A couple months ago a friend mentioned to me how he thought that all God's changes in law made it seem like he was experimenting on us like lab rats.

I wrote him afterward (edited for typos and readability):

“I don't think all the changes in God's instructions through history are God experimenting with us. I think it is like a parent guiding a child through different exercises in math, for instance.

For instance, God knew when he let the first people live into their 900's that he would have to reduce their lifespan [...] after Noah's flood because they had only used their long lives for evil.

But he still let mankind go through that experience and find out for themselves, otherwise we would be telling God, “God, how do you know we can't handle longer lifespans?”

Now he can say, “I DID give you longer lives at the beginning so you would understand why I gave you shorter lives later.” Because mankind really likes to find out the hard way (or you could say the concrete or experiential way) what is right and wrong. “Don't tell me, show me.” God: “OK, I'm showing you.”

So anytime you think God could be experimenting, please leave room for the possibility that he already knew the outcome, he is just working through the steps anyway for [the sake of] our knowledge, not his.”

He sent this back:



Number 2 I felt was unfair of Epicurus, and wrote back:

“Is he able but not willing?
Then he is malevolent.”

Every parent puts things into 2 groups:

Group 1: Things you have to let your child learn to take care of on his own or he will [grow up] weak. (Children who learn not to care when idots mock them - good. Children who were protected so much that when they grow up and go to college, they don't know how to wash their clothes or feed themselves - bad. Or children who can't deal with anybody who has a different opinion from them - bad.)

Group 2: Things you have to step in and protect your child from because to let your child try to learn to deal with it would put him at too high a risk of death.

Every parent has to decide what level of suffering/challenge they will let their children go through for the sake of their future health and independence, and what suffering/challenge would be too dangerous to allow.

Nobody calls parents [malevolent] for making their children face painful but healthy challenges.

What if everything we consider Group 2 [things too dangerous to let us learn to deal with], God considers Group 1 [things we have to learn to deal with anyway]?

Conversation with a Buddhist weighed down by Buddhism ...

I met a Buddhist lady who felt that the one big difference between Buddhism and other religions was that Buddhism was the most tolerant and inclusive. She said the churches she had visited always claimed Christianity as the ONLY TRUE RELIGION, labeling all the rest as wrong.

She told how some ladies had knocked on her door with a booklet, and she asked them, “If I have extra money to donate, I have no problem donating to a Christian orphanage, but would you Christians donate to a Buddhist orphanage?” They told her directly “no”, and left without sharing their booklet with her.

I told her about how from the beginning of creation, from Adam and Eve and the very first family, God had told people how to worship him, because he had a particular purpose for it, wanting it to represent Jesus who would come and die for the world, and how the Old Testament foreshadowed the New Testament, but how that from the very first family on earth, and all down through history, people were always walking away from what God wanted and inventing their own man-made worship, which could not accomplish the purpose God meant for it.

She was nodding her head and at some point mentioned how she was confused by all the different varieties of Christianity.

I told her that was why we were so careful to do only what we found in the Bible, so that we were not adding rules that God never wanted people to be burdened with -- even to the point that other groups would call us narrow and restrictive -- but we did so to keep from adding burdens God never commanded men to carry, and to keep from contributing to the bewildering array of flavors that she herself had just said made her worry that she would never know if she had found a true or fake Christianity.

She nodded her head, saying this was true of every religion she knew of, people adding stuff and leaving the original.

She said she had wished for a miracle like Christians always seemed to be talking about, telling God she would believe in him if he showed her one, but had not gotten one.

Wanting to relieve her mind, I told her that though we firmly believed that God would give us help in answer to prayer, the Bible did not teach that miracles were happening today. I told how Jesus did miracles to prove who he was, how the apostles also did miracles and could transfer this power to others, but how now that the Bible was finished and confirmed, and all the apostles dead, there was no one left alive to do a genuine miracle.

