Christ Became Sin

2Corinthians 5:21 For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

Do you take sin to be a light thing? Do you call your sin a "little sin"? Remember that it was the sin of the whole world that nailed Christ to the cross. Thus, it was your sin that Christ carried to the grave. Certainly, the big sins nailed him to the cross, but the weight of sin was felt in the many little sins that Christ carried that day.

2 Corinthians 5:21 tells us that he hath made him to be sin for us. "He" being God, "him" being Christ. God made Christ to be sin for us who knew no sin. The spotless Lamb of God, Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth (I Peter 2:22), He became sin for us. Though Christ himself didn’t know sin, yet He became intimately acquainted with sin on that day. He knew of the shame, but that day He felt the shame. He bore our sins in His own body on that cross (2 Corinthians 5:24). God laid on him the iniquity of us all (Isaiah 53:6).

But that isn’t all. Christ carried our sins on that cross, and God made Christ to be sin. He bore our sin, and he became sin. He became all that is filthy, all that is vile, all that is stinking, all that is wicked about sin. Is sin exceeding sinful (Romans 7:13)? Christ became exceeding sinful. Are there evil men in the world? Christ became evil. God made Christ to be sin.

But why? Why did God make one man to be sin for all men? Were there not enough men who already qualified? Aren’t men already wicked enough to be called sin itself? Why would God make His own Son, His only begotten Son, to be sin? Why did the Father make the incarnate Word to become sin incarnate? The answer is found clearly in 2 Corinthians 5:21: he hath made him to be sin for us… I deserve to be called "sin" many times more than Jesus Christ does. Christ did no sin, while I am wretched and full of sin. But if I am sin, I must be cast into Hell. Sin must be destroyed. I cannot be sin and survive in God’s good grace. If I am sin, I must be destroyed. I cannot bear the weight. I cannot be sin. And therefore Christ became sin. He became sin for me. He became sin for us, so that our old man might be crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. When Christ was destroyed on the cross, the body of sin was destroyed. Therefore, Christ became sin for us
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And, 2 Corinthians 5:21 tells us that Christ became sin for us with a particular goal in mind: that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. Christ became sin so that we could be glorified. God would be glorified in us, but sinful men can’t glorify God. And since we were without hope, powerless to glorify God, Christ became sin for us. Since even our righteousnesses are as filthy rags, Christ became sin for us, so that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. God looked down upon the children of men to see if there were any that did understand and that did seek God (Psalm 14:2). And what did God find? They are all gone aside, they are all together become filthy; there is none that doeth good, no, not one. God seeks for righteous men, but God found none. So, God himself became a man, so that there might be one righteous man. Then, the Father took all the sin of the whole world, and laid it on that one righteous man. When the Father had laid on Christ the iniquity of us all, then the Father took the sword of justice and went after Christ. He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquity, the chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed. And why did the Father do this? Why did the Son become sin for us? That we might be made the righteousness of God in him. The Son became sin so that, when God looked at us, he would find us without spot or blemish. He became sin so that we would be sinless, without fault when we stand before the throne (Revelation 14:5).

All of this to the praise of His grace. O sinner seek the Lord! Repent of all your sins. Turn to the Lord, turn from your sin. Seek the Lord while He may be found.

Denial is a River in Utah

If Mormons believe that their religion is true and right, that their doctrines give life, then why do so many deny their own essential doctrines?

Mormons believe that the spirit of man exists eternally, or at least pre-exists the man himself. I should explain that the Mormon understanding of "eternal" is different than the Christian view. We understand eternal as extending infinitely in two directions: infinitely backwards (without beginning) and infinitely forward (without end). In Mormon theology, God is eternal, but only in the sense that he will never die. They view the pre-existent spirit of man the same way. Like men, God’s spirit pre-existed him, and God’s spirit received a body, grew as a man, became a Christ, and then became God. To be a Mormon God, one must first become a Mormon Christ, which has interesting ramifications for Mormons who want to become God.

