[Doubt][Distance][Deadlock][Detachment][Dominance][Default][Distraction]

Satan is described in the Bible as a fallen angel – a created creature, someone without omniscience, omnipotence, or omnipresence.  He is described as someone who has definite limitations yet with tremendous power and authority.  Satan has been around for countless millennia and has developed many skills over that time period.  Satan is probably also unlike God in that he is limited by time; he cannot see the end from the beginning as God can.  Scriptures tell us that Satan will lose in the end; his days are limited and counted.  Satan also knows the Scriptures and quotes them freely as to Christ during His Temptation.  Satan knows his days are limited and wants to thwart the plan of God by destroying as many people as possible.  Satan is described in Scripture as a lion that roams the earth lying in wait for those whom he might deceive.

As described by Wood Kroll in his excellent book, 7 Secrets to Spiritual Success, there are seven tactics Satan uses to achieve this deception.   If Satan cannot keep us from faith, then he will make us ineffectual in our witness.  These are listed below, with several instances describing how they apply.

Doubt

Doubt is as much a part of the believer's life as faith - they are opposite ends of the same coin.  Even Thomas, an Apostle who saw Jesus perform miracles and had the priviledge of being with Him personally during His earthly ministry, doubted the Resurrection.  We all have doubts; they are a part of our human existence.  Satan uses these doubts to keep us in paralyzing fear, for in this fear we will be ineffectual as witnesses for Christ.  He might whisper in our ear doubts such as, "How can you go to heaven after doing the things you have done" or "With your foul mind, how can you hope to be with God?"  You can't live in fear that you will lose your salvation and live in faith at the same time.  If you're afraid that you might not be saved, then you must learn to settle this issue once and for all in your mind at this time.  I believe you should go here to gain further insight into the assurance of your salvation.

Doubt, though, is a part of every Christian's life. Even the greatest Christian thinkers had doubt, including the very Apostles themselves.  Doubt when handled constructively can prompt you to try to find the answers to your doubt.  In the information age, answers are now easier to find than ever.  If you don't get the answer you need after talking to your pastor or friend, then you can turn to the Internet where there are sites galore that contain religious instruction and answers to every question.  Cynicism, however, is different however.   Cynicism is the extreme end of the doubt spectrum and implies contempt.

a. Convince people there is no God,

Throughout history, there have been many who have supposed there is no God.  They have come to this conclusion supposedly through their own reasoning and generally view themselves as being very liberated and mature.  Often, those who espouse this philosophy consider themselves as being literated, and not needing the “crutch” of religion.  I remember very well having such discussions with several of my roommates while in college; there was little I could do at that time to convince them otherwise.  Certainly, there is a vast number of very intelligent and famous philosophers through history who have come to this conclusion; people such as Kant, Voltaire, and more recently Bertrand Russell.  Certainly, they are entitled to their opinions on this topic; however, they are just opinions and the believer should never let himself be swayed by the beliefs of other people.  We need to examine their beliefs, understand why they came to the conclusions they did if nothing more than to improve our own apologetic and sharpen out own understanding.  Even though famous, they are just people and subject to the same biases and foibles as any man.  It is the responsibility of every person on this earth to develop their own opinion as to whether God exists and not to let their opinion be unduly modified by the conclusions of others – no matter how famous or supposedly learned they are.  We will stand alone before God at the Last Judgment and will have to give our own answer as to what we have – or have not – done in this life.  We will not be able to refer to the opinions of others because those opinions will be worthless at that time.

I would propose that there is a far greater reason to believe in God than to hold an atheistic or even agnostic world view.  Recent advances in cosmology and science in general have supported the existence of God rather than denied Him.  Several centuries ago during the time of Kant and Voltaire, science was still in its infancy and was unable to convincingly support the existence of God – or really help in any other way for that matter.  However, with our new understanding of the Universe, physics, and biology, the existence of God becomes much more reasonable than to suppose otherwise.  In this life, we necessarily walk by faith rather than by sight – I don't think we will ever be able to absolutely prove the existence of God; however, I would assert that God can be shown to exist just as assuredly as we can know anything.

If I were Satan, however, I would certainly try first and foremost to be sure this knowledge concerning the existence of God is not disseminated.  Probably the most important institution to control in order to prevent dissemination of this learning would be the public schools.  I would try to remove God from the curriculum of schools and Universities, and would certainly try to install liberal thinkers and philosophers in authority positions of these institutions.  I would make religious instruction at most liberal arts colleges little more than instruction in philosophy, and in the name of “diversity” or “multiculturalism” would teach the liberal world view that traditional religion is but one of many equally valid views of man's existence (if not actually inferior due to its perceived "intolerance").  I would teach college students – frequently very vulnerable students as they try to find their own identity apart from their family – that the theory of the existence of God is but one of many possible philosophical viewpoints of the world.  These college students would be particularly vulnerable to this liberal thinking because they have not been grounded in religious education during their childhood.  Religious instruction of any kind would have been removed from their curriculum in the public schools.  Any mention of God including Christmas carols, prayers, moments of silence, and even in many instances the Pledge of Allegiance, will have been removed.  American history will be rewritten so as to remove any reference to the great ideals of religious freedom and the faith in God upon which this country was founded.  The religious ignorance of children will be insured after only a few generations as the parents of each successive generation of students become more and more ignorant and unable to instruct their children in religious belief.  As parents become more and more ignorant of their religious heritage, they will discern less and less reason why they should bother to bring their progeny to Sunday School – or even to Church for that matter.  It becomes much more convenient to sleep in on Sunday, or to enjoy “quality time” with them rather than undergo the hassle of bringing them to Church and teaching them about God.

In addition to removing any religious instruction from children, I would also dilute and distort any news concerning religion from the news media.  I would be sure people only hear about how religion has corrupted people, how excesses of religious faith have kept parents from bringing their children to physicians for proper medical care, or how religious cults have “brainwashed” their followers into weird and unusual cults and destructive practices.  I would provide hours of nightly news coverage to an obscure religious cult in San Diego who took their lies trying to free their souls to leave on a spaceship with aliens parked behind a comet.  Meanwhile, I would have the news media provide little or no coverage as to how religious instruction keeps children from engaging in premature sex (the “True Love Waits” movement that encourages sexual abstinence before marriage), feeds the hungry every day of the week and not just on Thanksgiving or Christmas, or fights for human rights often at great personal expense in obscure countries such as Nepal and China.  I would do everything I could to portray a distorted, one-sided view of religion that would keep unbelievers in their continued state of unbelief.

