Christian Philosophy: Everyone Has a Philosophy. It's The Lens Through Which They View The World and Make Decisions. (18 page)

The suffering of this life is not worthy of being compared with the glory that will be revealed in us (Romans 8:18). We have something so awesome prepared for us in the presence of God that we won’t give a second thought to the heartache and rejection we experienced in this life. Nobody in heaven is grieving over the things that happened to them during their lives on earth. If you were to really think about this, you wouldn’t have any fear of poverty, sickness, or failure. Whatever this world has to throw at you, God has something greater in store.

God has been misrepresented as causing the tragedy in our world, and I believe that is the number one reason people are not seeking relationship with Him. If you think God is causing the problems in your life, then you’ll want to keep Him at arm’s length—even if you are a Christian. It’s a natural response to try to avoid people and situations that might hurt you. But God isn’t causing the suffering in our world. In fact, God has nothing to do with it.

God loves you, and He desires good things for you, but experiencing the love of God passes mere knowledge about His love (Ephesians 3:19). Once you understand how good God is and begin having a real relationship with Him, you open yourself to receiving His love and being filled with all the fullness of God. The blessings of God will come upon you and overtake you, and it will cause everything to work out for good in your life.

Part II

Social Issues: Christians Must Speak Up

B
efore we start looking at the biblical perspective on social issues and how to apply our Christian philosophy, I want to establish my right as a minister to discuss current affairs. I feel like this is necessary because many people have adopted the attitude that ministers can say all they want—as long as they stay in church. Much of society thinks that Christianity should be a privately held conviction that never gets talked about publicly.

In America, the notion of “separation of church and state” has been misunderstood and misapplied. Contrary to popular belief, the phrase does not appear anywhere in Constitution of the United States, but was used in a private letter written by Thomas Jefferson in reference to state-sponsored religion. He was against the government mandating the religion of its citizens—his statement had nothing to do with Christianity being totally removed from the public arena. There is a big difference between the two.

Critics have used the phrase “separation of church and state” to beat Christians into retreat. Unbelievers want us to withdraw into the walls of church buildings and not speak out on moral issues, but you can’t separate Christianity from current affairs. The very notion of worldview means that your life is influenced—if not determined—by what you believe. You cannot compartmentalize your life into a separation of religious conviction and political affiliation. Who you are, what you believe, and how you act in everyday life are inseparable. Jesus said that a house divided won’t stand for long (Mark 3:25), so you’re headed for trouble when you try to divide your life into parts that relate to God and parts that don’t.

Christians have every right to speak out on current affairs because the stance you take on social issues is as relevant to your relationship with God as church affairs. If your position on social issues is in opposition to God’s revealed will, then you are creating a division in yourself that will, at the very least, make you insensitive to God’s leading. The Bible has a lot to say about moral issues in society, and ministers need to talk about morality so Christians understand the biblical perspective.

One reason ungodliness is advancing in our culture is that a lot of Christians have retreated from the public forum. They have been intimidated into silence, but we shouldn’t draw back from those who oppose God. Scripture says,

Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thine heart: thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbour, and not suffer sin upon him. Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself: I am the LORD.

Leviticus 19:17-18

Jesus quoted this passage when He said that the two greatest commandments are to love God, and to love your neighbor as yourself (Matthew 22:37-40). This passage in Leviticus says that loving your neighbor can mean letting them know when they are wrong, by not allowing them to live in sin ignorantly. Actually, the command to rebuke your neighbor is given as the opposite of hating your neighbor in your heart—by allowing them to live in sin without any reproach. Remaining silent while the world around you revels in sin isn’t loving your neighbor; it’s esteeming yourself above your neighbor.

It’s true that the moment you speak out against immorality, people who disagree with you are going to say things to try to shut you up, like calling you intolerant or close-minded, but we can’t let criticism and persecution keep us from speaking the truth in love. Despite what some think, morality isn’t relative to the circumstances. Certain things are always wrong, and Christians should speak out against those things. We can’t keep quiet about immorality because we are afraid of criticism.

I have received a lot of criticism over the years for speaking out on social issues. My television program has been removed from television stations, and the broadcasting channel in one country has edited out material they considered provocative. They do this not because I’m saying mean or offensive things, but because some biblical positions are not considered politically correct enough to mention on television. I don’t like rejection and criticism, but I’m not going to stop speaking the truth just because some people don’t want to hear it.

Sometimes loving your neighbors means telling them when they are wrong, so it isn’t hate speech to tell someone the truth. The Word says, “Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thine heart: thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbor, and not suffer sin upon him.” When you know something is wrong, but refuse to talk about it because you don’t want to be criticized, then your behavior shows hate toward the person who is engaged in wrongdoing.

I believe it is especially important for ministers to speak out on moral issues because a lot of Christians honestly don’t know what the Word of God says about some of the things happening today. Many Christians have been listening to worldly perspectives for so long that they have taken on worldly attitudes. Their moral compass is completely out of whack.

I’m going to give you the scriptural perspective on current social issues such as evolution, abortion, and homosexuality, but I’m also going to discuss the natural evidence that supports those biblical positions. I’m satisfied just knowing what the Word of God says, but I know many Christians who have adopted worldly viewpoints are going to want evidence from other sources, so I’m going to present the natural evidence. All of this is done to help you understand how to apply your Christian philosophy to issues you face in daily life.

