An Open Door

Οἶδά σου τὰ ἔργα, ἰδοὺ δέδωκα ἐνώπιόν σου θύραν ἠνεῳγμένην, ἣν οὐδεὶς δύναται κλεῖσαι αὐτήν,

“I know your deeds. See, I have placed before you an open door that no one can shut.” Revelation 3:8

While rereading Mounce’s, Basics of Biblical Greek, I came across this interesting example of the Greek aspect of the perfect verb.

In Greek, the perfect aspect represents an event that occurred in the past but the effects continue to the present. When translating this to English, the perfect aspect is sometimes identified by the helping verb “have” but this is not always the case. Perhaps the most recognized and forceful example of the perfect aspect is in the repeated use by Jesus of the phrase, “It is written” (γέγραπται). God said it once and it continues to be the truth forever.

In the verse from Revelation, we see 2 examples of perfect verbs. The first is δέδωκα, “I have put.” The Lord has put this door before us and it remains there. It has not, and indeed never will be, removed. The second perfect verb is ἠνεῳγμένην, “having been opened.” Jesus Himself opened the door and it continues to stand open. To reinforce this, the passage goes on to say, “that no one can shut.” More literally, the Greek says, “one which no one is able to shut it.”

He has given us an invitation represented by an open door. He Himself has given us this invitation and it stands open, even now, waiting for us to enter in. No one (including us) is able to shut the door. We see again still another example of God’s unilateral, unconditional, and unending love for us.

What an awesome promise He has made.

Is God Cruel?

It’s brought up all the time: "Look at the atrocities ordered by God in the Old Testament." One passage often cited is 1 Samuel 15:2-3, where God said to Saul (via Samuel):

“Thus saith the LORD of hosts, I remember that which Amalek did to Israel, how he laid wait for him in the way, when he came up from Egypt. Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass.”

Wow! That sounds mean. Why did God have to order every man, woman, and even every infant child to be killed? He even killed the animals to boot! This is one example yet there are other passages like this. Critics will latch onto these passages as evidence of the cruelty of God. But is there any merit to their argument?

There are a few logical fallacies in arguments like this. First, even though God did these things, does that somehow prove the Bible isn’t true? Hardly. This is what is known as an “appeal to emotions” or the "argument of outrage." That is, God can’t be God because He’s so mean. Even if God were “cruel,” that’s not automatic proof that He’s not God.

But this does raise the issue of God’s character. Is God guilty of murder? Is God worthy of worship? The answers respectively are “no” and “yes.”

It started back in the Garden of Eden where God commanded Adam not to eat of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. God explained the consequences to Adam:

“And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” Genesis 2:16-17

You know the story – Adam did that which God commanded him not to do. When he did, he exchanged his immortal body for a body of flesh; he went from a body that would never die to a body that would die. We are the children of Adam and we have inherited his body of flesh.

According to the Bible, there is precisely one penalty for sin - death (Romans 6:23). All have sinned; all die (Romans 5:12). The mortality rate among people is exactly 100%. Some people die in their sleep; some people die at the point of a sword; some people die very old; some people die very young; but everybody dies!

God is the author of life and He decides when it ends. He is like the potter and it's His right to shape clay however He wants (Jeremiah 18:1-6). The Bible says it is appointed to man to die (Hebrews 9:27). We are not in a position to say to God, "This person's death is OK but this other death is murder!"

My grandfather died when he was 90 years old. My father died when he was 50 years old. I had a nephew that died at birth. Is that "fair"? Are we going to say that God "murdered" them? Is God not God because we think He's cruel?

We all have the same destiny - a grave. We all also have the same opportunity - salvation through His Son. When we stand before God in judgment (and we all will), I'm going to receive mercy because I have believed in His Son. Others are welcome to tell God you think He's a murderer and that He's being unfair.

The Electoral Map

There's an interesting, interactive, electoral map at 270towin.com that lets the user toy around with different scenarios to see how the 2008 election might pan out. As I write this, things are looking grim for McCain. If all the Obama leaning states go to Obama, and all the McCain leaning states go to McCain, then Obama is only 1 undecided state away from winning the electoral college. On the other hand, McCain would have to win every single undecided state to take the White House.

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The good news is that 100 of the Obama leaning electoral votes are only "soft leaning" to Obama. That is, he has only a 5% lead over McCain in the polls. If you consider only those states where the candidate's support is "likely" or "safe", then the electoral votes are 164 to Obama and 156 to McCain.

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I'm going to add a widget to help readers follow the polls as they shift.

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Tonight's debate is a "make or break" for either candidate. Senator McCain, if you're listening, I urge you to put your conservative foot forward. In addition, take this opportunity to point out that Obama is the most liberal Democrat in the Senate (and has the third most liberal Democrat as a running mate)! If you do that, you will win.

The VP Debate

Ok. I watched the debate and was thoroughly disappointed. Joe Biden was true to form so I guess I don’t have a complaint with him except that I disagree with nearly everything he stands for. My disappointment is more with Palin.

I like Gov. Palin. She seems to be fairly conservative in her politics. But since she’s on the same ticket with McCain, I guess she has to back up his moderate ideas. There were many issues where I couldn’t tell a difference between her views (or at least her comments) and Sen. Biden’s comments.

How many times did Gov. Palin talk about the “greed and corruption” on Wall Street? How many times did she talk about “oversight, oversight, oversight”? How many times did she have to defend McCain, assuring us that he wasn’t for deregulation? How many times did she talk about taking on the “Big Oil” companies?

Look, Gov. Palin, we’re supposed to be a free market! Ever heard of capitalism? It’s usually the Democrats that are for more regulation, more government control of business, more for punishing “big business” with confiscatory taxes, and more for the social practice of redistributing wealth. Yet she seemed proud of the fact that McCain is going to do all of these things even better than that most liberal of all Senators, Barack Obama.

And did you notice her stance on global warming? She’s promising to reduce carbon emissions. Now, where have I heard that before? Oh that’s right - Biden was saying the same thing! The only difference seemed to be that Biden unequivocally blamed human activity for increasing global temperatures whereas Palin would only concede were partly to blame.

I guess her performance was Ok. She seemed charming and personable. She spoke directly to the people and she spoke with confidence. She’s certainly attractive. There’s a lot to like about her; She just didn’t convey a conservative message. When McCain picked Palin as his running mate, she was supposed to woo the conservative base of the Republican Party. But we’re not electing her for President. It’s still McCain at the top of the ticket. And Palin can’t do as much wooing if she only parrots the luke warm positions of McCain.

McCain didn’t ask for my advice but here’s my opinion anyway: McCain needs to move to the right. Conservative voters are NOT going to vote for Obama but they might stay home and not vote. If he wants their vote, he needs to give them something to vote for. If he’s trying to garner the “undecided” middle, he won’t do that either unless he can distinguish himself from Obama. Conservative issues win elections. Remember the Contract with America? McCain should stop using Palin’s appeal to try to win the base since she’s not doing anything but repeating his moderation. Instead, he should use these last 2 debates to show us his conservative side – that is, if he really does have one.