An insightful kid in Sunday school this week asked “If our money comes from God, then what about poor people?”
Good question. Here are some things to help us make sense of poverty:
a) God doesn’t owe anything to anyone. Everyone gets more than they deserve, which is instant judgment and death. The fact that they’re still alive, have families and the opportunity to be saved through Jesus – that’s already more than we deserve. (This should move us to great gratitide that we have received so much more than we deserve too)
b) The injustice is caused by us. Its true God chooses where we’ll be born, and so causes people to be born into poverty – but that poverty only exists as a result of sin (eg greed, lack of compassion). (This should convict us of our own sin & move us to repent)
c) It hurts God more than it hurts us. God cares about the poor. He loves them more than we do, and so it hurts Him more than it hurts us. (This should move us to worship God for his compassion)
Which leads us to ask – what has he done about it, and what will he do about it?
d) God has already done something about it. We’re sinful, so while ever we’re around and sinful, so will poverty. We can’t fix it alone. We need someone to take away sin. When Jesus died for sin, it purchased these remedies:
i) it meets the greatest need of poor people, which is not food or money but forgiveness (Mark 2:1-11)
ii) it allows us sinners to put sin to death, giving Christians strength and motivation to do something about poverty.
iii) it made the way for us to enter his ultimate plan:
e) The ultimate plan: what God will do about it. All things will be put right in the end. Those who have found forgiveness in Jesus will enjoy His company in heaven, where they will be healed: there will be no poverty, no tears, no death.
Those responsible for the injustice of poverty will receive what they deserve (unless Jesus paid for it in their place). Justice will be done and there will be healing.
f) Side note: in addition to being a result of sin, poverty exists to point us to the Cross. It cries out to both the rich and the poor that there is something wrong with the world. To the rich, it shows us the depth of our sin and our need for a Saviour. And, for the poor, it drives them to the Cross because they cannot put their hope anywhere else.
Ultimately, the answer to this question, and any question, is the gospel.
If you want to read about this more, grab a copy of If I Was God I’d End All the Pain (John Dickson) or, for something more meaty, How Long, O Lord (D. A. Carson).
Discovered something today that will only excited students or scholars of ancient greek – but it will start these people frothing at the mouth.
Imagine… on your phone… both editions of Liddell and Scott’s Greek-English lexicon (“The Great Scot” and “Middle Liddell”) plus full morphological analysis. Free. Any (internet-capable) phone.
It’s fairly complicated:
1. Bookmark this link in your phone: http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/morph.jsp
2. Done!
Enjoy 
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This is a great question… from a 9 year-old. What amazes me is how triumphantly it is paraded by adults!
Consider this article. (h/t VK):
… there is an obvious, gaping flaw in this commenter’s logic, well-known to skeptics for years: if you ask where the Big Bang came from, why can’t you ask the same thing of God?
You can.
When a person like this is asked who or what created God, the standard answer is that God always existed. But why can’t we say the same about the Universe itself?
Very good so far. We can say the universe always existed. In fact, scientists did in Newton’s time. So we’re agreed that there’s nothing wrong with saying something always existed? Good. So it is with God.
But the problem for the universe is that science points in quite a different direction – an uncomfortable one, for many. It points to the universe having begun – at least as we know it.
And to attack the question “Where did the Big Bang come from?” is to miss the point. We’re perfectly happy to accept the possibility that there existed for all eternity past a singularity from which the Big Bang banged. The real question is “What caused the Big Bang?” What happened to make the singularity explode?
In the formulation of William Lane Craig, the assertion is this: “Whatever begins to exist has a cause.”
Here the always-rational, always-skeptical scientist leaps off into an imaginary world where they invent invisible objects billions of lightyears across, with no proof whatsoever. Take the article above, for example:
It’s entirely possible the Universe is a part of a larger structure, a metaverse, if you will, that always existed and always will.
Oh the irony.
LifeOfJesus.tv – a 6 week documentary investigating the historical life of Jesus.
Preachers and wanna-bes, check out this SMBC preaching conference.