Finally, after I have kept people ignorant about God and marginalized Him as completely as possible, I would then try to dilute any religious feeling as much as possible by portraying all religious thought as equally valid.  Nature worship, pantheism, worship of astronomic bodies, astrology and other New Age philosophy would become as valid as the more traditional Christian viewpoints of God.  I might try to accomplish this through legislation (by abolishing school prayer or removing any references to the Ten Commandments), or even better through the popular media.  Thus, we have new Disney movies such as "The Lion King" teach children about the Hindu “Circle of Life” in "The Lion King," or have Pocahontas (who in real life became a Christian) teach our children about the spirits of the forest that live in trees.  In "Star Wars," we are instructed about the “Force” – a mystical power that pervades the Universe and which can be channelled through those who are somehow among the chosen few, such as the elfish creature “Yoda” – a clear reference to Near Eastern yoga.  Meanwhile, traditional religion is ridiculed in modern entertainment such as in the televised comedy series “Nothing Sacred” – which kept airing despite very low interest by the public.

These three things – removing religious education from the schools, distorting religious coverage by the news media, and ridiculing religion in the entertainment industry – would seriously weaken most peoples’ knowledge of and belief in God.  God would become a thing of the past belonging perhaps to ancient civilizations who just didn’t know any better.

In one respect, this is the most interesting development of the past 200 years – the vociferous arguments that have developed between the natural scientist and the Christian over man’s origins.  Ever since Darwin released his monumental book, the Origin of Species, people have had to decide if science could show with reasonable surety whether man could arise from organic chemicals in some “prebiotic soup.”  Up until relatively recently, it has been assumed that this was possible – that given enough time (certainly a few billion years would be enough time!) and under the right conditions (that were presumed to necessarily have existed) that organic chemicals could somehow arrange themselves into a human being.  I believe this must be one of Satan’s proudest accomplishments; to have convinced most people that such a ridiculous assertion could be true.  No where else do we find such blind faith being put into an assertion that runs counter to every biological and physical principal we understand.  Yet, because to believe that man could not have spontaneously arisen from organic chemical necessarily requires an external influence (i.e., a “prime mover” or God), then it must somehow be true.

But the real triumph is not just that such a belief displaces God from his role as Creator.  The real triumph, I would assert, is to denigrate mankind from creatures especially created by God for a divine purpose, to an accident of nature.  When we learn to believe that we are just accidents of nature that somehow arose spontaneously over the eons since the earth came into existence, then our life becomes whatever we can make of is until we dissolved back into the elements.  Morality becomes relative, we have only a few short years (maybe even less) to live as best we can until our ultimate and final demise.  We live by the naturalistic Golden Rule – “he who has the gold makes the rules.”  We tend to see ourselves as individuals scratching our way up the ladder rather than as a community working together for the mutual good; the mutual good of a community is secondary to our own well-being.  We learn to sing with Frank Sinatra, “I did it my way!”

Sages through history have attempted to explain how the universe was created.  Some have supposed it has always existed and there was never a time when the universe did not exist.  Other have opted for the opinion that as one universe is destroyed, another one comes into existence built from the phoenix ashes of the previous one.  Theologians have attempted through metaphysical reasoning to “prove” the existence of a “first cause” or God.  God, they might argue, must exist since every effect must of necessity have  first cause.  Such reasoning may convince some, but probably the great majority of mankind I unimpressed by these latter arguments.  Most recently, cosmology has attempted first to displace the necessity of God in creation by deriving everything that is from an original “Big Bang,” and have even found considerable secondary evidence of such an explosion that is sad to have happened many billions of years ago.  The implications of such theories are legion and generally harmful to the Christian concept of the unique place of mankind as a creative masterpiece of God.  Rather, we are led to believe that the entire Universe spontaneously came into existence with the necessity of any prime mover (God), and that life spontaneously arose through naturalistic evolution from organic chemicals.  We are creatures of chance, made from materials created in the forges of ancient exploding stars, and are all destined to die and decay back into those same materials once again.  If this is our entire hope, then why not do all we can to be sure our pitiful existence has at least some pleasure before we lose that ultimate battle – death.  Why should we try to help others, especially when we get no secondary benefit.  We become demoralized, depressed, maybe commit suicide to end our pitiful existence and help us suffer less pain.  This angst, this bitter nihilism certainly represents a victory for Satan.

It is very difficult to believe that Christ died on the cross and then rose from the dead without becoming a Christian.  There are some who do; indeed, many people profess belief in these facts, but their lives do not shine forth the love and happiness that should come from such a belief.  Those who do not believe Christ died on the cross profess various explanations as to how He might have somehow escaped death.  Many of these explanations are even more fantastic than the real event, and some have become books and movies.  Let us examine them.
a. He was taken down from the cross prematurely before death as the Jewish Passover was approaching.  This excuse supposes first that the Jewish leaders could somehow influence the Roman Guards to take down a condemned criminal prior to his death.  This is highly unlikely as the guards would have been killed had they not carried out their grim duties.  Also, it is very doubtful the priests could have had any influence over Roman Guards; they both held each other in utter contempt.
b. His supposed appearances after death were just examples of mass delusions; everybody wanted so much to believe in the resurrection that they saw what they wanted to believe.  I suppose there is an element of truth in this assertion – sometimes we humans will indeed see what we want to see.  Magicians make their money through illusions and part of the illusion is allowing people to see what they want to see.  However, I would propose this theory has many difficulties when applied to the resurrection of Christ.  First, most people – including Jesus’ closest friends – failed to comprehend what He meant when He said he would come again after three days.  There were no crowds outside Jesus’ tomb on the third day waiting to see what would happen; no one was there.  His followers were scattered; broken, beaten down, discouraged, and yes – defeated.  Even his closest followers who probably understood Him the best – came to the grave that first Easter morning not expecting to see a risen Lord, but rather with spices to tend to his body.  Biblical evidence certainly does not suggest a people expecting to see the risen Christ.
But what perhaps is even more significant is how his broken band of followers who were hiding in the hills after Christ’s crucifixion suddenly banded together into a bold missionary force that would change the world.  They would all (except maybe John) give their lives for their beliefs, which would be very unlikely if they knew the whole thing was just a farce.

