Debate 8: Foundation and Truth

Answering the question of the masturbation debate is simple enough, but it requires a proper foundation. The assertion that people, who believe in God, commit sin, because they do not really believe, is pretty close to the truth. So why did I wait until the eighth installment to say so? Why not just straighten the whole thing out by saying that people, who believe in God, commit sin, because of imperfect faith, or weak faith? Here’s why; and it is the topic of that lecture I was originally searching for when I stumbled onto the masturbation debate in the first place. The Biblical view on the topic of answering a fool according to his folly prevents me from giving a straightforward answer to a backhanded question. (Proverbs 26:1-12). If someone argues that 12 plus a dozen equals 24, it appears true; but it depends on whether he thinks a dozen is 12 or 4. If he thinks a dozen makes 4 he is quite wrong. I had better deal first with the folly. I have to tear down the whole argument and build the right foundation. If we build a house on a bad foundation, it is wise to tear down the house, and put in a good foundation, even if it seems to be a good house.

This is the case with the atheist in the masturbation debate. His notion of God is clearly less than the reality of God, so his presumptions are quite wrong. He also doesn’t acknowledge the difference between a man and a rock. He sees man as an accidental thing in an accidental universe — subject to no higher law than those governing a rock or an ape. Those who believe in God don’t need it explained that this isn’t so. But get ready for an uncomfortable truth. Even believers have notions of God that do not come close to the reality of God. Remember part 5 in this series? God is bigger than our understanding of Him. God is constantly having to tear down the houses we build for ourselves to reestablish the foundation of our faith. God opposes the proud and favors the humble (). Once we accept God’s goodness and supremacy in our life, the thought of losing all that we have built for ourselves does not frighten us; because we know His plans are always an improvement. It takes real faith to learn this. And sometimes, we learn slowly.

Our knowledge of God is refined as we are refined by Him. It is one thing to read Jeremiah and learn that God has plans to prosper us and not to harm us (29:11-13), but it requires faith to give up what is known in favor of what is promised. Or put another way, we give up what appears good to make way for what is best. Considering we do not get to determine for ourselves what is best nor do we get to define ‘prosper,’ we can see the trouble. It is difficult for someone to downsize their lifestyle in order to begin tithing. It was difficult for me, even more so for my wife; but God is faithful and shows us that His way is best (††). Simple truth — He promises it, He proves it. I don’t have to accept someone else’s testimony. I have my own testimony. God gave it to me so that I would believe Him. He gives faith through evidence of His faithfulness. I love when atheists begin to say they want evidence for God. I show them my life and they say, “That isn’t real evidence.” I laugh, what could be more real? They say, “Give me science.” Clearly, what they want is evidence against God. Good luck with finding that. Science continues to show us the irrefutable signs of creation. That is a whole different blog series.

So why, though I believe in God, do I sin? This is an important question. Part of why I began this series is because I have often asked this question myself. I have struggled through an addiction to pornography—one of those sneaky addictions that never really seemed unmanageable. I could halfway convince myself I wasn’t doing anything wrong, wasn’t hurting anybody. Then I would catch myself searching for “hard” porn, reconsider and trash everything. Each time I thought I had my lust issues in check, I would repeat the cycle over again. In the beginning, it was a shameful cycle that I kept to myself. I read a number of books to get a better understanding of my problem, but they didn’t explain any more than I could observe on my own. They went into great detail about neuropath ways and memory recall and emotional triggers. Things Mr. Burns tried to recount in the masturbation debate. They explained the destructive consequences that I mostly avoided by ending the cycle where I did, but were not helpful in stopping the cycles from starting. Ultimately, allowing shame to keep me isolated was the problem. I have been fortunate to have friends that have gone through similar battles and could share their insights with me. Once I began to discuss my cycles openly, I began to ask friends to pray with me about it. All sin is the same in this way. Drag it into the light and give up trying to deal with it yourself. Only Jesus has conquered sin. Our power over sin is His power in us, not ours. That is why it is no good to talk about God, or sin, or truth without a foundation of Jesus in our life. The Bible has all the answers we need for such discussions, and it warns us that men will try to build different foundations than the one true foundation.

The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak. I do not always wait for God. I do not always trust Him perfectly. I still rationalize away what is inconvenient in Scripture. I do not remember to thank God for all He provides. I do not remember to ask God for my daily bread. I do not always love my enemies and pray for those that persecute me. Often, meekness, gentleness, and humility seem like made up words to me. The cares of this world press in and threaten to choke my faith. Yet my faith is sustained, not by my works, but by His power. My spirit believes perfectly and is united with God through His Holy Spirit, but a spiritual battle rages against all that is corrupt and certain to pass away. It is His power that brings me to recognize and turn away from my sin. Often, my children learn things faster than I do; nevertheless, God is patient with me. It is His power that draws me closer and allows me to know Him better. This body of mine will die. When it does, all that is weak in me will die. But if my spirit has been surrendered to Jesus as Lord, and washed clean by His work on the cross, I will live as He lives. I will share in His resurrection. All things that cause sin will be removed whenever Jesus returns. All that is not created to be eternal will pass away, and all that is created to be eternal will receive judgment.

Mockers will mock, but this is the truth of Scripture. Learning to live in the Spirit is the great undertaking of every Christian. I would devote the next installment to explaining what that means, but I can only lay out the roadmap of Scriptures that I meditate on as often as I can. These are my pearls, my treasure in this life. I guard them. I don’t pretend to have it down, nor do I expect to lead you into perfect understanding. I would be happy to come alongside you in prayer and introduce you to my Lord and Savior. Perhaps you can help me to understand better. If you honestly seek the Truth, His name is Jesus, and you can find Him if you seek with all your heart.

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(7) Divine Law: The grace-based relationship

Divine Law is where theology begins. Attempting to explain God in relation to man by what we can observe from nature only gets us to the conclusion that He exists, that He is good, and mankind is constantly quarrelling with Him. To understand any more about Him we must turn to what He has revealed about Himself. If we want to get to know a person, we can snoop around his house with a notepad trying to interpret what we see, or we can pick up his diary and read it. Better still, invite him to sit with us and have a go at conversation. I will dispense with all other theologies and focus on Christianity for two reasons. It was explicitly discussed in the masturbation debate; and, only Christianity makes complete sense out of the observable reality of man. The Christian Bible is where a Christian derives Divine Law.

Summarizing the Christian Bible, we see exactly what we would expect to see if a great, powerful, complex creator of the universe wanted to reveal Himself to a comparatively less complex, less powerful part of His creation. He would select one person from the group, reveal Himself to that person, spend time letting that person know Him and build from there.

Old Testament

This is exactly what we find in Genesis when God reveals Himself to Abram, Isaac, Jacob, and later in Exodus with Moses. He establishes His authority over Abram by giving him a new name and makes a covenant with him. Because God intended to reveal Himself to all mankind, He established a larger nation from Abraham and transmits to this nation, via the fulfillment of His covenant promises, the sort of God He is and the sort of people they must be in order to represent Him to the world. God demonstrates His divine nature through events that are observable to all, while He teaches the 12 tribes of Israel the inside scoop. The record left by this nation is the beginning of God’s divine revelation to mankind. Then, so the world will know that He is as powerful and sovereign as the record suggests, He preserves a remnant of this nation and its records throughout history.

New Testament

God repeats this same process yet again. He fulfills the covenant promises of the Old Testament by taking the form of man. He removes the mystery of His purpose behind revealing Himself to one man and building one nation by revealing that His Kingdom is to include all nations under a new covenant. The old covenant stands as witness to man’s inability to achieve God’s standard on his own. Jesus demonstrates His divine nature through events that are observable to all, while He teaches the 12 disciples the inside scoop. The record left by these disciples is the completion of God’s divine revelation to mankind. As before, the record is preserved supernaturally by God so the world will know that He is as powerful and sovereign as the record suggests.

Grace-based relationship

The summary is obviously a drastic simplification. The real magnificence of God is in the details. I’ll leave most of the details for you to find on your own. I will focus on the new covenant relationship that God revealed and accomplished through Jesus. It is no accident that one of the 12 original disciples (Judas) betrayed Jesus. It is no accident that one of the 12 original tribes (Levites) was instrumental in His death. What is common between them? They were both tasked with overseeing the money and goods dedicated to God’s use. In the new covenant, they are like each of us. No better, no worse; since we all are responsible to God for overseeing what He entrusts to us while here on Earth. The most common misconception about the covenant relationship is that it operates like a legal contract. We do our part, putting God into our debt; whereby, He is contractually bound to do His part. He gives us the laws, we follow them, and He repays us with eternal life. This is not Christianity. The first thing Christianity does is destroy this misconception. The harder we try to resist temptation, the stronger temptation becomes. We cannot keep our part. Christianity makes it explicit that we bring nothing, and offer nothing of value to God. Consider a child who asks his dad for $20 to buy a birthday present. The child goes and buys a gift and gives it to his dad for his birthday. What has dad gained in the transaction? (*)—only the happiness of his child. This is Christianity—a grace-based relationship with God.

