How Could God Forgive What I Did?

Have you ever felt that some wicked deed you did in the past was so horrible that God couldn't possibly forgive you? The truth is that the only unforgivable sin is resisting God's command to repent and follow Christ during your lifetime. Whoever wrote the book of Hebrews in the Bible stated that it's appointed unto man once to die and then the judgement.

During our threescore and ten, we have enough time to surrender our lives to the Lord. Death is the cut off point where repentance is no longer possible. I know it doesn't sound fair but that's the way the Lord set things up.

But how can the Lord forgive heinous sins? It's only because Jesus voluntarily took on the punishment for whosoever believed in his authority over humanity and followed him.

Examine the lives of the saints and you'll see how bad some were. Moses was a murderer, yet he led the Israelites out of bondage in Egypt. David committed adultery with Bathsheba and had her husband killed in battle, yet he was forgiven. Many of the people mentioned in Hebrews chapter eleven had checkered pasts, yet they all placed their hope in the messiah.

Since God is eternal and knows everything, nothing you did can surprise him. He's just waiting for you to ask for forgiveness and turn from serving your own desires.

Though I feel ashamed at turning my back on God for nine years, I know that he forgave me. My How I Was Razed book shows how merciful the heavenly Father was and still is. Please contact me to find out more amazing facts about my awesome testimony.

What's With All These Denominations?

This question confused me too, along with arguments about the right Bible to read,  when I was a new believer in Christ. I remember how every church used to believe that they were the best or only church Christians should attend. Each claimed all the rest were wrong or, even worse, heretical. Thanks to excellent biblical apologists, I now know How and why we came to have so many sects.

The answer is quite simple. Satan hates the truth so he infiltrated the churches from the beginning to confuse people and lead them astray. Even in the first few decades of church history, people were attempting to distort or nullify the gospel.

For a thousand years, the church at Rome, now known as the Roman Catholic Church, restricted the study of the scriptures to the priests and monks. They feared that if lay people read them, they'd come up with a plethora of blasphemous ideas.

Martin Luther, translators,  and the printing press made it possible for ordinary people to read the Bible. Though cults have arisen and churches have divided over doctrinal differences, the gospel and the scriptures have survived.

I learned from excellent scholars that misunderstandings happened due to people not knowing the cultures, customs, and nuances of the ancient languages. Proper biblical scholars and translators take all these factors into account whereas unscrupulous individuals seek to build up their own followings.

An example of false teachers is portrayed in my How I Was Razed book. Contact me regarding how to purchase this marvelous memoir of God's providential guidance.

In my next post, I'll deal with pastors who abuse their congregants and teach heresy. These are wolves in shepherd costumes and must be avoided.

Why Care About Christ's Birth?

What a mad rush everybody is in today. An observer from another world would be astonished at the huge deal we make of Christmas. "All this fuss for one day?" our imaginary visitor would exclaim upon seeing all the cooking, baking, shopping, decorating, and so many other frenzied activities we insist upon doing.

Lost in the rush each year is the birth of Christ. Apart from an hour-long service at churches this evening, Christians seem to act just like the rest of the world. Our traveler would be most amazed at the way we celebrate the birth of the Son of God.

There was a time when I turned my back on the Lord for nine miserable years. Two years into my rebellion, I quit celebrating Christmas the traditional way. It seemed pointless, and I still feel that way today, to decorate and buy gifts for those who would just return the favour.

What re ignited my fascination for Christ's birth once I returned to my senses was the myriad of Old Testament prophecies fulfilled by his birth. Read the gospels of Matthew and Luke. You'll see so many references to Old Testament prophecies mentioned there. And if you study other passages, you'll find more predictions regarding the life, death, and resurrection of the Messiah.

God willing, I hope to write a new book called You Think You're Going to Heaven? My hope is to deal with many objections people make to the truth about God's criteria for entry into eternal life. Contact me regarding this and previous books which I've written.

