Rev Up Ministries

Big Christmas Blowout - Part Two

What’s the biggest deal about Christmas? The gifts! It’s all about the gifts! Give me a Ferrari!

“Don, you’re a heathen!”

Maybe... I admit, I do love bacon. Prove me wrong. When was the last time a store clerk said, “Merry Christmas”? I don’t think they’ve ever said it in China. Today employees are actively taught to say “Happy Holidays”… because retailers don’t want to offend anyone and have them shop somewhere else. Somewhere where Christ isn’t mentioned. And that’s what Christmas has evolved into. A holiday for gift giving, manipulated into a tool for profit making.

When was the last time you celebrated Christmas without gifts? That’s never happened to me. And I got some pretty good gifts. My brother and I got the first LEGO set sold in America. I know because it was in the LEGO museum at LEGOLAND. But my parents didn’t talk about their faith. They just wrapped up the presents, and Santa put them under the Christmas tree while we were sleeping. I tired to catch that jolly old elf for 16 years. Never did. For an old, fat elf, the dude is fast! And here comes a lawsuit from USE… the Union of Santa’s Elves!

Ironically, the most significant event in the history of the world, that the wise men commemorated with the giving of their gifts, is now just a celebration of giving gifts. The importance of the holiday has been relegated to the afterthought file. Jesus is a missing person at His own party! It’s all about the bucks baby! And our country seems to be fine with that.

I think we could be missing something.

Overall, I don’t have a problem with gifts. I love gifts. Get me as many as you like! Can you say Ferrari? Red, please. I enjoy Christmas because of the gift giving. But some gifts are, well, better than others. Since this rant is about the gifts the wise men gave Jesus, I probably should rant about them. If I had gotten a couple of the gifts Jesus got, I would have been asking for the gift receipt. Well, I wouldn’t have if I was a baby. One, because I wouldn’t know what a gift receipt is, and two, because I wouldn’t be able to talk. We (meaning me mostly) look at the gifts the wise men brought and think, “I’ll take the gold, but I really don't need any frankelsense and mure. I don't even know what they are! Why are you even giving Him two things that no one has ever heard of, as gifts? I totally get the gold. I don't remember anybody giving King Henry VIII any frankelsense! Coulda got you beheaded! Bring on the gold, baby! My investment portfolio doesn't need any frankelsense in it. Primarily because I don't have an investment portfolio. And if you're gonna get me one this Christmas, skip the frankelsense and go heavy on the gold!”

"Hey, Don!"

Yes?

"It was frankincense and myrrh. The wise men brought frankincense and myrrh."

Oh. That's different. What are those? I don't think you spelled myrrh right.

"Hey, this is your rant. You're the one who's like, 'I know everything and you don’t’. So figure it our for yourself, smart guy. Then get back to us."

Fair point. Hang out here for a few minutes while I do a little research.

Okay, as usual, that took a lot longer than I thought. Sorry about the wait. I should probably start by telling you that the wise men were pretty smart. They knew what was happening. The Messiah, the Savior of the world, was here!

Based on what I found out from an AI (that didn't seem to know much for an AI) both frankelsense and myrrh are basically perfumes. I guess they were favorites of King Solomon.

Who is this that cometh out of the wilderness like pillars of smoke, perfumed with myrrh and frankincense, with all powders of the merchant?
Song of Solomon 3:6 KJV

He who cameth out of the wilderness like pillars of smoke, perfume-ed with frankelsense, and all merchant powders, was Solomon. I think technically they’re aromatic resins, whatever those are. Today frankelsense is about 30% more expensive than myrrh. Yes, I know I'm misspelling frankincense... I’m just adding a little literary panache. Gotta keep things fresh!

There are some Biblical references as to the cost of myrrh (that spelling can’t be right… checked; it is… must be French or Polish). Oh, look, here comes one now! Based on a little research, the ointment in Mark 14:3 is myrrh.

And being in Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, as he sat at meat, there came a woman having an alabaster box of ointment of spikenard very precious; and she brake the box, and poured it on his head. And there were some that had indignation within themselves, and said, Why was this waste of the ointment made? For it might have been sold for more than three hundred pence, and have been given to the poor. And they murmured against her.
Mark 14:3-5 KJV

Now, we do have a problem figuring out just how valuable that much myrrh was, because we don’t know how much myrrh was in the box. It does say it was very precious (which means extremely expensive). So I did a little more research without telling you… well, until now.

Pence translates to denarius, which means "containing ten". Those skewwiffy Brits… always using the wrong coin names! A denarius was a Roman silver coin, which at the time of the breaking of the box was equal to 10 “asses”. Well, that’s what it says! Based on Matthew 20:1-2 it was probably more likely a day’s wages.⁽¹⁾ I doubt anybody got paid 10 asses for a day’s work. That’s 9 asses too many!

For the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is an householder, which went out early in the morning to hire laborers into his vineyard. And when he had agreed with the laborers for a penny a day, he sent them into his vineyard.
Matthew 20:1-2 KJV

So 300 pence would be a year’s wages, once you take out Sundays and the important Jewish holy days. By my standards that makes the spikenard (myrrh) a whole lot more expensive than gold! That’s a whole herd of asses! Also note that I don’t believe she broke the box “on” His head… just “over” it.

While many of those present at the breaking of the box criticized the woman, Jesus was quick to come to her defense.

And Jesus said, “Let her alone; why are you troubling her? She has done something beautiful for me. For you always have the poor with you, and whenever you choose you can do them good: but you will not always have me with you. She has done what she could: she has done this now, in anticipation of what is to come, to anoint my body for burial. Truly I say to you, wherever this gospel shall be preached throughout the whole world, this act that she has done shall be spoken of for a memorial of her.
Mark 14:6-8 DCV (If you’re new to my rants, that’s the Don Crouse Version, which should always be compared to the original text for accuracy… I use it whenever I think the Kings James Version loses people, like me. If you're old to my rants, don't read this.)

That passage tells us the significance of the wise men’s gift of myrrh. It was a prophetic gift that signified Jesus would die on the cross for our sins. How’d they know that… unless they were really wise? The woman had just foretold Jesus’ death. And now I’m telling you what she did for a memorial of her. She understood why He had come. She understood the pain He would suffer for us. She understood how much He loved us… all of us. Jesus is the greatest gift ever given. And He gave Himself freely.

“Therefore My Father loves Me, because I lay down My life that I may take it up again. No one can take it from Me, but I lay it down freely, of my own choosing. I have the power to lay it down, and I have power to take it back again. This is the command I have received from My Father.”
John 10:17-18 DCV

After doing a little more pounding on the AI (he's okay) it turns out that he (well, it has a man’s voice) had no records for the cost of frankincense and myrrh around 1 AD. Unbelievable. Who was in charge back then? Oh... the Romans. I don't think the barbarians used perfume. But neither of them kept records of the price of perfumes. Both frankincense and myrrh, based on what we just read in Matthew 20:1-2 appear to have been more expensive than gold. If the cost of todays most expensive perfumes is any indication, they probably were... more expensive than gold. The most expensive perfume in the world is currently Shumukh by Nabeel, at approximately $18,000 per ounce... or you can put a downpayment on a house. Clive Christian No. 1 Imperial Majesty is around $12,700 per ounce (smaller house) and Chanel No. 5 Grand Extrait is about $4,200 per ounce (Tesla). By comparison, gold is only $2,647.68 USD per ounce. Go figure... literally... because if you go (not Yugo… they were a disaster) to Nordstroms, or Neiman Marcus, and buy some hoity-toity perfume for that special someone in your life, it's going to cost you that downpayment on a house. While I've already spent too much time on frankelsense, that does bring up an interesting point about Christmas.

Today, retailers and merchants around the world owe a significant portion of their profitability to Jesus and an unknown number of wise men. Some retailers do over 25% of their yearly business during the Christmas season.⁽²⁾ If it wasn't for Jesus there would be no Christmas. If there was no Christmas there would be no celebration... of Christmas (duh). And, you guessed it (maybe), if there were no wise men bearing gifts, there would be no tradition of gift giving at Christmas! Hence, drastically reduced profitability! And let's not forget, we usually get time off for Christmas, and lots of great food! But people seem to have forgotten Jesus during all that money making and celebrating. Retailers still celebrate the holiday, but without mentioning Jesus. He gets left out because the people in charge of those companies feel He's a liability. Ironic. There are some countries and cultures that don't celebrate Christmas. And that's their loss... which is about 25%, eternal life, and don't forget the fruitcake (no, that's not a reference to me!). But I celebrate (without fruitcake… that’s not a cake I love)!

Christmas is my favorite day of the year. I love the celebrating, the gift giving and all the memories that go with it. I am grateful to God that I’ve had such good ones. Not everyone is as fortunate as me. So now I look at Christmas as a time to give to others. And what gift could be better than Jesus and the love He has for us! Not me… us! The entire world! I know if we embrace that aspect of Christmas… not the gifts or the greed, but the love… the world will be a better place! And that’s why I wrote this rant. To remind you, or if you don’t know, to tell you that you have someone who came to make your life better. And not just better, but a life filled with joy, hope, peace and love. If you’re missing any of those, Jesus can give you all of them. So this year, please consider giving Jesus the chance to show you what Christmas is really all about! He’s the best Christmas gift ever!

God loved the world so much, He gave us His only Son, so that anyone who believes in Him will not perish, but will have abundant, everlasting life!

May God bless you this Christmas,

Don
All original text ©DCrouse 2024

References
(1) For valuation of a pence (which is also a penny), back in 30 AD, check out this link:
https://www.blueletterbible.org/lexicon/g1220/kjv/tr/0-1/

(2) This link gives you an idea of how much money retailers make at Christmas time.
https://www.statista.com/chart/11979/holiday-season-retail-sales/#:~:text=Conventional%20wisdom%20says%20that%20the,retailers%20in%20the%20United%20States.&text=If%20retail%20sales%20were%20distributed,for%202%2F12%20or%2016.7

Big Christmas Blowout - Part One (ummm boy!)

Knowing me, this could either be an insightful elucidation of the birth of Jesus, or the end result of eating something during the holidays that disagrees with your digestive system. I'm going to give you a minute to pray.

If you don't know me, just go ahead and read the rant.

I’m going to continue by saying that it has taken more than three days to write this rant. It usually takes about three hours. But this one was special. I thought I had this whole Christmas thing worked out… I was wrong. And after writing this rant I realize things are never as clear as I’d like them to be, and I’m not as smart as I’d like, either. So we’re really taking this journey back to the first Christmas together. How special.

Those of us who are familiar with Christmas think we have a wealth of knowledge we can share with the uninitiated.. like how many wise men rode their camels to the inn in Bethlehem to visit Jesus. If you said three, please don't share the Christmas story with others. You're wrong... about everything. First, the wise men never made it to the manger… and based on the last 3 days, I don’t think they even made it to Bethlehem. No, they didn't get lost. They were being led by their own personal star! How do you lose a moving star? Second, there probably weren't three wise men. The reason everybody thinks there were 3 wise men is because there were 3 gifts. We’ll get into those later. The only thing we can tell for sure is that there were wise men… wise means 2 men or more. Third, there's no information on what they rode, if they rode anything... coulda walked... but probably rode…something. Donkeys would have been the most commonly used transportation vehicle. Camels are terribly pricy! If they had waited for the bus they wouldn’t have arrived in Jerusalem until sometime after 1830 AD. Then what’s the point. It was probably a long way... maybe... we don't know how far they traveled because we don't know where they came from. I'm a lot like them... people normally don't know where I'm coming from. Not like you care, but I’m guessing they had some form of vehiculation. Now let's deal with other aspects of the reality of the wise men.

The only Biblical record we have of the wise men is in Matthew 2:1-18. All the bold italicized text is scripture. Comments added by me are regular text. So here’s Matthew 2:1-18 NKJV, with my comments:

Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, saying, “Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we have seen His star in the East and have come to worship Him.”

You’ll notice there is no starting point mentioned… all we know is that they came from the east… and there’s a lot of land east of Judea. No mention of them packing swimming trunks either. So we can probably limit their starting point to somewhere on the mainland of Asia, east of Judea. So no island hopping through the South China Sea. There’s also no mention of when they arrived in relation to Jesus’ birth. We just know that Jesus had already been born. They’re late! Those smelly shepherds have already been to see Him in Luke chapter 2… oh, don’t worry, I’ll get there. That’s probably what you’re afraid of. Moving on.

When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. And when he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born.

Both the wise men and Herod were extremely excited about the birth… but for different reasons. The wise men rejoiced. Herod went Vesuvius!… that means he exploded. He was the King of the Jews. There wasn’t room for another one. I don’t know how long the wise men visited, but it appears it was long enough for Herod to “trouble” the entire city. I recommend the soothing qualities of frankincense and myrrh (m y r r h?… where do these people learn to spell?).

So they said to him, “In Bethlehem of Judea, for thus it is written by the prophet: ‘‘But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are not the least among the rulers of Judah; for out of you shall come a Ruler who will shepherd My people Israel.’”

So it wasn’t like it was a surprise that the Christ was coming, they just hadn’t planned for then. Probably shoulda got a cake (I love cake). Herod wouldn’t have even known “then” was now if the wise men hadn’t shown up. However, the wise men didn’t seem to know where “where” was. So they probably figured if they stopped by the palace visitors center they could get directions. But that “troubled” Herod, who “troubled” Jerusalem, which undoubtedly “troubled” the chief priests and scribes. But Micah, the aforementioned quoted prophet, doesn’t say anything about a king. He mentions a Ruler who will Shepherd His people. Doesn’t sound like something Herod would like to be at all. Shepherds protect stupid animals, don’t bathe often, live outside, and are not invited inside. I recommend the aromatic qualities of frankincense and myrrh (I still think it’s a stupid why to spell “myrrh”, but at least “y” gets to be a vowel). What’s the trouble?

Then Herod, when he had secretly called the wise men, determined from them what time the star appeared. And he sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and search carefully for the young Child, and when you have found Him, bring back word to me, that I may come and worship Him also.”