Alright, let’s consider how the grace-based relationship prophesied in the Old Testament and realized in the New Testament foils the notion that God is like Barbara. In the masturbation debate, NEGATIONofP argues that in order to maintain or improve our relationship with Barbara we must be perfect in Barbara’s presence regarding certain behaviors. Specifically, we mustn’t lie, steal, or masturbate in front of Barbara lest we damage her opinion of us. This describes a works-based relationship. The God of the Bible makes it clear that we are nothing and capable of nothing apart from Jesus, but in Him we are regarded as sons. So supposing we have a relationship with Him through faith in Jesus’ testimony and subsequent death and resurrection; what might we discover about grace from being regarded as sons of God? We’re back to this metaphor. No use complaining about it. It is all a simple creature can fit in his head.

As a man, I can draw on what I have observed about the father-son relationship. My understanding will be limited by how well or how poorly my own father demonstrated grace in his relationship to me. As a father, I can look at my relationship to my own sons. This is a bit better because I get inside information. Still, my understanding will be limited by how well or how poorly I display grace to them. As a Christian, I can pray that God grant me understanding beyond what I have observed. My understanding will be limited by how well or how poorly I accept teaching from God’s Holy Spirit. God wants us to know Him. He promises to give us understanding if we ask (). He is not like my earthly father, nor like me, because He is never unavailable, never unwilling, never unable, and never uncaring. These are human limitations. If my sons want to ask me a question, they have to wait until I am home. When I am home, I am sometimes too busy to give them my attention. Sometimes, I just don’t know how to answer. And I really don’t care to answer some questions if I believe they can figure it out themselves.

So if I was morally perfect, had unlimited knowledge and resources, could control all of nature, and could attend to each of my sons individually at all times, what kind of father would I be? Clearly, I would be a better father than I am. But as poor as I am in all of those areas compared to God, I can still understand something of grace from my own experience. First, let’s examine grace as it was displayed by my earthly father. When I was young, I set fire to about four or five acres of grassland. Some of it was our own property, some belonged to neighbors. As mad he was over my mistake, he wouldn’t let my mom or our neighbors kill me. They may have wanted to. I don’t know. My dad had taught me to never play with matches. I deliberately disobeyed him. I obviously didn’t intend for the fire to spread as it did; nevertheless, my disobedience had destructive results. I could have killed myself, my family, or my neighbors’ family. This was a pretty serious mistake. But he went right on being my father. I went right on being his son. He didn’t love me less at all. To the contrary, he displayed his great love for me by placing more restrictions on me—-keeping closer watch over me. He was fully limited by his humanity, and yet we can still see a likeness to God’s grace. And that is what we must remember. It is only a likeness to God’s grace. It is not a perfect representation of God’s grace. Human grace always falls short of God’s grace.

My earthly father did not willingly die to discharge the penalty required for my disobedience. He could not. It was not against him that I sinned. It is God’s law that I must honor and obey my parents. Therefore, only God can ultimately discharge the penalty of my sin. God temporarily gives some of His authority to parents. They are obliged to exercise that authority for a time, but eventually, their authority ends. And it is only limited authority. They may forgive offenses, as they should—-as we all should because we all need God to forgive our offenses—-but they cannot forgive sin. This was the case with the fire. It only resulted in property damage after all. Our notion of justice, which is derived from Divine Law, would not require death as a penalty for property damage. But suppose the fire killed my brother or our neighbor’s child. Divine Law, given by God in order for us to understand justice, differentiates between murder and unintentional manslaughter. It is not justice to kill a person for manslaughter, it is revenge. We start to see how difficult it is for us to observe perfect grace in human affairs. Human justice must only look at the immediate consequences of sin, the temporal result. God never intends for men to do His job for Him. This doesn’t imply that capital punishment is wrong, but that God expects us to preserve life whenever possible. Divine Law sets the limits for how we respond to the sins of others. It is God’s job to punish sin. It is to Him we are accountable. Sin is destructive and devastating to everything God has created and there is just one penalty. Perfect grace is Jesus discharging our indebtedness for sin, by taking our sins away from us and nailing them to the cross (††). This is the only case in human history where we can observe perfect grace, because Jesus is the only one with authority to forgive sin. He is God incarnate, against whom sin is an offense.

In hind-sight, I can see that the father-son relationship is not a works-based relationship. The process of being trained to make correct choices did sometimes appear to suggest a works-based relationship. My dad did seem to withdraw his love when I defied him. His affection always returned after a time, but to a child, it could certainly appear to be linked to behavior. However, in order to draw this conclusion, I would have to completely ignore my own inside information about being a father. I know from having to discipline my own children that my love for them remains even when they defy me. I am not always popular as the disciplinarian in my house. At times, my children will avoid me, hide from me, run from me, or say they hate me. When I don’t give them their way, or when they have done something they should not have done, I can expect this behavior from the younger ones. My four year old has a nasty temper. I discipline him anyway, because I love him and because I must teach him to make right choices. That’s a father’s job. Over time, he will learn that withdrawing his affection, whenever he is angry, does not make me love him less. It might get him an extra whoopin, but that’s the love of a father.

In my relationship with God, I have avoided Him, tried to hide from Him, I’ve run from Him, and even said that I hated Him—-for the same reasons that my children do. I wanted my way, and didn’t enjoy being disciplined. So far, he has not withdrawn His love from me. He continues to discipline me for wrong choices. That is very comforting to me. I have yielded myself to the fact that He knows better than I do.

Hebrews 12:5-11

And have you completely forgotten this word of encouragement that addresses you as a father addresses his son? It says,

“My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline,
and do not lose heart when he rebukes you,
because the Lord disciplines the one he loves,
and he chastens everyone he accepts as his son.”

Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as his children. For what children are not disciplined by their father? If you are not disciplined—and everyone undergoes discipline—then you are not legitimate, not true sons and daughters at all. Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of spirits and live! They disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, in order that we may share in his holiness. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.

Having this understanding of a grace-based relationship with God provides the foundation for understanding all truth. That’s it for this installment. Next I will discuss foundations in more detail and will answer the question NEGATIONofP was asking in the masturbation debate.

Reference Links:

* This installment was edited down and a quote from Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis was taken out. The substance was retained.
Matthew 7:7-12, Luke 11:11-13, James 1:5
†† Colossians 2:14, 1 Peter 2:24

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Debate 6: Moral Law

It would be premature to launch into the topic of a grace-based relationship without first giving support to the notion that God is a person capable of relationship. So far, I have operated from the viewpoint that the concessions made by the atheist in the masturbation debate were genuine. He said something to this effect: “let’s assume everything you [Christian theist] believe is true. It does not help your argument [that existence of sin does not disqualify faith in God] but hurts it.” At this point, we really must consider the facts behind what is being discussed. The facts are what C.S. Lewis describes as the Moral Law. NEGATIONofP is essentially using a universally understood truth, which proves the existence of God, in his attempt to disprove God. Kind of ironic, but it is a tactic used by atheists as long as there have been atheists. Since they have no truth to stand on, they often employ ‘bait-and-switch’ in their reasoning. So, before we describe the grace-based relationship in more specific terms, let us first examine the Moral Law and how it gives evidence to a personal God capable of relationship.

First, recognizing the Moral Law brings an honest thinker to accept that there must be some intelligent mind behind it. I’ve touched on Natural Law in previous posts. Natural Law would include laws of physics, laws of biology, and laws of chemistry. We cannot get ourselves within a rock or a pig to determine if there is anything more than Natural Law governing the way they behave in the universe. The only thing we can study from the inside to find this out is man; and after a sincere look at what goes on within man, it turns out that something else does exist. Moral Law conveys an absolute standard. It is no good to call it instinct or merely preference, because the Moral Law often requires that we must choose between competing instincts and act against our preferences. The Moral Law must somehow be above either of those and distinct from them; put there by Somebody (*). For the next part of this, I hope you won’t mind me deferring to someone more skillful. An extended excerpt from C.S. Lewis will bring this point home faster so we can move on. In Mere Christianity (Touchstone Books, 1952), C.S. Lewis writes:

We have two bits of evidence about the Somebody. One is the universe He has made. If we used that as our only clue, then I think we should have to conclude that He was a great artist (for the universe is a very beautiful place), but also that He is quite merciless and no friend to man (for the universe is a very dangerous and terrifying place). The other bit of evidence is the Moral Law which He has put into our minds. And this is a better bit of evidence than the other, because it is inside information. You find out more about God from the Moral Law than from the universe in general just as you find out more about a man by listening to his conversation than by looking at a house he has built. Now, from this second bit of evidence we conclude that the Being behind the universe is intensely interested in right conduct—in fair play, unselfishness, courage, good faith, honesty and truthfulness. In that sense we should agree with the account given by Christianity and some other religions, that God is ‘good’. But do not let us go too fast here. The Moral Law does not give us any grounds for thinking that God is ‘good’ in the sense of being indulgent, or soft, or sympathetic. There is nothing indulgent about the Moral Law. It is as hard as nails. It tells you to do the straight thing and it does not seem to care how painful, or dangerous, or difficult it is to do. If God is like the Moral Law, then He is not soft. It is no use, at this stage, saying that what you mean by a ‘good’ God is a God who can forgive. You are going too quickly. Only a Person can forgive. And we have not yet got as far as a personal God—only as far as a power, behind the Moral Law, and more like a mind than it is like anything else. But it may still be very unlike a Person. If it is pure impersonal mind, there may be no sense in asking it to make allowances for you or let you off, just as there is no sense in asking the multiplication table to let you off when you do your sums wrong. You are bound to get the wrong answer. And it is no use either saying that if there is a God of that sort—an impersonal absolute goodness—then you do not like Him and are not going to bother about Him. For the trouble is that one part of you is on His side and really agrees with His disapproval of human greed and trickery and exploitation. You may want Him to make an exception in your own case, to let you off this one time; but you know at bottom that unless the power behind the world really and unalterably detests that sort of behavior, then He cannot be good. On the other hand, we know that if there does exist an absolute goodness it must hate most of what we do. This is the terrible fix we are in. If the universe is not governed by an absolute goodness, then all our efforts are in the long run hopeless. But if it is, then we are making ourselves enemies to that goodness every day, and are not in the least likely to do any better tomorrow, and so our case is hopeless again. . . . He is our only possible ally, and we have made ourselves His enemies. . . .

