Why An Outlaw Would Become A Christian.

If it wasn't for the car race scene in the movie Grease , I probably never would've seen it. But could you imagine if the Fast and Furious movies were filmed in places where the roads had no speed limits or rules? There'd be no police chases. Even stock car races have endless rules as well as drag racing. I try to keep up with the dirt racing series called The World of Outlaws in the United States. And guess what?

There's lots of rules, restrictions, guidelines, and black flags and penalties. As much as some people claim to want to live without rules, we gotta have rules. Every system has rules, even atheism, communism, liberals seem to have a lot of rules, especially for those who aren't liberals. Hmm , even gunfights have rules. Have you seen the movie The Quick and the Dead? It's all about Gunfighters meeting for a tournament.

There's a bunch of rules in that tournament, which is interesting as they're breaking the rule of murder in order to do this. But even the old West had rules. And of course wars have rules. As nations go against nations, there's certain things they're not supposed to do. So indeed a car chase without rules is just a floundering. Demolition derby mostly meaningless. The results aren't worth anything.

One of the laws that musicians live by is you have to know the rules before you can break them. We wouldn't have jazz excellence without it. And now I'll say I like breaking the rules more than most people, but I also love knowing why I'm breaking the rules. What's the very heart of the matter? And that brings us to religion and belief systems.

You really can't have one without some laws and rules and regulations and guidelines, but no one dies for breaking a guideline necessarily. It's a bit of wisdom to say don't swim after you ate a big meal. But it's more of a law to say, don't swim in a shark tank when the sharks are hungry.

So this week on the podcast, I'm gonna show you that I'm a Christian because every belief system and ideology has laws, rules, regulations, and guidelines. So you gotta pick one pretty much based on those things. So yes, even atheism with its secular materialism has to deal with its laws. And yeah, even Hinduism has laws, even though they're occasionally contradictory.

And Buddhism has laws, satanism has laws, even weird, eh , Islam certainly has a lot of laws, as does Zoroastrianism. Every belief system has to have laws and some form of logic and guideline attached to it. And that's why I'm a Christian. The God of the Bible's laws make more sense to me than all of the others put together. And yes, I've spent the last few decades investigating them all.

Show me a better one and I'll take it hasn't happened. So here we go. My outlaw in nature really likes breaking the law on occasion. So unless the deity of the universe is totally clueless about his creation, he has to have found a way to get around our human nature desiring things that are bad for us. So yeah, first you gotta know the rules, then you break 'em and then you gotta find a way to fix them mess.

And most belief systems don't have a solution for it. And the God of the Bible does. Let's have a look. In the beginning, God made things really simple for us humans cuz we probably weren't that smarter experienced. So in Genesis two verse 15, it says, the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it.

And the Lord God commanded the man saying, you may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat for in the day that you eat of it, you shall surely die. So is this Lord God a tyrant not letting Adam do anything at all and oppressing him daily? No, he gave him some good simple advice that's a bit of a law and said, dude, don't eat it.

It equals death. You're not gonna like it. So when they eventually broke this law, God didn't smite them and exterminate them from existence. He simply moved them on to the next phase of the plan, which wasn't as pretty or comfortable. So is that why I'm a Christian? Nah, I would've eaten the apple even faster, probably.

So now we get to the first part of the reason and outlaws a Christian because of the 10 commandments given to Israel . So I'll say it now. I'm not an Israelite. I'm not a Jew. Moses isn't my home boy . I doubt very much that my ancestors are a part of the 12 tribes of Israel. I'm a Gentile and I didn't really join kind of God's family until the New Testament came along.

I'm a bit of a foreigner joining God's children on their way to the promised land. I'm okay with that. But in order to do that, you kind of gotta go along with God's laws for his people, even though they don't necessarily all apply to you. God even mentions this in the book of Leviticus chapter 24, verse 16. He says, whoever blasphemes the name of the Lord shall surely be put to death.

All the congregation shall stone him the soner as well as the native. Now to be more exacting, the Israelites got a whole lot of laws in the Old Testament, hundreds of them. But I'm not in the Old Testament. I'm not marching to the promised land in the desert without a fridge or a vehicle.

So I don't get to just march into Vancouver, British Columbia and start demanding all these laws be put on everybody as some of them aren't really situational at the moment. But that's not really the focus of today's episode. Today we're gonna deal with the ones that are that I should be able to march into Vancouver and tell the people I'm not a Christian because we can't mix our fibers.

Like in verse 19, chapter 19 of Leviticus, it says, you shall keep my statutes. You shall not let your cattle breed with a different kind. You shall not sow your field with two kinds of seed, nor shall you wear a garment of cloth made of two kinds of material.

