Blasted Youth Groups

God bless young Christians. I mean it. Every time I see a young Christian I rejoice and find myself pleased that they have subscribed to "The Way" and have made conscious efforts to pursue God. Sadly, I don't see these kinds all that often. Both believing and non-believing adolescence almost never thinking about maturing. I have learned to not expect maturity out of them as I know of myself that I was not much better when I was younger. Granted, I am still very young have much room for growth, but what I have done in my thinking is a crucial point for kids these days. I have breached the wall of encouraged immaturity and have seen the error of my ways. I explicitly said, "I want to stop being immature and obtain wisdom."

The youth (not of today, but of all history) have denied these pursuits.

The Father of the righteous will greatly rejoice; he who begets a wise son will be glad in him.
Proverbs 23:24

Yes, and what more could you do for a father than to not have made terrible decisions? It is one of the better Father's Day gifts. "Thanks for raising me dad! I owe much to you." Though, Christians have presumed in recent times that all the wisdom in the world is in the gospel. In other words, they have graduated the high school of wisdom but neglected to pursue higher learning of wisdom. Sure, it is pleasing enough that your kid be Christian at all, but that does not mean they are not susceptible to making really stupid decisions.

What I see in youth groups is a lack of concern for the maturity of the children. The kids end up going to these meetings to have fun for two hours straight and then sit down to tolerate thirty minutes of talk from the youth pastor. So, for the bulk of the time they only encourage unwise and immature behavior and later, remind them that they should do good things. But why should they do good things? For most of their lives they have been trying to milk the situations they are in, for all the fun they are worth; paying no heed to the wisdom of it all.

What do these kids need to hear? They need to be told to grow up. And it is certainly rough to do so since having fun is not inherently sinful. Knowing this they justify their particular actions of fun; not knowing that their particular arrangement of fun could be very unhealthy for their growth. Regardless, they must hear it and realize that there are much more important things in life than piling up the fun.

As we discovered before that kids think because they are saved that they are home free from the life solving department. To be honest, that is only where life solving starts. Youth groups decide to take the kids on a mission trip somewhere so they can witness to non-believers the gospel. Ha! As if they had the world figured out! This mentality to "save the world" has good intentions, but I suggest that you work on yourself first. And what better way than to start with Solomon, who was (need I remind you?) the wisest man that ever was.

This has been a discourse on the despicable youth by yours truly, Evan Gunn Wilson.

Of the Virtuous Pagan

And Cornelius said, "What is it, LORD?"
As fear had struck the feeble pagan heart.
Commanded to seek, as he'd done before,
To find Peter and be saved well in part.
Loving his King,
Had alms to bring,
Hoping that he might learn his name.
As the bushman hot,
Had the gospel brought,
Cornelius was much of the same.

By Evan Gunn Wilson

A Case For Scheibe

If you know Jason Scheibe (a North Idahoan Moscow man) you know that he has a way with words; but more precisely he has a way with word. That word is "gay". Some people get annoyed by it and some people get a good laugh, but love it or hate it Jason is devoted to this word. How does he use it? Jason has changed this word for us. To him, it does not just mean homosexual anymore. It means Sin (this is a generalization, because occasionally he uses it as a critique). A perfect example is this: Jason will call a man "gay" if he sleeps with his girlfriend before they are married. How could he use a word so inappropriately when that act is so obviously heterosexual? Here is why. Jason is a Christian. He has morals by which he abides. He has taken one thing (being gay) that Christians oppose as sin and applied to the rest of the sinful acts. But why did he pick the word "gay" over other words? He could have easily chosen the word "murder". Tactic would then be lost. The one reason (but not the only, I am sure of it) he chose the word gay was that it is the most looked down upon action that Christian conservative men know of, but do not talk about. Christian men have an "icky" factor in them that cannot fathom why any man would want to be gay. They are grossed out by it and it implies being flagrantly effeminate. So, what Jason has done is made a heterosexual man insecure about his actions when he calls him gay. A man gets angry at his wife (a testosterone heavy deed) and Jason calls him gay. The man then thinks, "Getting angry is no less a sin than being gay is, and I don't want to be gay."