Even though Herod has his own personal rage party going on inside, he’s cooler than a penguin in winter on the outside. But why does Herod secretly call the wise men? I’m thinking he doesn’t want the entire kingdom hearing about this King of the Jews thing… everybody heading to Bethlehem to find their Messiah and then anointing HIM King! That could potentially ruin his Christmas. Relax. We’re not going to celebrate Christmas until 336 AD!⁽¹⁾ And you’ll be dead. But there is potential risk to his throne. Consider that the first thing Herod does, in the secret wise men meeting, is determine what time the star appears. So maybe Jesus isn’t a baby by the time the wise men drop in? This is the first reason the wise men don’t get to the inn, and probably not Bethlehem. Based on the astronomical information the wise men give Herod, Jesus isn’t a baby. And the older He is, the greater the threat He could be declared King of the Jews!

When they heard the king, they departed; and behold, the star which they had seen in the East went before them, till it came and stood over where the young Child was. When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceedingly great joy. And when they had come into the house, they saw the young Child with Mary His mother, and fell down and worshiped Him. And when they had opened their treasures, they presented gifts to Him: gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

This is the second reason the wise men don’t get to the inn… or Bethlehem. They came to a “house”. Well, it’s not an inn. If we’re going to get technical here, the original translation of the word used for “house” is, “a house”. That meant an inhabited edifice, or a dwelling… a family dwelling. And it’s the word used to describe all the other houses mentioned in the book of Matthew. The translation for the word “inn” is (wait of it), “an inn”. Of possible further interest, for the anally impaired (which must be me, since I’m going to mention it), is that the word “inn” is only mentioned 2 times in the New Testament (of the Bible)… both in Luke. Whereas the word for “house” appears 25 times in the Book of Matthew alone. And if you think that’s anal, you should meet the scribes. Scribes are insanely meticulous… and a lot more anal than me… and you don’t want to know why they call people anal-retentive. Having just blown things up with all the anal references, what I wanted to point out was that the scribes who wrote all this historical stuff would have never mistaken an inn for a house. And that can take us to our next point. The scripture refers to Jesus as a “young Child”. When the wise men arrive… at the “house”… He is NOT a baby! That’s not a mistake. Scribes are anal. Moving on (thankfully).

Then, being divinely warned in a dream that they should not return to Herod, they departed for their own country another way.

Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying, “Arise, take the young Child and His mother, flee to Egypt, and stay there until I bring you word; for Herod will seek the young Child to destroy Him.” When he arose, he took the young Child and His mother by night and departed for Egypt, and was there until the death of Herod, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying, “Out of Egypt I called My Son.”

So as soon as the wise men leave, Joseph and the family leave for an extended vacation in Egypt the next day! Notice that it’s an extended stay. They’re not coming back anytime soon. In fact, they end up staying in Egypt until Herod is dead. That sorta indicates that as long as Herod is alive he’s going to “seek the young Child to destroy Him”. Again, Jesus is referred to as a child… not a baby. Wise men still don’t go to Bethlehem.

Then Herod, when he saw that he was deceived by the wise men, was exceedingly angry; and he sent forth and put to death all the male children who were in Bethlehem and in all its districts, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had determined from the wise men. Then was fulfilled what was spoken by Jeremiah the prophet, saying: “A voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation, weeping, and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children, refusing to be comforted, because they are no more.”

Some unknown time later Herod determines he’s been bamboozled by the wise men, and he kills all the young boys that are under two, in and around Bethlehem. And he determined the age of the boys that would be killed based on his time with the wise men. Given that Bethlehem is about 2 to 3 hours from Jerusalem by camel, they would have gotten there the same day they left Herod. Didn’t actually time it, but the two cities are 6 miles apart, camel walking speed is about 3 miles per hour, the terrain is hilly, and the camel union requires your camel gets a break, that’s 3 hours tops. Have I missed anything? So that means that Herod should expect to hear back from the wise men in a matter of days… depending on how much celebration was going on at the inn… but they didn’t get to the inn… because that’s not where the star led them. And I’ll get to that in a minute.

It probably wouldn’t have been long before Herod would have realized he’d been left hanging by the wise men. And he probably didn’t sit on his big tochus for two years before realizing they weren’t coming back. He may not have been the brightest candle on the nightstand, but he was ruthless… so I don’t think he’d have waited long before sending the troops into Bethlehem. He told his men to kill any boy that was two and under based on the information the wise men gave him. And that’s reason number 3 for why the wise men didn’t get to Bethlehem… Jesus wasn’t there. He was in Nazareth, because that’s where the scripture in Luke says He was… and I’ll get into that in a minute (this is getting too complicated). So why did Herod kill only the boys in the region around Bethlehem? I don’t know. You tell me… you weren’t paying attention, were you? I’ll give you a guess. It was because it’s the only location he had. Maybe he thought Jesus would still be there. But I’ll bet he didn’t stop looking… for the rest of his miserable life. And that’s why Joseph stayed in Egypt until Herod died. Oh yeah, it’s all coming together.

To be honest, this is not a good start for my favorite holiday. God sends us the Savior of the World, and Herod responds by killing young boys and babies! But it’s a good lesson that anything God does for good, satan will try to turn into evil! God isn’t unaware of satan’s disdain for anything good… and if you don’t have love… well, you’ve got the other thing.

But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive.
Genesis 50:20 KJV

What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?
Romans 8:31 KJV

This is where I get to the scripture in Luke 2:1-24 NKJV:

And it came to pass in those days that a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. This census first took place while Cyrenius was governing Syria. So all went to be registered, everyone to his own city.

Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, to be registered with Mary, his betrothed wife, who was with child. So it was, that while they were there, the days were completed for her to be delivered. And she brought forth her firstborn Son, and wrapped Him in swaddling cloths, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.

Now there were in the same country shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. And behold, an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were greatly afraid. Then the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be the sign to you: You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger.”

Apparently finding a baby in a feeding trough was an oddity even back then. But they definitely aren’t looking for a young child in a house. They’re looking for a baby in a stable. I’m guessing the star stopped there, which would have made finding Jesus easier. I’m also guessing it moved wherever Jesus moved, until, presumably, the wise men found Him. We don’t know when it appeared, or when it disappeared. But the wise men knew when it appeared… and they told Herod… and that was how he determined to kill boys two years old and younger.

And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men!”

So it was, when the angels had gone away from them into heaven, that the shepherds said to one another, “Let us now go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has come to pass, which the Lord has made known to us.” And they came with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the Babe lying in a manger. Now when they had seen Him, they made widely known the saying which was told them concerning this Child. And all those who heard it marveled at those things which were told them by the shepherds. But Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart. Then the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told them.

And when eight days were completed for the circumcision of the Child, His name was called JESUS, the name given by the angel before He was conceived in the womb.

Now when the days of her purification according to the law of Moses were completed, they brought Him to Jerusalem to present Him to the Lord (as it is written in the law of the Lord, “Every male who opens the womb shall be called holy to the LORD”), and to offer a sacrifice according to what is said in the law of the Lord, “A pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons.”

After this Jesus met Simeon and Anna… I’m leaving that part out because it’s not pertinent to my rant about wise men. That’s extra credit reading for any really motivated rant readers.

Then we get this monkey wrench thrown into the wise men’s supposed trip to Bethlehem (dang monkey):

And when they had performed all things according to the law of the Lord, they returned into Galilee, to their own city Nazareth.

That would have been 40 days after Jesus’ birth at the completion of Mary’s purification, based on the Law of Moses. Then they go to the temple, present Jesus to the Lord and head home to Nazareth. In the not-so-mean-time, the wise men ride into Jerusalem, maybe on camels, a year or two later (time frame unknown, but later), and tell Herod they’ve been following a moving star. Herod tells them they can find Jesus in Bethlehem, but when they leave Herod, the star is leading them in the opposite direction. So they follow it to Nazareth. Never question the star! It stops over Joesph’s house (not an inn). The wise men rejoice, go in and find the young Child (not baby). They leave. Joseph gets a dream to move to Egypt. The family moves the next day (talk about a quick relocation!). Shortly thereafter, Herod kills young boys in the region of Bethlehem. That’s my story and I’m sticking’ to it… for now.

For all those studying Levitical law, Leviticus 12:2-4 says a woman who gives birth to a son is considered unclean for seven days. On the eighth day the child is circumcised. The mother must then wait an additional 33 days, after the seven days of uncleanliness, before she is purified. So Mary would have had to wait 40 days before being considered ritually clean after giving birth to Jesus. Going to the temple was forbidden before that time.

After the temple, Luke tells us the family goes back to Nazareth. You would think that if the wise men had been at the inn, Luke would have mentioned that. He’s a physician. That usually indicates someone who is accurate and detailed. Historically there is no evidence that Luke ever met Jesus. So the information that Matthew knew about the wise men was probably something Luke was unaware of (ending that sentence with a preposition to irritate English majors… not really, but I’ll hear about it). Otherwise, being the picky physician he was, he would have said something to clarify everything, and save me three days of brain racking! I’m still not sure I’ve got everything right… and I probably won’t care once I’m dead… but I do love being a Bible Sherlock. Well, for at least a couple days. Three days starts to hurt my head knocker, nicky, knacky, knocky, noo!

Let me explain. No, there is too much. Let me sum up. The wise men never got to Bethlehem. There are an undetermined number of them… but at least two… or it’d be one lonely wise “man”. We don’t know where they came from or where they went. And they may or may not ride camels. Irregardless, your crèche (I wanted you to know I know what a crèche is, and look smart) will come with three… count ‘em… three wise men with their gifts, at least one camel (they’re pricy you know), some shepherds with sheep on their shoulders, a cow, a donkey, a penguin (just seeing if you’re paying attention), and of course, Joseph, Mary and Jesus. I think I’ll add a penguin to ours this year. They look so formal, and who doesn’t like penguins?

Of course there are other options for where the wise men found Jesus. I came up with about five. But after tormenting myself with uncertainty, I decided to torment you with the Christmas story I’ve presented. Got your own theory? Please share it. Enquiring minds, like mine, want to know.

Since this rant is getting quite long, I’m saving my Messiah gift giving ideas until my next rant.

Giving the ol’ head knocker a little rest,

Don
All original text ©DCrouse 2024

Reference
(1) A little information on the first Christmas can be found at Christianity.com
https://www.christianity.com/church/church-history/timeline/301-600/the-1st-recorded-celebration-of-christmas-11629658.html

The Inconvenient Truth

What the smenkel piffer is going on? I made that up. So is everybody else… making things up, that is. Just a few short years ago there seemed to be agreement on fundamental truths… like what a woman is. Today it seems like no one knows… or at least there seems to be a lot of confusion on that issue. Fortunately for you, I went to school to learn that sorta stuff. I have a degree in zoology, and five offspring, to validate my credibility. So I feel pretty comfortable in saying I know what a woman is. For other people the answer isn’t quite so easy to ascertain; while others just outright lie about it. So if you’re having trouble with that particular issue, please let me know and I’ll be glad to share what five years of college and five kids have taught me. I can tell you what a woman is in under 10 seconds and you’ll save a boatload of money.

Things are getting real weird. So weird that the other day, when I was doing a little YouTube surfing (enter those waters at your own peril) I found several videos that almost left me speechless. Of course that’s not possible, so not only did I tell others what I had seen, but apparently, now I’m blogging about them. Well, one of them. The one that really… uhh… took me to a whole new level of bewilderment, was a woman that wanted to take her son to a veterinarian. Because her son identified as a cat. And yes, I know that’s an incomplete sentence, and I’m driving all the English majors crazy… wait until you see how often I start sentences with “but”. But back to catboy. The vet declined to see the boy because he had human anatomy and it was against the law for him to treat people that have a human anatomy… which in case you’re wondering, is all of us. Five years of zoology. The woman explained that if her son identified as a cat, he was a cat. She further stated that it was discriminatory for the vet to refuse seeing her son. But she wasn’t going to press charges, because she didn’t want the vet to lose his license. Smenkel piffer?

There are many truths espoused by people, but, in truth, there is only one truth. And that’s the TRUTH. That’s a lot of truths, for just one truth… so let me try to explain.

Everybody has their own truths. You believe in God. You don’t believe in God. You believe in evolution. You don’t believe in evolution. You believe in climate change. You don’t believe in climate change. Well, that last one is sorta a no brainer, because the climate changes everyday. Otherwise I’d just move to a place where it’s always sunny and 73 degrees (Fahrenheit). But I think they mean something else. Essentially, what the “truth” is for one person, may not be the “truth” for another person. I wonder why that is? Rhetorical (at least for me). Maybe not for you. And if you’re one of those people finding it hard to find the truth, take heart (not literally, or you’ll be in prison), there are a lot of smart people that have the same problem.

Now, because I have five years of college and can tell you what a woman is, I want to try and help. Don’t forget the kids.

Jesus (who some people believe in, and some don’t) said (and I’ll paraphrase slightly), “You will know the truth and the truth will make you free.” That’s John 8:24 for those following along with their Bibles at home. If that’s true, then the truths you espouse should make you free. How are you doing? Do you feel free? Be honest. Because if you’re not, you’re being untruthful to yourself. And that’s the truth. There’s an old saying: “to thine own self be true.” I wonder who said that? Hang on… I’ll find out. It’s from Shakespeare. It seemed like something he’d say… well, Polonius (whoever that is) in Hamlet said it… but Shakespeare wrote it. In case you’re wondering, I’ve never read one book, novel, story or play by Shakespeare. I’m totally uncultured in the Shakespearian world… and the real one too. But it’s still a good admonition. We should always be true to ourselves. I mean, what do we gain by lying to ourselves? But we still do it… because a lot of the time we can’t handle the truth, at least according to Colonel Nathan R. Jessup. You can Google him, if you can handle the truth.

