Imagine that you pick up a copy of the NY Times. In the entertainment section, you find a review of a current musical on Broadway:

“The latest offering on Broadway is a sad little play about the history and the future of mankind. I won’t trouble you with the details. Suffice it to say that the show is violent, tasteless, insipid, and naive. The plot line goes beyond unbelievable……..it is patently impossible. Don’t waste your time and money”.

Later on, you learn that the reviewer never actually saw the play. He based his review on second and third hand accounts that he had heard from friends and strangers.

What would you think of the review?

More to the point……what would you think of the reviewer?

And yet, we hear book reviews about the Bible every day. If you drill down into the negative reviews, you will find that the reviewer has almost never actually read the book. Even worse, the reviews that are positive………are also written by reviewers, most of whom, have never read the book cover to cover.

Considering the eternal consequences…….heaven and hell……there is no escaping the fact that the Bible is the most important book that man has ever been exposed to. It is hard to conceive that our public conversation about this seminal piece of text, both positive and negative, is conducted, almost exclusively, by people on both sides of the argument………who have never read the Bible cover to cover.

The blind leading the blind.

You may believe the Bible to be true……..you may believe that it’s a myth. That is not today’s question. Today’s question is a little more basic. Today’s question deals with intellectual honesty.

“Have you actually read the book?”

Probably not.

Today’s post is for those who have never read the Bible cover to cover. This includes essentially all non-believers and the vast majority of believers.

I hope that you will run out and grab a copy and read every word.

But, I’m not very optimistic. It’s a pretty big book and it can be a little “thick”.

Today, I am not addrsssing a culture divided between believers and non-believers.

Today, I am addressing a culture divided between the intellectually honest……..and the intellectually dishonest.

So, what is your next step?

Ignore the honesty problem.

Grab a Bible and start at Genesis 1.

Or

Take a baby step.

Here is my suggestion:

Read the book of John…….then Acts…….then the letters of Paul.

Think of this as the “Cliff Notes” version of the Bible. Imagine this as a book titled:

“Love God……and Everybody Else”

As you read I must warn you of another honesty problem that you will encounter on almost every page. You will read a passage and say to yourself, “That’s impossible!” Just remember, what you actually mean is: “That’s impossible……for me”. God operates on a spiritual plane…….he is not bound by your narrow definition of what is possible.

Possible or impossible is not the question.

God is real. The consequences are real. The fact that you may not believe this……is irrelevant.

So……I return to the original question. What do you think of the reviewer in the first paragraph?

Because you are the reviewer.

For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.

Paul, Romans 1:19-20, ESV

I have been richly blessed:

A wonderful wife who has stuck with me for almost 50 years.

Sons and granddaughters

A home on a hilltop in the country

Health

And far more

I have also seen tragedy:

Illness in my family

The death of two sons

Your story is different. But, there has been, no doubt, a mix of blessing and tragedy.

We enjoy the blessings and we hate it when tragedy strikes. But……here’s the thing. God is the author of every one of our blessings. But, what about the tragedies? I believe that God is behind even the bad things that come our way. Perhaps he initiates the tragedies. Or, perhaps, he just allows them to happen. The story of Job is a case study in tragedy and blessing. God gives Satan explicit but limited permission to harm Job. The Bible never tells us why. God blesses Job…….God allows Satan to harm Job. In either event, God is working out his plan. He doesn’t need or ask for our approval. He doesn’t explain. We are left to fill in the blanks.

And so we do.

The Old Testament is full of this. God’s people sin and tragedy befalls them. They repent, and they are blessed. It is very tempting to view the blessings as rewards for good behavior and to view the tragedies as punishment for bad behavior. There is no doubt that this is sometimes the case. But, not always. God does reward us. God does punish us. But, often, perhaps most of the time, God is just working out the details of his plan.

Blessings are easy. Enjoy them. Praise God for them.

Tragedies, however, are an entirely different kettle of fish. How are we to react when God sends tragedy into our life…….when God allows Satan to harm us?

