On Tolerance

Thank you b. for your comment on the post entitled Counter to Atheist Objection. You have showed tolerance in your response in that it was thoughtful and controlled. I have a question for you to think about, Should one be tolerant of intolerance? That is if we say that tolerance is a quality to encourage in others then when we see intolerance in another are we to correct that intolerance? Would that not be intolerance of intolerance?

I raise this point not to say that it is wrong to tell a racist that he is wrong. I raise it to point out there are two types of intolerance. One based on truth and one based on falsehood. There were people in Germany that would not tolerate Hitler's intolerance. They stood up for the Jews and others being murdered and paid with their own lives. Hitler's intolerance of Jews was based on hatred and lies but, the intolerance of Hitler's intolerance was based on a standard of right and wrong.

How was this standard established originally? There can be no intrinsic standard of right and wrong. A standard by definition must be established by something outside- be it authority, custom, or general consent. Can we say that the general consent is that it is wrong to kill someone solely based on a lie that they are an inferior race? It wasn't the general consent in Germany at that time but it was still wrong. What about a standard based on custom? Antisemitism is a custom you will find in every age and every where. Even in places where there is no one to blame woes on. For example here in Peru, where the Jewish population is less than .0001%, several times I have heard people express the same stereotypes about Jews that Hitler took advantage of in his propaganda. So this standard is not set by custom because the custom is contrary to the standard of right and wrong as we saw in Nazi Germany.

It is true that the standard of right and wrong is within us, but how did it get there? If it evolved it is caused biologically, environmentally, socially or some mixture of these. Imagine that Hitler murdered everyone that thought that Hitler or his successors murdering whoever they wanted was wrong. According to my assumption about evolution eventually after generations of this no one would believe that Hitler or his successor murdering who they wanted was wrong. Does the holocaust become not wrong in this scenario? No, because the standard of right and wrong is in us as you rightfully pointed out but it was put there and exists outside of us.

b. You said, "i believe in being as good to other people as possible, but this doesn't mean i do it because some higher power wants or encourages me to." I believe that you believe in being as good to others as possible but I don't believe you are. If you have been as good to others as possible does my not believing change the fact that you have been as good to others as possible. Similarly you not being as good to others as possible because a higher power wants or encourages you to is not evidence that there is no higher power that wants or encourages you to. Maybe one is nice to a neighbor because she likes him but that doesn't mean the government doesn't prohibit murder her murdering him.

It is to easy to say that you have done your best to live as good to others as possible especially compared to the next guy, but if there is a standard of right and wrong is established then you have to compare yourself to that. Have you ever done anything that you would not like done to you? Have you ever lied, no matter how small the lie? Would you have wanted someone tell you that same lie? Have you ever stolen anything no matter how small? Would you have wanted someone to steal something like that from you? You are not as good as you possibly could be. But even if from now on you were you would still have already committed all these things that go against the standard of right and wrong.

Do unto others as you would have them do unto you is established by an authority. It is in Leviticus. According to Jesus it is a command. A command must come from a commander. What do you think about Jesus? Do you think he loved others? I think He practiced this command better then me or you. I think he practiced it perfectly. I think he loved even his enemies. But you know he said that this was the second most important command. He said that the first is we should love God. How you doing on that one? When I realized that I wasn't doing either of these nor could I ever do them and that that meant I had a big problem because all that stuff about judgement, heaven and hell is true, I only found the solution in one place. Jesus is the only one that paid that price. The price of something can be determined by how much someone paid for it. According to Jesus the cost of you and me breaking this standard of right and wrong is His death on a cross. Remember he was perfect. He did not deserve to be on that cross.

Omnipotence and Free will

I recently had a conversation with an atheist that rose this objection to the existence of God:

It is impossible for God to be all powerful and at the same time for man to have free will.

The false assumption is: If God has the power to do something He will do it.

Let's go to the garden of Eden where there was a multitude of trees to eat from but one where God told Adam and Eve not to eat from. Adam and Eve had the choice to obey or disobey. God being all powerful could have made the choice for them, but He is loving as well. Love is a two way street that requires the freedom to choose. He decided in His wisdom and love to give Adam and Eve the choice to obey Him and love Him. In the same way God gives everyone the option to choose Him or to continue in disobedience to Him.

What about suffering? God's omnipotence implies that He has the power to stop suffering but doesn't. How is that loving?

I am not able to do justice to this objection, but here is a thought that I had. We saw that God allowed Adam and Eve to disobey Him. As parents if we shield our children from the consequences of their mistakes they will never learn. The consequence of Adam and Eve's sin was that death and suffering entered the world. So first of all we should remember that the reason there is suffering in the first place is not God's fault but man's disobedience.

