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Countering contradictions

12/25/2019

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If you’re an obedient, gospel-sharing, Bible-believing Christian, you’ve no doubt run into this familiar challenge from scoffers: “The Bible is full of contradictions. On the one hand it says we should turn away from bad people. On the other, it says we shouldn’t judge anyone. Which is it?”
 
The short answer to such a protest is context – immediate and Bible-wide. If one faithfully studies out an alleged contradiction, he will eventually be able to resolve the issue. And in the process, he’ll gain invaluable wisdom.
 
Unfortunately, the “context” defense doesn’t seem to satisfy everyone. In such situations, it might help to use a worldly analogy.  
 
Say, for instance, that someone tells us his dog Bowser bit Joe Blow, and adds that Bowser is one good dog. Sounds contradictory, doesn’t it? But suppose we dig a little and find out that Joe Blow is a veterinarian, and his owner had taken his normally benign pup into the clinic with an extremely painful dental abscess. Or maybe we learn that Joe Blow is a burglar, and Bowser was simply defending his family.
 
Whatever the explanation, we see that context has resolved an apparent contradiction.
 
A book I read some time ago shows how this principle can be applied to Scripture – in this case, to show how it’s possible for a believer to be both in the world and of the world.
 
"If we had only the story of Lot's life as it is told in the book of Genesis, we would never have imagined that Lot was a true believer. But 2 Peter 2 tells us three times that this conflicted, compromised man was 'righteous' -- and more, that he was 'distressed' and tormented by life in Sodom … Ironically, though Lot was revolted by Sodom, Sodom was in his soul. It is possible, then, for a believer to be distressed by the world while willfully clinging to the world." (Set Apart: Calling a Worldly Church to a Godly Life, R. Kent Hughes, 2003, p. 13)  
 
The point is that you could look at multiple biblical references to Lot and wind up being confused: With all that happened with him, how could Peter, writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, call this man "righteous"? But when you look at the whole counsel of God, the answer comes into focus: Lot had not allowed himself to be fully "set apart" for God, which is the very definition of holy. Yet he was a believer, and his God-given righteousness did express itself in his refusal to participate in, or condone, Sodom’s sin.
 
There are many other biblical principles folded into these thoughts, but I think it’s a good illustration of why a scoffer can’t justify taking a couple verses out of context and saying they contradict each other. Just as we needed more information to determine how biting Bowser could possibly be called “good,” he would do well to look for more information in the face of an apparent biblical contradiction.
 
Of course, this assumes that our scoffer wants to resolve the alleged contradiction. And that's another issue entirely. 
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An irresistible story -- and now it's free!

12/17/2019

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UPDATE: UNTAKEN IS NOW FREE FOR THE ASKING!

Just heard from the author that this terrific ebook is available free via a number of websites, all accessible at books2read.com. Here, you can choose your favorite ebook reader and then download the book at no charge (except for Kindle; Amazon insists on charging $0.99). If you do read it, I hope you'll consider posting a review, perhaps on its Amazon page. In the meantime ... 

Here's my review   
 
There are so many things I love about this book, starting with the subject: What will it be like for those who are left behind when the Rapture occurs? What might they think about what has happened? How might they react?
 
What born-again Christian has not thought about these things in the face of beloved unbelievers’ stubborn resistance to the good news of Jesus Christ? Wyler tells us what she thinks, and I suspect she’s right.
 
To be honest, I didn’t like narrator Sarah Colton very much, but I think that’s because she reminded me of myself before I came to Christ (and sometimes since then, I’m ashamed to admit). She’s a self-absorbed feminist atheist, viewing the world through her own selfish eyes. Just one example: When a plane crashes near her home, the ambitious photojournalist grabs her equipment and races to capture the scene on video. Her motive? “This will make me famous. Sarah Colton has arrived …” (location 736). 
 
The author’s presentation of Sarah is consistent from start to finish. More than once, I wondered how someone so familiar with what Scripture says about everything from salvation to the Rapture could also have such accurate insight into a feminist atheist’s thinking. It’s really a brilliant character sketch.
 
I also appreciate Wyler’s generous use of foreshadowing. It’s fairly subtle; there’s none of the obvious “you could hear her coming in her wooden shoes” foretelling. But it’s the sort of thing that makes this reader’s heart smile when it plays itself out.
 
Then there’s the pacing. It’s flawless. The author continually turns up the tension and then gives the reader a breather with detours into less intense territory. For instance, in location 751, Sarah is rushing out to capture the aftermath of the crash on camera. Her heart is pounding, and so is mine. She takes this opportunity to tell us about her witnessing the convenience-store shooting of the governor’s son. Not a pleasant diversion, to be sure; but it’s in the past and Sarah has clearly survived the incident, so it lets the reader relax for a few moments.
 
But not for long. Wyler ramps it up again in short order, keeping my pulse racing and my eyes leaping through page after digital page.
 
As a result, I found it difficult to set this book aside. That may be due in part to the author’s use of the present tense throughout. Interestingly, I’m not at all a fan of present-tense novels; in the past, it has always struck me as gimmicky. But not in this case. The present tense is integral to the story. And Wyler handled it so transparently that I didn’t even notice it until I was halfway through the book.
 
