Search Results

When Christians Date Touching, Petting, Making Out, Getting Physical: How far is too far? Suppose you are unmarried and have a hot romance. I’ll assume your friend is Christian, because, as explained in Dating a Non-Christian , God views sex with a non-Christian in a disturbingly different light to the way we tend to. Regardless of your Christian friend’s past, the Almighty Lord sees him or her as the purest virgin, and he feels as fiercely protective of his or her purity as the most devoted father would feel toward a young and cherished daughter. And Father God never lets his darling out of his sight. You never see the Father, but he sees you. You may forget he is there. He never forgets. It would be a grave mistake to misinterpret the fact that the Almighty’s anger is seldom displayed instantly. As the Eternal, all-seeing Judge, he holds all the aces. It seems that for almost a year King David thought he had got away with his sin. Only after Bathsheba’s baby was born did he first learn of God’s judgment. Years later, he was still suffering the consequences (2 Samuel 11:26 – 12:14). There’s a sense in which intentionally or unintentionally tempting someone to be morally loose with you, is spiritually worse than rape, because it is an attempt to defile someone in the deepest possible way. Rape produces an innocent victim. Seduction corrupts far deeper because it reduces a person to a willing partner in sin. It is better to die than to tempt someone, warned Jesus. Matthew 18:6-7 but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to stumble, it would be better for him that a huge millstone should be hung around his neck, and that he should be sunk in the depths of the sea. Woe to the world because of occasions of stumbling! For it must be that the occasions come, but woe to that person through whom the occasion comes! Jesus’ teaching on divorce shows the seriousness with which God views a relationship in which two become one flesh. A bond is forged so binding that it should never be broken. And yet the alarming truth is that Scripture applies the principle of two becoming one, to even the most casual of sexual encounters. 1 Corinthians 6:15-18 . . . Shall I then take the members of Christ, and make them members of a prostitute? May it never be! Or don’t you know that he who is joined to a prostitute is one body? For, “The two”, he says, “will become one flesh.” . . . Flee sexual immorality! “Every sin that a man does is outside the body,” but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body. Matthew 19:5-6 . . . ‘For this cause a man shall leave his father and mother, and shall join to his wife; and the two shall become one flesh?’ So that they are no more two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, don’t let man tear apart. [I believe this last statement means “what God declares or regards as being joined together . . .” – not necessarily a union that took place in holy submission to his will. Verse 5 suggests that God's plan was for sex to occur only after the deliberate and public act of leaving one's parental authority for the purpose of joining oneself to other.] There is another sobering consideration stemming from Scripture’s declaration that in the act of prostitution, two become one flesh. One might guess that with less effective contraceptives in ancient times, prostitution might have been more likely to involve acts that stop short of coitus (full heterosexual relations). Scripture does not specify exactly how far one need go physically for God to regard two as one. And let’s not forget that deliberately having sex with someone in your fantasies is a serious offense, even though it is the ultimate in ensuring that no one gets hurt. From the ten Commandments . . . Exodus 20:17 . . . You shall not covet your neighbour’s wife . . . Matthew 5:27-29 You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery;’ but I tell you that everyone who gazes at a woman to lust after her has committed adultery with her already in his heart. If your right eye causes you to stumble, pluck it out and throw it away from you. For it is more profitable for you that one of your members should perish, than for your whole body to be cast into Gehenna. In actual fact, God would be hurt and so would you. Moreover, anyone you sin with in your thoughts has, in reality, been sinned against as surely as someone who is unaware that he or she has been swindled. (And if the object of your fantasy were married, you would have also sinned against the marriage partner.) Sinning in one’s thought life is a most serious matter that must be understood correctly, lest the Enemy distort the truth to cause unnecessary condemnation and further temptation. Morally, there is a huge difference between sin and mere temptation (even the holy Son of God was severely tempted) but Satan loves to muddy the difference. He tempts by putting evil thoughts in your mind. One of his ugliest tricks is to then make you feel guilty about his own failed attempts to tempt you! If sinful thoughts keep coming and you keep fighting them, God commends you for the fight and regards you as victorious. The thoughts are originating not from you, but Satan. It's enjoying wrong thoughts – deliberately entertaining them – that is wrong. If Satan succeeded in actually getting you to sin in your mind he would then try the lie that you have blown it so much that you might as well sin physically. However, no matter how much mental sin corrupts the fantasizer, it leaves the other person pure. To sin with someone else doubles the evil because it corrupts the other person as well. The Old Testament, taught the apostle Paul, is written to warn we who live under the New Covenant. The Value of the Old Testament Today Romans 15:4 For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that through patience and through encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope. In the passage printed below, Paul reminds us of the Old Testament record of the Holy Lord on various occasions slaying thousands of Israelites for their sin. He then concludes: 1 Corinthians 10:11 Now all these things happened to them by way of example, and they were written for our admonition, on whom the ends of the ages have come. The Full Scripture 1 Corinthians 10:1-10 Now I would not have you ignorant, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea; and were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea; and all ate the same spiritual food; and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank of a spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was Christ. However with most of them, God was not well pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness. Now these things were our examples, to the intent we should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted. Don’t be idolaters, as some of them were. As it is written, “The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play.” Let us not commit sexual immorality, as some of them committed, and in one day twenty-three thousand fell. Let us not test Christ, as some of them tested, and perished by the serpents. Don’t grumble, as some of them also grumbled, and perished by the destroyer. One of the concepts the Old Testament tries hard to impart is that to violate something holy is to call down the fearsome wrath of God. Your friend’s body is holy. It is the sanctuary of the Holy Spirit. The word chosen to convey this truth in the original text (1 Corinthians 6:19) is often used to specify the inner, holier part of the temple, rather than the temple as a whole. In fact, it is appropriate to think in terms of the holiest thing in ancient Israel, the ark of the Covenant, since your friend’s body is the very object in which the Holy One has taken up residence. We are not discussing ritualistic or theoretical holiness: the Holy Spirit of almighty God literally resides within the bodies of Christians. Most of us have totally missed the implications. Better to play with a nuclear reactor than tamper with something made holy by the actual presence of the King of the universe. You need to treat your friend’s body with almost the caution with which Old Testament saints had to treat the ark. Seventy used the ark to satisfy their curiosity. They were struck dead. Later, another touched it in an inappropriate way. He died. Be careful how you touch that which is holy 1 Samuel 6:19-20 He struck of the men of Beth Shemesh, because they had looked into the Lord’s ark, he struck fifty thousand seventy of the men. Then the people mourned, because the Lord had struck the people with a great slaughter. The men of Beth Shemesh said, “Who is able to stand before the Lord, this holy God? . . .” 2 Samuel 6:6-7 When they came to the threshing floor of Nacon, Uzzah reached for God’s ark, and took hold of it; for the cattle stumbled. The Lord’s anger burned against Uzzah; and God struck him there for his error; and he died there by God’s ark. When God struck Uzzah dead for touching the ark, Scripture says ‘David was afraid of the Lord that day’ (2 Samuel 6:9). Such fear is the beginning of wisdom (Proverbs 1:7). If few of us have this fear of sinning against God, it is not because we live in the age of grace, but because we barely know the God of the New Testament; the God who in Acts struck Ananias and Sapphira dead, killed Herod for his pride, and blinded Elymas for opposing Paul; the God of the Corinthian believers who were afflicted, or even killed, for the flippant way they treated holy communion; the God into whose hands, warns Hebrews, it’s a fearful thing to fall; the God whom Jesus said is the one Person in the universe to fear because he alone can destroy body and soul in hell. The Fear of the Lord Acts 5:9-11 But Peter asked her, “How is it that you have agreed together to tempt the Spirit of the Lord? Behold, the feet of those who have buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out.” She fell down immediately at his feet, and died. The young men came in and found her dead, and they carried her out and buried her by her husband. Great fear came on the whole assembly, and on all who heard these things. Acts 12:23 Immediately an angel of the Lord struck him, because he didn’t give God the glory, and he was eaten by worms and died. Acts 13:11 Now, behold, the hand of the Lord is on you, and you will be blind, not seeing the sun for a season!” Immediately a mist and darkness fell on him. He went around seeking someone to lead him by the hand. 1 Corinthians 11:29-31 For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy way eats and drinks judgment to himself, if he doesn’t discern the Lord’s body. For this cause many among you are weak and sickly, and not a few sleep. For if we discerned ourselves, we wouldn’t be judged. Hebrews 10:31 It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. Matthew 10:28 Don’t be afraid of those who kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul. Rather, fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in Gehenna. The Judge of all the earth is our Father. Do we see the implications of this in the same light as Scripture does? Since you call on a Father who judges each man’s work impartially, says 1 Peter 1:17, live your lives as strangers here in reverent fear. Scripture tells us to “flee fornication” (1 Corinthians 6:18, KJV) and “Flee also youthful lusts” (2 Timothy 2:22, KJV). Paul, an old man at the time of writing to Timothy, was referring to lusts that were “youthful” relative to his old age. “Flee” is definitely the meaning of the Greek and it is in the continuous tense, meaning to keep on fleeing. The divine directive as to how to protect ourselves from the danger of sexual temptation is to run from it as one would flee a bomb that could explode at any second. To flee is to desperately try to put as big a distance as possible between yourself and what you are fleeing. How does our behavior compare? How likely are we to receive divine protection if we ignore God’s directive and choose the exact opposite by trying to edge as close as we dare to the danger? We have looked briefly at sexual sin, but it applies to all sin. The point is that we rarely view any sin with the seriousness that God does. It is said a pirate killed a man. He was so horrified by his sin that it ruined his sleep for days. Yet he kept killing. He reached the point where he could murder someone and sleep like a baby, using the corpse as a pillow. We, too, having been surrounded by sin all our lives, have a conscience that in many areas has become disturbingly dull, and we must fight Satan’s attempt to keep us that way. Related Pages How Far Is Too Far? Dating a Non-Christian

Help in Finding the Correct Bible Interpretation A Serious Look at a Serious Issue Although divorce and remarriage is such a contentious issue that it divides Christians, my goal is to serve you with a webpage that all Christians agree with. “Marry in haste; repent in leisure,” is a saying laced with alarming possibilities. Even more terrifying is the possibility of too hastily presuming that our views on divorce and remarriage are of God. I passionately long to comfort you and yet I dare not downplay the fearful gravity of this matter. Jesus (and the apostle Paul – Romans 7:3) kept equating wrong divorce with the sin of adultery. Let’s not allow worldly immorality to desensitize us to what a grave offense this is. Under the Old Testament – still in force when Jesus uttered the words – adultery incurred the death penalty. No wonder Jesus’ teaching on divorce sent such a chill down the disciples’ spines that in horror they responded that it is better never to marry (Matthew 19:10)! And let’s not suppose we can get away with this under the New Covenant: 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral . . . nor adulterers . . . will inherit the kingdom of God. That does not render the sin unforgivable, but just as a fireman cannot save a person who refuses to leave a burning building, so Jesus cannot save people who refuse to leave their sin. We cannot save ourselves but we must be willing to let Jesus drag us from the sin we love, or we will die in our sin. I agonize over the possibility that most Christians who sincerely believe they know the morality of divorce and remarriage are completely unaware that their understanding of the Bible’s teaching on this subject is dangerously shallow. Although we tend to drastically oversimplify the biblical and moral dilemmas of divorce and remarriage, it does not necessarily mean we have reached the wrong conclusion. It drastically increases the chance of such a mistake, however; thus exposing us to the grave danger of sinning against God or of being responsible before God for directly or indirectly influencing others to sin. “You who say that people should not commit adultery, do you commit adultery?” writes Paul (Romans 2:22), implying that one can commit the sin and be quite unaware of it. Your church and favorite Bible teachers might be excellent and have far deeper understanding than me, but does that make them infallible? I doubt if anyone on the planet has a one hundred percent correct interpretation of every aspect of the entire Bible. How then can you be certain that that fraction of a percent where your church or Bible teacher is incorrect does not include teaching about divorce? So why should I be any less fallible? I’m not. So I will not presume to tell you the correct view. What I hope to do, however, is provide a checklist of things that should be prayerfully considered before concluding you have God’s mind on the critical issue of divorce and/or remarriage. You will discover that some points seem pro-divorce and some seem anti-divorce. That’s because I’m not pushing my own views, but seeking to assist you to personally discover God’s will for your situation. Pondering seemingly conflicting points will initially seem confusing but it’s a vital stage in the journey to truth. In addition to the obvious, it eradicates false confidence and drives us to plunge into the heart of God, where both you and I will find all we need. After the checklist we will look at how to find answers. If you tire of the checklist go straight to the next section (the link at the end of this webpage) Since Christians have vastly different views on this matter, let’s start by considering whether one’s sincere beliefs about the morality of divorce will influence God’s judgment of us if we go ahead and do it. Suppose two Christians in identical circumstances each remarry. One sincerely believes that he has God’s blessing on the new marriage. The other believes that by remarrying he is committing a gross sin. Will God judge them differently? In most countries, ignorance of the law is no excuse. Is this how God judges? In two long passages of Scripture, Paul explains that some things become sin merely because a person believes them to be sin (Romans 14:1-23; 1 Corinthians 8:1-13). It is most important to realize, however, that Paul was referring to acts that are not of themselves sinful. He is not saying that if someone believes “sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery” are moral, then they suddenly become acceptable. On the contrary, these belong to the list of which Paul declares, “I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God” (Galatians 19-21). Elsewhere he says the same about adultery (1 Corinthians 6:9-10). To understand what Paul was saying, consider this: if you knew that someone believed he was deliberately poisoning your child, you would be extremely upset by his action, even if it turned out that he was mistaken and the substance was harmless. His belief about his action is enough to highly offend you. On the other hand, if someone carelessly poisoned your child, believing the substance to be harmless, you would also be upset. A person’s belief can turn something harmless into sin, but it cannot turn sin into something harmless. If Jane believes something that is innocent is adultery, then if she chooses to do it, she is guilty of adultery in the eyes of the One who sees her heart. If, however, she does something that in God’s eyes is adultery, then she is committing adultery even though she sincerely believes that what she is doing is innocent. If Jane’s ignorance is genuine, God will be lenient, but she will still be held accountable. Luke 12:47-48 That servant who knows his master’s will and does not get ready or does not do what his master wants will be beaten with many blows. But the one who does not know and does things deserving punishment will be beaten with few blows. There is greater leniency for one, but both are punished. Ignorance is not bliss. Proverbs 16:25 There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death. If your “belief” that something sinful is acceptable is merely because you have schemed to silence your conscience or to fool God by trying to convince yourself that it has God’s approval, then such “belief” will not even buy you leniency. If you have a shadow of doubt over the legitimacy of something, you must avoid it. Romans 14:23 But the man who has doubts is condemned if he eats, because his eating is not from faith; and everything that does not come from faith is sin. This Scripture is talking about eating because it applies to minor things, not major matters like adultery. Feeling certain that whatever you do has God’s approval is an essential starting point. To avoid what God regards as adultery, however, in addition to believing that it is right, it must be right. A divorced woman told me: I have friends who say I should consider remarriage, but I don’t dare, because I do not want to rationalize that remarriage is permissible if it’s not – and for centuries the understanding of the church was that