Why do bad things happen to good people?

God does not bless us because of who we are……or what we have done. God blesses us because of who he is.

God does not withhold his blessing because of who we are or what we have done. Sometimes, God withholds his blessing as a part of his plan. Sometimes, it really is a “zero sum game”. On a given Sunday, God may bless the Steelers at the expense of the Bengals.

The key thing to remember about God’s blessing?

It is about God…….not us.

Blessing is a tool that God uses to advance his plan…….not mine.

So……..enjoy God’s blessings. Try to run your life in line with God’s plan…….at least the parts of it that you and I can understand. This puts us in a place where we are more likely to enjoy God’s blessings…….his favor. When God withholds a blessing, be patient. God is working out his plan. He may be blessing someone else today.

Know this:

God loves you and me.

God has a plan.

God’s plan is good…….better than yours…..better than mine.

God sees the finish line when we cannot.

And his promise is that the finish line will be fabulous…….for those who love and serve him.

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.

James 1:17, ESV

And the Lord said to Satan, “Behold, he is in your hand; only spare his life.” So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord and struck Job with loathsome sores from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head.

Job 2:6-7, ESV

Sovereignty…….we don’t talk about it much, probably because it is in our nature to reject the concept……..or, at least, to bend it to our purposes. Perhaps we should go back to the basics. Just what is sovereignty?

Sovereignty is absolute control. The sovereign makes the rules. The sovereign makes the decisions. The sovereign decides where everything is going. The sovereign decides who will live and who will die. Sovereignty is absolute. It covers every object, every living thing, every idea, every thought. There are no exceptions. There is no “happy place” where you can set God’s sovereignty aside and rest for a while. Perhaps the most important feature of sovereignty is that nobody gets to second guess the sovereign. Nobody gets to criticize the sovereign. Nobody has veto power over the sovereign.

In its pure form, sovereignty is complete. There are no exceptions.

God is sovereign. Jesus and the Holy Spirit are manifestations of God. Even Jesus honored God’s sovereignty in his prayer at Gethsemane.

So……the first and most obvious trait of a sovereign is that he is the decision-maker. He decides where he is going. He decides where his people are going. He tells us what we must do……and what we cannot do. In a word, the sovereign makes the rules.

The second trait of a sovereign is less obvious but more far-reaching. The sovereign defines everything in the universe. Because our sovereign is also the creator, this means that God defines the physical makeup of everyone and everthing. God defines every object. God defines every act. God assigns a value and a meaning to every thought. God has a plan. As creator, he builds the universe to suit his plan.

We see glimpses of God’s plan. But, we are not privy to the entire plan. This means that much of God’s plan…….perhaps most of it……makes no sense to us. And that is where we get into trouble.

We see some act……or thought…..or person……or object. We apply our limited fund of knowledge to it. And we conclude that it is wrong.

We conclude that God is wrong. Maybe we decide that God made a mistake. Maybe we conclude that he is not paying attention. Maybe we go so far as to deny the existence of God. This is the world of the secular humanist. This is the culture…….the environment…..that we live in. This is our society……which rejects God’s sovereignty:

God was wrong…….when he gave me breasts…….I have a better plan…….I am a man.

God was wrong……..when he said don’t lie…….liars get ahead.

God was wrong…..when he said don’t steal……stealing gets me good stuff and I don’t have to pay for it.

God was stupid…..when he said don’t murder……..killing your enemy stops him from interfering with your plan.

God doesn’t exist…….creation and life itself is a physical/ biochemical accident.

The ultimate act of rejection of God’s sovereignty?

My plan has primacy over God’s plan.

The rejection of God’s sovereignty……the usurpation of God’s sovereignty…..is the root of every failure in our culture. It is the root of every failure in my life.

Rejecting God’s sovereignty creates distance between us and God.

Rejection leads to distance…….distance is sin…….sin leads to spiritual death.

God is sovereign.

Ergo, God, by definition, is right.

God is not mocked.

When we disagree with God and what he is doing, we act out of ignorance.

