The Christian Vanguard

From the early church up to 1930, virtually every church believed contraception was a sin. That fact alone should have us induce that contraception is in fact a sin. Yet, there are many Christians today, even in my own congregation, that will never entertain the possibility of contraception being a sin.

There have been debates emerging about gun control after each tragic shooting that I have seen on the news. Virginia Tech, Aurora, and now Newtown (I was too young to remember the reaction after Columbine). The debate that has emerged after the Newtown shooting seems to be fiercer since many of the victims were little children, and as responsible Christian citizens, we ought to have some biblical background to the debate, so that we may safely navigate through the issue. So, what does the Bible say about gun control?

I saw “Bowling for Columbine” a long time ago. I bought it at Wal-Mart because it was on sale for like three bucks. I had purchased it during the time in my life where I had already left behind communism, but wasn’t completely a conservative. I was free-market on most of the fiscal policy issues, and only partially in line with the republicans on the social issues (I supported the death penalty, “torturing”, our presence in the middle east [I believed a war with militant Muslims was attractive for an atheist] and was pro-gun [basically all the violent stuff lol!], but was for abortion and same-sex marriage). And so while I thought the documentary was crap, an off the cuff comment, or slogan, about health care had me thinking.

I risk being called a racist for this. My better judgment is telling me not to make this thought public, but my gigantic ego is telling me to not be a fairy and put it up like man. I’m thinking we ought to abolish hate-crime. What is hate-crime? Basically, what happens is, if I, a “Mexican-American” (I prefer just “American”, thank you very much) beat up a gay man, and while doing so, call him derogatory names in reference to his homosexuality, like “queer” or “faggot”, my punishment will be more severe. My targeting of his demographic for a crime makes my punishment more severe. There are difficulties with this.

The story of Babel in the Bible used to confuse me. I didn’t understand what was going on that was so bad and I never understood why God did what he did. I never found the explanation that God realized that if men were to be united in such a powerful way, they would be united in evil, a plausible explanation. Whether we are united in evil or divided in evil, we’re evil nonetheless, so destroying B abel would be inconsequential. But wrapping up my course in Political philosophy, I think such an explanation is plausible now. Having a one world government is scary to us now. Why? Because it so often leads to tyranny. We ought to have, like we do in the US, a separation of powers. “Ambition counteracts ambition”, “if men were angels” , etc. Because human nature is corrupted, we cannot centralize it. If it is divided, peace can be achieved. That is why God divided the people. Application: the story of Babel shows us that God favors a government that has a separation of power

What is the Rosary? The Rosary is technically not the necklace. The Rosary is a prayer. The necklace is just supposed to aid you in your prayer, since the prayer is so long. Because the Rosary is so long, you risk focusing on where in the prayer you are at, instead of focusing on the Mysteries. So you finger the beads as you pray. Once your fingers come to the end of the necklace or to certain points, you know to change or stop. The basic structure is this: You start off at the bottom with the crucifix, do the sign of the cross and you recite the apostles creed. Then you have a few hail marys. Then there are a few sets of ten beads, for ten hail marys, also known as a decade. There are four decades for the four types of mysteries. During the hail marys, you ponder the mysteries of christ as Mary pondered them as described in Luke 2:19.

It started with marriage. I love debates, and one of the debates that brings light with its heat is the same-sex marriage debate. I'm a Christian, so my position is already determined for me theologically, yet when discussing with non-believers, starting with this presupposition is not adequate. So I thought to myself, how can I go about making such an argument against same-sex marriage? I read around, looked at some articles, some in books, some in magazines, and some online. I took what I thought were good points and meshed them into a general worldview. I also considered criticisms and I constructed my view with those in mind to sidestep some pitfalls. So what you see was that product of all that. Basically, what I came up with was this (as far as I know, my syllogism is original):

While this has been, so far, a negative review, I do want to say, to start off a critical look at chapter three, that I’m quite glad Ferguson recognizes, “Any leader in any group who says he is not tempted [to enjoy the limelight and praise] is either out of touch with his own heart or dishonest.” The famous Lord Acton dictum is, “Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” So I am quite happy with the way this has started.

