Category: Apologetics

Apologetics · Church · Theology

God is eternal and unchanging.

Bob Snyder5 Comments

Biblical ignorance is one of the biggest obstacles for the evangelist to overcome. There are many false doctrines and misconceptions being propagated in society today. We have to answer so many false claims while practicing apologetics. Hopefully we can fix one of those problems today with this article.

God is eternal and unchanging. God has always been, and He has always been just as He is. He has never not been, or been in any different state.   He does not change. The nature of being uncaused and eternal is what we call, “the aseity of God.” The nature of not changing is what we call, “the immutability of God.” Both of these qualities are important when understanding God’s eternality and many of His other attributes. For today we are going to focus on His eternality, aseity, and immutability.

How do we answer, “If God is unchanging, didn’t He change when He turned into Jesus?” This demonstrates a woeful ignorance of theology. Children in the Puritan era might have asked this, but certainly not adults. It is true that if God’s nature changed during the incarnation we would have a problem. An eternal Creator that was not immutable could not be counted on to always be just, or good. So the fact that God is immutable is a blessing for us. God did not turn into Jesus at the incarnation. God was always as He is, Triune. He is one being in three persons. At the advent of Christ, the second person of the Holy Trinity, the eternal Son, joined Himself to human nature without mixing, or mingling His deity with His humanity. This is what we call the hypostatic union. It means that the incarnate God is 100% God and 100% man, joined together perfectly in accord with the will of God. The incarnation did not change God. This misinformed idea reveals how little we are trained in theology and Biblical truths.

The Mormons say that God was once a man, who was created by a father and mother god through natural means, who themselves were once mere humans, who were created by a father and mother, and on and on perpetually. This is how they understand their god to be eternal. How does our God differ? Our God is explained by His word. We know that He created everything. We know He didn’t just move matter around to form some things on this planet. If He created everything, and is the source of all things, then He would have no pre-existence as a man. He would not have been created by other gods, who were once human. He would be eternal all in and of Himself. I would ask the Mormons, “Who was the first god who made the first man, who later would become a god? Why wouldn’t you worship this first god who supposedly made the first man? Why would you worship a being who is not the creator of everything?” The God of the Bible is truly a transcendent being. He is above, and beyond any imaginings a person would have in conceiving a false god. That is why when you encounter a false religion it is easy to spot problems. Of course this is only true if you are a person who has been saved, and knows the true God. Once you know Him you can spot a fake. How could anyone worship such limited beings as the ones they imagine? It should blow us away when we hear some of these descriptions.

The God of the Bible created everything there is without diminishing Himself. He created it out of nothing. There was nothing there for Him to build things out of versus the god of Mormonism who just reformed matter and was the great great great great great great great great grandson of some other little god.   The winner is, the God of the Bible. This is one of the many reason that Mormons are not Christians. They might claim to be, but if they believe the doctrines of their cult, then they are not Christian. We obviously worship a different God than they do. Their god is a finite creature, created by others.

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Ours is NOT! We need to be happy about this, and correct them when they publicly claim to worship the same God. They cause confusion, and draw support when we don’t explain the differences.   A god who was created is not a god at all. Only a God who is transcends creation, who made everything without diminishing himself, who made everything from nothing makes sense.

What does it mean to be, “eternal?” Have you ever thought about this? Most of us have thought about what it would be like to live forever, but all we can really conceive of is living a very long time. We can’t imagine what it would be like to have no beginning or end. It is something that only God can understand fully.  Another idea about eternality, is that it is unseen.  We are in a temporal creation.  What we can see is limited by our nature.  God is being eternal.  We might ask, “Is it possible for any other being to be eternal outside of God?” The Bible says we will live forever with God if we are saved, but that isn’t being eternal. That is just being resurrected to everlasting life. We had a beginning. God created us, and He keeps us alive.  We were caused to exist, and He is the one who upholds our existence.  Even after we have left our temporal existence behind, and step into eternity, it will be because we have been made to do so by God.

