The Red Herring

“A red herring is a smelly fish that would distract even a bloodhound. It is also a digression that leads the reasoner off the track of considering only relevant information” (http://www.iep.utm.edu/fallacy/#Red%20Herring).

Have you ever thought that rationality and logic are things of the past? Just watching and listening to politicians will definitely give indication of this. It seems to me that today more people have given up on thinking critically through arguments. Instead they would rather just “believe” what they “feel” is right or take the word of a professor that they know little about besides in the classroom. Don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of great professors out there who would make great mentors as well, but you should still think through their reasoning behind what they are teaching.

Some time ago a college student approached me and we ended up getting into a conversation about creation/evolution. I am not going to debate either right now in light of right and wrong, because there is not enough space to give my argument. It would also be me moving into a red herring, as I would be redirecting the topic to something else, however it was the central topic of our discussion. Plus, you will get an idea of my view just from the conversation.

It ended up that he could not understand why I would believe in creation, and that evolution was obviously the answer and proven. I asked how he knew this and what evidence he had. He just stared at me, and instead asked another question, because he had no idea how to respond. Instead he tried to defend his side by just throwing out a name used by many who do not actually study because everyone uses it and almost all basic science classes use his name. He asked me about Charles Darwin. Now, he did not give any evidence that Darwin gave, just asked me about him. I said I did not agree with his premises and that many scholars, even in evolutionary thought, no longer hold to much of his arguments. I then asked him if he has ever read Charles Darwin at any time in his life. Again, he stared at me and said he has read some quotes. I am betting all my evolution and creation friends are now rolling their eyes.

I moved forward and asked if he knew of the theory regarding Darwin’s Black Box, because anyone that has done some study has heard of this in one form or another. He said no, so I explained to him that Darwin himself theorized that if the eye were more than just a gelatinous ball, his very own theory of evolution would crumble. I asked him if the eye was more then just a gelatin ball. Instead of answering rationally, he says “yes.” Are you serious? I actually asked him that. The eye is made up of cones, rods, and retina and many other parts and is not just a gelatin ball in our heads.

Here is the red herring. Instead of saying he did not know as much as he thought about evolution and would have to go and think about my questions and come back with an answer, and I did ask him about fossil records and transitions and he could not answer or give any credible evidence, he tried to redirect the conversation. His answer was that he thought religion was just an invention so people could figure out how the world began because they did not know prior. Did you catch it? I never brought up religion, but he knew I was a Christian so he used it. He tried to move to religion in general because he could not defend a position that he held so tightly. It was a self-protective mechanism that many use when they know they are caught in a debate.

The second statement was an even more overt red herring. He told me that as an educated man that he can’t understand how I would believe this, even though he could not defend the position for me. Again, instead of answering the topic he attacked my education background. I did not bite, though I wanted to respond to him. I would have said, “Actually it should tell you something that I have a Ph.D. and believe in creation, and you do not even have a Bachelors and you do not believe in it.” Now that would be me giving a red herring back, as it has nothing to do with my or his education, because it is either true or it is not. Has nothing to do with me or him. I never gave religious answers to the creation account, but scientific arguments against the evolution account. I used more of the Intelligent Design arguments (please check before you comment, because there are many non-Christians in this movement as well). I could have given the religious arguments, but wanted to stick to his theories that he did not understand.

I can’t tell you how many times I have seen Christians use this as well when debating others. I have done it myself when I got flustered, or just did not realize until I was taught about it. We are not teaching high school or college students how to critically think and how to debate with someone, and I won’t even get started on the lack of respect being shown to elders either in this regard. We need to teach that just spouting our professors’ beliefs is not enough, and we should work through these arguments ourselves. These are important matters. Either evolution is true or creation is. Either there is a God or there is not. Either all ways lead to God or they don’t. Either Jesus is Savior and Lord or He is not. These questions cannot be answered by simple little cliché statements that you have not studied or learned how to answer and then counter-answer arguments regarding the issue, regardless of where you stand on the spectrum.

