Friday, March 30, 2012

Evangelism

I first felt the call to ministry in the 9th grade. In the 9th grade we were given a project. What do you want to do for life and do you plan to retire? I began thinking about this. My dad works with computers for a living. His degree is in computer science. So I thought maybe that's what I wanted to do. But I got a deep impression. "Be an evangelist." I thought about a few other occupations. But every time I got the same impression. "Be an evangelist."

So I went to school for Theology. I got my B.A. in said degree with a minor in Biblical Languages. Towards the end of my schooling, I had to write a philosophy of pastoral ministry as an assignment for a class. And so I did. A very good friend mentioned to me that I would make a good counselor. In my philosophy, I wrote that I wanted to get a master's in counseling so I could counsel the members of a church I may pastor someday.

As a consequence the staff of the college I went to felt that I was not 100% for pastoral ministry. And because of that, I was not allowed to interview with the conference presidents when they came down to interview the soon to be Theology graduates. Please keep in mind that I don't tell you this to get back at them. That is why I won't mention where I went to school.

For a while I would get upset and even bitter when I thought of it. But this next quarter of the year, our Seventh-day Adventist Sabbath School lesson is on evangelism and witnessing. And God made me realize something.

I don't need to be taking a paycheck from the church to be in the ministry. I don't need to be hired to be an evangelist or a pastor. If God has called you to be a pastor, you are a pastor. If God has called you to be an evangelist, you are an evangelist. Whatever He calls you to be, you don't need anyone else to agree with God's calling for you. If He says you are called, you are called. And we are all called to reach out to those around us with the love of Jesus.

I don't get upset anymore. I'm no longer bitter about it. God has something in store for me. 

Check this out.

Ephesians 4:11 says, "And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers;"

 Check out the different meanings for "evangelist." Awesome. I will try to write more on evangelism as we go through this quarter of Sabbath School lessons on this subject.

For now, I leave you with this thought. If God calls you to something, do it. It may be that He wants you to do it in a way that is out of the norm.

Thursday, March 22, 2012

The Woman Caught in Adultery



John 8:1-11 is an awesome story. It's about the woman caught in adultery. Read it by clicking here. I was thinking yesterday about this story. And God brought to my attention something. In this story, we find Jesus does 3 things for us. He loves us. He defends us. He forgives us.

He loves us despite past mistakes. You can have a checkered past. Jesus loves you anyway. This was the woman caught in adultery. She was a prostitute. Not only that, but she was possessed 7 times. But He didn't send her away. He didn't tell them to stone her. He loved her anyway. Seven times Jesus freed her from demonic control. And as a result, she gave Him her life. She was the first to see Jesus after His resurrection. What wondrous love! What matchless love! A woman with a history like hers, and He still loved her anyway.

Not only does Jesus love us despite our mistakes, He defends us. Here the crowd of scribes and pharisees were, trying to get Jesus to make a decision (so they could trap Him). But He didn't say a word. He just bent down. Some might wonder how not saying anything counts as defending her. But if He would have said to stone her, He wouldn't be the loving Son of God He claimed to be. If He said to let her go, He wouldn't be following the Mosaic law. So He just bent down and starting writing in the sand.

But they kept pestering Him. So He got up and said, "He who is without sin, let him cast the first stone." I can imagine the woman must have cringed. After all, it was a crowd of self righteous people accusing her. But that didn't happen. The accusers went away. One by one. Oldest first, down to the youngest. He defended this woman. Notice that He did not defend her sin. But He did defend her life.

He loves us anyway, and defends us.

Lastly, He forgives us. And not only does He forgive us, He tells us to stop sinning. He asked the woman where her accusers went and if anyone condemned her. She noticed that they left and said, "No one, Lord." Then Jesus told her to stop sinning. Jesus never asks us to do something without giving us the strength to do it. But don't  be fooled. Neither you nor I can do a thing without Christ. But if we have a relationship with Jesus, then, "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." - Philippians 4:13.

