What Is Happening in Our Culture? Fear (part 2)

(Rev. Dr. Curtis I. Crenshaw, ThD)

(No Copyright)

Lately, I’ve had friends and relatives express great fear over what is happening to the culture of our country, the USA. They take a very pessimistic view of events, especially in the last few years. They betray great fear that we are doomed, and seem to have given up hope. I hope, by the Triune God’s grace, to dispel much of this fear. Most people don’t know what it means to be really, really fearful. I do. There were times in Vietnam that I expected to die, immediately, or soon. I told the Lord on several occasions something like this: “Lord, if my Seargent tells me to expose myself by running in the open from one fox hole to another, I have to do it. It is Your job to direct the outcome, whether life, death, or maimed, preferably not maimed.” At times, I was so scared that if I had had anything in my stomach, it would have come out. In other words, there is a natural fear we all have of dire circumstances. This is not what the Lord Jesus meant when He told His disciples not to fear. Indeed,

And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell (Matt. 10:28 NKJ).

The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge, But fools despise wisdom and instruction (Prov. 1:7 NKJ). (One who is not fearful of God Almighty is not brave; he is a fool.)

“The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom; A good understanding have all those who do His commandments; His praise endures forever” (Psalm 111:10 NKJ).

⁵ While he was still speaking, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them; and suddenly a voice came out of the cloud, saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear Him!” ⁶ And when the disciples heard it, they fell on their faces and were greatly afraid. ⁷ But Jesus came and touched them and said, “Arise, and do not be afraid” (Matt. 17:5-7 NKJ)

This is the Transfiguration of Jesus on the mountain top. When He shown with the brightness of the sun, they were naturally fearful—as you and I would be! Indeed, after the resurrection whenever the Lord Jesus appeared to people, their natural response was fear! One great problem (among a hundred more) I have with the Word-Faith movement is the cavalier relationship they claim to have with Jesus after His resurrection. For example, Kenneth Hagin claims that he was watching TV when there was a knock at his house door. When he went to the door, Jesus was standing there asking to come in. He did, and they watched TV for a while and had a discussion about miracles. Jesus allegedly said, “I’m going to give you a formula that whatever anyone wants (not “needs”) from me, if he’ll do these five things (or four, memory getting old), he will ALWAYS get what he wants.” If I may be blunt: That is a lot of crap. When people saw Jesus after His resurrection, they were filled with fear, raw, unadulterated, knee-knocking fear.

Recall the Apostle Paul on the Damascus road when Jesus appeared to him as pure light (Acts 9:4-9; 22:6-15; 26:12-16), and Paul was blinded for several days. Likewise, when heavenly angels appeared to those in Holy Scripture, they were very fearful (Luke 1:10-13), and when Jesus did appear to His disciples in the enclosed room He immediately said “Peace be with you” (John 20:19). I could go on, but the point I’m making is that we are to fear God, not humans, and not even Satan or demons.

Put yourself in the upper room. Jesus suddenly appears. Will you give Him a high-five, shake His hand, or fall at His feet and call Him Lord? Fear and respect go together. The way to eliminate fear is by perfect love:

“There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love” (1 Jn. 4:18 ESV). If you’ve had a divorce, you know the truth of this verse. Broken love smothers one with fear, fear of the future, fear of one’s ability to love, fear in raising kids, fear of pursuing another relationship, and so on.

And the guards shook for fear of him, and became like dead men. ⁵ But the angel answered and said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified” (Matt. 28:4 NKJ).

But what I’m driving at indirectly is that the One we fear is God, not so much humans. Recall David who went out to meet Goliah. He did not express fear but confidence in the LORD His God. That is what we need in times like these. We have ungodly fear of God’s and our enemies. Who do these uncircumcised reprobates think they are in challenging the Most High God the Father and the Most High God the Son and the Most High God the Holy Spirit, one God eternally existing in three equal persons, the same in substance and glory. Now for some encouragement.

Recall what Jesus said about the Church and the kingdom of God.

¹⁵ He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” ¹⁶ Simon Peter answered and said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” ¹⁷ Jesus answered and said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. ¹⁸ And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. ¹⁹ And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” (Matt. 16:14 NKJ)

“Hades” is the kingdom of darkness. “Gates” are the defensive structure to keep the Church out. The image is one where the Church is assaulting Satan’s kingdom, and he is trying to keep us out, which is the fulfillment of Israel attacking the city of Jericho. In both cases, the gates fall, and the Church, under the authority and Crown rights of His sovereign majesty the King of kings, kicks in the gates and takes over by the power of His gospel to change the hearts of people. Do you recall the heretic Rev. Ike? He had a saying he often used in his radio broadcasts: “You can’t lose with the stuff I use, and the stuff I use is mind-power.” Well, we can’t lose with the power of the Gospel. Our problem is not power or weapons or lack of peace; rather, it is fear. But  “God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind” (2 Tim. 1:7 NKJ). What can stop this from happening? Christ is omnipotent. Christ is omnipresent. Christ is omniscient. Who can conquer that? Who can resist Him? Thus, we see that it is infallibly impossible to stop the Church. We have basically two problems: lack of faith and the presence of fear.

Our pessimistic eschatology has frozen us in fear. I don’t suggest you try this, but I live in the country. The closest neighbors are 300 yards behind us, and are very nice people. They love animals and have goats, guineas, turkeys, big dogs, horses, and other mouths to feed. The big dogs came up to the fence and barked like they would eat us alive. One day I tested them by running straight at them. Guess what? They tucked their tails and ran. Likewise, consider the devil:

Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. (James 4:7 NKJ)

I don’t want to underestimate our enemy the devil, but Paul gives us the most detail about confronting the devil and the antichrist than anyone else. Now, have you ever seen a demon? I have, sort of, at least I’ve seen them through humans who were possessed, and I can assure you that it is not a pleasant experience. The last thing I want to do is present myself as an exorcist; that is scary work. But to make a long story short, I was stationed at Ft. Stewart, GA 1969 to finish my last six months in the Army after Vietnam. I got to be very good friends with a man who married a Ruth (like I did) about three months after I did, and he spent most of his life as a missionary to Japan. (I won’t mention names.) We had Bible study one night a week at the chapel on base, and a young man who was going to kill himself came. He said virtually nothing at the weekly Bible study when we got on the topic of demons. Then the following Sunday, after the liberal chaplain preached, my friend and I hung around the chapel talking about the Lord Jesus. Then this young man walked into the chapel, which gave us three people in the chapel. He said: “I was going to kill myself when I came to your Bible study as sort of a last resort because I’ve been talking to someone inside me.” When we began to pray, invoking the name of Jesus, he was thrown on the floor, his eyes rolled back in his head, and a deep voice said, “I’m going to kill you,” saying it several times. After a few minutes, he sat up, his eyes cleared, and he said: “What happened?” I said, “Buddy, you’re in big trouble. You better believe in Jesus quick.” He did, and from that moment he was not only delivered, but his whole countenance radiated Jesus. He led more people to the Lord than all the rest of us combined. “He who is forgiven much loves much.” So what is the point: We need not fear the dark side for Jesus is Lord, right now. Yet there is a scary part of the dark side that is too detailed for a short article like this.