We live in a very carnal world; a world that would rather “do it my way” than the Way of the Bible.  Even Christians fall into this trap.  Sometimes well meaning Christians read the Bible in the context of our current societal beliefs and norms; if something in the Bible is not “politically correct” then somehow it is not right.  Some might only follow the words of Christ, believing all else to be merely the opinion of a human – and therefore very imperfect – writer.  Others might pick and chose those Biblical positions that agree with their own, implying that the other Biblical beliefs with which they fail to agree are somehow flawed.  I feel that to believe in this manner, to pick and chose through the Bible what to believe and what to reject, is a fundamental error.  It is another expression of relativism; the Bible is only relatively true.  The problem with this approach is that we then become unsure of which portion of the Bible, if indeed any at all, we believe.  The very foundational aspects of Christianity such as the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ, then become suspect and we are left with a very shallow faith indeed.
The Bible equates The Word with Christ.  We are told that the Bible is God inspired and as such was written and inspired by God rather than man.  The Bible is a holy book different from any other in the world.  I have discussed the fundamental veracity of the Bible in another section, but suffice it to say here that the Bible’s claim to truth is more justified than any other book.  It stands or falls as a whole; if one portion of the Bible is in fundamental error, then the entire Bible cannot be trusted.  This is a tremendous statement; you take the whole thing or not.  It is not divisible into those parts you believe are true, and those parts you believe are less true or somehow flawed.  The whole book either stands or falls in its entirety.  Ideas of man come and go, and are as plentiful as the grains of sand on an ocean beach.  We might believe in the fundamental truth of a thinker; even a great thinker such as Kant or Einstein.  But everyone’s ideas are just that; man’s ideas, subject to frailties, bias, and opinion.  We should not consider the Bible as just another opinion because its author is not just another man, but in reality is the Creator of all that is in existence.  God’s perspective is infinitely more reliable than our own opinion.
m. Convince Christians they must achieve their own personal salvation through some combination of faith plus works,
It seems to be one of the characteristics of people that they want to have some input into what happens to them – especially when it comes to their own salvation.  I suppose this is particularly true for the age in which we live because we are so used to trying to believe we are in control.  We want to “do it our way” as per the Frank Sinatra song.  And, yet, with Christianity, that is not at all the case.  We evangelical Christians believe that it all has been done for us – that there is nothing we can do for ourselves that would “save” us; and conversely, there is nothing we can do to lose our salvation.
However, there are things I believe that will determine the kinds of rewards, or what the Bible calls, “crowns” we will obtain in the next life.  I particularly think that we will be rewarded for proper expenditure of our time, treasure, and talent.  Now, this reward will certainly not be monetary, or a bigger mansion or house, because I am not at all sure we will live in something restrictive like a house.  Rather, this reward may be the thrill and satisfaction of knowing people who were helped in both temporal and spiritual aspects by we did in this life.  Certainly, the Lord was very interested in helping the poor, the homeless, poor, and hungry.  I remember very well the story in which Christ condemned some of His followers because they did not clothe or feed Him.  When the condemned followers then asked Christ when it was they did not feed him, they were told it was when they ignored the least of people while they were on the Earth.  I do not, incidentally, feel that you can lose your salvation by not doing enough good works; rather, you will do good works if you are really a child of God.  This is a critical difference.
Paul comes to this point in his letters when he asked the rhetorical question as to whether we can sin because we are children of God and hence forgiven for all time.  The answer is a resounding “no” because we should not want to sin when we become children of God.  In fact, this is how we might distinguish those who have really become followers of Christ from those who are only giving lip service.

There is little doubt Christ taught he was coming again.  There is also little doubt there was great confusion in the early church as to when this second coming might be.  It can easily be argued that Paul himself believed he would see the Second Coming in his lifetime.  Christ tried to quell such beliefs by nothing that no man would know the hour or the date when this Second Coming might occur.  Many people in our culture, even many Christians, believe either the Second Coming has occurred, that is was just a mythical, allegorical story that somehow refers to Christ coming into the lives of all believers, or that it is a non-important mythical story that is beyond our comprehension.
None of the latter statements are true.  First, I believe that there has been considerable confusion in the Bible concerning the two comings of Christ.  Briefly, these two comings are the First Coming when Christ came as a Suffering Servant, and the Second Coming when Christ will come as a Conquering King.  The Old Testament thoroughly discusses these two comings, but this discussion is often so intertwined that it becomes difficult for the reader to understand what is being presented.  I believe this is one reason why the first century Jews disregarded Christ, because they were looking for the Conquering King Christ who would come to lead them in battle against the hated Romans.  However, Christ when He first came made it very clear that his kingdom was not of this world, and that He would be going back to the Father for an unspecified period of time.  The Second Coming when Christ will come as a Conquering King is still in the future and represents a time when Christ will subdue all world governments and rule as King over the Earth.  He will do this after the Church has been removed from the Earth (the “Rapture”), and after the Great Tribulation when God’s wrath will be poured out upon the earth in progressively greater degrees, and when everybody left after the Rapture will have one last chance to come to Christ.
This confusion about the First and Second Comings also extends to a confusion about the nature of the Second Coming that has made so many people wonder whether it has actually already occurred or not (it has not!).  The Second Coming will actually be two Comings; the first will be when Christ comes for the Church (the “Rapture”), and the second when Christ defeats world governments trying to destroy Israel at the end of the Great Tribulation (the“Day of the Lord,” the “birth pangs,” etc.).  The Rapture of the Church can occur at any time – it has been described throughout Scripture as “imminent” meaning nothing has to occur first before this event occurs.  Because churches are still here and there has not been a mysterious disappearance of millions of people, it is clear this has not yet occurred – but it will.  The Second Coming of Christ when He comes as a Conquering King will occur after certain events have occurred.  These events were alluded to in Matthew 24 where Christ notes that the latter days before the end comes will be when there are great natural disasters such as volcanoes, wars and rumors of wars, etc.  But then He goes on to say that there have always been great natural disasters and wars; perhaps they will increase in intensity and frequency (as they have), but this is not to be taken as a sign that the end is near.  However, He does say that when the Gospel is preached to the uttermost parts of the Earth, then the end will come.  I note with great solemnity and trepidation that it has only been very recently that the Gospel has indeed preached to the ends of the world.  With the advent of satellite technology, the Internet, and great advances in worldwide communications there is literally not a place on all the earth where the Gospel cannot be heard.  I believe the Rapture must be near because the “signs of the times” are lining up unlike they ever have in the past.  I would only hope that more people might recognize that now is the time to become a believer so they won’t have to go through the Tribulation; rather, they might sit at the marriage banquet with Christ, and come back with Him at the Second Coming to vanquish all those who oppose Him.

The belief in absolute values naturally brings with it the charge of intolerance; that is that Christians must of necessity believe that other religions are “wrong.”  In our age of diversity training and relativism, the notion that other groups are considered somehow not to have the “truth” is wrong and met with vehement criticism.  Detractors assume that Christians will somehow “force their philosophy down the throat of others” and if these “others” don’t convert, they will be excluded from society.  Sadly, certain religious groups have done just this; however, I do not believe this is the directive of the Bible nor is it in the belief system of most Christians.
One battleground where this argument has surfaced is over the Christian doctrine toward homosexuality.  The Bible is very clear that homosexuality is wrong and cannot be tolerated in the Church.  Some churches have attempted to circumvent these clear Biblical teachings by assuring their congregations that these were beliefs of the society and do not represent the teachings of Christ.  Most Bible believing conservative congregations, however, interpret the Bible literally in this regard and insist that actively participating homosexuals not be ordained ministers in the church, and should repent of their sin.  The church should hate the sin of homosexuality while loving the person as a fellow creation of God who is loved by God just as much as they are.  Often, the non-Christian or liberal Christian views such approaches as intolerant or unloving, and not representative of the loving nature of Christ.  Of course, I believe this is a very simplistic representation of the teachings of Christ.  Christ certainly personified love, but He also hated sin; He vilified the Pharisees for their sin of adding to the Law.  Similarly, He told the woman at the well who was caught in the act of adultery not to sin any more.  I believe the lesson we were taught is that we are to hate sin, but to love the sinner.  Similarly, with respect to homosexuality, we are to love everybody, but to hate what the Lord calls sin.  If the world calls this intolerant, there is little the Christian can do.  We must remember that we are to live in the world, but not to be a participant in it.

