This is the third video I've put up to discuss the theological concept of Penal Substitutionary Atonement.  If you're just joining in, you can find the INTRO HERE and PART 1: DEFINING PENAL HERE. 

As a recap, we have learned that phrases like "Jesus died for your sins" are often misunderstood by non-Christians and not necessarily fully understood by Christians either.  Penal Substitutionary Atonement is a theological term used to address the issue of what exactly Jesus' death did.  The word Penal is used to convey that His death on the cross was related to the crime of sin and the just penalty for sin which is death.  Today's video will hopefully explain the second word: Substitutionary.

As I mentioned last week, I've created some training videos for people at my church.  You can find my quick intro HERE. 

Before you hear what I have to say, take a look at the following Scriptures.

Proving God: Jesus' Testimony

We've looked at a whole lot of different things to examine the evidence that God exists.  Rather than turning to science or philosophy, today we are going to examine the testimony of a single witness.  Imagine you are on a jury in a courtroom.  A crime was committed and there are various witnesses being called to the stand.  There are two conflicting stories that emerge as the witnesses are questioned.  Half of the witnesses tell one story and the other half tell another.  Both stories cannot be true as they say completely opposite things.

So what happened?  How would you, as a member of the jury, decide?  Would you take into account the character of the witnesses?  Would it change the way you felt if you found out that one half of the witnesses were gang bangers and the other half of the witnesses were police officers with clean records?  What if one of the witnesses was Martin Luther King Jr. or Mother Theresa?  Would that sway your thoughts?  What if one of the witnesses who stood up to testify was Jesus Christ Himself?

In terms of going viral, the Kony 2012 video might as well be the Bubonic Plague.  In about two weeks, this video has been viewed over 70 million times!

The video that's all over the internet was put out by the Invisible Children with the express purpose of exposing the horrible war crimes of Joseph Kony with the goal of causing the American people to make so much noise about it that it forces our politicians to stay involved in stopping him.  If you have not seen the video, I highly encourage you to watch it in its entirety.  You'll have to set aside 30 minutes of your time, but it is worth it.

Christy and I went out to see the second Sherlock Holmes movie on Wednesday at the two dollar show in La Grange (which is actually now the $5.50 show, but that's another story).  It was actually quite entertaining and a pretty fun ride.  Like the last movie, Holmes is a substance abuser with questionable morals.  Overall though, I'd recommend it.  Just make sure you watch with discernment.

What I love about these movies and the old school Holmes books by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is the crazy deductive skills of Sherlock Holmes.  Nothing escapes him.  He can look at you and tell you what you ate for your last three meals based on some crumbs on your shirt, a stain on your collar, and a scent on your breath.  He can enter a room and tell you how many people have come and gone over the last 24 hours.  My favorite from this movie though is when he and his hyper intelligent brother try to out deduce each other.  They take one look at each other and start saying things like, "I see you bought a new bow for your violin."

Your votes are in and today's theology topic will be taking another look at the evidence we have for God's existence.  Up until now, we have been covering general arguments that show that some sort of divine being or beings do exist.  Today, we are going to take a look at evidence that takes that one step further and shows that the God of the Bible is real.  We will be looking at many of the fulfilled prophecies within the Bible.

Declaring the Future is Strong Evidence

If I told you that you were going to trip today and fracture your left femur, you would probably look at me strangely.  But what if it then happened?  Maybe at first you'd be in too much pain to think straight.  But after the doctors had done their thing and you were laying in a hospital bed with a big cast on your leg, it would hit you.  Mark told me this was going to happen!  What would you do?  How would you feel?  What would you want to say to me?

Do Old Testament promises apply to me or just Israel?  Depending on how "churched" you are, you may not know all of the controversy that surrounds this question.  Dispensationists line up on one side while Covenental theologians line up on the other.  If you don't know what those words mean, don't worry, you don't need to.

There are tons of different promises in the Old Testament.  God speaks to many people and promises a variety of things.  The Bible records those words and conversations.  We need to treat those words and conversations like we would any other to understand them.  The key to understanding biblical promises is context.  CONTEXT, CONTEXT, CONTEXT.  The truth is that some of the promises in the Old Testament apply to us and some of them don't.  You have to read the context to see which is which.  Here are a few categories that promises might fall into...

What makes something good and other things evil?  Why are some actions right and other actions wrong?  Why do almost all of us agree that stabbing someone out of jealousy is wrong but shooting someone in self defense and in defense of others is not?  Who decided how we ought and ought not act?  Are certain things right or wrong just based on our opinion?  Is it based on a certain set of laws?  Where does morality come from? 

The Moral Argument

In our fourth attempt to prove the existence of God, we will be looking at another age old argument known as the moral argument.  This argument bases itself around the question, "Where does morality come from?"  There are several possible answers to this question, but only one answer makes sense.  The only logical answer to this question is that morality comes from a personal, absolute, transcendent being (God).  To read about this in depth, I highly recommend C.S. Lewis' book Mere Christianity.

** Last week I covered the topic of homosexuality.  Username Richard the Atheist commented on my article to argue against me.  If you'd like to see my response to him, which is long (I warned you!), then CLICK HERE.**

Is swearing a sin?  The D word, the S word, the F word.  Do we offend God when we use this kind of language?  Should Christians use them?  My opinion may not be the clear cut answer you were looking for.  As a youth and children pastor, believe me, I wish I could say definitively that all swearing is bad.  That would keep the parents at church happy with me.  But, at the risk of drawing their wrath, let me share my honest thoughts on this issue with you.  Let me caution you, this article will get a bit explicit.