by Jeremy McKeen

When unexpected tragedy happens in your life, what do you do? When in the words of Fantine in Les Miserables, “Life kills the dream you dreamed,” where do you turn? What can happen to many people is that great uncertainties, doubts, and suspicions towards God suddenly arise in their hearts. Suddenly, all the Sunday School stories you learned as a kid can seem so fake. What can happen is not a direct move into atheism - denying the existence of God, but a slow and subtle move into a silent agnosticism - denying that truth about God can be known, denying that certainties about God exist, thinking that no one can be confident about spiritual or religious truth.

AgnosticismThis is what happened to 19th century biologist Thomas Huxley who actually coined the term agnostic (meaning without knowledge). An agnostic does not deny that God exists; he or she denies that knowledge and certainties about God and the spiritual life are possible. Unfortunately, it seems like a form of this agnosticism has crept into many Christian circles where a confident Christianity has been replaced by an agnostic Christianity. So, someone might say, “Yes, I still hold to the teachings of Jesus and what he did, that is what seems to help me in life, that’s what I gravitate towards, but at the end of the day, who really knows? I'm agnostic, but I think Jesus is cool.” The motto of agnosticism is, “I don’t know, who can say for sure?”

ConfidenceThankfully, in his first letter that the Apostle John wrote to the church, he addressed Christians who were living with uncertainties and taught them how to live with confidence in their walk with God no matter what was happening in their lives. For example, John wrote, “I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life” (1 John 5:13). What this means is that a person may in fact be a genuine Christian, but this does not guarantee that he or she is living with the type of confidence and assurance that is possible. For example, two people may be sitting on the same plane together and experiencing the same turbulence. Yet, one of them could be sipping their drink in confidence while the other one is gripping the armrests in fear. Both people are on the plane, but their internal experience of that flight is completely different. So, you could say that John wrote his letter so that Christians would let go of the armrests and pick up their drink. He wrote the letter so that, instead of an agnostic Christianity, believers would experience a confident Christianity.

Alright, but how does John do it? Where does this confidence and knowledge come from?

EvidenceIf John said, “I write these things... that you may know,” then you need to ask, “What things?” And if you go back to the beginning of his letter, John began by recounting his very scientific credible eye-witness experience of Jesus. Now, here’s why that is very important – Often times, faith and Science are seen to be at odds with one another. Science deals with things that you can touch, things that you can see. Yet, people tend to think that faith in Jesus Christ deals with the unseen, it deals with things that are totally unverifiable. Yet, what did John say? “We saw him, we looked upon him, we touched him.” John was pointing out the scientific evidence of seeing Jesus before his death and after his death. John was trying to get his readers to see that the Apostle’s testimony was verifiable. In other words, John was helping people to see that Christian faith is not based on wishful thinking; it’s based on the historical credible eye witness reports of the Apostles.

FaithThe root of many uncertainties about God is a misunderstanding of how knowledge and faith work. It seems like when you talk with people about faith they speak of it almost like a form of wishful thinking, sort of like the Disney movie type of faith - if you believe with all your heart, your dreams will come true. That is not biblical faith. Faith is receiving the credible testimony of God that he’s given to you in the bible. Faith is taking God at his word. That’s why the Apostle Paul said that, “Faith comes by hearing and hearing through the word of God” (Romans 10:17). Think of it like this - why do people believe that George Washington was America’s first President? It’s not because they were there and saw him; it’s because they are trusting the reports of others who did. Or if people are in the market for a used car, they don’t typically inspect under the car and check under the hood before they buy it, what do they do? They trust the CarFax report. See, what people do in so many other areas of life, they just need to do the same thing when it comes to the bible and Jesus. If people trust the testimony of others all the time (and we know that people are prone to lie or exaggerate), why not trust the testimony of God who never lies? The bible was written so that people could know God, and trust his word no matter what is happening all around them.

by Jeremy McKeen

I recently had the privilege and challenge of preaching from Revelation 20:1-6. This is where we find the binding of Satan, the thousand-year reign of Christ and the mention of the first resurrection and second death. It’s been my experience that the hope and optimism that believers are meant to walk away with from this passage is often lost in the theological dissection of and debate over the passage. So, one of my goals that I had in that sermon (you can listen to it here), was to avoid that mistake. Moreover, I have only been presenting a survey and overview of the book. Therefore, a lot of the verse-by-verse explanation that I could have shared was left out. And so, for all those who are interested in learning more, I have prepared the following verse by verse exposition of Revelation 20:1-6:

First, let me just say that I love to study the Bible, and I love its clarity and unity as a whole when I do. However, there are some passages that are harder than others to make sense of and synthesize with the rest of Scripture. Revelation 20:1-6 is definitely one of those passages. It is one of the most debated sections in all of the Bible. And so, whenever you come to a passage like this, it requires two things: humility and wisdom. It requires the interpreter to have humility in recognizing that many orthodox, faithful and godly men and women have disagreed throughout the centuries on how this should be viewed. Therefore, it should not be approached in an extremely dogmatic fashion. It also requires wisdom in comparing Scripture with Scripture. In other words, whenever you have a passage that is unclear, the best approach is to compare it with other Scriptures that are more clear. The following exposition is my best attempt at presenting my interpretation of this difficult passage with humility and wisdom.

Verse 1: Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding in his hand the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain.

Who is this figure who’s holding this key and great chain? It could be the arch-angel Michael that you read about earlier in Revelation 12:7, who was fighting against Satan. However, Jesus said at the beginning of the book, “Behold I have the keys of Death and Hades” (Rev.1:18). Having the key to something was an ancient symbol for having the authority and control. The context of Revelation 20 is that Jesus is the exalted Lord who is in control.  You could also say that this is the theme of the entire book. So, a great case could be made that this angel is Jesus (remember that the word for angel in the Greek, angelos, could literally be translated as messenger, and Jesus is the messenger and mediator of the New Covenant). In the beginning of Chapter 10, I believe you have the same type of thing going on. In that passage, the mighty Messenger was either representing Christ or is Christ himself. Additionally, the only other times that the binding of Satan is even mentioned in the bible is in Matthew 12:29 and Luke 11:22, and Jesus is the only one who is doing the binding. And so its seems to be that Jesus is taking his all-encompassing authority (c.f. Matthew 28:18) which is symbolized by the key and using it to bind Satan with the chain. Remember the majority of the early Christians who received this letter could not read, and so what’s one of the best ways to get them to remember things? Give them pictures. Give them vivid symbols. This is what’s happening in the book of Revelation. John is giving the Church spiritual pictures (his visions) to drive home spiritual principles (God’s truths).

Verses 2-3: And he seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years, and threw him into the pit, and shut it and sealed it over him, so that he might not deceive the nations any longer, until the thousand years were ended. After that he must be released for a little while.

John wants to make it very clear who he’s dealing with here. And so he gives four titles for the arch-enemy of God's people. Now, the mention of the ancient serpent is very important because John is clearly connecting what is being described in this passage with the fall of mankind in Genesis 3. In Genesis 3, Satan deceived Adam and Eve, but then was warned that a male offspring from the woman would come to ultimately destroy him. One of the things that the Apostle John stressed in his writings was that Jesus is this promised offspring whose redemptive work destroyed the various works of the devil (c.f. Jn. 12:31; 1 Jn. 3:8). Other writers pick up on this same thing (see also Col.2:15 and Heb.2:14). But when it comes to the activity of Satan in this verse, two key questions must be answered as it relates to the binding of Satan: First, when does this binding happen? And second, what does this binding mean?

When does the binding begin?
When answering the first question interpreters should compare this passage with the only other references to the binding of Satan that you find in the Gospels. In both of those passages (referenced above), Jesus explains that his ministry of casting out demons was proof that the kingdom of God had come upon the world. In short, the various works of Satan were now being destroyed by the promised offspring. This is why he gave the example of having to first “bind the strong man” before you can plunder his goods. Clearly, Jesus himself believed that already in his earthly ministry Satan was being bound by him. This cross reference is extremely important in accurately interpreting the binding of Satan in Revelation 20. We can conclude by this that the binding of Satan at least began with Jesus' earthly ministry, and most likely extended through his death, resurrection, and ascension. This, I believe is the answer to the first question of when. One of the objections to this view is that Satan is obviously still active in the world, so how can he be said to be bound? Well, keep in mind that apparently Jesus understood that Satan could be bound but not completely limited. So, what does the binding mean?

What does this binding mean?
John makes it clear in the middle of verse 3 that this binding is not a description of Satan’s total inactivity or defeat, but a hindering of a particular activity, namely the deceiving of the nations. The particular work or activity of Satan that is being described here is Satan’s ability to deceive the nations (the Gentile world). Before the incarnation of Jesus, it is clear that Satan had a level of authority over the pagan nations and the kingdoms of the Gentile world. This is why he tried to offer this authority to Jesus in his temptation of Jesus in the wilderness (c.f. Mt. 4:8-9). The coming comprehensive defeat of the Devil by Jesus was manifested here by refusing Satan’s offer and instead perfectly following the will of God for his life. Therefore, Jesus acquired this global authority not through prideful grabbing, but through humble obedience (see Phil.2:5-11). It was in his temptation that Jesus was showing us that he is the better Adam. While Adam was tempted by Satan in a garden and was overcome by it; Jesus was tempted by Satan in the wilderness and overcame it. Therefore, in his humanity, Jesus has proven that he is the greater Adam and promised offspring who is now ruling over God’s creation and fulfilling the Cultural Mandate of being fruitful and multiplying through the sending of his Spirit and the making of disciples. All of this begins to make sense when you read the end of Matthew and Jesus combines his global authority along with his command to disciple the nations. What I believe John is giving to the church here in Revelation 20:1-3, is the spiritual picture of what Jesus had already pronounced at the end of Matthew. The reason the Church is to disciple the nations is because Satan can no longer deceive the nations as a whole. Therefore, the success of the Great Commission is assured.