Christianity tells people to repent and promises them forgiveness. It therefore has nothing (as far as I know) to say to people who do not know they have done anything to repent of and who do not feel that they need any forgiveness. It is after you have realized that there is a real Moral Law, and a Power behind the law, and that you have broken that law and put yourself wrong with that Power—it is after all this, and not a moment sooner, that Christianity begins to talk. When you know you are sick, you will listen to the doctor. . . . [Christians] offer an explanation of how we got into our present state of both hating goodness and loving it. They offer an explanation of how God can be this impersonal mind at the back of the Moral Law and yet also a Person. They tell you how the demands of this law, which you and I cannot meet, have been met on our behalf, how God Himself becomes a man to save man…

Ok, this brings us to our topic well enough. If you require more argument supporting 1) the absolute standard existing in Moral Law, or 2) an intelligent designer to creation and morality, or 3) why the power behind the universe must be an absolute goodness, that’s fine. You may follow the link above, get a copy of Mr. Lewis’ book, and read it in its entirety. For my purpose, it is enough that you understand the questions that Christianity claims to answer.

In the masturbation debate, if the atheist and the theist were truly beginning from the position that everyone stands condemned by what is clearly observable in human behavior, then they have no points of argument to debate; since the theist in this case is a Christian and that position pretty well describes a fundamental doctrine of Christianity. The obvious fact, however, is the atheist does not consider Moral Law legitimate because it is so often broken. Natural Law, he claims, is never broken. I don’t intend to discuss miracles in this post, but it is plain that an atheist isn’t allowed to believe in miracles. He cannot break Natural Law; therefore, it cannot be broken. A narrow view if ever there was one. But the point he does not wish to dwell on is that Moral Law is observable. Human behavior does leave all men condemned and at odds with the law giver.

NEGATIONofP declares himself to be perfectly moral, having never broken his standard of morality. From his video, we can assume his standard of morality only holds whenever he cannot hide the truth. So it is okay to lie, but not okay to lie to someone who knows you are lying. It is okay to steal, but not okay to steal from someone who knows you are stealing. Or perhaps it depends on the person. If you like the person or want something from them, you don’t lie to them or steal from them unless they will certainly not find out; but if you don’t like them, it is okay even if they know, as long as they never tell someone you like. Or maybe if you want the person to like you, only lie to them or steal from them if they don’t know about it. Whatever! This lands us into a realm of moral relativity, which doesn’t fit the observable reality. It fits the behavior, but not the reality. In reality, we are not observing a strange creature and analyzing behaviors we cannot explain. If we were, we might well come to the conclusion that Moral Law were some such nonsense as all that. But we are studying man, which we know about because we are men. We know that whether someone knows we lied or not, we still believe it wrong to lie. We don’t like being lied to. Even people who lie in order to flatter are held in contempt. We have names like toady, sycophant, brown-nose, and suck-up. All derogatory!

Moral Law is legitimate, observable, and absolute. Humans, unlike rocks or guns, are created as free moral agents. Being free moral agents, we choose to break Moral Law whenever it pleases us to do so. Sometimes we can hide our inequity from each other, which itself is a breach of Moral Law. So far, we have simply explained what we can observe. The uneasiness we feel as a result of breaking the Moral Law is also observable. Only sociopaths and psychopaths fail to show predictable physiological responses to deliberately breaking Moral Law. This is not to say they do not have any, just that we cannot consistently predict what they will be. This observable fact indicates that the Moral Law must ultimately have consequences; a purpose. Moral Law gives us the ability to know that we are broken and have perverted our intended nature. God follows His Moral Law perfectly, just like a rock follows His Natural Law perfectly. It is why Jesus did not transform rocks into bread as Satan tempted Him to do. From bread He brought forth more bread. From fish He brought forth more fish. From water He brought forth wine. From death He brought forth life. All things God does in nature. The purpose of Natural Law is this: it gives us the ability to distinguish supernatural from natural. Without it, we cannot know God—without miracles, Jesus could not have demonstrated that He is who He claims to be.

This leads us to where were going all along: Divine Law — the grace-based relationship. I’ll cover it in the next installment.

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Debate 5: None like God

The Bible contains many Scriptures that convey the fact that there is none like God. For now, we’ll take that at face value. There are also many Scriptures that say what God is like. Rather than delve into them all, for brevity’s sake, I will take the two most common metaphors. The ones most people know. First, God is like a good shepherd. Taking this together with the fact that there are none like God, we can guess that the function of a shepherd only covers a fraction of the attributes commonly associated with the God of the Bible. After all, we know there are shepherds and some quite good at shepherding, but since there is none like God, either they are not as good as God at the task, or the job description of the shepherd is incomplete compared to the reality of God—probably both. The best shepherd that we know cannot claim to have created the flock and the fields and the streams nor can he know every danger or hole or snare that could harm his flock. God does claim to know all this.

Second, God is like a father. Being a father myself, I can comprehend more and illustrate more using this metaphor than the other. Later I will, but here’s what I find: the more I learn about being a father, and the more God reveals to me about Himself, the more truth I find in the Bible’s declaration that He is like a father. I expect it is the same for the shepherd. Nevertheless, we know that the metaphor is only an imperfect representation of the reality. God is perfect and able to encapsulate everything we learn about good fathers and good shepherds. We are not perfect, so no matter how good we become as fathers or shepherds, we will still discern only a fraction of the truth that these metaphors offer. We will never encapsulate God. God is infinitely more complex than we are, so we cannot know God perfectly, the way He knows us. We can only know what He reveals to us. J.I. Packer explains this pretty well in his book, Knowing God (InterVarsity Press, 1973).

Knowing God is a more complex business than knowing another person, just like knowing my neighbor is a more complex business than knowing a house or knowing a book, or a language. The more complex the object, the more complex is the knowing of it. . . . We recognize degrees in our knowledge of our fellow men . . . according to how much, or how little they have opened up to us. . . .Thus, the quality and extent of our knowledge of other people depends more on them than on us. Our knowing them is more directly the result of their allowing us to know them than of our attempting to get to know them.

While I’d like to just plop down a page and a half of text from his book, I will sum up his point with a question. If knowing people well depends on them judging us a worthy confidant as Mr. Packer contends; and if knowing great, important, and influential people delights us as name-droppers everywhere contend; then, how much more should those who know God be delighted that they know Him? I’ll let you think about it. You can find what the Bible says about it here: Jeremiah 9:23-24.

All men can know things about God. Many great truths can be gleaned from His works (creation), or from revelation, (the Bible) but without knowing Jesus, they will only know about God. This is because intimate knowledge of God comes through His Holy Spirit, given to those who have believed Jesus. Without this, men will always see God as they see themselves. Perhaps they will imagine Him a little better than they, or more powerful than they, or older and wiser than they, but more or less the same. They will imagine Him the same way they imagine some great, distant relative (a benevolent grandfather perhaps) or a ruler having absolute power (a good king or even a tyrant).

The application of this to the masturbation debate seems clear enough to me, but you may be wondering exactly how this exposes the error of our hypothetical question about masturbating in front of Barbara. (If you just made a face because you came into this post unaware of its placement in a larger series, follow the navigation links at the bottom of this post to catch up. The question I’m referring to was in part 4.) The answer: a person with no firsthand knowledge of God can only utilize the imperfect metaphors that fit in their mind to formulate theories of God. The more narrow or imperfect the mind, the more narrow or imperfect is the theory. In this case, NEGATIONofP sees God as a person he doesn’t want to disappoint. Let’s say a parent because it goes along with the metaphor described above. We can then assume Barbara is his mother. Disgusting, but here we are. He doesn’t want her to know he is depraved, so he never masturbates in front of her, and to his credit, stops masturbating every time she comes in the room—reasonable enough. To his sophomoric brain, this is proof positive that all people will always stop doing a thing they believe is wrong, whenever their mom walks in the room. Now, presto-chango, substitute God for mom, what do you get? Nobody actually believes in God. If they did, they would never masturbate because God is in every room – even the shower!

I’m aware that every person must go through sophomore year if they intend to graduate, and the only stupid question is the one not asked. But this is somewhat ridiculous. I hope no one considers the ridiculous nature of the scenario as just my way of insulting NEGATIONofP. That isn’t my intention. If you watched the masturbation debate on YouTube, you’ll know this scenario was fairly close to the scenario in his video. It betrays two things about him. One: he doesn’t know much about God, and two: he thinks his parents/friends/loved ones are idiots. Mom washes the towels. She knows!