    Chapter Two discusses what is perhaps the sharpest dividing line (though not the most important one) between Catholics and non-Catholics, and it is that of authority. What do Catholics and non-Catholics consider authoritative?

    In my journey and exploration with the Catholic faith, I have become convinced of much of their doctrines and dogmas. I do so without any shame, though many have tried to shame me. My obedience is to truth, and nothing else. In attempts to have me drop some of my Catholic beliefs (and by Catholic beliefs I mean those doctrines and dogmas typically unique to the Catholic church, and perhaps the Orthodox church as well, that I have individually adopted, not beliefs I hold because I have or intend to join the Catholic church) some disciples have loaned me Gordon Ferguson’s book “Prepared to Answer”. The following is a response to his section on Catholicism.

What does the Bible have to say about abortion? I used to think this issue was Biblically clear-cut, even on the non-believing side, but as I have been browsing some atheist and skeptical websites and blogs, there seems to be this idea that the Bible is either silent on the issue, or is actually for it. That is not true. Here is a list of verses that supposedly support abortion. They all fail.

I feel like it’s a bit difficult to get people motivated for apologetics. I’ve written Biblical cases for apologetics, and I’ve been working tirelessly to prepare lessons, and to be available for questions somebody in the ministry might have. And that’s good and all, but that just doesn’t seem to work all too well. Best seller Nancy Pearcy writes in her new book, Saving Leonardo , “Join a campus ministry group? A Bible study? Important though those things are, the most decisive factor [according to a Fuller Seminary study] is whether students had a safe place to work through their doubts and questions before leaving home. The researchers concluded, ‘The more college students felt that they had the opportunity to express their doubt while they were in high school, the higher [their] levels of faith maturity and spiritual maturity.’ The study indicates that students actually grow more confident in their Christian commitment when the adults in their life – parents, pasto

The Supreme Court of the United States recently declared what is called “Obama-care” constitutionally permissible. It was a milestone for this country, and a surprising one at that. I thought Obama-care wouldn’t pass, but not a few people were just as surprised as I was. There is no point in trying arguing whether it is unconstitutional or not now. I have had some intense debates about Obama-care, but almost none with disciples. The conversations about health care I’ve had are usually with non-believers. I should be having more with my brothers and sisters but I don’t. Is health care important, and if so, how are Christians to approach it? Let us look at some Scriptures first.

I had some Mormons come over and visit me. And unfortunately, my experiences with the Mormons are too similar. I show them that the Book of Abraham is a fraud, and thus makes the Book of Mormon very suspicious, and they ignore evidence and rely on “faith”. Faith, in spite of evidence. They get angry, and I don’t blame them, I’m attacking such a central part of their lives, of course they’re going to get defensive, but it’s such a diabolical doctrine, it needs to be weeded out.

My mother lives right next to a Kingdom Hall, a meeting place for the Jehovah’s Witnesses. She’s been real interested in them and what they believe lately, which is a bit suspicious, seeing how she’s an agnostic. But I suppose its good because now her and I have a lot more discussions about God, the Christian lifestyle, and comparative religion. One of the things I really emphasize with her is that the JWs rejection of the full deity of Christ is false.

I’m sure at one point or another, Christians are going to hear that accusation that the Bible has not been accurately translated, or it has been changed or corrupted, or because we don’t have the originals, we’ll never know what it really said. This can be dealt swiftly and effectively. However, this challenged was posed to me by a Muslim man, and I think in this particular case, you can take a slightly different, and more impacting, route.

At first, this may seem like the common question of the unevangelized, which asks, what happens to those who have never heard of Jesus? What is their fate? However, this question actually takes a side, that they go to hell, and it is because of their absence of knowing about Jesus that they are going to hell for.

