We know that we are more sinner than saint. Our sin is the reason for the cross. The Cross has made provision for our sin-sick souls. The Cross provided everything my soul needs. Everything people need, they can find at the Cross.

Ask yourself, “What do I need?” Then examine the cross of Jesus. I promise you will find that Jesus provides everything your soul truly desires.

PARDON BY THE CROSS

The first thing we truly need is a pardon. We need more than instruction, education, or legislation. We need a pardon.

Romans 6:23 says, “the wages of sin is death.” If we are in sin we are condemned. Sinners need a pardon—a pardon from death.

Ephesians 1:7 says, “In [Christ] we have redemption (we have a pardon) through his blood (that is His Cross)”…

We have a pardon from sin. The Cross provides redemption from Satan’s hold. We have redemption from death. But there is more… the original word “redemption” implies, “We are having redemption.” It is present tense. Our redemption is right now!

Hebrews 7:25 says, “Wherefore [Jesus Christ] is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth (He is always present) to make intercession for them.”

Later, the same writer says…

“Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us” (Hebrews 9:12).

ETERNAL REDEMPTION! ETERNAL PARDON!

If perchance you were taken and held captive till a ransom could be provided, it would only be for that occasion. That ransom would not protect you from a later captivity. So it was with the Old Testament. At no time was Israel allowed to think that enough animals had been slain on the altar. They were perpetually bringing another sacrifice. No sooner was one accumulation of sins washed away than another one began to appear. And thus, also, no sooner did the priest wipe away the blood of one beast than he began to make ready for shedding the blood of another. The task was endless.

But Jesus Christ entered for all into the Holy Place and obtained an eternal pardon.

Sins are pardoned by the Cross. Moral failures are an outward manifestation of an inward disease. Sin is that inward moral disease. And it is here, present in human life. We are all conscious of it. We sense there is a force beyond the sinful deed itself that propelled us to commit the sin. In fact, the apostle Paul wrote, “For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I” (Romans 7:15).

This is not the experience of a wretched few. It is the common experience of every member of every race. Every man fails. Every woman goes wrong. Every person breaks down.

It is against this moral disease that the psalmist prayed, “Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me” (Psalm 51:10).

Pardon is the first provision of the Cross.  The Cross, however, has provided far more than just a pardon.

PURITY BY THE CROSS

Hebrews 9:14 says, “How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge (purify) your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?”

In this verse the writer declared that Jesus Christ by offering Himself, made a provision by which my conscience can be cleansed and purified from dead works. The Cross makes it possible to do that which I have not been able to do . . . “to serve the living God.”

A clean conscience! That is exactly what the Cross provides for every man. No matter how depraved a person may be, the Cross provides a cleansing for man’s conscience. Regardless of how utterly a person’s conscience has become evil, the Cross provides purity. Purged, the verse says, from dead works.

James 1:15 says, “Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.” Dead works are the works of sin and we are purified from dead works.

First, the Cross provides a pardon—a separation from my sin.  Second, the Cross provides a purity of conscience. It gives me liberty to serve the Living God.

Then, when my soul has been pardoned and my conscience has been cleansed, there is still yet another element—the element of peace. There can be no peace as long as sin is unforgiven. There can be no perfect peace as long as impurity remains. Pardon and purity equal peace.

PEACE BY THE CROSS

Colossians 1:20 says, “And, having made peace through the blood of his cross…”

It is sin that cuts us off from God. It is sin that blinds our vision so we cannot see God. It is sin that deadens our emotions so we cannot love God. It is sin that turns our will into perverse attitudes so we cannot obey God.

Sin pollutes the very sources of life. This pollution prevents communion with God. Sin alienates us from God. And when a sinner is alienated from God, they cannot cease to sin. This alienation causes us to lose our power not to sin. For the only power that enables a man not to sin is that of direct communion with God.

This is the awful tragedy of sin—it becomes the reflex action in human life. If a person is to find perfect peace, they must find their way into harmony with God. The person who is out of harmony with God is out of harmony within their own personality.

Out of this discord of human life come the questionings and the agonies, the conflicts and the defeats that are perpetual in human history. Out of that discord comes the dual cry of a man when he says, I would do good… but evil is present with me. I would climb, but I fall. I would run, but I stumble.

The man or woman who is godless lacks peace within. However, there are men and women who have peace. There are men and women who know peace with God, with themselves, with their fellow men, and with all the universe of God.  And here is why and how.  At the center of the worst disorder of all is the Cross. Proceeding from the Cross is the reconciliation and restoration of peace. It is at the Cross that men and women find themselves. Why? Because they have found God.

At the Cross there is pardon from the past.

At the Cross there is purity for the present.

At the Cross there is peace for the future.

POWER BY THE CROSS

And I Corinthians 1:18 says, “For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.”

It is not the preaching that saves. It is the preaching of the Cross. It is the message of the preacher that saves. The preaching of the Cross is the power of God to those who are being saved.

