Just For The Hell Of It

It's an amazing thing that our Creator does. He lets us choose to be apart from Him for all of eternity. He actually gives us what we want rather than forcing His will on us. It's the kind of tolerance that atheists rave about.

“Go to hell; see if I care.”

Well, not exactly. Jesus has done everything possible to make sure you don't have to endure eternity without Him. In fact, if you choose to go to hell, you're going to have to step over Jesus' dead body in order to get there.

We are profoundly spiritual beings. We are created to be in a healed and forgiven relationship with our Creator, made in His image, made to love Him and to be loved by Him. We are made to spend eternity in His presence, but some simply don't want that. They don't want anything to do with Jesus now or ever. They see Him as a monster.

Atheists have been given the right to choose, and they'll be damned if they're going to miss the opportunity to reject the God they don't believe in. 

They take their right to choose to do wrong. 

They rage at His justice for punishing sin and evil and 

They rage at the injustice of His Grace which forgives sinners of their evil.

It really does take a fool to reject one's Creator in order to rage at the freedom He gives to live apart from Him for eternity.

No Option But To Bomb Syria

If the United States went to war when it knew there weren't any weapons of mass destruction – It must go to war when it knows there are weapons of mass destruction.

It's simple logic

If the United States wants the world to know that it will use nuclear weapons when it's vital interests are threatened – It must use nuclear weapons when it's vital interests are not threatened.

Philosophy To The Rescue

I had done a series not too long ago called Atheists Save The World – I think. One part contained a post saying that science could not heal what is wrong with human nature. Surprisingly this atheist guy that drops by from time to time admitted that science doesn't have the ability to cure the human condition – i.e. Science cannot remove our corrupt self-love and self-obsession. That's more than most atheists are willing to admit. Most think along the lines of Richard Lewontin who said, “Only science is rational. Science is the only begetter of truth.”

This, even though:

. Science can't tell us why kindness is better than cruelty - yet we still believe it to be true

. Science can't tell us how or why the laws of mathematics and logic and morality came to exist - but we still live as though they do exist.

. Science can't explain or prove metaphysical truths like -

- there are minds other than my own

- the external world is real

- the external world didn't begin to exist ten minutes ago appearing as aged.

. Science can't prove or disprove ethical beliefs such as whether the Nazis or Joseph Kony did anything evil – yet we believe they did.

. Science can't prove one way or the other on aesthetic judgements such beauty and goodness - yet we all live as though we know the answer.

. Science itself can't be justified by the scientific method of enquiry.

. Science is incapable of establishing that all truths about the universe are discoverable by the scientific method.

. Science can't explain why in the world we would evolve the capacity to examine and understand our universe, the origin of stars, or the mathematical uniformity of our universe, since none of these are needed for our survival. Natural selection, we're told involves no fluff. Nothing exists, atheists tell us unless it aides our survival. So what's up with all this supposedly superfluous knowledge?

Science certainly can't tell us the answer.

As I said, the atheist agrees that science can make our lives physically easier but the root cause of our troubles is beyond science. Sadly the atheist moves right along to Philosophy as our Saviour. This, even though human philosophy is as deeply flawed as the human condition itself. When atheists bring their world-view to philosophy, it causes atheists to think that moral, logical, scientific, or mathematical truths / laws do not exist apart from our noetic activity. This is the same activity that atheists rely on to tell themselves that humans are born good.

In order to think that we are good, they ignore the fact that we know objective morals, obligations and duties exist and we know it absolutely when someone does something wrong to us. We don't have to ponder for even one second whether what we're experiencing is culturally or socially formed. And we certainly feel no compulsion to let the aggressor off the hook because atheists tell us that “determinism” was at work. The victim appeals to, and the perpetrator claims ignorance of the same objective moral law that transcends them both.

