The Missing Link

By Yuri Solomon

The daughter of a dear friend of mine, complained to her mom about having to go to the museum of natural science to see “Lucy.” She asserted, “Mom I don’t believe we come from monkeys, so why should I have to go see Lucy.” “Lucy” is the name given to the famous fossil skeleton that American anthropologist Donald Johanson found in Ethiopia in 1974. Lucy purports to be the so-call, and dare I say mythical, "missing link." The missing link is the long sought after transitional form between species that evolutionist count on breathing the breath of life into their theory on the day it is discovered. Specifically, scientific proponents of evolution claim that Lucy is a 3.2 million year old hominoid bearing the cross features of primates and Homo sapiens (or humans.)

The exhibit has now made its way to our city and is on display in the museum of natural science. While many Christians may have little interest in this, the fact is we need to pay attention. They march our children down to the museum and fill their heads with these God-denying fables of man evolving from apes. Christians certainly should be concerned about this, yet not fearful. It merits our concern, first because Satan specializes in the tactical use of schemes to capture the attention of unsuspecting victims of his temptation, as he did Eve in the Garden of Eden. The hook line, “Has God said that you shall not eat of any of the trees of the garden,” was extreme and meant to make her more susceptible to subtler ideas that opposed God’s word. Secondly, as we are concern about teaching and training children, and perhaps many adults, in the difference between a Christian/Biblical worldview and a secular worldview.

So in light of these concerns, what simple things should Christians remember when approaching this subject? First and foremost Christians must realize, although passed off as science, evolution is not science. This statement may be surprising; however, science is definitively a hypothesis which can be empirically proven in a laboratory repeatedly. Evolution stops at being a hypothesis, and moreover falls far short of even being that, given the weight of evidence to the contrary (which evidences will not be discussed in this article.) Evolution fails every test of any sort that may be called legitimate science. Evolution is an unobservable theory, a belief, which its proponents desperately want to prove true, and the present hope of their glory is in Lucy. Christians can rest assured that evolution is only a belief and not a fact. Christian faith is in the words of scripture concerning creation, while the evolutionist trusts in their own unfounded reasoning and rationale about creation.

Secondly, Christians may find assurance in the fact that biblical truth cannot and will not ever be discredited. No one in all of history has ever proven that the assertions of scripture err. The opposite is true of these supposedly transitional forms. The reality is that Lucy is the latest attempt to substantiate the clearly defunct theory of Darwinian Evolution. She is in the back of the line of a long list of frauds and failures. There was Piltdown Mann (1890s), Peking Man (1912,), Homo erectus (1927) and the list goes on, always ending in virtual scandal to the dismay of the proponents of evolution. So Lucy is certainly not the first and probably will not be the last of these futile attempts at proving faulty theory. The reason the proponents of evolution are so oppose to our view being voiced in the public forum is because they know that their evidence is lacking; therefore, if your argument cannot be proven true, then the next course of action is to keep your opponents from asserting their position.

Lastly Christians should not inadvertently adopt their approach, seeking to forcefully silence the evolutionist. The truth will stand all on its own, and bring falsehood to shame. So then the appropriate response is to be bold in faith, allowing what they believe to be tested for its soundness, so that their faith will be increased by seeing the truth stand against its critics. Encourage our children to hear out the world’s rationale, especially while they have you by their side to help them reason well. Allow the light of God’s revelation to shine brightly against the dark theories of the world. It is the divine cultural mandate that our faith is placed on display in the market place of ideas. So go to their exhibitions. Hear the theories of the world. Test them in light of the scripture and hold on to what proves to be true. Tested faith is real faith.

Darwin predicted that the fossil record would either prove or falsify his theory; over a century later, the missing link remains undiscovered. Lucy is but another attempt at saving this doomed theory. The missing link is not a transitional form of any species; the missing link is "faith" that God created the heavens and the earth and he made every kind to produce after its own kind. The Christian may be confident that these words of scripture will always be true and no human theory can or will make this brilliant reality fade.

Playing to Win

For though I be free from all men, yet have I made myself servant unto all, that I might gain the more. (1 Corinthian 9:19)

My friend Joe asked me, “How do you get passed the attitudes and hurtful dispositions of others?” To which I replied, “I play to win.” In other words, I try to keep my mind on what it takes to get a “well done” from God in every situation. That is the defining trait of a matured believer; every situation is an opportunity to profit eternally.

In I Corinthians 9, Paul lays out three contests that believers of the faith must overcome in order to bear fruit as a father (soul-winner/fruit bearer) in the faith. They are in reverse order in the text; because, his focus is ultimately on winning people. However, there are two prerequisites to winning people: winning against your body, and winning against the culture that has the person imprisoned. So the goal is winning against the person, which requires winning against the culture, which requires winning against one’s own flesh.