Have a blessed Christmas.

Do Dinosaurs Disprove the Bible?

In my previous post, I wrote about the fate of our pets. Now I'm tackling the thorny question of dinosaurs. Do they really disprove or invalidate the Bible?

One "got ya" question atheists ask Christians is how could their be dinosaurs if the earth is only six thousand years old. Where did all these wondrous creatures come from and then have their bones fossilized in ancient rock layers?

Some Christians believe that there was a gap of millions of years between the first and second verses of Genesis chapter one. Others believe that God put fossils there to make the planet look ancient. Some believe that when the world flooded, Noah couldn't bring such large creatures into the ark. So, what's the real answer?

Hank Hanegraaff, host of The Bible Answer Man, espouses an interesting doctrine which makes logical sense. He teaches that the earth is billions of years old but God used days as a mnemonic device to help ancient people remember the hierarchical order of creation. Viewed this way, it easily explains how light could be created before the stellar bodies. It also matches empirical observations of the universe.

Whenever I've explained this doctrine to fellow Christians, they reacted like I was a horrendous heretic. They cling tenaciously to the six-day creation narrative as if the old earth argument was espousing evolution. This is manifestly untrue. Evolution teaches that there is no divine intelligence and that everything came to be by blind chance. The mnemonic method Moses used when writing the creation account allows for vast periods of geological time but without eliminating God from the picture.

I once believed a lot of notions which I now know are manifestly untrue. Now that I know better, I wrote a book called How I Was Razed so people could learn from my mistakes. Please contact me regarding this wondrous memoir of God's providence. It's well worth reading.

Will My Pets Be With Me in Heaven?

This question is one which theologians have struggled with for millennia. Animals seem to have personalities, so much so that many people are sure they'll be there in heaven with them forever.

Having read the Bible about twenty times from start to finish, I have found nothing either way regarding if pets will or won't be in heaven. In fact, the only verse which hints at animal spirits is Ecclesiastes 3:21 which asks who knows if the spirit of man ascends and the spirit of animals descend into the earth.

Taking the context of the verse into consideration, Solomon made the point that we can't see spirits and whether human spirits rise while animal spirits sink into the earth. Therefore, we can tell from the verse that animal spirits go to a different place.

I sure would rejoice if my dearly departed pets, like my rabbits, would be in heaven with me. Gideon was my heart bunny and the rest I also fondly remember. Even so, I hold no dogmatic hope that they will join me there.

In my How I Was Razed book, I wrote about the claims made by a blasphemous house church minister. One whopper was that he saw his favourite horse when he traveled out of his corpulent body. By God's grace, I survived that malicious minister and I now know the truth. Contact me about this wondrous story of the heavenly Father's providential guidance.

Don't Worship Idols, Do I?

I Believe it or not, all of us have either worshipped idols of our own choosing or still do so today. How so? Whatever takes precedence in our lives is what we worship. Some folks worship sports heroes. Others worship science, like a certain friend of mine does. Mostly though, we tend to worship ourselves. The fact that we get offended by criticism of what we love proves it.

In my case, electronic music was an over-arching passion. During my rebellion against God, I deeply admired Kraftwerk. Ralf Hutter and the rest of the band members showed me that I didn't need rack upon rack of costly keyboards to make my own electronic music.

As you can see on my YouTube channel, I was deeply into the genre. Now there's nothing wrong with electronic music. What is wrong is when it, or any other passion, supplants God. When I rebelled against the Lord due to what I learned at a cultic house church, I turned to music for solace.

Now I realize my mistake in blaming God for the utter blasphemy which the house church leaders taught me. Since I know the truth about the heavenly Father, I want to help others who were wounded by errant teaching.

How I Was Razed is my testimony of the way God led me to the wondrous knowledge of his Word and his character. Contact me for details on how to purchase this book for yourself or somebody you know who suffered in a blasphemous congregation.

