My Life with Aspergers

 When I was 13 years old I was diagnosed with a mild form of asperger syndrome, which is a high functioning autism. People with aspergers have an average to high IQ, have trouble understanding non-verbal cues and social norms, can be obsessive-compulsive, and can have physical clumsiness and an atypical use of language. People with it are usually very strong introverts, which can get to the point where we can spend hours- even days- without any social contact and not give it a 2nd thought.

Aspergers did not make my grade school career easy because I was certainly not normal. When I first received my diagnosis I hated it because to me it was like I had a disease for which there was no cure. Because I've grown and matured as a young woman and as Christian, I am comfortable and OK with it. I am even sometimes thankful that God gave me aspergers because it gives  me an independent streak that has gotten me out of sticky situations.

Prior to entering post-secondary education, my social life was null for the most part. I had only 1 friend during high school, and everyone else disregarded me. Everything changed when I started university, because people are much more tolerant and accepting of those who are different in terms of their physical, mental, and social limitations. It also helped that I was blessed to have a mild form of aspergers to the point where there are times when even I forget that I have it! Unfortunately, my memory returns every Sunday because I find that no matter what church I go to, I always get uncomfortable being around all those people.

For me, going to church is hell because it's constant social interaction and I feel very uncomfortable when I am run into the kind of social interaction I get at church. Often this discomfort gets to the point where I want to run out the door. This is in sharp comparison to how I feel when I'm at school and around my peers.  Like church, my school is a strong Christian environment that is designed to foster and encourage spiritual growth as well as academic growth because it is a Bible College. Part of the reason I'd much rather be socializing with my peers is that I have a lot more reasons to do so than just for the sake of socializing.

The majority of people who have aspergers, like me, do not naturally socialize. For example, the first thing I want to do after my last exam before the summer is to go to my room and play my video games alone and not go hang out with my friends. Another example is that as soon as we're done opening Christmas presents, my first impulse is to wander off and look at the things I received by myself instead of hanging around with my family.  I find that my friends at school are more comfortable with me preferring to go off on my own  as than my family is. I've also found that my church family is like my earthly family in that it was more designed for the extroverts and natural socializers as opposed to the introverts and natural loners. This is something I've observed over the years between the different social circles I interact with. This lack of understanding can be frustrating at times, because a lot of the people I interact with on a regular basis have known that I have aspergers for a long time but seem to choose to not acknowledge it.

Going to church, talking with people after class, or going to a family reunion means I have to fight a large part of me that does not want to socialize. It's not those social groups themselves that make me want to run away, but the socializing. What causes me to warm up to socializing a lot more is when the people who I socialize with understand me. My current friends at school do understand me in more ways then 1. First, we all have Jesus Christ in common. What's nice about going to a Bible College like Emmanuel is that almost everybody's first and most important priority is their faith in Jesus Christ (I say almost because there are people who go there, where Jesus Christ is at the bottom of their priorities). Not only does that make them more understanding, I also find that it is what causes them to be more celebrating and more appreciative of differences because they all believe God created people to be different. Second, they understand me because we are a part of the same generation so our interests, values, and experiences within society as a whole are pretty much the same. Third, they are some of the few people I've met that have really tried to understand what it means to have aspergers. I've encountered people, both family and non-family, who've ignored it, tried to explain it away or make it less than what it is, have tried to cure me and make it go away, say they understand it but refuse to make some accommodations for it, fail to see how I can be better than my diagnosis, and/or they pick and choose what parts of it they'll accept and then lose patience or disregard the rest. Not my friends at school. 

I have to be honest, about 50% of the stuff in the list has come from my earthly family. This has turned my off interacting with a lot of people in my heavenly/Christian family because if I can't find some degree of tolerance and understanding in my earthly family then why should I expect to find it in my heavenly family? Tolerance and understanding, something that so many people who have a liberal view of things advocate for, yet I've had to fight for and I am still fighting for in my mostly liberal family... and a family that will probably deny this completely when and if they read this but can they really get mad at me for commenting on what I've observed and experienced over the years? Not really. And they should know it's not just them. I've received this kind of treatment from people I've met at church too and from my non-church friends.Furthermore, they have loved in ways that my peers in all walks of my life have fallen short in and they do understand me in ways that my peers don't.