First of all, if we do not discipline our own bodies, (i.e. attitude, arguments, and actions) we can hardly hope to endure the difficult course of successfully infiltrating a culture that holds a person hostage or winning against the resistance of the person you are intending to win. Worse even, Paul says it is possible to win, and after having run the course to win, one ends up being a cast away; because, the person sees hypocrisy.

But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway. (1Co 9:27)

Paul points out potential loss; because, the person one seeks to reach views a weakness in behavior because of a lack of discipline over the body against sin. That's right; you won the battle but lost the war; because, your vise has outshone your virtue in the eyes of the person you sought to win.

Secondly we must overcome the culture that holds them captive. This involves what I call the “art of condescension.” Paul says,

For though I be free from all men, yet have I made myself servant unto all, that I might gain the more. And unto the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain the Jews; to them that are under the law, as under the law, that I might gain them that are under the law; To them that are without law, as without law, (being not without law to God, but under the law to Christ,) that I might gain them that are without law. To the weak became I as weak, that I might gain the weak: I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some. (1Co 9:19-22)

It is to become not sympathetic but empathetic with a person for the purpose of winning them over. The difference between sympathy and empathy is this: sympathy sits down at the foot of a mountain and weeps with a person about the difficulty of climbing the mountain; empathy on the other hand, puts its arm around the person and says I understand, but come on let’s climb the mountain together; “Condescension = humility + compassion + edification.” In other words, one becomes a servant to another in his area of weakness by entering into his situation. As someone aptly put it, "compassion is your pain in my heart".

The culture is a stronghold, a wall, which must not be assaulted by carnal combat, but marched around in faith and obedience, trusting and depending on the word of God to make the difference.

Now we are ready to win against the person, (i.e. against his ideology), armed with goodness against disorder, knowledge against tactic, temperance against attitude, patience against obstinacy, godliness against worldliness, kindness against weaknesses, and love against debt. This will enable you to pull down the stronghold that encompasses the person and take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.

The Divorce of Marriage

We have moved beyond the need for mere "marital counseling" to a need for "marriage promotion." People are not getting married. Extreme secular culture has even gone as far as declaring marriage as old fashion, obsolete, and antiquated. The results are live-ins and/or disposable marriages. This cancerous ideology is metastasizing among heterosexuals while those who promote the gay agenda are seeking to distort the definition of marriage beyond that of a covenant relationship between one man and one woman. Simply put this most primary and historical institute of humanity is under attack on every front, whether divorce, abandonment, or perversion.

What havoc has this phenomenon wrought on our communities and society at large? The degradation of the sanctity of marriage is the source of the unwedded and unwanted pregnancy epidemic, teenage delinquencies, increased child abuse and molestation, continued propagation of divorce, the embrace of homosexuality, and countless mental, emotional, and spiritual wounds to the posterity of the broken marriages. Marriage may be optional or disposable in our minds, but this is anything but a reality. The pain is real; the cost is high, and the pathology is virtually unstoppable.

The most extreme consequence being realized today is that it is becoming more in vogue to simply not get married: sometimes out of fear, after experiencing the horrific details of the divorce of their parents, and sometimes out of seeking a personal lifestyle of convenience, not wanting the difficult challenges of this covenant keeping task; moreover, in a culture of "feel-good seekers," either motivation serves as a catalyst for abandoning marriage.

Lastly, long-term effects of a self-serving, self-esteem seeking, and self-gratifying culture is that our children are taught to enter into marriage with as much independence and autonomy as possible. The idea being, establish one's self firmly before entering into marriage. Parenthetically, one need only to converse with a few average adults passed age forty-five to quickly surmise that personal establishment is a life-long task which is refined and/or re-defined every decade of a person's life. Additionally, such establishment faces added difficulty and slower progress apart from a context of marriage and family contrary to popular credence. Moreover, even when the bonds of matrimony after this so-called personal and career achievements are met, the bonding glue on the tape of marriage is hardly sticky; rather, interdependence is thwarted by separate bank accounts, separate friendships, separate visions and ideals for the family, attending separate churches, and even separate lifestyles. When marriage in youth is postponed for social and material achievement, there is practically nothing left around which to build and grow a marriage.

All the ideals mentioned are sourced in man's cognition and not God's word. We've abandoned the instructions of the one who invented male and female, instituted marriage, installed its purpose, and informs its success: "And God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. And God blessed them: and God said unto them, be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it; and have dominion" (Gen 1:27-28).

This is the sole purpose of marriage: the propagation of God's image in the earth. Whatever pleasure we find in it is an incidental fringe benefit to the duty of faithfulness to God's word.

