Monday, February 23, 2015

Does Poverty Cause Terrorism?

President Obama seems to think that poverty is a cause of terrorism.  It certainly would not be caused by a wonderful, peaceful religion.  If the guys in ISIS and other terrorist groups just had job opportunities they would probably give up terrorism.  If anyone knows how to create jobs it is President Obama.  

President Obama seems to think that the grievances of the terrorists need to be addressed.  We see his Marxist worldview shining through once again.  After all the terrorists have been oppressed by America and the West.  The wealth of the United States and the West needs to be redistributed to them.  

President Obama and other secular liberals do not see Islamic terrorism as the serious threat that it is.  They cannot even identify it as Islamic.  They think the real threat of our time is global warming.  

But Islamists are just plain evil and must be dealt with.  The Islamists ideology comes directly from the Koran.  This is not politically correct to say but it is true.  If you look into the Koran it is not hard to see why they kill Christians and Jews and anyone else they disagree with.  The Islamists seek to impose sharia law on everyone.  

The real problem behind terrorism is not poverty.  The real problem is Koranic Islam with it's teachings.  They need to embrace the truth of the Bible and be set free from their false religion.   

Wednesday, February 18, 2015

Those Red Letter Bibles

Many Bibles today have the words of Christ in red.  In fact many people even insist on having a red letter Bible.  Is this good, bad, or neither?  Could there possibly be a problem with red letter Bibles?  

We must point out that the words of Christ were not originally written or printed in red and they were not set apart in a special way. Having the words of Christ in red is a relatively new thing, beginning in the 1900's.  It seems good to have the words of Christ in red.  After all Christians follow Jesus who is the Messiah and Son of God.  

But what about the words of God the Father?  Why are they not in red?  And wasn't the whole Bible inspired by the Holy Spirit?  Here we find the problem with red letter Bibles.  The whole Bible is the Word of God (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit).  The whole Bible, not just the words in red are the Word of Christ.  

Setting apart only certain portions of the Scripture in red is misleading to people.  It leads people to believe that the red letter portions are more important than the rest.  This is not true, God gave us the entire Bible for a reason.  People start to think that the words in red are more the Word of God than the rest.  I have even heard people say that they just believe the words in red. This is a terribly distorted view of the Bible.  

So is having a red letter Bible a bad thing? It is not necessarily a bad thing if kept in proper perspective.  But it is still very misleading to people.  I think it is better not to have red letter Bibles.  But that does not mean there is anything wrong with using one.  We must remember that all Scripture is breathed out by God (2 Timothy 3:16).        

Monday, February 9, 2015

Obama, Islam, And Christianity

At the recent National Prayer Breakfast President Obama warned Christians not to get on their high horse and criticize Islam.  Obama brought up the Crusades and slavery as atrocities done in the name of Christ.  President Obama refuses to link terrorism with Islam.  He believes that Islam is a wonderful, peaceful religion.  Some even think that Obama is a Muslim.  While I do not think he is a Muslim, he is sympathetic to Islam.  

Obama actually professes to be a Christian.  He seems to hold to Liberation theology which is nothing more than Marxism with Christian language.  In fact Liberation theology is not Christianity at all.  It was taught by Barack Obama's former pastor Jeremiah Wright.  Liberation theology is all about the oppressed and the oppressors.  Of course Obama sees Islam as the oppressed and historic Christianity as the oppressor. 

On the issue of slavery there were some people who tried to justify it in the name of Christianity unfortunately.  But Obama fails to point out that the abolitionists were Christians.  It must also be pointed out that slavery did not begin with the Christian West but abolition did.  

So what about the Crusades?  They were started in 1095 by the Roman Catholic Church. The Crusades actually started as a defense against Muslims.  Islam had conquered the Middle East centuries before.  The region had been a Christian center.  But the Christians were driven out, enslaved, or killed by the Muslims.  Muslims later moved northward toward Europe to take over Christian lands. So to a certain extent the Crusades can be justified as a defensive act.  But there were also atrocities committed by the Crusaders.  In actuality the Crusaders forsook the teachings of Christ and adopted Islamic theology.    

Islam originally spread by the sword starting with Muhammad.  Others were conquered in order to have them submit to Islam.  You had to convert to Islam or be enslaved or killed. The Muslim claim on the land of the Middle East is obviously bogus.  They took it by force from others.  It appears that Islam owes an apology to Christians and the West. 

Some think that all religions are the same but they are not.  Islamic terrorists are simply following the teachings of Muhammad and the Koran.  While the atrocities of the Crusaders were not the teachings of Christ or the Bible.  While we must point out that not all Muslims are terrorists, Islam is not a wonderful, peaceful religion.  Islam is a false religion that leads many people astray. Truth and reality are found in Christianity. Those who want peace must look to Jesus who is the Prince of Peace.       

Monday, February 2, 2015

Who Was John Knox?

John Knox lived from (1513-1572).  He was the most important figure during the Reformation in Scotland.  Little is known about his early life.  In the early 1540's he was ordained as a Roman Catholic priest.  By the mid 1540's he had been influenced by Reformed teaching and had adopted Reformation principles.  

For a while the Reformed movement made progress in Scotland.  But then the Catholics regained control and Protestants were imprisoned.  John Knox spent 18 months in prison.  In 1549 Knox returned to his work of reforming the church in Scotland.  He was then sent into exile and arrived in Geneva in 1554.  

While in Geneva John Knox was greatly influenced by John Calvin and his teaching.  When Knox returned to Scotland in 1559 he set out to do what Calvin had done in Geneva.  Knox referred to Calvin's Geneva as "the most perfect school of Christ there ever was on earth."  

By 1560 Knox had established Presbyterianism as the church of Scotland.  He is credited as the founder of Presbyterianism.  Knox laid out three marks of a true church.  The preaching of the Word, the right administering of the sacraments or ordinances (the Lord's Supper and baptism), and the practice of church discipline.  Knox also conducted a massive educational effort.  Scotland became a mostly literate country.  Knox led the church in Scotland for over a decade.