Talkin' Lowdown Amarillo, Texas Street Preacher Blues

There's a fella here in Amarillo, Texas whose days are filled with street preaching via megaphone, spewing the basic "everyone but me is going to hell" doctrine of those like Westboro Baptist Church and others cut from their blasphemous cloth. The man's basic message is that, even if you think you're a Christian, and think you're saved, you're actually not a Christian and are going to hell if you've sinned after accepting Christ.
People with this false doctrine build their argument, like any false doctrine, on Scripture misunderstood, twisted, or taken out of context; passages like 1 John 3:6-9, which says, "Whoever abides in Him does not sin. Whoever sins has neither seen Him nor known Him. Little children, let no one deceive you. He who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous. He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil. Whoever has been born of God does not sin, for His seed remains in him; and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God." What the man with the megaphone doesn't realize is that this sin refers to the unrepentant, habitual sin of those with an empty proclamation of Jesus, who attempt to trample on grace, rather than live under it. This doesn't refer to true Christians - and what is a true Christian? A true Christian is not someone who suddenly becomes perfect, but someone who acknowledges that their sin is great, but abides in the truth that the love and grace of Jesus Christ is greater.
Also, Amarillo's megaphone preacher forgets the Holy Spirit's words through John just one chapter earlier: "My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous" (1 John 2:1).

Paul writes to us in the epistle to the Romans that sinning because you're saved, shrugging it off and saying "God will forgive me" is not right: "What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?" (Romans 6:1-2)
So, what is the truth of the matter? Are we literally unable to stumble once saved, our DNA changed as well as our hearts? Does God put us in a moral straight-jacket that makes it impossible to err? Or, has the precious blood of our Savior Jesus also covered the sins and mistakes we make as Christians? To suggest that the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross is good for some of a believer's sins, but somehow becomes ineffective, powerless against those after his or her conversion, is to suggest something as powerful as the blood of our Lord is fickle and limited by a believer's time and circumstance.

In arguing against the belief that true Christians do not sin, I would point to two incidents in the life and ministry of Paul. In the second chapter of Galatians, we read of a dispute between Paul and fellow apostle Peter. Paul describes confronting Peter, and even Barnabas, on a matter of "hypocrisy." This event obviously took place after the resurrection of Jesus, and during the apostles' ministry. So, then, did Peter's stumbling render him unsaved? Not a true Christian? And if so, why would God, sovereign over His word to us, allow two of his epistles to be part of this book we came to call the Bible?

The other example from Paul comes from the second epistle to the Corinthians, where we read of Paul's instructions to the church at Corinth - a church that was often plagued with sin and erroneous ideas about Jesus - concerning a brother who had done wrong and strayed (2 Corinthians 2:5-11). Paul instructs the church there not to shun or ostracize the brother, but to comfort, love, and forgive him. This is just what the Holy Spirit does to each of us when we, like the straying brother at Corinth, wander from God's direction.

Like many people who shout things on the street, I suppose it might be ineffective to confront megaphone man with these truths; for his mind seems made up, and a wall built over his heart. And with such people, the Proverbs give us sound advice: "Go from the presence of a foolish man, when you do not perceive in him the lips of knowledge," and "Though you grind a fool in a mortar with a pestle along with crushed grain, Yet his foolishness will not depart from him."
If you argue with a brick wall, who looks foolish? You, or the brick wall? The Proverbs also tell us, "He who corrects a scoffer gets shame for himself, and he who rebukes a wicked man only harms himself. Do not correct a scoffer, lest he hate you; rebuke a wise man, and he will love you."

But - Jesus tells us "the things which are impossible with men are possible with God." And it is Jesus who took upon Himself the shame and hate of sin - and sinners - on the cross. Before we knew Him, we scoffed at Him, hated Him, scorned Him to shame. But His mercy and grace are unfathomable, as they should be, for they belong to a God who is often so impossible to comprehend, to grasp, to understand. This is why He came to us in the form of that lowly Servant, our ladder to heaven like the one dreamed by Jacob at Bethel.

I won't say this megaphone man gives preachers a bad name - that's impossible, for a true preacher of the word is under the name of Christ. We must pray he receives love from even those at whom he spews the venom of ignorance, and gentle rebuke, done only out love and a desire for him to see how mighty the works of Christ truly are.

That's Not Science - And That's Not Jesus

A few months ago, a friend asked me about my widely criticized, Biblically-influenced, belief that our planet is only several thousand years old, rather than the hundreds of millions of years believed by most scientists (though to be honest, even if one goes by the Bible, he still has no positive idea how old this world is). I didn't want to debate my beliefs, and basically stated that I trust God more than I trust man, and that I believe in the divinity of His word, this Book we came to call the Bible. I don't dispute that my spiritual beliefs are dogmatic - if I believe something to be an absolute truth, such as "2 plus 3 makes 5," I also can't help but be "dogmatic" if I refuse to believe the possible answer could be pi. When pressed further about my beliefs, I pointed out how many times scientists have been wrong over the centuries; for example, many of Aristotle's theories are now known to be butt-over-tea-kettle wrong, and yet he's still lauded as one of the grandfathers of science.