Lastly, I do want to say that I have debated many on the other side who do debate very well and have their arguments very concise, both within the Christian circle and without. It seems though it is becoming a far less occurrence then a norm though. Time to get rid of some of the junk liberal classes that everyone has to take and replace them with logic, critical thinking and philosophy, at least at the basic level in order to teach our younger generation how to think critically and for themselves.

Proverbs 23:23, “Buy the truth, and do not sell it, Also wisdom and instruction and understanding.”

Keep the Sabbath? What's the Big Deal?

“I’d like to be remembered as one who kept my priorities in the right order. We live in a changing world, but we need to be reminded that the important things have not changed, and the important things will not change if we keep our priorities in proper order.” – Truett Cathy

Warning: this is a reflection blog and is a glimpse of how my mind works when thinking upon these topics. I have my opinion, of course, but it is just for us to reflect and I think we have to let God speak to us on this topic and strive to live out that conviction.

Your son or daughter has trained for years, sacrificing a lot for this moment. They longed for this special day for years, and as a parent you are so proud and excited for them. In some ways this is just as important to you because of all the sacrifice you had to give as well through driving to practice, paying for equipment and being there for them through all the ups and downs. Then you find out that this culmination of time, talent and practice is now to be demonstrated on Sunday, the “normal” day of Sabbath for the West. What do you do? Do you sacrifice because of the special day and not go, or do you go and know God will understand?

This just happened with a group of girls who worked all year to make it to the championships and refused to play because of their faith. Now they are Mormons, but they are certainly an example of living out convictions. They walked away from a championship trophy because they believe Sabbath is a holy day. How many of us would do that?

How many of us have missed events because we had to work, go to class, or another function that we thought we had to be at? Now, how many have given up an event because it conflicted with church? My goal is not to get into semantics about which day is Sabbath, but about Sabbath itself and what we have made of it in Western culture. How often do we go to church in order to rush out to another event, especially a sporting event our children are in today?

Imagine you have a child if you don’t, and not so hard if you do. Now imagine you get a call from school and they tell you they did not show up for school. You start to worry and sweat because your child is not at school, where he should be. After school, he walks in the door and you immediately ask him where he was. He tells you instead of school he went to a video gaming arcade to practice his gaming skills, because tonight his team is going to go online live and play another group and he wanted to be ready. He says it is no big deal, because school is boring and that missing it once in a while is no big deal. How would you respond? Would you explain to him the importance of school and that skipping is going to hurt him in the long run? What would you say?

Now take that to our eternal perspective and what are we saying to our children when church becomes something we have to do on Sunday and then we take off for the “rest” of our day. Now I am just as guilty with this and probably why God brought it to mind. How do we treat our Sabbath day? Again, not about which day, but the day. Is it really about God, or about fitting God in? What does it say to our kids, new believers, unbelievers, and anyone else watching us? Does it say we truly care about what God deemed as important, or secondary?

There was a movie out years ago called Chariots of Fire and the main character refused to run the 100 meter because the race was on Sunday, and instead trained for the 400 dash and ended up winning gold. Now he took a lot of heat for following this conviction, and I believe because it made people feel guilty that he was doing what they knew they should be doing, and that is respecting the Sabbath.

How are we to treat the Sabbath today? Like the Eric Liddell from Chariots of Fire, and Truett Cathy of Chic-Fil-a, or more like the average Westerner who fits God in to at least one of their days for at least an hour for service? I will end with some verses for us to ponder and then act upon how God leads through His Word. It is by no means an exhaustive list, but to give a start. Remember it is not about doing good on Sabbath, but about the importance of the day itself.

Genesis 2:2, “And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.”

Leviticus 16:31, “It is a sabbath of solemn rest for you, and you shall afflict your souls. It is a statute forever.”

Leviticus 23:32, “It shall be to you a sabbath of solemn rest, and you shall afflict your souls; on the ninth day of the month at evening, from evening to evening, you shall celebrate your sabbath.”

Leviticus 25:2, “Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: ‘When you come into the land which I give you, then the land shall keep a sabbath to the Lord”

Mark 2:27-28, “And He said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath. Therefore the Son of Man is also Lord of the Sabbath. Therefore the Son of Man is also Lord of the Sabbath.”