Everything in creation is as it should be……until we interfere with God’s sovereignty.

Everything in my life is as it should be until I try to enlarge my little slice of sovereignty by denying……by stealing……God’s sovereignty

And I do this……every day.

I take my little slice of stolen sovereignty and I run with it. I enjoy it……because it allows me to take the things that I want. I like the power that it gives me. I want more. And, if I pursue this thought to its ultimate conclusion?

I can end up trying to seize all of God’s sovereignty.

This strategy works……for a while………but there is a problem. I’m going to die……soon. At that point, I will transition into God’s spiritual realm.

What will happen to my little slice of sovereignty…….when I meet God?

I don’t know.

But, I have to believe that my little slice of sovereignty will be completely……..or almost completely……..overpowered by God’s absolute sovereignty.

From where I stand today……..that is scary. I really enjoy my morning cup of coffee. What if God doesn’t approve of coffee? The list of things that I may have to surrender goes way beyond Starbucks. I worry about the pleasures that I enjoy here that may not exist there. I worry that my latte may be replaced by a harp and a cloud.

Here is what I believe:

I believe that the pleasures of the physical/temporal world will be replaced by experiences in the spiritual realm that I cannot even begin to conceive:

Living in close proximity to the ultimate source of love.

Experiencing the blend of absolute justice and absolute mercy.

Living in a perfect body forever.

Having an itimate relationship with my creator.

Ultimately…….God defines good and being close to God will be the best……..by definition.

It is not God’s definition of good that must be corrected.

It is my definition of good that must be and will be corrected.

Time to get started.

“All the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, and he does according to his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay his hand or say to him, ‘What have you done?'”

Nebuchadnezzar’s epiphany about the sovereignty of God, Daniel 4:35, ESV

Stephen Hawking was, without a doubt, one of the greatest minds of our age. He was a theoretical astrophysicist. His pioneering work on black holes redirected our understanding of the beginning and of the coming end of the universe……..based on secular humanism. He was an atheist. He rejected the existence of God, eternal life, paradise, and hell. I don’t presume to understand the science that he worked with. I will say that he built a cohesive explanation of the beginning of the universe, uniting the theories of quantum mechanics and general relativity. This was a great leap forward in reconciling these theories. In a word, Hawking was a champion of secular humanism.

But Hawking’s work was based on the study, manipulation, and integration of multiple theories and assumptions.

Here is the problem. If you take twenty theories and assumptions and weave them into a cohesive “theory of everthing”, this does not prove any one of the theories to be true. Each theory must stand on its own. Each theory must be true……independent of the others. In fact, if any one of the theories that you are relying on is untrue, the whole house of cards comes tumbling down.

Cosmologists like Hawking are working to clean up the problems in the theories that explain the universe. They are actively searching for a workable “theory of everything”. They have spent hundreds of billions of dollars. They have written countless books.

They have not found it.

Why?

The scientific community bases its analysis on one central assumption.

That assumption is that there is no creative intelligence behind it all. That might be true. In fact, it must be true or Hawking and the others are chasing a mirage. But, this is an unproven assumption……..quite possibly an unprovable assumption. Is it any wonder that an analysis based on an unproven assumption has not yielded a solution?

The entire body of work…….of Hawking and other cosmologists is a theoretical framework built on a fundamental assumption that is unproven. They don’t talk about this problem. In fact, they ridicule anyone who does. There is no place in academia for a scientist who utters the heresy:

God did it……..God is smarter than Stephen Hawking.

To even entertain that possibility is to commit career suicide in the field of academic cosmology. The scientific community would rather entertain the idea that the 400 billion chemical bonds in the human genome were assembled by random accident than to consider the possibility of an intelligent designer.

So……I’m going to say it…….out loud.

God did it.

Prove me wrong.

Prove me wrong………because your fate hinges on this simple question…….and you must get the correct answer, because the cost of being wrong is unthinkable.

Did God do it……….or is it all a giant accident?

“I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.”

