"There is No God, Because Bad Things Happen"

It's going to be a long night. There's a dog in the apartment above me whose owner leaves it alone for extended periods of time, leaving it to whine and cry for the entire complex to hear. I'm not the biggest fan of dogs, but I hate to hear or see any animal in pain. It tears me up inside, like some sort of Achilles' heel in my gut. I've left two messages with the apartment office, and I'm calling the Humane Society when they open in the morning.

This lonesome, tearful dog that no one hears led me to think of those among us who dismiss God because bad things happen and no one seems to care. (I'm not addressing those who say there's no God "because science"; I'm a high school dropout Creationist who takes a lot of psychiatric medication; any scientific diatribe on my part would be absurd; I already know that my baking soda volcano could not compete with Bill Nye's; mine would, at best, look like your mom's drunk boyfriend Randy - the one who listens to the Fabulous Thunderbirds, like a lot - helped me make it after a case of Keystone and a big fat joint; so, my surrender to the Richard Dawkinseses of the world is signed immediately.)

Anyway, I suppose it's a bit facetious and crude for me to describe them as "people who don't believe in God 'because bad things happen.'" It would be more apt to say: they don't believe in God because of centuries of barbaric wars that have left countless dead, mutilated, orphaned, and impoverished, because of millions of Jews gassed and incinerated at the orders of deluded madmen, because of teenage Armenian girls crucified in an attack on their race, because of atomic bombs dropped on Japan, because of children slain in cold blood at their schools, because of politicians void of conscience and full of Christian bunkum, because all these horrors go on day after day and no loving god stops it.

A friend of mine, a Christian indeed, expressed to me his temptation to ask "why bother believing in God?" and doing good when faced with all of this seemingly unchecked human carnage and gluttony. I likened it to shining light in a very dark place; a single candle is all the more strangely beautiful when it's the only one that flickers in a blackened room. Society, culture, are too far gone, too sick to someday give birth to peace and harmony. If there is intelligent life on planets other than our own, they've long ago made up their minds to stay far away from us, the only race who has an entire genre of jokes called "dead baby jokes."
My mother's favorite song was "What a Wonderful World." Whoever wrote that song was David Spade levels of sarcastic, because it's a horrible world, and it's a dirty lie to tell people anything different. But, although society is screwed, you and I have responsibilities as individuals to do good. As odd as it sounds, we can have wonderful lives in a horrible world. We have been given a duty to shine light for those who are in too much pain to give a toss about our existential crisis; people who are too hungry, their legs too ridden with Khe Sanh shrapnel, their tent cities taken down by heartless city ordinances, to give a second thought to Nietzsche vs. Lewis. They're too busy throwing up and struggling to breathe.

That's who you and I should be helping. The human race will never turn itself into a legion of light. So you and I have to be the tiny candles in the countless darkened rooms of the world.

It's easy for me to say that in an abstract and broad manner of speaking. But what about when those individuals, those children who could grow up to help just one person, become prey not to the twisted human race, but to one twisted human - who God did not stop?

I can give you the perfect example. This is a true story. It's the worst thing I've ever heard in my life. My head has been buried in books about serial killers, cannibals, wars, plagues, corruption, but somehow, this story tops them all. When I read it, I was completely numbed; I'd never heard anything like it before. Imagine a little girl in 1975. Her name was Suzanne. Her mother's new husband was Franklin Floyd, a career criminal who'd been convicted of child molestation. One day, Floyd disappeared with his four new step-children - Suzanne, her two younger sisters, and an infant brother named Philip. The two sisters were later found to have been dropped off at a church; the fate of the infant Philip remains unknown to this day. Their mother tried to file kidnapping charges, but officials told her that because he was their stepfather, Franklin Floyd had a legal right to take them.
Franklin Floyd and young Suzanne wound up in Oklahoma, Texas, Georgia, and Florida, with Floyd raising her and passing her off as his daughter "Sharon," and sexually abusing her the entire time, even documenting it with photos that were found later. By 1990, Suzanne was going by the alias "Tonya" and, once again relocated, was now being passed off as Floyd's wife, and working as a stripper. She gave birth to a son named Michael. Not long after, she decided to run away with a young man she'd been seeing. But before she could, she was killed, just 21 years old, the victim of an apparent hit-and-run. Floyd was the main suspect; he was also the main suspect in the murder of a coworker of Suzanne's a year earlier.
After Suzanne's murder, Floyd put her son Michael into foster care and fled again. During one family's adoption process, it was determined that Michael was not Floyd's biological son with his stepdaughter. This prevented Floyd from legally reclaiming custody of the child in 1994. So he kidnapped Michael at gunpoint from his school and disappeared with him. The boy's whereabouts, or remains, have never been determined. Floyd has given many different statements as to what happened to the child, though as recently as 2015, he admitted to killing him.

God did not rescue Suzanne, Michael, or Philip.

Franklin Floyd, now 74, is currently on death row in Florida.

If there was ever a story that could make someone question God, to ask Him why, to even demand an answer and accuse God of wrong, as Job did, that's the one.