Bruce Atchison, cults, idolatry, Kraftwerk, electronic music

How Can We Love Our Enemies, Yet Use Military Force?

It really was a Friday the thirteenth in November for unfortunate Parisians. Islamic State militants stormed several venues, killing innocent civilians as part of their religious duty to Allah.

How can anybody love such brutes? How can Christ command his followers to love the very ones who are torturing and killing their loved ones on a daily basis? The answer to both of those questions is   the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

When we understand that wicked people are under a strong delusion and can't help but be slaves to sin, we realize the dreadful fait awaiting them when they die.

Some folks might ask, "Do we just lie down and let wicked people do their horrendous acts?" The Apostle Paul wrote in Romans chapter thirteen that the government is the one put in place by God to wield the sword of justice against  evildoers. Vengeance belongs to him but he delegates out some duties to those whom he has placed in power.

While we are to love individuals, God has ordained the governments of our lands to execute murderers domestically and abroad. Sometimes innocent people must be protected by killing the demented pawns of Satan who have long since lost touch with their consciences.

In my How I Was Razed memoir, I show how elders of a house church tormented me for fifteen years and how God led me to freedom. Contact me for details on how to buy this marvelous testimony.

Isn't Believing in God Enough?

A good friend of mine discussed the Bible and Christianity with me last month. She said she believed in God but not the Bible. For her, that was good enough. Sadly, it won't be "good enough" when she meets God on Judgement Day.

Why is this so? Throughout the Old Testament, the faithful followers of God awaited a saviour who would rescue them from sin's deadly grip. Jesus Christ was born, lived a perfect life, and died on the cross to take the punishment  meant for his followers. He fulfilled the law perfectly and rose from the dead, just as he said.

God cut some folks a break in past ages but, as the Apostle Paul told the leading thinkers of Athens, God commands all people to believe in Jesus Christ and to  turn their lives over to him. There are no IFs, ANDs, or BUTs about it.

James also wrote in his epistle that even the devils believe and tremble when it comes to God's existence. The Bible predicts a terrible end for them and all those who won't follow Christ , surrendering their lives to his rulership.

How I wish my friend could see the eternal peril she faces. In fact, I wish that ALL my friends who aren't born again could see clearly the danger they face by not surrendering to Jesus right now. Nobody knows what tomorrow will bring. The only time we have where we can do anything is now.

How I Was Razed shows the wondrous way God works in the lives of those who trust in Christ. Discover how wondrous this memoir is by contacting me about it.

Is it Too Late to Repent?

If you're still alive, it isn't too late to repent of your wicked ways and follow Christ. Many people think they can't be forgiven because they've done such horrible things. The good news is that Christ will NEVER turn away ANYBODY who begs his forgiveness.

Believe it or not, some of the worst people in history have been forgiven. Even the Bible shows a long list of rogues who put their trust in the Lord.

Moses was a murderer. He killed an Egyptian task master for violently beating a Hebrew slave. He went from being an adopted prince to a fugitive, then he became the deliverer of the Israelites.

King David raped Bathsheba and arranged for her husband to be killed in battle. David abused his power as king but because he tearfully repented, the Lord forgave him. The son born to Bathsheba died but the king realized that he would go to be with him someday in heaven.

I could list others, such as a murderous religious fanatic named Saul who later became Paul the apostle, but this post would become far too long. Suffice it to say that God is exceptionally patient and desires that nobody go to hell. Instead, he has magnanimously allowed us to choose our eternal destination.

Though I repented and gave my life over to Christ in 1969, Nobody mentored me. After fifteen years in a cult and nine years of rejecting God, he providentially led me to the truth. Contact me about the memoir I wrote called How I Was Razed.

Can You Take it With You When You Die?

The saying that you can't take it with you is axiomatic. People agree that you never see a U-Hall trailer towed behind a hearse. But there is one guaranteed way of taking your wealth with you when you leave this world.