She said she was very happy to have met me, and that she was deeply burdened, believing in reincarnation, and conscientiously doing many good works to work off her debt from past lives, but oh the strain from never being able to know when it would all be paid back. She said, “You can’t remember any of it so you can never know how much you have left to pay back, and dear god what is the meaning of this wretched life. It is all making me hurt here, here, and here, in my body. I will never know when it is all paid back. The endless scripture readings I attend to pay back an unknowable cloud of victims. My husband says to just throw it all over, but if I do that, the people I have wronged may come back to haunt me.”

“And then I think about going over to Christianity but my husband says they burden people with sin, too, so then I think wouldn’t it be better if there were no religion and no sin, because it hurts me.”

I said, “So if reincarnation is not true, you are carrying this burden for nothing. If reincarnation is not true, you only have to deal with the sin from this life.”

“But I grew up believing in reincarnation,” she said, “like you grew up in Christianity. I can’t change and STOP believing in reincarnation, just like you can’t change and START believing in reincarnation.”

I said our father raised us to believe in the Bible because of its proof, how our father had told us never to do what some people do -- saying that even if Christianity wasn’t true they would believe in it anyway because it was “comforting” – but he had told us never to do that because truth was important. “The Bible says, ‘Know the truth and the truth will set you free.’” I said.

“Oh yes!” she said, and wanted to know if she was wrong to be searching for peace in a religion.

“There’s good fear and bad fear, but the main thing is ‘What is real?’” I said, “If someone says there’s a lion over there and I say, ‘That news makes me uncomfortable, I’m going to forget I heard it,’ that’s not going to save me from the lion. Or if someone says there is a lion when there isn’t, then I’m carrying a fear for nothing. It’s not whether you are comfortable or not that matters, but ‘Is there a lion or not?’”

“If reincarnation is true, fine, I’ll accept the burden,” I said, “but if it’s not, there’s no meaning to the burden…. Peace is important but if someone says for me to kill my mother or be killed, I will say go ahead and kill me then, because some things are more important than life and peace.”

“I know all that,” she said.

I continued, “So if you search for truth, peace will come with it, but if you look for peace and say truth is not important, then you will never find peace.”

“Ah yes!” she said.

**   **   **

Soon after this conversation and others, I attended brother Roger Campbell’s gospel meeting and filmed him answering 3 questions this lady had texted me to ask him: “Motives for Belief”, “Reincarnation”, and “If There Is Only One True God, Why So Many Religions?”

This article was originally written January 2019 

My Yoke is Easy and My Burden is Light

One of my friends thinks God is too restrictive and burdensome. One day I told her:

Look, the Bible says you are going to carry a yoke.

But only God's yoke will be the lightest with nothing false tacked on.

Because you will have a yoke, even if it's just your own best guess made up of the most successful influences on you.

Your parents will try to tell you what to believe. So will your school, government, media, and all the latest gurus, psychologists, and philosophers.

In the end you will trick yourself into believing things God never said you have to believe, carrying burdens God never said you have to carry.

God isn't giving you his standard to burden you but to set you free from all the false rules out there.

That's why Jesus said, “My yoke is easy and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:30)

This article was originally written 2018.07.05

They Didn't Make It Up

Two good friends and I were listening to this nine-minute Roger Campbell video:

It's in Chinese, so below I have made an English transcript. If you just want to skip to the conversation we had because of this video, scroll down to the end of the translation:

Jesus Christ is the mediator of the New Covenant. As I said before, the content of the Bible is split up into two main sections. The first is called the Old Covenant. The second is called the New Covenant. Whose new covenant is it? It is Jesus' new covenant.

Please turn to 1 Corinthians 11, page 240. 240.

Please notice, when Jesus himself was living on this earth he was a Jew. Let me say that again. Jesus lived on this earth as a Jew.

The Jews at that time were under the Old Covenant law, called the Law of Moses. Why was it called the Law of Moses?. Because in the time of the Old Covenant, God spoke through a man called Moses to give the Jews his law. So it was called the Law of Moses.

I want to bring up two more facts. First, in Taiwan people think, "Jesus is not suited to us Asians." Why? "He's a Westerner." Actually, in fact, Jesus is not a Westerner. "No, Jesus is a Westerner!" Actually, in fact, Jesus is not a Westerner.

