Today's Scripture Reading (March 9, 2024): James 1
James was the leader of the Christian Church in
Jerusalem. He writes these words to his people. Don't be deceived. He is not
speaking to those who don't believe in the faith. He is addressing the
faithful. Don't be deceived because the enemy will try to fool you; he will attempt
to distract you from the very things that are essential to the faith. The enemies
of Christianity used the art of distraction then, and it is one of the main
tactics of the enemies of the faith now.
A friend recently sent me several YouTube videos
declaring that Jesus had returned to the Gaza Strip (as well as the Archangel
Michael). I reminded him that Jesus predicted all of this.
At that time if anyone says to you, 'Look, here is the Messiah!'
or, 'There he is!' do not believe it. For
false messiahs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and
wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect. See, I have told you ahead of time.
"So if anyone tells you, 'There he is, out in the wilderness,'
do not go out; or, 'Here he is, in the inner rooms,' do not believe it. For as lightning that comes from the east is visible even in the
west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man (Matthew 24:23-27).
Don't be deceived.
Some years ago, I took a theology course that
covered several hot topics, and one of them was creationism vs. evolution. We
had a guest speaker who came in to speak about evolution from a Christian perspective.
His name was Denis Lamoureux, and he had written several works on the subject.
Surprisingly, Lamoureux had also written from both sides of the issue. Early in
his career, he was a creationist and published several articles arguing the
creationist viewpoint. But the more he studied, the more he began questioning
his conclusions. I own a book written by Lamoureux that was written later in
his career entitled "I Love Jesus & I Accept Evolution." It
reflected his belief that God created the world but that evolution was the tool
he had used to make it and us. And there are many Christians who hold this
view, including me.
In this class, there was one person who believed
that unless you accept six-day creationism, the belief that God created
everything that there is in six twenty-four-hour periods, and held what is
called a young earth theology, that this planet is only 6,000 years old,
regardless of how old the scientists might think the dinosaurs might be, then
you were not a Christian. By his definition, I am not a Christian; I fail the
test in both areas: I believe that evolution could have been the tool God used
to create us and that the earth is closer to 4.5 billion years old than it is
to 6,000 years old. My classmate also believed that because the school taught
what it taught, it was not a Christian School.
My colleague's seat was empty on the night that
Denis Lamoureux came to speak. He didn't need to hear the lies of a pagan. When
a paper on the subject was due in class, my classmate bought a paper on
creationism off the internet, a paper guaranteed to get a B or B+.His defense
was that he intended to prove discrimination against his perspective if his paper
received less than the promised B. He got an F on the paper because of his plagiarism,
but even today, if you ask him, the F resulted from a demonic school that
refused to accept the Lordship of Jesus and not because of anything he had done.
I am convinced that my colleague was a deceived Christian.
He had lost sight of what was essential to the faith, that Jesus Christ died
for our sins and that he asks us to live, with his help and strength, lives of
integrity. James says, don't be deceived. The test of Christianity is not
whether you line up on the creationist or evolutionist side of a debate; it is
whether you can love the ones who line up on the opposite side, just as Jesus
taught us. Don't be deceived.
Tomorrow's Scripture
Reading: James 2
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