David’s prayer of thanks for creation, Psalm 139: 14, ESV

“I am a fabulous accident…….I rule the universe.”

The foundational prayer of secular humanism.

“I have sold more books on physics than Madonna has on sex.”

Stephen Hawking

Roughly 60% of Christians support making abortion legal.

The sole purpose of abortion is to end a pregnancy by killing a child.

Legal abortion codifies a woman’s control over her body.

Abortion is barbaric.

These statements are true.

So, what does this have to do with the Holy Spirit?

If you are not a Christian, you do not possess the Holy Spirit……you are in charge and you can do as you please.

Today’s post is for that majority of Christians……..who support abortion.

The Bible…….the owners manual for Christians…….teaches that to be a Christian, you must believe in Jesus Christ…….you must accept his divinity. It also teaches that when you do this, you receive the Holy Spirit who lives inside of you. It follows that pro-abortion Christians both promote abortion and possess the Holy Spirit. ⁰

And I have a hard time with that.

If this describes you, there are not many ways for you to reconcile this conundrum:

The Holy Spirit is OK with abortion. I find this to be inconceivable.

You do not possess the Holy Spirit……..you are not saved…….you are not a Christian. The long-term consequences of this are daunting. But, it leaves you in charge…….for now.

You possess the Holy Spirit…….but you ignore him. You allow your desires, your appetites, to drive your life. You drag out the Holy Spirit when you are in trouble; but, when he interferes with your appetites, you stuff him back into his box. On the surface, this is the best of both the spiritual world and the temporal world. In practice, you try to straddle the gap between two realities. And this works…….for now. I think that this path accounts for the vast majority of pro-abortion Christians. It accounts for a great many of my friends. It accounts for most of the people who sit beside me on Sunday morning.

But, I worry.

I don’t presume to know how Jesus feels about all of this.

Maybe Jesus is OK with part-time Christians. Maybe the time that we let the Holy Spirit of his box is enough for Jesus.

What I believe is this:

The more time that we spend listening to the Holy Spirit……….the more we include him in our decision-making………the better off we will be……..in both the temporal world and in the spiritual world. And…….this applies across the range of our decision-making. It goes way beyond abortion and politics.

I will try to give the Holy Spirit a bigger voice in the decisions that I will make today. I will do a better job of listening to the Holy Spirit.

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 have said to you.

Jesus promising the Holy Spirit, John 14:26, ESV

“When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.”

Jesus, explaining the Holy Spirit, John 16:13, ESV

As I watch the ongoing verbal warfare among our political leaders, one area of conflict stands out. It is the trend of men competing in women’s sports. There is a small group of Americans who tell us that our sex is a state of mind. If you feel male…….you are male. If you feel female……..you are female. This small group of leaders has pursued this idea to the point of allowing men to compete in women’s sports. They even allow men to dress and shower in women’s locker rooms.

The vast majority of the electorate does not support this.

The physical evidence against this idea is overwhelming.

This disenfranchises and harms women throughout the sports community. The only people who gain are men who can win a phoney prize by defeating women.

Why does our culture do this?

The science, the physical evidence, our sense of right and wrong, and even our conscience scream that this is wrong. The left, which champions this idea, is taking a beating at the poles over it. And yet they persist.

This is not the only example:

Your sex is merely a state of mind.

There is no difference between men and women.

An unborn child is not a human being with a soul.

Sexual intercourse between two men….or women…….is OK.

Stealing less than $1,000 is not theft.

Insider trading by our leaders is OK.

Joe Biden is “sharp as a tack”.

War is a satisfactory tool for promoting your national interests.

All illegals are bad for America.

Jews are the new Nazis.

Lying to your parents, your boss, your spouse, the IRS…..is justifiable……it is your right.

And the biggest lie of all……..Satan is just another myth……a phoney “boogeyman”.

The list goes on.

Both the left and the right are guilty.

These ideas are absurd. And yet, as crazy as they are, we argue about them every day. By the very active of arguing, we legitimize these ideas.

