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Co-written by Chuck Colson, The Manhattan Declaration is an attempt for some evangelical, Catholic and Orthodox Christians to take a hard political stance on three issues: abortion, gay marriage and religious liberty. They unveiled it today although it was written a few months ago.

Here’s the most descriptive few paragraphs from the Declaration:

While the whole scope of Christian moral concern, including a special concern for the poor and vulnerable, claims our attention, we are especially troubled that in our nation today the lives of the unborn, the disabled, and the elderly are severely threatened; that the institution of marriage, already buffeted by promiscuity, infidelity and divorce, is in jeopardy of being redefined to accommodate fashionable ideologies; that freedom of religion and the rights of conscience are gravely jeopardized by those who would use the instruments of coercion to compel persons of faith to compromise their deepest convictions.

Because the sanctity of human life, the dignity of marriage as a union of husband and wife, and the freedom of conscience and religion are foundational principles of justice and the common good, we are compelled by our Christian faith to speak and act in their defense. In this declaration we affirm: 1) the profound, inherent, and equal dignity of every human being as a creature fashioned in the very image of God, possessing inherent rights of equal dignity and life; 2) marriage as a conjugal union of man and woman, ordained by God from the creation, and historically understood by believers and non-believers alike, to be the most basic institution in society and; 3) religious liberty, which is grounded in the character of God, the example of Christ, and the inherent freedom and dignity of human beings created in the divine image.

We are Christians who have joined together across historic lines of ecclesial differences to affirm our right—and, more importantly, to embrace our obligation—to speak and act in defense of these truths. We pledge to each other, and to our fellow believers, that no power on earth, be it cultural or political, will intimidate us into silence or acquiescence. It is our duty to proclaim the Gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ in its fullness, both in season and out of season. May God help us not to fail in that duty.

At the time of this writing the main Manhattan Declaration site was giving me some problems, but I was able to find the full text here.

What do you think of the Manhattan Declaration? Do you think it’s useful for Christians to sign?

Earlier this week I ran across a post on Experimental Theology that discusses different approaches to the theology of demons. The author provides two viewpoints on either end of a spectrum: the Liberal and the Literalist. The former being a sort of demythologizing of the New Testament and the latter a sort of high-alert “demons are everywhere!” approach. Most people fit somewhere in between those two stances.

Hop on over and read the entire article, the author presents some fascinating descriptions of where those views on demons go wrong.

The post got me thinking about whether or not belief in God necessitates a belief in the devil and demons. Can you believe in God without believing in Demons? It would seem to follow that if one believes in a higher supernatural power like God, you then they open up the possibility for other beings who exist on the supernatural plane: some of which would be sources of evil. The Bible would seem to corroborate this, yet few people actually live as if this is part of reality.

Truth be told, I personally put little stock in demons. What little belief I do have in the power of demons is balanced by my trust that God is far more powerful than any demonic force that may or may not exist. In short, I don’t spend a whole lot of time thinking about the powers of darkness; I’d rather spend time focusing on the good in the supernatural realm. Yet, the evidence points to evil forces in the world, so should I believe in them and—like the demons do towards God—”shudder?”

What about you though, what role do you see demonic forces play in our world? Do you believe that Satan has a hand in everything, is mainly an impotent being, or doesn’t even exist?

The hubbub surrounding Carrie Prejean has me thinking about beauty pageants and contests like Miss America and Miss World. They’re clearly part of the fabric of our culture, one of the towns I lived in even had a small town rendition put on by 4-H.

Should Christians support beauty contests?

What do you think?

Today’s devotional comes from My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers. In it, he explores the true source of our atonement: Jesus’ death:

Beware of the pleasant view of the fatherhood of God: God is so kind and loving that of course He will forgive us. That thought, based solely on emotion, cannot be found anywhere in the New Testament. The only basis on which God can forgive us is the tremendous tragedy of the Cross of Christ. To base our forgiveness on any other ground is unconscious blasphemy. The only ground on which God can forgive our sin and reinstate us to His favor is through the Cross of Christ. There is no other way! Forgiveness, which is so easy for us to accept, cost the agony at Calvary. We should never take the forgiveness of sin, the gift of the Holy Spirit, and our sanctification in simple faith, and then forget the enormous cost to God that made all of this ours.

Forgiveness is the divine miracle of grace. The cost to God was the Cross of Christ. To forgive sin, while remaining a holy God, this price had to be paid. Never accept a view of the fatherhood of God if it blots out the atonement. The revealed truth of God is that without the atonement He cannot forgive— He would contradict His nature if He did. The only way we can be forgiven is by being brought back to God through the atonement of the Cross. God’s forgiveness is possible only in the supernatural realm.

