Love Truth Blog

Dear Christian friends, I pray that things have been well. This Election Day marks the end of long process which in my humble opinion brought out the worst in a good many folks, and what a relief it is to know the election season has passed. I hope that you did indeed vote today, plan on voting, or have already voted early. Voting is certainly a civic calling that Christians in the United States ought never pass up. God has set things up in such a way that we are living right here and right now in this epoch (Acts 17:26), and it just so happens to be in a land where citizens are called upon to vote for their leaders. We are given a voice, and we can speak out at the polls. We do have a say in the appointment of our leaders, the lawmakers who will set the laws that govern this nation. That is a good thing. Law defines the way we as a people will view right and wrong. Our laws can then promote the common good. Troubles do come when we declare something that is wrong to be right ...

“There are no atheists in fox holes.” I suppose there is something to this statement, since desperate moments are catalyst for seeking solace in God. Prayer is the last refuge of a scoundrel. Yet, almost in the same breath, I can see how certain skeptics at death’s door may never think twice about preparing to meet their maker. Think Christopher Hitches, who held on to his atheism until the end. God’s existence never requires a unanimous belief amongst all human minds. But it is never the case that God makes it impossible for anyone to connect with Him. The Epistle to the Hebrews tells us that [God] is a rewarder of those who seek Him (Heb. 11:6b, NASB). God never hides Himself from those who want to know Him. On the flip side, God is never required to offer something extraordinary to those who persist upon skepticism despite all other good reasons to the contrary. A case in point is the fact of Jesus Christ’s resurrection. The witnesses to the resurrected Lord were far from dec...

Sometime after the New Year, I had a chance to check out Interstellar and I have to say it was some good sci-fi storytelling. I enjoyed the way the visual effects artist put into the film their concept of what theories from astrophysics, which were woven into the storyline (wormholes, black holes, time dilation, etc.). But, what I think captures the attention the way a family would be affected being immersed into the films grand narrative. Cooper (Matthew McConaughey) is a former pilot for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), who lives out his retirement as a farmer growing corn. He struggles to make it as Earth undergoes an ecological meltdown, the land is unable to produce, and certain crops go extinct. Murphy (Mackenzie Foy/Jessica Chastain/Ellen Burstyn) is Cooper’s 10 year-old daughter. She is named after Murphy ’s Law, but not in the sense that “anything that can go wrong, will go wrong,” but in a positive sense that “whatever can happen, will happen.” ...

I listened to some Sixpence recently, and one of their seasonal tracks played—Angels We Have Heard on High—and the refrain Gloria in excelsis Deo keeps resounding in my head. But what is this “glory” that one can give or possess? We can say that in one sense glory is action world, conveying the idea of praise. Hence, Gloria in excelsis Deo means “glory to God in the highest.” We can glorify God. Glory is also a quality that characterizes a person, place, or thing, which can be visible or invisible, and it sets the possessor apart as worthy of receiving adoration, honor, and praise. Scriptures especially highlight the glory of the Lord or the glory that God possesses. The most frequently used Hebrew word in the Old Testament translated “glory” is kavod, which conveys the idea of weight or worthiness. One can speak of the kavod of men and women with respect to their wealth, or reputation. But, there is also the glory of Yahweh, which is what He reveals to people about Himself ...

divine omnipresence də-ˈvīn   äm-ni-ˈpre-zən (t)s Someone once asked me, “If God cannot be in the presence of sin, why does Satan can have access to heaven? The idea is that Satan enters into heaven to accuse the righteous in the books of Job (Job 1:11, 2:5) and Zechariah (Zech. 3:1-5). The problem comes when reading about final glory in the Book of Revelation, wherein there is a picture of the New Jerusalem coming down as a bride adorned for her husband, and John the Revelator says, “nothing unclean, and no one who practices abomination and lying, shall ever come into it, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life” (Rev. 21:27). How can this be? Some might parse out the semantics in Job and Zechariah in such a way to contend that “the Satan” in these Old Testament prophets is someone other than the Devil. So the problem is simply a case of mistaken identity. I’m not bought and sold on that one. So how it is that Satan can accuse the brethren ...

Just why is there something as opposed to nothing? Have you ever thought about that? Take a walk outside. You’ll see and experience the world around you. Wind, sun, moon, stars, oceans, rivers, lakes, plants, trees, insects, birds, animals, people, all these have their beauty, and we can perceive them with our senses of touch, taste, smell, and sound. But how do we account for those things?   Is what I perceive just an illusion? What if it is all a quest to discover “there is no spoon”? Why bother warning people to stop texting when they drive? Or better yet, stop daydreaming why they drive! Anyone would be wise to heed such warnings, and one never really takes solipsism to its logical extension.   Suppose there is a universe of things out there beyond one’s own mind and perception. Why is it there? Some might have thought the universe had always existed, but our scientific enlightenment rules out that possibility. The “Big Bang” theory of cosmology contends that ...