Now, to me that's probably a reason not to be a Christian or possibly an Israelite or a Jew or a Hebrew, but I'd have to be a farmer with cattle or a field or possibly a seamstress making clothes to really understand that law. Is it evil or logic or merely symbolic, showing that you give authority to God in all things without questioning too much a little bit's. Okay?

Because remember, if God says, don't eat the apple, simple as that. Don't eat the apple. Often, if God makes a law in the Bible, it's because he knows something we don't. He has a long-term plan and we're just thinking about the immediate, our current desires. We gotta let that go sometimes. So like I said before, every belief system, religion, cult ideology, has a list of laws and regulations. So you gotta pick one.

You can't live without any. That's insane. You'd be defying reality, nature, and all sense of order in the universe. You'd simply have chaos, random, meaningless, chaos, which is kind of atheism. Try raising your grandchildren or even your pets in a system like that. You'll never get all the hair and melted chocolate off your couch. So now let's jump into Exodus 20.

In the Old Testament and the laws that make me a Christian, I'll say upfront that we can't have a functioning universe or civilization without these laws. They're that essential. Here it goes. And God spoke all these words saying, I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me. Wait just a minute.

Did you see that huge issue that popped up before we even got to the first law? This God said, I brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. Hmm , that's pretty nice of them . Apparently slavery isn't applauded or recommended or cherished or something to look forward to. No, God starts with that and says, yeah, that's over.

But of course if the people don't like God's laws, well you can just go back to slavery. Egypt's right over there, see ya . And sadly that did happen a time or two. So right away, if you take all of the religions and gods of the world, a normal person would take all the ones that recommend slavery and put them in the I don't like them category. And move on to the ones that you do.

Like I've often heard atheist mention if there's 10,000 gods in the world and I don't believe in any of them, yours is simply one more. But it's not that easy cuz some of the gods out there are just nasty and brutal and enslaving and torturing and the biblical God is quite different. But even worse, if you're an atheist, there's really nothing wrong with slavery.

There's no law in the universe that says, thou shalt not enslave. There's no laws at all. Do whatever you want, but don't ask me to clean your couch after your grandchildren leave. Okay? I do realize that slavery is a huge issue throughout the entire Bible and this podcast isn't gonna deal with that today. But you do have to know there's a lot of verses in the Bible where God has a lot to say about slavery.

And the two main things are slavery is not a salvation issue. You can be a slave or have a slave and still end up in heaven. However, there's a price for slavery and you will be accountable for how you acted as a slave or a slave owner. And honestly, I can't wait to meet some of the legendary slaves throughout history when I get to heaven and ask them their story and how they dealt with everything.

Cuz I have no idea. I have never lived a life like that. There will never be a boring moment in heaven. I guarantee it. Now let's jump into the first official commandment or law. And it's a good one. You shall have no other gods before me. Weirdly. I was arguing with some people this week that said, Tina Turner just died. She'll of course be in heaven. She was such a nice person.

Well, apparently she was a Buddhist and her heaven is a Buddhist heaven. So if you wanna go to the heaven of the God of the Bible, then you have to believe in him and have no other gods before him. And the only way to get there is through his son Jesus Christ and Christ righteousness. And Tina Turner does not have this. She has to deal with the Buddhist existence. So hopefully that works out for her.

But of course if her God isn't real, there's no Buddhist paradise. You're just left with whatever the biblical God gives you. So remember that golden calf incident in the Bible? Yeah, that's what Tina Turner is dealing with. That's what all other religions are dealing with.

They've made a golden God in their own image that gives them what they want, which is not the biblical God that rescued the people out of slavery in Egypt. So you're on your own. Good luck. Just an f yi. I've met many people that remind me there isn't a God in Buddhism. Buddhism is more of a system.

But just for fun, go on the internet and type in Gods of Buddhism and you'll quickly see they of course say Buddhism has no God, but just in case, here's the gods of Northern Buddhism. Here's the gods of Tibetan Buddhism. Here's the three deities of Buddhism. Oh yeah. But Buddhism has no God now spend some time praying and meditating to the gods of Buddhism. That's Buddhism. Okay, now we have the second commandment.

I like this one. It's kind of gritty, makes a few people angry. It says, you shall not make for yourself a carved image or any likeness of anything that is in the heaven above or that is in the earth beneath or that is in the water under the earth.

You shall not bow down to them or serve them for I the Lord your God am a jealous God visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments. Well that's pretty simple.

Don't bow down or worship any idols or carved images of gods or things that could be gods or things that might be Gods as an outlaw. I have no problem with that at all. I'm kind of lazy when it comes to giving things authority in the area of religion other than the word of God. I spend a fair bit of time chatting and arguing with Catholics who insist I'm not worshiping that thing.

I'm just bowing down to it and honoring it. Um, just no . Now the second half of that commandment is what gets a lot of atheists really upset. Where it says, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God. I've heard many an atheist say, what a petty deity. Why is he jealous and needy? He's supposed to be a God. And to that, I say, if you're loving at all and understand family, then yes, you are jealous.