I love my children. I want them to respect me and love me. In spite of this, I do things in front of them that I should not do. Sometimes, I lose my temper and get angry at little things. I raise my voice. Sometimes, I discipline them when I should listen to them. And when I’m tired, I tend to let them go a little wild when I should discipline them. I’ve lied to them, broken promises to them. I’m not a perfect father by any standard, but no matter how angry or how disappointed I am with their behavior, there is nothing they could do to make me love them less. I will do everything in my limited power to correct them and steer them in the right direction, but ultimately, my job will come to an end and they will be sinners, just like me. After my best effort, grace will still be their best hope.

That’s it for today. Next, I’ll cover the grace-based relationship in more detail.

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Debate 4: Disturbing Passions

As the title above suggests, this is part of a series; and, in my last post, I mentioned that it may be wise to watch the debate that prompted all this before continuing. To start, I will stop calling it the-debate-that-prompted-all-this. It definitely needs a new name. For the remainder of this series, we’ll call it “the masturbation debate,” although it bears another title on YouTube.

Amazing Christian Apologist Destroys Atheist In Debate (YouTube, posted Dec 17, 2012 by Athanasius TV).

So, in the masturbation debate we have an atheist, NEGATIONofP, contending with a theist, Jason Burns, that he has developed an absolute proof, in the form of a video, that all people of faith are shams. Earlier, I said the original title was misleading— that all the two managed to do was bamboozle me into watching an ill-conceived video, but after last night, I’m not certain of that. The theist actually had the atheist concede that all Scripture—what is written in the Bible—is true; and he articulated his point, if not amazingly, then at least convincingly. He never really followed up his point, which is only to say, fashioned it into a spear, destroying the atheist’s faulty logic and exposing the atheist’s disingenuous concessions; but I only expected that because of the original title.

Before I go into more detail, perhaps we need to revisit what happened last night to alter my opinion. I remembered something relevant that didn’t seem applicable to the masturbation debate before last night. I promise it will tie back to the masturbation debate and the topic of this installment. For now, just humor me. Last night, I was up late watching TV—Spike. I watched an episode of Ink Masters, followed by two episodes of Tattoo Nightmares, then Tattoo Rescue. On Ink Masters, they were doing a competition of anatomically correct tattoos. I began to entertain the notion that I should get an anatomically correct tattoo. They looked pretty cool. Then after Tattoo Nightmares, where they deal with covering up bad tattoos, I began to wonder what I might get to cover the tattoo on my arm. Then after Tattoo Rescue, I thought the tattoo industry is hot right now; maybe I should open a tattoo shop. Forget that I don’t really care to get a new tattoo. Forget that I still like the tattoo on my arm. Forget that I cannot draw a stick man. Finally, at 1:00 AM, I shut the TV off and went to bed thinking of how great it would be to own a tattoo shop and get an anatomical tattoo to cover my arm band.

What I remembered: people are impressionable. It seems the more tired they become, the more impressionable they become. Jerry Seinfeld covers this nicely in one of his stand-up routines ending in him buying a Ginsu knife. Whether it is true or not can be examined, but I’m certain you will find, at the very least, that it is mostly true. Meaning, true for some people most of the time, or most people some of the time, but not all people all the time. The marketing industry makes billions every year exploiting our impressionability. In just a few minutes, I’m going to make some of the men reading this lie to his wife, but certainly not all of the men reading this. I’m more interested in determining what makes us impressionable. More than that, I want to show that what makes us impressionable about some things also makes us thick as molasses when it comes to accepting facts. Let’s consider an example.

Consider these facts about men who have a robust sex life, where “robust” is defined as 3 or more times per week: They are 68% less likely to be involved in an accident resulting in serious injury or death. Supporting evidence:
1) They are 25% less likely to take risks where serious injury might occur.
2) They have greater focus and concentration when taking risks.
3) They are 30% more likely to prefer domestic settings where accidents are less common.
In other words, they are happier with their life and take greater care in protecting it.

All of these facts are hogwash of course; made up just now to make a point. When it comes to sex, most men will believe whatever seems to reinforce having more of it. Despite being told these facts are bologna, some men will still keep them in their memory as fact and use them whenever their spouse needs just a little nudge of encouragement. “You don’t want me to die in a horrible accident, do you?” A word of caution though: be sure the answer is “no” before you ask that question.

So, maybe some of us, due to disturbing passions, are preconditioned to accept certain things. Sex sells. It’s a billion dollar principle in marketing. It follows then that we may also be preconditioned to deny or reject certain things. Oftentimes, what is true or false takes a back seat to what supports our passion or what mortifies our passion. Let’s consider another example.

Richard Jeni, in his comedy special: “A Good Catholic Boy,” says it is a proven fact that ninety percent of all men masturbate. The other ten percent have no arms. An avid masturbator might consider it unlikely that ten percent of all men have no arms, in which case, he’d estimate that ninety percent is a little too low. A man who never masturbates might consider this merely hyperbole. They would both laugh hysterically. (Richard Jeni’s delivery is impeccable!) Generally speaking, people have a tendency to believe they are normal and think everyone shares their basic assumptions. Most are reluctant to accept things that cause them to doubt their goodness relative to others. I say this is generally true, not absolutely true. I don’t think I’m normal, I know lots of people consider my beliefs a little weird, and I do not pretend to be a good person. I’m quirky and a little mean.

Another example then— In the Bible, 1 Corinthians 6:12-13, 18-20 says:

“I have the right to do anything,” you say —but not everything is beneficial. “I have the right to do anything” –but I will not be mastered by anything. You say, “Food for the stomach and the stomach for food, and God will destroy them both.” The body, however is not meant for sexual immorality but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. . .Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a person commits are outside the body, but whoever sins sexually, sins against their own body. Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.

An atheist, who is an avid masturbator, may read this Scripture and decide it isn’t for him. It is just another book. He may even determine that it is a hostile book and should be loudly disqualified—excluded from any public forum. He may devote considerable time trying to convince others not to believe it. A Christian reads this and accepts the authority of God regardless of whether he was an avid masturbator. He may only become a reluctant masturbator, or a repentant masturbator. He may even convince himself this isn’t talking about masturbation at all. It may be a difficult truth to accept, but it is not one he can argue against because he has already determined to submit himself to the authority of God—all preexisting passions aside. And the Holy Spirit, who is in every believer, testifies to the truthfulness of Scripture—even those that run contrary to our disturbing passions.

One more example, then we’ll get back to the masturbation debate. 1 Corinthians 6:7-11 says:

The very fact that you have lawsuits among you means you have been completely defeated already. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be cheated? Instead, you yourselves cheat and do wrong, and you do this to your brothers and sisters. Or do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who have sex with men nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

I include this Scripture because in the masturbation debate, lying and stealing were included alongside masturbation as a part of NEGATIONofP’s proof against actual belief in God. It provides ample scope and runs contrary to a number of disturbing passions people may hold; so for now, it can stand and we’ll refer back to it.

NEGATIONofP, the atheist, labors under the assumption that because he believes in gravity, he doesn’t jump from tall buildings or step out of his airplane while it is in the air. In other words, he perfectly obeys the law of gravity. And because he perfectly obeys what he believes, all people perfectly obey what they truly believe. Of course, no mention was made of the people who do jump off tall buildings or the people who do jump from flying airplanes. We can presume they don’t truly believe in gravity. We can also presume that NEGATIONofP has never accidentally fallen down and taken injury — a scraped knee or abrasions on the hands. We should not presume, however, that a disturbing passion is preventing NEGATIONofP from acknowledging what is obvious to his counterpart in the debate.

By now, you’ve watched the debate and know why I’ve renamed it the masturbation debate. The original title, as I saw it, was what you saw up there under the first paragraph of this post–a bit prejudicial. The moderator announced the title/topic to be: “Why do you act the way you do if you believe God is watching?” This is also a little prejudicial. It implies that belief in God immediately nullifies our human failings. The atheist’s argument hinges on this assumption: people do not lie, steal, or masturbate in front of people they want to impress. He asserts this is a universal truth that is perfectly believed and obeyed by everyone. The fact, however, is most people lie in order to conceal unflattering things about themselves or to avoid negative consequences. In other words, they lie to people they want to impress. Also, some people are criminals and want to impress their criminal friends, so they brag about what they have stolen, or commit theft in collaboration with those friends. And let’s be honest, some people masturbate in front of people they want to impress. Stop it, yes they do.

Now, let’s get to the crux of the debate. “Assuming you want a continued relationship with Barbara, if you knew it wouldn’t impress Barbara, but would make her think less of you, would you masturbate in front of Barbara?” NEGATIONofP contends that all people would answer no, hence, all people of faith actually don’t believe in God, or else they would never do anything that would make Him think less of them. Just like the “Where did the dollar go?” puzzle from part 1 of this series, the error is built right into the question and is apt to get missed by someone who shares NEGATIONofP’s disturbing passion.

First, Barbara is not like God. There is none like God. Second, we do not have a works-based relationship with God, but a grace-based relationship. Go back to the passage of Scripture above. We are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus, who was without sin, paid the penalty of our sin on the cross. To an unbeliever, this is foolishness. He cannot grasp the message of the cross, because it is a message of perfect grace. Perfect grace does not depend on our perfection but God’s perfection. God does not think less of us because of our sin. Our sin is revealed to us by God to remind us of our dependence upon Him. Sin is not condemning to a believer but convicting, leading to repentance. Compare this to a father correcting a wayward child. A father does not correct a child he has written off, but one he loves. Sin is destructive. This world is passing away. God is eternal and we are made in His image. Therefore, we will either share in His eternal life or, like fruitless limbs on a tree, we will be cut off and cast away into the fire of eternal torment. Our eternity is assured either way. God did not create some people to be finite and others eternal. I bring all this up because in the masturbation debate, NEGATIONofP accepted that all Scripture is true. That being the case, it would be monumentally rude of me not to ask this question. Since everything written above is true, isn’t the reality of your eternity far more pressing a matter than establishing the fact that people sin? After all, that fact was established in Genesis and confirmed by the entire course of human history.