it was not permissible. Is it mere coincidence that over the last decades, as the world has grown increasingly accepting of divorce, so has much of the church? To discover how addicted to change this world has made us, look back to an era when most people were farmers working the same plot of land as their father’s father, or craftsmen engaged in the same work in the same place, not just all their lives, but for generations. Look at an era where one’s mode of transport or plough puller was not a heartless machine to be traded in next year for the new improved model, but an animal that inspired affection and loyalty and whose death was mourned. Our era stands out from the past as one that exalts self pleasure over duty, personal “advancement” over loyalty, and change over stability. (Note how even the words duty, loyalty, and stability seem old-fashioned.) Wherever we look in modern society we find stressors and mindsets driving us to trade in our partner for a new improved model promising higher status or excitement. Of course, just because certain Christians lived in another era does not make them right. The issue to beg God to search your heart over, however, is this: Are you, and the Christians who influence you, being led by the Spirit of God or unknowingly led by the spirit of the world? Divine forgiveness is perhaps life’s most wondrously liberating experience. We must understand, however, that total forgiveness of our past mistakes does not make us free to keep sinning or to keep enjoying the benefits of past sin. For example, if you stole a million dollars, forgiveness does not make it acceptable for you to continue to live off your ill-gotten gains. Scripture is clear that you must return all the money you stole. Forgiveness does not mean God ceases to be holy and lowers his standards of honesty and faithfulness. If I broke my marriage vows, forgiveness would remove my past guilt, but not my continued moral obligations to the woman I promised myself to. Suppose marrying a particular person was an act of rebellion against God. You might now despise that person but if in God’s sight you are still married to him/her, forgiveness does not mean you are free to commit adultery. A man who is unfaithful to his wife can find forgiveness, but not a divine license to keep committing adultery. To confuse forgiveness with a license to sin is a grave offense against God. So regardless of how deeply forgiven you are, before marrying anyone else you would need to be certain that you are not, in God’s view of marital commitment, still being married to your former partner, because that would make re-marriage adultery in his eyes, no matter what divorce documents you can produce and how much your past offenses are forgiven. Jesus gives an exception to the general rule. “Except for fornication” is how the King James Version puts it. That’s rather mysterious. Why didn’t he say, “except for adultery”? Exactly what Jesus meant is not immediately obvious. Some think Jesus was referring to any form of sexual infidelity, perhaps even including deliberate and continual adulterous thoughts or an addiction to porn or to masturbation. Some go to the other extreme and think that because Jesus did not say “except for adultery,” he was referring solely to premarital infidelity discovered after marriage, such as discovering on the wedding night that the bride is not a virgin. Jesus does not say that the person initiating the divorce commits adultery. What he says is much more puzzling. He says the man divorcing a woman causes her – “the innocent party” – to commit adultery. Matthew 5:32 But I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife . . . causes her to become an adulteress, and anyone who marries the divorced woman commits adultery. I will not give my opinion of the following interpretation, but before proceeding with divorce one needs to be certain that it is incorrect. (For ease of reading I refer to “Mary” and Joe” but the genders could just as easily have been reversed.) Mary is a good, faithful wife who longs to remain married to Joe, but he divorces her. As far as the divorce is concerned, Mary is utterly innocent. If Joe remains celibate for life, he has not committed adultery. Nevertheless, Joe’s decision to end the marriage exposes Mary to the strong temptation to eventually re-marry. Of course Mary is responsible for her response to the temptation, but by initiating the divorce, Joe is as guilty as the devil in causing Mary to suffer the strong temptation to “commit adultery,” that is, to re-marry. To be the cause of temptation is a grave offense: Luke 17:2 It would be better for him to be thrown into the sea with a millstone tied around his neck than for him to cause one of these little ones to sin. But why would Jesus imply the innocent party commits adultery if she remarries? Because, according to this interpretation, in God’s sight a marital union can be dissolved only by death, regardless of how innocent one party is or how guilty the other one is. Whoever Mary marries is likely to be doubly innocent regarding the divorce and yet this person is committing adultery, because despite a divorce certificate and subsequent marriage, in God’s sight Mary is still bound to her former partner, even though he no longer wants her. Jesus gives an exception to the above – one that applies if Mary were not innocent. Suppose Mary were committing adultery before Joe even considered divorce. Since she is so hell-bent on committing adultery that not even marriage keeps her faithful, it could not be said that by divorcing her, Joe was causing her to commit adultery. She would commit adultery even if he didn’t divorce her. Nevertheless, Joe would himself be committing adultery if he remarried, because marriage is binding for life no matter what either party do. Mark 10:11 Anyone who divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery against her. I repeat that I make no claim about the correctness of this interpretation, but to honor God, one should be certain it is wrong before proceeding with divorce or re-marriage. Could there be situations where God actually requires divorce – or at least separation? We see an Old Testament instance of this in Ezra chapter ten, where those guilty of marrying pagan wives were compelled to divorce. This must be read in the light of 1 Corinthians 7:12-16, which seems to take a very different approach. Nevertheless, here is a case where divorce was not merely permitted but was mandatory. Now let’s move to the New Testament. It speaks of the importance of separating from those who claim to be believers but are engaged in blatant, repeated, unrepentant sin. We read, for instance: 1 Corinthians 5:11  . . .  you must not associate with anyone who calls himself a brother but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or a slanderer, a drunkard or a swindler. With such a man do not even eat. Suppose, you are married to someone who considers the ideal is to “enjoy” both sexual unfaithfulness and the benefits of being married to you. If you knowingly allow your spouse to pursue this, does that make you a partner in his/her sin? Of course you cannot prevent your partner from being unfaithful, but if you are aware of what is happening, it is your decision as to whether your partner can enjoy marital privileges with you while pursuing extramarital sin. In theory, you could give the ultimatum: “Either be completely faithful or the marriage is over.” What if giving this ultimatum is the one thing that would keep your partner from sin? If you give and maintain the ultimatum and your partner disregards it, no one could say you have made it easy for him/her to sin. Imagine for a moment if in God’s eyes marriage is dissoluble only by death. Would that mean that if Jan is married to a divorced man, every day that she remains married to him she is continuing to commit adultery? Does this mean that in order to stop sinning she must separate from him? Does it mean that if for these reasons she divorces him, she is free to remarry, since her first marriage was not a marriage in God’s sight but an adulterous affair? One might suppose that remarrying someone you had previously divorced would be a godly way of correcting a past mistake. However, our Lord revealed in the Old Testament that, at least in some instances, this could be highly offensive to God. It says that if a man divorced his wife and she married someone else who then dies or divorces her, it is a gross sin for the first husband to remarry his former wife (Deuteronomy 24:1-4). This should be treated with extreme seriousness, given the fact that it is found in the same Testament that permits divorce. The precise situation it describes, however, might be critical. Without David divorcing his wife, her father had her married off to someone else. David took her back again (2 Samuel 3:13-16), presumably because although she had been remarried, there was no divorce of the first marriage. This suggests that each condition of Deuteronomy 24:1-4 must be fulfilled before God considers remarrying the same person an abomination. An example of a scenario not specifically mentioned is if the divorcee did not marry someone else. God’s commands are not always blanket statements divinely intended to cover every rare and unlikely scenario. For instance, of all the Gospels, only Matthew says “except for fornication” when forbidding divorce. Presumably Mark and Luke regarded this as an intended exception that they felt no compulsion to spell out. Could there be other exceptions to the general ban on divorce that Scripture does not bother to enumerate? For an example on the other side of the ledger, the Ten Commandments forbid the coveting of a neighbor’s wife, but say nothing about a woman coveting a neighbor’s husband. Clearly this is a law not intended to include every possible scenario. It is an obvious instance of the Lord expecting his people to draw principles from general laws and under his inspiration and guidance – not our whims – apply them to specific situations. Jesus said, “Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry? He entered the house of God, and taking the consecrated bread, he ate what is lawful only for priests to eat. And he also gave some to his companions” (Luke 6:3-6). Jesus seems to regard this as acceptable, even though such an exception is not spelled out in the law. There are grave dangers with pursuing this line of thought but the next point demonstrates that the other extreme is not without its dangers. It is possible to offend God by being too strict in interpreting his commands. Many devout Jews felt they were honoring the Almighty by insisting that Jesus not heal on the Sabbath. This seems reasonable; after all there were six other days in which one could heal. Nevertheless, their strict interpretation was wrong and drew Jesus’ wrath because it showed lack of compassion. If, through too strict an interpretation of Scripture, you influenced a woman not to leave her abusive husband, could God hold you guilty of pressuring her to be molested or tormented by her husband? Or could you cause an abandoned partner to fall into sexual sin because you have convinced that person that re-marriage is forbidden? We must avoid being like those experts in Jewish law whom Jesus accused of loading people down with burdens (Matthew 13:4). Even the apostle Paul, whose personal preference was that every Christian remain unmarried, recognized that in our sex-crazed world, celibacy is an impractical and excessive burden to lay on most people (1 Corinthians 7:1-9 – note, however, the next verse). Let’s not forget that God allowed divorce in the Old Testament because of people’s “hard hearts.” Does this mean that Jesus was describing the ideal – what we should all aspire to – but the Old Testament was describing God’s understanding of practical reality in a fallen world? I won’t presume to explain what he meant by it but Jesus himself said about his teaching on divorce, “Not everyone can accept this word, but only those to whom it has been given. . . .” (Matthew 19:11). And even if you have a soft heart, your partner may not. On the other hand, even in the Old Testament, the Lord says he hates divorce (Malachi 2:16), so one would think that at least one partner in a divorce – but not necessarily both – would be grieving God’s heart. If you are hurting over the way your partner is treating you, it breaks God’s heart, as it did for him to see his Son being tortured to death. Our amazing Lord would rather suffer himself than see you suffer. Nevertheless, the undeniable reality of God’s extreme compassion does not of itself indicate whether cruelty is sufficient grounds for divorce or even separation. We must weigh up the fact that the following clearly applies to women with less than godly husbands: 1 Peter 3:1 Wives, in the same way be submissive to your husbands so that, if any of them do not believe the word . . . Moreover, this Scripture is found in the very letter that repeatedly speaks of the importance of physically suffering for Christ, and tells slaves to submit even to harsh masters. Just as with Jesus’ suffering, there are times when more eternal good is achieved by our short term suffering than by us having an easier life. Do you know of someone divorced and remarried who seems greatly blessed of God and powerfully used by him? You have probably also heard of men of God whom the Lord seemed to treat that way despite them being repeatedly involved in secret sex outside marriage. Is their sin a license for others to act that way? Who knows what devastation such people will experience when they stand naked before their Judge? Despite all the mighty things they have done in Jesus’ name, will they receive an “I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!” (Matthew 7:22-23)? God temporarily withholding his wrath – as he did even with Sodom and Gomorrah for years – is no foundation on which to build moral conclusions. Scripture stresses the supreme importance of “swearing to one’s hurt” (Psalms 15:4) – keeping one’s word even when unforeseen circumstances make fulfilling the promise devastatingly painful and costly. When marrying, it is the norm to vow to remain committed to one’s partner “till death do us part” or “for as long as we both shall live.” I haven’t come across marriage vows that allow the option “until my partner commits adultery” or “until my partner marries someone else.” Perhaps the vows should have been worded differently. Nevertheless, the vows you made – not the ones you wish you had made – are the ones you have committed yourself to. Does this mean that even if God would have allowed you to remarry, the very vows you voluntarily made have cancelled that permission? Have you, because of your vow, obligated yourself before God to remain faithful to your partner “for as long as you both shall live,” regardless of what he or she does? “. . . what God has joined together, let man not separate” (Matthew 19:6). But who exactly is it that “God has joined together”? It cannot be only those who have had a church wedding because in Bible times there was no such thing as a church wedding. Scripture applies this Bible truth of two becoming one flesh principle even to a fleeting, sin-ridden encounter with a prostitute (1 Corinthians 6:15-16). It might be that “what God has joined” [or what God declares to be one flesh] applies to every sexual encounter, no matter how contrary to God’s will that relationship is. Might it be similar to Joshua and his nation, who were tricked into making a covenant with people whom God had declared should be destroyed? The Israelites had been conned, they regretted it, and it was completely contrary to God’s will, but merely because they had made a covenant, it was so binding in God’s eyes that he insisted that they, (Joshua 9) and even subsequent generations (2 Samuel 21:1-9,14), must keep that covenant in its entirety. Other nations were so furious with these people for selling out to the Israelites that they massed their armies to destroy them. This seemed an ideal opportunity for the Israelites to have their past mistake eradicated. Without lifting a finger against these con artists, the Israelites could let heathens wipe them out, as God had originally intended. But instead, the Lord insisted that they fight to protect those they had made the covenant with. And to assist, the Almighty even made the sun stand still (Joshua 10:1-15). There is biblical evidence that God regards sex as entering into a binding covenant. Could it be that a major factor behind God being so strict as to who one has sex with is that he views sex as joining people together in a bond that should never be broken, no matter how much God may wish it had never happened? One of the themes threading through Scripture is that God is moved to treat us like we treat others. In Luke 6:37-38 Jesus lines up one example after another: * Do not judge, and you will not be judged. * Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. * Forgive, and you will be forgiven. * Give, and it will be given to you. . . . Here are some other examples: Psalm 18:25 To the faithful you show yourself faithful . . . Matthew 5:7 Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. Galatians 6:7  . . . God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. In addition to the above, we know that Scripture sees a close similarity or link between marriage and our relationship with God. Let’s team up these two truths and see where they lead. No matter how unlikely it seems to me, it is not impossible that I could at some time fall into a delusion or become so infatuated with sin that I turn my back on my Savior and, as it were, divorce him. I need a God who, if I were stupid enough to do this, would remain free to be joined to me again, should I later come to my senses. I would not want God to become so attached to someone else that he is no longer able to take me back. If I had a wife who was unfaithful to me and divorced me against my will, dare I remarry – thus permanently cutting myself off from the woman I had committed myself to – when it would be the worse thing in my universe for God to treat me the same way? Under Old Testament law, a number of sins incurred the death penalty, including rejection of the true God (eg Exodus 22:18, Leviticus 20:2,27; 24:16) and certain sexual sins – proven adultery, homosexual acts, bestiality, incest (eg Leviticus 20:10ff). We all know that the death of one’s partner frees one to remarry: Romans 7:2-3 For example, by law a married woman is bound to her husband as long as he is alive, but if her husband dies, she is released from the law of marriage. So then, if she marries another man while her husband is still alive, she is called an adulteress. But if her husband dies, she is released from that law and is not an adulteress, even though she marries another man. Of course, the death penalty no longer applies to these sins, but does it reveal a divine principle that if one partner continues to remain unrepentant of such gross sin and is dead to God, the innocent one is free to remarry as he/she would be had the partner died? Or is Old Testament practice irrelevant, since the person in still physically alive? Even if divorce in certain circumstances were acceptable to God, that of itself might not mean that re-marriage is acceptable. For instance, one must consider this: 1 Corinthians 7: 10-11 To the married I give this command (not I, but the Lord): A wife must not separate from her husband. But if she does, she must remain unmarried or else be reconciled to her husband. . . .” In wedding vows one promises to love. This is a beautiful, highly Christian concept that is too often ruined by confusing it with the worldly love of romantic fiction. Romantic love can never be promised. It is fickle, fleeting and selfish. It is not a virtue and the only predictable thing about it is that it will fizzle. In contrast, the love that can be promised is noble. It inspires all heaven to applaud you. It is a virtue of eternal worth. Ideally, we should marry not for our own pleasure but for God’s glory. Similarly, our decision about divorce should be based not on our ease but on what will maximize God’s glory in a difficult situation. Are we driven by what will make us more like Christ, or by what will make us more like a bit part in a soap opera? Just because romantic love vanishes does not make it time for divorce; on the contrary, it is your chance to start gaining eternal glory. Resolving the Issues If you are facing divorce or the prospect of loneliness, I long to comfort you. So it hurts me that after reading this webpage you could initially feel more confused than ever. I felt the need to write what I did, lest you reach a decision with life-shattering implications before prayerfully considering all the spiritual issues involved. Moreover, we will discover that, as unlikely as it seems, confusion is the ideal launching pad to fire us to the answers we need. Perhaps the discrepancy between the ideal and God’s response to practical reality explains some of the seeming contradictions in the checklist we have just looked at. Another possibility is that some apparent contradictions could be due to misinterpreting what God is really saying in certain Scriptures. Could some sticking points, however, be because of us not recognizing the cost of doing right; forgetting that we are called to follow the One who was tortured to death? I suggest deferring all critical decisions until you feel confident that what you believe God has revealed to be his will for you can be reconciled with the full truth about every item on the above checklist. As you seek God, you might not be given all the answers as to how what you believe to be God’s will fits every point on the checklist, but I suggest you need to keep seeking until you at least feel peace that such answers exist and that in God’s eyes your decision gels perfectly with every part of the Bible. For clarity, you particularly need the final section of this study: Finding God's Will