Jesus was born in Bethleham. Where is Bethleham? From Jerusalem to Bethleham is about 8 miles. Jerusalem and Bethleham belong to present-day Palestine. Palestine is located in the Middle East. Jesus is an Easterner!

"But his religion is Western, so his religion doesn't suit us Asians." Jesus established his church in Jerusalem. His church started in Jerusalem. Jerusalem is in Palestine. Palestine is in the Middle East.

Actually, in God's sight, people are not split up into Easterners and Westerners, Northerners, Southerners. People are people!

But don't misunderstand - when Jesus lived on this earth he was not a Westerner. Even though later more people in the West accepted him, his religion was not reserved for the East or the West.

So because Jesus was a Jew while living on this earth, because the Old Covenant law, the Law of Moses, was still in effect, so when Jesus was living on this earth he followed the Old Covenant law. Jesus himself followed the Old Covenant law.

But he used his blood to establish the New Covenant. On the night he was betrayed, the night before he was crucified, when he was together with his apostles in Jerusalem, he started his supper, called the Lord's Supper. This is the bread we eat and the grape juice we drink on Sunday.

Let's look at 1 Corinthians 11:24-25.

24 and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, "This is My body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of Me." 25 In the same way He took the cup also after supper, saying, "This cup is the NEW COVENANT in My blood; do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me."

According to verse 25, the new covenant is established with Jesus' blood. So that's why it's called Jesus Christ's New Covenant.

Now all the people in the world are all under the teaching of Jesus. I just mentioned how Jesus told his disciples, "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation."

Please notice, the Old Covenant law, the Law of Moses, was given to the Israelites. But the teaching of the New Covenant is given to the people of the whole world.

But you say, "Mr. Campbell, it's not everybody that accepts it." We're not talking about whether they accept it or don't accept it. But God's plan, the will of God, is that everybody is under the teaching of Jesus.

So how do we know Jesus is the mediator of the New Covenant? Please turn to Hebrews 8. Page 310. 310.

The author of Hebrews often compared the Old and New Covenants. What was the Old Covenant like, what is the New Covenant like. Let's notice Hebrews 8:6,7:

6 But now He has obtained a more excellent ministry, by as much as He is also the mediator of a better covenant ...

See, he is the mediator of a better covenant.

... which has been enacted on better promises. 7 For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion sought for a second.

Please notice verse 7 mentions the first covenant and also mentions the second covenant. Now in the book of Hebrews, when the author of Hebrews mentions a first and second covenant, he's talking about the Old Covenant and the New Covenant.

So the author of Hebrews is constantly emphasizing that we have through Jesus a more beautiful [?], a better one. We have a better new covenant, better promises, a better mediator. According to verse 6, who is the mediator of the New Covenant? It's Jesus Christ. Please turn to Hebrews 9:15:

For this reason He ...

"He" is referring to Jesus.

For this reason He is the mediator of a new covenant, so that, since a death has taken place for the redemption of the transgressions that were committed under the first covenant, those who have been called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance.

So this verse is very clear. Jesus is the mediator of the new covenant.

So brothers and sisters, friends, don't misunderstand. The Old Covenant law was a really great law. The law of Moses which God gave to the Israelites was a really great law. How do we know? Because it came from God, of course it was good. God knew what the Israelites needed in the time of the Old Covenant, so he gave them the Law of Moses.

But when Jesus came and established his church, God knew that the teaching his church needed and the teaching of the Old Covenant were two different things. So Jesus came to be the mediator of the New Covenant. And don't forget, when Jesus was crucified, he nailed the Old Covenant teachings to the cross.

From that point on, the Old Covenant law, the Old Covenant teachings, were no longer in effect. All people everywhere are now under the teaching of Christ's New Covenant.

About three-fourths of the way through, something in this video or our discussion prompted one of my friends to say:

"So all these rules were made up by men, Jesus's disciples writing down what he said AFTER he was gone, but the rules were really made up by his disciples, like Confucius' disciples writing everything down 100 years later."