To accept any of this, we first need to accept that the authority of God is superior to our own authority. Has the Holy Spirit begun to confirm this truth? I cannot confirm it for anyone. I can only testify that I believe. The disturbing passion behind atheism is self-rule. An atheist determines in his heart that there is no God, which makes him a god unto himself—no authority exists beyond his own, and he can establish his own reality, his own truth. Of course, he cannot. He can only look and observe the world as it was created. Perhaps he will accept things he cannot deny, like gravity, as long as it does not impose upon his autonomy. He can learn and do what seems right. He can try to follow a kind of morality, but he will deny that he observes the hand of his Creator, so he will deny absolutes in morality. He will be preconditioned to accept a theory of his origin that does not involve God. He will not accept evidence contradicting this theory, nor will he ever be convinced that the evidence he now has all points to his theory being wrong. He will not accept certain facts. . . not because he cannot, but because he doesn’t want to. His disturbing passion for self-rule trumps fact.

That’s it for today. This entry is way longer than I anticipated. Sorry for that. Next, I will tackle the two truths that blow open the masturbation debate: There is none like God, and the grace-based relationship. Maybe all at once, maybe in separate posts. It will be a shorter post!

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(3) Argument in debate: Experience vs. Authority

Empiricism is the doctrine that all knowledge is derived from sense experience. An authority is an accepted source of information. You can look these up yourself or accept that I have already done so. In either case, you will accept either my authority or the authority of whatever source you use as reference.

When it comes to argument in debate, very few people will fall exclusively into one of these two camps. A person may contend that they prefer empirical evidence over authority; but this often only means they do not recognize your stated authority. They either disagree with whomever you have quoted or they do not consider you an expert and therefore wish to refute your argument without argument. Similarly, those who point to an authority to support their argument but forgo any attempts to carry the argument further either have reached a logical impasse in the argument—where the starting point or underlying assumptions of his opponent precludes further debate—or, is just lazy and wishes to refute your argument without argument. In short, both authority and experience are valid sources for establishing facts and necessary for civilized debate. Any empiricist that denies the validity of authority as a means of determining fact is lying, and any rational person that denies all empirical evidence is not rational at all but a lunatic. The question therefore becomes what limitations exist for each method of establishing facts, and when are they appropriate.

Of course, I don’t expect you to take any of that on my authority. I’m no expert! So before I change the question, we can first challenge the statements put forward. Much can be said about the differences and similarities of rationalism, empiricism, intuitionism, etc. but they are not important. Right now, (because this argument was put forward in the debate) I am concerned with ascertaining facts through experience (relying entirely on our senses) versus accepting stated facts on authority. I maintain that empiricists are liars, when they deny acceptance of stated fact and only accept observed facts as true. Let’s consider an example: Mark is an empiricist. Mark has watched a person get sawed in half, then put back together and emerge completely unharmed. Mark determines this is impossible and decides to disbelieve what his eyes witnessed. Why? He takes it on authority that no person can be sawed in half without injury. He certainly isn’t going around chopping people up to test this empirically. He arrives at the truth through intuition and authority because it is widely held and accepted. I saw David Copperfield make the Statue of Liberty disappear. I took it on authority that mirrors and refraction of light were capable of creating the illusion. I was maybe seven years old. I’d never observed such an illusion before, I didn’t see his mirrors or perceive exactly how the illusion was created, I just accepted that what I saw was impossible and believed my Mom’s explanation. She was a trusted authority.

In a short essay by C.S. Lewis, “Why I Am Not A Pacifist,” he asserts that few people have followed the reasoning behind which even 10 percent of the truths they believe are based. Can I know this to be true empirically? My experience is limited to me. I could ask a handful of people but that isn’t scientific enough to consider as empirical evidence. Ultimately, I determine whether it is true according to my own intuition, and accept on authority that this statement is a fact on which I can base an argument. The same is true of any historical fact and a majority of scientific facts.

I’ll use gravity to further illustrate my point, since it came up in the debate that prompted all this. We believe gravity is a fact. I have fallen and skinned my knee and thus have empirical evidence to it as a fact. I assume you have similar experience with gravity, but the fact that unsupported objects fall is not the only fact we believe about gravity. We believe gravity is consistent enough for us to predict trajectory. We’ve both shot a basketball and we’ve seen that some people are pretty good at making their shots. Here is where empirical evidence stops for many. But this is still not all we believe about gravity. We know that falling objects accelerate at a rate of 9.8 feet per second? Have you ever attempted to measure this? We know that every object has its own terminal velocity derived from its weight and wind resistance? I have not conducted experiments on every object to determine this fact, but you would not argue the fact with me if I utilized it in an argument. If I assert that Fred will suddenly awaken some unknown ability of the brain and begin to fly the moment he reaches his terminal velocity, we might have plenty of things to debate. For instance: A) Fred does not utilize all of his brain or B) such a thing as levitation is possible or C) survival is a catalyst for innovation or D) evolution is not gradual but explosive. These are all areas around which the debate might focus, but terminal velocity or gravity would not be among the things under contention. We would not argue about how high we need to be before dropping Fred from your plane to test the theory. A few calculations will suffice. Not because they are empirically known by us but because we both accept them on authority and our intuition confirms them.

So back to what the question becomes. What limitations exist for each method of establishing facts, and when are they appropriate? The simple answer to the second part of the question is always. Our experience does not occur in a vacuum. It always involves some measure of extrapolation based on facts we accept on authority. As in the example with Mark, we are aware that our senses can be deceived, so all experience gets filtered through the lens of our worldview. What is possible? When you see a UFO, do you think of little green men or weather balloons? It depends on whether your worldview includes the possibility of little green men. As to the part of the question dealing with limitations, the answer is more complex. Sometimes personal passions exist that hinder us from accepting facts no matter how they come to us. When such passions exist, neither authority nor experience is sufficient to alter the facts we will accept. In those cases, argument is impossible.

You can give a man new facts. You can invent a simpler proof, that is, a simpler concatenation of intuitable truths. But when you come to an absolute inability to see any one of the self-evident steps out of which the proof is built, then you can do nothing. . . . . You cannot produce rational intuition by argument, because argument depends upon rational intuition. Proof rests upon the unprovable which has to be just “seen.” Hence faulty intuition is incorrigible. It does not follow that it cannot be trained by practice in attention and in the mortification of disturbing passions, or corrupted by the opposite habits. But it is not amenable to correction by argument.
(C.S Lewis – The Weight of Glory: and other addresses, 1949, pp.66-67)

That’s it for today. If you still haven’t watched the debate that prompted all this, I am linking to it again below. Next we will examine what Lewis describes in the text above as “disturbing passions.” It will most likely make specific reference to the debate, so this may be the last of this series you will want to digest without watching it.

Debate on YouTube, posted Dec 17, 2012 by Athanasius TV

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(2) Why I love a good debate

Ok, so where did the dollar go? I trust no one had to cheat and look up the solution. If you watched the debate, you likely already know my complaint. The fallacy is in the question. If you haven’t watched yet, that’s fine; I do not intend to discuss it straight away. Instead, I am going to address a few things I liked about the debate and debates in general.

Debate on YouTube, posted Dec 17, 2012 by Athanasius TV

In keeping with one of my favorite Scriptures (Philippians 4:8), today we will examine why this debate and consequently, this blog series is not a waste of our time. I also want to thank the participants for putting it out there and for engaging in what I believe is the fundamental proof that God is real and that He has revealed Himself to us through Scripture.

In any argument, where sincerity of purpose exists, knowledge of truth is sought. In my world view, the reality of this world as well as all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge is hidden in Jesus (Colossians 2). He is truth, and people searching for truth will always come full circle to Him no matter where their search begins (Colossians 1:17). So debates, as long as they represent a sincere search for truth, always contain the possibility that God may open spiritual eyes. This is exciting to any believer. There is also the possibility that we may gain deeper understanding of truth as the Holy Spirit determines through His gift of discernment. In any sense, debates are rife with possibility to him that listens. Even if the participants are stubbornly locked into their viewpoints, a hearer can learn much, if not about the actual topic of debate, at least about the worldviews behind the viewpoints.

This is why Christians have to be experienced debaters–master debaters. Because the most convincing part of a debate isn’t the content of your argument, but the content of your character. We already know that the content of our argument will meet resistance. Only the softening of a person’s heart will change that–something we have zero power over. But we can help take down barriers to belief by defending truth in the right way. It is deception we fight against, not people. Be prepared to handle when an argument shifts to a personal attack. That is a normal human response. Be prepared to catch yourself when you begin to make personal attacks. You’re human. Learn to love your enemy and fight the deception.

Scripture is full of warnings about deception. It encourages people to closely scrutinize everything held out to them as truth. Debate is quite biblical in that regard. We are warned in 2 Timothy, chapter 2, not to become mired in pointless debates, but meaningful debate is a healthy sign that God is real and active in the world. A trend away from debates would be more alarming.