The issues I will discuss are subjects about which I believe many Christians are confused. My hope is that you will discover truths you aren’t aware of, and it will reinforce your trust in the Word of God. With God there is forgiveness, and our job as Christians is to minister love to people lost in sin, so my motivation for speaking out against immorality is not to hurt anyone. I am not against sinners—but I am against sin, and the pain it causes. This should be your motivation for applying Christian philosophy in your life as well.

I live in the mountains of Colorado, and a number of years ago I was driving home on a foggy night with really poor visibility. A car passed me just as I was going into a sharp turn, and almost as soon as the car pulled in front of me, its brake lights came on and the car jerked violently. I immediately slammed on my brakes and swerved right to avoid hitting the car. I ended up stopping on the shoulder of the road right beside the other car, which had struck a horse. The car was seriously damaged as a result of the collision, and it was sitting in the middle of the road.

As I sat there wondering what to do, a large sport utility vehicle came around the corner behind me and had to swerve to avoid the car stuck in the middle of the road. As it swerved, the SUV ran over the horse carcass and the driver of the SUV was also injured.

At that point, both lanes of the curve were blocked on a dark foggy night, and people were driving 60 mph heading into the curve. I knew more people were going to get hurt if I didn’t do something to warn the oncoming traffic. I didn’t have a flashlight or anything, so the only thing I could do was stand out in the road and try to flag people down. The problem was it was so foggy that drivers couldn’t see me until they were so close it was dangerous. I was jumping out in front of cars going 60 mph, and they were slamming on their brakes and skidding all over the road.

A couple of people pulled over and got out of their vehicles to cuss me out. I’m sure they were pretty ticked off at me for scaring them, but I guarantee you that as soon as they came around the next corner and saw the wreck, they realized I was trying to help them. It was better for them to dodge a pedestrian attempting to slow them down, than to go full speed around the corner and plow into another vehicle.

It took the police thirty minutes to arrive at the accident and take control of the traffic. I don’t know how many people I stopped from speeding around the corner and getting into an accident, ujikbut it was a lot. People could have been killed. I risked bodily injury and criticism, but it was the right thing to do. It would have been selfish for me to get myself to safety and then stand by and watch car after car speed around the corner and crash into each other—just because I didn’t want to get involved or anger oncoming drivers by trying to flag them down.

I believe that speaking out on moral issues is a similar situation. The Word of God speaks against immoral behaviors because they are destructive. It would be selfish of me not to warn others of the dangers of destructive behavior just because I don’t want to be criticized. I know some people are going to call me intolerant and close-minded, but I am not discussing these things to make anyone angry. I’m speaking out on social issues to save lives and prevent injury, and I’m not going to let criticism or rejection prevent me from speaking the truth in love; because I believe it is not only the right of Christians to speak out on immoral trends in society, but our duty as well.

Creation vs. Evolution

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r. Richard Von Sternberg, an evolutionary biologist, is a former editor of a prominent scientific journal associated with the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. After an article which Dr. Von Sternberg chose to publish for the journal was printed, he was immediately pressured to resign, and an investigation into his political and religious beliefs was conducted. Halfway across the country at Baylor University, science professor Robert Marks, who was approaching tenure in his position at the college, suddenly had his professional website shut down by the university and was forced to return research grant money to the school.
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What horrible crime did these two well-respected scientists commit that sparked such outrage and drastic action to be taken against them? They dared to mention, within their sphere of influence, an evolutionist’s two most-feared words:
intelligent design
. Even the consideration of life being created instead of coming about as the result of random chance is considered heretical by evolutionists.

In Dr. Von Sternberg’s case, he published an article by another scientist who merely suggested that intelligent design might be able to explain how life began. Those in the scientific community were so upset about the article, that Von Sternberg was thereafter labeled as an “intellectual terrorist.”

As Professor Marks learned, even at some institutes of higher learning that carry a Christian label, like Baylor, being associated with any concept other than evolution can cost you your career. When the university discovered a link between Marks’ research and intelligent design, they completely ostracized him. For Marks, who used his website to promote himself and his research in order to obtain grant money, it was devastating, both financially and professionally. Professor Marks was shocked by Baylor’s reaction to his work. “I have never been treated like this in my thirty years of academia,” he stated.
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Dr. Von Sternberg and Professor Marks are only two examples of the kind of treatment a person can expect to receive when going against the tide of evolution. Hundreds, if not thousands, of excellent and well-loved professors have been fired or forced to resign for simply making a comment about intelligent design in their classrooms, even in those schools that pride themselves on having “healthy debate” and a “diversity of opinions.” And many scientists have found themselves blackballed from the scientific community, essentially ending their careers, because of research they’ve conducted that even hints at intelligent design.

But there are others—many others—who have evolved, so to speak, from believing in evolution to now believing in intelligent design or creationism, yet they do not dare to openly confess their new way of thinking. Hidden in our universities, high schools, and research labs, are ex-atheists, ex-agnostics, and ex-evolutionists who have discovered the lie behind evolution. Unfortunately, they must keep their discoveries to themselves.

So, it makes you wonder—what is it that the scientific and educational institutions are so afraid of? Why do they try so hard to squelch even the thought that something other than evolution is responsible for life?