Be Careful What You Say

I remember being told as a child to watch what I say.

That was good advice then, and it is still good advice today.

Watching our words implies that we know what we are saying. We understand the language we are speaking, and we are willing to be held accountable for the things that come out of our mouths. I was also warned not to make things up, because doing so could get me into serious trouble.

That warning becomes even more important when we claim to speak for God.

God calls men and women to His service in many different ways. Some are pastors. Some are teachers. Some serve quietly behind the scenes. Some teach Sunday school, lead ministries, or simply share what God has taught them with others.

Those who teach God's Word have an enormous responsibility.

Sadly, not everyone who teaches Scripture does so for the right reasons. Scripture itself warns us that people can be motivated by selfish ambition, recognition, money, influence, or the desire to promote their own ideas.

That is why anyone who teaches God's Word needs to surrender himself to God.

It is not easy.

The Word of God shines a light not only upon the world around us but upon ourselves.

I know that when I study something in Scripture and begin writing about it, I often find myself convicted by the very thing I am trying to explain to someone else.

Sometimes that scares me.

There are times when I wonder whether I am up to the task of sharing something that I believe God has placed upon my heart.

Then I remember that I am subject to the same Word I am discussing.

I am not above it.

I do not want to write something simply because it agrees with a religious tradition, a denomination, a preacher, or something I have heard repeated for years.

I research these subjects because I do not want to tell you that God said something when He did not.

Other people can help us understand Scripture. Pastors, teachers, scholars, books, commentaries, and even websites can be useful.

But Scripture must remain my final authority.

Some of the subjects I have written about are not easy.

Sometimes Scripture challenges things we have been taught for years.

Sometimes it challenges traditions.

Sometimes it challenges established religious practices.

And sometimes it challenges me.

One subject where I believe Christians need to be especially careful about what we say God has said concerns prayer and what is often called a private prayer language or praying in tongues.

Let us begin with what Jesus Himself taught about prayer.

In Matthew 6:5–15, Jesus warns His followers not to make prayer into a public performance designed to impress other people. He tells them not to pray as the hypocrites do merely so that they may be seen.

He also warns against meaningless or empty repetition.

Prayer is communication with God.

Of course, this does not mean that Christians may never pray publicly. Scripture contains examples of believers praying together and praying for one another.

But Jesus makes something very clear:

Prayer is not supposed to be a performance.

It is not supposed to show everyone around us how spiritual we are.

Prayer should be sincere communication between the believer and God.

Jesus also gave His disciples an example of how to pray.

He taught them to pray to the Father, to honor God's name, to seek His will, to ask for their daily needs, to seek forgiveness, to forgive others, and to ask for protection from temptation and evil.

The prayer He gave them contained understandable words.

That matters to me.

Jesus did not tell His disciples to stop thinking and begin making sounds they did not understand. He gave them meaningful words directed toward God.

That leads me to an important question:

Where does Scripture clearly teach that Christians should develop a private prayer language consisting of words or sounds they themselves do not understand?

I know that some Christians sincerely believe Scripture teaches such a practice.

I do not question their sincerity.

But sincerity and biblical support are not always the same thing.

I have looked at the passages commonly used to support the idea, and I do not find clear biblical evidence for the doctrine of a private prayer language.

One passage often mentioned is Romans 8:26.

Paul says that the Spirit helps us in our weakness because we do not always know how we ought to pray, and that the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.

That is a beautiful promise.

There have certainly been times in my own life when I did not know what to pray.

But notice who is doing the interceding.

The verse says the Spirit Himself intercedes for us.

It does not say that the believer is instructed to begin producing unintelligible sounds.

Whatever else someone may believe about tongues, I do not believe Romans 8:26 can simply be used as proof that Christians possess a private prayer language.

Another important passage is 1 Corinthians 14.

Paul spends a great deal of time discussing tongues, prophecy, understanding, interpretation, and the edification of the church.

One of the things that stands out to me is how concerned Paul is with understanding.

He essentially asks what benefit there is in speaking unless what is spoken communicates revelation, knowledge, prophecy, or teaching.

He compares speech to musical instruments. If the notes cannot be distinguished, how can anyone know what is being played?

He compares it to a trumpet giving an uncertain sound. If the signal cannot be understood, how will anyone know to prepare for battle?

Then he applies the same principle to speech.

Words should communicate something meaningful.

Paul also says that when tongues are used in the gathered church, interpretation is necessary so that others may be edified.

This is important.

Whatever conclusions we reach about the exact nature of tongues in 1 Corinthians, Paul clearly does not treat unintelligibility as the goal.

Understanding matters.

Interpretation matters.

Edification matters.

Order matters.

Paul even says:

“I will pray with the spirit, and I will pray with the understanding also.”

That is an important statement.

Some people believe the tongues in 1 Corinthians were known human languages similar to what happened in Acts 2. Others understand some of Paul's statements differently.

I believe there are strong reasons for understanding biblical tongues as genuine languages, particularly when Acts 2 is considered alongside Paul's teaching.

But even if someone disagrees with me on that point, 1 Corinthians 14 still places tremendous emphasis upon meaning, understanding, interpretation, and the building up of others.

That brings me to something that has personally bothered me.

I once watched a young man give his life to Christ and then immediately be encouraged to speak in tongues.

He appeared not to know what he was supposed to do.

He was essentially told that it did not matter what he said. He was encouraged to make sounds, not to think too much about it, and simply allow something to happen.

That concerned me deeply.

I am not claiming that every Christian who believes in tongues teaches people this way.

I am saying that what I personally witnessed did not appear consistent with what I see emphasized in Scripture.

The Christian life does not normally call us to abandon discernment.

Quite the opposite.

Galatians 5:23 includes self-control among the fruit of the Spirit.

Second Timothy 1:7 reminds us that God has given us a spirit not of fear but of power, love, and self-control.

First Peter 5:8 tells us to be sober-minded and watchful.

Those passages do not, by themselves, disprove tongues.

But they do remind us that Christian spirituality is not supposed to require the abandonment of thought, discernment, or self-control.

If someone tells me that in order to experience a spiritual gift I must stop thinking, stop evaluating what I am doing, and simply produce sounds without concern for meaning, I believe I have every right to stop and compare that instruction carefully with Scripture.

God does give spiritual gifts.

They are good gifts.

They are given for His purposes.

And Scripture also makes clear that believers do not all possess the same gifts.

Paul does not tell us that every Christian must speak in tongues.

Nor does he say that speaking in tongues is the defining evidence that someone possesses the Holy Spirit.

In 1 Corinthians 12, Paul asks a series of questions:

Are all apostles?

Are all prophets?

Are all teachers?

Do all work miracles?

Do all possess gifts of healing?

Do all speak with tongues?

The expected answer is no.

Different believers receive different gifts.

Paul also repeatedly places greater emphasis upon gifts that build up the entire church than upon a tongue that no one present can understand.

That does not mean tongues are evil.

Paul himself says not to forbid speaking in tongues.

But he also commands that things be done properly and in order.

That balance is important.

I do not want to condemn something merely because I do not understand it.

But neither do I want to accept a doctrine simply because someone tells me that it is spiritual.

Everything must be examined according to God's Word.

Philippians 4 reminds Christians to rejoice in the Lord, to pray with thanksgiving, to allow their requests to be made known to God, and to set their minds upon what is true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, commendable, excellent, and worthy of praise.

Our minds matter.

Truth matters.

Understanding matters.

And our words matter.

That brings me back to where I began.

Be careful what you say.

Be careful what you teach.