"No!" I said, and showed them what Jesus said would happen after he left:

"I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you." (John 14:16,17)

"But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you." (John 14:26)

"When the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, that is the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify about Me, and you will testify also, because you have been with Me from the beginning. (John 15:26-27)

"And especially this verse!" I told them, and we continued reading:

"But now I am going to Him who sent Me; and none of you asks Me, 'Where are You going?' But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart. But I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you.... But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take of Mine and will disclose it to you. All things that the Father has are Mine; therefore I said that He takes of Mine and will disclose it to you." (John 16:5,6,13-15)

Then I showed them how just before Jesus went back to heaven he told them to go back to Jerusalem and wait for the Holy Spirit:

The first account I composed, Theophilus, about all that Jesus began to do and teach, until the day when He was taken up to heaven, after He had by the Holy Spirit given orders to the apostles whom He had chosen. To these He also presented Himself alive after His suffering, by many convincing proofs, appearing to them over a period of forty days and speaking of the things concerning the kingdom of God. Gathering them together, He commanded them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for what the Father had promised, "Which," He said, "you heard of from Me; for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now." So when they had come together, they were asking Him, saying, "Lord, is it at this time You are restoring the kingdom to Israel?" He said to them, "It is not for you to know times or epochs which the Father has fixed by His own authority; but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth."

And after He had said these things, He was lifted up while they were looking on, and a cloud received Him out of their sight. And as they were gazing intently into the sky while He was going, behold, two men in white clothing stood beside them. They also said, "Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into the sky? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in just the same way as you have watched Him go into heaven."

Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath day's journey away. When they had entered the city, they went up to the upper room where they were staying; that is, Peter and John and James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon the Zealot, and Judas the son of James.... (Acts 1:1-13)

Then we jumped to the day of Pentecost when ten days later the Holy Spirit came with a rushing wind and everybody could hear them speaking in their own language:

When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a noise like a violent rushing wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. And there appeared to them tongues as of fire distributing themselves, and they rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit was giving them utterance.

Now there were Jews living in Jerusalem, devout men from every nation under heaven. And when this sound occurred, the crowd came together, and were bewildered because each one of them was hearing them speak in his own language.

They were amazed and astonished, saying, "Why, are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we each hear them in our own language to which we were born? Parthians and Medes and Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the districts of Libya around Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs -we hear them in our own tongues speaking of the mighty deeds of God." And they all continued in amazement and great perplexity, saying to one another, "What does this mean?" But others were mocking and saying, "They are full of sweet wine."

But Peter, taking his stand with the eleven, raised his voice and declared to them: "Men of Judea and all you who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you and give heed to my words. For these men are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only the third hour of the day; but this is what was spoken of through the prophet Joel: 'AND IT SHALL BE IN THE LAST DAYS,' God says, 'THAT I WILL POUR FORTH OF MY SPIRIT ON ALL MANKIND; AND YOUR SONS AND YOUR DAUGHTERS SHALL PROPHESY, AND YOUR YOUNG MEN SHALL SEE VISIONS, AND YOUR OLD MEN SHALL DREAM DREAMS; EVEN ON MY BONDSLAVES, BOTH MEN AND WOMEN, I WILL IN THOSE DAYS POUR FORTH OF MY SPIRIT And they shall prophesy. AND I WILL GRANT WONDERS IN THE SKY ABOVE AND SIGNS ON THE EARTH BELOW, BLOOD, AND FIRE, AND VAPOR OF SMOKE. THE SUN WILL BE TURNED INTO DARKNESS AND THE MOON INTO BLOOD, BEFORE THE GREAT AND GLORIOUS DAY OF THE LORD SHALL COME. AND IT SHALL BE THAT EVERYONE WHO CALLS ON THE NAME OF THE LORD WILL BE SAVED.'

"Men of Israel, listen to these words: Jesus the Nazarene, a man attested to you by God with miracles and wonders and signs which God performed through Him in your midst, just as you yourselves know - this Man, delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put Him to death. But God raised Him up again, putting an end to the agony of death, since it was impossible for Him to be held in its power...."
..................

Now when they heard this, they were pierced to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, "Brethren, what shall we do?"

Peter said to them, "Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off, as many as the Lord our God will call to Himself." And with many other words he solemnly testified and kept on exhorting them, saying, "Be saved from this perverse generation!"