No doubt this does not sit well with our epicurean culture; however, rest assured that the Christian life will always bring us to the choice of seeking our pleasure or seeking God's glory, and both cannot be sought simultaneously. The glory of God still remains in the promotion of youthful, fruitful, faithful and dutiful matrimony, which will in turn provide for a more blessed and stable society.

Come After Me

Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. Matthew 16:24

What a revolution; to find personal fulfillment in cross-bearing; to attend to all things which are contrary to one’s old self. This cross we are to take up is neither for you, nor is it for Jesus. He bore all your sins, and He is in no need of any sin-sacrifice Himself. So for who are you to carry this cross, in which its prerequisite is self-denial and its duty is likened unto that of Jesus; “follow me” He said.

There is first in the verse a desire, a willingness, to in one sense ascend to Christ likeness but in another to descend to Christ likeness: “If any man will come after me.” It is a lofty goal of lowliness. In other word’s Christ did not just die for others, but He lived for others. And that is the point. The work of the Christian is that of carrying the faults, failings, and frailties of others through an ever-increasing life of personal subjection to the will of God in the image of Christ. That is the only true path to personal development.

Yet today, church involvement has often degraded into nothing more than self-help, self-serving, self-seeking flesh-fests, where the real work of being “others-mindedness” through a Christ-center focus has been lost in the shuffle. People come with the religious paraphernalia of “getting me a word”, “getting my praise on”, etc… They convene at the church house to be emotionally charged and intellectually stimulated, thinking this is the formula to a more pleasing walk with God. The sad reality is, it is anything but that.

And I’ve been there, confused! I thought I needed to sit and work on myself. I did not understand that serving others was the way to work on myself and persevering in the service of others will in effect be self-denial. I did not understand that loving unlovely folk was learning the love of Christ; I did not understand that enduring impossible people was gaining the patience of Christ, or that bearing with painful accusations and lies was to participate in the suffering of Christ. I did not know the work of God is people and servicing people will work you into what God wants you to be.

A more careful look at this verse reveals that the great exercise of Christianity is not building our intellect but our character and that through cross-bearing experience. The Christ-likeness formula is contained herein, the first of which is not self-service but self-denial. In fact the entire tri-fold directive may be understood as 1) forsake your desires, 2) attend to the desires of others, 3) by imitating me. Even church life can be an exercise in carnality when we don’t pay attention to Jesus’ instructions. So challenge yourself about your idea of church involvement by asking yourself, “What are you coming after?” and “How do you obtain it?” Come! Come after His will. Come after His way. Come after His work. Come after His compassion. Come after His sheep. Come after Him with a cross likened unto His.

WORLD WAR OR CIVIL WAR

Where is the real battle?

The recent ruling to uphold the band on gay marriage in California should be a reminder of many things. This conservative victory in the most morally liberal state of the union is a reminder that the majority of the people in the U.S. do not support gay marriage; however, it is also a reminder of how irrelevant this fact is to the persistence of those pursuing the gay agenda. It is a reminder that when traditional families speak up, victory is assured, yet it is a reminder of how often those who oppose traditional moral values are willing to stand for immorality. It is a reminder that the struggle is constant, and also it is a reminder of how consistently the adversaries of Christianity strive to promote evil. While a reminder that victory is possible, the ever narrowing victory in California is also a reminder of how much more methodical the enemies of righteousness are. These facts beg the question, “where is the real battle?”

The reality is that Christians often are attempting to fight a world war, when the dominant issue is a civil war. The battle is much less against gay-marriage proponents than it is against the church’s apathy. It has been truly stated that evil prospers when good men do nothing. Many have wisely described the church as a “sleeping giant.” While pulpit after pulpit rhetorically proclaims us to be on the verge of revival, anything but revival is occurring. This is because optimism is not the answer to apathy. We may look at the proverbial glass as half full rather than half empty; however, that is futile when the water is being drained from the glass.

Among Christians who are actively fighting is the tendency to assume that the church is not fighting hard enough; however, the truth is when the church is faithful and pure in her disposition walls will come tumbling down with little human effort. The battle with the world is never our battle, it’s the Lord’s; however, our battle is to maintain our own personal and social faith and purity in the context of the church.

The church must become radically unique in her position, spiritual violent in her method, and mystically unpredictable in her response to sin. This must occur first in-house and then it will irresistibly spread abroad. We must remember the God’s thoughts and ways are not in concert with the ways of men. The church is guilty of attempting to eradicate sin from her mist with grace rather than law. She seeks to operate in sentimental wisdom that is carnal and unbiblical. This is nothing less than a misapplication of grace; actually, it is a perversion of grace, creating a license for lasciviousness. In the Old Testament the law demanded that the sinner be put to death. This was punitive, purifying, and preventative in affect. While death was literal in the Old Testament, it is symbolically accomplished in the New Testament through excommunication.