My friend's response was simply, "That wasn't science."

For a while, I thought that to be a silly and dodgy answer. But the more I thought about it, I realized my friend was right. No, Aristotle's misses weren't science. I believe God gave us science to study and better care for our environment, our bodies, and so forth - and being so, I believe true science, much like true religion, holds one true answer to our questions, even if man provides a myriad of blunders to try and explain them.
Man's wrongs don't render science null and void. Even now-defunct scientific theories that were widely held until just the 19th century - the Miasmatic theory of disease, Luminiferous aether, the immovability of Earth's continents, the "static universe" (if I've misspelled Miasmatic or Luminiferous, I apologize) - have been debunked and abandoned in droves, yet that doesn't make science a waste of time. And it didn't negate the many times scientists have been right to be somehow wrong.

Likewise, man's wrongs don't render my God or my faith in Jesus as the Messiah to be useless. The Westboro Baptist Churches, the false doctrines of Mormonism and the Jehovah's Witnesses, and etc., are all against God's words, twisted doctrines that claim Him but are in direct opposition to His truth. Man's lies and evil actions don't render God's truth ineffective. Fred Phelps was to Christianity what Immanuel Velikovsky was to independent theory. The abominable "Phinehas Priesthood" is to Christianity what Cyrus Teed was to...to um, not-getting-electrocuted-and-developing-wildly-inaccurate-theories-about-the-planet.

If a person does something in the name of Christ that is actually against Christ - picketing funerals, condemning someone to hell while frothing at the mouth, banishing someone from attending their church because they've been divorced, etc. - this is not the command or love of Christ. Much like my friend's assertion that it was not "science" to believe the universe to be spherical and finite. Just because I misidentified that obsolete belief with science doesn't make it science.

A disproven theory is not science, much like hypocrisy is not Jesus.

I've always found the Bible to be in harmony with nature and science. Certainly the Bible acknowledges God's creation and sovereignty over these things (Psalm 147:8, Isaiah 5:6, Job chapters 38 and 39), which many dispute. I understand that. But, the Bible doesn't claim that angels dump buckets of water from the sky to make rain - it acknowledges rain as moisture and precipitation descending from clouds (Psalm 147:8, Proverbs 25:14, Ecclesiastes 11:3, etc.). The Bible doesn't claim mischievous sprites make flowers and grass in underground factories - it acknowledges that plants need seeds, rain, soil, and such to grow (Deuteronomy 32:2, Leviticus 26:4, Jesus' parable of the sower in Matthew chapter 13, etc.).
The Bible never described Earth as a flat center of the universe, but a planet suspended in space, when as yet no images from satellites and space stations existed (Job 26:7 - Job is, by the way, widely accepted, even among non-believing scholars, to be among, if not the, oldest recorded book of the Bible).
The Bible never claimed a fixed amount of stars or celestial bodies, as other early astronomers did - God alluded to an uncountable amount of stars when He told Abraham in Genesis 15:5, "'Look now toward heaven, and count the stars if you are able to number them.' And He said to him, 'So shall your descendants be.'"

Likewise, when contrasted with myths, the Bible always makes a distinction between the natural and the Supernatural. Unlike in the myth of Icarus, where it was supposed that men are just somehow able to fly when they strap wax wings to themselves. I once read a Native American legend during which a warrior went to sleep and told his thigh (or in other versions, his excrement) to keep watch and speak to warn him if enemies approached - because apparently that's just how it works.
Not in the Bible. When miraculous and awesome events are described, they're always separated from natural occurrence and attributed to the supernatural work of an omnipotent and all-powerful God. This ranges from Creation to the plagues of Egypt to Jonah surviving in the belly of a large fish, and most importantly, to the Resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ from the dead. It's a Pasteur-like dismissal of spontaneous generation - the Bible teaches that the awesome doesn't "just happen."

Scientists and science may not always, nor have they always been, in harmony. And, those who claim the name of Christ are not in harmony with the truth of the Lord when they blaspheme His name with evil ideas and doctrines.
But truth can never be separated from itself. 

Wolves in Wolves' Clothing: Last Thoughts on Fred Phelps

In 2011, I watched as many condemned other Americans for celebrating the news that Osama bin Laden had been killed.
Now in 2014, I watch as many of those same people celebrate that Fred Phelps, founder of the notoriously anti-gay Westboro Baptist Church in Kansas, died last night.

At first I was irritated by those who scolded the people who rejoiced at bin Laden's death, but they were right. I was glad that a terrorist and enemy to the sanctity of human life had been eliminated, but why should I rejoice that someone is now in hell - the only place where God's love is perpetually absent, and no chance to repent is ever found again? That's what makes it hell, after all.