The thought that some superman like hero can rise up to the occasion and save the day I find to be wonderful. Oh to find that one great leader who can turn the social tide around for the better! But then I also think God would have us look beyond the search for an earthly leader to solve the world’s woes. I think we must seek God, who is the ruler of all things, and in Him we can find the right leader, a man after God’s heart. God brought the Hebrews into their promise land, and the priest governed the people under a type of theocracy. As time went by, however, the priesthood fell into corruption. Samuel the Prophet appointed his sons to judge, but they took bribes and perverted justice (1 Sam. 8:2-3). The people then appealed to the prophet to appoint a king like all the other nations. They were searching for the one great leader to rule and solve their woes. A king would make them like the other nations. Were they supposed to be like the other nations? When the prophet inquired a...

“But you shall serve the Lord your God, and He will bless your bread and water, and I will remove the sickness from your midst. There shall be no one miscarrying or barren in your land; I will fulfill the number of your days” (Exod. 23:24NASB) I remember thinking whether or not this passage meant that women who are part of God’s people would never miscarry or experience infertility. I can never imagine the pain couples experience in being unable to conceive a child, and the even more intense trauma of suffering a miscarriage. But, what of the faithful who experience these tribulations? Is God going back on His Word? Moses is in no way communicating every single Israelite woman would neither experience a miscarriage nor infertility. The fact that elsewhere God clearly indicates some Israelite women would miscarry—as in the case of the law concerning two men fighting and a pregnant woman getting caught in the crossfire and miscarrying her baby (cf. Exod. 21:22-25)—precludes the idea ...

Having a good life is something that yearns in the heart of us all. It’s more than just longevity, but being able to experience life to its fullest. Some strive for that life apart from being involved in spiritual matters. Others seek the spiritual for fulfillment. Those who do might look to some well-established tradition, whereas others seek alternative paths. The common denominator is the search for the good life is often on the person’s own terms. God, however, has come from heaven to earth to show a different way, something far, far better. This way leads to eternal life, but it is on His terms. Christ’s encounter with a rich young man illustrates the point. Matthew 19 tells of a rich young man asking Jesus “Teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may obtain eternal life?” (v. 16). Jesus response with a rhetorical question in hopes of getting the young man to think about what’s at stake: “Why are you asking Me about what is good? There is only One who is good; but if yo...

“Follow Me,” were words that perhaps Matthew the tax collector would have never expected to come in a conversation with a Jewish Rabbi. Matthew collected taxes for Herod, charging duty on goods brought into the city of Capernaum. Since the taxman was responsible to cover any shortfalls, he had to be merciless in collections. It was Rome that sanctioned certain wealthy individuals to collect for their cities, and rulers like Herod the Great would even finance the building of pagan temples with the people’s tax dollars, which left a bad taste in the mouths of Jewish people. Tax gatherers were despised by the Jewish people, and a Jewish tax collector was considered a traitor. Christ was calling Matthew to leave his old life behind and enter into a new life as a disciple. Matthew simply follows the Lord. Who is it that Matthew leaves all to follow? The former tax gatherer offers the answer in the events leading up to his conversion. He was entering into a right relationship with God. Mat...

As I’m sifting through the pile of work on my desk, I came across this Time Magazine News Blog: “Fertility Goddess Asherah: Was ‘God’s Wife’ Edited Out of the Bible?” by Christy Choi. 1 The article reports that the research of Francesca Stavrakopoulou, a senior lecturer in the department of Theology and Religion at the University of Exeter, allegedly, unearthed ancient texts, amulets, and figurines in an ancient Canaanite costal city that is presently part of modern Syria, which present Asherah, a powerful fertility goddess, as the wife of Yahweh. Other clues to this include inscriptions on pottery found in the Sinai desert, and a passage in the Book of Kings mentioning the goddess being housed in the temple of Yahweh (cf. 2 Kings 23). J. Edward Wright, president of the Arizona Center for Judaic Studies and The Albright Institute for Archeological Research, indicates that several Hebrew inscriptions mentioning “Yahweh and his Asherah” backs Stavrakopoulou’s research. Why is God’s wife...

I remember someone mentioning a conversation with a skeptic on the existence of God, wherein the skeptic essentially asked, “If God does not exist inside time or space and is immaterial, then in what way does He exist? Is God made of nothing?” At first glance this question certainly seems pretty difficult but nothing about it really creates a problem for a theist. The question presumes a materialistic world. In other words, the one asking already accepts the idea that the only thing that exists in the universe is material stuff, and apart from that there is nothing else that exists. All that can be physically detected, measured, quantified, and categorized is all that can exist in this universe. Since God does not fit into these categories, the skeptic questions in what way can there be a God. The skeptic’s strict materialism ultimately becomes a stumbling block from which he falls upon his own sword. What the skeptic fails to realize is that there are things which he too believes ...

