Christian vs. Disciple

Hey guys. Sorry it's been so long since my last entry. With vacation and work I haven't had that much time to devote to keeping this updated. But this is a topic that has come under hot debate at least in the social circles that I roam in. What is the difference between being a Christian and being a disciple? Hopefully all of that will become clear after we look at what the Bible has to say.

The most common analysis of this that I have heard is that a disciple is a sort of "super Christian" much like being a Nazarite was to the Israelites. Most people that are associated as being disciples are our preachers, ministers, elders, deacons, and other leaders in the church. These are the people that we expect to have their lives together and have an awesome relationship with God.

Another distinction that people make is that you don't have to be a disciple in order to be a Christian, and thusly that you don't have to be a disciple in order to be saved.

Let's see what the Bible has to say about it:

"Then Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul, and when he found him, he brought him to Antioch. So for a whole year Barnabas and Saul met with the church and taught great numbers of people. The disciples were called Christians first at Antioch."

-Acts 11:25-26 (NIV)

According to Biblegateway.com, the word "Christian" only appears three times in the entire Bible. Once here, once in Acts 26:28, and once in 1 Peter 4:12. Of the three scriptures, this is the only one where there is a comparison between Christians and disciples. According to this scripture, Christians and disciples are one in the same and can be used synonymously with each other.

What does that mean for us? If being a Christian and being a disciple are the same thing, what does that mean about our salvation? If your life does not match up with what Jesus says when he talks about being a disciple (read the Gospels), I urge you to do some serious soul searching. If your life does not reflect the life of Jesus, if you have always assumed that going to church once a week and reading your Bible a couple times a week is what Christianity is, if your life after your conversion looks eerily identical to your life previous to your conversion, then I plead with you to work out your salvation. Below are a list of scriptures to help point you in the right direction as to what the Bible says about being a disciple. 

What does it take?

Luke 9:23-27

Luke 14:25-33

How do I get there?

John 3:3-5

Acts 2:36-41

Romans 6:1-7

1 Peter 3:18-22

Seek God with all your heart, and you will find him. Pray that God will lead you to the truth and he will not disappoint you. Most of all, do not let predispositions and what you've always understood as being true inhibit your ability to interpret the Bible in an unbiased manner. God bless

Old School God vs. New School God

Sorry it's been almost 2 weeks since my last post. With finals going on and getting situated back home, I haven't had a ton of spare time. But now I'm ready. When I was thinking about what I wanted to write about one thing that immediately came to mind was the debate over the God of the Old Testament and the God of the New Testament. Many opponents to Christianity claim that God himself is a contradiction because the Old Testament shows how God is ruthless and blood-thirsty while the New Testament paints God as this generous distributor of grace and prosperity. Like many Christians around me, I've been asked these questions before and never had a real answer for them. So after doing a little research, here are some scriptures that show that the God of the Old Testament and the God of the New Testament are indeed one and the same.

Old Testament

There are plenty of examples in the Old Testament that portray God as this war-hungry machine that wipes out entire populations on a whim. I especially think about the conquests of Joshua as he leads the Israelites against the peoples inhabiting the promised land. 

"After the death of Moses the servant of the Lord, the Lord said to Joshua son of Nun, Moses' aide: 'Moses my servant is dead. Now then , you and all these people, get ready to cross the Jordan River into the land I am about to give to them - to the Israelites. I will give you every place where you set your foot as I promised Moses."

-Joshua 1:1-3 (NIV)

I think this picture of God is what most people assume to be the God of the Old Testament. The first civilization conquered by Joshua is the city of Jericho, and we read that the Israelites showed no mercy to its' inhabitants.

"They devoted the city to the Lord and destroyed with the sword every living thing in it - men and women, young and old, cattle, sheep and donkeys."

-Joshua 6:21 (NIV)

This story in particular shows that God is not afraid to unleash his judgement. And that's exactly what it is, judgement. None of the people in the city of Jericho deserved to live. The Israelites were the only ones who were "blameless" in God's eyes, and that was only because they had the opportunity to offer sacrifices to cover over their sins. So from God's perspective, he gave the inhabitants of Jericho what they had earned as a result of their life, death. Don't forget that. Not one person on this Earth is good enough to get to heaven. Not one person on this Earth "deserves" to live. Or don't you forget?