Oh, the glory! One with Christ! Our union with Christ is like that of a perfect marriage in which there is a total merging of assets. Since this is the perfect union, however, the oneness extends far beyond what normally occurs in marriage. Everything that is ours becomes Christ’s (our sin – that’s what killed him – time, talents, possessions, relationships, etc) and everything that is his becomes ours (his perfection, endless life, abilities, achievements, honor, riches, relationships, etc). The principle is stated in general terms in many different parts of the Bible. For example, in 1 Corinthians 3:21,23 we read, ‘All things belong to you . . . and you belong to Christ. (See also Song of Solomon 2:16; John I6:15,23; Romans 8:32; Philippians 4:13; 2 Peter 1:3.) ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that I have is yours,’ the father (representing God) told the prodigal son’s brother in Jesus’ parable. (Luke 15:11-32) The older brother had missed out on so much because he had failed to realize the extent of his father’s love and generosity. He hadn’t realized that he only had to ask. In fact, having full faith in his father’s generosity, he should simply have taken and used his father’s things. We, too, can so easily miss out, if we don’t realize all that God has lovingly given us. A true Christian has Christ (2 John 9) and this includes Christ’s: Knowledge – John 15:15; 16:13-15 Riches – Philippians 4:19 Glory – John 17:22; 2 Thessalonians 2:14 Throne in Heaven – Ephesians 2:6; Revelation 3:2l Peace – John 14:27 Kingdom – James 2:5; Revelation 22:5; 2 Timothy 2:12 Joy – John 15:11 Moral purity – 2 Corinthians 5:21; 1 Corinthians 1:30 Miracle-working power – John 14:12,13 Victory over Satan – Romans 16:20 (1 Corinthians 15:25) Spirit – Romans 8:9 Mind – 1 Corinthians 2:16; Philippians 2:5 Power over death – 1 Corinthians 15:55-57 Likeness – 1 Corinthians 15:49; 1 John 3:2 Inheritance – Romans 8:17 Life – Galatians 2:20; 1 John 5:12 Ministry – John 17:18 (compare John 8:12 with Matthew 5:14) Presence – John 14:23; Ephesians 3:17 Relationship with God – John 17:23,26; Galatians 4:6; Hebrews 2:11 And there’s probably more I’ve forgotten to list! Truly, ‘in union with Christ, you have become rich in things ...’! (1 Corinthians 1:5) Your potential is limitless (Philippians 4:l3). But we can still make the mistake the older brother made and fail to enjoy what is rightfully ours. We must take the gifts that cost God so much to make available to us. We do this by believing God has given them to us and then, while nothing seems to have changed, acting as if we have received them. That might sound strange, but that’s the way God operates. Displaying faith in God’s generosity is the greatest way to thrill him.

Jesus’ Astounding Power to Turn Evil into Good It might seem impossible to believe that what was once your defeat and shame will end up being your victory and glory. It hardens into reality, however, because you are loved by the God of the impossible. You have a God of selfless love who passionately hates evil and is so powerful that he overcomes evil with good. Infinite goodness is the perfect antidote for evil. It is as if the Lord keeps pouring his goodness upon the mountain of anti-God things that were inflicted upon you. He keeps it up, year after year, until you can eventually look back on what was unadulterated evil and see so much good flowing from it that you are flooded with awe and gratitude. In his mind-boggling goodness, the Almighty uses his unlimited power to turn disasters into blessings, defeats into victories and shame into glory. Look at Jesus, who blazed this trail for you to follow. See him stripped naked, exposed to the world, as he hangs helpless on the cross. See him – if you can stomach it – mocked and scorned, humiliated and bloodied, being tortured to death as the nation’s esteemed religious leaders get their hateful way with him. He seems the embodiment of shame and defeat; growing weaker and uglier by the minute, as horrific pain sears through his tormented, broken body. What looked like the most humiliating disaster, however, turned out to be the greatest victory over evil the universe has ever seen. Forever and ever he will be worshipped by adoring millions; honoring him far above anyone else because he chose what seemed unspeakable shame. And that’s the path Christ blazed for you . Like him, and through him, your shame, pain and blame will be transformed into your glory; like a disgusting grub becoming a butterfly of breathtaking beauty. (Incidentally, beautiful butterflies exist only because they were once grubs.) You can see good coming from the horrors in Jesus’ life but you might think there are too many differences between Jesus’ suffering and your bad times for there to be any connection. Look at this, however: Romans 8:28-29 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. (Emphasis mine.) Those who, through faith in the power of Jesus’ sacrifice, are in spiritual union with the triumphant Lord, not only share his destiny but are becoming increasingly like him. Right now, your life may seem a hopeless mess of shattered pieces, but your devoted Lord treasures every fragment, even those life experiences you have suffered that seem worse than useless. Discarding nothing, he will lovingly treat each incident in your life as a critical piece of a jigsaw that only a supernatural genius could solve. He will reassemble every meaningless disaster, shameful failure and hideous sin, until together they form priceless beauty that no one would ever guess could emerge from such evil and chaos. Yes, things would have been better still had we not sinned, but when we come to Christ for cleansing, he not only removes our shame and makes us sparkle with his purity, he works all things – including our sin – together for good (Romans 8:28). Even our pre-Christian days will end up flooded with divine glory. Consider, for example, the apostle Paul’s atrocious sin. If anyone had reason for shame, it was this man. He arrogantly and brutally tormented Christians in the hope of destroying their faith and making them blaspheme Jesus and permanently renounce their Lord and Savior, thus destroying them eternally. With Christianity in its vulnerable infancy, Paul, like perhaps no one else in all of history, had the opportunity to totally wipe from the planet every memory of Christianity. And he was intent on doing so. God intervened, of course, but had Paul’s determined plans succeeded and Christianity were eradicated before any of the New Testament were written, all of us today would be without the Gospel, destined for hell. Given the eternal implications, this makes serial murder seem like a parking offense. How could even the God of the impossible wring any good out of that evil? There is no thought in the Bible of covering up the story of Paul’s atrocious, anti-Christ behavior, however. Amazingly, the story is told in detail not once, but three times in the book of Acts (Acts 8:1-9:20; Acts 22:3-16; Acts 26:9-20). That’s how significant Paul’s sinful background is to God. That’s how much the Holy One longs to use it for his glory. And in two of those passages, it was Paul himself recounting the story when a powerful testimony was needed. It was presumably a regular feature of Paul’s evangelism. In addition to being critical in turning countless skeptics of the power and authenticity of the Gospel into committed believers, Paul’s dramatic transformation from a violent, hate-filled opponent of Christianity has inspired millions. Throughout the Christianity’s history, similar transformations of evil acts have been repeated too often for anyone but God to count. People’s former shame has been transformed into such powerful evangelistic tools and sources of inspiration as to tempt Christians with more mundane backgrounds to be envious. “I was a criminal,” “I was a Satanist,” “I was a prostitute,” I was a heroin addict,” declare Christians, who almost reach celebrity status because of pasts that should have been shameful. Past atrocities are no longer guilty secrets that shame them into silence but, through Christ, what should have been stumbling blocks have been turned not just into stepping stones but into launching pads to spiritual achievement as they use their past to win souls and inspire fellow believers. What about sins after conversion? Though you would be excused for expecting the opposite result, throughout history literally millions of Christians have drawn comfort and inspiration from Peter denying his Lord three times. “If there’s hope for Peter, there’s hope for me,” they gladly conclude. The same is true of King David’s shocking adultery and murderous cover-up. Moreover, who alone out of David's many sons did God choose as heir to David's throne and ancestor of the Messiah? Bathsheba's son, Solomon. This man should never have even been born. His mother should still have been married to the man David murdered. And yet God so forgave that he chose the product of David's greatest moral fall to be a key figure in Jewish and redemptive history and the one he endowed with astounding wisdom. As I have written elsewhere: From Crushing Defeat to Eternal Fame We find him lurking in the shadows of Scripture. He was a breath of fresh air in a whirlwind. John Mark was bad news. In the human race he led the field from go to woe. He has often been identified with Christianity’s first streaker – the man who blurred through Gethsemane’s garden with the raw grace of a plucked chicken, leaving behind his clothes and his Savior (Mark 14:51-52). More humiliations were to follow. His unflattering nickname, stub-fingered, suggests he was physically impaired. To this he added a handicap of his own making: he was branded a deserter – a second time. When the pressure mounts, the last thing you need is for a trusted companion to abandon you. That’s what Mark did to Paul and Barnabas. His desertion seems to have deeply hurt Paul. The apostle was adamant that hanging out with this dodo was a no-no. Barnabas, who always stood up for the under-dog , defended his cousin Mark. The result was a rift between old friends; the shattering of a great missionary team (Acts 15:37-39). We never hear of Barnabas again. One look at ‘stump-finger’s’ yellow face and you knew this jinx had had mistake and eggs for breakfast again. Whenever this egg-head cracked, everyone got egg on their face. Just what the church needs! He must have felt as blue as a browned off white man seeing red because he’s accused of being yellow. Mark could have drowned in self-pity. He could have resented Paul. He could have turned back to Judaism. Instead, he redoubled his efforts, eventually being recognized even by Paul as having an outstanding ministry (2 Timothy 4:11; Colossians 4:10; Philemon 24). Peter also spoke affectionately of him (1 Peter 5:13). As writer of possibly the earliest gospel and a primary source of Matthew and Luke, Mark’s contribution even to today’s church is beyond measure. This planet is a better place today because nineteen centuries ago a ‘no-hoper’ called stub-fingered decided to tough it out. Knowing our weaknesses, our loving Father has preserved many such stories for us to gain strength. ‘Then will I teach transgressors your ways,’ crooned David. When? After a calamitous moral fall (Psalm 51: title, 3-5, 12-13). ‘Simon ... feed my sheep’ (John 21:17). When? After denying his Savior. ‘He slew at his death more than he slew in his life’ (Judges 16:30, paraphrase). When? After Samson’s greatest humiliation. Samson and David each knew the horror of spiritual failure. On the crest of their vocation, they plunged to abominable depths. Their lapses were inexcusable. Their ministries were desecrated. Yet they refused to dwell in defeat. They were failures for a moment, but they were overcomers forever. Grasping God’s hand of forgiveness, they clambered to new heights for the exaltation of the One who washed them clean. Oppression crushed Simon the rock into sand. On the brink of ministry, after years of grooming, he blew it. He lied. He invoked a curse on himself. He disowned his Lord (Matthew 26:74). Yet though it rocked him, this one-time rock didn’t peter. Empowered by his Savior, he again turned to stone. Though the righteous – that’s you and me in Christ Jesus – fall seven times, they rise again. That’s a promise (Proverbs 24:16, see also Psalm 37:23-24). It was just a hair-cut For the plaything of Delilah; And just a prayer-cut For Peter the denier. Strong they dozed But weak arose, And knew it not. Men destroyed by fatal cuts Left to wallow in their ruts; Left with blame And haunting shame, In sin to rot. A seed so small and barely sown Meant to die, but how it’s grown! Things so small Grow so tall, But marvel not. If sin can grow, So can prayer; If prayers will flow, So will hair. With faith restored Hope will soar, And blunders blot. His repentance real, The victim of Delilah, Had victories still. And the spineless Christ-denier Shed his shame And became The church’s rock. Because God bringing good even out of sin is so mind-boggling, I’ll give just one more example. Suppose you had an abortion. No matter how appalling the sin, the Lord is keen to forgive and once he forgives you, amazing things can happen. The Lord could, for example, use the experience to deepen your awareness of the magnitude of God’s forgiveness, or to keep you from falling into pride, or to give you ministry and witnessing opportunities by increasing your empathy for others who have suffered that way. Should we sin that grace may abound? Of course not! But our sufferings move God far too deeply for him to let them be wasted. Romans 8:28-29 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son . . . (Emphasis mine.) This seems to be saying that the good that God works toward by manipulating all things that beset us is not that we get our selfish pleasure but that we end up conformed to the image of Christ. If that disappoints you a little, you haven’t thought it through. To be like Christ is something far more wondrous than any cheap thrills you might have had in mind. To be like Christ is to be filled with the fruit of the Spirit – love, peace, goodness, self-control, and so on. That’s thrilling, but there’s more. To be like Christ is to be not just dignified but regal; not just powerful but ruling from heaven’s throne; not just smart but having access to divine wisdom; not just attractive but radiant with unsurpassable inner beauty; not just morally upright but perfect in the piercing eyes of humanity’s holy Judge; not just happy but overflowing with inexpressible joy; not just youthful but eternal; not just sympathetic but empowered to transform lives. It’s something worth paying the highest price for. To again quote myself: Defeatists say ‘Yesterday’; winners say ‘Yes’ today. It’s too late to lament the past. That’s lost forever. But it’s never too late to move into overdrive. The present is ours to charge with defiant faith. NEXT (To continue this theme, click above)

