Love Truth Blog

Lent 2017 is well underway and for this post I thought sharing briefly on the foulness of sin. Recently, I came across these words from the nineteenth century Anglican bishop J.C. Ryle: "The very animals whose smell is most offensive to us have no idea that they are offensive, and are not offensive to one another. And man, fallen man, I believe can have just no idea what a vile thing sin is in the sight of God whose handiwork is absolutely perfect." Ryle was writing on the subject of holiness, and the quote above comes from a section grappling with the matter of sin. What struck was the way he killed it on the true foulness or vileness of sin before a holy and righteous God contrasted to the way that fallen people more often than none go nose blind to our wretchedness. Sure, it is very easy to pray, “God, I thank You that I am not like other people” (Luke 18:11, NASB), but that somebody else. What we fail to see is the way our sin no matter how small is an offense to th...

“Let me fall into the hand of the LORD, for His mercies are very great. But do not let me fall into the hand of man” (1 Chron. 21:13). 1 I have been meditating upon the census of David mentioned in 2 Samuel 24 and 1 Chronicles 21, which incurred divine wrath upon the nation of Israel. Satan was instrumental in delivering the temptation (1 Chron. 21:1), but God was superintending the course of events to address a fault in the king (2 Sam. 24:14). David yielded to his own sinful inclinations, and reached out to grab at the Devil’s sinful enticement. Satan’s goal was to destroy David, but God’s desire was to sanctify David, and lead the king towards a true evaluation of things. When David orders the census, we already know something is off, particularly with the response of Joab, the commander-in-chief of Israel’s army, “May the LORD add to His people a hundred times as many as they are! But, my lord the king, are they not all my lord’s servants? Why does my lord seek this thing? Why...

One of the beautiful things about the Book of Job is that its wisdom puts us humans in our place in never giving an answer to all the “why” questions. Hubris drives us to formulate platitudes, slogans, and memes to answer some of the world’s most pressing issues, or to settle some deep theological, philosophical, or political debate. But these never really work. As for Job’s case, certain extenuating circumstances remain hidden, i.e. the dialogue between Yahweh and Satan in chapters 1-2, and the reason why the God of the universe permits the righteous man to lose children and property is left to mystery. Much of the Book of Job is poetic dialogue four men—Eliphaz, Bildad, Zophar, and Elihu—who want to convince Job all the calamities were some sort of divine retribution. Eliphaz, for example, says, “As I have seen, those who plow iniquity | and sow trouble reap the same. | By the breath of God they perish, | and by the blast of his anger they are consumed (Job 4:8-9). 1 Bildad cont...

“If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me” (Matt. 19:21) [1]. These are extreme words from the Messiah which the rich man could hardly stomach. Matthew tells us is that the rich man walked away with sorrow. Rather than calling people to take vows of poverty, the Jesus sought to leave the young man and the disciples overhearing the conversation with the understanding that if there ever was going to be salvation for Israel, it would be on God’s terms, and that Messiah’s ministry was intricately woven together with that salvation. The rich young man got into a discussion with Jesus on the matter of eternal life. Ancient Israelites would have connected everlasting life with Judgment Day. Daniel was told, “And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt” (Dan. 12:2). Jesus then takes the rich man to the place wh...

1 Chronicles 12 tell us that Rehoboam along with the people of the southern kingdom of Judah were established and strong, but they forsook the law of the Lord. Yahweh then appointed the prophet Shemaiah to tell the people that since they left God, God left them alone to face the invading army of Shishak, an Egyptian Pharaoh. Rehoboam and the nation’s leaders humbled themselves, and declared the “Lord is righteous.” Yahweh saw their humility, and spoke through the prophet saying, “They have humbled themselves. I will not destroy them, but I will grant them some deliverance, and my wrath shall not be poured out on Jerusalem by the hand of Shishak. Nevertheless, they shall be servants to him, that they may know my service and the service of the kingdoms of the countries” (vv. 7-8, ESV). God forgave the people of Rehoboam’s kingdom, but the people still experienced the effect of their sin of their unfaithfulness. Shishak spared the city of Jerusalem from destruction, and “he took aw...

I find a danger for every believer is to cease seeing the world as a Christian, through God’s eyes, and revert to seeing the world as a pagan. This can happen when one buys into some kind of dualism wherein God and Satan are misconstrued as equal but opposing forces. Stories are told of demons possessing God-like powers to levitate objects, change the weather, materialize at will, morph into various forms, bring the dead to life, and even procreate demonic human hybrids. Other stories tell of people getting demonic possessed and become unwilling participants in the committing all sorts of evil. Satan is, however, the chief of all the demons, whose power trumps them all. But this kind of demonology is really pagan as opposed to biblical Christianity, albeit these pagan ideas have crept into the church. God and Satan are never to be considered equal and opposing forces. God is eternal without beginning or end, but Satan is a created being. God is in control of all things, but Satan ...

Jesus Christ said, “But I tell you that every careless word that people speak, they shall give an accounting for it in the day of judgment” (Matt. 12:36). [1] I’m struck by the real weight the spoken word can have. Not that we speak things into existence, but what we do say tells a lot about who we are. This is evident given the Lord’s own explanation of what He just said: “For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned” (Matt. 12:37). It is the heart that drives what we profess and proclaim from our lips, and words spoken reveal the condition of our heart (Matt. 15:18, Luke 6:45). Vile and spiteful things are good indicators of sinful and broken heart. Jesus’ point about the careless word is intricately woven together with what He taught on the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. In the context of Matthew 12, the Pharisees spoke evil of Christ. They said He performed His miracles by the power of Satan, which showed their existing disposition towards H...