But if you bring this up with a Mormon, you will likely get denial. I was discussing this with my friend at Maynard Motors. He was trying to prove to me the pre-existence of the spirit of man (he used Proverbs 8:23-31 to prove it). I denied that man’s soul pre-existed, but argued that God is the only eternal being. "In fact," I said, "God not only pre-exists, God is self-existent". And here is where the denial began. "Oh, I believe that God is self-existent too." "Really?" I asked. Then I explained further. "God exists eternally. As God is now, He always has been. There never has been a time in eternity past when God did not exist as He exists now. God has no beginning. God has always existed by his own power." And my Mormon friend said, "I believe that!"

I was flabbergasted. Yes, really. Flabbergasted. What could I say? What am I supposed to do here? Am I supposed to say, "No you don’t"? How can you have a discussion with someone who won’t even own up to what he believes?

This illustrates one of the frustrations of evangelizing Mormons. Rarely do we meet a Mormon who will admit to what he really believes. This is especially true when you get into the "upper crust" of Mormonism (the bishops and higher). You may recall that in my last post on Mormonism I mentioned that my friend at Maynard Motors even denied that the temple is necessary for admittance into the Celestial Kingdom. This is a key doctrine for the modern LDS, but he denied it. Of course, the Mormons who haven’t yet "made it" know the truth. They must do their temple work, or they will go to hell.

So, why don’t the bishops want me to know this? Maybe they see just how these doctrines put their people in bondage. Are they afraid that we Christians will point this out?

Hard Hearts

Psalm 95:6-8
O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the LORD our maker.
For he is our God; and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. To day if ye will hear his voice,
Harden not your heart, as in the provocation, and as in the day of temptation in the wilderness:

Hard hearts and hard heads cannot worship the Lord. A stone is no substitute for bread. How many will offer up an ice cube to God and call it worship? The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.

If we would worship and bow down, then our stony hearts must be made into hearts of flesh. God wrote the law on stone tables once. Now, God writes his law on fleshy tables of the heart. And this shows us why hard hearts are hardened. Sin is transgression of the law. Sin hardens the heart. Do you have a hard heart? Sin turns your ear from hearing the law. Yea, they made their hearts as an adamant stone, lest they should hear the law, and the words which the LORD of hosts hath sent in his spirit by the former prophets. (Zechariah 7:12)

Confess your sins. Ask God to turn you once again. Ask God to give you a tender heart once again. Come thou fount of every blessing, tune my heart to sing thy grace.

Jehovah is your maker. Is He your God? Are you the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand? Here is the sign: My sheep hear my voice. Do you hear his voice? Then harden not your heart.

O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the LORD our maker.

Rhetoric on Rhetoric

In our church’s academy, we are attempting to restore the medieval system of education. Our methodology follows the Trivium, and we teach some unique courses including Latin, Logic, and Rhetoric. At this year’s conclusion, our academy will have students who have completed three years of Latin, students who have formally studied Logic, and students who have taken two years of Rhetoric. The teaching of Logic and Rhetoric currently falls on myself, a task that I thoroughly enjoy.

Having spent two years teaching first year Rhetoric and one year teaching second year Rhetoric, I have grown to admire the subject, to appreciate its right use, and to desire its promotion, especially among the people of God. It is my humble opinion that believers would do well to study the subject and to excel at its use. As one rhetorician has said, God’s people must be people of the Word, and that means they must also be people of words.

The Psalmist prayed, let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord. Acceptable words are not merely sin-free words. Acceptable words are rich words, beautiful words, effective words. The preacher sought to find out acceptable words: and that which was written was upright, even words of truth. The words of the wise are as goads, and as nails fastened by the masters of assemblies, which are given from one shepherd. We are in a war, and words are our weapons.

Which brings me to the point of all this. On introducing this blog, I told of my plan to familiarize the rest of you with Mormonism. Allow me to add another emphasis for these pages. This blog will attempt to share some of what rhetoric has to say about the right use of words. Hopefully, it will offer help to the "rhetorically challenged", and, with a little help from the Logos, it will give the reader a practical understanding of this important subject and how it applies to our speaking and writing.

Adventures in Mormon Land, Episode 1: The Used Car Salesman

It is a long one, my post below, perhaps too long for a brand new blogger. You might get bored. You might get blogged down. You might quit reading half-way through. You might not like it. You might not ever come back to read my blog. What should I do? I can find but one answer: Just Post It! As Henry VIII said to one of his wives (probably)… I’ll be keeping you longer than you thought.

