What is the deal with Hell?  Is it really there or not?  And if it is there, is it really as bad as we have been led to believe?  And (here's the real question) if it is as bad as they say, why are we not more terrified?

I came to Christ as a non-believer - I didn't believe in God, didn't believe in Jesus, I didn't believe in Heaven, and I sure didn't believe in Hell.  And I didn't want to, either.  But when I got saved and felt the Spirit of God transform my soul, I accepted the whole deal.  I didn't need to see it; it was part of the whole package.

But the rational, analytical part of me has always looked curiously at the whole idea of Heaven and Hell.  It just doesn't make sense.  While I accept it wholeheartedly, it sure would be nice if I could get a glimpse (just to make sure).  Now, I've listened to some people who have seen either Heaven or Hell, and when listening to them tell the vision, I can see in their intensity and depth that they really did see these things.  But I'd just like to see if for myself. Read more

Something is wrong in the Church today.  I don't say that lightly, or as someone who thrives on criticizing everyone else so as to establish my own spiritual superiority, or as someone who is feeding on sour grapes because things aren't the way I would like them.  I say it because of how many people I meet on a daily basis who are discouraged by traditional church and have chosen not to attend anymore.

Everywhere I turn, I hear people complaining about the same thing.  This isn't something localized to a particular area or limited to a certain social strata or denomination --  I hear this from all sorts of people, many with impeccable spiritual credentials. Oftentimes I hear from pastors who have spent decades in ministry who are now questioning the vibrancy of the Church.  Others are just kids off the streets, armed with little more than a spiritual hunger, who refuse to attend church, not because they don't believe, but because they are repelled by what they see.

No matter how you view this issue, no matter what position you have, no matter what church you belong to, you have to admit that something is wrong.  Read more

There is nothing that will soften your heart like a little puppy. If a little puppy can’t get you, you can’t get got.

It seems that the Lord is very much the same way. He tells us to become like little children or we will not inherit the kingdom of God -- and woe unto you if you offend one His little ones! Little kids and widows have a special place in God’s heart.

How unlike us! The things that we esteem highly in our society have more to do with our strengths rather than our weaknesses. Achievements, success, and boldness in business and in our careers get the gold plaque and the award. Strong personalities prevail in all our human interactions, and those who dominate win the prize, while weaker personalities take a lower place in most of our estimations.
This is natural. Life is a competitive place no matter where you are. It is a struggle to survive, and Life isn’t always fair. But then, that’s the way Life is. Read more

by Jesse Duckworth

 It seems as if every time we turn on the television, there's always this "gloom and doom" message about the economy. It's to the point where I have to turn the station or just not watch the news at all. The fact of the matter is that most of the newscasters and analyst truly can't predict what the future will bring. Although the statistics would seem that things are headed for the worst.

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by Jesse Duckworth 

As I discussed in the last blog, our society is becoming more open with sexuality. The government has funded programs to educate our youth and encourage marriage as the answer to the negative sexual issues that have affected so many people in our nation. Unfortunately marriages are decreasing, divorces are increasing, and many of our youth today have lost their innocence. So if funded programs aren't working, what will work?

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Today at church, we had a discussion about praying "dangerous prayers."

A few people in the class admitted that they were afraid of asking God to do certain things in their lives, because they didn't trust him. This is a pretty bold and unapologetically honest group, so I appreciated the candor. We talked about how tough it is to trust God sometimes, because it feels like he's less concerned with our happiness than we are. He sees the big picture and is much more okay with pulling us through glass if it makes us a little bit more like him.

I got to share at the end of the discussion and said something that had been on my heart for awhile: "Our lives aren't that great that we should want to do without discomfort." In other words, life is kind of bland and meaningless without some danger. Read more

Jesus said that unless you become like little children you cannot enter the Kingdom of God.  In Mark 10:15 he says, "I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it."

Hyper-intellectuals on the atheist front perceive this approach as intellectual suicide.  They see a passage like this as prima facie proof that religion, Christianity included, is childish.  One wonders if these folks have children or ever spent any time around them.

I've got four of them and if Jesus means to include them in the pattern of 'little children' then a revision in our traditional, sentimentalistic interpretation is called for.

