Punctum Saliens

Most Christians probably thing that it’s what you believe that makes you “Christian.” But there’s a lot in the New Testament that talks about what you do. Works demonstrates your faith. Love is above all. We are to emulate Jesus. So, I’m wondering what’s more important: The spirit of Christianity or the letter of Christianity.

The early church of, say, 34 A.D. would have to be — almost by definition, one could say — the definition of Christianity. And, yes, perhaps the majority of Christians today believe the same things the early church did. That is, the dogmatic points are, perhaps, the same. But the … how should I say it … degree or intensity of belief seems to me to be very different because of what Christians do today compared to what Christians of 34 A.D. did.

For example, I think the typical sermon in the typical church on a typical Sunday morning today would be, at best, a distant cousin to the typical sermon in 34 A.D. The apostles and early church were preaching Jesus in public and baptizing in public and speading the gospel to everyone. Today, Christians are huddled inside their churches with the doors closed and may or may not welcome strangers but probably don’t even talk to them beyond a possible “Hello.” Gone are the days of public baptisms. Gone are the days of public sermons. And how often is the gospel preached on a Sunday morning from the pulpit? Probably very rarely because there are no unbelievers there!

The early church did amazing things to help one another — they were a real family. But today, it may not be at all uncommon on a Sunday morning to find a very wealthy Christian sitting right next to someone in serious financial trouble or even in poverty. Is there any assistence given? Is there even an acknowledgement of the need? I doubt it. Yet the early church members were having “everything must go” yard sales and giving to anyone in need.

And what of Christ — the namesake of Christianity. I imagine that the early church were very busy doing the things Jesus preached when he was on earth. The humility, the love, the giving, the helping. Quite the contrast to the Christians of today who are too busy driving to church in their $70,000+ cars and wearing their designer labels and who are too busy condemning the sinners of the world for their murdering abortions, deviant sexuality, godless liberalism and who are too busy trying to protect their business, political, personal image. They are too busy to hear what Jesus said they should do and only hear what everyone else should not do. Too busy to act like a Christian on Monday and help out a Christian in need. Too busy giving a little of their lot and not noticing the poor Christian giving a lot of their little.

Too busy being their version of a Christian to be Jesus’ version of a Christian.

One of my favorite movies is The Name of the Rose. The main reason I love this movie is the subplot of why all the various Christian sects are converging on this one abbey. They are all there to discuss the very important question: “Did Jesus own the clothes he wore?” To me, the various answers and rationalizations argued by the attendees is much less interesting than the question itself. That the question needed to be asked at all is what is meaningful. They were not discussing whether Jesus owned a one-hump or two-hump camel. They were not discussing whether Jesus wore designer labels or knock-offs. They were not discussing how much Jesus socked away for retirement. They were discussing whether Jesus owned or simply borrowed one of the most basic necessities of life — his clothes.

So I wonder: even though Christians today may share a handful of beliefs with the early church, is dogma enough to really be Christian?

Ok, where was I? Oh, that’s right … in the middle of a magic trick. How do you let God be 100% just and at the same time don’t let him condemn people who could never have heard about Jesus? Easy as pie. Simply say along with Josh McDowell: “No one will be condemned for not ever hearing of Jesus Christ” [Answers to Tough Questions, p. 121]. Cool! So, everyone who doesn’t hear will be in heaven, right? Uh … no. In the next sentence, McDowell says, “That person will be condemned for violating his own moral standard.” Hmmm. I have two problems with this.

First, “his own moral standard?” I thought everything depended on violating God’s Law. Or not believing in Jesus Christ. What does a person’s moral standard have to do with anything? Talk about a sliding scale. So, a totally immoral person will get into Heaven while a very moral — although not infallible — person won’t?

Second, even though this sounds like “they” have a chance this is really only another rationalization. If everyone is a sinner at birth then, by definition, no one will be able to live up to any moral standard worthy of being called a moral standard.