But first, my question to those whose disbelief and disdain for God is based on the suffering in the world, is: on what are you basing your criteria?
Why is God obligated to rescue from hardship? To whom has He made that promise? Why does the genuineness of His love depend on how much or how little pain He allows you to experience?
If one's perception or idea of God is not based on any specific text or doctrine, then those expectations of God are arbitrary and self-concocted - they mean nothing. They're an incomplete contract, written and agreed upon by only one party. If I decided that you are, because I say so, obligated to give me half of your weekly earnings, and you have not agreed to this, what wrong do you do by withholding money from me? What contract have you broken? What hate have you shown me? What right have I to call you evil, let alone declare you to be non-existent because of rules devised by me and me alone?

But, let's suppose one's ideas of God have been built on the Christian Bible. (I don't speak for any other God - there are a wealth of deities, spirits, constellations, trees, goats, fairies, and dictators worshiped in the world, and they're none of my business. But I do speak for the one true God. "What blithering madman is this who claims to be a spokesman for God?"
"the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy." -Revelation 19:10.
Christians are called to be about our Father's business.)

From the Bible, one can gather no other portrait of life on Earth than that of an ugly, uncaring, unfeeling world where murderers and thieves are rampant, liars who aid them are abundant, and the cries of those who have been hurt by them seem to fall on deaf ears. The very authors of this Book we came to call the Holy Scriptures complained in howls of bone-chilling agony of the very same things of which we complain - we, who declare God to be a myth because none of us is placed in cosmic bubble wrap.
Even if one uses the Bible as evidence against the God it proclaims, our accusations come to nothing and our own words become a snare to our case, for in it we'll not find that God has promised deliverance for every person from every trial; He has not even reserved special exceptions for the most wonderful people from the most gut-wrenching trials.

God has promised us nothing as it relates to deliverance from the never-ending suffering on this planet. He promises us strength and bravery and the guts to love in the midst of such ugliness, but not deliverance. (Though, being that some would attribute faith and hope and love to mere madness and "viruses of the mind," as Dawkins coined, insanity is a deliverance to some extent.)
What kind of pitiful, pathetic existence we would live if we were exempt and immune from the violence and the slander of this world. Life would be an episode of the Teletubbies and God would be an absentee landlord who couldn't care less about the unfolding of the story of His people and His creation. It wouldn't be a story worth telling.
I'd rather be in danger in a real world than catatonic in a fairy tale world. I have more peace knowing I'm prone to murder, to a tire iron striking the back of my skull for the $17 in my wallet, a menial and unimpressive end, than in a life where I don't have to choose love, to choose to do right. What miserable deeds would our "good deeds" be if they were robotic and compulsive, rather than borne of the choice and the struggle to love and overcome hate and the spewing of venom so that light may prevail.

Gloria Copeland (bluh) was in the news recently for claiming, "If you have Jesus, you don't need a flu shot." Mrs. Copeland does not speak a Biblical truth. Contrary to the prosperity peddling of the Joel Osteens of the world, Jesus did not die to keep you free from ailments; He died to give you eternal life that outlasts a fallen world's mortality, to be a Light in you that outshines the darkness that does not comprehend Him. His blood was shed so that we could be made anew and forgiven for the wretched things we do, things that make the world such a dark place, ugly things we choose to do, just like the killers and politicians, and blame them on an absence of God.
God does not promise us carefree or pain-free lives (if that can be called living). Rather, God promises us eternal life through His Son Jesus, who was abandoned on the cross by the same God we accuse of apathy, all to give us life - not mere existence - peace and joy in His life, His suffering, and in His resurrection. And that life outshines all of the darkness of mere existence. 
Life hurts, but it's worth it. Existence is fleeting. Life is eternal.

If all of that truth meets your ire and disgust, then maybe this God isn't the God for you. I know that sounds pessimistic on my part, and I'd give anything for just one person to believe, but what else can I say? Should I blaspheme and make false promises to you on God's behalf of a life of sunsets and puppies? Should I burst out in tears and beg you to believe in Him? Should I stay up nights highlighting the best Ravi Zacharias quotes? Believe me, if I thought it would bring you to Jesus Christ, I'd carve my prayers for you in the skin of my forearms. But I know it wouldn't lead you to believe. Nothing I can do or say can make a believer in Christ. To think such would be vanity and idolatry. That's a matter between you and the Holy Spirit. My raving about darkness and light is to you like Samson dancing blind before the Philistines. God didn't put me here to serve apologetic theology.

Why, then, did He put me here? To glorify Him, surely, but what else? Who knows? Maybe to be murdered. As grim as that sounds, it is not absurd to think that maybe God has pre-ordained that someday I'll be murdered. Maybe He's used my suffering in the years leading up to my death to soften my heart for the moments after I'm struck, so that I can gasp to my killer that I forgive him as I collapse in a pool of blood. Even if my dying forgiveness did nothing for the killer's repentance and rehabilitation, but fell on a stony heart.
If that's the case, so be it - God owes me no explanation. He owes me no deliverance. He owes me no eternal life, but in His love and grace, and in His own unimaginable suffering on the cross, eternal life has been given to me. And He's given me the audacity, the nerve, the guts to believe.

