Living In Sin vs Being a Sinning Christian

To start this post a need to make something very clear: Christians still sin

When you become a Christian, you are still imperfect, still a sinner, still guilty of going against God's laws and still worthy of punishment and unworthy of grace.

BUT because you acknowledge your sin, realise that it is bad and put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ, you receive his forgiveness even though you are unworthy. At that point, you still deserve to be sent to Hell, but you have accepted Jesus paying that price for you and thus you will not go to Hell.

Still with me so far?

This doesn't mean however that Christians can sin as much as they like because they'll still be saved. This is wrong and means you're living in sin. Christians still sin but they do not live in sin and there's a difference.

If you sin against God knowing it's wrong and doing it anyway (we all know what is right and wrong in God's eyes because he has given us a conscience) or pretending it's not wrong and doing it. You're living in sin. When you do these wrong things, maybe it's stealing, maybe it's lusting, maybe it's having sex outside of marriage, maybe it's getting drunk, you deny God and choose your own selfish desires instead of doing what He asks.

At this point you are delighting in your sin. You are not trying very hard not to do these things and slipping up every now and again. You are fully getting involved in sin, without trying to stop yourself, without feeling bad about it, without regret, but instead with actively enjoyment in the sin(s).

Christians however, do not live this way. Christians (and if they are living in sin, it shows that they are false converts and only fooling themselves) acknowledge that sin is sin. This means they don't fool themselves into pretending something is right. They know what is right and wrong and acknowledge which action goes in which category. In light of knowing what's a sin, they do everything they can not to do these things.

Because we are all born with sinful natures, we are all imperfect creatures, which means we will inevitably sin our entire lives. This won't stop. But Christians make a conscious effort to stop as much as they can. The new desires God gives us mean we no longer want to live in sin when we're Christians (Ezekiel 11:19). Then, when Christians do slip up they repent - genuinely.

Genuine repentence involves 6 steps:
1. Recognition of your sin - you know that what you did is wrong
2. Sorrow - you feel sad that you committed a sin
3. Shame - you are embarrassed that you committed a sin
4. Confession - you admit to God that you committed a sin
5. Abandoning sin - you give up that behavior and turn from it
6. Hatred of sin - you hate the sin that you've committed

And there you have a key difference between being a sinning Christian, who is saved, and being a fake Christian or non-Christian who chooses to live in sin.

For more on this topic from the Bible, please read Romans 6:12-23

If you're a Christian and you're reading this and really struggling with a sin right now, I recommend you read this verse: Romans 7:14-25

"Why did God let the Holocaust happen?"

Since it's Holocaust Memorial Day in Europe and I am an Ambassador for the Holocaust Educational Trust (HET), I thought today would be an appropriate time to answer the above question. I've been asked this question a few times, most frequently when I visited the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camps in Poland, as part of my work as an Ambassador for the HET.

I'd like to start this post by directing you to this post over at GotQuestions? They have answered (with reference to Bible verses) the above question for the most part and since they've done it so well, I won't spend time repeating what they've said here. Instead I will summarise (and you can read in its entirety and and check the references) and I'll add what that post didn't say.

In short:

• God's permission is not the same as God's approval. Just because something bad happens, doesn't mean God approves of it
• We will never understand God's plans because we do not have infinite knowledge like He does. His knowledge includes possibilities, past, present and future
• Humans are sinful and pursue sinful, selfish desires. They have the choice to turn from this but many do not. The sinful actions of the Holocaust therefore rest with those involved, who made that choice - not God
• God is just and thus those involved in the atrocites will be punished accordingly
• One good thing to come out of the Holocaust was the establishment of Israel as a nation for the Jews, fulfilling prophecies in Ezekiel 37 and Matthew 24

To add a little more:
The key issue here is free will. Sin exists in the world and it always will. God gave us free will (that's a whole post in itself) so that we could choose to love and follow Him, as opposed to being robot-style humans 'programmed' as it were to love God because He made us that way.

