An attempt to argue that naturalistic systems of morality are innately inferior to theistic systems:

Any naturalistic morality system is ultimately unjust, and therefore immoral. Here’s why: Human beings rightly crave justice, and any system of morality that is unjust would be by definition immoral. But if there is no afterlife (and therefore no final accountability for a person’s actions), then life itself is ultimately unfair since good deeds will often go unrewarded and bad behavior will often go unpunished. Therefore, only a moral system that includes an afterlife (and by implication, God) where justice regarding a person’s actions can be appropriately meted out can be just. Any moral system that does not is immoral and therefore deficient.

I started thinkin’ bout
The rest of my life
What kind of fool
Doesn’t think about it?
You’d have to be a fool
Not to think about it

Sloan – The Rest of My Life

Agreed! Today would be a great day to finally start thinking about the rest of your life.

“Christianity is captivating because it presents the most wonderful and accurate description, and explanation, of reality.”

Many scientists today have religious convictions, such as Alister McGrath (who earned two doctorate degrees from Oxford, one in theology, the other in molecular biophysics). Examples like this of course prove nothing about the validity of Christianity or religion in general, but they at least demonstrate that it is possible to be a knowledgeable person of science as well as a religious believer. So how exactly do science and religion co-exist with each other in the world? There are basically three options …

>> Read Science & Religion: Competitors or Companions? on PowertoChange.com

Some previous posts about religion & science:
On ‘Scientism’ and Faith – Why the belief that science is the only way to true knowledge is ridiculous
Scientists with Faith – Discusses an article about Francis Collins which appeared in the Times

Living with roommates can be challenging.

Over time I’ve learned that it’s a good idea to wait at least a few minutes after one of my roommates (or guests) has … “done their duty” in the washroom. After they have “made a deposit” so to speak. Or “dropped the kids off at the pool,” to use one of my friends’ artful euphemisms. Our washroom lacks a working fan, and so that exasperates the problem, since it sometimes takes awhile for the lingering odors to dissipate.

Of course, that can be rather inconvenient when I have to “go.” So thinking myself to be quite clever, I bought a cheap air freshener and put it in the washroom.

Was the problem solved with the aroma of wildflowers? Hardly. Now after someone has done a “number 2″ in the washroom, there is no longer a poop smell to deal with … there is the smell of poop mixed with flowers. Poopy flowers. Which in a way is actually worse than poop alone.

This illustrates the way that sin corrupts what’s good. Adding good works to our sins doesn’t cover the sins. The sweet aroma of our good deeds is tainted by the stench of our sins. What we need is the removal of the foul odor, which is something our good deeds can never do. For that, we need God’s help, because He can do what is impossible for us.

Christmas links:
Home Alone for the Holidays – Here’s some advice if you’ll be alone this year
The Christmas Story – Does it still matter?
Why should I trust what the Bible says about Christmas? – My ebook explains some of the reasons
Video: Which path? – Which path you choose will influence the rest of your life

Last Sunday my pastor’s sermon topic was mercy, (Oct 24, Mercy – The Capping of the Tree mp3) and how God’s justice and God’s mercy are flipsides of the same coin. They are both intrinsically part of Him and inseparable from His nature. It’s His merciful love that saves some from the just punishment that we deserve by the gracious giving of Himself in the sacrifice and resurrection of Jesus. To quote a Relient K song, “And this life sentence that I’m serving, I admit that I’m every bit deserving, but the beauty of grace is that it makes life not fair”

At this point, I begin talking to myself, asking questions and attempting to answer them as they come up in my mind …

But how can people be punished eternally for finite sins?

The traditional argument in defense of eternal punishment is that sins against an infinite God necessitate an infinite punishment. In our society, we consider the death penalty to be more severe than life imprisonment; if that’s the case, an “afterlife sentence” (so to speak) in hell would be a lesser punishment than annihilation.

But there is another option to the (as far as I know) more traditional conception of hell … Dr Shepherd (author of the quote in the “God’s Love is Not Tame” post) defends conditional immortality (see page 3 of PDF, these are his cursory notes from his systematic theology class) as at least a scripturally defensible position (following Clark Pinnock et al). I don’t know if he personally holds that position but he sees it as a viable option.

But what about …
1) infants
2) kids
3) mentally disabled people
4) those who’ve never heard
5) people who call themselves Christian but act like jerks

1) I don’t know for sure
2) I don’t know for sure
3) I don’t know for sure
4) I don’t know for sure
5) According to Matthew 7:21-23 (et al), these “Christians” have more to worry about than anyone fitting into categories 1-4.

