Tiger Apologizes

Reprinted from EmbraceGrace.org:

Tiger Woods told the world he was sorry yesterday.  His infidelity has turned his life upside down.  His family has been torn apart.  He has lost millions of dollars in endorsement deals.  He has left the game that he loves so much and that God has gifted him so well to play.

Reaction to Tiger’s apology are generally favorable, although there are still many taking shots at him.  So what is God’s perspective on all of this?

First of all I think it’s pretty evident to all that sin has consequences and those consequences can be painful.  The Bible is clear, ALL fall short of God’s standards.  NO ONE seeks Him, not even one.  In other words.  We are ALL guilty.  We can’t help it.  We were born that way.  All of us suffering the consequences of the fall of man in the Garden of Eden.

Our sin nature is evident.  We lie, cheat, steal, sleep around.  This is the nature of man left to his own devices.  Sin is wrong.  Transgressions are wrong.  We pay a price for the mistakes we make.  The bigger the mistake, the more damage to ourselves and those around us.

What’s worse, even the slightest mistake makes us unworthy of living in God’s presence forever.  Want to go to Heaven?  Live a perfect life.  Good luck with that.  It can’t be done by mere men and women.

Of course the good news is we don’t have to live a perfect life!  Jesus did that for us.  Since He is God, He was able to pay the price of sin for us.  Death.  Jesus died so we could live.  God cannot lie.  He promised that the penalty for sin is death.  God also promised that He loves us.  This apparent contradiction is resolved at the cross.  The price for sin is paid for by His son.  God’s love is now available to those who can’t live a perfect life.

There is only one catch.  You can’t receive an awesome gift unless you, you know, receive it.  In other words, the Bible says that we have to believe that Jesus is God, that He died for us, and rose from the dead.  If we do that then we are saved.  Romans 10:9 and 10.

Tiger made a huge mistake and he is paying a huge price for it.  I think it is right for Christians to extend love and forgiveness to a hurting person who is suffering as a result of his mistakes.  God gives us second and third  (and fourth and fifth and sixth…) chances.  We should do the same for Tiger.  Even as we hate the sin we can show love to the man.  All of us are just as guilty (maybe not of exactly the same thing, but we all have our issues).  The difference is we are now forgiven and that allows us to share God’s love with others.

The ultimate show of love is to share the good news of God’s gift available to Tiger and to anyone else who will accept it.  That’s what Brit Hume did awhile back.  It created quite a reaction, but to Brit’s credit he stuck by his words because they were true and they were spoken in love.

What about Tiger’s marriage?  Should Tiger’s wife divorce him?  The Bible is clear that infidelity is grounds for divorce.  She is well within her rights to leave Tiger if she chooses.  Forgiveness and trust are not the same thing.  Forgiveness is given, trust is earned.  Tiger is right when he says that his right actions over time are the only way that he has a chance to regain the trust of his wife.  I pray that that happens.

I, for one, will still be a Tiger Woods fan.  I hope that he has a successful life and a successful career.  Of course the ultimate success is measured by our relationship with God.  That relationship starts by accepting His free gift.  I pray that someday Tiger embraces grace.

It’s not a term you hear a lot. But I think it should be. The word “salvific” means pertaining to the power of salvation or redemption. As in, “What theological issues are actually salvific?”
As Christians it seems that sometimes we are more focused on being right than righteous. This is an understandable dilemma as we are called to “Earnestly content for the faith.” But what issues are we allowed to disagree with each other on and which ones are points where there can be no compromise, the sticking points… the dare I say issues in which we can call someone a “heretic” for disagreeing with us?
These are the salvific issues.
Salvific issues have to do with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Two non-salvific issues which Christians often differ on are: “How does the Christian life look?” – socialist, communist, anarchist, capitalist. And “How do we do Church?” – Pentecostal, Brethren, Baptist, Emergent. These are important issues, but are not in themselves salvific.
When having a disagreement with someone about a spiritual issue, it is important to ask, “Is this a salvific issue?”
Some things in the Christian faith are negotiable, however the Gospel is nonnegotiable!

I won’t pretend to speak for all of the contributors to this site, but I’ve noticed a lot of people asking why we talk about global warming. Let me tell you why I occasionally write about it.

Firstly let me say that there is no more important truth than the truth of Jesus. That He is God, that he lived on earth, died for our sins and was raised again on the third day. That He sits on the right hand side of the Father and rules from Heaven. No truth is more important, vital or worth sharing as that truth!

We are told that a lot of things are truth, and these have become commonly accepted as truth. There are a few scientific “truths” out there that I don’t believe. I’m no scientist myself, but I’m still entitled to my opinion, especially when it is based on the Word of God and those whose science I trust. Here are a few that I don’t buy into - that an unborn baby isn’t a human, that the earth is billions of years old, that we were not created nor designed but happened by chance. I tell you these in hopes of pointing out that many, many Christians don’t agree with what is commonly accepted as truth on these matters.

So why do we talk about global warming? Because I don’t believe it is the truth. I believe that global warming is agenda driven. If Al Gore really believed in global warming and wasn’t just looking for how it can benefit him, don’t you think he’d be living a more green life? Political leaders who push for global warming restrictions on our lives are viewed as being “great humanitarians, who want what’s best for people.” Yet they are almost 100% pro-abortion!

I write about global warming because I believe that the data doesn’t prove it to the point of being labeled as truth, the way that America has labeled it. I also believe that global warming is being used as a tool by the government to over tax and take away rights. Being a Christian is about freedom. Jesus came to this earth to set the captives free. As a regenerated human, I am free from the bondage of sin by the work on the cross of Jesus. America’s greatness is based upon our freedom. Our freedom to live un-oppressed and to believe what we hold as truth, is a gift that I want to protect.

Again I quote Czech President Vaclav Klaus “As someone who lived under communism for most of my life I feel obliged to say that the biggest threat to freedom, democracy, the market economy and prosperity at the beginning of the 21st century is not communism or its various softer variants… Communism was replaced by the threat of ambitious environmentalism.”

I hope to accomplish a few different things with this website, point people towards the truth of Jesus, create discussion and debate on important topics, take a stand against abortion and stand up for truth.  Myself and Daniel (my brother) have been talking for a longtime about “what can we do to make a difference in regards to abortion?” So we’ve been addressing abortion from a few different angels. I’ve tried to look at how a global warming-shaped view of environmentalism could lead to more abortion… my response from Christians was not positive. Daniel wrote on how “pop culture” promotes abortion, he used “The Office” as an example and was basically labeled “An idiot” by many Christians. We’ll keep trying! We hope to make a difference.

As long as man-made global warming is taught as absolute truth and used to promote an agenda, I’ll continue to write about it.

Much Love, josh