The need for understanding is something that I don't get at church. First, a lot of the people that talk to me are not in my age group. Although, we do have Jesus Christ in common, there is a difference between how Jesus interacts with someone in their mid-life and older as opposed to how He interacts with young adults. God meets people where they are at, and there is a difference between where a 20 year old and 40 year-old are at. Second, I find that a lot of people at church want to get to know me on a more personal level too quickly. This would not be so bad if they didn't automatically ask me really personal questions, like how I came to know the Lord. My faith story is a bit more personal than others, and  it doesn't make sense if I try to leave the more personal parts out. If you combine that with the impression I have that if you don't give them an answer, you are looked down upon. 

This is true about your faith story, and even about whether you are completely honest about your week on say the first day of a small group. If I don't want to share, I don't want to share. If I don't want to hug people, I don't want to hug people. At school I have the option to share or hug people, or to not share and hug people. At church, I don't think I really have that choice or I'm frowned upon if I choose to exercise it and keep quiet about my life or refuse to hug someone. No, for people like me, we need time to get to know people more and develop real trust. I will never be comfortable sharing my faith story with someone I've only known for 5 minutes, it's as simple as that.

Another thing that turns me off is hugging. Again, if I've only known you for 5 minutes or a couple of days, I don't want to be hugged by you. Unfortunately, I almost always get the impression that talking and hugging are not optional but required in order to be a a part of the community. When I'm with my friends at school I am allowed to say Please go away or I really don't want to talk right now. People at school know when and how to keep their distance, and  they still welcome me into the community as their friend! Why can't church be like that too? People at church , and a lot of other Christian-specific places never understand that I have boundaries and they never figure it out when they are crossing them. And when they want to hug me, they just hug me! There is no seeing whether I want to accept the invitation or not, they just hug and expect me to hug back. Then I try to figure out on Saturday night why  I want to do church on Sunday morning, because there are plenty of reasons why I do not.

Another thing that really gets me mad is that people will read a blog article like this, see me reject their hug, and/or my refusing to talk and they get all mad and look down upon me even though whether I do or don't do those above things is my choice to make. It was always me who was going to see the guidance counsellor while I was in elementary school, or I was the one who needed to change and learn to ignore people, and not my peers who treated me like I was less than crap every single day. This seems to be true about a lot of things: I'm the one who is always wrong and always has the problem, and never the people I am interacting with. In fact this is true for people who have a disability or a syndrome that affects how we socialize and interact with other people- it's always the person who's an introvert, or the one with aspergers, or the one who's blind, or the one who has autism who always has the problem in any situation and never the people who want to hug us, talk to us, tease us, and/or ignore us.

Ah Saturday night. It's the night where the battle over whether I should make the trek to church occurs every week. Sometimes I'm at church the following morning and sometimes I'm not. It's a battle that only fellow brothers and sisters with aspergers would understand. It gets annoying when people who don't have aspergers try to give me advice about how "fix" my tendencies and help me "win" my Saturday evening battle. I know, at least I think I know, that you all want to help but with all do respect, you don't know what you're talking about. Aspergers is not a disease that is affecting my body and once the disease is removed everything goes back to normal. Aspergers is a part of my being that affects everything, including my relationship with God, and it is something that cannot really be "cured". It is controllable and it can be managed, but all the control and management in the world won't get rid of it completely.

If I could summarize how aspergers has affected my so far 21 years of life, I would use the opening to one of Charles Dickens' greatest works, "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to heaven, we were all going direct the other way - in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only."- Opening paragraph of a "Tale of Two Cities".