Due to free will, people can do disgusting acts like the Holocaust. God can intervene, but if He did this all the time we'd have 2 problems:

1. This would remove free will. No one would ever get round to actually doing something against God, because He'd always stop them
2. We would stop helping ourselves because we would expect intervention from God all the time. A bit like a superhero situation.

We need to turn from evil and choose good for ourselves and try to convince others to do the same. My last thought on the issue is that when I was at the camps, I felt closer to God. It sounds strange, but it is the eeriest, scariest, quietest, most frightening and morbid place I have ever been, even without prisoners and SS officers. I realised the cruelty of man and the contingent, fragility of life. That brought me closer to God. It made me realise that He is the only way.

If we are saved, if we believe and trust in Jesus Christ and follow Him, life on earth is as bad as it will ever get for Christians. One day we will join our Lord in the place He has prepared for us (John 14:2-4)

"I can't believe in something that I don't fully understand, so I'm not a Christian"

A few people have said to me that the reason they don't read the Bible or choose to follow God and become a Christian is because they don't understand the Gospel. The basics of Christianity are really quite simple:

• God created everyone with a purpose and He wants a relationship you
• You have sinned, which means you have disobeyed God's plans for you, like every single person on the planet
• God is upset by this and as a just and righteous God, He must punish you accordingly - which means Hell
• But God will not give up! He loves you so much that He sent His only son Jesus to take the punishment for your sin
• The punishment for sin is death. Jesus, in his perfection, took it upon himself to die an excruciating, horrific death so that we could be forgiven of our sins
• He showed his power and glory, when God resurrected Jesus from the dead
• The price has been paid for us, so that if we believe in God, trust God, choose to obey God now and apologise with sincerity then we fail, we will be saved - we will live with God in Heaven and avoid being sent to Hell

(For a more in-depth explantion of that, you might want to see my posts on why God sends people to Hell and how you can avoid it here and here. You may also want to visit Got Questions?)

If you would prefer to watch a video explaining the Gospel message clearly and concisely, check this out, it's done in the format of spoken word poetry:

credit to Odd Thomas and WretchedRadio

But if at this point you're still thinking "ok, I get that much, but I'm still confused by stuff like Jesus being resurrected, the Trinity, etc" here's my answer to you: yes, it is complicated stuff! God's plan is divine, it has been made with his ultimate understanding and knowledge, with his foresight and hindsight. We do not have this.

It is not important that we understand the ins and outs of His plan entirely, we just need to understand the basics which I have just explaned. God guides us and helps us to understand. It takes time to build up a close communication with God, through Bible study and prayer, as it does with any relationship. But He will reveal himself and help you understand. He listens and waits for you.

Now before you jump to thinking this is a 'cop out', think of it like this: what do you currently follow or believe that you do not fully understand? Do you understand...

• How the internet works? But do you believe that the internet exists? Do you frequently use it?
• How your phone works? But do you blindly use that without understanding it?
• How gravity works? Yet you believe you will stay on the ground
• How the universe exists? The movements of the Earth in relation to the Sun and the moon? But you expect that we'll have day and night

It is possible to know how the things I have just listed work. It is possible to understand God's unique plan for our lives. But both are complicated. If that is not a reason however to shy away or refuse to investigate the workings of the internet, why is it a reason to turn from God? If you can blindly follow worldly things without fully comprehending, why do you reject doing this with God?

3 in 1: My answer to questions about the Bible's compilation and being changed over time

This post is an answer to a few similar questions that I am frequently asked:

1. "How can I believe in the Bible when it has been changed over time?"
2. "How do you know what Jesus actually taught when (insert name of King here) chose what he thought should be in the Bible and what should be scrapped?"
3. "Aren't there bits of the Bible missing because some king put different writings together to make the Bible, leaving some out?"

