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Month: January 2013

Ship of Fear

The devil has a head start on fear for the coming year. While doing some Internet research I stumbled on an ad that immediately caught my eye. Every year it seems that holidays come earlier and earlier. They break out the pumpkins for Thanksgiving around Labor Day. Christmas decorations used to go up at the end of November, now the tinsel appears as soon as the Halloween costumes are taken down. But the Devil’s Day excursion I’m about to describe is booking customers almost 10 months in advance.

A splashy web site is advertising a special Halloween vacation called the Ship of Fear Horror Cruise from Miami to the Bahamas. Music on board will be by Dee Snider of Twisted Sister fame and Alice Cooper. Even if he is a Christian, I don’t want to be on a ship that emphasizes the demonic. Other hosts include Ed Gale who plays the demonic character Chucky in the “Child’s Play” horror film series; Tom Holland who directed the “Tales from the Crypt” TV show; Joe Dante who is famous for “The Howling,” a film about werewolves; Mary Lambert who directed “Pet Sematary,” based on the Stephen King novel. Activities will include a zombie prom. All this for a minimum of $1,099 or a grand suite for $3,599 to spend five days terrified out of your mind. And this fear cruise is being marketed 10 months in advance.

I have no desire to live from now until October 28 in anticipation of being confined at sea on a ship of terror. I intend to spend between now and December 31, 2013 living in hope and confidence that faith in the One who holds my future in His hands will make this coming year a better year than any I’ve experienced. No ship of fear will be allowed to dock in my spiritual life.

New Year Fear

I have one word to welcome 2013 – Triskaidekaphobia – fear of the number 13. For those who survived the end of the world on the Mayan calendar, Dec. 21, there is a new terror — a year ending in 13. Technically triskaidekaphobia relates to the fear of Friday the 13th, but some paranoid people are applying it to this New Year. The word comes from the Greek tris which means 3; kai which means “and”; deka meaning “10” to which is added phobos meaning “morbid fear.”

Some say this fear is rooted in the fact there were 13 people at the Last Supper, Jesus being number 13 who was betrayed. Others think it came from the 12 signs of the astrological zodiac representing order, and thus 13 would be a sign of chaos. Freemasons get in on the act. They think that on Friday the 13th, 1307, the Knights Templars began to suffer persecution under Philip IV of France. To combat such silliness, a 19th century group call the Thirteen Club, met in New York every Friday the 13th at 8:13 pm, and 13 people ate in a room numbered 13 – after entering by walking under a ladder. Even President Theodore Roosevelt joined the group.

I want to assure you there is nothing to fear in 2013. I don’t know what will happen, but if God is for us who can be against us (Rom 8:31). As for me, 2012 was the year I almost died and spent four months sidelined, bringing the ministry to a financially dangerous point. I’m thrilled that it’s 2013. No number and no phobia can keep me from experiencing all that God has in store. To me, 13 will be a number of health, prosperity, goodness, and favor. Will you join me in that declaration? And the next seminar city I go to, I’ll be perfectly happy to stay on the 13th floor, even if they have it numbered 14.

Sperm Donor Dilemma

Just when you think that the permutations of modern life have reached the limits of moral absurdity, another conundrum comes along. This time It’s a sperm donor in Kansas whom the state is assessing for child support. It seems that William Marotta, in his effort to be a good neighbor by donating his bodily fluids, has run afoul of the law. He aided a lesbian couple in distress who wanted a child but had no way to obtain the necessary “ingredients.” Marotta dropped a supply of sperm off at the home of the couple who somehow implanted the offering and eventually that recipient gave birth to a baby. Then the lesbian couple called it quits and the biological mother ended upon public welfare. The Kansas Department for Children and Families declared Marotta the father and docked him for support payments. The biological father argues that he was just doing his civic duty and could care less about the child.