What is going on here?

These ideas are not the real issue. The real motivation behind these ideas is far more nefarious……..far more deadly for our culture……..far more dangerous for humanity writ large.

What we are really fighting over is the very existence of truth. The attempt to destroy truth is the face of the attempt to eradicate the Holy Spirit.

Truth is important to God. Jesus taught the primacy of absolute truth. The Holy Spirit is the definition of Truth.

And yet, every day, as a culture, we reject the truth. We settle for a lie. The problem is far bigger than a man winning a medal at a swim meet. The problem is that we are becoming comfortable with rejecting the truth. We are glibly incorporating lies into our daily life.

The truth exists……whether we like it or not.

The truth is absolute.

You cannot negotiate with the truth.

You cannot bend the truth to your desires.

You cannot destroy the truth. You only destroy yourself by crashing into it.

The war that our culture is conducting against the truth is the symptom of a much bigger and more deadly conflict. It is the conflict between the Holy Spirit……and Satan. Our culture will not be the first to be destroyed because we abandoned the truth. Our enemy knows this.

Please understand……..our enemy is not Chuck Schumer or Donald Trump. It is not DHS or the rioters in Minnesota. The enemy is Satan.

Satan is real………this is the truth.

You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.

Jesus describing Satan, John 8:44, ESV

When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you.

Jesus describing the Holy Spirit, John 16: 13-14, ESV

The Trinity

Three faces…….three aspects of God.

They are one……but they are not the same.

As one, they are God. When we pray to God…….we address all three. The common thread that they share is love. All three hope for and work for our wellbeing. All three seek relationship. All three want our company………in paradise……for eternity.

But, how we respond to each face of the Trinity is unique:

God……the Father

The Father is, in many ways, the archetype for our parents. He is sovereign. His power and authority are absolute. He makes the rules. He expects obedience. He rewards obedience and he punishes rebellion. He created us. He protects us. He provides for us. He loves us. In return, he demands our attention, honor, and respect. He knows that this is the path to a successful, fulfilling life in this temporal world. He created and defines paradise. He has established the criteria for our judgment at the end of our physical life. The Father is not to be trifled with. In addition to paradise…….he has created hell. Hell is not a metaphor. It is a place of burning eternal pain. We ignore, dishonor, or disrespect the Father at our peril. In a word, the Father is the Boss.

God…….the Son

The Son is a kinder, gentler face of God. The Son has enormous authority over the temporal world. But…….even the Son operates under the Father’s sovereignty. The Son is our teacher. He translates God’s desires for us into a practical plan for living. He shows us what a proper relationship with the Father looks like. He shows us what a proper relationship with other people looks like. The Son does not contradict the father. Everthing that the Son teaches amplifies and clarifies the desires of the Father. When we obey the Son…….we are obeying the Father. When we honor the Son……..when we worship the Son…….we honor and worship the Father.

God…….the Spirit

At Pentecost, Jesus…….the Son…….left our temporal world in physical form. He gave us…….as his representative…….the Spirit. The Spirit is a non-physical manifestation of the Son…….just as the Son is a physical manifestation of the Father. The Spirit is a gift from the Son to his followers. It is his reward to those who choose to obey, honor, and respect him…….and in the process to honor, obey, and respect the Father. The Spirit indwells in all believers. Non-believers do not have the Spirit in their hearts. That is why they behave the way they do.

So……here is the key to life…….to paradise…….to eternity.

The criteria for spending eternity in paradise is to obey, honor, and respect God…….all three of him. The hallmark of this relationship is the presence of the Spirit……..inside of your heart. Given the eternal consequences……..there is nothing more important in your life. Examine yourself for the presence of the spirit.

Paradise is not promised to those who:

are good people

watch their carbon footprint

identify as Christians

tithe

are generous

go to church every Sunday……and sometimes on Wednesday

pray the rosary

Paradise is promised to those who obey, honor, and respect God.Those who obey, honor, and respect God live their lives with the Spirit in their heart.