Compared with the miracle of the forgiveness of sin, the experience of sanctification is small. Sanctification is simply the wonderful expression or evidence of the forgiveness of sins in a human life. But the thing that awakens the deepest fountain of gratitude in a human being is that God has forgiven his sin. Paul never got away from this. Once you realize all that it cost God to forgive you, you will be held as in a vise, constrained by the love of God.

Do you take time to regularly reflect on what the death of Jesus made possible for you?

This is one of the more vexing questions that Christians encounter (or ask themselves): if Jesus is the only way through which we’re made right with God, what does that mean for people who never hear about him? It’s one thing to hear the Gospel and choose to reject it; but what about somebody who never had a chance to hear, let alone reject, the message of Jesus?

Christians have taken many different approaches to this question. I’ll highlight responses from two different online ministries below. Do you agree with either (or both) of them?

Uplook Ministries answers the question by arguing that God works in people’s hearts in many more ways than just through overt preaching of the Gospel. They conclude:

God has promised us that, if we seek Him with all our hearts, we will find Him (Jeremiah 29:13). He is not eager for anyone to perish (2 Peter 3:9). “For there is no distinction between Jew and Gentile, for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon Him. For whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Romans 10:12-13). We do not know how God is dealing with people in lands yet unreached by the gospel, but from Scripture we can see that He will never condemn anyone unjustly, but will be faithful to reveal Himself to anyone who looks for His salvation.

We also know that John saw in heaven “…a great multitude which no one could number, of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, with palm branches in their hands and crying out with a loud voice, saying, ‘Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!’” (Revelation 7:9-10). Not only every nation but every tribe will be represented in heaven.

Notice that they all sing the same song. We are not saying that sincere Muslims or Hindus, trusting in their religion, will make it to heaven. There is only one Saviour, and everyone in heaven will be there through the salvation provided by God’s Lamb, the Lord Jesus.

Read the full answer at Uplook Ministries.

The Faith Facts ministry answers the question:

…the Bible also teaches that Jesus died for the sins of the whole world (1 John 2:2)! And it implies that whoever seeks after God earnestly will find him (Deuteronomy 4:29; Psalm 86:5; Proverbs 8:17; Jeremiah 29:13; Matthew 7:7-8). God is fair as well as just. We are confident, for example, that the Old Testament patriarchs who lived by faith before Jesus’ earthly ministry, are in heaven. So certainly some people have gotten to heaven without knowing Jesus in the personal way that the New Testament speaks of. Ultimately only God can judge as only He knows the individual’s heart. We hold out hope that for those who have not heard but have not rejected God, those have been misinformed, or those who are unable to understand (children, mentally ill, etc) may be pardoned by a just God.

Certainly, the Bible does not teach “universalism.” Universalism is the idea that everyone gets to heaven.

The Bible clearly teaches that the only certain way to heaven is through Jesus (John 14:6; Acts 4:12). We are confident that God will not hold anyone accountable for any knowledge he did not receive. At the same time, the Bible emphatically states that Christ is the only sure way to salvation. Anyone who has heard of the saving grace of Jesus, and rejects it, would be thumbing his nose at God (John 3:36).

Read the full answer at Faith Facts website.

Do these answers satisfy you?

Share your thoughts!

Today is the Great American Smokeout 2009, an event sponsored by the American Cancer Society. The idea is straightforward: decide today that you’re going to break your smoking habit, and take steps to make that happen. (If you’re looking to quit, the ACS site has a useful-looking guide to quitting smoking.)

Smoking is a habit you don’t hear much about in the church these days. I imagine that’s partly because the traditional evangelical shunning of smoking and drinking has a lot less moral traction than it used to; and partly because years of anti-smoking campaigns have convinced most of us that whether or not it’s a sin, smoking is not a desirable habit.

But there are plenty of Christians out there who want to break a smoking habit that has mastered them. One ministry that can help you do so is Setting Captives Free, which has a free 60-day online course called Breath of Life that takes a Jesus-centered approach to breaking free of a smoking addiction. (Setting Captives Free offers many other free courses as well, all aimed at finding freedom from habitual sin.)

If this is something you struggle with, today’s as good a day as any to decide that you’re going to quit—and that you’re going to do what it takes to break the habit for good. Take a look and see if the above resources can help!

Can compassion be considered a universally accepted ethical and religious standard?

Karen Armstrong recently developed the Charter for Compassion as a way of extrapolating the Golden Rule—a rule that the Charter argues is reflected in every major world religion—into a statement of compassionate thinking and action.