But before I meet my end by blunt force trauma to the head during a petty robbery, I've got a dog to help.

-with love and anger,
Bud.

"But for him who is joined to all the living there is hope, for a living dog is better than a dead lion." -Ecclesiastes 9:4

Poem: "Kids"

You're weird. You talk to imaginary friends.

You whine and make messes. Your parents are hippies.

But when you became a tearless, wordless teddy bear 

taped to a little pink cross,

minding your manners in horrible silence,

I stole away and died a little death.

Why I Wear a Beard

It's kinda depressing.

This is my uncle, Jackey Dale Sturguess. He died in 1995. He was the first in a long string of losses for my family. Nobody seems to remember him. We didn't talk about him as much as we should have after he died. Maybe the adults didn't think we children were old enough to grasp what suicide is. But even when I grew up, I had to pry information out of the rest of my family. Jackey took his own life (or was murdered, depending on how one interprets the evidence - either way, it was all because of drugs).
Nobody remembers him. Even his public arrest records seem to have vanished. Aside from census records, a few photographs, a poorly Xeroxed copy of his autopsy report that I found in the family Bible, and a tombstone bearing the words "Beloved Son, Brother, and Dad," it's as if he never existed. Maybe everyone was too hurt to bring him up. Years after his death, I overheard my grandmother tell someone that my grandfather would "never stop being mad at Jack."

Jackey wore some form of prominent facial hair most of his life, like my father and the rest of the males in my family. Sometimes he had a horseshoe mustache, sometimes a respectable trimmed beard, sometimes a big long ZZ Top chin-slinky. My father said the funeral home cut his beard off.
My mother said it should have been a closed-casket funeral - she said his mouth seemed swollen from the bullet wound. I always found it wrong that they took his beard off, even if Jackey wasn't really there to know it. It just seems like an indignity. That wasn't the only insult - the pastor mentioned suicide one too many times in his funeral sermon, which angered my uncle Mike to the point he had to be restrained from making a scene. It could be said that the whole mourning process was a mess. Maybe that's another reason people were so quick to put Jackey out of their minds. Friends who shot dope with him have long since scattered and destroyed their own selves - or gotten sober and exalted themselves above the memory of such an addict as Jackey. The police who beat him with flashlights have other things to deal with, other dopeheads to bust. And my own family slowly broke up, with anger and stubbornness taking up too much room in the heart for sorrow to have a place.

So, I remember my uncle by wearing a beard, just like he did. It's a reddish brown, slowly graying memorial to Jackey Sturguess. And it works out for me, because I look so good with it, and because I have no chin - without my beard, I look like I'm a character on "Bob's Burgers." Jesus says in Matthew chapter 10, "the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Do not fear therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows." God did an awful lot of counting when He totaled the sum of hair that would sprout on my head when He took into consideration this kinky beard. He numbered even more for my uncle Jackey - the hair on his scalp may have fallen off right after high school, but his messy beard that grew to his chest was numbered hair by hair by his Savior. A finite number, great as it may have been, just like the number of his days - greater though they could have been.
Jackey Sturguess was more precious than many sparrows. I'll wear my beard, coarse and unkempt as it may be, to remind me that I too am precious in the sight of the infinite Creator, and the love of His Son has made this beard finer than the coat of the finest sparrow.

It's weird, the whole beard thing - I started it! Now they all do it! They all either look like Rasputin or your dad a year after the divorce (my particular form of beard is known as "the Jethro Tull"). But when I see everyone imitating the Sturguess style, I'm not only flattered, but I'm reminded of my uncle - forgotten in that weird, slow shuffle of time and loss, but not before the sight of our Savior.

Dang I'm interesting.

"As for man, his days are like grass;
as a flower of the field, so he flourishes.
For the wind passes over it, and it is gone,
and its place remembers it no more."
-Psalm 103