The Reformers defined a true church by three signs: 1) the true gospel is preached, 2) the observation of the sacraments, and 3) church discipline. The lack of this last sign in the church today is very revealing. The Old Testament nation of Israel’s bondage was always a result of abandoning the discipline of the law.

Simply put, the church cannot be tolerant of homosexuality and expect to triumph against the world. There are clear instructions in the scripture as to how [all] sin in the camp must be dealt with in order to maintain God’s favor. When the church is ineffective in battle, it is never the world’s fault; there is sin in the camp and we have become Achan’s Army. Our leaders, like Moses, are unable to hold their arms up and the people are defeated antinomians.

It is high time that the church concentrate on the in-house war more so than the worldly distractions that Satan has used to infiltrate the church and sow tares while believers slept. Only then will we become manifestly the church over which the gates of Hell cannot prevail.

Make Full Proof of Thy Ministry

But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry (2Timothy 4:5)

An encouragement and a warning to a young preacher/pastor, don’t get preoccupied cursing the darkness; rather, be busy shining the light. How often a man’s ministry is hindered by distractions. This must be, as I consider my own history at times, Satan’s number one tool. If our foot is not threatened by the prosperity of the wicked, then it is the apathy of the saints that puts us in danger of slippage. Here the temptation is for Timothy to be halted by the refusal of church folk to hear what is sound and true.

And isn’t it more than not that young preachers fail to heed this warning, even the scriptures, that the called to ministry comes with severe testing. The preacher/pastor is in the people business, and people will drive you crazy unless you stay focused. And I’ve been there; I was so angry and for whatever reason, I mentioned to my very own Pastor that I was going to manhandle this fellow, but in wisdom he said to me, “Don’t be distracted.” And that is what Paul is telling this young preacher, “You have a calling from God and don’t turn to the left or right glaring and staring at preachers who won’t preach, deacons who won’t serve, and saints who act like “aints”. Instead prove to all that your call is an effectual calling from the almighty God. The apostle said to Timothy, if these will no longer hear you, and in fact turn against you, “Do the work of an evangelist”; go get you some more people. Don’t talk about them; go get you some more people. Don’t stare at them; go get you some more people. Don’t fight them; go get you some more people. Do the work Timothy, do the work! Watch vigilantly and avoid some distractions. With determination endure painful distractions, but most of all keep working, thereby proving your ministry bears the mandate of heaven.

The preaching call is a burden that the truly called preacher must carry out at all cost. That burden is not to prove that he can compel or constraint any particular group of people, but that if he keeps on preaching and ignores the distractions all that God gave to him will come to him. I conclude with a word for the distracted from the old hymnologist, Charles Wesley:

A charge to keep I have,
A God to glorify,
A never-dying soul to save,
And fit it for the sky.

To serve the present age,
My calling to fulfill:
O may it all my powers engage
To do my Master's will!

They Shall Be My People, and I Will Be Their God

That they may walk in my statutes, and keep mine ordinances, and do them: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God (Ezekiel 11:20).

Not in position only, but in practice. The world will look at us and our true identity will be undeniable. Not because of what we have done, but because of what He has done. Daddy would say "Boy when you leave this house, you will act like you are a Solomon; folk will know you are my son." And that is in affect what God is saying here.

Israel is being chastened through exile from the land for their abominable and detestable practices. Ezekiel asked God if He will destroy them. Yet in the mist of their rebellion, God details His faithful intentions for Israel. God said: I will give them one heart; I will give them a new spirit; I will take out the stony heart; I will give them a heart of flesh. Notice the personal pronoun "I".

Just as He cannot save us without faith in His Son, He cannot bless us without conformity to the likeness of His Son. Yet He places both responsibilities squarely on His own shoulders. The one who justifies is in fact the same one who sanctifies. As Paul wrote, "He which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ" (Phil 1:6). He pushes, pulls, puts us out to bring us in. He molds, makes, and shapes us into that which brings Him eternal pleasure.

And that is the beauty of our redemption; we have been saved to the utmost. In spite of our present condition: abominable and detestable, we have been declared to be His people by His immutable voice. We will be indwelled with a passion for Him by His unquenchable love. We will be made His people by His unstoppable hand.

We may go willingly like Enoch or we may go kicking and screaming all the way like Samson, but our destiny is certain and sure; we will be His people and He will be our God. As William Cowper wrote in his hymn, "The Contrite Heart",

The Lord will happiness divine
On contrite hearts bestow;
Then tell me, gracious God, is mine
A contrite heart or no?

Oh make this heart rejoice or ache;
Decide this doubt for me;
And if it be not broken, break,
And heal it, if it be.