My dog died Sunday, and I just don’t feel much like writing.
Sure, she was 16 years old, frankly longer than a Dachshund should live, and we all knew everyday she woke up was another gift from God, but still, the loss of a dog is #2 on the when is it okay for a man to cry list (and well, I didn’t sleep much either, and neither did my other dog).
But as I’ve always said, we’re not much for news around here, we’re more interested in what we can learn from it. I’m fairly confident most people aren’t really interested in my dog, but they might be interested in a new emphasis on an old idea.
]]> Pardon the InterruptionOkay, allow me to share one thing from my dog before we move on (sort of a eulogy, you might say). In one of my books I wrote about how much you can learn from your dog, so allow me to wander down memory lane a bit, and then we’ll get to the point — I promise.
When we brought home our puppy our backyard was a mess — the fence needed repair and nearly toppled over on its own. To prevent the puppy escaping from the yard and running out into the street in front of a car the fence needed repair, which we diligently set out to do.
Dachshunds are social creatures, they like to remain with their family so we had a problem — we needed to fix the fence, yet the puppy wanted to stay with us while we worked. In an attempt to remedy the situation, we set up a portable kennel on the patio while we worked repairing the fence. And you know what comes next…
Yap, yap, yap. Bark, bark, bark. Whine, whine, whine. Yap, bark, whine … (you get the idea).
The puppy simply wouldn’t remain quiet. I thought, you don’t understand, the fence needs to be fixed so you won’t run out into the street and get squished by a car (the dog only being 8 inches tall you know). It’s for your benefit, just wait and it will be better soon. But try as I could, the dog didn’t understand — yap, yap, yap, bark, bark, bark. And then the Lord responded…
You’re the dog.
To which I quickly replied --- yap, yap, yap. Bark, bark, bark. Whine, whine, whine…
You may not see the final plan; you may never see the final plan. That doesn’t mean God doesn’t have one, and it’s better than the one you thought up. Don’t be the dog yapping along complaining about something you know nothing about as you see through the glass darkly. ("The Troubled Church", page 145–146)
Thanks girl, may the lessons you taught never be forgotten. You will be missed.
I watched my dog get old, and slowly begin to shut down, a product of decay and simply old age. That’s when it hit me: Satan stinks — You took my dog, you sick bastard.
Oh, not directly (unless something was going on I didn’t know about), but he’s responsible nonetheless. Allow me to paraphrase.
On the fifth day God created Dachshunds, and all manner of dogs, along with everything that swims in the river, different kinds of birds, and each produced many offspring, and God saw that that they were good. (Genesis 1:21, Yeager translation)
God loves dogs, and if a bird can’t fall to the ground without His knowledge, surely He looks after His creation as well (we’ll come back to that in a second, or as Paul Harvey would say, you’ll get the rest of the story).
Of course, you’ve heard the phrase “no good deed goes unpunished”, so cue the creepy music as the evil villain enters the scene.
Once again, from my own paraphrase:
Now the snake was more cunning and deceitful than any family-friendly pet which God had made, and he slithered up to the woman and said “Did God say you shall not eat of any tree?” And the woman said “we shalt not eat of the tree in the middle of the garden, lest entropy and decay enter the cosmos, and we die”. Then the slimy snake lied to her face saying, “you shall not die” …
Well, you know the rest of the story, but it ends thousands of years later with You took my dog, you sick bastard.
The physicist in me understands what happened — entropy entered into the world, better known as decay, death, and sin. A dog isn’t supposed to live 16 years; mine did. Still, it’s sad to watch the end.
I could go on for hours delving into that, but it’s much easier to say
You took my dog, you sick bastard.
God does look after His creation, for you see we were scheduled to be out of town this weekend, but had to cancel for other reasons. Perhaps it’s reading too many Navy Seal books, but I’m of the thought no dog should die alone, they should be with their family when they pass.
Mine was.
And that, as Paul Harvey would say, is the rest of the story.
Chuck Missler said you can measure your spiritual maturity by asking “How much do you hate sin?” I awoke today (well, not really awoke because that implies sleep) with a new understanding of the pain and anguish God must feel over His creation tormented by entropy (death, decay).
You took my dog, you sick bastard.
Sin and satan stink, because they conspired with malice, forethought, and hate to take my dog — and everything before, as well as what will come after.
Yeah, he took my dog, but he can’t win, and he knows it.
Satan (who deceived mankind and caused death) was thrown into the lake of fire where his cohorts are. And they will stay there forever, never to hurt another puppy ever again. (Revelation 20:10 YT)
Checkmate. Game, set, match. The fat lady sung. Hasta la vista, baby.
]]>Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Also there was no more sea. Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.” Then He who sat on the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new.” And He said to me, “Write, for these words are true and faithful.” And He said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. I will give of the fountain of the water of life freely to him who thirsts.” (Revelation 21:1--6 NKJV)
This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all (1 John 1:5).
Most people don’t see a problem with that, unless you’ve heard of the following…
We’re all familiar with light acting as a wave, like when you throw a rock in a pool. You can see the pattern, and a wave bouncing off a side will interfere with other waves as it travels back.
If you’ve watched Star Trek at all, it seems just about every episode has the phrase “load photon torpedoes” — a photon is a particle of light (the Star Trek weapon didn’t seem to use actual photons, but I’m not a Trekkie interested in fictional technology). Light can also exist as a particle, like a golf ball. If you’ve played in those boxes filled with balls, you see an entirely different set of rules at work.
