Moral Authority

There is a movie called “Time Changer”, about a man who gets transported through time several hundred years from the past to modern day. It’s a lesson for him because in his time period he was writing a book about how good principals could be taught without the need of mentioning Christ: where the principals come from. 

He soon learns of the desensitization that has occurred in our world now that morals are taught without the authority of Christ. If we tell someone that it is wrong to steal, but don’t tell them why or who said that it was wrong to steal, it means nothing to them. People need to know that it isn’t wrong just because it’s wrong, it’s wrong because God says so.

When we teach morality without authority, we don’t get results. If we had laws, but no police department to enforce them, everyone would break the laws because there is no authority to hold them accountable. That’s why people once called police officers “Authorities”, we have to answer for our mistakes and crimes. It is the same with God’s laws, the laws of morality and humanity.

We have been given guidelines and mandates for our lives. The Ten Commandments, the commands of Christ to love each other and worship only Him are for our protection as much as our pleasure. God wants His people to be safe, so He tells us not to kill each other. God doesn’t want us to kill each other so He said not to steal, deceive, or covet. God loves you, He wants you to both be safe and joyful. So, He gave you laws to abide by for safety and blessing.

We need to make sure we tell people the values and the rules with who gives us those values and rules and why they are important. The morals alone are not enough to make people abide by them. We can’t teach anything without authority, else why would anyone listen? So teach morals with the authority of Christ.

As always, thanks for reading.

–the anonymous novelist
 

Dear Idiots:

You know who you are, but who you are doesn’t make you an idiot. What you do makes you an idiot. I’ll be using some very strong words in this post, and to be completely clear in my meanings, I’d like to define them from the start.

Pervert: alter something from its original state to a corruption of what was intended.

Desecrate: treat a sacred place with violent disrespect.

Man: an adult human male.

Woman: an adult human female.

Idiot: a stupid person.

Those are all fairly straightforward, but the one I want to start with is: idiot. That is the litteral definition of the word “idiot” from the New Oxford American Dictionary. Even the definition is… Well, stupid. Synonyms of idiot are: ignorant, stupid(obviously), unintelligent, and mentally handicapped. So, what do you call it when a major department store, and let’s just say for argument sake that this store is Target, starts allowing men identifying as women to share a restroom with actual women? Based upon the definitions we just looked at, I would call Target(the management), idiots.

First things first, even should a man say that he is a woman, we still consider him a man who says he is a woman and not a woman. Therefore his, “gender identity” may be woman, but he is still a male who identifies himself as such. The real point is that being a man and being a male are slightly different. Male is a position, not just a moniker. Whereas the word man is a distinction from other created beasts that can technically mean both male and female: “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.”, (Genesis 1:27 ), the words male and female are not. 

Female is a gender title that refers to the position in reproduction, and the make and model of the appearance and functionality of a person. Male, likewise refers to a specific role in reproduction and operates entirely opposite, but in complete compatibility with the female. You can’t change your gender, it is biologically, biblically, and ethically impossible. God, as well as nature forbids it.

At the very least, for such perverts there ought to be a third restroom designated. And I use the word pervert in the strongest possible sense. Not only are these humans perverting God’s plan in the most disgusting way, they are perverting nature and even our government. 

This issue, for which we can hold the transgender crowd alone responsible, is causing strife and contention between the once united States, even greater than the election of President Obama. It is the single most destructive movement whose purpose is to attempt to pervert and desecrate the United States, Christianity, and the order of the world. It’s as if they’ve painted a target on their backs that says, “kick me”. Something like we would do as kids as a joke, and laugh about how stupid the person was to not notice. Idiots deserve to get a good kick in the pants. But are they idiots…? Or are they idiot geniuses? 

Without intending to, this freak of nature movement has endangered the safety of all the nations. They have painted a target upon the heads of the world. You thought Sodom and Gomorrah got it bad for their abomination, think of what would happen to the United States of America, or the UK, or Canada, or Germany, or Japan, or Nigeria if this movement took over. God’s wrath would be so hot upon that country you would feel it in Antarctica.

But, back to Target: why stop there? Why not have species neutral restrooms? Just so we’re not discriminating of course. Why not specify that murders, rapists, child abductors, cannibals, sexual perverts, and all other manner of sinners are allowed into the women’s restroom? Simply because an idiot “believes” that they are something does not make it so. If I told you I was a 5’4 African/American Jewish Imam from Switzerland, you would stare blankly and then walk away. Why? Because what I told you would be so absurdly skewed and twisted that you would think me insane.

Yet, even that statement above would be more realistic than a male by birth, nature, and ordinance of God to physically be able to change his gender. Are we really that stupid? I almost can’t believe it.

Target has been a sick example of the drastic decline in moral values in the world today, but mainly in the US. The fact that we even have this problem of transgender, perverted idiots, who are obviously ignorant of God’s law, or indignant of it, is a sign of the end of time. Christ’s coming is near, sinners need to repent. This sickness in our souls, this befouling in our spirits can only be cured by the gospel of Jesus Christ, which is power of God unto salvation to them that believe. There are no grey lines, there is no such thing as neutrality. Choose a side: believe God or die.

For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

–Romans 6:23

As always, thanks for reading.

–the anonymous novelist 

The Devil Made Me Do It

The oldest lie in scripture, the oldest lie in all of history, is the lie “The Devil made me do it”. First things first, Eve was in the garden and the serpent told her to eat of the fruit, she said that God told them no, and so the serpent gives his lame deception. Well, Eve had never encountered deception and didn’t know how to handle it, yet, she knew responsibilty and respect, and disobeyed anyway. 