Another objection to this view is the verse in 1 John 5:19 which talks about the whole world lying in the power of the Evil One. So, the thinking goes, how can Jesus be reigning when it’s clear that Satan is in full control? Well, every verse must be read in its context. In his writings, John uses the word “world” in different ways. Not making that distinction can lead to many errors. For example, John tells us in that same letter to “not love the world” (1 John 2:15a). Wait a minute? Doesn’t God love the world? Aren’t we supposed to love it too? In that passage, John is not talking about the world as the entire cosmos. He’s using the word “world” to mean the entire evil system in the world. That is John’s point in the verse under consideration as well. The Devil is the one who is running the world’s system of rebellion against God. Like Al Capone still running the streets of Chicago even while he was behind bars, Satan is still powerfully influencing this world even though he’s now prevented from deceiving the nations as a whole. Like a Father rocking his baby to sleep, the Devil is rocking all unbelievers to spiritual sleep and keeping them in spiritual darkness. This is the same type of thing that Paul stressed in Ephesians 2:1-3 as he described even believers before the work of God on their behalf.

Verse 4: Then I saw thrones, and seated on them were those to whom the authority to judge was committed. Also I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus for the word of God, and those who had not worshipped the beast or its image and had not received its mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years.

The vision of thrones here and the mention of souls takes the reader into the heavenly realm, but the Church’s reign with Christ does not need to be limited to heaven as a place completely separate from all activity here on earth. Jesus, Paul and others make reference to the Church here on earth participating in the heavenly ministry and authority of the Church in heaven (c.f. Matt.16:19; Eph.2:6,6:12; Heb.12:22-24). The souls that were beheaded (martyrs) and those who did not worship the beast or receive its mark (the faithful) were the early Christians alive before 70 A.D. who did not turn from Christ to align themselves with pagan Rome and had died and were now in the presence of Christ. The Beast, as I’ve argued in previous sermons, was the Fourth Beast from Daniel 7. Daniel foretold of a fourth tyrannical pagan empire that would be ruling at the time of the coming Messiah. This is why when Luke described the birth of Jesus he made sure to point out that Jesus was born during the reign of Caesar Augustus (see Lk.2:1), the fourth Beast. Receiving the mark of the Beast was not a literal mark just as worshipping the beast wasn’t playing songs or literally bowing down; it meant who you gave your spiritual allegiance to. This is why believers are said to have a mark as well, the mark of the Lord (c.f. Rev.14:1). For more on all this you can listen to a sermon in this series on the mark here.

I take the "coming to life" here as the fullness of the spiritual life that all believers have in Christ for a number of reasons. It’s important to note that life in the bible is described as a union between two things and death is described as a separation between two things. The early Christians were meant to be encouraged knowing that at death, even though their souls would be separated from their bodies, they would be elevated into the fullness of union with God to reign with Christ. So in that sense they would “come to life.” Jesus refers to it this way when he said, “Whoever believes in me though he die, yet shall he live” (Jn.11:25). So upon the physical death of believers, their souls go to be with the Lord and the union with God (spiritual life) that all believers now have (c.f. Jn.5:24, Eph.2:5) is brought into its fullness (see Eph.2:6). Again, that’s why Jesus could go on to say, “And everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die” (Jn.11:26). The life in Christ goes on yet becomes life with Christ. This is what the Apostle Paul looked forward to (c.f. Phil.1:21-23).

Verse 5: The rest of the dead did not comes to life until the thousand years were ended. This is the first resurrection.

The main confusion in verse 5 seems to be John’s placement of the reference to the first resurrection. John is making a parenthetical point. He briefly addresses where “the rest of dead” go before he comes back to his main focus on the first resurrection that he had mentioned in verse 4. The bible only speaks of two resurrections. Spiritual regeneration is the first resurrection (that refers back to verse 4 and forward to verse 6). The second resurrection is the resurrection of new physical bodies at Christ’s final coming (c.f.1 Cor.15:52). It’s clear in John 5:24-29 that even Jesus had only these two resurrections in mind (first spiritual and then physical).

Now, because we know that all believers upon physical death go to be with the Lord (c.f. Lk. 23:43, Phil. 1:21; 2 Cor. 5:8;), I believe it makes the most sense to take the rest of the dead here to be unbelievers. This is the same group as “the rest who were killed” who were the unbelievers just mentioned in the previous chapter (Rev. 19:21). Unbelievers must wait until the thousand years are over (the reign of Christ) to experience any type of life. We’re told in Scripture that even the unbelieving dead will come to physical life at Christ’s final coming (c.f. Dan. 12:2; Jn. 5:25-29) before they experience the second death mentioned in verse 6 (eternal separation from God and all that is good). So, if the second death is not physical, then why must the first resurrection be physical? It makes the most sense to view them both as spiritual. All unbelievers are currently separated from God because of their sins (the first death) and if they do not receive Christ will one day be eternally separated from God because of their sins (the second death).

Verse 6: Blessed and holy is the one who shares in the first resurrection! Over such the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ, and they will reign with him for a thousand years.

The first resurrection and second death
John now returns back to his main focus on the first resurrection and the reign of Christ. Believers are currently united to God through Christ and experience the blessing and holiness of the new life offered in Jesus. And the second death (eternal separation from God) has no power over the believer. John wants to assure every believer, that union with God now means that this union with God will last forever. As Paul said, “Neither death nor life … will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom.8:38,39).

The present reign of Christ
In my opinion, there are many really good reasons to understand this “1,000 year reign of Christ” to be the period in which we live. Here are just a few:

1) The many other New Testament references (outside of Revelation) to Jesus being born King (Matt.2:1-12, Lk.1:32-33), Jesus proclaiming the kingdom is at hand (Mk.1:15) Jesus being regarded as the current King (Jn.1:49, Acts 17:7), Jesus claiming to have a Kingdom (Jn.18:36, Lk.23:42-43), Jesus entering into Jerusalem as the King (Matt.21:1-9, Jn.12:12-15), and Jesus currently reigning as the King (Acts 2:30,36, 4:25-28; 28:31, Eph.1:20-22, Phil.1:9, Col.1:13, 1 Cor.15:24-25, etc.). If someone looks up all these references (and there’s many more that could be shared), I’m not sure how you can’t conclude that Jesus is currently reigning as King. So what seems to make the most sense is that the binding of Satan for a thousand years paralleled with the reign of Christ for a thousand years means that Jesus is presently reigning and expanding his kingdom to the nations. Christians move out into the world because Jesus is the King, not to make him the King. 

2) The number 1,000 used throughout the Bible often means a multitude. In Psalm 50:10, you read that God owns the cattle on 1,000 hills. Are we meant to understand that all the hills after the first thousand are not his? Of course not. The number means a multitude. In 2 Peter 3:8, he asserts that a day to the Lord is like 1,000 years. Again, the number is used to refer to a multitude. And in Revelation 20, I believe it refers to the perfect multitude of time. It stands for the perfect multitude of time between Christ’s first coming and his final coming.

3) The nature of Christ’s kingdom. The Kingdom of God was thought by many in Jesus’ day to come immediately and in a very obvious manner. Therefore, Jesus corrected that type of thinking by the description of the kingdom in so many of his parables. Jesus explained that the Kingdom would expand slowly and in a hidden way. He said that it would be like a mustard seed starting small and then slowly but eventually growing into this great big tree. He said it would be like leaven put into a lump. It’s work would be slow and hidden but eventually it would leaven the entire lump. This is exactly the way Daniel explained the coming Kingdom of God. The stone (kingdom) would start small but slowly it would turn into a great big mountain covering the earth (see Dan.2:31-45). In fact, this is precisely what history has shown us as the gospel has effectively spread to more and more nations. So, just because there's still great evil in the world, doesn't mean that Jesus is not the reigning King. The Apostle Paul reminded us that, "IN all these things we are more than conquerors" (Rom.8:37). God moves in a mysterious way. The way his kingdom was established (through faith, obedience and suffering) is the way that it will be expanded. So, let us take up our cross, and follow him.

Now, as I said in the beginning, this is a very difficult passage to interpret, and good men and women who love the Lord have disagreed on how to look at it. However, I am fully convinced that the Lamb is on the throne, the Spirit is on the move, and the Devil is on the run. Many Christians wonder why we're not gaining so much ground in the culture. It may be because too many of us are living with a "God, get me out of here" type of mentality instead of a "God use me while I'm here" type of mentality. I hope that more and more believers live with hope and optimism that comes from knowing that Jesus IS the King, and with the freedom and joy that comes by living under his present reign. Let's work together to make this world, our King's world, a better place to live. For as the Apostle Paul said, "He must reign until he puts all his enemies under his feet" (1 Cor.15:25). 

by Jeremy McKeen

The resurrection of Jesus is meant to change your everyday life. In other words, the historical truth that Jesus is alive is just as important on the Monday after Easter as it is on Easter Sunday. In the words of rapper Lecrae, “If he's truly raised to life, then it's news to change your life,” but change it in what way? How does Easter Sunday relate to your Monday? Thankfully, Matthew answers that question in the end of his gospel. Unlike the other gospel writers (Mark, Luke & John), Matthew doesn't focus so much on the evidence of the resurrection but upon the implications of the resurrection. Matthew is not out to prove the resurrection but to explain what the resurrection proves. Matthew wants people’s lives to change because Jesus is alive. He wants people to think differently and live differently. Like the women on that first Easter morning, Matthew wants people to seek Jesus, to worship Jesus and to obey Jesus. 