But perhaps my favorite thing about Untaken is Sarah’s voice. This book is not simply written in the first person; it is written to the reader. Sarah holds a running conversation with you from beginning to end. She asks you what you think, and if you saw, heard, or felt what she did. She wonders if you’re still with her, or have abandoned her, as of course you are free to do. She invites you to tell her what you would do if you were in her shoes.
 
She gets kind of personal, too. In the aforementioned scene when she’s racing to the crash site, she asks, “Are you keeping up with me? I do not know what shape you are in healthwise, but step it up as we must get to the scene before anyone else does.”
 
Sarah even admonishes the reader a time or two for failing to help her. “Are you here with me?” she asks at location 1784. “But why do I bother asking you? You have been of no help since we started this relationship.”
 
It’s crazy and I found it endearing. Since there’s nothing new under the sun, as Solomon told us in Ecclesiastes, I suppose that other writers have pioneered this technique. But I’d certainly never seen it. In fact, I’ve never read anything quite like Untaken.
 
A bonus: Wyler closes with an interesting discussion of the choices she made in writing the story and an appeal for the reader to believe on Christ. She also includes Bible passages describing the Rapture and God’s plan of salvation.
 
Bottom line: This is an irresistible book that I think virtually any true believer would thoroughly enjoy--one that all unbelievers really should read and ponder, before it’s too late. Find it here.
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Suffering? Pay attention!

12/12/2019

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In recent weeks, we’ve been taking a look at the subject of suffering in our nursing-home Bible study—specifically exploring the oft-asked question, “How can a good God allow such suffering in the world?” In the process, we have discovered that the Bible provides us with many reasons that the Lord allows tribulation in our lives, from guiding to disciplining us, from impacting a loved one to displaying His power.
 
But let’s focus for the moment on one answer in particular: God allows some people to suffer in order to get their attention, especially if they are unbelievers in fact or in effect.
 
That’s what He did with me, back when I was an atheist. He broke my heart, and the rest is a tiny dot on the sweep of feminist/atheist history.
 
If you are suffering today—physically, emotionally, financially, or spiritually—perhaps the Lord is trying to get your attention.
 
Maybe you’re a professing Christian—you believe in Jesus Christ, but you have no relationship with Him.  You haven’t actively sought Him through His word, the Bible. No doubt you have your reasons—too busy, perhaps, or not interested, or maybe you were exposed to scripture when you were a kid and figure you already know all you need to know about Him.
 
Or maybe you’re religiously pluralistic, convinced that it doesn’t matter what you believe just as long as you’re a good person who believes in something. You acknowledge some sort of supreme being, so you’re good; if there is a heaven, you’ll be fine.  
 
Or perhaps you’re not so good. Perhaps you’ve lived such a sinful life that you know you’re headed for the other place. You’re sure that there’s no way out, not for you.
 
Whatever your circumstances, if you are suffering, rest assured that the Lord knows it, controls it, and is at work in your life. And if any of the descriptions above sound even remotely familiar to you, realize that this may be the only way He’ll ever be able to get your attention, and therefore to save you—putting you irrevocably on the path to heaven, as promised in the gospel of Jesus Christ.
 
Will it work?
 
Will you repent and trust in Him to have paid your entire sin debt on the cross?
 
That’s up to you, of course. But consider: If you are saved, this world is as close to hell as you’ll ever get. But if you are not, this world is as close to heaven as you’ll get.
 
Seems like a no-brainer, doesn’t it?
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Think all religions are alike? Think again!

12/4/2019

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I am so weary of the idea that all religions are alike, and that we all worship the same deity. Hypocritical, perhaps, considering that for three decades, that was precisely what I believed. In fact, it was only when I took a serious interest in researching the subject of God’s existence, and later His identity, that I finally came to understand the truth that sets us free.
 
Here is the first life-changing conclusion I reached, as described on pages 139-140 of Heaven Without Her (Thomas Nelson, 2008)--an enthusiastically endorsed memoir describing my intellectual journey from feminist atheism to born-again Christianity: 
 
“There are, of course, dozens of other religions out there, some interesting, some pretty wacky.  I checked them out at random as their names came up.
 
“For my little research project, I included in this group those that claim to be Christian but are in reality Buddhist, Hindu, Islamic or Gnostic in nature – Christian Science and Unity School, to name just a couple.
​
"I included eminently progressive, ‘it doesn’t matter what you believe as long as you’re not a Christian fundamentalist’ groups that seem to worship, above all and often exclusively, tolerance of everything except a plain reading of the Bible. 
 
“I included bizarre worldviews like Scientology as well as explicitly evil paths like Satanism.
 
“And I included an array of religions devoted to worshiping the gods of nature, from Japan’s native Shintoism to various expressions of Native American spirituality.
 
“The only readily apparent common denominator among all these worldviews was the idea that whatever your view of Heaven or Paradise or Nirvana, what gets you there is living the right kind of life.
 
“Except for Christianity.
 
“Christianity says that what gets you there is Jesus.”
 
As I discovered, a sincere and careful exploration of the facts leads to only one possible conclusion: There’s Christianity, and there’s everything else.

​Make your choice carefully; it will determine where you spend eternity. 
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    Kitty
    Foth-Regner

    I'm a follower of Jesus Christ, a freelance copywriter, a nursing-home volunteer, and the author of books both in-process and published -- including Heaven Without Her. 

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