First of all, my kids aren't uncurious.  In fact, they heckle me and harass me and chase me around the house asking questions.  The same questions.  Over and over until finally I answer them.  "Does 'story' start with 'S'?"  "Will you staple this?"  "Which city is bigger, Milwaukee or Green Bay?"  Faith like a little child apparently does not mean not asking questions.  It apparently does not mean desisting from learning about reality.  It apparently does mean driving your father batty with endless questions about every minute aspect of reality.  (See Luke 18:1-8)

Second of all, my kids are... well, thugs.  Oh sure, they are soft and sweet and cute for a minute here and there.  The rest of the time they are careening off of walls, smacking each other in the nose, swiping cookies from a sibling, distributing legos evenly across the floor in a twenty square foot area... we aren't talking about innocence distilled, here. Read more

By Jesse Duckworth

If we would be honest with ourselves, many of us could say that the world has become so open about sexuality that its influence cannot be denied. Just turn on the television for a moment and I guarantee you'll see something of a sexual nature. Whether it's to sell beer or increase ratings for a television show, sex is shown everywhere!

The problem is that there are no limits to where the media will go in order to sell items or raise television ratings at the expense of influencing our society in a negative way. The messages from radio and television seem to be consistent and that is for men to treat women as objects while women are to feel empowered by exploiting themselves. Not only are we seeing a change in values, but families and the youth are being affected by our "open" sexual society. We can see the devastating results of this from the divorce rates increasing, more teens are getting pregnant, and various sexually transmitted diseases are being spread. Read more

In Judges 12, the Gileadites find a way to distinguish between friend and foe by compelling captured refugees to say the word 'Shibboleth.'  Evidently, Ephraimites couldn't pronounce it correctly, saying instead 'Sibboleth.'  Those that said that latter were struck down while those who said the former were allowed to pass.

'Shibboleths' abound in society, including among Christians.  Unfortunately, even among Christians, a Shibboleth isn't simply a quick way to distinguish where a person stands in relation to you but is used in a manner akin to the Gileadite's use, thankfully, of course, without the resulting slaughter.

Every denomination has their own Shibboleths.  I don't want to give examples out of fear of unduly offending some Christian here or there- and also because my own examples would be construed as a Shibboleth and I could become a victim of the very same phenomena I am referencing! 

However, I can give you examples from outside of Christianity.  For example, a good Muslim, after saying the name Mohammed, will add "Peace be upon him." Jews will write 'God' like this:  G-d.   These are simple examples.

More complicated ones exist, where terms and phrases thrown out in conversation represent whole concepts and arguments and positions cherished within the speaker's faith tradition.  A person outside that faith tradition will hear the terms and phrases but, ignorant of the concepts that are evoked, will construe them differently and further conversation will alert the other that 'They don't really get it.  They aren't in my group.' Read more

There are plenty of commentators on Obama's stimulus package that it would probably be superfulous to add my thoughts on that.  There are some things that haven't been said that I have decided would be better to address from a distinctly Christian viewpoint.

Ultimately, what the government does is irrelevant to what the Christian does.  What I mean is that affairs of governments will ultimately be judged by God.  What we will be accountable for, as Christians, is our own personal relationships and how our local congregations function.  A bible passage that rams this point home is 1 Cor. 5:12-13

"What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church?  Are you not to judge those inside?  God will judge those outside."

There are problems enough that the Church faces that we perhaps ought to begin setting our own affairs in order and resolving the issues that are more directly under our control.

What are some of those problems?  Chronic bible illiteracy, lovelessness, lack of community, hypocrisy, miserliness, rampant divorce, deep debt, etc., I'm sure we can generate the list easily enough.  Solutions are hard to come by, though. Read more

Hat tip to Charles for pointing this article out to me.

Recently ChristianityToday had an excellent article on the use of science fiction to communicate a distinctly secular and atheistic world view. If you are a Christian that cares for the state of the Church today and our modern challenge, you should read the article. The article correctly says:

... viewers don't leave movies such as Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Hancock, X-Men, and Contact—or television programs such as The X-Files or Heroes—scratching their heads in confusion. We are intrigued, but not surprised. Why? Because stories of advanced extraterrestrials, ancient human-alien contact, superior intelligences roaming the universe, and emerging super-races have grown familiar through repeated exposure. Thanks to the longstanding efforts of a wide range of artists, popular writers, and even scientists, we immediately recognize intelligent aliens and advanced humans. We now see space and the future as sources of hope.