Consider for a moment the need of the soul that has been pardoned purified and given peace. What could that person who has been pardoned by Jesus, purified by Jesus, and comforted by Jesus need? In spite of pardon, in spite of purity, in spite of peace, a relationship with Jesus Christ does not remove us from the world. We still live in the same neighborhood and still work in the same occupation. Even though our sins are forgiven, all the peculiar forces that have played on our personality prior to our relationship with Jesus still operate after we come to Christ. The old temptations come again. In fact, they are felt far more keenly than they have ever before. For this, Jesus Christ has empowered us through the preaching of His Cross.

When I yielded myself to the Cross and received its blessings, I was brought into a new realm of activity. And what I need is a new force that is equal to all the demands. I need power to resist temptation, power to endure suffering, and power to stand in faith.

The Scriptures says that it is the preaching of the Cross that is the power of God. The message of the Cross is the power of God.

Hebrews 1:3: “Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high;”

Our word is nothing more than a wish! But the Word of God is a work already done! We speak and we must do it. But God speaks and it is already done. And we can make contact with that power. But there is only one way, and it is that we surrender.

Paul says in Galatians 2:20, “I am crucified with Christ.” Never until we come to the Cross will we know what power is in our own lives. The power of the Cross operates in and through those who are content to die with Him. It is, however, this dying that hinders us.

Paul continued, “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.” It is the canceling of the “I” in the life of the Christian that creates contact with the power of the Cross.

First, we have seen how pardon is ours—that we have redemption through His blood. Second, we have seen how purity comes to us by the way of the Cross. Third, we have seen how peace comes to us by His shed blood. And fourth, we have considered how power comes to us, for the preaching of the Cross is the power of God.

PROMISE AT THE CROSS

And lastly, consider that, in the closing words of Romans 8, Paul asked four questions.

• In Romans 8:31 he asked, “If God be for us, who can be against us?”
• In Romans 8:33 he asked, “Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God’s elect?”
• In Romans 8:34 he asked, “Who is he that condemneth?”
• And in Romans 8:35 he asked, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?”

We too ask these great questions.

Who is against us?

Who will bring charges against us?

Who is he that will condemn us?

Who can separate us from the love of God?

Sometimes we ask them with great, challenging faith. At other times we ask while awfully aware of our frailty. But in this same eighth chapter of Romans—in the midst of these questions—Paul proclaimed in verse 32, “He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?” When God gave His Son, He gave His best. He emptied Heaven, if you will, of its richest. There is nothing worth more. In that moment, He gave something better than the rest—and yet all is included.

He freely gave us all! It is not merely that if He spared not His Son, He will give other things. It is really that when He gave His Son, He gave all.

Romans 8:31 says, “What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?” How do we know God is for us? We know because He gave everything! There is no other demonstration.

We look back and the Cross brings us pardon.

We look back and the Cross brings us purity.

We look ahead and the Cross brings us peace.

We look around and the Cross is the word of power.

We look out at the infinite and unknown possibilities of eternity and the Cross is the message of promise.

Here and now our hope for today, our hope for tomorrow, our hope in death, our hope in life, our hope in time, our hope for eternity is only in the cross of Jesus Christ.

“Giving is more than a responsibility—it is a privilege; more than an act of obedience—it is evidence of our faith.” —William Arthur Ward (1921-94), American Educator

What is the tithe? The English-speaking Bible is primarily translated from the original languages of Hebrew and Greek. In Hebrew, “maaser” or “maasrah,” is translated tenth, or tenth part; and in Greek, “apodekatoo.” It means a payment, or giving, or receiving of the tenth.

The tithe is that tenth of our income that God asks for, which—when we cheerfully give to God—comes with a powerful promise!

Malachi 3:10: “Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the LORD of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.”

God’s people would bring a tithe of all their increase. The Bible records numerous accounts of believers tithing to God—such as Abraham, Jacob, and Moses.

In some places in the Old Testament this offering was called the “first fruits.” The Israelites would bring from their flocks and fields and present it unto the Lord in the tabernacle or later the temple. Some was for the priests’ use and some was shared among the poor, yet it all was given to God.

God is recognized as the Creator of everything that exists. He owns everything, and believers understand that we are simply stewards of what we have been entrusted with.

In Malachi we learn that tithing enables God to miraculously move the heavens on our behalf in the area of blessings.

Pastor Eddie Cude wrote, “God gives unto us, we give back to Him one-tenth of all that He has blessed us with. This is the ‘gateway for the believer into the covenant of blessings.’”

Most of us have visited or seen the Gateway Arch in Saint Louis, Missouri. Two hundred years ago, many people moved from the eastern region of the United States to make a new life out in the west. Missouri was where many would purchase their needed provisions for the journey. With the rising sun warming their backs, they then would embark off in covered wagons pulled by teams of horses. Everything they brought along was considered necessary for their future. Along the trails leaving Missouri you would often see discarded items that had been pitched out of the wagons to make the load lighter. Items that once seemed impossible to live without were now recognized to merely be taking up space and slowing down progress.

