Semitic sky god, who supposedly demands that we all worship him blindly 24/7 and who supposedly hates gay people. I refuse to believe in a religion which makes the ludicrous claim that anyone who does not believe in it is doomed to an imaginary place of eternal torment, even if he or she has been a good person, and that people who have done terrible things will go to an imaginary place of eternal bliss if they somehow “repent” for their sins and allow someone named Jesus to pay for their wrongdoings. This defies all logic and common sense. And if it IS true, then your deity is a monstrously cruel, evil and capricious tyrant who is infinitely worse than Hitler, Mao Zedong, Genghis Khan and Attila the Hun.”
He finishes with this statement. “I wouldn’t want to live in heaven for eternity with such a monstrously evil being. Please pardon my blasphemy, but this is free speech.” Not to worry, my friend. Keep that attitude and you won’t have to worry about it—however, I guarantee you will NOT like the alternative.
He wrote to inform me that “persecution of Christians in America by those awful gay people, and ones who have had sex changes, and us horrible liberals are nothing but an urban legend.” He said that Christians are still the majority in this country and “it is THEY (not all of them, of course) who are the real bullies, and who are trying to persecute LGBT people and anyone who doesn’t live up to their rigid, puritanical and arbitrary standards of personal conduct.”
He chided me about my stance on the outrage of allowing men into ladies restrooms, and the danger this poses to women and children. I was somewhat shocked to learn that the mores of personal deportment by which true Christians try to live, were authored by us! I had NO idea we wielded such power. All this time, I thought the Word of God was our source and guide.
Sarcasm aside, what he said made me ponder where a culture obtains their rules of conduct.
In our discussion, I mentioned NAMBLA (North American Man/Boy Love Association), a pedophile and pederasty advocacy organization, which was formed to bring sex with children into mainstream acceptance. The LGBT community originally tolerated associating with them before their own agenda began to be accepted, but ended up shunning them for being too radical.
Although this organization is largely defunct now, there are still members who hang onto the grand hope of being allowed to pork your under aged son or daughter with impunity one day. Here is a quote from one of them. “The LGBT community used to accept pedophiles, as a sort of red-headed, stepchild.” But their perception is that after 1994, NAMBLA felt that the gays “threw pedophiles, including NAMBLA, under the bus when they started to gain some respectability.” After that, the child molesters had to go back into the closet. *sniff-sniff* Poor, misunderstood little lambs. Pass the tissues, please.
Here’s a question for you…why isn’t NAMBLA celebrated and trendy now? They posed the same basic arguments for equality the LGBT community did; namely, they were born with a sexual attraction to children; they can’t help who they ‘love’; they should have the freedom to pursue relationships that fulfill and make them happy; they want the same rights everyone else has, yada, yada, yada.
So, what’s the hold-up with making pedophilia mainstream? If a child is old enough to speak in complete sentences, they’re old enough to say ‘yes’ or ‘no’ and therefore able to give consent to a sexual relationship, right? After all, who does it hurt if both partners are in a consensual relationship based on ‘love?’ What is morally wrong with that?
And while we’re talking about this, what about bestiality? Or necrophilia? Or incest? WHO has the right to pronounce those sexual appetites repugnant or morally wrong? Who gets to draw the line, and why was the line moved for the LGBT community, when sodomy has historically been viewed as perverted, just like these other sexual desires I mentioned?
Seems to me, since homosexual marriage was legalized and there is forced acceptance upon society, then ALL sexual depravity should be tolerated as well. To hold one’s nose, declaring a particular sexual act disgusting and intuitively ‘wrong,’ is fantastically hypocritical, ESPECIALLY by those who wholeheartedly support homosexuality!
So, who gets to make the rules? Is it simply a matter of assembling a large enough group of perverts du jour, whining that they’re ‘oppressed,’ demanding ‘equal rights,’ that forces such radical change on the overwhelming majority of society? Heck, it obviously worked for the LGBT community! Why not the rest? Who are THEY (or anyone) to say pedophilia or bestiality or necrophilia or incest is perverted?
By whose standards are we measuring these things??
