Utopia? (02/200

You know what utopia means: a dream world, an ideal political system, social perfection… basically, a perfect world. Utopia, in my opinion is a chasing after the wind. No matter how far back you look into history you will find humanity unhappy with its state and seeking a better life. Even the only two people who ever actually lived utopia on earth (Adam and Eve) searched for something more. What’s wrong with the human heart! No matter the time in history you will find people always wanting more money for more pleasure and comfort, people serving others to restrain their masters’ corrections, powers making wars over countries claiming they needed to get rid of imperfect peoples, others caring just for the world around so that the world would love and accept them, people leaving their countries and discovering new lands to start society all over again, people going green so to preserve the rotting planet and so much more. All these people lived in the way they did because they wanted utopia, either on a personal or on a society level.

Why does it work that way? Why can’t we finally reach utopia? There are many factors for the problematic and I think I know only a few of them.

1. Human beings once lived in utopia (the garden of Eden) but they rejected God’s authority over them, they wanted to be His equal. Because of it, God kicked them out (how can imperfect beings live in a perfect world and be in the presence of a perfect God?). Because human beings had asked for it -to live as their own providers and masters - God gave them what they wanted and accomplished what He had promised when He had told them what would happen if they would disobey Him. God allowed suffering, pain, hardship, disease and death to enter in the world - or maybe it is human beings that came into the cursed world. (check out Genesis 2 and 3)

2. Throughout history God is always active in the lives of human beings. He is always there, telling people that the only way to find utopia again is by first of all going back to Him and following Him. Which makes sense since humans had lost utopia because they decided to reject God’s authority. God used people who loved God and lived under God’s authority to spread God’s way of doing things and dealing with humans. And since the beginning, God was pointing to a major event in history, where He’d send someone who would bring utopia again.

3. Jesus came, claiming that the Kingdom of God was near, that utopia was possible right now. But people did not believe Him and rejected His message. They even went as far as killing Him. Jesus was actually the Son of God, Go Himself who had come on earth, born of a virgin. God had come on earth and had offered utopia, peace with God and joy everlasting. By dying on the cross, Jesus paid the death penalty that each of us deserve for rejecting God and seeking utopia in our own ways. Our rebellion had to be forgiven and the only way God would forgive us was not by asking us to do ABC, there is no substitution for sin other than the blood of Jesus, our own efforts to do good and save ourselves by good deeds is not acceptable before God and will never be enough. Jesus rose from the dead on the third day after he was killed and is now with God in “heaven”.

4. So what? Jesus promised utopia to all who confess that they are sinners, helpless sinners that can’t do one thing in payment for their disobedience, who turn away from their sins and believe, put their confidence in Jesus: that He is the Son of God, that He died for their sins and that He is alive today. God offers salvation to all who turn in faith to Him and solely believe in Jesus.

5. Jesus promised He will come back and will establish His reign. Those who, during their lives, put their confidence in Him for salvation, will be with Him forever and those who rejected Him, will receive what they asked for: not to be under God’s authority, they will go to hell for eternity - their sins unforgiven. Jesus promises a new earth and a new heaven and a Holy city where He will live with all the forgiven people. God will “wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain.” (Revelation 21:4) God calls the forgiven ones “blessed” “happy”.

Human beings won’t ever be able to create utopia - we’re imperfect. Only God, who is holy and who knows what we really need and how we what we were created for (He’s our Creator…) can give us this utopia that we can’t even imagine how great and amazing it is.

Is Jesus Savior of ALL? (10/2007)

One thing that we should ask ourselves is the following: What does it mean when people say that Jesus came to save the world? We need to be saved from what?

“Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners…” (The Bible, 1 Timothy 1:15)

Jesus came to save people from their sins. How is this relevant to me?

“Jesus told this parable: ‘Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: “God, I thank you that I am not like other men -robbers, evildoers, adulterers- or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get. But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’ I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God.’.” (The Bible, Luke 18:9-14)

We all know that we sometimes or often do things that aren’t nice. Yes, we are all sinners. But Jesus does not save on the basis that we are sinners. In the passage above, even though the Pharisee did a lot of good things, Jesus says that he was not justified before God. Rather, it is the tax collector, the one who wouldn’t even dare lift up his eyes to the sky because he felt so poor and incapable and sinner before God, it is him that God justified.
God saves helpless sinners who know they can’t do a thing to be accepted by God, who know that all the good they can achieve will never be enough, because they are dead rats before God who is holy and perfect, they are sinners and can’t live in the presence of this holy God. Weather we like it or not, sin is a major problem, and God hates sin. That’s why He sent His Son, God Himself, to earth to save us from our sins. So the answer is NO. Jesus does not automatically save everybody that go to church or that were baptized or whatnot. Jesus saves the individuals who won’t believe in themselves, what they’ve done or not done, to be acceptable to God/go to heaven, Jesus saves the individuals who acknowledge their sinfulness and need for a Savior and believe that Jesus is the Son of God and died for their sins and rose again, and that it is not by any human work, effort or word that one can be made right with God.