As my life continues, I hope to strive to be better than who I am now. This is true in my relationship with God, my relationship with others, and my relationship with my aspergers. I like to consider myself like Captain Picard and the android, Data in Star Trek: Nemesis. In the movie, Data discovers a prototype android, B4, that looks exactly like him and Picard encounters his clone, Shinzon. In many ways B4 and Shinzon are exact replicas of Picard and Data to the point where for Picard and Data to look at Shinzon and B4 in the eye is to look in a mirror. However, they are not them because Picard and Data strive to be better than they were, Shinzon and B4 did not. The one thing, or rather the One Person, that separates me from Picard and Data, is Jesus Christ. I can be better than myself if I remain dependent on Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit.

Data and Picard can only so much better than themselves for two reasons. First, humans beings cannot redeem or improve themselves a part from God and His offer of salvation through Jesus Christ. Whoever reads this can argue against what I've just said with me until the cows come home but the first 15 minutes of the news proves me, and the Bible, right. Human history, especially the last 100 years, have proven that humanity in and of itself can only get worse and not better. If anything, Captain Picard and Data are exceptions to the norm. Second, the majority of discouraging comments about self improvement come from human beings, even people one trusts.  Only dependence on the Father, in the name of Jesus Christ through the power of the Spirit will make me successful in my goal to always strive to be better than myself.

If humans don't try to discourage my self-improvement goals,  they try to help me by trying to cure me, which hurts more than it heals. I think there is a way for me to be better than I am that includes my aspergers just like there was a way for Paul to be better than he was that included his "thorn in the flesh" (2Corinthians 12:1-10). If Paul wasn't better with his thorn, God would no have allowed him to have it. In the same way, if God didn't think I could be better than myself with aspergers, I would not have been born with it in the first place.

Life with aspergers is the best of times, it is the worst of times. It is one of the interesting gifts God can choose to give someone, and I am content and sometimes baffled that He chose to entrust it to me. As St. Paul said, "I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong" (2Corinthians 12:9-10, TNIV).

Quiet Time with God in North America

In North American society, the church likes to emphasize the importance of spending quiet time with God. The purpose of this quiet time with God is to experience intimacy with God, and get to know God on a deeper and more personal level. It's supposed to be a part of where the relationship with God grows and flourishes. One thing I've noticed about this time with God is that the Christian Church seems to have a very... focused and narrow view about what a person and God are supposed to do during this time. 

I've found that the general idea behind quiet time with God is that the person is supposed to be alone, have a Bible plus a devotional book hand, and start and/or end the time with prayer. Don't get me wrong, this is a good way to spend time alone with God for some people. When I first became a Christian, I used devotional books and resources during my quiet time to help me understand the Bible more and to grow in my relationship with Christ. These books are good for beginners and do provide excellent insight to the Christian life at times- provided they are written by the right people.

However, I have found that this method has become more of a growing business and marketing scheme about giving good advice from the Bible than about growing a person's relationship with God. The majority of these books are targeted at youth and people in their mid-life who are living in the typical middle-income Canadian and/or American household. I have yet to see devotions for people with homosexual tendencies, people living in low-income situations, or teen mothers.  

My #1 issue with these books, however, is that they have a bad habit of not encouraging maturity of historical, biblical or theological knowledge. They do not really teach people to read a verse in its context, understand the process of biblical interpretation is knowing what it said to the original before bringing it to the 21^st century, and they do not educate people in the importance of knowing and studying theology. This is a problem because for most people, devotional books are all that they use for their quiet times.

This lack of encouragement to grow in biblical and theological knowledge is leading to a lot believers staying at the beginner’s level and not really forming their own faith and their own beliefs. Instead they just regurgitate what they’ve read as solid theological arguments and correct biblical interpretations. Because of this, people do not really know how to share or to defend their faith. Without a proper understanding of the Bible, theology, and Church history, personal witnessing becomes a long string of recited verses that are incorrectly interpreted and the person will not even be able to explain what they mean and the seeker will quickly figure that what they are hearing is really reciting what other people told them to believe. They won’t even know how to address historical issues, like the Crusades, in a convincing manner. 

