Who Is My Judge?

Are Christians forbidden to judge?  They are indeed forbidden to do only what Christ can do and that is determining the fate of the individual as to hell or heaven.  John 5:24 says, "...he who hears my word and believes in Him who sent me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment" (NKJV).  Christians are only subject to the bema or tribunal of Christ and not the Great White Throne Judgment at the last day.  That is only the destiny of the lost.  As believers we will not be judged for our sins, but only our works are put through the fire to see if they are worthy of reward--some will burn like wood, hay, and straw. 

Paul urges the church to judge those inside the church (1 Cor. 5:12 says, "...Do you not judge those who are inside [the church]?")  if they are living in sin, a little sin "in the camp" will be like leaven to the whole body.  "But those who are outside God judges."  This is the issue of church discipline which is not really practiced much today in the evangelical church.   Jesus said, "When you judge, judge righteous judgment" (John 7:24).  The measure we judge will be returned to us likewise  ("Judge not, lest you be judged' (Mat. 7:1); therefore, it is wise to be careful in judgment (if we don't judge between true and false teachers where would we be?).  Pope Francis said today, "Who am I to judge?"  He is shirking his responsibility as a leader in the church and he will be responsible for this stand.    He was referring to homosexual priests.  The Bible condemns homosexuality; it is not a matter of judging but of preaching the Word of God.   The prophets of old were known for denouncing sin and this is what is lacking in our churches today--God demands true repentance. 

We should fear the government when we disobey a law not only for conscience sake but also for punishment--God has ordained government as a means of restraint of evil.  If you're a believer in Christ and have never been judged by a fellow Christian, you haven't lived!  We all face this at times and learn to take the beam out of our own eye before removing the speck from our brother's eye. 

Is Science Compatible with Faith?

Science was made possible by the discovery of a rational universe, perceived by a rational mind, using rational modus operandi. Induction, deduction, experimentation, measurement, repeatability, theory and hypothesis make science possible. The Eastern religions don't believe in a rational universe, but in maya or that the universe is a figment of our imagination or that it isn't really real. It was the Christian worldview of 15th century Europe that really got the scientific method off to its debut. Sir Francis Bacon is considered the father of the scientific method. All of the early great scientists (Galileo, Kepler, Copernicus, Newton, Pascal, Maxwell et al were Christians). In fact science owes its existence to Christianity. But the ironic thing is that now science seems to be thinking that religion in general is the "enemy" and incompatible with the scientific method.

All worldviews require presuppositions and so-called "natural science," as opposed to the supernatural, does too. In fact, it takes more faith to believe a naturalistic universe without any intentional design than it does to simply believe in a supreme being. The evidence is in favor of a deity but people are not willing to take the leap of faith in the direction of the faith because of moral issues not intellectual problems. They don't believe because they don't want to believe, not because they can't. "Even though he performed many miracles there, they would [not could] not believe in him" (John 12:37).

Does Prayer Work?

Prayer works, the preacher says, so come on up and we'll prayer for your needs. The objection I have is that TM works and yoga works, but we don't try them. Just because something works doesn't mean it is true, that is not the criterion. Lee Stroebel says that Christianity works because it is true, it is not true because it works. We should pray even if we don't feel we are getting from God what we want, as it were, that he is our genie giving us what we want. We pray for the sake of praying says Steven Brown not for ulterior motives. Someone has wisely said that we should love God even if there were no heaven and fear God even if there were no hell. Well we should have the desire to commune with God even if we don't get our way.

The paradigm of prayer should always include the phrase "in Jesus' name" (it is for his sake and God's will that we really want to pray). Now, some preachers think their prayers are more "effectual" (James. 5:16) than others but they are not. Any Christian can pray without giving up and "fervently" to get our wills aligned with God's. We don't change God, he changes us. You see, we are all on an equal footing in prayer--that is the beauty, God is no respecter of persons and shows no partiality.

Some say that worry works, because 90% of what we worry about doesn't happen! Well, with that kind of logic prayer isn't as effective as worry because I don't think anyone can say that 90% of their prayers were answered in the affirmative--if they are, they are not very challenging prayers. God can answer in the affirmative, negative or tell us to wait. But we should never give up hope unless God clearly says no like he did to Paul's thorn in the flesh. But remember this: God has arranged it so that we can explain away answered prayers if we so desire--he doesn't force us to believe but wants faith to please him. Well prayer does work but that is not why we pray!

On the Enslaved Will

Martin Luther said that the freedom of the will is a grandiose term and fit only for God. Our wills are enslaved to the old sin nature and inclined to evil. They are biased and prone to evil, not good. Luther said that man has not ceased to be man, but ceased to be good. We are only free in the sense that God doesn't force us to do evil--we do it on our own volition. Augustine of Hippo said that we are free, but not freed. This is not a mind game, but only stressing that we don't have liberty, though we are responsible moral agents. We concur with our evil and no one forces us to do evil, which would be determinism or coercion. We are voluntary slaves to evil. God doesn't force anyone to do something he doesn't want to do.

There are many Bible verses that stress the lack of freedom to respond to Christ on our own without the wooing of the Spirit. "No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him." "It is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God who showeth mercy." "Who are born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. " "The way of man is not in himself."

The freedom of the will so to speak is a curse, since we are free to do evil. Augustine said that we are non posse non peccare, which means we can only do evil. Luther said the will can only do evil, too. Augustine said we are free but not freed; we have a free will in a sense but not liberty.

On the Enslaved Will

According to Martin Luther the will is enslaved to the old sin nature and not free. Augustine of Hippo said that the will is free, but not freed. He wasn't playing mind games, but saying that we are responsible agents to God for our choices, but don't have liberty. He doesn't force us to do evil, because we do it on our own initiative. The freedom of the will is a curse, because we can only do evil according to Luther. Where did free will help Esau? There are many Bible verses that show that man doesn't have free will as far as the ability to choose and come to Christ apart from grace and the wooing of the Spirit. "For who can resist His will?" (Rom. 9:19). "It is not of him that willeth ..." "Who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God" (Rom. 9:16). "For the way of man is not in himself, it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps" (Jer. 10:23). We are biased or prone to evil, not good. Martin Luther said we have not ceased to be man, but have ceased to be good. The whole matter can be summed up in the phrase: "We don't need free will--we need wills made free!" We are inclined to evil, not good--the ability lost at the fall.

This is one of the oldest debates in Christendom. Pelagius and Augustine debated it and so did Luther and Erasmus of Rotterdam. The prevalence of the doctrine of freedom of the will in today's church is due to the influence of the Wesleyan Arminians. Don't let anyone make you think that the enslavement of the will is a new doctrine or that it is not orthodox, because it is the original doctrine defended by the church fathers and the reformers.

The Miraculous

For any of the skeptics I recommend Jack Deere's Surprised by the Power of the Spirit, which delivers a coup de grace to the cessasionist viewpoint. God does speak today, especially in the third world where "power evangelism" is taking effect and people witness miracles and by and large don't doubt the supernatural. Argentina has been having such a revival that obese people have been reported to have instantly lost 30 or more! They say that the West brought the
the knowledge of God and the third world the power of God.

Hearing God's Voice

I think some Christians are awful mystical and seem to think that they hear God talking to them when they are really mentally ill and need medications. I know of patients who take drugs and it sure seems to cure them. I don't doubt that there are legitimate prophets who are spiritual giants but this is not the norm. The normative way for God to speak to us is through the Word of God.