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bible, birds, physics, science, string theory

From musical birds on a wire to natural numbers controversy; string theory to theory of everything- some thoughts

Posted on March 11, 2014May 9, 2016 by elizabethprata

A month ago I wrote about the Music of the Spheres, the ancient concept developed by Pythagoras and promoted by Plato that there is a hidden order and musical harmony behind what we see manifested in the physical universe. Pythagoras believed that numbers were the foundational glue that ordered the worlds, and further, that as the planets and universe went about their business orbiting and just being, that they emitted an actual musical score, thrumming as strings.

If this sounds a lot like string theory, Pythagoras had the initial glimmers. If you’d like to read more, I discussed the concept of the Music of the Spheres into three parts. Part 1 begins here.

Imagine my delight when I came across this from South America. It is from 2009, so it’s not new, but isn’t this just charming:

LifeBuzz describes:

Birdsong, by Jarbas Agnelli
One morning while reading a newspaper, composer Jarbas Agnelli saw a photograph of birds on an electric wire. He cut out the photo and was inspired to make a song using the exact location of the birds as musical notes. He was curious to hear what melody the birds created.

He sent the music to the photographer, Paulo Pinto, who told his editor, who told a reporter and the story ended up as an interview in the newspaper. It ended up Winner of the YouTube Play Guggenheim Biennial Festival.

A physics controversy is erupting. It seems that a youtube video is making a splash. According to this article it has been seen by 1.5 million people as of February 4, 2014.

Two physicists explain: The sum of all positive integers equals −1/12

Whaaaa?

I read several Physics chat rooms and forums and it seems there is a huge debate over this. Two string theory scientists had recently posted in their Youtube video explaining that all the positive integers added up to infinity equals a negative number. Who knew there were that many string theory scientists & geeks. Anyway, there is huge debate over their results. The link above is a good article explaining what the string theory scientists are about.

The article opens this way-
“How far should scientists go in simplifying complexity to engage the public imagination?”

Though the scientists say they focus on the infinite, what they’re really focusing on is the eternal.

God is the infinite. Only God can simplify the eternal so that man’s finite brain can understand it. This is why unsaved people cannot understand the bible, and this is why unsaved scientists cannot understand the complex. In fact, the only people who can understand string theory are Christians.

All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. (John 1:3; Colossians 1:16)

One of the scientists saying this positive number equals a negative number thing is Tony Padilla. Padilla says,

“It’s by no means obvious, but this is the only sensible value one can attach to this divergent sum. Infinity is not a sensible value. In my opinion, as a physicist, infinity has no place in physical observables, and therefore no place in Nature.”

No, infinity does not have a sensible value. How can one put a value on the infinite (eternal)? However, if you think about it, numbers in general do not have a sensible value! It is finite man who developed counting systems with values. Though in the US we use base-10, others use base 12. This mathematician wrote,

“Humans, for the most part, count in chunks of 10 — that’s the foundation of the decimal system. Despite its near-universal adoption, however, it’s a completely arbitrary numbering system that emerged for one very simple reason: We have five fingers on each hand.“

Mayans used base 20 and Babylonians used base 60. So scientists who put all their trust (faith?) in a value of

Babylonian numerals

a number forget that assigning a value to a number, (written in what is only a man-made squiggle after all, remember XVII?), is just as arbitrary and at root, have no sensible value, either.

David Hilbert, one of the founding fathers of quantum mechanics, described infinity as “a mathematical abstraction that does not have a physical content.”

That’s because infinity is God (eternal) and God is spirit! God does not have physical content.

Linnaeus: Table of the Animal Kingdom (Regnum Animale)
from the 1st edition of Systema Naturæ (1735)

OK, this math positive numbers equal negative numbers thing is a classic example of scientists attempting to classify the unclassifiable. Physics comes extremely close to who God is and one of His infinite qualities, omniscience. The scientists are trying to order and organize something that is impossible to order and organize without knowing God. They are UNspiritual people trying to learn spiritual things- 1 Corinthians 2:13- and with a finite mind, no less.

Some parts of our physical existence can be seen and understood, but even Carl Linnaeus, the father of modern taxonomy, had a difficult time with his hierarchical organization trees because new species kept cropping up that destroyed his finely created “kingdom-class-order-phylum-genus-species hierarchical taxonomy.

And physicists try to do the same, but with math. It works to a degree but just when they get close, like mercury squirting out from under their thumb, their theories collapse. Their pursuit is like Tantalus’, eternally reaching for the fruit and the water that was eternally outside his grasp. It is a classic case of 2 Timothy 3:7!

Hilbert was right, more right than he knew. Infinity IS a mathematical content that has no physical…it’s God. But they will never accept that. I watched the BBC series “Atom” a couple of summers ago, narrated by physicist Jim Al-Khalili. He showed how even this dimension we are living in is likely a hologram, AKA not real – and how right he is! Which is the ‘real’ dimension? This one or the one that appeared before the disciples’ eyes on the mount of Transfiguration, with Moses and Elijah ‘suddenly’ appearing and speaking to each other? The one that Elisha’s servant saw, or the one that Elisha asked God to reveal which was there all along? In physics this hologram universe is called the ‘holographic principle’. PBS Nova describes the holographic principle–

The holographic principle, simply put, is the idea that our three-dimensional reality is a projection of information stored on a distant, two-dimensional surface. Like the emblem on your credit card, the two-dimensional surface holds all the information you need to describe a three-dimensional object—in this case, our universe. Only when it is illuminated does it reveal a three-dimensional image. This raises a number of questions: If our universe is a holographic projection, then where is the two-dimensional surface containing all the information that describes it? What “illuminates” that surface? Is it more or less real than our universe?

So when math guys say that all positive integers added to infinity would result in a sum that is a negative number, why NOT? What is real about anything we know, except for what God revealed to us in His word? all that math is, and physics, is an arbitrary philosophical construct based on man’s interpretation of things outside of the only construct that makes sense- the bible.

Physicists seek the Theory of Everything. “A theory of everything (ToE) or final theory, ultimate theory or master theory refers to the hypothetical presence of a single, all-encompassing, coherent theoretical framework of physics that fully explains and links together all physical aspects of the universe. ToE is one of the major unsolved problems in physics.” (source)

O Timothy, guard the deposit entrusted to you. Avoid the irreverent babble and contradictions of what is falsely called “knowledge,” (1 Timothy 6:20)

We rejoice in the Creator without succumbing to worshiping the creation. We take delight in Who God is, without attempting to overlay scientific theories that explain Him. He is eternal, infinite, expansive, majestic, and above all, holy. The Theory of Everything that scientists constantly seek, is … the bible. Best of all, it’s not a theory. It is fact.