Have you ever heard of Girlfriends in God devotions or Susie Magazine? What about Sharon Jaynes, Susie Shellenberger, John and Stasi Eldredge, or Gwen Smith? How about the books Wild at Heart or Captivating? These people write devotions and do youth and women's ministry and have reached people all over the world. They teach people Scripture, help women and youth grow closer to God, and have gained an excellent rapport. Unfortunately, these artists and authors fall short on one important issue: They are uneducated in the interpretation and application of the Bible and biblical theology, are uneducated in Church history, and could have had a lot more systematic theological education. They don’t even know the difference between a biblical interpretation and a theological position! While I’m sure God can and is using them, they are still passing on their immature, uneducated, and incorrect views of the Bible without to millions of Christians all over the world. Would you let a person who has no education in medicine and medical practice perform surgery?  Would you trust their diagnosis of you? Then why should we be taught by people who do not have the academic qualifications to teach us about the Bible?  

For example, the book Captivating by John and Stasi Eldredge states that women have these three core desires: to be romanced, to play an irreplaceable role in a great adventure, and to unveil beauty. These traits compliment the Wild at Heart's three core desires to a man's heart: a battle to fight, an adventure to live, and a beauty to rescue. Both these books, and the authors who wrote them, have been criticized for their poor and unorthodox interpretations of the Bible and their too heavy use of interpreting the Bible in light of culture instead of vice versa. This use of culture has lead to their works reinforcing the stereotypes and values the world places on people instead of helping them to become more. 

Remember those core values men and women have? Don’t look for them in the Bible, because you won’t find them. They are found in the fairy tales and modern movies we have seen and heard. The adventure where the woman plays the irreplaceable role and where she unveils beauty is in the man's adventure he wants to live in and be the star of. Captivating and Wild at Heart are two of many examples of books and other resources, written for Quiet Time with God, that reinforce stereotypes that our society has created for its citizens to function. Not only are they VERY North American specific, but they are very poor, improper, and incorrect methods for interpreting the Bible. 

If John and Stasi Eldredge had bothered to really, and correctly, look at the Bible from cover to cover, they would never find the god who encouraged and promoted stereotypes in either Testament. To the contrary, God’s people were always called to be better and higher than the surrounding nations (OT), or the society they lived in (NT). To reinforce and encourage stereotypes and promote an ethnocentric view of North American culture is to be the opposite of what God’s people are called to be and to do. 

By the way, John and Stasi, those above “core desires” are not core desires of a man or woman’s heart. Even if a man had a battle to fight, an adventure to live, and a beauty to rescue he would STILL not be satisfied or wild at heart. If a woman was romanced, played an irreplaceable role in a great adventure, and unveiled beauty there would be still be no satisfaction for her in those things.  The one and only core desire that is at the route of any human being that is placed in everyone’s heart is to have a relationship with the Almighty Triune God of the universe. A person's life is not truly fulfilled and their core desire will never be met until there broken relationship with the Triune God is restored by accepting God’s free offer of salvation through the life, death, and resurrection of the Saviour of the world, who is God the Son in the person of Jesus Christ! 

Do I have any suggestions for my fellow brothers and sisters after the above? Of course I do. I have something to say to the authors of these resources: First, get an education that includes proper biblical interpretation, theology, and church history. Other subjects to add to the list of things you need to get educated in are stop being ethnocentric sociology and cultural anthropology. Perhaps they will teach you to not be so ethnocentric about North American culture and reinforcing stereotypes in your works. Third, encourage your readers to do the same! The readers of these resources need to mature in terms of their knowledge and study of the Bible, their knowledge and understanding of theology, and their knowledge and interpretation of Church history.  At some point you have to move on from milk to solid meat. These resources are milk and it’s time to move on from them!