Dating a Non-Christian We will examine this critically important matter from two quite different perspectives. 1. Our Surprising Spiritual Vulnerability Like Peter, who was so sure he would remain faithful to Jesus and yet so soon afterward denied his Lord, most of us have a grossly inflated opinion of how we would spiritually cope with various scenarios. This is particularly true of the long-term spiritual implications of being emotionally close to a non-Christian. One of the divine purposes of the Old Testament is to provide immense historical proof of how weak God’s people are when they come in close contact with people who are not committed to the true God. That’s why the Lord told the Israelites it was necessary for their spiritual survival to remove from the land the followers of other religions (Canaanites, etc.). Their failure to do this caused huge numbers to fall from God, generation after generation. 2. A Completely Different Perspective Even if we entered God’s kingdom as little children, in the terrifyingly holy eyes of the Judge of all humanity, we were once so defiled that there was no one on this planet more deserving of eternal torment than us. Every one of us was once spiritually dead, enslaved by darkness, ensnared by sin, an enemy of God and destined for hell. We were spiritually transformed only because Christ died for the ungodly. Everyone on this planet is just as able to enjoy this transformation as we are. Until they do, however, there is an uncrossable spiritual gulf between those who have experienced it and those who have not. Grubs become butterflies not because of what they do or deserve but by an act of God. For them to imagine they had made themselves better than grubs would insult God, who did it all. Nevertheless, for them to regard themselves as still grubs would also insult God. Moreover, it would be a perversion for a butterfly to consider mating with a grub. Likewise, for any of us to consider ourselves more worthy of God’s grace than the vilest non-Christian is such an insult to God as to expose ourselves to God’s judgment (see Luke 18:10-14). Our union with Christ, however, so transforms us as to render it spiritually perverse to contemplate a union with anyone who has not yet been transformed. Suppose you are an animal lover who discovered a near-dead feral animal stricken with diseases and other afflictions it had picked up from other feral animals. You rescue the animal, going to great expense and anxiously nursing it to health. Then, as the only way of keeping it safe from being reinfected, you adopt it as your own. Even though you love all animals, you would not want it running off and again mixing with creatures just as disease-ridden as it had previously been. In contrast to committing oneself to staying in love, falling in love tends to be something outside our control. Devoted Christians can therefore find themselves in love with non-Christians. Some, unaware that Scripture addresses this matter, have even deliberately exposed themselves to this in the hope of winning someone to the Lord. If ever the saying ‘The path to hell is paved with good intentions’ were true, it applies to this tragedy. It is not fair to anyone to add the extreme emotional pressure of romance to seeking to lead someone to Christ. Whether intentional or not, it is taking manipulation and emotional blackmail to new lows. Not only does the non-Christian feel pressured to falsely claim to be a Christian, emotions could be surging so high that not even the supposed convert can be sure how genuine the commitment to Christ is and whether he/she is likely to stand the test of time or is being artificially buoyed by the initial euphoria of romantic love. And the original Christian, too, is likely to be so blind-drunk on the emotional high as to be unable to discern how genuine the supposed convert is. As confirmed by the parable of the sower, many seem to start their walk with God gallantly, only to fall away. That danger never vanishes, but the longer a person has been committed to Christ and the less it is linked to a relationship, the more likely it is to last. ‘Do not be misled,’ says Scripture, ‘bad company corrupts good character.’ No matter how strong you are, choose the wrong friend, and you’ll be corrupted. Not everyone believes that. That’s why Scripture prefaces this warning with the words, Do not be misled , or, as some versions put it, ‘deceived’. A careful look at the context reveals that ‘bad company’ is not necessarily people we would normally think of as being ‘bad,’ but people whose belief about Jesus is faulty, even though they might claim to be Christian and live moral lives. A prime example is Solomon. Not even all his wisdom could keep him from ruining his life because he chose to befriend women who, though religious, believed the wrong things about God. Since the Bible insists you have little chance if you choose ungodly people as close friends, you must choose between God and wrong friendships. You will not have both for long. When choosing close friends, especially where there is a chance of romantic involvement, remember this simple fact: a person either belongs to God or to the devil. There is no middle ground. To have sex with a non-Christian is to defile Christ. Scripture is emphatic that sex makes two people one. A born-again Christian is spiritually united to Christ and anyone not a Christian is spiritually united to the devil. To marry a non-Christian is therefore to try to make Christ one with the devil. A spiritually mixed marriage is a hideous perversion. It is the profanity of trying to unite that which must never be united – trying to unite that which belongs to the Holy One to that which belongs to the Evil One; trying to make holiness (that’s what we are through our union with Jesus) one with evil (that’s the basic nature of the nicest non-Christian). Whoever is born of God becomes a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17). Someone commented that those who have been born again are virtually a new species. There is a lot of truth in that thought, and this puts sexual union with a non-Christian almost on the level of bestiality. When 2 Corinthians 6:14 says, ‘Do not be yoked together with unbelievers,’ Paul had in mind an Old Testament law: Deuteronomy 22:10 Do not plough with an ox and a donkey yoked together. Linking side by side two different species of different height and gait, and making them pull together, would be an act of cruelty. Interestingly, in Old Testament thinking, an ox is a clean animal (able to be used in the service of God) and a donkey is unclean. In the back of Paul’s mind might also have been another Scripture: Leviticus 19:19 . . . Do not mate different kinds of animals. . . . We have not yet considered exceptional circumstances in which a Christian could end up innocently married to a non-Christian. Just as there is an enormous difference between being murdered and committing suicide, so there is a vast difference between being raped and having consensual sex outside of marriage. Likewise, for a Christian to knowingly marry a non-Christian is totally different to two non-Christians marrying and afterward one of them discovering Christ. In both cases, a Christian might end up married to a non-Christian – like someone who is murdered might end up as dead as someone who kills himself – but the circumstances are entirely different. A Christian ending up married to a non-Christian because he/she becomes a Christian after marriage is not even a case of a Christian marrying a non-Christian – they were both non-Christians when they married. This very situation occurred frequently in the early Church, since vast numbers never had the chance to hear the Gospel until later in life. So the New Testament specifically addresses this situation and, not surprisingly, God treats it as differently as he regards rape as totally different to consensual sin. It would be ridiculous to expect God’s perfect morality to be so crude that he disregards circumstances and heart attitudes. For God’s compassion on those who innocently end up married to non-Christians, study this: 1 Corinthians 7:13-14 And if a woman has a husband who is not a believer and he is willing to live with her, she must not divorce him. For the unbelieving husband has been sanctified through his wife, and the unbelieving wife has been sanctified through her believing husband. Otherwise your children would be unclean, but as it is, they are holy. Contrast this with God’s people who deliberately married those who did not belong to the true God: Ezra was so appalled to discover that Jews had married non-Jews that two chapters are devoted to describing the seriousness of the offence and all of those who had done this were compelled to divorce and lose their children. People who become Christians after they are married have God’s blessing because they did not deliberately enter a spiritually perverse marriage. They were both non-Christians when they married. They can expect spiritual protection from their unchristian partner. But Christians who sin by marrying non-Christians are in grave danger. By disregarding God’s warning about relationships, they throw away their right to divine protection, unless they thoroughly repent, which involves genuinely regretting that they married. Never imagine you can fool God by deciding beforehand to ‘enjoy’ both sin and God’s forgiveness by ‘repenting’ after your deliberate sin.

God's Revelation to Heathen Startling examples from around the world of God working in the lives of heathen peoples and preparing them, often centuries in advance, for the coming of the Gospel. The Incas (South America) Pachacuti, king of the Incas from 1438 to 1471, restored one of the temples of the god worshipped by all his people – the sun. But he began to have doubts. He noted that a mere cloud could dim this ‘god.’ The sun did nothing but the same thing over and over, acting more like a laborer than a god. His observations brought the conclusion that the sun is neither universal, nor perfect, nor all-powerful. In Inca tradition there was a vague memory of Viracocha, the omnipotent Creator. Pachacuti’s own father had had a dream in which Viracocha reminded him that he truly was the Creator of all things. Deciding that the Creator, not the sun, was worthy of worship, Pachacuti met with the sun priests. He told them that the Creator is supreme and uncreated. He made all spirits and all peoples by his word. He manifests himself as a trinity when he wishes but otherwise he is surrounded only by archangels and heavenly warriors. He warms the world through his created sun. He brings peace and order. He is in his own being blessed and he has pity on people’s wretchedness. He alone judges and forgives and enables people to overcome their evil tendencies. From now on, Pachacuti commanded the aristocracy, the sun was to be regarded, like humanity, as created and that prayer was to be directed to Viracocha with awe and humility. (33-41) The Wa (Burma) In the 1880’s, Pu Chan, a Wa tribesman, persuaded several thousand of his people to abandon headhunting and spirit-appeasement. He said the true God was about to send the long-awaited ‘white brother with a copy of the lost book’ that had been part of their folk-lore from time immemorial. If the brother learned that the Wa people were doing evil things, he might consider them unworthy of the true God’s book. One morning Pu Chan readied a Wa pony, and told some of his disciples to follow it. He said that the previous night the true God had told him that at last the white brother was near. God would cause the pony to lead them to him. The pony started walking. Surely it would simply stop at the nearest stream. To the disciples’ amazement it kept going. On and on it went for about 200 miles over mountainous trails and down into the city of Kengtung, then turned into the gate of a mission compound and headed straight for a well. The disciples looked all around. No white man. No book. Hearing sounds in the well, they peered in. From the dry well a white face greeted them. Did he have a book from God? Yes! Before long about 10,000 Wa people had given their lives to Jesus. (87, 102-104) (Of course, there’s nothing special about being white. It’s just an historical fact that for some people groups it was white people who first brought them the Gospel.) The Gedeo (Ethiopia) The Gedeo were a half-million strong Ethiopian tribe who believed in Magano, the benevolent, omnipotent, Creator of everything. And yet few prayed to Magano. They were far more concerned about trying to appease Sheit’an, an evil spirit. They felt they did not know Magano well enough to be free from this evil spirit. One day, however, a Gedeo man, Warrasa, prayed that Magano reveal himself to the Gedeo people. Then followed a vision in which he saw two white-skinned strangers erect temporary shelters under a certain sycamore tree near Warrasa’s hometown, Dilla. Later they built more permanent shiny-roofed structures. Warrasa had never seen either type of dwelling before. A voice told him that these men would bring a message from Magano. During the next eight years other Gedeo soothsayers prophesied that strangers would soon arrive with a message from Magano. At the end of 1948, missionaries Brunt and Cain planned to set up base far from Dilla but the political climate forced them to decide on Dilla. So two white men erected tents under that very sycamore tree Warrasa had seen in his vision. Events continued to unfold in accordance with the vision. Today there are tens of thousands of Gedeo Christians. (54-56) ‘What happened among the Gedeo is by no means an isolated incident,’ writes Richardson. ‘Incredible as it seems, literally thousands of Christian missionaries down through history have been startled by exuberant welcome even among some of the earth’s remotest peoples! Folk . . . anticipated the coming of message-bearers for the true God almost as knowledgeably as if they had read about them in the morning news!’ (56) The Mbaka (Africa) The Mbaka believed that the Creator revealed to their ancestors that he had sent his Son into the world to do something wonderful for all humanity. Their ancestors, the folklore continues, later turned from the truth about the Creator’s Son and in time even forgot what he had achieved for humanity. Since then successive generations longed to know the truth about the Creator’s Son. All that they could learn was that messengers, who would probably be white, would eventually come to restore the lost knowledge. One day those messengers arrived and the Mbaka embraced the Gospel. (56-58) The Karen (Burma) In 1795 an English diplomat received an usually friendly welcome from the Karen people. Through an interpreter they asked if he was the ‘white brother’ they had been expecting for countless generations. If he were, he would have with him a book that their forefathers has lost. It was written by Y’wa, the Supreme God, and it would free them from their oppressors. The diplomat shook his head. Burma was home to about 800,000 Karen people and living in perhaps a thousand of their villages were people they esteemed as prophets of the God they called Y’wa. These special teachers kept reminding the people that the ways of the evil spirits that most of them followed were not the ways of Y’wa and that one day they must fully return to Y’wa’s ways. They rigorously opposed idolatry, and the Karen people refused to succumb to centuries of strong Buddhist influence. (73-77) Here is one of their hymns: The omnipotent is Y’wa; him we have not believed. Y’wa created men anciently; He has perfect knowledge of all things. Y’wa created men at the beginning; He knows all things to the present time. O my children and grandchildren! The earth is the treading place of the feet of Y’wa, And heaven is the place where he sits. He sees all things, and we are manifest to him. And another: Y’wa formed the world originally. He appointed food and drink. He appointed the ‘fruit of trial.’ He gave detailed orders. Mu-kaw-lee deceived two persons. He caused them to eat the fruit of the tree of trial. They obeyed not; they believed not Y’wa . . . When they ate the ‘fruit of trial,’ They became subject to sickness, aging, and death . . . (78) In 1816 a Muslim made contact with some Karen people. He was not very light skinned but upon questioning they discovered that he had a book he said was from God. The people were so interested that he gave it to them as a parting gift. For twelve years they venerated that book and kept constant vigil for the teacher who would one day give them understanding of the contents of the book. (76) Finally the white man they had been expecting arrived, opened the book and found it to be Christian – the Book and Common Prayer and the Psalms. The missionary affirmed it was indeed a good book from God, who alone should be worshipped. Their faces lit up, but darkened again when he explained they should not have worshipped the book. The tribesman who had gained honor as custodian of the book surrendered his status and became a humble follower of Jesus, along with tens of thousands of his people. (95) The Lisu (China) In southwestern China several hundred thousand Lisu expected a white man to one day arrive with the book of the true God written in their own language. The amazing thing is that as at that time there had never been a written form of their language. Of course, it happened and they responded. (89, 105) Korea and China Richardson cites evidence of an ancient belief in China and Korea that there was just one God and he must never be represented by idols. This belief seems to have predated Confucius by over 2,000 years. By about 1000 BC, however, religious leaders so emphasized God’s majesty and holiness that they decided that the Emperor was good enough to worship him just once a year. Everyone else was forbidden from worshipping God directly. (63) The Santal (India) In the late 1860s two missionaries began preaching to the Santal people, of whom there were about two and a half million. Suddenly Santal sages excitedly declared that this new teaching must mean that the ‘Genuine God’ had not forgotten them after all. It turned out that these people believed they originated from the direction of what we call the Middle East and that their ancestors traveled with a knowledge of the Genuine God, until they came to some impassable mountains. In desperation they made a covenant to serve the spirits of the mountains if the spirits showed them a way through the mountains. Soon after they found a pass (the Khyber Pass?). Because of their oath, the Santal began appeasing spirits and engaging in sorcery until all knowledge of the ‘Genuine God’ was lost except the name. The thought that Jesus could heal the rift between their race and the ‘Genuine God’ moved them so greatly that tens of thousands became Christians. (41-48) The Motilones (South America) There are very many other stories from around the world. This one comes from Bruce E Olson’s book Bruchko, Altamonte Springs, Florida, Creation House, 1978, pages 132, 139-140, 152. The Motilone people believed that a long time ago a false prophet deceived them, leading them away from God and now they were unable to find their way back. They had a legend that a prophet would come carrying banana stalks and God would come out of the stalks. Upon questioning this belief, Olson was shown a banana stalk like the one mentioned in the legend. Suddenly he realized that the stalk looked like the leaves of his Bible. This significantly increased the natives’ interest in the missionary’s message. A native in Dutch Guiana (now Suriname, South America) Years before he had heard of missionaries, Adiri received dreams and visions in which he was convicted of sin and apparently converted. Heaven and hell were revealed to him. Near death because of illness, One appeared to him announcing that he was the mediator between God and man, and telling Adiri to go to missionaries for instruction. (Source: The Missionary Review of the World, July, 1896: 519-523, referred to in Strong’s Systematic Theology: 844) You might say, ‘Ah, but missionaries were involved!’ Yes, for two reasons. First, if this had happened centuries before the arrival of missionaries, we would never have heard of the event. In other words, who knows how many times such incidents have been repeated in unrecorded history? Second, would God have let Adiri remain in ignorance of so many other spiritual truths when missionaries were so close? Moreover, I believe missionaries are always God’s preferred option, because the enormity of his love for his children drives him to seek our involvement in his work. Christ died to make us royalty, and he longs for us to start acting like it right now by sharing in the most important work in the universe. Even when no obvious human intermediary is involved, I believe God is working through the prayers of his people. About Don Richardson What prompted Don Richardson’s research into the religions of primitives is itself an amazing story. He bravely brought his family to live with cannibals for whom treachery was their highest virtue. This Irian Jayan tribe delighted in befriending strangers and showering them with kindness for months until their unsuspecting victims felt totally safe and accepted. Then they would suddenly kill and eat them. So perverse were these natives that when Don shared with them the Gospel story, Judas became their new hero. Jesus was the dupe to be laughed at. It seemed impossible for Gospel light to penetrate their darkened minds. Then tribal war broke out and Don threatened to leave unless they made peace. They wanted Don’s medicines, so they decided on a truce. Richardson began to wonder how a peace settlement could ever take place between people who esteemed deception. A man sadly gave up his baby boy and offered it to the other tribe for adoption. For as long as the son lived, there would be peace. Don, seeing the connection, exclaimed that Jesus was the Peace Child given by God to the world. Suddenly, the natives saw everything in a new light. To kill a Peace Child was a grave offense. They knew that a person giving up his son was a person to be trusted. Because Christ lives forever, peace with God is possible. Don found other ‘Christ-foreshadowing beliefs’ in their traditions. Everything began to fall into place. It was not too long before they were building a church to hold a thousand people. This experience made Don wonder whether the Lord has similarly seeded into the religions and traditions of other Gospel-ignorant peoples concepts that would prepare them for receiving the Gospel. He made some fascinating discoveries. The above is no substitute for reading Richardson’s books, which contain valuable additional details. Bracketed numbers in the text below indicate pages in Eternity in their Hearts from which the information was taken. Some books by Don Richardson: Peace Child Ventura CA, Regal, 1974 Lords of the Earth Ventura CA, Regal, 1977 Eternity in their Hearts Revised Edition CA, Regal, 1981, 1984