Be especially careful when you attach the words “God says” to something.

James 3 contains one of the strongest warnings in Scripture for anyone who teaches:

“Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness.”

James then compares the tongue to a small fire capable of setting an entire forest ablaze.

That warning applies to pastors.

It applies to Sunday school teachers.

It applies to television preachers.

It applies to people teaching about spiritual gifts.

And it applies to me.

If I am going to tell another Christian that something he believes is not supported by Scripture, then I must be careful that I do not commit the very error I am warning against.

I cannot put words into God's mouth simply because they support my position.

I have to allow Scripture to correct me too.

I may misunderstand something.

I may have been taught incorrectly.

I may discover tomorrow that I need to rethink something I wrote today.

If that happens, then I pray that I will have enough humility to admit it.

But until someone can show me from Scripture that believers are commanded or clearly taught to develop a private prayer language of unintelligible sounds, I cannot teach that doctrine as biblical truth.

That is not because I want to take something away from another Christian.

It is because I believe God's Word deserves greater respect than our traditions.

James ends this section by describing wisdom from above as pure, peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial, and sincere.

That is the kind of wisdom I want.

And that requires me to do something I was taught many years ago as a child:

Be careful what you say.

And when you claim to speak for God, be more careful still.

Homosexuality and God

Homosexuality and Christianity is one of those subjects that seems almost impossible to discuss anymore without someone becoming angry.

So before I begin, I want to make something very clear.

I believe that same-sex sexual relations are sinful.

I also believe adultery is sinful.

Sex outside of marriage is sinful.

Lying is sinful.

Stealing is sinful.

Hatred is sinful.

Pride is sinful.

And I am a sinner.

That last statement is important, because I have no right to open the Bible, point at another person, and pretend that the same Word of God does not also judge me.

It does.

The question, then, is not whether homosexual people are somehow worse than the rest of us.

They are not.

The question is much simpler:

What does Scripture teach?

And once we determine what Scripture teaches, are we willing to allow it to judge all of us—even when we do not like the answer?

What Do We Mean by Homosexuality?

We should probably begin by being careful with our words.

Today the word homosexuality can describe several different things. It can refer to attraction, identity, relationships, or sexual activity.

My concern in this discussion is primarily with sexual conduct and the biblical definition of marriage.

I do not need to claim that I know exactly why one person experiences one kind of desire and another person experiences something different.

People experience desires of all kinds.

The fact that I experience a desire does not automatically make acting upon that desire morally right.

That applies to me just as much as it applies to anyone else.

A married heterosexual man may genuinely desire another woman.

His desire does not suddenly make adultery righteous.

Someone may desperately want something that belongs to another person.

That desire does not make stealing acceptable.

I may become furious with someone who has hurt me.

My anger does not give me permission to hate or harm that person.

So when someone says, “This is what I feel, therefore God must approve of it,” I cannot accept that as a biblical standard.

I could use the same argument to justify almost anything I wanted to do.

Scripture must judge my desires.

My desires cannot be allowed to rewrite Scripture.

Does the Bible Actually Address This?

One argument I hear frequently is that the modern word homosexuality did not exist in biblical Hebrew or Greek.

That observation by itself does not settle the question.

My name is Raymond.

The name Raymond does not appear anywhere in the Bible either.

That does not mean the Bible has nothing to say to me.

Modern words can describe things that existed long before the modern terminology developed.

There are legitimate discussions among scholars about the precise meaning and translation of particular Greek and Hebrew words. Those discussions should not simply be dismissed.

But neither should the entire biblical argument be reduced to whether one modern English word appears in an ancient manuscript.

The issue is not:

“Does the Bible contain the English word homosexual?”

The issue is:

“What kinds of sexual relationships and conduct does Scripture describe as consistent with God's intention?”

That is a much larger question.

And the answer does not depend upon one disputed word.

Marriage Begins With a Pattern

Genesis gives us the first biblical picture of human marriage.

God creates humanity male and female.

Genesis 2:24 then describes a man leaving his father and mother and being joined to his wife, with the two becoming one flesh.

Thousands of years later, Jesus Himself returns to this same passage when discussing marriage in Matthew 19:4–6.

He points back to creation:

God made them male and female.

A man leaves father and mother.

He is joined to his wife.

The two become one flesh.

That is significant.

Adam and Eve did not exchange modern wedding rings.

They did not apply for a marriage license.

They did not have bridesmaids, a church building, photographs, or a reception.

Those are human customs surrounding marriage.

They are not what creates the biblical pattern.

The underlying pattern is the union of man and woman.

This is also connected with the unique way male and female were created. Together they possess the biological capacity to produce another human life.

Of course, not every married couple can or will have children. Infertility does not make a marriage cease to be a marriage.

The point is that male and female are complementary in a way that two males or two females are not.

That pattern appears at the beginning of Scripture and continues throughout it.

Scripture Goes Beyond Genesis

The biblical case also does not depend solely upon Adam and Eve.

There are passages in both the Old and New Testaments that address same-sex sexual conduct.

Romans 1:26–27 is one of the clearest New Testament examples.

Paul describes women exchanging natural sexual relations and men likewise abandoning relations with women and becoming sexually involved with other men.

There are also relevant passages in Leviticus, 1 Corinthians, and 1 Timothy.

People debate the interpretation of some of these passages, particularly individual Greek words.

Those discussions can be worthwhile.

But when I consider the entire biblical pattern—creation, marriage, Jesus' teaching, Paul's teaching, and the consistent treatment of sexual morality—I cannot conclude that Scripture presents same-sex sexual relations as something God approves.

That is my conclusion from Scripture.

Someone may disagree with my interpretation.

But disagreement should lead us back to the text, not into hatred of one another.

Love Does Not Make Everything Right

Another argument sometimes goes something like this:

“God is love. These two people love one another. Therefore God must approve of their relationship.”

I believe the first statement completely.

God is love.

But the conclusion does not necessarily follow from it.

Love is extraordinarily important, but the existence of love does not automatically make every relationship or every action righteous.

A married person might sincerely believe that he has fallen in love with someone else's wife.

The feelings may be real.

The affection may be real.

He may genuinely care about her.

That still does not make adultery acceptable.

Biblical love and biblical obedience cannot simply be separated from one another whenever obedience becomes difficult.

Jesus said:

“If you love me, keep my commandments.”

Love therefore cannot mean merely doing whatever our feelings tell us to do.

Sometimes love requires us to deny ourselves.

That is true for heterosexual Christians.

It is true for homosexual Christians.

It is true for me.

It is true for everyone who claims to follow Christ.

The Bible Judges Me Too

This is where Christians need to be especially careful.

It is very easy to preach loudly about somebody else's sexual sin while quietly excusing our own.

A man condemns homosexuality and then commits adultery.

Someone condemns same-sex relationships while consuming pornography.

Someone speaks passionately about biblical morality while lying, cheating, abusing his family, harboring hatred, or refusing to forgive.

That is hypocrisy.

Scripture does not give heterosexual Christians permission to treat homosexuality as though it were the only sexual sin that matters.

It isn't.

Jesus had some of His harshest words for religious people who were very good at identifying everyone else's sins while failing to examine themselves.

If I use Scripture as a weapon against you while refusing to allow that same Scripture to expose me, I have completely missed the point.

God's Word judges both of us.

Should Christians Hate Gay People?

Absolutely not.

A gay man is made in the image of God.

A lesbian woman is made in the image of God.

So am I.

Their lives possess human dignity and worth.

Christians should not mock them.

We should not threaten them.