"for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God."

-Romans 3:23 (NIV)

I think that is the mindset we can fall into when we read these stories. We can start to think "look at how many innocent people God killed. How can a loving God do such a thing?" But guess what, we are no different than them. Without Jesus, we deserve the same fate.

Now that we've got that out of the way, let's talk about the grace God shows in the Old Testament, and oh is there a lot of it. Let's start from the beginning.

Adam and Eve are living in the Garden of Eden, they eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Then God comes and tells them about how life is going to be hard now that they have sinned and eaten of the forbidden fruit (see Genesis 3:14-19). Some of you may say, "well it's the serpent's fault. God was too harsh with Adam and Eve." Oh really? What act did Adam and Eve display when they ate from the tree? Disobedience. Last time I checked that is a sin. And according to Romans, the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23). Adam and Eve deserved to die because of their sin, but God allowed them to live. Talk about grace. Someone holds a gun to your head and then decides not to kill you, that's called grace.

Another thing I think about when it comes to God being gracious in the Old Testament is how he deals with the Israelites in general. Every forty years or so, the Israelites would turn away from God. Whether they would start grumbling about being in the desert (Exodus 16:1-3) or turning to idols and false gods (Exodus 32:1-6), the Israelites were always finding ways to mess up. But guess what, God didn't strike them all down. He could have, but he decided not to. Why? Did not the Israelites deserve the same punishment as the inhabitants of Jericho? The only logical reason is grace. After the Israelites sin, Moses goes back to God on Mount Sinai and pleads with God to forgive the Israelites, and he does (Exodus 32:31-32). Talk about grace.

I also think about David when it comes to God showing grace in the Old Testament. Most of you know the story. David sleeps with Bethsheba, the wife of Uriah the Hittite, one of David's soldiers, and then David kills Uriah to cover it up. God tells Nathan to confront David, and once he does, this is David's response:

"I have sinned against the Lord."

-2 Samuel 12:13 (NIV)

David understood what he had done. He understood the consequences of his sin and that God had every right to strike him down where he stood. But that's not what God did. Nathan's response to the above statement made by David reads:

"The Lord has taken away your sin. You are not going to die."

-2 Samuel 12:14 (NIV)

These three stories illustrate that the God of the Old Testament is indeed a God of grace. Now it's time to move to the New Testament.

New Testament

For the New Testament, it is not hard to find instances where God's grace is evident. Just read through any of the gospels and you'll see that the New Testament practically oozes grace. One passage most Christians are familiar with lies in John.

"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life."

-John 3:16 (NIV)

That scripture fires me up. How amazing it is that God loves us that much and that he wants to spend eternity with us in Heaven. Amen to that! Now about that whole wrathful God thing. 

The first thing I think about is the whole deal with Ananias and Sapphira. They were a husband and wife duo that sold a field and gave the money to the apostles. The only problem was that they kept some of the money for themselves and when the apostles asked them if they had given them all of the money, they said that it was. Big mistake. Peter says to Ananias:

"Didn't [the field] belong to you before it was sold? And after it was sold, wasn't the money at your disposal? What made you think of doing such a thing? You have not lied to men but to God." When Ananias heard this, he fell down and died.

-Acts 5:4-5 (NIV)

That's pretty intense. If we look several scriptures further, we find that God also strikes down his wife Sapphira. Doesn't this seem like a menial offense? All they did was lie about keeping a little extra money for themselves. The big mistake was that they weren't lying to Peter, they were lying to God. And guess what, God was not afraid to let them know how he felt about that.

Also when I think of a God of judgement, I think about the "hard verses." The verses we would like to pretend aren't there because it would make following God much easier. It would be easy if all we had to do was believe in God and then we were saved, but that's not looking at the Bible as a whole. Some of the things God says seem down-right unreasonable. Let's look at one passage in Matthew.

"Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?' The I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!"

