The Holy Name of Jesus

XVIII. Of obtaining eternal Salvation only by the Name of Christ.
They also are to be had accursed that presume to say, That every man shall be saved by the Law or Sect which he professeth, so that he be diligent to frame his life according to that Law, and the light of Nature. For Holy Scripture doth set out unto us only the Name of Jesus Christ, whereby men must be saved. (The Articles of Religion)

When people ask me what my faith is I reply, ‘I am a Christian!’ I do not say I am Anglican or Episcopalian or Protestant or Catholic. I am a Christian.

To say I am Christian is to say I am not a Buddhist, nor a Muslim, nor a Hindu nor a Jew. Our Articles of Religion are quite clear, “only the Name of Jesus Christ, whereby men must be saved.”

Why did Jesus come to us at all? Because we must be saved! Saved from what? From the fires of hell! And how does He do this? He imputes His righteousness into us exchanging it for our sins and their penalty. (2 Cor. 5:21, Is. 53:6) Buddha cannot do it. Mohammed cannot do it. Krishna cannot do it. And we cannot do it!

As St. Paul writes:

Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
and gave him the name that is above every name,
 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2:10-11)

So the next time someone says to you is doesn’t make a difference what one believes, remind them of the consequences of sin and the only hope for salvation that can be found in Jesus alone.

The Holy Innocents

Then Herod, when he saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, became furious, and he sent and killed all the male children in Bethlehem and in all that region who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had ascertained from the wise men. Then was fulfilled what was spoken by the prophet Jeremiah:

  “A voice was heard in Ramah,
   weeping and loud lamentation,
Rachel weeping for her children;
   she refused to be comforted, because they are no more.” (Mt. 2:16-18)

Death comes to everyone. (Heb. 9:27) It is our wage for the sin we bear (Rom. 6:23) And this is what rubs us the wrong way. Don't we really see ourselves as innocent?

The killing of the Holy Innocents is one those passages that atheists use to justify their lack of belief. After all, how can anyone believe in a god who would stand by letting innocent children die and selfishly protect his own son? And the modernist 'Christian' rationalizes that this is just midrash equating Jesus birth with the Passover. For a historical argument opposing such a rational see Gordon Franz article here. That still leaves the atheist's conundrum, how could God allow such an evil to happen?

My answer to that question is to acknowledge a few basic Christian doctrines with the most basic being the doctrine of original sin. Original sin is the sin we inherit from Adam. It is a part of our nature. (See Article 9 of The Articles of Religion) How many parents are amazed by the ability of their child to lie to them at such a young age. "Where did they learn to do that?" they exclaim. Scripture has the answer! (Psalm 58:3) We are in denial that we are wicked from birth. On more that one occasion, Jesus reminds of us how wicked we are (Lk. 11:13) A healthy dose of this reality keeps us humble and reminds us why we need the cross. And it reminds us that if we don't see our sinfulness and the need for repentance we are all like King Herod.

Death is the norm of mankind.

Whether we die young or old, it is the judgment for our sinfulness. The cure for death is Jesus and His death upon the Cross. (Col. 2:14) But everyone of us must see ourselves guilty deserving death before we can with faith trust Jesus with His forgiveness. To believe otherwise is to believe we can work our way into heaven by our good deeds, a notion even God finds objectionable (Is. 64:6)

Everyday children die. They die from birth defects and abortions, from violence  and disease. Those who are alive to witness it have been shown God's mercy. Not because we are good, but because in God's sovereignty, He is showing us His mercy in order that we may repent. (2 Peter 3:8-10) The death of others reminds us of our death to come.

In the 12 Days of Christmas, we are reminded of death in the midst of Jesus birth. The very Second Day of Christmas we remember the first martyr, St. Stephen, who was stoned for his faith. And the Fourth Day we remember children who by accident of their birth found themselves the object of a mad king's rage. Both witness to Christ's glory. For Stephen he died because of the Wisdom he found in the One True God (Acts 6:10) For the toddlers in Bethlehem, they had no opportunity to be self-reliant on their righteousness, but were totally dependant on God's mercy after death. In Jesus, we die to self and are raised to new life in Him alone! 