The Jashubite Woman's Prayer

“I am a Jashubite, of the family of Issachar. A man seized me behind the thicket, and he went into me and violated me. And now he must marry me. He may not divorce me all the days of his life.
The Law says that if a man seizes a woman and forces himself upon her, and she is betrothed to another man, then the man must be killed. He has done no different than if he had risen up in the field against his sister and killed her. I could have seen his blood stain the stones as he was crushed and cursed. But the Law says that because I am not betrothed, the man who violated me must marry me and care for me all the days of his life. He will give my father fifty shekels, and then I will be his wife.
I mourned and pulled at my hair, but I could not weep. I tried to claw tears from my eyes. The more I could not weep, the angrier I became. I seethed with hate for my new husband. This man whose eyes were once filled with lust and madness now droop to the ground in defeat – I am his defeat, because he cannot be rid of me. I am his burden. Why should he go about lamenting? Am I not the one he held to the dirt, behind the thicket? Am I not the one who screamed, whose cries went unheard? Am I not the one who watched the sparrows fly away in fear as he howled? Am I not the one who watched them fly away as I tried to ignore the pain, and the dripping of the blood, until he was done with me?
But he will never be done with me. I am a chain to his ankle.
        God, why must this be? This is the Law You gave! You alone are righteous and there is none like You! Far be it from You to let the man go without stoning, without punishment of death! Far be it from You to let him glare at me as if I were a chain to him – I am no chain to him, he is a chain to me! He violated me, Lord!
God, why does Your Law give us such statutes? Why mustn’t I wear both linen and wool? Why mustn’t I eat what chews the cud but whose hooves are not divided? Why mustn’t my brothers plow with an ox and a donkey together? Why mustn’t I fall in love with a Moabite if he should treat me well?
My mother came to my father’s aid when he fought with Shuah, the son of Ebal, whose land is next to my father’s – her hand was cut off, according to Your Law, because she attacked the man’s genitals. Look! Her hand is gone, cut off at the wrist for defending her husband! Why should I be given to one of this hideous man’s hideous brothers if he dies and does not give me children? Why should I look into a babe’s face and know he is the seed of a man I can never love? Is no one to be condemned for this iniquity? Will no one be condemned for this evil? Where is the mighty man of valor to save me?
God, deliver me from bitterness! God, You will make it right! My soul is bitter, my Lord! May the Almighty give me wisdom from what I do not understand, from what I despise. Your prophet Moses said, after he gave Your Law, that You will raise up a Prophet. Moses said it is Him we must hear. Will the Prophet make us to hear good? Will He make us to hear more statutes about linen and wool, more statutes concerning the animals with divided hooves, and how I am to be passed from hideous brother to hideous brother if they die without giving me a child I cannot look in the eye?
The Prophet is from You, God.
Far be it from Him to leave undone what is right.
You have answered me, Lord. The Prophet You give will make everything right. Lord, the Prophet You send will make sense of the weights and the measurements. He will make sense of the ox without the muzzle, the leaven, the sprinkling of lamb’s blood, the deaths, the wrongs done to me. I have never concerned myself with lofty things, O Lord, never concerned myself with things too great and too profound for me. But I have no choice with this ugly, profound thing.
May Your Prophet come quickly. I am bitter at heart. May He make everything right in this bramble and brier. May He make my screams to be precious. May He do what is right with my attacker and his howls. The sparrows who flew away, may He send forth as messengers.
God, may Your Prophet come quickly. I am bitter and sick of love.”

"Of this salvation the prophets have inquired and searched carefully, who prophesied of the grace that would come to you, searching what, or what manner of time, the Spirit of Christ who was in them was indicating when He testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow." -1 Peter 1:10-11

-from Sheep Named Spike by Cpt. Bud Sturguess

The Bible & Feminism

When my mother passed away a few years ago, I asked that the pastor use Proverbs 31 - the go-to Bible passage for describing strong, admirable women - as the basis of his sermon. This chapter fit my mother perfectly, as she was the greatest mom who ever lived. I mean no offense when I tell you that, compared to my mother, your mom is Casey Anthony. But only by comparison, so please don't be offended - I'm sure your mother is a wonderful mom...just not as wonderful as mine.
The character of Proverbs 31 is often called "the virtuous wife." During his sermon, the pastor noted that most often when the word "virtuous" is used in the Hebrew Old Testament, it is used in a militaristic sense.

The Bible is full of strong women of high character. There was Deborah, the judge of Israel, who was nothing short of a B.A. heroine; Rahab, who risked being caught and killed by her fellow Canaanites to hide the Israelite spies sent to scout her country, and was saved by God for her courage; Naomi, who bitterly persevered after the loss of her sons and husband; Jael, who...well, she drove a tent stake through a guy's head.
In the court of modern feminism, the argument has been made that most of the female role models in the Bible are limited to background roles, and are usually associated with and overshadowed by a husband or other male figure. I can't deny this. Being that the events described in the Bible took place in a time and culture where that was the way of life, it's inevitable that even its baddest of heroines are few in number compared to the male heroes described. This doesn't mean they didn't exist, but in the events recorded, most of the notable figures happen to be men. This was the time and culture through which God was revealing Himself and His plan of salvation. I'm sure if God had chosen to reveal these things in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, women would have had a much more prevalent role. But, He didn't. He revealed these things in a time where women's roles in societies were much different.

But the Bible doesn't tell the story of men and women, or of societal progress or regression - it tells the story of our Savior Jesus Christ.

The question is often asked, by Christian and non-Christian women alike, "how can the Bible support feminism?"
The first caveat of my answer is: do you really want to hear an answer from a man? What do I know about discrimination? What do I know about social inequality? It would be downright pretentious and condescending of me to use longwinded language to try and identify with something about which I know nothing. I've no idea what it's like to be a woman oppressed. You would have a much better perspective from a Christian woman - someone who knows the trial of following Christ while also escaping the appalling man-made (and un-Biblical) chains that tell her she's supposed to stay barefoot and pregnant.

But my gender or place in society not withstanding, my only response to "how can you reconcile the Bible with feminism?" is,

I can't.