The Christian must always keep themselves in the Bible; otherwise, they will find their beliefs and attitudes being determined by the world rather than by the Word of God.  Similarly, we are to constantly be in touch with God through prayers.  Certainly, the Lord knows what we need before we even ask; however, He has told us that he wants to hear from us nonetheless.  I believe the Lord wants us to be in contact with Him directly through prayer, and indirectly through Scripture so that we might better understand His will for our lives, stay away from what the Lord calls sin, and do those things that will bring our lives into congruence with His will.  Imagine the delight of Satan when Christians would rather watch the latest sitcom (probably not exactly “faith promoting”), than pray, read the Scriptures, or read books that help us understand the will of God or develop an apologetic.  Christians as a whole take their responsibilities far too lightly; Scriptures declare we are in a war with extremely powerful opponents, and that the stakes are very high.  When we ignore these responsibilities and fail to develop our own faith as well as the faith of our family, we leave ourselves open to a frontal assault for which we will have little defense.

Christians have been encouraged in recent years to pick and chose from the Bible what they believe is important, while discarding what they might personally believe is mythical.  We are also being encouraged not to rely upon authorities, but rather to decide this on our own; we somehow can determine whether a Biblical passage is only allegorical or whether it is in fact literal.  One of the central tenants of Scripture which is expounded throughout Scripture, is the doctrine of a Final Judgment.  Of course, this is not currently considered politically correct.  We are encouraged to believe that God is all-loving, and that He would never judge much less condemn anybody.  Certainly, we are encouraged to believe, there are always extenuating circumstances so that every sin can be excused, and certainly would be by a God who is synonymous with love.  However, God is also synonymous with justice and the two must be equally satisfied.  The Bible is clear that we are responsible for our individual sins; not our parents, not society, not the environment – us.  If we were ever to believe that our actions were determined by agents outside of ourselves and we therefore had no responsibility for them, then we would be sorely tempted to do all manner of wickedness.  We could then merely excuse our misbehavior and sin by relegating them as a natural outcome from our past unfortunate experiences.  Such a belief could certainly place us outside the will of God and cause us deep personal difficulties.

Satan may find that you have decided to put your faith in God, but are you progressing in this faith?  The length of time you have been a Christian only reflects a time period, not how far you have come in this journey of faith.  It is possible to be a Christian all your life and still have made very little influence in the lives of others let alone developed a greater knowledge of your faith.  This is like a person who has been invited to a great feast and yet who refuses to come to the table, or a sick patient finally finding the cure for his disease yet refusing to take the cure.  ertainly, there are many people like this in the Church - perhaps even a majority.  These are those who comprise the "Silent Majority" - the ones who have long ago let the embers of the fire that once represented their faith die, who never come to Church or if they do come, they never develop their faith.  It is this distance which they maintain between themselves and God that ruins the intimacy they might otherwise have had with Him.  Just as with human relationships, ther can be no intimacy with distance, no closeness with separation, and no understanding without communication.

a. Convince those who believe in God that their belief is very “personal” and cannot be shared with others,

I am sure Satan loves this tactic whereby those become God's own are convinced not to tell anybody else about their beliefs.  This way, the "damage" will be minimalized.  Certainly, Satan does not want Christians to spread their knowledge about Jesus Christ – far better to just inactivate these Christians by making them too embarrassed or ignorant to share their beliefs with non-Christians.  I think that most people who use this excuse are ignorant of their responsibilities as Christians.  Being a Christian is not just going to Church on Sundays, fasting, and prayer – rather, it is a way of life.  As such, it is impossible to be a Christian without letting others know "what makes you tick."

Most Christians are aware of close friends and family who are non-believers – those who might once have been open to the message of Christianity but who now are ambivalent or even hostile toward the Word.  I have always found it interesting that while Christians understand and preach the vital importance of the gospel to the eternal well being of people, yet, we are so reticent to share this Good News with others.  I suppose the reasons for this are obvious; we are more concerned with the admiration of other people than with God.
There are probably many reasons why many Christians find it so difficult to share with others, not the least of which is their poor understanding of what the gospel is all about and how to defend it.  I suppose many of us are like Moses – afraid that our speech will somehow offend others, or that we will be somehow humiliated.  Many of us just don’t know enough about what we are called upon to preach that this might indeed be the case!  And yet, I would propose there are many ways the average Christian can help spread the Good News – not the least of which is through the Internet.  There are many excellent sites all through this vast system of computers that provide excellent resources for every Christian in whatever stage of personal development they might find themselves in.  One can then use these sites to further your own skills and extend your own knowledge, as well as to refer to these sites from your own Web page.  Or, the average Christian might decide to fund organizations that are struggling to bring God’s Word to the world, by distributing Bibles, tracts, or missionaries.

We live in a culture of the mass media; one in which popular movies or television programs are viewed by countless millions of people.  Gradually over the years, these shows become incorporated into society and become a part of all of us.  Certainly these traditional shows include such movies as Star Trek (“Beam me aboard, Scottie!”), Star Wars, 2001, and Alien.  These shows among many others less popular, portray the popular feeling that the Universe is teeming with life, and much of this life is intelligent.  In the popular Star Trek tradition, these other civilizations include the Klingons, the Romulins, and the Vulcans.  This popular mythology has become so pervasive that the Klingon language is even taught in several universities (hopefully not the one I’ll be sending my children to!).  Carl Sagan, certainly one of the most popular astronomers in modern culture, has encouraged this belief in other world intelligence by simplistic reasoning that given enough time and enough space in the universe, there are bound to be other intelligent civilizations out there somewhere.  SETI – or the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence – is a tax funded research program focusing radio telescopes and advanced computer systems on finding intelligent signals from space.  These signals might arise from radio or other signaling equipment in other intelligent civilizations living on planets circling distant stars.  The popular novel and later movie authored by Sagan, Contact, portrayed the finding of such a civilization using SETI research, and what such a discovery would mean for earth.  Unfortunately, while this program has been actively engaged in listening to the stars for decades, no extraterrestrial signals have yet been found.  Still the search continues on an ever increasing scale looking to the heaens for such a civilization that could, it is argued, radically change our way of looking at the universe and potentially give us new scientific insights and advances that an advanced civilization might be able to impart.