“Praise the Lord! Praise, O servants of the Lord, praise the name of the Lord! Blessed be the name of the Lord from this time forth and forevermore! From the rising of the sun to its setting, the name of the Lord is to be praised! The Lord is high above all nations, and his glory above the heavens! Who is like the Lord our God, who is seated on high,” (Psalm 113:1-9)

encouragement, rapture

The Rapture of the Church

Posted on March 10, 2014May 9, 2016 by elizabethprata

I love visuals. Of course, putting Jesus on a visual is always fraught with biblical issues (Second Commandment). Trying to picture the worst horrors of hell or the Tribulaton is unwise. And how does one capture some of the more nuanced concepts that can really only be seen in the Word? It’s called the word for a reason. Not ‘The Picture”. Even the Apostles and Prophets who saw what they saw still struggled with ways to say it in words. “It was like a…” and Daniel simply became ill after several of the visions.

There are three artists I can think of who seem to have done the best job In my opinion in capturing biblical concepts visually. Annie Vallotton, (and Vallotton here too) Chris Koelle, and Action Jones (AKA Chris Powers).

“…He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel.”

Action Jones

Annie Vallotton via ArtBible.net

Go to the link for Chris Koelle to see his work. It’s copyrighted. A couple of years ago he completed illustrations for the Graphic book of Revelation. he also illustrates some of John Piper’s poems, and has recently finished a series of illustrations showing the History of Redemption from Genesis to revelation. his work is available for purchase or for church events at a discounted price. His Revelation illustrations are actually chillingly, spiritually otherworldly for me to look at and so I don’t look too often.

Trying to envision the rapture is one of the hardest concepts to get right. After all, the bible says it will happen in the blink of an eye. (1 Corinthians 15:52). How do you capture that? I see lots of art that depicts Christians with arms outstretched and jet marks under their feet as they’re launched off the ground…kind of literal and corny if you ask me.

I did like this one from a short youtube video showing us a points of glory light zooming off earth into the universe:

40-second video here

Then I came across this one today. It is a free wallpaper. Someone had added the words at the bottom. I liked it because it showed the suddenness of the rapture, via the lightning. The storm clouds bespeak wrath. In my interpretation, the first Horse of the Apocalypse will ride immediately after the rapture or coinciding with it, because once the church is removed, God will unleash His stored-up wrath upon the inhabitants of the earth. So the galloping horse also is going to be part of the event at or immediately after the rapture. See what you think:

The rapture of the church, explained. 14 minutes.

1 Thessalonians 4:13-18. Let’s be encouraged!

But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. Therefore encourage one another with these words.

christianity, integrity, missionaries, news, test all things

Christian Martyrs about to be executed, or mind-controlled North Koreans mourning their dictator?

Posted on March 9, 2014May 9, 2016 by elizabethprata

North Korea is the most closed nation on earth. Extracting any reliable information from that closed dictator-led nation is near impossible. Still, reports leak out. Depending on the source, some of them are more reliable than others.

There is a recent report that the new dictator, Kim Jong Un, son of the old dictator, Kim Jong Il, held a mass public execution last November 3. November you say, and we’re just hearing about it now? That is how slowly real news leaves the closed and mysterious country of North Korea. If the reports are true at all.

The reports say that the executions were held publicly with children forced to watch. There was no clear reason why the executions were held, other than for some infractions such as owning a bible or watching a South Korean film.

There are more recent reports that the dictator has ordered the execution of 33 Christians, for the crime of having had contact with a South Korean Baptist missionary. Those reports seem more reliable. Read more here.

I am extremely saddened by these events. We are told that Christians throughout the Church Age will be persecuted or even killed for the faith. It doesn’t make knowing the fact of them happening in front of our faces any easier to take.

However, something that diminishes the honor due missionaries and martyrs who give their life on earth for the faith in a brutal, lonely death is when undiscerning Christians, well-meaning no doubt, fall for easily discovered ruses. Like this:

Accompanying the recent story about the November executions, often appears this photo of alleged about-to-be killed North Korean Christians-

These are not Christians. These are not believers about to be killed. These are young North Koreans mourning the death of their beloved Kim Jong Il, AKA “Dear Leader”, “Superior Person” and “Father of the People.” The are victims, brainwashed and mind-controlled atheists in a locked country, suddenly bereft of their ‘god.’

How do I know this? A 5 second google search yielded this photo published in Russia Today in December 2011, not March 2014. The headline to the article in which this photo originally appeared states,

Kim Jong-il dead: Grief & mass hysteria in North Korea (VIDEO)

And the caption states, “Pyongyang residents react as they mourn over the death of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il in Pyongyang (Kyodo / Reuters)”

Please, if we are to test all things regarding what we are taught by bible teachers and preachers, then let’s extend that to testing Christian news before we pass along information about missionaries and martyrs. Far too often on Facebook, twitter, or other social media and blogs, I find mindlessly repeated hoaxes, false information, and just plain obvious ruses that diminish the credibility of Christians. Let’s stay as pure as we can, on behalf of the One of whom we speak. Check it out before you pass it along. In other words, Google is your friend.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Now as to some real news about a N. Korean missionary, this is from Voice of the Martyrs-

North Korea: Missionary Released

UPDATE #2
After being detained for two weeks for attempting to distribute gospel tracts in North Korea, John Short, 75, was released by North Korean authorities on March 2. The Australian missionary, who resides in Hong Kong with his wife, had traveled to Pyongyang as part of a regular tour group on Feb. 15. The following day, he was questioned about the gospel tracts and subsequently detained. Upon his release, he was flown to Beijing, where he was met by officials from the Australian embassy. He is expected to return to his home in Hong Kong.

UPDATE #1
Praise God that North Korean officials deported John Short to Beijing on March 2, 2014.

ORIGINAL STORY
Australian missionary John Short, 75, was questioned and detained by North Korean authorities on Feb. 16., reportedly after police learned of gospel tracts in his possession.

Short, who has lived in Hong Kong with his wife for the past 50 years, traveled to Pyongyang on Feb. 15 with a tour group, and police questioned him at his hotel the next day about the Korean-language gospel tracts that he was carrying. Officials reportedly asked him who translated the material into Korean, who sent him and to what organization he belongs.

Short’s wife was informed of his detention by a member of the tour group who was allowed to leave on Feb. 18. The tour company has made repeated calls to North Korea, but officials have refused to provide any information.

North Korea is considered the worst persecutor of Christians in the world. Although its constitution provides for freedom of religion, the practice of any non-state-sanctioned religious activity is prohibited. Possessing a Bible, praying to God or Jesus, and meeting with other Christians all are punishable by death.