So then, those who had received his word were baptized; and that day there were added about three thousand souls. They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone kept feeling a sense of awe; and many wonders and signs were taking place through the apostles. (Acts 2:1-24,37-43)

"So the apostles did miracles, too," my friend said.

I said, "Yes, to prove that their words came from God. When the last apostle died and the Bible was all finished, the miracles couldn't continue very long after. For instance, if you wanted to be able to do miracles, an apostle would have to come lay his hands on you. [Acts 8 - we'd discussed it before.] You could then do miracles but you could never pass on that ability. So when the last apostle died, and the last person who could do miracles died, the age of miracles stopped. Otherwise if I told you I had a new book to add to the Bible and I could back it up with an undeniable miracle that even atheists would accept, then we'd have to add that book to the Bible."

We went back to listening to the video, when I suddenly paused it again and said, "What the apostles wrote had to have come from God, because in the day of judgment he's going to have the Bible and the book of our life lying side by side and he's going to compare the two. (Rev. 20:12) If the apostles didn't get it straight, if it was only their own thinking, if they didn't have the Holy Spirit like Jesus said; how could God judge us in the day of judgment? 'God, what are you doing judging me when it was your apostles who got it all wrong. How dare you judge me.' How could Jesus say his words would judge us (John 12:48) if he couldn't even guarantee that his disciples would write them down correctly?"

And then we finished watching the video.

---
Sorry for the video-audio lag, I would try to recut it, but ffmpeg doesn't seem to work on my present system (Sabayon Linux) and I can not find a website to walk me through how to get the avconv equivalent of "ffmpeg -i input.mov -ss 00:29:59.0 -t 00:09:14.0 -vcodec copy -acodec copy output.mov". Any pointers would be greatly appreciated in the comments.

Jesus Lover, Christian - What's in a name?

We met an American at a wedding feast last week. I think his name was Jim. The music was so loud we were shouting back and forth across the table and even then we sometimes had to shout the same thing 3 or 4 times before being understood, or not.

Jim said he likes to call himself a Jesus Lover and not call himself by the name of a particular group. After all if the important thing is accepting Jesus as Lord, why would you call yourself by the name of a particular group?

Here are things I wish I could have thrown into the conversation to ask him about:

*** Do you think accepting Jesus as Lord includes obeying his commandment to be immersed into him?

For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. (Galatians 3:27)

Would you say that you are not in Christ until you are immersed into him?

*** You prefer the term "Jesus Lover" to an unnecessarily divisive name like Baptist, or Methodist. That is a very Biblical concept:

Now I exhort you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all agree and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be made complete in the same mind and in the same judgment. For I have been informed concerning you, my brethren, by Chloe's people, that there are quarrels among you. Now I mean this, that each one of you is saying, "I am of Paul," and "I of Apollos," and "I of Cephas," and "I of Christ." Has Christ been divided? (1 Corinthians 1:10-13b)

However, would you consider using the term "Christian" since that, at least, is in the Bible?

but if anyone suffers as a Christian, he is not to be ashamed, but is to glorify God in this name. (1 Peter 4:16)

According to this verse it would seem God specifically wants us to use the term "Christian" to glorify him.

If the term "Christian" is in the Bible, but the term "Baptist" is not, then wouldn't making up the term "Jesus Lover" which is also not in the Bible be more akin to using the term "Baptist" than using the term "Christian"?

Shouldn't we do Bible things in Bible ways and call Bible things by Bible names?

It would have been good to hear what he had to say. It would have been fun to talk about all kinds of things to do with the Bible. Meanwhile I really appreciate him for bringing up something as interesting as the Bible to talk about and not the weather.

Jim, in case you ever see this post, here's a guy who also doesn't think we should be doing anything but what is in the Bible.

reincarnation

After the last conversation, one of my friends brought the book she said had convinced her of reincarnation. It was in Chinese, but it was a Chinese translation of a Western author, so I knew I could get the gist of it from Amazon reviews or even go read it at an English bookstore. Our class was just starting, though, and how to deal with it without having read it?