Jesus Christ told a parable about a dishonest manager of a rich man's money. A bad report had reached his boss so he told the employee to give an account of what he did.

While the boss waited for the accounting report, the dishonest manager contacted the rich man's debtors. One owed a hundred barrels of oil so the manager told that person to write "fifty" on the bill. Another debtor owed a hundred bushels of wheat. The manager told him to write "eighty" on his bill.

Why did they do this? In first century Israel, Jews weren't allowed to charge interest. They got around that by saying that debtors were to pay more back than they borrowed. The dishonest manager made friends with the debtors so they'd take him into their homes when his employment ended. They wouldn't dare refuse his request because they'd be shown to be dishonest. Neither would the boss retaliate because his honor was at stake.

Christ told this parable to point out that believers should invest their goods, money, and time in the Kingdom of Heaven so they would have many saved individuals to greet them there. Moths, rust, and thieves can't get at that treasure. Neither can our greedy governments tax that.

I once believed that the Lord should bless me with a lottery win so that I could give more to spread the gospel. My How I Was Razed book shows how the Lord led me out of such foolish thinking and into the truth. Contact me to learn more about this amazing story of God's providential guidance.

Must I Tithe?

This is another irksome matter which Christians wrestle with. Some preachers quote Malachi 3:10 and insist that it applies today. Others say it's been superceded by the New Testament era. So who's right?

After much thought, I conclude that giving should be voluntary and according to one's resources. Forcing people to tithe is unfair to impoverished people who are living deeply in debt.

Another reason I dislike tithing and see it as unchristian is that it becomes a way to brag about one's holiness. The gospel writers tell of how Christ saw rich people putting money into the collection box. Then a poor widow, wishing to buy a blessing, put in two very small coins. It was all the money she had. John MacArthur rightly pointed out that the religious system of the day ripped off people every which way. It's why Jesus trashed the temple court twice during his ministry. The sellers were profiting off the holy offerings which devotees wanted to offer.

Since God loves a cheerful giver, how can tithing be forced upon people? While ten percent is a worthy goal to aim for, it's not a hard and fast rule. In fact, prudent bill paying and spending can allow people to give even more when the need arises. Instead of giving a fixed amount and feeling put upon or proud, we should hold our possessions loosely in the event that we may be Christ's hands to the destitute.

I used to fall for the pride-inducing tithe doctrine until I couldn't pay my bills. I wrote about this in my How I Was Razed memoir. Contact me regarding purchasing this wondrous story of God's providence.

Are Churches Filled With Hypocrites?

Most non Christian people assume that there's nothing but hypocrites in churches. To them, Christians go to Sunday services in order to feel superior to those who don't go. Is it fair of non believers to characterize all followers of Christ that way?

People tend to generalize, assuming all members of a specific group are like the few individuals they met. This happens particularly with Christians. Because there are phoney's among church congregations, people assume all Christians are that way.

False Christians and genuine believers in Christ are radically different. The first adorn themselves with the outward customs of their church. The second group love Jesus and want to tell everybody how his sacrifice on the cross freed them from sin.

These two groups are distinguished by their actions. Phoney's love to show how "holy" they are. They, like the Pharisees in Christ's time, love to make long public prayers and show how much money they give to charities.

Genuine followers of Christ are too busy helping others and studying God's Word to show off. Furthermore, they have genuine concern for less-fortunate people. Their actions aren't for show and neither do they go around proclaiming every good deed they've done. Those who assume that all Christians are hypocrites need to meet real followers of Christ.

Sadly, nobody warned me about cults like the church I joined for fifteen and a half years. How I Was Razed shows the way God led me out of that wicked congregation and to a true knowledge of himself. Contact me regarding this wondrous memoir of deliverance from deceit.

So Which Preachers Are Honest?

In some previous posts, I wrote about the metaphorical tares and the wheat. Among Christian programs lurk fakers who fleece the flock while giving them nothing spiritual in return. These misleaders often claim to have advanced knowledge and to be able to work miracles. Worse yet, they twist scriptures to serve their own lust for money.