Recall Ephesians 1: (1) The Father chose us before the foundation of the world (Eph. 1:4-6); (2) the Son redeemed us 2,000 years ago (Eph. 1:7-12); and (3) the Holy Spirit sealed us and continues to apply the merits of Christ to us (Eph. 1:13-14). The Father’s work is completed, and He gave the elect to the Son (John 17:6-10) who redeemed them and in turn His work was completed (John 17:6-10; Heb. 1:1-4; 7:25-27; 10:10-14), and now the Holy Spirit sanctifies us by applying the merits of Jesus to us (Phil. 2:12-13; 2 Cor. 4:16-18; Rom. 8:31-39).

Now let us consider the Lord Jesus’ response in His crucifixion. Was He given over to fear, or did He trust the Father? In His high priestly prayer in John 17, we see one who is in control, serene, majestic. When He stands before Pilate, do we see one who is overwhelmed by fear, or terrified to the point that He could not function? Hardly.

 

 

 

What Is Happening in Our Culture? (part 1, random questions)

I have been asked several questions lately (June 2020).

First question: What do I think of the book Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus. I read it several years ago. I thought it was very encouraging to see How King Jesus draws His elect to Himself, and other Moslems have been converted by the book. There is a huge movement of the Holy Spirit in Muslim lands bringing people to Jesus. There are powerful and unusual miracles taking place in those lands. I’m usually skeptical of what we often call sensationalism, but then these are different times. Seeking Allah is an easy read and definitely will increase your faith. Moreover, Seeking Allah demonstrates that King Jesus is the one in charge, and one’s life can have love and peace if he/she bows before Jesus as Lord and asks Him to forgive his/her sins.

Second question: What do I think of disbanding the police. Disbanding the police is insane. Just refresh your memory with Romans 13:1-7:

¹ Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God. ² Therefore whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves. ³ For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to evil. Do you want to be unafraid of the authority? Do what is good, and you will have praise from the same. ⁴ For he is God’s minister to you for good. But if you do evil, be afraid; for he does not bear the sword in vain; for he is God’s minister, an avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil. ⁵ Therefore you must be subject, not only because of wrath but also for conscience’ sake. ⁶ For because of this you also pay taxes, for they are God’s ministers attending continually to this very thing. ⁷ Render therefore to all their due: taxes to whom taxes are due, customs to whom customs, fear to whom fear, honor to whom honor. (Rom. 13:1-7 NKJ)

 

Paul does not say that the ruling authority has to be perfect. One day I’m going to write a short treatise titled The Heresy of Perfectionism. The policemen who did the dastardly deed should be tried in a court of law to see if they are guilty. If so, then they should suffer the same penalty as any other murderer. There should not be a privileged class who either escapes prosecution or receives a light sentence. That is not justice but manipulation, favoritism. I detest that this policeman has already been tried and found guilty in the media because there is a video of what was done. Biblical law, as R. J. Rushdoony was forever reminding us, embraces the process as well as the conclusion. Both are equally righteous. Remember Rodney King who was beaten by the LA cops, and there was also a video. It seemed to be an open and shut case until the broader context was brought in. The COPS were tried and found guilty in the media; and when the not guilty verdicts came out, riots took place. People were not interested in the process, only in the outcome; and when it did not meet their desires, the fed government had to devise a reason to try them again on the federal level. Double jeopardy is not righteous but lynching.

Someone may object: “But suppose a criminal gets away with a crime?” That is infallibly impossible. The sovereign Triune God does not settle all His accounts here and now. That is the reason for the Last Day. Patience is the order of the day. His judgment will be totally just, never favoritism, He has been the eyewitness of all evil, and there is no appeal from His justice. By the way, there is an unpardonable sin: failure to believe in Jesus Christ God’s only Son. If one dies with that sin on his soul, he will perish forever, no exceptions, no excuses. When one closes his eyelids in death with that sin, there is no hope, no possibility to escape, no other humans to fellowship with but solitary confinement as far as one can see. And when one has worn out many ages, he has no less time to suffer under the just wrath of the Almighty Jesus. I’m almost daily reminded—and especially when someone dies—of Matthew 16:26: “For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?” (Matt. 16:26 NKJ)

To disband the police is rebellion against God because it is rebellion against His constituted authority. When Rushdoony heard that we [actually Jesus won] had won our church-state trial in Memphis over the feds, he said, “Well praise the Lord. There is still justice even if against all odds.” (Or something like that). We were the underdogs by a huge margin through the trial (4 ½ months, Monday thru Thursday), but on the last day (! rather symbolic), ALL defendants were found NOT guilty on ALL charges. How sweet it was to beat them at their own game, and despite their lying witnesses, false evidence, and the judge trying the case along with the prosecution, we won EVERYTHING so that all defendants on all charges exonerated forever!

Third question: As for the USA suffering “mass delusion,” absolutely! And it is self-imposed as in self-deception! We are one of the most self-deceived nations on earth and not one in a thousand gets it. Rushdoony got it big time, and he taught us. Sean Hannity not so self-deceived but worse than Limbaugh, and recently Limbaugh is waking up. He is as scared as I’ve ever seen him (Prov 1:7). Of course with his advanced cancer, he is fearing death and fearing the Lord. That is enough to scare anyone, as well as comfort us. Bill O’Reilly is his same arrogant self with his new TV program, over-confident. Glenn Beck is lost as a golf ball in high weeds. He doesn’t get anything. He does not usually see the spiritual forces behind movements, and his Mormonism keeps him from seeing the Gospel. Sometimes he is good at analysis but seldom any good in solutions.

Worse yet are Mark Levin and Ben Shapiro, both insightful, conservative Jews, and both have no time for the self-diluted Jew called Jesus who convinced Himself that He was something when He was nothing. He led His followers to defeat, and the Church today is not the same as the first-century one but has morphed into something weird, they allege. My heart goes out to them, for they think, like Charles Krauthammer the conservative atheist, that politics is the answer. It is not. Politics are the symptom of the problem. Krauthammer was brilliant and was on Fox News every evening as a regular contributor, but was completely blind to the Triune God and His gospel. I heard Krauthammer say several times something like this: “I don’t believe in God, but I’m terrified of Him.” He was the most transparent and honest atheist whom I have observed over the years. I along with the whole Fox network grieved when he died about two years ago. He also wrote a book with short chapters on various topics that is well worth reading. The title is Things That Matter.

The problem today is idolatry and rebellion against His commandments, especially as summarized in the Ten Commandments. We are terrible sinners, beginning with me (and I’m not just saying that to be humble). Jesus, as the second person of the Holy Trinity, became incarnate to live a life of perfect obedience, then died on the Cross for our sins, taking our penalty and raised Himself from the dead. All those who trust in Him receive forgiveness of sins as a free gift. This is the solution and nothing else. Those who trust in Jesus become salt for the culture to preserve it from judgment. Salvation is free. By definition, it cannot be earned, for the one who tries to earn it commits the sins of arrogance and self-righteousness. It is the wicked hearts of rebellious human creatures that is the problem. The solution is in the Nicene Creed that we say each Lord’s Day. Until the hearts of people are changed from the inside out, there is no hope for our culture. The Nicene Creed points to the Triune God, the Holy Trinity: The Father created us, the Son redeemed us, and the Holy Spirit applies the merits of Christ to our souls.