That's the way it has to be. That's how love works. For instance, if you're a husband and you have a wonderful wife and she starts spending a lot of attention on other men or other people's husbands and excluding you, if you're not jealous, then you're not in a marriage. Your marriage is doomed. Divorce is probably on the way.

And the same thing goes if you're a grandpa like me and you have grandchildren and they turn to somebody else's grandpa and they spend their life and appreciation dedicated to somebody else. But then when it comes time for a possible inheritance, those kids will show up and say, oh grandpa, what do we get? Of course you look at them and say, you get nothing you chose. You chose a different grandpa.

Maybe go to them for eternal blessings. I'm busy. And the God of the universe is rather clear. If you don't go to him, don't expect things from him. Don't expect blessings or an eternity in paradise. You've chosen something else. Hopefully it pays off for you , but it's not. Sorry you chose poorly. But I'll say it again. All love is jealous. That's the way love works. It's invested, it cares.

Honestly, if I'm not jealous, that simply means I don't care. Ouch. Okay, I'll just make a quick comment about this part where God says, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.

Well we all know what showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me means that's kind of simple. But the weird part, visiting the iniquity of the fathers, what does that mean? Well, if you don't love God the Father, then he's simply gonna sit back and let the immoral or wrong actions of fathers fall down onto their children cuz he can step in and interfere. That's no problem.

But he'll back off for three or four generations for those who hate him. So if you don't hate him, you got nothing to worry about. Some atheists even think it would be weird and unfair if God stepped in and interfered with the freedom of immoral fathers. Hmm . Personally, I love when God steps in and injure fears in my life. I need it. He's always welcome. The third commandment is one of those ones I'd rather enjoy.

I'm proud of God for saying this, you shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain for the Lord will not hold him. Guiltless who takes his name in vain. Honestly, this is one of those deep reasons that I'm a Christian because the world can't stop talking about God and Jesus and even blaspheming him.

If people simply ignored God, the Christian God and got on with their life, then a lot of religious people might just forget about God and move on as well. But I am daily reminded on television books just about everywhere I go and work that Jesus Christ is a swear word that people love using as is God in so many different ways. They just can't stop doing it. Blaspheming the Christian biblical God.

And because they do it, I'm constantly reminded of my God, thank you. But sadly there's a price to pay for that. They will not be held guiltless. Ouch. That's one of those sins I try never ever to break. Do not use the Lord's name in vain. Yep . I don't touch that one. So how does this make an outlaw a Christian?

Well, I see God through his laws, especially that one, they actually reveal him and human nature and how they interact. So that works for me. It would be hard to be a Christian in a place where nobody mentions God or Jesus and just a world unaware of his existence. I've never been there my whole life, everywhere I've been. I hear God daily, especially from those who hate him. All I can say is thanks.

That keeps me believing. Well done. I've said this before, I'll say it again. The only two things that could quickly cause me to stop being a Christian and stop believing is if the world read the Bible and agreed upon it, it's never happened. That's why there's so many denominations, cults, different religions, even three Abrahamic faiths. I've read the book, I agree on it as of many others and yet others don't.

Spiritual blindness at work, magic right in front of me. It's awesome. But the other thing is, if the world stopped sinning, stopped doing evil, I might stop being a Christian. It would almost prove God wrong, never gonna happen. Let's move on to the next commandment. Okay , commandment five is where things get real. It's one thing to believe in angels, demons, talking donkeys floating zoos.

But those aren't reasons an outlaw would become a Christian. And this is God says, honor your father and your mother that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you. Now if you wanna go back to those car chase movies I was discussing in the beginning, two of my favorite shows, the Dukes, a hazard with endless car chases was all about family. Bo and Luke, uncle Jesse and Daisy.

And then when you go to the Fast and Furious series again, the main character keeps emphasizing that family is everything. It's so important. Even though our main characters are outlaws speeding, breaking the rules, car chases getting up to everything. Everything stops for family. That comes first.

So now if you have a religion that doesn't acknowledge that you have a strange God, you have a God that doesn't know human nature. He doesn't know the essence of a mother and a father and children as well as aunts and uncles and nieces and nephews. If your religion doesn't honor family, you need to find a new one. Cuz it failed at step number one of human existence.

Now don't get me wrong, I'm very aware that a lot of the Bible and Christianity has failed at family. But we keep trying because God insists even in his commandments that honoring your father and your mother is so important. It'll carry you through the promised land and basically into eternity.

I would almost say that's why God is our heavenly Father and not just deity and we are his children adopted into his family as well as becoming his son's bride, the very bride of Christ. It's all about family, even God's family. Okay, I could do a whole podcast on the next one , but we'll keep it simple. It just says, you shall not murder.

