“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I tell you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Matt 5:27-28).
God takes sexual immorality very seriously, and it often starts with lust.
People do not just wake up and decide to sin. They respond to a temptation, which is then met with another temptation. And another. Where sexual immorality is concerned, that first temptation is often lust.
The problem is not seeing an attractive person and appreciating their good looks. It’s the second look. Looking back to take it in some more. You’re saying, “I’d like me some of that.” And that’s the seed of sexual immorality. From there it’s just one more compromise, then another compromise, and you’ve done something you can’t undo.
Atheists have always been among us, but after 9/11 they became especially vocal. These “new atheists” insisted that religion was not just wrong but stupid and dangerous. The new book by Eric Metaxas, Is Atheism Dead?, answers this accusation by showing that the more we learn about science the less naturalistic explanations for the universe’s origins seem plausible. Then he tells how archaeology has supported the biblical record time and again. In the third section, he addresses the new atheists’ “dangerous” claim specifically by showing how many people atheism killed in the 20th century and then takes on the “stupid” claim by discussing the philosophical problems with atheism, famous atheists who became theists, and famous scientists who were Christians.
In principle, it’s a worthy endeavor. In the actual execution, it’s a bit of a mixed bag.
“You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘Do not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’ But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment” (Matt 5:21-22a).
Your anger is a fire, and you are the first person you burn.
In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus teaches us about real righteousness. He doesn’t want us to be superficially good yet dirty inside. He called those people “whitewashed tombs” (Matt 23:27). No, our righteousness should go all the way down to the core.
Religious claims are not statements of opinion. They are truth claims. A religion says, “The world is like this, not that.” If we step away from the arena of religion, we can see more clearly how this works.
We believe everyone in the world has a disease, let’s say it’s diabetes. We further believe the only way to treat diabetes is insulin. Some people think you should treat it with penicillin. Others think you should treat it with ice cream. Some ice cream people don’t even believe anyone has diabetes.
Since everyone is sick, we believe we have an obligation to tell people about insulin. Most of them don’t want to hear it.
Forty days after his resurrection, Jesus rose up into the sky and disappeared (Acts 1:1-11). Some regard this as one of the most unbelievable stories in scripture. Yet most Christians just accept it and move on, so it doesn’t receive a lot of attention from apologists. Why should we believe such an amazing claim? Does that require us to accept their cosmology? And why did Jesus leave in the first place?
