God, Aliens, and Other Stuff

Why does God allow his people to suffer and be persecuted? Psalm 14 offers us hope.  Psalm 14:1 is famous for the line, "Fools say in their hearts, 'There is no God.'" This is also the verse often cited where the Lord looks down on mankind and sees that "there is no one who does good. All have gone astray." Evangelicals use the passage to point out that all mankind is compromised. No one can be good enough to earn their way into heaven, so we must rely on faith. However, the psalmist, allegedly King David according to the attribution headline, is expressing his immense frustration over the constant repression of righteous people by wicked unbelievers. Taken out of context, the verse sounds like all human beings are corrupt by genetic disposition ergo we all need redemption. Well, we are and we do, but that is not what the psalmist is referring to here. 2 The LORD looks down from heaven upon the sons of men to see if any understand, if any seek God. 3 All hav...

A good friend of ours was told by Jesus himself that if he didn't change, he would go to hell. He was attending a Pentecostal church at the time, but had not turned his life over to God. He was there mostly to establish a presence for the men of the church so they would stay away from his cute little wife. He and Terri were the childrens' ministers, and were respected and appreciated in the church. Terri was from a long-standing church-attending family. Rick was raised in foster homes after his mother was murdered in his presence. Because his family were itinerant farm workers, Rick didn't attend school until he was around 8 years old. His foster mother tutored him, but catching up academically was extra difficult because he was also dyslexic.  Rick eventually joined the Navy and was deployed on a ship out of San Diego. After several months at sea the ship was coming back to the port. On board, he was reading one of the darker passages in the Old Testament. He was horrified...