Acts 13:44, “On the next Sabbath almost the whole city came together to hear the word of God.”

Acts 16:13, “And on the Sabbath day we went out of the city to the riverside, where prayer was customarily made; and we sat down and spoke to the women who met there”

Hebrews 4:9-11, “A Sabbath rest remains, therefore, for God’s people. For the person who has entered His rest has rested from his own works, just as God did from His. Let us then make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall into the same pattern of disobedience.”

UnChristian Love!

Psalm 52:4, “You love any words that destroy, you treacherous tongue!”

I have talked about love before in some of my blogs, but typically it was on what love looks like in its entirety and not just the emotional level typically fixated on by the average Christian writer. I still think there is a lot to say about love from this perspective, but today I want to focus on another concept. How not to show Christian love!

You think that would be easy, right? Wrong. I am not going to get into self-debasing Christians, otherwise known as “eating our own,” because too many Christians do that today. It has become popular among certain Christians to continually criticize and point out all the flaws within Christianity. I can see it to a point, but we need to do it in a manner that also reminds them that Christianity is the answer. “Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). I have looked at a lot of verses about love in the Bible and I do not see where we are to apologize in such a public forum, except to God. We are to apologize to those we sin against whether a group or a single person, but how that is to look, it appears to me, is much different at times then what comes across in a lot of “popular” writings and articles today.

With that said, I am going to apologize for the actions of someone that calls themselves a Christian and yet did exactly the opposite of what Christian love is. “And to love Him with all your heart, with all your understanding, and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself, is far more important than all the burnt offerings and sacrifices” (Mark 12:33). Of course I always ask if you treated someone the way you treat yourself, then how would it look? I want Christians, those looking at Christianity and those not considering Christianity yet to know that I apologize for the person that I am about to write about next and they do not represent true Christianity in my humble opinion, and actually represent the opposite of it.

One terrible example of this just presented itself to me. You can see the picture in the beginning of this blog of what was written. This note was left on someone’s car while they were in a store. They based their note from a bumper sticker on the car, which you can see right next to this paragraph. What kind of witness is this for the Christian faith? Instead of getting to know the driver of the car by waiting to talk, or leaving a note asking them to meet and discuss the bumper sticker; instead they leave a note with an apparent hate sentence included, “Burn in hell you demon.” Personally, I am not a fan at all of the note or the process they took as there is no real evangelism, outreach or true love in this type of note.

One question I thought of right away is, how do they know they did not just buy the car and the bumper sticker was on there and it was not taken off yet? How do you know that someone did not borrow the car for the day and you left the note for another to find (not that it makes it right)? What would that do to the person ever listening about Christianity? What if the person just lost a family member, or found out they had cancer, or was thinking about suicide and came to their car and find that note? Everything about the note reeks of hate and bile and it is uncalled for in the Christian circle. There is a big difference between holding someone accountable within the church and treating someone you do not know with such contempt. I must say that I would not treat someone in the church that way either.

Unfortunately there are those out there that will call themselves Christian and yet live a life without showing it in any real form. This is another reason why I am not a big fan of just using words, and instead we must follow it up with action. Words can be deceiving. I can say one thing to you and make it sound so encouraging and loving, but turn around and treat the same person with disdain with my actions. Which is more true, my words or actions? My actions because they demonstrate what is truly inside. We see this issue with many of the Sadducees and Pharisees in Jesus’ day, and we see it with this note writer today.

This blog is meaningless unless my actions line up with my words and I can guarantee you that I would never leave such a note on someone’s car. Since I know this person, I can tell you they would have talked about the differences in religion and done so respectfully and also in an engaged fashion. How do I know, because I have had those discussions with them over the past two years. Will we all make mistakes? Absolutely, and that is why we are to point people to Jesus and not ourselves. Let Christ deal with them in His time.

Words are important in one way for sure; they will demonstrate whether you truly line up with what you do. Like the old adage says, “actions speaker louder then words,” and seems to line up with James, which is talking about justification before the world. Instead of writing hateful notes, how about building a friendship and a dialogue about truth, another name for it – Evangelism.