In a scathing article written by Jonathan Dudley on the CNN website , Dudley argues that when it comes to the issue of homosexuality, evangelicals are “ riddled with self-serving double standards. ” That’s a fancy way of calling people hypocrites. Basically, he argues that Paul “ condemned a lot of other things that Christians don’t condemn today. ”

I've come to realize that there are actually two interpretations of this question. The first is the one I'm most familiar with, which is the one coming from the atheist or skeptic who is not really seeking to know God, but to look for a quarrel, and the other is from the inquiring Christian. Since I'm not sure which interpretation I'm faced with, I'll go ahead and explain both.

I had a dream the other night. Something of a nightmare. I dreamt this girl, a girl I'd like to date one day, was with another guy. They were holding hands and smiling and just being happy together. And I didn’t like it. In fact, in my dream, I was quite jealous. Of course, the dream wasn’t real. It was fictional, but I was still jealous. It’s quite silly isn't it? I should be able to get over jealously. After all, it’s quite childish to get jealous. So how do we make sense of God’s jealously then? Is God being childish?

I was sharing my faith on Cal State Long Beach a few days ago and I had a conversation with a Muslim fellow about the Trinity. The objection he raised to me is a common one that the Jehovah’s Witnesses and some Unitarian sects raise against the Trinity, which is, if Jesus is God, to whom was he praying to?

Ok, so, obviously lying is a sin (9th Commandment), yet if a Nazi asked me if I were hiding Jews, and I was, the better thing to do is lie. But that's a sin, and you can't do that. So is the Bible wrong? Or is the Nazi story wrong? - Elise Hey Elise,

On April 17th, I was able to participate in a Spirituality Panel at Long Beach City College. The other panelists were a Santero, an Asatru, and a Neo-Pagan. Credit for my speech goes to  Craig Hazen  and Sean McDowell whose work made up most of the content. Here is the video!

In my conversations on the existence of God with atheists and skeptics, I've heard this one more than once,  "You can't prove a negative"  and they therefore think they have nothing to prove, no work to do. Easy peasy, right?. I remember watching a debate on the existence of God, and during the Q&A, some poor undergrad started off by saying, "I just wanna start off by saying that you can't prove a negative. My question for Dr. Craig is..."

When one hears of tragedy like the recent massacre in Aurora, Colorado, a feeling of anger often rises. We sometimes ask, "Where was God? Where is his justice?" While God will have his day of judgment in the future, what are we, as human beings in this temporal world to do? Many, like myself, say justice for the society is to be found in capital punishment (hence forth CP). I am aware that other Christians strongly disagree. I argue that CP is the more Biblical position.

I used to think that Christians ought to take part in the political process was a given. I have previously written about the permissibility versus impermissibility of voting for Mitt Romney, a Mormon. After all, Christians and governments are seeking to influence the same thing: the public. Christians are called to make disciples of all nations, and governments rule all nations. From this, a Christians should at least be conscious of the kind of government he is in. To my surprise however, many Christians in my acquaintance want nothing to do with government, and they attempt to cite Holy Scripture to defend their position. There are numerous problems with this.

Mitt Romney is the currently the GOP candidate for President of the United States. It is quite plausible that he could be President. Mitt Romney is also a Mormon. Why is Romney’s Mormonism something to take note of?

I was walking with a friend to buy lunch one day. As we were walking down a tranquil neighborhood with blossoming Jacaranda trees and well kept lawn grass, my friend observes, “Look at all this concrete and how we are killing this beautiful earth.”

When discussing the resurrection of Jesus with non-believers, whether they are hostile to religion or not, the slogan, “Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence” often comes up. It is very common. It is too common. There are many different ways one could approach this claim, by either asking for clarification (what constitutes something being extraordinary?) or by laying a burden of proof (what’s so extraordinary about the Son of God coming back to life?) but for now, I want to take a look at the form of the question.