Category: Apologetics

Trust Me on This

“He who trusts in himself is a fool.”

Proverbs 28:26

“…the one who trusts in Him will never be put to shame.”

Romans 9:33 (footnote to Isaiah 8:14, 28:16)

Rarely does a sermon, Bible lesson, or a daily devotional not mention some iteration, backstory, or combination of the notion of trusting in Jesus completely while not trusting in ourselves at all.

This is pervasive, standard issue, Christian advice. With Christ living in our own individual Christian hearts, we hope Jesus will help us to shine His light of love, caring, and compassion out into the external world. I can’t help but notice, though, that His bright light also shines into all my own internal darkness. And further, that while His holy light shining into my soul illuminates my sin and error, it doesn’t automatically fix them.

I doubt I’m alone in that observation.

Non-believers in Christ, quasi-believers in Christ, errant believers in Christ, and atheists against any notion of God have the same problem but don’t realize it. Our human default mode – also a sure sign of our fallenness – is that we are ordained to trust ourselves first: “I believe in me.” Then, once we are rich, smart, good looking, and healthy, we feel competent to demand of God why He allows adversity and injustice: “You, God, can fix everything. That’s what the Bible says. So … fix it.”

In my experience, the folks who least understand the Bible and Jesus are often the quickest to blame God for their troubles, trusting Him as nothing more than a temporal Mr. Fix-It. This isn’t a case of a broken light switch; it is a case of blindness to God’s love, truth, goodness, and ultimate mission of Jesus Christ on earth: God’s glory.

Developing the faith to outsource trust onto something we know but can’t see is a sign of a mature Christian. Thinking that the grasp and surety of my faith are a function of my ability to put my trust “in” myself and my intellect presents a contradiction of a fairly high and eternally damaging magnitude: We think we are the light. No. 

Christians spend all this time talking about how much they trust Jesus as their savior, and spend almost as much time worrying about whether they are really saved. I believe this is the manifestation of the tension we feel between the light of Christ shining outwardly vs. inwardly: of His true worthiness vs. our true unworthiness. 

It’s also a telling gauge of trust: What’s harder to trust than that Jesus would save even a sinner like me? Being Jesus’s light out into the world while dealing with, addressing, and feeling the shame of what that light makes us see within ourselves seems, at the very least, a bit of a stretch. Yet, it is the most profound dynamic of hope:

Peace, trust, and deep faith come upon us when we realize it’s all the same light.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) figures our fallenness is all the same; it’s just easier to judge the world’s than our own. Good tip: read the surrounding context in the Bible verses listed up top. “Fool” and “shame” describe permanent, not temporary afflictions. May we endeavor to be neither in the New Year. For more of Walters’ columns, see commonchristianity.blogspot.com. For his books, see www.lulu.com/spotlight/CommonChristianity.

The Ethics of Moderna’s COVID-19 Vaccine

As you consider your options in the fight against COVID-19, you may want to consider the article “Measuring Moderna’s COVID-19 Vaccine: Now’s the Time to Press Hard for Ethical Options” by Stacy Trasancos. It’s available in full here.

It begins: “Despite reports that Moderna’s vaccine has no connection to fetal cell lines from elective abortions, the creation of the company’s COVID-19 vaccine isn’t so morally clear cut.”

Further on, Ms. Trasancos notes: “In a patent Moderna filed in 2019 presenting similar technology with mRNA, they repeatedly describe the use of HEK293 cells, including in the development of the lipid nanoparticle delivery system. 

“So, the claim that Moderna’s vaccine is ‘ethically uncontroversial’ because it has no connection to unethically derived materials does not seem to be supported as both the development of the spike protein sequence, the mRNA expression in testing, and the lipid nanoparticle delivery system are described as using the HEK293 cell line derived from an aborted fetus. 

“Instead of assigning this vaccine to a category that suggests no more caution is needed, I think it is better to slow down and look at the big picture. The COVID-19 vaccine is not a vaccine that was produced decades ago. We are not like the parents who sit in doctors’ offices accepting a morally tainted vaccine because there are no alternatives while voicing an objection that goes nowhere. Rather, we are talking about a vaccine currently in development, a vaccine that could be required for the entire population in a year’s time, a new kind of vaccine that has never gone to market before and will certainly undergo more testing and development. This means that we can’t passively accept the possibility of morally tainted work. We need to speak up loudly with clarity and courage about the ethics and insist upon an ethical option. It could redirect this entire issue towards the good.”

