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This post is written by Sam Riviera, a frequent contributor to this blog.

You’re disgusting! Burn in hell!

How would you like it if someone said that to you? You probably wouldn’t like it.

Do we have the right to tell anyone that they should burn in hell? Do we have the right to say it to people who march in Gay Pride parades? To women who have had an abortion? To prostitutes? To child molesters? To murderers?

Especially when we realize that, in the minds of most, “hell” is a place where people get tortured and tormented for all eternity. Telling someone they should burn in hell is announcing your desire that they suffer in agonizing pain forever and ever. Is telling someone they should burn in hell really Christlike love?

Maybe people who say such a thing should be arrested, as Bill O’Reilly, Fox news host, suggested on his show.

What would you do if someone got in your face about something they didn’t like about you, about who you are, what you believe, what you have done, or how you live, and told you that you will burn in hell for those things? Is telling someone to burn in hell commendable Christian behavior or condemnable Christian behavior?

Love in the Margins

All of my life I’ve had friends who many have considered on the margins, the outer edges of society – LGBTs, homeless, prostitutes, addicts, murderers and other criminals, and you-name-it. I love these people. I mingle with them. I talk with them. I hug them. I walk arm-in-arm with them.

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Church is Badly Broken

By Jeremy Myers

26 Comments

This is a guest post from Glenn Hager.

Glenn writes at GlennHager.com and sees himself as an advocate for those who on the fringes of society and those challenge the way things are done. You may also connect with Glenn on Facebook or Twitter.

If you would like to write a Guest Post for the Till He Comes Blog, begin by reading the Guest Blogger Guidelines.

I have tried to distill my observations about the church over the last few years into a few bullet points, both to help myself understand what I have been through and to see if any of these conclusions resonate with anyone else.

Church is badly broken

Following Christ has wrongly become equated with supporting an organization that has to be feed with increased attendance, volunteers, and funding.

We have misrepresented Christ with our eagerness to call out sin in society while ignoring the sin of our unloving ways.

We are an insider organization that focuses on ourselves, except (or especially) when we try to get outsiders to come to our building and become like us.

We have been talkers and not doers who have had minimal impact on the lives and communities around us.

The Church is bleeding people like crazy.

Because they have been disappointed so many times, people distrust organizations and leaders.

When honest questions are unwelcomed or glibly rebutted, people become dissatisfied.

When so-called ministry is reduced to a performance and packaged programs, people feel like a consumer or cog in a machine.

Religious service attendance has slipped from 32% (1975) to 24% (2008). America’s third largest group now is “none,” somewhere between 16 and 20 percent of our population. In 1960, this group didn’t even register on the polls. It is projected that “nones” and adherents of other religions will outnumber Christians in the United States by 2042.

A lot of people who embrace Jesus are trying to “be the church” without any affiliation with an actual organization.

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Why Am I Not Soaring?

By Jeremy Myers

1 Comment

This is a guest post from Jake Ainsworth.

Jake is a worship leader and speaker in his church and writes at Christ is my Author.

If you would like to write a Guest Post for the Till He Comes Blog, begin by reading the Guest Blogger Guidelines.

Recently, I experienced a job loss. The resulting loss of income forced me to move my family from our home. As a man, I was devastated and demoralized.

My life verse has always been Isaiah 40:31, “But they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.” (ESV)

When I had to sit down with my landlords and tell them that I couldn’t pay them, I didn’t feel very lifted up. My strength certainly did not feel renewed. I felt weary, like I was fainting on the path that life was leading me. And I couldn’t understand why. Why wasn’t God fulfilling the promise that I had called on so many times in my life? Why did I feel abandoned and alone?

By God’s grace, I started to study my life verse. I needed to know that answer to my question: Why? One of the most useful things I have ever learned about studying the Bible is that I need to go back to the root of the text, find out what it meant in the original language. So I grabbed my Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance and began to dig in.

What I found floored me. The Hebrew word for ‘wait’ is qavah, which literally means to bind together as in a rope. This does not mean to tie something to a tree. It means to take smaller strands and weave them together to make one solid rope.