Do you possess the Spirit?

Nothing else matters.

“If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. And the word that you hear is not mine but the Father’s who sent me. “These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you. 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 have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you.

Jesus explaining the Father, Son, and Spirit, John 14: 23-27, ESV

I have spent a lot of time studying Christianity. Most of this study involves reading the Bible……..the owners manual. There are three general areas of Christianity that I have tried to understand:

God…..the Father

God is the creator of everything, the physical world, the spiritual world (including heaven and hell). God is the pinnacle of everything. I can understand a little bit about God. But, much of God’s nature, perhaps most of it, is beyond my capacity to know. I will learn more after I die. But, I doubt that I will ever fully understand God. Even the Bible reveals very little about God. He has expectations. He rewards obedience. He punishes disobedience. But, he intentionally creates a certain distance between himself and us. We can like him…..or not. We can accept his reality……or not. But, he is in charge and we don’t get to negotiate. Even Jesus didn’t fully know what God was and is up to. Both the Old Testament and the New Testament give us glimpses of God’s nature.

Jesus…….the son

Jesus is a manifestation of God. He is a reflection of God’s character. Jesus serves God. Jesus is the clearest image of God’s nature that we have. He is fully God. He is fully human. Because Jesus is human, he speaks a language and lives a life that we can understand. Most of what we do as Christians centers around our relationship with Jesus. The Old Testament gives us a few veiled references to Jesus. The New Testament fleshes this out……literally. We focus on Jesus because we can understand him. We like Jesus because he is one of us………in addition to being one with God.

The Holy Spirit……..the “helper”

At least for me…….this is where the wheels start to come off. The spirit is non-tangible. Our mind is designed to operate in a physical world. We just can’t get a grip on a being who is completely non-physical. But, as hard as the spirit is to understand, the spirit is at the core of life in a “post Jesus” world. Please don’t misunderstand. Jesus was and is and will be. Jesus teaches us how to live. Jesus invites us into an ongoing relationship. Jesus requires us to accept him as God incarnate in the same way that we accept God……as God…….non-incarnate. But, at Pentecost, things changed. Jesus ascended into heaven. He left the physical world. He is, no doubt, still active in our world…..but, for the most part, in a non-physical form. When he left, he sent a non-physical replacement…….the Holy Spirit. The best way that I can understand the spirit is as a non-physical manifestation of both God, the father, and Jesus, the son. The Holy Spirit informs our minds. He guides our decision-making. He teaches us right and wrong. The right and wrong that he teaches are absolute. There is no negotiation. The spirit is often at odds…….at war……with our appetites. The spirit arrives in us when we accept God and Jesus.

There is a corollary:

Those who reject God and Jesus do not receive the spirit.

Those who reject the father and the son are ruled by…….are at the mercy of…….their appetites. They do not hear the Holy Spirit. This goes a long way toward explaining the behaviour of about half of our society.

Furthermore, it is entirely possible to identify as a Christian, receive the spirit, and yet completely ignore the spirit. This explains the large number of nominal Christians who allow their appetites to govern their actions. They straddle the gap between spirit led Christianity and appetite led secular humanism. I worry that they are like the guy with one foot on the dock…….and one foot in the boat.

The Holy spirit comes from God, the father. It descended on Jesus at his baptism. Jesus passed it on to his followers at Pentecost. If you are a Christian, the Holy spirit has been passed on to you. The Holy Spirit is the manifestation of God’s plan for your life. It is the manifestation of God’s authority………God’s sovereignty…..over your life……..every corner of it.

So far, so good. But, there is the problem of free will. Just before his crucifixion, as he prayed in the garden of Gethsemane, Jesus prayed “not my will…..but your will be done”. Jesus had free will too. He could have walked away from the crucifixion. But, he didn’t. I believe that he listened to the guidance of the holy spirit. He submitted to the sovereignty of God, the father.

And that is our daily walk.

Thousands of times every day we make a choice:

We submit to the demands of our appetites.

Or

We submit to the sovereignty of God.