There are other so-called conservative atheists. Tammy Bruce, as late as several nights ago (11 June 2020), who is a Fox News contributor, reminded the viewing audience that she is a lesbian and atheist and lives with her “partner.” I’ve read her book The Death of Right and Wrong: Exposing the Left’s assault on Our Culture and Values, where she laments that her lesbian movement has given up any consistent ethics. Talk about being self-deceived!

Then there is S. E. Cupp, Losing Our Religion: The Liberal Media’s Attack on Christianity. She is married with children but is also an atheist. Both Cupp and Bruce are Fox News contributors. Both Bruce’s and Cupp’s books are well worth reading, but the only way they can critique those with similar world views as themselves (atheistic) is by assuming the truth of Christianity. She may have been reared in a Christian home because her initials stand for S(arah) E(lizabeth). Sarah is in the Old Testament and the New Testament while Elizabeth is only in the New Testament. But the point is that they are both biblical names.

Fourth question: What about finding an island somewhere? This question was asked in jest, but we can say that it did not do Jeffrey Epstein any good. We need to stay in the fight. Epstein tried to hide from his sins, but the slow train of judgment caught up with him.

We must proclaim the light of the gospel, for light dispels darkness. As Plato once said: “We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light.” Why do you think that the radical left becomes so angry when confronted with their sins? It is because they are left naked, and their sins are exposed. The kingdom of darkness thrives on deception, not on transparency. My grandfather used to say, “If you’re honest, you don’t have to remember anything.” I wonder how some of our politicians can keep all their lies organized. Often they don’t. Did you notice recently when Trump’s appointed Chief Justice Roberts to the Supreme Court indicated he might be willing to revisit Roe v. Wade that Chuck Schumer went into a screaming rage? He shouted that Chief Justice Roberts must watch his back! That is a felony, surely. Something may be done about it yet. This is the left’s most sacred sacrament to their god; it is passing their children through the fire to Molech, offering them as a living sacrifice that results in a dead baby. Schumer threatened Roberts with violence. Bet you did not hear that on the news, did you? AMEN.

 

 

Angry Letter About My Same Sex Comments

© November 2019 Rev. Dr. Curtis Crenshaw, ThD

[This Article is longer than usual, and my Sermons on this blog are longer also.]

[This blog is in the form of a response to someone who took issue with my comments made some years ago about same-sex unions. My initials are CC, and for the writer’s initials, who is from Duke University, are OB. My letter was dated 5/7/13. I have not tried to clean up my grammar in this post, but I’ve still made it available.]

CC: Thank you for the reply. Sorry for my delay, but as dean of a seminary and pastor of a church, it is difficult to find the time. I will make some short replies. I’ll number my paragraphs the same as yours.

1. Whether people are happy or not with their transgender sexual operation is irrelevant. The question is whether it is holy, the right thing to do. In my article, I submitted that it was not right.

2. CC: I would like to see the research on some people being one gender in chromosomes and another gender in their genitals. I remain skeptical. As for being prejudiced in not wanting to attend a college where said college is justifying same-sex unions with transgender operations, that is moral discernment. I would not want my kids attending such. Conversely, why aren’t you in a Christian Bible college? You equivocated on my definitional of “prejudice.” I made it clear that prejudice, as used in our society, refers to discrimination based on color, not based on morality. Many black ministers, some of whom were in the Civil Rights movement with Martin Luther King, have reacted strongly against those they say are “high-jacking” (their word) the Civil Rights movement and applying it to LGBT. A large group of black ministers in Memphis, TN took out a full-page ad several times in the local paper in reaction to gays, condemning in clear terms same-gender relationships, saying that did NOT represent the Civil Rights movement.

3. CC: In this paragraph, you said (OB): “Yes having children is impossible at the moment for male to female [transformation]. Yes, they can adopt. To be fair I guess everyone has their own standards on who should be able to adopt a child. I guess I am just silly and weird to want someone who would love the child as if it was their own and bring the child up to be a loving and caring individual who accepts everyone for who they are…. regardless if the person doing the raising of the child is transgender or not.”

In the Triune God We Trust

(Article and picture used by permission.)

(26 July 2018)

R. J. Rushdoony

Theologian, philosopher, writer, dedicated his life to the scriptures. Here is his article from many decades ago:

 

The men of our times have no right to complain of the developing problems and crises of our world. When men trust in civil government rather than in God, they will always get more statist power in their lives and less of God’s power. When men trust in controls rather than freedom, they will get more controls unto slavery and less freedom.

What men trust in becomes the power over their lives, and the god a man worships is known by what a man trusts. Our coins still read, “In God we trust,” but men address their hopes and prayers to the national and state capitols and then wonder why God abandons them.

St. Paul declared, “Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap” (Gal. 6:7). Harvest time is approaching for our age.

Men have sown unbelief, debt-living, a trust in what civil government can do for them rather than faith in God. They have looked to politicians for salvation rather than to Jesus Christ, and they have paid their taxes to the state and neglected their tithes to the Lord. They have given their children everything except godly nurture, and they have been rich to themselves and poor to God. Now, as they begin to see the harvest developing, they ask blindly, “Where did I go wrong?”

They want a harvest of blessings they never sowed for, and they want a Sabbath peace and rest they have always defiled, and they wonder at the results because they are blinded by their sins.

The house without foundations is destined to collapse in the storms of history, whereas the life built upon the rock of ages, Jesus Christ, will emerge secure and strong.

Look to your foundations. What is your life founded on? Where is your trust? Your life depends on it. AMEN.

 

Taken from A Word in Season: Daily Messages on the Faith for All of Life, Vol. 3. Get the complete 7-volume set and SAVE now during our Summer Sale! 15% Off + FREE Shipping (US only).

The Truth of Self-Deception

13 April 2018

(© 2018 Curtis I. Crenshaw)

What is self-deception? For this article, let us say that it is allowing ourselves to be persuaded against the evidence for some point of view. In other words, we don’t want to believe the truth; thus, we manufacture “reasons” against it. We are all guilty of this to some extent.

When we say something negative about some of the pet sins of our culture, we often get screaming back, and screaming without an ounce of logic or evidence of their position on some moral point.

But how does their response demonstrate that they are suppressing the truth and self-deceived? One can recognize this kind of self-deception by its immediate response to the light, for without even considering what the truth is, he rejects it. When someone opposes him, there is immediate suppression of the truth.

When the emotion kicks in, the brain kicks out. The interesting thing is that they do precisely what God said they would do: Hate the light, hate the gospel, hate Christians, and because they cannot harm the Triune God, they seek to harm Christians who represent Him.