I know someone that was a pastor of a very large Christian church. He taught God’s Word and the church grew spectacularly. Over a very short period of time his church had thousands of attendees. He told me that over 8000 people attended the weekend services. Then one day something happened. Things that were in the Bible came into conflict with what he believed. He said he didn’t care what the Bible said. His church was going to be altered to fit his truth. So he removed parts of the Bible from what the church believed. He got national attention for his views. Mainstream media loved him. His truth was their truth. But neither truth was the Bible’s truth. Within a few months he was no longer the pastor of the church. Over the next few years the church morphed into a gathering of people that were void of the gospel of Jesus Christ… and after reading what they believed, I had no idea what they believed! But now they’re gone. Don’t get me wrong. I don’t hate, or even dislike these people. They’re just lost. The simple truth is that without Jesus, we're all lost.

I have a saying… it’s mine… so if you’ve heard it somewhere else it’s either because great minds work alike… or they stole it. Drum roll… “the truth is the truth, no matter what you believe.” And I think that’s what Jesus was trying to tell us. It’s not our truth that sets us free. It’s THE TRUTH… that sets us free (just wanted to make sure I was clear). Our society is currently advocating a lot of new truths, that are removing our freedoms. I’m sure you can think of a few… and if you can’t, email me and I’ll send you a list, or totally ignore you. But what I find, is that even when I think something can be proven to be unequivocally true, there are still people who believe it’s false. I’ve also discovered there’s no way to prove to them they’re wrong. What that essentially means is that there is no such thing as an absolute truth for all people. I’ll give you an example, in the least political and offensive way I can. There are a group of people called The Flat Earth Society. After visiting their website it isn’t clear to me what they actually believe, but I think they claim that the earth is flat. And the name of the group sorta implies that. So I’m just going with that assumption. If you’re a member and want to enlighten me, feel free. You’re not going to convince me the earth is flat… but you may be able to enlighten me as to why you do…although I already have formulated a few ideas. However, one of the things that most people can agree upon is that earth isn’t flat. We have plenty of nice pictures and lots of people who have orbited the planet to confirm this fact. So if people can’t come to a consensus on whether the earth is flat or a globe, how can we ever find an absolute truth on anything? We can’t. So we have to make our own decisions on what “the truth” Jesus was talking about is. Maybe some more info from Jesus might help.

I have many things to say and to judge concerning you: but He that sent me is true; and I speak to the world those things which I have heard from Him.

They did not understand that he was speaking to them about God the Father.

Then Jesus said to them, When you have lifted up the Son of man, then you'll know that I am He, and that what I'm telling you is not coming from me; but I'm telling you what my Father has taught me, which is why I'm telling you these things. And He that sent me is with me: the Father has not left me alone; because all the things I do are things that please Him.

As he spoke these words, many believed on Him.

Then Jesus said to the Jews which believed on Him, If you continue in my teachings, then you are most certainly my disciples; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.

To which they replied to him, We are Abraham's seed, and have never been in bondage to any man: so what do you mean when you say, You will be made free?

Jesus answered them, The truth, the truth I say to you, whoever commits sin is the servant of sin. And a servant does not remain a part of a household forever: but a son is a part of the family forever.

If the Son therefore makes you free, you will be truly free.
John 8:26-36 DCV (if you have read anything of mine you should know by now that DCV means "Don Crouse Version", which should always be verified by the reader for accuracy.)

The group Jesus was talking to when he said those words included Pharisees. They were influential men that wanted distinction and praise for outward forms of piety, such as ceremonial washings, fasting, prayers, and alms giving, while lacking genuine piety and priding themselves on their good works. Jesus was trying to tell them that He had the truth if they wanted it. Some did. Some didn’t. Those that did experienced freedom. Those that didn’t spent a lot of time washing.

Jesus is trying to tell us a couple things here. First, the important things in life, your life, are not a bunch of religious rituals. Nor is serving God. It's not about all the money you give, or if you washed behind your ears. It's about the condition of your heart. Second, God knows the truth. He created it! And He taught it to Jesus... which is a strange concept to me, because I thought Jesus already knew everything. I’m not trying to be irreverent to Jesus. It just gives me a whole knew thought process on what it might have been like for Him to become human… so human that He had to be taught the same things He’s teaching us. I digress.

Returning to the topic, we are incapable of knowing THE TRUTH without Jesus. And if you’re determined to go it alone, then you’re always going to be the servant of sin. And sin means you have to sleep outside. You don’t get to live in the house. Some of you may think that’s mean. But THE TRUTH is, your sin will burn down the house. So to keep the residents safe, sin is not allowed. No worries. Jesus said if you follow Him… if you believe what He’s saying, you’ll know the truth, and you’ll be freed from sin… and you can sleep inside the house. And it’s so easy to do. Just say, “Jesus, I’m sorry for the sins I have committed; forgive me, because now I’m going to follow you.” Pretty easy to say... a lot tougher to live. Which is the reason Jesus had to die on the cross. He shed His blood so no matter what we do, there's always a way to be redeemed... to be forgiven of our sin and restored to life. And it’s the only life worth living. It is, after all, the life you were created to live.

But if we walk in the light that is the light of God, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanses us from all sin.

If we say that we don't have any sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth of God is not in us.

If we confess our sins, He is faithful and accepted by God to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
1 John 1:7-9 DCV (I really struggled to find a meaning I felt expressed what verse 7 was saying... so you should definitely read this one, and let me know what you think.)

Its seems like this is a contradictory passage... if we're walking in light why do we need the blood of Jesus to cleanse us from all sin? But, metaphorically, light translates as truth... and if we're walking in the truth of the salvation of Jesus Christ, and the power of His shed blood to cleanse us from our sins... then the light we're walking in is actually the truth of Jesus' salvation. Savvy? In which case, walking in the light does not mean to live without sin. Otherwise, why would the blood of Jesus be needed to cleanse us while we are walking in that light. So I'd like to suggest that what John is saying is that when we accept Jesus' salvation we are continually being cleansed of our sins. Truth.

What the Bible tells us may be an inconvenient truth, but it’s only by knowing that truth that we’ll be truly free. As my pastor friend experienced, the result of going against God’s truth is usually catastrophic. But let’s face reality: if the truth goes against what you believe, you’re going to try to fudge things to fit your truths, either conscientiously or unconscientiously. So finding the truth can be a daunting task sometimes. It sorta depends on how truthful you are about evaluating your own life. If you can’t be truly objective, you’re gonna have trouble finding the truth. And I don’t know one person that is truly objective. We all have our biases, prejudices, beliefs, and truths. So the only way I know to find the truth is to ask someone who knows what it is. And the only person I know that knows, is Jesus.

WIDAJ! When in doubt, ask Jesus.

Pursuing truth so I can sleep inside,

Don
©DCrouse 2024

Independence Day

"And many of the brethren in the Lord, waxing confident by my bonds, are much more bold to speak the word without fear."

These words were spoken over two thousand years ago by the Apostle Paul.

"If none of us speak out, then none of us will be heard."

And those words were spoken by me about ten seconds ago.

Today is the Fourth of July. In the United States we celebrate it as our day of independence. Yet today, in the United States, and around the world, our freedoms are being taken from us... among those, primarily, is our right to worship.

In the United States we are seeing an organized movement towards the elimination of traditional church gatherings. And that movement is made transparent by the opaque actions of an elected few. Mayors and governors around the country have imposed restrictions on the gathering of individuals at churches, but have allowed the complete lawlessness of individuals who protest our freedoms, call for anarchy as they riot and destroy our cities. That would seem to be a predisposition towards one group over the other. It would seem the Christian church is being persecuted. If this is the case, what should Christians do? Well, that's a good question. And no matter what course of action I suggest, there will be some knucklehead that will find some obscure reason to decry it. So to avoid all the knuckleheads rising in arms against me, let me just ask you a question. What happens when all the Christians are gone? What happens when all their voices are silenced?

I think the answer is pretty simple. There will be no more testimony of the saving grace of Jesus Christ. And while every atheist will rejoice, the aftermath will be brutal. And I think most Christians understand the gravity of such an event. Yet I haven't heard much from the family... the church family... the brothers and sisters in Christ... over the loss of your right to gather, or speak in public, or to live our lives normally. We can't even go to Disneyland! You know there's a real problem when they close Disneyland... and they closed a lot more then that!

Paul was happy about being chained up, locked up, and beat up, because it led to the spreading of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Paul was sorta different that way... I'm pretty sure I wouldn't be as excited about being smacked around. But others saw his boldness and it gave them boldness. He knew the Gospel would change lives. But once all the voices of Christians become silent, all the caring and compassion will be gone. The entire Gospel of Christ will be mute... as if wiped away from the face of the earth.

Today, if you are a Christian, and want to change the lives of others... the way Christ changed your life, you need to speak up. Because in the absence of your voice, and all the other voices of the truth, there is silence. There is no salvation. There is no Gospel. There is no life.

“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.
Matthew 28:19-20 NKJV

As Michael W. Smith so rightly said, "There is no plan B." You're it folks.

Now let's all get out there and celebrate our independence!

Born free, living free,

Don
All original text ©DCrouse 2020
Edited April 2024, because sometimes when I read what I wrote I find mistakes, or just don't like what I said or how I said it. And I want this to be the best dribble possible.

Epidemics & Other Important Things

I thought it might be time to talk about real life. We tend to avoid that when things get difficult. First, you're gonna die. That's the reality of living. It's one I don't much like, because I enjoy my life. Sure I've messed it up in spectacular fashion on numerous occasions, but I still find time to ask God to forgive me and move on. But I find it's those difficult and challenging times that make life the most interesting. I didn't say 'easy', I said 'interesting'... and probably the most enlightening. Nothing gets you focused like imminent death.

So now we have the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 at our door; also known as SARS-CoV-2. If it knocks, don't open the door. That's the virus that's been causing the huge jackman all over the world. First... I already used 'first'... so, second, most people haven't heard of SARS-CoV-2, because all the media talks about is the coronavirus or COVID 19, which is all very confusing for most of us. The actual disease caused by the virus is COVID 19, AKA the coronavirus disease. The virus causing all the trouble is SARS-CoV-2. Does that help? I thought so.

The coronavirus has had some major repercussions on our world. One major consequence is that Corona is suspending beer production. Some of you will be hit hard by this. I don't like beer. So the effect of the virus will have no impact on me. I'm truly sorry for the rest of you.

Now I know many people will be appalled by my lack of sensitivity over COVID 19. Don't get me wrong. COVID 19 is very serious for a small percentage of the population. And there will be deaths from the virus. But the reality is, death comes unexpectedly, at least according to the movie Pollyanna. Watch the movie. And if it does, then live your life like each day is your last! Enjoy it! Even if it ’s not... still enjoy it.

Like I stated before, you're gonna die, eventually. It might be COVID 19, or driving to the office, or heart disease (that's how most of us go). But eventually something will kill you. Now, if you don't like the idea of death, you have a couple choices. One is not to die. But as we've seen over the millennia, that has proven to be impossible. The other option is to have eternal life insurance, that provides for life after death. Now you'd think that kind of coverage would be extremely expensive, but I have some great news - it's FREE! But it is a limited time offer. Once you die it's too late to get the coverage. I'd suggest signing up today. That way if you need the coverage, you have it. If you don't, it hasn't cost you anything. And there are some great benefits. Most customers that get the policy have noticed a significant increase in their well being. Improved happiness, less stress, and warm fuzzies inside... which is also caused by eating hot pillows. There's also improved peace and tranquility. It's almost like being on the moon. Google it. And did I mention joy? That's my favorite. I like the joy. You'd be surprised how many people don't. Lots of people tell me they want joy (actually, I made that up - nobody tells me they want joy... but I think they do). Yet, I'm not seeing a lot of joyful people. You can tell when you do because they add joy to your life. Anyway, eternal life insurance is a really good deal. I don't understand why everyone doesn't have it.

Okay now I'm at the part where I give you the Bible stuff. If you don't like the Bible stuff, just stop here. However, this is the part that signs you up for eternal life insurance.

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.
John 3:16-17 NKJV

Okay, eternal life insurance is free, with the proviso that you believe in Jesus Christ. There’s always a catch. And that one seems to hang up just about everybody that doesn’t have the policy. Ask Judas Iscariot.

The first verse is probably the most widely quoted text in the Bible. But the second verse is not. And it highlights the point that God is for us. He's always been for us. We just haven't always been for Him. Look at the effort we put into hating each other. Look at the nasty things we either do, or endorse, both individually and corporately as a society. We're not happy just getting our way... we want everybody else to know that our way is the right way. Sorry to have to tell you this, but the only way 'our way' is the 'right way' is if it's God's way. And since He created everything, He gets to determine what is right.

This is a faithful saying that is worth complete acceptance, that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the chief. However, I obtained mercy for this reason, that starting with me Jesus Christ might show complete tolerance and patience, as an example for those who are going to believe in Him for everlasting life.
1 Timothy 1:15-16 DCV (Don Crouse Version... which you should know by now, means I want you to read the verses for yourself to see if I got them right)

I quoted this passage because it speaks to the extent of the spectacular mess ups you can have and still be able to get Jesus's Life insurance policy. There are no exclusions based on preexisting conditions.

...whoever drinks the water that I will give him will never thirst. Because the water that I will give them will become a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life inside them.
John 4:14 DCV

I added that verse because if you want eternal life you'll need to drink the water. That's not a Jonestown remake without the Cool-Aid. Google it. You're not getting forced to drink anything. You choose if you want the water or not. You choose if you want the life insurance or not. You choose.

In the end we all die. It's how we choose to live that makes the difference. Choose life.

Extremely satisfied eternal life insurance customer,

Don
All original text ©DCrouse 2020

Are You Smarter Than Dirt?