Will they all go to hell? Hope Early in Romans the apostle Paul emphasized that those who have not heard the Gospel are not only guilty in God’s eyes, but in their own eyes. That consciousness of sin opens up the possibility of repentance. And Paul stressed that not only are they guilty of worshipping false gods, they have some knowledge of the true God. That opens the possibility of crying out to the true God for mercy and forgiveness. Yes, their understanding is very limited. They are certainly ignorant of Jesus. Most of them could not even define God as being the God of Abraham. But this is genuine ignorance, as contrasted with the wilful ignorance referred to in John 3:19 as loving darkness rather than light. This genuine ignorance seems most likely to be the type that Paul preached that God would overlook. And indeed we have already mentioned Scriptural examples of people who have called out to God and been accepted by him despite having such an ignorance. This, as we have noted, is because the saving power of Jesus’ sacrifice has extended even to them. Addressing heathens, Paul preached that whereas in the past God overlooked their ignorance, he ‘now’ commands them to repent (Acts 17:30). When is the ‘now’ that Paul is referring to? Now that Jesus has died, or now that they are hearing the gospel for the first time? I suggest that in practical terms it refers to the time when they first heard God’s command to repent the time when they had more revelation to respond to. Side note There are not quite the vast numbers who have not heard the gospel as you might think. In fact, the number coming to the Lord Jesus throughout the world is phenomenal. I think you’ll be amazed at the statistics. A huge majority (perhaps 95%) of folk religions throughout the world acknowledge that there is but one great Spirit who is creator. There is strong evidence that this is their most ancient belief and that spirit-appeasement and belief in a multiplicity of gods is a more recent aberration (these findings are consistent with Romans 1:19-25). Missionaries have frequently discovered that God has placed in heathen religions and traditions, seed truths that prepare them for the Gospel. Don Richardson provides fascinating insights into this. You will be deeply moved by these astounding examples of God at work in heathen people. Are you sure they haven’t heard? It is groundless presumption to imagine that people have received no Christian revelation merely because they have had no contact with the Bible or with Christians. We have no way of knowing what God has revealed to people by such means as dreams and visions. People could mentally suppress such revelations or refuse to admit to having had these experiences. Moreover, we do not know how much more God would have revealed to them had they acted on the little they had been given. God, who knows each person’s heart, is unlikely to squander additional revelation on people who refuse to respond to the revelation they have already been given. And yet even the little we do know of this subject is astounding. In Muslim Encounters with Jesus we find examples of God supernaturally revealing himself to Muslims living in countries where to varying degrees the Gospel is suppressed. These are just a few of the stories that reach our ears about those who risk their lives to become Christians. There are no doubt very many incidents that we never get to hear of because the people receiving revelations prefer to reject them and never mention them to a living soul. This is just the tiniest indication of the enormous work that God does within the hearts and minds of people around the world whom we imagine to be cut off from the Christian message. Bringing it together Revelation 7:9 After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no-one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb . . . (10) And they cried out in a loud voice: ‘Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.’ What a stirring Scripture! Yet it would seem undeniable that many tribes and languages died out before the Gospel could reach them. Did some of that multitude gain access to heaven through Jesus by their earthly repentance and faith, without having heard of Jesus? Those who know nothing of Jesus still have the divinely-given testimony of creation, and God’s dealings through natural events. Next, they have their own conscience and the fact that as Ecclesiastes 3:11 puts it, God has put eternity in their hearts. In addition, first through Adam and then through Noah, all racial groups are descended from people who knew the true God. Somewhere in their traditions and culture is likely to be a dim memory of this, reinforced, perhaps, by some contact in the less distant past with other people groups whose religious beliefs were more pure. The Jews, for instance, were scattered far and wide. In pre-Christian times Jews influenced and converted Gentiles far more than is commonly realized. Then there are those like the Queen of Sheba in Solomon’s reign and the Magi at the time of Jesus’ birth, in whom God puts the yearning to travel to a place where they could increase their spiritual understanding and then return to their own people with a story to tell. Other possibilities include divine visions and dreams given to pagans, and answers to prayer, such as given to the sailors in Jonah’s ship Finally, despite the fact that they have not lived up to the light available to them, and so (like all of us) deserve God’s judgment, if they repent and trust God for forgiveness, there is apparently a sense in which God overlooks certain practices and/or ignorance until they become fully accountable by coming into contact with the gospel. Even in Israel, Christ’s coming brought about the rising and falling of many (Luke 2:34). Perhaps this is even more pronounced with the coming of the Gospel to heathen peoples, (cf 2 Corinthians 2:15-16) with those accepting the message soaring to new spiritual realms and those rejecting it plunging into deeper accountability. Whose Fault? Being born into a people group that does not have the gospel is a key factor in people not hearing the gospel. It is inevitable that children suffer for the sins of their parents, whether it be such things as newborn babies affected by their mother’s sexually transmitted disease, or children descended from people who have rejected knowledge of the true God. We are tempted to think it unfair that children should suffer because of their parents’ sins, but consider the alternative: had their ancestors been prevented from having children, these people would not merely have not suffered, they would not even exist. Nevertheless, it takes divine wisdom to balance tolerance (which gives people the chance to repent – Romans 2:4; 2 Peter 3:9) and the devastation that people can cause by abusing that tolerance. So there are people, like the tribes in Canaan at a certain point in their history, (Genesis 15:16) whose sins against the light they have becomes so great that they fall under the judgment of God and are destroyed, thus preventing them for having children and spreading their evil. The sad fact is that people miss out on hearing the gospel because of the disobedience of others. We’ve mentioned the role of ancestors. The other factor is the disobedience of Christians who have failed to spread the Gospel. Like it or not, God has given humans immense dignity by entrusting to them huge responsibilities. (Acts 20:26-27; 1 Corinthians 9:16) The Bottom Line Human speculation (and mine in particular) is fallible. Nevertheless, you can relax. God is perfectly good, wise, fair, merciful, and so on. He really is. Do you think he needs lessons from us on how to love? You don’t have to work it all out, nor figure God out. He is so trustworthy that you can just hand the whole matter over to him and not worry about it again. After all, judging the world is God’s responsibility, not ours. No one else is marginally qualified to judge the world. He alone knows all the facts and has all the answers. The Lord is more loving, wiser, more fair and compassionate than you and I could ever hope to be. There’s no need to wring our hands wondering whether he is up to the task! The bottom line is that God is God. He is our judge, not vice versa. His love, justice and goodness are above reproach. His morality is not on trial, ours is. It is not for us to worry about the judging of those who haven’t heard; it’s for us to concern ourselves with the fact that we have heard and we will therefore face the Judge fully accountable. (If this concerns you, see You can find love.) We are commanded to have no other gods. We are commanded to preach the Gospel to the ends – of the world. Woe to us if we disregard these commands. In southwest Africa, long before the arrival of missionaries, many Cameroons were caught in a storm while fishing. When his canoe capsized, the chief was in a quandary as to whom he should cry for help. Reasoning that the god of the hills could not help, and that the evil spirit would not help, he prayed to the ‘Great Father’ to save him. Immediately his feet touched the beach. He was one of the few in the party who survived. He gathered his people together and recounted the story, concluding, ‘Now let all my people honor the Great Father, and let no one speak a word against him, for he can save us.’ Thereafter he became renowned as a man of peace, making every effort to prevent strife and bloodshed. His son related the story to missionary Alfred Saker, saying, ‘Why did you not come sooner? My father thirsted for the knowledge of God.’ We might not have all the details as to how God will judge the Gospel-ignorant, but we know it will be good, just, wise, compassionate and perfect, because that is the very nature of God. And judgment will be made with full knowledge of every fact. In stark contrast to human guesses, humanity’s Judge is fully trustworthy. I urge you to read a carefully chosen selection of Scriptures that underlines this point. It is appropriate to end with the Word of God because God will indeed have the last word on this and every other matter. And that’s reassuring. It is also the best part of this webpage. 1 Timothy 2:3 . . . God our Savior, (4) who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. Revelation 5:9  . . . ‘You are worthy, because you were slain, and with your blood you purchased men for God from every tribe and language and people and nation. (10) You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God, and they will reign on the earth.’

Muslim Encounters with Jesus ‘. . . more and more stories are coming out of closed countries of God supernaturally evangelizing Muslims through dreams and visions. Of the estimated thousands of new believers in Iran in the last few years, over half of them became believers after Jesus personally came to them in a dream or vision.’ Wendell Evans of the Billy Graham Center’s Institute for Muslim Studies refers to ‘the frequency of reported dreams and visions of Christ among Muslims . . .’ (Source: The Pentecostal Testimony, reprinted in Missions Update produced by AOG World Missions, PO Box 254, Mitcham, Victoria, 3132, Australia, April/June 1998, page 11) Hell Abdullah was a faithful Muslim. He lived just an hour’s drive from Mecca, prayed in the mosque five times a day, practiced all the Muslim beliefs, and, of course, regularly visited Mecca. Like many Muslims, he was taught that Christians had evil spirits and that he must keep away from them. One night Abdullah dreamed he was in hell, burning in a blazing fire. The next morning, very worried, he prayed to Allah, ‘I have done everything well; why would I go to hell?’ During the following days he grew increasingly troubled. One night he was sleepless because of fear, when at midnight a bright light lit his room and a voice said, ‘I am Jesus. Come to me. I am the way to heaven. Follow me and you shall be saved from hell.’ Abdullah fell on his face crying and said, ‘Please help me find you.’ Within days Abdullah found a Christian Bible and began reading it. He soon committed his life to Jesus. Filled with joy, he started sharing his new-found faith with his family and friends. By his country’s law, however, a Muslim who leaves his faith must be killed. Abdullah’s family turned him over to the authorities. He was jailed and tortured for months. When Abdullah refused to deny Jesus, he was taken to the Sheria Court, where the most dangerous criminals are tried. The judge said to Abdullah, ‘Deny your new beliefs and you will walk out a free man; if you don’t, you will be beheaded.’ ‘I will never deny Jesus,’ Abdullah replied, ‘If you kill me I will go to heaven, but my blood will be on your hands.’ Abdullah was sentenced to be beheaded the following Friday. He was returned to jail and bound hands and feet. On the day of his execution, however, no one turned up. Next Monday morning the guards removed his chains saying, ‘Run you demon, we do not want to see you again.’ Unable to believe his ears, Abdullah asked for an explanation. The guards said that on the day Abdullah was to be executed the judge’s son had suddenly died. As a result the judge reversed his decision. Like most Saudis, Abdullah was from a wealthy family and had everything he needed. Not only was he rejected by his family, he had no source of income, and could not get a job because he was considered a betrayer. All of his identification papers were taken from him and he could have been arrested again at any time. And yet despite this pressure Abdullah continued to live for several years in Saudi Arabia, actively telling others about Jesus. (Source: The article was written by ‘Pastor Daniel’ who met ‘Abdullah’ (not his real name) in Saudi Arabia. ‘Pastor Daniel’ ministered in that country from 1995 to 1998 and is now residing in Australia.) Peace Indian-born Ibrahim Yousef James moved with his family to Kuwait when he was six. While still in his teens he went into business with his older brother and by the time he was 20, he had amassed a fortune. He owned the largest television production facility in Kuwait. A devout Muslim, he studied the Koran and kept all the religious Islamic traditions. He gave money to the poor and made many pilgrimages to Mecca. There was only one thing Ibrahim had attempted and failed. He tried suicide four times. Why could he not find peace? He searched the Koran for answers but found none. He went to England to study electronic engineering. In the month of Ramadan, during the last week of his fast, he developed insomnia. No matter what he tried, sleep eluded him. Prowling around in his hotel room he found a Bible. Flipping it open he read ‘Where to find help in time of need’. He read the list and found ‘needing sleep – Psalm 4.’ ‘If you are the God of this book, give me sleep,’ he prayed. He stretched across the bed and fell into a deep dreamless sleep. The next morning he forgot about the Bible and God. Later in the week he came across a man on the street preaching and claiming that Jesus was the only way to God. Ibrahim thought it was all rubbish and Jesus was not the son of God. He also came across an American couple who told him to ask God for the answer, and that God loves him and will speak to him. Ibrahim had never heard of anyone say that God would speak to them. Five nights later Ibrahim dreamed of a bright light in the form of a cross and a voice said, ‘This is my way. Jesus is my son. I give my peace to you. I leave my joy with you’. He had heard from God, and spent the day counting the cost of following Jesus. He knew he would be rejected totally. But the more he thought about Jesus, the more he wanted to know. He met a Christian lady who told him about Jesus, and Ibrahim, weeping openly, gave his life to the Lord Jesus. The first thing he did was to tell his family. They were all very angry and told him that they never want to hear from him again. Ibrahim began seriously studying the Bible and married a Christian woman. There was no reconciliation from his family. Then one day he got a telegram asking him to attend his sister’s wedding. ‘We forgive you, please come,’ said his father. As Ibrahim prayed about it, God told him not to take his wife. Upon arriving in Bombay, Ibrahim was warmly welcomed by his relatives and friends. Before long, however, his father attacked him, beating, kicking and punching Ibrahim until he was blinded with blood. Every member of Ibrahim’s family supported his father’s action. ‘I cannot deny Christ,’ Ibrahim kept saying. His father pointed a gun at him. Just seconds before he fired, Ibrahim’s uncle grabbed the gun from his father. Ibrahim was kept as a prisoner in the house. They destroyed all his wedding pictures, Bible, Christian books and tapes. As days passed Ibrahim’s father felt that he was coming around, but he still kept him prisoner, instructing guards to shoot Ibrahim if he ever tried to leave. Gradually he was allowed to go out to meet friends but not without a guard. One day Ibrahim asked to see his school friend and his father took him out. God said to Ibrahim, ‘This is the day to leave your family.’ His father had to inspect something on the way, so he let Ibrahim complete the journey on his own. Seizing the opportunity, Ibrahim went straight to a Christian pastor, who helped him get away. Recently Ibrahim spoke to his father by phone and his father admitted, ‘I know that your God is real because for ten years all our plans to harm you have failed.’ (Source: The Price of Peace, an article published in The Believer's Voice of Victory' Magazine, April 1998, published by Kenneth Copland and Gloria Copland from the UK.) Ibrahim's story took place around the year 1986-87. *** Today, Ibrahim and his wife work tirelessly spreading the gospel to every Arab speaking nation, often risking their lives to do it. For this reason his real name must be suppressed. Madame Bilquis Sheikh was a high-born Muslim, former wife of a Minister of the Interior, in Pakistan. God gave her dreams and visions about John the Baptist, about himself as God the Father, Jesus the son and the Holy Spirit. He led her to read the Bible. Her family came to know of her new beliefs and confronted her. She was so convinced of her new found truth, however, that they plotted to kill her. They even tried to burn her house. Her family boycotted her, and the servants, who were Muslims, left her, calling her a traitor and an infidel. She received many threats from her family and outsiders. An Army General of Pakistan visited, asking her ‘Why did you do it?’ She replied she has been called to witness Jesus Christ and she will obey Him, no matter what comes her way. She finally escaped to the US and wrote a book about her experiences. (Source: Bilquis Sheikh with Richard H. Schneider I dared to call Him Father, Word of Life Publication 1980, Poona, India.) Her conversion was around 1976.