I can cite all of the Deborahs and Proverbs 31's and Galatians 3:28's, but the hard fact is, I cannot make the Holy Scripture fit the ideology of modern feminism. The Bible is a terribly inconvenient Book for those who believe it. And I dare not twist or discard what keeps me from being seen as progressive. There are many Christians who laud the Bible, but dismiss the parts they dislike as outdated or mistranslated. This is dangerous. If we label instructions of Scripture outdated, we eventually dismiss God and the risen Christ altogether: today He is seen as an outdated, even dangerous superstition with no place in the twenty-first century. And I'd rather be buried as a neanderthal than sell out my Savior who died for me. One Jesus means more to me than thirty people who would applaud me as a progressive crusader.

But again, the Bible is not the story of feminism or any of our other isms - it is the story of Jesus.

It's offensively easy for me to say all of this - I know no societal oppression. I know religious persecution only in the form of criticism and lies. Especially when I watch an SVU rerun, wherein the first suspect is always some deranged religious zealot, for no other reason than grim comedy relief. But other than that, my Nerf-soft American comfort keeps me free from the tortures, imprisonments, and deaths suffered by Christians in many other parts of the world.

So, as I know almost no human oppression, take everything I've said here with a grain of salt, and have a little mercy on me.

The hard truth is that the Bible depicts men as heads of Christian households and of church congregations. Not as some ignorant tyrant, but as a loving protector. This is certainly against the grain of modern feminism, but I have no way to reconcile the two. It would be pathetic and condescending of me to try. The Bible does not forbid women from being the heads of Fortune 500 companies, from being Senators and Presidents, from being Generals in the military, from being astronauts, weightlifting champions, or anything else "outside of the home." The Bible does not teach that the wife's duties shall be cooking and cleaning, or that the man is above those things and can't be bothered with them. But, yes, it's true - the instruction I've gathered from Scripture is that Christian men are to be the heads of households and congregations. Maybe I've interpreted wrong - I hope I have, because life would be much easier for me, religiously speaking. But then again, what kind of thing worth following is easy? If only I were interpreting wrong the command not to lust. Life would be peachy.

Perhaps the best I can tell you concerning the matter of equality in the Christian household is the truth that man and wife are one flesh: if the man receives his instruction from Christ and Christ alone, as all believers male and female must, then the woman does not heed her husband, but Christ, as does the husband; they are one flesh obeying the instruction of one King.
The same is true for church congregations: if the pastor receives his instruction from Christ alone, as he must, male and female worshipers do not heed their pastor, but their King. And if their pastor preaches a lie, both male and female believers must use the same spirit of discernment to cast him out (just as the wife has a duty in Christ to rebuke her husband if he does what is against God's word, and vice-versa). "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus" (Galatians 3:28). In God's eyes, men are not superior, women are not inferior; each of His children are made in His image, and He has shed the same precious atoning blood for both. He's given His children different roles on Earth, but in eternity things will be different.

If you would turn away from Christ's Scripture because it doesn't jibe with feminism, I'm sorry for that. But I can't lie about my God's words. "Every word of God is pure; He is a shield to those who put their trust in Him. Do not add to His words, lest He rebuke you, and you be found a liar" (Proverbs 30:5-6). But Christianity's core is not to be politically correct or to mold to any human's idea of what it "should" be - it is the truth that Jesus Christ died on the cross for the sins of all men and women, and rose from the dead, defeating the power of death and sin, so that those who believe in Him will have eternal life in His presence.
In eternity, all will be perfect. "God will wipe away every tear from their eyes...for the former things have passed away" (Revelation 21:4). I'm quite sure that many of those tears He will wipe away will come from the oppression we impose on one another, the oppression that is a by-product of a fallen and imperfect world, fallen by sin, a world that will be made new in eternity. For now, all of Creation groans waiting for Jesus' return - not only with floods and fires, decay and mortality, but as we strive with one another and grieve one another in our fallen nature in our imperfect world. But someday it will all be made new, and it is only made new because of the cross on which our Lord Jesus suffered, for men and women alike.

But concerning the Bible and feminism, that's the best I can tell you. I'm sorry.

On His majesty's service,
Cpt. Bud Sturguess

Christians & Suicide

It's almost impossible to make the claim that suicide will not send a Christian to hell without
appearing as though you're advocating the taking of one's life. I've seen many people make the argument that suicide is not an unforgivable sin, only to be accused of heresy or abandon for the sanctity of life. But I don't write this to make suicide look harmless or pure. It's not. God does not wish for anyone to take their own life - if a person does so, they are trying to usurp the authority of God. Suicide may seem like a way of relief to we who are in despair, but it only punishes those we leave behind - it leaves them with guilt, questions, and agony. We have no right to do so to those we love.

Having said that, it's not my wish to defend suicide, but only to refute a teaching that is not Biblically based, despite being taught and believed by many Christians. We all have a duty to rebuke false teachings, no matter how well-intended they may be. In this case, it's the teaching that suicide is an unforgivable sin, even for a saved person; that suicide is a one-way ticket to hell, despite Jesus' death and resurrection. Again, I write these things not to defend or encourage suicide, but only as a way to, firstly, refute an incorrect notion concerning the Bible, and to perhaps assure those with saved loved ones who have taken their own lives that their sin - and suicide is indeed a sin - did not negate Jesus' covenant.

