Two dangers facing the church

“And why do you break the command of God for the sake of your tradition? For God said, ‘Honor your father and mother’a and ‘Anyone who curses his father or mother must be put to death.’ But you say that if a man says to his father or mother, ‘Whatever help you might otherwise have received from me is a gift devoted to God,’ he is not to ‘honor his fatherc’ with it. Thus you nullify the word of God for the sake of your tradition. You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you: ‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain; their teachings are but rules taught by men.’" (Matthew 15:3-9 NIV) "Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day. These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ. Do not let anyone who delights in false humility and the worship of angels disqualify you for the prize. Such a person goes into great detail about what he has seen, and his unspiritual mind puffs him up with idle notions. He has lost connection with the Head, from whom the whole body, supported and held together by its ligaments and sinews, grows as God causes it to grow. Since you died with Christ to the basic principles of this world, why, as though you still belonged to it, do you submit to its rules: 'Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!'? These are all destined to perish with use, because they are based on human commands and teachings. Such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom, with their self-imposed worship, their false humility and their harsh treatment of the body, but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence. (Colossians 2:16-23 NIV). Modern Christians tend to misjudge the Pharisees. From a human standpoint the Pharisees were not evil men disguising themselves as good, they were religious men desperately trying to be good. Unfortunately that desire became the bait of the trap of self-righteousness that they found themselves entrapped in. Let's take a quick look at how Pharisaism developed. While in the Babylonian captivity, the religious leaders began to rightly reason, "We are in this mess because we broke the Law of God." Moving forward from that premise, they devised a strategy to rectify the problem. That strategy resulted in erecting fences around the Law of God in an effort to keep people from breaking that law. Historically the process resulted in the work we know as the Talmund. By Jesus' day there were some 724 volumes of rabbinic interpretations all designed to keep the Jews from stepping over the boundary of the Law. Unfortunately, the very fences these rabbinic leaders erected to protect the Law became the very obstacles that obscured the Law and elicited Jesus scathing rebuke, "Thus you nullify the word of God for the sake of your tradition." Modern Christians are not immune. How sad when we as believers allow our traditions to trump Biblical truth! A number of years ago I was at a conference of Baptist churches where the speaker asked the youth leaders, "Who would you tell your older teens to marry if they asked you? One leader proudly answered, "I'd tell them to marry a Baptist first and a Christian second!" That my friend is a prime example of tradition being held as the authority of truth! As I see it there are two very real dangers facing the church today. One is modernity, a view that is constantly altering the Word of God in hopes of staying relevant. Whether we want to acknowledge it or not, those who follow such a tack have a very weak view of Scripture. They do not view the Bible as the Authoritative Word of God, rather they se it as the creation of fallen and often misguided men who wrote from a standpoint of cultural bias. By and large we recognize this danger as that of theological liberalism, unless we are in the Baptist tradition, then we call such people "moderates" A second danger, one we don't quickly or easily recognize in our churches, is the danger of Pharisaism where traditions become mistaken as truth. Don't get me wrong, I am not opposed to tradition, but I am opposed to any tradition which is elevated to the status of Biblical truth and supported by Scriptures purposefully misinterpreted as the frame of tradition is forced upon what we allow the Scripture to say. We need to be careful students of the Scripture. We need to carefully guard the Truth of God's Word, and avoid the dangers inherent in either liberalism or Pharisaism. Rev. Dr. John Pearrell, Gateway Community Church (SBC) Covington, GA

Do Christians and Muslims Worship the Same God?

Do Christians and Muslims Worship the Same God?

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There is a growing myth that needs to be exposed.  Recently, an influential evangelical pastor reportedly has declared that Christians and Muslims worship the same God.  This misunderstanding is found in the broader misunderstanding that all the monotheistic religions worship the same God.  A.     According to Eerdman’s handbook of religion “Judaism is the oldest of the three great monotheistic religions and is the parent of both Christianity and Islam.”  The assumption then is since we have a common ancestry, we must then have a common God.

Now, beside the fact that if one is to read the Koran he or she will discover that the Allah of the Koran is quite different in nature then the God of the Bible.  But let’s not argue that particular point.  For those of us who are Christians, the authority of Scripture must be the foundation upon which we build our world view on this important question.

I believe that there are two key passages which help us answer the question as to whether or not we who name the name of Christ and those who follow the prophet Mohammad are in fact trying to approach the same God.