We often throw stuff away when it’s all used up or we’re bored with it and want new. In wealthy America we have many luxuries and trinkets to occupy our “wagons.” All the coolest toys, technology, and clothes are purchased easily and, uh-oh, often with tithe money. The heavy part in all this, however, is that the stuff we think we need (that later we’ll call trash) weighs down our progress. It’s hard to attach oneself to Heaven when all you can think about are the cares of earth. Like pastor and author Lloyd Shadrach suggests, “Generosity is to materialism what kryptonite is to Superman.”

It’s not wrong to have things; it’s a problem when things have you. God’s Word declares that it’s His desire to “open up the windows of Heaven and pour you out a blessing that overfills your container.” God has a holy jealousy over us and wants us to seek His will and purpose for our lives. When He is first, everything else in our lives settles together nicely.

Matthew 6:33-34: “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.”

Money is one area that many Christians fail to put God first. We feel it’s all ours and forget that it all came from and belongs to God! We are faithless and feel that we must keep back the tithe because we may need it tomorrow, forgetting that God is there in our tomorrows already.

Psalm 24:1: “The earth is the LORD’S, and the fullness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein.”

Giving a tithe unto the Lord is a true sign of our faith. We take something that we recognize as valuable—money—and purposely offer it to the Lord through our churches. We don’t even consider it as ours. Our faith in God puts a blessing upon the tithe and allows it to become a source of good and a sense of pleasure to God!

Hebrews 13:16: “But to do good and to communicate forget not: for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.”

Tithing expresses our confidence that God will stretch the remaining money we have to meet our needs. Tithing reminds us that everything we have has been a free gift from God.

Matthew 10:8: “Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils: freely ye have received, freely give.”

Statistical research on the giving of tithes among Christian believers reveals what may prove shocking to you. The facts show that less than 20 percent of those who profess Christ give their tithe regularly. The number among Christian teens is even closer to 6 percent. I wonder what the figures are for Apostolic Pentecostal teens? Hard data might not be easily found on our demographic, but why not take an informal count at your next youth service or class? You might be surprised!

I never would have been able to tithe the first million dollars I ever made if I had not tithed my first salary, which was $1.50 per week.” — John D. Rockefeller Sr. (1839-1937), American industrialist and philanthropist

Genesis 1:27: “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.”

· The Bible teaches that human life is different from other life forms on Earth; first of all, because mankind was made in the image of God.

Genesis 2:7: “And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.”

· Also, we see that unlike every other creature, God’s own breath gave man life and instantly gave man an eternal soul.

Deuteronomy 30:19: “I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live:”

· Here the Lord makes a direct comparison of life to a blessing and death to a curse. He further explains that when the choice of life and death is before you, choose life!

Jeremiah 1:5: “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you; Before you were born I sanctified you; I ordained you a prophet to the nations” (NKJV).

· God clearly explains to Jeremiah that He is still purposefully “forming” individuals one at a time.

· The Lord makes it “personal” when He tells Jeremiah, “I knew you; before you were born.”

· He further reveals that there was a divine plan for Jeremiah’s purpose while he was still in the womb.

Jeremiah 20:17: “Because he did not kill me from the womb, That my mother might have been my grave, And her womb always enlarged with me” (NKJV).

· Even though Jeremiah wishes he wasn’t alive in chapter twenty, he still conveys, as an anointed prophet of God, that had God eliminated him before birth it would have been a “killing”; and quite literally, his mother’s womb would have been his grave!

I Corinthians 6:19-20: “Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s” (NKJV).

· In Paul’s New Testament writings it should be clear to us that our bodies are not owned by us. Jesus Christ purchased our bodies at Calvary, and He alone owns them and has the right to alter them.

Summary: There are many other scriptures in the Old and New Testaments that speak to the sanctity of life and God’s preservation of innocent life, but the passages above seem to be more directly applicable to the topic of abortion. I believe the following to be a logical application of these scriptures:

Since God created innocent human life and made man in His image, it is not within our rights or authority to take or end innocent, human life—namely an unborn child. Also, since God’s breath granted mankind his eternal soul and not earthly air, we can safely deduce that an unborn child living in the uterus is “breathing” according to God’s plan and therefore has an eternal soul that should not be altered by us.

Since God considers life to be a blessing and death to be a curse, abortion should forever be considered a cursed deed. Additionally, God has clearly instructed us to choose life when faced with the option of life and death. When a mother is presented the option of preserving or ending her child’s life, she should choose life!

A Specific Plan

Baptism is not like that; there is a specific way to do it. One of the clearest examples of this is the story of Noah’s burrito, sorry, Noah’s ark (I still have Chipotle on the mind). In Genesis 6, humanity’s wickedness had gotten out of control and judgment had to come. But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord (see Genesis 6:8). God gave Noah a specific plan of how to build an ark that he, his family, and all the animals of the earth could board and be saved from judgment. Any failure to follow that plan would have caused them to be lost.