-Matthew 7:21-23 (NIV)

This is not a fun verse. Why? Because Jesus is coming right out and saying, "just because you think you are a Christian, doesn't mean you are." Wow Jesus, that's kind of harsh. Does that mean that even if we believe in Jesus and do all of these things in his name that we might not inherit the kingdom of God? Yup. That's exactly what it means. And I could go into how we can stand before God on judgement day confident of our salvation, but that is another topic altogether. But there it is again, that idea that somehow we can do something to deserve God's grace. Notice what the people in the scripture say: "did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?" They thought that they had done something worthy of being saved, but Jesus reminds us that God has every right to deny us salvation if we are not covered in his grace.

Finally, I think about the coming of the end times, and the writings of John in the book Revelation. If you ever sit down and read through Revelation, there is a lot of wrathful God in there. The most obvious example to me is when John is describing the 7 seals that are unleashed on the Earth by God. The fourth living creature is the one we are going to focus on.

"When the Lord opened up the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature say, 'Come!' I looked, and there before me was a pale horse! Its rider was named Death, and Hades was following close behind him. They were given power over a fourth of the earth to kill by sword, famine and plague, and by the wild beasts of the earth."

-Revelation 6:7-8 (NIV)

Talk about wrathful God. In the Old Testament God only focused his efforts on one civilization at a time, in Revelation he sends out Death riding on a pale horse and gives him the authority to wipe out 1/4 of the world's population. If you want an example of the God of Judgement in the New Testament, it doesn't get much clearer than this.

I hope this entry was helpful. I would love to get your feedback, tell me what you thought and any additional verses that you think would benefit this discussion. I pray that as we defend our faith, we turn to the Bible instead of ourselves as the foundation for the hope we profess. God bless! 

Balance between God and School

With final exams rearing their ugly head it has been a lot harder to get into my Bible on a consistent basis. When it gets really bad, I'll cut out my time with God all together. All I can think about is how many things I need to be doing and how I wish that there were 36 hours in a day instead of 24. Ironically, as life gets more stressful I tend to drift away from God and try to do everything by myself. First of all this is very unwise, and second of all it reflects that my relationship with God is not a priority. So with this entry I'll discuss what the Bible says about having a healthy balance between school (or anything else) and the Bible.

When it comes to putting something before God, I'm always reminded about what Jesus says in his famous Sermon on the Mount:

"No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money."

-Matthew 6:24-25 (NIV)

In the context of this passage, not serving money is a similar to the idea of storing up treasures in heaven (Matthew 6:19-21). It doesn't make sense that Jesus would only want us to not serve money (see Luke 14:33), so insert anything that could be idolized or anything that you would make a bigger priority in place of money. For me it looks something like this:

"Travis cannot serve both God and grades."

I'm not trying to change the scripture, I'm just doing my best to apply it to my life today. You might say, "well Travis. Just because I want good grades doesn't mean that I'm mastered by them." True, but let me ask you this. If God asked you to get bad grades to glorify him would you be willing to do it? 

Now what I am NOT saying is that God wants you to get bad grades. Paul says otherwise in his letter to the Church in Colossi:

"Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not men."

-Colossians 3:23 (NIV)

We are to glorify God with our lives, including our grades. We should strive to honor God with our grades, but that's the only thing we should do. Even if I say that I'm studying for God, it can very easily turn into "I'm studying so I can get a good grade and impress my parents, impress my friends, and feel good about myself." In and of themselves, none of those things are bad. But notice how all of those motivations are centered around me. That's when it gets dangerous. Whenever the focus turns from glorifying God to glorifying ourselves, you best check yourself before you wreck yourself.

So as we endure the finals this semester, let's make sure that our lives stay focused on God and not anything else. God bless and good luck on all of your finals!

Tattoos

Over the past several years, Christians have started a new trend of getting tattoos to symbolize their relationship with Christ and their devotion to the religion they profess. But what does the Bible say about tattoos? Are tattoos okay or are they sinful? I'll discuss several verses, offer my advice, and then let you decide for yourself.