Thursday, March 8, 2012

The State of the Dead




Ecclesiastes 9:5, NKJV:

"For the living know that they will die;
But the dead know nothing,
And they have no more reward,
For the memory of them is forgotten"

Most Christians tend to believe that there is life after death. I, however, do not. Most believe that you go either to Heaven or to Hell when you die. I don't believe this. I have found no Biblical evidence to support this claim. However, I have found plenty of evidence for the opposite.

But let's compare how most Christians believe in life after death with how ancient cultures taught life after death. Most ancient cultures taught some form of life after death. Take the Egyptians, for example. According to them, when you died, you stood before the god of the underworld who decided your eternal fate. Your soul was either sent to hell or allowed to go to paradise.

 Another example is the ancient Greeks. They taught that all life ended and went to the underworld for eternal misery. Most Christians believe that when you die, you go to Heaven or Hell depending on how you lived your life. Sound familiar? Do you see how strikingly similar the modern popular teaching of life after death among most Christians is with how ancient cultures taught life after death?

So what do I believe in? I believe that you live your life in obedience to one of two masters. You are either serving God or Satan. It really is as simple as that. When you die, you simply cease to exist. You are buried and that's that. If you live your life in true service to God, then the Bible refers to your death as sleep. 

When you go to bed at night, and wake up in the morning, you have no recollection of the time that passed during your 8 or so hours of shut-eye. It's a similar thing for the righteous dead. 1 Kings 2:10 mentions the death of King David. He was a righteous man and this passage reads thus:

     "So David slept with his fathers, and was buried in the city of David."

That word slept is  שָׁכַב or shakab. Translated it means "to lie down." It has multiple uses but the point here is that it does not refer to David going to Heaven. There is a whole slew of other examples. Only 3 humans are listed by name as going to Heaven before the Second coming.

Enoch, Elijah, and Moses. The Bible documents Moses as having died but Jude brings to our attention that Michael, the archangel, disputed with the devil about the body of Moses. Why would this need to happen if Moses was already in Heaven, according to pagan mythology and what most Christians believe?

In the article, The God of Hell, Marvin Moore addresses the doctrine of Hell that most Christians believe. After the introduction, he address the question of who is in charge of Hell. He says, and I agree with him, that God is in charge. To quote directly:

"The Bible’s most descriptive passage about hell says that “fire came down from heaven and devoured [the wicked]” (Revelation 20:9; emphasis added).* If the fire comes down from heaven, it has to come from God, because He’s in charge of heaven, not Satan. Two other biblical accounts of the destruction of the wicked—the flood of Noah and Sodom and Gomorrah— clearly show God initiating the destruction, not Satan (Genesis 6:5–7; 19:24)."

He goes on to answer the question, when is Hell? Most Christians believe that Hell is a place that has been in existence since the fall of Adam and Eve. I disagree. And so does Mr. Moore. He quotes Malachi 4:1 which says, "Surely the day is coming; it will burn like a furnace. All the arrogant and every evildoer will be stubble, and that day that is coming will set them on fire,’ says the Lord Almighty." (Emphasis his).

Revelation 20 describes the millenium after the Second Coming. It describes the destruction that will befall the wicked at the end of this 1,000 year period. The fire that comes down from Heaven is at the end of this millenium. "So if hell won’t even start until 1,000 years after Christ’s second coming," Mr. Moore says, "it certainly cannot be going on now."

 He goes on to make his final point that God simply wouldn't make people suffer like that. The Bible refers to the destruction of the wicked as God's strange act. Isaiah 28:21 reads like this: "For the LORD shall rise up as in mount Perazim, he shall be wroth as in the valley of Gibeon, that he may do his work, his strange work; and bring to pass his act, his strange act."

God doesn't want to destroy anyone but He cannot allow sin to go on forever. The Bible also says in Revelation 21:4, "And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.”


I don't know about you, but in an eternal Hell, I would think there would be a lot of tears and sorrow. Also, why would God allow an eternal Hell when He Himself promised that there will be no more pain, and that the "former things have passed away?" 


Here are a couple of links to help with further study.


The God of Hell by Marvin Moore in the Signs of the Times.


Spirits of the Dead: Do They Speak and Hear? by Joe Crews with Amazing Facts.


Are the Dead Really Dead? by Amazing Facts