Healthcare Death March

Posted on | August 17, 2009 | 2 Comments

Watch this video on BBC:

Parents lose fight for daughter’s life

When a culture moves away from God it sets in motion the kinds of things we see above. The BBC also has a page titled “When life and death involves the law” – it never seems to go well for the weak or inarticulate.

Do you really want government run health care in a society that doesn’t know God?

OC

When Will PBS Ban Scientific Humanism?

Posted on | June 17, 2009 | 2 Comments

“Among religions in this country which do not teach what would generally be considered a belief in the existence of God are Buddhism, Taoism, Ethical Culture, Secular Humanism, and others”

– Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black

Fox News is reporting that PBS is to “begin phasing out religious programming from airwaves.”

Not so strangely this seems to only apply to Christian broadcasting.

There is no movement to ban Sagan’s Cosmos from the PBS lineup. Sagan is clearly a proselytizer for the religion of Humanism and yet his work makes it past the ban. “The Cosmos is all there is or ever was or ever will be.”
- Sounds religious to me because it sure can’t be verified by operational science.

Could it be that PBS is really only concerned about censoring Christianity?

What do you think?

Moral Relativism and Plant Rights

Posted on | May 20, 2009 | 1 Comment

I’m late but not kidding – Check out this article on TreeHugger.com

Now watch this video:

What happens to morality when it is decoupled from God?

Sad and Scary…

Understanding the Times

Posted on | April 1, 2009 | 3 Comments

I’m reading Understanding the Times by David Noebel. Its quite an eye opener in these “interesting” times. As I watch our steady move towards a post-Christian socialist state, I find Noebel’s analysis very helpful for identifying latent humanism in my thinking and the media.

Others have asked: “Does a fish know its wet?” I wonder how many Christians, even those in leadership positions, are truly aware of their presuppositions. It is very easy to start analyzing scripture from a worldly perspective and stand as judge and arbiter over what we think scripture is conveying. I think we are, more often than not, unaware that we are sopping wet – actually swimming – in humanism and the rocks of truth we encounter aren’t enough to lead us to solid ground. We must strive to analyze our own assumptions and use scripture to modify them rather than the other way around.

Noebel’s book helps me with that.

What do you think?

OC

New Scientist Says God is Only In Your Brain

Posted on | March 12, 2009 | No Comments

The recent article from New Scientist makes the claim that humans are hard-wired to believe in God and that its only the struggle for truth that allows one to hold atheistic beliefs.

Interesting.

The evidence provided for the hard-wired hypothesis is that young children can differentiate between a box and a human and that religious belief is found world-wide. Yep, these two facts are all they’ve got. Kids can identify the differences between living and nonliving things and lots of folks (even atheists under stress) believe in God. The article does mention two different systems for processing animate and inanimate objects but beyond that we’ve got sociologic observations and bald assertions from PhD’s regarding the supposed evolutionary cause of religious belief.

This doesn’t strike me as compelling evidence that God is only in my mind.

Once you accept the premise that God is only in our head, the author expects you to blithely swallow the implied truth that atheists are somehow more enlightened because they strive (and at least sometimes) succeed at overcoming their own brain circuitry in order to hold their belief that God doesn’t exist. Never mind that Secular Humanism is a religious belief and always has been.

I suspect that if one did positron emission tomography on a secular humanist (scientific naturalist, atheist, name your term) discussing their beliefs, you’d find the same areas of the brain active that one would find when a Christian discusses their beliefs.

Would this make Humanism as dubious a belief as Theism in the eyes of the New Scientist and its readership?

What do you think and can you trust your brain?

OC

Will Christians Engage Nonbelievers?

Posted on | February 28, 2009 | 1 Comment

I saw a great video the other day with Penn of Penn and Teller. That’s right, the same atheist who speaks out about the bible and why he doesn’t believe it to be true. The video is below.

Wow. That hits home. How often do we spend time with people who will spend eternity in pain and separation from God? He’s right, how much do we have to hate someone to not offer them salvation.

I make no effort to hide my faith but neither does it come up enough in my daily interactions. I’d appreciate it if Christian readers of this blog would post comments regarding opportunitites they’ve had to share the Gospel and what they did.

Ask me how I’ve been doing. I need to stay on the offense and I believe you should too.

OC

Thousands not Billions

Posted on | February 13, 2009 | 5 Comments

I’m reading a book with that title – Thousands not Billions. I was recently confronted by a very good Christian friend of mine about the book. Oh, he agreed with the premise of the text but wanted to know how this book helped me become a better husband, father, and Christian in general.