So far, “they” don’t have much of a chance. But, a few pages earlier McDowell says,

“Although the Scriptures never explicitly teach that someone who has never heard of Jesus can be saved, we do believe it infers this. We do believe that every person will have an opportunity to repent, and that God will not exclude anyone because he happened to be born at the wrong place and at the wrong time.” (Emphasis mine)

Ah, despite the inference status of this statement, this does sound a little more optimistic. If everyone has an opportunity to repent, then those in Hell really do make the choice. Does he quote chapter and verse to back up this belief? Well, the next sentence quotes John 7:17

If anyone is willing to do His will, he will know of the teaching, whether it is of God or whether I speak from Myself.

I didn’t really get what the New American Standard Bible (quoted above) was trying to say so I looked at a couple other versions and here is the New International Version:

If anyone chooses to do God’s will, he will find out whether my teaching comes from God or whether I speak on my own.

All the other more “common language” versions seemed to agree that Jesus was talking about someone who is hearing or has heard the teachings of Jesus. And I don’t see how anyone could hear his teachings without hearing about Jesus. So, how does this back up the inference? It sounds to me like just another rationalization to make Christians feel good about their all-loving God.

Even though there is no teaching to back up this inference, there is an example in Acts 10 which may set some precedent for it. Cornelius was a very religious man who prayed to God and asked God to reveal himself to him. God sent an angel and told Cornelius to send for the Apostle Peter who came and preached Jesus Christ and Cornelius was saved. This is all very good, but if people were constantly knocking on Christians’ doors saying “God told so-and-so to send for you. Please come preach Jesus to him,” don’t you think we’d hear about it?

But this doesn’t stop some Christians from continuing to believe it. They are so sure that if anyone is sincere enough that God will reveal himself to her so she can be saved. This means that Siddhartha Gautama (aka The Buddha), for example, was not sincere enough in his search. The seven years he spent learning from every different type of teacher he could find was not sincere enough. Being close to death from starvation and sitting for three days and three nights (sound a little familiar??) under a bodhi tree was not sincere enough. Obviously not because God would have sent someone to preach to him if he was sincere.

Kind of makes you wonder if anyone has a chance.

But now I want to return to a thought I mentioned in the last post. If the fate of all the souls in the world depend on hearing about Jesus, doesn’t this put the fate of all these souls on the hands of every Christian? Obviously yes, but you’ll have to stay tuned to see what else I have to say about it …

In part two of this series, I talked about Romans 1:18-21 where Paul claims that everyone can know God from nature. But this doesn’t seem to be quite enough because, as I said in part one, you need to get from God to The Jesus of The Bible in order to be saved. And, despite a valient attempt by the Greeks with Dionysus, it seems darn near impossible to do this — at least to the Christian’s satisfaction. And indeed it must be because Paul writes in Romans 10:13-17

… for “whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved.” How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher? How will they preach unless they are sent? Just as it is written, “how beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news of good things!” However, they did not all heed the good news; for Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed our report?” So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.

So where does that leave the billions of people who, because of where and when they were born, have never heard the name of Jesus? And doesn’t this put the fate of all these souls on the hands of every Christian? Well, yes, but …

Some Christians have no qualms about sending billions of people to Hell. A professor of New Testament, Ethics, and Philosophy at a Baptist Theological Seminary with whom I had a brief email exchange a few years ago told me straight out: “God may do with us just as he pleases.” He was referring to Romans 9 where in verses 20-23 Paul says

On the contrary, who are you, O man, who answers back to God? The thing molded will not say to the molder, “Why did you make me like this,” will it? Or does not the potter have a right over the clay, to make from the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for common use? What if God, although willing to demonstrate His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction? And He did so to make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy, which He prepared beforehand for glory

Paul seems to be saying that God created some people knowing full well they’d end up in Hell. But, what the hell, He’s God, right? Of course, this opens up the whole predestination v free-will issue which I am not going to delve into right now. My point is that some Christians are fine with a Hell kind of like Monaco and a Heaven kind of like Greenland. (Hint … Manoco is the most densely populated country and Greenland is the least populated country.) Of course, aside from the guaranteed 50-acre lot in Heaven, the other advantage to this viewpoint is that it’s more or less out of your hands — your evangelical hands, that is. If God created some people knowing they’d end up in Heaven, they’re gonna get there, right? Whether I tell them about Jesus or not, they are gonna get there. And those who were created to be kindling, no matter how much you preach to them they are beyond hope.