Are you smarter than dirt? My guess is that most of us think we are. Well hold on to your mortarboards boys and girls, because dirt is a lot smarter than you think. There is one area where dirt has challenged and confounded the collective intellect of mankind for millennia. And I've been trying to figure out a way to talk about this topic for years. Well, I'm not getting any younger and dirt isn't getting any smarter, so I thought it's time to give dirt the opportunity to show us how stupid we really are compared to its basic elemental abilities. You see, dirt has done something that no human has ever done. Dirt has created life from, well, dirt! People can't do that. Sure it had a little help from water, but I can't believe we're still not as smart as mud. However, based on all the science I've looked at, that seems to be the case. So let's take a quick look at life and see if you're smarter than dirt.

I've been an evolutionist for a good portion of my life. But several years back I started to look at the evidence for my beliefs and found out I was totally messed up. Most of you already knew that. But let me clarify. First, when we talk about the creation of life from non-living matter we're not even talking about evolution. We're talking about abiogenesis. So I was messed up from the very beginning.

If you've been reading my prior articles you're probably familiar with the term abiogenesis. If not, you're in for a real treat, because I'm going to give you the definition, again. Abiogenesis is the technical term for spontaneous generation.⁽¹⁾ I hope that was helpful. The technical definition of that technical term is a little more informative. It goes something like this: abiogenesis is the creation of life from non-living materials.⁽²⁾ As mentioned in a prior piece, that idea was disproved by Francesco Redi in the mid 1600's when he discovered that all life comes from other life.⁽³⁾ Except, apparently, the first time. That was different. Now we just have to figure out how dirt did it. That, however, has proven to be an impossible task. The scientific community can't prove their assumption; but they don't have to. We believe what they tell us without question - because they're smarter than us. But are they smarter than dirt?

According to all the science taught in schools today, Francesco Redi's experiments have no relevance in the creation of the first living organism. Alright, let's say I go with that theory for the time being. How does that get us to where we are today?

Today there are millions of different species of living organisms, with people at the top of the intellectual pyramid of life.⁽⁴⁾ Let's look at the science of life to see what it tells us about how it all happened. Do you want it naked or with its pants on? The naked truth can be difficult for most of us to handle, so let's just keep the pants on for now. I'm going to try and keep things simple, but that will tend to make you think life is simple. It's not! Even the simplest living organism is far more complex than anything people have ever created. It's insanely complex… mind glowingly complex… unimaginably complex. You get the idea. So when scientists attempt to discover how life could have happened spontaneously they do so in little, somewhat manageable, increments. Then they combine their collective results to postulate the origins of life. But any discussion of life is pointless without the inclusion of one molecule. DNA. That's short for deoxyribonucleic acid. And that's why we call it DNA. It's the Holy Grail of life and the reason we exists. So why all the hullabaloo? Well, consider this: DNA is responsible for the creation of every living organism, and every functioning aspect of those organisms. All the information to make a person is located in your DNA. It's miraculous! Granted, that's not the first thing I was thinking when I was changing my kids diapers, but it's true. Think about it. A sperm and an egg cell come together and within the DNA of those two cells there is all the information necessary to build a human being!

DNA contains the information to make all the proteins organisms need to survive, as well as information that regulates the behavior of those proteins. In addition, DNA is able to reproduce itself and to create other organisms similar to itself.⁽⁵⁾ Your DNA was responsible for the creation of your arms, legs, head, hands, feet, torso and all the organs associated with those body parts. It made your eyes and your brain… some better than others. It replicates your skin and red blood cells. It fights infections and heals injuries. It regulates your temperature and heart rate. It gives you indigestion and causes farting. Anything you or your body does is the result of the genetic information stored in your DNA. And it does everything without any conscience input from you. How many of you got up this morning and said, "Hey, I'm feeling a little anemic… better make more red blood cells." Your body does that for you… and without you needing to do much more than provide it with food, water and oxygen. Miraculous!

In addition to doing all those wonderful things your DNA must also be able to reproduce itself. This process is no small accomplishment, and very complex. And the speed at which it happens is amazingly fast. The cellular machinery that carries out this process has moving parts that rotate as fast as a jet engine!⁽⁶⁾

The biggest problem in science is finding a way dirt could have created something as uber-complex as DNA. It's not that DNA is spectacularly complex at the component level… that is, the small molecules that join together to form our DNA. They are called nucleotides, and as far as molecules go they are pretty simple. But they combine in enormously long strands to make very long molecules of DNA. Some of these DNA molecules are over 200 million nucleotides long!⁽⁷⁾ And it's that length that makes DNA so complex. Thus far we're not remotely close to postulating how DNA could have arisen spontaneously. There isn't even a theoretical method or model that has been put forth… because the complexity is too difficult for scientists to develop a feasible method or model that could explain how DNA could have been created spontaneous from its basic, inorganic, atomic parts. So scientists do one experiment to try and solve one aspect of the DNA puzzle, and then they do another one to try and figure out another aspect of the problem. But I'm talking in a lot of generalities, when I'd really like to focus on specifics, so you can start to understand why the problem is so difficult… and I'd like to do that in a way that an average person, somebody like me, can understand it. So I'd like to take some important scientific discoverers, with all their intimidating terminology, and distill them down to some very basic terminology and ideas even I can grasp. How hard could it be? I just have to be as smart as dirt.

When thinking about how to tackle the idea of abiogenesis I asked myself, "Self, how would dirt approach this problem?" Well, dirt would do it the same way I would… without thinking. In case you hadn't noticed, dirt doesn't do a lot of planning. Everything is pretty much by happenstance. I don't know what that is, but I'm pretty sure that's how dirt would approach things. Okay, I looked it up. Happenstance: coincidence: it was just happenstance that dirt was able to make DNA. I don't know what a coincidence is either. Okay, I looked that up too. Coincidence: a remarkable concurrence of events or circumstances without apparent causal connection: it was a series of coincidences that lead to the creation of Trudy's DNA from dirt. I like that definition. And I think it's pretty accurate how dirt would have done things. No thought; just the culmination of random occurrences with no causal connection.

The next thing I thought about was, "If all these really smart scientists haven't figured out how dirt did it, how am I going to do that?" What if I do what they do, and just try something small. What if I just try to make something easy, like one protein… a protein all life needs to survive. Forget trying to figure out how dirt made DNA and just try to figure out how it made something much smaller. Like ATP synthase.

ATP Synthase
Okay, don't freak because I'm using a scientific term. ATP synthase is just a molecule. Well, not 'just' a molecule. It's a really important molecule and it looks and acts like a small machine.⁽⁸⁾ But it's still a molecule. Don't be afraid. It won't hurt you.

Image: Molecular model of ATP synthase determined by X-ray crystallography with stator omitted.

Model author is Alex X. Image use is licensed under the Wikipedia Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

By definition (my definition), every living organism needs to make metabolic energy to survive. No metabolism, no life. ATP synthase is a critical component in that process. Even the simplest life forms use ATP synthase to create metabolic energy.⁽⁹⁾ Animals, plants, bacteria and archaea all need some form of ATP synthase. Fortunately for all us life forms, the instructions on how to make ATP synthase are on our DNA. I'm sure glad dirt took the time to make DNA or we'd all be screwed (can I say "screwed"?). Just leave that part out if you're reading this to your kids as a bedtime story.

The production of ATP synthase is a fairly complex process, even in the simplest bacteria… and that process is essentially the same in humans as it is in those simple bacteria.⁽¹⁰⁾ This was a surprising discovery. Why? Well, I'm glad you asked. When scientists started studying the origins of life they initially thought the biological functions in very simple, primitive organisms would be rather simple and rudimentary. It wasn't. That meant that the process that gave rise to simple organisms, like bacteria, was much more complicated then they had thought… and I'm telling you this because I don't want you to think life is easy (you probably already know that from personal experience). Of course the biological functions of life in humans is quite a bit more complex than those of a bacterium, but all life is mind-numbingly complex. In fact, my neurons are loosing sensation as I type.

So let's make some ATP synthase! The easy way. Bacteria style. How hard can it be? Dirt did it… and we're all smarter than dirt, right? First, think of DNA as a library that contains all the blueprints for life. When you need to make something you go to the DNA library and checkout a copy of the blueprint of what you want to make. We call these "blueprints" genes. Today we're going to go to our DNA library and get a copy of the ATP synthase gene. This is called transcribing the DNA, and, of course, it's a complex process.⁽¹¹⁾ A rather large protein called RNA polymerase (ribonucleic acid polymerase, for long) is used to make the gene copy, with the help of some other molecules. But before those molecules can make a copy of that gene, the starting point for the ATP synthase gene on the DNA must be located. Since your DNA has about 20,000 different protein blueprints on it, along with other stuff, it could be difficult to find the specific blueprint you're looking for. But your DNA takes care of that problem, by using another complex process, that tells the RNA polymerase which gene to transcribe and the location of that gene on the DNA.⁽¹²⁾ Once the starting point is located, walla walla washington, a copy of the gene is transcribed. That copy is something called mRNA, which is short for messenger RNA, which is short for messenger ribonucleic acid, which is why we call it mRNA. The process for making the mRNA is almost unbelievable. As the RNA polymerase moves down the DNA, it unzips the DNA double helix and reads what's on one of the strands. It also zips up the DNA once it's done, because none of us want to walk around with our DNA unzipped. While it's doing that, it's also building an mRNA molecule that is an exact copy of the ATP synthase "blueprint". And just to make sure it's an exact copy, RNA polymerase has built in safety features, such as proofreading and correction capabilities.⁽¹³⁾ Pretty sweet, huh? Your DNA has built-in spellchecking!

Okay, now we have an exact copy of the ATP synthase gene, in the form of an mRNA molecule. Confused? Good (either way). Now what? If you're a simple bacterium (and I'm hoping you're more evolved than that), the mRNA floats around your cell until it combines with a two-part structure called a ribosome.⁽¹⁴⁾ What the frickin' chicken? Are you kidding me? Another thing? I know, this is why most of you hated biology… but I did tell you life is complex. So, are you going to hang with me or bail and admit you're not as smart as dirt? I'll give you a moment to decide. If your brain-farted when I used the word 'ribosome' you may just want to hang up the ol' neurons and call it a day.

Moving along, let's continue making our ATP synthase. We lost some people at the ribosome, so that's where we'll pick things up. Once an mRNA has been created it can be used to make a protein by a molecular machine called (you guessed it) a ribosome. You can think of the ribosome as a miniature assembly plant that has two subunits. One is big. One is little. The little unit grabs the mRNA and the big unit builds the protein by reading the information on the mRNA. This is called translation.⁽¹⁵⁾ Of course it's not as simple as what I just told you… but by now, nobody really cares. At this point I'm just hoping you'll stay around for the spectacular ending. It's really good. But there's still some information you need to understand the ending. And please know that it gives me no pleasure to torture you with more biological dribble. Actually, it does - but who would actually say that?

Now it just so happens that the simplest known form of ATP synthase comes from a real simple bacterium called Carsonella ruddii. I'm just going to call him "Rudi". Rudi is a no frills kinda bacterium, and he's about as basic as life gets. Single-celled, never been married, has a couple thousand kids, but just 182 genes. That's the fewest genes of any known, self-sustaining organism.⁽¹⁶⁾ Rudi's not too bright, but I hear his lawyer is a slim mold. So I'll probably be hearing from him. Don't care. Rudi still needs energy. So several of those measly 182 genes are used to make ATP synthase. That doesn't mean Rudi's ATP synthase is easy to make. In fact Rudi's ATP synthase is a rather complex molecule. His 'no frills' form of ATP synthase still needs 5 genes to make his ATP synthase.⁽¹⁷⁾ So? Well, now's the part where I show you how smart dirt is.

Discarding all the time, effort and planning dirt put into developing the whole DNA-mRNA-ribosome-protein thing, we are left with one obvious fact… Rudi needs ATP synthase. And according to the rules of the game, that particular protein was created randomly by dirt. Therefore, dirt would have needed to create the DNA blueprint for ATP synthase at some point in time. Now, I did leave out a couple things when describing the whole DNA-mRNA-ribosome-protein process. Namely, the language used by dirt to make the DNA. Don't worry, it's real easy. Even I can understand it. Come on! How hard could it be? It was created by dirt! The language of dirt is only five letters, and only four of those five letters are used to construct DNA. I told you it was easy. The letters stand for the molecules that form the DNA, but today, because I don't want you to be intimidated by dirt's intellectual prowess, we're just going to use the letters. Some of you know what I'm talking about, so you can take a seat at the front of the class with dirt. The rest of you stay here with me and we'll talk dirty.

No Dirty Language
Okay, four letters make up the entire language of DNA. Those letters are A, C, T and G.⁽¹⁸⁾ Those letters are used to spell only words that are three letters long.⁽¹⁹⁾ No more. No less. Just three letter words. That's probably good, because we don't want DNA using a lot of four letter words. Using four letters to spell three letter words allows us to spell 64 words. Mathematically (and I hate math) that means we have 4 to the third power possibilities. Or, 4 x 4 x 4 = 64. Give the man a gold star. I know that's right because one of my professors in college told me it was.⁽¹⁸⁾ These three letter words are called codons, because each codon is a "code on" the DNA for an amino acid. It's all coming together now. Well, there are actually a couple exceptions, but we're going to ignore those exceptions. With ignorance, we end up with about 62 words that are a code for specific amino acids.

Whoa! You just snuck another thing in on us… without even asking. What's the deal with amino acids, zoology boy? I was hoping you wouldn't notice. Amino acids are the building blocks of proteins… so you just connect a few of those babies together and you get a protein. Any flavor you like. There are millions of different types of proteins, all made from 20 amino acids.⁽²⁰⁾ Can we move on now?

Some of the words on your DNA are redundant. For example, the letters ATT, ATC and ATA on your DNA, or anybody's DNA for that matter, are all code for the amino acid isoleucine.⁽¹⁹⁾ Those codons are the same for carrots, parrots, us, and our little buddy, Rudi. All living organisms use the same codons to make isoleucine. However, RNA polymerase doesn't like the letter "T", so it substitutes it with the letter "U" in the mRNA copy of the DNA.⁽²¹⁾ That means the isoleucine code on the mRNA molecule actually reads AUU, AUC and AUA. When a ribosome reads the AUU, AUC or AUA codons on the mRNA it plugs isoleucine into the chain of molecules it's putting together.