Most of us probably view the proliferation of mythologic civilizations in popular movies as harmless manifestations of our tendency to humanize the unknown, but I would assert there are some not so harmless results of this practice.  Similar to what happened to our culture after Darwin led many to believe in naturalistic evolution, the proliferation of mythical civilizations, the continuing SETI research, and popular belief in other intelligent civilizations in the universe has led to a significant reduction in the significance of mankind.  If we hold to the belief in other civilizations, we necessarily believe mankind is not unique; that somehow God created other intelligent life in the universe and that we are not the only objects of His creation.  Some might argue the Bible does not specifically state there are no other such civilizations in the universe; however, I would argue that this most probably true since other civilizations would also have been given free will, would have sinned, would have required a Savior, etc.  It is difficult to fathom God becoming “man” for these other civilizations, dying on a cross (or other execution devise unique to that civilization) for their sins, etc.  Rather, I believe the Bible hints strongly that mankind is the unique creation of God, and that there are no other civilizations like us elsewhere.

I also assert that this belief is now supported by modern science; with the understanding how unique our position is in the universe, and how many unique factors must simultaneously come together to support intelligent life.  I discuss these facts else on this site, but suffice it to say that the probabilities of all these factors coming together simultaneously nullifies any possibility of intelligent life anywhere else in the universe. We are alone in the vast universe; we are the unique creation of God for whom He has placed so much of His creative energy, for whom He died on the Cross, and for whom He will subsequently destroy the heavens (Universe) in a future act of creation.  I believe the vastness of the universe was created to show mankind the immensity of God’s creative ability, to awe us into an awareness of Him.  The Heavens truly do declare the glory of God, and act as a supplement to the Bible to lead us to an awareness of Him.  Mankind has not always had the Bible as a testimony of God, and many civilizations have never heard of Christ.  Yet, mankind has always been able to look upward and view another wonderful testimony to the existence and majesty of God.  Modern science, through a greater understanding of the vastness and extraordinary beauty of the Universe, gives us even more reason to stand in awe at his creative majesty.  The entire universe, from Quasars to Pulsars to countless millions of galaxies filled with countless millions of stars, was all created for us!  We are the objects of God’s creation; we are all of inestimable value to God and he loves us all more than we will ever know.  God will do anything to draw us voluntarily to him, including the extraordinary beauty of the huge universe down to the microscopic details of life.  It is all for us – and for us alone.

New Christians accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.  Certainly, the “Savior” part is probably the easiest understood; the “Lord” part is a learning process throughout life.  From the very beginning with Adam and Eve, we are rebellious creatures who want to definitely do things our way.  Like Frank Sinatra, we rejoice if at the end of our life, we can say, “I did it my way.”  And yet, this is perfectly antithetical to the will of God, who wants us to place Christ as our Lord; everything we do has to be done with the approval of Christ.  This is one of the easiest things to understand that even my first grader knows the concept, and yet so difficult to implement that few if any people get it right in their lifetimes.  I am reminded of bracelets that my children bring home that has the phrase, “What Would Jesus Do” or the acronym “WWJD.”  This is the same concept; what would Christ has us do with our lives.  The Lordship of Christ in our lives applies to every part of our lives; not just those areas which we feel comfortable handing over to Christ.  It would include, for example, giving to the Church of our time, talent and money.  I believe that a minimal amount of time, talent and money that we should give the church would be 10%.  Some might argue this is from the Old Testament and hence not relevant to New Testament Christians, but I would find exception.  I believe this is a minimum amount since Christ set as the standard loving God with our entire mind, body, and talent; something that is extremely difficult for us to do.  Certainly, I condemn myself because I have not even begun to reach perfection in this area!  We all, I might argue, have secret sins, thoughts, or parts of our lives we refuse to hand over to God.  It might be we refuse to give him a small fraction of our money – even though He really owns it all!  Or we might want to keep that special sin, even though we know God sees us even when we are sinning.  Or perhaps we refuse to evangelize to the world because we are afraid or uncertain of our faith.
Refusing to give the Lord control of all facets of our life is really a lack of faith that God will take care of us better than we could take care of ourselves – vastly better.  It is a lack of trust in God – nothing less. We refuse to give God a small fraction of our money because we are afraid we will be in want; that we won’t be paid back with tremendous interest for the money we give to God’s service.

Learning to trust God completely and letting go of our control in all aspects of our lives is difficult – extremely difficult – so difficult it takes God to help us.  It is not natural for us to voluntarily do this.  Today’s world is a culture of control; control over our finances, immediate access to information, control of others.  It is not natural to relinquish control of everything to God!

I believe the reason why it is so unnatural and difficult for us to relinquish control to God is because we are afraid we might become tested in that area.  Every household knows tragedy; the tragedy of losing a loved one, of a terrible disease that takes somebody in the prime of their life, or leukemia that strikes down an innocent child.  We wonder how could God allow these senseless tragedies to occur – and in doing so lose our trust in Him.  As a physician, I see tragedy every day, and have to try to help families in their grief and suffering the best I can.  The Lord tries to assure us that everything is in His control and that we will not be tested beyond our capabilities – and yet, we encounter tremendous tragedies and sufferings that seem senseless and are unable to understand and see the will of God.  It is in these sufferings that we are tested; not tested only in the immediate tragedy, but also tested in our ability to trust the Lord.  We wonder how we can trust a God who would allow such things to happen?

I have been there; I have suffered tragedy in my family and felt very betrayed by God; so betrayed I felt quite bitter and angry at God for some time.  Yet, I have come to understand that I am certainly not unique in my suffering; it comes to everybody in life.  We all suffer – some more than others, but it is universal.  This suffering will either alienate us from God when we are unable to trust that everything will eventually work out for the best (even if this means waiting until the next life when we will understand why we went through this suffering), or make our faith stronger when we trust God through our suffering.
Trust does not come naturally; it comes through understanding God, through prayer and through reading of the Bible; it all goes together.  Without a close communion and walk with God, the tragedies in life will probably pull us away from trust in God.  Alternatively, if we understand that Christians have no special immunity to suffering and that death will inevitably come to us all.  Most of us will suffer prior to death and certainly our families will suffer after our death.  Suffering is universal.

Certainly, trust in God is difficult, but the alternative is impossible.  To not trust in God for our temporal affairs makes it very difficult to have trust in God for our eternal destiny.  How can we not trust that God will only allow what is best for us to happen but trust in Him for our eternal life?  This would be utter hypocrisy.  The standard we should all work toward is trust in all things; universal trust.  It is only by putting our whole faith in God in all areas of our life that we will come to know the joys and wonders of being a complete Christian.