His comment got me thinking. Why is creationism so important to me? Why do I insist on learning more about Carbon-14, zircon fission tracks, Helium diffusion rates and the salinity of the sea? How do these things  help me as a father, husband and as a Christian?

I was once a pretty rabid atheist. I’ve met some fine upstanding atheists but I wasn’t one of those; I was in your face and ready to point out the fallacies in Christian thinking. Maybe this is why I’m so focused on this topic – but I think there’s something much more important at stake.

Christianity stands or falls on Christ as presented in the Bible and in the lives of his followers. The Bible must be completely accurate in the autographs or we cannot completely accept the remainder of the text. If Genesis is not truth then how can we accept Jesus as the Son of God and our Saviour?

John 3:12 – If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things?

The verse above is spoken by Jesus Himself. If we can’t take His word on creation then why should we believe in His power in the next life? I think it smacks of cherry picking when Christians won’t stand on a plain interpretation of scripture.

Jesus believed in a young earth: Matthew 19:4 – Haven’t you read,” he replied, “that at the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female

The issue is that we have to affirm Genesis along with the whole of scripture if were are to afford it any credibility at all. If the man we identify as God believed in man and woman in the beginning, not billions of years after the creation event, then we should accept that He (the God who inspired the scriptures) knows better than we.

But have I answered my  friend’s question? Hmm – I think affirming scripture from verse 1 and learning how God’s creation points to His hand can only strengthen my faith and prepare me and my family to respond to attacks against the Word of God. As my faith is strengthened, the reality of the impact of my sin against a Holy God becomes more apparent and I tend to cleave to scripture and God’s precepts even more.

But its not only about me – If billions of years of death and suffering existed prior to Adam’s arrival then what good is God’s word? God proclaimed each stage of creation either “good” or very good.” Does anything in the character of God as revealed in scripture indicate that he takes joy in pain or suffering? Would it seem that our Christian God would select a method of creation that relied on Carl Sagan’s “death and time?” I think not. The Bible tells us that sin entered the world because of one man and from that sin came death. Without a young earth, there seems no need for Jesus to come because death came before Adam.

Genesis is critical to our faith and Christians are so intimidated by the scientific naturalists that they jettison their faith without realizing they’ve thrown it out.

…in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect…

1 Peter 3:15

Happy Darwin Day

Offensive Christians still under repair

Posted on | February 10, 2009 | No Comments

I’ve noticed that a lot of our content is missing since the crash. I’m working to get the links fixed and find lost information. Please bear with me as I try to get everything back to a semblance of order. I apologize in advance for any difficulties you have navigating the site.

Thanks for your patience.

OC

Offensive Christians is Back after massive site crash

Posted on | February 9, 2009 | No Comments

The site is back up and we’ll be adding content soon. Sorry for the long delay in dealing with the crash. The database for the site was corrupted and it took multiple attempts to find at least some of the data from the original site.

Thanks for stopping by,

OC

Instruments in the Redeemer’s Hands Part 1

Posted on | September 14, 2008 | No Comments

It’s been a while since I said I was going to cover this book. I’d intended to give any interested reader a chance to get a copy of the book so we could discuss it together. Here is a link to Amazon if you’re interested:

The book is subtitled: People in Need of Change Helping People in Need of Change. So far, it’s apt and applicable to my life and hopefully yours as well. I can think of no greater cause than to help each other become more like Christ. We look to Him as our Redeemer and it is His example that we must follow if we are to serve others.

Tripp begins by going to the best news – “The reason to get up in the morning” This truth is that Jesus has come and not only has He redeemed us through substitutionary atonement, but He has brought His kingdom with Him and has made real change possible. He makes real change that comes through repentance possible. Jesus’ sacrifice for us makes it possible to turn from sin and turn into something new. All other paths and hopes are in vain. Jesus truly is the way. Our message of hope must reflect this. When we are faced with the trials and overwhelming pains that come from living in a fallen world, we must turn to Jesus and His example. When others come to us with their horrific stories of pain and suffering (we’ve all either lived them or heard them – the loss of a child, the relative wasting away from cancer, our own diagnosis of a terminal disease…) we must point them to the Savior. Tripp specifically addresses the difficulties we face in this thing called sanctification – the struggle to kill sin in our lives and live as we have been taught by God’s Word.

Its hard. The path is narrow and many fall away. We, as instruments in the Redeemer’s hands must point ourselves and others to the hope that is in Jesus for true change and true repentance. Tripp says that we must not offer a system of redemption but a Redeemer. How true.

We Christians must become tools in the hands of God and be used to rework our own lives and the lives of those we touch. People are suffering everywhere. I pray that we would offer our lives to serve the saved and the lost alike and be used in a way that glorifies our God. `