Our first passage is found in Acts 17.  Paul is in Athens and he has observed the multiplicity of ways in which the Athenians were trying to approach God.  “So Paul stood up in front of the council and said: People of Athens, I see that you are very religious. As I was going through your city and looking at the things you worship, I found an altar with the words, “To an Unknown God.” You worship this God, but you don’t really know him. So I want to tell you about him. This God made the world and everything in it. He is Lord of heaven and earth, and he doesn’t live in temples built by human hands. He doesn’t need help from anyone. He gives life, breath, and everything else to all people. From one person God made all nations who live on earth, and he decided when and where every nation would be. God has done all this, so that we will look for him and reach out and find him. He isn’t far from any of us, and he gives us the power to live, to move, and to be who we are. “We are his children,” just as some of your poets have said. Since we are God’s children, we must not think that he is like an idol made out of gold or silver or stone. He isn’t like anything that humans have thought up and made. In the past, God forgave all this because people did not know what they were doing. But now he says that everyone everywhere must turn to him. He has set a day when he will judge the world’s people with fairness. And he has chosen the man Jesus to do the judging for him. God has given proof of this to all of us by raising Jesus from death.” (Acts 17:22–31, CEV)

Notice a number of key points Paul makes: (1) it is possible to be religious yet deceived.  He says, “You worship this God, but you don’t really know Him.  If one stops and thinks about it for a minute, if the Bible is true and “Only Jesus has the power to save! His name is the only one in all the world that can save anyone.” (Acts 4:12, CEV), then one of Satan’s most diabolical devices is any belief system that points people anywhere else but to Christ.  Indeed, Paul makes this point in the text above.  (2)” In the past, God forgave all this because people did not know what they were doing. But now he says that everyone everywhere must turn to him. He has set a day when he will judge the world’s people with fairness.”  May I put this in plain English, people who try to get to God any other way beside Christ are worshipping in vain; they are spinning their wheels so to speak.  (3) The third key point Paul makes is that the resurrection of Christ has “sealed the deal” and in judgment Allah will not save you, Mohammad, will not save you, Moses will not save you, Abraham will not save you, Buddha will not save you, nor will any of the 300 million gods of Hinduism.  Only Christ can save you.

Now, let’s jump back to a very key passage of Scripture found in John 8.  Jesus is in a debate with the Jews.  They claim, “The only Father we have is God himself.”  (John 8:41).  Look carefully at Jesus’ response:  “If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God and now am here. I have not come on my own; but he sent me. Why is my language not clear to you? Because you are unable to hear what I say. You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desire. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies. Yet because I tell the truth, you do not believe me! Can any of you prove me guilty of sin? If I am telling the truth, why don’t you believe me? He who belongs to God hears what God says. The reason you do not hear is that you do not belong to God.” (John 8:42–47, NIV84).  And earlier in John 8 Jesus says something quite astonishing, and, if I may be so bold, quite clearly.  Look at John 8:19, “You do not know me or my Father.  If you knew me, you would know my Father also.”

What did Jesus just say?  Very simply He says clearly and firmly that the only way to know the true God is by knowing Him.  If I understand this correctly, Jesus has just claimed that unless we recognize Him, we cannot recognize God.  Therefore, any religion that worships any God apart from Christ is not worshipping the One True God of Heaven!

Now, before you start crying “Bigot,” “Elitist,” and start telling me to “read the rest of the Bible,” etc., etc., let me remind you of two other very important passages of Scripture.  John 14:6 and Matthew 26:39.  In John 14:6 Jesus makes a very startling claim, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6, NIV84).  Notice here please that Jesus does not claim to be a way to God, but He claims to be the only way to God.  That “no one” is a universal exclusive.  So if you are going to call anyone a bigot, and an elitist, and arrogant, you need to start those accusations with Jesus since he is the one who made the claim.

Many of course want to argue that Jesus really said no such thing.  It is amazing how selective we get when it comes to wanting to believe what we want to believe.  Many claim to accept the authority of Scripture except when they say something they don’t want to hear, then they start all sort of mental gyrations to get it where they want it.  One of my favorite is the guy who told me, “Well, Jesus didn’t mean that He was the only way to God, what He meant was His way of love is the only way to God.” 

So put John 14:6 aside for a minute, and look at Jesus’ prayer in the Garden. “Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, ‘My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.’” (Matthew 26:39, NIV84).  What is Jesus asking for here?  He is asking the Father if there is any other way of salvation; any other way men might be able to get into real fellowship with God, any other way men might be able to enter the Kingdom of God, then, please, don’t let Him go to the cross.  Does He go to the cross?  If the answer is yes, then the corollary to that is there is no other way to heaven except through Jesus the Christ.