When Mormons evangelize, they like to start out by encouraging "open-mindedness" or "free thinking". Mormons flatter themselves that they are free thinkers, which they are in a sense, if you consider "free thinking" to be thinking without any boundaries. In that sense, they "boldly go where no man has gone before". And they want you to go there too. So, they will encourage you to read the Book of Mormon with an open mind and pray about it. And they will assure you that you will find it to be true. That is what they mean by "free thinking". You are a free thinker as long as you come to the same conclusion they did.

My son and I were at Maynard Motors, a used car lot in Midvale, Utah, when one of these Mormons evangelists cornered me. He started out with "you look like a free thinker." Then, he got his Bible out (yes, the real Bible), took me to Revelation 2:17, and proceeded to read. To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it. "Do you know," he said, "that there is only one church that knows what this means, and that practices this?" I didn’t really answer him, but he wasn’t looking for an answer anyway. He was busy launching.

He then told me about the Navajo Indians, and their ceremonies and their holy man, and he told me how they do this ceremony in a hut where they give a name. A secret name. But he said that the Navajos don’t know why they do it. It’s just an ancient custom that they still do. "And do you know where they learned it?" he asked (And he got kind of giddy while he awaited my answer). "They learned it from their ancestors who came up from South America, from the sons of Lehi who traveled to Brazil all the way from Israel and then up to Navajo country!"

You see, the Mormons believe that the American Indians are really Jews. Now, if you bring up the fact that there are DNA tests that say otherwise, they will quickly assert that that is only one or two tests. They haven’t proven against the "Jewish American Indian theory", so it must be true.

So, the Navajo Indians still practice giving this secret name, but don’t know why. According to Mr. Maynard, the Mormons do it too, and they know why. When you go to the temple, you get your secret name. Mike Haxton, a former Mormon bishop, told us all about the secret name. He was married in April, so his secret name was "Adam". His wife’s was "Adah" (or "Ada", I’m not sure which). They were told that they must not forget their secret name. But if they ever did, they should go to the nearest temple, tell them what month they were married, and the temple people would be able to tell them their secret name. So, apparently, if you are married in April, your name is Adam or Adah.

So, what is the point of all this? Well, to my friend at Maynard Motors, this meant that the LDS church is the true church. Because they give out secret names. Like the secret names talked about in Revelation 2:17.

I asked Mr. Maynard to explain to me why this was important. He explained that it was important because we need to have open minds, and we need to think freely, and (basically) we need to believe in the Book of Mormon and the LDS church. So, I asked him again why this was important. How will this affect my soul? I don’t think he really gave me an answer, so I attempted to get to the root of the whole matter.

"Isn’t it true", I asked, "that this is important to you because in order to get to the Celestial Kingdom I have to go to the temple? Aren’t you telling me this to convince me to become a Mormon so I can go to the temple and get my secret name?"

Please understand that I wasn’t trying to stump him or anything. I just wanted to get to the point. It was a long conversation. My son was falling asleep on the couch. We needed to get out of there. The conversation wasn’t going anywhere. So, I tried. And failed. His response? "You don’t have to go to the temple to get to the Celestial Kingdom! Who told you that?"

Well, I’ve lived in Utah for almost nine years now. I’ve had this conversation before. With the honest ones, it comes down to the temple. So, I told him, "Mormons told me that." "Those Mormons don’t understand their own religion," he said.

Which brings up one question that I don’t fully understand, though I think I might understand it. Why is it that Mormons run away from their key doctrines? Why is it that they don’t want to admit to what they believe? Why don’t they want us to know? If they think they are right and we are wrong, then why don’t they just tell us?

The truth is, the old-time Mormons did (and still do). My eighty year old neighbor, before he died, told me flat out that I couldn’t go to heaven because I hadn’t gone to the temple. But the modern Mormons want to be seen as a part of mainstream Christianity. In order to do that, they have to be watered down too (like modern Christianity… but I digress). They can’t call themselves Christians and at the same time assert that we all have to go to their temple to get into heaven. So, they hide that doctrine until they have you hooked, and they’re reeling you in.