At the moment, about 17000 people have called themselves affirmers of the Charter, and the list includes such celebrity signatories as the Dalai Lama, Desmond Tutu, Paul Simon and Meg Ryan.

Here’s the first paragraph from the Charter for Compassion. Although, it’s worth reading the entire thing:

“The principle of compassion lies at the heart of all religious, ethical and spiritual traditions, calling us always to treat all others as we wish to be treated ourselves. Compassion impels us to work tirelessly to alleviate the suffering of our fellow creatures, to dethrone ourselves from the centre of our world and put another there, and to honour the inviolable sanctity of every single human being, treating everybody, without exception, with absolute justice, equity and respect.”

The Charter has garnered quite a bit of global religious support. Do you think it’s compatible with Christianity? Is this truly a document that we can all agree on? Should Christians sign it?

Evangelism—sharing our faith in Jesus with people who don’t know the Gospel—is at the core of the Christian faith. There exist countless ministries, organizations, and publications aimed at introducing people to the Gospel, or at encouraging individual Christians to do so. Yet it’s my impression that the idea of witnessing to others is a daunting one for most Christians.

Do you actively and consciously share your faith with others? What part does witnessing play in your everyday spiritual life? And what does your witness usually look like—is it a traditional verbal presentation of the basics points of your faith? Do you try to witness with actions but not words? Something in between?

How often do you share your faith with others, and how do you tend to do so?

Share your thoughts!

This mornings devotional comes from Charles Spurgeon’s classic devotional Morning and Evening. Spurgeon writes about Job’s burning desire to find God in the midst of his pain. It consumed his very being:

Finding God by Charles Haddon Spurgeon
“O that I knew where I might find Him!”

–Job 23:3

In Job’s uttermost extremity he cried after the Lord. The longing desire of an afflicted child of God is once more to see his Father’s face. His first prayer is not “O that I might be healed of the disease which now festers in every part of my body!” nor even “O that I might see my children restored from the jaws of the grave, and my property once more brought from the hand of the spoiler!” but the first and uppermost cry is, “O that I knew where I might find HIM, who is my God! that I might come even to His seat!” God’s children run home when the storm comes on. It is the heaven-born instinct of a gracious soul to seek shelter from all ills beneath the wings of Jehovah. “He that hath made his refuge God,” might serve as the title of a true believer. A hypocrite, when afflicted by God, resents the infliction, and, like a slave, would run from the Master who has scourged him; but not so the true heir of heaven, he kisses the hand which smote him, and seeks shelter from the rod in the bosom of the God who frowned upon him.

Job’s desire to commune with God was intensified by the failure of all other sources of consolation. The patriarch turned away from his sorry friends, and looked up to the celestial throne, just as a traveller turns from his empty skin bottle, and betakes himself with all speed to the well. He bids farewell to earth-born hopes, and cries, “O that I knew where I might find my God!” Nothing teaches us so much the preciousness of the Creator, as when we learn the emptiness of all besides. Turning away with bitter scorn from earth’s hives, where we find no honey, but many sharp stings, we rejoice in Him whose faithful word is sweeter than honey or the honeycomb. In every trouble we should first seek to realize God’s presence with us. Only let us enjoy His smile, and we can bear our daily cross with a willing heart for His dear sake.
This is a public domain version of Morning and Evening.

Have you ever been in an inconsolable place in which you had nothing but God? How did it feel?

There’s been some recent internet buzz about a new diet called the 400 Calorie Diet. It’s being heralded by Prevention Magazine. The basic concept behind it is that you only eat four 400-calorie meals a day. Nothing more, nothing less.

The diet teaches you basic portion control and how to count calories, two skills that many people struggle with.

Whenever dieting comes up, I think about the diet that Daniel and his friends subsisted on when they were in captivity. They were offered the fine meats and wines of King Nebuchadnezzar, but instead chose to eat vegetables and water. They reasoned that if they were performing poorly in 10 day’s time, they’d switch to the King’s diet. Of course, at the end of the ten days they were healthier than everyone else there. You can read the whole story in Daniel 1.

What I find interesting about diets—400 Calorie and Daniel included—is how they usually just ask us to do one thing: pay attention to what we’re putting in our mouths. Most people, when they’re dieting, find themselves thinking about food on a much different level. It’s no longer, “What looks appetizing?”, but “What should I eat?”

After all, the sin of gluttony is primarily one of self-control. And a good way to have no control over your actions is to say yes to everything.

How does your faith affect how you eat?

(If you’re interested, Prevention also has a slideshow of what constitutes 400 calories.)