In my reading of the Bible, I am struck by the difference in tone between the old testament and the new testament. Realistically, the old testament is a pretty hard read. It is full of rules and regulations. It is full of war, enslavement, and subjugation. It is loaded with condemnation. Over and over it describes an infraction calling for the death penalty. And then, there is the book of Job. The old testament, for the most part, is not an uplifting read. The best parts are when the Prophets hint at a future where things will be better. The new testament, on the other hand, is centered around love, kindness, mercy and reconciliation. This is a much more satisfying read. It is a much more hopeful read. When a new Christian asks, “what should I read first?”, I always direct them to the book of John.

Which begs the question……….what changed? What corner did we turn between the old testament and the new testament? I don’t believe that God changed. But our world……..that is a different story. The new testament turned our world upside down.

What changed is this:

Love came into our world……..specifically, the love of our father…..our creator. It came in the person of Jesus Christ.

Jesus was a teacher. His message had 3 themes:

Love God
Love your fellow man
I am the son of God………I am divine

In everything that he said and did, he embodied……he taught…..these three things. These ideas were revolutionary……..they still are. The powers of the time had a hard time with them……..and so does our modern culture. In fact, a big part of our culture categorically rejects points one and three. We do a little better with point two…….but only a little.

Which brings me to Christmas……..arguably the biggest annual celebration in the world. For the most part, our modern Christmas has become a big party where we give each other gifts. This part does touch on the second idea……love your fellow man. But our modern Christmas has become disconnected from ideas one and three……..love God, your creator, and Jesus is divine.

So, just exactly what is truly at the heart of Christmas?

Or, more to the point, what should be at the heart of our Christmas celebration?

Christmas is a celebration of a turning point in the history of mankind. It celebrates the arrival……in our world………. of the love of our creator………in the person of Jesus Christ.

And things have never been the same.

So…….today……..when you are exchanging gifts, remember to focus on the love of God. After all, love is the reason why God created you……..the very reason for your existence.

God created you to love and be loved.

You know this.

We love because he first loved us.

John, ESV

So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.

John, ESV

Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.

Paul, ESV

Humans are thinking creatures. Our intellect sets us apart. You could argue that, in essence, we are a bunch of ideas wrapped up in a sack of protoplasm. The ideas that we create drive everything that we do. Some of these ideas are good……others, not so good. If we could eliminate the worst ideas and promote the best ideas, surely we would be better off.

Today, I want to explore the three worst……most evil….. ideas that humanity has ever created. I concede that this is a pretty bold undertaking……..please bear with me.

First, some background. I am a Christian……..you probably guessed. I believe in the Trinity, in the Bible, in an eternal paradise, and in an eternal hell. The Bible is a bit unclear…….and symbolic……as to the details; but, it is safe to say that paradise will be a place of eternal joy and hell will be a place of eternal pain. I was once a physician. I have seen a lot of pain. I learned that the worst pain is not the sharpest or most acute pain. The worst pain is the pain that never gets better……never goes away. And that is a good working definition of hell.

So………what are the three worst ideas in human history?

They are the ideas that will cause the most pain……..the ideas that will result in the greatest number of souls in eternal pain…….in hell.

And here they are:

The “big bang” theory

The theory that life began by energy hitting “primordial ooze”

The theory of Darwinian evolution

These ideas are clothed in science. But, the fact is that science concedes that there is no direct observational evidence of the “big bang”……or for the first half a billion years after it. In spite of a massive effort, we have never created life in a lab. Science can give us no direct observational proof of the creation by Darwinian evolution of an entirely new species.

Why are these ideas so bad?

First, they are theories. They are based on assumptions and extrapolation rather than observation. In a word, they are based on “circumstantial evidence”. And……they begin with one collosal assumption………that there is no God……..no intelligence behind creation.

And that is the big problem. Once you have accepted these three theories, you have completely eliminated the need for God. The “big bang” eliminates the need for God in the first 5 days of creation. Lightning + ooze eliminates the need for God on day 3. Darwin eliminates the need for God on days 4 and 5. With these three ideas, we can put God out to pasture on day 7.

Until about 100 years ago, God was essential. The world made no sense without him. But, these three theories, which are all very recent, allow us to make sense of everything……..without God.

Since we no longer need God, he becomes unnecessary………we can ignore him. And that solves a few of our biggest problems:

No more external rules……..love God…..love your neighbor and all the rest. They are really restrictive……..inconvenient. They really cramp our style.

No higher authority. We are now the top of the pyramid. We are in charge. And that is the heart of it. We get to be God………or at least act like God……..and we do.

So…..these ideas allow us to ignore God and run things as we see fit. We can pursue our appetites without God’s interference. And that is the way we like it. During my lifetime, I have watched our culture slowly push God off into a corner. Today, our appetites rule our culture instead of God’s expectations. And it shows in the decline of our society.

The problem is this:

The fact that we ignore or even deny God……..doesn’t make the trinity, paradise, and hell any less real.

The fact that we ignore or even deny God……..doesn’t
change the fact that if we do so, we are choosing a destiny of never-ending pain.

And that is why these three ideas are the most evil ideas in human history.

What do you believe in? A God who created you, loves you, and wants you to spend eternity with him……….or an accidental world, devoid of meaning, leading to dead black nothing.

Which do you choose……..hope…….or dispair?

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep.

Genesis…….day 1, ESV

“Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds—livestock and creeping things and beasts of the earth according to their kinds.” And it was so. And God made the beasts of the earth according to their kinds and the livestock according to their kinds, and everything that creeps on the ground according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.

God…..on day 6, ESV

Today’s post is primarily directed at believers…..Christians.