It doesn’t it make sense to have another eternal being outside of God. If there was then God would not be alone and unique in His deity. There would be other Gods with separate wills, and equal power. We know that God says in His word that He is the only one, and that He is not a liar.

What about the gods of other faiths, are they eternal? This is simple, No.  They have never been.  They can’t be. For something to be eternal it would have to have always been, is being, and always will be.

If they are false, because they are not eternal, or actual, then what is going to happen to their worshipers, and why? If they never repent, and put their faith in Christ, then they are under the condemnation of their sin. They will die, and be found guilty of their sins. They will be in Hell suffering the torment of God’s wrath being poured out on them, not because they believed different, or because they didn’t grow up here, but because they are guilty sinners just like us.

How can they be saved? We must preach the gospel of Christ to them. They must repent of their sins, and trust in the work of Christ on the cross solely.  When they find out that they are sinners, their hearts must be convicted of this. They must be humbled, and become penitent. Then they must confess their sinfulness to God, and ask Him to forgive them. They must submit to God as their new master. They need to accept that they cannot earn favor with God. They need to rely, and fully trust in the finished, perfect,  atoning, work of Christ on the cross.

Apologetics · Church · Theology · Uncategorized

If Politics And Government Are Not The Answer, What Is? (Part Two)

Bob SnyderLeave a comment

So to continue from the last article, I concluded that politics and government were not the answer to our problems as a nation. Some of the things that led me to conclude that were the scenarios I ran, presupposing that I would be in government. I thought, what could I do when the nameless representatives of some super-powerful, world-wide consortium, comes to me and says, “Vote this way, or your family will die in a house fire, or we will release these doctored pictures of you to the press, showing you with a prostitute in a hotel room with five pounds of cocaine, or you have a lot of money in your account right now, do what we say or people will find out, and ask questions.” These people are so powerful they answer to nobody. They are above the law. They have people killed, and direct the courses of the nations. They don’t do it for God. They do it for their real masters. I believe these are the powers and principalities of the Bible. Men who are so powerfully, influential who receive their marching orders from the devil, and his legions. As the Bible says, these men are not my enemies, they are controlled by them. If you kill these people, more people will fill their roles. It is pointless. I grew up in an America that no longer exists. We have to wake up to the real problem, it is sin. Mankind is totally depraved, and the only hope for us is Christ. We wonder to ourselves, why anyone would want socialism, acceptance of gay marriage, legalized gambling, legalized drugs, socialized medicine, minimum wages, labor unions, big government, no prayer in school, over-sexualized kids, gratuitous sex and violence on television, blasphemy of God and the Bible in the media, and on and on and on it goes. Total depravity, kidos! Our sinful natures drive us to all kinds of evil. What should we do? Preach the gospel to everyone we meet. Think about it, what would be more beautiful than a country full of devoted Christians who love Christ above all else? God says in His word that if we love Him we will obey His commands. If we all preached the gospel and made disciples of all men, if we obeyed this command, “…’YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND…” or this one, “…YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF…” or if we prayed for our enemies, What if we stayed married and worked it out, or Fathers were more than a paycheck and fix-it-man, or Mothers were more than a cook and shuttle service, what if we took responsibility for ourselves and families instead of insisting on some governmental fix? Think about how it would look compared to the secular Europe or the islamic middle east. Even if the world-wide government continues to work it’s evil will, we still have to focus on Christ and His goodness. We might not be able to ever change the course of the nation, but we are all responsible for our own sins and will be judged. We will be found in Christ or in the world. Personally, I like the famous hymn from Rhea F. Miller,

“I’d rather have Jesus than silver or gold;
I’d rather be His than have riches untold;
I’d rather have Jesus than houses or lands;
I’d rather be led by His nail-pierced hand

Refrain:
Than to be the king of a vast domain
And be held in sin’s dread sway;
I’d rather have Jesus than anything
This world affords today.