But granted that, "haven't we learned our lesson? Why doesn't this all powerful God put an end to suffering?"

No, we have not learned our lesson. We continue to choose to disobey God; however, He has done something to put an end to suffering. He defeated death and suffering in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. The reason there is still suffering is because in His kindness and patience God is waiting for more people to learn the lesson and turn to Him to receive forgiveness for their innate disobedience. If he would reinstate all things now and put an end to this order of the world then time is up and no more choice can be made.

In all this discussion about suffering I don't want to ignore the fact that many because of what family or country they were born into will experience much more suffering then others born into other circumstances.

It is not God's will that thousands of children die every day from starvation and AIDS. God is not deaf to these peoples cries (although, many times we are.) It is interesting that we point to the existence of extreme suffering to argue the non-existence of God but where there is deliverance and relief from these conditions or times of abundance we attribute it to men or natural phenomenon.

God has an enemy whose goal it is to destroy and steal. The current world we live in is ruled by an occupying enemy that is in rebellion to the rightful owner. The all powerful God has not incarcerated this enemy and taken control over the workings of this world yet because of the same reason as before: to do that would close the window on all humanity from changing allegiance. He is not willing that any should suffer eternally. We are too short sighted. We want world peace now without making peace with God. In other words we want His kingdom to come, but we don't want His will to be done.

VISUALIZE WHIRLED PEAS

image from http://flickr.com/photos/pandarine/45824656/

A chosen and persecuted people

I have recently heard someone ask, "why are the Jews considered the chosen people?" In the course of this discussion another question was raised, "why have Jews been persecuted so much?"

My take on these questions is the same. There is a spiritual reality behind them. What were the Jews chosen for? To be the line into which the promised saviour would be brought to the world and to proclaim the message of salvation in the end times. As the final events in prophecy take place descendants of Israel will be the instruments God uses to proclaim the message that saves much of the world: Man has broken God's law, will be held accountable for this crime, can have forgiveness if he repents and trusts in the saviour to pay his penalty. Frustrating this plan has always been the primary intention of the enemy of God. For this reason the Jews have always been persecuted. First to stop the saviour from entering the world; then, to stop the message that there is salvation in the saviour.

Counter to Atheist Objection

A common objection of atheists to the existence of God is that anything that man is not certain of the theist attributes to God. The most popular example given, which has nothing to do with the assertion, is: "before everybody thought the world was flat but then we discovered it was round."
Isn't it at least as foolish to assert that there is no God because we understand how a limited number of processes in the world function without the seeming intervention of God? It's as if we live in a car engine and we say, "well I can see and know how a piston works because of the explosion caused by the sparkplug and gasoline but can't see any driver or designer therefore there is no driver or designer. Anyone who claims that there is a driver and designer is a fool and is using that to explain things that we haven't discovered yet because we don't completely understand the engine. When we understand more about the engine it will confirm that there is no driver or designer and that everything can be explained by reasons that exclude a designer and driver. Don't you remember when we discovered how the piston worked?"

"The fool says in his heart, "There is no God." They are corrupt, their deeds are vile; there is no one who does good. (Psalm 14:1)

Image from http://www.flickr.com/photos/evercool/197112722/

San Clemente, Pisco

Thanks for everyone that prayed and wrote comments about me going to Pisco. It was a fruitful experience for me and for the group of young adults from Ayacucho. As soon as I got there I met these kids and got a chance to share the gospel with them right away.


The place was very hot and did not have running water except for two times a week. It was a challenge for me but even more for the youth group because the guys camped outside the church that was right on the plaza while I stayed at a hostel. Into the wee hours of the morning people get intoxicated and make lots of noise in the plaza. The guys had to take showers at the local market probably with a bucket of water and a cup. But they were very good sports and had an edifying time despite all the hardships.

I got a chance to teach the first day on evangelizing using the law to lead people to Christ. I pray God will use in the ministry's of those who know Jesus and in the lives of those in the group of 36 who do not know Jesus. (The picture on the right is of only half the group) The second day I taught on sexual immorality. I get the sense that this second teaching was more interesting to the youths and I hope the ones that are christians were edified by it and the ones that aren't were convicted by the Holy Spirit of their sin.

One day we went to the beach were one of the pastors got stung in the foot by some sort of ray that injected him with non-lethal poison. His whole right leg was in pain. He went to the doctor got some pills and is recovering. I was very grateful for the food. The group took turns cooking for the 36 people.

We also did some social service in the town painting benches in the park which led us to meet the mayor. I learned much from Pastor Yu, the Korean missionary planting churches in the south of Peru. I saw in his life that you can't out give God. "He who is kind to the poor lends to the LORD, and he will reward him for what he has done." (Proverbs 19:17 NIV)

What do you want to be?

