Preoccupation with Revelation

Just the other day, I saw an article in the newspaper about the new "Left Behind" video game. Now, I have to admit that I have not seen this game, much less played it (nor do I really care to), but I was dumbfounded to learn that a key part of the game has players attempt to "convert" the "heathen" or to kill them. Despite the protestations on the part of the game's developer that this killing is self-defense, it does seem mystifying to me that an ostensibly "Christian" game would have contestants killing anyone. What is even more mystifying to me is the fact that people would go so far as to pay good money for this game. Is the preoccupation with the book of Revelation and the end times that strong? (Yesterday, I actually spoke to a man on the phone who chided me for not preaching on Revelation--btw, he was not a member of the congregation! His thinking was that we are living in the last days, when so much of Revelation is being fulfilled before our very eyes, so why wouldn't I be preaching on Revelation. People need to be aware of what's going on, he said.)

Surely, it is a ploy of the devil to get us sidetracked with peripheral and less significant issues like end-times prophecy and the apocalypse so that we overlook the important things like receiving and resting upon Christ alone for our salvation and like keeping His commandments. This is not to suggest that the book of Revelation is not important. It is a part of God's inspired and inerrant Word and, for that reason, is very important. But it is a book that is quite difficult to understand. While it's main point is crystal clear--i.e., Jesus wins in the end!--the particulars of what it says are open to much debate. It is easy to be so preoccupied with deciphering the less clear points of the book of Revelation that we miss the clear points of the gospel.

When I hear so much emphasis on end-times prophecy, I can't help but think of the words of the "men...in white robes" (Acts 1:10-11), who said to the disciples as they were "gazing into heaven" after Jesus had ascended before their eyes: "Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven?" The point seems to be obvious: get on with it. Jesus had just said to these men: "It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth" (Acts 1:7-8). Get on with keeping the Lord's commands, get on with living the Christian life, be concerned with what He has clearly said in His Word rather than with gazing into the heavens and discerning the times or the seasons.

If only the church would heed and understand!

The Christmas spirit

A good friend recently reminded me of the following words in one of my all-time favorite books, Knowing God, by J.I. Packer. I thought I'd heed my friend's example and pass them along to you (see Knowing God, chapter 5, pages 63-4 in my edition). Enjoy!

"We see now what it meant for the Son of God to empty himself and become poor. It meant a laying aside of glory (the real kenosis); a voluntary restraint of power; an acceptance of hardship, isolation, ill-treatment, malice and misunderstanding; finally, a death that involved such agony--spiritual even more than physical--that his mind nearly broke under the prospect of it. (See Lk 12:50 and the Gethsemane story.) It meant love to the uttermost for unlovely human beings, that they through his poverty might become rich. The Christmas message [emphasis added] is that there is hope for a ruined humanity--hope of pardon, hope of peace with God, hope of glory--because at the Father's will Jesus Christ became poor and was born in a stable so that thirty years later he might hang on a cross. It is the most wonderful message that the world has ever heard, or will hear.

"We talk glibly of the 'Christmas spirit,' rarely meaning more by this than sentimental jollity on a family basis. But what we have said makes it clear that the phrase should in fact carry a tremendous weight of meaning. It ought to mean the reproducing in human lives of the temper of him who for our sakes became poor at the first Christmas. And the Christmas spirit itself ought to be the mark of every Christian all the year round.

"It is our shame and disgrace today that so many Christians--I will be more specific: so many of the soundest and most orthodox Christians--go through this world in the spirit of the priest and the Levite in our Lord's parable, seeing human needs all around them, but (after a pious wish, and perhaps a prayer, that God might meet those needs) averting their eyes and passing by on the other side. That is not the Christmas spirit. Nor is it the spirit of those Christians--alas, they are many--whose ambition in life seems limited to building a nice middle-class Christian home, and making nice middle-class Christian friends, and bringing up their children in nice middle-class Christian ways, and who leave the submiddle-class sections of the community, Christian and non-Christian, to get on by themselves.

"The Christmas spirit does not shine out in the Christian snob. For the Christmas spirit is the spirit of those who, like their Master, live their whole lives on the principle of making themselves poor--spending and being spent--to enrich their fellow humans, giving time, trouble, care and concern, to do good to others--and not just their own friends--in whatever way there seems need.