Consider several passages on self-deception:

From Romans chapter 1:

• ¹⁸ For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. (Romans 1:18 ESV)
• ²⁰ For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. They are without excuse. ²¹ For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. (Romans 1:20-21 ESV)

From the Gospel of John chapter 3:

• ¹⁹ And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. ²⁰ For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. (John 3:19-20)

Again from 1 John chapter 1:

• If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. (1 John 1:6)
• If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. (1 John 1:8)
• If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us. (1 John 1:10)

Notice the progression downward in these three verses from 1 John chapter 1: v. 6 is deceiving others; v. 8 is deceiving ourselves; and v. 10 is deceiving God, or attempting to do so. God, of course, cannot be deceived. Moreover, notice that they use unrighteousness to push the truth out of their minds. In other words, they immediately hold back righteous thoughts by identification with sin, and then they dare anyone to say anything under penalty of screaming and bearing false witness. It seems to me that what we have in Romans one, John three, and 1 John 1 is self-deception in this form:

• What the heart desires, the will embraces, and the mind justifies

To put this another way, it is not lack of reason that keeps non-Christians from faith—though they claim that—but that their faith (or better, unbelief) leads them to adopt whatever reason works at the moment to promote their agenda. To restate it, their commitment to their sin in the heart means their will has a commitment to that sin, and then they use their minds to justify a position already embraced. It is never the reverse; that is, that the mind leads them to embrace something in the will, and then the will forces the heart to embrace the sin. No, what we see in Romans 1, John 3, and 1 John 1 is that self-deception begins with the sinful heart, with the person’s desires for some sin that God forbids. Then they embrace that sin with a vengeance, they commit to it with their sinful wills, and then, and only then, they seek to justify the sin with the mind, with evidences.

It is not an intellectual problem with unbelievers; it is a moral problem. They embrace some sin and then use the mind to justify the sin. Thus, the nature of their deception is embracing sin with their hearts or sinful natures. Then their will embraces what they desire, and the finally the mind seeks to justify it. We Christians have an enormous responsibility to help them see the wonderful light of Jesus Christ less they perish.

No one fails to become a Christian because he demands more intellectual proof but because he hates the Triune God, hates His righteousness as revealed in His commandments, and wants to practice some sin that the Triune God forbids. Unbelief is never an intellectual problem but a moral problem. The unbeliever uses his intellect as a cover for self-deception; he WANTS sin and HATES righteousness. That is the problem and nothing else. AMEN. Ω

 

Last Time Polyamory, This Time Sologamy

(c) The Very Rev.Dr.  Curtis I. Crenshaw, Th.D.

YOU CAN’T MAKE THIS STUFF UP. Polyamory is two or more in a “committed” relationship. I thought polyamory was far out enough, but I did predict it in my book on the Ten Commandments (NOT Ten Suggestions) as basically group sex. I recently saw on Forensic TV a real case where three young men in their 20s gave rings to one another and vowed to remain true for life to one another. But disobedience to God’s law brings self-destruction. It was not long that one of the male lovers murdered one of the three, and the two who remained broke up. That was not a shock.

As for sologamy, instead of “marrying” two or more, you marry yourself. I’m not joking. It is a movement in Russia, Europe, Japan, and other nut case countries, like the good ole USA. Here is a link to it:

• https://aeon.co/essays/does-self-marriage-challenge-romantic-ideals-or-just-cave-to-them?utm_source=The+Federalist+List&utm_campaign=45387a4522-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2017_10_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_cfcb868ceb-45387a4522-83811853

If you follow the link, you’ll find a woman marrying herself, with 500 people attending. So what will she call herself, “Mrs. Me”? What were the vows like, “I promise to love me in life and in death, in sickness and in health, until I nullify this marriage from me?” Was the “marriage” sealed with “I promise to love the Lord myself with all the narcissism I can muster?” Now this is one marriage I did not anticipate in my book!

Here is a quote from the article in the link above:

At its core, self-marriage is a classic rite of passage with three obligatory stages: separation, liminality and incorporation. The first stage – symbolic death – serves to break all ties that no longer serve you. The second stage is all about ‘discovering’ your new love for yourself, through techniques such as self-addressed love letters and poems. And, finally, the third stage, the big shebang: the wedding ceremony, meant to seal the bond between You and You, through your choice of self-declared vows.

This is the height of narcissism, or the depth. How can there be any legal status to such a “marriage”? “Love” has been completely eviscerated of any meaning, for by definition love is directed to another person. I found this bit of news on the Internet:

• State and Government Recognition. Self-marriages do not require a marriage certificate. This is because self-marriages are not recognized by any states in the United States. . . .  That means that if you are already married to another person, you can still self-marry without implicating anti-bigamy or polygamy laws. Jan 28, 2015

But it gets worse.

Now, some people are marrying their pets! Again, I’m not making this stuff up. As far as I know, you cannot marry your dog or cat in the USA, but you can in Bali. I predicted marriage to pets, group marriage, and even euthanasia for those who for whatever reason cannot cope with life.

In France, one woman was allowed to marry her dead fiance, and they can still do so if it can be proved that they had formally planned for their wedding. There seems to be no end to degeneration. Here is what one wise man said:

John Dryden, the seventeenth century English poet, said:

“For those whom God to ruin has design’d,
He fits for fate, and first destroys their mind.”

Today we might say it this way:

“Those whom God would destroy, He first makes mad.”

AMEN.

 

 

 

 

 

Polyamory or Group Sex

(c) (Curtis Crenshaw, ThD, 2017)

A good friend sent me a link to another notch down into family self-destruction. If you can stomach it, CLICK HERE. The essence of the article is that now a Southern Baptist preacher is recommending polyamory, which “means the practice or condition of participating simultaneously in more than one serious romantic or sexual relationship with the knowledge and consent of all partners.” In other words, group sex, which means more “family” destruction.

This blog is from my book titled NOT Ten Suggestion that came out in 2010. Here is what I said.

Then there are consequences of same sex unions on the family. One is that such unions cannot reproduce, which means that they will pressure others to have children for them or seek to dominate the adoption agencies once these unions are legal. Will affirmative action apply here? Vermont, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Iowa have given gays the right to “marry” so far in early 2009. Will these unions be recognized in the other states?

During the early history of this country, many settlers took their families west to settle. They were often given land by the government. With their families, they reproduced and grew to large numbers; but if they had been same sex “unions,” they would have become extinct.

With heterosexual couples, a new person can be created in the image of both parents. This is one of the most profound acts of love God has given us. With homosexual couples, we only have reciprocal masturbation with no possibility of reproducing. Thus from nature itself we learn that same sex unions are not right since the species cannot be propagated. If all were gay, the human race would become extinct.

Then will male gay couples pay others to have someone’s seed implanted into some woman to have a child for them? Will female gay couples have someone’s seed implanted into them, perhaps simultaneously, to have children, and who will decide what donor’s seed? In either case, if they “divorce,” whose children are they?