"What do you want to be when you grow up?" Sometimes we ask children this question to get an idea of what talents and desires they have. We usually mean, "what job do you want to do when you grow up?" It's a shame that there are some professions that require the person to trade a lot of their life for a return that is not worth it. Some of the most accomplished people have lives that are so shattered their accomplishments pale in comparison to the problems that an all-consuming profession generates.

I never knew how to answer this question because I believed that I didn't want what I do to define who I was. I might have just as well responded to the adult, "who are you?". In the adult world however to avoid any conversation more then skin deep we ask, "what do you do for a living?"

In the seeking there is doing

There is a connection though between what we do and/or seek to do and who we are. What we do manifests what we seek to do and the soul is the part being that seeks and is who we are. So what is God's command regarding what we are to seek and therefore who we are to be?

But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. (Matt 6:33-34 NIV)

"Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness" is an action which is probably the only desire that when we seek it we attain it (see C.S. Lewis's book "Surprised by Joy"). Everything else is "tomorrow". "All these things" most importantly refers to His kingdom and His righteousness. The food and clothing of previous verses all though important are only temporal. His kingdom speaks of His agenda or will. His righteousness is his perfect identity. In other words if we do what he wants, (seek Him) we are Christians, followers of Christ (notice that the identity is defined by what we do). Then we become adopted sons of God (John1:12) and are justified by his righteousness imparted to us. We are given an identity by our creator which is far superior to any we could create.

Being surprised day by day

I also want to record an interesting phenomena that I am experiencing in this period of my life that has a lot to do with what I just said. Now that my two year commitment to serve as a missionary with Koinonia is coming to a close on March 28th I feel external and internal pressures to define what I will do next. Every time I ponder what it is I would like to be doing next it is similar to what I'm doing now: something where I could serve the Lord with talents that he has given me, have the opportunity to teach the bible in some fashion, make disciples, and edify others. Somewhere where I could surf and maybe a foreign country. This leads me to believe that I will look back at this time with regret if I spend my time worrying about what I will do instead of letting the Lord lead me and surprise me day by day.

New York Yankee, Soccer star, Superman, Spiderman

Please Pray for Pisco, Peru

Lord-willing on Monday I’ll be heading to Pisco, a city four hours to the south of Lima. Here I will meet up with a group of twenty five adolescents from Ayacucho for a four day conference/missions trip. Half the group is not Christian. They are starting a new church in an area where there is no other protestant church. The city’s catholic church is not nearby. I will be teaching on evangelism for four hours for three days. I am dreadfully scared and unprepared. Lord, please forgive me. I don’t know how I will be able teach for such long periods of time. The first day I plan on basically given Ray Comfort’s message called “Hell’s Best Kept Secret”. Please pray for me, the adolescents, and the people we will be sharing the gospel to that God would open up an effective door and reveal the mystery of Christ.

Blogger with Michael, one of the leaders that will oversee the work in Pisco after the group leaves

Blogger with some of the adolescents from Ayacucho

Are you allowed to...?

Every now and then someone asks me, "Being a christian are you allowed to do "x" immoral thing?" What if I asked, "since you are married are you allowed to steal?" Notice that the questions assume that there is no universal morality. More preoccupying is the questions assume that a relationship is based on rules and regulations. The only acceptable basis for a relationship with God is Jesus. This relationship is described in the bible using many metaphors such as:

1. Abraham's seed: The believer is a friend of God by faith. (Gal 3:29, James 2:23)
2. God's Son: The believer is a son of God by faith in Jesus's name and receiving the Word. Jesus is the Word. (John 1:1, 12)
3. Messiah's Bride the church: The believer is part of the body and bride of Christ by the crucifiction and resurrection. (1 cor 6:14-15)

My father Abraham and I in Carhuaz where we bought some really yummy manjar blanco :)

Repentance is a fruit

Is repentance necessary for a relationship with God? Is it necessary for a watermelon vine to produce watermelons? However, we are not plants. We have the freedom to choose whether or not we will produce fruit. That’s why all the prophets command, “Produce fruit in keeping with repentance." (Matt 3:8 NIV)
Now that I have known God's kindness I don't want to do anything that ofends him. "Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, tolerance and patience, not realizing that God's kindness leads you toward repentance?" (Romans 2:4 NIV)

It's kind of funny that Jimmy is from Ica, the land where the best watermelons in Peru are produced. Here he is in Ayacucho eating a watermelon probably from Ica.

Viaje Misionero de La Iglesia Cristiana Koinonia a Ayacucho

Here is the video that I produced with the help of Ricardo Ramos and Brian Vanderkodde about our short term missions trip to Ayacucho. Its in Spanish. I hope to make an English version soon. The music was taken from La Semilla's album "Despertar"