The main focus was salvation in Christ alone, which is the core of Christianity, although two parts annoyed me enough that my wife had to pause the TiVo and tell me, “Yes, I know. Be quiet and watch.”

1. What’s wrong with this sentence: “Belief in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord is the only guaranteed way to heaven.” Figure it out? It’s the word, “Guaranteed.” In a Larry King Live interview , Rev. Joel Osteen said that faith in Christ is the only guaranteed way to heaven. (It’s not in the transcript, but the transcript is incomplete. Look for heaven on the page, and you’ll see what I’m talking about.) By saying this and not “only guaranteed way to heaven,” you imply (and Osteen says) that those without faith in Jesus Christ can get to heaven. While the Roman Catholic Church teaches this for now, the Bible does not, nor does orthodox Christianity. As one speaker today said, “If there were another way, God wouldn’t have had His Son die on the cross.” (I’m not sure that’s word-for-word, but that was the gist.) We go to heaven because Jesus died to take away our sins. Faith alone saves, nothing else. Period.

2. But that leads to my second objection. You’ll argue that it’s a question of semantics, but hear me out. “Heaven is for all who ask Jesus to be their Lord.” Wrong. I’ve never done so, but I’m going to heaven. Why? Because it doesn’t depend on me.

I remember struggling with the words of my LCMS Lutheran Sunday School teachers. They taught me, “Jesus did everything for you to get to heaven. You don’t have to do anything.” But I thought to myself, “Except believe.” Honestly, it wasn’t until I arrived at seminary that one of my peers (Thank-you, Jay.) straightened me out. I realized that “and that not of yourselves” in Ephesians 2:8-9 modified “faith,” that faith is a gift of God, not a human work. Only then did I understand that you really don’t have to doanything. Even faith is a gift and work of God.

Why does this matter? Because I am saved and will live forever solely based on the work of God, not on me. None of it depends on me. This is excellent news, because if I had to make some kind of decision to believe, I don’t know whether I’d be sincere enough. Whenever it depends even the slightest on you, there’s no certainty, and you’re back in the camp of the Muslims, Jews, and every other religion in history. But when everything rests on God, you can be sure.

Of course, with Islam, “God willing” is the key phrase. One of the clergy speaking on the subject said that if you live a beautiful life, “God willing, there’ll be no surprises.” But as I learned in an interview with a man who works closely with Muslims, those two words can’t be removed.

Islam’s formal principle is the sovereignty of God. If you live a perfect life and be a very good Muslim, doing everything the Quran tells you to do, God will probably like you and want you in paradise. But if He decides He doesn’t like you, He can send you to hell, and there’s nothing you can do about it. In Christianity, on the other hand, uncertainty has no place. God has already shown that He loves each and every person. He loved us by sending Jesus to die for us. We get to paradise not because of God’s whim, but because Jesus bought our ticket. God has to allow us in because He Himself paid for that assurance and signed the contract in blood. So often, widows come to me, especially at their husbands’ funerals, and say, “I don’t know how people can go through life without the assurance of the resurrection.”

I am sad for those who live in uncertainty, and I pray that God will work to bring them to know Christ.

What happens after you die? How do you get to heaven? Ask Matt Lauer!

Most strikingly, one of the rabbis said, “In Judaism, you can get to heaven without believing in God.” In fact, the sure-fire way to get to heaven, according to one rabbi, is to get three couples together for a lifetime. Now we know Yenta‘s motivation! What a huge difference between modern Judaism and the religion of the Old Testament Israelites!

(Deuteronomy 6:4, 5) Hear, Israel: Yahweh is our God; Yahweh is one: and you shall love Yahweh your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might.

I expect that uncertainty will be the running theme throughout these features as they run next week. Most religions cannot offer assurance of salvation (however they define it) because every religion in history has been centered in the law–you have to do something to reach the ultimate goal. Christianity alone teaches that you are savedcompletely on the merits of someone else, Jesus Christ.

So I’ll be interested to see what they have to say about Christianity and who they interview about it. Pray that the representation is accurate.

Or another definition: Gary Grimm and Associates have a series of “Jingo” games, which are much like Bingo, but more educational. So here’s my question: when do we stop and say, “Look at what word you’re using.” The word “Jingo” is generally seen as a negative word. I’m sure better words could have been used. On the other hand, the church uses a lot of words that people don’t understand, like justification, redemption, and testament. Should we stop using those words? I say no, but we need to make sure to define them when using them, thus educating people. They’re important words, and sometimes, no other words can be used to convey the same sense. But if we’re going to use a word from outside the church, we need to make sure not to be jingoistic about it.

As Ramadan comes to a close, let’s look back at what Ramadan means to the world. The media is trying to determine whether the end of the month means more violent acts or less by militant Muslims.