Revelation 12 is one chapter in the Bible that really grabs the attention. It is an apocalyptic vision of a woman, a child, and a dragon. Each is described with otherworldly features. The woman is clothed with the sun, rests her feet on the moon, and wears a crown of twelve stars. The dragon is colored red, has seven heads, ten horns, seven crowns, a tail that sweeps away stars, and water spewing from its mouth. The child is destined to rule nations with an iron rod. There are angels who battle against the dragon. The earth even helps the woman and child in their distress. This is really fantasy imagery, which sparks the imagination! The vision story of the woman, child and dragon should never be taken in a wooden literal sense. Hank Hanegraaff notes, “The apostle John does not want us to believe that dragons are real, nor does he want us to believe that a dragon’s tail could sweep a third of the stars out of the sky. Instead, he wants to understand the reality of the devil’s ‘cunni...

A constant skeptical refrain that I hear in the world of apologetics is “If God would just open up the heavens and show Himself to me in some spectacular way I would then believe?” But, I do not think that is the real problem. I believe God has given us enough evidence of His existence so that we can know Him and enter into a relationship with Him. The flip side of the coin is that the immortal invisible divinity can remain hidden from the faithless who exchange the truth for the lie. An element of biblical faith is placing trust in things unseen. I find a great example of this is the centurion who called upon Christ to heal his servant. The Gospel of Matthew tells us that “Jesus entered Capernaum, a centurion came to Him, imploring Him, and saying, ‘Lord, my servant is lying paralyzed at home, fearfully tormented’ ” (Matt. 8:5-6). But, it is clear that the centurion never met face to face with Jesus; rather, they communicated through a mediating envoy. The Gospel of Luke indicates ...

Last month I had the opportunity to check out Paramount Pictures’ Noah directed by Darren Aronofsky, who also co-wrote the screenplay along with Ari Handel. I thought it was quite the fantasy epic without a dull moment. There was, as anyone could predict, a hefty amount of artistic licensing going on, but the two storytellers crafted something that keeps the attention. Aronofsky and Handel pit the biblical characters Noah (Russell Crowe) against Tubal Cain (Ray Winstone). Noah is a sort of radical environmentalist, who tries to care for the earth. He only uses from the earth what is necessary for survival. He eats only vegetables. He believes animals are innocent but humans are sinful, and the creation would be better off without mankind. He even chides his own son for picking a flower to admire its beauty, indicating they need to be left in the ground to grow. Tubal Cain, on the other hand, is an extreme humanist. He thinks animals exist only to benefit humans. He eats animals raw....

Heaven is for Real , a movie about four-year old Colton Burpo’s near death experience (NDE), has hit the theaters, but I just cannot bring myself seeing it. I would even advise against others seeing it. The reason is that I am convinced that Colton’s story offers nothing of value for Christian faith and practice. I say this because a few years back I had reviewed the book the movie was based, which bears the same title, and was written by Colton’s father Todd along with Lynn Vincent [1]. I found there were some peculiar elements to Colton’s NDE, like Jesus’ rainbow colored horse. There were also some unbiblical elements. For example, Colton says everyone in heaven’s got wings save Jesus, but the Bible says the believer’s resurrection is patterned after Christ (Rom. 5:12-21; Cor. 15:20-28). Colton says the resurrection is only for believers but Jesus says all will experience either the resurrection to life or the resurrection to judgment (John 5:28-29). Colton sees the heavenly th...

“You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not leave him unpunished who takes His name in vain” (Exod. 20:4-6). This passage is often cited as some sort of prohibition against speaking some explicative. I suppose that can be an application in a roundabout way from the point Moses thought to make, but that was never the heart of the issue. The third command had to do with verbal representations or better yet misrepresentations of God. In other words, “the people were to exercise the greatest caution when talking about him or invoking his name. They were to say nothing which might detract from a true appreciation of his nature and character” [1]. God revealed His name to the Hebrew people through the prophet Moses (Exod. 3:13-15). The name given was YHWH, which is translated “I AM.” Inasmuch as the giving of one’s name was something deep and personal, God gave the second commandment to warn against saying something that would drag the name of the ...

I was recently thinking about the temptation of Jesus Christ. What an epic battle between cosmic forces—the incarnate Son of God in one corner and Satan the prince of darkness on the other. The three Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke) include the account of Jesus Christ’s temptation in the wilderness (Matt. 4:1-11; Mk. 1:12-13; Lk. 4:1-13). What is the significance of this event? Why was Jesus tempted? All three Synoptic Gospels indicate the Holy Spirit led Jesus Christ out into the wilderness, and there the Lord fasted for forty days, being tempted by Satan, i.e. the tempter and the Devil (Matt. 4:1-2; Mk. 1:12-13; Lk. 4:1-2). Craig Keener notes that “it was commonly believed that demons were especially attracted to places like bathhouses, graveyards and deserts. Readers would thus sense the suspense as Jesus battled with Satan on Satan’s own turf” [1].  Still, it was on account of the Spirit’s leading that the Lord would go into the wilderness for a season of fasting ...