In short, Jason equates all sin, and does this by the one thing that men are most insecure about: Being gay.

A Return

The political mind had given no thought,
To why the king, had bulverized.
He could not help the discussion brought,
By only using his vulgar eyes.

The king had joked and hoped he would see,
Cutting friendly personal incision.
It is the nature of men as they all agree,
To attack their good friend's vision.

He used it once, hoping he'd get the game;
Instead returned with public shame.
Why must he use so cruel of means,
Writing as such a dreadful scheme?

He told him once and he'd tell 'em again,
Oozing with logic, casting like rain.
The king might ask why he thinks thus,
But he thinks he's well; himself he trusts.

By Evan Gunn Wilson

- On Apologetics

What do you do when an Atheist asks for evidence for why you believe that Jesus Christ is Lord and Savior? Is it enough to bring up the historical accounts of His existence; the historians being Josephus, Seutonius and my favorite Tacitus? Usually not. You will find that the Atheist will ask for more (as they should) to have themselves convinced of the truth. They will ignore you, unless there was a historical record other than that found in the Bible that testifies to Jesus' resurrection. An outside source that claims honest to God (no pun intended) that they witnessed it or have seen second hand evidence that testifies. Sadly, we Christians do not have access to this material, if there is any.

So, what does that leave us with? The Atheist thinks in terms of hard facts; and since he sees no hard facts for the religion of Christianity he discounts the truth of it. Here is the mistake that both believers and non-believers make: putting Christianity in the category of "another religion". The hard evidence for us Christians may be all of creation, but that is not how the Atheist sees it. As much as this world agrees with Christians it also agrees with Atheists. Their worldview (that is - everything happens by chance) is neither hurt nor built up by the existence of the world. They say, "Oh my, what queer chance this is that we have a solar system." Sure you could examine the evidence and point out it's nature of apparent design, but again they call it chance. Consequently, it is awfully appealing to say so, so that you can do whatever you want with no boundaries, since you have relieved yourself of a judgment.

So, basically the Atheist wants to touch, taste, smell, see or hear divine intervention. They want to apply the scientific method. In other words, they don't have a world view; they only have a realist view. In my opinion a world view is that which has taken into account the three methods for determining truth and those are Realism, Revelation and Rationalism (conveniently organized with "R's"). This is a kind of back bone to philosophy. Atheists are not true philosophers because they only apply realism and sparse rationalism.

How are we to combat this mode of thinking? It may seem a tad antithetical to our end goal, but we must make actual philosophers of them. They have a presupposed idea that revelation is only for the religious mind; that revelation is only a spiritual encounter with whatever god is butting it's head in. But what revelation actually is is much different. It is the given assent to another agent that you find to be authoritative on a certain subject. If you see that a scientist has studied his mind into a rock and has done numerous tests without any apparent bias, naturally you would probably agree with his claims to truth. You have not done any of the tests yourself, but someone you know has and you trust them. That is revelation, but most of all it is faith.

Science is useless without philosophy. Though the scientist would rather not think about his world philosophically, and he will be on his merry way measuring matters and their patterns. He gives no thought to his existence and presupposes that we are animals acting upon mere chance with two discernible sensations: Pain and Pleasure. He gives no thought as to why he exists and is content with the fact that he does. What must he ask? We are all born into this world only able to comprehend that there is an actual reality around us. A place we must function in unless we function to the point of suicide. Some become religious and attribute it all to a god, and some primarily apply the scientific method. Should we default on one or the other? If the universe exploded into existence by chance, why don't we as rational beings for the most part adopt a scientific/Atheist view point? It would only be normal for man to study his surroundings purely based on science. Instead man invented gods, and made truth claims about these gods. Most of the world now and those in history believe in a creator. It seems bizarre to call that chance. Why did man feel the need to invent gods when the Atheist claims there is no reason to. These are the kind of questions that early man asked. If the universe exploded into existence why has it flat lined at a seemingly natural pace? Why has not another universe exploded right on top of ours? If everything operates randomly with no sense, I would call it a very very very strange coincidence for there to be all this apparent order of things. Early man asked the question: Why am I here? In a world so big and vast, why am I here? They could have easily supposed that it was mere chance that put them into existence, but no - they said it was God. Why would they pick God over chance? The reason is: it is too improbable. For the natural world to have this much coincidence was irrational for them. Even the word "natural" has too much meaning for it to not to infer that there is a designer.

