“The reason Jesus gave for a man marrying a woman is the historical account of Adam and Eve…Was Jesus wrong? Is there a Biblical historical basis for a man marrying a woman? I lean toward believing the scholars who believe that Genesis was historical and really happened.”

This statement was made in one of the comments the other day here.  There were a few other statements made about literal interpretations of Genesis.  As far as creation is concerned, there are at least four different views about its historicity and probably more.  Some view the creation account in Genesis as informing us about God’s literal six-twenty four hour day’s creation, a real Garden of Eden and a man and a woman named Adam and Eve.  Another group of people see it as literal in the sense of the garden and Adam and Eve but that the days are not literal twenty four hour days and instead might be representing ages or eras.  Another group does not believe much of any of this is literal at all and just points to God as creator and how He intended the relationship with His creation to be and that somewhere we failed.  And finally, some view Genesis as well as a lot of the bible as myth and really has no bearing on anything much.

Which of these, or some other view, do you believe?

Are you tolerant of any of the other views?

What do you think might be the consequences of holding to any of the other views?

Would any of you care to answer the questions in the quote at the beginning of this article?

ADDITIONAL ADDED QUESTION…Does any of this matter as far as our mission goes?

I invite all to participate and hope we can discuss this irenically.  Please stay on topic because I will be asking some more about Genesis in future posts.

Love you all

Anyone, especially anyone a little older, that thinks any and all things new or not done in the traditional sense are the only things being pushed in church that are worldly should watch this video through to the end.  Worldliness is not necessarily what you think and could actually be seen as the exact things you might not want to let go of.  I hope you take something from this and actually apply it to your thinking.

Love you all

Just a few things I want to say.  This is the tagline of this blog.  A tagline is a brief description of what a blog is about.  When I started this blog I really did not know for sure what direction I was going to take with it.  Was I going to try to teach biblical concepts?  Was I going to comment on the church?  Was I going to reflect on my personal walk with Jesus?  Was I going to be serious or sarcastic?  I decided to use the tagline I did because frankly, I was not sure.  But I did know that whatever I said here would be my own thoughts, my own opinions.  It is still that way.  It has not changed.  What I say here is not necessarily backed up by my wife, family, friends, church, or anyone for that matter.  I do ask the Holy Spirit for guidance but that is in no way saying for sure that God is okay with it either.  It is simply just a few things I want to say.  And so is the following.

I really don’t understand how so many people can read something and not have a clue what the writer was trying to say.  Take for example the last post that I wrote.  It was about the need for all of us to grow in our relationships with each other.  I used a real group in my church, The Bridge, to start it off but that was not the focus.  But some readers went no further than that.  Instead, someone, and maybe more than one, took it as another opportunity to see me in a defensive position, trying to take up for this new group.  They took it upon themselves to put into action some things that hurt at least two people.  Since these are supposed to be my family, also followers of Jesus, this simply saddens and amazes me.

I do not have to defend this fellowship of young adults.  The evidence that it is good and godly comes directly from the attacks that have been launched against it already.  It is evidently offensive in some way to others.  And Jesus warned us of these things.  So my question is simple.  Who exactly is trying to cause division here?  The Bridge has brought a couple of people back into the fold already yet the verbal attacks from others have almost sent a couple of members in my church fleeing.  Who is on track as far as the mission is concerned?

When are we going to stop feeling threatened by things that are outside of or do not include ourselves?  When are we going to realize that we have to sacrifice some things that maybe we are a little too dogmatic about to reach our kids and grandkids?  When are we going to realize that relevance is not synonymous with degradation as concerns the gospel?

I am at a fork in the road as it concerns my own future already.  There are some very important decisions that I am about to have to make: decisions about life, both secular and spiritual.  I wish that the people of God would not keep on adding to it like they seem to be at the moment.  I wish my “family” would make it easier instead of harder.

You may think that I just say this out of habit but it really is from the heart.  I…

Love you all

A couple of days ago I asked some questions about alcohol and whether the bible condemns all consumption of it as sin.  On the face of this it seems pretty certain that it is not.  Any casual reader of the stories of Jesus would recognize the fact that His first recorded miracle was turning water into wine.  And there are other direct references of His very own consumption of it.  Yet I have read and heard many arguments about it being sin.

There are those that will use all kind of pretty far out excuses to say that this is not really saying what we think.  The scripture is not saying what it seems to say.  Grape juice?  Really?  Are we to believe that God is just trying His best to confuse us?

There are those that, in the past and probably still today, say that it is even wrong for a Christian to serve or sell alcohol.  Again, I point to Christ’s first miracle.  If I should not serve or sell it then why in the world would Jesus turn water into it?  We seem to still have tremendous problems with self-righteousness.

These thoughts and questions are not really the reason I raised this question though.  For some very thoughtful, adult insights about the consumption argument in general, please read Tuesdays post and comments.  Everyone who responded made points I not only believe to be correct but I hold to them myself.  And I especially think that when you vow or commit to something as Heath and Jason did as ministers, then you should adhere to those commitments like they pointed out that they did.

If the organization you join says you have to stand on one foot for 30 seconds and face east at 8:00 am every third Tuesday and you agree, then you must do it whether it makes sense or not, if you are a person of integrity.  The health and danger issues are also valid reasons why not drinking makes sense, and the witness in a culture that definitely glorifies alcohol as the means to get drunk is not one the Kingdom really needs.  I don’t drink myself for some of these reasons.

As I stated though, I brought it all up for the same reason I have brought up other things recently.  If we spent as much time as some do on defending these obviously unbiblical beliefs such as drinking being sin, with as much zeal and commitment, in reaching out to those outside the Kingdom, we could really glorify God. Instead we waste tremendous amounts of time on our own legalistic views and arguments.

Alcohol is only one small part of a whole host of things that some Christians seem to want to focus on in spite of the fact that they have a mission to do.  Appearances are important as some believe when talking about drinking, but what about the appearance of condemnation we portray that is not even biblically justified.  When the lost of this world see us bickering and fighting and even bringing the charge of heresy against a minister that obviously is not heretical, what do they think?  I will tell you what they think because it was not that long ago that I thought it.  They think that there is no God.  And if there is He is not that big, not that great, and not that powerful because His whole family is so hypocritical and unloving of even each other.

We must reach out in love to a lost and dying world and to do that we have got to stop adding our own lists of sins to Gods.  That is what Jesus condemned about the Pharisees and the bible even warns us about adding to His word, but we just don’t seem to get it.  This world of lost souls is not concerned about our petty arguments and disagreements about alcohol, about divorce, about creation, about (dare I say it) initial evidence.  What this worlds lost souls are concerned about, whether they even know it or not, is the eternal destination of their very being.  And even if they are not concerned, we must be.

As I said on my post about creation recently, let’s stop all the arguing about pet doctrines and interpretations in front of the kids, so to speak, and wait until we get behind closed doors.

Love you all