Those who keep their distance from the Church and from God often develop spiritual deadlock; you are neither growing spiritually, nor are you necessarily declining in your beliefs - you are just deadlocked.  Perhaps this is better for Satan than decline, for with decline, other spiritually-filled Christians may rush in to help, but with mere deadlock you often sink below the spiritual radar and are lost within the hustle of Church membership.  Perhaps this represents the state of the greater part of Church membership - stuck in their spiritual growth, not really finding fulfillment in their spiritual life, having no growing intimacy with God, and ineffectual in the spreading of the Word.  The deadlocked Christian may be seen every week at Church, may even attend Sunday School every week, but still fails to advance in his understanding of God or in the knowledge of how to spread the faith.  The deadlocked Christian may be saved, may have once even experienced rapid growth in the Church - but all of this has long since stopped.  The deadlocked Christian is not advancing in the Kingdom, is not gaining any more "crowns" or eternal rewards, and has been defeated in the evangelistic efforts demanded of all Christians in the Great Commission.

a.    Keep those who have confessed their faith in Christ in ignorance.

Most Christians are uninformed about their religion; most have little idea as to what they believe, let along why they purportedly believe in Christ and the hope they have within concerning their salvaiton.  Because of this ignorance, most Christians are understandably fearful and unable to discuss their beliefs with non-believers; they feel inadequate to defend their religion against the attacks they know will come.  Instead, the ignorant Christian will just keep quiet and hope nobody notices rather than try to defend yourself against a hostile crowd.  One of the chief responsibilities of any Christian is to equip themselves with enough knowledge to win recruits – to spread the word to every kindred, nation, tongue, and creature!  To hide behind their belief and claim their religion is just too “personal” to share is merely an excuse to help them feel less guilty about not evangelizing the world.

Detachment

Church members frequently feel they don't need to go to Church, their attendance is optional.  Sometimes, lack of attendance may result from a perceived slight at the hands of another church member - or perhaps even the pastor.  For many busy parents, getting all the kids up and ready for Church turns a "day of rest" into just another day of frustration.  Perhaps more Church members may feel that church attendance is not necessary; or just too much both; but is it?

Church membersship is one of the three entities specifically established by God (the others being government and the family).  Certainly, lack of attendance at Church won't affect your eternal salvation, but it may well affect how effective you might be in your ministry to others.  While it might be possible to worship God without going to church, the chances that you are going to worship Him while staying at home on a Sunday morning are miniscule.  As Theodore Roosevels once noted, "You may worship God anywhere, at any time, but the chances are that you will not do so unless you have first learned to worship Him in some particular place, and at some particular time."  Going to Church is a matter of spiritual growth; and growth not only for ourselves, but for others who meet with us and associated with us there.

Sometimes it is difficult to beel as thought you "get anything out of" going to Church when getting there can be so difficult; especially for the parents of children, or for those who have physical difficulties and impairments.  But perhaps we need to revisualized the reason for our participation in Church services as being a blessing and encouragement to others rather than merely for selfish reasons.  God gave members in His Church different gifts to assist the Body of Christ in growing toward spiritual success.  These people were given, "for the equipping of the saings for the work of the ministry" and "for the edifying of the body of Christ." (Ephesians 4:12).  If you don't go to Church, you can't become equipped to minister, and you can't edify other Christians.  Going to Church should not be about what you can get out of it - but rather what you can put in to it.

Church membership is important - very important.  The writer of Hebrews makes this perfectly clear.  He said we need to become steadfast Christians and that we must "hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering" (10:23).  Becoming a Christian "without wavering" is not an easy thing to do by ourselves - indeed, it is probably impossible.  But, he wasn't asking us to achieve this awesome task by ourselves, but that we must meet together so that we might "consider one another in order to stir up love and good works."  (10:20), and that we should not be "forsaking the assembling of ourselves together" (10:25).  Indeed, if we neglect the assembling of ourselves together in Chuch membership, there will be a "certain fearful expectation of judgement" (10:27).

But the average American Church-goer apparently doesn't agree with Scriptur on this point.  The U.S. News and World Report says that 80% of Americans today believe that it is possible to be a good Christian or Jew without having to go to Church or synagogue.  Increasingly, people are chosing to stay away from Church - especially in our world of ever increasing complexity and reduced time for relaxation.  With larger congregations, it is even easier to get lost and remain anonymous

    Robert W. Patterson with the National Association of Evangelicals, disucssed this issue when he noted,

"When President Dwight Eisenhower became a Christian, he made a public profession of faith in Christ, was baptizd, and was extended the right hand of fellowship at the national Presbyteria Church in Washington, D.C., the second Sunday after his inauguration in 1953.  Had the former President expressed interest in becoming a Christian a generation later under more consciously evangelical auspices, he might never had been challenged to identify with the body of Christ through baptism and church membership.  A personal relationship with Jesus, he would have been told, is all that really matters."  (Robert W. Patterson, "In Search of the Visible Church," (Christianity Today, 11 March 1991, 36).

Other people might go to Chruch because it just makes them feel better.  A Time magazine article reported a study by the National Institute on Aging that shat studied four thousand elderly people living at home in North Carolina.  The vast majority of those who attended church experienced much greater physical and mental well-being than those who did not.  (Claudia Wallis, "Faith and healing," Time, 24 June 1996, 60).

But the most important reason to go to Church is probably it is just the right thing to do.  If we go to Church just to "get a blessing" we will probably not go long - especially if we have to bring others in tow.  If we go to be seen for social or political purposes - ther are easier places to go for these same reasons where the demands upon your personal life are not so great.  If we go for our own self-edification, we wil find easier ways to accomplish the same end.  We need to go to Church because it is our resopnsibility to be seen there, to help other believers by our presence and encouragement, and to learn what we need to know as we continually grow in our walk with God.

Wood Kroll relates a story concerning a deaf man who was always seen in Church event hought he could not hear a word of the sermon or the music.  When asked, "Why do you spend your Sundays in that church when you can't hear a word?" he replied, "I want my neighbors toknow which side I'm on!"  We need to show the world which side we're on, we need to help build up others in the faith (even if only by our presence), we need to follow the Word of God with rspect to our responsibilities in Church membership, and yes - we need to learn from our pastors and those in authority over us.  Church is not a place to "feel good" necessarily to get something from - rather, it is a place to which we must give something.

a. Convince the world that the Bible is just a quaint book of myths and legends,

One of the central beliefs of conservative Christianity is that the Bible is the Word of God.   Bible is a holy book, and is even equated with God (John 1).  Satan certainly knows Scripture very well, as he was able to quote from it to Christ during His temptation.  Naturally, believing the Bible to be the Word of God does not ensure salvation since one can only come to God through Christ; however, it is difficult to know and understand Christ, His mission, and your association with this mission without an profound understanding and personal application of Scripture.
 Naturally, Satan wants to get the Bible out of our personal lives; he wants us to be as ignorant of the Bible and if possible, to make us believe the Bible is just a book of myths with little than can be trusted to be the Word of God.  The success of this plan is evident everywhere.

a. First, remove the Bible from the children; if you can control the children you soon will control the adults.  It used to be that the Bible had its place in every classroom in this country.  The McGuffy Readers, a group of books from which children of the last century learned to read, contained copious quotes from Scripture as it attempted to teach children reading by also instructing them in Biblical wisdom.  These book were replaced by the banal “Dick and Jane” books of my generation, and by the “politically correct” books of my children’s generation.  Children no longer can recite the great stories of the Bible they once learned in school; morality is never taught from the Bible; the politically correct approach is that all morality is relative, that diversity of opinion needs above all to be respected, and that no religious philosophy or moral code is intrinsically superior to another.
Children no longer have “Christmas break”; rather, they have “winter vacation.”  Christmas carols of any religious nature are not to be sung in school by the choir, although you can sing about Frosty the Snowman.  “Easter break” has become “Spring vacation” and has to do with the Easter bunny than with the Resurrection of Christ.  Is there any mystery as to why children have such a poor understanding of their religious heritage?