 

Hebrews 5:11-14, TNIV

 ¹¹ We have much to say about this, but it is hard to make it clear to you because you no longer try to understand. ¹² In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! ¹³ Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. ¹⁴ But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.

1Corinthians 3:1-3a, TNIV

¹ Brothers and sisters, I could not address you as spiritual but as worldly—mere infants in Christ. ² I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready. ³ You are still worldly.

Capital Punishment and the Bible

Does the Bible affirm or condemn the use of capital punishment? I've read a lot of comment responses to YouTube videos about capital punishment that state either/or. For those who believe that the Bible condemns capital punishment they see execution as people trying to steal a right that only God has, which is the right to decide when a person lives and when they die. There other two two arguments is that execution is just returning murder, something the Bible condemns everywhere, with murder; and people are no longer under old covenant law, but new covenant grace; therefore, capital punishment would be a step backwards from God's movement in salvation history.

What I want to say is that the above statements are true. The Bible does condemn murder, God does have the right to give and take a way life, and we are no longer under the old covenant law. However, when these truths are taken within the whole context of the Bible you'll find the Bible does not condemn capital punishment, but sees it as a permissible form of punishment for certain crimes. This can be seen from before the institution of the  Mosaic Covenant at the beginning in Genesis.

Old Testament and Capital Punishment

The one thing Christians for and against capital punishment have in common is that they believe God does have the right to put people to death. The penalty for sin, which is committing a crime against God and breaking His laws,  is death. This is seen in Genesis 2 when "the LORD God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; ¹⁷ but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will certainly die.”" (Genesis 2:16-17, TNIV). To sin against the LORD God is to receive capital punishment from God, the Ruler, Judge, and Law Enforcer of creation. Sometimes the sentenced is carried out immediately, such as in Ananias and Sapphira's case in Acts 5, or it is carried out when after a person lives a lifetime of sin and rejection of God's Lordship is sentenced to eternally from God in hell for eternity.

Did God pass this right on to humanity? In Genesis 9:6 God said,

Whoever sheds human blood, 

   by human beings shall their blood be shed; 

for in the image of God 

   has God made humankind.

In other words, yes God did. This is the second time God passed the right to rule and exercise law and order from Himself to humanity, the first was Genesis 1:28,  and in it God gives humanity the right to take a life if a person kills someone else. Note that this privilege is not a free for all. Only the shedding of blood, which in the Bible is taking a life, demands execution as punishment.

In the Mosaic Law this is still in effect with some changes. Under the Old Testament law people capital crimes were murder, idolatry, practising of the occult, and sexual immorality. These sins were more serious than others because they were being practised by the Egyptians and original inhabitants of the Promised Land, and the inhabitants insistence on practising them lead to God sending the Israelites to drive them out. If you want to know what life was like in those nations, read the prophets and 2Kings and 2Chronicles, because the Israelites exactly what the people God drove out of the land did and it was not fun to live there.

Clearly the Old Testament was for capital punishment as it was commanded by God to be used as punishment for certain offences under Mosaic Law. Because of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the Old Testament Law and its stipulations have been done away with and rendered null and void. Now we have the Gospel of grace where the punishment for all of our sins, including murder, were paid for by Jesus' shed blood at Calvary. Furthermore,  God's people are no longer a physical nation in a specific geographical location under God but scattered all over the world. Given these facts,  does the New Testament support or condemn the death penalty?

The New Testament and Capital Punishment

The New Testament does not come out and say it is bad but it does not say it is acceptable either. However, I do not think the New Testament can be used to voice the abolition of the death penalty wholeheartedly. While it is true that Jesus death paid the price for our sins, including all the murders ever to be committed, there is still the need for a judicial system because not everyone will accept God's offer of salvation. Furthermore there is a difference between turning the other cheek and loving your enemies in an individual believer's life, and ruling a country. The New Testament calls Christians to submit to the governing authorities, else suffer the consequences, because they were put in place to protect us from violent people.