Seek JesusWhen the women came to the tomb on Easter morning, they were met by an angel who encouraged them in their seeking after Jesus. However, the angel needed to redirect their seeking. The women were only seeking to memorialize Jesus, not to meet Jesus. They were seeking the right person, but they were seeking him in the wrong place. But what is the right place? If people are called to seek Jesus, where is Jesus? He’s not on the cross. He’s not in the tomb, and he’s not in Galilee. Where is Jesus? He’s on the throne of God, and so you seek Jesus through the word and prayer. You draw near to the throne of grace and seek him by faith. Because Jesus is alive, it is possible to seek out a personal relationship with him, not simply a mechanical knowledge about him.

Worship JesusWhen the women found Jesus, Matthew mentions twice that they worshipped Jesus. They took hold of Jesus’ feet and worshipped him. So, this wasn’t a vision. This wasn’t a hallucination. They literally grabbed his feet. Did you know Jesus has feet? He has two feet with ten toes. Jesus has a shoe size. That’s how real Jesus is. That’s how alive he is. But how did they worship him? Why did they worship him? Well, they probably didn’t whip out a guitar and start singing songs to him. Worship is much more than music, as important as music is. Worship is recognizing the worth of something or someone and responding accordingly. And what fuels worship for Jesus is recognizing who he is and what he’s done. The late British Preacher Martyn Lloyd Jones once gave the example of a man coming to you and telling you that he had just paid one of your bills. You really don’t know how to respond until you know what bill he paid, and how much the bill was. Did he pay your electric bill or your entire mortgage bill? The size of the debt that was paid determines the extent of the response. You don’t worship someone who pays for your coffee; you worship someone who’s paid for your sins. Once a person sees the depths of his or her sin but at the same time the heights of Jesus’ love, it can’t help but produce worship. Jesus himself taught that those who have been forgiven much, love much (see Luke 7:47). This means that if you don’t find yourself lost in wonder, love and praise, it’s because you don’t see how much you’ve been forgiven. You’re forgetting how big your debt of sin really was and all that Jesus did. But when this does happen, worship leads to obedience.

Obey JesusMatthew’s gospel ends with Jesus saying to his followers, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore …” (Matthew 28:18,19a). Jesus isn’t just a Savior; he’s the Lord. In other words, he’s the one who calls the shots. But remember that obedience stems from worship. The worship and love of Jesus always precedes faithful obedience to Jesus. It’s like in the beginning of the film The Princess Bride. When Princess Buttercup would ask Wesley to do something, all Wesley would say was, “As you wish.” And soon Buttercup realized that what Wesley was really saying was, “I love you.” His joyful obedience to her commands flowed out of his great love for her.

It’s the same way with Jesus. The more you love him, the more you want to obey him. The more you will say, “As you wish.” There was once a Muslim college student who came to believe in Jesus Christ, and one of his friends was shocked and asked him, “Why did you become a follower of Jesus?” Here was his response – “It’s simple really. Imagine that you’re walking down a road and you come to a fork in the road and there are two people there to follow as your guide along the way. One of them is dead, and one of them is alive. Which one would you follow?” One of the great appeals of Christianity is that Jesus, its Founder, is not dead but alive, and so even after the pastels are all hung up and the hype from Easter Sunday fades into the grind of Monday, Jesus is still alive. And because he lives, people should seek him, worship him, and obey him.

by Jeremy McKeen

When you open up the bible, you’re not opening up a textbook; you’re opening up a storybook. After all, the bible starts off with, “In the beginning.” A beginning presupposes that there’s an ending. And if you have a beginning and an ending, then you have a story, but the bible isn’t just any story; it’s the story behind all your favorite stories. It’s the true fairy tale. C.S. Lewis was right when he said, “In the story of Christ, all the other stories have somehow come true.” But how is this possible? Thankfully, John the Apostle summarized the great story of Scripture in Revelation 12.

The Main CharactersFairytales are worlds of underdogs and giants, princesses and dragons, heroes and villains. They’re stories of long journeys and great sacrifice, of damsels in distress and princes riding in on white horses. And like a master storyteller, John weaves together the lives of three characters: the woman, the dragon, and the child. The woman stands for the church, the dragon stands for Satan, and the child is Jesus. The woman will be rescued because the dragon will be slain by the child who becomes King. Incidentally, these are the three key characters that you find in every beloved fairy tale: The rescued, the villain, and the hero, but what John does by including the church in the story, is he reminds his readers that they’re part of the story. What if the reason people love these ancient tales is because they’re an echo of the tale that they’re already in? What if little boys like to sword fight and little girls like to dress up in gowns, because deep down they know the fairy tale story is their story. What if Frank Sinatra was wrong? Fairy tales don’t come true because you’re young at heart; fairy tales are true because you’re born into the epic battle that all of those tales point to.  

The Great WarFairy tales are stories where good and evil meet to do battle, where the light side clashes with the dark side. John captures this great warfare with a flashback to the Garden where the serpent brings evil into the world through his deception and lies, but is soon told that he will be defeated by the woman’s offspring who will one day crush his head. And this is why John says, “The dragon stood before the woman waiting to devour the child” (Revelation 12:4). This is the theme behind Gothel stealing Rapunzel, of Rumpelstiltskin’s claim on the queen’s child. All of these “child’s of promise” point back to the child of promise, the King from heaven who came to rescue the bride and break the spell cast over the kingdom, the prince who entered into the dragon’s lair and emerged victorious. But how did he do it? How could a small weak Lamb defeat this massive powerful dragon?

The overmatched Prince conquered through great courage, love and sacrifice, all the virtues that are at the heart of every great fairy tale. Jesus dying on the cross for his people’s sins is what slays the dragon and is the story behind Jack slaying the giant, Frodo defeating Sauron, it's Prince Phillip slaying Maleficent, Wesley rescuing Buttercup, Anna giving her life to save Elsa to break the Frozen spell and coming back to life. What do all the stories have in common? They reject the notion that the princess can save herself, and instead put forth the most compelling message that only by grace, only through someone sacrificing their life on your behalf can evil be undone and the princess won. GK Chesterton said it best – “That the deepest truth about fairy tales was not that dragons exist, but that they can be beaten.”

The Happy EndingThere wouldn’t be a once upon a time without a happily ever after. But in the middle of those two there’s always great struggle and conflict. John tells us that through the death and resurrection of Jesus, the decisive war has been won, but now the dragon is ticked and he goes off to make war on the woman. If the devil can’t touch the Christ, then he’ll make trouble for the church. But the battle isn't in a land far far away, John reminds his readers that it's not far away at all; it’s as near as it can be, because you’re in it. The dragon goes after God’s people with three weapons: accusation, deception, and persecution, but through it all, the church is preserved. It’s like all the great stories when difficulties and tragedy strikes, you keep watching because you know somehow out of the ashes, beauty and good will rise, somehow wrongs will be made right in the end. Revelation ends with war giving way to wedding, with the dragon completely banished and even death is no more. But the question is, what part will you play? Whose side will you be on? The side you take in this battle will determine how your story will end. It’s choose your own adventure, and the only logical choice is to align with Jesus, the rightful and conquering King. What every student of the bible should realize is that instead of fairy tales competing with the bible, all these great stories are really just knock offs and reflections of God's story, the gospel story, the fairy tale that's somehow come true. 

by Jeremy McKeen

One of the deepest longings of mankind has been to intimately know a higher being or to associate with someone of great power. This is seen today in people’s desire to have personal fellowship with prominent and important celebrities or politicians. Yet this longing goes all the way back to the Garden of Eden, when the Lord was walking with mankind, but because of Adam and Eve’s sin the fellowship was broken. So, how can mankind’s fellowship with God be restored? If you hang around Christian circles long enough, then you’ll probably hear people talking about their walk with God. But what does that mean? How can you walk with God? In the beginning of 1 John, the experienced Apostle taught people the way.

The One Thing To KnowIf you’re going to walk with God, then you need to know God. You need to be very clear about whom you’re walking with. John wanted everyone to know that “God is light and in him is no darkness at all.” The metaphor of light here involves two things: moral perfection and moral perception. In other words, God’s character is perfect and his knowledge is perfect. God’s perfect character moves a person towards him in trust, but his perfect knowledge of sin can move a person away from him in shame. So, once you acknowledge these two traits about God, the tendency is to make one of two errors. In other words, the Christian’s walk with God is down a narrow road, and there’s always a ditch on either side of the road.

The First Error To AvoidThe first error that people are tempted to make is downplaying both God’s holiness and the importance of holiness in a person’s life. John begins by identifying people who were claiming that they were walking with God while they were “walking in darkness.” They were living in a pattern of unrepentant disobedience while claiming to have fellowship with God. John was not buying it. It’s impossible, because if Jesus is walking down the highway of holiness, and you’re walking down the highway to hell, you can’t be walking together, because Jesus never takes that road. For the genuine believer, sin can never break the relationship with God, but John taught that all known unrepentant sin breaks the fellowship with God.