The Holy spirit is the being…….who lives inside of us…….who guides us in our choice:

The sovereignty of God

Or

The dictatorship of our appetites.

Jesus chose wisely……..we should too.

But if I go, I will send him to you. And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment: concerning sin, because they do not believe in me; concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will see me no longer; concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.

“I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.

Jesus explaining the holy spirit, John 16: 7-13. ESV

I know a young woman. She is dabbling with the occult, probably Satanism. She says that Christianity is a “cult”. She says that she rejects “religion”. She has been exposed to both ideas. She knows about Christianity because her family has shared it with her. I suspect that her exposure to Satan and the occult is through her friends.

Two diametrically different approaches to life. These two approaches are mutually exclusive. They cannot both be right. They cannot both be true. She is at a decision point. This is the most important decision that she will make in her life. It is important because the ramifications of her decision are eternal.

Christianity promises her an eternity surrounded by love…….an eternity in the presence of the God who created her. This is God’s offer to her…….if she accepts it. If she rejects God’s offer, Christianity also carries the threat of hell…….a place that is separated from God’s love…….a place that redefines pain.

Satanism/occultism promises her fun……right now. It is strangely silent on what kind of eternity awaits her. That alone is a red flag. Curiously, the people promoting the occult……..the people calling Christianity a “cult”…..never call Satanism a “cult”. This is another red flag. Satan never tells us that he loves us. He wants power and control……..but he never offers love.

I once stood at this same decision point. Jesus was either a supernatural being…..God……or he was one of the two greatest con-men of history (the other being Mohammed). God, heaven, hell, and Satan were either true……or a myth. Here is the chain of logic that I followed.

Jesus is an historical figure. He lived, preached, died by crucifixion and was entombed. This is documented in both religious and secular accounts. Jesus endorsed the Old Testament. His disciples endorsed the New Testament.

It all comes down to one question:

“Is the Bible true?”

Notice that the question is not, “do I approve of the Bible”.

When push comes to shove, the validity of the Bible hinges in one thing:

Did the resurrection of Jesus really happen? After all, I think we can agree that resurrection is impossible. If Jesus returned to life after being dead for three days, then he has done something impossible. If the resurrection really happened…….then Jesus is not limited by what is possible……..by the laws of science…..he is supernatural……a good working definition of God.

Jesus, God, the creator says that the Bible is true.

So……did the resurrection actually happen?

This is the most important decision that we will ever make. It is a black and white, yes or no, decision. There is no “in between”. You must answer yes or no. And ignoring the question is a tacit no.

Here is the evidence:

Jesus died…..a Roman soldier speared him with an 18″ iron spear that would have penetrated both lungs and the heart. He received no medical care. This is not a survivable injury. He was entombed.

Three days later he had dinner with his disciples. All but one of them testified to this. All of them died gruesome deaths rather than recant. I cannot believe that 12 grown men would die gruesome deaths to promote what they knew was a lie. I cannot believe that 12 men would accept horrible torture and death to promote a “con” knowing that the author of the con was dead.

Days later, he appeared to 400 eyewitnesses.

That is good enough for me.

Resurrection is impossible.
Jesus did something impossible.
Jesus is supernatural.
Jesus is devine.
Jesus endorses the Bible, heaven, hell, and eternal life.
What I believe……what I approve of…..what I like…..what is fun……is irrelevant.

I have lived 30 years following Jesus. I can promise you that it works.

The Ouija board……..not so much.

My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.”

Jesus claiming divinity, John 10: 27-30, ESV

Today’s post is a real stretch for me. I am trying to understand a realm that, intellectually, is outside of my grasp. This is the spiritual realm. Imagine a blind water snake trying to understand a blue sky.

We are confined in a spatial and temporal world. Our world is governed by the laws of science. Every year we learn and understand more. But, there are limits to our reach. We cannot change the past. We cannot forsee the future. We cannot even see the distant reaches of the universe. We cannot conceive anything beyond our spatial/temporal world. We never will. We are all blind water snakes.