Re 1-4 above, since scripture doesn’t definitively give clear answers, I don’t feel as though I need to be concerned about it. If God is truly both perfectly just and perfectly merciful, then whatever He chooses to do will be both merciful and just. To quote a certain famous president, it’s “beyond my pay grade” to speak too definitively about 1-4 where scripture is silent.

That said, it’s currently my opinion (held loosely in my hand; an opinion being differentiated from a conviction or persuasion) that for 1-3 there is at least a decent case that they will not be in hell. (See for example Ron Rhodes, The Wonder of Heaven, 159-171. Most of those pages are available for viewing for free via Google Books.)

But how come there will be so few in heaven? Jesus said “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it.” (Matthew 7:13)

Jesus did say that, but this doesn’t necessarily mean the majority of people who live throughout history will be in hell. If it is true that people who are in categories 1-3 above go to heaven when they die, the number in heaven becomes larger. And when you consider that the population of the world is higher than it has ever been and nearly 1/3 of it is Christian, that number increases further.

Now, even if the “many” in this case is a relatively small number (percentage-wise), still, to God who wills that all be saved (1 Timothy 2:4) any at all who end up otherwise will seem like “many”; God laments even one who chooses to live apart from Him and the purpose and destiny that He planned for us.

But if this is what God is like then I don’t want any part of him.

Sadly then it may be the case that you will be given your wish. What else could God do in that circumstance?

Disclaimer: As always, my opinions (musings) here are subject to change as I learn more and grow deeper in my faith. Also some thoughts may be poorly phrased, or just plain erroneous. Hopefully not … but please try to interpret me charitably. Oh, and as I tell my Sunday school class, whenever I make a mistake, it’s on purpose just to test you.

Evangelicals [Christians] know that while God is  love (1st John 4:8) and can therefore do nothing but love, when God’s love encounters human sin his love “burns hot”, as Luther liked to say.  God’s anger or wrath, then, is never the contradiction or denial of his love.  (Indifference is always the antithesis of love.  After all, the people with whom we are angry we at least take seriously; the people to whom we are indifferent we’ve already dismissed as insignificant.)

God’s anger “heats up” only because He loves us so very much and so very relentlessly that He can’t remain indifferent to us and won’t abandon us.  Profoundly He loves sinners more (or at least more truly, more realistically) than we love ourselves, since our self-love, perverted by sin, issues only in self-destruction.  And as the cross on which He “did not spare his own Son but gave Him up for us all” (Romans  8:32) makes plain, He longs to spare us torment more than He longs to spare Himself.

Rev Dr Victor Shepherd, “What’s an Evangelical?“

God’s love is not tame. It’s powerful and true!

Also check out a beautiful acoustic piano version of Be My Escape

I’ve given up on giving up slowly, I’m blending in so
You won’t even know me apart from this whole world that shares my fate

And I’ve been housing all this doubt and insecurity and
I’ve been locked inside that house all the while You hold the key
And I’ve been dying to get out and that might be the death of me
And even though, there’s no way in knowing where to go, promise I’m going because

I gotta get outta here
I’m stuck inside this rut that I fell into by mistake
I gotta get outta here
And I’m begging You, I’m begging You, I’m begging You to be my escape.

I’m giving up on doing this alone now
Cause I’ve failed and I’m ready to be shown how
He’s told me the way and I’m trying to get there
And this life sentence that I’m serving
I admit that I’m every bit deserving
But the beauty of grace is that it makes life not fair

I am a hostage to my own humanity
Self detained and forced to live in this mess I’ve made
And all I’m asking is for You to do what You can with me
But I can’t ask You to give what You already gave

I fought You for so long
I should have let You in
Oh how we regret those things we do
And all I was trying to do was save my own skin
But so were You
So were You

Is it possible that God has been at work in your life all along?

When I was a kid, I never paid much attention to the bus stop signs. In fact I was totally oblivious to their existence. Yet eventually there came a time when I decided I would like to start taking the bus. And then I started seeing bus stop signs everywhere! When I actually started looking for them, I saw them on the same streets that I walked every day. It’s not like they suddenly appeared; I’d just never taken the time to notice them before.

In the same way, is it possible that God has been working in your life the entire time, and you just haven’t recognized His handiwork? Could it be that the cravings that we all have, that sooner or later begin to nag at us, like craving intimacy, and destiny, and meaning, are really pointers to the God who created us and instilled these cravings in us?

» View the Soul Cravings videos

» Crave question: Has God been trying to get your attention?

» More Soul Cravings questions

» Going deeper: What’s Jesus got to do with it?