Where will they spend eternity? Have we conservative Bible-believers been unjustifiably hasty in presuming there is no hope for those who die without hearing of Jesus? The undeniable fact that only Jesus’ sacrifice can save a person from hell does not compel the assumption that all heathen who have never heard the gospel will be banished from heaven. We’ll have to dig deeper than that in this easy-to-read look at a most difficult question. (This webpage is consistent with Strong’s Systematic Theology and the views of many other conservative theologians.) For who knows how many thousands of years, natives in Australia, the Americas, and so on knew nothing about Jesus or the Bible. Did the God who wants no one to perish leave them without a chance of salvation? ‘Answers’ are easy. It’s being sure that the answer is correct that’s the hard bit! We’ll plunge in where perhaps angels fear to dabble, but first some important orientation: What makes the fate of those who have never heard the gospel, a particularly difficult question is the fact that it is of no real importance to you and me, who have heard. And God rarely feels constrained to satisfy idle curiosity. We already have an embarrassing abundance of divinely-given knowledge that we are not fully using. Among the things God has told us over and over is that he is good and loving and just, that he is no respecter of persons, his judgments are righteous and that we should trust him. It is largely our failure to accept these revelations that makes the destiny of those who have not heard such a burning issue. Although faith in the revealed character of God should suffice, the sad fact is that many of us have a half-buried fear that God might be callous and unjust, and this makes it hard for us to love God. And some of us actually suspect that God must be callous and unjust, and this tends to make us callous and bigoted. So, as ridiculous as it sounds, instead of simply asking you to trust God’s character, I’ll try to provide additional reasons for believing that God handles the fate of the spiritually ignorant in a trustworthy manner. Fundamentals Here are some basics that this webpage will never stray from: * Although Scripture says God is partially revealed outside of the Bible (by creation, for instance) his full revelation to humanity is found only in the Bible. Except for the purpose of evangelism, there is nothing to be gained by Christians studying non-Christian religions. * There is no hope for those who die having consciously rejected Jesus’ sacrifice as their sole means of salvation. This webpage looks at those who have had no opportunity to accept or reject the Gospel. * We are commanded to preach the Gospel to all people groups. God would only command this if it were important. * It would be perfect justice for everyone on this planet to be sent to hell. Our consciences have grown so callous by the corrupting effect of our own sin, that we have no conception of how deserving of hell every one of us is. Not one of us has kept our own moral standards, much less God’s holy standards. No one, whether Christian or pagan, deserves heaven. The Plunge There is salvation through no one but Jesus (Acts 4:12) and no one who dies rejecting Jesus can be saved. Nevertheless, this does not imply that everyone must know about Jesus before Jesus can save them. Scripture teaches that Jesus died as much for those who died before his sacrifice, as he died for those who were born after his sacrifice (see Hebrews 9:25-28). Pre-Christian saints like Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Jacob, and so on, will be in heaven even though they never sought forgiveness through Jesus. As indicated in Hebrews 11, (note especially verse 7; Romans 4:1-24; Galatians 3:6-9) they were saved through faith, not by their animal sacrifices or good living. They trusted that God would somehow forgive them, without knowing the details as to how salvation was possible. At least in these instances, Jesus’ salvation clearly extended to those who had never heard of him. Abel, Enoch and Noah were outside God’s covenant mediated by Moses, and even outside the Abrahamic covenant. People to whom the gospel has not yet reached would seem, for all practical purposes, to be still in the pre-Christian era. So let’s examine how God treated such people in pre-Christian times. Hope Before Christ There were those like the two ancestresses of the Messiah, Rahab and Ruth, who were originally totally outside of God’s covenant and yet became part of God’s people. Both of these women would seem as far from the true God as one could get. Rahab was not only a harlot, but a Canaanite, belonging to the very race and generation that God commanded to be totally wiped out. Ruth was a Moabite, and Deuteronomy 23:3 says that no Moabite may enter the assembly of the Lord even down to the tenth generation. There are many biblical references to people from other nations joining Israel – and hence partaking of God’s blessing – such as the ‘mixed multitude’ that left Egypt with Israel (Exodus 12:38). God’s covenant with Israel applied as much to them as it did to physical descendants of Abraham. The Mosaic law repeatedly speaks of individual Gentiles becoming part of Israel and partaking of all of Israel’s blessings. They were to receive tithes, offer sacrifices, partake of the holy feasts, and so on. The law stipulated there was to be no distinction between these people and those who were Israelites by birth. Non-Israelites In Old Testament times, the Israelites were God’s special people, rather like Christians are God’s special people today (1 Peter 2:9-10). It is significant, however, that this does not imply God spiritually abandoned those who remained outside Israel. Even though the focus of the Old Testament is God’s dealings with the Israelites, it is filled with references to God working in the lives and giving revelation to people who remained non-Israelites. Consider all the effort the Lord went to in ensuring Jonah did what was needed to save the Ninevites. If God intended to torment each of the Ninevites forever in hell why would he want so much for them to repent so that he could give them a few more years on earth? Surely a God so deeply concerned for their earthly well-being would be even more concerned about their eternal welfare. Matthew 12:41 is interesting: ‘The men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for they repented at the preaching of Jonah . . .’ The redeemed will play a role in judging. Is Jesus implying that through their repentance the Ninevites are counted among the redeemed? In Acts 14, Paul spoke to people who were so pagan that they wanted to worship Paul and Barnabas as gods, and yet Paul declared that even before the gospel reached them, God had ensured they had a witness to himself by showing them kindness, giving them rain and food, filling their hearts with joy (Acts 14:17). Later, speaking to another crowd of similarly ignorant, but much more sophisticated people, Paul declared that God created the nations, assigning their territories and their eras, ‘so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us’ (Acts 17:27). Does the significance electrify you? God wanted pagans to find him – people who were outside the Abrahamic covenant and (due to the time and/or place in which they lived) without a chance of hearing the Gospel. Added to this, we have the clear teaching of Scripture that it is not God’s desire for any to perish, but that they all turn in repentance to God (2 Peter 3:9). Moved by the Spirit of God, Paul writes that it is God’s wish that everyone be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth (1 Timothy 2:4). This does not mean that everyone will be saved – we know from the clear teaching of Scripture that many will reject God’s salvation – but that cannot negate the fact that it is God’s wish that all be saved. Although justice would be fully met if God sent us all to hell, he is the good Shepherd. He does not desert the lost even if it is their fault that they wandered off. On the contrary, he seeks the lost, giving them priority over those who are secure (Luke 15:3-7). This is the heart of my Lord. He is the God who takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but longs for them to repent and live (Ezekiel 33:11). Please permit me to for a moment express a personal feeling, not intended to in any way reflect on wonderful Christians who do not share my view. If I believed God would let millions slip into eternal torment without offering them so much as a possibility of finding forgiveness, I would be devastated if I were to see my loving Lord face to face and hear him say with tears in his eyes, ‘How could you think that I could be so heartless?’ Degrees of Accountability The depraved inhabitants of Tyre and Sidon were repeatedly singled out for condemnation by Old Testament prophets (eg Isaiah 23; Jeremiah 25:22; 47:4; Ezekiel 26:3-7; 28:12-22; Amos 1:9-10). Yet Jesus said that these pagans would have repented if Jesus had visited them, preaching and performing miracles like he did in first century Galilee. Is this just a hypothetical of no eternal consequence to the citizens of Tyre and Sidon? Must these heathen face the final judgment with no allowance made for the fact that Jesus never visited them? Apparently not. Jesus said it will be more tolerable for them than for the first century Jews who rejected him (Matthew 11:20-22). Jesus doesn’t specify where these heathen will spend eternity. We know, however, that the fact that they would not have rejected Jesus’ ministry makes their future somehow more bearable than for those Jews who failed to repent when Jesus ministered to them. Jesus was here declaring a principle applicable to all heathen, not something peculiar to Tyre and Sidon. This is evident from the fact that he immediately proceeded to speak in a similar way about Sodom (Matthew 11:23-24, 10:15), a city belonging to a quite different culture and era. Jesus said that had he preached and performed his mighty works in that wicked city, they, too, would have repented. The people of Sodom knew they were acting wickedly. Moreover, they had the living witness of righteous Lot. Even so, Jesus held them less accountable, and declared their judgment will be less severe because they would have acted differently had Jesus been there in person. It seems safe to conclude from this passage that in the final judgment of people who never knew Jesus, full consideration is given to how they would have responded if Jesus had personally appeared to them, teaching and working miracles in their midst. Jesus noticed people giving temple donations. A woman tossed in the smallest available coin and then another. It was pathetic. It totaled a measly one sixty-fourth of a laborer’s daily wage. And yet Jesus heaped praise upon this impoverished widow, declaring she had out-given everyone else. (Mark 12:41-44) This is most significant because the Person who praised that woman is our Judge. It clearly demonstrates what we would expect from a good, loving, all-knowing God: he is fully aware of how much or little we each have been given, and he judges us according to our faithfulness with whatever we have, not on the basis of what we have not been given. On the other hand, for the person to whom much is given, taught Jesus, much is required. He told a parable in which the degree of punishment reflected the extent to which the person was aware that he was doing wrong. (Luke 12:47-48) God has distributed his gifts unevenly, whether it be abilities, wealth, intelligence, availability of spiritual knowledge, or whatever. Regardless of how much or how little people have in the way of gifts and spiritual opportunities, however, we all have equal opportunities to be faithful with whatever is entrusted to us. And it is faithfulness that impresses God, not how much he has given us. To us, the spiritual achievements of the one given little might seem as useless as that woman’s insignificant offering, but it could thrill the heart of Jesus, the Judge of all the world. Nevertheless, Paul proves that even on the basis of this generous assessment, everyone stands condemned. In Romans 1:18-32, Paul says that the heathen who have never read a word of Scripture, have a rudimentary knowledge of the Creator. They themselves and everything they see and touch and eat, are God’s handiwork. He says God judges them, not because they reject a Gospel they have never heard of, but because they are unfaithful to the small revelation they have been given. Their earthly judgment for disregarding this revelation is a darkened mind, bondage to false religion and depraved behavior. Significantly, Scripture says these heathen sin, and approve of others sinning, ‘although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death’ (Romans 1:32). Paul was referring to people who knew not a fragment of the Bible, (Romans 2:11-16) and yet, he declared, they inwardly ‘know God’s righteous decree.’ This does not, of course, imply they know all of God’s requirements but, like us, they have enough understanding to deserve hell. God’s Tolerance of the Gospel-Ignorant Paul preached that in previous generations God permitted the non-Jewish nations to walk in their own ways (Acts 14:16). What is meant by ‘permitted?’ It cannot merely mean that God did not prevent these things from happening, because the implication is strong (and in Acts 17:30-31 it is spelled out) that this era of divine tolerance had come to an end. And we know that even today God does not make it impossible for people to reject the Gospel and participate in false religion. Acts 17:30-31 says, ‘In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. (31) For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed.’ A degree of divine mystery clouds these Scriptures. They seem to imply God would not hold such people accountable for at least some of their actions. It is hard to be certain what this involves, since Paul proves early in Romans that everyone stands guilty before God, even those who have not heard God’s law. Yet still there is hope . . . Continued . . . Next

The greatest good anyone can do for humanity begins with a dynamic encounter with the living God. I refer to a spiritual transformation so revolutionary that it is aptly termed being ‘born again’, though overuse has sapped this term of its power. You could walk down church aisles all your life without ever marrying. Everyone knows that. Yet, tragically, countless thousands have walked down a church aisle and falsely assumed that made them born again. Like marriage, it is a relationship, not a ritual that counts. Spiritual rebirth results from a life-changing union between two persons. You can mumble the sinner’s prayer, the saints’ prayer, any prayer you like; you can join the best church, get wet, slurp communion, look more godly than an archangel, and have not a throb of spiritual life. Your act can be so convincing that you even fool yourself, and remain unaware that your life has missed an entire dimension. Dare to dream We crave love. It is an essential ingredient of a meaningful life. Yet it is a risky, potentially agonizing experience. Death or disagreement can so easily rob us of the one we love. Though we kiss with our eyes closed, relationships are frighteningly fragile. Beauty sags. People change. The deeper our love the deeper our insecurity. Reality is cold, but dreams are too hot to hold. Our passions seem so insatiable we that shrink from them, yet still they haunt us. Just for a moment, release the iron grip that keeps your longings suppressed in the dungeons of your mind. Let your longings waft free before your gaze, no matter how unattainable they seem. Dare to see what they reveal. You burn for unwaning intimacy; a companion who will never fail you; a carer who will always be there, no matter what the circumstance or hour; someone whose love never ceases to astound you; someone whose charms and beauty and powers will not fade with the passing years. Too often you are misunderstood. You crave a friend who can slip inside your mind; ideally, someone who has not only heard of your every trauma and triumph from birth, but experienced them with you. You need to unburden yourself with a confident who knows your blackest secrets, yet delights in you with unswerving devotion. When life’s blows send you reeling, you ache for an admirer who not only passionately longs to meet your deepest needs, but is always able to. You need a partner so capable that when crisis swallows crisis you can trust your friend to comfort, protect and power you to success. Yet you don’t want to be smothered. On the contrary, you want someone who will nerve you to reach the heights you were born for. You pine for someone changeless, yet exciting; someone who fits your needs so exactly it feels you were made for each other; someone you will be forever proud of; someone whose love for you is so vast that it always satisfies; someone faithful, genuine, open and warm, yet so resistant to the ravages of aging, sickness and tragedy as to seem immortal. No human fits the bill, yet the craving remains. A few dreamers keep chasing the elusive high of starry-eyed love, forever groping for the perfect relationship. Most of us give up. A person would have to be God to meet our criteria! And how could he help? We’re flesh and blood; God, if he exists, is some nebulous, unapproachable Spirit. The notion of a friendship with God is preposterous. Or is it? Within the realms of the unknown almost anything could dwell - even a God poised to shatter our insensibility to him. If there really is an Intelligence behind creation, why were we made with cravings that could