Lessons from Charlie Kirk's Shooting

September 10th, 2025, began as a beautiful day in Orem, Utah, about 39 miles south of Salt Lake City. The campus of Utah Valley University was abuzz with activity, a crowd of around three thousand people eagerly awaiting the appearance of Charlie Kirk, the founder of Turning Point, USA, who was scheduled to speak as a part of his “Prove Me Wrong” tour of college campuses across the United States. Kirk was widely known for inviting anyone to step up to the microphone and ask him questions or debate him on political and social issues. Neither Kirk himself, nor any of the members of the audience, were aware that Charlie would soon be asked the final question of his life.

Photo by Gage Skidmore

At 12:23 PM, as Kirk was discussing a question about mass shootings, a shot rang out. Kirk was struck in the neck, and the world was forever changed. A prominent political activist, focused on reaching America’s young adults with the truth of God’s word, had been brutally assassinated in front of a massive crowd of onlookers. As horrific as this event was, what followed was perhaps even more shocking.

Beginning mere moments after the news of the shooting got out, a wave of vile and disgusting comments began to surge online. Social media was flooded with content openly celebrating the murder of a man whose entire livelihood was based on reaching across the political and cultural divide in order to speak candidly, honestly, and above all, kindly with those who opposed his beliefs. Charlie Kirk’s consistent methodology when conducting his debates had been to listen carefully to the questions posed to him and to follow with a well-mannered, civil response. More often than not, his answers drifted into the realm of discussion and debate rather than simple Q&A. It was not at all uncommon for his adversaries to approach the mic with hostility, but Kirk’s replies and rebuttals were consistently kind and well-measured. The same cannot be said of the deluge of vulgar tweets, videos, and comments made by his detractors in the wake of his death.

America In The Last Days

I recently saw a meme complaining about Bruce Springsteen’s Born in the USA. According to the creator of the meme, every year around the 4^th of July, this song climbs way up the charts on all the major music streaming platforms. The problem? The song isn’t really patriotic or pro-America in any overtly discernible way. It does clearly seem to be the story of an armed forces veteran coming home after the Vietnam conflict, but I suppose if one such as the meme creator were to go searching for overt “Yay, America!” lyrics, they would indeed come up empty.

Seeing this meme caused me to begin thinking. First of all, I wondered why the meme’s author would care so much about whether the song was overtly patriotic or not. Then of course, I remembered that it’s the internet, and what good is the internet if one can’t complain about obscure minutiae? More importantly, I began thinking about the usual rhetoric that accompanies Independence Day in the US, and how, at least in Christian circles, I often hear one of two refrains…

Many Christians wax optimistic about the future and how America will be a light unto the world until Christ returns. Others complain about the state of society and talk about how we need to turn this country around before it’s too late. Both of these statements miss a very important Biblical fact: the United States of America will have little to no role to play in the end times.

*gasping noises*

Don't Be A Jonah!

Have you ever been given bad advice? Worse yet, have you not realized that the advice which you were given was bad until after you had acted upon it? Well let me tell you about the worst advice that I was ever given, albeit indirectly, and from a preacher, to boot!

Back around the turn of the century (there’s a phrase which has caught me by surprise a good number of times in the last few years), I was a band director at a rather small school. My son was just a toddler, and my wife and I attended church regularly with the local Baptist congregation. We had an interim pastor for several months, and I thought he was a very good preacher and a great guy all around. Fast forward to a sermon he gave from the book of Jonah.

Continual Sin

“Whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.” (1 John 2:6)

In my recent musings about the presence of sin in the life of a Christian, and specifically in my own life, I have been circling a very uncomfortable question. Before springing it on you out of the blue, let me lead into it in much the same way that it has pursued me: one step at a time.

We all know that a Christian’s life should reflect the holiness of Christ. We should, as stated above, walk as He walked. But we also know that we are not perfect. We will stumble, even fall from time to time. Fortunately for us, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9)

We also know that we must not abuse the gift of forgiveness, as Paul states in Romans 6:1-2, “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?” Again, we are clearly supposed to be imitators of Jesus: walk as He walked.