Contrast this with Christmas and Easter, which besides an economic boost to retailers, is generally accompanied by “peace on earth, goodwill to men.” While those words were originally referring to God’s good will toward us, not to each other, the former follows the latter.

What I see in the contrast is a lack of hope. It must be very difficult to live in a religion that offers no sure and certain hope like Islam, where the only way to be assured of heaven is by dying for the cause. Christians believe that salvation is a free gift, paid for by Jesus Christ.

So even though Ramadan is done, I encourage you to pray for the Muslims that they may find and know true peace–not just the lack of violence, but the wholeness that only Christ can give.

VeggieTales, the popular Christian children’s show, is now, finally, on TV. They’ve always billed themselves as “Sunday Morning Values & Saturday Morning Fun” Well, they now have Saturday Morning fun because they’re on NBS every Saturday, including 3-2-1 Penguins and Larry Boy Adventures in a separate time slot. Cool, huh? Well, yeah.

Problem: they gutted it. They removed Qwerty, our favorite Bible-verse-spouting (and Pong-playing) computer and pretty much every reference to God. They redid the openings and closings, and they even eliminated the video game fight in the first episode of 3-2-1 Penguins: Trouble on Planet Wait-Your-Turn. So yeah, each story still has a moral, and it’s in line with conservative Christian morality, but I keep waiting for Larry to say, “Now I know!” to which Bob responds, “And knowing is half the battle. GI Joe!”

Now admittedly, VeggieTales was never big on Gospel. It was mainly a series of morality plays with the exception of their Christmas and Easter specials, but even so, they at least ended with a Gospel message: “God made you special, and He loves you very much.” Now, that’s gone. I know Big Idea Productions had to do this, not as an ego trip, but because they were practically bankrupt. They’re hoping this will encourage people to buy the DVDs, which are still in their original versions, so think of them as half-hour commercials for the DVD. Will it work? Only time will tell.

What lesson do we learn from this? Well, many. Don’t put all your eggs in one whale’s mouth (And BTW, the Jonah movie had a nice Gospel theme.). Don’t ever think your empire can’t topple. And unlike grilled cheese sandwiches and oyster shells, you won’t be seeing Jesus on network TV anytime soon. Oh, and one more: no matter what you fail in, God made you special, and for Jesus’ sake, He still loves you very much.

Thanks to a free download from iTunes, my wife and I have started watching the ABC Family series, 3 Moons over Milford. It’s entertaining and insightful. The premise is that an asteroid split the moon into 3 big chunks (and some smaller ones), and it’s only a matter of time before those chunks fall to earth and destroy life on earth. So people tend to respond in one of three ways: they either panic and commit suicide, they follow their dreams and leave the rest behind (Carpe Diem), or they just “muddle through” and keep on going with business as usual the best they can.

As I was watching it, I recalled the feelings we had when the 9/11 bombing occurred, which was similar yet very different from knowledge of the impending end of the world, not just the potential for a terrorist attack. On September 11, 2001, we wanted to go get our kids out of school, bring them home, and just hold them, but we knew an elementary school in rural Iowa wasn’t a prime terrorist target, so we let them stay there until the bus brought them home.

The main reaction repeatedly displayed in 3 Moons is the setting aside of inhibitions to achieve a life-long goal. While there’s something to be said for seeking a goal, the recurring theme is that, when someone leaves to pursue a dream, the families, friends, and co-workers left behind are devastated.

Now, where am I going with this? 3 Moons is an excellent commentary on human nature, or what the Bible calls “sinful flesh.” The only thing keeping most people in check is the first use of the Law, fear of consequences. If that fear is gone, or we believe we’re lost regardless, we have no motivation to keep the Law.

But that’s where Christianity is unique. We look to God’s Law not out of fear of consequences, not to please Him or anyone else per se, but simply because we can. Since Christ has given us eternal life by His death and resurrection, not only do we need not fear consequences, but we need not fear that we have to accomplish certain things before we’re crushed by a moon chunk. We can just go on helping others for no reason at all, simply because God has freed us to do just that and enjoy doing it. It’s a byproduct of faith.

So even if the moon explodes, even if the world ends tomorrow, we have nothing to fear, and we don’t need to fear the world’s end–we can look forward to it, because that will begin God’s restoration and new creation, a world free from death and fear.

A new study finds that Baby Brains are wired for math. They found that a baby already has a decent concept of basic mathematics, identical to an adult human brain. Given that this is already true in infants, we can assume the same is true for at least late term preborn infants, maybe even earlier–difficult to test while in utero.

Yet a 9-month preborn baby can be aborted with no legal consequence because the baby is not a person. If they can do math and still not be considered a person, then what does it take to pass that test?

For me, I say David answered that question around 1000 B.C.:

(Psalms 51:5, 6) Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity. In sin my mother conceived me. Behold, you desire truth in the inward parts. You teach me wisdom in the inmost place.

If we can be sinners at conception and learn from God in the womb, we must be people from conception.