I knew that regardless of what the author's experiences were and what interpretation he put on those experiences, Jesus, on the other hand, had already demonstrated his credibility by rising from the dead. Assuming Jesus rose from the dead and has complete power over life and death, I figured he could be completely trusted on anything he had to say about the afterlife. Regardless of what any multitude of people may be able to say about "past lives" while under hypnosis, you can't beat rising from the dead, and being able to raise other people on command, for sheer authority on the subject.

I don't remember how much of this I communicated right away to my two friends but I did say, "Let's see what Jesus had to say on the subject," and took them to Luke 16:19-31, the story Jesus told of the rich man and the poor man who both died and went to Hades, but ended up on different sides.

"Now there was a rich man, and he habitually dressed in purple and fine linen, joyously living in splendor every day. And a poor man named Lazarus was laid at his gate, covered with sores, and longing to be fed with the crumbs which were falling from the rich man's table ; besides, even the dogs were coming and licking his sores.

"Now the poor man died and was carried away by the angels to Abraham's bosom; and the rich man also died and was buried. In Hades he lifted up his eyes, being in torment, and saw Abraham far away and Lazarus in his bosom. And he cried out and said, 'Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus so that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool off my tongue, for I am in agony in this flame.'

"But Abraham said, 'Child, remember that during your life you received your good things, and likewise Lazarus bad things; but now he is being comforted here, and you are in agony. And besides all this, between us and you there is a great chasm fixed, so that those who wish to come over from here to you will not be able, and that none may cross over from there to us.'

"And he said, 'Then I beg you, father, that you send him to my father's house - for I have five brothers - in order that he may warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.'

"But Abraham said, 'They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.'

"But he said, 'No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent!'

"But he said to him, 'If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be persuaded even if someone rises from the dead.'" (Luke 16:19-31, NASV)

Even if we assume for the sake of argument that reincarnation is true, it obviously doesn't work for some people, and you're still back to wondering if you'll get another chance or go straight to the bad place. You're NOT GUARANTEED A SECOND CHANCE.

(And yes, we reviewed how Hades is the waiting place before the judgment, and no humans have gone on to heaven or hell yet.)

Just in case someone still thinks this is referring to a temporary punishment between multiple lives on earth, Matthew 25:31-46 is something else Jesus had to say about the afterlife:

"But when the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered before Him; and He will separate them from one another, as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats; and He will put the sheep on His right, and the goats on the left.

"Then the King will say to those on His right, 'Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. 'For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in; naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me.'

"Then the righteous will answer Him, 'Lord, when did we see You hungry, and feed You, or thirsty, and give You something to drink? And when did we see You a stranger, and invite You in, or naked, and clothe You? When did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?'

"The King will answer and say to them, 'Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.'

"Then He will also say to those on His left, 'Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels; for I was hungry, and you gave Me nothing to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me nothing to drink; I was a stranger, and you did not invite Me in; naked, and you did not clothe Me; sick, and in prison, and you did not visit Me.'

"Then they themselves also will answer, 'Lord, when did we see You hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not take care of You?'

"Then He will answer them, 'Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.' These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life." (Matthew 25:31-46, NASV)

Regardless of what you believe about reincarnation Jesus is still coming back at an event when every eye will see him and every knee will bow before him (Romans 14:10b-11). So even if reincarnation is true, when Jesus comes back, all those second chances run out. And there are still going to be some people on his right and some people on his left.

Furthermore, the punishment after that judgment is eternal and can not possibly be construed as some temporary punishment between lives. Considering that the earth and it's works will be burned up at the second coming, it would be a little difficult to reincarnate back to earth anyway.

(Another point I heard later but didn't get to share with them is that if the "eternal punishment" is temporary, then the "eternal life" would have to be temporary, as well.)

"So," I said, "I don't know what is in your book, but if Jesus wasn't a liar or mistaken, then you have to reconcile anything you read in that book with what Jesus said about life after death."