But we do fail. It is inevitable. Worse yet, we will do so repeatedly, even if we are trying our very best to do the right thing. Temptation comes, and far too often, we succumb to its treacherous pull. My own experience with this began to make me doubt myself. Mind you, I do not doubt God, but rather I came to doubt whether my own faith was genuine. Here enters the question which has been stalking me: am I truly a child of God, or am I taking His name in vain?

Unknown Sin

So far, we have discussed the usurping sin of taking the Lord’s name in vain and the unpardonable sin of blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. Today, we examine unknown sin: instances where we commit sins of which we are completely unaware.

Photo by Ann H on Pexels

You undoubtedly have heard the phrase, “Nobody’s perfect.” I would argue that there was one exception to that rule, but we (meaning humanity) nailed that individual to a cross roughly two millennia ago. Nevertheless, I’m sure that we would all agree that the sentiment is true today. The Bible states the situation quite concisely…

“…all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God…” Romans 3:23

Most of the time, we think of sin as happening at a decision-making point; we are faced with a situation where we must choose between two options: one which clearly honors God versus one which we would probably enjoy, but, for whatever reason, would put us clearly outside of God’s will. The problem is… life isn’t always so clear-cut. Sometimes, we may not even realize that we’re doing anything wrong!

Think back to your childhood. Did you ever get into trouble for doing something? Of course, you did! Were you ever asked, “Why did you do that?” Of course, you were! And I guarantee that you remember responding with, “I don’t know,” at least once. As (perhaps jaded) adults, we typically respond to a child who claims ignorance as a defense with disdain. “Oh, you know better than that!” But if I really search my memories, I’m certain that there were, in fact, times where I did things without thinking about whether they were good or bad. I just wanted to do it, and so, I did it.

Unforgivable Sin

Last week, we discussed the usurping sin of taking the Lord’s name in vain. In our investigation, we uncovered the seriousness of this sin; breaking the Third of the Ten Commandments…

“You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain.”  Exodus 20:7 and Deuteronomy 5:11

Image by Adis Resic from Pixabay

The explicit statement that God will not hold guiltless (will not forgive) anyone who takes His name in vain is a particularly unsettling thought. That’s a very steep penalty, especially in light of the New Testament, where salvation from our sins is based on the crucifixion of Jesus. Christ’s blood covers the sins of all who believe in Him, but we previously discussed why an outward statement of faith is not necessarily a true statement of what is in one’s heart. Even the New Testament mentions one sin that will not be forgiven. The unpardonable sin is revealed to us in Matthew 12:31, “…every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven…”

It might be easy to conclude that since both testaments mention a sin which will not be forgiven, the two sins in question must be the same. I have heard this argument made in sermons from time to time, but I believe it to be based on a misconception, much in the same way that people misunderstand what it actually means to take the Lord’s name in vain. Let’s explore the reasons why these verses refer to two very different sins.

Usurping Sin

I can't even begin to count the number of times that I’ve heard fellow Christians say something about how they feel when they hear someone “take the Lord’s name in vain.” We all know exactly what they are referring to: a particular bit of foul language that begins by saying “god” and ends with a word that sounds like the fruits of a beaver’s labor.

All misguided attempts at dad jokes aside, I know there are Christians out there who are sincerely bothered, even offended, by hearing the word in question. While “g-d” is considered by most people (even non-believers) to be one of the two biggest, or most intense, swear words (the other being the dreaded f-bomb), it has become almost ubiquitous in its usage in the entertainment industry and in the vocabulary which some people use commonly in their own personal conversations.

The Bible clearly says, “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain.” This prohibition is important enough to be stated twice in the Old Testament: Exodus 20:7 and Deuteronomy 5:11. These verses are, in fact, the Third of the Ten Commandments!