School books have been rewritten to remove as much as possible the real reason why this country was founded – for religious freedom.  The original settlers of America did not come here for fame and glory; rather, they were escaping the religious intolerance and governmental persecution in their native lands.  Children may learn about the Pilgrims, but there is little taught about who the Pilgrims actually were, and why they came to America in the first place.  Indeed, children may be taught that the Pilgrims were intolerant, that they displaced the Native Americans from their own land by force, and that they forced their opinions upon others.

b. Remove the Bible from churches.  This is truly an astounding accomplishment!  I would have thought it impossible to get many mainline, Protestant churches to deny the fundamental truths taught in the Bible.  Liberal “higher criticism” has attempted to determine not only which author actually wrote each book of the Bible through textual analysis, but also whether these books of Scripture are actually the Word of God, just myths that were added on by later scribes, or just plain fabricated by the original authors – myths.   Naturally, this denigration of the Bible makes it very confusion to the believer to figure out what is true; what should be believed as myth and what is actually true.  This naturally leads to only believing those parts of the Bible that suits you while deciding the rest is false.  Gradually, the believer will consider less and less of the Bible to be true, thereby neutralizing its effect in their individual life.

c. Remove the Bible from all government-operated buildings.  The Ten Commandments are the cornerstones of Christianity, as they are the foundation for all modern law.  This has been universally recognized until recently, and is the reason why the Ten Commandments are on the wall of the Supreme Court Building – etched in granite.  I suppose the Supreme Court Justices would wish for a way to conveniently remove them since courts have now decided such postings are unconstitutional.  A judge in Alabama has defied his superiors by insisting upon his right to display the Ten Commandments in his courtroom; a decision that has cost him considerable money to defend and may yet cost him his position as a judge.  In the name of diversity and separation of State and Religion, any postings of religious nature are forbidden on government property.
d. Remove the Bible from the workplace.  It should be astounding that the Bible is being systematically attacked on every front, including even the workplace.  Certainly in the schools, a teacher is not permitted to passively read the Bible to himself, to have a Bible in the classroom, or even to discuss the Bible other than just another piece of uninspired literature.  Teachers are being dismissed for reading Bibles to themselves, and employees are being fired to having a Bible in their possession at work.  The theory, of course, is that a person in authority having a Bible might perhaps coerce his or her subordinates into reading the Bible, or – heaven forbid – might make somebody else feel uncomfortable.  The fear is that the less powerful, more gullible of us might decide to actually read or investigate the Bible, or be influenced by its teachings in some manner.

This is a topic about which there has been much dissension within the church.  We are all taught to imitate the life of Christ as the ideal; He is the master, we are the children, and we should try to emulate our Master.  The Bible does not show Christ trying to effect political reform; we do not see Christ railing against abortion, political intrigue, or the environment.  He does spent much energy telling His followers about their responsibility to take care of the poor, the orphaned, and the widowed – to take care of those least able to take care of themselves.  The question we have all faced is to what extent the Christian is to be involved with the everyday give and take of politics.  Some would say that our primary and only responsibility should be to evangelize the world; to love our brother as ourselves and to spread the Good News of the Gospel as per the Great Commission.  People will not change to believe in Christian principles without a conversion of the heart, and that will not occur until they become a new creation in Christ.  Therefore, many conservative Christians would insist that in order to effect change in the world – and no one doubts there must be changes made – we must first evangelize the world and let the light of the Gospel change peoples’ hearts.  Without that primary change, any real work to institute fundamental change in society will be fruitless.
Another group of equally sincere Christians would agree, but only to a point.  They would also say that the best way to institute fundamental change in the world is through evangelization, and one of the primary duties of the Christian is to spread the Good News.  We are all ministers charged with the responsibility to tell other people about Christ.  However, there is little doubt that most people will turn a deaf ear to the Gospel and will remain unconvinced that Christ is The Way, The Truth, and The Live.  Therefore, Christians find themselves in a fundamental disagreement over many critical societal issues with those who have rejected the Gospel.
I assert that it is in this latter context that Christians must exert their influence for good in society.  Otherwise, we will abandon these critical societal issues to the unconverted and must then endure whatever consequences then result.  If we do not engage in the fight, then we cannot be unhappy with the results.  The Christian Church is a sleeping giant in this respect; if we would only mobilize ourselves we could be a considerable force for good in a world gone mad.  We still need to be primarily interested in world evangelization because it is certainly true that this is the best way to effect change.  However, until the time comes when the world is convinced as to the truth of our cause – an unlikely event since even Christ stated that most people will not accept the Gospel – then we must engage in the fight to further out position on critical societal issues.  F we do not insist on having religious freedom, then surely it will be taken away from us.

I am amazed by otherwise intelligent parents who tell me they do not want to take their children to school on the pretext that if they were to do so, their children might be unduly influenced as to what they should believe.  These parents are in effect saying that all world religions and value systems are equally valid, and it is not their responsibility but their children’s to decide which value system they should follow.  Christ very clearly said that the only way to God was through Him, and that there are many ways that lead to destruction but only one way that leads to salvation.  Certainly, we as parents should not place our children’s eternal destiny on the line, letting their immature minds decide for themselves.  We as parents have had much more exposure to the world, to its value systems, philosophies and errors, and many times we have traveled down wrong roads often at great personal expense.  To gamble our children’s destiny and allowing them to travel down these same wrong roads seems to me the height of folly, and represents either a misunderstanding of Scripture or lack of personal conviction as to the truthfulness of Christianity.

We may have confessed our need for Christ, not have become a servant of doubt, and may even be evangelizing the world; but we can still be tempted with some enticement that is outside of the will of God.  This, I believe, is one of Satan’s favorite tools because he has used it for so many years - even since the Fall.  It is a way of domination over us even though it will not change our ultimate destiny.  Unmanaged temptation, however, will allow us to be dominated by Satan’s power and become ineffectual in our Christian leadership.