Lutzer reports:

Because gay couples cannot produce children on their own, James Skillen of the Center for Public Justice predicts that hopeful parents may seek to rent wombs and deny children to know their biological parents. “It is going to be increasingly possible to produce, buy, and sell children, because in addition to adoption, that is the only way homosexual couples can ‘have’ children.” Whether raised by lesbians or two homosexual men, these children will be denied either a mother or a father.[1]

And if children are adopted, which person will be the mother and which the father? What kind of confusion will that produce when they are shopping at Kroger, and the child in the same sex union sees another child call his female parent “Mom” and his male parent “Dad”? Will he ask his “parents” why he has two men as parents or two moms? Will there be laws made to change the speech to accommodate the gays? George Orwell’s 1984 is here with newspeak. Same sex unions generally seek to erase the distinction between male and female, and that just can’t be done. It is interesting that one of the partners often takes a female or male role, for we cannot live life without assuming God’s categories. Besides the emotional differences, the “plumbing” is different. One cannot permanently alter the definition of marriage as one male and one female, for it not only violates God’s command, but it also violates the way we were created. Once marriage is redefined, other groups will want even looser definitions of marriage, such as group marriages. It is not really new definitions of marriage that is wanted, but the destruction of marriage.

Another argument from nature is that it should be obvious, without getting too graphic, that women are made to receive the male organ whereas men are not. The female vagina receives the male penis, sperm is deposited, egg is fertilized, and in nine months a human baby is born. That is natural and how everyone comes into the world. The anatomical difference and complementary nature of male and female is too obvious to need detailed explanation.

Moreover, we must not think that giving in to homosexuals to marry will appease them. They and others will only demand more liberties. Sin is never satisfied, and the sinner, given what he demands, will only demand more to try to reach the same thrills. (Chamberlain thought he could appease Hitler but only discovered that he demanded even more.) The punishment for deviant behavior is for God to give them over to even more bazaar behavior (Romans 1:24-28). The only way to stop this freefall is to confront them with righteousness, and to press the claims of Christ, His love, and forgiveness on them, for only He can stop the dominoes from falling.

Moreover, these unions do not usually remain monogamous, which can mean the spread of AIDS, and if there are children, they will adopt the same lifestyles. Tammy Bruce, a former gay insider, reports that male homosexuals “have hundreds of sex partners a year while spreading an incurable disease or two.”[2] (Blood banks will not allow male homosexuals to give blood even if they have had only one encounter because of the high risk of diseases.) This adds to the instability of home life for those involved and especially for the innocent children. From rectal and oral sex, there is infectious hepatitis, which increases the risk of liver cancer, fatal rectal cancer, not to mention HIV and AIDS, and a 30 year decrease in life expectancy.[3] “The American Psychiatric Association Press reports that ‘30% of all 20-year old gay men will be HIV positive or dead of AIDS by the time they are age 30.’ ”[4] Add to this the demand that the government pays for all these diseases, and we have an economic meltdown, not only from the medical bills but also from the decreased productivity in the market of those who cannot work, and those who must take care of them.

Moreover, whom will the children “marry”? Where will they find “spouses” since their “parents” cannot reproduce, and others they associate with cannot reproduce? “Love” does not justify these relationships, for love is not subjectively defined, as we saw in Chapter 2, VI, but is defined by God’s law. Will these children adopted by gays want to find out who their natural parents are? Will that be deemed unconstitutional? It irks them that every child that comes into the world is the product of one man and one woman, which is a constant reminder that they are wrong. Will there be a push to have human cloning so gays can have children?

But only one male and one female can reproduce both their images in the new offspring. Cloning one parent will not do so. Adopting will not do so. Planting male sperm into a female egg of a lesbian partner will not do so, for the other “parent” contributed nothing. Only the one impregnated will have a relationship with the “father,” the child being in the image of the donor father and receptor mother, but not the other female partner. The female partner will have no biological relationship at all with the child. Two (or more) males won’t be able to receive any implanting. They will be left to cloning or adopting.

This will be devastating to the children and family as they fight over who has the right to rear the child, to make rules, and when “divorces” inevitably occur, who will have the right to the children? As it stands now, when a man and woman marry, and if one had children before the marriage and the other one did not adopt them, if they divorce, the childless parent does not have the right to visit the child. How will this work out in people of the same sex when males “marry” and one has a child or when lesbians “marry,” and only one gives birth, or “marries” with a child? In all cases, the children will be the victims.

Then there will be a move to legitimize unions between three or more of both sexes, group marriages. Do not think that the radical sexual movement will stop with gay unions of two partners; they want complete sexual anarchy—pan sexuality. Have you heard of LGBT: Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender? The dominoes are falling, and one sin inevitably leads to another; the only way to stop these dominoes is to come to Christ and to His law-word. “Triad” marriages are already being put forward, according to Fox News host Bill O’Reilly. There is no one who has a stop-gap morality by the grace of God and the Gospel to stop the disintegration except Christians.

On a Phil Donahue talk show some years ago, I saw three who were living together, two men, and a woman. The men were homosexuals and the woman a lesbian who had her various partners visit her. But once in a while one of the men would go to the other part of the house to have sex with the woman so they could have a child, which they did, a little girl. They did not care which man was the father. All of them claimed to be her parents. When the audience asked the three what sexual orientation they wanted for their daughter, they all said together, “happy.” That meant she was being taught complete license in her sex life; all options were on the table.

Then it becomes more bizarre with four or five having legal status as a “union.” What happens when one wants to “divorce” the others? Who will pay what, and who will get what children? Then we will have a completely permissive society with God knows how many children who don’t have a clue who their real parents are, and who will be taught that it does not matter. They will truly be the victims. We will be a jungle, mating like animals with no accountability. How can children honor father and mother if they don’t know who they are? With no real commitment to anyone but ourselves, we’ll sink into total narcissism (and are sinking now) and sexual “freedom” (read: “enslavement”) with the motto that “anything goes.” Pedophilia will seem mild.

Such legal group “marriages” will essentially be farms to raise children on, with multiple partners, like farm animals that breed with one another, producing many offspring, but with no direction, no morality. Because we have lost the vertical standard with God, we have lost the ability to define right and wrong between ourselves. As soon as the Triune God is removed as the standard for morality, there is no objective way to define human relationships. There will be no families, just individuals seeking their own interests, not the well being of others in a family. And who in the world will be the in-laws to all these people? Who will be the grandparents? Millions of motherless and fatherless kids will be produced.

Within “families” there will be horrendous confrontation built in between parents, between children, and between parents and children. To make matters worse, a straight couple marry and have their own children. Then one of them leaves the marriage for a person of the same sex, and gets divorced from the original marriage to “marry” the same sex partner. Now who gets the children? Judges’ hands will be tied, for the children, even of an innocent Christian parent, will have to live in a gay situation, or at the least to have visitation rights. The souls of the children will be in jeopardy, for God says that those who practice sinful sex will perish unless they repent (1 Corinthians 6:9-11).