Jim Baker's corrupt ministry was a prime example of false shepherds of the flock. Other Christian "superstars" have also fallen into sin over the years. The wicked conduct of these phoney's hurt the good ministries who sought only to spread the gospel and help the poor.

The Evangelical  (ECFA) was formed in America to be an accreditation agency for those honest Christian organizations wishing to distance themselves from the corrupt ones. Canada's  (CCCC) also came into being for the same reason. Ministries wishing accreditation need to comply with strict rules of accountability or they can't display the logos of the ECFA and CCCC.

I personally learned an additional way to guard against fraudulent preachers. If they claim to prophesy and receive "new revelations" from God, avoid them. The gospel is neither sensational nor self-empowering. Instead of seeking power and control of their own lives, truly born again ministers proclaim total surrender and dependence upon Jesus Christ. There's no glamour in that as there appears to be in the false gospel of self-empowerment.

How I wish I knew this BEFORE I joined a cultic house church. How I Was Razed is my testimony of how God rescued me from destructive doctrines. Contact me regarding purchasing this marvelous memoir.

How Can Christians Be Conservatives?

A friend of mine asked essentially this question of me in a recent e-mail. He couldn't understand how such a "warm-hearted" person as myself could embrace conservative values. After much thought, I realize that biblical Christianity and conservatism have many aspects in common.

Self-reliance is the hallmark of conservatism as well as Christianity, at least in the physical realm. The Apostle Paul wrote that if a person won't work, he shouldn't eat. Some members of the early churches assumed that they needed to be free of manual labour so they could study the apostles' teachings and the scriptures. In reality, they became freeloaders, taking food and other goods needed by impoverished believers.

Conservatives and Christ's followers believe that charity is an individual's responsibility, not that of governments. The duty of rulers, as Paul pointed out, is to punish evil and reward good. Instead, non-Christian people want the government to decide who needs help and who is merely freeloading. In practice, private charities are more fair and more efficient than government programs.

Conservatives are concerned with law and order. So are Christ's followers concerned with living peaceful lives. Conservatives and Christians want the guilty to be punished and to make restitution to their victims. Leftists, on the other hand, blame external forces for internal mistakes in thinking. History proves that conservative and Christian ideas work much more effectively because they deal with the root of the problem: sin.

Though my How I Was Razed memoir was theological in nature, I did write about how I obeyed the law while others didn't. Contact me about purchasing this wondrous testimony of God's providence.

Why Does God Allow War?

"If your God is so great, why doesn't he stop wars?" This is a question even I have asked Christians at one point in my life. With all his reputed power, so it seemed to me, he could easily destroy wicked leaders and others who rouse the rabble into an insane frenzy of blood lust.

Is it really God's fault that people are wicked. In the second chapter of the Epistle of James, he wrote that we are led by our lusts into sin and it eventually leads to death. God tempts no one. Satan and human pride team up to unleash hell on earth. God does guide historical events but he respects the right he gave us to choose good or evil.

It's like those vinyl records with two or more tracks on one side. Mad Magazine released a flexi disk with six endings to a song. Depending on the physical forces acting upon the needle, the song often ended differently each time it was played. This is what God's permissive will is like, except there are only two endings. Either we go with him and live eternally in heaven or go with the Devil and suffer eternally in hell.

So how do you get your "needle" into the right groove? Surrender the running of your life to Jesus Christ. Ask his forgiveness for all the rebellious acts in your past and become his follower. Be baptized, as Peter said in the second chapter of The Acts of the Apostles. Then meet with devoted followers of Christ to study Christ's teachings with the goal of becoming like him.

The reason I stress discipleship is because I received none after surrendering my life to Christ. Knowing nothing of cults, I joined a toxic church and suffered their abuse for fifteen years. Click on How I Was Razed to read about the memoir I wrote regarding how God freed me. Contact me or comment here for details on purchasing this glorious testimony.