This leads us to an important question: What’s the plan for baptism? If Noah was given specific dimensions of the length, breadth, height, a window, and a door of the ark, then there must be a specific way to baptize. The Bible certainly gives a specific plan concerning baptism. First, it is important to note every baptism that happened in the New Testament after the Cross all had two very distinctive traits. They were all by immersion and in the name of Jesus (also, name of the Lord and name of the Lord Jesus).

Immersion

Do you like Oreos? I do … But there’s one thing you have to do before you eat Oreos. You have to dunk them in milk, all the way. Yum.  Baptism is like that; it’s not right until you dunk the person. There is nothing more central to New Testament baptism than immersion. Immersion means that the person being baptized is dipped completely under water. The word baptism literally means to dip under water. Baptism identifies us with the burial of Jesus Christ. As He was put into the earth, we must be put into the water. Colossians 2:12 says that we are “buried with him in baptism.” In John 3, John the Baptist baptized in Aenon because “there was much water there” (John 3:23). After Philip baptized the man from Ethiopia in Acts 8, they both came “up out of the water” (Acts 8:39). Without question, biblical baptism is to take place by dipping the person under water. Just as a dead person could not be buried with a handful of dirt, we cannot be spiritually buried with a handful of water.

In the Name of Jesus

Next, it is vital to point out that baptism must be done in the name of Jesus. As the apostle Peter used the keys to the kingdom given to him by Jesus (see Matthew 16:19) to unlock the door of salvation (see Acts 2:38), he instructed us to be “baptized … in the name of Jesus Christ.” No baptism after Jesus’ resurrection was performed any other way than in the name of Jesus. In Acts 2, the multitude that was baptized certainly followed the direction of Peter and were baptized in the “name of Jesus”; the believers in Samaria in Acts 8 were baptized in the “name of the Lord Jesus”; Cornelius was baptized in the “name of the Lord” in Acts 10; and finally in Acts 19 John’s disciples were baptized in the “name of the Lord Jesus”. These examples of Jesus Name baptism would suggest that the baptisms in Acts where a formula was not mentioned (chapters 9 and 16) were also done in the name of Jesus. This is a fair assumption seeing that Jesus Himself challenged the believers at His ascension to go and baptize in the name (Matthew 28:19).

The apostle Paul continued this theme of Jesus name baptism as he challenged us that in whatever we do we must “do all in the name of the Lord Jesus” (Colossians 3:17). Certainly, baptism falls under this “whatever.” The name of Jesus plays such a vital role in the salvation process that Luke wrote about: “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).

Baptism in Salvation

That leads us to the necessary point of baptism’s role in the salvation process. The Bible clearly supports that water baptism is essential for salvation. Nowhere in Scripture was baptism talked about as an optional activity. Continuing with the example of Noah, the apostle Peter explained it like this…
“God’s patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through water. Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ,” (1 Peter 3:20-21, ESV).

Noah’s eight were saved “through water” because of God’s grace and their willingness to follow the plan. This is an essential concept in understanding baptism. We can only be saved through God’s grace and our obedience to follow the plan. If there wasn’t an ark, then there wouldn’t have been Noah (and no elephant for that matter!). Therefore, if we have no baptism, we have no New Testament salvation. The apostle is clear: “Baptism … saves you … through the resurrection of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 3:21).

The Remission of Sin

Baptism is a very important concept throughout Scripture. A careful and complete study of Scripture shows that the Bible is very deliberate in giving it the highest level of priority. This leads to the final and most important function of baptism: it takes away sin. Peter said that we are baptized for the “remission of sins” (Acts 2:38). The word remission means the release from bondage or imprisonment. Baptism releases us from the bondage of sin to live in the newness of life. Paul said, “we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life” (Romans 6:4). Have your Chipotle any way you like it, but make sure baptism is the Bible way!

What does the Bible say about death? As one who has faced the sorrowful journey of death more than I would wish, my question has more to do with what the Bible doesn’t say about death than what it does. For instance, why do we have to die at all? The Bible says that it is appointed to every human to die at some time (see Hebrews 9:27). Appointed, like I have a blind date with something that scares the liver out of me—a personal meeting with something I want no part of whatsoever! And the Bible also tells us that death is the result of sin, when rebellion entered the human race (see Romans 5:12). I guess the Bible tells us why we have to die; it’s just not the answers I’d like to have.