First, let's look at suicide from a mental and emotional point of view. The human instinct is to survive. If one's brain has seemingly lost that instinct, and instead harbors the opposite and a longing to die, something is wrong. I'm not saying that their obviously impaired mental judgment relieves them wholly of responsibility; I only say this to provide insight to what's going on in their heads. I've attempted suicide once, on January 8, 2006, and I'm glad to say I failed. Further, for the better part of the next year, I planned again to take my own life. But the hand of God delivered me - that terrible year came and went, but I did not go with it. Since then, there have been times when I desired so strongly to die that I've considered ending my own life. But love has preserved me. Praise God! "The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly" (John 10:10).

Now, let's talk about what is truly "the unforgivable sin."

Many Christians develop their notion that suicide is an unforgivable sin based on the suicide of Judas Iscariot. But they're missing the bigger picture beyond Judas' noose. Judas will not inherit the kingdom of God, not because he hanged himself, but because of his betrayal of Jesus Christ into the hands of sinners. Judas not only betrayed our Lord, but was not a godly man before that - John's account mentions that he would regularly steal the money kept by the disciples. (But even so, I find it an example of God's unfathomable grace that, for a time, Judas Iscariot was an apostle - given authority by Jesus to heal the sick and cast out unclean spirits - imagine! The man who would betray our Lord, given the power by the same Lord to do amazing things to proclaim His kingdom!)

The actual "unforgivable sin" cannot be committed today, because those who committed this sin are no longer alive. This sin was the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit spoken by the scribes and Pharisees who rejected Jesus. They attributed His works to Satan. Mark chapter 3 reads: "Assuredly, I say to you, all sins will be forgiven the sons of men, and whatever blasphemies they may utter; but he who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is subject to eternal condemnation” - because they said, “He has an unclean spirit.”" These people - the "wicked and adulterous generation," as Jesus called them - have all since died.

The unforgivable sin today is more of an unforgivable state - the state of unrepentant rejection of Jesus as Lord.

Now let's look at the argument that the suicide of a saved person will revoke their salvation.

"Even a Christian goes to hell if they commit suicide."
Why does this particular sin nullify Christ's work on the cross? Does His death not atone for all sins of those who accept Him?
"But there's obviously no way for them to atone for it afterwards, because they're dead."
So the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross is incomplete? This is what's implied if some additional human chore is needed. Our only responsibility is to accept it or reject it. How can we call Christ's atoning blood complete if a sin still needs some human action to be considered forgiven? 
"The person took their own life! That's wrong!"
It is wrong. But what if a saved person gets into an argument with a loved one and says heated things they didn't mean, then moments later, suffers a heart attack? Or if two unmarried people fornicate, and on the way home they're killed in a fatal car crash? Because they didn't have time or chance to 'atone' for that sin by some special prayer, confession, or deed before they happened to die moments later, does that prevent them from entering into eternity with Jesus?
"Those sins are not as bad as suicide."
There are sins that are more severe than others. But all of them boil down to disobedience to God. Romans 6:1 tells us that, just because we're saved and under grace, doesn't mean we should go about sinning, shrugging it off with 'I'm already saved.' That's not living under grace - that's attempting to trample it. But even so, no mistake made by a saved person is bigger than the body and blood of Christ. To say so is to say the sacrifice of God is not sufficient without human works. If this is the case, we should begin stocking up on animals for sacrifices to atone for our sins, because the blood of Christ is somehow negated by certain wrongs.

There is no Scriptural evidence to support the claim that the sin of suicide negates the cross for a saved person.

The person who takes his or her own life will give an account on the Day of Judgment, as we all will, and the sin that ended their mortal life will surely be among the things they must answer for. The premature ending of their own life will leave many chances to minister to others undone, and unclaimed rewards in heaven. But it does not hinder one of Christ's sheep from entering into His eternal pasture which He has promised to those who believe His word - even if their minds and hearts were so tormented or broken they felt they could not wait for their Shepherd's comforting staff.

Suicide is a sin against God. But it is also, in most cases, a sign of something terribly wrong with the mind - a broken heart can drive the mind to fragility, and vice versa. If someone you know has contemplated or attempted suicide, or even alluded to not wanting to live anymore, minister to them as much as you're able, and encourage them to seek professional help. We must also remind them there is no hopelessness in Christ. He can lead us through the most pitch black of darkness, the most grueling and agonizing of sorrows, the most devastating of losses and loneliness.

The Bible never promises a rainbow-riddled fairy tale world for believers. In fact, the Bible promises pain and hardship. But we're also promised abundant life, both on earth and in eternity. Giving up in pain and idly waiting for death is not living. To say that death is our release from sin and misery is to say death is our savior, not Jesus. This is one of the many lies in which the devil delights.

Let us not relegate suicide prevention and awareness to copy-and-paste posts on social media. Everyone who ever took their own life, saved or not, had a story. It's our job as Christians, as ambassadors for Christ who died and rose again, to be compassionate and loving, even in the midst of our own heartaches, to take the time to hear another's story, another's despair. While a person in distress still breathes, let our focus not be to drill into their heads the sinfulness of suicide - they know this well. I knew it well, but as with any other temptation, my flesh and my mind warred against me to the point that I allowed myself not to care, at least for the moment. Rather than a lecture on sin, let our focus be to show them the love of Christ who longs for them to continue on with their brothers and sisters through the valley of the shadow of death, shining the light and unkillable hope of His Gospel in a dark and ugly world.

