Category Archives: Reason

You Can’t Cross Heaven’s Borders By Breaking Its Laws

America today is witnessing a horde of invaders crossing our southern border. There is no doubt that among the reasons so many want to come to America is the promise of the blessings afforded her citizens. These blessings attract those whose lives are burdened with oppression, poverty and hopelessness. For over two hundred years, people around the globe have sought to avail themselves legally of these blessings of liberty. The problem with the present invasion is that it is unlawful and tears at the very fabric of American life and culture. It is ironic that there is a parallel between what is happening in America right now and what has been happening to the Lord’s church.

To become a legal citizen of the United States, you have to pass a simple test, speak and write basic English, not have a criminal record, etc. In short, you must meet certain requirements, follow certain basic laws. The same is true of becoming a legal citizen of the Kingdom of God, the church. To become a citizen of the kingdom of God, one must hear the word (Rom. 10:17), believe (Acts 8:37), repent (Luke 13:3,5), confess (Rom. 10:9,10), and be baptized (Acts 2:38). When one does these things, he is added by the Lord to His church, the kingdom (Acts 2:41,47; Matt. 16:16-19).

However, just as there are those who are allowing–and even inviting–illegals to come into this country, there are those who want to allow–and even invite–those who have not obeyed the law of the Lord regarding spiritual citizenship to come into the church. Many believe that those in the denominations, for instance, who have never followed God’s law are fellow-citizens of the kingdom of God. They fellowship them as if there was no difference between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of the world. By recognizing those in the denominational world as Christians, they advocate a form of spiritual amnesty without obedience to law.

Unfortunately, those who want the blessings this country offers without following it’s laws are bringing about the demise of the very institutions which made this country great. Likewise, those who advocate fellowshipping those in the denominations are disregarding the very things which make the Lord’s church distinctive and thereby destroy it’s power to save the lost. The church exists because it is made up of individuals who have been separated by God from the world (II Cor. 6:14-18; Acts 2:47). But when that line of demarcation between the world and the church is erased, then there remains no difference between them and the church is just as lost as the world.

When members of the Lord’s church adopt the innovations and terminology which characterizes the denominational world, they become the denominational world. We want all men to be saved, just as we wish all nations were blessed as America is blessed. But if America is destroyed through invasion and destruction of its western culture, then it can no longer be the unique and exceptional blessing to the world it once was (and hopefully is still). Likewise, if the Lord’s church disregards the will of God and assimilates an unscriptural, spiritually foreign culture, it can no longer offer a refuge from the burden of sin and spiritual poverty under which this present world labors. When individual Christians and congregations adopt the practices of the denominations, when they adopt their terminology, when they substitute the commission of Jesus with a worldly, social agenda, then they, too, cease to be the unique and exceptional blessing God created them to be as the church and become just one more lost denomination.

America may or may not survive this current onslaught against it. There are many in high places who are working feverishly hard to fundamentally transform America. Whether or not it survives this present crises will depend on whether or not America keeps the Lord as its God (Psalm 33:12; 127:1-5). But the truth regarding the Kingdom of Christ is, no matter what men may do to the Lord’s church, no matter how much they disregard the Lord’s will, the church will survive. It is not dependent upon the grace of man for it’s existence, but the will of God. The gates of Hell, Jesus said, will not prevail against it (Matt. 16:18,19)! You can’t cross heaven’s borders by breaking its laws.

Eric L. Padgett

There Arose Another Generation

“And also all that generation were gathered unto their fathers: and there arose another generation after them, which knew not the Lord, nor yet the works which He had done for Israel” (Judges 2:10).

Between January 8 through February 5, 2014, the Barna Group conducted a telephone and online State of the Bible Survey of 2,034 adults in the continental United States regarding the views of Americans on such subjects as perceptions of the Bible, Bible penetration, Bible engagement, Bible literacy, moral decline and social impact and giving to nonprofit organizations. This study was commissioned by the American Bible Society. There was some encouraging news as well as some discouraging news coming from this study.

The one consolation is that the Bible is still highly regarded in America. “When asked to name the books that come to mind when they consider sacred literature or holy books, Americans overwhelmingly name the Bible (79%). This proportion is more than seven times the popularity of the next most frequently mentioned holy book, the Koran (12%).” However, over the last four years, 7% fewer Americans have regarded the Bible as sacred and 4% more Americans regarded the Koran as sacred.

What the study reveals, however, is that those who are identified as “Millennials” (those who are aged 18-29 according to this study) are the ones who are driving this decline in respect for the Bible. While 50% of all Americans believe the Bible has too little influence on society, only 30% of Millennials hold this view. Only 16% of all Americans believe the Bible has too much influence. Furthermore, while 88% of American households own a Bible, this number is down from 92% in 1993. While the number of Bibles owned per household is 4.7–and this is up slightly from 4 years ago–only 15% say they read the Bible daily. Fifty-three percent read the Bible only 3 to 4 times a year. Again, only 40% of Millennials read the Bible while 66% of those who are 68 years and older read the Bible.

Another disturbing trend is that the readership of the venerated King James Version has decreased from 45% in 2011 to 34% in 2014. But the good news is the Kings James Version is still the preferred Bible translation in America. “Far fewer say they prefer the New International Version (13%) or the New King James Version (10%). The English Standard version is read by 6% of Bible readers, while the New Living Translation is read by 4%. All other translations were mentioned by 3% or fewer Bible readers.” But, again, it is the Millennials who prefer the Kings James Version less than other age groups.