I’d rather have Jesus than men’s applause;
I’d rather be faithful to His dear cause;
I’d rather have Jesus than worldwide fame;
I’d rather be true to His holy name
He’s fairer than lilies of rarest bloom;
He’s sweeter than honey from out the comb;
He’s all that my hungering spirit needs;
I’d rather have Jesus and let Him lead “

So while we can, we need to repent and put our faith in Christ, the true hope of man.

Apologetics · Church · Theology

I’m a mormon now! Yep, just call me LDS.

Bob SnyderLeave a comment

     I’ve decided to be a mormon now. I am LDS. I don’t believe Joseph Smith was a prophet. I don’t believe the book of mormon. I don’t believe that I need to be baptized into the mormon cult. I don’t believe that God was once just a man.  I don’t believe that Jesus and satan are brothers.  I believe in the Triune God of the Bible. I believe in His word, the Bible, as being infallible and inerrant.  I believe that the 2nd person of the Trinity, Jesus Christ, is God incarnate, and that He lived a perfectly sinless life, obeying all the laws to earn righteousness.  I believe He obeyed the will of the 1st person of the Trinity, God the Father, and went up on a cross to bear the sins of all who would be saved.  Their debt was imputed to Him, and His righteousness was imputed to them, so that they could be justified in the sight of God, thus glorifying God through the salvation of sinners.  I believe that God, being just, will pour out His wrath on those who have not been granted repenctance and faith.  He will be glorified in the damnation of sinners, by demonstrating His justice.

     So as you can see, I’m not really mormon.  I talked with a mormon man yesterday.  He insisted he was a Christian.  I asked him, “Are you a Baptist?”  He said, “No, I’m a mormon.”  I said, “Then you are NOT A CHRISTIAN!!!” 
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He looked very perplexed.  He didn’t understand why I was so offended.  I think he believed he was the one who should be offended.  I explained to him, “If you are a Christian then I am LDS.”  Then I told him the things that I mentioned previously in the first paragraph of this article.  To which he uttered a firm, “You can’t be a mormon if you don’t get baptized into the church!”  I then said, “Exaclty my point.  Thank you.  So then, ipso facto you are not a Christian.”  I was going to explain that if there are in fact, doctrines that make one mormon or not, then there are also doctrines that must be affirmed by a believer to verify that they are Christian, but alas the lad stormed off in a huff.

     So my mormon friends, I emplore you, please stop telling your people to declare, “I’m a Christian!”  When in fact they are not.  If you are so pleased with being LDS, just declare that you are LDS, but don’t insult, and offend me by blaspheming the one true God, whom I, and all true Christians serve.  We are not fooled, and neither is God.  Truly, we find it quite disturbing that you would consider them to be compatible, and obviously, so do you when confronted with the doctrinal differences.

Apologetics · Theology

Young Earther and Proud.

Bob Snyder4 Comments

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The Earth simply is not as old as scientist think it is.  I don’t fall in to the thinking of, “it was created with the appearance of age.”  I think the time/space distortion of creation best explains the concept, that from our point of view looking back at the point of origin it seems to be and for some purposes is old, but looking out from the point of origin it has only been 6000 +or -.   We can not perceive time the way God does.  He made time.  He is not subject to it.  It is subject to Him and so is space.  If you move a prop through water it causes cavitation which is a distortion.  inside the distortion sound travels at a different rate than it does outside the distortion.  This is a bad analogy, but you get the idea.  cavitation-matter-creation

The creation and placing of things at a rate faster than the speed of light causes distortions with time and space.  I agree with the Bible that the Earth is young.  We just think it is older looking from our point of view.  Kind of like the jog wheel on a VCR playing a video of the life of a tree.  The seed is not, it is, it is a sapling, it is a tree, it is a house, it is not, all in one instance to God.  We are very linear minded beings.  His ways are higher than ours.  For us to doubt His word because we don’t get it is wrong.