Our Life and Times : Biblical Reasoning for a Modern Age
BLOGGER · THEOLOGIAN · APOLOGIST
Norman Harold Patterson Jr.
If I Die…
Someone I’ve known for many years died the other day. It’s an interesting phenomenon that when people die, we eulogies them. We stop and pause and think about the messages they proclaimed throughout their life. It seems we find more meaning in things they may have said, done, or written only after they die.
I think we honor people more after they die because they are no longer a threat. They no longer are competition. They cannot rise and speak for themselves or defend themselves. Because of this, it is easier to say good things about them. We contemplate the mystery of their lives, passions, struggles, joys, and concerns.
I am positioning myself so that when I die (not “if” I die), people who knew me or heard about me will become nostalgic or curious and check out things that I have written. And I hope and pray that what I have written is a clear and consistent witness to the gospel of Jesus Christ.
When I die, I want people to read this article. I want the curious to know that there is only one way of salvation, and that is through a repentant heart having faith in Jesus Christ, the Second Person of the Trinity who died a substitutionary death on their behalf.
I want atheists to hear that atheism is entirely untenable. To deny the existence of the self-existing Triune God who has revealed Himself in His self-authenticating Bible means that you cannot prove anything. Without Him, reason, science, and morality are impossible. As Dr. Cornelius Van Til so aptly proclaimed, “Antitheism presupposes Theism.” By “theism,” he does not mean just any god, such as the false god of Islam, Mormonism, Jehovah’s Witnesses, or any other religion. Only the Christian God of the Bible mediated through the Second Person of the Trinity, Jesus Christ, is worthy of love, honor, praise, and thanksgiving.
When I die, I believe God will sovereignly direct the reader to read my words and be confronted with the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And I pray the Holy Spirit will breathe spiritual life into the core of your being so that you will become a child of God.
I pray those who read these words who are caught in the deception of our age where people, even pastors, are lying to you telling you that what God clearly calls sin is now, somehow miraculously made holy. I pray the Spirit would so convict those stopping by curious about my life, and my message will be so changed that no matter how difficult, how painful, how radical a change you have to make to get right with God, you will do it. Hell is real, and I want to see you again in heaven. I want you to tell me how God used what I wrote to change you for all eternity.
It doesn’t matter if you read these words before or after I die. What matters is that you respond to them by placing your faith in Christ.
Christians: Where’s Our Passion?
The passion of Black Lives Matter and Gay Pride put American Christians to shame.
If Bible-believing Christians proclaimed the gospel of Jesus Christ and advanced the kingdom of God with the same passion, intensity, and determination as BLM and the LGBTQIA+ crowd, I wonder what would happen in our world and in our nation. Perhaps we really don’t believe as deeply in our message as they do in theirs. Just saying.
Para Carlos
Mi amigo Carlos Unda me hizo una pregunta:
"Una pregunta y es seria. Porque la Biblia fue escrita hace cientos de años en un lugar que ni conosco en una lengua que ni entiendo y porque necesito que otros seres humanos me la traduzcan, me la expliquen y me la interpreten, seria mas fácil para dios mandarnos la biblia ya traducida y en forma directa sin intermediarios? Bueno eso es lo que yo pienso con todo respeto."
Es una pregunta justa y excelente. Gracias por preguntarme. Todavía estoy aprendiendo español, así que perdone mis errores gramaticales.
De hecho la Biblia fue escrita hace miles de años y muchos lugares no conocemos. Es muy difícil entender las linguas de la Biblia original pero no es imposible. Podemos comunicar en español porque me tomé el tiempo para aprenderlo. He aprendido y estudiado Hebreo y Griego para entender la Biblia mejor. Pero hay muchas herramientas disponible para estudiar la Biblia con ti mismo. Puedes comprobar las traducciones por ti mismo para ver si son precisas o no si quieres. También puedes comparar muchas traducciones en español para tener una idea del significado original Ambos es trabajo pero es posible pero vale la pena.
Pero en mi opinion no es necesario tener otros para te la interpreten. Aquí está la principal diferencia entre los protestantes y los católicos. Hay un dicho para los protestantes, Solo Scriptura. En otras palabras no necesitamos la Papa o la tradición de la iglesia para leer, entender o interpretar la Biblia. Otros pueden ayudarnos pero tenemos la derecha conocer la Biblia sin intermediarios.
Además, en muchas denominaciones protestantes la gente puede cuestionar a sus pastores y destituirlos de sus cargos si el pastor enseña doctrinas que no son bíblicas y que son obviamente un error. Es muy parecido con el gobierno civil. Tenemos el derecho de remover a los tiranos de sus cargos e incluso derrocar al gobierno si es necesario.
No sé exactamente por qué Dios escribió la biblia de la manera en que lo hizo pero tengo ideas de mi mismo. En esencia la Biblia es una historia de amor. En última instancia es un relato de cómo Dios hizo un camino para salvar a la humanidad perdida convirtiéndose él mismo en un ser humano en Jesucristo y tomando nuestro pecado sobre sí mismo para que podamos convertirnos en los hijos e hijas de Dios. Es una historia de un Hombre inocente siendo castigado en lugar de personas culpables.
Tel vez la pregunta real es no sería más fácil para Dios revelarse directamente a todos las personas todo el tiempo? Por qué usar un libro?