Should Christians Practice Civil Disobedience?

This question has come up among evangelical Christians frequently these days. The LGBTQ activists have aggressively pushed for same-sex marriage to the point where legislators have made such unnatural partnerships legal.

So what can those of us who hold to natural marriage do? Some folks insist we go along with it. They see no problem calling God's holy matrimonial covenant  and same-sex marriage equal.

But God has a huge disagreement with such folks. Verses in both Old and New Testaments call any sexual relationship outside of man-woman marriage sinful. The whole point of procreation is for a man and a woman to mate and raise children who will grow up to do the same.

Marriages aren't perfect, since two highly flawed partners comprise each one, but it's the healthiest adult relationship. Children do best in two-parent, male and female, homes. No matter how "loving" same-sex partners and other unmarried people claim to be, the reality is that children need a mom and dad in their lives.

So when should those of us who are followers of Christ disobey governments? According to instances in the Bible, we must disobey laws which restrict us from serving our Lord or make us do things prohibited by him. Therefore, refusing to wed same-sex couples is the correct action for Christ's disciples to take. Neither must we indorse any moral sin which God has called an abomination.

Sadly, people make up sins. It seems especially so about activities they hate. My How I Was Razed memoir shows how a cult church messed up my mind and how Christ liberated it from their warped doctrines. Contact me for details about purchasing this glorious testimony.

How Would You Like a New Body?

Christianity is unique. Why? It teaches that we will receive immortal bodies. Instead of just being spirits, we'll have tangible bodies to live in and they won't break down once the warranty expires.

People who believe in reincarnation will doubtless disagree with what I wrote here. Even so, the bodies they claim to receive in their next lives are mortal. Only the Bible contains the awesome truth that everybody will be resurrected on the last day, meaning the day when God judges all people whoever lived.

So what will we look like then? I don't know and neither do the scriptures indicate what we will be like. Here's what they do tell us.

We will have physicality. In Job's book, he said that though worms consume his body, yet in his flesh shall he see God. Likewise, the letters written by the Apostle Paul are filled with statements about us being raised up in immortal bodies.

Our new bodies will also be free from the effects of sin. At present, we have a sin virus eating away at our bodies and souls. When we meet Christ in the air, we'll be instantly renewed. We'll live in a new heaven and earth, free from corruption in all it's corrosive forms.

Marriage won't matter then either. Christ told a group of liberal Jewish leaders that we won't marry or be given in marriage but will be like the angels in heaven. Like Hank Hanegraaff pointed out, earth is the breeding colony but heaven is the homeland.

Great Bible scholars like Hank helped me immensely over the years. Read how they straightened me out in my How I Was Razed memoir. You're welcome to contact me regarding this amazing testimony.

Did Jesus go to Hell?

A line in The Apostles' Creed puzzled and disturbed me when I was a child. The thought of Jesus descending into hell didn't seem right to me. So I asked one Sunday school teacher  in the Anglican church and she told me it meant that his body was placed in a tomb. It didn't mean that Christ's spirit went to hell.

Recently, I learned from radio shows such as The White Horse Inn and The Bible Answer Man that the line about Christ descending into hell was added in the fourth century to this ancient creed which the church adopted many years earlier.

Even so, it is true that the Lord's body was placed in a tomb and he did rise on the third day. But many preachers have claimed that Jesus went to hell and took the keys of hell and the grave from Satan. Christ's own words disprove this errant doctrine.

"It is Finished," Jesus declared just before he died. He also promised one thief who was crucified next to him that he'd be in paradise with him. Hell isn't paradise and neither was the comma misplaced as some claimed. Christ finished his work on the cross, not in hell.

Some claimed that Jesus preached to the captives in hell from the time of the flood. Hank Hanegraaff explained that it means that through the preaching of Noah, the people of that time heard the gospel. That makes much more sense than the narrative some preachers state.