What follows is one blind water snake trying to explain a blue sky to another blind water snake.

So……here goes.

God is a spiritual intelligence operating in a spiritual world. He is not restrained by space and time. As such, God is and was and always will be. He is just as present in the past and in the future as he is in the now. God had no beginning. God will have no end. God is constant based on our limited understanding of time. But, God is also constant in his nature…….his character. God’s character is defined by love, justice, mercy, and his desire for relationship. Our relationship with God is based on his absolute sovereignty. What we are supposed to become is dictated by his sovereignty. What God wants more than anything else is for us to be with him……..not as equals……but in a sovereign, parent/child relationship. God operates both in his spiritual realm and our spatial/temporal realm. There is probably much more to God. But, this is what we have been told. This is the limit of our understanding of God. We will probably someday know more. But, I do not believe that we will ever fully understand God.

Satan is a created intelligence. He had a beginning and he will have an end. He, too, is constrained by God’s sovereignty. Satan has a degree of sovereignty; but, his sovereignty is delegated by God and restricted by God. Satan has freedom to operate across space and time. But, this too is restricted by God. Satan’s character is far less constant than God’s. It changes with his appetites. Because of this, it is harder to pin down. Satan’s character is defined by jealousy, vengeance, anger, frustration, and the desire for power. In a word, Satan wants to be in charge. Satan, more than anything else, wants to be God. He knows that this cannot be and he takes his frustration out on mankind.

And then, there is man. Like Satan, we are created beings. We, too, are restricted. We are tightly hemmed in by space and time. We each have a beginning, birth. Our end is far more complicated. Our physical being is limited to the spatial/temporal world that we know. Spatially, we are limited to a tiny blue planet, one of trillions, so far. Temporally, we have about 80 years to work with. Given a potentially infinite cosmos and infinite time frame, our physical being is so tiny as to be almost inconsequential. That’s the bad news. The good news is that we are also spiritual beings. Our spiritual side is eternal. At our physical death, it will return to the spiritual realm. But, what about our character? Our character is all over the place. We have free will. This was not given to us by God. It was taken……stolen…..by man. Free will has a profound effect on our character and on our relationship with God…….and with Satan, for that matter.

With free will, our character can be anything that we want it to be. Ultimately, each of us chooses our own character. We choose, either by considered thought, or by happenstance. In practice, how we choose our character is governed by either God’s sovereignty or by our own appetites.

God’s appetites/sovereignty vs. Our appetites/sovereignty.

Enter the problem……..of distance.

From a spiritual perspective, God is constant. Satan, man, and everything else change from minute to minute. God is the center of the spiritual universe. Satan is the periphery. Satan extends as far from God as is possible. This is his “happy place”. But he also has a presence closer to God. This is the spiritual realm of man. Both Satan and God operate in the spiritual realm of man. We see this every day. Both Satan and God desire man. We drift around in the spiritual “Grey zone” between God and Satan. We spend time close to God. We spend time close to Satan……..all of us.

The most defining feature of humanity is our distance from God in mankind’s part of the spiritual realm. Because Satan is all over the periphery, anything that increases our distance from God draws us closer to Satan. In our exercise of our free will we act. These acts will either increase or decrease our distance from God. This is the key to human life.

Why is this so important? This distance is the most important metric in our life for one reason.

When we die……..the distance becomes fixed……..for eternity. Wherever we are in our relationship with God when we die is where we will stay……forever. And forever…….is a long time.

I am not privy to the details. But, being close to my creator is where I am meant to be. This is the best place in the spiritual realm. It will be warm and sunny. It will be defined by love and joy.

The periphery, Satan’s realm, will be cold and dark. It will be defined by anger, hate, vengeance, jealousy, and pain. It will be defined by distance………from love…….from joy…….from God.

The sole object of human life is to daily draw closer to God so that when we die………our distance from God…….our distance from love…..our distance from joy…….is as short as is humanly possible.

All of the teaching of Christianity leads to that goal.