The First Step To TakeJohn urged his readers to “walk in the light as God is in the light.” A true believer will repent of sin and begin to walk in the light and pursue a holy life. Now, holiness is not some pious religious snobbery and attempting to appease God; holiness is the path of love that pleases God. John reminded these early Christians that they could walk this path because the blood of Jesus cleanses them from all sin. In the tabernacle/temple, the High Priest first went through the altar of sacrifice and the water of cleansing in order to walk in the light of the Holy Place. Jesus is the final sacrifice, and his blood is the way of cleansing that enables Christians to walk in the light. Christians are a royal priesthood who’ve been saved from walking in the darkness to now walk in the light. However, John wants to ensure that his readers do not go to the other extreme, and so he must point out the second error to avoid and the next step that people need to take in order to walk closely with God.

The Second Error To AvoidIf the first error is a denial of holiness, the second error is a denial of sin. And this error can take two forms: perfectionism and legalism. Perfectionism denies the principle of sin, that someone no longer has the remnants of the sinful nature. Legalism denies the practice of sin, believing that while the principle of sin may still remain, the person has not actually committed any sins at all. John is quick to point out that if you’re walking with God, it’s impossible to deny sin no matter what form that denial takes. For example, if you wash a glass under a dim ceiling light, you may think that it’s clean, but as soon as you put it up to the bright light of the sun, you begin to see all the dirt and spots. What happened? The glass didn’t become dirtier; you became more aware of the dirt. The same is true in walking with God. God is light and the closer that you are walking with him, the more sin you’re going to see. A Christian never becomes more sinful - they always become more aware of their sin. This should produce great humility, but it should never produce despair, because God has provided the solution for the problem of sin in Jesus.

The Second Step To TakeThe secret to maintaining fellowship with God isn’t perfection; it’s confession. And God is faithful and just to forgive all sin that is confessed is because Jesus took the penalty for all sin at the cross. God doesn’t offer this forgiveness and cleansing by setting aside the demands and penalties of the law, but because Jesus has already fulfilled the law. Instead of permanently leaving a stain, the blood of Jesus permanently removes every stain. And this cleansing is always a means to an end - it enables a person to walk with God.

by Jeremy McKeen

Suffering and trials are a normal part of life in a fallen world, and it’s during these times that a person’s faith in God will be tested. It’s not a question of if your faith will be tested, but when. So, what should you know and do as you handle these tests of faith? How do you prepare for the difficulties of life before they come so that you can face them with confidence and peace? In the famous story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego facing the fiery furnace, there are at least five lessons that are meant to prepare people for the tests and trials of life.

1) Get to know God now - King Nebuchadnezzar asked these three men, “Who is the god who will deliver you out of my hands?” They didn’t say, “You know what? That’s a really good question! Could we go home and email our pastor, or can you give us some time to Google that? Can we go and research that or have a study group on that? No, these men didn’t have the option of leaving and learning the answer. They needed to know God before the trial and the test came. There’s no time to prepare in the moment when the doctor calls and tells you that it’s cancer or when you hear about the car accident. The time to get to know God is now. This is why later on in the book of Daniel it says, “The people who know their God will stand firm and take action” (Daniel 11:32). The book of Daniel isn’t about Daniel and these three men; it’s about knowing their God.

2) Surround yourself with godly friends - All three men faced the fire together. In chapter 2, it explains that Daniel and these three men were all good friends. You see the importance of community and brotherhood. There is great strength in godly friendships. Do you have friends that will encourage you to take a stand when it’s hard? Do you have friends that are sharpening you, challenging you, that are making it harder and harder for you to compromise? Now, this doesn’t mean that Christians should live in some holy Jesus huddle where you never reach out and spend time with non-believers. No, these men were working in a very secular political regime, but they stuck together and strengthened each other to be in the world but not of the world. Do you have friendships in life for the hardships of life?

3) Trust in the character of God - The men respond by saying, “Our God is able to deliver us, and he will deliver us out of your hand O King.” Just like God did with Abraham on the mount and with the people at the Red Sea, they had confidence that God was able and willing to rescue them. Yet, they also said, “But if not …we will not bow.” So, they had a “nothing is impossible” faith, but they also had a “no matter what” faith. They trusted in the sovereign power of God, but they also trusted in the sovereign plan of God. True faith is always both. It’s spiritual confidence but not spiritual arrogance - thinking that a person’s faith can somehow guarantee the results that he or she wants. These men trusted that God was able, willing, and worthy of their obedience no matter what.

4) Do the right thing no matter what - How easy would it have been for these men to make excuses and compromise? They could have said to one another, “We’ll bow down, but we won’t worship the idol in our hearts, or “We’ll just do it this once, and ask God for forgiveness.” They could have said, “Doesn’t God want us to honor authority?” or “We don’t want to lose our ability to influence people for God do we? They could have said, “This isn’t going to hurt anybody!” But they don’t make any of those excuses. They were rescued but they did the right thing not matter what the result may have been.

5) Remember the purpose of tests - One of the purposes of tests is to know God more intimately. When the men are cast into the furnace, a fourth figure appears in the fire with them. Many commentators point out that this was the pre-incarnate Christ. So, outside of the fire the men are talking about God, but inside the fire they are walking with God. God transforms your suffering from being the place where you would think that he is the most distant into the place where he becomes the most near. And appearing in human form to identify with his people in this fire was just a foreshadowing of how God would one day become a human in Jesus and identify with his people in another fire. On the cross Jesus willingly underwent the fire of God’s judgment upon sin so that all those who trust in him could be completely forgiven. Another purpose is that God wants to use the fire to free people from certain things in life. The only thing that the men lost in the fire were the ropes that bound them.

Lastly, God wants to use the way his people face the tests of life to bear witness to the watching world that God can be trusted and is the only source of hope, strength and lasting peace. In chapter 2, God reveals to King Nebuchadnezzar that eventually his Kingdom will be lost, and God’s kingdom will eventually be established on the earth, but Nebuchanezzer is afraid of losing his kingdom and so he denies his need for God and builds this golden image in chapter 3. He does this because he’s afraid of losing everything, he’s afraid of the future. He’s full of fear, but these three men are confident of the future and free of fear. And what God is doing is he’s using these three men to relentless pursue the heart of Nebuchannezer and showing him that these men have something that you don’t have and that everyone needs - they have life with me, they know the true King. Eventually in Chapter 4, Nebuchannezzer is finally saved. And God wants to use the trials and testings in his people’s lives in the same way to accomplish the same thing.

by Jeremy McKeen

The following is the sermon manuscript from a message that I delivered a couple weeks ago on the sanctity of life. The full audio can be found here. I was urged and encouraged by many who heard it to provide the content online somewhere. My goal in doing so is to bring clarity and hope to this complex cultural issue. A special thanks to Skye Nosbisch for editing my sermon notes in order to make this available. 

.......................................................

This morning, I want to speak to you about life in a mother’s womb, which inevitably raises questions about abortion. And I recognize that in a room this size, there are most likely mothers and fathers who have gone through an abortion, and mothers who are contemplating an abortion, and women who are for a woman's right to choose an abortion. So what I want to do today is address this topic with both compassion and conviction. And I think you should know that Christian mothers and fathers who have gone through an abortion are continually asking pastors to speak out on this to save others from feeling the same heartache, regret, and emotional pain. And you should also know that this sermon is not going be a political rallying speech for pro-lifers. I want this to be a rational presentation of the biblical doctrine of life. This isn't about being on the right side or the left side--this is about being on God’s side. I want to take this hot-button issue that can polarize people and demonize people, and I want to turn it into a positive and restorative and redemptive discussion this morning. With that said, let's take a look at these two verses, and then we'll pray and begin.

"For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother's womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well." - Psalm 139:131-4

OPENINGThe biblical doctrine of life is that all human life has been created by God and in the image of God. Even our country’s founding document, the Declaration of Independence, states, that “We hold these truths to be self evident ... that all men are created equal and they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights” (unalienable meaning that it is intrinsic to who they are...no other person gives them or takes them away) “…and among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

You see, before the mention of liberty and the pursuit of happiness is the right and the issue of life itself. There's no point in talking about someone's choices or desires if you take away their life. At that point, they no longer have the ability to choose anything or the ability to pursue anything in this world. And so we must be clear about the truth of life itself, a truth that at one point in time was considered self-evident—and still is, but now so many people have been self-deceived. And so this morning I want to share three things about life, and in particular ... life in a mother’s womb. Three key truths about life, and then the one hope for all of life. And my first point is this ... 

First: Life Is a Gift from GodLife is a gift from God. In just these two verses, we can see David’s emphasis on God being the giver and creator of life. He says YOU formed my inward parts; YOU knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise YOU, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. And he calls this creation one of the works of God. God uniquely and personally created each one of us. It was God who gave us life, and this life is a gift. The bible teaches that God is the author of life, that “in him we live and move and have our being,” and so James teaches us to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live tomorrow.” You are not an accident. You didn’t just happen. You are the direct result of the personal craftsmanship of God, who fashioned you in your mother’s womb. And you’re not alive today because things have just run their course. What this means is that because God created each human life, each human life has equal value and worth, because its value is intrinsic.  Let me explain it like this ... I’m sure almost all of you have heard of this example, so I’m not actually going to do it, but what happens is that a speaker takes out a brand new $20 bill and says, “Who would like this $20?” All the hands go up--but then he tears the corner of it, crumples it up real small, smashes it, and steps on it, and then asks, “All right, who would still like this $20 bill?” ... And still, the hands go up. Why? Because its value hasn’t changed. Its value hasn’t changed because its value was never determined by its size, looks, or condition, but by who created it, who designed it. You see, the U.S. Treasury Department created it and ascribes worth to it. 