Like me you’re probably shaking your head and asking, “Where do we start to assess a situation like this that never should have happened?” Society invited this slippery slope with same-sex parenting and sperm donors without regard for moral convention, and now has a financial and ethical problem to solve. Naturally, the innocent three-year-old child is caught in the middle of this, unwanted by the father and one of the “parents,” and in need of life’s basics. Kansas authorities base their case on the fact that the three parenting parties didn’t work through a doctor or clinic as required by law. And that is supposed to make a moral difference? Two lesbians wanted to do what biology didn’t equip them to do. Marotta’s motives aren’t known, but how he dispensed his gift is – auto-eroticism dissociated from love and responsibility. Now to avoid having taxpayers pay the price, the state of Kansas suddenly intervenes for the sake of the child. No one is noble here, and whatever actions taken are a little late. I want to meet this child when she’s older. I guarantee that with the abandonment and rejection issues swirling around her that it will be miracle of God’s grace if she doesn’t get demons.

Did Jesus Exist?

Richard Dawkins, the noted atheist and anti-religion zealot who wrote The God Delusion, just can’t let it go. His tirades against Christianity grow more strident every day. He goes so far as to proclaim that a serious historical case can be made that Jesus never lived. Is that so? Is the Bible our only hope to validate the historical Christ?

Professor Christopher Tuckett of Oxford University, not exactly a defender of Christianity, has said that non-Christian references to our Savior from ancient sources give us absolute certainty that he lived and died. What Tuckett concludes is that allusions to Jesus by the writers of His time, such as Josephus, lead to the conclusion that these references “provide us with certainty” validating the existence of Christ and “render highly implausible any far-fetched theories that even Jesus’s very existence was a Christian invention.”

No accumulation of concocted legends comprises the New Testament. It was written within 25 years of Christ’s life. In fact, Tiberius, who was Emperor when Christ was crucified, has reliable documents about his existence which are trusted by scholars, even though they were written 80 years after his death. So why the fuss about what Mark and Paul said? Australian John Dickson, an Honorary Fellow of the Department of Ancient History, Macquarie University of Australia, has written a brilliant article entitled “the irreligious assault on the historicity of Jesus.” Dickson, not exactly a fundamentalist Christian, challenges my erstwhile media critic John Safran (popular Australian TV personality) thusly: “If anyone can find a full professor of Classics, Ancient History or New Testament in any accredited university in the world who thinks Jesus never lived, I will eat a page of my Bible, probably Matthew chapter 1. My Bible remains safe.”

Mr. Dawkins may want to save some ketchup or mustard to season the ingestion of his own book, to eat his own words.

Most Admired?

The results of the USA TODAY/Gallup 2012 poll are in. The most admired American man and woman in America are Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. For Hillary it’s her 16th honor in that position. In Obama’s case, his percentage of admirers doubled from last year. Billy Graham and Pope Benedict XVI only managed a four-way tie for third with George W. Bush and Mitt Romney. Political parties aside, these choices say volumes about the moral state of America. It’s not my deliberate intention to dis either individual, but to reflect on why Barack and Hillary are the choice of millions of adoring citizens.

There are many factors influencing peoples’ selection, such as the amount of news coverage a person gets. But setting all that aside, think of what Obama and Clinton have in common. Both are unrepentant political liberals who owe their souls to socialistic constituencies. Both favor abortion on demand at taxpayers’ expense. Neither has an active religious faith that is expressed overtly. They call themselves “Christians,” but that designation is more categorical than theological.

There is something to admire about each: Obama as the first African-American President; and Clinton for surviving a disastrous marriage to William Jefferson. They have equally overcome great odds to make it to the top of the political arena, but neither conveys any biblical moral urgency to abide by Christian truths. As such, I coudn’t put either at the top of any list of honorees. Of greater concern is that the moral (or should I say immoral, at least with reference to abortion) beliefs they hold are “admired” by the majority of Americans. Perhaps we should not just be concerned about who Obama and Clinton have become, but what America has become. We are a nation of admirers of all things ungodly and that is a death knell for our spiritual future.

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