Is it okay for Christians to watch R-rated movies? Today’s question comes from a viewer who wants to know what is and what is not appropriate for a Christian to be watching as far as movies are concerned.
And we might as well throw TV shows in there. They rate TV shows nowadays too, and they should.
In this final article that addresses “Divine Divorce Doctrine,” I want to respond to some of the common arguments and objections of those who advocate divorce for anyone who has been previously divorced and remarried, followed by remarriage to their original spouse if possible, or celibacy if not possible, until their original spouse is dead.
My hope is to rescue those who are coming under the influence of Divine Divorce Doctrine—before their marriages and families are also left as carnage in its foul wake.
Should you sponsor a child? Right now I’m sitting high up in my hotel in a room in Burma that overlooks a good part of the former capital city of Yangon. And this is a place where, at one time, Heaven’s Family was very involved with a child sponsorship program.
We had come here some 15 years ago and began visiting the many Christian orphanages that were showcased for us. We set up a child sponsorship program, and I guess we had almost 1,000 children sponsored at one time, and about 50 Christian orphanages, here in Yangon, and other parts of Myanmar.
We’re going to keep on looking at some things that Jesus said in Matthew 5. There in the Sermon on the Mount, He has six statements where He says, “You have heard it was said,” or, “You have heard the ancients were told,” “but I say to you.”
Some folks skim over the surface of that and come to the conclusion that Jesus was altering the law. But as you look at it a little more closely, you see that He’s not altering the law. He’s bringing back His disciples to the standards that were always there in the law and in the original intent of the law of Moses. And our question today about lust and adultery revolves around that very thing.
In today’s Little Lesson, we’re going to continue thinking about the whole concept of what murder really is in God’s eyes. We looked in our previous little lesson at Matthew 5:21-22, where Jesus began to talk about murder.
Our question today, of course, is derived from something that Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount.
In Matthew 5:20, you’ll recall that Jesus told his disciples that day,
For I say to you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.
Did Jesus Christ upgrade the Law of Moses? We’ve been asking that question on the previous two Little Lessons. We’re going to ask it one more time today. I can’t review too much, but the law to love your neighbor as yourself is an Old and New Covenant Law, and it’s the highest moral law that relates to how we treat each other.
We find that in Jesus’ “You have heard it was said, but I say to you” statements, He doesn’t always accurately cite the Old Covenant Law as people claim. He often quotes the Pharisees and their twisted teaching that’s based on the Law of Moses.
Did Jesus upgrade the Law of Moses morally? This is the same question we asked in our previous little lesson, and we’re going to elaborate a little bit more on it in this lesson. If you didn’t watch the first part, you might want to back up and watch that part first.
Today’s question is about the rightness or the wrongness of celebrating Christmas. I guess my initial answer would be, “if you believe it’s wrong to celebrate Christmas, then it is wrong for you.” I’d never ask you to violate your conscience and do something that you feel is wrong. That’s the short answer.
The longer answer is that maybe we should ask if it really is wrong to celebrate Christmas.