There are other questions about death that the Bible doesn’t really say much about, like, why do good people suffer, struggle, and die prematurely? Oh, wait a minute … the Bible says something about the rain falling on the just and the unjust (see Matthew 5:44-46). I guess that kind of helps me understand that life on earth will not seem fair to us, and from our perspective, things may not make sense. I faced that question in a very personal way at the age of twenty-seven, when one of my dearest friends from high school was killed in a tragic plane crash. I had lots of questions—and still do. In the end, you just come to grips with not knowing all the whys, and you find peace in that reality. I think the following statement made by Reverend T.F. Tenney (at the funeral of Reverend Billy Cole) eloquently gives us a way to wrap our minds around such struggles:

I have no answers to all your questions, because God knows that, a lot of times, it’s easier for us to live with the questions than with the answers. And when we can’t track God, we trust God. He just doesn’t come down and explain himself; He just comes down and says trust Me.

I must confess to you, that for everything we fail to understand about death, the Bible clarifies so many questions about death and what comes after. First of all, the Bible describes death on a number of levels. In its most basic sense, death is separation from God and His creation. The very first death took place in the Garden of Eden; the spiritual death of Adam and Eve (see Genesis 2:17) occurred as a result of their disobedience, and God ceased to walk and talk with them each evening. That same spiritual death continues today as our sin creates a wall of separation between our holy God and us (see Isaiah 59:2). Ironically, it was spiritual death that also resulted in physical death. Because sin had entered the earth, God did not want us to live in this realm eternally. At that point, human life on earth, as we knew it, became more like a “dressing room” for our truly eternal existence. Physical death ended life on earth, but the spirit would live on forever, in heaven or in hell (see I Corinthians 15:51-56; Revelation 20:10-15; Revelation 21:8). From that perspective, physical death is really not the end; rather, it is the beginning.

I would also propose something that might sound a little shocking—spiritual death doesn’t have to be the end either. While we’re all thoroughly disgusted with Adam and Eve for what they “did to us” in the garden, I’m not so convinced that I hate them for it. Yes, I get that there is so much garbage we would not have to deal with had sin not entered the picture. But the element of free choice probably means that each of us (even you, holier-than-thou-reader) would have ended up in the same boat as them. So rather than focusing on what didn’t happen, I choose to meditate on the goodness of God’s grace in spite of our rebellion. If sin had never entered the garden, could I truly have known the depths of God’s love for me? If spiritual death had not come to all of humanity, would abundant life in Jesus Christ feel as abundant? For that matter, would I even be talking about Jesus today, as there wouldn’t be a need for His ultimate sacrifice? Coming to grips with my own spiritual death isn’t very pleasant. Death is always ugly, always painful. But I am convinced that when lost love is regained, it is so much sweeter, because we can more fully appreciate it. That’s how I feel about my spirituality—I once was lost, but now I’m found. I once faced spiritual death, but now I live in the freedom of the Holy Spirit. And even though physical death may always be bewildering or frightening to me, I know in my heart that, really, it’s just the beginning of my story. For at the resurrection, my God will wipe away every tear from my eye, and heaven will be the existence that God always intended for me (see Isaiah 25:8; Revelation 7:17; Revelation 21:4). It will be the moment when I hear the most important words of my life: “Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world” (Matthew 25:34). That will also be the moment when death—both physical and spiritual—will no longer exist, because there will never again be separation from our beloved Savior.

Although both the secular school system and Hollywood encourage teens to explore and determine their own sexual orientation, our value system must not adjust to these influences as the Bible clearly indicates that homosexuality is sin. Apostolic youth need to understand why and where this behaviour is prohibited in scripture by God.

God’s Original Plan

We must remember God’s design for sex has always been intended to take place between one man and one woman. Jesus addressed the issue in Mark 10:6-9: “But from the beginning of the creation God made them male and female. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and cleave to his wife; And they twain shall be one flesh: so then they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.”

Any sex outside of those parameters is not condoned by God. The apostle Paul went on to identify some of those sexual sins in two of his epistles:

Romans 1:26-28 (NASB): “For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural, and in the same way also the men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their desire toward one another, men with men committing indecent acts and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error. And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper.” Romans 1:32 (NIV): “Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them” (emphasis added).

I Corinthians 6:9-10 (NIV): “Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God” (emphasis added).

Although the Bible doesn’t detail each and every one of these sinful acts, it clearly speaks out about many of them. Any deviation from God’s original plan for sex to be within the confines of marriage between a man and woman is still sin in the eyes of God.

Abomination

Homosexuality garners another label from the Scriptures. In the Old Testament, such acts are described as “abomination”:

Leviticus 18:22: “Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination.”

Leviticus 20:13: “If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them.”

The Hebrew word that has been translated “abomination” means “properly, something disgusting (morally), i.e. (as noun), an abhorrence.” Other English translations of the Scripture render this word “detestable,” “perversion,” or “disgusting.” Clearly God has a strong feeling toward homosexual acts. Several traditional sources temper the harshness of the “abomination” by citing the lack of procreative potential as the reason for the abominable nature of the homosexual act. In other words, to the Creator, it is totally unnatural.

Be Thou an Example

The Bible lets us know that the final days just before the coming of the Lord will be a time of great immorality and acceptance of lifestyles that dishonour God. Jesus even indicates rampant immorality as a sign that we should be watching for his return (See Luke 17:26-28).