Then the public schools will be full of gay people, and students are already being primed to accept that orientation and to castigate any who disagree, especially Christians. What will this do to those children who come from godly homes, or just from homes who do not want their children exposed to sexual promiscuity? Since God’s Ten Commandments have to be rejected to promote this errant lifestyle, what will this do to the children’s morals in general? As an increasing number of Christians take their children out of such schools to put them in private schools, those who promote such a lifestyle will seek to pass laws to prevent such, or to make it financially difficult, if not impossible. Don’t forget that those who promote such lifestyles are not neutral—they hate those who oppose them, as evidenced by the recent gay riots in California when the gay marriage law did not pass. The anger on their faces said it all.

I just heard on the national news (Fox News April 2009) that some gays are claiming discrimination against Knoxville and Nashville public schools that block students from gay sites on school computers.

The ACLU, in a tersely worded letter, told the schools Wednesday it would sue them if the sites don’t come back online. The blocked sites include the Human Rights Campaign, Marriage Equality USA, the Gay Lesbian Straight Education Network, the Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation and Dignity USA.[5]

Of course, the opponents say they are not in favor of the gay porn sites (for now), just the “regular” gay sites. Is it possible to have a gay site that is not porn? That means that all the kids will have access to such sites, which in turn means more children convinced that God’s morality is obsolete. Indeed, this means gays are targeting our children, right now, using the ACLU to place children into their hands. They must convert others to their cause since they cannot reproduce, and they will go after the most vulnerable of society. Perhaps some of them have no interest in children. Perhaps some of them are very sincere about their relationship with another of the same sex, but as we’ve explained many times in this book, sincerity is not the issue; truth is the issue. Some will resent it, but how is this new pursuit of gay web sites in public schools not some form of pedophilia? Should I not warn regarding the moral safety of our children, as God requires (Ezekiel 33)? Moreover, I’m not aware of any instance of a country giving itself over to a homosexual lifestyle that did not also embrace pedophilia. In other words, they demand complete sexual freedom of every kind, and will stop at nothing to get it. Accepting sinful behavior breaks down barriers, leading them further from the truth, their consciences having become seared (1 Timothy 4:2).

But whose morality is defining porn, and how long will it be before any site will be legally open to public school children because it can’t be defined, or because of alleged free speech? Once the vertical goes, anything goes. Recall what I said in Part 1: once God is removed, morality will be reduced to its lowest common denominator with the government moderating. The dominoes are falling, now. Christians must get their children out of the public schools, and put them in Christian schools, and then monitor them closely, or home school them. Remember that sin does not stand still, but like water it seeks it lowest level.

Then there is GLSEN (Gay Lesbian Straight Education Network) that has a workshop for those ages 14-21 in some public schools to teach children how lesbians have sex, and other practices too awful even to describe in this book.[6] Then President Obama appointed Kevin Jenkins as the Safe School Czar who is the founder of GLSEN. Notice the word “safe,” which is another euphemism.

It gets worse, if possible. Peter Singer has been teaching relativism at Princeton University. He has been hailed as a brilliant scholar. He has written on the positive aspects of bestiality, describing a dog and a human, to which Bruce said “he has made Princeton unsafe both for your child and your beagle.”[7]

How would you like your children taught by people who had been trained by Judith Levine, highly respected in academia, who wrote Harmful to Minors: The Perils of Protecting Children From Sex?[8] Levine has the audacity to state that Christians who protect their children from sex until they are married “are more harmful to minors than sex itself.”[9] Our families are being targeted for destruction, and the public schools are the means to bring this about.

Lutzer reports in his book:

The San Francisco Unified School District has a lesson plan for teaching kindergarteners and first graders about homosexuality. It defines a family as a “unit of two or more persons, related either by birth or by choice, who may or may not live together. . . .”[10]

But with one man and one woman committed to one another for life, they can have their own children; and no one loves children like the original parents, for they are created in the image of both parents, even looking like them. This godly relationship produces stability, security, knowing who they are, who their parents are, and what morality is.

Lord have mercy.

Christ have merch.

Lord have mercy.

AMEN.

 

[1] Erwin W. Lutzer, The Truth about Same-Sex Marriage (Chicago: Moody Press, 2004), p. 62. Emphasis his.

[2] Tammy Bruce, The Death of Right and Wrong (New York: Three Rivers Press, 2003), p. 25. (See my comments on this book in the Bibliography at the end of the book.)

[3] John Stott, Same-Sex Partnerships? (Grand Rapids: Fleming H. Revell, 1998), p. 53.

[4] Stott, Same-Sex Partnerships, p. 63.

[5] From http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2009/04/pro-gay-sites-f.html. Accessed April, 2009.

[6] Tammy Bruce, The Death of Right and Wrong (New York: Three Rivers Press, 2003), p. 104ff.

[7] Bruce, ibid., p. 191.

[8] Bruce, ibid., p. 194.

[9] Bruce, ibid., p. 200-201.

[10] Lutzer, The Truth about Same-Sex Marriage, p. 26.

Self-Deception and Apathy

(© Rev. Dr. Curtis I. Crenshaw, Th.D. September 2017)

From my book titled NOT Ten Suggestions, Chapter One:

“John Dryden, the seventeenth century English poet, said:

For those whom God to ruin has design’d,

He fits for fate, and first destroys their mind.

 

Today we might say it this way: “Those whom God would destroy, He first makes mad.”

 

SELF-DECEPTION

Many liberals today promote their kingdom through deception, by making a career of bearing false witness. They lie like rugs. They think that they can build a kingdom that will last 1,000 years by basing it on deception. Logic: Lying produces a thriving nation while telling the truth is destructive.

They think they can build a strong society by the destruction of its most innocent citizens, babies, murdered in their “safe” wombs of their “caring” mothers. Logic: Killing babies will give us more and better citizens than loving them and caring for them.

They think they can have a thriving economy by stealing from the productive to give to the unproductive. Logic: Stealing is productive while producing is stealing. Of course, we all want to help the poor; that is not the issue. Rather, the issue is what is the best way to help them? Is it by decapitalizing the productive? Is it by destroying those nasty rich people who dare to supply jobs to those who need them?

Many liberals engage in self-deception by thinking that more and more free money will help everyone. Logic: printing unbacked “money” will make us all rich. Answer: You can’t lift yourself up by your bootstraps, your back will break.

Self-destruction is what these people produce. They are blinded to their sins and “open minded” to destruction. Consider these two passages about self-deception:

This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all.

⁶ If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.

⁷ But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.

⁸ If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.

⁹ If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

¹⁰ If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us. (1 John 1:5-10 NKJ)

Notice the progression down: We lie to others (v. 6); we lie to ourselves (v. 8); we lie to God (v. 10). Those who hate God self-destruct. The way out of the spiral down is given in the odd number verses: we look to the blood of Jesus Christ, and we confess our sins to God Almighty, claiming the blood. That is the ONLY way to avoid self-destruction.

Second passage:

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. (Romans 1:18 ESV).

The context of Romans 1:18 is that those who give themselves over to same gender relationships think it is ok and that nothing will go wrong in their lives. Self-deception may be noted when someone refuses to consider opposing arguments. Self-deception may be noted when someone thinks he can oppose God’s morality with impunity. Self-deception may be noted when someone reacts violently to truth without thinking. They believe the lie to Eve that she could violate God’s word without consequences; indeed, she would be better off.