never be satisfied? Is God a sadist, or were those yearnings for the ideal companion planted within because he longs to fulfil them by being your closest friend? [It is more than coincidence that old-fashioned romance, bearing lightly the scars of reality, was laced with religious expressions like ‘she adores/idolizes him’, ‘you’re divine/heavenly’, ‘he worships the ground she walks on’, ‘a marriage made in heaven’. From another source comes the term ‘sex goddess’.] Could it be that God seems impersonal only because you’re not on close terms with him? If God were impersonal, that would make us superior to our Creator. That’s absurd. If we can speak, feel and love, our Maker can do all that and more. [Even in cases where no drugs were administered, many people who have been revived after clinical death have reported a sensation of floating away from their bodies toward a bright light. Their experience was too fleeting to know whether they would be considered worthy to remain forever in the presence of that light, but for our purposes, the notable thing is that although ‘bright light’ sounds impersonal, they commonly report telepathic communication and intense love emanating from that Being.] God is warm. This exciting Person, whose never-ending companionship and limitless power are able to fill the unfillable hole within us, is the perfect partner we ache for. Yet his very perfection makes him unapproachable. The Almighty is awesomely holy; incomparably virtuous. We are not. The joy of being wrong We come hurtling back to reality. Life’s a bed of roses. The beauty is enticing and the aroma alluring but the thorns are cruel. There’s a solution, but to appreciate the grandeur of that solution, we must dwell for a couple of pages on the magnitude of the problem. This is so distasteful that we instinctively recoil from it, longing to deny its existence. Our reaction proves the truth of Jesus’ assertion that people love darkness [ignorance and wrongdoing] rather than light [truth and purity]. (John 3:19) We’ll expose facts that challenge the limits of our ability to grapple with reality. Yet facing them is the most liberating experience a human can know. Let me illustrate. I’m stumbling up a perilous trail, far from civilization. Angry blisters jostle on the pain-scale with bruises and open wounds. The blazing sun sucks my throat and mocks my exhausted supplies. If I don’t get there soon ... Panic rips down my spine, gets trapped in my stomach, and thrashes in wide-eyed terror. I stagger on, virtually insensible to the weird sound overhead. The trail twists and to my amazed surprise a helicopter stands before me. A pilot approaches, claims to be part of a search party, and tells me I’ve been tramping for days in the wrong direction. ‘Do you take me for an idiot?’ I fume. My bush skills ...’ Patiently, he takes out a map and dismantles my every argument. My spirit wilts. I could never survive the distance to even the nearest waterhole. Then the pilot offers to fly me to the exquisite oasis I had been looking for. My worries vaporize. The sooner I admit my need of help, the quicker I can get out of here. In such circumstances, even I can handle being told I’m wrong. Magnify that tale and transfer it from fantasy to reality and you glimpse what this chapter is about. Discovering we are wrong can be the most thrilling moment of our lives. Confronting the truth of the next few paragraphs can usher you into a new world of joyous freedom, fulfilment, challenge and excitement. When Frederick the Great visited Potsdam Prison, every convict he spoke to professed innocence. Finally he encountered a thief under sentence of death. ‘Your majesty,’ he said, ‘I am guilty and richly deserving of punishment.’ ‘Release this scoundrel,’ commanded the king, ‘before he corrupts all the noble innocent people here.’ A similar surprise awaits everyone who dares admit the truth. I make no claim to powers of mind and pen sufficient to portray the wonder and majesty of the world’s greatest love story. Nor can I highlight each facet of the unassailable wisdom, justice and moral perfections that opened the possibility of a transformation of human nature so radical that it defies comprehension. My hope is to whisk you to its benefits, not expound its intricacies. So if any of the following seems unconvincing, limitations of space and skill may be the problem. I warn, however, that in these critical issues, the real cause of blind-spots usually turns out to be psychological or spiritual. The door to spiritual understanding is not human explanation, but supernatural enlightenment - divine revelation. And that door swings not on mind games but on a willingness to surrender our stubborn will to One who knows better than us. (John 7:17; 2 Corinthians 3:14-16; 4:3-4; 1 Corinthians 2:4-16; 4:20; Luke 10:21) Already our defenses are on red alert. I ask you to face this issue because it leads not to shame, but to the exhilaration of a cleansed conscience. It leads not to oppressive restrictions, but to utter freedom. Our dilemma - God’s deliverance If we burst into a hospital and chanced upon a doctor sterilized for surgery, he could not touch us. We may seem immaculate, but not by his standards. We are like that in the presence of the holy Lord. We may be as good as the next guy, but by the unassailable perfection of his lofty standards we are moral lepers. God must keep his distance. That seems an over-reaction. Being surrounded by imperfection all our lives has jaded our ability to see ourselves objectively. Deep down we suspect the worst but we flee from it like people refusing cancer checks even though early diagnosis brings life, not death. A favorite, rarely conscious, technique to silence our suppressed but nagging conscience is to concoct a doctored moral code that lets us entertain the delusion that we are morally superior to some people. What drives us to despise certain people or to gossip is not unkindness or snobbishness so much as a desperate attempt to drown the shrieks of our own conscience. We feel less guilt if we can convince ourselves that there are others who are morally worse. Our self-deception is so individual that I am unlikely to guess the reader’s blind-spot, let alone find my own. The following are just three of countless possibilities. * A man might detest wife-bashers, while he cheats on his own wife, thus loading her dice in the deadly AIDS game. He toys, with the possibility of injuring her, but not with the possibility of killing her. He does this not to her face, but in cowardly deceit. And he is certain he soars at moral heights far above anyone who would slap a woman. * Or we might label rape a hideous crime, but call the seduction of a married person ‘love’. Seduction ravishes its victims at the deepest level, debauching them so completely as to make them willing partners in immorality. Even the grave offense of rape leaves its unconsenting victims morally chaste. * Or we might feel superior to criminals when what differentiates us is not morality but cowardice (fear of getting caught, of incurring the disapproval of others, etc.) or lack of opportunity (not knowing how to commit the perfect crime, or not holding a gun at our weakest moment). Each of us are infected by one of hypocrisy’s innumerable strains. And the most dangerously afflicted are those oblivious to it. That’s why Jesus said blatant sinners are more likely to find God than are the self-righteous. (Matthew 21:31) We are driven to all lengths - even to accusing God of injustice - to try to ease our guilt. We spurn God’s laws, hurt each other, and then have the audacity to blame God for the mess. ‘Why do the innocent suffer?’ we sneer, conveniently forgetting the times our anger, greed and lies have hurt the innocent. (Ultimately, only one Innocent ever suffered - Jesus. Though for our sakes he became man, the eternal Son of God had life independent of human ancestry. The rest of us owe our very existence to wrong-doing. If, for instance, we could trace our family tree far enough, we would likely find a direct ancestor who was the product of rape or unlawful incest. In other words, were it not for gross wickedness we would not exist. And in our genes - our basic essence - we have our father’s eyes, our grand-father’s walk, our mother’s temper, our ancestors’ sin. Far from being innocent, we were born a product of wickedness and confirmed our guilt the first opportunity had.) For some suspicious reason, there is a degree of hurt we deem excusable, and the hurt we have inflicted happens to compare favorably with the standard we have arbitrarily set. With every atom of pride within me shrieking in protest, I am forced to the shattering conclusion that the moral gap between a sadistic murderer and me is invisible, relative to the yawning chasm separating me from the flawless virtue of Almighty God. The Holy One loathes evil but if he enslaved the human will, squelching evil by forcibly preventing all of us from indulging in pet sins, we’d be the first to shake our fists. If God is a God of love, why does he allow the evil that’s rampant in this world? For anyone not entranced by his/her own double-standards, the reason is obvious. God longs to destroy all evil, and the time is fast approaching when he will. (2 Peter 3:9-13) But how, without unprincipled favoritism, could he do this without destroying you and me? (I warned this horror story would take you to the edge of your tolerance. Rich rewards, however, await those with the courage to face facts we inwardly know to be true. When approaching a God who can make us more beautiful than we dare dream, we have no need to act like burns patients smashing mirrors.) Should we reform and never so much as think another wrong thought, it wouldn’t help. If water is contaminated, adding pure water doesn’t help - the water is still contaminated. There’s corruption in our past and we cannot change the past. Some things God cannot do without violating his integrity. Consider a man in court found guilty of dangerous driving. The judge happens to be a close friend of the defendant. Would it be right for the judge to declare his guilty friend innocent? Or could he fine the offender less because he is his friend? Only a corrupt judge could condone law-breaking or display favoritism. (Romans 2:11) And God is our Judge, because there is no such monstrosity as a self-made person. None of us decided to come into existence, or can even design our offspring’s fingerprints. God formed the brain cells we think with. We owe him everything. The Lord is maker - and therefore owner - of every molecule and organism we have ever used or abused. Like it or loathe it, that makes us accountable to God for our every action. (Acts 17:31) Our selfishness has hurt people. It would be an outrage for the Supreme Judge to ignore our offenses. We’re the ones who bellow at God when we see wrongdoing go unpunished. Though his devotion to you defies explanation, he cannot do other than declare you guilty. And justice demands the penalty be paid. That leaves just two alternatives. Either you pay the penalty, or someone pays it for you. It would be sheer conceit for me to consider taking your punishment. I have my own wickedness to answer for. But the Son of God, two thousand years ago, left his celestial judgment seat and came to earth. He became the sole human who has lived a perfect life. In the brilliance of his purity, our highest moral achievements look like mud. So when Christ voluntarily endured the pain and shame of a criminal’s death, something of cataclysmic significance was happening. The timeless Son was taking upon himself full blame for your sin. (1 Peter 3:18) Physical torment choked in a sea of spiritual agony. On the cross the only person who has enjoyed eternal oneness with God cried, ‘My God, why have you forsaken me?’ (Matthew 27:46) Father God was compelled to desert his beloved Son, treating him as the vilest sinner, until the horrific penalty was paid in full. After absorbing the full consequences of our depravity, Christ broke through to life again, blasting a path for us to follow. You are the focal point of this heart-stopping display of love, the greatest love the universe has known. Will you continue to spurn it? Our response Christ has provided a legal way whereby anyone, though guilty, can go scot-free. But that does not make forgiveness automatic. To be intimate with the Lord of the galaxies; to have divine power flowing through your veins; to reach the peaks you were made for, requires a response on your part. To explain, let’s return to the reckless driver. A judge would have to fine his friend for breaking the law. It is quite legal, however, to offer a friend money to pay the fine. It is then up to the offender whether he accepts the judge’s gift. It would break Jesus’ heart if you slight his offer to suffer for you. The only alternative is for you to bear the penalty. That’s the last thing he wants. God is anxious to save you from the horrors of hell and grant you a fulfilling, life-changing partnership with him. (2 Peter 3:9) But you must accept the gift. That involves admitting that you need the gift - that only Jesus’ sacrifice can absolve your guilt. There is one more consideration. If our lead-footed friend intends perpetuating the same offenses, he is a danger to the community. It would be wrong to pardon someone who plans to continue flouting the law. Similarly, it would be wrong for God to forgive us until our attitude to sin has changed. I reel at the thought of the hordes who have tragically missed this point. A second analogy will confirm its centrality. You are trapped in a sea of sin. Bottomless waters lap towering cliffs. No one can tread water forever. The murky depths terrify you, except for one spot. You’ve found a place where the deadly waters seem beautiful and the sensual waves exquisite. How can anyone take seriously your cries for help if you’re splashing around enjoying yourself? And what’s the point of saving someone who is hell-bent on plunging back after every rescue attempt? No one with a suicidal commitment to a sin can be saved. This doesn’t mean you must initiate a sinless life to enjoy forgiveness. We’re in sin’s death grip. Only Jesus can break it. But do you want him to? Do you want to be rid forever of your favorite sin? The Almighty gives us dignity by respecting our wishes. If we don’t want him to be our God - ie in total control of our lives - it grieves and appals him, but in his gentleness he will permit us to go our own way. No one has suffered the pain of rejected love like God. You can never be forced to love someone. Nor can you be forced to desire purity of heart. The Giver has done all he can. It’s over to you. To ignore our Creator is the height of selfishness. He is the Source of every good thing we ever enjoyed. (Even sin’s fizzle of pleasure, that slippery shadow of the real thing seized while defying him, is possible only because of our God-given ability to experience pleasure.) Every wonderful thing we take for granted comes from him. He even holds our atoms together. He protects and nurtures even those who ignore him, providing abundant opportunity for them to respond to his astounding love. They don’t want God to interfere, but he does anyhow - showering them with a myriad soft, warm, beautiful, delicious, refreshing, thrilling and inspiring gifts. At death, however, those who on earth wanted to be independent of God are finally granted their wish. That’s the ultimate horror. To be eternally severed from the Source of all love, beauty, fulfilment and joy is a prospect too terrifying to contemplate. With a repentant attitude toward ungodly ‘pleasures’, however, and a reliance upon the pardoning power of Jesus’ sacrifice, you give God free rein to do what he longs to do - pay your debt to justice and credit to your account the moral perfection of Christ. That makes you so pure in his eyes that you need no longer be isolated from him. You can then commence an endless communion with the greatest Person in the universe. The contract What God desires is like a perfect marriage. He wants life-long devotion, fully committed intimacy, not a superficial fling. Believing in the opposite sex does not make one married. Neither does believing a creed give us the right to live with God. (James 2:17-19) True marriage involves total commitment of all that you have and all that you are. It is believing in someone so completely that you entrust your entire being to that person for life. The Lord is eager to be that devoted to you, but for marriage to work, the commitment must be mutual. If a street kid married a millionaire, she would get his riches and he would get her debts. He would be tarred with her shame and she would gain his honor. For this to happen, she must turn from rival relationships and bind herself and her meagre possessions to this man in marriage. Everything he owns would become hers, provided she lets everything of her’s become his. Similarly, if we entrust to God everything we have - our time, abilities, relationships and possessions - he will reciprocate, embracing us with divine extravagance. We hand our depravity to Jesus, relinquishing even our fondest sin. It becomes his. That’s what killed him. In return, Jesus’ sinless perfection envelops us, (2 Corinthians 5:21) enabling us to be on intimate terms with the Holy God. The culmination of this divine exchange of holiness for depravity will be seen when all evil is finally wiped off this planet - we will be spared and no one can accuse God of injustice or favoritism. He has borne the penalty himself. In entering this love pact, we give God the right to do whatever he likes with our assets, but