Fair enough, but what about the Maya people who lived before even Columbus sailed the ocean blue? Can God, a God of Love, really condemn them all? My seminary pen-pal says yes. God can create entire civilizations knowing that they don’t stand a snowball’s chance in … hell. He is, after all, a God that is 100% just (apparently just trumps love) and those Mayas just didn’t get it right and didn’t say the right prayers and didn’t believe the right thing. They must be punished in accordance with God’s Law. Ignorantia juris non excusat, afterall. Quite a cavalier attitude for someone who had the luck to be born in the right place at the right time!

All this “God is 100% just” talk is just fine except that God, apparently, does have the ability to go against his nature. There is a loophole in the Law. Apparently, God doesn’t send little babies to Hell. Whew! That’s a relief. That would be just downright cruel and unusual. I mean, those cute little babies don’t deserve eternal damnation just because they are unable to hear about Jesus Christ and are unable to make a conscious decision to follow Jesus. Who cares that the Bible says they take part in the “total depravity of man” and are stained by “original sin” and are “conceived in sin”. They don’t deserve Hell!

But, aren’t the Maya of the 9th century, for example, in the same boat? Aren’t they unable to make a conscious decision about … about … what’s his name? Exactly. They never heard!

But don’t give up. There are other Christians who, perhaps like you, don’t sit well with God sending all those wrong-place-wrong-timers to Hell. How do they get around it? Do they let God chill out a bit and offer some free passes? No. They still insist that God be 100% just but they don’t want people condemned who never had the chance to hear. So what do they do? A little presto-chango … a little abracadabro … and a lot of stay tuned …

Please head over to The World According to Bruce and read It Is Time to Leave the Christian Ghetto and Become Worldly for Jesus. All I can say is, Bruce is right on!

This is the second in a series of posts that began here. When we last left our intrepid Christian — defender of the one, true Jesus — she was not sleeping too well because of the constant, nagging fear that she should be doing more to spread the name of Jesus throughout the world. How else would poor, hopeless souls find their way to Heaven and avoid the eternal torment of Hell? And how could her God, a God of love, send so many to Hell just because they were born at the wrong time and in the wrong place? Shouldn’t there be some way for them to change their destiny?

Then she went to church and her faith in her God was restored because of what she heard. For her pastor was preaching from Romans 1:18-21

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened.

Whew! Our intrepid Christian sighs a great sigh of relief. All is well with her faith in her all-loving God. For, as her pastor so eloquently relays to her, God has nothing to do with all those souls going to Hell. It seems that they have known about Him the whole time and have made a conscious decision to reject Him. So, of course, they deserve the eternal damnation they are about to receive.

Paul tells us that both God and the Christian are absolved of all responsibility for anyone going to Hell because, from the beginning, God’s “invisible attributes … have been clearly seen.” Well, that makes sense, doesn’t it? Invisible attributes … clearly seen … how could I have been so blind? Through nature, i.e. “what has been made”, God has made Himself evident to everyone and “they know God” but do “not honor Him as God.” So, everyone — no matter when or where they were born — can know God and know Him as God.

Well, this does seem evident to me. Afterall, how many cultures have gods derived from nature? There are sun gods, moon goddesses, gods of the harvest, gods of war, goddesses of fertility, gods of wine. After all, religion is one of the things that make us humans human, right?