The revelation hit me like a freight train. The reason I wasn’t feeling lifted up or renewed is because I had an obligation in that verse as well. Isaiah says that the ones who receive the renewing of strength and the lifting up on wings like eagles are those who wait on the Lord.

I had been looking at this all wrong. How could I expect God to bless me and help me through tough times when I don’t even acknowledge Him unless I’m in trouble? So I began to apply what I had learned from my studying. I started weaving God into every aspect of my life: the good, bad, ugly, and everything in between.

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Giving our Children to the Lord

By Jeremy Myers

6 Ways to Explain Bible Contradictions

By Jeremy Myers

3 Comments

This is a guest post by Vince Latorre. As a young boy, Vince always had an inquisitive nature. He immediately wanted the answers to questions such as “Is there a God?” “How did I get here?” “How was the world and universe created?” His search for answers to these questions led him to a personal encounter with Christ at age nine or ten. As his faith grew, his desire to analytically research and validate the Word of God intensified.

Latorre spent many hours in libraries and bookstores sifting through more than 200 books and hundreds of articles on science, Bible textual criticism, and theology. As he researched these, the author began to see the powerful scientific evidence for creation as well as the evidence for the historical reliability of the Bible. . In his latest book, The Bible Can Be Proven, Vince Latorre shares the results of his research to strengthen believers and inform honest seekers.

Latorre is presently an accountant in a government agency, has taught Sunday School and Bible Studies for twenty four years, and is a Lay Speaker in the United Methodist Church, speaking to students at high school and adult levels in many churches, including his own. You may contact Vince through one of the following:

Web site and Blog: The Bible Can Be Proven
Facebook: The Bible Can Be Proven
Twitter: Vince Latorre

If you would like to write a Guest Post for the Till He Comes Blog, begin by reading the Guest Blogger Guidelines.

We hear a lot about Bible “contradictions” from people these days. Many say that because of these discrepancies the reliability of the Bible cannot be trusted. Especially brought up are the four gospels, since they have many parallel accounts that have surface disagreements with one another. But these supposed contradictions in the Bible need not destroy your faith. Quite to the contrary, if approached properly, supposed contradictions in Scripture can actually help strengthen our faith.

Let me give you six different ways you can explain these supposedly fatal contradictions.

1. Biblical Authors Sometimes “Paraphrase”

In first century culture, it was permissible to vary the exact wording when you quoted someone, as long as the meaning of the quote remained intact. They could vary the amount of detail given for a specific account also.

For example, “Two cars collided in the intersection” might be said also as “The first car crashed into the second car as they both were moving through the intersection of First and Second Street.” Each describes the same event. One gives more detail, but the basic meaning is not changed. If the second quote said: “There was only one car in the accident, and it hit a pole,” then that would be a contradiction. But we find nothing like this in the gospels.

2. Biblical Authors Use Different Witnesses to the Same Event

The fact that there are differences in the biblical text is actually evidence of its historical accuracy. The seeming disagreements in Scripture show the absence of collusion.

Some of the Bible’s verses, when carefully studied in the proper context, exhibit superficial discrepancies and conflicts which resolve themselves on closer examination. This kind of evidence is exactly what is looked for in a court of law to establish credibility and independence of witnesses. If things agree too well they look artificial and contrived.

3. Biblical Authors Didn’t Always Put Things in Order by Time

Some of the Bible writers record historical events out of chronological order to fit whatever theme they are trying to emphasize, but this does not detract from the historicity of the events themselves.
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You’re Disgusting! Burn in Hell!

Love in the Margins

Church is Badly Broken

Church is badly broken

Why Am I Not Soaring?

Giving our Children to the Lord

6 Ways to Explain Bible Contradictions

1. Biblical Authors Sometimes “Paraphrase”

2. Biblical Authors Use Different Witnesses to the Same Event

3. Biblical Authors Didn’t Always Put Things in Order by Time

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