It works the same way with human beings. It doesn’t matter what your size, color, condition, or looks are--you are valuable because of who created you. The biblical doctrine of life is not utilitarian, which declares that a person’s life is valuable based on the usefulness of that life. No--the Christian ethic of life is that the life of the homeless man in the gutter is just as valuable as the life of, let’s say, a neurosurgeon or some celebrity or politician, because he or she is also created in the image of God. Because life is a gift from God, all life is valuable and significant, no matter how small--whether that life is in a womb or about to be in a tomb. It has great value.  Ex: Imagine that someone gives you a shirt for your birthday or Christmas. It’s just a regular green t-shirt, but then you’re told that this shirt was personally designed and made by Giorgio Armani himself, specifically as a gift for you…now how do you look at the t-shirt? Suddenly, you value it a lot more, but its value hasn’t changed--your view of its value has changed because you know who designed it and who gave it to you. Same with our lives. Because each life is a personally handcrafted gift of God, there is no ordinary, insignificant life--no matter its size, level of development, or level of dependency. 

See, what David is doing here is something that we simply don’t do enough--and that is praise God and thank God for the very gift of life itself. We naturally look at our needs instead of our blessings, all the things in life we don’t have instead of celebrating the gift of life that we do have. Do we ever look back, like David is doing here, on the time that we were being formed in our mother’s womb, and get lost in wonder, love, and praise for what God did? As St. Augustine put it, 

“People travel to wonder at the height of mountains, at the huge waves of the sea, and at the circular motion of the stars – and they pass by themselves without wondering.” Human life at all sizes and levels is a gift from God. Does our soul, like David’s, know it very well? And the second truth about life that I want to convince you of, if you’re not convinced already, is that ...

Second: Life Begins at ConceptionMany people who would affirm that life is a gift from God are not willing to affirm that life begins at conception. Yet here’s David and he’s describing himself as a person, a human being, being formed and knit together in the womb. And in Psalm 51:5, he says, “In sin did my mother conceive me.” He didn’t say my mother conceived “it,” but conceived “me” … a personal pronoun. At the moment of conception, “I was me!” There was life! In Jeremiah 1, the Lord says, “Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you, and before you were born, I consecrated you.” He doesn’t say I consecrated “it.” I consecrated “YOU“!--another personal pronoun, because, my friends, at the moment of conception, that baby is a personal life and a human being. And this is the level where this entire debate is being argued today. Is the baby in the womb a person? A human being? A life? At what stage is it considered a life? And I recognize that this text was not written with abortion in mind, but that’s not the point--what we see here is how the Bible views the unborn in the womb. 

Let me illustrate it like this: I recently came across a lady’s comments on social media who claimed, “It is not considered a baby until it is born and breathing on its own. Until then it is just a fetus.” Just a fetus! And I had to engage her, and I said, “Then why do so many medical publishers, like WebMD, talk about using prenatal ultrasounds to see images of your baby?! Why do the science books in all major universities claim that an “embryo” is the beginning of a new human being? And why do you never hear expecting mothers say, ‘Oh, I can’t wait, I’m going to the doctor’s to hear my fetus’s heartbeat’?” They don’t send out fetus announcements; they send out baby announcements, because that’s what it is--a baby! And I urged her to read Abby Johnson’s story, a woman who used to work at Planned Parenthood until one day she was asked to help with an ultrasound-guided abortion. Abby explains how, at 13 weeks, she watched a perfectly shaped baby with a head, backbone, hands, and feet try to defend itself and coil away from the tool that was being used to kill it, but it had nowhere to go. It was defenseless, and in that moment, everything changed for her. She no longer could convince herself that this was a lifeless fetus that felt no pain … she saw it firsthand.

And why do we use this word fetus? Do you know what fetus means? It’s a Latin word that essentially means “unborn baby.” Here’s the Webster’s Dictionary definition: “a fetus is a human being in the stages of development before it is born.” But abortionists continue to use this term because it has a way of depersonalizing the baby. Ex: The late D. James Kennedy once pointed out that Martin Luther knew the importance of translating the Latin Scriptures into the everyday language of man so that they would know what was going on. And the abortionists know how important it is to translate the English words into Latin so that many of us don’t know what’s going on. Think about it … Scientists will find some bacteria on another planet and call it life--and that’s bacteria--but for some reason, refuse to affirm human life at the moment of conception. Why? What’s the reason? It’s not a matter of science; it’s a matter of politics. It’s inconclusive, they say. And yet they’re sure that there’s life on another planet millions of miles away because of some bacteria. Stop insulting our intelligence and spinning science any way you choose--at least have the courage to call abortion like it is. It’s the abortion of a human life, which counts as life from the moment of conception on.

When Roe v Wade was passed in 1973, there was no 3D sonogram, but ever since, science has only been confirming what the Scriptures teach--even the weaving of DNA strands look like they’ve been personally knit together by someone. You see, soon you begin to realize that this knitting language isn’t just poetry, it’s reality. From the moment of conception, God knit you together in your mother’s womb.

But some people will say, “Well, it might be a human life, but it’s not yet a person. It doesn’t yet have personhood.” But do you realize that that type of argument has always been used when people are attempting to justify mass murder?

For example, David Livingstone Smith in his book “Less Than Human” explains that before you enslave or exterminate some person or people group, you first have to depersonalize them or dehumanize them. It’s the same exact thing that happened with black slaves in the 1800s, it’s the same thing with Nazi Germany calling Jewish people sub-humans, and in the genocide in Rwanda, and it’s the same thing that is happening with the unborn babies in America. You must first semantically destroy them before you can physically destroy them. 

And this is why you scroll through the comments on social media or you listen to some of the arguments made on the news, and over and over again, it’s: “The fetus is not a human. It’s just a clump of cells, it’s just fetal material”--because for the sake of the human conscience, you have to dehumanize them before you destroy them. But the Scriptures over and over identify personhood and life from the moment of conception.

THIRD AND FINALLY: Life Should Be Protected The biblical ethic of life is that life is a gift from God--life begins at conception and, therefore, from conception on, as far as humanly possible, all life should be protected. It is our duty and our privilege to protect life in all types of cases. From the baby in the mother’s womb to the mother who is carrying the baby, we should seek to protect both … not just speaking about what’s wrong, but also sacrificing to help the mother do what’s right, giving resources and love and a home to help these women with unplanned pregnancies realize that abortion isn’t their only option. Are we doing what Proverbs 24 tells us--to “rescue those being taken off to death, and save those stumbling toward slaughter”? Let me share this…Ex: Sean Duffy – a Wisconsin congressman--pointed out the inconsistency in so many people who say “we stand up for the voiceless, the defenseless, the forgotten in our society”-- yet you don’t have anyone in our society more defenseless than these little babies. Are we giving children the chance to be born and to look back, as David is doing, and to celebrate the gift of life?

What About Protecting A Women's Right to Choice?But someone is going to ask, “But what about the protection of a woman’s right to choose?” A woman should have the right over her own body--but it all depends on what you mean by that. Let me point out two things – 1) Even those rights of a woman are limited; a woman doesn’t have the right to kill her own body, to commit suicide, or to use her body for prostitution. But many say, “No one can tell me what to do with my own body!” Actually, yes they can--they do it all the time! It is just in our country that government has told women that they may kill the baby inside their body. Which brings me to the next thing, and that is …

2) Notice the distinction David makes here. He says, “You knitted me together in my mother’s womb.” David speaks of himself as a distinct human being separate from his mother. There was me--and there was my mother. You see, the baby is inside the woman’s body, but it is not the woman’s body. It’s dependent upon the mother’s body, but is not the mother’s body. The baby is not the mother’s body ... it’s inside the mother’s body. It has its own unique genetic code and makeup. It is a distinct person and body. That’s why if someone murders a woman who’s with child, it’s considered a double homicide--because there’s two distinct people. But wait a minute--in that case it’s considered murdering the baby, but if the mother decides to kill it, it’s somehow her right?! That is illogical, inconsistent, and insane. The pro-life movement is not a war on women, it’s standing against the war on all the little women and men in the womb who never get a chance to breathe on their own.

And listen, we’re told that a woman has the right to choose, but what are the options presented to her? The statistics continue to show--and this is from a recent Planned Parenthood annual report, which you can read online--that for every 1 adoption referral, 149 abortions were performed. So the choice is not adoption or abortion, the choice is really whether you want to have the abortion on a Wednesday or a Thursday.

What About Rape and Incest? Alright…BUT! What about cases of rape and incest? What about protecting the women who are victims of those types of situations? Let me just say that those types of situations are horrible, tragic, awful, and sinful, and I cannot begin to imagine the pain that is involved. As a the father of a 4-year-old daughter, my heart truly breaks thinking about those situations--but how do we solve it? We are never called to fix one tragedy by committing another. You can never fix one sin by committing another. Do two wrongs make a right? And I think most of us have heard the statistic that less than 1% of all abortions performed are cases of rape or incest, but I’m afraid we haven’t heard the statistic from a study conducted by Sandra Mahkorn that says that 75-85% of victims of sexual assault refuse abortion. Why? Because many of them know that it is morally wrong, and many of them view the baby as a good that can come out of the evil. Abortion is not some magical surgery which turns back time to make a woman “un-pregnant.” It’s a traumatic emotional event in real time that has devastating effects. And so what’s the hope?