the Owner of the universe makes his riches available to us. (Philippians 4:19) We trade our talents, for his omnipotence; our attempts to run our lives, for his unlimited wisdom. We give him our time on earth and he gives us eternity. In every way we benefit from this proposal and God gets the raw end. But God is love. He wants this holy union more than we can imagine. Don’t break his heart by holding back. The following prayer corresponds to wedding vows, in which you promise to love, honor and obey the Lord, thus making him your God. In turn, the King of kings makes you worthy of spiritual fusion with him and pledges to devote himself unreservedly to you. If the following accurately describes your feelings, you can make it your prayer by reading it to God. Wonderful Lord, It hurts to admit how bad I’ve been. I have caused you grief, yet you sent your Son who gave his life and defeated death to secure my pardon. (Romans 4:25; 6:4-5; 1 Corinthians 15:3-8,14,17; Colossians 2:12; 1 Peter 1:3) You have given yourself totally for me, and I long to reciprocate. I respond to your overwhelming love, by dedicating all I have to loving you. I yield to your loving protection and guidance. I surrender my sins to you, renouncing even those things that entice me. And in exchange I receive your pardon and purity and your empowerment to live a life worthy of you. Thank you that we have now commenced a union that not even death can break. The Lord of heaven and earth knows your secret thoughts. (Hebrews 4:13) If you prayed the entire prayer honestly, you have entered a new spiritual realm. That’s hard to believe. Everything seems the same. But not from heaven’s perspective. The spiritual contract is sealed. The proof lies not in your feelings (such as whether you feel guilty or happy), but in the integrity of the Holy One. He has given his word (in the Bible) that whoever turns from sin and looks to Jesus for cleansing, has a radically new destiny. (John 3:36; 6:37; 14:6; Acts 4:12; Romans 6:11-18; Philippians 3:8,9; Colossians 1:22) God is no liar! If this is the first time you have genuinely offered such a prayer, you must be bursting with questions. Space forbids extending this outline into something that anticipates your every question. To overcome this shortcoming, I have written a book especially for you: Developing Your Love Affair With God. If this proves inadequate, I invite you e-mail your queries to me. Since there is nothing more important than spiritual rebirth, all e-mails on this vital matter will be answered. Wind-up You’ve had enough of empty living. At last, you are free to soar above a mundane existence to uncharted heights of excellence. You have commenced the life of fulfilment you were created for. This is a chapter of the full length book: Waiting for your Ministry Before reading it, however, I urge you to read Developing Your Love Affair With God

Developing Your Love Affair With God Introduction The following assumes you have read You Can Find Love . That webpage explains how our deepest yearnings for love can be met only by a transformation that causes us to become spiritually one with our Maker. This on-going experience is so superior to any other relationship a human could enjoy that there are no adequate terms for it. When applied to God, terms like love affair and lover can have no sexual overtones. I have chosen them, however, to express the wonder and spontaneity of the thrillingly intimate and fulfilling love-relationship with the Person our heart cries out for. He is the One we were literally made for, the most important, exciting and fascinating Person in the entire universe. Reading You Can Find Love is particularly important because it explains the basis for a dynamic encounter with the living God. I refer to a spiritual transformation so revolutionary that it is aptly termed being ‘born again,’ though overuse has sapped this term of its power. You could walk down church aisles all your life without ever marrying. Everyone knows that. Yet, tragically, countless thousands have walked down a church aisle and falsely assumed that made them born again. Like marriage, it is a relationship, not a ritual that counts. Spiritual rebirth results from a life-changing union between two persons. You can mumble the sinner’s prayer, the saints’ prayer, any prayer you like; you can join the best church, get wet, slurp communion, look more godly than an archangel, and have not a throb of spiritual life. Your act can be so convincing that you even fool yourself, and remain unaware that your life has missed an entire dimension. If you have not already done so, please read You Can Find Love now. Constantly desire to know God more fully and more intimately Make this your burning passion. Probe too deeply into the personal life of any human and we have to brace ourselves for disappointment. We will inevitably find faults in the person. But we never have to fear discovering a flaw in God. He is the most wonderful person there is. His character is so beautiful that the more you know him the more you will fall in love with him. Be convinced about God’s love for you Above everything else, God is characterized by love. Even more exciting is the fact that God loves you. God’s deeply personal and intimate love for you is greater than anything else you have ever experienced. Were you to combine every form of genuine human love, it would only give the vaguest glimpse of the intensity of God’s love for you. You may feel deeply hurt because people have let you down, but God will never disappoint you. Because genuine love is much deeper than mere feelings, you will not always be conscious of an inner feeling that ‘says’ that God loves you. Our physical senses, intuition and emotions are all highly unreliable when it comes to detecting spiritual reality. Feelings are changeable, but God’s love is constant. Your whole relationship with God hinges not on your emotions or your dependability but on rock-solid honesty of Almighty God. He is the most reliable source of information there is. If he says something, it is true, regardless of temporary and superficial appearances. Your spiritual oneness with Jesus Christ allows God to see you as someone infinitely attractive, desirable and lovable. Because you are allowing God to do what he likes in your life, he is gradually changing you so that one day you will be completely Christ-like. When your Maker looks at you, he sees the perfect person that you will become when he completes his work in your life. God is good! We can’t hope to enjoy the heights of intimacy with someone whose integrity we doubt. So if you have any uncertainties about God’s goodness, wisdom, justice, or whatever, I encourage you to bring these doubts into the open. Carefully examine them in the light of Scripture, and pray about them. Instead of vainly trying to suppress doubts, do your best to remove them by getting to know your loving Lord better.   God’s knowledge and wisdom are so far beyond us that it would be impossible for us to try to find fault with God’s actions. Our limited understanding often tempts up to blame the Creator for things he didn’t do.    If those who hold a grudge against God knew the gravity of their own sin, and the mercy of God, they would (or should) be thoroughly ashamed of their attitude.    The Lord has the right to do whatever he likes with us because he owns us (due to the fact that he made us). But God is not some sort of arrogant tyrant.    The King of kings can not only be trusted with absolute power, he alone fully deserves that power. Trust him Relax. Know that you are in God’s strong, capable hands. Jesus longs to help you, but it’s up to you whether you let him. ‘Leave your worries with him ...’ says the Bible. Faith is knowing that God is working out the perfect solution. It is believing that God not only can do a certain thing, but that he will do it for you. Trust (or faith) is one of the most crucial things in your ever-growing relationship with God. It is the key to forgiveness through Jesus and to receiving power to break the hold sin once had over us. One of the biggest battles of faith will be in the area of sin. God, who now lives inside you, is stronger than every evil power and every longing for sin. God has promised that we need never again give in to sin. The problem is that since we are now God’s friends, God’s enemy, the devil, has become our enemy. The devil has no hold over us, but he is a master at deception. He’ll try every trick he can think of to convince us that God no longer loves us, or that the devil’s temptation is too strong. Our mighty Lord has given us the power to put such distance between us and sin that sin need never again hurt us. Our Victor has not, however, given us his royal power so that we can play chicken with sin – to see how close we can get to sin without being swallowed up. To play games with sin is to make a mockery of what Christ endured on the cross to protect us from sin. Such disregard for God’s holiness causes us to move out of his protection. All we need do for victory is to ignore the devil’s lies and trust God. Believing God rather than the Deceiver’s cunning lies can be quite a challenge, but God will make sure we make it. With God, you’re a winner! The God who performed countless miracles in biblical times, and is just as powerful today, has taken up residence within you. Recognize who’s boss! Like the perfect leader he is, Jesus never asks us to do anything that he wouldn’t do himself. God is not a cold-hearted perfectionist. He not only understands our human limitations, but he has experienced them. God’s decisions are totally wise, good and unselfish. They can never be improved upon and they must be promptly obeyed. Anyone unwilling to have this attitude, has not turned from his/her sin. Such a person has therefore not been forgiven, and is still bound by sin. Don’t settle for a half-hearted love affair If, for Jesus’ sake, you would be willing to lose all your possessions, suffer pain, and even die, then God is truly your God. What we hold dearest sets the ceiling on how far we can go in life. If we let go of lesser things – such as fear, choosing an easy life and slavery to material things – we can soar with God. Only God can remove sin from our lives, but now that he has we will want to do the little we can to reduce the pain our sin has caused other people. Now that we are new people we won’t want people continuing to believe a lie we have told so we will confess to them. We will seek to repay anyone we have stolen from, and so on. Spend time alone with him Expect your prayers to be answered but persistence is very important. It’s good to offer hasty prayers as we go through our busy day, but your Lover deserves your undivided attention at least once a day. If you are too busy for this, you are too busy. Not only does giving God quality time delight your precious Lord, but it is vital to our spiritual welfare. Praying is just chatting with God and sharing your heart. So there’s no need for archaic language, formal terms or lofty speech. Just relax and be yourself. Try not to make prayer a one-sided conversation. Quietly wait for your Lord to speak to you. As you wait for the King of kings to respond, often nothing will seem to happen and that’s when I get restless. But you are honoring God by giving him to opportunity to speak to your heart and there is a good chance he is doing something within you at a deeper level than conscious thought. Sometimes God will give you an inner impression, or drop a thought into your mind. This will often be so gentle that you may have difficulty in distinguishing it from your own thoughts. Wherever possible, don’t rush into following an inner urge. Pray some more about it to make sure it is from God. Since our consciences are not divine, they are by no means infallible. Scripture is our ultimate authority, not our feelings. If ever the two are not in harmony, we should ignore other influences and adhere strictly to God’s Word. Read his love letters It might take millions of words to adequately describe how unique and fascinating the Bible really is, but the most exciting and crucial thing is the fact that the Bible is God revealing himself to you. Bible-reading is essential nourishment for your soul. Understanding the Scriptures is not primarily a matter of intelligence but the product of our relationship with God. It is therefore important to pray for understanding. As time progresses, you may discover that Scripture is gradually becoming less interesting to you. This is a sure sign that you need to pray for God to increase your understanding. You may soon find it hard to put the Bible down! But even if the Bible seems dry, it is vital to resist the urge to reduce your Bible-reading. Right from the beginning, you will benefit from Bible-reading but the more you read the more you will understand it. Sometimes when we read the Bible all that happens is that it is being stored in our minds so that it will click into place when we read another Scripture or have a particular experience perhaps years in the future. By reading the Bible and putting it into practice, you will gradually grow in wisdom and spiritual strength. Like physical growth, however, you won’t always feel spiritual growth taking place. As you keep reading the Bible you will discover new truths that will make life much easier and more satisfying for you. Each new truth you discover, you’ll wish you had learned years ago. So the sooner you discover them the better. Be like someone hunting for buried treasure! The Bible is good and 100% reliable, but some parts of it you might find offensive, at first. The main reasons for this are: 1. Not reading with sufficient care Our Heavenly Father’s decisions are always right, but the same can’t be said for our hasty conclusions! 2. Misinterpretation For example, the Bible sometimes records an event without bothering to immediately point out that it was immoral, because it assumes the reader is familiar with the teachings of the rest of Scripture. 3. Your sense of morality is deficient ‘All Scripture is profitable (useful) ...’ ( 2 Timothy 3:16 ). So, even if you find a passage that seems quite useless, don’t let it spoil your appreciation of the Bible. The correct interpretation is not only morally acceptable but, locked somewhere within that passage, are precious truths. There are many different Bible study methods and the choice of method depends largely upon your own preference and personality. However, the following hints should help: Mark your Bible (underline favorite parts and so on). Choose an easy-to-read Bible version. Especially at first, you should find the New Testament more helpful, and so I suggest you read the entire New Testament before starting the old. After this intersperse the New and Old. If you average four chapters a day, you will complete the entire Bible in one year. What to do when you grieve your Divine Lover 1. ‘Make up’ with God straight away Unforgiven sin separates us from our Holy God. The sooner this rift is healed, the better. So if you happen to sin, return to God immediately, sincerely ask his forgiveness and trust him for the strength to overcome that sin, so that you will not commit it again. If you then don’t forgive yourself, you’re implying your standards are holier than God’s! 2. Don’t allow a failure to discourage you Because Christ is now dwelling inside of you, you have so much power at your disposal that Satan is terrified of you. When it comes to a display of power, you will win every time. All the devil can do is to try psychological warfare. If he can trick you into giving up, he has nothing to fear. He will try to discourage you. So banish all thoughts that you are ‘no good,’ ‘weak,’ ‘hopeless,’ etc. Such lies are from the pit of hell. Download the full book in Word format Continue

Overview: Topics touched include exploitation, money, ecology, war, racism, sexism, homophobia, pain and suffering, science, genetics, politics, atheism, hypocrisy, escapism, paganism, Hinduism, Hare Krishnas, vegetarianism, near-death experiences (NDEs) and hell. The focus, however, is on facts, arguments and scandals that give Bible believers nightmares. Not to be sold. © Copyright, 1996 Grantley Morris Not to be sold, May be copied in whole or in part only by citing this entire paragraph. Contents (Download links at the end of this page) 1. If there really were a God of love, the innocent wouldn’t suffer 2. There is no God 3. Who made God? 4. God, if he existed, would be impersonal 5. I hate God 6. If God made us, our moral failings are God’s fault 7. What’s in it for me? 8. Science has crippled Christianity 9. Pleasant near-death experiences of non-Christians disprove Christianity 10. A God of love wouldn’t send me to hell 11. I don’t need God 12. Christianity is a crutch 13. The church is full of hypocrites 14. Christian superstars are after money 15. I’m answerable to no one 16. Christians support environmental vandalism 17. Christians are bigoted, racist, sexist and homophobic 18. Religion has sparked wars and exploitation 19. Christians have a low and negative view of humanity 20. What about all those who have never heard of Jesus? 21. All religions are much the same 22. It doesn’t matter what you believe as long as you’re sincere 23. There are so many religions: how could anyone know which is right? 24. Even Hare Krishnas are more Christian than Christians! 25. The Bible contradicts itself 26. Christianity is on the decline 27. To become a genuine Christian is almost impossible 28. I’m not convinced 29. I’ll think about it 30-33. More Objections Download Word version Download Text version Download Zip file of Word document