The world has been successful in bringing tolerance and acceptance of the homosexual lifestyle. Popular teen magazine Seventeen conducted a reader poll in 1991of the magazine’s readers’ views of homosexuality. In 1991, only seventeen percent of the readers deemed homosexuality as appropriate. In 1999, after eight years of strategic marketing of sin, fifty-four percent of readers accepted homosexuality as appropriate.

Acceptance of this lifestyle continues to evolve into promotion of the lifestyle in the mainstream media and education system. Music, media, marketing, and lovable Hollywood homosexual characters have brought the homosexual lifestyle into the forefront and confusion about what is right and wrong to the current generation of teens in the church.

We must remember the word of God does not change. In Malachi 3:6 he declares “For I am the LORD, I change not;” His feelings on immorality and homosexuality have not adjusted with culture, and neither can ours.

The apostle Paul identified a generation’s commitment to moral purity as one of the ways we should be an example in this world. I Timothy 4:12 declares, “Let no man despise thy youth; but be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity.”

As the current generation of the church, we must remember the biblical view of morality and be careful to not fall prey to the last day deception of accepting and condoning immoral and abominable lifestyles. If we continue to stand on the unchanging biblical basis of morality, we offer an example in the world of the truth of God and the power of living a holy life for Him.

Very rarely do the media images we encounter “go in one ear and out the other.” It’s no wonder that marketers do their best to find the perfect slogan or jingle that will wedge itself in our subconscious for the long term, hoping to wear us down until we buy the product or lifestyle they are promoting.

The society we live in is permeated by a media-obsessed culture.  Everything from fashion to food is marketed aggressively and made to entice us through elaborate advertising campaigns. As forms of mass media continue to converge and become cheaper and more easily accessible, it seems there is no escaping the barrage of media messages that surround us.

In this cultural reality, born-again believers need to be aware of the dangers and agenda of today’s media. What’s more, we need to cultivate the ability to discern what is right and what is wrong among the media images we face. Without this ability to determine good from evil, we will find our values and morals pulling us further and further away from the Bible’s principles of holy living.

Music

In their book What’s Up with Today’s Entertainment: Raising Media-Wise Teens, Bob Waliszewski and Bob Smithouser discuss their interview of Dr. Richard G. Pellegrino, MD, PhD in neurology and neuroscience. In this interview, Dr. Pellegrino explains the effect that music has on our emotions. As a medical professional who has been studying the brain for twenty-five years, Dr. Pellegrino says nothing he does can affect a person’s state of mind the way one simple song can. According to Pellegrino, listening to music generates chemicals—called endorphins—in our brains; in fact, these natural opioids produce a high chemically similar to a drug high.

It’s no wonder, then, that human beings love music so much! Music affects and guides our emotions. You’ve probably noticed how a single song can bring back a happy (or sad) memory, or how a fast-paced high energy song can bring you right up out of your seat. For hundreds of years, music has been used to set the mood in every imaginable type of atmosphere.

Music’s power can be further harnessed when ideas, emotional expressions, and instructions are conveyed by lyrics added to the music. Suddenly, like learning our ABC’s through memorization of catchy little tunes, concepts are dumped into our minds through the repetition of lyrics set to mood- affecting music. Dr. Pellegrino notes, “You can pour messages in and if you pour the wrong messages in, they take on a particular power more than the listener understands.”

This simple statement shows why we must be careful to evaluate what musical voices we are allowing to guide our behaviour. Lyrics condoning or describing immoral acts are like poison for our minds, candy-coated with cool, catchy tunes and beats. If we aren’t careful we can allow “teachers” into our minds that focus our thinking on sinful, immoral activities.

The Scriptures encourage us to guard our thinking: Philippians 4:8: “Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.”

Visual Images

Certainly, our ears are not the only gateway to our minds. It is equally as crucial that we guard our eyes. Jesus taught this importance in Matt 6:22-23 (KJV): “The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!”

In this Bible passage, Jesus is telling us that where our eyes are directed our body will follow. It is true that what we see has a great effect on us. We literally walk in the direction our eyes are looking. The eye regulates the motion of the body. The same principle is also true in a spiritual sense, and we are affected greatly by what we allow our eyes to see.

Visual forms of media dominate our culture’s conceptual formation. Stores, fashions, beverages, and almost everything is sold to us by beautiful, perfectly airbrushed people. Our concept of beauty is warped by models and magazines. Even moral concepts are eroded through loveable characters we grow attached to through week after week of scripted stories designed to move our emotions. And most of the time, the concepts we are replacing them with run contrary to our Apostolic values.

If you question whether visual media affects society, note the following facts:

• The Harry Potter series has cast a spell worldwide. In Britain, a broom maker reported a spike in sales, explaining, “Children have seen them in the film and ask their parents to buy them one.” The Hexenschule, a European school of witchcraft, credits J.K. Rowling’s boy-wizard with increased enrollment. Elsewhere, American schools have adapted the high-flying game Quiddich for use in gym class, and a young woman in Spain burned her house halfway to the ground while attempting to brew a potion like her Hogwarts heroes.