One problem is that, in practice, this really doesn’t work out the way Paul says it can. When was the last time you heard a missionary speak at your church’s annual Missionary Convention (you have one of those, right?) and give the following report:

“We bushwacked through the jungle into the remotest part of the country, to a place where no outsider had ever been, and stumbled upon a small tribe of natives who were holding a baptism service in which they were baptizing ‘in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit’. They then recited the Lord’s Prayer, said the Apostle’s Creed, and held an alter call for the neighboring tribes after which the pastor started hut-to-hut visitation to minister to the shut-ins.”

This may sound silly, but think about what it would take for someone you didn’t know anything about to convince you that their religion was the same as your religion. And let’s say that they didn’t go to church or have a copy of The Bible? Without those two things, would it even be remotely possible?

The second problem we saw in the previous post. Just believing in God is apparently not enough. You have to get from God to Jesus. And not just any Jesus but The Jesus of The Bible. This part is not mentioned here by Paul. They could have a virgin-born-son-of-a-god miracle-working tree-crucified rose-from-the-dead god-man and it still wouldn’t be close enough to The Bible’s Jesus to get them into Heaven.

Furthermore, this is being written by a man who spoke directly to Jesus and not from a man who actually found the “right” God from nature. In fact, I know of no one mentioned in the Bible — Old or New Testaments — who found God from nature. Everyone either spoke directly to God/Jesus or heard about God/Jesus from someone else. Please correct me if I’m wrong, here.

So, all this “God is evident from nature” is either a rationalization to make us feel better about God and about ourselves for not “getting out there” more or it is a flat out lie. Either way, it allows us to anathemize the “poor souls” so their ending up in Hell doesn’t seem quite so bad. Plus, we can all sleep better at night, feeling safe and secure in the loving arms of our loving God and knowing that those in Hell have no one to blame but themselves.

But wait … and stay tuned …

What does it take to get to Heaven? According to many Christians, all you have to do is believe:

1. Jesus was the Son of God
2. Jesus was born of a virgin
3. Jesus was crucified for our sins
4. Jesus rose from the dead
5. Jesus will come to earth a second time

Sounds simple enough. But the entire thing depends on believing certain facts about a certain historical person. You can’t get by on believing in a god — or even in The God — alone. You must believe in Jesus and you must believe the above five things about Him.

May still sound simple to those of you reading this, but project yourself back to the year 1000 in what is now called Florida. Or to anywhere in Australia before the first Europeans arrived in the 1700′s. Or to certain parts of Africa or Asia today that are not “on the beaten path.” How could you possibly come up with all those facts about a person who lived long before you in a place you probably never dreamed existed? But if you didn’t believe, you were doomed to Hell. At least you’d have lots and lots of company — just think about how many billions of people throughout history have lived outside the “circle of influence,” that is, outside the regions where news of Jesus had spread.

But, surely, there’s a way around this, right? Surely, all these people are not damned for all eternity simply because they were born in the wrong place and at the wrong time? Surely it must be possible to intuit Jesus as the Son of God, intuit His virgin birth and death and resurrection, and intuit His second coming, right? No one really needs to hear all this from somebody else, does one?

Well, it just so happens that it is possible to come up with Jesus without hearing about Jesus from someone who heard about Jesus from someone who heard about Jesus … The ancient Greeks did it. They called him Dionysus instead of Jesus but Dionysus was born of a virgin, was the son of a god, was killed, and rose from the dead. Not bad, huh?

But is belief in Dionysus the same as belief in Jesus? Will belief in Dionysus get me into Heaven? My bet is that just about any Christian you talk to will have one of two answers: “Dion who?” or “No!” Let’s even assume, hypothetically if you must, that Dionysus is going to “come again” so that we have all of the fab five. The answer would still be “No!” Why? Because Dionysus was a pagan god. He wasn’t really God’s Son. He wasn’t Jesus.

But what’s in a name? “That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet,” would it not? Don’t Jesus’ origins and actions make him Jesus? Is there really a sixth criterion — “Thou shalt call His name Jesus?” that we forgot to mention?