Alright, so we’re caught up. What stands out in this story that causes us to think the Eve may have been more at fault than the serpent? Wait a minute-, did I just say that the serpent wasn’t at fault? Yes, the serpent was more innocent than Eve, or rather, they were equally guilty, as both played a part in this sin.

Here are the facts: the serpent(Satan) tempted Eve by offering her a fruit from the plant God had outlawed, Eve took it and ate it.

It seems to be straight forward, the Devil made her do it, right? Wrong. Let’s take this back to The Book.

And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.

—Genesis 3:6

What, in this passage implies that Eve knew what she was doing? What would give me reason to blame this on her?

The Bible says, quote- “And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit...“- unquote. Do you know what that says to me? It says that Eve tempted herself. Eve convinced herself by sense, (the fruit was useful), by her senses, (the fruit was appealing), and by sensibility, (the fruit was alluring), so she took it. Sure, Satan opened the door, but Eve’s own heart betrayed her, telling her to eat the fruit.

Nowhere in this scene do we see any reference to Eve wondering why God told her not to eat of the fruit. The Scriptures don’t say that “Eve looked upon the fruit and remembered the words of God telling her not to eat of it”, it doesn’t say that “Eve thought about what she was doing”. The Bible says, (paraphrase), that every part of Eve convinced her to forget God and follow her heart.

The Devil didn’t make her do it. The Devil didn’t make the tree, or Eve, or the fruit. The Devil cannot make anything, he can only disrupt what God makes. Eve made Eve sin, the Devil just helped.

Now, Eve got special attention because she was the first lady, so I don’t want to hear you say, “the Devil made me do it”. Let me tell you, the Devil has bigger fish to fry than to make you steal a comic book or cheat on a math test. 

Be realistic, you made yourself do it. That’s one of the consequences of a free will. If we would start taking responsibility for our actions, we’d be a much more mature people…and they wonder why humanity is getting dumber and dumber as centuries pass, we’re crediting our actions on others, namely Satan, but also God, and avoiding both censure and punishment, as well as praise and reward. How can we grow if we do not own our actions. Take responsibility for yourself, and give credit, even if it’s bad credit, where credit’s due.

As always, thanks for reading.

—the anonymous novelist

Identity Chrisis

No, I did not misspell the word “crisis”, I have a purpose behind that extra letter. Allow me to explain. I was browsing Facebook and saw a shared post of Victoria Osteen speaking. Now, immediately a million different ideas sprang into my mind, the Osteens have a rather dubious legacy of twisting scripture and Joel Osteen has long been the poster-child for the health, wealth, and prosperity gospel. In a nutshell, that means that he, “preaches”, the parts of the Bible that mean good things for the Christian. Osteen is famous for being a motivational speaker, but a lousy pastor for he doesn’t regard all of Scripture, and doesn’t charge his congregation to go into all the world and preach the gospel.

With that in mind, I had low expectations for whatever Victoria Osteen had to say. I played the video anyway and what I heard blew me away. She said, and I quote: “Jesus was man until God touched him, and put the spirit of the living God on the inside of him.”. Heretical! Utter nonsense! I actually laughed at the stupidity and ignorance of that statement.

What was she thinking! What Jesus did she know? Because, whoever she was talking about was not the Jesus I know. The Jesus I know is God, came to earth as all God, all Man, and lived without sin, something only God could do. How can God move into the heart of Himself? To say that Jesus Christ, at any point in His existence was not God is heresy.

Divine deity, absolute sovereignty, eternal omniscience: this Jesus was God in all things. He was the Word and the Word was with God, and the Word was God; and the Word became flesh, (Jesus Christ, virgin born son of God).

How can we even hold in question the deity of Christ? Where in the Bible can you find grounds for such an assumption? And, should you twist a verse significantly enough to construe its meaning to agree with this concept, how can you deny the host of clear cut, simple-messaged verses proclaiming otherwise? Jesus was God, God was Jesus.

To deny the innate deity of Christ is to make temporal the everlasting, finite the infinite, and claiming that the immutable God can be less than Sovereign over all. To say that The Spirit of God moved into Jesus is heresy, but more poignantly it is ignorance, whether willful or no.

If ever there was a false Prophet among us, it is Osteen and her concepts and ideas.

For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears;

-2 Timothy 4:3

People want to hear a lie. The Christian life as Jesus tells it is not easy, in fact, the Christian life is impossible. For to be Christian, by definition is to be Christ-like. For this to happen, we must be perfect, without sin or spot, and humans of their own accord and in their own strength cannot. The appeal of Victoria Osteen’s message is that anyone can become a God, if God finds favor in them. People want to hear that they can have everything they want. But, God says that if we ask we shall receive, how can we be dissatisfied with those terms?

What happens when we ask and still do not receive what we requested? All He said to do was ask. Yet we see later the reason.

Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.

-James 4:3

We need to wake up. Nothing good comes without a price of some kind. Everything costs someone something. If you believe that being a Christian means a carefree life, study the history of the first church, and study the bible itself. Even today Christians are dying for their faith, does that sound like an easy life? Did Christ have an easy life? No. So those of us who are striving to be Christ-like should welcome and embrace the difficulty, rejoicing that we were counted worthy to share in the sufferings of Christ. That is the gospel, that is Christianity. Life is pain, anyone who says different is trying to sell you something.

With Christ, even the hardest trails can be the greatest joy. Our trails are His triumphs; cliché, I know, but still true. If Jesus was just a man at any point in His existence, He would have sinned. It is impossible for a man not to sin, otherwise why would we need a savior. If Jesus was just a man, then there is no salvation and Christ’s death was in vain. Believe. The truth is the Word of God, study it, memorize it, live it.

As always, thanks for reading.

—the anonymous novelist