"There are not as many who show this spirit as there should be. If God in mercy revives us, one of the things he will do will be to work more of this spirit in our hearts and lives. If we desire spiritual quickening for ourselves individually, one step we should take is to seek to cultivate this spirit. 'You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich' (2 Cor 8:9). 'Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus' (Phil 2:5). 'I will run the way of thy commandments, when thou shalt enlarge my heart' (Ps 119:32 KJV)."

Convicting words! I pray that this Christmas spirit will shine out in us all, for His glory!

More Thoughts on Islam

Just this morning I came across an old article written by Dr. Ravi Zacharias just after 9/11, entitled "Steadying the Soul While the Heart Is Breaking." I was struck by something he recounts in that article and was reminded of the DVD that I mentioned previously by something else he says. I wanted to share both with you this morning.

Dr. Zacharias recounts the answer given by a Middle Eastern leader to the question, "When will the terrorists killing stop in your part of the world?" The answer: "When they love their children more than they hate us." It's a profoundly insightful reply, isn't it? What does it say about a culture, a religion, that is driven by hate to so completely disregard life, their own and ours? How can the "God" of such a culture or religion be even close to the same God that we worship, the God of the Bible (even if we just look at Genesis 1-16)?

The other comment that Dr. Zacharias makes that so reminds me of the DVD deals with why these terrorists and others like them prey upon the West:

"Distributed liberty will always be vulnerable to the heinous acts of wicked men and women. That, by the way, is the very reason the Christian and the Christian faith will always be vulnerable to abuse by those who seek to attack it. America, which could only have been framed from a Christian worldview, cannot make anti-blasphemy laws, but Muslim nations and states can and do. There is a difference and we had better be absolutely clear about it. The Christian cannot legitimately impose his faith across a land. But at the same time we are given a unique privilege. In America no one need fear preaching the Gospel and inviting men and women to trust in Jesus Christ. The same cannot be said in many Islamic nations today. It is a fundamental difference in our commitment to freedom. The message of the Gospel is not compulsion but freedom. In this lies a crossover between our politics and our faith. Just as the Christian is vulnerable to all kinds of mockery and abuse in the academy and the public square, because there is no compulsion, so also the same possibilities exist for democracy to be abused in a religiously pluralistic society. Is it because democracy and Christianity are identical? Not necessarily. But it is because of a fundamental tenet of self-determination shared by both. With that essential fact, we will always be open to plunder, disrespect, and attack by those who are determined to mock it. It is the price of freedom."

Radical Islam DVD

A friend recently loaned me a DVD of the new movie on radical Islam, Obsession: Radical Islam's War Against the West, and I watched it last night. I must say that I think it was quite sobering, even though many of the things that were said in it were not new to me. Having lived overseas in an international community for three years at the beginning of the Conflict in Iraq, I was exposed to a lot of what the film portrayed. For instance, in the building where I lived, there actually were muslims who ran around outside celebrating and cheering after 9/11, rejoicing that tragedy had struck the U.S.! I was astounded.

In spite of this exposure, much of the film's footage, especially of the violence and hatred spewed forth by the religious leaders (the imams or ayatollah) in religious contexts was shocking. On one occasion, a local ayatollah even pulled out a sword while he was preaching and began waving it about as though he were using it as a weapon to accomplish what he was asking his hearers to do: i.e., kill Americans and other "westerners."

Among the most provocative features of the movie were the links it made between radical Islam and pre-WWII Naziism, on the one hand, and between U.S./Western reaction to Islam and the U.S./Western reaction to pre-WWII Naziism, on the other. Is there a WWIII on the horizon? If history teaches us anything at all, there would certainly seem to be (humanly speaking, that is).

The main difference, of course, between Naziism and radical Islam is that the latter is doing what they are doing according to the "will of God." As these ayatollah spewed forth their lies, encouraging their listeners to kill Americans and westerners (even other muslims who disagree with them), all under the guise of the will of God, I couldn't help but think of what the Bible says about Satan, namely, that "he was a murderer from the beginning" and the "father of lies" (John 8:44) and, yet, masquerades as an angel of light (2 Cor. 11:14). How thankful I am that Jesus Christ, the anticipated seed of the woman, has crushed the head of the serpent once and for all and will, yet, gain the victory! It's only a matter of time.