Maybe it’s hard for us to grasp but we simply need to look at our views and our lives. What is my personal view/belief about how a person gets to heaven? Do I believe that one needs to lead a pretty good life and balance out the good and the bad done? Do I believe that I’ll be able to discuss this issue with God when I die and I’ll argue my cause and He’ll let me in?

If I’d be you, I’d take the time to consider what God says about the issue of sin and why and how He can save you from it so that you can be right with Him. You are not saved because you grew up in a Christian family or because you were baptized when you were a baby or because you followed the church’s requirements and laws. God cannot be mocked. God saves helpless sinners through Jesus and so Jesus is Savior of those who put their entire and sole trust in Him to be made right with God, to be cleansed from their sins so their are acceptable to God, not by their own efforts, but by Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross.

“Who then can be saved? Jesus replied, ‘What is impossible with men is possible with God.’” (The Bible, Luke 18:26-27)

You cannot be saved as long as you think it is possible to save yourself. It is God who saves, not you.

On who God is (10/2007)

It is quite surprising how people can quickly draw a picture of God that has no resemblance to God. People easily say that God has no authority or power to make me do or keep me from doing something, God does not have time to care about my daily happenings because He’s got more important things to take care of… just to say a couple. Where are those beliefs found? What are the sources to back up those ideas? Personal opinions have no weight in this matter, only what God has revealed of Himself is reliable and this is found in the Book He has given us, the Bible (often referred to as the Word of God).

David, a former king of Israel who was inspired by God wrote: ” O Lord you have searched me and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely, O Lord. (…) you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. (…) All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.” (Bible, Psalm 139:1-4, 13, 16)

God says, “For every living soul belongs to me” (Bible, Ezekiel 18:4)

God is often portrayed, in the Bible, as a shepherd who cares for His sheep (Psalm 23:1) and a mother who comforts her child (Isaiah 66:13).

God has created us, personally, He has set a time for our birth and our death. God knows everything we do, even the unspoken thoughts we have, all the time. God knows us and cares for us, we are His.

Moses, an early leader of the people of Israel, inspired by God said, “Before the mountains were born or you brought forth the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God. You turn men back to dust, saying, ‘Return to dust, O sons of men.’ For a thousand years in your sight are like a day that has just gone by, or like a watch in the night.” (Bible, Psalm 90:1-4)

God has no beginning and no end, He lives in eternity and time dwells in Him. God does not “spend” time doing something. He is outside time and has power over our very lives, each minute. The belief that God has no time for mere little human beings who don’t do anything very impressive, is totally foreign to the Bible and is contradictory to what is revealed about God in the Bible. God is never busy with big things happening in some big places of the world and so has no time to care about the words I say to my neighbour or the hair that has fallen from my head two minutes ago. The Bible teaches that God is outside our box-time and is infinite. God is not constrained by anything and anybody. He does as He pleases, at all times.

“I am the Alpha and the Omega, ” says the Lord God, “who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty.” (Bible, Revelation 1:

There is a lot more to say about who God is, but I simply wanted to pinpoint here that God cares for us, knows us, lives outside time, so is no constrained by it, and that God can do all things, He is almighty.

On Evangelicalism (10/2007)

Evangelicalism as a movement has historically stood against handling important Bible doctrine in such an indifferent way - as if truth itself were pliable. Evangelicals’ primary distinctive used to be their commitment to the purity of the gospel. That commitment is reflected in the word evangelical itself (which is derived from the Greek word for “gospel”). William Tyndale was one of the first to use the expression, speaking of “evangelical truth” as a synonym for the gospel. And the evangelical movement has always treated the gospel as the core and foundation of all truth.

Since the Protestant Reformation, the term has historically been used to signify a particular stain of conservative Protestantism in which a handful of key gospel doctrines are regarded as absolutely essential to authentic Christianity. There nonnegociable evangelical distinctives include the doctrine of justification by faith, the principle of substitutionary atonemen, and perfect sufficiency of Scripture. (Of course, necessarily implied and included in that short list are a number of other vital doctrines, including Christ’s deity, His virgin birth, and His bodily resurrection.)

Evangelism had furthermore always expressly denied that any good works or sacraments have any merit before God or any instrumental efficacy for justification. So the stress in historic evangelism is properly placed on the primacy of faith over works. Evangelicals have always resisted the pressure to elevate good works over sound doctrine, insisting that truly good works are th fruit of faith, never a valid substitute for it.

- John MacArthur