Ironworks Pike Community Church - Pastor's Blog

A Creationist Cannot Be A Race-Hater.

10/20/2021

A consistent Christian creationist cannot harbor hatred toward other tribes or skin-colors. The Bible is very clear all throughout that all humanity originally springs from one man. God through Moses revealed that the man's name was Adam. We first read about him in Genesis 1-4.

Jesus Christ regarded Adam as a real person. He based some of His teachings about marriage on the marital example of Adam and Eve. The apostle Paul treated Adam as real as well. The Genesis genealogies trace back to Adam.

Adam's historical example carries no moral authority if he was mythological, any more than if I were to base a sermon on Spider-Man. Christ's genealogy in the gospel of Luke starts with Christ and goes all the way back to Adam. If Adam was a myth, then Jesus was a myth; and we know Jesus was not a myth.

This means we all trace our bloodlines back to a single fixed point. First we all trace back to Noah, and then, through Noah, back to Adam. This speaks to our equal, shared humanity. We are all made in God's image. We are also all sinners because Adam disobeyed God, as Paul discusses in Romans chapter 5.

God did not evolve primates up to a certain level then implant a rational soul into them, as C.S. Lewis unfortunately guessed.

Many efforts have been made by misguided people over the centuries to prove the Bible exalts Caucasians. First, Biblically speaking, as creationists we say there is only one race -- the human race. Some have taught the so-called "curse of Ham", and claimed that curse was black skin. But read the Genesis story. See that the curse was actually on Canaan, Ham's son (some commentators think that the curse passed over Ham because God had blessed him earlier; or God meant "Ham's line" all along, just as Israelites were often called "Jacob").

Canaan's seed were the Canaanites, who lived in and around what we call the land of Israel. God's curse through Noah fell on them in the form of Joshua and the armies of Israel, as they took the Promised Land. The Canaanites were not Blacks.

The same Biblical truth can be applied in all sorts of directions. Caucasians are not "white devils." They're all sinners. Native American Indians are not "red devils." They're all sinners. None of the various continental African tribes are good or the others bad. They're all sinners. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. All must come to God by faith in Christ, to be saved from their own sin and guilt.

God requires of us a fundamental respect for every human being. Even when we don't understand each other, or agree with each other, we are all made in the image of God our mutual Creator. This is why our U.S. Declaration of Independence says, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, and are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights." That is God's Biblical truth.

Why Being Pro-Life Is A Christian Ethical Essential.

10/12/2021

Our denomination follows a solidly conservative, Biblical, and evangelical statement of faith; you can read it here on our website, or at www.efca.org. And as a general rule, we don't wade deep into politics, if at all. We do not endorse candidates, and I as pastor don't tell people how to vote though I will share my personal opinion. When I preach, I stick to the Bible text, and deliberately steer a middle course. I make it a policy to not make fun of political viewpoints I don't agree with.

We're a church that welcomes Democrats, Republicans, Independents, and Undecideds, as long as their goal is to seek God and learn His inspired, inerrant word. We even welcome Louisville Cardinal fans.

However: the sacred nature of human life is not one of those "agree to disagree" areas. "Thou shalt not kill" is one of God's universal, timeless, and unbreakable codes. We could no sooner ignore or excuse deviation from "Thou shalt not kill" than we could ignore "Do not commit adultery". Humanists don't care about the ten commandments, or make excuses for ignoring them. But a dedicated Christian bows to the moral laws of God, and does so in Jesus' name.

We accept that Moses was God's prophet, in part because of his miraculous prophecies, his miraculous deliverances, and especially because Jesus, the Son of God, said Moses was God's prophet. Moses wrote the first five books of the Bible, and because the Spirit of God guided his stylus, Moses' five books are without error. In addition, there is nothing allegorical or mythological to be found in Genesis, especially the first three chapters.

This means that God created human beings in His own image. It also means that God's rules on killing apply to all people. We know from Moses' writings that God did not forbid every form of killing. God gave permission to kill animals for food. He permitted killing a human being if it was for self-defense, or for defense of an innocent person being attacked, or in a war, or as punishment for a crime.

None of these exceptions apply to unborn children.

I can see a situation when a mother's life must be saved by ending an unborn infant's life, as in the case of a tubal pregnancy, which, if allowed to proceed, would surely cause the death of child and mother. That would fall, sadly, under the Law's exception of saving an innocent life. But defense against a physical attack by a criminal, or against an enemy soldier? War? Capital punishment for a crime? None of these things apply to a baby.

Nor does the circumstance of the baby's conception. Should the innocent baby die, because the manner in which she came into being was involuntary, or criminal? No. Two wrongs never make a right. If we kill a baby because she was conceived by rape, then we have created two victims of evil.

Retorting that pro-lifers then have an obligation to help provide for the mother is true, but confuses the issue. Christians have done more for the unborn over history than any other group. It's devout Christians who throughout history have started orphanages, founded hospitals, funded charitable foundations for the needy. It was Christians in the early centuries of the Church who snuck up the mountains to rescue abandoned babies left to die by their Roman parents.

Are there bigger applications of being pro-life than just saving babies (as if "just saving babies" is a light issue)? Yes. Being pro-life also means opposing police brutality against minorities. It means opposing the Ku Klux Klan and similar hate groups. It means developing Bible-based policies about war; standing against unnecessary wars; and prosecuting war-crimes such as what happened at My Lai and Abu Ghraib. It also means welcoming refugees.

But supporting the breaking of God's iron-clad commandment, "Thou shalt not kill" is never an option for a Christian.

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