 

APATHY

Christians must minister to those who are caught in the bans of sin, whether sexual sin, illegal drugs, arguing against God and His written word, being mean spirited to others, worshipping their own self-made gods, squandering their time, disobedience to parents, murdering, stealing, bearing false witness, coveting, etc. We too are sinful, and we struggle with various sins, including the ones just mentioned. One difference is that we seek repentance by His grace.

We Christians are told that we need more money. We should not pray, “Our Father who art in heaven, give us this day our daily bread,” but “Our faith who art in control, give us this year, our yearly bread.” With that prayer, we only have to worry about money once a year. We must think bigger than one day. How much faith do you have, anyway?

 

[Parody]

If we Christians would only pray with faith, we could prey on those who take our money from us. Pray then prey is our motto.

When some ignorant people quote St. Paul as saying, “The love of money is the root of all evil,” they did not look at the original gibberish, for it really says “The lack of money is the root of all evil.” Therefore, we must confess verbally, audibly, the true understanding of St. Paul. Moreover, our attitude is seen in the Boomer Bible. Consider this Psong:

Psong 23: Money Matters

1. Money is my thing:

It’s all I want.

2. It makes the grass look greener;

it stills the deepest waters.

3. It restores my self-esteem;

It takes me wherever I want to go,

For my own sake.

4. And even though I have a life-threatening disease,

I won’t be afraid, because I’ll have Money with me;

and the doctor and his staff will do everything possible to comfort me, [for Money, of course].

5. Money keeps bread on the table,

Even though I have enemies;

Money makes me look good, too;

My jar is just overflowing with Money.

 

6. And surely now I’ve figured it out:

Money will follow me all the days of my life;

And no matter what happens,

I’ll be in the Money forever. [So there.]

 

Some silly Christians quote St. James as reportedly saying that “faith without works is dead,” but if they would only consult the Swahili-Antepenult behind the original gibberish, they would see that what James really said was “faith without cash is dead.”

 

[On the serious side]

Now Money is what Christians seek for their security. We do not take seriously Matthew 6:33: “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.” (Matt. 6:33 NKJ)

We want security through money rather than through the Lord. We think we can advance God’s kingdom by hordes of money rather than by holiness. We attend worship when there is nothing else to do. We watch sports rather than read our Bibles. When we occasionally go to church, we want to feel good, not be challenged to fight the world, our flesh, and the devil. The Bible has become a popular self-improvement manual to help us feel good.

We are pathetic because we are apathetic.

One wonders who will be destroyed first, the God-haters or Christians by their “successful” worship, positive books, and creation of their own providence by speaking into the air?

And make no mistake that God Almighty, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, is not one to challenge or to ignore. Those self-deceived challenge Him while we Christians ignore Him. Pick your poison. AMEN. Ω

 

Whose Word Is Law?

(The Rev. Dr. Curtis Crenshaw, Th.D.)

In this day when some churches are turning away from the Bible, it is refreshing to know that many are not. Those who reject the Bible as God’s revelation of Himself to us must have a new concept of God. And where do they get this standard? They must invent it. Often I hear these people say God is like . . ., and they rattle off something. But how do they know God is like whatever they say? And how can we know the details of what God is like unless He tells us? Indeed, how can we know anyone unless that person reveals himself or herself to us?

Many years ago I worked at an investment and insurance firm while I was helping to start a church. The man who hired me claimed to be a Christian, knew the language of Christians, and could pray quite well. (He prayed in order to prey on Christians.) After a short period, I discovered that he was a con man, selling faulty investments to those he could deceive. I and others thought we knew him, but he had not revealed his true self. Likewise, we cannot dream up concepts of God, and say what He is like, for that would be creating a god after our own image. The only way we can know Him is if He reveals Himself to us, and the Bible makes that claim hundreds of times. Of course, in theory the Bible could be wrong in its claim—but that is way beyond this article—but at least we must see that the Church has also presented the Bible as God’s revelation for 2,000 years, and it has challenged anyone to show its errors.

Then there are those who say the Bible is only infallible in theological matters but not in history, science, and so forth. But like those who invent a concept of god, these people transfer infallibility to themselves, for they assume that they can infallibly discern which portions of the Bible are infallible and which are not. In other words, infallibility does not go away; it only gets moved around.

And what does the Bible say about itself? There are two passages in particular that are key in the Bible’s presentation of inspiration. First, is 2 Peter 1:20-21:

²⁰ Knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation, ²¹ for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.”

There are several points here. Peter is emphatic that God is the source of Scripture even while men wrote them. Moreover, God used their human personalities to accomplish an infallible result. In other words, the Bible is both human and divine. Like the Son of God who was both God and man in one person, so the scriptures are both human and divine, yet one, and infallible. Furthermore, Peter says that the scriptures were not “private interpretation,” which means not initiated by men for their own personal doctrines. No, they received them from God Himself. Peter is not saying they were passive pens so that God dictated every word, but that the source was from God. This indicates that the human authors did not originate the message, but rather they were carried along by the Holy Spirit when writing Scripture, receiving the message from Him. They were passive in the message, but active in the writing, using their own vocabulary and personalities.

The second key passage of the Bible regarding its own inspiration is: 2 Timothy 3:16:

All Scripture is given by inspiration of God.”

The word “inspired” means “God-breathed” in the sense that God is the source. It does not carry an active idea so that Scripture is inspiring (though surely it is!) but the passive sense means “inspired,” a body of truth that is fossilized. Nor does it mean “every Scripture inspired by God is . . .” so that there may be some Scripture not inspired by God, as the RSV so wrongly translated some years back. The idea is that every part of the Bible is equally inspired, breathed out from God Almighty, and therefore infallible.

Moreover, Christ agreed that the Bible was infallible when He spoke about the Old Testament.

For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled” (Matt. 5:18).

The word “jot” most likely means “yod,” the smallest Hebrew letter, and “tittle” means part of a Hebrew letter, perhaps the difference between similar letters, like the cross on a vertical line in English that distinguishes the letter “l” from the letter “t”. But the Lord’s view was that Old Testament’s infallibility was clearly down to the very words and letters. Also, in John 10:35, He stated:

The Scripture cannot be broken.

He often rested His final argument on the infallible authority of the Old Testament (see John 5:39; Luke 24:44-45; Matt. 22:29; John 7:19; Matt. 4:1-11).

Let us confess with our Lord Jesus Christ, and with the Church of all ages, that the Bible is God’s gift to us, that we know God because in its pages is revealed this one, Triune God. Let us not seek to invent a god who is more palatable to modern people.

So what are some implications of the Bible being objective and infallible? We must honor it as we honor Him. We must seek its truth with our whole hearts, and delight in obeying His commands. We Christians do not have to wonder what is right and wrong because it is clearly spelled out in Holy Scripture. At one time, our whole culture believed that.

