needfaith.org

 

It has been a busy week or so, and that is the reason for the delay in posting new articles. Sorry.

There were two disturbing articles that I have seen over the past ten days or so. The first was in a British newspaper around Easter. The hospital made the decision that serving the traditional hot cross buns would be a mistake, because it might offend non-Christians. After much pressure, the hospital relented, and on the Monday after Easter, those in the hospital finally got their Easter dessert. The alarming thing is that a bun with a cross is offensive. I wish someone would explain to me how that offends someone. I guess I’m just not quite bright enough to figure it out.

The second article ran today on Fox News. An American judge has decided that it does NOT violate a students freedom of speech to stop students from wearing t-shirts that says, “Be Happy Not Gay.” The students wore the shirts on a day when other students were allowed not to speak in protest of how gays and lesbians are treated at school. The attorney argued that the ban was necessary “to preserve the notion that kids shouldn’t make negative or derogatory comments about other students.”

My fear is that we are just a hop, skip, and a jump from applying that policy to other areas of life. I can just hear them say:

The preacher said what?! He can’t do that. Doesn’t he know that he can’t just go around making negative and derogatory comments about other people? They have rights. We’ll just have to let the authorities know about this fellow.

Now I don’t know when the civil liberties of preachers and Christians will be attacked in America the way they are in Europe, but I do know that it WILL happen unless we stand and fight. It will happen if we don’t pray and seek God’s face until we see revival. It will happen if we don’t purify ourselves and start living holy lives. God help us to serve and seek Him!

Happy Easter!!! We are just days away from the celebration of the resurrection of Christ. Incidentally, there were a few articles that caught my attention. First was the report of the newly re-established Sanhedrin–the Jewish High Council–wanting to sacrifice a lamb at the Temple Mount. (This link is now broken, and a search of the site turned up nothing. I have an archived copy of the article saved on my computer that is available upon request.) As the article details, this is not the first attempt to have a sacrifice for the Jewish Passover. What is so exciting to the Bible believer is that the Books of Revelation and Daniel (among others) teach that there will be a “Third Temple” and temple worship during the Tribulation. We may yet be quite a ways from the Rapture, but many events of the hour do seem to indicate that the stage is being set.

Second, there was an article posted on WordNetDaily that was simply outraging. A homosexual Church of England cleric will be addressing the BBC on the reason for Christ’s crucifixion. Fundamentalists, Evangelicals, and anyone taking an honest look at the New Testament (and even the Old Testament) conclude that Christ died vicariously–or simply put, as a substitute. Here is a short, incomplete list of verses that show Christ died for our sins:

Romans 5:6-8, 7-14
John 1:29
I Corinthians 5:7
Revelation 1:5
II Corinthians 5:21
Ephesians 2

This particular minister believes this cardinal doctrine to be “repulsive” and “insane.” He argues that God is one of “love and truth.” He says Christ died to experience the depth of human suffering, not atone for our sins. How crazy he is to believe that God is One of truth, and then deny one of the most basic truths of the Bible. Man is not good according to Romans 1-3 among many other passages. God is holy according to I Peter, Leviticus, and the whole of Scriptures. Sin must be judged. Governments would viewed as reprehensible if they do not punish law breaking. God could not be God if He did not punish sin. He does, however, love us–John 3:16, for example. Then Christ took our place; He was our Substitute just like the lamb of Passover died as a substitute when the children of Israel where in Egypt just prior to the Exodus.

Let us not forget that Christ died for our sins. This grace, or gift, is available only (and thankfully) by faith (Ephesians 2:8-9). As we celebrate Easter, remember these central truths of the Gospel.