Years ago, after a trip, I came home and received some very bad news; news no one wants to hear—ever.  I was told that a biopsy had revealed not only a cancer, but the fastest growing cancer known to man.  Not good news.  Let me ask you a question.  Wouldn’t it have been more loving for my doctor and then my wife (who delivered the news to me), just to keep quiet about it?  Not to tell me the truth about my condition?  Obviously the answer is no.  The most loving thing they could do was to tell me the truth, give me the prescribed course of treatment and then let me decide whether I would believe them and follow the advice, or if I would deny the advice and frankly die.

Strange to me at least that we can understand that logic on a physical level, but on the spiritual level where we are dealing with eternal matters of life and death, we think it is more loving to let people believe in that which is not true rather than run the risk of offending them.  I weep when I realize some believing Muslims strap bombs to themselves, blow up innocent people (it matters not if they are infidels or other Muslims) believing that they are going to wake up in Paradise.  But if what Jesus said, is true, they wake up instead in an eternal hell.  Oh, wait, I guess it is not loving for me to point that out is it.

Whatever you think on this matter is ultimately between you and God.  I for one am going to rest on the authority of the revealed Word of God rather than upon my own wishful thinking.

Love in Perspective

“Continue your love to those who know you, your righteousness to the upright in heart.  May the foot of the proud not come against me, nor the hand of the wicked drive me away.  See how the evildoers lie fallen— thrown down, not able to rise!” (Psalm 36:10-12 NIV).




Yesterday we talked about God’s love. Notice verse 10, “Continue your love to those who know you, your righteousness to the upright in heart.” Somewhere in our sinfulness we have gotten the mistaken idea that the truth, “God is love,” (1 John 4:16 NIV) automatically excuses us from any consequence of sin. Nothing could be further from the truth. Our text reminds us that God’s love is experienced by “those who know (Him)” and His righteousness is reserved for “the upright in heart.” Our text goes on to remind us that there is coming a day when all who are unrighteous one day will “lie fallen— thrown down, not able to rise!”



If God is only love everyone gets to go to heaven–no matter how they lived or what they did. Before you rejoice at that thought, this means, Adolph Hitler, the mass murder of some 15 million people, Joseph Stalin who murdered some 30-60 million Russians, Chairman Mao Tse Tung who murdered 30 million Chinese, Saddam Hussain’s sons who brutally tortured and murdered thousands of innocent people, Nero, the terrorists who brought down the world trade center . . . all of these are enjoying the benefits of heaven today if God is only love. Ah, now the problem becomes a little more clear.



The same Bible that teaches God is love also teaches that He is just. The Bible says, “The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness,  maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation.” (Exodus 34:6-7 NIV– emphasis mine). And the Bible says, “And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment.” (Hebrews 9:27 NKJV). Now if God is just, certainly those listed in the paragraph above are not in heaven. But, before you rejoice, understand this: if God were only just, not only are the men mentioned above where they belong, but if God is only just, no one gets to go to heaven. “There is no one righteous, not even one . . . For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:10 & 23 NIV). This is why we need Christ. In Christ the justice of God is satisfied so that the love of God may be extended. You cannot experience the personal love of God apart from Christ. If you want to stand, you must stand in Him. If you want to stand you must first kneel at the foot of the cross.

Unbelievable Love

“Your love, O Lord, reaches to the heavens, your faithfulness to the skies.  Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains, your justice like the great deep. O Lord, you preserve both man and beast. How priceless is your unfailing love! Both high and low among men find refuge in the shadow of your wings. They feast on the abundance of your house; you give them drink from your river of delights.  For with you is the fountain of life; in your light we see light.” (Ps 36:5-9 NIV).




What a glorious way to start the day! The song writer penned (on a dungeon wall I might add), “The love of God is greater far then tongue or pen can ever tell, it goes beyond the highest star and reaches to the lowest hell . . . Could we with ink the oceans fill and were the skies of parchment made, were every stalk on earth a quill and every man a scribe by trade, to write the love of God above would drain the oceans dry, nor could the scroll contain the whole though stretched from sky to sky.”



Paul wrote, “And I pray that Christ will be more and more at home in your hearts, living within you as you trust in him. May your roots go down deep into the soil of God’s marvelous love; and may you be able to feel and understand, as all God’s children should, how long, how wide, how deep, and how high his love really is; and to experience this love for yourselves, though it is so great that you will never see the end of it or fully know or understand it. And so at last you will be filled up with God himself.” (Ephesians 3:17-19 TLB emphasis mine).