Don't worry if you slept through any of that. It's not important if you don't understand how it all works, just as long as the ribosome does. The important thing to grasp is that each three letter codon stands for an amino acid. I suppose I could have just said that initially and avoided all the yak poo about isoleucine and mRNA. But what's the fun it that. Don't worry, I'll edit all that out before I publish this online.

The Point
Finally! We've come to the point. Cue Rudi. Rudi has roughly 4555 amino acids packed into his bacterial ATP synthase molecule; and he knows how to use 'em.⁽²²⁾ In addition, at some point in time, dirt had to construct 1448 codons to make just one of several genes (the ATP synthase alpha chain gene) that form the ATP synthase in Rudi. And each of those codons is three letters long.⁽²²⁾ So that's 1448 x 3, which equals 4344 letters dirt had to correctly order on Rudi's DNA to make just the alpha chain portion of ATP synthase. Piece a cake. I love cake.

Now we'll do some math. I hate math… unless there's cake involved. If I get this right, somebody send me cake… and FedEx it. I hate stale cake. Anyway, there are a few variables to consider here… like the percentages of the amino acids that are used in Rudi's genome and how many variables there are for each codon used to code for those amino acids. That's a very rudimentary way of saying that of those 4344 letters on Rudi's DNA, roughly 67% of them must be a specific letter, placed in specific spot, in a continuous strand of 4344 letters.⁽²³⁾ If that doesn't happen the mRNA transcribed from the DNA will not tell the ribosome how to make the alpha chain of ATP synthase. That means that in order for us to determine the probability of dirt randomly putting together the correct sequence of letters on a strand of DNA, it had to sequentially choose the correct letter, out of the four possible, roughly 2911 times (4344 x 67% = 2911). That's a probability of 1 chance in 4 to the 2911 power tries… and 4 to the 2911 power is a really big number. I can't do that math. So I’m going to use the Keisan Online Calculator, which ironically, I found on line, to crunch that number.⁽²⁴⁾ Using the Keisan Online Calculator, when I raise 4 to the 2911 power, I get roughly 4 x 10 to the 1752 power. So that means I have one chance in 4 x 10 to the 1752 power tries of getting my desired strand of DNA. Numerically that can be written as 1 chance in 4 x 10¹⁷⁵² tries. So that means dirt has one chance in 4 x 10¹⁷⁵² tries of getting the blueprint for ATP synthase correct. That's a pretty slim chance. In fact, in our universe, or any others you find, it's an impossible chance. 4 x 10¹⁷⁵² is an unimaginably big number. Literally. We have no concept of anything that large. There is nothing that large. There are only about 10⁸⁰ atoms in the entire universe!⁽²⁵⁾ Some smart guy from MIT, named Seth Lloyd, has calculated that the visible universe has only computed about 10¹²⁰ operations during its existence.⁽²⁶⁾ Huh? What the pickles are you talking about? Well, I'm talking about Seth Lloyd.⁽²⁷⁾ And he's wicked smart! Seth thinks the universe is a large computer… who am I to argue - he's got the PHD and a pile of money they pay him to come up with this stuff. So he did a little math and came up with a number that would accurately determine all the events that have happened in the universe over the entirety of its existence. If you had that computer you'd be able to do crazy donkey stuff; like plot the location of every electron in the universe at any given nano second in time. So you could just ask the universal computer, "Hey, where was electron 1,488,660,175,431,232,639,459 on January 1, 2001, at 12:56:12 and 14 nano seconds PM, Greenwich Mean Time, and it could tell you! If he's correct (and he does have that PHD and a pile of money), that means that no event with a probability greater than a 1 in 10¹²⁰ chance can occur. Obviously 4 x 10¹⁷⁵² is vastly larger than 10¹²⁰. So if dirt only had a 1 in 4 x 10¹⁷⁵² chance of randomly ordering the letter sequence for just one of the genes needed to make ATP synthase on DNA (and feel free to check the dreaded math), dirt couldn't have done it randomly - which means dirt is either a lot smarter than we give it credit, or it didn't make ATP synthase. Yet here we all sit, working our ATP synthase like a beaver with a broken dam.

For those of you crying foul, and perhaps implying I'm not being fair with dirt, let me just point out a few omissions and considerations I've afforded dirt. First dirt was not required to make all the genetic components Rudi uses to construct ATP synthase. For the sake of ease, and to prove a point, I only used one gene! There are at least 4 more genes listed for Rudi's ATP synthase on the The National Center for Biotechnology Information website (could be more, I just don't know what all the other genes do).⁽²²⁾ Second, dirt was not required to make DNA, RNA polymerase, mRNA, ribosomes or any of the other molecules needed for the creation of life. That would be a lot more challenging than just making ATP synthase. Dirt was also not required to bring anything to life, or to reproduce that life.

Further more, in my example, dirt did not have to worry about contamination from outside sources or degradation of the molecules that were provided. In addition, dirt did not have to contend with something called chirality - which we’ll ignore, so you don’t have to contend with it either. Suffice it to say that chirality is just the property of some molecules to come in two different geometric forms.⁽²⁸⁾ You can think of those molecules as having either a right-handed form or left-handed form. Chiral molecules normally occur in a 50/50 mix of those two forms when made in a laboratory. However, in biological organisms almost every amino acid is left-handed.⁽²⁹⁾ Of course we don’t know how or why this happened. The point? Adding chirality into the equation just makes the odds worse for poor ol’ dirt. A lot worse!

Dirt was also given unlimited quantities of just the molecules that were required to perform the task at hand. No extra stuff to mess up the coding process. All dirt had to do was correctly construct the coding for one gene. And according to the math, there's no way even that dramatically simplified task could happen. Poor dirt. Unless… unless dirt isn't telling us something. Maybe there's some secret about dirt that will finally illuminate us and tell all the geologists, biologists, geneticists, astronomers and physicists, how it did it. But for now, dirt ain't talkin'.

So how did dirt do it? Well, that's for dirt to know, and for scientists to find out. But I will share this with you.

The wisdom of this world is foolishness to God. For it is written, “He catches the wise in the snare of their own flawed wisdom.”
1 Corinthians 3:19 DCV (Don Crouse Version - which should always be compared to the actual version of somebody else's translation… anybody else's translation - just check it!)

If there is no God, there are no options other than science. And sometimes science has no answer. Then, the reality is, you believe something even less believable than the existence of a creator. But for those of you that believe in the power of dirt, we do have two things in common. First, we both believe we were created from dirt.

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.
Genesis 2:7 KJV

And we both have faith. In fact, you have more faith than I do, because I think it's a lot harder to believe that dirt is responsible for your intelligence than an intelligent creator.

I'm not convinced that dirt has either the intellect or ability to create life. I just don't think dirt is smart enough.

Smarter than dirt,

Don
All original text ©DCrouse 2018
Revisions 2024
P.S. If you have any disagreements with the material I have presented, feel free to contact me and let me know where I messed up. I'll probably ignore you, but at least I'll know you read the article.

References
(1) https://www.britannica.com/science/spontaneous-generation
Keep in mind that spontaneous generation is a term that the scientific community does not want associated with the theory of the creation of life. The idea of living organisms arising from piles of garbage or rotting meat sounds ridiculous, which is what spontaneous generation is usually associated. So the term abiogenesis was adopted to explain how living organisms arose from non-living materials, like the molecules that make up the stuff in piles of garbage or rotting meat. It's all very complex and scientific, so please don't try to simplify it like I do.

(2) https://www.britannica.com/science/abiogenesis
If you bother to check this reference, please note that it states that abiogenesis is not the same as spontaneous generation, which is one reason I picked it as a reference… because it disagrees with my statement that abiogenesis is simply another term for spontaneous generation… at least at first glance. But if you check the link on that page for spontaneous generation (https://www.britannica.com/science/spontaneous-generation), you'll see it says exactly what I'm saying. And that's one of many problems I have with the whole scientific explanation of the origin of life - there's a lot to double talk aimed at making the science look good, while discrediting any attempt to clarify what is actually being said. So Britannica, check your own references before you discredit them. As for all you nice people reading this, you decide for yourself if spontaneous generation and abiogenesis are the same. Then send me hate mail.

(3) Francesco Redi was an Italian physician and biologist. If you’re ready for more information on Redi you can find it at the website listed below - as well as many other sites on the internet, if you search his name.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francesco_Redi

(4) Okay, nobody really knows the actual number of species alive on the earth today. The link below gives a calculated guess (there are a lot, with probably millions more that haven't been discovered). Any number given as an estimate is just a really well calculated guess. As for humans being at the top of the intellectual pyramid, well, that's just a judgement call I made… although, I have to admit, there are plenty of times I have my doubts. After all, we're not even as smart as dirt!
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/08/110823180459.htm

(5) To hear it straight from the genome researcher's mouth go to link below, under the What does DNA do? heading.
https://www.genome.gov/25520880/deoxyribonucleic-acid-dna-fact-sheet/

(6) If you'd like to hear about your cellular jet engines you can go to the links below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bee6PWUgPo8
The actual reference to the "speed thing" is mentioned about 33 seconds into the video, but I'm sure you'll want to listen to the whole thing for your intellectual edification.
If you really want to hurt your brain listen to the video on the Khan Academy website.
https://www.khanacademy.org/science/biology/dna-as-the-genetic-material/dna-replication/v/speed-and-precision-of-dna-replication

(7) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK21134/
The information on the molecular length of DNA molecules is listed in the first paragraph, in the first bullet point.

(8) https://pdb101.rcsb.org/motm/72
This site has a nice description of ATP synthase, as well as a picture of what the molecule looks like. And it was "Molecule of the Month"! So it must be a really important molecule! But who really cares? Right? So for the sanity of all concerned, I will not take the time to, nor do you want me to provide, excessive amounts of dribble explaining how our little molecular friend works. So venture forth at your own peril. There is also a nice video at the Khan Academy website, listed below:
https://www.khanacademy.org/science/ap-biology/cellular-energetics/cellular-respiration-ap/v/atp-synthase

(9) https://creation.com/atp-synthase-in-all-life
I hate (hate maybe to strong a word: intensely dislike) to use Christian related references. I just want the science! However I believe this reference addresses an important objection raised by smart people like you, so I'm going to use it!

(10) In case you don't believe me, the video listed below explains, in very simplified detail, how proteins, like ATP synthase, are made. That is done through a process called transcription. The whole point in hurting your brain with this video is to give you an idea of the complexity I'm talking about when I say life is complex. This also is a video about human DNA.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gG7uCskUOrA
Bacteria do not have a nucleus, but the transcription process is still pretty much the same in simpler life forms (and still complex). Conformation of that can be found at the link below, under the Types of RNA Polymerase heading. This is also information on transcription under the Process of Transcription heading.
https://biologydictionary.net/rna-polymerase/

(11) The video link listed below explains in greater (but still simplified) detail the transcription process of a gene.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5MfSYnItYvg

(12) The first link briefly describes how RNA polymerase knows how to locate the starting point of a gene on DNA. The second link gets into much more detail, and hurts my brain, so you may want to avoid it. The whole point of any of these links is to confirm what I'm trying to explain happens at the molecular level in our bodies, and the complexity involved. It's just that I'm trying to do it with terminology that doesn't hurt your brain. But if you don't trust me, go ahead and watch the videos. It will tell you the same thing I am, but it'll probably hurt your brain. I know mine's a little tender.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MkUgkDLp2iE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ypH-hDKpCY0

(13) mRNA "spell checking" can be found at the link listed below. In the first fourth sentence under the DISCUSSION heading.The sentence states that "numerous proteins maintain the fidelity of transcription" (i.e. spell-checking).
https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/3/10/e1701484.full

(14) Information on bacterial ribosomes can be found at the link below. Note that under the Baterial ribosomes heading, in the second paragraph it states that the ribosomal subunits of bacteria and eukaryotes are quite similar. My point exactly! The rest of that web page will provide more information on ribosomes in general.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ribosome#Bacterial_ribosomes

(15) If you’d like more information about the translation of mRNA into a protein via a ribosome, or you just want to make your head hurt trying to grasp the incredible intellect of dirt, visit the link listed below.
https://www.khanacademy.org/test-prep/mcat/biomolecules/dna/v/translation-mrna-to-protein
The link listed below is another video explaining the translation process of a DNA gene (in, of course, a simplified version).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TfYf_rPWUdY

(16) Get to know Rudi. Yah, he’s a parasite, but he does have his redeeming qualities. You can find out more at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Candidatus_Carsonella_ruddii

(17) Rudi's entire genome can be found at the link listed below. There are 6 genes specifically labeled as ATP synthase genes under the product identification.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nuccore/CP019943

(18) To see if I know what 4 letters make up the DNA code, and how many 3 letter words can be made from those 4 letters, see the link listed below.
http://www.dnaftb.org/22/

(19) The 3 letter words formed by DNA are called codons. Each codon represents an amino acid, or a Stop codon. Information on the different DNA 3 letter codons can be found at the link listed below. The table on the page shows the 3 letter codes for the 20 essential amino acids, along with 3 Stop codons. Most amino acids have more than one 3 letter codon.
https://thomasadunbar.weebly.com/uploads/2/4/4/7/24474750/dna_codon_table.png

(20) In the link given below, the number of known proteins in the world is given in the second paragraph of the Abstract.
https://www.pnas.org/content/106/27/11079

(21) Information on the use of the nucleotide “T” in DNA changing to the use of the nucleotide “U” in RNA can be found at the link below, under the heading Transcription.
https://www.khanacademy.org/science/biology/gene-expression-central-dogma/central-dogma-transcription/a/intro-to-gene-expression-central-dogma

(22) Rudi's entire genome can be found at the link listed below. There are 5 genes specifically labeled as ATP synthase genes under the product identification. I added the number of amino acids in those genes together to get the number 4555 as the number of amino acids in Rudi's DNA.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nuccore/CP019943

(23) Most of the time any of the four letters in the DNA lettering system (A, T, C and G), can be used for the last letter in a codon for a specific amino acid. Another way to look at it is this: the last letter in the codon for most amino acids is variable (i.e. it can be more than one of the letters in the DNA lettering system). As an example, looking at the codon table referenced in (19) you see that codons for Valine are GTA, GTC, GTG and GTT. So any of the four letters can be used for the last letter in the codon to give you Valine. There are also a couple amino acids that have 6 different codons. There are some that only have 1, 2 or 3. To keep the math simple (you know I hate math, so I want it as simple as possible) I just simplified things by stipulating that the last letter of all the codons could be any of the four letters. So dirt only had to get the first two letters of the three letter codon in the correct order. That would mean that roughly 2 out of 3, or 67%, of the letters in ATP synthase blueprint had to be in the correct order.