Taking the Lord’s name in vain is a serious offense, as the text indicates that anyone who does so will not be held guiltless. Being held guiltless is a longer way of saying being forgiven, which in the context of Christianity equates to salvation; for only the saved are forgiven of their sins. In light of the New Testament, we now understand this to mean that anyone who takes the name of the Lord in vain shall not be saved by the atoning death of Christ on the cross. Clearly, it behooves us to understand exactly what act merits such a drastic outcome. As it turns out, an alarming number of Christians completely misunderstand this sin.

Testing the Waters

Image by Dimitris Vetsikas from Pixabay

A week ago, I posted my first blog article in… well, a long time. I’ve been going through my old files and I’ve found a few articles that I had completely forgotten writing. Some of them are published in this blog, but a few are not. What follows is adapted from an article which I wrote in March of 2016.

At that time, I was paying for a website with a blogging tool included. Somewhere along the way, I realized it was not financially feasible to continue paying for a website that generated no revenue, so I moved most of what I had previously written over to Google’s Blogger platform, which I still use to this day. A few of those older articles didn’t make the cut, for various reasons.

Today, I was browsing through the old stuff and this particular article caught my eye. It struck me as being very pertinent to my reboot of the blog, and more importantly, to the last several years that I’ve experienced. The term “mid-life crisis” might not be inappropriate. Sure, in some ways my life has been pretty rock solid. I became a grandfather, I have a stable job, my wife and I are in a fairly stable (certainly not luxurious!) financial situation, and from many observable metrics, one might say that I’ve been doing pretty ok.

But is this all there is? What purpose am I serving? Why am I always anxious? Why do I feel so tired all the time? What am I even doing with my life? I want to do… something. But what?

Choose Faith (The Armor, part 12)

I’m not a morning person. Waking up is a process, and my morning routine seems to happen with little or no conscious thought on my behalf. Sit up, put on my oversize fuzzy slippers, answer mother nature’s call, feed the cats, make the coffee. It’s the same every day, and I go through it without even thinking about it.

Or do I?

Even though I may feel (and look) like a mindless zombie first thing in the morning, each step of my routine is the result of a choice. I choose to get out of bed rather than sleeping in. I choose to put on the fuzzy slippers instead of going barefoot. True, going to the bathroom may be the unavoidable result of bodily functions, but I choose to do that before feeding the cats or making coffee. Everything we do is the result of a choice, even for one such as myself who, upon first waking, has more in common with the walking dead than Mr. Rogers.

What is life if not a series of choices?

Choice is an ever-present factor of human life. Nothing that you do happens without your choosing it. You chose your job. You chose what to wear this morning. You chose what to eat for breakfast - or you may have chosen to skip breakfast altogether. You chose to read this article (and I choose to thank you for doing so!). If any of the above decisions were made by someone else on your behalf, then you chose to let them make that decision for you.

As stated in lyrics penned by the late Neil Peart of Rush, “If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice.” There is no escaping the presence of choice in your life. It touches everything that you do.

Defending the Faith (The Armor, part 11)

The Shield of Faith is arguably the most complex piece of the whole armor of God. The problem is that faith is such a complex word with many, many layers of meaning. Faith is hope. Faith is trust. Faith is belief. Faith can also be a set of beliefs. The Bible tells us, “faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” (Hebrews 11:1) Faith is loyalty, confidence, assurance, and truth.  All of this… without even touching the topic of where we should place our faith.

It was with this awareness of the myriad definitions of faith that I opened my Strong’s Concordance to narrow down the possibilities and try to find out what exactly Paul was getting at by invoking the name of faith in regard to the Roman soldier’s shield. What I found was surprising.

We’ll get back to that later.

A Herd of Turtles (The Armor, part 10)

Wolves have long been one of my favorite wild animals. It’s not surprising, because I love dogs, I grew up owning dogs, and at times during my childhood, I spent more time alone with my dogs than with other kids my age. I have been described by numerous people throughout my life as a loner, so I suppose it makes sense that I have often felt a kind of kinship with the trope of the lone wolf.