Romans 13:1-5

 ¹ Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. ² Consequently, whoever rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves. ³ For rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong. Do you want to be free from fear of the one in authority? Then do what is right and you will be commended. ⁴ For the one in authority is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for rulers do not bear the sword for no reason. They are God’s servants, agents of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer. ⁵ Therefore, it is necessary to submit to the authorities, not only because of possible punishment but also as a matter of conscience.

Paul was speaking to a church an empire that practised capital punishment on a regular basis. Therefore, Paul was indirectly affirming that governing authorities do have the right to practice capital punishment. Paul was also talking to a society that persecuted the church quite a bit during its first 300 years of existence. Why would Christians want to submit to a government that seemed to constantly attack them for their faith in Christ?

1Peter 2:13-17, 19-23

¹³ Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every human authority: whether to the emperor, as the supreme authority, ¹⁴ or to governors, who are sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to commend those who do right. ¹⁵ For it is God’s will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of the foolish. ¹⁶ Live as free people, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as God’s slaves. ¹⁷ Show proper respect to everyone, love your fellow believers, fear God, honor the emperor...

 ¹⁹ For it is commendable if you bear up under the pain of unjust suffering because you are conscious of God. ²⁰But how is it to your credit if you receive a beating for doing wrong and endure it? But if you suffer for doing good and you endure it, this is commendable before God. ²¹ To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps.

 ²² “He committed no sin,
   and no deceit was found in his mouth.”
 ²³ When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly.

Submit to the governing authorities so that the only reason the government has for arresting believers is their faith in Jesus Christ and they will be remembered as martyrs, not condemned criminals.

From reading Scripture, I've found that it is God's people who do not have the right to execute people who do wrong. To the contrary, the highest form of discipline/punishment God's people can administer is excommunication. The goal of excommunication is not to rid the church of a criminal but to bring the offender back into the body of believers as a fellow brother or sister redeemed by God. Excommunication can be reversed, execution cannot. 

Summary

While it is true that the Bible does condemn murder and affirms that God has the right to give and take away life because He is the Creator, Ruler, and Judge of the universe, the Bible does not really argue against the use of capital punishment. Since Genesis 9:6, God has commanded the use of capital punishment for murder and later sexual immorality, idolatry, and the practising of the occult in Mosaic Law. In the New Testament, the highest form of discipline is excommunication from the body of Christ, not capital punishment, in the hopes that the person is eventually brought back. However, if a government chooses to use capital punishment it has permission to do so within reason by God, who put them there. If the governing authority abuses this calling, God will deal with them.

Revelation 6:9-11
 ⁹ When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God and the testimony they had maintained. ¹⁰ They called out in a loud voice, “How long, Sovereign Lord, holy and true, until you judge the inhabitants of the earth and avenge our blood?” ¹¹ Then each of them was given a white robe, and they were told to wait a little longer, until the full number of their fellow servants and brothers and sisters were killed just as they had been.

The New Covenant and Capital Punishment

The death penalty is practised in many countries all over the world including in the country south of mine, the US of A. In Canada, the death penalty was abolished in the 1960s. Not only does Canada not execute prisoners, but it won't deport people to different countries on the threat that they will or they might be executed after they get there. Recently I have been reading internet articles, watching videos, and reading blogs on the death penalty and whether it is right for the state to practice capital punishment. Now, why would I want to read about that? Well, this is a topic that has come up in conversation but I have not been given the chance to dive into it on a more in-depth level and learn about the issues. Do we, as human beings, ever have the right to take a life? Good question, and how I answer it says a lot about me as a person, a Canadian, and a Christian.

For some people, the answer to the above question, specifically in regards to the right to execute criminals, is yes. Criminals who take the lives of innocent people, especially children, should pay for it with their lives. Furthermore, they deserve to suffer and receive the same consideration and thought they gave their victims. Other people disagree mostly based on the argument that the death penalty has been and is being abused in  countries that have it, and if a person is found to be innocent after their execution it cannot be corrected.

