Training: Penal Substitutionary Atonement Part 2

This is the third video I've put up to discuss the theological concept of Penal Substitutionary Atonement.  If you're just joining in, you can find the INTRO HERE and PART 1: DEFINING PENAL HERE.

As a recap, we have learned that phrases like "Jesus died for your sins" are often misunderstood by non-Christians and not necessarily fully understood by Christians either.  Penal Substitutionary Atonement is a theological term used to address the issue of what exactly Jesus' death did.  The word Penal is used to convey that His death on the cross was related to the crime of sin and the just penalty for sin which is death.  Today's video will hopefully explain the second word: Substitutionary.

Training: Penal Substitutionary Atonement Part 1

As I mentioned last week, I've created some training videos for people at my church.  You can find my quick intro HERE.

Before you hear what I have to say, take a look at the following Scriptures.

For the wages of sin is death... -- Romans 6:23a

Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt.--Daniel 12:2

God is just: He will pay back trouble to those who trouble you and give relief to you who are troubled, and to us as well. This will happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his powerful angels.He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the majesty of his power--2 Thess 1:6-9

But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to his brother, 'Raca, is answerable to the Sanhedrin. But anyone who says, 'You fool!' will be in danger of the fire of hell.--Matthew 5:22

God is a righteous judge, a God who expresses his wrath every day.-- Psalm 7:11

As it is written: "There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one." -- Romans 3:10-12

All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away. -- Isaiah 64:6

The arrogant cannot stand in your presence; you hate all who do wrong. -- Psalm 5:5

Hopefully, this begins to unpack this theological concept of the penal substitutionary atonement for you.  Let me know what you think or if you have any questions!  Part 2 will be up next Thursday.

Theology Tuesday: Proving God Exists - Part 6

Proving God: Jesus' Testimony

We've looked at a whole lot of different things to examine the evidence that God exists.  Rather than turning to science or philosophy, today we are going to examine the testimony of a single witness.  Imagine you are on a jury in a courtroom.  A crime was committed and there are various witnesses being called to the stand.  There are two conflicting stories that emerge as the witnesses are questioned.  Half of the witnesses tell one story and the other half tell another.  Both stories cannot be true as they say completely opposite things.

So what happened?  How would you, as a member of the jury, decide?  Would you take into account the character of the witnesses?  Would it change the way you felt if you found out that one half of the witnesses were gang bangers and the other half of the witnesses were police officers with clean records?  What if one of the witnesses was Martin Luther King Jr. or Mother Theresa?  Would that sway your thoughts?  What if one of the witnesses who stood up to testify was Jesus Christ Himself?

Feature Friday: Kony 2012

In terms of going viral, the Kony 2012 video might as well be the Bubonic Plague.  In about two weeks, this video has been viewed over 70 million times!

The video that's all over the internet was put out by the Invisible Children with the express purpose of exposing the horrible war crimes of Joseph Kony with the goal of causing the American people to make so much noise about it that it forces our politicians to stay involved in stopping him.  If you have not seen the video, I highly encourage you to watch it in its entirety.  You'll have to set aside 30 minutes of your time, but it is worth it.

Feature Friday: Its Elementary My Dear Watson

Christy and I went out to see the second Sherlock Holmes movie on Wednesday at the two dollar show in La Grange (which is actually now the $5.50 show, but that's another story).  It was actually quite entertaining and a pretty fun ride.  Like the last movie, Holmes is a substance abuser with questionable morals.  Overall though, I'd recommend it.  Just make sure you watch with discernment.

What I love about these movies and the old school Holmes books by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is the crazy deductive skills of Sherlock Holmes.  Nothing escapes him.  He can look at you and tell you what you ate for your last three meals based on some crumbs on your shirt, a stain on your collar, and a scent on your breath.  He can enter a room and tell you how many people have come and gone over the last 24 hours.  My favorite from this movie though is when he and his hyper intelligent brother try to out deduce each other.  They take one look at each other and start saying things like, "I see you bought a new bow for your violin."