Western culture’s norms of behavior were loosely based on Biblical principles and morality. Eastern and Middle Eastern, by and large, were not. To this day, islam allows pedophilia, bestiality, incest (FACT: most muslims are generationally inbred with at least 1st cousins), and I’ve read that even necrophilia is, under some circumstances, accepted in the hadith. Why then, do they execute adult males who have homosexual liaisons? They have NO issue with men having sex with little boys or teenage boys. What’s the difference?
They’re taught to adhere to the rules Muhammad dreamed up to justify his own abhorrent behavior. Not a great source of truth in my ever so humble opinion, and certainly not the most coherent either! Can you say ‘baa-aaa-aaah?’
It’s actually nonsensical, which brings me back to my basic question: WHO gets to make up the rules regarding what is moral and immoral? Buddha? Gandhi? Muhammad? John Smith? L. Ron Hubbard? The Pope? Do you see the underlying issue with all these sources, the common thread which renders their opinions worthless?
They are ALL human; fallible, sinful, selfish, finite, weak, greedy human beings, so there’s GOT to be a better source for mankind to depend on for something this important. If we look to human beings, any human being or group of men and women, to author the standard between what is civilized behavior and what is forbidden, they will invariably fail us. Miserably.
Why? Because we are all inherently broken. We were born that way and cannot help it. We can’t rise to perfection and ultimate wisdom, no matter how many degrees of ivory tower, higher education we earn, no matter how many nice things we do for others, and no matter how ‘good’ we consider ourselves to be. We can’t rely on group-think or mob rule either, because the strong and intelligent will always end up taking advantage of and destroying the weak and simple minded.
Nope, there HAS to be something or someone higher than human beings to guide us. Something transcendent and pure. Someone holy and perfect. Mankind MUST look to the One who created us in the first place; our Master Designer, Maker of all that is seen and unseen; the One in whom all things hold together. Only a Being with omniscient intelligence is worthy of ruling man and deciding the rules of our conduct.
Introducing YHWH, Almighty Creator God. Because He designed and spoke the universe into existence, it ALL belongs to Him. There is NO other God. “I AM Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.” Revelation 1:8 (KJV)
Wait, I can hear it now. ‘What about allah? The koran says he is god. What makes YOUR God the only god? Besides, aren’t they the same being?’ No, they most certainly are not the same! The Bible was authored thousands of years before Muhammad was a twinkle in his daddy’s eye—if he even knew who his daddy was.
Allah was the most popular of a plethora of false gods the tribes in the Middle East worshipped at the time, so Muhammad chose him to represent the god of his brand new, monotheistic religion. Allah is as opposite from YHWH as it gets; so opposite in fact, YHWH is living and there is no allah. Never was, never will be.
The Greek word for “Almighty” in the verse above is “Pantokravtor,” which means: He who holds sway over all things; ruler of all.
“For thus saith the Lord that created the heavens; God himself that formed the earth and made it; he hath established it, he created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited: I am the Lord; and there is none else. I have not spoken in secret, in a dark place of the earth: I said not unto the seed of Jacob, Seek ye me in vain: I the Lord speak righteousness, I declare things that are right.
Assemble yourselves and come; draw near together, ye that are escaped of the nations: they have no knowledge that set up the wood of their graven image, and pray unto a god that cannot save. Tell ye, and bring them near; yea, let them take counsel together: who hath declared this from ancient time? who hath told it from that time? have not I the Lord? and there is no God else beside me; a just God and a Saviour; there is none beside me.” Isaiah 25:18-21 (KJV)
He gave us ten simple precepts to live by called the Ten Commandments, ten basic little rules of conduct, yet NONE of us has EVER been able to live without breaking at least one of them. Creator God’s Word tells us that if we break even one of those ten, we’ve blown it so badly in His sight that we might as well have broken all of them. And there is nothing we can do to make it right before Him.