Everybody is tempted - everybody.  Even Christ Himself was tempted by Satan after His baptism.  No one can avoid temptation - but we can still defeat it.  If we are defeated by temptation, we will find the joy taken out of our Christian walk.  Falling into temptation - all sorts of temptation - is a part of the human experience for there is no one outside of Christ who is perfect - all others have sinned.  But, it is although through temptation that we can come to a better understanding of who Christ is and what He has done for us.  Without His sacrifice, our temptations and failures would defeat us; but it is through His work that these temptations are forgiven and forgotten by God.  For us, temptation can even bring us closer to God as we come to realize our need for His help.  Deliverance from temptation should be a part of everybody’s prayer - it was part of the Lord’s prayer.  As John Bunyan, author of Pilgrim’s Progress noted, “Temptation provokes me to look upward to God.”  We do not have to be dominated by temptation - it can even be made something beautiful.

Default

We all sin, fall into temptation, fall flat on our faces and are defeated.  But our defeat must not be permanent or we will default the “game” of life.  Christ knows we all sin and have fallen short of the glory of God - that is part of the reason why He came to earth - to free us from our fallen state.  But when we fall, we must get up again, dust ourselves off, realign ourselves toward God, and start all over again on the path back to Him.  We must not let our temptation and failures defeat us permanently, or we will default our life’s purpose for no good reason.

 Yogi Berra put it this way, “It ain’t over till it’s over.”  We all stumble and fall down, but we must get up again as long as we still have breath within us.  Those who have enjoyed spiritual success in life recognize that life is no picnic - they have failures too.  But they get back up again and retook their strongholds.  You can’t let yourselves default - don’t give up!

a.    Convince the Church membership that should they sin, or fall away from the Church, they are helpless before God.  Guilt - an emotion that probably has any real merit - is a commonly used device by Satan.  With guilt, he can convince you that whatever you might have done it is just too great to be forgiven.  You might be tole that "truly religions people" would be horrified to know what you had done, so you just can't risk them knowing.  Or, you feel your sins might be the "unforgivable sin" that is just beyond the realm of forgiveness.  These attitudes are, of course, wrong; there is no sin that you can commit that is outside the love of God if you are to repent, ask for forgiveness, confess you sins to those involved, and make restitution as possible.

b.  Convince "marginal" Church members that those within the Church are all hypocrites anyway, so why go back to that place, anyway!  This attitude is surprisingly common among amrginal Christians.  They suppose that most of the membership of the Church does not really believe what they preach as exemplified by their sinful lifestyle.  Such may indeed very well be true; many members in the Body of Christ still have not totally repented of their sins, nor have they even stopped sinning!  But Christ came to save sinners; He was the great physician who came to those needing His help - He did not come specifically to those who were already living a righteous life.  Certainly, the Church is full of hypocrites; we will not all be over our sinful nature until we leave this sinful body.  Certainly, if you were to look deeply into the life of anybody you would find rot and filth; some admittedly more than others.  The Church is one of the institutions that has been set up by God to remedy this situation.  Through the combined membership with others, each individual can be gradually molded into a Christian more and more like Christ.  But this interaction takes time - it certainly does not happen overnight!  Certainly the Church is full of sinners; some admittedly trying to reform while probably the majority are ignorant of their sins.

I believe this is probably the most subtle and probably the most pervasive technique used by Satan against Christ’s Church - distraction.  The primary purpose of the Church and of each individual is evangelism - the Great Commission.  But, there are so many distractions - especially in the 21st century with all its gadgetry and information explosion.  It is also difficult to know whether you are really being distracted or whether what you are doing is what the Lord wants you to be doing.  This can be a real difficult decision for each of us.  But I believe some help can be gained by the spiritual exercise that determines whether what we are doing will have eternal consequences - will it last?  How many of our activities really changed people’s lives?  How many of them would you do again if you had just one more week on earth?  Where are you investing your time; in that which will last forever, or in that which offers only momentary gratification.  In the eternal scheme of things when you are in your reward a few hundred years from now, will you look back on your earthly experience with happiness or with regret?

Certainly, these are hard issues and call to question our very existence.  There are no easy answers and the answers will be different for every person.  Certainly, raising a family is important, but do we put the proper time into being sure that each member of that family is brought up with the admonition of the Lord - or do we place them down in front of the television set allowing them to watch whatever come on.  Do we have a vocation which honors and glorifies the Lord, or is it just something to make more money?  Certainly, not all of us can be a minister or pastor, but we can conduct ourselves in our vocation as a work for the Lord.

a. Convince the world that for Christians to tell others about their faith is “shoving their religion down the throats of others,”

Most Christians are, I believe, overly sensitive about what others might think about them.  I believe we are too concerned about what our friends, family, and associates might think about our religion, and too little concerned about the eternal consequences of not spreading the Good News.  Certainly, when Christians are obeying the Great Commission, we should not try to convince somebody that Christianity is true; merely, we should present the facts, and let the facts speak for themselves.  No where in the Bible does it say our responsibility is to convince others of the truthfulness of the gospel; rather, we are merely to present the gospel and let God convict that person as to its truthfulness.  This certainly is not trying to “shove religion” down anybody’s throat.  Certainly, some Christians can become very “pushy” and demonstrate poor judgment when presenting the gospel to another.  They do not recognize the limitations of their responsibility and try to do the work of God.

The Church throughout history up until the very recent past has been the primary source of charity throughout the world.  I doubt whether most people living in the world today recognize this, but religious people as an extension of their individual ministry founded most hospitals, universities, and charities.  The government was not a distributor of charity; rather, most governments relentlessly taxed their people, used them as cannon fodder in regional warfare, and regarded their subjects as little more than private property to be used at their whim.  It was only through charities offered by the Church that many people were able to maintain a life with any form of dignity whatsoever.
In the United States, however, the situation has changed.  The welfare state started by the Johnson administration in the 1960s promised to do things much better than private charities because the government would be able to devote more money and resources than any private organization possibly could.  While founded with the best of intentions, the bureaucracy of welfare became the archetype of wasteful government.  Billions of taxpayer dollars were spent trying to help the poor live a better, more productive life.  What resulted instead were fatherless families, families trapped in the welfare systems for generations, fraud and abuse, and increased hopelessness that nearly destroyed whole inner-cities.
Gradually, private charities came to realize how they had abdicated their responsibilities toward the poor.  The Christian Church voluntarily surrendered their stewardship of the poor to a secular government; a government that would operate without the advice and restrictions of Scripture.  Gradually, the government also has come to recognize their failure and has tried to rid itself of this responsibility by turning welfare over to individual charities, including in no small measure the Church.  Unfortunately, the Church has suffered its own loses over the intervening decades.  Many Churches are little more than social gathering places with a worship service once a week; they are ill prepared for the tremendous responsibilities they are being asked to carry.  Yet, this is a great opportunity for the church

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