Tag Archives: God

A Modern American Creed

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“Contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints…”
(Jude 3 ESV)

While laboring away on my roof this Labor Day weekend, my mind had freedom to wander, and wander it did.  I began to ask myself, “Does anyone today really take their faith seriously?  Do I?”  From there the thought progression evolved into, “If we were really honest about what we believe, what would our credo be?”  The following is the result of such unconstrained meanderings through my mind.

Disclaimer – – Please take what you are about to read with a grain of salt.  This is meant to be humorous hyperbole, an exaggeration of no one particular expression of faith.  That being said, it is intended to expose some of the unbiblical things that we just assume about our faith.  If this lands a little close to home (as it does for me, at times), may it drive you to God’s Word, that you may be established and strengthened in your faith.

A Modern American Creed

I believe in God –

  • That is, I know there is a higher power, someone out there watching me.  I get my ideas about God from what I saw on Highway to Heaven, and Touched by an Angel, though I’d never admit that in public.  I don’t always have to pray or go to church, because I know that God is always there if I need him.
  • I know that God supposedly made everything, but science says that everything started with a big bang and evolution, and since I don’t know which to believe, I think I’ll just not think about it too much – anyone for a rerun of Seventh Heaven?
  • God wants me to be nice, do good stuff, and go to church; but understands when I can’t because it’s opening day for deer season, or when I was at the big game on Saturday and just can’t get up in time for worship. 
  • God gave us instructions for how to live called the 10 Commandments (which by the way I watch every Easter), but since those commandments are impossible to keep we really don’t have to try.  Besides, God is a loving God and would never judge us or hold us accountable for the things we’ve done.  Right?

I believe in Jesus –

  • Jesus lived a really good life.  He was always loving, always forgiving, and would never upset anyone by saying something hard or judgmental. 
  • Jesus wanted us to all get along, to accept each other just as we are, and to keep our noses out of other people’s business.  If you think that Jesus tells you to live one way, that’s fine for you.  But don’t presume Jesus told anyone else to live that way.
  • When Jesus was alive, he talked about how to get to heaven, and never really spoke about what to do with money, sex, or other day-to-day things.  Even when he did, it was all an allegory, a metaphor for spiritual things.  Jesus wants us to be happy, prosperous, successful, and independent.  If I am struggling or suffering in this life, I must be doing something wrong.
  • Jesus called some people to follow him seriously, these were his disciples.  Others got to follow at a distance.  For me, that means that some people can get real serious – go into missions, share their faith with their friends, be a pastor or a leader in their church – but others don’t have to get so committed.

Salvation –

  • I am saved because I am a Christian.  I am a religious person.  I go to church.  I try to help out from time to time.  I can even say the Creed and sing the Hymns on Sunday.  Overall, I am a good person; I might make mistakes, but God loves me anyway.
  • Salvation means I will go to heaven when I die.  It doesn’t really affect me much now, but it’s nice to know I’ll get to see all my family and friends when I get there.

Free Will –

  • God made me with free will, so I get to choose what I will do and what I believe.  I choose to believe in God, and that is why I am a Christian.  I could never believe in a God who would impose his will on others.

The Bible –

  • The Bible is the sacred book of the Christian religion.  People read it to know what God has done in the past.  It is full of stories about people who have followed God and how God has had to fix their problems.
  • The Bible was written by men who wanted to establish their religion.  It has some mistakes in it, and some of the things that were written a long time ago don’t really apply to us today; but overall, it is a pretty good book.

Heaven –

  • Heaven is God’s kingdom, and it is where all good people will go when they die.  When I get to heaven there will be rest from all the hard work I’ve done in this life, and I will see all my friends and family.
  • Those loved ones who have already gone to heaven are angels who watch over me.  They enjoy watching me do well in life, and protect me from bad things that might happen.

Hell –

  • This is the place were bad people go to be punished forever.  Hell is Satan’s kingdom and he lives there with his demons.  It’s always hot there, full of fire and suffering.

The Church –

  • The Church is where I go to worship. 
  • We sit in pews, which thankfully are padded, since the pastor likes to talk for more than 15 minutes. 
  • I have a hard time not napping during the prayers (you try closing your eyes, bowing your head, and doing nothing for more than 3 minutes and see what happens).
  • We sing odd songs, some are really old and use words that I’ve never said outside of church, some try to sound new but are really cheesy. 
  • Usually I don’t get a lot out of church, but every now and then it seems like the pastor’s talking about me (weird, huh).

Friends, I hope this has prompted you to really think about your faith, and what your faith means for your life today.  If you have questions, turn to God’s Word.  Feel free to call or email me, but whatever you do, “contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints.”