• A scene in Mission: Impossible 2 of Tom Cruise’s mountaintop experience involving instructions received via his sunglasses caused Oakley sunglass sales to soar to one hundred million dollars in the quarter following the movie’s release—up thirty-nine percent from the same quarter the previous year

• In June 2006, the Journal of Adolescent Health reported that teens who absorbed sexually explicit entertainment the most frequently were up to 2.2 times more likely to have had sexual intercourse by ages fourteen to sixteen than those who had been exposed the least. [medialifemagazine.com, 3/22/06; Journal of Adolescent Health, 3/06; Reuters, 4/3/06]

Our world is being played like a puppet with the media giants pulling the strings.  The warning of Jesus to guard our eyes is definitely still relevant in today’s society. The pull and prevalence of visual media all around us requires a dedication on our part to guard what we allow our eyes to see, as the psalmist David writes in Psalm 101:3: “I will set no wicked thing before mine eyes…”

When Jesus talked about the last days before his return, He described a world obsessed with immorality and compared it to the time of Noah and Lot. In Luke 17:32 Jesus warned us to “Remember Lot’s wife.”

What was the issue with Lot’s wife? What caused her ultimate destruction? It was the direction her eyes were looking. The instructions were not to look back, but her eyes led her to her death.

Each Apostolic student must learn to turn away from the wickedness available to our eyes, because it can easily lead to our spiritual death.

The dangers of today’s media require discernment, filtering, and most times the ability to turn the media source off. We must recognize the enemy’s agenda and his use of media to move the morals of society, and this awareness must motivate us to be vigilant in guarding our eyes, our ears and our hearts.

Nobody talked about the second coming more than Jesus. He taught about it, preached about it, and explained it. Toward the end of His time on Earth He spoke of it constantly.

I Will Come Again

A good place to begin would be when Jesus comforted His followers by saying…

“Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also” (John 14:1-3).

Jesus’ return is the first aspect of the second coming. He clearly told the believers of the first century and promises us today: I will come again. The second coming will begin with the literal return of Jesus Christ to this Earth.

After Jesus died on the cross and had risen from the dead, His work on Earth was done. As it came time to return to Heaven, some of His followers had gathered as Jesus prepared to ascend back up into Heaven. This event is commonly referred to as the Ascension. Gravity let go of Jesus and His body literally left the ground and went into the clouds. As this was happening, two angels appeared and gave the onlookers a powerful message:

“Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven” (Acts 1:11).

Their message was very clear: Jesus, who has just gone up into the clouds, will someday return the same way He left. The angels were repeating a promise these believers had heard from Jesus so many times. Someday, Jesus will physically return.

We Will Be Gathered

The second aspect of the second coming is that after Jesus returns He will take His church away. The Oxford English Dictionary defines the word rapture as “to seize, especially abduct … capture …” This is what Jesus has come back to do. He will summon the redeemed, both dead and alive, and take them with Him back to Heaven. This idea was supported when He assured us we will…

“…see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other” (Matthew 24:30-31).

In I Thessalonians 4, the apostle Paul also talked about this gathering. He did not want the church to be uninformed about those who have passed away and what would come next. He reminded them that if they believe that Jesus died and rose again, they should also believe those who have died will rise again. He told them…

If you believe “Jesus died and rose again, even so them which sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him” (I Thessalonians 4:14).

Paul used the example of Jesus rising from the dead to illustrate exactly what will happen. He continued:

“For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ will rise first:

Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord”

(I Thessalonians 4:16-17).

All of the church, both those who have died and those alive, will be literally “gathered” together and will meet the Lord in the sky. The dead will rise and those alive will be captured away.

No One Knows When

A third aspect the Bible teaches about the second coming is that no one knows when it will happen. Jesus told us…

“But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only. But as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. Then shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left. Two women shall be grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken, and the other left. Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come” (Matthew 24:36-42).

Jesus was explaining that no one knows when the second coming will take place. Just as everyone was surprised by the flood in the days of Noah, people will not be expecting the Lord’s return. Some people will be taken and some will be left. He followed this story with the story of the ten virgins. The five who were not prepared were left behind as the bridegroom only accepted the five who were ready. Jesus was telling us to be on the lookout because you do not know when He is coming.

These are definitive promises: I will come again (John 14); we will be gathered together and taken back to Heaven (Matthew 24); and be ready, no one knows when I am coming (Matthew 24).

After they realized what He had said, all of the disciples re-tweeted everything Jesus had said on Twitter. Well, they didn’t … but they would have if they could have. It was definitely worth posting. Jesus was coming again! It explains why the church lived like there was no tomorrow; they were convinced of His soon coming. They met daily in their houses, they left friends and family behind and went everywhere preaching, and they sold their possessions and had all things common. Why? Because they were sure that Jesus was coming again! Our challenge is to remember these promises and be ready for that call that is coming soon. Jesus is coming again!