Aside from the obvious (i.e. “You have to believe in my ‘Jesus’ and not your ‘Jesus’ because if you believe in your ‘Jesus’ I don’t have as much control over what you believe and, therefore, over you”) I think the reason is that the five facts about Jesus are not the whole story. The whole story is the surrounding drama and historical context. Jesus was Jesus for a lot more reasons than the five listed above. He was Jesus because He was born in Bethlehem, was of the house of David, rode on a donkey, was betrayed, was crucified, and so on and so forth. Jesus was Jesus because He was the Jesus that was predicted in the Old Testament. And only the Jesus predicted in the Old Testament could be the True Jesus. In other words, you can’t just believe in Jesus. You’ve got to believe in The Jesus of My Bible and therefore you have to believe in My Bible and all that entails.

So, what does the Christian do with all those poor souls who are ending up in Hell? How does the Christian sleep at night knowing that right now, this very instant, probably thousands of people are dying without even hearing the name “Jesus”?

In other words … If You’re Gonna Send Billions of People to Hell, You Gotta … stayed tuned for more …

While doing a little research for another post I’m writing I came across Antisemitism and the Crucifixion of Christ: Who Murdered Jesus? and I just have to write this quicky. (Stay tuned … this site is going to be fodder for a lot of my posts.) Now I’ll admit that I haven’t read the entire page (because it’s rather long and it’s 1:43 in the morning and I just want to get something written so I can get some sleep) but here goes anyway …

I have one good thing to say about my Fundamentalist Christian upbringing: I never thought twice about who killed Jesus. I didn’t got even the slightest hint of antisemitism from my family, church, pastor, or teachers. We thought the Jews were going to Hell because they didn’t believe that Jesus was the Son of God but we didn’t hate them.

I honestly think that the first I heard of antisemitism because the Jews “murdered” Jesus was all the hoopla from Gibson’s film (which I saw and which brought tears to me eyes; but tears of laughter because of the far-too-many so-over-the-top dramatic falls of the Jesus character while lugging his cross through the streets).

Call me sheltered or stupid but I just don’t get it. I mean, isn’t His death the whole freakin’ point of Jesus coming to earth? If He (He being Jesus) didn’t die then good ol’ Gibson (and perhaps you, dear reader) wouldn’t be a “Christian” and would be stuck trying to find two young turtle doves as atonement for this coming Saturday at the temple instead of just being able to kneel at your bedside and say a few “Hail Mary’s” or “Our Father’s” or whatever. Jesus even said that He came to die. He had to die. That was the whole plan from the get go!

So, who cares who did what to whom? The only thing of any consequence is that Jesus did die which made possible the redemption of the entire human race.

I just don’t get it.

And I sincerely apologize for the gratuitous use of the bold tag.

This is a follow-up to my recent post No Christian should have a bank account or an IRA.

I started thinking about this and doing a little research and with the help of my trusty HP 15C calculator (which I swear is running on the same batteries since 1982) I’ve figured out the solution to all the world’s problems. Well, at least the monetary, hunger, and poverty problems.

The solution is … drum roll, please …

Do what Jesus tells you to do!

Imagine my surprise at the simplicity of it all. I mean, Christians are supposed to follow Jesus’ teachings, right? I mean that’s pretty much what the whole religion is based on, right? So, if Christians would just do what they are supposed to be doing in the first place then the world would be so much better. You can’t get any simpler than that. No extra work on anyone’s part. You gotta hand it to ol’ Jesus Christ. For being an uneducated carpenter he had a lot of foresight.