While it’s true that a lone wolf can be an effective hunter, such a beast will find itself limited to small prey. But a pack of wolves? That’s a different story. Wolf packs are among the most successful of nature’s hunting parties, able to bring down prey that would be impossible for (or even deadly to) a lone wolf.

Believe me when I say that life as a Christian is much the same way.

A lone Christian can make some impact on the world for Christ. Some would argue that it is in one-on-one contact and close relationships with non-believers that a Christian is able to share the Gospel most effectively, and they wouldn’t be wrong. But even so, all Christians need to have regular contact with other believers, lest they cease to be the hunters and become the hunted. Fortunately, there is a place where individual believers can go to recharge their batteries on a regular basis.

Yes, it’s the church.

Even the strongest and surest individuals need a support system. Indeed, as stated so succinctly by author John Donne, “No man is an island.” Living and working in isolation is difficult for social beings, whether they be wolves or humans. The work is tiresome, the resources scarce, and the rewards limited. But as part of a group (or pack), the Christian can find the strength and support to accomplish far greater things than the loner.

Photo by Neil Carey (license CC BY-SA 2.0)

An excellent picture of the power of a unified group of individuals comes from Paul’s reference to faith as a shield in Ephesians 6:16. While the Roman scutum was a formidable bit of equipment for the individual soldier, the collective strength of these shields when used in unison by an entire unit became the stuff of legend.

When outnumbered or facing a rain of arrows from distant archers, Roman legionnaires could unite in a special defensive formation known as the testudo, or tortoise formation. Soldiers along the perimeter of the formation would hold their shields upright, side-by-side, while those inside the formation would lift their shields horizontally above their heads, overlapping them to form a virtually impenetrable shell encasing the entire unit. The formation could maintain its position nearly indefinitely, and it could even move and advance into enemy lines while providing superior protection to the soldiers beneath the canopy of overlapping shields.

Complete Coverage (The Armor, part 9)

One of the primary goals of this study is to better understand the symbolism used in Paul’s references to Roman military equipment in his letter to the Ephesians. Why, for example, does he pair the shield with faith, rather than some other spiritual quality? And why is faith, which is so extremely important, placed fourth in this list of six items? The answers to both of these questions lie in the broad nature of the word, “faith,” as well as the equally broad coverage of the scutum itself.

Scutum In Action

The Roman soldier’s shield was a surprisingly versatile and effective piece of equipment due, in part, to its large size and relatively light weight. The scutum was large enough to fully cover a crouching soldier, leaving virtually no target available for archers except the shield itself, yet lightweight enough for a legionnaire to wield in one hand while brandishing a sword or spear in the other. The scutum quite literally overlaps every other piece of the Roman soldier’s gear.

In much the same way, faith has a broad array of functions in the life of a believer. Faith, in fact, has an impact on every other facet of our spiritual lives. Surely this is why Paul says…

“Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.”

~Ephesians 6:16 (KJV)

While the KJV translation of this verse begins with the words, “above all,” other translations use phrases such as in all things; at all times; in every situation; in every battle; in all circumstances; and in all this. Faith overlaps every one of the spiritual elements Paul refers to in his references to the whole Armor of God.

On Display: The Shield of Faith (The Armor, part 8)

If you love the near-infinite variety of wildlife found on our tiny blue-green planet (as I do), you are sure to have taken note of some of the more prominent features displayed by nature’s children. Perhaps you have marveled at the giraffe’s surprisingly long neck or have been impressed by the peacock’s striking plumage. Maybe the elephant’s flexible trunk and majestic tusks strike your fancy, or it could be that you are enamored with the magnificent mane of the king of beasts, the mighty lion. Whichever creature strikes you as being the weirdest, the wildest, or the most bizarre, it’s probably due to that one characteristic which sets them apart from the crowd. That creature’s most prominent feature marks it as special in some way.

