“Is God More Than What His Word Says?”

“Is God more than what His Word says?”

This may not seem like a common question to some of you, but it is for many.  On of the first things you hear in a theologically liberal seminary is this question.  The professor hears some answers and then says the answer to the question is yes.  But, he (or she) then adds that because this is true, how can we trust the Bible to tell us what God is like?  You see why this question matters so much now?  It undercuts the authority of the Bible.

I don’t have issue that the answer to this question may be yes.  God may indeed be more than what His Word says.  Many people have said that the Bible is God’s “baby talk” to us, because we could not understand any more than what is in it.  But I do take issue when we answer yes to this question, and don’t keep moving further into the question.  We cannot answer yes to that question and simply stop there.  If we answer yes, we’re saying the Bible does not have a monopoly on the information about God in it.  Some people will therefore go to another source to try and find more information about God.  I don’t recommend that, it will fail every time.

I do recommend answering yes to this question, followed by the belief that the Bible is fully inspired, authoritative, inerrant, and infallible.  This means that everything in the Bible was inspired by God, has authority, cannot be wrong, and will never fail.  Then comes the crucial next step: God can be more than His Word says, only in the sense that His “more-ness” will never contradict what His Word says.  God may indeed be more, but the fullness of His character will never contradict what is written!  We may have it all in the Bible, and not fully get it.  We may not, God could be more, but what is more will not contradict what is written in the Bible.  This is honoring to God, and makes much of Him indeed.

If I cannot lose my salvation, why does God warn me about falling away?

If I cannot lose my salvation, why does God warn me about falling away?  This is a puzzling question isn’t it?  Many have tackled this question and completely missed the point.  Most people have gone one of two ways with this.  The first group believes that the presence of a warning in the Bible means that it is possible to fall away and therefore abandon the doctrine of eternal security as false.  Others believe so firmly in the doctrine of eternal security that they twist and finesse the Scriptures to make it look like it is only warning those who are not Christians.  Both of these sides are wrong.  What?  Let me explain.

The Bible says that we cannot lose our salvation (Phil. 1:6, Rom. 8:28-39, 2 Pet. 1:3, John 10, Deut. 10:14-15, etc.) that is clear.  The Bible also warns people from falling away from God (Heb. 3:12-13, 6:4-6, John 15:6, Matt. 24:13, etc.) that is also clear.  How do these two doctrines mesh?  Rather than taking one over the other, like the previous groups do, we should affirm them both, as the Bible does.  How do we do that?  By believing that one of the ways God causes His people to persevere in faith (Matt. 24:13) and be saved, is by warning us that we could fall from faith and be tossed into the fire (John 15:6).  God is honored this way, because His power in keeping His people (Jude 24) is held up and believed, while God’s warning is seen as it is, a warning.  We should always aim to never soften anything to make us feel more comfortable with what God says.

“Is It Biblical To Have a Church Bookstore?”

Is it Biblical to have a church bookstore?  Isn’t that what Jesus was angry about in the temple that day?

Jesus was very angry in the temple that day, here is the account:

And Jesus entered the temple and drove out all those who were buying and selling in the temple, and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who were selling doves.  And He said to them, “It is written, ‘MY HOUSE SHALL BE CALLED A HOUSE OF PRAYER’; but you are making it a ROBBERS’ DEN.”  (Matthew 21:12-13)

The temple sacrifices were a once a year thing.  If you did not have a goat, lamb, or dove, to sacrifice, it just so happened that you could buy one in the temple that day for an escalated price.  Thus, the priests were using the established yearly sacrifices to make a profit by jacking up the prices on animals that day.  This is what made Jesus so angry.  This is how they turned the house of prayer into a den of thieves.  Not only was it mandatory to bring an animal, the priests were using a God-instituted regulation for worship to make financial profit.  Is this the same with church bookstores today?

No, well, I hope not.  Whereas the priests took advantage of God’s established order of worship to make money, churches today with bookstores hopefully don’t do the same thing, because it is not mandatory to go into them and buy something in order to come into worship.  Also, those bookstores are there for edification, to build the people of God up, giving them resources to further grow in Jesus.  If churches made it mandatory to buy something, or even pushed people a bit to go in there so they might buy something, then it would turn into a den of thieves and be very wrong.  So, no it is not wrong for churches to have bookstores in them, if buying stuff in them is optional.

Sovereignty & Responsibility: Which One Is It?

The doctrines of divine sovereignty and human responsibility have been debated for centuries.  Many who hold a strong view of divine sovereignty have abandoned human responsibility, and many who hold a strong view of human responsibility have abandoned divine sovereignty.  On one side the question is: if God is absolutely sovereign, in what sense can we truthfully speak of human choice and freedom?  On the other side its: if man is free and able to make choices, in what sense can we truthfully speak of God being sovereign?  D.A. Carson gives great advice for this tension.  He says, “Rather than choosing between the two, we ought to see this tension as a framework to be explored than a problem to be solved.”  The Bible holds both divine sovereignty and human responsibility up as gloriously true and says “YES!”  Let me explain:

In Acts 2:22-23 Peter said, “Men of Israel, listen to these words: Jesus the Nazarene, a man attested to you by God with miracles and wonders and signs which God performed through Him in your midst, just as you yourselves know, this Man, delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put Him to death.”