The Australian government is working on Short’s behalf through its embassy in South Korea and has also requested help from Sweden, which has an embassy in Pyongyang.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Here is one account of a martyr we will meet in heaven, killed under Diocletian’s persecution beginning in 304AD. From Foxe’s Book of Martyrs

Agrape, Chionia, and Irene, three sisters, were seized upon at Thessalonica, when Diocletian’s persecution reached Greece. They were burnt, and received the crown of martyrdom in the flames, March 25, A.D. 304. The governor, finding that he could make no impression on Irene, ordered her to be exposed naked in the streets, which shameful order having been executed, a fire was kindled near the city wall, amidst whose flames her spirit ascended beyond the reach of man’s cruelty.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

O, for the day when we are all beyond reach of man’s cruelty, under the shelter of the arms of Jesus! When all children will be translated instantly to a place of safety and love. When the aged and infirm receive their resurrected, glorified bodies and can run and leap in joy toward Jesus and kneel without pain at His feet. When persecution is no longer a word in our vocabulary and it has lost all power to instill fear or cause death. That day is coming, brothers and sisters, it is coming.

discernment, false, Lent, pride, ritual

Why do I want man to put ashes on my forehead when God will mark my forehead later? No Lent for me!

Posted on March 8, 2014May 9, 2016 by elizabethprata

I’m not for Lent. It has a pagan foundation and is perpetuated by the false Catholic religion. It’s associated with golden calf-Mardi Gras and Pharisaical rituals. In addition it is contrary to the Gospel. I know some say that Lent for them is just a personal time of preparation for the upcoming Resurrection Sunday AKA Easter. But personal preparation is also called for in advance of the Lord’s Table (1 Corinthians 11:28) and to some extent every time we prepare for Sunday worship. (Ezra 7:10, Romans 12:1). Actually we’re supposed to pick up our cross daily, so why set aside a special time once a year for self-examination, obedience, and repentance? Why do we make a display of preparing for just as sacred as an event so publicly? Why smear our faces with ashes and mourn when we have overcome the world, have His peace and have been given His joy?

“Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven.” (Matthew 6:1)

labeled for reuse. Cardinal Dolan on Ash Wednesday speaking to reporters

“But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, that your fasting may not be seen by others but by your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you. (Matthew 6:17-18). [underline mine]

Further, the activity of placing a mark on our forehead looked at thorough a biblical lens… The bible shows that the false prophet places a mark on the hand or forehead of those who follow the antichrist. (Revelation 13:16). These will be doomed forever. The Whore of Babylon has a secret name written on her forehead. (Revelation 17:5). Who wants to be associated with THAT?

On the positive side, during the Tribulation, angels mark the foreheads of those who serve Jesus (Revelation 7:3, Revelation 14:1). Finally, gloriously, “They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads.” (Revelation 22:4). The name of Christ will be upon our foreheads, placed there by angels at the behest of God, or by God Himself, so why do I want man to put any mark on my forehead? Can somebody explain that to me? Anyone? Anyone?? No thanks. I’ll wait for God to do it.

Wikipedia CC

I know the pride of my heart. I know that participating in public displays of external worship activities will only go to my head and I’ll end up promoting my own sanctity done on my own steam. No thanks, I don’t need any help in substituting works for grace. Maybe others can withstand the temptation. I know I can’t and I don’t even want to tread one inch over there. Here are some people who feel the same but have expressed it much more eloquently. The first one is by a woman named Amanda-

Counting it all Joy: A Vent About Lent
“And here’s where I may be upsetting to the more theologically-minded, but it really isn’t first and foremost about a principle for me. Or a confession. It’s about me thinking this is contrary to the GOSPEL.“

John MacArthur on Lent’s beginnings and how it is nowadays an abuse for sinning as much as possible-
Another vent about Lent:
“Some even more religious souls feel that you sort of have to work your way up to resurrection Sunday, and so they celebrate what has become known as Lent. Forty days of eating no meat and, supposedly, expressing penitence for sin. I suppose its, in most cases, hypocritical, since penitence for sin is not accomplished by some self-directed abstinence or some self-motivated plea toward God, and its hypocrisy is also seen, I think, in the fact that before Lent, people tend to really pile up the sinning since they have to do without for a while…

In fact, there are two words that come to mind when you think of the pre-Lenten season. One is the term Mardi Gras, and the other is carnival. In our country, we’re familiar with Mardi Gras. In other parts of the world, they celebrate carnival. It is a time of unbridled sinning, of drunkenness, rioting, sexual misbehavior, getting ready for penitence…in view of Easter. In fact, Mardi Gras comes from two French words. If you know French, you know that the French word Mardi means Tuesday, and gras means fat. Fat Tuesday is the last day before Lent, and you better get fat now, because you’re gonna go without for a while. Carnival comes from words that we’re familiar with. Carne, we know from chili con carne, means meat. Val, we know from high school days when somebody was the valedictorian and gave a farewell speech, means farewell. Carnival means farewell to meat. So you have a big party before you get spiritual just to make sure you don’t miss anything; and then you hope against hope that it’ll all turn out in the end if you’re penitent enough and abstain from enough, maybe someday God will raise you up.

By the way, as a footnote, Lent is not from the Bible. There is no such thing in the Bible. It comes from the mystery religions of the cults of Babylon and was connected with the supposed killing of Baal by a wild boar; and for forty days and forty nights, the priestesses and the followers of Baal mourned his death until, supposedly, he rose from the dead on the 40th day, and that is where Lent came from, and it has been superimposed on Christianity…“

Annnnd, this too, from Jeremy Walker,

This Lent I am giving up….reticence
Whether or not it is a vestige of the Emerging/Emergent appetite for a range of ‘spiritualities’ or an enthusiasm for an over-ripe liturgical renewal, I cannot say, but I wonder if it is in part a matter of distance both of time and space. This alleged ‘recovery’ of Lent and Easter is not actually a matter of historical sensitivity and an inheritance regained but of historical unawareness and an inheritance lost. Whether or not it is the high-grade muppetry of entire churches being urged to tattoo one of the stations of the cross on some part of their anatomy, or some gore-drenched re-enactment of the unrepeatable sacrifice, or some spotlit image-fest in which a total insensitivity to physical representations of the Christ – the image of the invisible God – is displayed, or some be-robed priest-figure half a step away from incense and obeisance, it does not come from Scripture and it does not belong in Christ’s church.

So that is my thought on Lent. Why is it making a comeback into Protestant churches? Here are two essays discussing Lent.

What is the meaning of Lent?

What is Lent?

discernment, holy living, kings, opposing false doctrine

Failure to actively oppose false doctrine/false teachers is a sin

Posted on March 8, 2014 by elizabethprata

In reading 1 and 2 Kings, patterns emerge. In a recent blog essay I’d mentioned that reading the books of the Kings is like watching the tide go in and out. The king was good, the borders enlarged. The king was bad, the borders came in. In and out. Repeat.