THE ONE HOPE FOR ALLThe one hope for all of us--the hope for all mankind--was an unplanned pregnancy in a mother’s womb. From Mary’s perspective, when the angel announced that she would be miraculously with child at a young age, the pregnancy was not planned…In a culture of honor and shame, you can just imagine the thoughts that went through her head … What are my parents going to say? What are people going to think? We know that Joseph, her fiancé, didn’t originally believe her story. Think of the shame and the name-calling that she went through, and yet she went through with it; she embraced the baby that God had brought into her life, and that unplanned life in Mary’s womb was the plan of God to redeem the world. The hope for the world was a tiny little life in a mother’s womb. And that life was the author of life himself, who came for one purpose … They were told to name him Jesus, for he would save his people from their sins. The one who was once physically helpless would die for those who are spiritually helpless. Romans 5 says that “while we were yet weak, Christ died for us.” As someone put it, “Abortion is the anti-gospel. The gospel says, ‘I die for you,’ but abortion says, ‘you die for me.’” The hope for all of us is the author of life, who gave his life on the cross so that by trusting in him, every sin could be forgiven, every stain could be blotted out, and every past could be redeemed. If you are here and you are struggling with regrets, wondering if God could ever forgive you and use you and redeem your past somehow for good … look no further than the Apostle Paul. Here was a man who approved the murder of other human beings, made in the image of God, and he says that God’s grace overflowed for him in Jesus, and that he realized that God was using him as an example for all those who would believe in Jesus … that if Jesus could forgive him and use him, he can definitely forgive and use you! That because Jesus died and rose again … there is, therefore, now NO CONDEMNATION for those who are in him! But Jesus’ words are not just “Neither do I condemn you” … He also said “go and sin no more.”

The statistics show that a little over 85% of all abortions that were performed were for women who had sex outside of marriage. That’s roughly 5 out of 6. And so what that means is that if men and women would simply follow God’s design for sexuality, many lives would be spared, and if more churches would practice the gospel of grace, more women would feel like they have a place to go. The sad truth is that many women don’t feel like they can show their faces in at home or in church after becoming pregnant outside of marriage, and that is a tragedy in itself. It’s time that Christians, instead of shaming the sinner, stood unashamed of the gospel for the sinner. We need to be a place of healing and love and support. For many women, abortion is not just a preservation of convenience but an attempt to cover over a sin. Like with David and Bathsheba. He committed one sin and tried to cover it up with another, but that never works, and so instead of covering a sin with another sin, we need to tell these women that their sin can be covered by the blood of the Lamb. That’s the solution that will always work. That’s the one hope for all mankind.

CONCLUSION – Let me close with this –I realize that many people may be wondering, “All right, so what now? What can I do in response to a message like this? How can I actively respond?” Well, let me give you four ways--and they’re easy to remember because they follow the acronym of Acts. A.C.T.S.

ASK- Ask God. The Bible says that we have not because we ask not. Ask God to turn the heart of our country back to him, and that more moms would choose life. Ask God to pour out his mercy on all those who’ve been a part of the abortion industry. Ask God to heal the hearts of all the mothers and fathers who have experienced an abortion.

CONSIDER- Consider adoption, consider foster care, consider volunteering at local pregnancy centers such as First Care and supporting the work that they’re doing. Consider different ways that you can be a part of the solution.

TRUST– Trust in the work of Jesus that provides complete forgiveness, and trust in the word and ways of Jesus that provide the right path to follow.

SPEAK- Speak up. To be silent on this issue is to shout so loudly that human approval matters more to you than human lives themselves. Speak up for the ones who cannot speak at all.

by Jeremy McKeen

What is God’s design for marriage and sexuality? In order to answer that question, let's play a little game. Let’s play twenty questions. Remember how this game works? You don’t know what someone is thinking, and so you’re given twenty questions to narrow it down in order to arrive at the answer. Well, what does God think about marriage and sexuality? Let’s ask some questions; let’s ask twenty questions; let’s consider the first marriage in Genesis 2 and see if we can narrow it down and arrive at the answer together.  

1) Who is the author of marriage & sexuality? Who came up with the idea? In Genesis 2:21-22, we see that it was God who put the man to sleep. It was God who created the woman out of the man, and God who brought the woman to the man. So, the first marriage wasn’t the result of what Adam and Eve came up with; it was direct result of what God came up with. And in creating two different genders (male and female), it was God who established the nature of sexuality. Marriage and sexuality is something that God designed. And the word marriage simply means a union, the uniting of two things together. And the reason that understanding that God designed marriage is so important is that the person who designed something knows how it should function best. For example, phones are great tools for communicating but terrible tools for hammering nails, why? Because that’s not what they were designed for. And so the reason that we should want to find out what God thinks about marriage and sexuality is because he designed it and he knows what it is, who it’s for and how it should work. Alright so if God designed this idea of a marriage union between two things … The second obvious question is …

2) What two things is a biblical marriage uniting? It’s a union between what two things? Well, think of it like this - when God was bringing the animals to Adam, Adam wasn’t just naming the animals as they came by, what was he seeing? “That’s not like me, that’s not like me, that’s not like me." That’s why it says, end of vs. 20 - "Adam didn’t find a helper fit or suitable for him." And so what did God do? He created Adam a robot. No. He created a very unique animal. No, God created another human being for Adam, which teaches us that a biblical marriage is between two human beings. Marriage is uniting two people together. Marriage is not between a man and his donkey or a man and his dog. Now, this doesn’t mean that you can’t love Todo; you just can’t marry Todo. You can love your pets, but you shouldn’t be in love with your pets. Marriage is designed by God to be a union of two people. Alright so, the next question is

3) What is the design and purpose for marriage? What’s the goal of these two people coming together? Well, we see in Genesis 2 that God created marriage and sexuality and we learn elsewhere in the Scriptures that all of his creation should glorify him. So, Marriage should glorify God. It should display God’s beauty and holiness to the world. We also learn from Genesis 1 that God was creating and bringing complementary things together, to work together – heaven and earth, light and darkness, sea and land, God and man, and at the end of Chapter 2 is the culmination of God’s complementary work: Man and woman. The word for man in the Hebrew is Ish, and for the woman it’s Isha. So notice -they’re similar and yet distinct, and we learn in Ephesians 5 that these differences are meant to compliment one another and also help change one another to become more like Christ. So marriage is for the glory of God and to compliment one another, and finally in Malachi 2 it says that one of God’s purposes in marriage is for godly offspring. And that’s actually inferred in Genesis 2:24 – "A man shall leave his Father and his mother ...". Wait a minute, Adam and Eve haven’t had kids yet. Where did this concept of parenting come in? You see when a husband and wife is first introduced it already comes in the context of having children, of being a father and mother (now we all know that there are exceptions to that), but we can see that the purpose is to glorify God, compliment and sanctify one another, and to produce godly offspring, to create the foundation for a family & society to exist. Which leads to the fourth question …

4) Can a biblical marriage be between any two people? And now this question clearly involves matters of race, gender, family, and age. I’m not going to get into incest or marrying minors here (From Leviticus on the bible is clearly against that), but we need to see that this whole question of participants is always secondary to the question of purpose. In other words, the participants in marriage cannot be separated from the purposes for marriage. For example – We have no problem with Harvard Medical School telling people, I’m sorry but based on the purposes of our institution, you don’t qualify to participate, but for some reason we think everyone should qualify for the institution of marriage. Why? Because we’re forgetting the purpose. Many people just think the purpose for marriage is to be happy and to celebrate the relationship. And if that's the case, then why shouldn’t any two people be able marry? But that’s to forget that the purpose is to glorify God, to compliment each other, and to produce godly offspring. And God designed marriage in a way that our personal happiness in marriage is the byproduct of fulfilling the purposes of marriage.

Think of it like a pair of scissors. Both sides are very similar right? But they are both unique, and scissors only function the way that they’re supposed to when the two sides are both unique and united. If they’re exactly the same, they can be joined together but the scissors are not going to work. And if the glory of God is best seen through the gospel and the bible teaches that marriage is a picture of the gospel, of Christ and his bride (the church), then two men or two women can’t glorify God in a marriage. Moreover, because they’re the same gender, they cant compliment each other in the way that they’re designed to, and without the help of artificial means, two women or two men physically cannot produce children together. That’s a scientific fact. If the sides are exactly the same, the scissors won’t work. The biblical purposes for marriage cannot be accomplished. Two people of different races can fulfill the purposes for marriage but not two people of the same gender. But still someone might ask …

5) Why can’t two people of the same gender who really love each other constitute a biblical marriage? It’s not hurting anybody! In a talk that Ravi Zacharias, a Christian apologist and author once gave, he pointed out that love is given one word in English, but there are four words for love in Greek: Agape, Phileo, Storge, and Eros. Agape is God’s love, Phileo is friendship love, Storge is parental or protective love, and Eros is romantic love. And if you take God’s love out of the equation, that’s expressed in directing our lives, then the Eros love can be used anyway a person wants. If marriage is just a celebration of a person's romantic affections then why not erotic love for animals or minors or siblings? Why can’t that be a marriage? Remember, God brought a woman to the man, not a girl, not a sibling, not another man, and not an animal. So Pedophilia, Incest, Homosexuality, and Bestiality are all unnatural ways of expressing eros love. Moreover, who’s determining what harms? Often harm doesn’t show itself until many years into the future. And in Romans 1, Paul clearly explains that homosexuality is committing unnatural relations that causes harm. And the bible doesn’t need to describe all the different forms of homosexuality to teach that all of it is wrong, just like it doesn’t need to describe all the types of sexual immorality. There’s no mention of computer screens or magazines in the bible, because the form a sin may take is not the point; it’s the act. So remember it’s man (ish) and woman (isha). It’s ish and Isha, not ish and ish, capesh? But someone might ask, if this union is between two consenting adults of the opposite sex, can it be three or more? The next question we have to answer is.