Perhaps the most prominent feature of a Roman soldier’s gear was his shield. While the Romans employed a variety of shields even during the time of Jesus, by far the most iconic and recognizable of these was the scutum, a curved rectangular shield large enough to completely cover a fully grown man. The name scutum is derived from the same word which might refer to a turtle’s shell, and the protection afforded by a Roman soldier’s scutum was similarly as effective and complete as that enjoyed by the armored reptile.

Image by Parasit on Pixabay

The Roman scutum of the first century was a convex rectangular shield constructed of mostly wood and leather, commonly edged with rawhide to make the structure more durable. The handgrip was located in the center of the shield, with a circular cutout which allowed the handle (grip) of the shield to be as close as possible to the shield’s center of gravity. This placement allowed for better control of the shield when gripped with a single hand. The hand itself was covered by a boss, a piece of domed metal intended primarily to protect the hand, which would otherwise extend through the cutout, beyond the surface of the shield, when holding the handle.

It's About Time: Creation and the Theory of Relativity

We know that 60 seconds make up a minute, 60 minutes make up an hour, there are 24 hours in a day, seven days in a week, and so on. Humans are obsessed with time. We celebrate the passage of it with anniversaries and birthdays, we plan our waking activities around it, and we build clocks of all different shapes and sizes, from Stonehenge to cuckoo clocks to building sized monuments like Big Ben, to smart watches synchronized automatically by your cellular network to super-precise atomic clocks.

Peter Cetera, in a song by his band, Chicago, famously asked, Does Anyone Really Know What Time It Is? As it turns out, that question may be a lot harder to answer than you think.

Hidden Meanings

If you’ve read the New Testament very much at all, you’re probably aware that Jesus made extensive use of parables in His teaching. In case you’re not exactly sure what a parable is, let’s define it.

Parable: a simple story about everyday life which is used to illustrate a spiritual or moral lesson.

No matter what subject you’re teaching, your goal is to communicate new ideas to your students. One of the most effective ways to do this is to start with concepts which your students already understand, preferably with ideas that they have fully mastered, and build upon what they already know in order to learn something new.

Satanic Prayer Sparks Internet Firestorm

A prayer spoken at a town hall meeting in Alaska’s Kenai Peninsula Borough on June 18^th of this year prompted several attendees and officials to walk out, as well as sparking protests outside the borough’s administration building. Controversy over public prayer is not a new thing in the United States, but the prayer spoken at this meeting held south of Anchorage has turned the usual debate on its head.

Wikimedia Commons

You see, the people protesting this prayer are Christians, as the prayer was delivered by Satanic Temple member Iris Fontana, whose closing words of the prayer were, “Hail Satan.”

Didn't see that one coming? You're not alone. But maybe we shouldn't be surprised by this at all.

Christians in the United States have long been chafing at restrictions placed on prayer at public events. The protests against prayers at gatherings such as public sporting events or town meetings have typically been spearheaded by atheists who claim that such prayer violates the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment:

What Is The "Value" Of Life? (What If Atheists Are Right, Part 2)

When debating the questions of existence with an atheist, at some point the value of human life will inevitably arise. This happened with my previous post, when a viewer on my YouTube channel challenged the idea that eternal life would be valuable. She said quite correctly that scarcity gives items, even our time, higher value. It’s basically Economics 101: supply and demand. Simple concept. For example…

In the US today, we tend to take water for granted. It’s typically abundant and cheap. But elsewhere in the world, that’s not necessarily the case. Desert-dwelling societies put a much higher value on water, and access to water may play a central role in their economy. But where I live, I pay about $30-$40 a month and I can shower, do laundry, run the tap, and flush the pooper as much as I want.

Water is an absolute necessity for life as we know it, so it makes sense that a scarcity of it makes it that much more valuable to us. But humans also place high value on a lot of things that are not necessary for survival at all.

What If Atheists Are Right?

Atheists are quick to point out the differences between religions (and especially between different denominations of the same religion) as proof that people of faith have failed to come to any kind of
consensus. That alone, they say, is enough to prove that faith is nothing more than a bunch of superstitious hogwash. But they are overlooking something when they resort to this argument. Even though there are literally thousands of different religions, there is one factor that they all have in common.