The LDS fundamentally believe that in order to enter the Celestial Kingdom, you must go to the temple. And you should know that in order to go to the temple, one must be recommended by his or her bishop. The bishop won’t recommend you until you are worthy (it takes about a year to prove that you are worthy). And you can’t be worthy if you have sins in your life (smoking, drinking coffee, illegitimate children, etc.) Christ may have come into the world to save sinners, but the Mormon church is only out to save the righteous. Which also explains why the LDS church is so full of Pharisees.

Resurrection Day Blessings

Psalm 16:8-11
I have set the LORD always before me: because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.
Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth: my flesh also shall rest in hope.
For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.
Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.

The Psalmist gives us a glimpse into the very soul of our redeemer as he prayed in the Garden. I will never understand this, but for a brief time, Jesus Christ, the Lord of Glory, feared to go forth to the suffering of the cross. But that fear, that desire to turn back, was only momentary. He said, nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done. What encouraged our Savior to go forward in His task? What made Him stay on the cross until he could cry, "It is finished"? Was it not hope? Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth: my flesh also shall rest in hope. And what hope? For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption. It was the hope of the resurrection. That same hope encourages us as we travel on the upward way to heaven.

The resurrection gives us hope in the valley of the shadow of death… I will fear no evil, for thou art with me. Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me… But the resurrection of Jesus Christ gives us hope in life as well. He is not the God of the dead, but of the living. Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore. The resurrection is about life. Christ gives life, and life more abundantly. Don’t simply cling to the resurrection for death. Cling to it for life. Life in the present, and life continuously.

When we are in God’s house, we are in God’s presence, and God is in our midst. The house of God is the path of life. And in the house of God, we find fulness of joy. Lift up your hearts, your heads, your voices, and praise the Lord God of heaven, the Blessed Redeemer, for He lives!

The Spin Factor

In his book The O’Reilly Factor: The Good, the Bad, and the Completely Ridiculous in American Life, Bill O’Reilly gives his spin on the current moral decline in America. In one paragraph, he counsels "religious fanatics who demonize gays…" to back off. "As long as a sexual issue is not intruding on your freedom or endangering your kids, leave it to God to sort out. The Deity is a lot smarter than we are."

In the very next paragraph, O’Reilly counsels gays who are "the victim of discrimination and abuse" to "exchange the high heels for a sensible business suit…and hire a lawyer who will put the screws to whatever **** (expletive removed) are interfering with your rights to private sexual expression. (emphasis his)

So, God will need to clean up the sexual perverts…while lawyers clean up the religious fanatics. Nice spin, Bill.

But, wait a minute. God already sorted it out. Remember Bill? It’s in the Old Testament (to be fair, O’Reilly does point this out, then dismisses it with "I also know what the Old Testament says about slavery"). The arguments are tired and worn out, but O’Reilly insists on spinning them on and on.

O’Reilly echoes a sentiment common now to Americans, the opinion that we have a right to private sexual expression, as if the founding fathers wrote the Bill of Rights to protect perverts.

Who guarantees this right to "private sexual expression"? It didn’t come from God. Don’t tell me our forefathers meant that when they described our "inalienable rights" to include the right to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness"? The mainstream slanders our Puritan forefathers for their stand against adultery. Certainly the Puritans didn’t include homosexuality as an inalienable right!

It is hard to believe that even Mr. O’Reilly endorses every act of "private sexual expression." Surely, even Mr. O’Reilly has a standard. He must have one somewhere. Maybe at the bottom of his barrel, but still, he must have one.

Consider the irresponsibility of remarks like this from men like O’Reilly. If we do in fact have a right to private sexual expression in the privacy of our bedroom, then the law loses its ability to protect women and children from the now rampant abuse and degrading effect of pornography.

"Sexual expression" as O’Reilly calls it, is never private. If adultery were private, we wouldn’t use tax dollars to finance abortion. How can sexual expression be private when the government foots the bill for most unwed mothers? Divorce courts are not private. Food stamps are not private. Venereal diseases and AIDS are not private. Sex is not private.

And, as for "private sexual expression" being a protected right, rights are God-given, or they do not exist. Evil men claim this right, not because they are concerned about laws and morals, but because they would take advantage. Sexual desire and lawful sexual expression are both gifts of a benevolent God. When God our maker forbids a certain type of sexual conduct, no matter how Mr. O’Reilly spins it, that conduct is wrong. And, for the sake of all that is beautiful and good about sex, perversion must be stopped. Cold. No spin.