We should not abuse them.

We should not treat them as though they are somehow beneath us.

We should not refuse them ordinary kindness, friendship, compassion, or human dignity.

And we should certainly never imagine that cruelty becomes righteous simply because we attach God's name to it.

Jesus did not give Christians permission to hate sinners.

If He had, Christianity would be in serious trouble, because the church is full of sinners.

I am one of them.

At the same time, love does not require me to call something righteous when I believe Scripture calls it sin.

There is an enormous difference between saying:

“I believe this behavior is contrary to God's design.”

and saying:

“Because you struggle with this or live this way, I hate you.”

The first is a theological conviction.

The second is a failure to love.

I can disagree with someone profoundly and still love that person.

In fact, Christianity requires me to.

What About “God Made Me This Way”?

I have heard people say:

“God made me, and I am gay. Therefore God made me gay, and He must approve of everything associated with that.”

I do not think that reasoning works.

God certainly created us.

But Christians also believe that humanity lives in a fallen world.

Every one of us experiences desires, weaknesses, temptations, physical conditions, emotional struggles, and tendencies that do not necessarily represent God's moral intention for us.

That includes me.

I cannot say:

“God created me, therefore everything I naturally desire must have been commanded by God.”

If that were true, there would be virtually no need for repentance, self-control, or obedience.

The Christian life repeatedly calls us to surrender things we desire to God.

Sometimes that surrender is extraordinarily difficult.

I do not pretend otherwise.

And I certainly do not want to trivialize what another person may struggle with.

But difficulty does not determine truth.

Scripture does.

We Must Also Be Careful With Scripture

There is another danger here.

Christians sometimes accuse other people of changing Scripture to fit their beliefs.

That certainly happens.

But Christians can do exactly the same thing.

We all have the temptation to make the Bible agree with us.

That is why we must distinguish between:

what Scripture actually says

and

what we desperately want Scripture to say.

If someone can demonstrate that I have misunderstood a passage, I should listen.

If the Hebrew or Greek changes my understanding, I want to know that.

If historical context matters, I want to understand it.

Faithfulness to Scripture does not mean refusing scholarship.

It means allowing good scholarship to help us understand Scripture rather than using scholarship merely to make Scripture say whatever we already wanted it to say.

And that standard applies to both sides of this discussion.

Sin Is Not the End of the Story

Here is the part Christians sometimes communicate very poorly.

Christianity is not fundamentally the message:

“You are a sinner, therefore God wants nothing to do with you.”

Quite the opposite.

The Gospel begins with the fact that all of us are sinners.

Paul writes in Romans 3:23 that all have sinned and fall short of God's glory.

All.

Not homosexuals.

Not heterosexuals.

All.

And the Gospel is that Jesus Christ came for sinners.

He came for adulterers.

He came for liars.

He came for thieves.

He came for the sexually immoral.

He came for proud people.

He came for angry people.

He came for people who have destroyed their lives.

He came for people who look respectable while hiding sins nobody else knows about.

He came for me.

And He came for you.

Sin is real.

Judgment is real.

But so are grace, repentance, forgiveness, and redemption.

Whatever sins a person has committed, the answer of Christianity is not hatred.

The answer is Christ.

Who Will I Follow?

Ultimately, I have to decide what will determine truth for me.

Public opinion changes.

Political parties change.

Politicians change their positions.

Cultures change.

I change.

God does not.

That is why I do not want my faith determined by whichever president happens to occupy the White House, whichever political party happens to control Congress, or whichever opinion happens to be popular this year.

No president is my Savior.

No political party died for my sins.

Jesus Christ did.

So when culture and Scripture appear to disagree, I choose Scripture.

But choosing Scripture also means accepting what it says about me.

I cannot demand repentance from someone else while refusing to repent myself.

I cannot proclaim God's holiness without remembering His mercy.

I cannot speak about judgment without speaking about the Cross.

And I cannot condemn sin while forgetting how much I need the same Savior I am telling someone else about.

So if you are gay and you have read this far, I hope you understand something.

I do not hate you.

I am not afraid of you.

I do not believe that you are somehow less human than I am.

I believe you were created in the image of God.

I also believe that Scripture places boundaries around human sexuality, just as it places boundaries around my sexuality and every other part of my life.

You may disagree with me.

We can still talk.

We can still sit together.

We can still treat one another with dignity.

And I will never need to pretend that you are my enemy simply because we disagree.

If you do not know Jesus Christ and you want to understand why I believe what I believe, I would gladly talk with you.

Not so that I can stand above you.

I cannot.

I would stand beside you as one sinner telling another sinner where I found forgiveness.

His name is Jesus Christ.

And whatever else we may disagree about, I believe He loves you enough to call you to Himself.

The same way He called me.

Today at Church

Test Everything, Hold Fast What Is Good

Today my wife and I attended a church we had never visited before.

The music was loud, but I enjoyed it. The preaching was good as well. At first I had a little trouble following where the pastor was going, but eventually everything came together, and I felt that much of what he said was grounded firmly in the Word of God.

Yet there were two things during the service that troubled me.

They concern subjects Christians have disagreed about for a very long time: speaking in tongues and physical healing.

Before going any further, I want to make something clear.

I believe in the Holy Spirit.

I believe the spiritual gifts described in Scripture were real.

I believe God can heal.

I believe God can intervene in ways that cannot easily be explained by human ability.

I am not interested in explaining away everything supernatural simply because I cannot understand it.

But neither do I believe that everything labeled “the Holy Spirit” necessarily comes from Him.

Scripture gives us a wonderfully balanced instruction:

“Do not quench the Spirit... test everything; hold fast what is good.”
—1 Thessalonians 5:19–21

Those commands belong together.

We should not quench the Spirit.

But we should test what happens.

And the standard by which I believe spiritual experiences should ultimately be tested is Scripture.

Speaking in Tongues

I believe speaking in tongues is biblical.

Acts 2 makes that impossible for me to deny.

At Pentecost, the Holy Spirit came upon the disciples and they began speaking in other tongues. People from many different regions heard them speaking in their own languages.

That is important.

The miracle was not meaningless sound.

Communication took place.

People understood.

The Gospel was proclaimed.

Years ago I witnessed something within my own family that has stayed with me.

During a Bible study, my uncle suddenly began speaking Spanish.

As far as I knew, he could not speak Spanish.

Sitting beside him was a woman who struggled with English.

She understood him.

What happened helped her understand the Gospel, and that very night she placed her faith in Christ.

I cannot scientifically prove what happened in that room. I can only describe what I witnessed and what I believe happened.

But it resembled something I recognize in Acts:

God overcoming a language barrier so that someone could understand the Gospel.

That is very different from some other things I have witnessed in churches.

I have sat in services where people produced streams of sounds that appeared to have no identifiable meaning, no interpretation, and no apparent purpose other than demonstrating that the person was supposedly speaking in tongues.

That troubles me.

Not because I believe tongues are impossible.

It troubles me because Scripture itself places boundaries around their use.

What Does Paul Actually Require?

First Corinthians 12–14 contains Paul's most extensive discussion of spiritual gifts.

And Paul does something very important.

He neither tells Christians to reject tongues nor gives them permission to do whatever they please with them.

He regulates their use.

In 1 Corinthians 14:27–28, Paul says that if someone speaks in a tongue publicly, only two or at most three should speak, they should speak one at a time, and someone must interpret.

Then comes something that I think modern churches need to take very seriously.

If there is no interpreter, the person is to remain silent in the church.

That is not my rule.

That is Paul's.