Of course that doesn't include war necessarily or protecting your family from villains and barbarians, but in general don't murder people. That's a good rule. I'm glad God wrote it down or we would've totally ignored it and thought it was a free for all . And sometimes we do. The Bible also seems to show that capital punishment and justice, putting people to death is a valid issue. That's still not murder.

That's a community agreeing on justice and protection of the people it loves. But yeah, don't quote your way and just murder people. The next law jumps back to that family issue, which I'm glad God mentioned. He said, you shall not commit adultery as in a husband and a wife is a sacred union. The two shall become one. And nobody should mess with that. I know, I know.

I hear lots of people say, but many of the great people in the Bible had numerous wives and polygamous activity. Yeah. And it always turned out bad. Always don't do it. One man, one wife, children, the perfect family make it work. The next one is a big one. You shall not steal. There's lots of different ways to steal things. God simply said, society would be better if you didn't. Don't do it. Earn what you get.

It's worth it. Any person who steals has no honor, no self-worth. You can't trust a thing they say, which goes into the next one. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. And to that I say the truth is always more interesting than a lie. Just let it out there. Truth is fun and it's gonna come out anyway. Give enough time. Okay, now we're at commandment number 10.

And if the world just did this one law, we would have a different planet. Every society would be different. See what you think of this. You shall not covet your neighbor's house. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife or his male servant or his female servant or his ox or his donkey or anything that is your neighbor's. Yep .

We live in a world of coveting from people's jobs to their spouses, to their authority, to their power, their position. Even car theft is up about 300%. Yeah, the elites have it and the peasants want it. That's pretty much the battle cry of the world right now. But then again, maybe the elite stole it cause they were coveting it from the peasants. It's a lot to deal with.

But either way, God expects more from his children. There's more important things than houses. That's a little tricky. , male servants, oxes, donkeys, even. There's more important things at stake, our salvation, our eternity. So there it is. But are those 10 laws and commandments enough to make an outlaw a Christian? Well, partially it's the next part that makes me believe in a God that has a plan that won't fail.

Even a person like me who has just about broken all the 10 commandments, but there's hope. The biblical God doesn't just give us some laws and say there, that's it. If you fail, you're burning in hell. Good luck. I'll be back to check on you in a few years. So now we come to my favorite moment in the whole Bible, the thief on the cross, Luke 23, verse 32.

And on it says, two others who were criminals were led away to be put to death with Jesus. And when they came to the place that is called the skull, there they crucified him and the criminals one on his right and one on his left. And Jesus said to the people, father, forgive them for they know not what they do.

The soldiers also mocked him coming up and offering him sour wine and saying, if you are the king of the Jews, save yourself. There was also an inscription over him. This is the king of the Jews, one of the criminals who were hanged, railed at him saying, are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us. But the other rebuked him saying, do you not fear God since you are under the same sentence of condemnation?

And we indeed justly for we are receiving the due reward for our deeds. But this man, Jesus has done nothing wrong. And he said, Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom. And he said to him, truly, I say to you today, you'll be with me in paradise. Well , there's one of the greatest outlaws in history and he's a Christian and he made it to paradise with Jesus. It's that simple.

So it appears these criminals knew what the laws were. They knew the 10 commandments and one of them knew that he broke them and he deserved punishment. He understood how justice works and how he upset a holy God. But the weirdest thing is this thief had perfect theology. He understood who and what Jesus was. He understood justice, repentance, redemption, and salvation. That's pretty impressive.

All the priests and scholars and scribes in town didn't even understand this. And a thief on the cross knew that Jesus had his own cosmic kingdom. But I'll say it now, this thief on the cross didn't need to do any religious rituals. He didn't need to work his way into the kingdom. He probably didn't even need to say anything. But he did need to communicate to God that it's all about Jesus.

So indeed you don't necessarily have to have perfect theology, but you do have to know that you need Christ's righteousness placed over your sin and evil. God demands it when you break his commandments. What do you think all those animal sacrifices were for in the Old Testament? It's all about Jesus, the ultimate sacrifice. So there you have it.

If you're an outlaw like me, all you really have to do is turn to the Jesus of the Bible and say, remember me when you come into your kingdom and then hear what Jesus has to say back. Although when you use the name Jesus, you do have to attach the rest of the Bible to it. And that's what the thief did. He said, do you not fear God since you are under the same sentence of condemnation?

And then he said, for this man has done nothing wrong. He understood Christ's righteousness as a sacrifice. So this thief, we don't even know his name, is the person I'm most excited to meet when I get to heaven and discuss everything that happened in his life as the ultimate outlaw recorded in history and saved by the Christ that died beside him for him. So there you have it. God isn't looking for perfect people.

He's looking for humble outlaws that make it all about His son. Jesus. Thanks for listening. The Bible outlaw.