So Heavenly Minded You're No Earthly Good?

"Don't be so heavenly minded that you're of no earthly good." Have you ever heard that expression before? It is a lie from the pit of hell. More accurately, don't be so earthly minded that you're of no heavenly good.

Jesus said to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all the things you need will be added to you (Matthew 6:33). The writer of Hebrews said to desire a heavenly city. "For here [on earth] we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come" (13:14).

Paul wrote to the Galatians to hold to the promise of the Jerusalem from above (4:26). And he told the Colossians, "If you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above where Christ is. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth." (Colossians 3:1-4).

When your hope is in Christ and His kingdom, nothing else will satisfy. Sin won't be as tempting. The world's attractions won't be as attractive. Earning the world's favor won't matter. You will desire to please your King and share the message of His kingdom, so others might believe and be saved. This world will perish in judgment, but the followers of Jesus will inherit His kingdom.

"So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal" (2 Corinthians 4:16-18), when we understand the text.

What Does the Bible Say About Social Justice?

From Dr. Voddie Baucham out of a sermon on 2 Timothy 4:1-8: "If the social justice movement went by its actual name, young Christians would not have been lured into it. Because the social justice movement is actually Cultural Marxism. There's no such thing as 'social justice,' people. In fact, in the Bible, justice never has an adjective. There's justice and there's injustice, but there's not different kinds of justice."

Social justice is an ambiguous term, but it's never social nor justice. People are put into different constituencies and everyone argues over who's privileged and who's not and who's to blame and who owes whom. Not considered are the millions of unborn children slaughtered by abortion. So social justice is less about loving people and more about pushing a particular narrative.

The world will always be an unjust place because it's full of unjust people. Only God is just. "His work is perfect for all His ways are justice" (Deuteronomy 32:4) and He will judge the unjust. How can we survive His righteous judgment? Repent and believe in Jesus, and you will be saved. All have sinned against God, but you are justified by His grace through faith in Christ (Romans 3:23-24).

Jesus left His throne in heaven, became a man without privilege, and lived a sinless life on our behalf. He died on a cross to pay for our sins, and He gives His righteousness to those who follow Him. So God is both "just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus" (Romans 3:26).

The message of social justice this: "You owe me, and I deserve to be compensated!" The message of the gospel is this: "You deserve death, 'but the free gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord'" (Romans 6:23), when we understand the text.

What is a Faith Healer?

What is a faith healer? A figment of imagination, that's what it is! Like Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster, a faith healer is a hoax.

You might say, "Well wait a moment, doesn't the Bible say that some will be given gifts of healing?" Yes, but it doesn't say anyone will be a faith healer. "But what about Peter or Paul? They healed people!" Sure, they did. And sometimes they didn't.

Paul couldn't heal himself when he got sick and had to stop in Galatia (Galatians 4:13), nor did he heal Timothy of his frequent stomach ailments (1 Timothy 5:23). So what was the purpose of these miracles, like speaking other languages, revealing prophecy, or healing the sick and even raising the dead?

Hebrews 2:3-4 says that the message of salvation, the gospel, "was declared at first by the Lord, and it was attested to us by those who heard, while God also bore witness by signs and wonders and various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to His will."

So miracles were to affirm that the message of the gospel came from God (see also Acts 2:22). Some people had these gifts, like the apostles, and some didn't, like almost everyone else. But even the apostles could only perform miracles according to the will of the Spirit. As God's message spread, eventually the regularity of miracles diminished, as was the case after Moses and Elijah's ministries.

Today's "faith healers" claim to heal by faith. Then why aren't they clearing out hospitals, or on the scene after a natural disaster? Because they know they're liars. It's as clear as the eyeglasses on their faces. There are two places faith healers won't go: children's hospitals and heaven! ...if they don't repent, when we understand the text.

King James Onlyism?

King James Onlyism is the belief that the 1611 King James Version of the Bible is the only divinely authorized English translation, while modern translations corrupt the Bible. As KJV Onlyist Robert Breaker has said, promoting Gail Riplinger's book on modern translations, "It's not just a deception. It's a Satanic conspiracy against the word of God."

The most glaring flaw with King James Onlyism is not one verse in the Bible supports it. And that's pretty much it -- King James Onlyism is a false doctrine.

Now if someone wants to use the King James Bible, that's fine -- if you can understand it. But to say it's the only translation God approved is a lie.

King James onlyists argue the KJV is translated from the majority text, while modern versions are from corrupt Alexandrian texts. But the Byzantine texts used by King James translators were no older than the 11th century. We now have access to older and more reliable texts closer to the originals.

King James onlyists say modern translations removed references to Christ's lordship, and deleted entire Bible verses. But the Byzantine texts added these verses to the original text, and the extra references to Christ's lordship. It's just extra pious language from some overly ambitious scribes.

King James onlyists say the 1611 authorized version is the only true Bible. "Unless you have a King James Bible, you don't have a Bible. You need a 1611 authorized version." Actually, no one uses the 1611, which also included the apocrypha. Today's King James Bible is the 1769 revision.

God has preserved His word which we have in some very good translations of the Bible. Jesus said heaven and earth will pass away, but my word will never pass away (Mark 13:31), when we understand the text.

Would Jesus Bake a Cake for a Gay Wedding?

If Jesus had been a baker instead of a carpenter, would Jesus bake a cake for a gay wedding? Of course not.

In Matthew 19:4-6, Jesus said, "Have you not read that He who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, 'Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh'? So they are no longer two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let man not separate."

If a man and another man have romantic feelings for one another, that's lust, and a perversion of God's design. If they decide to marry each other and stage a wedding, what they're doing is playing dress-up and pretending to have something only meant for a man and his wife.

If you want to argue that Jesus would bake a wedding cake for them, you're saying Jesus would go along with this charade that a gay wedding can even be a thing, let alone a God-honoring thing, and Jesus would contradict Himself.

Do you understand that when Jesus referenced the creation story in Genesis to explain how God made marriage, He was explaining how He made marriage? Jesus created marriage, and sex for marriage (John 1:3).

Jesus was there at Sodom and Gomorrah when God rained down fire and brimstone for their sexual perversion (Genesis 19:24). He will cast the sexually immoral into the lake of fire at the last judgment (Revelation 21:8).

Jesus would never encourage a person to do something He has promised He will judge with fire. He laid down His life so people would repent from sins such as this, so they would have forgiveness, and then go and sin no more (John 5:14, 8:11), when we understand the text.