The one attribute of God that stands out and resonates with many is that of love. If there is one thing that people know about God is that He is a God of love. “God is love” (1 John 4:8). The love in this instance isn’t some epicurean fancy (like eggs with truffles or caviar), neither is it a fraternal bond between like minded cohorts, neither is it the romantic quest against all odds to find the elusive soul mate. The kind of love displayed by God is one that involves the unconditional giving of oneself for the betterment and glory of another. A cardinal truth of Christianity is that God incarnated Himself in the person of Jesus Christ, who gave His own life to redeem sinners and bring them into a right relationship with God the Father. In Romans 5, Paul writes, “For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will hardly die for a righteous man; though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die. But God demonstrates His own love...

Every now and then I come across a devotional that would state something like God took a risk in creating free creatures with the ability to choose otherwise, and the real possibility of rejecting their creator. In the same way, God also took a risk in entrusting free yet whimsical creatures with the entire task of advancing His earthy kingdom through the preaching of the Gospel. The gist of the idea is that God in some way understands our struggles in venturing out into uncertainty. Does God take risks? It is important to avoid attributing risk experienced by everyday finite people to an infinite all knowing deity. Risk implies taking action or making a decision wherein the outcome of loss or injury is a real possibility, which is due to the fact that finite creatures have an imperfect knowledge of future events, and they can only guess the outcome. One of the reasons why a free creature might take a risk is that the anticipated benefits outweigh the potential liabilities. 1 Risk...

One amazing thing about God is that His existence extended beyond the big bang and the formation of all time and matter. God is not only everywhere present at the moment, He is also eternal with neither beginning nor end. There was never a time He did not exist, neither will there ever be a time He shall cease to exist. The psalmist declares, “Before the mountains were born, or Your gave birth to the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God” (Psalm 9:2, NASB). Christ is “before all things, and in Him all things hold together (Col. 1:17). As finite people we are bound in time. We live in the present, remember the past, and look forward to the future. We arrive either on time, early, or late. We even try to define our lives in relation to time—what we have done, where we are at, and what we hope to accomplish. Yet, God transcends all these things. He is not bound to live moment by moment. The everlasting God is the source of our understanding of the universe...

How foolish it is to think that the God who exists can only be found in a certain location. Can we really say, “God is here, but not there?” What do we mean when we say, “Let your glory fill this place,” or “Be filled with the Spirit?” Isaiah prophesied, “Thus says the LORD, ‘Heaven is My throne and the earth is My footstool. Where then is house you could build for Me? And where is a place that I may rest? For My hand made all these things, thus all these things came into being’ ” (Isa. 66:1-2a). Here we find that the presence of God in the world is far more expansive than the very temple that had been built for the very purpose of worshipping God. David likewise sings, “Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? If I ascend to heaven, You are there; If I make my bed in Sheol, behold, You are there” (Psa. 139:7-8). The king understood that even if he were to traverse the great divide between the living and the dead, even in the afterlife God would still be...

For the LORD God omnipotent reigneth! Hallelujah! God is worthy to receive all glory, honor, and praise from people. He is to be worshiped because of who He is. One attribute or characteristic of God is omnipotence. God is all powerful and there is no other like Him. There is nothing that exists that is impossible for Him to handle. He is neither bound by any limitations, nor subject to losing any of His capacities. The works of the Almighty are evident. God is the creator of all things. The psalmist declares, “By the word of the LORD the heavens were made, and by the breath of His mouth all their host” (Ps. 33:2). God has spoken and the universe came into existence out of nothing. So vast is this universe that if one could take a space ship from earth to the universe’s edge at the speed of light at 186, 000 miles per second—barring the time alterations that Einstein theorized would happen and using earth-bound clocks—it would take 100,000 years until we can make out the spiral shape o...

The question of whether or not we can know God is deep and profound. Many search the universe in hopes of finding something transcendent, but a few simply give up the quest, and settle for the idea that the material universe is all that there is, and nothing more. Yet, for many thinkers, the idea of a material universe being all that there is, or philosophical naturalism, is untenable and that the very existence of the universe presupposes the supernatural. The universe that we live in breath had a beginning. When we study the cosmos, we find that the origin of time, space, matter, and energy occurred at the big bang. Yet, nothing comes from nothing, so the finite material universe that exists must have been caused. The issue is not just a +100 canceling out -100 to equal 0, for even this presupposes the existence of +100 and -100; rather, the idea is that the universe came together out of nothing. What we know and observe in the universe, such as time, space, matter, energy, even the ...

As I touched on the subject of the Trinity in the last blog, I thought it important to note that in misunderstanding the nature of God results in misguided worship. Error begets error. I often hear fellow Christians say, “I got this great analogy for the Trinity, it’s like water, ice, and steam; they are all the same stuff (H2O) but different forms.” The sameness of the molecular structure of water/steam/ice may account for the unity of God, but it misses the clear biblical passages on the interactions between the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. For example, “The Father loves the Son” (cf. John 3:35; 5:20) but neither water, nor ice, nor steam express acts of love to one another. The same can be said about the egg analogy, there is not interpersonal love between the shell, yoke, and egg whites. The modes or manifestations expressed in the H2O and egg analogies are actually more akin to the ancient theological heresy of modalistic monarchianism (also called Sabellianism). The modalist...