In the book, How Now Shall We Live? by Charles Colson and Nancy Pearcey, Chuck Colson writes:

Debate can be unpleasant at times, but it presupposes that there are truths worth defending, ideas worth fighting for. In our postmodernist age, however, your truths are yours, mine are mine, and none are significant enough to get passionate about. And if there is no truth, then we cannot persuade one another by rational arguments. All that’s left is sheer power–which opens the door to a new form of fascism.

This delves a little too sharply into political implications, which I do not intend, but it also illustrates the reason that we mustn’t disengage from one another simply because we disagree. The courtesy and mutual respect displayed in the debate that spurred this series of articles is a wonderful reminder that postmodernism and moral relativity have not gained so much traction that fascism looms inevitably before us.

Next, we’ll examine authority and empiricism as support for arguments in a debate. So, if you still haven’t watched the debate, no worries. We’ll get to specifics later.

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I love a good debate (1)

I love a good debate. I was recently searching YouTube for a specific video I once viewed, not of a debate but of a lecture, when I stumbled across a promising title and clicked it.

Amazing Christian Apologist Destroys Atheist In Debate (YouTube, posted Dec 17, 2012 by Athanasius TV).

The debate runs an hour and 34 minutes, so to say this diverted my research is an understatement. I was completely derailed; mostly because the title is a little misleading. . .another understatement. I’ll briefly outline the debate for your convenience, and although this was not a good debate in the sense that each participant was on point and coherent, (they completely flubbed up a story from 2 Samuel) it is worth a look for a different reason. Chiefly, because I am writing about it and it will help you immensely if you intend to read this series. But also, because the amateurishness of the debate closely matches what you will find in real world encounters between people with drastically different worldviews. It is my humble opinion that all of us should have some real world experience in debate–especially Christians who tend to avoid debate.

Debate Topic: A short video posing a question which attempts to prove that those who claim to have faith in God actually don’t believe in God. The Question: Why do you sin, when you know God is watching, yet don’t sin, when you know a friend or loved one is watching?

Representing Atheist point of view: NEGATIONofP
Position: We’re discussing only the question, not the structure or presentation of the video.

Representing Theist point of view: Jason Burns
Position: You introduced and showed the video, therefore its structure, assumptions, and prejudices are not only fair game, but of critical importance in exposing the errors of your logic.

Moderator: DPRJONES
My assessment of moderator: Clearly not neutral and a little unclear about the full range of the debate topic.

Online Forum: ??? YouTube – Wasn’t clear ???

Summary:
The structure and presentation of the question in the context of the video was so critical to the debate that NEGATIONofP used his initial 20 minutes in the debate to introduce and play the short video, admitting that careful attention was given to its verbiage, but claimed that the structure and presentation was not of critical importance to the question. Attempting to disarm a particular line of attack at the outset, NEGATIONofP stated he didn’t appreciate how earlier critics of his video focused primarily on the structure and presentation rather than the question. Mr. Burns repeatedly asserted the logical errors of the video, only to be chided by his opponent and the moderator that he was averting the question.

Conclusion: The whole thing reminded me of the old mathematical puzzle, “Where did the dollar go?” Unfortunately, the underlying assumptions of the question in the context of the video were never fully addressed, and the question itself was never answered. So in actuality, both sides failed to do anything other than bamboozle me into watching a pretty lame video of some pop-psychology-theory of an atheist/evolutionist, which may have been the whole point.

What I was struck by— even though my suspicion was piqued that this may have been an elaborate way to boost the view count of a poorly conceived video— was the effort both participants made to show respect to each other. There did seem to be genuine frustration and sincere mutual respect. For that reason and that reason alone, I am writing up a blog entry about the random YouTube video I came across while looking for something else. Also because it is summer break, my kids are bothering me, and I was originally looking for a reason to sequester myself in my office for a little while.

I guess if I’m asking you to watch a 94 minute video, I should at least make it a series of blog entries. That said, I’ll leave you today with the above explanation and link to the video, and below an old favorite to refresh your logic circuits. Tomorrow, we’ll see where this takes us.

“Where Did the Dollar Go?”

Three friends eat at a restaurant. The bill is $25. Each friend gives $10 to the waiter, which the waiter gives to the Cashier. The Cashier returns $5 to the Waiter, but unable to split $5 three ways, the Waiter gives the friends one dollar each and keeps 2 dollars as a tip.

They all paid $10 and got $1 back. $10 – $1 = $9
There were three of them. 3 X $9 = $27
So they paid $27 and the waiter kept $2. $27 + $2 = $29
Where did the other dollar go? $30 – $29 = $1

Solution

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Government Welfare Reform: Part One

Is Drug-testing Unconstitutional?

Just a warning, I’m going to use some quotes and cite some references in this post; but that doesn’t make this any less an opinion article. I only hope to express some things I believe are relevant to the topic of Welfare reform. First, the promotion of the general welfare is one of the primary aims of our constitution. It is right there at the top before any article or amendment. It reads:

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America. Preamble to the U.S. Constitution [∞]

The viability of Welfare programs or their usefulness is not in question. The government is clearly authorized by and responsible to its people for providing such programs. Furthermore, I don’t believe poor people are being unfairly or maliciously targeted by any suggested reforms to existing Welfare programs. The question regarding Welfare is how we, through law, can establish an effective means to help the poor in a sustainable way.

“Poor communities are best served when they are empowered to care for themselves. The more they come to rely on government checks the less they learn to rely on their own ability and ingenuity. Our party firmly believes in a safety net. We reject the idea of the safety net becoming a hammock.” Republican Allen West of Florida’s 22nd District [¤]

Government by its definition deals with managing limited resources. It is because our resources are not unlimited, we must concern ourselves with how to make our dollars most effective in their application. We must also consider whether the money we dedicate to a solution does harm, and how we can mitigate that harm through effective controls. But anytime government controls are expanded, there is controversy.

As it is with so many controversial political questions, mandatory drug-testing for Welfare applicants seems to boil down to how we define freedom in this country. We all want the freedom of choice. Whether it is simple choices like choosing what we watch, what we listen to, what we wear; or major choices like how we observe our religion, whether we carry a gun, who we marry, where we live, or whether we have children; the fact is we want our choice to be exempt from any external control. We want freedom from oppression and freedom from injustice. That being said, we instinctively bristle at the word “mandatory” in almost any context. So, when “mandatory drug-testing” is suggested, there’s a part of us that says “I think not,” but let’s consider this a minute. Is the government trying to take away someone’s right to choose, or is it simply providing a means by which it can reasonably expect a responsible choice?

Government Welfare Reform: Part One - Is drug-testing constitutional?

The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act passed in 1996 made unemployment benefits contingent upon an active effort by the able-bodied applicant to obtain a new job. So, in order to receive an unemployment check, you have to commit yourself to finding work. If it can be proven that you are not doing at least that much, you will forfeit your eligibility for government assistance. This preserves the freedom of choice nicely. I can get help from the government, but while I get that help, I have to go out and seek a job. If I want to just sit around and not look for work, I am essentially choosing to stop getting help from the government, or I face possible prosecution for defrauding the government. Attached to this legislation was the 1996 Welfare Reform Act which “authorized – but did not require – states to impose mandatory drug testing as a prerequisite to receiving state welfare assistance.” [§]

It is my belief that drug-testing is never mandatory. Private companies often ask their employees or applicants to provide drug-test results, and employment is contingent upon a “clean” test. A person can refuse to submit to a drug test and thereby make a choice as to whether that job is something they want more than their freedom to use illegal drugs. It works just fine in the private realm since the employer is free to determine for itself what is reasonable as a condition for employment. But does the government have the right to determine for someone what a responsible choice is? Isn’t that what we ask it to do every day by granting it legislative, executive, and judicial powers? We ask it to make laws restricting people from irresponsible choices like assault, murder, and theft. We ask it to find and detain people who make these kinds of irresponsible choices, and we sit as jurors to help it determine guilt and punishment. The government is an extension of the people; so, if we tell the government it is reasonable to expect a person receiving public funds to conform to public laws, then drug-testing would fall under Article I section 8 of the constitution. The part giving us/it the power “to make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers, and all other Powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any Department or Officer thereof.”[∞] After all, everyone retains their freedom to choose.

The primary argument against this seems to be that randomly drug-testing all Welfare recipients is unfair because random drug-tests are not required for all other recipients of public funds like government contractors, students receiving federal aid, or many public service jobs. I agree that drug-testing is underutilized as a means of qualifying for government programs, but I disagree with the reasoning that it is unfair to apply it directly to a program that is being harmed by illegal drug use. If graduation rates for students receiving federal aid are dropping, it would warrant an investigation as to why. If illegal drug use is common among the students that don’t reach graduation, it would make perfect sense to add random drug-testing to the qualification process. We wouldn’t even need to establish a cause and effect relationship. It is reasonable on its face to ask that taxpayer money have strings that cause its recipients to conform to laws bought and paid for by taxpayers.

I call fairness the primary argument because that is the one that has the most teeth in my opinion. Many other arguments are put forth and most detractors stand on the 4th Amendment right protecting against unreasonable searches.