6) Can a biblical marriage be between more than two people? Someone might ask, well what about all the wives that the patriarchs had in the bible? Well, even though the bible describes the multiple wives these guys had, it never condones it. That was a sin as well. It doesn't say that Adam held fast to his wives, he held fast to his wife. That is the design. And actually if you read the OT narratives closely, it’s the practice of polygamy that hinders the spiritual and social dynamics not helps it. And so when two people make vows at a wedding and each person says, "I do and I will," they are also saying I don’t and I won’t to every other person. Once you open marriage up for the same gender, why not multiple spouses? If you’re going to ordain a homosexual pastor, why not a polygamist pastor? Alright …

7) Who are the eligible participants for a biblical marriage? The participants for marriage are two consenting adults of the opposite sex who are not unequally yoked. So that means, if you’re a Christian, 1 Corinthians 7 explains that you’re called to marry someone “in the Lord.” But if you have married an unbeliever, the command is to stay with them. You can also have two non-believers marry each other, and that’s still a biblical marriage. It’s not a Christian marriage, but it is a biblical marriage, because marriage is a creational ordinance, meaning it’s a foundational act before the fall that is good for all of humanity and society. Alright but ... 

8) How is a marriage formed? How does a marriage come to be? A marriage is formed by three things: leaving, cleaving, and uniting - leaving home, holding fast and becoming one. In Genesis 2:24, a marriage starts to form by leaving. A man shall leave his father and his mother (and now there may be a season or a time when you have to still live as a married couple under the parent’s roof). It's not talking so much about living situations as it is about priorities. What this is teaching is the priority that the marriage relationship takes. The first priority is no longer the parent-child relationship but the husband and wife, and then what? He hold’s fast to his wife. So there’s a public covenant union that takes place through mutual promises, and then it says, "They shall becoming one flesh." Notice the emphasis on flesh. So it’s not just that they’re becoming one in their finances, like they’ve got joining bank accounts or something. It’s talking about the sexual union that consummates the marriage. So a marriage forms by cutting ties, exchanging covenant promises, and sexually consummating the union. Which raises another question … 

9) Is sex inside of marriage all that important? Well, I for one would vote that it’s really important! I’m for it. And so is God. Genesis 2 ends by saying that "the man and the woman were both naked and unashamed." Why? Because they’re married. Because the fire is in the fireplace. The bible teaches that sex consummates the marriage, should be enjoyed in marriage, it protects the couple from temptation and is the biblical means for procreation. I’ve got to share this – Recently, our 4 year hold daughter Hannah, out of the blue asked my wife Lindsay and I at the dinner table, "How do you make a baby?" Well, I said, "Sweetie, mommy and daddy just love each other and hug each other and get as close as we can and just don’t let go, and sometimes a baby forms in mommys tummy." Now, she said, Oh, okay." So, I thought I did pretty well. Two days go by, we’re finishing dinner and Hannah jumps up in my lap and gives me a great big hug and says, “Don’t let go daddy I’m trying to make a baby.” Lindsay looks at me and says, "Nice going." See I left out the part that it’s only for a husband and a wife. Which leads to the next question …

10) Is sex outside of marriage forbidden, and if so why? The answer is yes and here’s why - Marriage is meant to be for life and sex is meant to be for marriage, and this isn’t because God is against sex. He’s against the abuse of sex. We have to realize that when God forbids something, that just like a good father, it’s for our good, He knows something that we might not. Like for example, in Genesis 4 in describing their sexual union it says, "Adam knew his wife." It doesn’t say that he knew her body, it says that he knew her. Sex is not just the union of two bodies; it’s the union of two people. There’s more going on than just the physical, there is emotional and relational attachment and vulnerability that is all mixed in. And so if sex is the fire, marriage is the fireplace. So keep the fire lit, keep it burning burning burning, but keep the fire where it belongs. 

11) Are there any biblical reasons for a marriage to end or to get a divorce? Yes, besides physical death, there are two: Adultery (Matthew 5) and Desertion (1 Corinthians 7). And these are never meant to be excuses for divorce, meaning adultery and desertion doesn’t necessarily have to end marriage, but they are grounds. And if you’re married to an unbeliever, you shouldn’t divorce them, unless they’re the one who decides to up and leave, then there are grounds. And I should point out that there’s a difference between grounds for divorce and grounds for separation. So different types of abuse are grounds for separation, but not biblical divorce, but that raises more questions about the church's involvement and discipline that I can't get into here. Alright, another question is this … 

12) Do you need to get married in order to be happy and holy? That is really an easier one to answer. The answer is no. Paul wasn’t married and he was one of the most joyful and godly men that we know of. So, if you’re single, you’re not a second-class citizen in the kingdom of God, you’re called to use your singleness for the glory of God. Now, if you’re engaged and you can’t keep your hands off each other, that’s a different story, Paul would say, "Forget the big ceremony and just get married, like yesterday."  

13) Can any person or government change what a biblical marriage is? No, the Supreme Court can define marriage any way that they want, but that doesn’t change what marriage is. I don’t want to sound too simplistic, the recent decision has huge ramifications, and so the church should pray and peaceably advocate for a change in a policy that reflect the true meaning of marriage. Homosexual marriage is not a marriage.  

14) Is homosexuality a choice or is someone born that way? I believe that the original Fall has distorted all types of orientation. So, a person may be born with a disposition or proclivity to homosexuality and oriented towards same sex attractions, but a heterosexual person can be born oriented towards promiscuity or greed. Just because a man may be attracted to other women than his wife doesn’t justify acting on those attractions and committing adultery. But …

15) If God made me this way, why shouldn’t I act upon it? Because proclivities or dispositions to sin are not part of God’s original design; they're  part of Man’s original Fall. They’re not the result of Genesis 2; they’re the result of Genesis 3, and in 1 Cor. 6, Paul speaks of all kinds of sinful behaviors including homosexuality, but says, “And such were some of you.” Which shows that proclivities to sin can be overcome.

16) So what then is the hope for marriage and sexuality? The hope for complete pardon for sin and for the power to change is Jesus Christ. We see in Genesis 2 that before Adam could receive his bride, he fell under a deep sleep, which is emblematic of death, and only after his body was broken open and blood poured out, did God create his bride, raise Adam up, and bring the woman to him. And you see the reason that Jesus instituted communion with the broken bread and the poured out wine is because he’s the greater Adam, the last Adam who was pierced in his side and died on the cross for our sins so that we could die to sin, and rose again so that could walk in newness of life. And when Jesus rose from the dead, who was there in the garden to greet him? Mary, the sinful woman, the woman with a sexually broken past. She wasn’t literally his bride, but was a picture of his bride, the entire redeemed and forgiven church of God that is joined to Jesus forever. You see, people who argue for homosexuality from the bible don’t just misinterpret a handful of verses, they miss the grand story of Scripture that starts with a marriage between a groom and his bride and ends in Revelation with a marriage between a groom and his bride, the union between Christ and his church forever. Which raises just a few more questions, and then we’ll be done …

17) Can someone be a Christian and practicing homosexuality? The answer is yes and no, because you need to define what you mean by practicing. Someone may be a Christian and struggling with same sex attractions or even acting upon them, but if there is an acknowledgement of wrong, true faith in Christ, and a genuine repentance then I would not doubt their profession, but if someone doesn’t care what the bible teaches and is going to live a homosexual lifestyle no matter what, then I think the bible calls us to doubt their profession.

18) So how should we treat people who are professing Christians but living in unrepentant sexual sin? This is a very difficult question because it’s always case-by-case; and can involve different measures of church discipline, but the bible calls us to love them like crazy. We are to pursue them in great love and know that love covers a multitude of sins. Now, there is a level of fellowship that will inevitably be hindered because of their sin, but our job is try and speak the truth and restore them with an attitude of humility and gentleness, never pride and judgmentalism. 

19) How should I treat people who are not professing Christians and living a homosexual or transgender lifestyle? Well, in a short answer, we should have courage and love. William Barclay once said, "Jesus spoke the truth when popularity required a lie." His followers are called to do the same. We should have the courage to stand for the truth, even if that means losing our friends, our job, or our 501c-3 status. We need courage to stand, but love in the way that we do it. We should be faithful but never hateful. Christians are called to be faithful to the word, but never hateful to the world. Because every single person in this world is made in the image of God, each person, no matter how they choose to identify themselves, has great dignity and should be treated with love, respect and good will. If we’re not doing that, we’re getting it wrong.

 20) How should we live with a sexually broken past or treat people who have a sexually broken past? We should remember that whether it’s us or others who are Christians, we are not defined by what we’ve done in the past; we are defined by what Jesus has done in the past for us. So, we remember the gospel and apply the gospel. We forget what lies behind and press forward to what lies ahead.

Alright, so we have asked 20 really basic but very important questions. So ... what does God think about marriage and sexuality? God highly esteems it. God thinks that marriage and sexuality is a holy sacred gift never to be trifled with. It's meant to be honored by all but only shared and enjoyed among some. It's meant to be between one man and one woman till death do you part to the glory of God.

by Jeremy McKeen

The Christian life is one of great peace but also great conflict. A Christian is someone who is at war with three great enemies: the world, the flesh, and the devil. In the book of Ephesians, the Apostle Paul deals with the sinful flesh in chapter 4, the influences of the world in chapter 5, and the attacks of the Devil in chapter 6. And he explains that the Devil is the evil behind all the evil. The Devil is the Christian’s great adversary. But what should Christians know about him, and how do they overcome his attacks? 