Paul repeatedly emphasizes the reason:

The church is supposed to be edified.

If someone stands in a congregation and speaks something nobody understands, and nobody interprets it, what has the congregation learned?

Paul asks essentially the same question.

He compares speech with musical instruments and even a military trumpet. If the sound has no recognizable meaning, how does anyone know how to respond?

Meaning matters.

Understanding matters.

Order matters.

Edification matters.

Paul eventually says that God is not a God of confusion but of peace, and he concludes his discussion by saying that everything should be done decently and in order.

Yet we also have to be careful not to make Paul say something he did not say.

At the end of the chapter he specifically says:

Do not forbid speaking in tongues.

Therefore I cannot biblically argue:

“Tongues are false, so churches should prohibit them.”

Paul will not allow me to do that.

But neither can someone simply say:

“The Holy Spirit made me do it, therefore no biblical restrictions apply.”

Paul will not allow that either.

The biblical position seems to require both openness and discernment.

Do not quench the Spirit.

Test everything.

Are Tongues Always Human Languages?

I personally lean strongly toward understanding biblical tongues as genuine languages, particularly because Acts 2 explicitly describes people hearing languages they recognized.

But I also need to be careful here.

First Corinthians 14 contains statements Christians interpret differently. Paul speaks about someone who “speaks in a tongue” speaking mysteries to God, and he describes praying with his spirit while his understanding is unfruitful.

Christians have debated what precisely Paul means.

So I do not want to make the same mistake I have criticized others for making.

I should not say:

“The Bible unquestionably proves every tongue must be a previously known human language.”

The evidence deserves more careful treatment than that.

What I can say with confidence is that Paul does not permit disorderly, uninterpreted public displays simply because someone claims they are spiritual.

If someone speaks publicly in a tongue, Scripture requires interpretation.

That alone should cause us to examine some modern practices very carefully.

Experience Cannot Become Our Bible

I have experienced things in churches that I believe were genuine works of God.

I have also experienced things that caused me serious concern.

I once witnessed a Christian presentation in which the Word of God was being proclaimed, and during the event a young woman underwent something that those of us present understood as spiritual deliverance.

I have witnessed people communicate across language barriers in remarkable ways.

In Mexico, I watched a woman who knew essentially no Spanish communicate with children by drawing pictures in the sand. They understood one another well enough that before long the children were trying to invite her to go swimming with them.

God has given human beings many ways to communicate.

But none of those experiences—even the ones I regard as extraordinary—gets to become my authority.

Experience must be tested by Scripture.

Otherwise someone can say:

“I experienced this, therefore God did it.”

Another person can say:

“I experienced the opposite, therefore God did that.”

Soon everyone has a different truth.

Scripture gives us a standard outside ourselves.

What About Healing?

The second thing that troubled me involves sickness and disability.

There are Christians who teach, in one form or another, that a faithful Christian should not remain sick or disabled.

Sometimes the implication is that if you are not healed, something must be wrong with your faith.

Sometimes it becomes even worse:

You must have unrepented sin in your life.

I know what it is like to hear that.

I have been in churches where people refused to pray for me because they believed my disability must be the consequence of some sin I had failed to confess.

That hurts.

But more importantly, I do not believe Scripture supports such a sweeping conclusion.

Jesus Addressed This Directly

John 9 contains one of the most important passages on this issue.

Jesus and His disciples encountered a man who had been blind from birth.

The disciples immediately asked the question human beings still ask:

Who sinned?

Was it this man or his parents?

In other words:

Someone must be responsible for this disability.

Jesus rejected their assumption.

He told them that neither the man's sin nor his parents' sin explained why he had been born blind.

That passage alone should make Christians extremely cautious before looking at someone with a disability and declaring:

“You must have unconfessed sin.”

We do not know that.

And claiming to know something God has not revealed can itself become a serious spiritual error.

Faithful Christians Got Sick

The New Testament also refuses to give us a picture in which faithful Christians never suffer physically.

Paul describes a “thorn in the flesh” in 2 Corinthians 12.

He asked God three times to remove it.

God did not.

Instead, God told Paul that His grace was sufficient and that His power was made perfect in weakness.

Whatever precisely Paul's thorn was, the principle is unmistakable:

God sometimes accomplishes His purposes through weakness rather than removing it.

Timothy had recurring physical problems. Paul advised him regarding his stomach and frequent illnesses in 1 Timothy 5:23.

Epaphroditus became so sick that he nearly died according to Philippians 2.

In 2 Timothy 4:20, Paul says that he left Trophimus sick at Miletus.

Think about that.

This is Paul.

A man through whom God performed extraordinary miracles.

Yet Paul did not simply heal every Christian around him whenever someone became sick.

That should tell us something.

Does That Mean God Does Not Heal?

Certainly not.

Scripture contains healing from beginning to end.

Jesus healed.

The apostles healed.

James tells believers to pray for the sick.

I believe Christians should pray for healing.

I believe we should ask boldly.

I believe God can heal someone instantly if He chooses.

But I do not believe we have biblical authority to promise that every Christian will be physically healed in this life if only he possesses enough faith.

Sometimes God says yes.

Sometimes God works through physicians.

Sometimes God gives strength to endure.

Sometimes healing does not come in this life.

Christian hope is ultimately bigger than temporary physical healing.

The resurrection is the final healing.

There will come a day when the bodies of those who belong to Christ will no longer suffer injury, disease, disability, deterioration, or death.

But we are not there yet.

Romans 8 describes creation groaning as we await redemption, including the redemption of our bodies.

Until then, Christians still live in bodies affected by a fallen world.

My Own Body

I have lived with a spinal cord injury and chronic pain for years.

My lower back hurts most of the time. Some days are much worse than others.

I would be lying if I said I enjoy pain.

I don't.

Pain is not my friend.

But strangely, God has used it.

Before I was injured, my life was busy.

Too busy.

I did not spend the time with God that I should have.

Church could be pushed aside.

Bible reading could be postponed.

There was always something else demanding my attention.

Then my body forced my life to slow down.

The pain did not make God good.

God was already good.

But God used something painful to change me.

Since becoming disabled, I have spent far more time studying Scripture.

I have read the Bible from beginning to end repeatedly.

I have spent years examining questions about God that I might never have taken seriously otherwise.

Before the injury, I never really imagined wanting to preach or teach God's Word.

Afterward, I did.

My physical weakness forced me to confront my spiritual priorities.

Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 4:16 that although our outer self is wasting away, our inner self can be renewed day by day.

I understand that verse differently now than I once did.

My body can hurt while my faith grows.

My legs can fail while my spirit remains anchored.

My physical condition does not determine the condition of my relationship with God.

We Need Both Faith and Discernment

So where does all of this leave me when I visit a church where I hear preaching I appreciate but encounter practices that concern me?

I do not think the answer is immediate condemnation.

Christians disagree about spiritual gifts.

Faithful Christians have reached different conclusions about tongues.

We disagree about healing.

We disagree about how the Holy Spirit works in particular situations.

But disagreement does not mean that anything goes.

We still possess Scripture.

That is where we must return.

If a church practices tongues, I want to ask:

Does it follow Paul's instructions?

Is there interpretation?

Is there order?

Does it edify the congregation?

Does it glorify Christ or draw attention primarily to the speaker?

If a church teaches healing, I want to ask:

Does it acknowledge the sick believers in Scripture?

Does it recognize that Paul himself lived with weakness?

Does it allow for God's answer to be, “My grace is sufficient for you”?

Does it comfort suffering people or accuse them?