SDG

The Unforgivable Sin

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“Whoever says, ‘I know him’ but does not keep his commandments is a liar…”
(1 John 2:4 ESV) 

There was a time when Jesus’ warning against blasphemy really troubled me.  In Matthew 12:31-32 Jesus says, “Therefore I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven people, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. And whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come.”  As a child, I was a little preoccupied with this, wondering what “The Unforgivable Sin” really was.  Was there one sin, one particularly nasty sin, which if committed, would forever damn you?  Did pastors know what it was, but not tell anyone so as not to tempt them with that sin?  What if I had already committed it?

I remember hearing Dr. John Gerstner when I was only 8 or 9 years old, teaching on the Perseverance of Saints (it must have been good, because I don’t remember much from that long ago.)  In Gerstner’s scratchy old voice, I vividly recall him declaring, “Because my salvation is the work of the almighty God, and because I am sealed with the power of his Holy Spirit, my savior will not allow me to blaspheme and thereby lose my salvation.  My salvation is secure because it is the gift of God.”  That helped to relieve my conscience, but I still wrestled with what it meant to blaspheme God. 

I remember one person telling me that suicide was the unforgivable sin.  His reasoning was, you have to ask for forgiveness after you sin in order to be forgiven.  Since suicide makes that impossible, it is unforgiveable.  I am so thankful that I’ve had some good reformed pastors who have exposed the problems with that line of thinking.  If our salvation depends on our ability to seek forgiveness for every fault, then we, like Luther, had better be obsessed with self-examination and repentance.  However, if we are saved by grace through faith in Jesus, and that faith produces within us a spirit of repentance and trust in Christ, then our salvation is not at risk when our sins are unconfessed.  That is not license to go on sinning, but relief in knowing that our salvation is not dependent upon our own moral perfection.

What then, is this “unforgivable sin?”  Jesus helps to define blasphemy as “speaking against the Holy Spirit.”  In the immediate context of the passage in Matthew, this could mean saying that Jesus is the devil, attributing to Satan the work and power of God through the Holy Spirit.  This outright denial of the revelation of God’s Spirit to our hearts and minds is the denial of God Himself.  For those who continue to reject and deny the reality of God, and the truth of God’s Son, Jesus Christ, they have blasphemed the witness of the Holy Spirit.

But it is also possible for those who call themselves Christian to blaspheme.  After all, this warning given in Matthew was for an audience of those who already believed.  So what was at stake?  In the very next line in Matthew, Jesus says, “The tree is known by its fruit…”  In other words, if you are really alive by the power of the Spirit, then your life will reflect the holiness and life that the Spirit gives.  As John said in the passage above, “By this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep hi commandments.  Whoever says, ‘I know him,’ but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him.”

I love this commentary from George MacDonald:

God says, as it were, “Let a man have committed any sin whatever, I forgive him; but to chose to go on sinning – how can I forgive that?  It would be to nourish and cherish evil!  It would be to let my creation go to ruin.  Shall I keep you alive to do things hateful in the sight of all true men?  If a man refuse to come out of his sin, he must suffer the vengeance of a love that would be no love if it left him there.  Shall I allow my creature to be the thing my soul hates?”

There is no excuse for this refusal.  If we were punished for every fault, there would be no end, no respite; we should have no quiet wherein to repent; but God passes by all he can.  He passes by and forgets a thousand sins, yea, tens of thousands, forgiving them all – only we must begin to do good, begin to do evil no more.

If you are content with holding on to your sin, in persisting in your way rather than submitting to the way of the Lord, you have no part in him at all.  To hold on to sin when God calls us out of sin is a slap in the face of our loving savior.  Shall we continue to live in the sin that Christ died for?  Would it be loving for God, for the Church, for brothers and sisters in Christ, to allow sin to go unchecked, uncorrected, unrepented, so as not to offend; when such a sin will ultimately lead to judgment and death? 

I, as dear old Gerstner taught me, believe that, ultimately I cannot blaspheme God because I have been saved, and am being made righteous, by God himself.  Under the first definition of blasphemy, God’s Spirit of Holiness will keep me from rejecting the truth of my savior Jesus Christ, by the continued renewal of the mind and the piercing of my heart through the sharp sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God.  Under the second definition, God, who has begun a good work in me, a work of righteousness and holiness by the power of His Holy Spirit, will continue to sanctify me and cleanse me from sin, for He is faithful to complete what He has begun.

“If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities,
O Lord, who could stand?
But with you there is forgiveness,
that you may be feared.” (Psalm 130:3-4)

So let us rest in the sure and certain promise of God, that we are saved by grace through faith, and let us grow in righteousness, leaving behind all the sins that would weigh us down and keep us running the race that is set before us.

Know that you are forgiven, and be at peace!

SDG