This right and wrong is not something we have to be taught. We know it instinctively. Even children as young as a year old have been observed in clinical studies to react negatively when they see something unfair taking place to other adults or children. No one has to teach a small child to hide behind h/her back a cookie that was not supposed to be taken. No one has to teach a child to hit the other toddler who “stole” a toy.

Now, Jesus teaches that we are conceived with a sinful nature while atheists say that we're born good. In atheist-world, it's not humans who corrupt the institution. Rather it's the institution that corrupts the human. Contrary to this atheist belief, much if not most of what parenting involves is squashing the child's tendency toward physical and emotional violence and encouraging the child to behave in a consistently respectful manner toward others. We have to teach our children correct behaviour because we are not born good.

Atheists appeal to reason / philosophy as our salvation, yet:

. Reason itself is not a reliable way to know right or good.

. Reason doesn't free us of prejudice.

. Reason doesn't free us from cruelty.

. Reason is a calculative function of the brain that is pulled this way and that by our pre conceived world-view.

. Reason is hampered by the fact that some (atheists) deprive themselves of access to the “whole truth” which exists a priori:

- In the spiritual realm,

- In the Person of Jesus the Christ, and

- Which is revealed to us by interpenetration of the Spiritual realm with the material realm.

Don't get me wrong, our God given ability to reason is a wonderful thing. Yet it remains hobbled, crippled until our spiritual eyes have been opened.

Atheists cling to the Enlightenment which was nothing more than the idolatry of reason and which led to the worst horrors of modern history. All because atheists sought to replace God with human reason.

We're off to the Canadian Rockies so I won't post again till some time in September. 

Zechariah 8:16,17 - These are the things you are to do: Speak the truth to each other, and render true and sound judgement in your courts; do not plot evil against your neighbour and do not love to swear falsely. I hate all this declares the Lord

Which Saviour Do You Rely On?

In Jesus' parable of the lost son, or prodigal son, the younger son rejected the Father openly and carelessly. The elder son, on the other hand, lost the Father through wrong headed obedience.

I see clients like this all the time. The obey God, not to know Him, to love Him, to become like Him or to delight in His love. They obey God to coerce Him to keep His end of the bargain that they invented, i.e. They obey God in order to “force” Him to be good to them.

These people obey God to put Him in their debt and get control over Him. Instead of relying on God's goodness and grace and mercy, just as pagans and atheists, these religious people seek to become their own Saviours.

Some people determine to be their own saviour. They break God's laws at will and set their own moral course. Others, many who consider themselves to be Christians, determine to be their own saviour by keeping all the moral laws of God in order to force Him to save them out of some sense of obligation.

Both ways set us apart from Jesus in efforts of futility and gross disrespect.

Numbers 15:15 - The community is to have the same rules for you and for the alien living among you; this is a lasting ordinance for the generations to come. You and the alien shall be the same before the LORD. 

When Will This Happen?

That was the question asked by Jesus’ disciples. “What will be the sign of your coming and the end of the age?” Jesus spoke about this at length, but broadly speaking He kept His comments to four main categories:

. Religious apostasy - “Christian” churches will be teaching things directly in opposition to the teachings of Jesus.

. Persecution of the Christian Church along with the spreading of the Gospel of Jesus throughout the world.

. Continual conflict and wars around the world.

. Disturbances in the natural order; unnatural weather, earthquakes and strange ocean currents.

Paul speaks of an increased love of self and a lack of love for others as another indication of Christ’s impending arrival. Anti social and anti family attitudes will be ubiquitous. There will be much spirituality but little love for or adherence to Jesus' teaching.

We're also told that we can know Jesus arrival is just around the corner because, “People will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, they will gather around themselves teachers who tell them exactly what they want to hear.”

We're told that there will be a mass exodus from the Church that coincides with a huge rise in atheism that is matched by a huge rise in homosexuality.

With sardonic wit, Jesus points out that many can predict the weather by interpreting atmospheric signs but they can not predict His coming by watching the fulfilment of prophetic signs.

‘Be prepared. I will come suddenly, in the blink of an eye.’