Does it pray for the sick without pretending to know why every person is sick?

Those seem to me to be fair biblical questions.

And the same questions must be asked about things I believe.

I cannot demand that someone else's theology submit to Scripture while allowing my own theology to escape examination.

Test Everything

I am still not entirely sure whether the church we visited should become our church home.

But perhaps that uncertainty is not necessarily bad.

It forces me to do something Christians should be doing anyway.

Listen.

Study.

Pray.

Compare what I hear with Scripture.

And test everything.

I do not want to become so skeptical that I quench something the Holy Spirit genuinely wants to do.

But neither do I want to become so eager for supernatural experiences that I stop exercising the discernment Scripture commands.

So I return again to those words:

Do not quench the Spirit.

Test everything.

Hold fast what is good.

That seems to me to be one of the safest places a Christian can stand.

Not afraid of the Holy Spirit.

Not impressed by every claim made in His name.

But firmly anchored in the Word of God.

what do you think?

When Scripture and Culture Disagree

Recently I posted a statement on Facebook concerning homosexuality and same-sex relationships. I made it clear that, based upon my understanding of Scripture, I cannot affirm same-sex sexual relationships as morally acceptable before God.

The response surprised me.

Not because people disagreed with me. I expect disagreement on a subject like this.

What surprised me was the way Scripture itself was sometimes handled in order to make the disagreement work.

That concerns me far beyond the subject of homosexuality.

The larger question is this:

When what I want to believe conflicts with what Scripture teaches, which one am I willing to change?

Was Lilith Adam's First Wife?

One person who identified himself as a Christian challenged my argument by telling me that Adam had another wife before Eve.

Her name, he said, was Lilith.

I had never heard that taught from Scripture.

So I looked into it.

There is indeed an ancient tradition concerning a figure named Lilith, and later Jewish folklore eventually developed a story in which she became Adam's first wife. According to that tradition, she was created from the earth like Adam and later left him.

But there is an important distinction that must be made.

That story is not found in the Genesis account.

The Hebrew word lilith does occur in Isaiah 34:14, where translations render the term in different ways. Some transliterate the word as Lilith, while others translate it as something like a night creature or night bird.

But Isaiah does not identify this figure as Adam's wife.

Genesis does not mention Adam having another wife before Eve.

The story of Lilith as Adam's first wife belongs to later tradition and folklore, not to the biblical creation narrative.

That distinction matters.

There is nothing wrong with studying ancient traditions. They can help us understand how people interpreted biblical texts at different periods in history.

But tradition should not be allowed to quietly become Scripture.

If I am trying to determine Christian doctrine, I need to know the difference between:

“The Bible says...”

and

“A later tradition says...”

Those are not the same thing.

Christians should be especially careful about this because we can easily criticize other people for changing Scripture while doing something very similar ourselves whenever a tradition supports what we already want to believe.

Scripture must remain the standard.

What About Free Will?

Another person took issue with Christianity itself.

One of his objections concerned free will.

His argument was essentially this:

If God gives human beings free will, why would He then judge someone for using that freedom—particularly when it concerns sexual desire?

That question deserves more consideration than simply dismissing it.

Christianity does teach human responsibility.

But freedom to make a choice does not mean that every possible choice becomes morally right.

If it did, morality would cease to have any real meaning.

The ability to choose something and the moral rightness of that choice are two different things.

Human beings can choose generosity or selfishness.

We can choose honesty or deception.

We can choose faithfulness or adultery.

We can choose forgiveness or revenge.

The fact that I possess the ability to make either choice does not make both choices equally good.

Free will does not mean:

“Whatever I choose becomes right because I chose it.”

It means that my choices have genuine moral significance.

And Scripture teaches that those choices also have consequences.

What About Desire?

The same distinction needs to be made concerning desire.

Someone might say:

“God created me. I experience this desire. Therefore God must approve of me acting upon it.”

I do not believe that conclusion necessarily follows.

And this principle is certainly not limited to homosexuality.

I cannot say:

“God created me, therefore everything I naturally desire must have been commanded by God.”

I experience desires that I should not act upon.

So does everyone else.

A married man might find another woman attractive.

He may not have consciously chosen the initial attraction.

But the existence of the attraction does not make adultery morally acceptable.

I might become extremely angry with someone.

I may not choose the first feeling of anger that enters my mind.

But that does not mean I have permission to nurture hatred or seek revenge.

The Christian moral question is therefore not simply:

“Did I choose to experience this desire?”

The more important question is:

“What should I do with this desire in light of what God has revealed?”

That applies to heterosexual desire.

It applies to same-sex desire.

It applies to greed.

It applies to pride.

It applies to anger.

And it applies to me.

The existence of a desire does not create moral authority.

Who Determines What Is Right?

This brings us to a much larger problem.

Just because I believe something is right or wrong does not make it right or wrong.

My feelings are real, but they are not the ultimate source of morality.

My opinions are real, but they are not the ultimate source of truth.

Within Christianity, God is the source of moral truth.

That means morality stands above me.

I do not get to rewrite adultery simply because adultery becomes personally convenient.

I do not get to redefine dishonesty because telling the truth becomes painful.

I do not get to make hatred righteous because I believe someone deserves it.

And I do not believe human sexuality becomes morally right or wrong simply because society changes its opinion about it.

That standard must apply equally.

Otherwise I am not really submitting myself to God.

I am simply using God to approve whatever I had already decided.

What Does Scripture Say About Marriage?

The Bible begins its picture of human marriage in Genesis.

God creates humanity male and female.

Genesis 2:24 describes a man leaving his father and mother and being joined to his wife, and the two becoming one flesh.

Jesus Himself returns to this passage in Matthew 19 when discussing marriage.

That is important to me.

The first biblical model is male and female.

Jesus points back to that same model.

Marriage customs themselves can change.

Wedding rings are traditions.

Marriage licenses are legal instruments.

Wedding ceremonies differ across cultures.

None of those things define the fundamental relationship.

The biblical pattern precedes all of them.

Throughout Scripture, marriage is consistently presented as a relationship between husband and wife.

I do not find a biblical example of a same-sex marriage being presented as God's design for marriage.

What About Same-Sex Sexual Conduct?

There are also passages that directly address same-sex sexual behavior.

Romans 1:26–27 is one of the most frequently discussed.

There are also relevant passages in Leviticus, 1 Corinthians, and 1 Timothy.

There are legitimate scholarly arguments concerning translation, historical setting, and the meanings of particular Greek and Hebrew words.

I do not believe Christians should be afraid of those discussions.

If a word has been misunderstood, I want to know.

If historical context changes how a passage should be understood, I want to understand that context.

If someone can demonstrate that I have incorrectly interpreted Scripture, then I should be willing to listen.

But scholarship should help us discover what Scripture means.

It should not become a tool for forcing Scripture to say what we have already decided it must say.

After considering the larger biblical pattern—creation, marriage, Jesus' teaching, and the New Testament treatment of sexual morality—I remain convinced that same-sex sexual relations fall outside the sexual boundaries established in Scripture.

Someone else may reach a different conclusion.

But my disagreement with that person does not require hatred.

Does God Send Gay People to Hell?

This question is often framed badly.

Christianity does not teach that there are two groups of people:

Gay sinners who need salvation,

and heterosexual people who do not.

There is one group.

Sinners.

Romans 3:23 says that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

That includes me.

Christianity teaches both divine judgment and human responsibility, but it also teaches something even more important:

God has provided a way of reconciliation through Jesus Christ.

That invitation is not reserved for people who have committed certain respectable sins.