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized. Amendment IV of the U.S. Constitution [∞]

To me, this position is a distortion of the constitution. Applicants are explicitly agreeing to the reasonability of the search upon applying for government assistance because We the People are declaring it reasonable by law. If it’s undesirable or invasive, so be it. Government controlled Welfare is temporary and not meant to be a permanent means of sustenance. The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals disagreed in 2003 when it struck down a drug-testing measure in Michigan designed to screen Welfare applicants. Federal Judge Mary Scriven of Florida recently granted an injunction to a Florida resident on similar grounds, but the major issue appears to be how the law fails to protect test results from being used by law enforcement. [µ]

I don’t fully understand why we expect lawmakers to draft laws that shield people from being prosecuted for illegal activity. If you are robbing a bank and get caught, isn’t it right that you are prosecuted? Similarly, if you are using illegal drugs, and are caught, why should you not be held accountable? Wouldn’t this put more people into rehabilitation programs that could conceivably help the violator? The government isn’t compelling people to take the drug-test. It is simply requiring that they must in order to become eligible for assistance. Here’s how it works. If someone fails or refuses the initial drug-test, they are denied assistance, but can reapply immediately. If after becoming eligible and receiving benefits, a person fails or refuses a randomly administered drug-test, they are denied further assistance and are ineligible from reapplying for one year. Complete a drug course and they can reapply in 6 months. Fail two randomly administered tests and they are ineligible for 3 years. [µ]

The next major objection I’ve come across is this, and I paraphrase. “What will happen to the poor and the children whose parents become ineligible for government assistance because of drug use or addiction? Addiction is a disease, and poor kids shouldn’t suffer because their poor parents are sick.” (Bleeding hearts so full of compassion that they want to save everyone even if they have to spend all your money to do it.) Here is the real tough truth. Governments are not designed, nor are they meant to be driven purely by compassion. That is the specific function of the Church. Jesus, as head of the Church, commands us to make no qualification concerning giving help to widows, orphans, the poor, and the broken. It is curious that the same people clamoring for additional separation between Church and state are the ones that object so heartily to drug-testing people on Welfare. Why is this? They want the government to take on the function of the Church but they also want the government to restrict the Church from functioning.

Now Scripture is called for I think. Isaiah 58:10 tells us, “and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday.” [†] There is no denying that a portion of the population is diabolically opposed to the Church and prefers darkness over light – lies over truth. They wish to stamp out the Church because in the absence of light, darkness can reign. Without truth bearers, they are free to deceive and oppress whom they may. Take a careful look at the history lesson given by Allan West in his congressional speech for black history month and do some research. [¤] It may prove enlightening.

Here’s the truth. The government receives its limited power from people and has limited resources. The Church is funded and empowered by an unlimited God. If an addict offers himself up to the mercy of God, the Church will care for him and his family and will see to it that whatever help is required is offered. The poor are welcomed drunk or high, humble or proud, sincere or false. No one is deserving of the mercy of God, so the Church makes no determination of worth. We trust that God values and loves all who seek his mercy, and His grace is sufficient for the task. Those whose agenda it is to keep an addict in darkness by allowing government programs to enable the broken thus preventing them from turning to a higher power only hinder the healing power of God.

Online Resources:
[†] Isaiah 58
[∞] U.S. Constitution
[¤] View Allen West speech at mrctv.org
[§] ACLU article
[µ] Associated Press, Oct. 25, 2011

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Frustrations of blogging: Jiminy Cricket and spam-bots

Jiminy Cricket! What a nightmare this has turned out to be. No, I’m not terribly old fashioned and swearing. Jiminy Cricket is an actual website I had to visit during the moderation of over 350 comments, most of which were sorted into spam or trash bins. (It was spelled differently and had nothing at all to do with the wonderful character in Walt Disney’s classic cartoons.) If you are a reader of this blog and made a comment that got rejected, I’m sorry. And if one of the comments displayed came not from a reader but a spam-bot, I guess I’ve been had. No biggy though, I consider it my own fault. I installed the anti-spam plug-in Akismet by Automattic way back when I began this blog; but I never activated it because I couldn’t imagine the difficulty in weeding out the junk. Who knew a spam-bot could be flattering?

It’s been a while since I’ve posted an article. This is why: all the encouragement was very discouraging. I suppose tailoring an algorithm to post relevant comments on an actual article is difficult; so, most of the spam-bots attack your “About” page and discuss in general terms the overall look or quality of your website’s content. Needless to say, I just wrote off the whole mess and decided the trial hobby wasn’t worth the trouble. Only recently, my wife suggested I write something for the website, so I decided to plunge in and clean up the mess. As Jiminy Cricket once said, “You buttered your bread, now sleep in it.” What’s left is a handful of comments that were linked to innocuous websites or to none at all.

In the unlikely event some of the comments rejected out of frustration were legitimate, I’ll attempt to address them briefly here.

Look and feel

I use the Wordpress theme “Twenty-Ten” with slight modifications and additions to the source code. I generated all my graphics using Gimp 2.6.7. I do not typically use images to dress up my text because I don’t want to deal with copyright infringements. Also, I don’t want to join a culture where image is everything. Process only with your eyes, and be deceived. That’s a carnival magician. I’m trying to write a blog. I want people to process my writing with their mind and be unencumbered by accompanying images. I’ll consider breaking up large blocks of text in the future, but I’m more concerned that people gain understanding. I’m happy with the overall look and feel of the site and I consider Wordpress and Gimp fantastic resources for bloggers and website administrators.

Content and commentators

I do not mind people using my text in their own personal blog if they back link with mine. I am not currently on twitter and I do not know how to fix a janked-up RSS feed. In the “About” page I mentioned that I enjoy learning about web technologies; I never promised I would have time to learn about web technologies. I welcome opposing views, but do not want to open up the site to guest writers just yet. Comments are a suitable method for sharing your views and contrasting them to mine. I will allow any comment and or back link if it is relevant to the article under which it is submitted and has discussion value. I prefer to read your response to the articles I post and the ideas they cover instead of general observations about my writing style or website layout. I do not consider the “About” page of my site an article or post. Please submit your comment on the article that prompted it. I do not have a guestbook.

Moving forward

For now, I have activated a new plug-in called Picatcha by Picatcha, Inc. to limit the amount of spam this site receives. We shall see how well it works. I’m optimistic that it is the best and most convenient way to skirt the annoying and frustrating spam-bots. If you have difficulty leaving a comment because of this addition, your difficulty is insignificant compared to the frustration of wading through a sea of spam. I trust you can deal with it and I hope this does not deter you from reading or sharing your comments with me and other readers. I find the Picatcha method far less problematic than the squiggly and obscured letters of the simple Catcha method. In the end though, your frustration, however great, is preferable to mine.

Jiminy Cricket in Fun & Fancy Free (1947)

“Don’t cross a bridge or peak `round the corner until you’re there. Just learn to smile, and in a while, you’ll find trouble’s a bubble of air.”

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Just a thought

This is my first blog post where I’m not coming to the keyboard with a bee in my bonnet over something. No specific topic or thing to address, just a train of thought that hasn’t been derailed despite my best efforts. I have tried… I am trying still. Bear with me.

When I first left home at 18 and moved into a college dorm, my mother and father taught me ways to discern between clean and unclean. Specifically, while visiting, they showed me signs that my sweaty practice clothes had become something a little more than funky. They explained the dangers of mildew and mold, reminded me to always wear my flip-flops to the shower, lectured me in that annoying way parents have, and extracted a promise from me to do laundry on a more regular basis. My dad even forked over a handful of quarters that he just happened to have in his pocket. I probably rolled my eyes, shrugged my shoulders, and nodded—accepting the quarters. I don’t remember thinking this then, but deep down, I knew they did this because they loved me. Fast-forward to today.

First, some background. 1) my church is doing a read-the-Bible challenge and 2) we have just closed the book of Leviticus. Praise God! I have read Leviticus before; but I don’t recall ever being this bored, so I either skimmed it or just plain skipped vast sections of the book. That bit over bodily discharges for instance. Yawn. Together with the final chapters of Exodus and parts of Ezekiel, the book of Leviticus is remarkable for its ability to induce yawns. It is crazy boring. Before there was Valium, there was Leviticus. In fact, Leviticus makes me wonder why there was ever a need for Valium…or pillows. Reading from certain parts of the Bible often reminds me of some of the more absurd lectures of my youth. Like the one about sweaty clothes sitting too long in a laundry basket. But just like then, between yawns, shrugs, and some rolling of the eyes, I am reminded of the great love prompting the message. I rarely appreciate it until the chapter or book is closed, but so too with life.

Do you know how surprised I was to see God’s plan for mold and mildew in my NIV text? How did I ever miss that? Actually, I know exactly how I missed it. My first time to read the Bible was in the NKJV, and it uses “plague” in Leviticus chapters 13 and 14 instead of mold or mildew. Nothing causes the eye to skip quite like the word “plague” in a Biblical context. It’s like a deep scratch on a CD (DISK ERROR: UNABLE TO READ). But seeing God’s instruction to the Levites interpreted as it is in my NIV Bible makes me wonder why I don’t hear more about it. There really ought to be a sermon devoted to nothing else.

“For God so loved the world…”—everyone knows this New Testament Scripture—“…He gave His only begotten Son…” Awesome gift, thanks for that. But where do I find Old Testament proof of His love and my standing as His child? Yeah, yeah, that thing in Egypt was cool, but I’ve heard it argued that He did that primarily for Himself. Where else?