For anyone who is asking these questions, or similar questions, here's your answer. Firstly, I find it's Catholics (or those raised Catholic) that ask me the 2nd and 3rd questions in the above list the most. I have never attended Mass, nor have I been to Catholic school, but the fact that so many Catholic friends of mine have this strange belief, leads me to think that perhaps Catholics are taught that some man/king/Pope or whoever compiled the Bible. Or perhaps Catholics are not taught this, but it's a conspiracy among the less observant/strict believers.

The first question I get asked a lot by Muslims. Many of them think the Bible has been changed in terms of things being added, things being removed and things being re-written, in terms of the language used, to say something different.

I'm answering these 3 questions at once because they all link in together. (Except for the semantic issue of the language used in the Bible when translated, which will be a separate post). The fact is the Bible was actually compiled by the writers of the Bible themselves, who were divinely called to write the scriptures. They knew their calling, wrote the scriptures and those scriptures were then brought together to form the Bible as a whole. (For a more in-depth look at who put the Bible together, click here). Thus, it was not a person putting things in and taking things out to suit their needs. Nor has anything been added since, left out or removed.

We know that everything in the Bible now has always been part of the Bible, as God intended. It is not missing anything. God was the one in charge of putting the Bible together. It is the sceptics and unbelievers who try to portray this message of the Bible being incorrect in one of these ways. Speaking about the apostle Paul, Peter says:

2 Peter 3:16 - He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction.


There's also a great, short video from WretchedRadio touching on this topic:

"Why do Christians think humans are a superior species?"

This post is actually not to quote tons of Scripture as to why humans are superior above other animals, etc. The reason being that when I get asked this question, people don't want to hear "because in the Bible it says XYZ". The Bible provides plenty of information if you are interested in why humans are superior from a biblical perspective. In a nutshell, we were created superior: we are made in God's image or likeness, we have free will, we have a conscience, we have rationality, we were made intentionally and with a purpose.

Today I will instead explain how we can see, Bible aside, why scripture is correct in teaching that humans are superior to other beings. Here is a list of what we are capable of in comparison to animals:

• Self-awareness: before you start thinking about Cyberdyne and Skynet and claim that machines can be self-aware, hear me out on what I mean by this. We understand that we exist. We know that we used to exist before this moment in time and we can remember the past and how we existed then. We also understand that we will continue to exist in the future. Think of Dory in Finding Nemo. Although she can remember aspects of the past, this seems coincidental in relation to how we remember the past. The fact that she can remember things like 'P. Sherman, 4 Wallaby Way, Sydney' doesn't mean she is mindful of the fact that she used to exist and will exist in the future. We can, which is the key difference. Our self-awareness is on a higher level, more complex and thus superior in comparison.
• Empathy: humans have the ability to empathise, to feel what it is like for another person to be in a certain situation, without being in that position ourselves
• Mind-reading: not literally knowing exactly what someone's thinking all the time, Edward Cullen style mind-reading. What I mean is we can know what other people are thinking and how they are feeling sometimes without them needing to say anything. For example, you see your friend thinking about something when she hears her favourite song, you might know that she's thinking about the first time she heard it. You see your boyfriend staring into the fridge, you might know he's thinking about what to have for lunch. By knowing a person, we can to an extent read their minds.
• Emotion: we can recognise and know how a person's feeling by looking at them. We both express emotion more vividly and clearly than animals and we can recognise and identify emotions from people's body language, facial expressions and tone of voice. (Well, most of us).
• Language: we have developed thousands of complex, well-developed languages that are completely different from the communication animals use. We can use to talk to each other using these languages to express ourselves specifically, understand one another and respond.
• Predictability: by knowing people, we can predict their behaviour, emotions and responses. Unlike animals, we can weigh up scenarios and compare outcomes (using complex thought-processes and consciousness too for the record) to know how someone will feel about something, react to something and what they'll say to something else. What they'll like or dislike, how they'll react, etc.
• Monogamy: we seem to be one of few, if not the only, species that is capable of and often desires a monogamous relationship. Most animals don't care about the 'personality' of other animals, or even the way the other animal looks. They simply follow basic instinct to find a mate. They may have more than one at a time, or even move from one to the other. Humans have personal interaction with each other, we wouldn't want to end up with just anyone for life. We desire a specific person and want to hold on to them and no other. (Again, 98% of the time)