The word "tattoo" is only found one time in the Bible. Leviticus 19:28 goes as follows:

"Do not cut your bodies for the dead or put tattoo marks on yourself. I am the Lord."

If this passage is taken at face value, there is no argument. Tattoos are sinful and it is a command from the Lord to abstain from the them. However, when we put this verse into context, we can delve a little deeper into the true meaning of the scripture.

"Do not eat any meat with the blood still in it. Do not practice divination or sorcery. Do not cut your bodies for the dead or put tattoo marks on yourselves. I am the Lord."

-Leviticus 19:26-28 (NIV)

The way this part of Leviticus is organized, different themes or groups are separated by a reminder that God is in charge, i.e. "I am the Lord." This particular group is a set of commands specifically directed towards pagan worship. Dr. Robert Jamieson does a phenomenal job of analyzing verse 28 in his commentary on the Old Testament:

"The practice of make deep gashes on the face and arms and legs, in time of bereavement, was universal among the heathen, and it was deemed a sort of propitiatory offering to the deities who presided over death and the grave. The Jews learned this custom in Egypt, and though weaned from it, relapsed in a later and degenerate age into this old superstition by tattooing, imprinting figures of flowers, leaves, stars, and other fanciful devices on various parts of their person. It is probable that a strong propensity to adopt such marks in honor of some idol gave occasion to the prohibition in this verse; and they were wisely forbidden."

The reason that God forbid the Israelites to have tattoos is because of what they represented. During this time, the only reason that someone would get a tattoo would be to pay honor to an idol or as a way of communicating with spirits. Experts on the history of tattoos almost unanimously agree that the origin of tattoos was indeed in order to worship/commune with pagan gods.

Why are you getting a tattoo? If it is in order to worship pagan gods then the Bible expressly forbids it. But what if you want to get a tattoo to show your commitment to God? Let's continue to dig into the scriptures.

Most modern Christians attend what is commonly known as a "New Testament church." This means that they teach the sacrifice and resurrection of Christ, and that they lean predominantly on the New Testament for their doctrine. 

"Before this faith came, we were held prisoners by the law, locked up until faith should be revealed. So the law was put in charge to lead us to Christ that we might be justified by faith. Now that faith has come, we are no longer under the supervision of the law."

-Galatians 3:23-25 (NIV)

This particular passage portrays that we are not under the law, but rather that we fall under the grace of Christ. Does this include tattoos? The idea of tattoos is not mentioned in the New Testament, but there are other ideas that are not mentioned in the New Testament and are generally accepted by New Testament doctrine. One example is bestiality. Bestiality is only mentioned in the Old Testament:

"Do not have sexual relations with an animal and defile yourself with it."

-Leviticus 18:23

So we cannot assume that getting a tattoo is okay for the sole reason that it is not specifically forbidden in the New Testament. But as we examine the what the Bible says about tattoos in Leviticus, it is reasonable to determine that the motive behind the tattoo is what is sinful, not the tattoo itself.

This opens a whole new can of worms. Why are you getting a tattoo? Is it so you can look cool and impress your friends? Is it so you can look "sexy"? Are you telling yourself that it's for God but really your driving motivation is the one of the first two? Your motivation for getting a tattoo is key to determining if it is sinful or not.

"Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart."

-1 Samuel 16:7b (NIV)

Here's my take on this whole issue.

1. If you are getting a tattoo to glorify yourself, then it is sinful.

If you get a tattoo with the express desire of elevating your standing among men, then you are practicing self-worship (the idolization of yourself). This is definitely forbidden by the Bible (see Matthew 6:24).

2. If you are not fully convinced that getting a tattoo is okay, then for you it is sinful.

"Everything that does not come from faith is sin."

-Romans 14:23b (NIV)

If you are riding the fence, err on the side of caution and assume that it is a sin for you. If it is even a debatable issue for your conscience, don't get a tattoo.

3. If getting a tattoo will cause you to disobey your parents, don't get a tattoo.

"'Honor your father and mother'-which is the first commandment with a promise."

-Ephesians 6:2 (NIV)

If your parents say no, then you must respect their wishes for you. The Bible leaves no wiggle room for that one.