Hmm, Leviticus? Well, it isn’t sexy, but yep, that definitely fits my understanding of parental love. If it does not fit yours, then you probably never had to follow rules that seemed, at the time, to do nothing but make things harder than they had to be. In which case, I am sorry for you. Not every expression of love is exciting. Sometimes it will bore you to tears and take you years to appreciate. Even omitting the special acknowledgement of the bald and balding (Lev 13:40-41), which I am loath to omit mind (notice it has just been included, therefore omission now is impossible), the book of Leviticus will still preach. This message should begin, “For God so loved His children…”

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New anti-drug campaign

I recently read an article on msnbc.com titled, “Shocking mug shots reveal toll of drug abuse” by Linda Carroll. The article describes a new anti-drug campaign presented by the sheriff’s department of Multnomah County, Oregon, in which mug shots of repeat drug offenders are collected and displayed in pairs. Each pair displays the first arrest mug shot alongside the latest arrest mug shot. The result is jarring. In most pairings, just a few years have elapsed between pictures, yet in several cases the two images are hardly recognizable as the same person. The premise, obviously, is that making these available to teens and pre-teens will help prevent or at least delay their first experience with illicit drugs. It reminds me of the frying egg visual of the 1980’s—“your brain on drugs.”

My initial reaction is skepticism. Although I was a D.A.R.E. child, I withstood the scare tactics of the 1980’s & 1990’s war-on-drugs and made bad decisions in spite of the dangers. I was a risk-taker who disliked second-hand information; just like many kids today. I made plenty of mistakes. Fortunately, I received a healthy dose of Scripture in my very early years, so I had a reliable filter for all that first-hand information to pass through. Even though early exposure to Jesus didn’t keep me from making mistakes, it did protect me from the addictive power of every illicit drug described in this article. I do not intend to discuss addictive behavior or personality types here, but instead wish to bring another point into the light.

Nothing new under the sun

My skepticism represents disapproval at promoting vanity as a solution. Is it wise to tell young people, “Don’t do drugs because it will make you ugly,” as though being pretty were the primary reason for abstaining from illegal drug use? Does this mean the already ugly people of this world have nothing to lose in taking illegal drugs? I felt the same way about the brain-on-drugs ad campaign, when I was younger. It almost invited the dim witted, “go ahead, what can it hurt!” It bothers me when solutions are put forward that do not actually address the problems. In this instance, the shock of seeing real people ravaged by drug abuse may be effective for deterring some—just as it was effective for some to see the twisted metal and blood-splattered pavement in the shock videos of Driver’s Ed.—but appealing to pride and self love is a dangerous precedent to set, regardless of the short-term effectiveness.

“There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves … proud … without self-control … lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God” (2 Timothy 3:1-4).

The older I get, the more I am inclined to trust Scripture. “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness.”a Instead of proclaiming the consequences of illegal drug use in yet another way, why don’t we begin to address the feelings of emptiness and boredom that lead our children into first time drug use? “What is crooked cannot be straightened; what is lacking cannot be counted.”b This Scripture is a harsh description of the human condition; but it is truth. The conscience testifies to its veracity. The human condition is wretched in its separateness from God. Yet, to find redemption in Christ, each of us must not only recognize but admit to our own wretchedness. Not easy when American culture has been feeding everyone with the nonsense that “you are special just the way you are.” For the past two decades, our culture has dangerously confused sin with enjoyment and touted self love as a panacea. Here’s a question: If improved self-esteem could deliver us from emptiness and boredom, why are anti-depressants so heavily used today? Why is abuse of legal and illegal drugs so prevalent? Here’s the answer: Because we are not created to esteem ourselves highly, but Him who created us.c

Only Jesus and His work on the cross have meaning. His death and resurrection made the way for us to pass from spiritual death into life. Without Him there can be no lasting joy, peace, hope, or love. With Him, comes freedom from the sin that separates us from God. This message will invite criticism. Well, it probably won’t here as my audience is mostly limited to Kingdom-minded people; but, it certainly was criticized in the discussion page of the article. Two people mentioned the truth of God’s love as a means to break the grip of drug addiction, but were quickly and harshly ridiculed as simpletons. “The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.”d Admittedly, I did not read all 1328 comments. I opened the discussion and searched for the keywords ‘Jesus’ and ‘God’ … I recommend you do likewise to avoid the nonsense.e

As for the new anti-drug campaign: I applaud the public servants of Multnomah County, Oregon for seeing a problem and choosing to try something—even if it’s misguided. If it turns back even one child from experimenting with methamphetamine or cocaine or heroin or LSD or marijuana or ecstasy or whatever new designer drug hits the street, it will not be a total loss. As for those who are perishing: “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose” (Jim Elliot).

NOTES
a: 2 Timothy 3:16
b: Ecclesiastes 1:15
c: Romans 12:3-4
d: 1 Corinthians 1:18
e: 2 Timothy 2:16, 23

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Feeling underappreciated

If you feel unappreciated in something, fight the temptation to do more. You may think you can win someone’s approval or affections through an extra effort. This is a surefire way to make yourself a neurotic mess. And if you are prone to buying attention with more flash, or affection with more gifts; it will also make you broke. This path leads to burn-out.

Also, fight the temptation to do less. It may occur to you that if you just stop doing all the things that go unnoticed, people will finally begin to see and appreciate your work. This is also a mistake. This path leads to isolation and despair.

The world tells you to do more; it wants to overwhelm and frustrate. Spite (rationale of the flesh) tells you to do less; it wants to isolate. What does God say?

Ephesians 6:7 – Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not people (NIV)

It is encouraging to remember that we should not desire anyone’s approval but God’s. Placing our emotional well-being into the hands of people is foolish. Only God is capable of providing unconditional love. He is the source. For this reason, any lifestyle centered on pleasing people can only end in disappointment. People are emotional and emotions are fickle. God is unchanging. So, “commit your works to the Lord, and your thoughts will be established” (Prov. 16:3 – NKJV). Whenever our efforts go unnoticed by the people we think should notice them, we can rightly remind ourselves that we weren’t doing it for them anyway.

Extra thoughts for married people

One complication to this is for married people. First, I say it is a complication, but only insomuch as it invites greater responsibility. It is a great mercy we can rest confident in the fact that God is faithful; therefore, we know true humility and obedience to God is always rewarded. We also know from 1 Cor. 7:28 “…those who marry will face many troubles in this life…” each of them opportunities for God to stretch our capacity to love. The Scripture below is one of many that serve to remind us marriage is a unique and holy matrimony, which requires some extra instruction.

1 Corinthians 7:33-34 – But a married man is concerned about … how he can please his wife … a married woman is concerned about … how she can please her husband. (NIV)

In Ephesians 5:22-33, married people get a reminder of why we cannot just disregard the emotions of our partner, regardless of how fickle they appear to be at times. It goes back to that whole “one flesh” principle God laid out for us in Genesis 2:24. So, while we should guard ourselves from becoming emotionally dependent on anything but God, we should always nurture and defend the emotional well-being of our partner.

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Brief word on karma

I have heard professing Christians speak of karma as if it were not in opposition to faith in a sovereign God.  I want to shed some light on this.  Karma is a religious concept of several Eastern religions that claim moral cause-and-effect is the natural order of things.  Some of these religions incorporate a supreme being to administer karma; others see it as an entirely natural phenomenon. The point is karma assumes the visible change in circumstance in a person’s life is the direct result of some good or bad deed they performed earlier or in a past life.

Christians should immediately see the error of this belief.  In Exodus 33:19, God tells us “I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.”  In Ecclesiastes and Job, we see that sometimes the wicked prosper and the righteous suffer; both will come before God to give account.  Jesus also said, “He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous (Mat. 5:45). How does this square with the unreliable notion that “what goes around comes around”? It does not.  Karma is just a desecrated form of the spiritual law “you reap what you sow.”

Most disturbing is the spirit in which karma is usually discussed by Christians: the spirit of vengeful retribution—a decidedly unChristian attitude.  Looking back just one verse in Matthew 5:44, we are taught to “love [our] enemies and pray for those who persecute [us],” because ultimately, we are all created in God’s image.  The only difference between any of us is some of us know Him and some still do not. You cannot display the love of Christ while hoping for karma to drop a whammy on their unhappy soul.

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Brief word on prayer

Reading God’s Word every day is good. When we do this, God can fill our mind with truth. It is important to have in our memory a record of God’s great promises and faithfulness.  Do not neglect submitting your mind to God for a time each day; because truth, when applied, can help correct us when we are in error; call us back from the brink of despair; or keep us from compounding our mistakes. 

Prayer, though, is how we submit our heart. The heart is where Christ dwells, where the Holy Spirit speaks, where God measures our every motive.  No amount of head knowledge can absolve a man from refusing to give his heart to God.  So, pray continually.  Let God have time with your heart each morning, all throughout your day, and again each night. 

After all, the heart is His creation.  People don’t really know what to do with it anyway.  Proverbs 4:23 tells us the best thing we can do with it is guard it.  Genesis 8:21 tells us “every inclination of the human heart is evil from childhood” but in Ezekiel 36:26, God promises to provide us a new heart.  All we have to do is accept His covenant through Jesus and submit our heart.  Only through prayer is this possible.  We are saved by prayer, we are strengthened by prayer, and we are sanctified by prayer.  Do not underestimate its power or importance.

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