I’ve never undertaken to write an account of the evidence that convinces me of the truth of Christianity, despite being asked occasionally. I’ve never been bothered. It’s like asking: Summarise the 700-page book and dozens of 200-page books you’ve read. Go!”
Well… I did tonight. By accident. I got carried away, you could say, and wrote a 1600-word comment in response to SmartLX. It is not exhaustive, there are many, many other reasons which I don’t discuss, but if you’re interested in a bare-bones look at some of the main reasons I’m a Christian, read this comment.
Prologue: Busted this out in response to a comment by SmartLX (who, by the way, wins the “Greatest Legend of the Year” award). It’s pretty rough, but I thought it’d be worth making it’s own post. It’s certainly not the best thing ever written on the topic, but hopefully helpful and might inspire some people to check it out further.
Here’s what I reckon about most prophecies: Nostradamus’ were so vague they were bound to be ‘fulfilled’ eventually (or even, regularly).
But the Bible’s prophecies about Jesus are unique in their detail and specificity (not to mention number!).
Some might be thought general enough to apply to many people, though I’d say that finding one person to fulfill even just all the ‘general’ ones would be a task.
Some are deliberately fulfilled by Jesus, so you could argue there’s nothing supernatural in that (eg Isaiah 53:7, fulfilled Mark 15:4-5), though then you’d have to accept that Jesus was conscious of his massive claim.
But then there are those which Jesus had no control over and are astonishing in their specificity. Eg:
the price paid (30 pieces of silver) to betray Jesus (Zechariah 11:12, fulfilled: Matthew 26:14-15),
the use of this money (Zechariah 11:13, fulfilled: Matthew 27:6-7),
His ancestry (Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Judah, Jesse, David),
born in the rural hick town of Bethlehem,
that the Messiah would come before AD 70 (when the temple was destroyed – prophecied that the Messiah would come to the temple),
that He’d be born to a virgin (now, say what you will – how plausible is it that Jesus’ own mother would believe He was the Son of God – that much alone amazes me… but wouldn’t she know if He was born to a virgin?),
that He’d live in Egypt,
minister in Galilee,
that he’d restore sight to the blind etc,
that he’d be rejected by Jews (particularly unlikely in light of the one I just mentioned),
betrayed by a friend,
that he’d be pierced through the hands and feet (this prophecy was written before crucifixion was even invented!),
given vinegar to drink,
his clothes divided by lot (remarkably specific!),
no bones would be broken (contrary to the usual practice of crucifixion),
there would be darkness over the land at noon (which happened at his crucifixion),
buried with the rich,
and resurrected.
That list is a selection from here: http://www.godandscience.org/apologetics/prophchr.html (which is itself a selection, I’ve seen fuller lists).
These were written 400 years before Jesus. (Don’t believe me? Josephus, a Jew who rejected Jesus, says the recognised Old Testament books were all written before Artaxerxes)
I challenge you to identify one other person in history with that resume.
I’m going out on a limb here but I don’t think you’d find it easy…
Jesus is the Messiah, foretold by the prophets centuries before.
Jesus: A Short Life (John Dickson) was reviewed in the Spectrum section of yesterday’s Sydney Morning Herald (p35):
The argument is simple. The negative and eccentric views of Jesus and Christianity propounded by the likes of Richard Dawkins and John Shelby Spong rely heavily, according to John Dickson, on arguments and evidence that are not widely accepted by most experts who have spent much of their working lives trying to disentangle Historic Jesus from Mythological Jesus.
So what is the truth? Dickson systematically lays out the widely known historical facts about the life of Jesus. Yes, he did exist. Four sources, independent of the Gospels, attest to his existence. He radicalised the Jewish notion of love. He chose 12 apostles because that was the number of tribes of Israel. He shared a final meal with his disciples during Passover; was handed over to Pontious Pilate by a priestly elite; and after he was crucified several men and women claimed to have seen him alive.
This is an excellent primer for anyone interested in the debates about Jesus and Christianity.