May you feel that love today. That incomprehensible, indescribable love. That love that caused the Father to send the Son to a world He knew did not want Him, to a world He knew would abuse Him to a world He knew would kill Him. It is that love that caused the self-sufficient God (which means He needs absolutely nothing from anyone or anything) to utter the first fiat of creation already having determined what it was going to cost Him! Amazing love!



Do you know that love? Have you personally responded to it? Have you invited Jesus into your own heart as Savior and Lord? If not, I pray that you will do that today. Here is a simple prayer you may pray: “Dear Lord Jesus, I need you. I know that I am a sinner and need forgiveness of my sin. I believe that you died on the cross and rose from the dead to pay the penalty for my sin and purchase a place for me in heaven which you offer as a free gift. I don’t understand it all, but I accept that gift by faith right now. Come into my heart. Help me from this moment on to live under your holy control. Thank you for hearing my prayer. In Jesus Name, Amen.”



May the Lord richly bless you as you live for Him.

Playing with Fire

“An oracle is within my heart concerning the sinfulness of the wicked: There is no fear of God before his eyes. For in his own eyes he flatters himself too much to detect or hate his sin. The words of his mouth are wicked and deceitful; he has ceased to be wise and to do good. Even on his bed he plots evil; he commits himself to a sinful course and does not reject what is wrong.” (Ps 36:1-4 NIV emphasis mine).




The Message renders these verses, "The God-rebel tunes in to sedition— all ears, eager to sin. He has no regard for God, he stands insolent before him.  He has smooth-talked himself into believing That his evil will never be noticed. Words gutter from his mouth, dishwater dirty. Can’t remember when he did anything decent.  Every time he goes to bed, he fathers another evil plot. When he’s loose on the streets, nobody’s safe. He plays with fire and doesn’t care who gets burned.”



Not a particularly pleasant thought for a daily devotional, but an unfortunately practical one.



David begins this particular Psalm with these words, “An oracle is within my heart concerning the sinfulness of the wicked . . . .” His mind is contemplating the problem of evil as it relates to men. We’ve all done it. We wonder how certain people can be so spiritually stupid–our text answers that, “For in his own eyes he flatters himself too much to detect or hate his sin. . . he has ceased to be wise.”



One of the sad realities of sin is the deeper it is the less we recognize it. The heart of the problem of those suffering from addiction is not ultimately the substance itself but the heart of the addict him or her self. Only Christ can change that. Someone once observed, “You can take the bum out of the slum, but you can’t take the slum out of the bum.” Social change is not enough; we need Christ. The sinner “commits himself to a sinful course and does not reject what is wrong.” It is a choice. We are not simply “products of our environment.” I know people who have had a wonderful home environment and are rotten. On the other hand I also know people who have had a rotten home environment and are wonderful. The difference? Choice. No one has the power to make you what you are; you choose to be what you are. The sad thing is, when sin is factored into that equation, our tendency is to become blind to that particular truth. We cry in our milk, lament our lot in life, commit ourselves to continuing the downward slide and never recognize what is happening! The one who plays with fire may burn other people, but eventually they will get burnt themselves. The fact that hell is described as a place of burning is poetic justice at its best.



Thankfully, God has made a way out for anyone who will respond in faith to Christ. But just as the road to ruin is traveled by committed people, so the road to redemption must be traveled by committed people. It is not a one time decision and I’m off the hook. It is a daily walk. Jesus said, “Knowing the correct password—saying ‘Master, Master,’ for instance—isn’t going to get you anywhere with me. What is required is serious obedience—doing what my Father wills.” (Matthew 7:21 MSG).

The Power of the Tongue

“My tongue will speak of your righteousness and of your praises all the day long.” (Psalm 35:28 NIV).




The human tongue is an interesting commodity. James says of it, "Dear brothers and sisters, not many of you should become teachers in the church, for we who teach will be judged by God with greater strictness. We all make many mistakes, but those who control their tongues can also control themselves in every other way. We can make a large horse turn around and go wherever we want by means of a small bit in its mouth. And a tiny rudder makes a huge ship turn wherever the pilot wants it to go, even though the winds are strong. So also, the tongue is a small thing, but what enormous damage it can do. A tiny spark can set a great forest on fire. And the tongue is a flame of fire. It is full of wickedness that can ruin your whole life. It can turn the entire course of your life into a blazing flame of destruction, for it is set on fire by hell itself. People can tame all kinds of animals and birds and reptiles and fish, but no one can tame the tongue. It is an uncontrollable evil, full of deadly poison. Sometimes it praises our Lord and Father, and sometimes it breaks out into curses against those who have been made in the image of God. And so blessing and cursing come pouring out of the same mouth. Surely, my brothers and sisters, this is not right!" (James 3:1-10 NLT). I like the way The Message puts verses 5-10 of this (James) passage: "A word out of your mouth may seem of no account, but it can accomplish nearly anything—or destroy it! It only takes a spark, remember, to set off a forest fire. A careless or wrongly placed word out of your mouth can do that. By our speech we can ruin the world, turn harmony to chaos, throw mud on a reputation, send the whole world up in smoke and go up in smoke with it, smoke right from the pit of hell. This is scary: You can tame a tiger, but you can’t tame a tongue—it’s never been done. The tongue runs wild, a wanton killer. With our tongues we bless God our Father; with the same tongues we curse the very men and women he made in his image. Curses and blessings out of the same mouth! My friends, this can’t go on.” (Emphasis mine).