Another pattern is seen in the LORD’s declaration of where on the spectrum the king’s goodness or badness was. Sometimes the King was declared by God as outright evil. Very bad. Sometimes not so bad. Sometimes good. Here is an example. In 2 Kings 3:2a this is what is declared of Jehoram the son of Ahab who became king over Israel in Samaria:

“He did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, though not like his father and mother,”

Why wasn’t he as bad as Ahab and Jezebel? After all, “he put away the pillar of Baal that his father had made.” (2 Kings 3:2b). But Jehoram also clung to the sin of Jereboam which had made Israel sin, and this angered the LORD.

The lesson is twofold. Leaders set the example and when they are below reproach, the followers follow suit, also falling below reproach. In addition, you can’t repudiate some sins, you must repudiate ALL sins. There is no picking and choosing.

Now, how about Jehu?

“Thus Jehu wiped out Baal from Israel. But Jehu did not turn aside from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, which he made Israel to sin—that is, the golden calves that were in Bethel and in Dan. And the Lord said to Jehu, “Because you have done well in carrying out what is right in my eyes, and have done to the house of Ahab according to all that was in my heart, your sons of the fourth generation shall sit on the throne of Israel.” But Jehu was not careful to walk in the law of the Lord, the God of Israel, with all his heart. He did not turn from the sins of Jeroboam, which he made Israel to sin.” (2 Kings 10:28-31)

Did you catch that? “All His heart”. King David was a man after God’s own heart. (Acts 13:22). This is a high honor bestowed on a man. Why was David given such an honor in the bible? He loved and feared the Lord. He had absolute faith in God. You might wonder, David was a great sinner, how could he be deemed a man after God’s own heart? He sinned, but he repented, fully. His heart was always pointed toward God.

David loved God’s law. (Psalm 119:47-48) He delighted in it! Yet you note that despite Jehu doing what was in the LORD’S heart, he “was not careful to walk in the law of the LORD.”

David was grateful for God. God was not a means to a kingly end for David, God was the end. (Psalm 26:6-7; Psalm 100:4).

In another case of the LORD deeming a king pretty good, we see Amaziah. “And he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, yet not like David his father.” (2 Kings 14:3). Amaziah did not remove the high places and the people still sacrificed to other gods there. (2 Kings 14:4). However he did follow through on a point of God’s law whereupon ‘he struck down his servants who had struck down the king his father’ but correctly did not kill the children of those, as the Law states. (2 Kings 14:5-6).

As you read through the Kings the recurring theme is worship of other gods on the high places. The First Commandment is to have no other gods before Him. That the King worshiped God wasn’t good enough, he must set the example by destroying the altars of other gods. Leaving them in place is an implicit agreement with them.

This theme is seen in most of the NT books whereupon the Apostles or authors of almost every book decries false teaching. Following false teaching is following another god. Failure to repudiate false teaching is also a sin. See Revelation 2:20,

“But I have this against you, that you tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess and is teaching and seducing my servants to practice sexual immorality and to eat food sacrificed to idols.“

The church at Thyatira knew this woman, a Jezebel-type, was teaching falsely, and they tolerated it. They themselves weren’t following her, which was good, but they did not strike her down from her high place, as it were. The Lord commended them for not following actively (Rev 2:24) but was still against them that they didn’t dig out the cancer of her false teaching and protect the daughters of hell she was making. (Revelation 2:23).

Discernment is active on all fronts. It means relying on the Spirit to open our eyes to false teaching, and actively asking Him to do this. It means practicing discernment by reading the word and testing what teachers teach against it (Acts 17:11). It also means when you see brethren falling under the beguiling sway of false teachers, to do something about it. Don’t tolerate it. If you do, thee Lord has that against you. Do what it right in the sight of the Lord!

“So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.” James 4:17)

jesus, righteousness, salvation

A plea for your salvation

Posted on March 7, 2014 by elizabethprata

This is me, one woman’s plain-language plea for those who read this blog who are unsaved to believe in the Gospel.

We can see God plainly because He has made Himself plain in creation. (Romans 1:19). He has set eternity in our hearts. (Ecclesiastes 3:11). We know it, but we suppress it. Why? We’re sinners.

Because we’re all born sinners and do wrong from even in the womb, (Psalm 51:5), we can’t go to heaven after we die. There IS a heaven, and after-life that lasts forever. So heaven exists but what would make it heaven if we’re all there acting like we are here? It would not be heaven.

Only God is holy, that is, without sin. He does no wrong, He does not lie. He is perfect in righteousness…and we’re not. (1 John 1:18, Ecclesiastes 7:20, Romans 3:10).

Therefore humans have a problem, don’t we? We can’t do right, having a sin nature, and God is righteous and the bridge is so wide. A great gulf is fixed between us and Him…except that Jesus came to be that bridge. He lived a sinless life as a man, in the days of His flesh He was tempted as we are but overcame it all. He died on the cross as a criminal who had done no wrong, and took on all of God’s wrath and punishment for our sins.

It is true, God is angry with you for sinning. God hates sin. Hates it. (Psalm 5:4). He has wrath about it. He was pleased to crush His son (again are you shocked at this language? It came straight from the bible, Isaiah 53:10). Then, pleased with His Son, God raised Jesus from the dead, and brought Him to glory. Now Jesus is not only the bridge, but the door we can go through to get to heaven.

Picture a car wash. The car is put on the tracks and goes through the building with powerful washing, and emerges the other side sparkling clean. Scrubbed from top to bottom. We don’t get out and scrub the car, it is automatically scrubbed while we do not contribute to the work. Jesus’s blood washes our sins away and if we go through Him we emerge clean by His works and we can go on to heaven.

But how do we get to the car wash? How do we get clean?

Repent.

That means hating your sins and asking Jesus to forgive them. He can and He does. He lived the life on earth and resisted performing even one sin, even one thought of sin. He is qualified to forgive us because He has triumphed over sin, and He took your punishment for them.

If you do not seek Jesus and repent of sins, believing He is qualified to forgive you because He is the resurrected Son of God, then God will reject you when you die and come asking to get into heaven. Those who reject Jesus will be rejected in turn. If God was pleased to crush His sinless Son, (Isaiah 53:10) do YOU think you’d fare any better standing before Him pleading your own sinful case?

It might sound shocking to hear of things like God hates sin or being rejected or crushing His Son. The world certainly teaches that God is [only] love and that heaven is open to all. But I go back to the original, if you go to heaven like you are now, and so does everybody, what makes it heaven? Earth is a terrible place, full of murderers and liars and child molesters. Even if you are not those things, you’re a greedy, coveting, lying, cretin who doesn’t do good and has poison in your heart. If you have ever even had one malicious thought, you’re a sinner. So again, what makes heaven, heaven, if YOU’RE there?