I'd hesitate to make the blatant assumption that Mr. Phelps did not repent on his deathbed; I hope he did, but I can't prove it. If he didn't, I'm sorry to say I believe he'll be sent to everlasting condemnation on the Day of Judgment. I don't think anyone who unrepentantly does things that mislead people about the doctrine of Christ, about God Himself, enters the kingdom of heaven. And Mr. Phelps, and the hypocrites like him, have driven so many away from the Savior by their hatred.

Fred Phelps' death should rightly only bring Christ's disciples sorrow and a churning in our stomachs. Hopefully, we recognize that churning as the Spirit groaning inside us, convicting us to "do good and put to silence the ignorance of foolish men," as the apostle Peter wrote, so that the illusion of the Great Deceiver, the devil himself, might be shattered, even if that illusion is worked through wolves in sheep's clothing - or in the case of Westboro Baptist Church, wolves in wolves' clothing.
"Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’" -our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Matthew 7:21-23

My Brother Jeffrey Dahmer

A belief, or lack thereof, can't be bolstered by big names. Atheism isn't given merit simply because Ricky Gervais and Seth MacFarlane are atheists; but likewise, I can't make a bigger case for Christianity simply by pointing out that Norm MacDonald and Alice Cooper are Christians. A belief must be judged by its own merits, not by the names - prestigious or otherwise - of those who subscribe to it.

I was thinking about this recently, and the names whose fame - or notoriety - makes no difference because those names are written in the Lamb's Book of Life, and not bolstered or burdened with worldly praise or hatred. "And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away" (Revelation 21:4). Two of the well-known names that came to mind were those of two convicted serial killers, David Berkowitz (the only participant in the "Son of Sam" killings to be caught), and a name reviled even more, Jeffrey Dahmer, who raped and murdered at least seventeen men, and indulged in such things as cannibalism and necrophilia with their remains. Before he was killed in prison in 1994, he accepted Jesus Christ as Lord and repented of evil.
Some may argue that convicts often "find religion" to warrant a release or new trial; David Berkowitz, however, refuses to attend any of his parole hearings, and it's quite illogical to argue that Dahmer professed Jesus in order to look better - no amount of religion or good deeds would have ever seen him released from prison, or gained him one ounce of good favor in the eyes of the public. And Dahmer knew that.

I don't pretend for an instant that Dahmer's salvation lessens the pain of his victims' families on Earth, nor do I pretend that it exonerates him for his gruesome crimes. God will forgive you of any terrible thing done on this earth, but the state will still rightfully sentence you to prison.

But as I said, Dahmer's name came up when I was thinking of "famous Christians," and how I can't sway anyone to believe in the divinity of Christ by dropping names. I even began to think some names would further drive some away from the Gospel - some might ask how God could forgive a deviant, a cannibal, a rapist, a murderer.
Jeffrey Dahmer, as long as he was on this earth, and as long as the record of his awful deeds remains, will always be a monster. I was a monster once too. I don't pretend that my deeds were anything like Dahmer's, but he and I were once both in danger of eternal separation from God's love, had we died unrepentant of our respective evils. Jeffrey Dahmer was a monster indeed, but he became my brother in Christ.

This might draw the ire of the more ravenously skeptical; a serial killer repents and asks forgiveness of an Authority higher than any Wisconsin court, and finds peace in the final years of his life, spent in a cold gray prison. I was asked once, "Are you tellin' me there's a God who will send a cold-blooded murderer to heaven if he repents but He'll send a gay man to hell?!"
No, I don't tell you that for a second. God offers grace and forgiveness to all who accept it through faith in His Son Jesus, who died on the cross for our sins and rose from the dead. He sent Jeffrey Dahmer to heaven not by Dahmer's own works, but because of God's grace. He'll send me to heaven not because of my own works, but in spite of my own works, for most of them on this earth have been bitter and bigoted. I don't recall the Bible describing homosexuality as an unpardonable sin. But any gay man or woman who believes in Jesus as the Son of God and abides in Him will not be cast to hell, despite the ignorance of the signs at Westboro Baptist Church in Kansas.

The unpardonable sin, for which Jesus condemned the Pharisees, cannot be committed today, for those Pharisees are long dead. Indeed some remain in the Pharisaical mindset, but that's another matter. Now, the only unpardonable sin is more of an unpardonable state - dying in the state of unbelief, of denying Jesus as Lord. But if you believe in Him, the atoning power of His blood shed on the cross is by no means nullified or rendered void by the sins forgiven you.

I'm grieved that Jeffrey Dahmer chose to spend his time on Earth doing the atrocious things he did. But I'm glad that when he and I and all other saved persons stand in God's kingdom unashamed, I'll know him not as a deviant and a murderer, and he'll know me not as a racist and a liar. Maybe this famous name does help to bolster Christianity's claims...

"I say to you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents." -our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, as recorded in Luke 15:10