We don’t often think about the tongue and as such we greatly under-estimate it’s power. James is right, “By our speech we can ruin the world . . .” An obscure Austrian painter proved that. Probably no individual personifies the potent power of the tongue toward evil ends than Adolf Hitler. By all historical accounts, there is no way this mad-man should have ever gained the type of power he managed to gain. It was his speeches–the power of the tongue–that captured the German people and led to the holocaust and to a devastating world war. The tongue has power.



The tongue has power for good or for evil. Sadly because of sin, we seem to much more effective at using our tongues to tear down rather then build up. Oh that we could learn with the Psalmist to use our tongues “to speak of (God’s) righteousness and (sing) of His praises all day long.” I wonder what change such a commitment would bring in our churches alone not to speak of the changes that would occur in our world. If God’s people would determine to pray daily “Set a guard over my mouth, O Lord; keep watch over the door of my lips.” (Psalm 141:3 NIV), and then live it, I wonder what changes would be wrought in this land?

How to Handle a good Roast

“1O Lord, fight those fighting me; declare war on them for their attacks on me. 2Put on your armor, take your shield and protect me by standing in front. 3Lift your spear in my defense, for my pursuers are getting very close. Let me hear you say that you will save me from them. 4Dishonor those who are trying to kill me. Turn them back and confuse them. 5Blow them away like chaff in the wind—wind sent by the Angel of the Lord. 6Make their path dark and slippery before them, with the Angel of the Lord pursuing them. 7For though I did them no wrong, yet they laid a trap for me and dug a pitfall in my path. 8Let them be overtaken by sudden ruin, caught in their own net and destroyed.” (Psalm 35:1-8 TLB).




No matter where we are in life, no matter what we do, there will always be critics. I watch our President (no matter which of the 11 I’ve lived my life under) and no matter what course of action he takes, there are always those claiming it was the wrong course of action and a frenzied media to evaluate the situation with their own biased spin on the events.



Years ago I was the director of a camp for troubled young people. I remember giving the rules of the camp to one group of very defiant young women. One particularly stood out. Everything I said was met with a click of the tongue (a sign of disgust), a roll of the eyes and a toss of her head. As I finished the orientation I made a very positive and affirming statement which was met with a very comical beginning click, half rolled eyes and a caught toss of the head. Today you could almost hear Homer Simpson “D’OH!” This critic was caught in the act. If only all were that simple!



All of us know the pain of false pursuit, harmful lies, and personal attacks. The Psalmist continues, “These evil men swear to a lie. They accuse me of things I have never even heard about. I do them good, but they return me harm. I am sinking down to death. When they were ill, I mourned before the Lord in sackcloth, asking him to make them well; I refused to eat; I prayed for them with utmost earnestness, but God did not listen. I went about sadly as though it were my mother, friend, or brother who was sick and nearing death. But now that I am in trouble they are glad; they come together in meetings filled with slander against me—I didn’t even know some of those who were there.” (Psalm 35:11-15 TLB). It’s amazing to watch people come out of the wood-work for a good roast! There isn’t a pastor alive who has not had the experience of ministering care to people only to have them get well and turn viciously on them.



What do we do in times like these? The Psalmist knew. Give the issue over to God. Most commentators believe that David wrote this Psalm during the years he was being hunted by Saul. During this time, David had the opportunity to take matters into his own hands, yet he steadfastly refused. David realized that God does a much better job of setting things right, even if it does not appear to be in the timely manner for which we sometimes wish.



I don't know what issues you may be facing today, perhaps a friend or co-worker has suddenly turned against you or perhaps you are stinging from lies and rumors being spread about you. If you find yourself in such a predicament, you can do one of two things: you can stress over it and try to make it right, or you can entrust the issue to God and let Him work. I have learned over the years that when I try to fix certain things, I just end up in the way. Let go and let God work.