It's these factors that we can observe everday that go hand-in-hand with biblical teaching that humans are superior. These things I have just listed, show how God made us differently and touch on why He did so. Christians believe humans are superior and stewards of the Earth for these reasons and many others, not just because we want to give ourselves authority to do what we want, feel big and mistreat other creatures.

I hope to the people who've asked me that question, that I have answered it!

"If God is forgiving, why is there a Hell? Surely I'm forgiven?"

This post is a response to a question I've been asked a couple times recently. I've been asked why some people go to Hell and why does Hell even exist if God forgives? Surely God will forgive everyone and we'll all go to Heaven?


Here is the answer in a nutshell: God forgives those who SEEK his forgiveness, apologise for the sins (wrongdoings) they've committed and try not to do that same bad thing again.

If you're not sorry, God will not forgive you. Imagine your friend has repeatedly lied to you and it's spiraling out of control. Nothing they seem to say to you is the truth anymore. You're getting pretty frustrated. Your friend turns to you and says "so? You're a pretty forgiving person. You forgive me right?" Do you? Your friend then turns to you and says "I'm not sorry. I don't think I've done wrong. Lying isn't a big deal to me". Will you forgive them? What if your friend says sorry and carries on exactly the same? Do you forgive them then? But suppose your friend says "I'm so sorry, I didn't realise how much I hurt you and I'll try not to lie in future". They still do lie from time to time, but much less and they are sincerely trying not to. Now you're much more likely to forgive that person than you were before.


In the same way, if you try to turn from your sin and apologise for when you do wrong, God will forgive you. No man is perfect except Jesus, so you will sin for your whole life. But the point is, you try your hardest not to and if someone were to look at your life on a timescale, they would see improvement. You can't just sin thinking it's fine because you'll be forgiven, since this is the same situation with the friend that I just discussed. It is admitting your sin, apologising and turning from it, that will bring you forgiveness. If you don't put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ and turn from sin, you will be destined for Hell.


Why?

Imagine a court of justice. A man has come before the court accused of theft. This is clearly a violation of the law. He has been found guilty and the judge is about to sentence him. The man says "judge I'm sorry, please don't send me to jail". What will the judge do? The man saying sorry doesn't change the fact he has broken the law. If the judge fails to sentence him, he is corrupt. The judge must seek justice and sentence the man. In the same way, if you have sinned and broken God's law, to achieve justice you must serve your sentence - in Hell.

However, if a second man were to step in and say, "I'll pay the fine so this criminal may walk free" then justice has been served. The man will walk free. Thankfully, Jesus stepped in to pay the fine for our sins, when he gave his life on the cross. That is the reason why God IS forgiving, but only to those who seek his forgiveness. There is a way to avoid spending eternity in Hell, but if you ignore this, your punishment is fixed in order for justice to be served.

To Those Who Play the Blame Game

I was having a conversation in Meeting today about people that play the blame game. When things don't go right in our life, like when we don't have the things we want, the money we want, the things everyone else seems to have. Or when something goes wrong, like a child being born with a condition, a diagnosis of something terminal, etc, we look for someone to blame.

Why do people blame God? Why do we think He does this to people? That He is the cause of these things?

I follow the Evidence Bible on Twitter and the other day this wonderful article was posted: click here to read it

I encourage you to check it out, because it explains why people like to blame God for what goes wrong in their life and why it's wrong to do so. Many people won't like the answer, it's not what they want to hear. They would prefer to run and hide. But it's the truth