Light exists with dual-properties. Experiments with light can obtain either the wave nature, or the particle nature, but not both at the same time; light exists as two-in-one — two natures together, yet distinct.
Note: for those interested in details, look up the two-slit experiment with light and you’ll find plenty to occupy your time.
Now you see that problem, God is light — not light-like, not having the characteristics of light. If God is a trinity (and He is), and light exists as a duality (and it does), Houston, we’ve got a problem.
The passage causing sleepless nights, in Greek:
θεός ἐστί φῶς (theos esti phōs, or God is light)
You’ll find it’s translated correctly, God is Light, so the problem isn’t in translation.
What do we do? If the Bible is inerrant (and it is), and the wave-particle duality of light is true (and it is), how do we solve the apparent inherit contradiction between duality and trinity? As always, the answer appears elsewhere in the Bible.
But when the Helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of Me. (John 15:26 NKJV)
There’s the answer. The Holy Spirit doesn’t speak of Himself, only of Jesus.
It will turn out light does actually have three properties, but the third will only be observable by indirect means, because under experimental conditions it looks like either a wave or particle — as John wrote the Holy Spirit will testify of Jesus.
]]>While it’s certainly true you don’t have to have a PhD in Physics to understand your Bible, it’s also true basic scientific applications can illuminate passages, or (in the case of Calvinism) solve centuries old debates the church has long fought over.
Using physical laws with the Bible should make since, since God created the world it’s understandable He’d pattern it after spiritual ideas. While the Bible isn’t a science textbook, it does contain principles which follow established principles of Physics.
If you’ve got other areas you’d like to see explored, leave a comment, Tweet, send an email, use smoke signals, or something to communicate what you would like to see, and we'll add to the list.
]]>The dictionary defines integrity as adherence to moral and ethical principles; soundness of moral character; honesty
, but that doesn’t help much. I prefer a much simpler definition:
Integrity is what you do when nobody is looking.
Do you act one way, and then another?
From the President to Congress, politicians say one thing, then do something else. Why? A lack of integrity. For most of Washington, it’s about power and elections, not integrity (or honesty, truth, or reality, but we digress). If they tell the truth at all, it’s not because it’s right, but because it’s a means to an end — election.
And we wonder why the country is a mess? When the highest offices in the land are filled with corruption, scandal, and dishonesty? Why then wonder if that attitude flows down to the Secret Service? After all, they see all the behind-the-scenes garbage.
The Bible remains clear on integrity.
Who may worship in your sanctuary, LORD? Who may enter your presence on your holy hill. Those who lead blameless lives and do what is right, speaking the truth from sincere hearts. Those who refuse to gossip or harm their neighbors or speak evil of their friends. Those who despise flagrant sinners, and honor the faithful followers of the LORD, and keep their promises even when it hurts. Those who lend money without charging interest, and who cannot be bribed to lie about the innocent. Such people will stand firm forever. (Psalm 15, NLT)
Keep their promises even when it hurts? That’s so old-fashioned! Today it’s see you in court, as I’ve got more hired guns lawyers than you do, and more $$$ to fight with.
Consider two examples in the Bible of integrity.
Those two men held to their standards even if nobody cared, or noticed. That’s integrity.
The Secret Service guys got into trouble for a simple reason — they thought nobody was looking. I’m sure if they knew what they did would become known, they would have thought twice about it. From the President to Congress and more, the country suffers from a lack of integrity — people who know they’re doing the wrong thing, but trying to avoid detection (or get re-elected in spite of a lack of integrity).
Integrity doesn’t mean being perfect, as we all mess up every day. It means trying to do the moral thing all the time.
Integrity — what you do when nobody is around.
]]>Perhaps it’s because they don’t really understand Easter.
You see, religious people of the liberal/progressive type use dialectic reasoning to shift definitions and modify (or ignore) what the Bible says. Those groups don’t really know what they believe, because they’ll believe anything (and everything … or nothing). That’s the ruinous, deadly poison liberal theology and post-modern philosophy infect the church with.
Post-modern liberals deny truth, so the absolute truth of Easter and the Gospel are lost on them. Some liberals even go far as to replace Easter (the Gospel) with good works and other strange ideas. For those in that group, it’s no wonder they’re confused.
For all those liberal progressives, let’s remind everyone exactly what the Gospel is, from Paul:
Moreover, brethren, I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received and in which you stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold fast that word which I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures, and that He was seen by Cephas, then by the twelve. (1 Corinthians 15:1–5 NKJV)
Paul reminded the Galatians that anyone accepting another Gospel is (to paraphrase) in big trouble. The Gospel is NOT social justice, good works, common good, happy thoughts, heaven on earth, or any other liberal/progressive theological nonsense. It’s quite simple:
Now, that’s good news.
If you’re confused on what the Gospel is, it’s no wonder Easter—the very foundation of Christianity—becomes confusing as you’ve lost the objective of Christianity, replacing it with some liberal, progressive mumbo-jumbo.
That’s the problem caused by liberal, progressive, emerging, post-modern theology (or whatever else the latest fully buzzword-compliant term is) — once you ignore what the text plainly says, you’re left with nothing as anyone can make the text say anything they want, so the text does say anything, which means it says … nothing.
And that folks, could certainly cause confusion over Easter.
]]>