Ultimately, getting a tattoo is more than just a physical act, it is a heart issue. If you cannot justify getting a tattoo, then don't get one. If you decide not to, it's not the end of the world. My only advice would be that if you decide to get a tattoo, put it in a place that would not be a stumbling block to others (Romans 14:13), would not interfere with any jobs you could have in the future, and consider whether your spouse will want you to have it. Take a deep look at yourself before making this decision, and may the Holy Spirit guide your decision making.

Predestination vs. Choice

Many people ask me whether I think God predestines people to be Christians or if we have a choice in the matter. The Bible provides support for both ideas so I'll show support for both sides and then let you know how I feel about it.

Predestination

Let me come right out and say it, predestination does not equal Calvinism. While Calvinism does promote predestination, it also includes many other doctrinal practices. So for the sake of this entry, I'll leave Calvinism for another day.

These are the two main scriptures that the Lutheran Church leans on to support predestination:

"For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will."

-Ephesians 1:4-5 (NIV)

"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. And those he predestined, he also called; those 

he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified."

-Romans 8:29-30 (NIV)

I don't mean to call out the Lutheran Church specifically, but it 

is one of the mainline church denominations that leans heavily 

on predestination. While these scriptures are in the Bible, it is 

important not to miss interpret them, or interpret them to say 

what you want them to  say. It is not uncommon for people to 

jump to the conclusion that being God's elect means that we can 

do whatever we want on this Earth because we have been justi-

fied (Romans 8:30). That does not agree with what Jesus Christ 

himself says: that in order to be his follower we have to be 

willing to give up everything, even our sinful nature, in order to 

follow him (Luke 9:23, 14:25-27).

Don Fortner does a good job analyzing this misconception. He 

says:

"The Word of God does not teach that religious fatalism which 

says, 'The elect will be saved, no matter what.' God has predes-

tined the use of specific means for the accomplishment of his 

purposes; and the use of those means is as necessary and as 

certain as the end itself."

Fortner uses the term "elect" several times. This term relates to 

God's chosen people (aka his disciples). So if the wording is 

confusing, try inserting the word "Christian" every time he uses 

"elect." Ultimately, predestination is less about being able to do 

anything we want because in the end we'll be saved and more 

about being a chosen people of God.

Choice

The concept of having a choice mainly spawns from every 

human's responsibility to seek God. This is demonstrated in the 

following verse:

"Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I 

will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek 

me with all your heart."

-Jeremiah 29:12-13 (NIV)

This verse suggests that in action is required in order for the 

result to come to fruition. Think of it as an if-then statement. If 

you seek God with all of your heart, then you will find him. This 

seems to refute the idea that God chooses us, and support the 

idea that we choose him.

This theme is also seen throughout several of the books in the 

new testament, specifically James. Chapter 1 of James is almost 

completed devoted to persevering through trials to become 

mature disciples of Jesus. This becomes a common sticking point 

with predestination as it infers that we actually have to strive to 

be like Christ even in difficult circumstances.

Another thing that seems to conflict with the idea of predestin-

ation is what is seen in 2 Peter:

"The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some under-

stand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to 

perish, but everyone to come to repentance."

-2 Peter 3:9 (NIV)

This passage suggests that it is in fact the Lord's desire that 

everyone turn and follow him. If this is true, why would some 

people be "chosen" and others seemingly rejected. If God wants 

everyone to be saved, is there predestination at all?

Unfortunately for us human beings, both of these seemingly 

contradictory ideas are in the Bible, and if we believe the Bible

to be from God (2 Timothy 3:16), and God is truth, then they 

must both be true. While some will try to say that one has more 

support than the other, it is imperative that we do not dismiss 

parts of the Bible that seem to disagree with our personal 

beliefs. If we get into that habit, then only the parts of the Bible 

that we want to be true become true to us, and then the Bible 

says what we want it to say and not what God actually meant for 

it to say. As for how all that works, I'm not really sure. I suspect 

that I may never fully understand the balance between 

predestination and choice, but hey, it's fun to think about.