The Nature of The Devil - In the Rolling Stones’ song, Sympathy For The Devil, it says, “Pleased to meet you, I hope you guess my name, but what’s puzzling you is the nature of my game.” But God doesn’t want his people to be puzzled. The Greek word for Devil means liar. His main weapon is lies, and his lies take the form of schemes. When you think of the Devil don’t think of this little bug-eyed man in skinny red tights with a pitchfork; think of the most sophisticated cunning liar ever to exist. Yet, the good news is that Paul said, “We are not unaware of his schemes” (2 Corinthians 2:11).

The Schemes of The Devil - The Devil has three main schemes: deception, temptation, and accusation. One of the Devil’s best schemes is deceiving people into thinking that he doesn’t exist. But as Tim Keller pointed out, "If there’s a good supernatural being, why can’t there be bad one?” The Devil also tempts people. He uses the carrot of sin or the stick of suffering to tempt people into doing wrong or doubting God. He tempts people to sin by highlighting the upfront fleeting benefits and hiding the long-term consequences. As Thomas Brooks, the old Puritan put it, “The Devil shows us the bait and hides the hook.” In the midst of suffering, he tempts people to fear, anxiety, and despair and to doubt the goodness of God. Finally, the Devil is called “The accuser of the brethren” (Revelation 12:10). He reminds people of past sins and present struggles and seeks to lead them into worldly grief and hopelessness. So, if this is what Christians are up against, what are they given for protection?

The Armor of God - Christians are not left unsupplied. They have been given spiritual resources for this spiritual battle. Yet, what does the armor of God mean exactly? Unfortunately, “putting on the armor of God” can become just a pious Christianese thing to say, but not something very practical that you understand and actually do. The armor is simply the benefits and privileges given to every believer through Christ that counters the specific attacks of the Devil.

The Belt of Truth - In Paul’s day, a soldier’s belt held the entire uniform together, and the idea of a belt is that God’s truth is around you. When the Devil wants you to emotionally and spiritually fall apart, the truth is what holds you together. It protects you from the Devil’s lies. The battle is for the mind, and so Christians must know and apply the truth of God in order to overcome the Devil’s deceptions, temptations and accusations.

The Breastplate of Righteousness - Your righteousness is what causes you to feel accepted; it’s what causes you to hold your head up. If a person’s righteousness is found in anything other than Christ, then the devil can exploit that and lead that person to either pride, if things are going well, or despair when things are not. Yet, when Christ is your righteousness, when he’s the glory and the lifter of your head, then he acts like a breastplate, protecting your heart from either pride or despair.

The Shoes of Readiness - These next three pieces of armor deal with the difficult circumstances of life. A soldier needed to have proper footwear in order to be prepared for any type of terrain. Paul taught that the gospel of peace makes Christians ready to face any difficulty, because if they know that they have peace with God through Jesus, then they know that trials cannot be God’s punishment against them.

The Shield of Faith - The shield doesn’t protect Christians from difficulties; it protects them from fear and anxiety in the midst of difficulties, because they believe the promises of God for them. And Paul taught that the shield extinguishes all the flaming darts of the Devil. Christians are never meant to be afraid of the devil; they’re meant to be aware of the devil.

The Helmet of Salvation - When the terrible blows of life come against the believer, the helmet protects them from the sort of lies like, “If you were really saved, then this wouldn’t happen to you.” Christians are putting on the truth that nothing can separate them from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus.

The Sword of The Spirit - Jesus used the word of God like a sword to defeat the Devil’s temptations in the wilderness, and so should every believer. Just keeping your bible on the shelf is like keeping your sword in the sheath. You can’t quote the word if you don’t know the word. The bible teaches that this Christian warfare is very real. So, take up and put on the whole armor of God, and continue to wage the good warfare.

by Jeremy McKeen

I was recently asked by Moody Radio South Florida (89.3FM) if I would share my thoughts on how Christians should respond to the recent Supreme Court decision regarding homosexuality and marriage. Below is a summary of what I shared in the interview this morning.

Challenge The Christian response to this subject is very challenging, not because the truth is unclear, but rather because you need to take into consideration who you’re speaking to about the truth. Are you speaking to the convinced or to the confused? Are you speaking to people who are convinced that the traditional biblical view of marriage is right, or to those who are convinced that the traditional view of marriage is not the only way to define marriage? Are you speaking to someone who struggles with homosexual proclivities and is sexually confused, or to someone who is unsure about which position to take on the issue? There’s not a one-size fits all answer on how a Christian should respond. This is a challenge. And yet, regardless of whom a Christian is engaging with about this subject, his or her response must embody three essential Christian virtues: love, courage, and wisdom.

LoveAny discussion on this issue must be done in the spirit of love. A great example of this is Jesus speaking with the woman at the well in John 4. Here’s a woman whose life is one of great sexual brokenness, and what does Jesus do? Give her a lecture? No, he gives her his love. He speaks to her (something culturally forbidden), and reveals his true identity to her. He knows that sexual sin will not satisfy her, and so he offers to her the only thing that will. In the same spirit of Jesus, we don’t have to like the Supreme Court’s decision, but every Christian is duty bound to love people who are celebrating it and living a homosexual lifestyle. We must not neglect this essential attitude of love and kindness. It’s essential. In fact, Paul taught in 1 Corinthians 13 that having the right theology is not enough; we must have the right posture to go along with it. It doesn’t matter how intelligent and witty our response is; if it’s not done in love, we’re getting it wrong.

And Christians are called to love people not as if we're their superiors, but as their equals. The woman at the well is a picture of the entire church. We’re all equally in need of God’s grace and forgiveness. Christians need to work hard at not reinforcing the false caricature that already exists of self-righteousness and hatred toward people practicing homosexuality. And this love needs to be in action, not just in attitude. So for example, if you’re driving into work and wondering how to interact with your co-workers who you know will disagree with you on this subject, surprise them. Bring the donuts to work that morning or treat them for lunch. Go the extra mile. Love your neighbor as yourself. Rico Tice once said, “We want to be living in a way that raises questions, and then speaking in a way that answers them.” And if we really love someone, then out of that love we will speak the truth. Remember, Jesus loved the Samaritan woman, but he also spoke the truth and addressed her sin. Jesus loved the woman caught in adultery and said, “Neither do I condemn you.” But he also said, “Go and sin no more.” This is where it takes courage.

CourageI love the story of Daniel when the law is passed and sent down from the “Supreme Court” of his day that it was illegal to pray to the true God; Daniel doesn’t change a thing. To be honest, I think I would have at least shut the windows, but not Daniel. The man had courage. He kept doing exactly what he was doing just as before. No compromise. This is the type of courage that is needed. The Apostle Paul wrote, “Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong. Let all that you do be done in love” (1 Cor.16:13-14). Notice the combination of both love and courage in that verse. As Jonathan Parnell put it, our message must be, “You’re loved, and you’re wrong.” After all, this is the message of the cross. “You’re loved, and you’re wrong.” Christians need the courage to not cave under the cultural pressure and the peer pressure to revise what the bible clearly teaches on this subject, and Christian Pastors need to have the courage to teach the traditional biblical view of marriage and to give a compelling vision for God’s beautiful design for sexuality. In this day of compromise what is needed is not more hip and trendy ministers trying to make the bible more palatable but men who are willing to be called "fools for Christ's sake." Christians are commanded to stand for the truth, to contend for the faith, even if and when people will misunderstand that as bigotry or hatred. The real Jesus that marches through the gospels wasn't afraid of saying the hard things and we mustn't be either. 

WisdomFinally, Christians need to exercise great wisdom and tact in their responses. We must, “Walk in wisdom toward outsiders” (Col.4:5). Supreme Court decisions are not overturned because of some hateful theological rant on Facebook or badgering people around the lunch table. By all means, exercise free speech, but let’s be wise about it. Jesus taught us to be “wise as serpents and gentle as doves” (Matt.10:16).

Wisdom will not just mean knowing how and when to speak up, but what to say when even fellow Christians are challenging you on the biblical teaching on homosexuality. Christians must do their homework and be prepared to respond. The best passage that spells it all out is Romans 1. Paul explains that when an individual or a nation turns from God, three exchanges take place: First, they exchange worshipping the Creator for worshipping created things (idolatry). Second, they exchange the truth about God for a lie (falsehood). Third, they exchange natural sexual relations for sexual perversion (homosexuality). Turning away from your Designer ultimately leads to turning away from your design. And the final step in this sequence is an all out approval of blatant sins – “Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them” (Rom.1:32). Clearly, this is where we are now as a nation. Its not just practiced; it's approved. 

At the end of the day, Christians need to ask themselves, “Do I love my religious liberty more than people’s souls? Do I love America more than the church? Am I living in the fear of the unknown future or in the peace of the known God? Do I love to be right more than I love my neighbor? Let me close by paraphrasing something I read from Russell Moore - "These are dark days when in comes to marriage in our culture, but remember that it was on the darkest day, when the Son of God hung upon the cross, that God accomplished the greatest triumph in the world. That day wasn’t the end of the story, and neither is today." May we respond to this issue and this day with great love, courage, and wisdom.