Breaking His rules is called ‘sin,’ and because of His transcendent holiness NO sin can abide in His presence. Because He is a perfectly just God, sin must be punished. A price for sin MUST be paid. The Bible declares “For the wages of sin is death…” Romans 6:23 (KJV)
The first human being to break God’s commandment was Adam, in the Garden of Eden. Because of that, the Bible explains “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.” Romans 5:12 (KJV)
In other words, because of Adam’s (and Eve’s) sin, every human being born is tainted with a natural inclination to break God’s laws, a sin nature, and all of us automatically inherit a sentence of death as a result. Remember, that man didn’t make up the rules; the transcendent, holy God did. This death sentence is some seriously bad news!
But here’s the Good News. Because Creator God knew we human critters could never do anything to earn His forgiveness for our sins and escape the death sentence, no matter how ‘good’ we tried to be, He decided to pay the penalty for us!
Because He LOVES His human creation SO much, He sent His one and only perfect Son, Jesus, to enter our dimension in human form, laid the sin of every human being that ever existed, past or future on Him, and sentenced Him to die for those sins on a Roman cross. Yeshua (Jesus) literally died in our place!
“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” John 3:16 (KJV)
Three days later, Creator God caused His beloved Son to rise from the dead and come out of that grave. Scripture records that for the next forty days, Jesus was seen by hundreds of witnesses, walking around town, teaching and preparing His followers to go into all the world to tell of God’s great love by paying for our sins, so that we can live in His heavenly kingdom forever.
So, how much will the salvation Jesus died to provide cost you? Ready? N-O-T-H-I-N-G! Seriously. Nothing. It is a FREE gift from your Creator because of His unspeakable love for YOU. How do you get this salvation? Look at God’s instructions:
“That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.” Romans 10:9 (KJV)
Yep, it really is that simple. No kidding! You can’t buy it. You will never be a ‘good’ enough person to motivate God to wipe away your sin. You can’t add to His sacrifice. It just doesn’t work that way. The penalty of death HAD to be satisfied and the Creator’s Son paid it for us, IN FULL. It’s called ‘grace.’ The legal case against you will be dismissed the moment you follow the prescription above, and ask the living Jesus to come into your heart to be your Lord and Savior.
You’ll NEVER find a better deal anywhere!! Allah can’t and won’t give you eternal life. He’s incapable because he doesn’t exist. Neither can Buddha, Scientology, New Age, Shiva, Baal, money, humanism, Marxism, or any other fake, false god people conjure up in their minds.
So, what happens to people who pass up the Creator’s free gift of salvation? Ho boy, it ain’t good. If YOUR innocent son or daughter died in someone else’s place, and that person turned around, spit in your face and mocked your child’s death, wouldn’t you be rather peeved? Yeah well, God is too and you can’t blame Him. He went to the ends of the universe to offer us eternal life.
“But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.” Revelation 21:8 (KJV)
Quite frankly, how stupid, rebellious and stubborn does a person have to be to refuse God’s free gift of salvation and an eternity of joy in His kingdom? What kind of moron would CHOOSE to spend forever in the Lake of Fire in darkness, solitude and agony, with no hope of EVER escaping?
Hell isn’t some grand, rock-n-roll party. That’s just a lame lie! The Lake of Fire was never meant to contain Creator God’s human beings, and GOD never sends anyone there. That’s also a lie. However, remember how sin carries the death penalty? Again, that price was paid for YOU so you don’t have to go to hell when you die.
So, if you refuse to accept the pardon for sin Jesus died to provide to you, then you have no one to blame but yourself when you find yourself there. Just think: YOU were stupid enough to send yourself to hell! Duh.
I hope Bill, my favorite little agnostic, reads this. Even though I’ve never met him, I love him enough to tell him the unvarnished truth, even it if offends him and he hates me for it. That’s OK. His blood won’t be on my hands when I stand before Jesus. On the other hand, Bill won’t be able to plead ignorance because he’s been informed.
I imagine he’ll write back to reiterate his unbelief in YHWH and spew his arrogant judgment against a holy Being, who is infinitely more intelligent and powerful than he is. My answer? When he becomes omniscient and omnipotent enough to speak his own universe into existence, then he can make the rules. Until then, we ALL answer to God, like it or not. I wonder what Bill will do now.
What will YOU do now?