For more information on how to help the mentally ill, please visit nami.org.

Christians & Cremation

Dead people can be jerks. I've had many relatives who, because of their lack of consideration or sense of responsibility, did not have life or burial insurance (despite having a family), and their funerals and burial were a burden for the living to pay. Then they have the nerve to make demands: a mahogany casket lined with pillow top (and it better be mahogany, not oak), makeup to hide their eyebags, without looking too obviously like makeup, not to mention a concrete vault around them when they're put underground. And then, they're like, "I want you to take me and Elmer's wedding rings and put them on a necklace, and mail it to my granddaughter in Florida."
Addressing this subject, C.S. Lewis said it best: "You're dead! I'm not gonna run errands for you!"
I recently expressed to a friend and brother in Christ my concern about the earth running out of room for graves. Now that airtight concrete vaults surrounding the casket are mandatory in most places, graves take up more room than they used to. I think that someday, if the planet lasts long enough, mandatory cremation might be put into law, for no other reason than there will simply be no more room to bury physical remains the way they're buried presently. If not cremation, some other alternative means will be put into law for the lack of grave space.
My friend mentioned that he wouldn't want to be cremated, "for theological reasons." I didn't ask him about it, because we were in a pizzeria, and too much corpse talk might offend anyone within earshot who was trying to eat. But later, I looked up what kinds of concerns other Christians might have about cremation, and even donating one's body to medical science. I happened upon an article by John Piper. Given that my friend is a Calvinist, and John Piper is to Calvinists what Les Claypool is to aspiring bassists, I decided to read Mr. Piper's thoughts on cremation to better understand my friend's objections.

Mr. Piper was very much against Christians allowing their bodies to be cremated, citing the integrity of the human body, and the fact that the Scripture instructs Christians to care for it; after all, 1 Corinthians 6:19 tells us "Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own". This is absolutely true. Scripture teaches us that it is wrong to disrespect one's live body - a temple - by immoral actions such as sexual promiscuity, drugs, nicotine, over-indulgence in alcohol, and other harmful things. Mr. Piper also quotes 1 Corinthians 15:37, 42-44: "What you sow is not the body that is to be, but a bare kernel, perhaps of wheat or of some other grain...So is it with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable. It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power. It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body."

But, nowhere in these verses, nor elsewhere in Scripture, do I find any suggestion that the destruction of one's remains after their soul - and the Holy Spirit - have left that physical temple violates God's command to care for the health and sanctity of one's living body. And I find no instruction for doing all one can to make sure his or her body is intact after death, to be better presentable for its resurrection.

Let's look at what happens to the body after death, without cremation:

1. You're eaten by worms and maggots.
This may not be so much of a problem now, with concrete vaults and embalming (we'll get to that), but it wasn't terribly long ago that, unless you were a President or monarch given your own tomb, a flimsy wooden casket held an un-embalmed body, with no underground vault, both of which were destined to rot underground. Mr. Piper states that the Bible often associates fire with hell and punishment. But it also associates worms and rotting with punishment - "And they will go out and look on the dead bodies of those who rebelled against Me; the worms that eat them will not die, the fire that burns them will not be quenched, and they will be loathsome to all mankind" (Isaiah 66:24). Jesus also references this passage in the ninth chapter of the Gospel according to Mark.
It seems to me that, if being turned to ashes is an insult to the temple of God, then so would worms playing pinochle on your snout. But, again, the physical body is perishable - we will be raised with imperishable bodies, and the decay of the ones in which we labor on the earth does not affect that truth.

2. You're embalmed - a ghoulish process:
Embalming did not become a widespread practice in America until sometime after the death of President Lincoln. His body was embalmed so many times due to its long train trip to its final resting place that it was exceptionally well-preserved. Many mourners who saw this remarked how wonderful the President looked post-mortem, and many hoped to look just as good when they were dead. Mr. Piper mentions the practices of false religions and their rituals of burning bodies. If cremation shouldn't be encouraged because of similar practices by pagan religions, then neither should being embalmed - the body is being well preserved (albeit minus its major organs and blood, making the term "preserved" a bit loose), much like the Egyptians used to do to their dead (removal of blood included). Pharaohs were entombed with many of their belongings (often including their pets), so they could take them to the afterlife. We know this to be ridiculous, as we cannot take our riches with us into heaven - but that doesn't stop us from placing trinkets and keepsakes into the caskets of our loved ones today, which will go with them into their airtight graves.
As we know, the ancient Egyptians served false gods, and their beliefs were integral to their preservation of certain dead bodies. This sounds a lot like what we do to bodies at funeral homes today. So, does that mean embalming is bad? Of course not. It's unnecessary and kind of dumb, but not a reflection of some pagan influence. Today, most states require a body to be embalmed before it's placed in the ground, save for certain exceptions. So, embalming and its grim process is inescapable in most cases.
Funeral homes remove a body's organs and blood, adorn the body with makeup so that it looks downright plastic and artificial, glue the hands together when placing them across the body, glue the mouth and eyelids shut, and inflate the corpse with chemicals. This doesn't sound very "respectful" to the body, at least in the way Mr. Piper defines it.