O ALMIGHTY God, who out of the mouths of babes and sucklings hast ordained strength, and madest infants to glorify thee by their deaths; Mortify and kill all vices in us, and so strengthen us by thy grace, that by the innocency of our lives, and constancy of our faith even unto death, we may glorify thy holy Name; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Santa, Jesus and Bobby Hull Table Hockey

When I was a little boy, Christmas was a time of Advent Calendars, anticipating Santa Claus and midnight Mass. Of course, the most exciting of the three is Santa Claus. One year I wanted a Bobby Hull Table Hockey Game. It was in the Sears Wish Book. I do not remember exactly how old I was but I do remember I was in grade school and that Santa was actually my father. But I did ask Santa for it.


That year Santa did not bring what I had asked for. And I cried. I spent the next few days crying. And I finally got it. I remember my mother coming to me and telling me the reason that it was not under the tree is because my parents could not afford it. As a child I never knew our financial situation. I just knew I had it better than my parents who grew up in the depression. They eventually bought it for me because they felt sorry for me. And that was a mistake. 


What I know as an adult I just didn't know as a child. And as a child I did not learn to deal with unreasonable expectations nor disappointments. And I, too, am guilty of trying to keep my children happy with their temporal wants. 


The truth is Santa Claus is not real but Jesus is. He is the Christ in Christmas. God condescended to us. As the classic carol goes:


Away in a manger, no crib for a bed,
The little Lord Jesus laid down His sweet head.
The stars in the sky looked down where He lay,
The little Lord Jesus, asleep on the hay.

Unfortunately our Christmas season has become one of covetous greed. We are all children wanting what we don't need. And we are parents forgetting that the pain of not getting what we want is temporary and a discipline to be learned! 

I am still learning that lesson in my middle age. And I know what my Lord teaches me in His adult years, "Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal." (Mt. 6:19-20) I know these words and I know where I need to repent!

If God was content with a manger for a bed for His only Son, should we not be content with what God has provided for us? (Heb. 13:5-6)

Steve Jobs, Christopher Hitchens and Pascal's Wager

1. "God is, or He is not"
2. A Game is being played... where heads or tails will turn up.
3. According to reason, you can defend neither of the propositions.
4. You must wager. (It's not optional.)
5. Let us weigh the gain and the loss in wagering that God is. Let us estimate these two chances. If you gain, you gain all; if you lose, you lose nothing.
6. Wager, then, without hesitation that He is. (...) There is here an infinity of an infinitely happy life to gain, a chance of gain against a finite number of chances of loss, and what you stake is finite. And so our proposition is of infinite force, when there is the finite to stake in a game where there are equal risks of gain and of loss, and the infinite to gain.  ( Pensées, part III):

Much is said when a noted celebrity dies. And a lot is said when a celebrity has spent a life denying God's existence dies, especially by Christians who hold out hope for salvation. When Steve Jobs died he was remembered for being born into Lutheran home but as an adult became a Buddhist. Yes, many people have benefited from Jobs technical visions. When atheist Christopher Hitchens died, author of your god is not great, people reminisced over how well he 'knew' the Gospel because, after all, he grew up in the Church of England. And for both, I read blogs on how maybe, just maybe while in the very last moments of their life, they realized Jesus was real and they accepted Him as Lord & Savior. I am simplifying some of these sentiments. But the crux of the issue is our desire that we can live our life as we please and then at the very last we hedge our bets and say some prayer just in case they were wrong along. Isn't this the hope we have for all of our lost friends? 