According to another study by Pew Research, 68% of Millennials support “same-sex marriage.” “Millennials are easily the most godless generation of Americans, with 29 percent saying they are not affiliated with any religion and 11 percent saying they do not believe in any god at all, as compared to Gen Xers who are 6 percent atheist. As faith goes, only 58 percent of Millennials are sure of their beliefs, compared to 69 pecent of Gen Xers.” (“Millenials Most Godless and Politically Independent  Generation“)

What these studies reveal is that it is imperative that we start working on instilling a different attitude toward the word of God in our young people. One generation is all it takes for complete apostasy to occur. The only way to account for the current decline in the younger generation is that, unfortunately, parents are no longer rearing their children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord (Eph. 6:4). Parents are no longer teaching diligently unto their children the words that the Lord has spoken (Deut. 6:5,6). Neither are congregations preaching the word of God and emphasizing doctrinal soundness from the pulpit or the Bible classes but are instead teaching a “be happy, don’t worry” philosophy. Press too much doctrine and you are accused of being divisive.

I am sorry to say this, but I believe the church of the Lord in America is in bad shape. (America, itself, is in bad shape and no one can seem to stop the decline.) The traditional, biblical answers to traditional criticisms of the Word of God have been forgotten or, even worse, discarded by many. Whereas the Lord’s church used to be the place to go for Bible answers, too few today in the Lord’s church know the Bible well enough to provide those answers.

We must renew our commitment to studying and preaching and living the Word of God. We must teach them diligently to our own children with a renewed sense of urgency lest they forget the works He has done for Israel.

Eric L. Padgett

What Makes Something True?

What makes something true? Many people believe something is true just because they want to believe it. Some people believe things because their parents believed it. Others believe things because their preacher said it. Some people believe things because it has always been taught that way. Unfortunately, most people never question why or how they believe what they believe.

Believing or not believing something does not make it either true or not true. If a man believes he can fly and he jumps off the roof of a ten story building, regardless of what he believes, the truth will soon become apparent. Just because your parents told you there is a Santa Claus, doesn’t mean there really is. Just because a preacher says drink the cool-aid, doesn’t mean it is the right thing to do.

Truth correlates to reality. If I say it is raining outside my house, how would you know if I was telling the truth? You would look outside my house to see if it was raining. If I am telling the truth, it will be raining outside my house. The truth of my statement will correspond to the reality of the situation. But then how do we know what is real?

Do we get to make up our own reality? The man who jumped off the roof of a ten story building didn’t get to make up his own reality and neither do we. Reality is settled by virtue of creation. In other words, reality depends on God. God created the world in a certain way. In order to get from one point to another, for instance, I have to move through time and space. The distance of the earth from the sun at any given point in time is a certain distance (roughly 93 million miles). We don’t get to vote on that distance to change it. That distance is not one distance for you and another for me. It is as God created it.

Why should we think the nature of moral-spiritual truths are any different than temporal-spatial truths? A thing is morally true if it corresponds to reality and reality is determined by God. Just as we don’t get to vote on the distance of the earth to the sun, we don’t get to vote on whether drunkenness, murder or homosexuality are sins. These things are not morally right for one person but wrong for another. Moral truths, as temporal-spatial truths, are also determined by their correspondence to the reality of God’s creation. But how do I know if any given moral statement is true or not true?

If I make the statement it is raining outside my house, I can check that by looking outside my house. If I say the sun is 93 million miles from earth, I can measure that (after a fashion). But how do I know if the statements “murder is a sin” or “homosexuality is a sin” are either true or false? Just as we look in the Book of Nature to objectively discover temporal-spatial truths we must look into the Book of Revelation (i.e., the Bible) to discover moral-spiritual truths. When someone says homosexuality is a sin, how do I know if that is true? I look into the word of God and see if that is what it teaches. That is how all moral and spiritual truths are determined. In principle, it is determined the same way we discover temporal-spatial truths.

But someone will object and say not everyone agrees on moral-spiritual truths. That is true, but not everyone agrees on temporal-spatial truths either. Many scientists believe in evolution, but many scientists do not. The history of science is filled with failures, men and women believing things about the natural world, like spontaneous generation, etc., that are not true. The scientific method is used to discover temporal-spatial truths and sacred hermeneutics is used to discover moral-spiritual truths. When properly handled, these methods advance truth, when improperly used, they extend ignorance.

What makes a statement or proposition true, then, is its correspondence to the way God created the world. He created certain temporal-spatial truths, which are discoverable through the scientific method and He created certain moral-spiritual truths which are discoverable through sacred hermeneutics. The heavens declare the glory of God just as the Word declares His will for man.

What so many people fail to do, however, is to be guided in what they believe about moral and spiritual matters by what God has revealed in His word. Many who do hear or come somehow to understand what the Bible teaches will still reject it. They will cast doubt on the reliability of God’s Word as a standard of authority or they will say “That is just your interpretation,” asserting that no one can really know the truth about morality.

But without recognizing God’s word as the objective standard, they leave themselves open to subjectivism. For if moral “truths” are determined by human opinion and not divine revelation, there is, in effect, no moral truth. If human opinion determines morality, murder may be wrong to you, but it may not be wrong to someone else. Thus, there would be no truth concerning morality, only individual opinions, and opinions differ widely.

But those who either take an agnostic posture with regard to morality or dismiss objective, moral standards outright, will inevitably, but inconsistently, assert some moral standard as absolute. Everyone will at least assert “It is wrong for you to take my life.” They understand the God-given right to life (though they may not recognize it as such). But when they do this, they give up any claim of an agnosticism of morality and admit there is an objective moral standard.

The truth is, there is an objective, moral-spiritual truth to which all men are amenable–the Word of God. It is just as much a part of God’s creation as are the temporal-spatial truths. All of these truths and laws were codified in creation. We come to understand or discover all of these laws and truths through observation and study.

What makes something true is that God has declared it to be true.

Eric L. Padgett