The audacity of the Incarnation begins at conception (as does the wonder of all human life): Jesus Christ was born of a virgin. This is the first claim of the gospel story, and it contradicts our understanding of life. If a woman is pregnant, she is not a virgin. That is the way God designed human existence.

An unwed woman who turns up pregnant and claims she was impregnated by God is usually committed to a mental institution. (Would you believe such an explanation from your fiance?) This claim defies everything we know to be true and verifiable in our human experience. Virgins do not have children.

Hence, the virgin birth is against all the norms of human understanding. Not only so, the Incarnation is a human impossibility. But miracles do not make sense. Even theologically, we are left with unanswered questions as to the whys and hows of the Incarnation. At the end of the day it can only be comprehended as grace. This is why the whole idea of counting chromosomes and attempting to figure out the biology of the Incarnation is nonsensical and trivial. We may as well waste our time determining formulas and processes to turn water into wine.

From the moment of conception we must accept Jesus Christ on His terms, not ours. The Incarnation was God’s coming, not humanity’s making. God elected to come. The virgin birth paves the way for everything else Jesus did and taught. If we are to follow Him, it will be on His terms. His teachings go against our impulses of self-preservation. His formula for life begins with death. He turns everything upside down. Mary was the first human being to accept Jesus Christ, and she had to do so on His terms. Everyone since who Has accepted Him has done so on His terms.

The Great Confirmation

The virgin birth is evidence of the deity of Jesus Christ. There is no doubting His own claims to deity, the prophetic claims applied to him, the claims of the apostles, the other New Testament validations of His deity, and the claims of the early church. Jesus Christ was not merely a man through whom God was revealed to this world; Jesus Christ is God Himself.

This evidence of His deity corroborates with the gospel narratives that Jesus was born of a virgin, conceived as an act of the Holy Spirit. It is an existential impossibility for Jesus to be truly God without Him being born of a virgin. If He had an earthly father, in what way could it be said that He is God? If He were conceived by the Spirit in the womb of a married woman, there would be no proof as to the legitimacy of the conception. This leads to one logical conclusion: for Jesus Christ to be fully human and fully divine, He had to have been born of a virgin.

The Great Condescension

But there is more to Incarnation than the mystical union of God and flesh. God becoming flesh was the means by which God came. His coming was a self-emptying condescension to our level for the sake of identifying with us and saving us. But with whom did He identify? The well-off and whole? No, He was born of a virgin. This not only implies the divine nature of His conception and His identity as both God and human, it demonstrates exactly how low He condescended and with what groups of people He chose to associate. To say He was born of a virgin is also to say He was conceived of an unwed woman.

Jesus identified with the lowliest of society. Those who are scorned today may be closer to understanding Jesus than are the pious. We have a theological heyday with the virgin birth for it proves Jesus’ identity as both God and man. No doubt Jesus’ peers had a heyday with the virgin birth for it supposedly proved His illegitimacy. (See John 8:39-41.) He was born with the appearance of sin, and the evidence suggested that He was the product of fornication. There were “nine months of awkward explanations, the lingering scent of scandal—it seems that God arranged the most humiliating circumstances possible for his entrance, as if to avoid any charge of favoritism. I am impressed that when the Son of God became a human being he played by the rules, harsh rules: small towns do not treat kindly young boys who grow up with questionable paternity.”  As Malcom Muggeridge observed, had the Incarnation occurred in our generation, an abortion would have been recommended.

Not only was He born with the appearance of sin, He also died with the appearance of sin. Once when Israel rebelled, God sent serpents to bite the people. God also gave a remedy. Moses was to erect a brass serpent on a pole. Whoever looked at the serpent would be healed of their wounds. Jesus likened Himself to this serpent: “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life” (John 3:14-15). Just “as the brass serpent had the appearance of a serpent and yet lacked its venom, so too, when He would be lifted up upon the bars of the Cross, He would have the appearance of a sinner and yet be without sin. As all who looked upon the brass serpent had been healed of the bite of the serpent, so all who looked upon Him with love and faith would be healed of the bite of the serpent of evil.”

The virgin birth confirmed the prophets. He was “despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted” (Isaiah 53:3-4)

The Incarnation may be difficult to understand. But perhaps the most difficult thing for us to understand is that a holy, omnipotent God loves us so much that He purchased our salvation. We do not have to pay one red cent. It seems to me that grace is the most difficult part of the story. If we can understand grace, the virgin birth is simple.

Sources:

Philip Yancey, The Jesus I Never New, (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1995), p 32.

Fulton Sheen, Life of Christ (New York: Image, 1977), 90f.

Rodney Shaw is the associate pastor of New Life United Pentecostal Church in Austin, Texas. You can read his personal blog by clicking here.