3. What about donating my organs or donating my body to medical science?
Mr. Piper addresses this in a follow-up article. He mentions the dissection as being a "seeming indignity." But, as was just explained, similar things are done to bodies that are not donated or cremated. He goes on to mention that, if he were involved in the scientific community, he would discourage cremation of a used cadaver, but also admits he doesn't know what happens to a body once a university is finished with it. The fact is, most, if not all cadavers, are cremated; the ashes are returned to the family if requested, or disposed of in other ways.
Fortunately, however, Mr. Piper acknowledges a world of difference in cremation as a means of hastily disposing of a corpse, and giving one's body or organs for the life of another, which blesses another body with health and life, as a temple should be given. I love Mr. Piper's words concerning the difference between mere cremation and donation: "But when one considers that the aim is the discovery or the improvement of some healing procedure for the body or training of doctors in the healing arts for the body, then those very so-called indignities to the body take on a kind of beauty that, in fact, serves the dignity of the body."

Mr. Piper also mentions the brutal things done to our Lord Jesus during His torture and crucifixion. He states in his first article: "Paul said he hoped to magnify Christ “in my body, whether by life or by death” (Philippians 1:20). Glorifying God is what the body is for — in life and in death." But what Paul was describing by magnifying Christ by death was martyrdom, and suffering for the sake of the Gospel. The context of Paul's words in the first chapter of his letter to the Philippians is important: in verses 12-26, Paul is clearly describing his chains and imprisonment, his physical affliction for Christ being a witness to the abundant and eternal life He's given us by His own suffering and death (Paul expresses similar thoughts in 2 Corinthians 4:7-12). He was not referring to a proper burial - how many Christians beheaded and mutilated for their faith were then given "proper burials" by Nero?

I think one of the underlying reasons many Christians - or anyone, really - balk at the thought of being dissected by medical students is because, to be blunt, it's gross. I think because of the understandable discomfort and "ew" that comes with that notion, many people, not just Christians, prefer to think of their remains being placed under flowers and a peach orchard, and leave it at that. We experience a creepy-crawly feeling when we think of some nervous med student at Texas Tech examining an abnormality in our frontal lobes. I believe Mr. Piper, and many of us, see the issue of post-mortem flesh through a fleshly lens, strange as that sounds: we're offended at the idea of strangers handling our organs, or being burned to ash in a crematorium, because it belies what we think should be done, that which is the comfortable, accepted, traditional norm - casket, burial, tombstone. "That was my spleen, that was my heart!", we think subconsciously (or consciously). "No one should be fiddling with my innards! It's weird!"
 
Mr. Piper mentions the Scripture calling death a "sleep" of sorts, and links this to the importance of such symbolism in death (see the section "A Symbol For Sowing and Sleeping"). But again, in the First Century, and even until about a hundred-fifty years ago, the body would not stay in such a sleep-like state, due to decomposition. Mr. Piper explains that the people of the Early Church did not know when Christ would return (and many of them expected His Second Coming during their lifetime), so laying a body "to rest" as if in sleep was important. But we know now that Jesus did not return during the First Century, and that the remains of believers buried during that time have long "returned to dust," as they should. Likewise, we today don't know when Christ will return. This factor is another reason that the decomposition of this temple underground does not affect the truth that it will still be raised in glory and imperishable. Likewise for those who have died at sea, or their bodies destroyed in accidents. The scene of the White Throne Judgment, wherein all the dead will be judged, is described by John: "The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what they had done" (Revelation 20:13).

The physical, temporary state of one's remains after death does not affect God's ability to raise them in eternal glory. Yes, our bodies must be treated with respect and preciousness while we are alive, and our physical remains must also be given respect after death. Yes, it matters what we choose to have done to them when we die. The inevitable decay of our remains certainly doesn't negate the fact that God has made our temporary shells the temples of His Holy Spirit. In fact, Paul addresses this to the Corinthians, who had the mistaken belief that the body was a "tomb" that encased the soul, and the spiritual things were what truly mattered. But Paul made it plain to them that the body is precious, should be nourished and cherished, and is a temple of the Holy Spirit.
But the Spirit does not remain in a decomposing body after the soul has departed. Yes, the body is a temple for every believer, but someday this temple gives way, "mortality swallowed up by life," to a permanent and imperishable spiritual body, in the presence of God and the Lamb, who will be the eternal temple in New Jerusalem (Revelation 21:22).
But this earthly, temporary - but precious - temple gives way, no matter how we try to artificially preserve, seal, or mummify it after our physical death:

"In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread
till you return to the ground,
for out of it you were taken;
For dust you are,
and to dust you shall return."
-Genesis 3:19

"Naked I came from my mother’s womb,
and naked shall I return there.
The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away;
Blessed be the name of the LORD."
-Job 1:21