Then we read Paul's speech on Mar's Hill in Acts 17:

Now while Paul was waiting for them at Athens, his spirit was being provoked within him as he was observing the city full of idols. So he was reasoning in the synagogue with the Jews and the God-fearing Gentiles, and in the market place every day with those who happened to be present. And also some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers were conversing with him. Some were saying, "What would this idle babbler wish to say?" Others, "He seems to be a proclaimer of strange deities," - because he was preaching Jesus and the resurrection. And they took him and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, "May we know what this new teaching is which you are proclaiming? For you are bringing some strange things to our ears; so we want to know what these things mean." (Now all the Athenians and the strangers visiting there used to spend their time in nothing other than telling or hearing something new.)

So Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said, "Men of Athens, I observe that you are very religious in all respects. For while I was passing through and examining the objects of your worship, I also found an altar with this inscription, 'TO AN UNKNOWN GOD.' Therefore what you worship in ignorance, this I proclaim to you.

The God who made the world and all things in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands; nor is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all people life and breath and all things; and He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation, that they would seek God, if perhaps they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; for in Him we live and move and exist, as even some of your own poets have said, 'For we also are His children.' Being then the children of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and thought of man.

Therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent, because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead." (Acts 17:16-31, NASV)

Once again it says he has appointed a day when someone will judge the world in righteousness, and he's given proof as to who it is by raising him from the dead. "Jesus, right?" said Friend 2.

Then we read the entire chapter of 1 Corinthians 15. The ending of it hadn't made sense until they'd read the whole interesting chapter (you can click there to read it), which, and this is why I love studying Bible with them, they were fascinated by. Here's just the conclusion:

Behold, I tell you a mystery; we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For this perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality. But when this perishable will have put on the imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then will come about the saying that is written, "DEATH IS SWALLOWED UP in victory. "O DEATH, WHERE IS YOUR VICTORY? O DEATH, WHERE IS YOUR STING?" The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law; but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord. (1 Corinthians 15:51-58, NASV)

Alas, that's about all the discussion I had time to jot down after class, but I remember we read 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 as well:

But we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve as do the rest who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus. For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words. (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18, NASV)

There were many more places I wanted to show them in the Bible but our time was up.

what standard

Last month I was having a free-for-all discussion with two very good friends I've known for years. These are the bits I could remember afterward. (Also, we were speaking in Chinese.)

Friend 1: I believe in reincarnation.
Me: So you don't believe in hell?
Friend 1: Yes, I do.
Me: No because if you do wrong you have countless lives to get it right, why would you ever go to hell?
Friend 2: No you go to hell when you die, then you come back as an animal.
Me: So hell is only temporary?
Friend 1: That's what I've never understood. How could you learn to do better if you come back as an animal?
Friend 2: Animals have their own "right way" that they are supposed to follow.

........................................................

Friend 1: Why are you saying I can do all these good works and still go to hell [just because I'm not a christian]? It's not fair.
Me: It's a matter of authority. Who gets to define what good works are? God's just saying 1) let me define what true good is and what true bad is. And 2) let me tell you how to take care of your sin.*

* We had already talked about this in previous conversations: According to the Bible we were created for good works, so good works are only what we're supposed to be doing anyway, they can't make up for our lapses, anymore than you can tell a policeman "But look at all the traffic lights I didn't run!" or "I might have murdered, but I didn't steal!" It's not the good works that are the problem, it's the lapses if good works aren't allowed to cover for them. It's not for our good works but for our transgressions that Jesus came to be the solution.

And Jesus is not going to be the solution unless you accept his kingship, to tell you how to live your life after he saves you from death. I mean if you saved a murderer from death wouldn't you be sort of ticked off if he went back to murdering? It's easy to see this with a murderer but the least hint of crookedness presents the same problem to God.

We had also looked at the story of Cornelius. God saw all the good works he was doing, the alms he was giving to the poor, and sends an angel to ... tell him he's all right? No, to get him to send for Peter to come tell him how to be saved from his sins. Because it would have been a pity for Cornelius to go to hell after all his good works. It wasn't his good works Cornelius needed Jesus for, it was for his lapses. His good works weren't going to cover them.

........................................................