I talk to a lot of people who identify as Christians. I am struck by the broad range of attributes that Christians assign to God…….their God. If you asked those Christians at the two extremes to describe God……you might find it hard to reconcile the two descriptions to the same God. And yet, there is only one God…….one trinity.

Some Christians see God as all powerful…….omnipotent……in control of everything. Others see him as a benevolent observer…..who is not very involved in our daily struggles.

And that is the question this week:

How big is your God?

So, I have developed an assessment tool to try to measure your image of your God.

Grab a pen and paper.

For each statement below, rate your response from 0 to 10 with 0 being “strongly disagree” and 10 being “strongly agree”.

God created the universe and everything in it.

God created the universe and everything in it…..in seven 24 hour days……..5 or 10 thousand years ago.

God created every living creature independently, Darwinian evolution was not involved.

God created Adam from dirt.

God created Eve from Adam’s rib.

God breathed life into Adam and Eve……lightning striking a puddle of “primordial ooze” had no part.

Lazarus was stone cold dead and Jesus brought him back to life.

Jesus was crucified and was stone cold dead……then he returned to life.

God knows everything that you say, do, and think.

God sent a flood that killed all people except Noah and his family.

God created paradise.

God created hell.

God will decide who goes to paradise.

God will decide who goes to hell.

Jesus can remove your sin……no matter how bad it is……and give you an eternal home……in paradise.

Add up your score. It will fall between 0 and 150. If you are an atheist……..you will score 0 or close to it. If you are a strict Biblical fundamentalist your score will be 150 or close to it.

In short…….the higher your score…….the bigger your God…….the more powerful your God. The lower your score……the smaller your God………the weaker your God. This is a pretty basic measurement of your opinion of God’s power…….a measure of how big your God is.

Now, I want you to think about your prayer life.

Do you pray often? Do you pray with confidence? Do you ask God to meet specific needs?

It is likely that the answers to these last three questions may be influenced by the size of your God. In fact, the answers to these three questions likely reflect your vision of God’s power. If you worship a tiny, weak, distant God……if your score on the assessment is low……it should come as no surprise that you don’t rely on him very much. It should come as no surprise that you don’t waste your time praying to a wimpy God.

As for me……..I choose to believe in a mighty God…….a God who created the universe just as it is……in 7 days…….who breathed life into Adam……..who has created my eternal soul…….a God who has created an eternal heaven and hell……..and who will one day commit my soul to one or the other.

This is the God I know and love……..the God who knows me and loves me.

Btw………God also knows my score on the assessment.

He knows yours too.

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.

Paul, ESV

And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us.

John, ESV

Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.

Jesus, ESV

So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven, but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven.

Jesus, ESV

There are a very few…..very rare……people who don’t feel guilt. Either they are saints or sociopaths………or, more likely, they just repress their guilt over their failures. Lets face it, we have all done things that are wrong. This week I want to explore wrongdoing…….and the guilt that goes with it.

I’m not talking about the library book that you didn’t return. I’m talking about “big ticket” wrong:

You embezzled money or stole something at work.

You cheated on your taxes.

You physically or verbally attacked someone……and you did it on purpose.

You did something wrong either by design or by carelessness………that caused someone else to be injured…..or to die.

You cheated on your spouse.

Think of that thing that you did…….that thing that was wrong with a capital W……….that thing that you wouldn’t want the people who respect you to know about. Perhaps nobody knows about it but you. If you are honest with yourself…….you know that what you did was wrong. If you are in touch with yourself…….you feel bad about it. That bad feeling……..is guilt. All normal people feel it. And, though we hate to recognize and deal with it, guilt is a good thing. Guilt drives us to avoid repeating an error. Guilt guides us to grow as human beings.

But, guilt hurts. And the bigger the wrong…….the greater the burden of the guilt that we carry…….all day……every day. Even worse…….our guilt is cumulative. Having collected over almost 70 years, my pile of guilt is pretty impressive.

So……what is the way out? What is the best thing that can happen to you………when you have really messed up……..when you know that you did something really wrong……..when you are wracked with guilt?

The best thing that can happen to you is this:

Someone who loves you walks up, gently puts his hand on your shoulder and says:

“It’s all OK……I still love you……I always have…….I always will…….even when you mess up. I’ve fixed it…….all of it.”

There is a sudden sense of cleansing. A weight is lifted. And you say……..”I’ll never do that again”……..mainly because you don’t want to let him down. You feel better. And not just that……you are better……..you walk away a better person.

Well, that is exactly what Jesus has done…….for me……and for every other Christian. By an intentional act he has removed our guilt. We don’t have to drag it around anymore. We tend to focus on the fact that God doesn’t see our wrongdoing anymore. But, the other side of guilt is just as important, we no longer have to carry around the burden of our guilt. What a gift.

I suspect that this is what drives many secular humanists crazy. We don’t have to drag our guilt around every day…………and they do…….if they are being honest.

This gift is so huge……..and so costly to Jesus……..that it makes me want to grow into a better man……..to pay it forward……to honor Jesus. I want to honor his sacrifice and his gift by following him and, I hope, by bringing others along.

If my message resonates……..welcome aboard.

If you feel guilt…….then you can ignore it……repress it……….pretend that it’s not there…….pretend that you are OK. But, the trouble with ignoring something real is that it doesn’t go away………….and neither do its consequences. Know this………the fact that you ignore your guilt does not stop it from eating away at you.

or

You can accept your failures…..and then hand them over…..to Jesus……..with confidence that he has taken care of your problem…….once and for all.

“What I envy most about you Christians is your forgiveness; I have nobody to forgive me.”

Marghanita Laski, author and secular humanist

For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us. As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him.

David, ESV

“Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” And they cast lots to divide his garments.

Jesus, ESV

“Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more.”

Jesus, talking to an adultress, ESV