(24) The Keisan Online Calculator can be found at:
https://keisan.casio.com/calculator
Since the writing of this article the website has been closed. So now you just have to take my word for it, or get a really big calculator!

(25) The number of atoms in the universe can be found at:
https://www.thoughtco.com/number-of-atoms-in-the-universe-603795

(26) You can read what Seth Lloyd said at:
https://journals.aps.org/prl/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevLett.88.237901

(27) Here’s more about Seth:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seth_Lloyd

(28) More than you really probably want to know about chirality can be found at:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chirality_%28chemistry%29

(29) We're all left handed at the Smithsonian... or at least all our amino acids are.
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/space/must-all-molecules-life-be-left-handed-or-right-handed-180959956/

Seahawks Lose!

There are a couple things I want to address in the next few days involving events that have transpired in my geographical neighborhood that have received national attention and lots of controversy. Since I was so vociferous about the Seahawks win in last year's Super Bowl, I'll start with the devastating emotional defeat we suffered in this one. Can you say 'Seahawks grief counseling'? I've had a year to think about what I wrote last year, but only a day to put it into perspective with what happened yesterday. And frankly, my fragile psyche is still attempting to drag itself out of the dark hole it was plunged into in the last 28 seconds of yesterday's game. With second and goal, Pete Carroll made the worst call in Seahawks history and snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. Instead of giving the ball to Marshawn Lynch, the NFL’s rushing touchdown leader, he decided to have Russell Wilson throw the ball. Instead of Beast mode we got defeat mode. Mistake. Interception. Game over. Don's fragile psyche plunged into a dark hole. I'm hoping writing about it will be therapeutic - but so far I'm not feeling it. It's still pretty dark over here. So for the rest of you that are experiencing my pain, I hope one or more of us will be lifted from the gloom of agonizing defeat to a place where we can say the words 'Pete Carroll', without wanting to choke the dog. If you don't have a dog to choke, you can pick one up at your local animal shelter. And before the ASPCA starts sending law enforcement folks to my house to check on my dog, that was just a joke. I don't choke my dog. I'd like to choke Pete Carroll, just a little, because I didn't get any sense of closure from the excuses he used to explain that horrendous call. I haven't actually heard what he said. The TV went dark right after the interception and I haven't had the strength to listen to his post game interview. I just read about it on the internet. But in all my doldrums, where's my compassion for Pete? I shouldn't forget all the things he's done for Seahawks fans. He's built a great team that has talent, heart and a never-quit attitude. He won a Super Bowl for Seattle last year and one for New England this year. Both parties should be happy. No… I'd never choke Pete. Pete doesn't deserve that. He made a mistake. We all do. It's just that our mistakes aren't usually made in front of a hundred million people and then picked apart by the media, analyzed by sports personalities and blasted by armchair quarterbacks. If the pass had been completed to Ricardo Lockette for a touchdown, he would have been a genius. I need to forgive and let it go (please don't start singing the song from Frozen). Besides, I'm pretty sure Darrell Bevell made the call. Pete just went with it. So I probably should be choking Darrell. Okay, the whole choking thing is just a joke people. I'm not going to choke anyone. That would make me a hypocrite because choking is strictly forbidden at our house. What I didn't like was that Darrell criticized Lockette for not "staying strong on the ball." Hey Darrell, we all would have run Marshawn. Maybe you should have been 'staying strong on the ball' and run it with Marshawn? He's about as strong as it gets. Bad call. Own it. Because I'm going to live with it for the rest of my irritated, annoyed, exasperated, irked, disgruntled, peeved, miffed, brooding life. Pray for me. I need a hug.

I won't lie. This one REALLY hurts. My wife, on the other hand, was over it before New England ran out the clock. But for me it was more painful than a prostate exam performed by a Jiffy Lube tech with a frozen periscope. I take my football seriously… too seriously. It's just a game… that can drag your fragile psyche into dark holes. So how has this experience changed my thoughts about what I wrote last year, when we won the whole enchilada and my fragile psyche dwelt in the heavenly light of victory? Well, I found out that former Rams quarterback, Kurt Warner, wonders if the Patriots cheated by spying on the Rams plays before Super Bowl XXXVI, which the Patriots won 20-17. I wish we could use that as an excuse… but we beat ourselves.

No, I think I'm good with the overall thoughts I expressed last year. But this year I think God may be trying to teach ME a lesson. For one, I yelled at my wife, who was just trying to serve everyone hot cheese sticks while standing in front of the TV. Does the phrase, 'you make a better door than a window' mean anything to you? But I shouldn't have yelled at her, and that probably cost us the game… at least according to my wife, who is fairly certain God punished my reprehensible behavior with a Seahawk loss. So to my wife, I'd like to apologize for yelling at you. To all the Seahawks fans, players and coaches, I'd like to apologize for losing us the game.

When you yell at your wife or when the outcome of a game drags your fragile psyche into a dark place, you probably don't have your priorities right. Football is a game. It's a really good game that is a lot better than soccer, or baseball, or basketball (has anyone seen the Sonics?), or hockey (why not just change hockey to 'boxing on ice'). But it's still a game. Yet many of us have our lives drastically altered by the outcome of a single sporting event.

For all the gods of the people are idols: but the LORD made the heavens.
Genesis 3:1-5 NKJV

For some, football has become a God. And, of course, it's played on Sunday just to keep us from attending church.

When football effects our lives in negative ways, we may be putting just a tad too much emphasis on the wrong syllable. Maybe God should be the syllable we put our emphasis on - not football, or baseball, or boxing on ice. When we lose it shouldn't be the end of the world. And when we win we should only trash talk for about a week, because when we lose it's all comin' back to us. Gracious in victory. Gracious in defeat. But it still was a terrible call. And we still lost the game. However, the Patriots did come back from 10 points down in the fourth quarter. If we had stopped either of their fourth quarter touchdowns, we win. We didn't. Instead the game came down to the last 28 seconds and one bad call. Yes, we handed them a victory. But they also scored twice in the fourth. Good game. Congratulations. God has a plan. I'm not crazy about the outcome, but I know God is at work in everything in our lives. As per Ecclesiastes:

There is a time for everything, a season for every activity under heaven. A time to be born and a time to die. A time to plant and a time to harvest. A time to kill and a time to heal. A time to tear down and a time to rebuild. A time to cry and a time to laugh. A time to grieve and a time to dance. A time to scatter stones and a time to gather stones. A time to embrace and a time to turn away. A time to search and a time to lose. A time to keep and a time to throw away. A time to tear and a time to mend. A time to be quiet and a time to speak up. A time to love and a time to hate. A time for war and a time for peace. A time to win the Super Bowl and a time to give the game to the Patriots (I added that one). What do people really get for all their hard work? I have thought about this in connection with the various kinds of work God has given people to do. God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God's work from beginning to end. So I concluded that there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to enjoy themselves as long as they can. And people should eat and drink and enjoy the fruits of their labor, for these are gifts from God. And I know that whatever God does is final. Nothing can be added to it or taken from it. God's purpose in this is that people should fear him. Whatever exists today and whatever will exist in the future has already existed in the past. For God calls each event back in its turn.
Ecclesiastes 3:1-15 NLT (except the part about the Super Bowl).

God has a time for everything. And that timing is perfect. We're not in control. I don't know if God gave the Patriots the win, but I wouldn't put it past Him if He's trying to teach somebody a lesson (and I'm not just talking about me). What's the lesson? We're not in control… and apparently neither are the Seahawk coaches. God is. All we're required to do is put God first, grab a Big Mac, a lovely beverage and enjoy the fruits of our labor. Don't forget to hug your kids… or Pete and Darrell if you don't have any kids. They could both use a hug right about now.

Starting to see the light,

Don
©DCrouse 2015

It's Time to Deal

Alright. It's time to deal with this. An article in Time Magazine came out early, so I'm actually having to respond to this issue sooner than I was planning (which was never).

First, you are free to believe whatever you want to believe. This is an article to provide you, hopefully, with a Biblical point of reference to a message I heard from a prominent local pastor. And while I disagree with many of this individual's opinions concerning the LGBTQ community, I consider him a friend and respect his right to believe whatever he wants. This article is extremely long because I wanted to deal with as many of the points he made as possible. I also wanted to keep things lighthearted and open. Please don't mistake that for sarcasm… well maybe a little (but sarcasm is my only fault). I hope my friend and I (as well as the readers of this article), can always accept one another as Christ intended… in love, without malice, and with open hearts.

I want to start with a passage of scripture as the foundation for everything else - because it is the foundation for everything else.

But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees with his reply, they met together to question him again. One of them, an expert in religious law, tried to trap him with this question: “Teacher, which is the most important commandment in the law of Moses?”

Jesus replied, “‘You must love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.”
Matthew 22:34-40 NLT

We're always quick to point out the part about loving your neighbor as yourself; especially when it's in our own interests to do so. We're also pretty bad when it comes to actually following that law. But there's another, more important, part to that passage. It's the first law; the one we don't quote when our actions are contrary to God's: 'You must love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ That's the first commandment. We need to follow the FIRST law before the second one can work. My hope is that we will all remember both those laws in viewing members of the LGBTQ community. That means we should extend the same love we have received from Jesus Christ to those people, that we extend to anyone else.

Two more things I'd like to point out about the foundational scripture. Firstly, it says, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There's no implied secondary meaning that we need to accept their lifestyle. If anything, those verses tell us that our first responsibility is to follow God - not people. But to keep us from becoming self-righteous we have the second law. So try to avoid condemnation whenever possible. Second, the guy trying to 'trap' Jesus was an expert in religious law; a spiritual leader during Jesus' time. He wasn't some guy from the local news trying to get a juicy story. Yeah, he wanted news and he wanted juicy; but he wasn't an outsider. He was a member of the Jewish community who wanted to 'trap' Jesus to further his own agenda. The literal translation for 'trap' reads more like this: 'to try or test someone's faith, virtue, or character, by enticement to sin.' Our Pharisee friend wanted to lead Jesus into sin by taking Him away from God. And that's why we have the first and greatest commandment.

For me there is a certain amount of irony whenever scripture is quoted to condemn the actions that people engage in. We're told as Christians that we shouldn't be judgmental. Yet every time we use scripture to define behaviors that God finds unacceptable, we do that very thing. So what do we do as Christians? Should we be affirming of the things God condemns (and I'm not just talking about homosexuality)? Should we try to live according to the tenets of the Bible? When we see others that are engaging in activities that the Bible condemns, should we tell them? I think Jesus said it best (and He usually does):

I will not judge those who hear me but don’t obey me, for I have come to save the world and not to judge it. But all who reject me and my message will be judged on the day of judgment by the truth I have spoken. I don’t speak on my own authority. The Father who sent me has commanded me what to say and how to say it. And I know his commands lead to eternal life; so I say whatever the Father tells me to say.”
John 12:47-50 NLT

When we share the the Word of God, hopefully in love, we're telling others what God thinks. That's not your judgment. It's God's. If you agree with Him, that's not being judgmental either. That's obedience. And if we share His Word with others, hopefully it's out of love to help them, and not for their detriment.

As mentioned, this piece is intended to be Bible based. You may disagree with my interpretation or use of scripture, so I always encourage people to investigate what I've said by having them read, guess what? - a Bible. Please don't use a self-help book or the exhaustive works of Joe Blow (who, by the way, is an excellent writer) or even CliffsNotes on The Bible (and yes, there is a CliffsNotes on the Bible) to tell you what the Bible says. Just read the Bible. Then you'll know what it says. But what if God gives me a divine revelation that disagrees with what the Bible says? Sorry, you missed the publishing date. Maybe the author will allow you to add to His work in a future edition. Personally, I think as Christians, we are 'forced' to use the Bible as the divine and unquestionable Word of God. What else are we going to use? It's worked pretty good so far. And reading other books to help you understand what the Bible 'really' says can also be a problem. I believe it's better to spend your time reading the Bible to find out what it says, then to rely on others to tell you. Read all the books you like. Read 70. Read 70,000. The number of books you read makes no difference in the correctness of your interpretation of the Bible. If what they say differs from the Bible, they're wrong. Why are we using the word of man to judge the Word of God? I don't always like what I read in the Bible, but I really don't think God is going to change things because I don't like them. So I've just decided to do the best job I can following the Bible's instructions, and trust that God knows what He's doing. So instead of finding reasons why we shouldn't believe the Word of God, maybe we should just follow it. All that being said, what I'm about to present is my best effort to share what the Bible says.

I'm a recovering sinner, with all kinds of stuff that I'd like to remove from my spiritual closet. It's like a horror version of Monster's Inc. in there. But that doesn't stop me from looking for the truth, no matter how painful it might be or how much I may disagree with it. The truth is always the truth, no matter how strongly I may believe something else. And the truth is, sin is always sin. It will always be sin. God doesn't change His parameters based on our convictions. He's not influenced by societal trends or generational shifts in thinking. And no matter how emotionally attached we get to an issue, those emotions have no effect on God's commandments, laws, rules or regulations. He is always the same, so we always know what we're going to get with Him. I mean, what's the point of Jesus dying for our sins if that gets voided out in 20 years? Or what if murder was suddenly okay? How would we view a God that is constantly changing His mind, like people. Change is not a good thing when it comes to God's Word. And God has a good reason for the things He puts in place. Just because we don't get it, doesn't mean there's not a good reason. When we get good enough to tell God what works and what doesn't, then we won't need Him. Oh, I forgot - we're already there.