Friend 1: People have freedom of choice. There are all these different religions and standards out there. Don't be offended, but when you choose a particular religion, you close yourself off to all the rest. You have to say everybody else's way is wrong. But people have free choice. Why do you have to be the only ones right? ....
Me: .... You can say 2 + 2 = 4 without it cutting into anybody's free choice. Will suddenly murdering someone for no reason at all EVER be right?
Friend 1: No.
Me: There you go. It's possible to have an absolute without doing violence to anyone's free choice.

........................................................

Me: So you don't believe Jesus is God's only son?
Friend 2: I didn't say that. I believe he is.
Me: But you said you don't believe in a judgment. Jesus said there's going to be a judgment.
Friend 2: OK, maybe there will be a judgment.
Me: OK, then we need to ask this question: what standard is he going to use to judge us?

Here's the next conversation we had.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

(I realize this particular conversation did not address some rather pertinent questions - in random order off the top of my head:

Is Jesus the Son of God?
Does God exist?
Could we prove God exists?
Did God communicate with us?
Is there anything he wants to do?
Is the Bible completely accurate?
Is the Bible something man made up or God-inspired?
Did we evolve or was the universe created in seven literal days?

But we have or haven't discussed those things in the past and as it comes up in the future I hope to post about it.)

I've already told you how and why in my 7 AM Bible classes with a few of the ladies at the exercise center the first thing we do is read a paragraph of Wesley Simons' Denominational Doctrines series.

The second thing we do is memorize another verse from the Gospel of John that emphasizes the supremacy of Jesus. For instance, that same week we got to this verse:

The Father loves the Son
and has given all things into His hand.

He who believes in the Son has eternal life;
but he who does not obey the Son will not see life,
but the wrath of God abides on him."

John 3:35-36

父 愛 子 ， 已 將 萬 有 交 在 他 手 裡 。

信 子 的 人 有 永 生 ；
不 信 子 的 人 得 不 著 永 生 ,
神 的 震 怒 常 在 他 身 上 。

約 翰 3:35-36

I said, "He's speaking so sternly because Jesus' position is so high. Think about the universe, how many billions of stars and planets. The Creator of all that sent his only son, to our planet. Not only that, but he died for us. We have to be filial to Jesus." [It sounds better in Chinese.]

The Chinese are big on filial piety. Historically, their whole society is based on maintaining the 5 correct relationships: emperor to subject, parent to child, elder brother to younger brother, husband to wife, older friends to younger friends. So if Jesus is the only son of the creator of the universe, they owe him filial obedience in spades.

I'll go ahead and mention the third thing we do in that class (and their favorite): watching The Gospel of John movie on my laptop and briefly stopping every subtitle so they can read it in English and tell me what it means.

Life is fun! Thank you, everybody that attends that class!

Bible Conversations

Every Tuesday and Thursday I go to exercise class an hour early and teach 3 - 4 ladies the Bible using English.

One thing we do at the very beginning is read a paragraph or two from Wesley Simon's Denominational Doctrines series, so that when they do get serious about christianity, they know they can't walk into the first group that calls itself christian unless the church is actually doing things according to the Bible, or what's the point in calling yourself a christian?

I think it was this paragraph we were reading the other week:

Now, let’s notice first of all that the Bible speaks of a falling away. See, this did not catch God by surprise. Old Satan is not dumb. Satan is very slick. For instance, in the garden, when God put Adam and Eve there, told them what to do, what not to do, I want you to notice Old Satan came along and what does he do? He changes God’s Word. That’s what he’s doing now with all these different religious groups. He’s changing God’s Word.

先注意聖經有提到離開正道這件事，這並沒有嚇到上帝。撒但不笨，他很狡猾。例如說，當上帝放亞當、夏娃在伊甸園，告訴他們要做什麼、而不要做什麼時，我要你注意撒但來了而他做什麼呢？他改變上帝的話，他現在也對所有不同教會團體做這樣的事，改變上帝的話。

(Watch the whole lesson here.)

And to make it real simple I said, "Look, the fewer rules the better, right? Who wants more and more rules? But if we have too few rules society would descend into chaos. So God has already given us the perfect amount of rules, suitable for all generations and we can't add to or take away from that."