Notice how Peter holds up both God’s predetermining plan and the people’s guilt at the same time?  The text will not allow the people to escape their guilt, and at the same time the text will not allow us to think God was surprised at Jesus’ death, because it was according to His plan.  In 1 Kings 8:57-60 Solomon asks God to incline their hearts so that they would walk in His ways.  Then in 8:61 Solomon charges the people to be wholly devoted to the Lord and keep all His commands.  Is this a contradtiction?  No, it is another example of the Bible holding these two doctrines in tension. (For more texts like these see: Genesis 50:19-20, Isaiah 10:5, Jeremiah 29:10-14, 52:3, Joel 2:32, Haggai 1:12-14, 2 Chronicles 30:6-12, Philippians 2:12-13, John 3:27, 11:49-52, 19:10, 13:18-30)

Behind all the willing response of leaders and people, is the Lord moving in His people to give them a heart to obey all that He has commanded.  Men are commanded to do things, to believe, to obey, to not sin and rebel, to repent, to turn from their wicked ways, to be wholly devoted to God.  God is called Creator, Possessor, Ruler of all things, Elector,  and the ultimate cause of all things.  Even Jesus Himself, the predetermined coming King, freely and willingly came to His own, only to be rejected (Phil. 2:6-11).  So what are we to do with this tension?  Move to one side by rejecting the other?  No.  We’re to embrace the tension as the Bible does and stop there.  The Bible holds these two doctrines in tension, and at the same time having no problems doing so!  We should do the same.  God is sovereign, man is responsible, amen!

Common Question: “Why Do Bad Things Happen to Good People?”

“Why do bad things happen to good, sometimes, Christian people?”

The answer to this question, as with most hard questions, is simple, but hard to hear or embrace.  Perhaps that is why these common questions keep being asked.  I think there are two answers to this question:

a) I have already answered the question of “good-ness” in people, and we found that no one is “good” at all.  That truth has a huge implication that sheds lots of light on our current question.  Because no one is good, nothing bad ever happens to any “good” people.  Bad things only happen to bad people.  BUT before I stop there I have to say this.  There was indeed one good Person in the whole of history according to the Bible, His name is Jesus Christ.  Therefore, the only bad thing that has ever happened to a good Person, was the cross.  Jesus was good, and received something more awful than we can imagine so that we would be “brought to God” (1 Pet. 3:18), glorifying Him for His mercy (Romans 15:8-9).

b) The second thing I should add in answering this question is that God may indeed ordain awful things to happen to many people we know.  How should we look on those things?  That depends.  If those suffering people are not Christians, we should conclude that God is bringing about certain events to get their attention, and we should encourage them to repent and trust in Jesus, because only in Jesus can we have life and purpose, and only in Jesus do things in life begin to make sense.  If those suffering people are Christians, we should conclude that God is pruning (John 15:1-8).  Pruning is painful, but God only prunes to bring more fruit out of the believer’s life.  God only causes affliction to come on His children in faithfulness (Psalm 119:75).  Therefore we should encourage these people not to rejoice in the awful circumstances themselves, but to rejoice in God’s purposes and designs in the awful circumstances for growth.  This kind of trust in God, honors God, because it recognizes that all things come from God (Eph. 1:11b).  Job rejoiced in times like these, and we should labor to do the same (Job 1:20-22, James 1:2-4).

Common Question’s: Existence of God? Problem of Evil? Loving God & Hell?

Hands down, the top three questions non-Christians and Christians alike ask about God are these:

a) How do I know God exists?
b) How can God allow suffering and evil in the world?
c) How can God be loving and yet send people to Hell?

Click here to watch D.A. Carson answer’s these questions.

Common Question: “What Happens To ‘Good’ People?”

Question: “What happens to “good” people like the Dalai Lama and Ghandi?”

Answer: I am going to assume the person who asked this question meant: “What happens to ‘good’ people, like the two mentioned, when they die, WHILE not believing in Jesus?”  So I’ll answer this latter question in two ways.

1) There is a misunderstanding from this question about the idea of ‘goodness’.  The Bible says no one is good (Rom. 3:10-18, Eph. 2:1-3, Psalm 14, Isaiah 64:6, etc).  All humans are under the curse of the first Adam (Romans 5:12-21).  There is no man who does not sin (1 Kings 8:46).  This means Ghandi was a sinner and the Dalai Lama is a sinner, deserving death and hell for their sin because that is the due punishment from God.  Now, once we see this, we immediately think of those people we know or have known who were relatively “good” people during their life.  Were they really as bad as the Bible says they were?  Are they really sinners even though they did so much good in this world?  Yes.  Romans 14:23 explains and says,  ”…whatever is not from faith is sin.”  1 Corinthians 10:31 also tells us, “Whether you eat or whether you drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.”  Therefore any action done by any human being on the planet, apart from faith IN CHRIST, is an evil action.  More so, any action done, by any human being on the planet, not to the glory of God, is an evil action.