En mi opinión, eso nos quitaría la capacidad y el derecho a elegir. ¿Quién quiere ser forzado a creer en Dios? Hay suficiente evidencia de Dios, pero también está oculta. Se necesita fe. Dios se revelará a cualquiera que lo busque, pero se mostrará en formas que aún tienen fe. ¿Sé que Dios existe al 100% y que la Biblia es verdadera? Lo sé porque si el Dios Trino de la Biblia no existe, nada tiene sentido. Quitar el Dios como se reveló en la Biblia y no hay base para la ciencia, la razón o la moral.
Con respeto, esa es mi respuesta.
The Ultimate Precaution
There’s something affecting humanity that is far deadlier than COVID-19 and yet so few pay it any mind. I think people fear the coronavirus because they ultimately fear death. It’s interesting to me to see how few people fear sin. The Bible says, “The wages of sin is death.” (Romans 6:23) What if we feared sin as much as the coronavirus? Sin has caused more death and destruction and devastation than any virus the world has ever seen, yet so many of us are as comfortable with sin as we are with an old familiar pair of bluejeans.
Look at all the precautions people are taking to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. Governments have closed much of the world. People wear masks and keep at least 6 feet apart. We are even willing to tank the economy and all the devastation that will cause in order to flatten the curve.
Imagine if we took sin as seriously as we are taking COVID-19? Imagine if we feared God more than we feared sickness and death? Jesus said, “And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.” (Matthew 10:28)
Please don’t misread me. Take precautions against real threats. Yet, I’m amazed and saddened by a world that puts so much energy into battling a virus while giving so little attention to sin and God.
There’s no cure for COVID-19, but there is a cure for sin. The cure is faith in Jesus Christ and His atoning blood that was poured out when He died on the cross. Take precautions against coronavirus, but shouldn't we take the greater precaution of where we will spend eternity? In Christ, we do not need to fear death or disease or destruction. Take the ultimate precaution by trusting in Jesus Christ today.
We find the Dominion Mandate for Bible-believing Christians in Genesis 1:26-28:
Then God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth." So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. Then God blessed them, and God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth."
For Christians, this means that God has given us the responsibility to take dominion over the entire world. We have God's approval and authority to "fill the earth and subdue it." Add to this Christ's call in Matthew 28:19+20 to:
Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in[a] the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age."
And 2 Corinthians 10:3-6:
For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ, being ready to punish every disobedience, when your obedience is complete.
While God called Christians to be separate from the world in holiness, He doesn't give us the option to isolate ourselves from the world physically. As Jesus said:
I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. John 17:14-15
Because of false piety and a lack of understanding of these and other Dominion affirming Biblical texts, Christians far too often vacate the world, leaving an "influence vacuum." As the old saying goes, "nature abhors a vacuum." Because of this, instead of taking Dominion over the arts, sciences, court systems, political offices, universities, and so on, Christians withdraw into isolated communities only to leave the world unoccupied.
As a result, anti-Christ people and philosophies have readily taken over virtually every facet of life. The greatest antithesis to Biblical Christianity has understood and intentionally implemented the Dominion Mandate for their own sinister ends.
The most dangerous of all are those espousing Cultural Marxism. Briefly, Cultural Marxism is an expansion of Classical Marxism, which focuses primarily on the economic philosophy of Karl Marx. Cultural Marxism is much more all-encompassing than Classical Marxism.
Ultimately, Cultural Marxism is about liberating humanity from the moral constraints of Biblical Christianity. The Bible prohibits same-sex intimacy, adultery in all forms, polygamy, bigamy, bestiality, pedophilia, and so on. God created man and woman in His image and commanded them to be fruitful and multiply; the Dominion Mandate!
The method Cultural Marxism employs to propagate its insidious agenda is through applying the Biblical Mandate. The plan has been and continues to be for those who oppose Biblical Christianity to infiltrate and dominate every known sphere of influence. As Voddie Bachem pointed out, their strategy is to take over the "robes" of society; professors, pastors, and judges, for example.
R.J. Rushdoony and the Christian Reconstructionists proposed the same tactic, taking over the "robes" of society. However, instead of a great "Amen" from the rest of the Church, Christian Reconstructionism has been vilified as patriarchal, extreme, and misguided.
In the meantime, Cultural Marxism is dominating the universities, media, churches, courts, arts, etc. They are putting Christians and Christianity to shame by their ardent intentionality to dominate the world for Self.
As the degeneration of our culture continues, so will the hostility toward Biblical Christianity. And just as Marxism tried to destroy Biblical Christianity through the reign of terror in anti-Christ regimes like the Soviet Union and Communist China, modern Marxists will not rest until Biblical Christianity is destroyed.
The good news, however, is the promise of Jesus Christ. He said that the "gates of hell" will not prevail against the Church. (Matthew 16:18) The image Christ was giving was not a Church that was cowering in the corner, battening down the hatches until the storm of hell subsided. Just the opposite. Hell is under attack, and its filthy gates are no match for the power and glory of the Risen Christ and His Bride.
Christians can no longer cower in corners. It is time for us to take up the battle cry and assault Cultural Marxism and any other "high place" (2 Corinthians 10:3-6) that dares to raise itself against the knowledge of God. Our weapons are not of the flesh (Ephesians 6), but they are weapons nonetheless and are worthless if left unused.
It is time for Christians to take back our country, our world for Christ. We must do it according to the means and methods of Jesus Christ and His Kingdom, which means we must take Dominion and occupy all walks of life for the glory of the crown rights of Jesus Christ.
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