Today there are no absolutes. Morality has become gray (more than 50 shades) - mostly because of that gray matter between our ears. We think we know everything. There is no higher authority than us. So we can change whatever we want to fit whatever we need. That's the way the world works. Actually, that's the way the devil works. Deception by alteration. Change what God says and get everybody else to believe it and sin becomes completely acceptable.

Those poor alcoholics. Those mistreated murderers. Hey folks, drunkenness is a sin, not just a societal misdemeanor. You can end up in hell for being a drunk. Murder is also a sin. So if you intentionally kill someone, guess what, IT'S A SIN! God doesn't care if you were insane when you murdered the neighbor… which I've always thought was one of the stupidest laws ever legislated. Isn't anybody who commits murder insane? It doesn't matter what society thinks. God doesn't care. Insanity isn't going to get you off. The rules are the rules, and He's not changing them to fit our emotional state of mind.

Idolatry is a sin too. So if something in your life is more important than God, that's a sin. False witness is a sin. So if you lie about someone's integrity, that's a sin. Even being disrespectful to your parents is a sin. There's a nice long list of sins that are succinctly mentioned in the Bible. Read a Bible and you'll find a bunch. You can start with Eve disobeying God in Genesis 3:6 and go from there. There's also a really nice expository on sin in Exodus 20:1-17, called the Ten Commandments - which I think you'll find informative. Yes, there's all kinds of information on what 'sin' is, in the Bible. The trick is acknowledging they're sins. Some people can read the Bible 100 times and not find a single sin. It's all relative to what they believe. An atheist, for example, is unlikely to see anything in the Bible as valid; there is no absolute right or wrong - there is only the morality we create for ourselves. So are you going to abandon the tenets of the Bible because they don't conform to atheism?

God requires certain things from all of us before we can stand before Him, free of our sin. Have I mentioned it doesn't matter what we think, or what the world thinks, or even what the President thinks. It's God's call. When will we get that? The answer is, 'NEVER'. We'll never get it.

When an alcoholic goes to rehab and stops drinking we don't condemn them. And we shouldn't. They're no longer committing a sin because they're not getting drunk (but they still need the forgiveness of Jesus Christ). When a murderer asks God for forgiveness (in the name of Jesus… always in the name of Jesus), they are forgiven. That's not to say they should kill a few more people and ask for more forgiveness. That shows a certain lack of sincerity - and usually carries the death penalty. But all sins carry a death penalty without the redeeming grace of Jesus Christ. So there is grace and forgiveness for all sin, but acceptance of none.

I understand that there are addictions that are hard to overcome. Drug addiction. Alcohol addiction. Sexual perversion. Prostitution. Pornography. Gluttony. Greed. Even compulsive lying. They're all things that can take over a person's life. But just because these addictions are extremely difficult to overcome doesn't mean that they're not sins. The addictive level of a sin doesn't make any difference. It just makes that sin harder to get rid of. Sin is always sin. Not because I said so, but because God did.

I don't like my sin any more than a root canal done by a three fingered Tibetan yak herder. But I'll continue to commit the same sin over and over. Why? Is it because I want to? Maybe. Does that make it okay? No. It doesn't matter what my excuse is, or how much I minimalize my transgressions. My actions are still sins to God. I can either accept that fact or reject it. I can ask for forgiveness or get ready for a world of hurt… like a root canal, without anesthesia… for eternity. And I don't want an eternal, unanesthesitized, root canal. I love God. So I want to try and do what He asks. And He asks me to do things a certain way because He loves me. It's a love-love relationship. I've come to the realization that the things He tells me are for my benefit. I may not always like what He tells me, but I always trust Father Knows Best. For those just cutting their wisdom teeth, Father Knows Best was a TV show during the golden age of monochromatic television. There's a reason we don't have shows like that today. One, they were black and white. Two, they portrayed wholesome values we've long outgrown. We were pretty primitive back then. America actually tried to model itself after Godly principles. Of course that didn't stick, we experienced the '70s, and voila, here we are. But we've come a long way baby. We've loosened up those Biblical girdles and stretched the ethical loins of our primitive thinking. Now it's time for the church to get with current societal trends.

This all leads me to ask why so many Christian churches feel the need to affirm LGBTQ lifestyles? They're clearly sinful - not my call… that comes from God. Where's the Biblical proof? Well, it's coming… but before all the hate email gets out of the "Send" box, let me say that God doesn't hate the LGBTQ community. I don't either. Hate is also a sin, that hurts the wearer more than the recipient. And this is not meant to be an attack against homosexuals or any other people on the planet. Christians shouldn't be out there hating or condemning people, no matter what we think of them or their lifestyles. We should be responding to others in love. However, we do need to know what God requires. So I'm just going to share what I've read in my Bible. You decide if the Bible validates LGBTQ behaviors. And as previously requested, don't just believe what I'm telling you… read the Bible for yourself. You need to make your own decision, because you won't be judged for mine. For those who don't believe the Bible nothing I've said here will matter. So just stop reading now and avoid any further anger issues this piece is bound to cause you. Life is too short.

Do not have sexual relations with a man as one does with a woman; that is detestable.
Leviticus 20:13 NIV

If a man has sexual relations with a man as one does with a woman, both of them have done what is detestable. They are to be put to death; their blood will be on their own heads.
Leviticus 20:13 NIV

This next one is a little long, but I don't want to have someone say I took things out of context, at least completely (I'm sure there will be contextual naysayers nonetheless… or maybe 'moreover').

The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse. For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles. Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshipped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.

Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error.

Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy. 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.
Romans 1:18-32 NIV

You won't hear that on a Sunday morning from any pastor I know. It's too inflammatory for today's society. Yet there it is… in the Bible. So what do we do with it? Ignore it… I say we ignore it, and hope Paul is wrong. Okay, I'm being facetious. But sometimes I find the Bible is a hard book. Even when I'd like it to say something else, it doesn't. But I'm not sure I should be the one doing the editing. So I just go with what it says. And I always keep in mind that Jesus loves me.

Moving on.

Or do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who have sex with men nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
1 Corinthians 6:9-11 NIV

Now we know that the law is good, if one uses it lawfully, understanding this, that the law is not laid down for the just but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who strike their fathers and mothers, for murderers, the sexually immoral, men who practice homosexuality, enslavers, liars, perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound doctrine, in accordance with the gospel of the glory of the blessed God with which I have been entrusted.
1 Timothy 1:8-11 NIV

Now I want to remind you, although you once fully knew it, that Jesus, who saved a people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe. And the angels who did not stay within their own position of authority, but left their proper dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great day— just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which likewise indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desire, serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire.
Jude 1:5-7 NIV

And here's another message you're not likely to hear in the church today. It's honest, raw, succinct and brutal. And it was written by the man that Jesus said would be the foundation of His church - Peter. I don't know who pressed Peter's buttons the day he wrote this, but I wouldn't want to be one of the people this was written about. It's passages like these that drive people away from the Christian church, but that doesn't mean they aren't the anointed word of God. They hurt because they hit us where we live. So maybe we should move? Maybe it's not so much that they aren't true, but that they are. Peter is trying to warn us that God is serious about His relationship with us. We're not going to escape judgment through ignorance or denial. There's only one way out of this mess, and we all should know by now it's Jesus. None of the following verses will condemn us if we put Jesus first. But they're the painful reality of life without Him.

But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them—bringing swift destruction on themselves. Many will follow their depraved conduct and will bring the way of truth into disrepute. In their greed these teachers will exploit you with fabricated stories. Their condemnation has long been hanging over them, and their destruction has not been sleeping.

For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but sent them to hell, putting them in chains of darkness to be held for judgment; if he did not spare the ancient world when he brought the flood on its ungodly people, but protected Noah, a preacher of righteousness, and seven others; if he condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah by burning them to ashes, and made them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly; and if he rescued Lot, a righteous man, who was distressed by the depraved conduct of the lawless (for that righteous man, living among them day after day, was tormented in his righteous soul by the lawless deeds he saw and heard)—if this is so, then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and to hold the unrighteous for punishment on the day of judgment. This is especially true of those who follow the corrupt desire of the flesh and despise authority.

Bold and arrogant, they are not afraid to heap abuse on celestial beings; yet even angels, although they are stronger and more powerful, do not heap abuse on such beings when bringing judgment on them from the Lord. But these people blaspheme in matters they do not understand. They are like unreasoning animals, creatures of instinct, born only to be caught and destroyed, and like animals they too will perish.

They will be paid back with harm for the harm they have done. Their idea of pleasure is to carouse in broad daylight. They are blots and blemishes, reveling in their pleasures while they feast with you. With eyes full of adultery, they never stop sinning; they seduce the unstable; they are experts in greed—an accursed brood! They have left the straight way and wandered off to follow the way of Balaam son of Bezer, who loved the wages of wickedness. But he was rebuked for his wrongdoing by a donkey—an animal without speech—who spoke with a human voice and restrained the prophet’s madness.

These people are springs without water and mists driven by a storm. Blackest darkness is reserved for them. For they mouth empty, boastful words and, by appealing to the lustful desires of the flesh, they entice people who are just escaping from those who live in error. They promise them freedom, while they themselves are slaves of depravity—for “people are slaves to whatever has mastered them.” If they have escaped the corruption of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and are again entangled in it and are overcome, they are worse off at the end than they were at the beginning. It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than to have known it and then to turn their backs on the sacred command that was passed on to them. Of them the proverbs are true: “A dog returns to its vomit,” and, “A sow that is washed returns to her wallowing in the mud.”
1 Peter 2 (the whole chapter) NIV

The most famous story in the Bible dealing with homosexuality is probably Sodom and Gomorrah. It starts with an isolated verse in Genesis 13:13 (is that unlucky?).

But the men of Sodom were exceedingly wicked and sinful against the LORD.
NKJV

It isn't until six chapters later that Sodom (and Gomorrah) are destroyed.

The two angels arrived at Sodom in the evening, and Lot was sitting in the gateway of the city. When he saw them, he got up to meet them and bowed down with his face to the ground.

“My lords,” he said, “please turn aside to your servant’s house. You can wash your feet and spend the night and then go on your way early in the morning.” 

“No,” they answered, “we will spend the night in the square.”

But he insisted so strongly that they did go with him and entered his house. He prepared a meal for them, baking bread without yeast, and they ate. Before they had gone to bed, all the men from every part of the city of Sodom—both young and old—surrounded the house. They called to Lot, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us so that we can have sex with them.”

Lot went outside to meet them and shut the door behind him and said, “No, my friends. Don’t do this wicked thing.  Look, I have two daughters who have never slept with a man. Let me bring them out to you, and you can do what you like with them. But don’t do anything to these men, for they have come under the protection of my roof.”

“Get out of our way,” they replied. “This fellow came here as a foreigner, and now he wants to play the judge! We’ll treat you worse than them.” They kept bringing pressure on Lot and moved forward to break down the door.

But the men inside reached out and pulled Lot back into the house and shut the door. Then they struck the men who were at the door of the house, young and old, with blindness so that they could not find the door.

The two men said to Lot, “Do you have anyone else here—sons-in-law, sons or daughters, or anyone else in the city who belongs to you? Get them out of here, because we are going to destroy this place. The outcry to the LORD against its people is so great that he has sent us to destroy it.”
Genesis 19:1-13 (is that partly unlucky?) NIV

Then the LORD rained down burning sulfur on Sodom and Gomorrah—from the LORD out of the heavens. Thus he overthrew those cities and the entire plain, destroying all those living in the cities—and also the vegetation in the land.
Genesis 19:24-25 NIV

God didn't destroy Sodom and Gomorrah just because they were LGBTQ. God destroyed them because of their actions. Their sin got them toasted. Sin will get us all toasted… if we don't confess it and accept Jesus as our savior. We're not doing anyone a favor by affirming a sinful lifestyle. We're just increasing the chances of really, really, hot eternal living conditions.

An even more famous story is the creation of Adam and Eve. I don't think I need to quote any scripture here to make the point that God made a woman for the man. That's the Godly nature of our existence. Jesus said it this way:

But from the beginning of the creation God made them male and female.
Mark 10:6 KJV

What's so difficult to understand?

Just saying you're a homosexual, or any other member of the LGBTQ community isn't the problem. Sin is. Just like being an alcoholic isn't a sin, unless you get drunk. A minor, but important point. It's our actions that condemn us. And they can also save us… through Jesus Christ. He's a really good guy. And as my wife likes to continually tell me, "Jesus died for everyone".

So what are we doing church? Where's the Biblical guidance for the world, pastors? Are you manipulating the Bible to fit your convenient truths? Or is the Bible shaping you into God's image?

Suppose you've been wrestling with the whole LGBTQ thing for years. You have friends that are gay. Good friends. And you're disgusted by the way the Christian community treats them. These individuals are being rejected and driven away by the very people who should be reaching out to them. So over the years you read a lot of books on the subject. You visit gay churches and are moved by their worship and sincerity to follow Jesus. During your interactions with them you experience their pain and sorrow and you're resolved there needs to be a change. So as pastor of your church you decide that not only does the LGBTQ community need to be included in the church family, but that the church needs to be fully acceptant and affirming of their lifestyles. That means you'll be performing gay marriages. There will be gays in leadership positions, gay Sunday school teachers, gay councilors and gay pastors. While I'm with you on churches having an open door towards the LGBTQ community, there are Biblical constraints against most of the other stuff. And as well intended as your actions may be, I'm just not sure I want to explain to my 7 year old why Mr. Smith was teaching the Sunday school class in a dress and heels. I'd like to wait on that until he's 8.

