Sermon Video: Eat this Bread, Drink this Cup - Mark 14:22-25

In this Maundy Thursday message, the text of the Last Supper from the Gospel of Mark is examined from a Baptist perspective, contrasting what we believe Jesus was saying here with that of the majority of Christians who view these words far less metaphorically.

To watch the video, click on the link below:

If God does not love the sinner and hate the sin.

If God does not love the sinner and hate the sin....

He would be unworthy of our love...For such a God would either abandon us as hopeless or leave us in our sin.

There would be no Incarnation, no Jesus...Why send the Son of God, to become a man, if not to rectify humanity's sin problem?  No other purpose is a sufficient cause.

There would be no Cross, no Resurrection...Why would God allow Jesus to die, if not for the sin's of the world?  No other purpose could justify the cost Jesus paid.

There would be no redemption, no rebirth, no hope of heaven...All have sinned, look around you, it cannot be denied.  God has provided the way for us to be saved from our sins, because God is Love AND God is Holy.


God does indeed love sinners, each and every one, from the least to the greatest, for we are all created in his image.

God does indeed hate sin, each and every one, from the least to the greatest, for all sin is a rebellion against the holiness of God.

These two traits of God are not incompatible, they are instead absolutely essential partners.  It is not judgmental for the people of God to share this message, it is an act of kindness, an act of love.  We love our fellow man too much to pretend that they'll be fine without God's forgiveness.  We know better, not because we are better, not at all, but because we have experienced the love of God that is in Christ Jesus, and we have been set free from bondage to sin by the blood of the Lamb.

Sermon Video: The Fall of Jerusalem - 2 Chronicles 36

As the Chronicle of the king of Judah comes to its close, the kingdom slides toward destruction under the leadership of four wicked kings in a row (sadly, 3 of which were sons of a righteous man, Josiah).  Politically, the rivalry between Egypt and Babylon pushes Judah into becoming the vassal of first one and then the other, but none of Judah's four kings takes the opportunity of the troubled times they are facing to repent and seek the face of the LORD.
In the end, the Chronicle makes it clear that the fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of the temple were the judgment of God against the people of Judah for their repeated violations of the covenant and mockery of the prophets sent by God to warn them to repent.

To watch the video, click on the link below:

In Flanders field the poppies blow...Nationalism and the lessons of WWI

One hundred years ago the United States of America reluctantly ended its isolationism and joined WWI against the Central Powers.  At that point, WWI had raged into its fourth year, with the dead and maimed growing each day, millions upon millions.  Nobody knew it at the time, but WWI only had a year and a half until German exhaustion brought it to an end.
WWI was not an example of Just War Theory in action, at least not for its principle protagonists, the Great Powers of Europe who went to war for nationalistic reasons, each hoping for a quick victory that would increase their relative power and prestige at the expense of the enemy.  Nationalism had helped turn the kingdoms of Europe into modern nation-states, but it also stoked hatred of the "other" (Germans of Russians and the French, the French of the Germans, etc.) and enabled leaders to whip up war enthusiasm by painting the enemy as evil.
I've written this before, but it bears repeating, nationalism is not compatible with Christianity.  Patriotism certainly is, if your city, state, or country is lovable, then by all means love it and be proud of it.  Nationalism is different.  Nationalism is the belief that your people are superior, and thus other peoples are inferior.  When it puts down roots and matures, nationalism views the people who are not like us as a sub-human or inhuman "other".  This false pride and denigration of other peoples is contrary to the clear teaching of the Gospel that all men are created by God and that in Christ there is no slave or free, no Jew or gentile, all are one in Christ.  The British, French, German, Austrian, and Russian soldiers who went to war in 1914 were largely Christians, and yet they fought against their fellow Christians, replacing brotherly love with gruesome killing, because they had been taught that their enemy was not their brother in Christ, but instead a fearsome "other".
WWII saw a reprisal of nationalism, brought to its ugly natural culmination in Nazi Germany, before it was discredited by the deaths of tens of millions in that war.  After WWII, nationalism lay dormant during the Cold War, as the battle between Communism and Capitalism took center stage, but following the collapse of the Soviet system, it began to grow once more.
Nationalism is on the rise, in America and Europe, moving us back toward an era of "us not them", of dangerous competition instead of cooperation.  Will the world forget the horrors of WWI and WWII?  Will the lessons paid for in so much blood and destruction be ignored?  A pessimist would see the return of nationalism as a natural counter-balance to the free-market and open-border policies of the recent past, and would resign himself to a return of the dark days of national rivalries.  An optimist might see that same return as an opportunity for the nations of the world to show that they are capable of learning from the past, only time will tell if optimism or pessimism is warranted here.
The Church and Christians in general were fooled by nationalism before, allowing the us vs. them mentality to replace what the Word of God declares about Christian brotherhood and the dangers of pride in oneself and hatred of one's enemies.  Let us pray that the Church and the Christians within her will be wise enough this time around to say "no" to the siren's call of nationalism, for all the world's people have but one Father, one Creator, nobody is an "other".

Are good people in Heaven?

Short answer: No

Heaven doesn't contain "good" people, it contains forgiven people.

God is holy, God is perfect, and only those who likewise are holy and perfect can enter into his presence.

Humanity is not holy, humanity is not perfect, all of us are flawed, all are sinners.

If God had not intervened with the Incarnation, if the Son of God had not died for our sins and if he had not been raised to life for our justification, the gulf that exists between God, who is holy, and humanity, which is not, would have remained separating us from God forever.

Heaven isn't for "good" people; good isn't good enough, only perfection will work, and since the only way for a human being to be perfect is for God to forgive us, and give us his righteousness (through Christ), the only people who will join God in heaven are those who by faith have been forgiven.