Christ came for sinners.

The adulterer needs Him.

The liar needs Him.

The thief needs Him.

The sexually immoral need Him.

The proud need Him.

The hateful need Him.

I need Him.

A gay person does not stand in some separate category of humanity beyond God's grace.

The Gospel is offered to all.

Does Disagreement Equal Hatred?

One of the most difficult changes in our culture has been the increasing assumption that refusing to affirm someone's belief or behavior means that we hate that person.

I reject that idea.

A person can believe that my Christianity is completely wrong without hating me.

Likewise, I can believe that a same-sex sexual relationship is inconsistent with Scripture without hating the people involved.

Disagreement is not automatically hatred.

If a gay man tells me that he believes my interpretation of Scripture is mistaken, he has not necessarily attacked me.

And if I tell him that I believe his relationship falls outside biblical sexual ethics, I have not necessarily attacked him either.

The question is what we do next.

Do we insult one another?

Do we mock one another?

Do we threaten one another?

Do we treat someone as less human because he disagrees?

Christians have no excuse for doing that.

Gay men and women are human beings created in the image of God.

They deserve dignity.

They deserve ordinary kindness.

They deserve the same basic respect I expect someone else to give me.

I can believe someone is wrong without believing that person is worthless.

Christians Must Examine Themselves Too

There is another side to this issue that Christians sometimes neglect.

We can become very vocal about homosexuality while remaining remarkably quiet about heterosexual sexual sin.

That is wrong.

Adultery does not become less sinful because the people involved are heterosexual.

Pornography does not become acceptable because the person watching it condemns homosexuality.

Sex outside of marriage does not become righteous because it involves a man and woman.

Neither does hatred, greed, pride, dishonesty, cruelty, or hypocrisy disappear simply because someone has correct theology about marriage.

The same Bible I use when discussing homosexuality also stands over me.

If I am unwilling to allow Scripture to expose my own sins, then I have no business using it merely to expose someone else's.

Truth Does Not Evolve With Public Opinion

Culture changes constantly.

Political positions change.

Public opinion changes.

Words change.

Social expectations change.

I change.

But Christianity claims that God's truth does not become true or false according to public opinion.

That does not mean Christians always interpret Scripture correctly.

We don't.

We must study.

We must listen.

We must correct ourselves when evidence demonstrates that we have misunderstood something.

But there is an enormous difference between improving our understanding of Scripture and changing Scripture's meaning because its teaching has become unpopular.

That is where I choose to stand.

Not because I believe I am morally superior to anyone else.

I am not.

Not because I hate gay people.

I do not.

Not because I think homosexual sin somehow places someone beyond God's grace.

It does not.

I stand there because I believe Scripture must be permitted to judge me before I presume to judge Scripture.

If God's Word tells me something I do not want to hear, the first question should not be:

“How can I make this mean something else?”

The first question should be:

“Could I be the one who needs to change?”

That question belongs to everyone.

It belongs to the gay person.

It belongs to the heterosexual person.

It belongs to the pastor.

It belongs to the skeptic.

And it belongs to me.

I do not expect everyone who reads this to agree with me.

But disagreement does not have to make us enemies.

You can sit across from me, tell me I am wrong, and still be treated with dignity.

I hope you would offer me the same courtesy.

Because ultimately this discussion is not about winning an argument on Facebook.

It is about something much larger.

Who gets to define truth?

For me, the answer cannot ultimately be culture, politics, feelings, desires, traditions, or even myself.

The final authority must be God.

And if I really believe that, then His Word must be allowed to correct me too.

Why Pray to God Alone?

Why I Pray to God Alone

I have spent considerable time trying to reconcile the Catholic and Orthodox practice of invoking saints with what I find written in Scripture.

I want to begin carefully because this is an area where Christians can very quickly begin attacking one another rather than examining the question.

I am not saying that Catholics or Orthodox Christians believe saints are gods.

Their theology distinguishes between worship owed to God and the honor or veneration given to saints. They also argue that asking a departed saint to pray for them is similar to asking another Christian here on earth to pray for them.

I understand that distinction.

My disagreement is that I do not find Scripture telling Christians to address departed believers at all.

That is the issue I want to examine.

Not:

“Do Catholics think Mary or the saints are gods?”

But:

“Where does Scripture authorize a Christian to speak to a departed believer and ask that person to hear, receive, or carry a petition?”

That is a very different question.

Who Are the Saints?

We should begin with the word saint.

The New Testament does not reserve that word for an extraordinary class of Christians who have died and later been officially recognized by a church.

Paul repeatedly uses the term for ordinary believers.

He writes to the “saints” in Rome.

He addresses the church at Corinth as those called to be saints.

He speaks of saints who are very much alive, worshiping, struggling, learning, serving, and sometimes needing correction.

Biblically, then, a saint is fundamentally one who belongs to God.

That does not mean Christians cannot honor faithful believers who have gone before us. Hebrews 11 itself remembers men and women of extraordinary faith.

We should remember them.

We can learn from them.

We can thank God for them.

But remembering a faithful believer and addressing that believer in prayer are not the same thing.

Christians Should Pray for One Another

Scripture clearly teaches Christians to pray for other Christians.

James 5:16 tells believers to pray for one another.

Paul repeatedly asks churches to pray for him.

There is nothing wrong with saying to another Christian:

“Please pray for me.”

I have asked others to pray for me many times.

The question is whether Scripture extends that instruction beyond the living Christian community and tells us to address Christians who have died.

I do not find such an instruction.

That absence becomes significant when we consider how much Scripture actually says about prayer.

Jesus taught His disciples how to pray.

He told them:

“Our Father in heaven…”

The ordinary biblical pattern is prayer directed to God.

Christians come to the Father through Christ.

Hebrews tells believers that because we have a great High Priest, we can approach the throne of grace with confidence.

Romans tells us that the Holy Spirit intercedes for us.

Romans 8 and Hebrews 7 describe Christ Himself interceding for believers.

First Timothy 2:5 tells us that there is one God and one mediator between God and humanity, Jesus Christ.

That does not mean another living Christian cannot pray for me. Scripture explicitly tells Christians to do exactly that.

But it does make me ask:

Why would I address someone who has died when Scripture repeatedly directs me toward God and gives me direct access to Him through Christ?

Are Departed Christians Alive?

One Catholic response is that the saints are not truly dead because they are alive with Christ.

There is truth in that.

I believe those who die in Christ are with Him.

Paul could say that to depart and be with Christ is far better.

Jesus teaches that God is the God of the living.

So I do not think the argument should be:

“Saints are simply nonexistent dead bodies and therefore nothing more needs to be said.”

That is too simplistic.

The real question is not whether believers who die continue to exist with God.

The question is:

Does their continued life with Christ mean Christians on earth have been authorized to address them?

Those are two different propositions.

I believe the Apostle Paul is with Christ.

That does not automatically mean Paul can hear me if I stand in Texas tonight and say:

“Paul, please pray for me.”

Scripture would have to establish that connection.

I do not find where it does.

Saul and Samuel

This brings us to one of the most troubling passages for me concerning communication with those who have died.

First Samuel 28 tells us plainly that Samuel was dead.

Saul desperately wanted an answer from God.

God was not answering him.

Instead of accepting that silence, Saul went to a medium and asked that Samuel be brought up.

Whatever questions exist about precisely what happened in that extraordinary account, Scripture certainly does not portray Saul's actions positively.

First Chronicles 10 later reflects upon Saul's death and specifically mentions his unfaithfulness in consulting a medium.

That deserves attention.