Of course the prior paragraph opened a jumbo size, Costco can of worms; but it touches on some important issues of the inclusion of lifestyles that are contrary to Biblical teaching into the church… which could be a whole new piece. But this article is already way too long. So I'm not going to deal with all those slippery worms on that slope today. I'm just going to pretend they don't exist and hope they slither away… at least for this article. If I get enough hate email on the topic, maybe I'll pretend they do exist and write about them. For this article just let me quote this one scripture as a 'for instance'.

So an elder must be a man whose life is above reproach. He must be faithful to his wife. He must exercise self-control, live wisely, and have a good reputation. He must enjoy having guests in his home, and he must be able to teach. He must not be a heavy drinker or be violent. He must be gentle, not quarrelsome, and not love money. He must manage his own family well, having children who respect and obey him. For if a man cannot manage his own household, how can he take care of God’s church?

An elder must not be a new believer, because he might become proud, and the devil would cause him to fall. Also, people outside the church must speak well of him so that he will not be disgraced and fall into the devil’s trap.

In the same way, deacons must be well respected and have integrity. They must not be heavy drinkers or dishonest with money. They must be committed to the mystery of the faith now revealed and must live with a clear conscience. Before they are appointed as deacons, let them be closely examined. If they pass the test, then let them serve as deacons. In the same way, their wives must be respected and must not slander others. They must exercise self-control and be faithful in everything they do. A deacon must be faithful to his wife, and he must manage his children and household well.
1Timothy 3:2-12 NLT

Now while the aforementioned passage doesn't specifically say that homosexuals can't be elders or deacons in the church, it does imply that those in leadership should be husbands and wives (i.e. heterosexual couples). But based on what Paul says earlier in 1 Timothy 1:8-11 (which is quoted above) the possibility of homosexual leaders is sort of eliminated - if you go strictly from the Bible. And I don't even want to deal with the whole gay marriage thing (yet another article)… except maybe to refer you to what Jesus said in Mark 10:6 (also quoted above).

I have no problem with gays in the church. I do have an issue with how much authority they have. And I'm basing my views solely on what I read in my Bible. I try not to let my emotions cloud what it says, and I don't rely on others books to tell me what to believe. If the Bible is truly the anointed word of God - if that's what you believe - then why would you use outside sources to determine what you believe?

If your gay and lesbian friends are going to hell, you can't save them by changing the truth… no matter how much you love them. Misrepresenting what God tells us will just destroy them, and maybe you in the process. And I don't want to see that happen. I suggest another way. I suggest Jesus, who only condemned the religious leaders that didn't teach the truth of God. He loved people, forgave them and told them to go and sin no more. And He was so powerful in His love and truth that they listened.

I love the story of the woman that was brought to Jesus, that was caught in the act of adultery. It exemplifies the attitude that Christians should have towards the unsaved.

Then the scribes and Pharisees brought to Him a woman caught in adultery. And when they had set her in the midst, they said to Him, “Teacher, this woman was caught in adultery, in the very act. Now Moses, in the law, commanded us that such should be stoned. But what do You say?” This they said, testing Him, that they might have something of which to accuse Him. But Jesus stooped down and wrote on the ground with His finger, as though He did not hear.

So when they continued asking Him, He raised Himself up and said to them, “He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first.”

And again He stooped down and wrote on the ground. Then those who heard it, being convicted by their conscience, went out one by one, beginning with the oldest even to the last. And Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst. When Jesus had raised Himself up and saw no one but the woman, He said to her, “Woman, where are those accusers of yours? Has no one condemned you?”

She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said to her, “Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more.”

Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, “I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.”
John 8:3-12 NKJV

Did you notice the participating church officials didn't bring the guy? I guess that wasn't in vogue back then. So they just decided for themselves which people would be held accountable for their sins. These were the overly righteous spiritual leaders of their day. They told people what God required of them and then broke the very laws they taught. So when they wanted Jesus to condemn the woman according to the Law of Moses, Jesus flipped the tables on them. He asked them to examine the fruit of their own lives, not interpret the commandments of God. After He was alone with the woman He told her He didn't condemn her. Then He told her to go and sin no more. He didn't say her sin was okay. He didn't encourage her to return to the bondage of her lifestyle. He set her free from her sin. He gave her the light of life.

It's not our role as Christians to condemn people. We're here to set them free. We're here to provide light… and life. But somehow that's getting converted into marrying gay couples and affirming their sin.

Don't go down a path God hasn't paved. That doesn't mean you have to be confrontational, condescending or judgmental. Just go with love. If Jesus is in it, your friends will see Him and find the light. If you lie to them it will only cause them greater harm. And you'll have compromised your faith to your own detriment… and theirs. If you love them, tell them the truth. And do it in love… as I know we all will.

I did hear the story of Peter's visit to the house of Cornelius used as an example of why the church should accept the lifestyles of the LGBTQ community. And I'd like to address that example from a Biblical perspective… because I think it exemplifies the point I'm trying to make. For those of you not familiar with the story, let me ‘splain… No, there is too much. Let me sum up. Buttercup is marry’ Humperdinck in a little less than half an hour… oops, wrong story. Sorry; maybe I should be more serious about all this, but I find that's the reason we can never talk about our disagreements… we take everything too seriously. But seriously, Peter has a vision of a giant sheet being lowered from heaven with all kinds of animals in it that he's not allowed to eat. He hears a voice telling him to eat the unclean animals. He refuses because he's never eaten an unclean animal, except maybe that gnat that landed on his fish sandwich. Those gnats are real small. It could happen to anyone. (I made the gnat part up). The voice then tells him not to call anything unclean that God has made clean. And he's good with that (and so am I). The next thing you know there are 3 guys at the door inviting him to Cornelius' house. Check out what the 3 men say about Cornelius.

“We have come from Cornelius the centurion. He is a righteous and God-fearing man, who is respected by all the Jewish people. A holy angel told him to ask you to come to his house so that he could hear what you have to say.”
Acts 10:22 NIV

Cornelius is a righteous and God-fearing man. He's following the tenets of the Jewish faith, not those of his own heritage. And we know that because he's 'righteous'. The translation for 'righteous' means that he follows the commandments of God; and his way of thinking, feeling, and acting is wholly conformed to the will of God. Essentially, he's a better Jew than the Jews, even though he's a Gentile.

The story continues with Peter going to Cornelius' house. When he arrives he tells Cornelius,

"You are well aware that it is against our law for a Jew to associate with or visit a Gentile. But God has shown me that I should not call anyone impure or unclean."

The Biblical implication here is that God has made the salvation of Jesus Christ available to EVERYBODY. There are no longer any groups of people that Peter, and other Jewish Christians, cannot associate with; even homosexuals. But I hate to say this again - sin is still sin. The opening of the Kingdom of God to all people did not remove sin from the Bible. What it did was make salvation from sin possible through Jesus Christ. And that was a new deal for both the Jews and the Gentiles.

Then Peter began to speak: “I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism but accepts from every nation the one who fears him and does what is right.
Acts 10:34-35 NIV

Notice that Peter says God accepts those that do what is right. The original translation for 'those that do right' goes along the lines of, 'those that are righteous before God'. I'm going to guess that means following those pesky tenets He gave us in the Bible. And I can't find any scripture in my Bible that tells me that homosexual acts, or any other sins, are 'right'. And we all have sin in our lives. So who can be righteous before God? Exactly. That's why we all need Jesus.

As Peter speaks, everybody receives the Holy Spirit and the salvation of Jesus Christ, even though they are unclean Gentiles (hence the tie-in to the unclean animals in Peter's sheet, only he doesn't kill and eat anybody - it's an allegory that's not gory).

In the story of Cornelius, Cornelius is living a righteous life. He's following the commandments of God. What he wants is to adopt the lifestyle of the 'church', not the other way around.

As far as what I've read in the Bible and the verses I've quoted in this piece, homosexual activities (not homosexuals) are condemned in the Bible. God probably has a reason for doing that. And I believe it's for our benefit. The lives of members of the LGBTQ community are filled will peril. For example, the estimated suicide rate among young gay and lesbian adults is very high. As reported by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in 1993, the suicide rate for homosexual youth in the 15-24 age range, is as high as 30% of all youth suicides committed in that age range (for a gay population that is estimated at 5%). Many blame this on anti-homosexual attitude of the Christian community. However there is another possibility. As one Christian, and former lesbian, who works with youth in the LGBTQ community said, "From my vantage point the people that I found were suicidal are those who thought they were trapped in homosexuality, who thought they had to live homosexually." Others who have left the LGBTQ community have echoed those thoughts, lest you think that's an isolated instance. So maybe (and this will be blasphemy in the LGBTQ community) it's the homosexual lifestyle that is the danger? Maybe when we go outside of the boundaries of the natural behaviors God intended us to live within, it's detrimental? Maybe that's what God's trying to tell us in all those scriptures? Maybe the Bible comes down so hard on this issue because this lifestyle is so dangerous? Maybe those scriptures were meant to help? Or maybe you just don't want to go there? Let's not go there… I'm good with that. You're free to believe anything you want. Jesus loves you no matter what you think. But before I totally abandon this idea, let me try to make this point another way.

I'm guessing most people think that alcoholism, drug addiction and prostitution are harmful activities. I'm also guessing most Christians would NOT be affirming of the lifestyles associated with those particular things. I'm just guessing. We don't have to thumb through our Bibles looking for verses that confirm our suspicions either. We know anyone engaging in those lifestyles is at risk of bodily harm. I know an alcoholic that almost killed himself drinking. He was in the hospital for months while we waited to see if the harm the alcohol had done to his body would kill him. There were operations to save his life and try to get his body back to normal. And he made it. But there's always the chance he'll go back to drinking. If he does, the next time will probably kill him. Because I love him I'd do anything I can to encourage him not to return to alcohol. So I wouldn't take a six pack over to his house to watch the Super Bowl (probably because I don't like beer - so maybe I should take wine?). And I don't want to encourage any lifestyle choice that would be harmful, let alone those that God has condemned.

Should a church be willing to provide beer to alcoholics, or say wine at communion, to bring it closer to home? How about a fifth of scotch each week so all the food money isn't spent on alcohol? Should a church provide drugs to addicts, so they have a clean, healthy environment for their habits? Maybe we can offer smoking rooms for high school students that want to experiment with marijuana, so they have a safe place to smoke their dope (I wonder why it's called dope?). How about setting up a connection kiosk for prostitutes in the lobby? A church could provide a valuable service for hookers and ensure them a safer way to perform their work. That would also be a valuable service in the gay community as well. The church could screen members for aids and then help set up encounters between same sex couples in the congregation. Or maybe the church could just hold safe-sex hook up parties. There's probably a church that's thinking about those very things right now; or doing them. But I'd be concerned if they were happening at the church I was attending. Not just because they're contrary to the Bible, but because they hurt the very people they're intended to help.

It may seem like God is picking on homosexual activities, but there are a lot of other areas of sin in the verses I quoted. And if you didn't find a sin in those verses that you engage in, you can find the sins all of us commit somewhere else in the Bible. Look harder. You're not in any better condition if you're a heterosexual sinner, than if you're a card carrying member of the LGBTQ community. So none of us should go pointing our righteous fingers at someone else's sin. Dealing with our own is enough work. But I'm not going to try and convince myself that my sin isn't sin just because I want to somehow justify my actions. We also shouldn't ignore what the Bible says about sin; and sharing what the Word of God says isn't necessarily finger-pointing. Sin is sin (or as people are so fond of saying, 'It is what it is' - don't get me started on the stupidity of that irritating cliche).

So there it is. Some old; some new. It is what it is. If you throw out my commentary and just look at the scriptures, you tell me what the Bible says. If I've missed something, or misrepresented the scriptures, toss me a bone… straighten me out with some passages from the Bible (that is how we're measuring this issue - through the one source Christians use for their spiritual compass, right?). Biblically speaking, things seem pretty straight forward to me. If you just disagree with something you read in the Bible, please don't register your complaint with me. I didn't write the Bible, and believe me when I tell you, you can be thankful for that. Take your complaints up with God. Or maybe you can get the publishing companies to delete the parts you don't like. There's also the option of burning all the Bibles. But if you think I'm going to abandon the teaching that God gives me through the Bible in favor of your version of how to live life, you're greatly mistaken. I think I'll just stick with God. You let me know how things go without Him.

Although this has certainly been a rebuttal against the lifestyles of the LGBTQ community, my concern is not primarily with them. That sort of stuff has been around since at least the time of Noah. And it's not going away any time soon. These people are not our enemy. Our interactions with them should not involve fear or hate or violence or vile language - even if that's what we receive from them. It does however require the truth. And love would also be a good thing to carry with you.

My real concern is with Christians - specifically those in positions of spiritual leadership. We should be able to trust that what they tell us follows the things that God affirms, not the morality of man. When we get to the point where those leaders go against the teachings of God then we are all in trouble. They should be leading us closer to God, not further away. They should confirm the truths God teaches us in the Bible… no matter what they are or how popular they are. But that's another one of those problems we've had since the time of Noah. So I'm not going to hold my breath waiting for things to change. I'm just going to get a pony and hope all the bad stuff goes away.

We serve a pretty big God. He's able to deal with anything we encounter. It would just be nice if we followed Him instead of our own moral compasses.

Let me leave you with this one last thought. Well, actually it's another scripture. And it says exactly how God feels about every one of us.

For I take no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Sovereign Lord. Repent and live!
Ezekiel 18:32 NIV

I think I'll take that advice.

So what's the point? It's that we're all sinners, and the only way we're going to escape punishment is to acknowledge our sin, repent, and accept Jesus Christ as our Savior.

Acknowledging, repenting, and accepting,

Don

P.S. I know how this works… this is such a volatile issue that it's difficult for people not to send me their best hate email. Well the hate email box is pretty big, so feel free to send away. I just can't promise you any hate email in return. If you're hateful enough I might be moved to respond, but using all my emotional reserves for hate really drains me, so I can only promise one hate email per correspondent. Just remember, Jesus loves you, and I'm in therapy.

©DCrouse 2015