In Christianity people fall under various factions and have used the Bible to justify both of their stand points. When I first started looking at execution and the use of lethal injection in the United States, I found a lot of comments that cite the Bible. I found that people who are against the death penalty took various passages outside of their context, that when placed in their context would fail to defend their arguments. In fact, I found the Bible approve, not condemn, the use of capital punishment in many passages. However, I can't really argue from that stand point either because a lot of the verses that call for the use of capital punishment are in the Old Testament. Now that we live in the time after Jesus' death and resurrection, God's people are not under the Old Covenant but lead by the Spirit and the OT Law has been rendered null and void.

The Bible explicitly calls for the use of capital punishment in a covenant that I am no longer under and does not explicitly for or against it in the covenant that I am under. Furthermore,  the arguments for and against capital punishment do have validity.  This has resulted in me not knowing what to think. How can I, a person who is lead by the Spirit a part from the law, speak to capital punishment that agrees with the New Covenant and speaks to the saving grace of God through Jesus Christ?

Another good question to ask and I intend to find answer before the summer is over. I know what you're thinking, "Isn't this a morbid topic to do?" It is, I won't deny that. However, an execution is probably happening right now in some country for some reason, or no reason at times, and I want to know where a believer in Christ should stand. Furthermore, it is obviously an important issue as the Bible does mention it. but we live in a morbid world at times and I want to know where I stand on some of them. I plan to post my findings on my blog during the course of my investigation. Hopefully it will not be in vain.

Agape Feasts in the Ancient Church

This Sunday LifeSprings Christian Fellowship will be meeting at the Taylor’s house for the service and having a potluck lunch following it. While this can be considered outside of the normal routine for our particular church, we are really visiting a part of the past over the course of history in the church. In the ancient church, Christians gathered in each others’ homes to do and be church. These gatherings, which were daily in the beginning, were called agape/love feasts. 

Love feasts were simple meals that the Christians celebrated and were often accompanied by the Eucharistic celebration (Eucharist is another name for communion or the Lord’s Supper). Everyone a part of God’s family living in the local community was invited to the feast, both the poor and the rich. It was a pot luck meal: People who were a part of the local church in the area brought food and drink for people to eat and they feasted. They made enough so that even the poor went away fed. Before and during the meal Scripture was read and taught and the people worshiped. Eventually the Eucharist became a permanent part of the agape feasts. As time went on and the church fell under persecution, Sunday became the only day for agape feasts and the celebration of the Eucharist. Eventually they died out because of persecution and abuses from within, such as in the church in Corinth (1Corinthians 11).

 

This Sunday we will be having an agape feast. Don’t worry, we will still be using and we will still have all the wonderful things of the 21^st century. Welcome to the Ancient Church, LifeSprings Christian Fellowship!

References

Agape Feast. June 27, 2011. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agape_feast#References (accessed June 1, 2011).

The Agape Feast. June 27, 2011. http://latter-rain.com/ltrain/agape.html.

White, James F. A Brief History of Christian Worship. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1993.

End Times on May 21, 2011 at 6 PM (Don't ask me in what time zone, the idiot in California didn't say)

In case you were unaware, the end of the world is supposedly tomorrow at 6 PM. There might be people freaking out around the world at this very minute because today could be our last full  day on earth as we know it. Some people are even planning to hitch a ride on dolphins, who have long known of the impending destruction of the planet earth (See the movie, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and this youtube video: 

Personally, I think that the people who supposedly "got this from the Bible" failed to read that the Bible already gave us the date. Jesus Himself, told us when this world would come to an end and when the next age and His coming would occur. It is time you found out the date our Lord gave for His return. Jesus Christ said:

"About that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son,  but only the Father." Matthew 24:36, (NIV)

"But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father" (Mark 13:32, NIV).