Samuel was not an evil man.

He was one of Israel's great prophets.

He had served God faithfully.

Yet Samuel's righteousness did not make Saul's attempt to reach him acceptable.

That is important to my argument.

Someone might respond:

“But Catholics aren't going to mediums and trying to summon saints.”

I agree.

The practices are not identical.

I do not want to claim that something is identical when it is not.

But the story establishes a principle I cannot easily dismiss:

The godliness of the departed person does not by itself authorize the living to seek communication with that person.

Samuel's status as a prophet did not make contacting Samuel permissible.

What Does the Old Testament Prohibit?

Deuteronomy 18 prohibits practices including divination, sorcery, mediums, spiritists, and consulting the dead.

Isaiah 8:19 asks a penetrating question:

Should not a people inquire of their God? Why consult the dead on behalf of the living?

That verse gets to the heart of my concern.

Why not inquire of God?

I have direct access to Him.

I have Christ.

I have the Holy Spirit.

I have Scripture.

I have living brothers and sisters who can pray with me and for me.

What biblical necessity requires me to add departed Christians to that relationship?

I cannot find one.

Is Asking a Saint for Prayer Necromancy?

This is where I want to choose my words carefully.

Divination normally involves seeking supernatural knowledge.

Necromancy traditionally involves attempting communication with the dead, often for supernatural information or assistance.

Catholics do not describe invocation of saints that way. They believe they are communicating with living members of the body of Christ who are presently with God.

I understand their argument.

Nevertheless, I believe deliberately addressing a departed human being and asking that person to hear and respond to a petition crosses a boundary Scripture gives me no permission to cross.

At the very least, it comes dangerously close to the category Scripture describes as consulting the dead.

For me, that is enough reason not to do it.

When Scripture explicitly tells me to pray to God and gives me no explicit command to address departed Christians, I am going to remain with what Scripture clearly authorizes.

What About Mary?

The same principle applies to Mary.

I believe Mary deserves tremendous respect.

God chose her for an extraordinary role.

She bore Jesus Christ.

She demonstrated faith and obedience under circumstances that must have been extraordinarily difficult.

Scripture itself says generations would call her blessed.

I have no desire to diminish her.

But honoring Mary is different from praying to Mary.

I can thank God for Mary.

I can study her faith.

I can admire her obedience.

I can call her blessed.

What I cannot find is Jesus telling His disciples:

“When you need help, ask My mother to intercede for you.”

I cannot find an apostle praying to Mary.

I cannot find a New Testament church addressing Mary after Christ's ascension.

That absence matters to me.

What About Images?

I would also modify another argument I once made.

The Bible does not prohibit every religious image simply because an image exists.

God Himself commanded the construction of cherubim upon the mercy seat.

The temple contained artistic imagery.

So the commandment against graven images cannot simply mean:

“Never create any religious artwork.”

The issue is idolatry.

The danger begins when something created becomes an object of religious devotion belonging properly to God.

Catholic theology distinguishes veneration from worship.

I understand that distinction intellectually.

But when I see people kneeling before an image, kissing it, addressing petitions in connection with it, or treating it as part of an act of devotion toward a departed person, I remain deeply uncomfortable.

Not because stone, paint, wood, or plaster possesses some supernatural evil.

It doesn't.

But because Scripture repeatedly teaches me to direct worship and prayer toward God.

I do not want anything obscuring that simplicity.

One Mediator

First Timothy 2:5 says:

“For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.”

We have to be careful with this verse.

It cannot mean Christians are forbidden from praying for one another because Paul has just encouraged intercessory prayer.

So Christ's unique mediation does not eliminate ordinary Christian intercession.

But Christ is unique.

No saint died to reconcile me to God.

No apostle purchased my redemption.

Mary did not die for my sins.

Peter did not open the way into God's presence.

Paul did not become my High Priest.

Jesus did.

That does not demean them.

It honors Christ.

They themselves pointed people toward Him.

Tradition and Scripture

I also need to correct something I once argued too simplistically.

It is not enough to say:

“Oral tradition is unreliable because it is like the telephone game.”

Scripture itself speaks positively of apostolic teaching that was delivered both orally and in writing.

The earliest Christians obviously learned many things before the New Testament writings had all been collected.

So the question cannot simply be:

“Written good, oral bad.”

The better question is:

Does a later tradition faithfully preserve apostolic teaching, or has it developed beyond what Christ and the apostles taught?

That is where Scripture becomes essential.

Every doctrine, whether Protestant, Catholic, Orthodox, Baptist, Pentecostal, or something else, must be tested.

Including mine.

If someone can show me from Scripture where believers are instructed to address departed Christians and request their intercession, I need to consider that evidence.

But I do not believe church tradition can create an obligation that Scripture itself never gives me.

Speaking to Someone I Miss

There is also a very personal reason I have thought carefully about this subject.

My mother has died.

So has my sister.

I miss them.

Sometimes I speak aloud as though my mother were sitting beside me.

I might say:

“Mom, I miss you.”

Sometimes memories of her still bring tears.

I have done the same when thinking about my sister.

But I do not believe I am communicating with them.

I do not expect an answer.

I do not ask my mother to protect me.

I do not ask my sister to tell me what decision to make.

I do not ask them to carry a prayer to God.

I do not look for signs from them.

I know they are gone from my life here.

Speaking those words is an expression of grief.

It is my heart giving language to the fact that I still love someone whom I cannot presently hold or speak with face to face.

For me, there is an important difference between:

“Mom, I miss you.”

and

“Mom, hear my prayer and intercede for me.”

The first expresses grief.

The second assumes supernatural communication.

That is the boundary I do not believe Scripture gives me permission to cross.

What About Prayer to Jesus?

There is one other point where precision matters.

The ordinary pattern Jesus gives us is prayer to the Father.

He Himself prayed to the Father.

Christians commonly speak of praying to the Father, through the Son, in the Holy Spirit.

I think that is an excellent biblical pattern.

But Scripture does contain direct address to Jesus.

As Stephen was dying in Acts 7, he said:

“Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.”

Revelation closes with:

“Come, Lord Jesus.”

And the New Testament describes Christians as those who call upon the name of Jesus Christ.

So I would not say that Christians may never address Jesus.

Jesus is not a departed human saint.

He is the risen Lord.

He conquered death.

He is God the Son.

He is seated at the right hand of the Father.

There is therefore no comparison between calling upon Christ and attempting to address another human being who has died.

Saints Are Not Gods

I also want to state something clearly.

The faithful men and women who came before us do not become gods when they die.

They do not become omniscient.

They do not become omnipresent.

They remain creatures.

Wonderful creatures, perhaps.

Faithful servants.

Examples worthy of imitation.

Brothers and sisters whom we may one day meet in the presence of Christ.

But still creatures.

Revelation gives us a beautiful example when John falls before an angel.

The angel immediately tells him:

Do not do that. I am a fellow servant. Worship God.

I think there is enormous wisdom in those two words:

Worship God.

My Conclusion

So where do I finally stand?

I believe Christians should pray for one another.

I believe we should honor faithful believers who have gone before us.

I believe we should remember them and learn from them.

I believe Christians who die are with Christ.

But I do not find biblical authorization for addressing them.

I therefore do not pray to saints.

I do not ask Mary to hear me.

I do not ask Peter, Paul, my mother, my sister, or any other departed believer to carry my requests before God.

Not because I despise them.

Because I don't need them to perform that function.

I have Christ.

I can pray to my Father.

I have the Holy Spirit helping me even when I do not know what to pray.