One of the things that I've noted (see this blog entry on Heroes and Philip Pullman) is that the modern method is to denounce anything we might call supernatural as nonsense in one breath, and in the other breath re-issue the same phenomena but provide a naturalistic explanation for it. Heroes is a great case in point, as most of the 'heroes' have powers that, if we ever met them in real life, we'd instantly conclude were supernatural. But Heroes prepares the way for 2 Thess. 2:9-10 in that it provides a 'plausible' explanation for how even the miraculous is merely natural. (In my discussions with atheists, no evidence for natural explanations is necessary- plausibility is sufficient. See, for eg., abiogenesis, and Dawkins hemming and hawing at the end of Ben Stein's Expelled). Read more

As I mentioned in the first blog, I wanted to discuss the changes our society has developed in relation to the church and biblical beliefs throughout the years from a humanistic and religious point of view. In my opinion, the humanistic view for change came because each generation began to develop their own beliefs based on "feelings" instead of biblical principals. If we would truly be honest with ourselves, living our lives based on "feelings" will result in many people ending up in jail, divorced, or even dead. (For those that are perfect, I'm not speaking to you) It's so easy to base your morals on something that makes you feel good. But not everything that feels good is good for you. Paul said in I Corinthians 6:12 "All things are lawful for me, but not all things are profitable". If we could understand that God gave us his word to help us live a good life and not make things miserable for us, just imagine where most of us would be today?

The final perspective I would like to give concerning the changes in our nation in relationship to God is religion. I'm going to try my best not to be misunderstood but that's what happens when you talk about religion. There is a difference between "religion" and "relationship" with Christ. Many people today think that going to church once or twice a month and being nice to people qualifies you as a Christian or God-fearing person. But Jesus explained that there will be many people that will claim to have done many acts or works for Him yet He will say that "I never knew you". What I'm trying to say is that just like you know your wife, mother, or siblings because you spend time with them, Jesus wants the same thing from us. Everything else is just religious works and requirements. Read more

There is a lot of talk in churches and in the blogosphere these days about being "missional." We used to call it being "outreach-oriented," but now there's this new buzzword: missional. It sounds cool, but what, exactly, does it mean to be missional?

One blogger explained being missional like this:

There was a day when people believed in institutions and joined them. People wanted to be members of churches and clubs. That day has passed. We can mourn its passing if we want, but it would be a waste of time to try to recapture the importance of the church as an institution. Reggie McNeal... is hard on us institutional types (like me) when he says that people these days are simply not interested in joining a religious club. They do not want to be a part of a group whose main purpose is to continue its own existence. From my own observations, I agree. We can figure out how to be the best religious club the universe has ever seen, and still go out of business in this post modern world.

My church has been raising these same questions, wondering what it looks like for us - a small fellowship that meets in a high school in middle Tennessee - to live more missional lives.

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Nietzchke said that the last Christian died on the cross.  The charge is not fair, of course.  At the very least, there is no denying that the first generation Christians possessed a potent message backed up by an amazing witness in their lives.  I see no reason not to be impressed by the deeply transformed Peter, Paul, John, James the brother of Jesus, etc.

Moreover, it is clear that Christianity thrived in a society that was positively hostile to it.  Skeptical propoganda about Christianity thriving because of the sanction of the state is ridiculous and inaccurate.  Constantine did make Christianity the state religion c. 315 AD, but that was nearly 300 years after the death and resurrection of Jesus and throughout those three centuries there was frequent attempts to annihilate the Christian faith.

Fine, you say, but then I say that the last Christian died in Diocletian's persecution (c. 290 AD).  There aren't any today.

The charge still is not fair but there can be no question that there is a qualitative difference between the New Testament church and the Church today.  Nearly everyone I meet says that if Christians behaved more like we see them behaving in the New Testament (selling off possessions, being martyrs, etc) they would find Christianity more credible.  I think that is what Nietzchke was getting at. Read more

Throughout American history it seems that cultures have changed their beliefs in the Bible, attending church, or in essence being a Christian. As a matter of fact, LifeWay Research which is an organization that develops surveys and other studies on religious topics showed that many non-believers don't have an understanding of God. Results on a survey conducted on 1,402 "unchurched" adults showed that 61% said the God of the Bible is "no different from the gods of spiritual beings depicted by world religions such as Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, etc". The survey also showed that 86% of adults said that they believed a relationship with God could be attained without belonging to a church. Read more

In my first blog entry at the Christian Post I urged readers- whom I expect will mostly be Christian- to rememeber that the Bible gives us no promise of having a Christian culture.  Indeed, the early church sprang into existence in the midst of a multicultural, highly pluralistic, and often hostile environment.  In other words, much like our own, minus the overt hostility... but the day is young, and many detect a trend in that direction.