Not the Father and the special believers or the Father and some hidden code buried in the Old Testament, but Only The Father. People have been giving "the date" ever since 500AD. I don't know how many times they have to pull a date out of a hat before they figure it out that Jesus is not coming back on their calendar.

So, my message to you is this:There is no need to panick or to be alarmed. 99% chance that the day will come and  6 PM tomorrow will get here and nothing.  No giant earthquakes, no stars falling to the sky, no ships from a Vogon constructor fleet (see Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy), no Jesus coming back, nothing. As Jesus said, "At that time if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Messiah!’ or, ‘There he is!’ do not believe it." (Matthew 24:23, NIV). How can the church, or people claiming to be a part of Christ's church, make the same damn prediction over and over over and over over and over over and over over and over over and over over and over over and over over and over over and over over and over over and over over and over over and over over and over over and over....over and over again and people, well some believers anyway, cannot figure it out that ONLY THE FATHER KNOWS WHEN THE END OF THE WORLD AND JESUS' RETURN IS?

I hope that Sunday morning does not result in a lot of people committing suicide because they placed their faith in a date that did not happen and sold all their stuff or something else really stupid in order to be prepare for their Lord's return. My message to them is this: First,read Matthew 24:36 and Mark 13:32. Second, no where in the Bible does Jesus or any other prophet or apostle or anyone say that in order to prepared for the second coming of Christ you need to go sell all your stuff when it is for sure at hand. 

I say that there is 99% chance that tomorrow is not the end of the world, because there is always the chance that Jesus will come back tomorrow. If He wants to come back tomorrow at 6 PM, He can go right ahead. Don't let me  stop Him. He can come after I'm done writing this blog article if He likes. Either way, it's fine by me. But the chances are already stacked against tomorrow "because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him" (Mt 24:44b). 

I rest my case. So, relax, no one's going anywhere tomorrow @ 6.

Response to the Canadian Political Parties English Debate

So, I watched the 2h debate between the Conservatives, Liberals, NDP, and Bloc Quebecois on CBC and I have to admit I was disappointed with it. I like watching debates during an election because in theory I should learn why I should vote for one party over another. If this was a one-on-one debate, then I would not mind if heard constant criticism of the current government as long as it was coupled with why I should elect a new one. However, it was 4 people debating and all I really heard was why I should not vote for one person.

As questions were asked, it started as a one-on-one debate between two of the party leaders for 6 minutes and then it expanded to the other parties. I found that one-on-one's always came back to attacking Stephen Harper, and this included the one-on-one debates he was not in! Sometimes the debate went completely off-topic that they may as well had no questions being asked at all. Furthermore, I found that it was not really a debate at all but a gang-up on Stephen Harper. To me this is not fair because a good debater should be able to acknowledge the positive and negative aspects of what or who they are opposing.

For example, I don't like the Star Wars prequels and I'll gladly defend my dislike for them in a debate. However, I can say that John William's score for them was amazing, I really enjoyed how Mustafar and Naboo turned out, and the make-up/cosmetic transformation from Chancellor to Emperor Palpatine and Anakin Skywalker to burnt up Darth Vader were very well done. I can affirm these positive things about the prequels even though I hate them.

In this debate I heard again and again why I should not vote for Stephen Harper. Yet no one acknowledged that under Harper Canada faired a lot better than any other country during the recession. It would have looked better if the parties affirmed that and then said how they could improve upon it. Instead they keep coming back to where Stephen Harper failed and why I should not vote for him. Why can't  you guys can tell me why I should vote for you and what you want to do for Canada if elected? 

The political parties need to stop bashing the current Prime Minister all the time during debates. Debating is the time to balance between the problems with the old government and why I should choose them to form the new one.On May 2 I don't who to vote for; I only know that I should not vote for Stephen Harper if the NDP, Bloc, and Liberals had their way. Well, OK, I know who I'm going to vote for but the debate really had little to no influence on my choice at all. If anything, it made me wonder if the best choice is to fire all of our politicians and find new ones.