I have a High Priest who understands weakness.

I have a Savior who intercedes for me.

And I have living brothers and sisters whom Scripture explicitly tells me to ask for prayer.

That is enough.

Perhaps the simplest way I can express my position is this:

The question is not whether the saints are alive with Christ.

The question is whether Christ ever told the living to speak to them.

I do not find that He did.

So I will honor faithful Christians.

I will remember them.

I will learn from them.

I will call them my brothers and sisters in Christ.

But my prayers belong to God.

And my confidence rests in Jesus Christ.

an introduction

First let me tell you why I am starting a blog. In September 2011 I heard and answered the call to become a preacher. Once I did, all kinds of things started happening. For one, the Devil went on the attack. He does not want me to do what God desires for my life. I think that that is cool. Why you may ask? Because it means I am doing what I am supposed to be doing.

Today in Worship service, I realized that what I have been doing for God so far, has never seen the light of day so to speak. I have kept it all to myself on my computer, so the only person it is of use to is me. I can't become much of a preacher if I am my only audience. So, I decided to start this to share with you, what it is that I am learning from Gods word, and to allow for a chance to have my work looked at and commented upon by others.

Let me say, that I have been a Christian since August 1, 1970. I grew up in a Southern Baptist Church. I have spent a great deal of time in my past, reading and learning about God, but until recently, I have not spent much time studying the Bible in an in depth manner.

So, about a year or so ago, I enrolled in a 3 year Bible coarse, and have learned a great deal. I want to make a very important statement...I am not a man who feels he has discovered new and previously unknown revelations from God. I have no grand delusions that I know everything. I believe in Gods word. I believe that if it is not in Gods word, then the information is not from God. I believe that all scripture is true, that the Bible is complete, and that it is the inspired word of God handed down to man through divine revelation. I believe that God is and was in complete control of his work, and knows what he was doing. There is nothing new that I or anyone else could or should add to Gods words. I believe that my only job is the share with you, the information I have learned from Gods word, and how it may be applied to our lives today.

Now, I know that that was a bunch of stuff all thrown together, but as time goes on, I will outline this in more detail. I have learned over the past year that some things that I previously believed was in the Bible is in fact not there. I believed it because I took at face value what other people have told me. I believed it because they were my religious teachers, my pastors, my spiritual elders. I did not take the time to check it out for myself. I did not look to see if what I was told was in Gods word or not. Boy, did I make a big  mistake.

I'm not saying that any of my teachers intentionally tried to mislead me. In fact, I believe that they might not have been told the truth, or maybe like me, they did not study Gods word to see if what they were told was really in the Bible ether. Like me, they accepted what they were told for the same reasons.

In my limited studies, it looks like many things have been added by men who may have had good intentions, but messed things up a great deal for believers everywhere. I have seen where pagan practices have been incorporated into our churches, and since they have been there for as long as they have been, we accept them as though God ordained them and approves of them.

Some of what I will be writing will make you smile, some will make you upset. But, everything I write will to the best of my knowledge, be from Gods word, and will be based upon his authority and not mans. If your religious beliefs are based on man made rituals and practices, you need to read Gods word to see if they were commanded or ordained by God.  If your religious beliefs are based on books or writings other than the Holy Bible, you need to stop reading those books, and get back into the words actually given to us by God himself. I am of course referring to the so called Lost books of the Bible, or books that were written by men claiming to be inspired by God, but who's words contradict those actually given to us by God. If your religious beliefs deny the truth of God, or paints a picture of God that is contrary to the Holy scriptures, you are being led astray. If your beliefs teach of an impersonal or uncaring God, or promote violence, you need to find a real Bible and read about the real God. If your book and beliefs teach that there is more than one way to get to heaven, or a way other than through Jesus alone, you need to reevaluate your beliefs and find the true God.

So, who am I? I am a Bible believing man of God. A man who is no longer afraid or unwilling or just plain foolish enough to not check Gods word before accepting the beliefs or words of others. I am a Christian. I am a father, a husband, a brother and a son. I am human, and as such I know that I can and will make mistakes, but I will not be led astray from the truth of Gods word. In it you can find wisdom, strength, happiness, understanding, healing and truth. No words of mere men has that power. No traditions of man can replace the truth or Gods word. Gods own word tells us how he is and desires to be worshiped. Gods Son provided the way, the only way. And, the truth of scriptures provides the only way to salvation.

What do I believe?

I did a little of this in the previous post, but felt that I needed to have a post just for this purpose. I will add to this as time goes on, and I may change some things if I find, through Gods word, that I am in error.

1. I believe in the Bible. This is the 66 books as it was handed down and incorporated in the King James version.

2. I believe that the Bible is error free.

3. I believe that Gods message to mankind was complete and that there is no other source of Biblical knowledge available to mankind.

4. I believe that through careful study, and prayer, we can find the answers to all of our questions within it's pages.

5. I believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God, and that it is through him only that we can come to the Father, and to salvation.

6. I do not believe in the use of "saints" as a way to talk to God. I believe that the Bible makes that very clear.

7. I do not believe in the worship of idols, or "Icons". Just because we rename somethings does not make it ok.

8. I believe that the mother of Jesus is truly blessed as the mother of Jesus, but that does not change who she was, her nature as a human, not her status as a person. She was simply a woman, and nothing more.

9. I believe in the resurrection of Jesus from the dead.

10. I believe in a literal 6 days of creation.

11.  I believe in the rapture, although I will say that at this point, I am not sure if it will be before or durring, or even after the 7 years of tribulation. I will have to study more to learn more.

12. I believe that the study of scripture is important, and that if more of us did so, and stopped taking verses out of context, we would find the answers we are looking for.

13. I believe in the Trinity, and that it is extensively talked about in Gods word in both the old and the new Testaments, even though that the term "trinity" is not used.

14. I believe that there is only one path to heaven, and that it is through Gods son, Jesus Christ.

15. I believe that God has given us specific instructions on marriage, worship, money management, government, and so much more.

16. I believe that marriage is to be between a man and a woman. It was never meant to be between two girls, or two guy, or animals, or computer game characters. Yes, I have heard that it is legal for a man to marry a goat in some countries.

17. I believe it is important to go to and become a part of a local church.

18. I believe that no mater how poor or rich we are, we need to help those who are in need.

19. As a christian, I believe in the Bible, not the various books of other religions, or their handed down traditions. The written word of God is enough for me.

20. I believe in the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

21. I believe that God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit still communicate with men today, but that at no time will they tell us things that are not able to be backed up properly through scripture.

22. I believe that no matter how good you think that you are, if you do not have a proper relationship with Jesus Christ, you won't go to heaven. Eternal life is not a right of man, it is a gift from God, given by his grace, through the blood of sacrifice made by his son when he died on the cross for the forgiveness of Sins.

23. I believe, and this is more of a personal belief, although I am sure that the Bible has something to say about it, that most of the problems we are dealing with in our country, stem from a decline in not only belief in God and Jesus, but a decline in God fearing Christians standing up for what we should believe.

24. I believe that according to God's word, men are supposed to be the leaders of their families. Not tyrants, but God fearing leaders who follow the commands of God, and recognize the co-leadership role of their wives as being equal to their own. Proper families and marriages are a part of Gods plan for his creations.

These are just a few of the things that I believe in, and I am sure that there are those who will read this and get upset with me over a few of them. If you have questions, just ask. I will be happy to discuss them with you in more detail, or just give me some time, and I will blog on each of them in more detail. I welcome comments and questions but, will not entertain hateful remarks or arguments.