Pious Apathy

Apathy plagues our churches in more ways than one. Lukewarmness is a curse, and incurs the wrath of God as quickly as anything else. Truly, in this day of big yawns and drooping eyelids, it is high time Christians awake out of sleep.

But the alternatives we currently offer for replacing our apathy aren’t much better either. We don’t want to be seen as lukewarm, so we zealously seek relevance. We wouldn’t want the world to view us as lumpy or grumpy or irrelevant, so we diligently seek the praise of men. And we seek that praise in the form of relevance. We must keep up with the times. This is 2006, ya know.

In our zeal for relevance, we miss the glaring problem. To be relevant with men, we become irrelevant with God. Craving relevance, we become irrelevant. And our hankering for relevance only adds to our apathy. The more we care about relevance, the less we care about God.

We must be apathetic, but apathetic to the glory of God. While apathy is not usually a good word, there is a sense in which every God-fearing Christian must strive for apathy, and strive for it with all their heart. We must be apathetic towards the things of this earth, towards the temporal, so that we can be zealous of good works.

This is what is meant by "pious apathy". Piety is the opposite of apathy, yet apathy is a necessary part of genuine piety. Now, I understand that we often equate the word pious with the word Pharisee, but that kind of piety really isn’t. It pretends at piety, but quickly exposes itself as pietism, the spirit of the Pharisees. The truly pious man deeply reverences God, loves His character, and exercises himself in obedience to God’s will and in devotion to God’s service. And the truly pious man is apathetic.

The truly pious man couldn’t care less what the world thinks. He cares too much what God thinks. The truly pious man cares little about relevance in man’s eyes; he strives to be relevant in God’s eyes. Do the professors and elitists despise him? "Hang on" he says, "while I see if I care." Do the modern evangelicals mock him? He probably doesn’t even know who they are. Do backsliders call him shallow? When he comes back up for air, he can only shrug. He won’t be leaving the deep end to visit their wading pool anyway.

Besides, he’s too busy paying attention to pay attention. Bulls aren’t likely to notice when the gnat finally flies away. Come to think of it, pious apathy can be a blessing. May we learn not to care because we care so much. When we become too apathetic to care about relevance, then we will finally become truly relevant once again.

Adventures in Mormon Land

Living in Utah has its advantages and adventures. I hope to share some of them with you in this blog. More than a few months ago, one of the men in our church encouraged me to take up blogging, an idea that I resisted. After all, there are more blogs out there than there are good ideas, and I didn’t want to add to the river of treakle that seems to flow so freely. Nevertheless, here I am blogging, so what gives?

I finally figured out that I could offer a couple of helpful things that might benefit potential readers (both of them). Below, I will outline one area that I think might be helpful, and later I’ll introduce the other(s), if I can still remember what they are. Anyway, for the first offering…

In this blog, I intend to offer a little insight to the rest of the world (the 49 states that are not Utah) about life among the Mormons. And along with that, I hope to challenge Mormons who visit the site to think. Freely. With open minds. Some of the content on this page might aggravate, but my intention is to motivate you to pursue God, and leave behind the weights that hinder your pursuit.

I hope that believers who visit this site will find in it much that is helpful in witnessing to Mormons. Along with that, I hope to acquaint you with the quirks and oddities of the LDS faithful. (Utah Mormons call themselves LDS – short for Latter Day Saints). Many people in the "rest of the world" think Utah is full of wild-eyed, long-bearded polygamists. Having lived here for nine years now, I have yet to meet a polygamist (that I know of). Mormons look normal enough. The weirdness comes when you start discussing their beliefs. For instance, recently a Mormon explained how the bad sons of Lehi became dark-skinned, and how their descendants can turn white again (by being good). But that isn’t racist at all (or so he told me). Why did this come up, you ask? He was explaining to me that the American Indians are actually Jews… an otherwise rational man discussing such irrational topics on an otherwise ordinary day. And that is just a sampling of the kinds of conversations we have on any given day in Utah… a conversation you aren’t likely to have in Chicago.

A good part of this blog will also include much that I hope fellow believers will find to be edifying. I plan to include thoughts from my devotions, ideas I am studying, and anything else I come across that may be helpful, or not. Enjoy, and may God bless you.