James 2:19-20, “You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe—and tremble! But do you want to know, O foolish man, that faith without works is dead?”

Christian Lyrics--A Positive Take

I want to do a follow up to the previous blog, so if you have not read that one yet, read it first and then read this one as it will only make partial sense if you do not.

In the last blog I was working through the issue of some songs and how their delivery did not seem to line up with Scripture, though some of the message could be seen as a plausible message. I still do not see anything plausible about his message regarding Heaven though.

On the other side there are groups out there that challenge the Christian church, and do it without shock value, such as vulgar language and videos that promote the very thing they are singing against. Remember I mentioned the video that has his friend smoking a cigarette while he is singing worrying about people dying everyday. The message becomes garbled and incoherent in its delivery and as mentioned does not glorify God.

But if done right, there is a way to challenge with song and glorify God, and I think Casting Crowns gives us a great example of this, as seen from the two songs below. Interesting enough, I think the two songs are the same message that Derek is trying to get across, but because of his delivery his is lost in translation. Casting Crowns does it in a way that hits you in the face with what we as the church should be doing, but does not use vulgar language to make their point. Nor does Casting Crowns make a mockery of the Gospel by doing what it says not to do in trying to tell people to do what it says.

I think Casting Crowns applies 1 Corinthians 5:12-13 well, “What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside? God will judge those outside. . . .” They try to get the church to wake up by asking questions through a song and challenging what they see the church doing in an honorable way.

What if His People Prayed

What if the armies of the Lord/Picked up and dusted off their swords/Vowed to set the captives free/And not let satan have one moreWhat if the church, for heaven's sake/Finally stepped up to the plate/Took a stand upon God's promise/And stormed hell's rusty gatesChorus:What if His people prayed/And those who bear His name/Would humbly seek His face Yeah/And Turn from their own wayAnd what would happen if we prayed/For those raised up to lead the wayThen maybe kids in school could pray/And unborn children see light of dayWhat if the life that we pursue/Came from a hunger for the truth/What if the family turned to Jesus/Stopped asking Oprah what to doWhat if His people prayed/And those who bear His name/Would humbly seek His face Yeah/And Turn from their own wayHe said that they would hear/His promise has been made/He'll answer loud and clearIf only we would prayIf My people called by My name/If they'll humble themselves and pray/If My people called by My name/If they'll humble themselves and pray

What would happen if we followed the song? It would be a good thing, more prayer. They challenge the aspect of what the church body is truly doing in communication with God and not bashing the Church for shock value. Basically the essence of “eating our own,” as seen in my previous blog.

There song follows the command of God (Jeremiah 29:12; Acts 8:22; 1 Thess. 5:17; 1 Peter 3:15-16).

If We are The Body

It's crowded in worship today/As she slips in trying to fade into the facesThe girls teasing laughter is carrying farther than they know/Farther than they knowChorus:But if we are the body/Why aren't His arms reaching?/Why aren't His hands healing?Why aren't His words teaching?/And if we are the body/Why aren't His feet going?Why is His love not showing them there is a way?/There is a wayA traveler is far away from home/He sheds his coat and quietly sinks into the back rowThe weight of their judgmental glances/Tells him that his chances are better out on the roadJesus paid much too high a price/For us to pick and choose who should comeAnd we are the body of Christ

This song definitely is challenging the church with the great commission seen in Matthew 28:19-20, “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.”

It is easy to see this in their songs and the challenges are very clear and is not offensive in language or using some form of shock to try to be like the world.

I think it important as anyone thinks through it to consider that there is a way to write a song without using foul language, or denigrating Heaven as a self-proclaimed Christian, and this is where the world could cry out – Pharisee or Hypocrite.

Let’s be like Casting Crowns in writing lyrics. Music applied can be different, as I liked a lot of the beats from Derek, but that is where a lot of it ended. Time to be in the world, but not of the world, including in our “Christian” lyrics!

John 15:19, “If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.”