I’m going to call it “continuity.”

According to the Pew Research Center, 84% of the people on this planet are affiliated with a religion. This means that the vast majority of humanity shares the belief that there is something more to our
existence than this life. Whether it’s Heaven, Nirvana, reincarnation, or returning your energy to the cosmos, people of faith all believe that some aspect of what we call “us” continues to exist beyond physical death.

Hence… continuity.

Atheists say that this is all there is, and when you die… it’s GAME OVER.

Now, I love science. Almost more than I love barbeque. Probably less than pizza… I also believe that there is more to reality than science can explain. But… what if I’m wrong? If atheists are right, and science is the only appropriate way to interpret reality, what does the future look like for humanity as a species?

Romans 14 and Doubtful Things

In Romans chapter 14, the Apostle Paul addresses a conflict between certain believers at the church in Rome. Two issues were brought up, actually. The first one was about food. Specifically, some people thought that it was wrong to eat meat, and that believers should only eat vegetables. The second issue was about which holy days should be observed.

And Paul gave them the same answer for both questions:

Let each be convinced in his own mind. In other words, that issue isn’t really worth the stress it would place on one's relationship with other believers, so Paul suggests that the best resolution in cases like this is to simply live and let live.

If you want to eat only veggies, fine, do that. But if you like a good steak, feel free to chow down! Observe whichever holy days you see fit to observe - or don’t. Just be sure of two things:

1) That you are honoring God in your heart as you are doing (or not doing) these things, and…

2) Don’t try to force your opinion about these things on other people.

Now there were serious reasons why people were asking these questions, and they had to do with the culture both inside and around the new, growing church in Rome. Some of these early Christians were Jews that had come to believe that Jesus was their long-awaited Messiah, and the Jews of course followed quite a few traditions prescribed by Old Testament Law. But other new members of the church were Gentiles - basically anyone who wasn’t a Jew - and they naturally had other ideas about certain things. And of course, the culture outside the church was, in a word, worldly.

But Paul’s answer here does more than just settle the questions about these two topics. What we’re actually seeing is the establishment of the Biblical principle of CONSCIENCE. This is the principle which is to be followed whenever we confront what Paul referred to as doubtful disputations or doubtful things: disagreements over topics which aren’t directly addressed in scripture.

Paul essentially says that if God has given you the liberty to do this or that, then by all means, go ahead and do it! (Or abstain from it, if you prefer!) 

DISCLAIMER: It’s very important to mention that this liberty only pertains to things which are not specifically mentioned in scripture (and yes, we’re talking about Old Testament Law here). So if scripture says that action X is a sin, then it IS a sin. The New Testament (or New Covenant), based on Christ’s atoning death, is a new solution to the problem of sin. It does not change the definition of sin. We don’t get to have opinions about it. Sin, as they say, is sin.

But the Bible doesn’t specifically mention every possible action that a person could take. That was true in the book of Genesis with Adam & Eve, it was true in the first century church, and it’s true today. Of course, we now have many, many more options available to us than in times past, which makes it that much more important for US to understand this Biblical principle of conscience.

Here’s how it works: Paul mentions that if a person believes that action X is a sin, then for that person, action X IS ACTUALLY a sin! For that person, action X leads to the same internal consequences as any other sin, because if they were to participate in it, they would feel guilt, remorse, and shame. It violates their conscience in exactly the same way that any of the explicitly named sins would do.

And because of this, you have to be careful not to try to force someone to agree with you on matters like this. That’s where this whole idea of the stumbling block comes in, and it also happens to be one of the areas in which the church has failed… miserably.

Do you know why there are so many different Christian denominations? It’s because we, the members of the Body of Christ, have let disagreements divide us into factions. Whether it’s the question of full-immersion, deep-water baptism vs “sprinkling,” eternal security of the believer vs possible loss of salvation, election/predestination vs free will, or any number of other doctrinal divisions, we the people of the church have allowed the placement of thousands of stumbling blocks which prevent us from worshiping God in complete unity.