What does this mean for ‘good’ people like the Buddha, the Dalai Lama, Ghandi,etc.?  The answer is simple, but to hear it we must take off our current cultural lense.  Our culture teaches us that no one has the right to tell anyone that their going to hell, or that they’re on the wrong path if such a path seems right to the person.  But, the Bible clearly states that Buddha, the Dalai Lama, and Ghandi could have done much good, but if their actions were not done with faith in Christ, or to the glory of the God of the Bible, all their actions were evil and sinful.

2) The Bible says Jesus is the only way to God.  Jesus said it Himself in John 6:46, 14:6, 17:3, and many other places.  The apostles believed this and preached it as well (Acts 4:12, 1 Tim 2:5-6).  Therefore if any person does not believe in Jesus before death, they will enter into judgment (Hebrews 9:27) and be cast into hell (Luke 13:3, 5).

This should move your soul to evangelism because you know the way God has provided to escape His wrath.  The most loving thing you can do on earth is to help save someone from certain death, whether they recognize it or not.  Also, if your a Christian, you must believe these things.  We do not have a buffet style faith where you believe as you please.  If we come to Christ, we come on His terms, not our own.  Whose terms do you come on?

Common Question: “Is It Christian to Rely on Medicine?”

Question: “Is it Christian to rely on medicine?”

Answer: I am assuming that we agree that it is not sin to take medicine.  God has given the world great minds who have created wonderful medicines that relieve all kinds of pain, pressure, etc.  The question I am getting to in asking this question is: Is it Christian to have to rely on a medicine in order function properly in daily society; so that if they were to stop taking the medication it would prohibit them from functioning in everyday life with everyday people.  Is that sinful?

You may think this is a foolish question, but Christians who are on these meds struggle with this issue.  Does it mean that they do not trust God to get them through the day?  Are they sinning by relying on medicine rather than God’s sustaining grace to make it in life?  Some teachers have answered “yes” to this question and miserably vexed the consciences of faithful Christians.  I think one thing about meds like this.

a) It is not sin for Christians to rely on medicine for their daily mental or physical health.  In fact, I think the thing that drives those on these meds to stop taking them is pride.  They may want to be off of the meds, to show they don’t need them.  They may want to be off the meds to show their powerful trust in God over their fallen body.  But these pressures are built on pride and unrealistic expectations.  These people are NOT failing to trust God in life, God has given them specific needs that must be met with these meds.  THEREFORE, TO NOT TAKE THE MEDS YOU NEED WOULD BE SIN FOR YOU.  Perhaps, God is keeping you humble by causing you to need these meds.

Whatever the case may be, it is not sinful to take these meds and those on them should not think any less of themselves for having to do so.  Do not believe anyone who tells you that you are not living in faith by taking meds like this.  Don’t believe the lie that your not whole until your med-free.  God has made you the way you are for a purpose, embrace that purpose.

Common Questions: “Do Babies Go To Heaven?”

A friend sent me a list of questions that came up in a small group recently, and asked me to comment on them.  So I have decided to answer their questions here for your benefit as well as the small group’s.  These questions will be put in the category “Common ?’s”

Common Question #1: “Do babies go to heaven?”

Yes, babies go to heaven.  You can see this prove true in two of David’s sons: Absalom and Bathsheba’s baby.  Absalom was not the son a father would want to have.  He was sinful, rebellious, and hateful toward David his father.  He even stole the kingdom away from David at one point in time.  The relationship between David and Absalom was not ideal, to put it mildly.  After a while, Absalom died a horrible death.  Do you recall how David grieved for his son?  He did not jump for joy over losing this awful son of his.  Rather David groaned over the loss of his rebellious son saying, “O my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom…my son, my son!”  David was heart broken, because he knew he would never see his wicked son again (see 2 Samuel 18:31-33).

Now think of David and Bathsheba’s baby boy.  This boy did not grow up like Absalom did, rather on account of David and Bathsheba’s adultery this baby boy was struck sick from the Lord.  How did David respond?  He fasted and prayed all night long for 7 days asking the Lord to heal and save his boy.  His servants labored to get him to eat, but he would not take any food while his boy was sick.  Then the boy died, and when the servants told David the news of his son’s death David responds in an unusual manner.  He gets up from fasting, washes, anointes himself, changes clothes, and worships the Lord!  The servants were confused and asked David what he was doing, and David replied, “Who knows whether the LORD will be gracious to me, that the child may live?  But now he is dead.  Why should I fast?  Can I bring him back again?  I shall go to him, but he will not return to me.” (see 2 Samuel 12:15-23)

You see the difference in David’s reaction with Absalom’s death and his baby boy’s death?  Why did David act so differently?  Because David expected a personal future reunion with his dead baby boy.  That is why he said “…I shall go to him…” Whereas David did not expect to see Absalom ever again.  ”This is just one indicator of the confidence David had in the goodness and grace of God upon the innocent and the hopelessness of David, knowing the judgment and the justice of God upon the guilty.” (John MacArthur)

Do babies go to heaven?  Yes.