Theology Thursday: Proving God Exists - Part 5

Your votes are in and today's theology topic will be taking another look at the evidence we have for God's existence.  Up until now, we have been covering general arguments that show that some sort of divine being or beings do exist.  Today, we are going to take a look at evidence that takes that one step further and shows that the God of the Bible is real.  We will be looking at many of the fulfilled prophecies within the Bible.

Declaring the Future is Strong Evidence

If I told you that you were going to trip today and fracture your left femur, you would probably look at me strangely.  But what if it then happened?  Maybe at first you'd be in too much pain to think straight.  But after the doctors had done their thing and you were laying in a hospital bed with a big cast on your leg, it would hit you.  Mark told me this was going to happen!  What would you do?  How would you feel?  What would you want to say to me?

Theology Friday: Old Testament Promises

Do Old Testament promises apply to me or just Israel?  Depending on how "churched" you are, you may not know all of the controversy that surrounds this question.  Dispensationists line up on one side while Covenental theologians line up on the other.  If you don't know what those words mean, don't worry, you don't need to.

There are tons of different promises in the Old Testament.  God speaks to many people and promises a variety of things.  The Bible records those words and conversations.  We need to treat those words and conversations like we would any other to understand them.  The key to understanding biblical promises is context.  CONTEXT, CONTEXT, CONTEXT.  The truth is that some of the promises in the Old Testament apply to us and some of them don't.  You have to read the context to see which is which.  Here are a few categories that promises might fall into...

Theology Thusday: Does the Old Testament Teach the Trinity

A few months ago, I got an E-mail from a friend.  He quoted Genesis 1:26 and asked me who is the "us" mentioned.  That got me talking to him and a few other people about the Trinity and the Old Testament.  Does the Old Testament teach the Trinity?  If not, then why not?  If God really is one Being who eternally existed as three Persons, then why would He not feel like mentioning that in the Old Testament?

Theology Thursday: Proving God Exists - Part 4

What makes something good and other things evil?  Why are some actions right and other actions wrong?  Why do almost all of us agree that stabbing someone out of jealousy is wrong but shooting someone in self defense and in defense of others is not?  Who decided how we ought and ought not act?  Are certain things right or wrong just based on our opinion?  Is it based on a certain set of laws?  Where does morality come from?

The Moral Argument

In our fourth attempt to prove the existence of God, we will be looking at another age old argument known as the moral argument.  This argument bases itself around the question, "Where does morality come from?"  There are several possible answers to this question, but only one answer makes sense.  The only logical answer to this question is that morality comes from a personal, absolute, transcendent being (God).  To read about this in depth, I highly recommend C.S. Lewis' book Mere Christianity.

Theology Thursday: Is Swearing a Sin?

** Last week I covered the topic of homosexuality.  Username Richard the Atheist commented on my article to argue against me.  If you'd like to see my response to him, which is long (I warned you!), then CLICK HERE.**

Is swearing a sin?  The D word, the S word, the F word.  Do we offend God when we use this kind of language?  Should Christians use them?  My opinion may not be the clear cut answer you were looking for.  As a youth and children pastor, believe me, I wish I could say definitively that all swearing is bad.  That would keep the parents at church happy with me.  But, at the risk of drawing their wrath, let me share my honest thoughts on this issue with you.  Let me caution you, this article will get a bit explicit.

10 Years Since 9/11

I was a freshman in high school.  I left the locker room with my gym shirt and tight gym shorts on.  Why do they always make them too small?  I lined up with the rest of my class and we were cracking jokes about something or other when Coach Murry walked in.  He seemed a little shocked about something and with a shake of his head and a half grin he said, “Did you hear what happened?”  We all shook our heads no.  “Some idiot crashed a small plane into the Pentagon.”

Well that’s strange I thought.  We finished up PE and I thought nothing of it.  But by the look on my algebra teacher’s face when I walked into my next classroom, I could tell something was really wrong.  She turned on the TV and we watched in horror as smoke poured out of the towers on live television.