I was a sinner too. I still am, but I asked Jesus to forgive me (Romans 10:9) and in His mercy, He did. He sent the Holy Spirit to indwell me so as to help me resist sin. I still have that sin nature but I am a new creation in Christ. I am IN Christ. You see, once we emerge from that car wash, the track leads straight to Jesus’s arms and He enfolds us to Himself and He is in us and we are in Him. There is no better place to be, than in the One who is righteous, sinless, holy, living and perfect. He will never forsake me nor let me go. No one or nothing can snatch me from his hand.

He will give you the desires of your heart. Your desire is to sin. If you reject Him and won’t repent, He will allow you to fulfill your desire to sin, but that disqualifies you from entering heaven. When you die, you will get your wish to be apart from Jesus forever. You will got to hell. Hell is real and at this very second it is full of people who thought they were saved because they were good. Thought they had the right religion. Thought there was no God, or hell, or heaven.

So repent while it is the day and not the night. Your foot shall slide in due time. Jonathan Edwards described the enormity of an eternal hell:

It is everlasting wrath. It would be dreadful to suffer this fierceness and wrath of Almighty God one moment; but you must suffer it to all eternity. There will be no end to this exquisite horrible misery. When you look forward, you shall see a long for ever, a boundless duration before you, which will swallow up your thoughts, and amaze your soul; and you will absolutely despair of ever having any deliverance, any end, any mitigation, any rest at all. You will know certainly that you must wear out long ages, millions of millions of ages, in wrestling and conflicting with this almighty merciless vengeance; and then when you have so done, when so many ages have actually been spent by you in this manner, you will know that all is but a point to what remains. So that your punishment will indeed be infinite. Oh, who can express what the state of a soul in such circumstances is! All that we can possibly say about it, gives but a very feeble, faint representation of it; it is inexpressible and inconceivable: For “who knows the power of God’s anger?”

This is the Gospel from the bible:

The Resurrection of Christ

Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.

For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me.” (1 Corinthians 15:1-8)

beauty, encouragement, jesus

Light and color in the bible

Posted on March 6, 2014May 9, 2016 by elizabethprata

Our flesh is restricted to seeing only in this dimension. Even at that, God created a world that is astounding in variety and beauty. We can view His handiworks every day, no matter where we are.

Sunset. EPrata photo

I often think about the glimpses we are given in the bible of the new dimension to come: heaven. Whose mind isn’t blown in reading Ezekiel’s description of the angels with eyes all around? (Ezekiel 10:12). On the Mount of Transfiguration, the disciples saw that when Jesus prayed,

“And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became white as light.” (Matthew 17:2)

“his clothes became radiant, intensely white, as no one on earth could bleach them.” (Mark 9:3). Imagine seeing a white so bright it wasn’t even earthly!

God painted the sky with a covenant, the rainbow. (Genesis 9:13). He could have made the world monochrome and us colorblind, but He didn’t. I think of this following scene a lot. When I pray I picture it. The emerald rainbow entrances me.

At once I was in the Spirit, and behold, a throne stood in heaven, with one seated on the throne. And he who sat there had the appearance of jasper and carnelian, and around the throne was a rainbow that had the appearance of an emerald. Around the throne were twenty-four thrones, and seated on the thrones were twenty-four elders, clothed in white garments, with golden crowns on their heads. From the throne came flashes of lightning, and rumblings and peals of thunder, and before the throne were burning seven torches of fire, which are the seven spirits of God, and before the throne there was as it were a sea of glass, like crystal. (Revelation 4:2-6)

What colors! What beauty! We know Jesus is beautiful and since heaven will reflect Him, heaven will be inexpressibly beautiful.

“And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb.” (Revelation 21:23)

“But, as it is written, “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him”—” (1 Corinthians 2:9)

Cornflower blue. EPrata photo

We know that God cares about color because he set the world ablaze with it, and the animals. He is also very specific about color when describing how the Old Testament priests should dress. Colors mean things to God, for symbols and for beauty.

“And the screen for the gate of the court was embroidered with needlework in blue and purple and scarlet yarns and fine twined linen.” (Exodus 38:18).

For example, blue. The color blue. Will it be the same in heaven? Will it look different? Will it be mixed with other colors we can’t even detect now because we are in this dimension and become a totally different hue? We know it will be better, everything in heaven is better. Revelation 21:19 says that the second foundation of the city walls will be sapphire.

Me taking a photo reflected in a blue yard crystal ball. EPrata photo

Variegated blue pattern on a Jay. EPrata photo

Though we live in a fallen and sinful world, cursed actually, and there is so much ugliness, there is beauty too. Much is beautiful. The colors of the planets, a sunset, the changing hues of the sky as a storm drifts in, the colors of the sea, and the fish in it … from above to below God has given us beauty by giving us color.

EPrata photo

The Great City to come, New Jerusalem will sparkle and be glorious in color.

“The wall was built of jasper, while the city was pure gold, like clear glass. The foundations of the wall of the city were adorned with every kind of jewel. The first was jasper, the second sapphire, the third agate, the fourth emerald, the fifth onyx, the sixth carnelian, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth chrysoprase, the eleventh jacinth, the twelfth amethyst. And the twelve gates were twelve pearls, each of the gates made of a single pearl, and the street of the city was pure gold, like transparent glass.” (Revelation 21:18-21)

Blue Skies above. EPrata photo

I heard Dr. MacArthur say once that he believes the city will be transparent so that God’s glory will be seen by all inhabitants and there will be nothing to inhibit it from permeating everywhere.

When you go about your day and you see vivid colors in nature and man-made, think about the coming deepening coloration of all that we see and all that we are. Maybe even new colors. Charles Spurgeon wrote in his sermon “The Lamb- The Light“

“Light is the cause of beauty. That is obvious to you all, Take the light away, and there is no beauty anywhere. The fairest woman charms the eye no more than a heap of ashes when the sun has departed. Your garden may be gay with many colored flowers, but when the sun goes down you cannot know them from the grass which borders them. You look upon the trees, all fair with the verdure of summer, but when the sun goes down they are all hung in black. Without light no radiance flashes from the sapphire, no peaceful ray proceedeth from the pearl. There is naught of beauty left when light is gone. Light is the mother of beauty.

And Jesus is the Light (John 8:12). The source of all beauty is Jesus because He is the source of light, without Light, there is no beauty.

Amen.

christian life, encouragement, son of god movie

Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus, and other thoughts

Posted on March 5, 2014May 9, 2016 by elizabethprata

Here are a few eclectic things for your consideration today.

I had a great burst of creative energy a few years ago and I made collages in my art journal. That burst seems to have gone away but I still have some of the results. The compositions and even the execution are rudimentary, but they served a purpose for a while.

This first collage is a scene of how unsaved people play a game with their lives, not knowing there are eternal consequences at stake. Blinded, they try this or that, until the day they die and then they discover that the truth they had suppressed in all their game playing was the only truth. I was one of those game-playing people.

