What God has joined...

When the Pharisees asked Jesus about divorce, He took them back to “the beginning”, showing them that God’s plan was one man with one woman becoming one flesh for life. He concluded His statement with, “Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate” (Matthew 19:6).

The devastation that no-fault divorce has brought on society cannot be estimated. The heart-breaking consequences of a marriage break-down, particularly on children, cannot be exaggerated.

But as you go back to Genesis you find that God has not only joined husbands and wives. There are other things He puts together that are not to be separated.

A matter of taste or a matter of fact?

I had an interesting conversation recently with a very friendly lady who introduced herself to me as a Pagan / Wiccan, with a bit of Mormon thrown in.

Imagine...

Imagine

Imagine there's no heaven
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today... Aha-ah...

You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will be as one

John Lennon (1971)

John Lennon invites us to imagine what it would be like if there were no heaven or hell. Let’s do just that.

Redefining and refining...

Yesterday would have been George Orwell's 112th birthday. Animal Farm was required reading for us in English Literature class at school, but it was only in the last few years I actually read his book 1984. 

The law of excluded middle

I have noticed over the last wee while that atheists, agnostics and other kinds of unbelievers very often flaunt ignorance as a virtue and they vilify claims of knowledge as arrogance. When evidence of the existence of God is presented they retreat to "I don't know, and it's arrogant for anyone to think they do. We don't know what discoveries might be made that will overturn everything you claim to know." Now the first thing I want to say on this is it is completely disingenuous. They only function that way when the evidence points toward the God of scripture. When anything comes to light that they think supports evolution, undermines scripture or attacks Christianity they jump on it with gusto. Furthermore, when it comes to other theories and conclusions about science and history they are prepared to believe what is well supported evidentially and act accordingly; they don't withhold judgment saying that something could come along and overturn all this - "I don't buy in to this theory, there could be some other explanation..." It shows they aren't guided by reason and evidence at all, despite all their big claims. But, what I want to show here is that when it comes to some of the arguments for Christianity they cannot retreat to some unknown option - there is none. This is where the law of excluded middle comes in.

Further correspondence with the atheist

In my last post I showed you a letter I wrote to an atheist I had a conversation with a few weeks ago. He responded by totally ignoring what I said, and instead he sent me a list of "atrocities" and "contradictions" in the Bible. I will go through all that he sent in a subsequent post, but I'm going to let you see what I sent to him in response.

The atheist and the shopping trolley

I just received some mail from a very courageous atheist who unfortunately forgot to give his name or address. He (we shall assume my correspondent was male) didn't have anything particularly meaningful to say, but he did include the following joke:

Why Sandy Hook makes me glad (and more sure) Christianity is true

The unspeakably tragic shooting in Connecticut leaves me praying for the families involved, but also praising God for the truth of the Christian worldview.

Still without a leg to stand on

I wrote last year about a man (Robbie) with whom I had a long and interesting conversation (see here, here and here).  Well, I just spoke to him again today, and sadly he still holds to the same denials of reason and reality, all the while denouncing those who disagree as unintelligent.

Surely it's wrong to be sure???

I want to talk about something that we hear a lot in our society in which people love to be offended.

So?

I was talking to a man yesterday about the reality of salvation.  He told me that he used to work in the Middle East and would be more inclined toward Islam.

True for you, not for me!

It was a weird conversation - this gentleman maintained that there was no objective truth, I asked him if his statement was true...