For more information, see the full article.

Avon: “Iniquity” | The Bible Project

“Iniquity is a biblical word that very few people use anymore, and even fewer people know what it means! In this video, we’ll explore the significance of this word in ancient Hebrew, and discover a whole new way to think about our selfish decisions and their consequences.”

The Bible Project

Dig into the treasure of God’s Word with the Bible Project on YouTube and at bibleproject.com!

I Shall Not Want | Audrey Assad

1“The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not be in want.
2 He makes me lie down in green pastures,
He leads me beside quiet waters,
3 He restores my soul.
He guides me in paths of righteousness
for His Name’s sake.
4 Even though I walk
through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil,
for You are with me;
Your rod and Your staff,
they comfort me.
5 You prepare a table before me
in the presence of my enemies.
You anoint my head with oil;
my cup overflows.
6 Surely goodness and love will follow me
all the days of my life,
and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.”

David, Psalm 23

Jeremy & Marissa’s Story | Becoming the One

Becoming the One is a ministry devoted to helping singles navigate their path to marriage and beyond. This trio of videos tells the story of a couple whose lives God changed as they became each other’s one.

For more information about Becoming the One, check out their vision, devos, and testimonies!

Truly Pro-Life

A column in the Kokomo Perspective on October 21, 2020 says, “When pushed, a politician’s ‘pro-life’ perspective is only a pro-birth statement.” 

If we are to believe this, then are we also to believe that someone who is not pro-life is simply anti-birth? They support the idea that an unborn child is human, they just aren’t in favor of that child being born? What would that even mean?

Clearly, this is not just about birth; it’s also about personhood.

A pro-life person is one who believes that a human is a human regardless of their age.

National Right to Life’s mission is “to protect and defend the most fundamental right of humankind, the right to life of every innocent human being from the beginning of life to natural death.”

A person’s life is an arrow with a beginning and no end. It begins with conception and continues into the afterlife.

Abortion takes a life that God gave to that person and extinguishes it—before her first birthday cake, her first job, her first car, and her first child.

Just last year, Joe Biden was refused communion because of his support of abortion. The Catholic priest who made that decision stated: “Any public figure who advocates for abortion places himself or herself outside of Church teaching.”

By contrast, Donald Trump was the first U.S. President to attend March for Life—an annual event where thousands of Americans gather together to remember those whose lives have been claimed by abortion and advocate for the abortion vulnerable.

This is how Mr. Trump describes his position: “I’m pro-life, but I changed my view a number of years ago. One of the primary reasons I changed [was] a friend of mine’s wife was pregnant, and he didn’t really want the baby. He was crying as he was telling me the story. He ends up having the baby and the baby is the apple of his eye. It’s the greatest thing that’s ever happened to him. And you know here’s a baby that wasn’t going to be let into life. And I heard this, and some other stories, and I am pro-life.”

One of Donald Trump’s second-term goals is to “protect unborn life through every means available.” When you help an unborn child, you help her, the generations that come before her, and the generations that come after her. It’s like dropping a pebble into a pool: the ripples go on forever.

The Wait

“We live in a culture addicted to instant gratification: the quick hookup, the miracle cure, and the overnight sensation. THE WAIT is the remedy for that addiction. In THE WAIT, DeVon and Meagan share the life-changing message that waiting— rather than rushing—can be the key for finding the person you’re meant to be with. Filled with candid his-and-hers accounts of the most important moments of their relationship, along with practical advice on how waiting for everything—from sex to getting engaged—can transform your entire life by giving you greater patience, joy, peace, healing, faith and love.”

The Wait

For more information, see TheWaitBook.org.

Beware of Good Liars

Would a good God send people to Hell?

“4For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but sent them to Hell, putting them into gloomy dungeons to be held for judgment; 5if He did not spare the ancient world when He brought the flood on its ungodly people, but protected Noah, a preacher of righteousness, and seven others; 6if He condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah by burning them to ashes, and made them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly; 7and if He rescued Lot, a righteous man, who was distressed by the filthy lives of lawless men 8(for that righteous man, living among them day after day, was tormented in his righteous soul by the lawless deeds he saw and heard)— 9if this is so, then the Lord knows how to rescue godly men from trials and to hold the unrighteous for the day of judgment, while continuing their punishment. 10This is especially true of those who follow the corrupt desire of the sinful nature and despise authority.”

Peter, 1 Peter 2:4-10