Atheists claim to be the free thinking rationalists here in the equation; but all they have done was take the face value of things (reality) and asserted it as the only source of truth. They never take into account the philosophical mind of man. Are they chemicals or are they based on an over reason? Here is a paraphrased quote from Lewis' Miracles: "Man turned to science because he expected natural law. And he expected natural law because he expected a legislator."

As for the message for Christians - we are not in the business of proving Atheists logically wrong. We are in the business of spreading the gospel. The gospel which answers all philosophical difficulties. Instead of telling them that your faith is your argument, make them realize that man needs faith for everything he believes. Make them realize that faith is not only for the religious, but for the Atheist as well. Because they have faith in their science just as much as we have faith in our revelation; whether the revelation is first hand or second hand someone must be seen as trust worthy if we can conclude anything. And man is just to imperfect to adhere to his worldly wisdom.

Sir Walter Raleigh's Letter to His Son

BRAVE RAGS WEAR SOONEST OUT OF FASHION

Exceed not in the humour of rags and braverie, for these will soon wear out of fashion; but monie in thy purse will ever be in fashion; and no man is esteemed for gay garments but by fools and women.

Dispraise of Love, And Lovers' Follies

If love be life I long to die
Live they that list for me;
And he that gains the most thereby,
A fool at least shall be.
Be he that feels the sorest fits,
'Scapes with no less than loss of wits.
Unhappy life they gain,
Which love do entertain.

In day by fained looks they live,
By lying dreams in night;
Each frown a deadly wound doth give,
Each smile a false delight.
If 't hap their lady pleasant seem,
It is for others' love they deem:
If void she seem of joy,
Disdain doth make her coy.

Such is the peace that lovers find,
Such is the life they lead,
Blown here and there by every wind,
Like flowers in the mead.
Now war, now peace, now war again,
Desire, despair, delight, disdain;
Though dead in midst of life,
In peace and yet at strife.

By Sir Walter Raleigh

Christian Love Has Options

What other explanation could it be,
Than the will of Him who made earth and sea?
To create two parties and fate their action,
And thereby lose the wise man's traction.

Could He not settle me in romance ripe?
By no means! un-contexted tripe!
His reason was not to couple the cute,
But join believers, quarrels refute.

Even the faithful who pair up in love,
May be reduced to a push and a shove.
As the Apostle wrote, as the father had planned,
Love has a time and options at hand.

A Revision of an Old Classic

A lady and gentleman were sitting in the same room when Sir pulled out a cigar he intended to smoke. The lady seeing this promptly came forth with these words to say, "Is there anything more deplorable than a man smoking a cigar?" A quick moment of silence and thought descended upon the gentleman at which point he returned saying, "Yes. A woman who finds it needful she intrude on another person's business."

Revised by Evan Gunn Wilson

An Experienced Outsider's Description of the Action Called Sin

Thence, preview all misguided deeds for prep,
Crying, "Lord, God" and throw down all your faith.
Bring forth the iron letting your soul lose grip,
Willful by moment, "Thrust the hand!" it saith.
Giving up, cause to plant it on the wraith,
By loss of sense forget that he sees all,
And find thy face in earth upon you crawl.

By Evan Gunn Wilson