Non-believers are seeing all of this, and they are often quick to point out that we can’t even agree amongst ourselves. It’s one of the leading reasons why they think we’re all a bunch of fruitcakes and hypocrites.

Paul tells us that if our actions grieve another believer, then we are no longer walking in love. He later goes on to say: “Let each of us please his neighbor for his good, to build him up.” That sounds a whole lot like something Jesus would say. You know, that whole, “Love thy neighbor as thyself,” thing.

In MY mind, I am thoroughly convinced that most of the disagreements over church doctrine need to be tossed into a large bin labeled ROMANS 14. Paul makes a number of statements in his various epistles which pinpoint the one and only irrevocable, un-do-withoutable truth of Christianity, which is that Jesus, he who is the Christ or Messiah, is the Son of God, that he died for our sins, and that he was resurrected from the dead. This is the central fact of faith that a Christian must accept. Without this lynchpin, nothing else matters.

Now please don’t think I’m discouraging discussion and debate about difficult topics. When you come to a disagreement about the Bible or how you should live out your faith, talking through the topic is certainly helpful and healthy, so long as the purpose of the discussion is to find some common ground or mutual understanding. After all, virtually every doctrinal dispute has some kind of plausible scriptural reasoning behind it, and we always need to keep in mind the possibility that the other view just might be the right one. In any event, such a debate should NEVER become a point of contention that puts stress on your relationship with another believer, no matter what denomination they come from.

Even (no, especially) if it's one of those "out there" denominations that believes some crazy ideas about the Bible, because none of us actually has a flawless understanding of scripture.

In the great passage about love from 1 Corinthians 13, Paul says, “For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully…” This echoes the Old Testament idea that God’s thoughts are high above our own, and I’m pretty convinced that what Paul is saying in Romans 14 about doubtful disputations goes hand-in-hand with these other passages of scripture.

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but there are things in the Bible which you think you understand, that you don’t understand at all. And I am FULLY aware that the same goes for me. It’s a little bit terrifying to know that in spite of all my studying and research, there will inevitably be times when I say something that is incorrect - just plain wrong - even though I’m totally convinced that I’m right. And I know that the Bible says that those who teach will be judged more strictly.

None of us understands God completely. None of us interprets everything in the Bible correctly. And most certainly, none of us are perfect at putting what we DO know to use in our everyday lives.

So the one and only thing that you or I should ever doubt about God, the Bible, and everything, is our own understanding. In the end, we just have to take what we know, do the very best we can with it, and leave the rest to Him.

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart,

    and do not lean on your own understanding."

~Proverbs 3:5

Why the Carpet Doesn't Matter

I am firmly convinced that most conflicts which arise in a church can best be settled by the authority of the Bible. The problem is, sometimes the Bible doesn’t tell us how to handle specific situations. For example: at what temperature should the thermostat be set? At what time should services begin? How long should services last? What color should the carpet be? What kind of music should we sing? Should we have a Wednesday night service, or just Sundays? And most importantly, for Baptists, when do we eat?

Well, the answer to that last one is actually another question: when DON’T we Baptists eat?? But I digress.

The point is, sometimes the Bible gives very specific instructions that really only apply (literally at least) to certain people at a certain time. Joshua’s instructions to topple the walls of Jericho by marching around the city while blowing trumpets and shouting would be such an instance. But other passages in the Bible establish general principles that should be kept in mind during a great many different possible scenarios, with Romans chapter 14 being a prime example.

While the subjects literally mentioned in this passage are 1) whether one should eat meat or only vegetables, and 2) which holidays and festivals should one observe, the principles established in Romans 14 can be applied to many different areas of conflict in a church. Of particular importance are decisions which are really just a matter of personal opinions, styles, or preferences – such as the color of the carpet.

Churches have indeed been split because folks couldn’t agree on the carpet. Or… have they?