In spite of all the obstacles, the early church exploded into existence and spread willy nilly throughout the Roman empire.  How?  How did the natives determine Christianity was true, flooded as they were with every kind of religion and philosophy banging on their ears?  It is precisely that sort of reality that I maintain is the source of so much indecision today, so much "It's true for you not for me," so much "That's just your opinion."  People find it ridiculously difficult to sort through truth claims.  So just how can one do it?  How was it done before?

Well, we don't really have to guess.  The early church actually lived the pattern set by Christ and transmitted through the apostles.  Consider 1 John 3:16:  "This is how we know what love is, Jesus Christ laid down his life for us.  And we also ought to lay down our lives for our brothers."  The rest of the passage gives an example of what that looks like.  The heart of it is that people really were willing to die for each other and this was manifested all the way up to discharging all of one's material wealth.  (See also Ephesians 5:1 and 5:25)

And in Acts we read: Read more

There is a major difference between a revolution and a kingdom. Revolutions come and go every few decades. Kingdoms often last for centuries. Every generation seems to have its own revolution of sorts, but when was the last time a generation established an entirely new kingdom?

It takes a lot of gumption to turn a revolution into a kingdom.

There's a lot of talk about "revolution" these days, especially in regards to how the church should be making an impact on its surrounding culture. The 1960s and 1970s had its own religious revolution with the Jesus Movement. More recently, social justice advocates, including the rock star Bono, have called for a revolution to "make poverty history".

Ernesto "Che" Guevara, courtesy of Wikipedia.com. Che helped lead the Communist Revolution in Cuba and in several other countries in the mid-20th century.

It's fun to talk about revolutions and movements. It's trendy, even. As the Beatles once sang, "You say you want a revolution? Well, we all want to change the world..." Moreover, there's nothing particularly wrong (or right) with a revolution. It's an important catalyst to change, but few people ever talk about what happens after the revolution is over.

Take the story of Che Guevara, for instance (pictured to the right, courtesy of Wikipedia.com). Che is a 20th century symbol of political revolution. You've probably seen his face on a T-shirt in a mall somewhere. Early in his life, Ernesto "Che" Guevara was a doctor, and a man of incredible compassion. During his travels throughout Latin America, he was so moved by the endemic poverty that he joined up with Castro and was a major player in the Cuban revolution. Unfortunately, his compassion and drive was twisted into ruthless violence.

Revolutions are exciting, but often short-lived. Without the right end-game, they can definitely turn into something ugly. Here's the rub: Jesus didn't come to start a revolution without establishing a kingdom.

According to our friends at Wikipedia, a revolution is a "fundamental change in power." According to that definition, Christ's campaign to set humanity free from slavery to sin, to break social mores, and to forever alter the course of history definitely fits under the category of "revolution." Jesus was, indeed, a revolutionary. Read more

First things first.  Many thanks to the Christian Post for inviting me to post regularly on their site.  It is an honor and a compliment.  I would invite the reader to take a look at my biography and explore some of my own webpages as it will help one to see where I'm coming from in general.  I have some links at the bottom.

In short, I was raised in the Christian Church, educated in Christian schools, but promptly fell away from the faith while studying to be a pastor.  As it is typically expected that pastors believe in God, this posed obvious difficulties.  Upon my return to the faith, I threw myself into Christian apologetics.  It is my goal to spare others the unnecessary aspects of my journey.  Questioning is good- but let it be reasonable.

With the above in mind, let me make a bold assertion:  We have no right to a Christian culture.  Nowhere in the Bible does it say that the Church is entitled to working within a society that is friendly to our faith and values.  In fact, if anything the New Testament shows that the first Christians were met with hostility on all sides.  The persecution of Christians persisted for hundreds of years.  There were persecutions even after Constantine.  And of course, as we survey the global situation rather than just America's, it is evident that hostility still exists.

What we have in America is not a right nor is it something we are entitled to. Read more