Again, satan blinds the minds of those who refuse to believe in Jesus, but satan makes the blindness seems so delightful but underneath it is deceitful. Sin is sweet- for a season, but the only trajectory is down to hell, and satan has his cords attached to all those who won’t believe.

“Though evil is sweet in his mouth, though he hides it under his tongue, though he is loath to let it go and holds it in his mouth, yet his food is turned in his stomach; it is the venom of cobras within him. (Job 20:12-14)

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Please read this excellent essay by Erin Benziger at Do Not Be Surprised, on the latest troubling issue surrounding Beth Moore. In my opinion her apostasy is deepening fast and satan is directly using her to deceive millions. She concluded the essay with:

As a final note, the reader is strongly encouraged to listen to apologist Chris Rosebrough’s review of Beth Moore’s teaching. Rosebrough’s commentary can be accessed here.

Benziger: Beth Moore Prophesies a Coming ‘Outpouring,’ Warns of ‘Scoffers’

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I liked Tim Challies short essay on the importance of the Sabbath

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Yet another reason not to see the Son of God movie. And there’s this reason not to see the Son of God movie. And this reason

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I’ve been reading through 1 and 2 Kings for a while. It’s slow going for me, because I don’t have a context for the history and it’s hard to keep the kings’ names straight. It is also like watching the tide roll in and out. The kings were good, the borders enlarged. The kings were bad, the borders closed in. Repeat. And repeat. O, Israel! Joel Rosenberg reports this week from the AIPAC conference.

Quoting the Bible, Netanyahu says Israel must “choose life” in “historic” conflicts with Iran & Palestinians. Day Three report from AIPAC conference.

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The darker the world becomes, the faster I run to the Light. Jesus is my eternal light, praise His holy name. John 8:12-

Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

It is so sweet to trust in Jesus. It really is. Here is the story behind the hymn ‘Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus

christian living, jesus, onesimus, prodigal

Caring for youths temporarily living with you

Posted on March 5, 2014May 9, 2016 by elizabethprata

Murillo: The Return of the Prodigal Son ~1667

This week I was asked about how far to go in discipline and instruction of youths or children who aren’t our biological children but are living in our household. It comes to pass quite often in Christian circles, that people often take in kids who aren’t their blood relatives. They aren’t adopted, and they haven’t gone through a formal foster home process, they just wind up living with Christian parents for a while. It is a quasi-parental situation and though the bible is full of advice for children that are ours, when asked, I have not been able to find verses which address temporary or informal foster-situations.

The Proverbs are saturated with eternally wonderful advice for parents. The Psalms as well and the New Testament have plenty to say about families and children. But what about children who aren’t ours and when there is some expectation that sometime the child/youth will likely go back to their home of origin?

There are several verses in the New Testament which address the household. In the 1st century, the household included the immediate family, extended family, servants, and slaves.

And they said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.” (Acts 16:31)

He will bring you a message through which you and all your household will be saved. (Acts 11:14)

Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all the others in his house. (Acts 16:32)

These verses do NOT mean that if one member of the household becomes saved, by extension all the members are automatically saved. No. It means that when the Gospel is preached in the household by even one person, and lives are lived by Christianity’s precepts by at least one of its members, then the Spirit moves and salvations occur in the rest of the members. Salvation is ever and only an individual event. But without at least one person in the household preaching and instructing, salvations are not as likely to occur.

We are undoubtedly familiar with all the verses in Psalms and Proverbs addressing how to train up a child in

Eli and Samuel, John Singleton Copley, 1780

the way he should go. (Proverbs 22:6). However, to specifically address the question, I immediately thought of one book of the bible where it depicts a long-term foster-youth situation- Philemon.

It seems from other contexts that Philemon lived in Colossae. Philemon was an adult man whom Paul had led to the Lord. Philemon had a household where he owned at least one slave, Onesimus. Onesimus was not saved. He stole from his master and ran away to Rome. Providentially, Onesimus met Paul and Paul took him into his house. Though Paul was imprisoned, he had been allowed to live in a rented dwelling, albeit accompanied by a guard. (Philemon 1:1, Acts 28:16, 30; cf. Ephesians 6:20.) Paul immediately began instructing Onesimus in the way of the Lord. Onesimus was saved.

Paul’s imprisonment in Rome lasted two years, but it is not clear how long Onesimus was with Paul. Long enough for Paul to come to love Onesimus as a father, both personal and spiritual.

“I appeal to you for my child, Onesimus, whose father I became in my imprisonment.” (Philemon 1:10).

As Onesimus lived with Paul, Onesimus’s story came tumbling out. He was a thief and a runaway. Despite the fact that Paul had come to love the youth and he was useful to Paul, and Paul wanted to keep Onesimus living with him, (Philemon 1:13), the consequences to Onesimus’s behavior had to be addressed. It was the secular law of the time regarding slaves that they be returned. In addition, it was right to do this according to Christian ethics. Paul made the decision to send Onesimus back to his household of origin.

Paul asked Philemon to graciously accept Onesimus back as an example of forgiveness, in the same way Jesus had forgiven all of us. Forgiveness and unity in ministering in the name of Jesus in general is the high example here. Paul didn’t harangue Philemon but did intimate that there are expectations given the stellar example in Jesus. (Philemon 1:16).

Paul must have taught the boy well- Onesimus might have faced severe consequences. He could be flogged. Under Roman law Onesimus could even be killed. He could be sold to a harsher master. Yet Onesimus agreed to go. Paul’s letter to owner Philemon was a plea for forgiveness to Onesimus.

Paul was sensitive in this area. He could have trumped Philemon by claiming his apostolic authority and could have commanded Philemon to take Onesimus back kindly, but Paul didn’t. He appealed to Philemon on the basis of Christian brotherhood. And Onesimus submitted, willing to face the discipline awaiting.

Whether for long term or short term, we see several models for foster parents in this short book:

–Taking in a lost and wandering youth as Paul did. We give hospitality.
–Paul unhesitatingly taught the youth the way of Jesus without permission or seeking advice from Philemon. If a young one is in your house, you teach him the Way of Jesus.
–Behavior has consequences. Paul didn’t shirk disciplining the runaway slave by teaching him that right thing is to return to face them.
–At some point, when it’s time for the youth to be returned to his household, he should understand that if there are to be consequences due to his behavior or consequences on no account of his own from the master of the house, either way, he should be willing to take those consequences and forgive the household leader in turn. Philemon is a book of forgiveness.

I believe Philemon is a book that shows us that whoever is living in the household, we teach the younger and the vulnerable and the lost the way they should go, AND discipline them accordingly. Above all, Philemon is a book that relies on the example Jesus gave us. It is a book of forgiveness, love, and service.