So, while I’m waiting for the Nobel Peace Prize commission to review my application and cut my check I’ll let you in on the details of the solution. Now admittedly, the numbers are approximate and some of my figures are a few years old but I do have other things to do than solve the world’s problems to the 17th decimal place and, in any case, you’ll see that it doesn’t make a whole lot of difference. So, here goes …

There are roughly 300 million people in the U.S. of which roughly 80% (or 240 million) are Christians. The average disposable income per capita in the U.S. is around $30,000. Now, the average disposable income is defined as “the income available to persons for spending or saving.” If you’re spending this disposable income it’s on things and according to Matthew 6:19 you are not supposed to do this:

Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal [Jesus Christ]

If you’re saving this disposable income it’s “for a rainy day” and according to Matthew 6:34 you are not supposed to do this either:

Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself [Jesus Christ]

And this is the real key to my solution and what makes it so attractive. Christians can solve the world’s problems without selling everything they own or leaving their family to join a convent or shaving their heads and taking vows of celibacy or anything as unpleasant as that. All they have to do is stop buying things and stop saving for retirement. But, as Jesus said, you don’t need to do those things anyway because He will take care of you.

OK, you say. Nice thought but what’s the bottom line?

Here it is … if every Christian really lived by Jesus’ teachings then Christians (and I’m only talking the Christians in the United States) would have $7,000,000,000,000 to help the world. That’s 7 trillion dollars! That’s 7 trillion dollars a year!

What could we do with $7 trillion a year? Let’s see …

• The national debt is around $8.7 trillion so in one year and about 3 months the country would be out of debt.
• To sponsor a child through Plan USA costs $24/month or $288/year. For $7 trillion, Christians could sponsor 20 billion children every year which basically means they could sponsor every single child on earth with a whole lot left over!
• There would be enough left over, in fact, for Christians to foot the bill so the U.S. could abide by the Kyoto Protocol and finally do something about all the pollution we create.

That would be an awesome start. Don’t you agree? And it costs so little! I’ll even kick in half of my Nobel Peace Prize award to get things started. OK?

First of all, look at Matthew 6:

19. Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal:
20. but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:
21. for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

These are words spoken by Jesus. So, Christians should not have bank accounts or stock portfolios or IRAs or money under the mattress for these are all “treasures upon earth.”

“But,” you say. “But what will we eat? What will we wear? How will we afford to live during retirement? How will we provide for our families?”

Well, Jesus addresses some of these very questions. Look a few verses later…

25. Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?
26. Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?
27. Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?
28. And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin:
29. and yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
30. Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?
31. Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?
32. (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.
33. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.
34. 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.

Jesus’ answer to all our worries is “take no thought for the morrow!” I guess the original “Don’t worry; be happy.” He claims that if He takes care of the birds and the flowers and if you are so much more than the birds and the flowers that He will take care of you. Pretty radical, huh?

I mean, just imagine, having faith. Faith in an all-powerful, all-knowing, loving God capable of creating the entire world by simply speaking! Why do we think we need to help out God by balancing our portfolios and working our asses off 50 and 60 hours a week to bring home the bacon? God says that He will take care of us. He knows that we need to eat and drink and have clothing (see verse 32) and He will provide.

This is directly from Jesus. He is telling us how to live our lives. Christians are supposed to be like Jesus and do what He tells us to do. Why do so many simply ignore Jesus’ direct words? I’ve heard pastors and teachers talk about these verses but they always talk about getting through “rough times”, there’s a “light at the end of the tunnel.” When you’re out of work, take heart. God will provide. But I don’t read it this way. Jesus is not talking about times “between jobs.” He’s talking everyday.

What’s more, the early church believed this and acted on it! Look at Acts 2:

44. And all that believed were together, and had all things common;
45. and sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need.

They seemed to really believe what Jesus said about riches in Matthew 19:21

If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me.

Jesus spoke these words to a young man who had kept all of God’s laws since he was a child. And don’t forget the camel and the eye of a needle comment Jesus makes.

Jesus was poor. His followers were poor. His early church sold possessions and land and gave the money freely to anyone who needed it. But so many in the church today, Christians of today, don’t seem to be listening to Jesus’ words anymore. They are worried about tomorrow and believing what Jesus said. They are basically calling Jesus a liar or not powerful enough to follow through on what He said.

That’s a pretty weak God they want the rest of the world to believe in.