I once believed errant nonsense like that. My How I Was Razed memoir shows how God providentially led me to the truth. Contact me for details about this marvelous testimony.

Why Must I Repent?

Before I can answer that question, I need to explain what repentance means. Simply put, it's a spiritual U turn. After a person asks God's forgiveness for disobeying his laws, those who repent abandon their old lifestyle and let Christ govern their conduct. They become disciples, learning his teachings and practicing them.

The old lifestyle is actually a death style, leading humanity to eternal agony in hell. Like it or not, the ways of the world bring nothing but long-term misery to everybody who insists on living that way. It might seem fun at first to do our own thing but It soon feels hollow and pointless.

This is because we were made to worship God. Genesis shows how humanity had it made and there was only one rule our founding parents needed to obey. They failed the test when they believed Satan's lie that God was holding some good thing back from them. That broke the fellowship Adam and Eve had with the Lord.

Since it's natural for us to sin, we need supernatural help. That's where Christ's death on the cross comes in. God transferred all the punishment for sin on him from whosoever will believe in him. When you accept this trade and become an adopted child in Christ's family, God treats you as innocent because of his son's sacrificial death.

I once lacked a full appreciation of this glorious trade. The cult church I became involved in taught blasphemous doctrines masquerading as advanced knowledge. Now I know that they lied to me. How I Was Razed shows how God led me into the sunlit land of his truth. Contact me directly regarding this marvelous memoir.

Why did God make his son die for us?

I've heard that some militant atheists accuse God of being a sadistic monster who forced Christ to go to the cross. A simple reading of Scripture shows this idea as manifestly false.

Jesus had plenty to say regarding his impending crucifixion. For instance, he said he had power to lay down his life and to take it up again, thus showing his confidence in his resurrection. He also declared that, "Greater love has no man but that he should lay down his life for his friends." These two statements alone show that he was willing to take our sins upon himself in order to rescue us from hell.

Furthermore, the scripture declares that Christ's mission to save whosoever believed in him and his atoning work was planned before the universe was created. It wasn't some half-baked plan or, as some think, that everything went sideways on Jesus. The gospels record several incidents where Christ could have been killed. The first one was when Harod had all the children two years or under killed in Bethlehem. The Pharisees and a synagogue congregation tried to murder him as well but he slipped through the crowd for his time was not yet come.

God is portrayed in the Bible as the heavenly Father because he has tried so hard to protect humanity from harm but without turning us into robots. Israel, through whom he established the lineage of Christ, constantly went through periods of apostasy but God didn't utterly snuff them all out. Think about this. Would you or I tolerate the horrendous disrespect and scorn continually heaped  on us as is dished out to God? I doubt it.

Old Testament prophesies also predicted that God's innocent son would take our punishment for sin. Read the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah. It's like he saw and recorded the whole trial and crucifixion of Christ. I could dig up more instances but this blog post would become too long.

You Think You're Going to Heaven is my next book and I hope to delve deeply into this and other questions which people invariably ask. I've wondered about these things myself and I want to share the answers I've found.

Who Made You an Expert?

Folks often ask this question when they don't accept a person's argument. Even so, it's a fair question when people present their views on God, heaven, and other spiritual matters.

In my case, my authority is the Word of God. It has continually proven itself correct in its prophecies, history, archeology, and it's power to convict us of sin.

The Bible's message is astonishingly consistent. Its sixty-six books were penned over a 1,500-year period by different authors from diverse lands. Furthermore, the texts from ancient fragments of bible books are consistent with what we have in our Bibles today. And unlike what I was taught by a false prophet in a cultic house church, the texts have remained almost totally unaltered  through the thousands of years they have existed.