Now, Philemon was a Christian, and Onesimus was a Christian and so was Paul. If you have a youth living with you who must return to their home of origin and that home is not Christian, then I believe the same principles apply. If we demonstrate Christian love at all times, model forgiveness and persevere in dedication to the name of Jesus, then one by one, families can be re-knit. (“You and your household.”) Who knows, it could be as Paul intimated in Philemon 1:15-16…

“For this perhaps is why he was parted from you for a while, that you might have him back forever, no longer as a bondservant but more than a bondservant, as a beloved brother—especially to me, but how much more to you, both in the flesh and in the Lord“

…that the escape and the return of Onesimus, now that he was in Christ, perhaps will have a further good.

Paul was clear in his expectation that Christian ethics be applied to the situation by the youth and the adults. He also shows us that the relationship does not end when the youth returns home. Paul expected to be released soon, and he planned a visit.

“Confident of your obedience, I write to you, knowing that you will do even more than I say. At the same time, prepare a guest room for me, for I am hoping that through your prayers I will be graciously given to you.” (Philemon 1:21-22)

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Alternately, what if you have an unChristian prodigal biological son or daughter who doesn’t live with you but wants to return? What if he is in rebellion and though he doesn’t live with you he wants to visit? What if he doesn’t want to visit but you want to make it clear that he is still welcome, yet set boundaries that uplift the Gospel and protect the rest of the family members?

I am reminded of a very good essay of a letter a dad hypothetically wrote to his son. In 2007 when the hateful letter of a ‘Christian’ dad disowning his gay son went viral, David Murray responded by hypothetically writing his own letter in 2012. Please read this wonderful and loving letter. Below is a short excerpt.

What letter would you write to a gay son?
Perhaps these boundaries are not going to be easy for you to accept, but please try to understand that I have a duty to God to lead my home in a God-glorifying manner. Psalm 101 commands me to prevent sinful behavior in my home. While extremely anxious to preserve a relationship with you, I am especially concerned that your siblings are not influenced into thinking your lifestyle is fine with God or us.

Here it is read aloud:
Two letters to two gay sons

These are difficult issues and I am certainly no authority, I don’t have children. I did my best in thinking and praying about these kind of questions regarding informal domestic foster-child situations and prodigals. I recommend the book of Philemon, it is so short but bursting with love and forgiveness and the power of the Gospel to change families and people.

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The Autistic Christian, part 3

Posted on March 4, 2014May 9, 2016 by elizabethprata

The Autistic Christian, part 1
The Autistic Christian, part 2

As an autistic person, albeit high functioning, life is a struggle. The world is awesome in its complexity. It

By Michael, Creative Commons

contains all the customary codes of social conduct, a myriad of occupations and vocations, behavioral nuances of every description, emotional obligations, and ethical standards. All of those escape me.

In addition, I’m afraid of or intensely dislike the color orange, the telephone ringing, conversation, interruption in my routine, loud noises, certain locations, running into people I know when I’m out of the house, Jiffy Pop, raucous laughter, makeup, fingerpaint, non-symmetrical things, unanswered questions, unfinished conversations, any and all games, unsolved mysteries, and so on. I have issues with sympathy and empathy, I’m a bundle of nerves and I need notes in my pocket to help me remember what to say when I am one-on-one. I’m a loner, eschew fellowship, people in general, and like to study one subject until I exhaust it.

I rigidly adhere to routines, demand my apartment looks a certain way with everything in its place, and only eat a limited range of foods. I haven’t been out of my geographical range for five years.

For 43 years I never knew why I thought the thoughts I had, or behaved the way I did, I just knew I was different. I was a disappointment to loved ones, a mystery to teachers, someone pitied by my friends.

Public Domain

I am autistic.

In the previous two essays I related my life from birth to 2004 when I was 43 years old. I was not saved and never had steady religious instruction nor attended church in any meaningful way. I was an enemy of Jesus, a craven sinner.

I was lost.

In December 2003 I was saved. In only two weeks, on January 2004 I made some important decisions. I bought and began to read the bible. I grew rapidly in Christ and 18 months later in mid 2006 when I finished my work in Maine I moved to Georgia. I began attending church.

In 2008 I was faced once again with a conundrum of how to maintain myself financially and professionally. Just like going to college in 1978, after my divorce in 1986 and after my other divorce in 2004, I was alone and needed employment in order to support myself. I had sold my business and was living on the proceeds and also supplementing my income with freelance writing for the daily newspaper here in GA. My savings was dwindling fast. I needed a steady job.

Frankly, I was frustrated with myself. Why was it that I never seemed to be able to maintain long-term relationships? Why was it so tough to support myself? Why did I put something on the stove, wander off, and burn it so the smoke alarm goes off and the pan is ruined? Like, every night? Why did I forget to pay bills? Why did I dread being with people? Why was I so rigid in my routine? Why was everything so hard?

Did not he who made me in the womb make him? And did not one fashion us in the womb?
(Job 31:15)I decided to go back to the last job I’d formerly had, in 1990, teaching. I added my name to the sub list and began substitute teaching in my county. The next year I was hired as a Special Education para-professional.

It was through my job I discovered my autism. In working with autistic children, and in studying the Encyclopedia of Autism, and speaking with the professionals I worked with, I finally understood the answers to all the above questions, and more.

However, now I had different questions.

Ice Crystal by yellowcloud

Why did God make me this way? What was it about my personality and brain that could glorify Him uniquely? What were my spiritual gifts?

Being in Christ meant that I was at long last docked in a world where things finally made sense. I finally had found a worthy Person to serve: Jesus. Truth was the highest priority. Finally, the unvarnished truth was valued! Holy living by His set of standards was also the priority. The rules were clearly laid out in the bible. I love that. I have a manual that explains how to love, love, relate, and worship!! It’s all written down! No more guessing for me, no sir. And… at long last I’d found a subject I couldn’t exhaust. God is infinite and the bible is an infinite training manual. (2 Timothy 3:16).

While media often depicts an autistic person obsessively studying and talking about one subject their whole lives, like trains for instance, all subjects are finite. Eventually one reaches the end of the road with learning it. Or at least I had gone as far as I could given the resources I’d had. For example, I earned a 4.0 in my Masters program of Literacy Education and the only next step I could take was obtaining a PhD, something that would require a great amount of expense and travel for over two hours to the nearest University that offered one in my area of learning. I exhausted journalism, mollusks, heraldry, King Arthur, and education, topics I’d studied at different points in my life. There is no new information to be added to the collection of information about King Arthur, once you’ve studied it all, you’re done. This is disconcerting to an autistic person. I constantly worried about the end, and what to study next.

The bible is infinite!! There never will be an end to it! What a relief!

In addition, the bible lays out clear rules for living, and many how-to’s. The routine of going to church is a comfort.

Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, who formed you from the womb: “I am the Lord, who made all things, who alone stretched out the heavens, who spread out the earth by myself, (Isaiah 44:24)In actuality, Christianity seemed like a perfect fit. In secular life, there are many speculations from unsaved people about the autistic brain and whether an autistic person can accept religion.

Autism May Diminish Belief in God
People who have more traits of autism are less likely to believe in God that those that do not have such traits, according to new research that suggests that belief is boosted by the ability to see into the minds of others. This ability, often called theory of mind, or mentalizing, is diminished in people with autism spectrum disorders, a cluster of conditions marked by communication and social difficulties. Because people’s beliefs in God are often marked by feelings of having a personal relationship with the deity, prayer and worship may require a sense of what God could be thinking, researchers report Wednesday (May 30) in the journal PLoS ONE.

Religious Belief Systems of Persons with High Functioning Autism
Persons with autistic spectrum disorder were much more likely than those in our neurotypical comparison group to identify as atheist or agnostic, and, if religious, were more likely to construct their own religious belief system. Nonbelief was also higher in those who were attracted to systemizing activities, as measured by the Systemizing Quotient.

HOGWASH!

Though those articles claim that it is harder for an autistic person to believe in God, personally I believe it is easier. First, the Lord put eternity in the hearts of all men (Ecc 3:11), and “what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them”. (Romans 1:19). So in that respect, it is easy to believe in God. But because men are depraved, they suppress what they know about God in unrighteousness. (Romans 1:18). So everyone, autistic or not, has an innate sense of God’s existence simply by being alive on His planet.

For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. (Psalm 139:13)Secondly, I mentioned that I spent a great deal of time in the natural world. As a child growing up it was where I went to decompress. I also lived on a sailboat for two years, and in a camper van camping outdoors for three months across country. I traveled a lot and hiked, walked, or otherwise saw many amazing natural sights. It was obvious and logical to me that this world was not an accident from a big bang. It was created. And since it had to have been created, God must have created it. Logically, this conclusion seemed to me to be almost a given.

Thirdly, even though God obviously made the world, I was not so sure about the name of Jesus. God was one thing but Jesus and the whole blood, wrath, and sin thing was another. However every person on the planet who lives nor or who ever lived, except for Jesus, has a sin nature and denies Jesus and their need for a savior as a matter of course. (Romans 3:11; Psalm 53:2). So no one comes to saving grace unless the Spirit draws him, autistic or not. Hence the hogwash comment, scientists. (1 Timothy 6:20). No one can believe in Jesus but everyone can plainly see there is a God (Romans 1:18-21).

I see now in hindsight that Jesus gave me the talent of writing, honed over many decades, so that after I was saved, I could write about Him. He gave me and honed in me the talent of speaking/teaching so I could support myself. When the time came, He gave me the spiritual gift of teaching. (Romans 12:7).

What a grand thing it is as an autistic person to be given an almost inability to lie and a severe love of the truth, and then come into His Truth so as to proclaim it! This is the gift of exhortation. (Romans 12:8). And as an autistic person constantly researching my favorite subjects, I have a tremendous ability to quickly sift through massive amounts of information and dispense with the invalid or useless and detect the useful. Also I can organize massive amounts of information into a coherent progression of thought. And thus He gave me the spiritual gift of Distinguishing of Spirits, or discernment. (1 Cor. 12:10).

I am a spiritual snowflake.

John MacArthur has some thoughts on the spiritual gifts and the dispensing of them

Josef Reischig, Wikimedia CC

I believe that every Christian is a spiritual snowflake. Just like you are literally the only one of your kind, even if you’re a twin you’re different than your twin. Your fingerprints are different, your teeth are different, and other parts of you are different. Every one of us stamped with absolute uniqueness, we are all creative idiots, in that sense. We are peculiar, we are unique. There’s no one like us. We are spiritual snowflakes. And I believe that when the Spirit of God gives to every believer gifts, He gives them individually to each believer absolutely peculiar to that believer.

You say, “Well, you know, there’s only about a dozen of them listed here. How you going to divide a dozen gifts up among millions of Christians and make them all different?”

Let me tell you how. I believe you have a list of gifts in Romans 12, a list of gifts in 1 Corinthians 12. The fact that they are different shows how much latitude there is in their definition. Paul lists some in the Roman passage, he lists some in the Corinthian passage and there is some duplication and some non‑duplication. And it’s almost as if he’s just suggesting broad categories. The best way to understand it would be that they’re like colors on a palette and each gift would be a color and as God takes His brush and paints you, He dips into different color categories and paints you a unique color. You’re not the same as someone else. Even if you had fifteen people or twenty or five thousand who all had a gift of teaching, you could have them all teach and they would all teach differently, uniquely. (source)

As the Spirit does with all people, He gives gifts in various amounts to glorify Jesus so that each one of us uniquely can exalt Him through our walk.

Certain of my struggles in Christianity might be unique to autism but the fact that I am a human being who struggles with sins or with obedience to Jesus is not unique at all. We all have that, no matter who we are. Where the bible says to speak the truth (Ephesians 4:15a) I can do this even when it is uncomfortable. However the verse says to speak the truth in love, and this is harder. I am unfamiliar with the usual expressions of love and I have to work a little harder to be sure not to be ungentle.

2 Timothy 3:14-17 says to study the bible, which is a great and easy thing for me to do because I love to have a study-hobby that will be ever changing and inexhaustible … now with the eternal benefit of learning about an infinite Savior, but it also says to fellowship and meet together, (1 John 1:3, Hebrews 10:25) something that is very hard for me to do.

So I struggle with fellowship, restoring gently, and mercy, but what human doesn’t struggle with some aspect of church life, obedience, or sins? Some struggle with coveting, others lying, or forgiveness. All humans find certain aspects of the rules for holy living difficult. This is a human thing, not necessarily an autistic thing.

My LORD made me. The same hand that knitted me together, autistic brain and all, also stretched out the universe. Since He made me, and all that He does is Good, then it must be good that I am the way I am. The only thing that remains is to revel in His goodness and seek ways to exalt and honor Him.

God created every snowflake in this scene unique, and perfect in its uniqueness. We are all on the same road to glory, which ends at the feet of Jesus.

Iain Thompson, Creative Commons

Who am I to question His knitting of me? He put me on this earth, HIS earth, to enjoy His creation, to live and develop talents, and at His timing to be brought into the Kingdom a repentant sinner so as to glorify Him by the gifts He gave me. It does not matter who is male or female, who is young or old, who is gifted with mercy or who is gifted with teaching. It does not matter who is autistic, who is a paraplegic, who uses a cane to walk into church and who bounds up the steps with energy. It does not matter who was saved young and who was saved old.

“There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus..” (Galatians 3:28).

In Christ, I am not autistic. The only label that eternally matters is that I am called a child of the Most High God. What a glorious label!

for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. (Galatians 3:26)

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