More of Geneva

Yesterday, I posted some long-awaited photos of Geneva...pictures of St. Peter's and (a sideways picture) of Calvin's Auditorium.

Today, I wanted to post a picture of a small chapel inside St. Peter's that is absolutely beautiful and distinguished by the vivid colors and the motto of the Reformation written across the back wall above the pulpit: "Post tenebras lux" (after darkness, light). This motto also became the motto of the city of Geneva, because of the close identification of Geneva with the Protestant Reformation. Indeed, many today still regard the city of Geneva as the "Protestant Rome."

Enjoy!

Pictures of Geneva and Christmas Cantata

I know I promised some pictures from my trip to Geneva...so, here are a couple of pictures of St. Peter's, where John Calvin preached, and of Calvin's Auditorium (L'Auditoire), where John Knox preached to the English-speaking refugees and where Calvin lectured during the week.

But, what I really want to tell you about is our Christmas program on Sunday. For those of you who missed it, you missed a wonderful service! Tammy and the choir worked extremely hard to pull this together and it paid off. There was one piece in particular, a rendition of the angels singing "Glory to God in the Highest," that was my favorite. The way the choir sang it made me feel like I was there as a witness to the great throng of angels that attended Christ's first advent. And that made me think of the same throng that will attend Christ's second advent. Oh what a day that will be!

If you see Tammy or a member of the choir, thank them for their hard work. And make sure you don't miss next year's service.

Hip Hop and Christianity?

Okay, one more day until I can begin posting pictures of our trip to Geneva and Edinburgh...but, I promise that I'll get there. I just couldn't pass up the chance to post something that may be a little controversial...

Yesterday, Jacob, our ministerial intern, went to the local Youth for Christ meeting here in Gulfport. They brought in a DJ/rapper who is supposed to be a "Christian" DJ/rapper. The flyer advertising this event shows a picture of this guy with silver teeth, silver rings, earrings, bracelets, and necklace (which, in and of themselves, would not in any way preclude his being a Christian), and with his face contorted in a disdainful sort of way.

The picture evinces pure rebellion and anger (which has more to do with the look on this guy's face and his body language than, perhaps, with his jewelry). This is what I (and our ministerial intern) have a problem with. How can an image or genre of music or artist that conveys rebellion and anger call itself/himself/herself a Christian image/music/artist? Rebellion and anger, even if only an act, doesn't comport with Christianity. It is the opposite of the fruit that is supposed to define a Christian. Christianity doesn't send a message of rebellion and hatred. Can something that does call itself "Christian"?

The meeting at school went on to feature lewd and vulgar dancing by the folks who attended (note, this was the appraisal of a 25 year old, not a 60 year old!), although there was a gospel presentation and, from what I hear, two people professed faith in Jesus Christ.

In the end, what did Youth for Christ teach these young people yesterday? Many things perhaps, but they at least taught these young people that Christianity has nothing to do with the way you live or act. They taught them that you can receive Jesus as Savior without ever receiving Him as Lord of your life. They taught them that you can receive Jesus as Savior and ignore His commands. They taught them that you can receive Jesus as Savior and then remain the "Lord" of your own life, by living the way you please. What's more they also taught them a complete disregard for what the Bible says. After all, it was Jesus who said "if you love me, keep my commandments."

Thoughts?

Back at last!

Well, now, it has been a while since last I blogged! We have just returned from two weeks in Geneva, Switzerland, and in Edinburgh, Scotland. My family and I went over for my graduation last week and decided to spend an extra week (Thanksgiving week) touring Calvin's, Knox's, and Beza's old stomping grounds (Geneva). Over the next few days, I'd like to share some photos with you from the trip. But, first, I just had to share something with you:

A friend told me about my friend and mentor Ligon Duncan rapping at a recent Ligonier Conference with his brother John. I thought I'd share the link with you so you can enjoy the moment! Click here to see "Puff Daddy" Duncan and his brother L.L. Cool J[ohn]! If this link does not work, for some reason, go to "you tube" and search on John and Ligon Duncan; that should bring it up (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FfmAksujkGY). Enjoy!

It's good to be back!