As a man who has been involved with selling and promoting good Christian books virtually all my life, both inside and outside the church, I can tell you what sells. It is not books on God’s commands, such as my 400+ page work on the Ten Commandments. People want health and wealth, not holiness. If you can make people—not God—the center of attention, you will build a large church. I did my ThD thesis on the word-faith movement, and one of the main leaders wrote a little book that sold by the untold thousands, perhaps millions. The title tells it all: How to Write Your Own Ticker with God. He said that Jesus knocked on his door at home, and this “prophet” of God invited Him in. Jesus then allegedly told him four things (or was it five) that anyone can do to get what he wants from God the Father. Where is the Bible in this? Why can’t we just obey God and not worry about how much money we can con out of Him? Why can’t we be content with what He gives us and not complain for more?

Moreover, just as we cannot create physical law into existence, so we cannot create moral law into existence, and to think that we can only reveals that we believe the lie of the devil to Eve:

You shall be as God, knowing [or determining] good and evil (Genesis 3:5).

Since the fall of man into sin in the garden in Eden, man has deceived himself into thinking that he can make up his own ethics without incurring consequences, but the past few thousand years demonstrate otherwise. Nevertheless, he continues his restless pursuit of private morality independent from God, so that he does not have to give account. This is why we find people engaging in rationalizing and self-justification when they are caught doing something wrong; they think they are above judgment, living under the system of morality they allegedly created. Their judgment will be severe. AMEN. Ω

 

Jesus is your superhero (or is He?)

© The Very Rev. Curtis I. Crenshaw, Th.D., 2017

My wife and I were coming home last weekend (June 2017), and we detoured to Hot Springs, AR for a couple of nights. As we left the tourist-busy town, there was a church with these words on their sign:

“Jesus is your superhero, God is your superhero, you are a superhero.”

I just shook my head, and sighed to the Lord how long He will put up with this milkquetoast Christianity in the USA. Look at the words: there are three superheroes: Jesus, God, and you, and would not an unbeliever think all three were on the same level. We have presented a saccharin Christianity, sicky sweet and artificial.

And when we think of a superhero, do we not think of breaking and smashing things, much violence, killing everything in sight with bitter power, having difficulty overcoming, but Jesus was not like that. He could have been, and He did smash things but not in the way we would like to see. He certainly did those things under the old covenant (Old Testament). Yet, in the New Covenant (New Testament), though He healed and raised the deadHis miracles were done to overcome Satan and sin, not Roman armies. He restrained Himself in one sense, though He had resonating power to destroy anything He wanted anytime He wanted.

For example, when Pilate told Jesus that he had the power “to crucify [Him], and power to release [Him]” (John 19:10 NKJ), Jesus’ answer was very telling: “Jesus answered, ‘You could have no power at all against Me unless it had been given you from above.’” (John 19:11 NKJ) Recall what happened when the Roman soldiers went to arrest Him, who was in control?

“Now when He said to them, ‘I AM,’ they drew back and fell to the ground.” (John 18:6 NKJ)

Moreover, as the early fathers often reminded us, at the same time that Jesus was incarnate and healing, sleeping, getting hungry, He was “upholding all things by the word of His power” (Heb. 1:3 NKJ) Do not think for a moment that the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, the Son of God, either gave up being God or gave up the use of His attributes. Either way, that would eclipse the Holy Trinity and destroy who God is. Can you image one person of the Trinity not being able to function as God. That would be incarnation by deicide!

No, the incarnation is by addition, not by subtraction. The Son of God added sinless humanity to Himself, and did not remove either the essence of deity or the functions of deity. For example, in John 1:1 we learn that in the beginning was the Word (eternal existence), the Word was with God (distinct from the Father), and the Word was God (one in essence with the Father). Then in John 1:14 we see that the Word “became flesh,” and there is not a hint of removing His attributes. Indeed, God’s attributes are not like pins in a pin cushion that any member of the Holy Trinity can remove and replace at will. Each attribute contains all the other attributes, for God is one. Remember John 10:30 where Jesus says, “I and the Father are one.” The Jews rightly understood His claim to deity because in the next verse they picked up stones to kill Him for blasphemy. In John 8:58 Jesus claimed to be the I AM, who does not and cannot change. Thus, the incarnation did not change Him, for “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever” (Heb. 13:8).

The Bible is now a popular psychological manual for self-improvement. Many preachers I hear on the radio approach the Bible as one big OUGHT, turning the IS of grace into the OUGHT of obedience for blessing. In other words, if I do the three things (or five things) the preacher says, I’ll be blessed; otherwise, I’ll be defeated. How many times do I hear, “It’s all up to you,” at which point I must be a superhero, or I’ll get nothing.

We want to see Jesus as superhero destroy all those bad people (not us, of course) with some supernatural event so we Christians can be vindicated. I was a defendant (one of 18) in a church-state trial, and as I sat in court for 4 ½ months, 4 to 5 days a week, listening to lies, how often I wanted to call down fire from heaven and yell at my lungs capacity, “Elijah is back!!” But God normally does not work that way.

We hear that the Triune God wants us to be happy all the time, time, time. We are told we are deprived but not depraved.  All of life, ALL of life, is for ME, and God exists to help ME find MY happiness.

What we need is old fashioned preaching where the wrath of God is boomed out, with impending judgment suspended over us like a guillotine held by one thread. Here are verses you rarely if ever hear:

“O let the evil of the wicked come to an end, but establish the righteous; For the righteous God tries the hearts and minds. God is a just judge, And God is angry with the wicked every day” (Ps. 7:9, 11 NKJ)

“The LORD tests the righteous, But the wicked and the one who loves violence His soul hates.” (Ps. 11:5 NKJ)

“He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.” (John 3:36 NKJ) [And that wrath abides, now, as an ongoing matter. One never has a soul to sell, for it always belongs to God or to the devil. At judgment, all hope is gone, FOREVER.]

“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness” (Rom. 1:18 NKJ)

“Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him.” (Rom. 5:9 NKJ)

“Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated.” (Rom. 9:13 NKJ)

“The wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.” (Eph. 5:6 NKJ)

Picture Noah’s ark floating on the turbulent waters with rain coming down in torrents. People are swimming in water, pounding on the doors of the ark to get in. It is too late. God’s judgment has come. On the side of the ark is a large smiley face that says, “Smile, God loves you.” That is where we are today. Too many weak preachers are holding people’s hands saying “There,” “There” while their parishioners go to hell.

So, is Jesus your superhero? No! He is the Lord God omnipotent, and His power and authority go way beyond all things imaginable. He upholds all things by His omnipotent power. He is in all places at the same time (Matt. 28:18-20). He has all knowledge. He can cause destruction and misery in any part of His world at any time, and there is absolutely nothing anyone can do about it. OR, He can cause a good election, or bring people back to the Gospel, or transform a nation to love righteousness and hate iniquity. He is Lord!

Jesus is way beyond superhero status, for He is creator of all that is (John 1:1-3; Heb. 1:1-4; Col. 1:16), the sustainer of all there is (Heb. 1:3; Col. 1:17), and the redeemer of His people.

He is to be worshiped, not slapped on the back as some kind of hero.

AMEN. Ω