Let's be clear, true repentance can happen on a death bed. A soul sees his life in the rear view mirror and understand that what follows after death should be hell. They know the only escape is to realize they cannot enter on their own merit but accepting Jesus' death upon the cross as a propitiation, in its fullest meaning which is to satisfy God's wrath, can they go to heaven. My most effective moments in ministry has been to the dying. They know death is eminent and they know life is eternal. I share the Good News of Christ and they receive it with joy because they understand their guilt. But I feel too many of my Christian friends see salvation as Pascal's wager, a bet to made just in case I am wrong.

Many will ask, "What about the thief on the cross?" (Luke 23:39-43) Well, what about him? He was a criminal sentenced to death! He knew what was coming and when it came he understood that he justly deserve to be crucified. (Lk. 23: 41) He did not ask to be removed from the cross and saved some pain. He recognized who Jesus was. (Lk. 23:41) He asked for mercy. (Lk. 23:42) He did not command Jesus to save him from what he deserved. He even rebuked his friend in his insolence. He truly was sorry for his condition. That's repentance. Waiting to the end to make an act of contrition is not the same for being sorry over one's sins.

After his death, many will read your god is not great and be influenced by it. God knows that. Many will download sermons onto their iPod. God knows that too. But He also knows whom his elect are. (Eph. 1:5) There is no chance throwing of the dice. We, Christians, do a disservice putting out a hope that there is always an act we can do at the very last to save ourselves. After all, we will never know if we will be in a fatal car accident or struggling for breath during that massive heart attack. We all die. And so we all must repent for it is this life we have only one chance to come to Christ on bended knee!

Yes, Hitchens knew the foolishness of Pascal's Wager

St. Thomas the Faithful

The Incredulity of Saint Thomas by Caravaggio

Growing up I had always heard about the apostle who would only believe Jesus had risen from the dead if he could see and touch his wounds. (John 20:25) He was called doubting Thomas. I also remember sermons on how faith came to him when he was brought back into community. It was because he was absent from the upper room that he did not believe. The moral of the story, don't miss church.

In reality Thomas knew what to look for. He knew that by His stripes we are healed. (Isaiah 53:5) When faced with the gruesome reality of the scars of torture and death and the subsequent conquering of it by this carpenter/rabbi, Thomas could proclaim, "My Lord and My God." (John 20:28) If anything, this is a statement of absolute faith!

Unfortunately, growing up in church, I really did not understand what Christ's death and resurrection was really about. Much of what I heard was God loves me and there will be a pizza party for the youth next Sunday night.    No one really explained to me what was meant by this propitiation for sins, substitutionary atonement or a perfect sacrifice once offered. If I wanted to see God, I had to come to church. Thomas on the other hand wanted to see the marks of Jesus death, the signs of his personal salvation.

When we exclaim, 'My Lord and my God', we should see the wounds meant for us each time we break God's law. After all, sin is lawlessness. (1 John 3:4) Thomas knew that. For any of us to have a saving faith, we need to know that Jesus stood in our place on that bloody cross. We die because we are sinners. Yet eternal life is for those who believe that Jesus died for them thereby removing the sting of death which is hell. When Thomas saw Jesus, he saw the Man who stood in his place and that is faith!

As Christians, our invitation should not be 'Come to church' but Jesus died so that we may have eternal life. Even Jesus reminds us, "Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed!" (John 20:29)

Jesus Was Born into a Dangerous World

Jesus was born into a dangerous world. So dangerous that for a brief moment He almost did not have an earthly father. (Mt. 1:19) So dangerous that the local king was jealous of any threat to his throne deciding to murder all children around Bethlehem two years old or younger. (Mt. 2:16) Jesus was born into a dangerous world.

What would you have done if you found out your girlfriend is pregnant? Abandon her? Pay for an abortion? What if you lived under the rule of an evil tyrant? Would you protect the innocent lives of those whom he chose to kill? Or let the murders happen. I ask you to take 33 minutes and watch the following video because it is this world that Jesus was born into!