Some folks might ask, "How do you know that your interpretation is correct?" First of all, Jesus Christ said the Holy Spirit will lead his disciples into all truth. I rely upon those spirit-led men to present the unadulterated revelation from God. When I become puzzled, reliable scholars such as John MacArthur and R. C. Sproul show me what abstruse scriptures mean.

Hermeneutics, the science of interpreting scripture with scripture, is a skill I've learned by way of exceptional Bible scholars. The Word of God must be treated literately, understanding the various genres of the books and of the times they were written in. Idioms are used in the Bible which make no sense when translated into English. Knowing their meaning clears up so many misunderstandings.

I've learned the hard way that not everybody calling himself or herself a Bible teacher is really teaching the scriptures properly. The cannon of scripture was closed in the first century. Any purported revelation since then has been proven false.

In my How I Was Razed testimony, I wrote about the outrageous nonsense which a false prophet taught me and how God led me to the truth. Contact me for details on how to obtain this wondrous memoir.

Where's the Proof That God Exists?

I know it's rude to answer a question with a question. Even so, what do people who ask this question mean by proof? According to the Bible, God has shown himself through nature, divine revelation, and in the person of Jesus Christ.

In creation, we can see his purpose and foreknowledge. Though we live in a fallen world where nature is red in tooth and claw, the wonders of his created works declare that they didn't happen by chance and random processes. For example, Monarch butterflies metamorphose from almost blind caterpillars to graceful flyers with excellent eyesight. They travel thousands of miles to winter in Mexico, all without aid of GPs or compass. This is just one of many examples I could cite.

I've blogged before about prophecy and how the prophets spoke of events which came to pass years or centuries later. We've continually seen just how far off human-inspired predictions have been so those fulfillment's of ancient prophecies can only be from a divine source.

God also visited humanity via Jesus Christ. Since his appearance in the dark clouds and fire on the mountain frightened the crap out of the Israelites when Moses led them out of Egypt, he became a human being who people could touch and relate to. By the way, the folks who gave Christ the most grief were the Pharisees, not common sinners. Those experts in the scriptures should have recognized all the fulfilled prophecies of the Messiah in the person of Jesus, yet they couldn't let go of their stamped ideas of what he would be like. Therefore, they framed him and had the Romans put him to death. When Christ rose again, the Pharisees bribed the tomb guards to say they fell asleep and the disciples stole his body.

My point here is that whatever proof people demand, they most likely won't accept the evidence already provided by God.

I once had stamped ideas about God before he freed me from them. How I Was Razed is a testimony of how the Lord providentially led me to freedom. Contact me for details about purchasing this wondrous story of God's providential grace.

Why Give God Thanks?

In this increasingly secular society, the true meaning of Thanksgiving Day is becoming lost. To many individuals, it's just a break from work and another day to sleep in. If only people could understand that we have God Almighty to thank for our daily blessings.

Scientists have taught people that we just happened here by accident. The perfection we see in nature is merely a function of natural laws. But why should these laws be present and active universally in the first place? Gravity works the same way across the cosmos. Light travels at a constant speed everywhere. Effects always have causes. The only way an effect, such as life, came into being is by a cause greater or equal to itself.

Evolution relies upon random chance and billions of years to explain how life came into being. The flaw in that idea is entropy. If a single protein molecule came into being by chance, so many destructive factors would cancel it out. Forming two protein molecules would take infinitely more time. Some scientists postulate the notion of parallel universes but that only magnifies the number of random destructive forces.

As I've pointed out earlier, all biological processes need to be  present and working simultaneously or the organism in question dies. The chemical reactions in the human eye alone show that there couldn't have been a slow process of additive mutations to create the end product.

God's fingerprints are all over creation. We can ascertain his existence by the wondrous interrelationship of various organisms and the intelligence present in their DNA. Even our ability to reason is a gift from the Lord.

The sophistry of evolutionists once fooled me but now I know better. I wrote about this in a book called How I Was Razed: A Journey from Cultism to Christianity. Contact me for details on how to purchase this awesome testimony of God's providence.